xenobuddhism

This zine made possible by the Schwarz School of Cybereconomics. Creative Commons Copyright © 2021 by Vexsys & Jack Schwarz Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). First Edition: April 2021 Designed and published by Gate Zero.

Table of Contents Mindless Trade: Foreword 1 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice 4 Ethics 11 Meditation: Involvements with Reality 13 How to Meditate 15 Reality, Right Here 18 Lost Time 20 K-tantra 23 K-Hype Flows 24 Tune In to Tune Out 28 Takka’s Terrific Trek 31 Further Reading 33

1 Mindless Trade: Foreword Jack Schwarz Nearly 21 years ago, I gave a talk at London’s Binomics Institute called “Mindless Trade.” During that hour long presentation, I revealed my true feelings about the state of the market in the midst of one of the biggest stock market bubbles of all time. Many people had gathered at that forum prepared to decimate the new economy whose lifeblood was cyberhype, and I was only given an hour to prove them wrong. I decided that the only way to convince them of their errors involved showing them directly that hype was not only the future of economics, but carried with it more potential profits than anything else ever before. I would do this not through communication, but through reality itself. At the time, I had only led guided meditations to rooms of a few people, groups consisting of students and potential clients. I designed the ritual only hours before I was supposed to perform it, running from shop to shop to procure the proper incense and bells. I managed to get back with some time to spare, though I spent all of it trying not to puke.

2 Mindless Trade: Foreword I was working on a book at the time about cybereconomics (fans will know this as The New Economy: Cybereconomics & Beyond, which is now out of print) and I threw together a short prelude that I asked Liz to read so that I could stay in the moment. I put on the blindfold I bought at the pound store and did my best not to trip as I approached the microphone. I don’t remember much of what came after. Apparently, nobody did. However, I could tell as they shook my hand after that I had won even the most vehement critics over with my display. A Ccru correspondent (whose name I forget, sorry) came up to me afterwards and described my ritual performance as Xenobuddhist. Originally, I was taken aback by their comment, but it grew on me. It felt novel, like it really meant something, but every time I tried to find what it meant I was simply brought directly back to reality. I have studied Soto Zen Buddhism for nearly thirty years and have received Dharma Transmission, so of course I was skeptical of that kind of statement. Who was I to invent a new kind of Buddhist practice? And accidentally, too? I was simply practicing zazen the way I was taught, but applied to my daily life as an economist and day-trader. My display wasn’t anything unusual, though I did play it up a bit to feed off of the exotic flair. The day’s proceedings had been so bland, and I’m certain half of the audience had never experienced a

3 Mindless Trade: Foreword moment of mindfulness ever before in their life. After a few days, I moved on from dwelling on it and simply got back to work. However, recently, I met Vexsys, and speaking with her reminded me of that moment very clearly. Something about her triggered the memory of that talk, and sure enough I quickly came to associate her with the word “Xenobuddhist”. I commissioned her to write this pamphlet as a first foray into the world of Xenobuddhism, perhaps officially solidifying my role as the progenitor of the field. Though this may be one of the first works on the topic, I think it asks the right questions and provides just enough information to lead future scholars, thinkers, and practitioners down this path.

4 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice Vexsys Already, in the short span of Xenobuddhism’s existence, we have seen the proliferation of at least two major strains of Xenobuddhist philosophy. On the one hand, we have Jack Schwarz’s Xenobuddhism which works to eliminate human preconceptions to better attune oneself to market conditions and/or the rhythms of the outside. The other hand is the inevitable autonomous arrival of technology so advanced that the Outside becomes the direct catalyst for Buddhist awakening (through various technological means). The question that I seek to answer throughout this text is: how does one practice Xenobuddhism? Attempts have already been made (most notably over at xenobuddhism.wordpress.com) to unpack a theory of Xenobuddhism: a virulent Buddhism that sneaks in from the margins to infect, dominate, erode, and vaporize. The wordpress blog mentioned above ignores Jack Schwarz’s presentation entirely, instead focusing on two comments from the hyperstition blog by Nick Land:

