RoamingFrancis' Journal

Where are you and where are you going?
chenda
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by chenda »

Yes he is great Dr Sutton. Another good academic I've found is Jeffery D Long at Elizabethtown College, a convert to Hinduism, you can find interviews with him on you tube.

I'm not sure though he was arguing gender equality existed in vedic times, more the idea that if one really applied the vedic philosophy that God is in all sentient beings, then gender and caste discrimination would naturally disappear, as everyone is a manifestation of God. 'Love thy neighbour because you are thy neighbour'.

It's probable all ancient societies had a form of casteism, perhaps to varying degrees. One view is that British rule (and maybe Mogul rule) lead to the solidification and continuation of the caste system, which otherwise would have declined.
RoamingFrancis wrote:
Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:01 pm
I have a deep respect for Ambdekar, but I wonder if he threw the baby out with the bathwater in his rejection of Hinduism.
I would be inclined to agree, although as a non-Indian it's perhaps easy for me to say.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Also not an Indian :) I'm fascinated by the country, though.

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fiby41
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by fiby41 »

RoamingFrancis wrote:
Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:01 pm
He argues there was women's equality in Vedic times as will, which is interesting.
Many seers of the Vedas are women (ṛṣikā, woman seer) and as many women priests/saints are cited. I've only read Gārgī.
There are verses addressed to a woman whose husband has died to move on and remarry as she has her whole life in front of her.
When Yājñavalkya wants to become a forest-renunciate, he distributes his wealth among his two wives Maitreyī and Kātyāyanī although he has children, meaning women had property rights.
RoamingFrancis wrote:
Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:01 pm
What are the differences between Vedic Hinduism and influences that came afterwards?
It is rather the other way round- later systems trace themselves back to the Vedas by quoting the Vedas to make their case because the Vedas are śabda-pramāṇa meaning word-proof, ie. self-evident. 3rd in the list of valid sources of knowledge here: viewtopic.php?p=214842#p214842
RoamingFrancis wrote:
Thu Apr 29, 2021 3:01 pm
When did the caste system arise?
From tribes and guilds. Example: the Yādava tribe, in which Kṛṣṇa took avatāra, is today classified under other backward castes (OBCs.) Other caste names are also surnames which simply mean the name of their ancestral occupation (eg. Smith) so they are never going to really go away.

Also there is the political dimension.
"Self-styled SJWs and parties don't want an India without castes, they want castes without Dharma."
-Ram Swarup.
Why work for mass-appeal or work at all when all you need is two castes to vote for you to win an election. Parties will put forward candidates from the communities they want to get votes from as long as people vote along caste lines hence the saying "cast you vote, don't vote your caste."

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fiby41
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by fiby41 »

Oh sorry, I misread your question asked when. I don't know.

chenda
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by chenda »

This most profound thing I've learnt from studying Hinduism so far is the three states of consciousness; waking, dreaming and deep sleep. Deep sleep is in fact an experience, as we know upon waking we experienced a gap between waking and dreaming, indicating a witnessing consciousness to the non experience of deep sleep. So at the very least we will experience eternal rest in the afterlife.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Sanskrit

@chenda Where do you think drug-induced states, or states experienced in deep meditation fit into those categories?

Finished reading the (simplified) Ramayana in Sanskrit! Since the site is new, I will have to wait for more chapters to be posted. I will will now move onto some Buddhist writings—the Amarahasa site has the Buddhacarita (biography), the Jataka tales, and the Diamond Sutra.

Cooking

I practiced making sheet pan gnocchi the other day! It was fun. I want to build up to a reliable group of 5-6 go-to recipes. So far I've got:
  • Vegetable Stir Fry
  • Colombian Rice
  • Sheet Pan Gnocchi
Want to add:
  • Lentil Gruel—basically a requirement for any serious EREr
  • A Mexican dish—tacos most likely
  • An Indian dish—got any recommendations @fiby41?
Mindfulness

My practice is going well. I still want to get the Unified Mindfulness certification, and take an introductory Druidry course, but those things are expensive and I'm currently pretty damn poor. High quality of life, thanks to the farm, but very little money in the bank.

Permaculture

Learned how to drive a tractor this week. I feel kind of stuck in my development in this field though.

