'There's no stopping, no going forward and no coming back. It's finished. Consider this, realize it clearly in your own mind. Right there you will find that there is really nothing at all.' www.ajahnchah.org/book/Not_Sur...

Consciousness of sights, sounds, thoughts, etc. is what the mind sends out, to try to know things. But it's insubstantial, like the flames put out by a heat source. 'The mind' is awareness that can't leave the breath energy or the present moment (paraphrasing Ajahn Lee).

Why don't Buddhist monks/nuns (including anagārikas) watch shows for entertainment? So that we learn to derive pleasure from higher things (like the jhānas), and because worldly shows are saṅkhāras: fabricated realities full of wrong views. www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio...

Hurricanes (cyclones, typhoons, etc) keep people poor. Though one might have the money to maintain nicer buildings or bigger boats in fair weather, the need for greater defences, mobility, or to rebuild quickly and cheaply keep the infrastructure small/poor. www.blackenterprise.com/vp-music-gro...

I've seen so much malware come from Tor nodes that I use Tor Browser only on 'live' OSes, like Tails or Whonix. Unless you have a bulletproof antivirus app, I wouldn't recommend exposing persistent OSes (eg, Android, iOS, MacOS, Ubuntu, or Windows) to the Tor network. www.youtube.com/shorts/UQGmu...

Happy Phussa Uposatha www.hirunews.lk/goldfmnews/4...

From a Buddhist perspective, the main practical weakness of panentheistic religions (eg, the Abrahamics and Sikhism) is how they connect the transcendent to the immanent. How can an unchanging Ground of Being change to create and maintain the universe? How does physics connect to metaphysics?

I understand viññāṇaṃ anidassanaṃ (consciousness without objects; DN 11) in terms of ancient Indian physics, which said the elements always exist as latent potentials (anusaya), which arise when roused by conditions. Unrousable consciousness may be Nibbāna. www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/DN/DN...

There is also an interesting early Buddhist sutta (SN 2.21), where Shiva, called Sīva in Pāḷi, which may or may not be the Mahādev Shiva of the modern Shaiva tradition, once visited Buddha. They didn't say much to each other, but it's interesting they met. suttacentral.net/sn2.21/en/su...

The Buddhist idea that Buddha was at least on the level of a Brahmā can be seen in the rūpajhānas' being called Brahmavihāras; someone who dies in one of the rūpajhānas is reborn in that Brahmā realm; and, in DN 11, Buddha knew something Mahābrahmā didn't know. www.dhammatalks.org/suttas/DN/DN...

'We conclude that inequality is a catalyst that amplifies other determinants of well-being and mental health (such as inflation and poverty)….' www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Even recently, I have seen a court assume that, because there is CCTV footage of a crime, the defendant must be guilty. AI makes it easy to fake CCTV videos, especially blurry/grainy ones. www.theverge.com/news/852124/...

Yes, throughout human history, national borders, families, and migration patterns have been very fluid. Also, Native Americans should tell White people to 'go home' to Europe, but Europe couldn't possibly accommodate 350m more people (just from North America). www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Calendars introduce a false sense of cylicality to life, though the 'arrow of time' is a straight line. For example, relative to the Sagittarius A* black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, our solar system is in a different place than at this time last year. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagitta...

Similar to the proleptic Julian day number used by astronomers, the world's governments could choose an astronomical event which happened before recorded history and which can be calculated precisely, and use that as a culturally neutral calendar epoch. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_...

According to the Sinhala Buddhist calendar, 01 January 2026 CE = the year 2569, the month of Durutu (Pāḷi: Phussa), the 13th day of the waxing moon. The Buddhist New Year is on Vesak, in May, but Sri Lanka also celebrates a civil/agricultural New Year, following astrology, in mid-April.

To my knowledge, most Chakma people are Theravāda Buddhist. www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/bloo...

When biology becomes advanced enough to create animals entirely from the DNA of extinct animals preserved in museums, I would call that de-extinction. Just making a few edits to the DNA of a grey wolf and calling it a dire wolf is an overstatement, falsehood, etc www.theguardian.com/environment/...

Like America, many countries' politics -- indeed, nationalism itself -- are often dominated by issues of race and religion. Identity delusions (moha), along with greed and anger, are among the most basic of human corruptions. www.dailymirror.lk/recomended-n...

I hope the current situation doesn't cause a civil war between the Muslims of northern Bangladesh and the Buddhists and Hindus of southern Bangladesh. www.telegraphindia.com/world/how-th...

The argument that innocent people have nothing to fear from govt surveillance assumes govt workers are harmless/virtuous, though they're often biased against minorities, women, and the poor; sell out citizens to corporations; impose a certain culture/religion… www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/basi...

Statistically, most heart attacks happen in the mornings, often as people are rushing off to work. Go easy on the body, in the mornings. www.emc.id/en/care-plus...

One way in which European search engines (eg, Startpage and SwissCows) have innovated more than American ones is by having 'Anonymous View' features. It's a quick and easy way to have GDPR-level privacy and security, when browsing the Web on any device. www.startpage.com

The phrase 'whom G-d favours' (Luke 2:14) supports the Buddhist view that the Abrahamic G-d is a conditioned deva (ie, an impermanent heavenly being), not an unconditioned, unchanging, etc Ground of Being. There are many devas, who have various preferences. www.dailymirror.lk/news-feature...

