Concepts

Ideas, aesthetics, movements, and abstractions named in the archive.

Reference Index

Use the title to open the standalone article. Use the caret to expand a compact inline dossier with source context, issue trail, related pages, and outbound links.

Buddha

Buddha is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "visualize a Buddha with a crystal sphere in his belly". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Article page
Buddha
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
The biggest difference is that many of the Buddhists report seeing an image of the monk Luang Pu Sodh in the sky. One commenter mentions that the crowd had just been meditating, and that a typical Dhammakaya meditation practice is to visualize a Buddha with a crystal sphere in his belly; if true, this would be relevant to them seeing a vision of a monk with a crystal sun in his belly. The “miracle” seems to be a combination of everyone seeing this at once, and the sun behaving in a way not predictable by the specifics of Dhammakaya meditation, but seemingly very predictable by the specifics of its behavior at Fatima almost a century earlier.
The Buddha-with-glowing-sphere-in-his-belly motif of the Dhammakaya movement, source here. This replication of Fatima in an “uncontaminated” context pushes me further towards believing that sun miracles are neither true divine intervention nor vague hypnotic suggestion, but some particular illusory/psychological phenomenon which necessarily manifests as the sun spinning and changing color, and which can occur independently even among people who aren’t primed to expect it. I continue to be vague on specifics, but think it might be somehow related to fire kasina meditation. This comes from a different Buddhist tradition than the one the Thais were doing; as far as I can tell, none of the Dhammakaya practitioners made the connection. But it seems like being in a meditative frame of mind helped. And it seems like the same pattern of fire kasina effects - including spinning lights, shifting colors swatches, and vivid hallucinations - applied here too.
Dhammakaya meditation

Dhammakaya meditation is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "a typical Dhammakaya meditation practice is to visualize a Buddha with a crystal sphere in his belly". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
The biggest difference is that many of the Buddhists report seeing an image of the monk Luang Pu Sodh in the sky. One commenter mentions that the crowd had just been meditating, and that a typical Dhammakaya meditation practice is to visualize a Buddha with a crystal sphere in his belly; if true, this would be relevant to them seeing a vision of a monk with a crystal sun in his belly. The “miracle” seems to be a combination of everyone seeing this at once, and the sun behaving in a way not predictable by the specifics of Dhammakaya meditation, but seemingly very predictable by the specifics of its behavior at Fatima almost a century earlier.
The Buddha-with-glowing-sphere-in-his-belly motif of the Dhammakaya movement, source here. This replication of Fatima in an “uncontaminated” context pushes me further towards believing that sun miracles are neither true divine intervention nor vague hypnotic suggestion, but some particular illusory/psychological phenomenon which necessarily manifests as the sun spinning and changing color, and which can occur independently even among people who aren’t primed to expect it. I continue to be vague on specifics, but think it might be somehow related to fire kasina meditation. This comes from a different Buddhist tradition than the one the Thais were doing; as far as I can tell, none of the Dhammakaya practitioners made the connection. But it seems like being in a meditative frame of mind helped. And it seems like the same pattern of fire kasina effects - including spinning lights, shifting colors swatches, and vivid hallucinations - applied here too.
Scholars have actually classified the Dhammakaya [practice of meditating on a vision of a crystal ball at one’s heart] as a form of āloka kasina (bright light kasina). A UK survey found that kasina practitioners form about 3–15% of total meditators — 3% for kasina alone, but 15% if those practicing the āloka kasina practice of Dhammakaya meditation are included. Fandom So from an outside scholarly perspective, what they’re doing is arguably already a type of kasina practice — just not fire kasina, and not one they’d describe in those terms themselves.
Dhammakaya movement