Music

Have sat down with piano and guitar to practice playing through most of my repertoire. I've gone to the woods a couple times this week to practice singing where no one can hear me. I think I've gotten an idea of how to do diaphragm breathing, but really know that working with a teacher would accelerate my progress.

Money

I've been doing the usual for income—landscaping and translation. But I would really like to have a way to reliably sustain myself while I travel and do adventures. Legal translation is great for this—all I need is my laptop and an Internet connection. But I would like to increase and diversify my income streams. Step one would be to work on improving the fields I already work in—figure out "career development" shit. Though in my case, it may be an anti-career or a multi-career. Getting a yoga/personal trainer certification wouldn't be a bad idea either.

ertyu
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by ertyu »

recommendation: combine lentil gruel and indian dish. lentils with a bit more spices over rice makes dal, which is delicious and a complete protein. Once you master the basic use of spices, you can use the same method on cooking on chick peas etc. I don't have too great an access to "exotic" spices where I am but it's been on my mind as something to try.

About the yoga certification: you can do this while traveling. For instance, when I was in Siem Riep a couple of the hostel/"retreats" there offered yoga teacher training courses. There were also a bunch of yoga teachers whose lifestyle it was to teach at these retreats, moving between popular backpacker locations. I thought it was a smart way to slow travel while keeping a low col.

Western Red Cedar
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Western Red Cedar »

+1 on the Dal Bhat recommendation. Delicious, nutritious, and economical. It's a staple on the Nepalese trekking circuits for good reason.

chenda
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by chenda »

RoamingFrancis wrote:
Sat May 01, 2021 11:58 pm
@chenda Where do you think drug-induced states, or states experienced in deep meditation fit into those categories?
I don't know but maybe it's a glimpse of the 4th state of consciousness, Turiya.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turiya# ... d%20waking.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Sanskrit

Finished the introductory Buddhist texts in Sanskrit. Moving on to a simplified Bhagavad Gita. There is also a more complex version of the Diamond Sutra, Jataka Tales, and Bhagavad Gita on the site I will read further down the line.

Fitness

Have been active. Thanks for the Dal Bhat recommendations; I will act on on. I've been a bit busy recently, so have not gotten into the kitchen. If I learn how to make good Dal Bhat and tacos, I will be satisfied with my cooking knowledge and will turn my attention elsewhere.

Permaculture

Learned some wild edibles recently; I've been snacking on them. A bit bitter, but from what I've heard from more experienced foragers you get used to it quickly. Our plants are starting to come up; we've had garden-raised radishes and lettuce with dinner. Going to test out a composting toilet soon.

Other

I switched my linear skill development chart to a non-linear Web of Goals / systems diagram. Having them both side by side makes a lot more sense. I had a mini-lightbulb go off while spreading mulch today—my main focus for the summer needs to be increasing my income in such a manner that is homeotelic to my Web of Goals. In the future I will practice testing Black Swan scenarios against the Web of Goals I have prepared.

I've been working through the exercises in a book called The Artist's Way, with the intention of applying the lessons for music. I've heard good things about it from acquaintances, and so far have gotten a lot out of the book, even though I've just started.

An area for improvement is to understand deliberate practice and better apply it in my life. I don't have a good grasp of how to apply it in the context of permaculture, for example. I think I would have to break "permaculture" down into smaller sub-skills and practice those. Similarly, I want to get better at reading scientific papers, specifically in the fields of mindfulness, psychedelics, climate change, wellness, endangered languages, peak performance, and Anders Ericsson's research on deliberate practice and expertise development. Is the best way to do this just to read more scientific papers? Go for sheer quantity?

Lastly, I need to figure out how to build a paper GTD system. I have some of the core principles internalized, and ran a digital one for a while, but it was slow and clunky and I prefer using paper anyways. Now I jot things down in a notebook, which seems to work pretty well. I would like to see if I can improve the system at all.

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fiby41
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by fiby41 »

Variety is the mother of enjoyment, so you could use the bitter fruit to temper the dal
http://www.rumicooks.com/2020/02/assame ... l-red.html
Substitute with what is available with you. You'd put the fruit(s) in between 2:35 and 2:55 here https://youtu.be/FGNR7JLufek

mathiverse
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by mathiverse »

RoamingFrancis wrote:
Wed May 05, 2021 11:38 pm
peak performance, and Anders Ericsson's research on deliberate practice and expertise development
An alternative to reading the research papers on these topics is to read The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance. Reading this book will get you almost up to date on the research findings (up to ~2018 for the second edition), then you could read the cutting edge research papers more easily and have context on where the new stuff fits in with the older research findings.