5 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice “Speaking personally, the immortalism obsession is among the least interesting aspects of Singularity theory. Thanatophobia as you say, and based on bad metaphysics. If we can be copied (how could this not be possible?) then there's nothing ontological there at all - just ego illusion. Xenobuddhism gets it right - the soul myth will vaporize in nanotech, incinerating the last neurotic residue of a deluded religious tradition. “ Posted by: Nick at March 21, 2006 06:47AM “"What the 'soul myth' could mean is something nobody has even begun to give up just by giving up religion. I haven't and you haven't." - agree absolutely, that's what I mean by Xenobuddhism - the illusion of the substantial self isn't dispelled by argument, and for most people it won't be meditation or some other kind of psychological discipline that does it - getting copied, downloading thoughts, splitting/merging 'consciousness' - that stuff will really have an impact and yes, it will be difficult to ignore …” Posted by: Nick at March 21, 2006 7:47AM

6 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice This points at an enlightenment that comes from the outside, specifically from technological advancement. Whether this is from a (sudden) revelation of no-self and/or emptiness or from an active courting of the Outside may be besides the point. It is truly as the Buddha said: Buddhism encompasses all dharmas. To study the world is to study Buddhism, and to realize the truth is to become a Buddhist. We could additionally argue at length over what actually constitutes being a Buddhist. The Noble Eightfold Path takes many forms, and there are already several vehicles towards enlightenment. The Xenobuddhist perspective absolutely ignores all self-aggrandizement or self-identification. Perhaps the best kind of Buddhist is one who doesn’t realize they’re practicing Buddhism, in which case the Xenobuddhist who achieves enlightenment through uploading their consciousness to the Internet is the Buddha of our time. However, the goal of this publication is to outline, frame, or inquire upon where Xenobuddhism might be able to go, and that means considering daily practice. Coming from a Zen background myself, I think that cultivation leads to greater knowledge and ability on The Way, and that means consistent, disciplined practice. So how might one actually practice Xenobuddhism? The first and foremost approach would be

7 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice the attunement to technological advancement and pursuit of innovation in those fields. This does not mean merely applied Buddhism, in the way that Jack Schwarz used his know-how to show people how contemporary market dynamics actually worked. Simply creating the technologies that may bring about these enlightenment experiences is absolutely Xenobuddhist: the Buddha works through you to spread the dharma whether you want him to or not. In this way, enlightenment spreads through vectors of contagion until all are enlightened. This is the true path of the Bodhisattva. The second approach to the practice of Xenobuddhism would be the employment of these technologies in order to aid the spiritual practice. It is not merely meditating on them, but making use of them. What does it mean to be fifty different people in an online space? What does it mean to change your virtual form? The final approach to the practice of Xenobuddhism is full understanding of the unconditioned dharma through technoccultist means. One might view this list as a recapitulation of the three vehicles of enlightenment, but expanding upon that topic is a job for future Xenobuddhist texts. Whatever path is available to a practitioner at a given time is the proper path and there is no wrong way to come to understand the truth

8 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice However, what exactly is the truth that is trying to come to light here? Essentially, Xenobuddhism’s position is that technological singularity will bring about nirvana. As practitioners on the precipice of these singularities, our understanding of cause and effect means that we can get ahead of it just enough to be able to prepare others for its inevitable coming. The spiritual path outlined by the Buddha is not an easy one to walk, and should almost never be walked alone. If we prepare now, we can more easily relieve this suffering in the future. The goal of a Xenobuddhist practice should be to alleviate suffering and enlighten all beings, but paying careful attention to the singularity that gets closer and closer to engulfing us with every passing minute. Right now, relatively few people identify as Buddhists, and likely many of those people use Buddhist spiritual technology in a way that doesn’t actually line up with the core of Buddhism (alleviating suffering & enlightening all beings). For each approach, there is likely a particular set of practices that will be most effective. I can’t speculate on the future of technology, as I do not work primarily in that field. Therefore, I will focus on the other two approaches within this zine. Whether you are a seasoned practitioner of Buddhism or merely interested in this zine because it has the prefix “xeno-” on the cover, you will find enough information to begin

