Date: 04/02/24

New here? 🍪What Are Dharma Sprint Death Cookies?

Today’s Frame:

It’s 1:16pm.

I’ve having a slow morning, and a meeting, and it has taken me 77 minutes to gather myself enough to realize what the task for today is; and the task of the day is this dharma sprint.

Duration: 99 minutes

Intention: Work on KTHDRLing; specifically

1. First 45 minutes focus on using this log book as a noting technique.
2. Second 45 minutes for pure writing on whatever article I choose

First 45 Minutes:

What do I notice?

I notice the thin film of something on my forehead. Maybe it’s sweat, maybe it’s from the ice bath, but either way, how it lands, what it calls forth as the next thought is that it is evidence of my ‘overworkedness’.

But I don’t believe that voice; it feels like Part X; The Doubter; Resistance.

It’s the part of me that doesn’t want to write and doesn’t want to tell the truth.

When I think about The Doubter: Voice of Resistance,

the first thought that comes to mind is an artist I know who shares powerful poems on social media.

Why does she come to mind when I think about the Voice of Resistance?

She calls to me as a contradiction, as a double-bind that generates powerful raw art.

Would metaprogramming the tension between the parts neuter her passion?

I don’t think so. I think anyone who actually does metaprogramming finds the process demands the creation of some kind of art that transforms the tension of the opposites.

‘Artists’ who worry that ‘healing’ will neuter their art are like people who have never consistently worked out but worrying about overtraining.

It’s an excuse The Doubter deploys to protect us from doing something unfamiliar.

What’s the tension I see in her?

My projections are likely intertwined with something I think is actually happening; and its that I see her tone landing in many people as a deep validation of their inner doubter. She passionately and persuasively banishes the voice that intimates ideas like a ‘higher self,’ or ‘healing.’

The voice she champions tells us we are perfect the way we are and that nothing needs to change.

There is wisdom in this voice; and their is a poison too.

The Wisdom: Catching The Second Arrow

Buddha taught a parable called ‘The Second Arrow.’

The idea is that, whenever you are hit by an arrow, your only concern is to notice the second arrow, and catch it.

Life slings arrows; we fail, we don’t keep our word, we lie, we hide, we cheat, we betray ourselves.

Those behaviors hurt. They are the first arrow.

The second arrow is the one we sling at ourselves for having been hit by the first arrow.

First Arrow: You just remembered you completely forgot the life-changing plan you committed to after your last psychedelic experience. Second Arrow: The voice that uses the first arrow to remind you that you’re broken because you failed (again).

First Arrow: You got overwhelmed in a conversation and lied in the moment to protect yourself.

Second Arrow: The voice that uses the first arrow to remind you that you’re a coward (just like you’ve always been).

All people who undertake the journey of ‘waking up,’ so that they can then ‘show up,’ in the world will have to face the second arrow demon.

Yes; many people who begin ‘their healing journey’ will take hundreds of second arrows.

It’ll be hard. It’ll hurt.

And it’s worth it.

Because the truth is,

cognitively,

neurochemically,

neuroanatomically,

phenomenologically,

behaviorally,

and thousands of pages of scientific evidence all converge on the same thing:

The Poison: Be (only) Here Now

Any spiritual teaching that implies or explicates that the future isn’t real (or isn’t worth contending with), is to the mind what Marxism is to Nation States. Sounds good. Feels good.

When enacted; really bad.

There is a cognitive trap that has ensnared an entire generation from individuating and becoming dharma artists.

The discovery of the future is not an illusion, it is a historic achievement of consciousness. It is the fire Prometheus stole.

The capacity to image the future allows for what myth calls sacrifice and what science calls ‘delayed gratification.’

The capacity to contend with the future in a way that allows you to inhibit short-term biological drives is the number 1 predictor of ‘life success.’

(Granted, ‘life success’ is a partially dubious claim created by a majorly sick culture, but is still a good proxy for the importance of the future).

The Future is a horizon that harbors your potential.

Your potential is like fire.

If you don’t learn how to handle it, it will kill you (and this is what the poet I mentioned at the beginning seems to be speaking to).

But if you learn how to handle your potential (like a fire keeper learns how to handle a fire), you flourish.

A Defense For The Future and Your Potential

The reason this artist catches my attention is because I sense a contradiction.

Her art crucifies the voice that whispers what you could be.

Yet, I can’t imagine she put in the work to learn to speak, sing, write, perform, and market her work without the shadow of her potential beckoning to her from the future.

I know she couldn’t have built her online business without the concept of the future.

The Future and your potential are burdens worth bearing.

Catch the Second Arrows that will come.

Don’t fall into the trap that disregards the future.

Learn to dance with the future and you will flourish.

Second 45 Minutes

Well I literally just wrote the entire first 45 minutes.

It’s funny to notice that my intention was to do the ‘noticing’ technique, and that that form brought me into the flow of a little letter I like.

Wow, that just flowed out and I loved it.

Now, the question is…what is the next right action for KTHDRLING.com?

I suppose creating a coherent project master doc for this project, because it feels like it is something that has only recently clarified itself in my mind.

First, I’m just going to look at it.

I gotta be honest, I love the way it looks and the way it feels.

The first thing I feel when I see it is that I want to create something to put on there.

The first thing that comes to mind is this death cookie.

It’s raw and honest and real.

I’d like to share it.

The interesting thing is that, the main way to share it would be through Instagram. Any kind of external link story would get a fraction of the attention that a manychat automation would get.

And this is a great point to highlight another idea that changed my life.

I call it:

The Truth Can Be An Ad

This is a phrase I use to remind myself of a frame:

I really flesh this idea out in these podcasts:

But the essence is:

If I didn’t know how to run my business, you wouldn’t be reading these words.

If I didn’t think about the future, and commune with my potential; I wouldn’t have gone through the thousands of hours of practice to learn how to write.

If I didn’t take the time to create a manychat automation, you wouldn’t be here.

The Truth Can Be An Ad.

A mature artist realizes that their truth can generate wealth, and that doesn’t (necessarily) cheapen it in anyway.

But don’t get it twisted;

A mature artist also realizes that the path where artistic truth and wealth harmonize is a bridge with Jörmungandr beneath it, The Great Deceiver on it, and the Winds that claimed Icarus above it.

Watch your step.

E