john on Warpcast

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/firstdraft is becoming my public notepad! here are a series of recurring thoughts this weekend, stemming from meeting a bunch of IRL friends i haven't seen in a while and trying to condense all that i've been up to in the past few years into a few sentences. i've also pondered about how to explain what i've been up to for my spiritual community, chaplaincy teachers, practitioner friends, and the like. - embedded chaplaincy as a content creator in a past piece titled "why am i pursuing buddhist chaplaincy," I wrote: The traditional definition of a chaplain is: a minister who cares for people in crisis who are displaced from their preferred place of living. This can range from people suffering from illness (hospital), death (hospice), incarceration (prisons). It’s like being an ER doctor for spiritual care, composed of Judeo-Christian traditions. https://christinchong.com/writing/why-am-i-pursuing-buddhist-chaplaincy

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The modern definition of a chaplain broadens the traditional definition: it now encompasses those who are experiencing a mental displacement, people in existential crisis. *Waves hands all around.* It’s like being a primary care doctor, taking care of spiritual health within the context of everyday life. - In the past few years, I've refined my approach further: how can I bring spiritual support embedded within the pursuit of livelihood, creativity, and online communities? that is my hope, using this lifetime as the experimental subject, and supporting friends who are doing the same. i want to meet people where they are at, in the age of hijacked attention. while i have the privilege to have encountered supportive spiritual communities, i don't think they are easily accessible for many, often depending on one's living circumstances. furthermore, technofeudalism fueled by hypercapitalism are taking over our attention and minds, as they did of capital and land in years past (and still pervades now.)

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yes, even writing here now, and you, reading this sentence, represents a temporary hijack of your precious attention. yet it is the means by which i hope to help others, by calling out what is happening. In buddhism it is lumped under "skillful means," where sometimes we have to use the mechanism to negate the mechanism. by embedding chaplaincy under the guise of entertainment, i hope to be able to reach many and directly address the importance of agency / freedom / independence of attention.

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there is also a fundamental paradox--if the role of the chaplain is to support spiritual care, how can we take into account of different sets of beliefs (or for some, a secular path?) i personally believe that there is something beyond, and that modern versions of each religion contains corrupted elements that can be purified. human interference meant to exert control over large populace. if we look into the original teachings of jesus, the buddha... there is more in common than not. https://warpcast.com/laursa.eth/0xfdee8305

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unlike most spiritual leaders, i also want to directly address financial support that is necessary for the spirit to flourish. i've seen many chaplaincy and creative friends struggle with their livelihoods. i want to figure out and teach a path that actually works. one that doesn't shy away from worldly needs, that doesn't shun marketing as a dirty word. there is this strange divide happening where we mistake our relationship with money from one of holiness that happens in the spiritual community... where i keep seeing really good-hearted people understate their abilities and accomplishments. i must learn from teachers like mark silver who can heal this gap that happens, that results in the exploitation of good people by the extremely well-resourced.

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i also would like to, over time, address the dark night of the soul, the staring into the abyss, the intense suffering that happens to those who pursue the spiritual path. i'm tired of "McMindfulness" offerings that brush over intensity of such pursuits, that neglect the physiological conditions some of us suffer from, that leave people behind if they do not embody ideals. along the same lines, i want to be mindful of not imposing "toxic positivity" onto others, and to witness rather than fix when there is no broken-ness to be found.

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instead, i want to offer the path of creativity towards awakening, in any direction towards one's beliefs with full agency. i want to offer the path of fun as a way to de-risk decision-making. i want to offer strategies of 1) distribution, 2) arbitrage, and 3) intersectionality, so these paths may flourish and support livelihoods.

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spiderman pointing

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🤣 🤣 🤣 RIGHT?!

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