9 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice to practice Xenobuddhism on your own in the next two chapters. There is a brief interlude about ethics before we begin. Ethics is a major driving factor behind Buddhist thought and practice, and it is important to, at the very least, be familiar with some key concepts and positions surrounding ethics. We must dissect the ethics of our actions and approaches, else we fall into the hell realms. The first section covers meditation. This section will outline some of the key points regarding how the practice of meditation relates to Xenobuddhism, especially covering Jack Schwarz’s very first Xenobuddhist ritual. Even if you are familiar with the practices of meditation, you will hopefully find some usefulness in this section if the premise of Xenobuddhism interests you at all. The second section covers k-tantra, which is just another way to frame the practice of numogrammatics. Since the numogram is a model of hype as it flows through the world, it can be used to transmute one energy into a different kind of energy. This is already happening all the time, but becoming aware of it and studying it allows one to better manipulate the energies as they see fit. The final section is a list of further reading. It will primarily be focused on Buddhist texts, as I think that the likely audience for this is probably least familiar with more traditional Buddhist

10 Introduction: Xenobuddhist Practice lineages. They are all books or websites I’ve read or referenced throughout my time, and I hope they are useful to you. While a relatively short publication, this zine should be enough to crack open the topic for further study by other people, whether they be detractors, practitioners, or those suddenly enlightened in the wake of the singularity.

11 Ethics Vexsys The spiritual path of Buddhism is called the Noble Eightfold Path, or Middle Way. It consists of: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. The Noble Eightfold Path is the fourth Noble Truth, the way that leads out of suffering and towards enlightenment. As you can see, the path is about taking the “right” actions versus taking the wrong actions. How do we know what the right actions are, though? Well, if we practice, we will discover them from paying attention to the situation. In times where we aren’t practicing, i.e. in our daily lives, the Buddha provided precepts to guide our actions and ensure that we’re actually practicing the Middle Way instead of our delusion of the Middle Way. In his lifetime, he gave hundreds of precepts, but near his death the Buddha instructed his students to only focus on the important ones. The Five Precepts are the bare minimum, and they are: do not kill, do not steal, do not engage in sexual misconduct, do not lie, and do not misuse intoxicants.

12 Ethics Thinking of ethics purely as a thought experiment is a ridiculous approach. If you truly take issue with one of those precepts, you should really consider whether or not it’s just to be contrarian. Moreover, you should deeply question whether it’s just that you’d prefer it happens to someone else instead of you. The spiritual path is all-encompassing, and it is delusional to assume that your position is particularly special or deserving of safety in comparison to any other living being’s. Of course, there are situations where there is no good choice. You can only hope that you have cultivated your practice enough that you will be able to respond with the best possible approach. Otherwise, you may be utterly doomed. It is important to remember that Xenobuddhism is still a Buddhism. You cannot forego the ethical questions and considerations in favor of runaway hedonism or indulgence for its own sake.

13 Meditation: Involvements with Reality Vexsys Clear your mind and tune into the Xenobuddhist signal. No matter how hard you look, you won’t find anything special, and then you will quickly come to realize that what you thought was your own mind was really nothing at all. One of the goals of Xenobuddhist practice is to discover this facts of life and cultivate it through your actions. This is referred to as noself. There are two kinds of meditation used by occultists: concentration meditation and insight meditation. The difference between the two is straightforward: when practicing concentration meditation, you concentrate on a particular idea or concept or energy and when practicing insight meditation you are simply looking at everything in front of you as it is, with no judgments attached. In Buddhist practice, insight meditation is most often used. Insight meditation helps us to cut through our mental formations and lets us see the situation from a clear point of view. Concentration meditation also does this, but

14 Meditation focused on a particular concept, idea, or object. This act of concentration sometimes leads to getting caught up in our understanding of the focus of our meditation instead of the thing itself.

