# Why idealism? Idealism is the philosophical position that reality is fundamentally _mental_ in nature. It is often contrasted with _materialism_, which says that reality is physical. Although it may seem difficult or impossible to know which of these (among countless other possibilities) is correct[1], I'd like to explain why you should bet all of your chips on idealism. Suppose you really _are_ an individual being embedded in a fundamentally external reality --- which materialism, amongst others, entails. In that case, nothing could prevent a malicious entity from taking over your mind and presenting you with a false reality. If executed flawlessly, you could never even detect that it was happening. Therefore, you could not even assign a meaningful _probability_ that you were being thus controlled. In this way, materialism prevents you from ever having _any confidence whatsoever_ in the ultimate nature of your reality. On the other hand, suppose that what you truly are is the self-aware ground of reality itself, whose very nature is fundamentally conscious. You dance realities into apparent existence, and then live out seemingly-mundane lives from countless perspectives within these dreams. If that is true, then nothing outside yourself could prevent you from "waking up" and confirming this fact with flawless certainty --- there being nothing outside yourself in the first place. It is difficult to imagine what such "confirmation" could possibly be _like_. Although nothing logically _prevents_ confirmation, it's hard to fathom how any experience, no matter how convincing, could provide you with certainty. After all, how could you be sure that _that_ wasn't just another very compelling trick, too? The short answer is that it does not fall into the category of _experience_. Experiences are indeed, by their very nature, unreliable. What it _is_ is much harder to say, and cannot be precisely described from within the dream. Mostly, the realization has been communicated via [poetry](https://plumvillage.org/articles/please-call-me-by-my-true-names-song-poem/). Reality is _miraculous,_ in the sense of transcending any and all attempts to pin it down --- idealism itself ultimately included --- and this can be known directly and concretely. This probably sounds outlandish, but there is a clear reason to take it seriously: amongst all possible hypotheses, it is essentially the only one that can (logically) be known with complete certainty. Other possibilities cannot be confirmed with _any_ nonzero confidence. Therefore, if you hope to know the true nature of reality _with any confidence whatsoever_, there is only one possibility worth exploring, however bizarre it initially seems. How does one explore it? There are many methods, but one is particularly relevant to this piece. Begin by becoming _radically skeptical_ about the world around you, down to the very nature of space, time, and consciousness. If you can **completely** forget everything you think you know about reality, and directly confront what is manifestly here and now, the "miraculous" aspect will begin to stand out. This can be traced back Home, to the glory-beyond-glory that those poems gently remind us of... ``` So close you can't see it So deep you can't fathom it So simple you can't believe it So good you can't accept it -- Tibetan Buddhist saying ``` --- [1] This is a nice summary: [Idealism vs Materialism](http://philosophyterms.com/idealism/#III_Idealism_vs_Materialism) > *Idealism and materialism are both impossible to prove or disprove, of course — they’re unfalsifiable statements, which means there’s no neutral test that could weigh them against each other. The test, ultimately, has to be one of intuition, or “gut reaction.” Many people find that materialism makes more sense because, after all, everyone has the experience of interacting with an outside world and believing that’s really “out there.” On the other hand, it’s impossible for us to step “outside” our own minds, so how can we be so sure that there really is an “out there” at all?* (Archived [here](https://web.archive.org/web/20210326162142/https://philosophyterms.com/idealism/))
Last changed by  
 
monktastic
93

Read more

Radical kindness

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. --- Unknown For so long as the root of wickedness is hidden, it is strong. But when it is recognized, it is dissolved. When it is revealed, it perishes. ... It is powerful because we have not recognized it. --- The Gospel of Philip I have been carelessly spreading evil my whole life. I am not yet done. May this post serve as both a confession and a warning. Please forgive the third-person style. When you perceive someone as evil, and feel a twinge of hatred, malice, or even just the slightest contempt, you are experiencing your own evil. A mind that is free of evil simply does not perceive reality this way. If you accede to this perception, you are inviting evil to further colonize your mind. From there, it will inevitably leak into the world, one way or another. You will then disown any responsibility for its far-ranging consequences and come away further convinced of your own good.

1/24/2023
Emptiness, no-self, and nonduality

Along the way to full awakening (as understood by the Buddhist tradition), there are several profound realizations that practitioners commonly mistake for the end goal. Because each one can feel utterly "final," this can stall progress for decades (or perhaps lifetimes). One often hears this in statements to the effect of "I am the space of pure awareness; ideas of gain and loss can no longer touch me." What more can be said at that point? Not only is there the risk of getting stuck in this way, but there is the all-too-common phenomenon of assuming the role of teacher and spreading one's misunderstanding to many others. Therefore, it is extremely valuable to have a map ahead of time. It is difficult to piece together such a map from disparate sources, particularly because language can make different realizations sound the same. This has resulted in much confusion in the literature (some of which we will explore below). This piece is meant to be (part of) such a map. These are not my original ideas. I am deeply indebted to Soh Wei Yu and John Tan (and their community) for tirelessly sharing these insights. Numerous serious practitioners have found them invaluable, and I hope you will, too. This map focuses on stages of nonduality (i.e., the realization(s) that one is not ultimately separate from the world). There are realizations that go beyond those listed here, as well as other paths that do not take this route at all (but perhaps meet up with it later). Some will be discussed briefly later.

12/23/2022
QM and consciousness (for people who don't like math)

When people say that QM has nothing to do with consciousness, they usually mean consciousness in general --- and this is (probably) true. On the other hand, your consciousness is indeed relevant: it is the point at which quantum events attain definite outcomes for you. You may find this fascinating or boring, but most popular treatments --- both technical and "New Age" --- tend to misrepresent it. I'd like to remedy that. A single particle can be in a superposition. It is possible to prove that it's in superposition by something called an interference experiment. As the superposition interacts with other particles, they join the superposition (i.e., become entangled with it). As far as we know, this is true even if those "other particles" constitute a conscious being. In this way, the superposition just keeps growing and growing forever[^collapse]. [^collapse]: Interpretations of QM can be broadly divided into collapse and no-collapse. The former state that superpositions undergo a real physical collapse. Technically, their distinct predictions make them distinct theories, and not interpretations of QM. The vast majority of physicists are in the no-collapse camp. This piece takes the no-collapse perspective, and is agnostic about interpretation. However, doing an interference experiment requires careful control of all particles in the superposition. If you leave out even one particle, the remainder will behave classically. In other words, they will appear to have collapsed. This has a few immediate consequences:

12/1/2022
Quantum myths

There are a few common myths about quantum mechanics that I'd like to address. A full understanding of the issues requires math, which most people don't have the time for. So here I will try to explain them as simply as possible. The measurement problem I suspect that a substantial majority of physicists who use quantum mechanics in their everyday work are uninterested in or downright hostile to attempts to understand the quantum measurement problem. --- Caltech physicist Sean Carroll The biggest mystery still surrounding QM is the nature of measurement. Why do superpositions seemingly "collapse" into one result or the other? And when, exactly does this happen? Here are two common (but unhelpful) answers.

12/1/2022
Read more from monktastic
Published on HackMD