Welcome! Mikhail here, glad you stopped by.

I’m a creative entrepreneur from Russia, a cosmopolitan mix of a hippie and a Silicon Valley technorati. I know a bit of Russian poetry, a couple of Japanese songs, and have a deep appreciation for music. I play drums and clarinet, ride motorbikes, and travel often. I like to think I have great taste in music and a love for eclectic parties.

• A bit more about my past

Lately, I’ve been dharma-pilled, spending about half my time meditating, sipping through ancient texts (oh, these Pali mistranslations), or diving into modern books and articles. Buddhism is an absolutely cracked set of psytech techniques and teachings!

Liberation army of Samadhi

Hardcore Dharma for the noobs. Key starting points:

• Start here: https://sashachapin.substack.com/p/what-i-wish-someone-had-told-me-about
• Understand which tradition you are in, not get confused by inconsistent terminology. NorCal Dharma circles are in Theravada Buddhism, which is South East Asia. Mahayana is the rest, with all the further forks (Chan, Zen, Tibetan, etc). Notes below are mostly in Theravada.
• My bookmarked tweet collection: https://x.com/i/bookmarks/1880031416194584976
• A very good starting summary (4 parts) from Romeo Stevens: https://uncoiling.substack.com/p/romeo-stevens-an-orientation-to-practice-part-1
• Read these notes:
  • On the essence of Buddha’s take - https://neuroticgradientdescent.blogspot.com/2020/01/mistranslating-buddha.html
    • Also a fun read: https://puredhamma.net/key-dhamma-concepts/anicca-dukkha-anatta-2/anicca-dukkha-anatta/
  • On three pillars of the practice - https://neuroticgradientdescent.blogspot.com/2021/03/threefold-training.html
  • On Insight meditation - http://dharmatreasure.org/wp-content/uploads/Meditation-and-Insight-I.pdf (part 1, add I and II in url for part 2 and 3)
  • Forgiveness - https://www.blissbrah.blog/p/i-forgive-myself-for-not-understanding
  • On Jhanas - https://nadia.xyz/jhanas (this dharma-pilled me for good)
    • Short howto - https://x.com/blissbrah/status/1891675354269675634
    • Also on Jhanas - https://tasshin.com/blog/discovering-bliss-states/
  • https://jasonbenn.com/tools-for-thought-social-media-posts/50-days
  • On stream entry and related things:
    • https://x.com/Plus3Happiness/status/1821196812792844640
    • https://x.com/nosilverv/status/1575815041726693376
    • A very good set of articles on fetters: https://www.simplytheseen.com - btw, this dude got through 8 jhanas and then into nirodha samapatti, which he super casually mentions in the blog, and from nirodha he dropped the first fetter. Ugh it felt easier after the first reading before I realized what he did (he uses different terms, but later writes about it in detail)
• Read these books:
  • Right Concentration
    • Relatedly, this list of materials, very good: https://leighb.com/rc/links.htm
    • Abandoning five hindrances: https://leighb.com/rc/more/Abandoning_the_Five_Hindrances.htm
    • And some research supporting takes from Right Concentration (referred in the book): https://journals.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/index.php/jiabs/article/view/8818/2725
  • Seeing that Frees
  • Mind Illuminated
• On selfing and core techniques: https://anielsen.substack.com/p/clarification-of-self-via-inversion
• Also some must reads from Owen here: https://www.blissbrah.blog/
  • And some of his X posts eg on savoring: https://x.com/blissbrah/status/1722388593136800056
• Check these retreats
  • https://www.jhourney.io/ retreats are awesome
  • Rob Burbea’s Jhanas retreat recordings - https://dharmaseed.org/retreats/4496/
• Check these youtube videos
  • Entering jhana 1 - https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0K5ypXyF3dY
  • https://youtu.be/mcZG3TkxRYI?si=ZmH9WpM1wdYeIw52 - a nice one one emptiness and the whole series are great
• Read these suttas
  • https://suttacentral.net/mn118/en/sujato?lang=en
  • To be expanded
• To be classified (unclear)
  • Chapters 6 and 7 of https://selfdefinition.org/awareness/most-rapid/contents.htm
• Interesting non-spiritual survey of folks who report various shifts. Curious how it paints a picture of internal changes (and a sort of isolation of concious processes) with very little external changes and also talks a bit about some distortions/biases these folks exhibit: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/10/21/the-pnse-paper/
• A lovely interview with Tina Rasmussen on her awakening, jhanas and a year-long at-home retreat: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9gr7aqGsOw&ab_channel=GuruViking