u/medbud

For no particular reason, I was wondering this morning, are there any descriptions of how Buddha died? Of course there are, and of course there are a few interpretations...

I just found this pdf and found it it's quite 'secular' in it's medical analysis of the symptoms, and timing around Buddha's last meal and subsequent demise.

pdf Heidelberg Asian Studies Publishing https://hasp.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/journals/jpts/article/download/27999/27395/56972

It's also relatively grounding to understand that even this brilliant, legendary teacher is not immune to illness and old age... It strangely brought up feelings of compassion... That this was a man, and he suffered pain, and that there was no medicine or surgery... I assume he was surrounded by wise people, and that we/they/he are all helpless in the end.

For some reason I also had assumed the Buddha was strictly vegetarian, but I guess that is perhaps not exactly true.

I'm always fascinated by the common phenomenology found in many traditions...or even therapies... And this leads us to the nature of the subject experiencing these states.

Maybe you'll be interested in this breakdown based in neuroscience, and systems theory (Friston, Chandaria):

The Formless Jhanas (or Arūpajhānas—the 5th through 8th stages of deep meditative absorption) represent a systematic, stepwise deconstruction of the brain's internal generative model.

While the first four jhanas manipulate sensory precision, bodily pleasure, and emotional tone within a structured spatial world, the formless jhanas progressive strip away the structural priors of space, time, subject-object division, and sensory content entirely.

In terms of the Free Energy Principle (FEP), active inference, and neuroimaging, the formless jhanas correspond to the sequential reduction of parameter space in the brain's generative model—dropping the gain on prediction errors until the internal model is left running with near-zero content.

1. Step-by-Step FEP Deconstruction of the Formless Jhanas

[Form-Based World] ──> [5th: Boundless Space] ──> [6th: Boundless Consciousness] │ ▼ [8th: Neither-Perception] <── [7th: Nothingness]

5^th Jhana: Boundless Space (Ākāsānañcāyatana)

* Phenomenology: Physical bodily boundaries vanish; the sense of self dissolves into an infinite, borderless expanse. * FEP Pathway: Precision weighting (\gamma) on all somatic, interoceptive, and exteroceptive sensory prediction errors is turned down to near-zero. * Neural Correlates: Deactivation of the Superior Parietal Lobule (SPL). The SPL maintains the brain's egocentric spatial frame of reference (constructing the physical boundary between "in here" and "out there"). When the SPL loses its input streams, the internal spatial prior defaults to an unbounded, infinite manifold—the "pool walls" dissolve.

6^th Jhana: Boundless Consciousness (Viññāṇañcāyatana)

* Phenomenology: The experience shifts from the space being known to the act of knowing itself. Awareness feels infinite, self-luminous, and omnipresent. * FEP Pathway: The generative model turns its predictive machinery onto its own sampling process. Instead of predicting objects in space, the top-down model predicts the state of attentional precision itself. * Neural Correlates: High Phase-Amplitude Coupling (PAC) between frontoparietal control networks and deep central structures, with the Salience Network and Default Mode Network (DMN) decoupling from sensory nodes. Metacognition (high-frequency coupling with low-frequency carriers) becomes the sole object of awareness.

7^th Jhana: Nothingness (Ākiñcaññāyatana)

* Phenomenology: The light of awareness turns off its object; there is no space, no consciousness, no content—only "nothing." * FEP Pathway: The active inference engine suppresses the generation of top-down content priors entirely. The brain stops predicting features, forms, or mental events. Variational free energy drops close to its baseline floor because there are no incoming error signals to explain, and no active predictions being generated. * Neural Correlates: Profound functional quietude across visual (V1–V4), auditory, and somatic cortices. Global power shifts toward hyper-coherent, slow-wave infra-slow oscillations (<0.1\text{ Hz}) mixed with localized gamma bursts, indicating high local integration with minimal global transmission.

8^thJhana: Neither-Perception-Nor-Non-Perception (Nevasaññānāsāññāyatana)

* Phenomenology: The extreme limit of conscious experience. It is impossible to say whether one is conscious or unconscious. Memory, perception, and agency are at the absolute threshold of extinction. * FEP Pathway: The parameter capacity of the generative model reaches the minimum viable threshold required to sustain life and homeostatic steady states. The Markov blanket is operating at a near-flatline phase transition—one step prior to complete cessation (Nirodha Samāpatti). * Neural Correlates: Widespread thalamocortical suppression. The thalamic reticular nucleus (TRN) acts as an extreme gatekeeper, blocking virtually all sensory-motor signals from reaching the cortex, leaving only baseline homeostatic autonomic pacing (cardiorespiratory resonance).