Dhammakaya movement is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "The Buddha-with-glowing-sphere-in-his-belly motif of the Dhammakaya movement". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
The Buddha-with-glowing-sphere-in-his-belly motif of the Dhammakaya movement, source here. This replication of Fatima in an “uncontaminated” context pushes me further towards believing that sun miracles are neither true divine intervention nor vague hypnotic suggestion, but some particular illusory/psychological phenomenon which necessarily manifests as the sun spinning and changing color, and which can occur independently even among people who aren’t primed to expect it. I continue to be vague on specifics, but think it might be somehow related to fire kasina meditation. This comes from a different Buddhist tradition than the one the Thais were doing; as far as I can tell, none of the Dhammakaya practitioners made the connection. But it seems like being in a meditative frame of mind helped. And it seems like the same pattern of fire kasina effects - including spinning lights, shifting colors swatches, and vivid hallucinations - applied here too.
The setting is the Dhammakaya Temple, a culty Buddhist megachurch in Bangkok.
On September 6 1998, a crowd of 20,000 gathered for a ceremony. Someone cried out that they saw a vision of the sect’s founder, Luang Pu Sodh, in the sky, with the sun at his heart. The crowd turned and focused on the sun. Here are some reports:
Fatima miracle

Fatima miracle is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "and then they see the Fatima miracle". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Article page
Fatima miracle
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
So they’re doing a sort of off-brand kasina meditation in an emotionally charged crowd, and then they see the Fatima miracle. Hmmmm.
fire kasina meditation

fire kasina meditation is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "might be somehow related to fire kasina meditation". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
This replication of Fatima in an “uncontaminated” context pushes me further towards believing that sun miracles are neither true divine intervention nor vague hypnotic suggestion, but some particular illusory/psychological phenomenon which necessarily manifests as the sun spinning and changing color, and which can occur independently even among people who aren’t primed to expect it. I continue to be vague on specifics, but think it might be somehow related to fire kasina meditation. This comes from a different Buddhist tradition than the one the Thais were doing; as far as I can tell, none of the Dhammakaya practitioners made the connection. But it seems like being in a meditative frame of mind helped. And it seems like the same pattern of fire kasina effects - including spinning lights, shifting colors swatches, and vivid hallucinations - applied here too.
Scholars have actually classified the Dhammakaya [practice of meditating on a vision of a crystal ball at one’s heart] as a form of āloka kasina (bright light kasina). A UK survey found that kasina practitioners form about 3–15% of total meditators — 3% for kasina alone, but 15% if those practicing the āloka kasina practice of Dhammakaya meditation are included. Fandom So from an outside scholarly perspective, what they’re doing is arguably already a type of kasina practice — just not fire kasina, and not one they’d describe in those terms themselves.
October

October is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "the Virgin told them she would enact a great miracle on a certain day in October". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Article page
October
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
In 1917, some Portuguese children started seeing visions of the Virgin Mary. The Virgin told them she would enact a great miracle on a certain day in October, and a crowd of 100,000 gathered to witness the event. According to eyewitness reports, newspaper articles, etc, they saw the sun spin around, change colors, and do various other miraculous things. At least a hundred separate testimonies of the event have come down to us, with only two or three people saying they didn’t see it. Catholics continue to bring this up as one of the best-attested miracles and strongest empirical proofs of the faith - including here on Substack, where there was a spirited debate about the event last fall.
āloka kasina

āloka kasina is a recurring concept in the Astral Codex Ten archive, appearing 1 times across 1 issues between March 27, 2026 and March 27, 2026. The archive places it in contexts such as "Dhammakaya [practice of meditating on a vision of a crystal ball at one’s heart] as a form of āloka kasina". It most often appears alongside anticlerical Portuguese press, Arthur, Arthur T.

Article page
āloka kasina
Mention count
1
Issue count
1
First seen
March 27, 2026
Last seen
March 27, 2026
March 27, 2026 · Original source
Scholars have actually classified the Dhammakaya [practice of meditating on a vision of a crystal ball at one’s heart] as a form of āloka kasina (bright light kasina). A UK survey found that kasina practitioners form about 3–15% of total meditators — 3% for kasina alone, but 15% if those practicing the āloka kasina practice of Dhammakaya meditation are included. Fandom So from an outside scholarly perspective, what they’re doing is arguably already a type of kasina practice — just not fire kasina, and not one they’d describe in those terms themselves.