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mountainFrugal
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by mountainFrugal »

@mathiverse this book is a great suggestion.

@RoamingFrancis If you are interested in climate change literature, in a similar suggestion to read a summary first: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/sr15/summary ... icymakers/ . This document is technical and summarizes all of the latest climate change papers over the past few years.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Thanks for the reading recommendations, everyone. I'm taking it easy on the nonfiction right now (rereading some of my old favorite fiction books) but will keep my journal posted on what I learn.
There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- Morpheus

I'm in a good place; I know the path going forward. What remains is to walk it, step by step and day by day.

Deep Learning

I have at least a passing familiarity with all the areas I have chosen to focus on for my development as a Renaissance Bodhisattva. In a couple, I even have a degree of expertise. I believe it will also be relevant to revisit Cal Newport's writing at this point, as his Deep Life philosophy is what I'm after here. I've chosen more fields than he would advise, but c'est la vie. My life philosophy is different from his.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

Gertitude

I'd like to say thank-you to my past self of the last two years. I have made some amazing strides with ERE and my meditation practice. I have become a micro-Gert at a permaculture farm, and going forward I can play and experiment and land wherever my curiosity takes me.

From where I stand now, there are basically five careers that I want to have.

1) Mindfulness teacher and researcher

My meditation journey has been one of the most profound things I've ever experienced. Though I'm far from the Buddha, I'd like to share what I know and help the field progress. The University of Arizona is currently studying whether noninvasive ultrasound stimulation can be used as "meditation training wheels" to help people get to the good stuff without having to spend 20 years in a cave. I'm finishing up a literature review investigating whether mindfulness and psilocybin have common neural effects.

2) Permaculturalist

Diving into ERE has made me much more aware of peak [resource] and climate change, and that knowledge confers responsibility. I now know enough that I cannot not do something.

3) Anthropologist

Everyone knows the Amazon is being cut down, but a less discussed issue is the cultural destruction that goes along with it. Last time I checked the stats, half of the world's 7000 languages were on track to disappear within a generation. I furthermore believe that an anthropological perspective could help understand how to effectively get a meme to spread throughout a culture, which has essentially been the failure of the ecological movement. In Peter Kalmus' book Being the Change, he talks about how he believes social scientists to be more important than climate scientists for the future of the environmental movement. As a longtime language and history nerd, I think this is the best track for me to go down.

4) Personal Trainer

I am fortunate to be young and healthy, but I know that there are areas I could improve. And the earlier I establish good habits, the better. The fittest I have ever been was when I did gymnastics in high school; I'd like to work back towards that.

When the pandemic began, I switched my main form of exercise from strength training to yoga. This means I got a lot more flexible (I can lick my toes for the first time in years!) but am now basically a stretchy twig. Liebig's Law of the Minimum applies here—by far my weakest link is my diet. We eat dinner together here on the farm, and most of our meals are hearty meat-and-potatoes-style meals. Since I'm vegetarian, this means that >90% of my diet recently has been carbs, which just doesn't work for me. There's also junk food in the house, and I've been indulging.

By this time next year, I'd like to be in the best shape I've ever been in. In order for this to happen, I have to put together a plan. Here's what I got so far:
  • Stock up a healthy food pantry in my room. Nuts, fruits, vegetables, beans, rice, mushrooms. Make sure to include healthy snacks for when I don't have much time to cook.
  • Add strength training back into my training routine. It is a fairly long bike ride to the gym, so this may just be once a week at first
  • Start looking for a martial arts school. Of particular interest to me are capoeira and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Musician

I have a deep love of the piano, and got pretty good when I was a kid, but my piano teacher died before I felt like I met my fullest potential. And when I got to high school, it was of course unthinkable and prohibited to be taking two languages and band, so I didn't take any more music classes. In my early piano training I got pretty good at reading sheet music and learning how to play it, including some fairly complicated pieces like Scott Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag, but I never got a good grounding in music theory or a deeper understanding of the music. Like, when other musicians got together to jam, I couldn't participate because I had just learned how to memorize songs. I want to learn how to jam, dammit!