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* Thalamocortical Gating via the TRN: In formless jhanas, the Thalamic Reticular Nucleus (TRN) exerts powerful inhibitory control over sensory relays. This cuts off bottom-up prediction errors at the brainstem/thalamic level, preventing them from perturbing the cortical "vibrating polytope."

* DMN & Executive Network Reconfiguration: The Default Mode Network (egoic narrative self) is strongly suppressed, while the Frontoparietal Control Network remains selectively active to maintain one-pointed attentional stability without generating object-based thoughts.

* Cross-Frequency Entrainment: Electroencephalography (EEG) during formless states often reveals global Alpha-Gamma or Theta-Gamma Phase-Amplitude Coupling. The low-frequency carrier wave holds the entire cortex in a stable, non-reactive baseline, while high-frequency gamma reflects local coherence without chaotic spreading.

We finally have a basic community guide, and a nice supplementary page in the wiki: u/Neidanman's Link Archive 🙏.

Check it out!

I am trying to wrap my mind around the paradox of imposed silent hours, where flushing the toilet after 10pm is debated, or tiptoeing in an apartment to not disturb neighbours, roads with 30kmh limits during the night, replacing good roads with newer more silent asphalt, etc. etc. is lauded...

And then there is a church in a quiet village, with a huge speaker system that rings bells every 15 minutes, all day, all night. Open your windows at night during the heatwave and it's like you're (not) sleeping in the bell tower itself.

How can there be so much emphasis on sleep quality and silence, and then they don't turn off the bells... Every 15 minutes! It's completely insane.

I've been awake a bit earlier to sit recently, normally 45 mins. It's been so early that my phone is on 'do not disturb' time.

I normally turn off DND before starting the timer, but this morning I forgot. I didn't notice the absence of the click that signals the start. I'm sitting sitting sitting, I start to feel eventually, this is newish territory... The bell is probably about to ring. Sitting, sitting.

Then, ahha woops! Bell probably already rung but silence by DND. I was just 4 minutes over :).

I'm reading Feldman's Boundless Heart, and really like the message about commitment, and having resolved to sit x time, I push to the bell even if I start getting a little discomfort or thinking of the future, restlessness, etc.. Good lesson today! And interesting what pushing a little bit more than usual does.

Hey, i am one of those physics student with a 0 to 1 score out of 100 on spiritual stuff. Assuming energy is and always defined as force * distance or at best by noether theorem the quantaty conserved under time symmetry. What the heck is internal energy seen in internal martial art truly is? Is it hyper optimized biomechamics or kinetic chain or what? During training exactly what happens inside body that cause such stuff to develop? And is it truly legit? Finally in case of it being legit how sports science describe it or does any modern sports use it just under a different label. I mean if we strip the language and cultural barrier what remaims?

I see the US admin is tweeting about Fasset, but when I search Google, all I find is Reddit posts about FIRE in Pakistan. I read that China banned gold paper trading, and it's the biggest consumer and producer of physical gold. They are majorly expanding the vault in HK... China's doorway to the world market. Now Tether and co are going to basically sell US debt to card issuers? And it's all advertised as Sharia compliant gold backed netbanking. Please, somebody, explain this well!

J'avais, il y a quelques années, transformé mes points Coop en bon 100 CHF CFF. On pourrait utiliser le solde à fur et à mesure. Je viens de refaire pour 25 CHF... Mais attention, les conditions ont changé...le solde éventuel est perdu! Il faut tout dépenser d'un coup.

To track IBKR transactions in multiple currencies, Quicken recommends having a seperate account for each, IBKR EUR, IBKR USD, and to create transfers between these accounts when there are forex transactions related to purchasing products. For example, cash is in EUR, to buy a USD equity, IBKR automatically makes a conversion...we create an Xout/Xin forex transaction from the EUR to USD account, and then the purchase in the USD account.

I stupidly attempted to make my life easier, and connected direct connect. It overwrote all the multiple currency transactions into the single base currency account. I now have a few days of work to delete everything and start over.

If something only half works, it is broken.