'…when there is a union of the mother and father, the mother is in her season, and a gandhabba [a mind between lives] is present, then, with this union of three things, the descent of the embryo occurs' (MN 38). From a Buddhist perspective, this study was murder. www.theguardian.com/science/2025...

Due to colonialistic history, when people in the UK say 'Asian', they usually mean south Asian. When Americans say it, they usually mean east Asian. Asia is a huge continent, with hundreds of ethnic groups. Saying Asian is as imprecise as saying Black or White. www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

If you look at pictures of people at Sri Lankan companies and agencies, one thing you notice is they are usually all from one of the local ethnic groups. That is probably because the immigration laws make it hard for foreigners to live there for very long. www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-new...

One common expression of misogyny, in south Asian cultures, is assuming professionals (doctors, lawyers, managers, police officers, etc) will be men, and, on the rare occurrence a woman does such a job, calling her a 'woman/lady manager/doctor…'. www.telegraphindia.com/india/it-com...

On Facebook and maybe other Meta products, be aware that scam ads are becoming very common and apparently allowed: youtube.com/shorts/D4041...

A nice video about the augmented reality direction in which Google is going (which is a privacy nightmare, for both yourself and everyone you encounter): www.youtube.com/watch?v=xD11...

Prioritising enriching the wealthy over educating the poor won't help the US compete with China, which would probably do the opposite. finance.yahoo.com/news/us-set-...

One of the most disturbing things about Christianity, which is rarely discussed in the West, is the cannibalistic aspects of the Eucharist. They have been abstracted to bread and wine, but Catholics do believe they transubstantiate into Christ's flesh and blood. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucharist

Every moment of every day, somebody somewhere, in this world, is being murdered, tortured, starved, raped, lied to, stolen from.... Happy Holidays. www.dailymirror.lk/recomended-n...

How can two Buddhist-majority countries be so attached to their national identities? It's like they've never heard of anattā or moha. All identities, including national identities, are self-delusions. Also, it utterly violates Buddhism to kill people over temples www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

In Judeo-Christian numerology, 6 is the number of G-d's Creation (and the devil), and 7 is G-d's number. Therefore, 6-7 means G-d's Creation and G-d (ie, all existence). Is this meme just a random coincidence, or was it placed in pop culture by the divine? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6-7_meme

The YouTube influencer format encourages people to do foolish stunts in order to get popular. How is Alphabet not liable for so many people getting hurt making stunt YouTube videos? www.theguardian.com/sport/2025/d...

No matter how deeply something is on sale, not buying anything is always cheaper. Marketers try to make you feel as if buying something is inevitable. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

The problem is larger/wealthier groups trying to force their culture on smaller/poorer groups, eg: Hindus pushing Hinduism on Buddhists, the West and China pushing themselves on the rest of the world, etc. This leads to many small states and regional fractures www.telegraphindia.com/opinion/loca...

South Asians suffered under European colonialism. But, they should also remember that, further in the past, Austroasiatics, Dravidians, Indo-Aryans, and Tibeto-Burmans colonised the lands of tribes who had lived there for about 40,000 years. www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-new...

In my opinion, in a representative democracy, all high-level government officials should be elected on some schedule, not appointed for life. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Many Sri Lankan governments have promised this, and none have delivered it. But, at least that society openly talks about abolishing the executive presidency, in favour of a more democratic government. The US doesn't even consider it. www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-new...

Although it's true the Theravāda monastic rules allow both monks and nuns to be topless inside the monastery, the story of Visākhā's bathing cloths (Mv.VIII.15.1) shows Buddha required monks and nuns to cover up nudity, if it offends laypeople. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJGo...

Sri Lankans often confuse the words advise and advice. Advise is a verb; advice is a noun. For example: to advise someone, to give advice. www.dailymirror.lk/breaking-new...

Deeper than the corruption of any government is the corruption innate in the natural world: killing for survival, addiction, exploitation, competition, disasters, ignorance, decay, loss.... Finding the courage to resist that corruption is what Buddhism is about. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I find it ridiculous that, in just a few hundred years, English-speaking people mostly from the British Empire have divided themselves up into different countries which are each very picky, petty, and peculiar about their identities and dialects of English. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/d...

I have a fantasy that, some day, the US (or another country's) president will hold a several-hours-long press conference touring the world through the history and evidence of the US's encounters with aliens, and, at the end, introduce the world to an alien. www.theguardian.com/film/2025/de...

An idea: a liberal man could run for president, choose a woman as his vice president, tell no one his plan, win the presidency, and then resign at the inauguration and leave the female vice president as president. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

'Mike [advisor to future US president David Palmer]: Would you do me a favour, David? David: What's that, Mike? Mike: Smile. [David smiles.] Mike: Not a politician's smile, a real one' (24, season 1, episode 21). www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Laws favour the rich, because only the rich have the money to litigate about every little injustice they face. Large companies seem to test how bad they can be without getting sued. arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...

Rich and powerful people make laws which will literally kill many poor people, but the most that poor people are legally allowed to say in public as retaliation are things like tax them or impeach them. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...