throwaway1980

Side note: it used to be that Mexican Coke contained cane sugar instead of HFCS. Not sure any more.

Do you have a specific example where "stop being such a crybaby" is a good thing to say?

Things which are polar opposites are actually identical, in this case 0% ego and 100% ego, because 0% ego is all about how spiritually pure you are, a.k.a. 100% ego. I'm sure you've met some of the seemingly enlightened meditators I'm talking about. Buddhism teaches you to deal with this paradox or duality and others like it by seeking the middle road. Some ego is good, not too much, not too little. That's all I was reacting to, I probably could've been nicer about it.

When Google first came out with "don't be evil", this was exactly the kind of thing I thought they wanted to avoid, especially since the corporate bogeyman of the day was Microsoft and they were doing exactly this (Apple too). Turns out I don't really have any idea what Google thinks don't be evil means. It looks like they operate like any other corporation, where the only people they truly care about in a bottom-line sense are shareholders. May as well be up front about that. From what I've seen, a better motto is probably:

  Don't be evil unless it makes money than being good,
  but never admit to evil or talk about it in any way.

Yeah, be wary of anything that is basically code for "stop being such a crybaby".

You can't reject your ego, you can only detach from it. Egolessness and egofullness are two sides of the same coin. And fabrications of the mind, if you will, are all that there is. Form is emptiness, emptiness is form. Reality and illusion are the same thing. Buddhism is really trying to teach you to honor and understand your thoughts, emotions, and ego as fundamental parts of the human body you live in, not to destroy or be impervious to them. It's not about escaping from your life but living more fully within it. If somewhat is afraid, ask why? How does the experience of fear feel? Is it connected to other emotions? What thoughts accompany it? What experiences from childhood are connected?

What are loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity if not emotion?

Look, the non-essential details here are all the particulars of this conversation about some religious precepts. The essence is that you and I trying to connect on a human level to each other across the internet for some reason or another. Both the essence and the details are important.

It's not really about what you do, it's about what you see and how you do it; the essence is always there, even if you're fixing idiotic bugs in some obscure corner of your codebase.

Well, ok, two things. First, it sounds like we basically agree that legal theft is possible. Second, even in the US there is corporate lobbying to influence government spending, which amounts to taxation without representation (i.e. theft), and moreover there is a revolving door between government and industry, particularly with the military which is where 50% of our tax money goes. At least, it is bad enough that Lawrence Lessig has moved on from fighting copyright concerns to fighting corruption in Washington.

From my perspective I was giving a counterexample to challenge the claim that all theft is unlawful.

You're saying that if legal money collection benefits society it is "tax", but if it does not benefit society it is "stealing"? Sure, if you split the words that denote legal money collection into these two forms, then tax is not theft. I simply define tax as legal money collection.

I'm not anti-tax, btw, but neither do I subscribe to the view that just because a government passes a particular money collection law that it's a just law.

Does anyone else feel kind of confused and guilty when they read this? It just seems so condescending to me.

I like eating and sleeping. I pay a lot of attention to these things. If you're eating well and sleeping well, your life is probably going pretty good. Sure, I'm going to die, that's why food and sleep matter even more. This planet would be a pretty happy place if everyone was eating and sleeping as much as they needed.

Second, what the heck. Too lazy to work on perfecting myself? I thought spiritual enlightenment was about having a smaller ego, not a bigger one. I'm going to feel more motivated if I focus on how awesome I'll be if I do the inner work? You can't do this stuff for very long because you want to get something out of it, you only do it in the long term because circumstances push you into it and you have no choice.

Third, details vs. essentials. Details are bad now? You won't get far with only one or the other. Yes, essentials are important, but so are details. In startup terms, a great idea is essential, but you're dead without a great execution.

Anyway, "laziness" is such a crap word in a spiritual context. As if enlightenment was an achievement, when the point of just about every religion is being, not doing.

Eat. Sleep. Give yourself a break when you hit a wall; perhaps you ought to re-evaluate your priorities. Do a thorough and meticulous job on all of your little projects. Pay attention to what you're doing, and you'll come out of it all the wiser. Lack of progress in any one area is not laziness, it's a signal that you need to try a different course of action.