15 Meditation How to Meditate Vexsys This section is for people who have never sat down to meditation before. If you are already well-practiced, please feel free to skip it. Insight meditation is very simple, which can be very misleading for new practitioners. They believe wholeheartedly that, because of their personal situation, they could never sit down and meditate. In no Buddhist manuals (that I’ve ever read) is this claimed to be the case, and I think presupposing, before any effort is given, that such a thing might be impossible for you is to set yourself up for failure. If you want to fail, you are welcome to. After all, you don’t have to meditate at all if you don’t want to! However, if you want to meditate, you should commit to at least trying to meditate for a significant amount of time. Otherwise, how will you know if you’re actually incapable of it? In my experience, the starting of a practice is always difficult. You come up against difficulties and feel that there is no way forward. You see another practitioner describe their practice and wish that you could suddenly wake up one morning with their experience, their grit, their discipline, without accepting that they also

16 Meditation had to put in the effort in order to become as skilled as they are. There is no path to skill that does not require effort. Luck alone will not keep you going forever, though it may take a long while to run out. Do not be discouraged in the beginning, even if it is the hardest thing you have ever done in your life. The actual practice of meditation is very simple. You sit down somewhere, sit up straight, and take in your environment. Posture is perhaps the most important thing when meditating, because good posture gives you a foundation to rely on. Your eyes can be closed or open, but your focus should be directed towards a wall or something else nondescript. You can sit in the lotus position, or just cross-legged, or even on a chair. Getting a meditation mat is a worthy investment if you are going to devote a lot of time to your practice, but don’t let not having one stop you from practicing. You should meditate for at least twenty minutes once a day. You can always do more if you wish to, but having a bare minimum forces you to keep up with it even when you’re not in the mood. Meditation doesn’t have to be done sitting down. There are meditation techniques for all kinds of movement, including walking and laying down. For me, the most important thing I

17 Meditation realized was that you could meditate doing anything, even the dishes. When worries arise, or thoughts that don’t pertain to anything in particular, simply let them come. They will go just as quickly as they come so long as you don’t pay them special attention. And you shouldn’t. Why do they matter right now? It is best to find a teacher and sangha (group of practitioners) that is local that can help you through a more hands-on approach. If you live in a city, there will probably be a few. If not, you may have to find one that meets entirely online, which isn’t so bad (it’s certainly better than nothing). I’ve found that meditation with friends can be a very fruitful endeavor, and it’s important to accept that sometimes you must make due with what you have. If you really love meditation, it may be worth it to look into a retreat in order to dedicate a week or longer to your practice. However, you will have to be careful to choose one that is right for you. I have never done one myself, so I can’t speak to how wonderful they are. [Jack here. I go on retreats with my sangha twice a year. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience that everyone should try at least once!] If you want to know more about how to practice meditation, you should read Eihei Dogen’s “Fukanzazengi”.

18 Meditation Reality, Right Here Vexsys Many people wonder the point of meditation. I also used to question its usefulness. “Why bother sitting when running around is so much more fun?” But the point is not to sit alone. The point is to come into hard contact with reality itself. The present moment transcends all other moments in usefulness, for this is the only moment you have power over and can act in. The Soto Zen school of Buddhism suggests that it is this coming into contact with reality itself in the present moment that is the entirety of enlightenment. However, many other schools look at things differently. If you practice Xenobuddhism with a goal in mind, you will find yourself constantly coming up against that goal as you progress. It becomes your wall, your final stopping point. You will be willing to take it that far and not a step farther. But the truth exists beyond that wall as well. If we practice to understand the truth of the moment, we will never miss out. It sounds simple, but I think this approach may be the only

19 Meditation one worth considering. It is very easy to get caught up within a k-hype flow, and Xenobuddhist meditation is by far the easiest way to get out of it. Let’s say for example that you’re at the end of a ten hour lurk session on a cryptocoin forum. Someone really wants you to buy xenocoin, because it’s the next big thing. The memes are hot and fresh and kind of sexy and you want to feel like a part of the group. However, if you look at the situation critically, it is very obvious that this is just a pump and dump scheme in action. If you do not take the time to remove yourself from the hype, you will find yourself swept away by it, and lose money to the scheme. Xenobuddhism is a way to come to crystal clear understanding of what the market is doing.

