He could also rebrand his anti-Zionism as pure Christian anti-Semitism and likely win a lot of Evangelicals and fundamentalists over that way.

I'm still hoping for a giant meteor or something like that tbh...

I feel like if he just starts yelling the n-word in speeches, he'll win at least half the evangelical vote by default. I think they are more loyal to their "hating black people" than they are to their "Zionism."

This doesn't rule out that I may occasionally post under my old pen name/username or write on my old blogs if I get the inclination to write on the appropriate subjects at some point, but this new persona is going to be primary going forward. (2/2)

I'm going to start a new blog and formalize my rebranding online. I will be using the pen name "Wayward Bodhisattva" but I will be blogging exclusively on Buddhism. I'm also going to separate this pen name and my Buddhist studies material from "Progress & Conservation" and "Ekklesiagora". (1/2)

As a result of using different languages, these groups grew apart and, gradually, their teachings started to diverge on certain points. There never was a schism event where these groups suddenly split over doctrinal issues. They just grew apart.

So, this is kind of interesting. There may not have ever been a historic schism event in early Buddhism. The different "sects" seem to have actually just grown apart as a result of using different languages to preserve the Tripitaka. All the ancient accounts of the schism are incoherent or false.

the elite aren’t powerful politicians or billionaires. common misconception. the elite is anyone i think is cooler than me, funnier than me, more artistic than me, or generally anyone i resent for daring to be happier than i am despite my immense wealth and political clout

It kinda sucks that none of the language skills I have are very useful for studying ancient Buddhist texts. That requires specialized study in Classical Chinese, Pali or Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit, and Gandhari. Even the Japanese I know doesn't really help with the Classical Chinese. Not fair really.

I'm thinking about starting a second blog just for Buddhism-related stuff. Sutra study, Dharma study, Buddhist history and philosophy. I'm also going to be building a Buddhist garden sanctuary with lifesize Buddha statues that I will hand paint. I'll post about that stuff as I make the statues too.

Also, technically a type of republican.

道可道，非常道。名可名，非常名。

"Hey, pappa, did you know this hole was here?"

Thanks for putting that in the book description. It saved me the disappointment of having bought the book to discover that it is not worth reading.

I thought only Nazis used Grok.

Lao-tzu says hi, y'all.

So, archeologists are always like "here's this thing we found, it seems to be for religious purposes, like an idol or icon." I just wonder how often they are totally wrong. Like, maybe sometimes people in the ancient world liked to do art and make cool things and that's the whole story.

True. Did you know that he's never even read Scott Sumner or Abba Lerner? Embarrassing, honestly.

I'm not convinced that U. G. Krishnamurti was saying the same thing as Shakyamuni but I'm starting to think that Shakyamuni was most certainly saying the same thing as U. G. Krishnamurti.

LVT (shredder of landlord profits) goes brrrrrrr!

"Whatever you consider sacred, whatever you consider extraordinary—Buddha Consciousness, Christ Consciousness, Krishna Consciousness—is a contamination in that consciousness. It has to purify itself: all that, all that dross—all that is holy, all that is sacred—must go."—U. G. Krishnamurti

Jesus!!! How did ancient Indian's keep track of who is who when they gave all their kids the same damned name? They really messed up by not banning the name Nanda altogether. "Nanda, Nanda, Nanda, and Nanda went to find Nanda who married Nanda and tell her about Nanda."

And here's a different blog post, where I dive into the story of the future buddha Maitreya and demonstrate that Maitreya was actually a specific historical person, one of the Buddha's direct disciples, whom Shakyamuni indicated would become the next buddha.
ekklesiagora.medium.com/a-sidelight-...

Here's a blog post where I do a deep dive into the ordination of Mahaprajapati and compare different versions of the story in different manuscript traditions, painting a picture of how the Buddhist canon seems to have been altered for doctrinal reasons:
ekklesiagora.medium.com/a-sidelight-...

I made some significant updates to this post. One of them is an added section that demonstrates that Shakyamuni did not actually prohibit translating his discourses to Sanskrit.
medium.com/@ekklesiagor...

"This two-legged body is dirty and stinking,
full of different carcasses,
and oozing all over the place—
but still it is cherished!

"And if, on account of such a body,
someone prides themselves
or looks down on others—
what is that but a failure to see?"

—Sutta Nipata 1.11

Bearded Shakyamuni

Sokaku Takeda

Morihei Ueshiba

Socrates

Frank (from Donny Darko)

check yo self before you dox yo self

after a quick review of my timeline i feel the need to point to the sign