ptenk

You obviously have never used TikTok. Possibly the most ridiculous comment on HN.

Yep. Those were precious resting days and I took full advantage of them. Perhaps the lesson was death is nothing to be feared if life is 24/7 intensive meditation retreats.

Yes, it’s a night and day difference between who I was before as a layman and now. Hard to even say the same human being.

Sorry, I don’t really check HN. Breakthroughs in terms of understanding Dharma, the unending compassion for all sentient beings, and the overcoming of my own previous delusions and desires. They don’t last beyond the retreat - my takeaway is the most important thing in dharma practice is constant effort. (Sudden Enlightenment, Gradual Cultivation). There were so many instances where I thought I had something, only to have it slip away.

Sorry for not responding earlier, I rarely check hacker news.

We did Seon meditation (Korea) which is a form of Koan practice (Hwadu).

I’ve had a permanent change in perspective and have a “base” that I return to whenever my spiritual practice seem to fade away. I don’t hold onto any particular insights because any realization I’ve had in the past are purely conceptual now.

During my years as a Buddhist monk, we regularly did two 90 day silent retreats(Summer/winter) and two 45 days (fall/spring) a year. It’s mostly a survival type period where you slog through the days, until you have a week or so of a breakthrough, with hyper awareness and enlightenment-like insights. They all pass and it’s back to surviving the rest of the retreat.

I’ve read virology reports that the virus originated most likely from bats but through an intermediary source — as to which animal, that’s unknown.

Another thing I’ve been pondering is since bats have been the source of deadly, infectious diseases in humans for so long, that’s where the historical myth of vampires and the living dead come from.

But China is weaning itself off fossil fuels?

China has over 400,000 electric buses (99% of the world) and the longest high speed rail in the planet. High-speed rails carry twice as many passengers each month as the country’s airlines.

4.2% of new car purchases in China were electric vehicles in 2018. China has 250 million electric motorcycles/scooters (99% of the world's). These numbers are growing rapidly every year.

China is also the world's largest producer of photovoltaic power not to mention the world's leading installer of solar panels. Their literal stated goal for 2050 is to reach 1,300 GW of solar capacity, which is enormous. That would make it the source with the largest installed capacity in China.

China has a lot of problems, but fossil fuel addiction is not one of them.

What’s missing from this article is that Nobu Iwatani previously worked for defense and foreign ministries in Japan. He is no “civilian”.

America’s been responsible for the death of 500,000 innocent Iraqi civilians since the start of the war not to mention countless Afghan and other middle eastern citizens. We currently hold tens of thousands of border crossers in detention camps where they are held in squalid conditions. Most of us still live here.

It’s possible, but it’s important to note Kyle Bass has been short China for a very long time and has been spreading FUD (true or not) since 2008.

You should ask him about the World Bank and IMF debt traps to developing countries that have stricken those nations in poverty for decades. The Chinese are building critical infrastructure in many of these African countries, where there was none and immensely increasing ease of business and trade. Africa's going to be the next economic boom despite the West having done all they can to suppress African growth.

Brushing off TCM as pseudoscience is quite ignorant. There are plenty of legitimate TCM research and verified treatments that have improved the lives of many in the world.

The sinophobia in these comments always makes me uncomfortable because it’s usually underlied with overall anti-Asian sentiment. It reminds me that I don’t belong in America, we still live in a white world.

Thank you for sharing. This is why I never sign up for any fintech services. The amount of data I hand over is never worth the "benefits" they provide.