Other piano inspirations include:
  • All the songs on Buena Vista Social Club
  • The pianist in Theo Katzman's YouTube videos
  • Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2
  • Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata
  • Mozart's Rondo alla Turca
  • Pete Seeger and American folk music. I love this stuff, even though it's usually more banjo-focused than piano.
I don't think I'll have the bandwidth be able to do a serious dive into piano until 2022, but it remains a part of my web of goals nonetheless.

Shoutout to ERE and Renaissance Overwhelm

I'm extremely grateful to Jacob; if it weren't for his work I wouldn't be in a position to pursue any of this, much less all of it. But as it happens, I'm twenty years old and I feel like the world's my oyster. Thank you @jacob, sending you love!

However, I must admit that in recent days I have felt overwhelm and self-doubt when thinking of pursuing all this. Questioning whether I'm even capable of it at all, in fact. It'll be a long journey. In the modern world with our hyperspecialization, is it even possible to make meaningful contributions to five different fields? Though Jacob's criticisms of specialization are certainly valid, the Renaissance ideal should not be developing breadth at the sake of depth.

Though in a way, the hard part is over. What remains is to show up and consistently put in the work, and stick with it until the end of the journey.

Education of a Reluctant Businessman

At the recommendation of @Western Red Cedar's journal, I read the introduction to Yvon Chouinard's book Let My People Go Surfing on a pdf I found. The rest of the book was not available online, so I ordered a used copy from Amazon. I have not yet read the whole book, but the introduction convinced me that it is in fact possible to be a small business owner without sacrificing my anti-capitalist ideals.

From the intro:
I'vebeen a businessman for almost sixty years. It's as difficult for me to say those words as it is for someone to admit being an alcoholic or a lawyer. I've never respected the profession. It's business that has to take the majority of the blame for being the enemy of nature, for destroying native cultures, for taking from the poor and giving to the rich, and for poisoning the earth with the effluent from its factories.

Yet business can produce food, cure disease, control population, employ people, and generally enrich our lives. And it can do these good things and make a profit without losing its soul.
Another quote I liked, which is certainly relevant to ERE and my own life:
I learned at an early age that it's better to invent your own game; then you can always be a winner.
I'll have more detailed thoughts after I've actually read the book, but the important thing is that I am now okay using small business ownership as the income-generation node of my system, and I don't have any ethical qualms about doing so. Only time will tell if that's the path I end up going down, but the door is now open and I consider it a legitimate possibility.

Miscellaneous

I'm due to get my second shot soon; quite happy about that. My neuroscience project is due on Monday, and then the plan for the summer is to save money and learn permaculture. I have been getting more landscaping and translation work, so my income is homeotelic with my web of goals. After five years of resisting, I have decided to finally get my driver's license. At this point, continuing on a regenerative lifestyle path will require me to travel more within the region in order to learn. For me, it's a good example of the transition ethic.

I've planned as far out as the fall. I'm going to Canada to speak with an anthropologist; my steps after that will all depend on our conversation.

Peace and love everyone! Hope you all are well.

-- Roaming Francis

Western Red Cedar
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Western Red Cedar »

I hope you enjoy the Chouinard memoir. A lot of the principles he discusses correspond with ERE. I actually thought of you, and other members like @theanimal while reading it. Folks who are taking the creative, long-way to financial independence but probably living a more interesting life as a result of avoiding the salaryman paradigm.

Are you familiar with Curtis Stone? His business model was a bit like a capitalist version of Rob Greenfield. He's since changed, and focused more on public speaking and educational events. I think he went in this direction after traveling to different WWOOFing setups via bicycle. Might be interesting with your deep dive into permaculture and farming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbHwAfHQA9M

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

I read Let My People Go Surfing. Fucking loved it; I copied down several pages verbatim into my journal. I am now ethically okay with being a small business owner. Looks like I'll be doing some version of this going forward.

Thank you for sharing Curtis Stone; I watched the video. He's exactly what I need right now. I think it's important to keep in mind how Rob Greenfield got to be a hobo icon. He was a business guy originally, and his media and other projects provide him with plenty of passive income. He's just removed himself from consumption so far that the passive income became superfluous and he donated it.

