I too shall rise to the glorious @vgr opinion blasting challenge.
1 like = 1 opinion on the proper relation between the individual, the world and their goals.
(Some call this ‘the spiritual path’.)
Fuck me up 


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3/ Maybe this quote is too mushy for you. That's cool. Maybe you want a fuckton of money instead. This is cool too. Remember, I said 'want what you already want', not 'want some stupid substitute you heard about from some guy.' It can be hard to find a real, honest desire.
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4/ Esotericism shows up around spirituality for a variety of reasons: • Gurus can maintain authority in both sketchy & nonsketchy ways • Riddles demanding odd mental postures can yield wisdom when solved • Indirect communication can reach people who aren't otherwise listening
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5/ Questions about God/gods are quite important to figuring out one’s relation to the world - even for so-called atheists. I say ‘so-called’ because nearly everyone believes in Powers, holy and unholy, deep down. Sry A true atheist, like a true individualist, is hard to come by
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6/ A (and possibly *the*) major barrier to progress is dishonesty, pretense, illusion. Meditation is one way to try to drill through all that crap and get to reality. But there are many others, including things that don’t look ‘spiritual’. Best to hit it with all you’ve got.
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7/ Masculinity and femininity are real and important. The yin yang diagram describes their relation and suggests useful conceptual associations. This is not a gender politics opinion.
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8/ Napoleon said "the God of Fortune and the God of War are with me." He was correct. Gods and other entities can be with you or against you. Knowing where you stand on this playing field is a practical matter. This is a naturalistic, 'atheism'-compatible mindset.
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9/ Being triggered is important. It's the outside of your bubble, saying hello. It's your sync with the world; it's your desire to expand, to not be small. It's a gift in a strange package. It's a bet that you can handle something that 'you' don't think you can handle.
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10/ Being hard on yourself can be done smoothly, in a way that doesn’t fuck your mind up. But this is extremely hard - it may need to be preceded by a shitload of healing. This is a practical, not an ideological matter. (Curious for whether we disagree here
@QiaochuYuan !)Show this thread -
11/ Not all of these opinions have to be contrarian do they? Here’s one where I can’t tell if it’s contrarian or not
The great spiritual teachers are completely awesome. Jesus, the Buddha, etc. We all have a lot to learn.Show this thread -
12/ Everyone is addicted to something. You can even be addicted to 'good' things, like 'being nice to people' or 'reading'. These addictions morph your perception of the world, distracting from the fundamentals of your situation. This can be fixed.https://twitter.com/michaelcurzi/status/1193977717412098048 …
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13/ I’m fairly convinced that hate & love are two sides of a coin. True enemies are way closer to each other than strangers, acquaintances, or even regular ‘friends.’
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14/ Your body knows what you need to do. (Your mind is part of your body.)
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15/ If you want to become *really* good at something, you must be willing to kneel before the master in that domain. (Asian martial arts traditions get this right - you've seen the trope in movies. See also Western traditions like ballet & classical music.) The art>>>your egopic.twitter.com/woghQeLJbz
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16/ You can & must find a deep love for goodness & truth. You have to love them because the path to them is too hard without pure and straightforward love. And you must come to love them more than yourself, because in some ways you're the thing standing in their way.
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17/ A connection to politics: every political system is flawed, but all work better with better people. So a virtuous Communist/capitalist society does better than the equivalent w/ unvirtuous citizens. Moral education can sound stodgy, evil, or outdated, but is prob necessary.
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18/ You are usually above or below other people on a given topic, in terms of your/their worthiness to determine what happens in that area, or in terms of whose opinions are worth hearing. Peers are rare. This can be navigated elegantly, but takes nuance, chillness & humility.
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19/ In a pinch, the sincere intent to win can cover for pretty major skill & circumstance gaps. This doesn't mean you don't need skill. The intent to win can lead you towards skill, cleverness & vision if you let it. But you'll do way better if you prepare for this in advance.
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20/ Everyone totally loves Goodness, in a complete and full way - but it's quite buried. Seeing/feeling/releasing this is a transcendent experience, c.f. Emerson or the Bible on things like 'the light/breath of God'. This is the one topic on which all people are the most f'd up.
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21/ We're all participating in a great cosmic battle. This isn't just meant as a useful narrative for describing human activity! It's a stronger claim. I mean to assert something more firm about the psychological interactions & goal structure of mankind as a whole.
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22/ One topic of the cosmic battle is the question of 'whether we can all live well, together.' Independence, solitude, disconnection, coldness, order on one side
Dependence, violence, connection, heat, chaos on the other
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23/ Responsibility can set you free.https://twitter.com/benlandautaylor/status/1197713305906774016 …
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24/ For a great number of people, sitting down for a couple hours a week to talk to God/Jesus/Albus Dumbledore would be as good as or better than the same number of hours of therapy.
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25/ Followup to 24 - prayer is a real, momentous mental/social technology. It maybe played a major role in upholding civilization for centuries? Not totally sure about this, bc history is complicated - but I could see it being this important.https://twitter.com/michaelcurzi/status/1195060826605883392 …
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26/ A variety of major trends are trying to drive people away from each other (atomization). Part of the task of a conscious life is to directly oppose this trend.
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27/ Similar trends are also working on destroying personal power and agency. The technocracy wants you to be 'fine', but it doesn't want you to be strong.https://twitter.com/michaelcurzi/status/1203467812238266369 …
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28/ Major personal change can occur in an instant - if you're ready to change. It's certainly okay to 'work up to' changing, and I do this a lot myself - marginal improvements add up. But sometimes you don't need to inch forward, and can change 'in the space of one breath'.
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29/ If you can come to understand, in great detail, the ways in which the Great People of the past were a) quasi-divine & supernatural, but also b) utterly normal, human, and mundane - this can do a great deal to clarify a path to skill and achievement.
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30/ Planning (clarifying steps towards a future goal) is outrageously powerful & technically easy, but we mysteriously forget to do it. A big reason is that planning shows you unhandled parts of your life. We try to dodge this test, rather than pass it.https://twitter.com/michaelcurzi/status/1205196898505609216 …
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31/ Planning (& introspection) can be part of the spiritual path because a bunch of this 'living well' stuff comes from getting your *attention* in the right place. You want to be able to gaze over yourself, your life, the world, people - & foresee the achievement of your aims.
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32/ Every ideology, no matter how perverse, has *something* to offer. To presume otherwise is the height of arrogance, the rejection of wisdom. The world looks different from different angles - and yeah, looking from some of those angles is going to be triggering as hell. Breathe
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