A swail is defined as “a shallow ditch”.

You could have just said “Beware!” or “Dooooooommmmm!!!”. No need for such verbosity.

Icarus. The wings made of wax and stuff. He got too high so the gods slapped him.

Total metaphor of course. He was a shaman, took too much shrooms, had a legendarily bad trip.

Even when learning to play a instrument you get feedback. When you twang the strings with your inexpert fingers and make a sound. That’s a huge source of guidance.

In meditation that feedback is key. A dozen feelings and effects. You experiment. You feel your way through the darkness.

Without that you are guided by … what?

No it isn’t. It’s like saying if you don’t feel anything at all then you just stop lifting weights the way you’re doing it. A strain in your muscles. A little sweat. A little worn out. Anything.

And if you don’t feel anything, then maybe change your routine. Increase your reps. Increase your weight.

Because otherwise, what exactly are you doing? Just banging out some formula and hoping for the best? Hoping the happy story that your teacher told you someday comes true? That’s dumb.

The results are the guide. You feel your way along with that feedback.

Yes, even with mindfulness meditation.

If you are not guided by results then what guides you, a happy story?

Your opinion is shallow, conformist fluff.

Bullshit.

Lol indeed

HP Lovecraft is a national treasure.

His detractors are potatoes.

If only everybody would conform to the consensus morality. We’d be living in caves, eating garbage and telling really stupid stories but at least we’d all be non-shitshow human beings.

Another thing.

One of the private universes went bad. So they locked the door. A deeply scary idea. A sealed cellular automaton based universe. Perfectly deterministic therefore ultimately incapable of escaping its history. Perfectly sealed therefore incapable of salvation from the outside. And once the gate is lost, perfectly lost forever.

It’s similar to the Solipsistic Nation guy. Trapped in a personal universe where he’s enjoying climbing a skyscraper forever. His memory automatically edited so he doesn’t get bored

I think about that a bit. It’s got a deep scariness. nightmareish

Yes, reading has an upside and also a downside. I can discuss both and everything in-between. I am a magical unicorn, relatively speaking.

Well I figured that we are all pretty familiar with the upside of reading so describing that would be totally redundant. Whereas the downside is never discussed, so I focused on that.

But yes, how foolish of me, to expect a nuanced discussion.

Despite the hugeness of its effects, I’m inclined to the “set of tools” model mself. I hold my focused attention upon a thing. I hold it there as I would hold my fngertip upon a spot on the wall. It’s as simple as that. It is a thing that I can do. A power.

… results of meditation are never immediate or even obvious, just over time, if one persists, things get a little easier.

Speak for yourself.

In fact, a classic warning is to beware of getting carried away by the bliss/high that commonly arrives.

So I gotta say. If it ain’t getting you high, or producing even a little bit of noticeable effect, then you would do well to experiment with other techniques.

Whenever I let it all hang out here, I invariably end up offending 99% of the people. And that’s frustrating and dull.

I have yet to offend you, apparently. So allow me to let it hang out a bit more.

Magic is like science, but lighter on the models. In that observation is key.

Or like art, but lighter on the art-making. In that esoteric stuff is touched.

Habit? Inertia?

I do mindfulness meditation too. It’s a big thing in my life.

Here’s a story that explores similar ground.

Divided by Infinity

It’s in The Perseids and Other Stories By Robert Charles Wilson