My algorithm for self liberation

        Photo by ThisisEngineering on Unsplash

My focus this year was self liberation.

This year I've played around with a few formulas for that. There is the formula that Shinzen Young once put forth: equanimity * pain = liberation from suffering.  This year I thought about the motivation equation. That motivation = expectation * value / impulsivity * delay.

As a Mahamudra practioner, I'm not a big fan of expectation. I prefer faith. The belief in something you know from repeated experience. If I value absolute wellbeing, and I know from experience that I feel better the more time I spend with that absolute wellbeing, then it's likely that I will feel more motivated to do that. The more it grows, the more impulsivity and delay are diminished. My motivation then becomes self propelling.

Is this fruition as the path?

For many people in my society the meditative experience is the delay. They value the fruits of relative reality, external sources of power. But from my perspective cultivating and mainting the relative fruits risks delaying the skills of thriving and living comfortably in the absolute. 

As we age and get closer to death, those skills become more necessary. So in 2026 I'm going to put my faith in that basket and watch that basket.