Buddhism - Casey Rae’s Apocrypha

Casey Rae’s Apocrypha

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Buddhism

A collection of 11 posts

Leaving Space for Big Emotions

Leaving Space for Big Emotions

When there is no action to take, the feeling itself is what needs tending.

Presence Over Pattern Matching

Presence Over Pattern Matching

Machines only know suffering by concept. Humans know it by condition. The distinction is crucial for care.

An ouroboros (snake) made of computer code consumes its own tail.

Superintelligence or Ouroboros?

AI can optimize forever. That doesn't mean it will ever wake up.

Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory, 1931. Oil on canvas.

Mind Out of Time, Time Out of Mind

Some say we should live in the present, but try to pin it down and it vanishes. So do ideas about past and future. Might as well take that long lunch break.

The Empathy-Compassion Distinction

The Empathy-Compassion Distinction

“Compassion fatigue” is one of those phrases that sounds right—but it may miss the mark. What most caregivers and clinicians are actually experiencing is empathy fatigue, and the distinction matters.

Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze on the beach in Point Break (1991).

The Zen Jock I Walked Out On

In ‘91, I walked out of Point Break during the RHCP beach battle scene. This week I watched the whole thing—and my aversion didn’t make it back to shore.

Reflecting on Religious Hypocrisy

religious hypocrisy

Reflecting on Religious Hypocrisy

As a human being, I have numerous blind spots, where ignorance conditions reactivity. I don’t love that, but I also don’t shy away from the reality. Some of the points of activation I feel most deeply are around religious hypocrisy. For most of my life, I would not

The World Is Not Your Chatbox

artifical intelligence

The World Is Not Your Chatbox

When I was a kid watching Creature Double Feature on Saturday afternoons, they’d sometimes show the original Frankenstein or one of its sequels. I was always struck by the relationship between Victor Frankenstein and his assistant—named Fritz in the first film, though more commonly remembered as Igor. The

Running Scared: Wind Season in a Fire Horse Year

sowa rigpa Featured

Running Scared: Wind Season in a Fire Horse Year

The Tibetan medical tradition has a name for what a lot of us are feeling right now. Loong (rLung)—wind energy, the element that governs breath, nervous system, and the movement of mind—is constitutionally volatile in spring. Add a Fire Horse year, in which flame and wind feed each

Viewing In-Between: Films That Refuse to Be One Thing

Viewing In-Between: Films That Refuse to Be One Thing

Last week, I talked about “blended genre” flicks, with a promise to take a closer look the following Friday. Well, here we are—Friday the 13th, which also happens to be Dakini Day.* Fitting, given what I’ve come to realize about the films on this list, and their uncanny

Wanting Otherwise: On Inevitability and Refuge

Wanting Otherwise: On Inevitability and Refuge

I’ve been thinking about inevitability. The inevitability of falling apart. The inevitability of sickness, old age—if we’re so lucky—and death. The inevitability of phase change, from the smallest, tiniest repositioning of the elementary particles that comprise the light show we call our human embodiment, to the