20 Meditation Lost Time Jack Schwarz What’s it really mean to lose time? And so what if you don’t remember? Let me put it to you this way. You go out on the town, get wasted as fuck, have the best night of your life, but can’t remember a thing when you wake up in the morning. Did the night happen or not? Of course it happened. Of course you’re still responsible for the things that you don’t remember. Why wouldn’t you be? However, you can worry about piecing together everything that happened, assuming that it’s terrible or the repercussions are impossible to wade through, or you can accept everything as it returns to you, if it returns to you. One of the most common experiences of alien abductions is lost time. However, the fear associated with lost time is usually built upon the (supposed) lost value of the memories associated with the experienced moments, and nothing to do with the actual occurrences of the given time. It always begins with Oh god, I can’t remember… what if…?

21 Meditation Upon trying to piece together that moment, you end up torturing yourself with a story that sounds great and horrific but doesn’t actually describe what really occurred. Your mind is a master of storytelling. You’ve been teaching it how to tell a good story your entire life. What you’ve been given, with your lost time, is the opportunity to create something truly impossible. Instead, you waste it with stories of getting tortured and experimented on like rats. You know, if that’s what gets you going, then you’re welcome to continue building a story of that nature. Tabloids can pay the bills, after all. However, just because that’s the commonly accepted narrative doesn’t mean that you absolutely must create a narrative exactly like it. You look at the clock. You look at the clock again. Though you only remember looking at the clock, ten minutes have passed. Where did they go? Well, unless everyone else missed out on those ten minutes. They aren’t gone. They didn’t disappear. You just weren’t there for them. What did you experience? God? Aliens? Evil lizards crawling out from the iron grate in the wall and slithering into your ear canal? You can try to figure out what happened, or you can merely pay attention to the effects. Do you feel better or worse? Did those moments actually change your life in a meaningful way, or

22 Meditation is everything the same as it ever was? Before you begin a trek in search of lost time, ask yourself if you really lost anything at all.

23 K-tantra Vexsys You won’t be able to learn the full gamut of ktantra through this zine alone. Instead, if this section interests you, treat it as an invitation or initiation into the k-tantra lineage. There’s plenty still to discover, work out, and explore, and everyone is invited to do so. The applications of k-tantra have no limit. If sorcery can be used for something, k-tantra can be used for it. Of course, the same can be said of numogrammatics, but the goal of this section is to outline how the practice of k-tantra is different from the practice of qabbalistic numogrammatics. However, this should not be taken as evidence that one cannot practice qabbalistic numogrammatics in a Xenobuddhist way, that would miss the mark entirely. Instead, this is just another way to approach the system that might resonate better with people who don’t really care about qabbalistic numogrammatics.

24 K-Tantra K-Hype Flows Jack Schwarz K(cyber)-hype runs the world. You don’t have to believe in it, and in fact in many cases we made it up entirely, but it controls everything in your life without your input or guidance. If that scares you, that’s fine, but understand that your fear doesn’t magically remove you from this reality. You can try to avoid the truth forever, but the k-hype will always find you in the end. Throughout the history of occultism, practitioners of The Arte have tried to represent the major aspects of our world with various models. The numogram is yet another model. It innovates the field by creating a baseline that is utterly and undeniably true. Nobody can disagree that, according to mathematics, 7-2=5. Once you know the rules, you can attune yourself to the map. Then you start to see it everywhere. The Ccru introduced me to the numogram back in 2000. At first, I thought it was bullshit, but as they explained time-sorcery further, I realized the potential of the system and began to apply it to my own work. From there, k-tantra

