Mastema

I've recently stumbled onto Taoism by way of trying to learn to meditate and learning about Internal Family Systems therapy. For those not familiar, IFS provides a method of interacting with our traumas and burdens (parts) as though they were agents and "unburdening" them. Much of the interaction with parts reminded me of stage 4 of the book The Mind Illuminated, where strong emotions sometimes appear spontaneously during meditation. It occurred to me that meditation is probably providing a space where therapy for past trauma can happen, kind of accidentally; whereas parts work goes and seeks out these feelings intentionally.

That was interesting, but the connection with this community comes in the next phase. Once your trauma is unburdened, or once you make it on to the higher stages of meditation, your desires and "self" are said to disappear. You still need food and water, of course, but you would be just as content in a simple dwelling as in a penthouse. This reminded me strongly of Taoism.

My question to the community is this: What do you see as the connections between Taoism, mental health, and other forms of mediation? What can these subjects learn from each other?

...but it is completely empty. I'm about 2 months into studying Taoism and was hoping to discuss my understanding or lack thereof. Anyone out there?

I posted a few days ago, asking what builds everyone was running. Since then I have hit on what might be my favorite build as someone who hates to be pinned down in intense firefights. I'm using the light, fireproof armor, along with the Double Edged Sickle for basically unlimited firing (Technically I catch on fire after about 14 seconds of holding the trigger, but if it isn't dead in 14 seconds I deserve it) For my secondary I'm using the handheld anti-tank pistol. And I carry thermite grenades. I call the Quasar Cannon and the Jump Pack stratagems, plus 2 of whatever the specific mission calls for. I also need the Vitality enhancement perk to survive the low-level damage my gun does to me.

I have leveled up on the Double-Edged Sickle to where I can put the 4x scope on it, and it is basically a zero-drop sniping beast. Put the dot on the face of a Heavy Devastator and squeeze the trigger until it dies, all while being WAY out of range.

Generally I hop across the map with the jump pack, get to high ground over the objective and provide overwatch for the other members of my squad, who are more brawler types in heavy armor. With the Quasar I prioritize gunships, dropships, war-striders and hulks in that order. Everything else I take down with the Sickle. The anti-tank pistol was mostly added for the occasional suicide mission, but it is handy if the bots are clustering up below my sniping nest and I want to thin them out a bit.

The upside of this build is that the Sickle and the Quasar are unlimited ammo, so I can camp up on a good cliff essentially forever.

On missions where we will have to sit for a while, such as geologic survey or extract civilians, I also like the EMP mortar with the actual mortar to freeze groups in place and let me pick them off while the actual mortar shells pummel them.

What are your non-standard builds and play styles?

I've just about come full circle with this game. I started playing with my sons back when it came out and cycled from being an Autocannon/tank character to running solo ops with the jump pack and anti material rifle. Now I'm starting back up and have reverted to using the Autocannon again, but I use the fire-proof, heavy armor so I can bring the Double-Edged Sickle as my primary. I use the sickle to clear out enemies closer to me than would be comfortable with the AC and then switch to the AC to devastate anything farther off. There is a one handed anti-tank pistol you can get in one of the warbonds that I'm using as a secondary, but I'm not committed to that yet. It is hilarious to launch it where the bot drop ships set everyone down.

What are you using and how are you using it these days?

We started a discussion in a Signal group, but wanted to move it here for more involvement. The proposal on the table is to use own source hardware and software to hack together an autonomous weeding machine, maybe using AI to recognize weeds versus crop plants.

Warning: mental health, violence and sexual triggers throughout.

Metamorphosis of Prime Intellect

I'm just learning Clojure and I'm finding this guy very funny and informative.