The main thing for me is to:
1) Set up and increase income/business for long-term use. I want to travel a lot internationally in the next couple years, so figuring out some web-based "digital nomad" setup would be great.
2) Save up some more money in the short-term. I want to get my ass out of the US this fall, and am currently pretty damn broke. Gotta figure this out.

RoamingFrancis
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by RoamingFrancis »

General

My dad alchemized a business partner's condo and airline points into a family trip. Coincidentally, it was near one of Rob Greenfield's projects, so I checked it out. Also did some research on local endangered languages, saw a bunch of cool wildlife, and can feel the tug of the open road upon my heartstrings. I've decided to go full speed ahead with my travel plans. When I get back I'll acquire a motorcycle and the bare minimum financial capital to begin a period of dirtbagging, and hit the road. It may take some time to make the necessary preparations, but I'm moving full speed ahead. I have friends hitting the road and people I want to hang out with all over the Western U.S. I might have to make a stop somewhere to get more cash before moving onto Latin America. So be it.

Mindfulness

My practice is faltering. It's been over a year since I've been to a center, and over two years since I've been able to do a retreat. I've had almost three years of being a Stoic motherfucker and often meditating for hours a day, but recently I've been barely able to manage five. Time at a center is a necessity; I need to empty the shit out of my system and fill up on that sweet, sweet Dharmic gasoline. There are two on my planned route; alhamdulillah.

Permaculture

I visited a sustainable urban homestead and got a glimpse of what is possible given enough time. This place had a much more mature system than the place I'm currently staying, and has stretched my idea of what's possible. Though perhaps not always the optimal agricultural philosophy for all situations, I no longer have reservations about it "just being a scammy thing aimed at city kids." It may be overhyped in certain situations, but is legit.

Fitness

Getting a lot of exercise through daily activity and yoga. Interested in pursuing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu as a core discipline when I return to non-nomadic life. Also interested in salsa dancing, rock climbing, and surfing.

At the moment, my main focus is breaking my addiction to the SAD (Standard American Diet). I'd like to transition to a GLAD (Good Life Addressed through Diet). For some time I have told myself that I am good at preventing junk food from entering my life, but bad at resisting it when it's around. I realize this is just an excuse to indulge my addiction. I've been successful at using mindfulness to break bad habits before, so I will have to apply it more deliberately in the context of food.

One of the main problems here is that based on my explorations thus far, diet research is incredibly self-contradictory and confusing. I will dive deeper into this as I learn more about agriculture, but I really think that my best tool here is really listening to my body after I eat a given food, being mindful of how it affects my body and cognition, and bit by bit transition to what makes me feel most vibrant.

Music

Started planning a cover album. My three strongest musical influences are Pete Seeger, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Hindu kirtan. So I'll likely select fifteen or so of my favorite songs of them. Made a rough draft for the songs last night.

Books/Learning

Read more of Yvon Chouinard's books on responsible business. I'm now ethically okay with owning a small company despite not really liking capitalism. Also read a book on Peace Pilgrim, compassionate badass and dirtbag extraordinaire. An example for Wheaton 12, perhaps? She really had an astonishing life; she's just so clearly a deeply enlightened being.

To read soon:
Healthful Foods, Jethro Kloss
Grub: Ideas for an Urban Organic Kitchen
Tools for Grassroots Activists, Yvon Chouinard
The Wayfinders, Wade Davis
Recapture the Rapture, Jamie Wheal
The original Holmgren and Mollison writings - these are hard to find!
Considering Curtis Stone's 8 week online course, haven't commited yet

Qazwer
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by Qazwer »

https://www.vox.com/2016/1/14/10760622/ ... omplicated

Pop article but I really like how she summarizes nutrition science issues. It is far too easy to find some ‘data’ that supports whatever you want.
Nutrition science has some definite truths and has improved a lot of lives but preventing scurvy and not watering down formula is not the questions most people I interact with ask the science to do. Unfortunately, the science cannot give the definitive answers they crave.

AxelHeyst
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Re: The Making of a Renaissance Hobo

Post by AxelHeyst »

Exciting stuff happening RF, this is fantastic! Looking forward to intersecting in meatspace ~somewhere~.

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