25 K-Tantra was born. We can understand k-tantra by understanding what is flowing through the numogram. Attacking this question head-on was difficult, as k-hype doesn’t work in a way that makes itself obvious. However, watching the recent market events was a revelation for me. There is no question that k-hype controls the market, and the market controls the world. Humans invest where they think it profitable, and k-hype keeps utterly over-valued companies afloat on a wing and a prayer (you know which one I’m talking about). Many people have come to believe that business is primarily marketing: customer acquisition, advertising, selling people on your company by telling them the right story. Sure, these are all important aspects. But you won’t last if your product doesn’t actually deliver on what you say it’s going to! This hyper-focus on the virtual aspects of the business (don’t let this lead you to believe that virtual things aren’t real) is a recipe for disaster. If you have a ridiculous amount of capital to burn, you can build a business that’s just a black hole of value. However, most of us, especially those of us who prefer to live on the margins, are rarely in the mood to try to out-pace a black hole business. So how do we use this over-abundance of virtualities to our advantage? The long answer is we piggyback on the signal and let it take us to where we see an opening. The short answer

26 K-Tantra is k-tantra. If you aren’t already familiar with the numogram and numogrammatics, then this might not make much sense to you and you’ll have to take my word for it for now. The dot-com bubble was an amazing example of the heights that k-hype could fly to. All it took was a cool-sounding idea and a domain name and you could IPO in six months. The only reason the crash came was because eventually they had to have something to show for it and were literally empty-handed. However, when you look at the companies that survived the crash, they’ve become enormous monoliths of online industries. We see the exact same thing happening today in another way. Financial markets and huge businesses are pumped up with money that basically doesn’t exist, interest rates are basically zero and real unemployment is sitting somewhere around 20-40%. Make no mistake: this is horrific. Then, why the hell hasn’t the market priced it in yet? It’s all k-hype. A smile, a wave, a few smart words from the bullish analyst and suddenly everyone’s on board. As long as you believe, and you don’t look too closely, the system works perfectly fine. Instead of business as usual, we could have paused all markets for a year and given everyone time to figure out COVID-19. Yeah, that change would have been tough, but now we have a market so over-hyped that it has to come down eventually.

27 K-Tantra And you don’t have to be a bear investor to see that. The numogram tells it to you straight off: 7::2 to 5::4 to 8::1. Except really, what we’ve done is gotten stuck in the warp. We aren’t in normal time anymore. We should have had our crash last year, and the problem is that we did. Millions of people lost their jobs and homes and their stability (and in almost a million cases, their lives). The apocalypse came and went, but the market keeps on turning. At this point, it’s on worse than life support. It’s not even representative of reality. Most of this value doesn’t exist, really. But it doesn’t matter at all, because everyone has just decided that well, whatever, it exists if everyone says so. And for now, everyone’s still saying so. From a Xenobuddhist perspective, it’s obvious that k-hype runs the world now. True value doesn’t matter, as long as you can deliver just enough that people don’t burn you at the stake. However, it is important to understand that the stakes are as high as ever. You cannot stick your head in the sand and pretend that gravity doesn’t exist. Katak comes for us all. For many of us, she’s already bared her claws, torn out our throats, and found the next thing to play with. This is happening all the time, and for that we shouldn’t despair. We should simply understand that that is how this all works.

28 K-Tantra Tune In to Tune Out Vexsys When you’re trafficking in xeno-signal, it’s hard to tell whether you’re attuned or out of whack. It can be disorienting, and in fact our human faculties aren’t particularly used to the speed or style of k-hype. As such, to some extent you have no choice but to unseat monkey mind (or at the very least, calm it just enough that you can do terrifying things in front of it). How do you actually work to attune to khype without letting it take you over? Let’s get real. K-hype zombification is everywhere. That’s what our economy runs on. Other k-tantric practitioners out there want you to get caught within their systems and their solutions. They want you to feel like you’re a member of something big, and then they want to use that to suck you dry. Okay, so what? As a practitioner of k-tantra, you don’t have to go along with it. When you dive into a meditative state and see things for what they are, you’ll also find that you will be perfectly content just ignoring it completely. You can set your own path, your own pace. This is where k-tantra

29 K-Tantra begins. You tune into k-hype so that you can tune out of everything except only the most important aspects of the situation. In some cases, that may be absolutely none of it, and so k-tantra allows you to melt away into the unconditioned reality of our situation. You are now sitting. You are now content. You don’t want anything, you don’t care for anything. You watch the stream of k-hype pass you by. You don’t need to buy new clothes, or new shoes, or join that new group. They don’t serve the moment, nor do they serve the path. That being said, when you discover a path that must be walked, you will have no choice but to walk it. If you try to resist reality, you will not survive. But don’t take that to suggest that reality is something conservative. It isn’t, in fact, it is only through something like k-tantra that truly impossible things can come to be. Many people think that the fantastic stories of occult practitioners or ancient heroes are just bullshit. They couldn’t really have done that sort of thing, you know. Says what? Five hundred years ago, flight through the air was impossible. You could only visit space in your dreams. Now, satellites keep us connected to the other side of the world within a fraction of a second. In six years, they’re planning to build a space resort that people can visit like it’s a cruise. To state that something is simply impossible without any work to prove that this

30 K-Tantra is actually the case is the height of delusion. It’s important to understand that there will almost always be a multiplicity of narratives in action surrounding a given situation. As a ktantric practitioner, you should carefully consider them all and understand who is to gain from each of them. Hyperstition is merely the process of enacting this process before the actors have taken the stage.

31 K-Tantra Takka’s Terrific Trek Vexsys When we think about the story Takka’s Terrific Trek, we might think that it’s merely a folk tale, a children’s story. But it is meant to teach something about numogrammatics. By deeply understanding these stories, we can learn how the world works. Then, we can create new stories in order to teach different aspects that have been missed. When we look at the brief history of hyperstition so far, we see that a few aspects of the numogram have been paid a lot of attention to while others have been left for others to explore. This means that there is still great work to be done. When we look at Takka’s Terrific Trek, we don’t just find a little story about Katak’s universal rite. We find a particular characterization of the syzygetic chronodemons that is found almost nowhere else. Through these interpretive lenses, we can quickly come to understand what we’re looking at. Numogrammatics is difficult to understand from the numogram alone, and it is these hyperstitional tales that turn k-hype into a truly

32 K-Tantra viral vector. K-tantra means to see and consider all of the connections therein. This is to say, in the story of Takka, we have to understand that Katak is not only herself, but nests both Murmur and Oddubb within her as well. It is these energies coming together and interacting that provides the basis for the story, and it is in this way that we ought to conduct our experiments and cultivate our practice. This holistic approach isn’t easy, but it must be done if we are to see the whole picture and take reality for what it is. Otherwise, our tunnel vision will lead us astray and we will end up fighting mental formations instead of what’s actually in front of us. Wherever we find reality, we can transform it into whatever form we wish because we know how it works. Murmur becomes Oddubb becomes Katak becomes Murmur. If those aren’t right for the situation, then we can apply our k-tantric sklls to change them. Good luck.

33 Further Reading In no particular order and by no means exhaustive… Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind – Shunryu Suzuki Hardcore Zen – Brad Warner The Heart Sutra The Vajra Sutra Shobogenzo – Eihei Dogen Fukanzazengi – Eihei Dogen The Heart of Buddha’s Teachings – Thich Nhat Hanh Time Sorcery – Vexsys The Zen Teaching of Homeless Kodo – Kosho Uchiyama Roshi, Shohaku Okumura Crazy Wisdom – Chögyam Trungpa Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism – Chögyam Trungpa Cutting Through Spiritual Colonialism – Vinay Gupta