Sasha Chapin

Writer and author of All the Wrong Moves; his newsletter covers meditation, relationships and creativity, and he co-runs a perfume line.

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Average moments of a long-term meditator 18 Sept 2026

What they believe

Meditation is more powerful than psychedelic drugs, not milder as commonly assumed.

The moment when you realize that you thought drugs were powerful and meditation was mild, but you now realize the opposite is true.

sashachapin.substack.comSaid 18 Sept 2026This on korrents
Profound transformations of the mind are real and underappreciated, and that fact deserves to be preserved as knowledge.

It's really not obvious that such profound transformations can happen to a mind, and it's really important that this knowledge gets preserved.

sashachapin.substack.comSaid 1 Sept 2026This on korrents

The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.

All 23 beliefs, on korrents

Feed

As its own page →

Everything, newest first — across every channel.

Sources

18 September

Sasha ChapinKorrents 18 Sept

From one piece Average moments of a long-term meditator 3 beliefs · sashachapin.substack.com

korrents.com
A small, sustained reduction in selfishness compounds into a large positive change in a person over years.

Their words

Being 10% less of an asshole, compounded over years, has tremendous effects.

Average moments of a long-term meditatorsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Letting go of the belief that grasping brings satisfaction makes a person happier but more alienated from others.

happiness

Their words

The more you drop this idea, the happier you are, and the more alien you feel.

Average moments of a long-term meditatorsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Meditation is more powerful than psychedelic drugs, not milder as commonly assumed.

Their words

The moment when you realize that you thought drugs were powerful and meditation was mild, but you now realize the opposite is true.

Average moments of a long-term meditatorsashachapin.substack.com

1 September

Sasha ChapinKorrents 1 Sept

From one piece Biting the no-self bullet 3 beliefs · sashachapin.substack.com

korrents.com
There are more profound states of transformation available to a person beyond the ordinary benefits of everyday meditative practice.

Their words

If something less than a transformation of your everyday experience has occurred, there is something more out there.

Biting the no-self bulletsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Making dramatic claims about contemplative experience helps sustain interest in a topic that is otherwise fairly dull.

Their words

Additionally, making bold declarations about the extremity of contemplative experience is a decent way to keep people talking about meditation, which can be a fairly boring subject.

Biting the no-self bulletsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Profound transformations of the mind are real and underappreciated, and that fact deserves to be preserved as knowledge.

Their words

It's really not obvious that such profound transformations can happen to a mind, and it's really important that this knowledge gets preserved.

Biting the no-self bulletsashachapin.substack.com

23 June

Sasha ChapinKorrents 23 Jun

From one piece Surrender as a non-stupid life strategy 3 beliefs · sashachapin.substack.com

korrents.com
How unhappy a person is depends on how often they believe circumstances should be different, not on the circumstances themselves.

happiness

Their words

Unhappiness is the product of the number of times per minute that you believe circumstances should be otherwise.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategysashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Dreading a future experience causes much of human suffering by making that imagined suffering happen now.

Their words

A large percentage of human suffering is anticipatory tension, or dreading a future experience such that you actualize its potential suffering in the now.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategysashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
The mind's planning and goal-setting function is only a small fraction of a person's overall intelligence.

Their words

The planning part of your mind, the one that generates ambitions and hypothetical situations, is a small part of your overall intelligence.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategysashachapin.substack.com

11 June

Sasha ChapinKorrents 11 Jun

From one piece Without hope of resolution 4 beliefs · sashachapin.substack.com

korrents.com
Neither the claim that great things only come without force nor the call for constant discipline describes reality.

Their words

One brand of idiots will claim that pushing yourself is a bad thing, that great things only come without force. (Have they known any genuinely productive people?) Another brand of idiots will sell you on the necessity of constant discipline, of grinding until your last breath. (At some point they will do ayahuasca and have a psychedelic influencer arc.) Clearly neither group of people is describing reality.

Without hope of resolutionsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
People freeze into relationship roles for predictability, but ongoing internal change eventually makes those roles confining.

Their words

We freeze into roles because we need some predictability, but we're also changing internally all the time, so our roles eventually become confining.

Without hope of resolutionsashachapin.substack.com
korrents.com
Contradictions between useful philosophies are only a problem for someone who expects reality to be philosophically consistent.

Their words

Useful philosophies disagree with each other sometimes, and this is only an issue if you expect yourself, or reality, to be philosophically consistent.

Without hope of resolutionsashachapin.substack.com

+ 1 more

korrents.com
A person cannot expect to find lasting balance between conflicting parts of their psychology.

discipline

Their words

There's no reason to believe that you will find persistent balance between these conflicting elements of your psychology.

Without hope of resolutionsashachapin.substack.com

1 June

Sasha ChapinKorrents 1 Jun

korrents.com
Most contemporary restaurants are over-optimized, investor-backed, and homogenized by branding rather than genuine culinary vision.

investing

Their words

The average restaurant in NYC is, at this point, stupidly optimized, backed by wealthy investors, coated in impeccable branding.

Utopia is a particular restaurant in Brooklynsashachapin.substack.com

11 May

Sasha ChapinKorrents 11 May

korrents.com
Practicing meditation for methods rather than for results is one of the most important principles in contemplative practice.

Their words

I think it's one of the most important warnings in contemplative practice, a warning sticker that should go on every single meditation book.

sashachapin.substack.com

25 April

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 25 Apr

Practice Nothing, the most profound of all practices

9 April

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 9 Apr

We need your spiritual gifts

6 April

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 6 Apr

Notice your limp heart until it becomes a rose-colored meteor

2 April

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 2 Apr

Pre-order our book, or, what's so special about Cate?

12 March

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 12 Mar

Random opinions about the path

3 March

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 3 Mar

Underrated sources of mental tension in meditation

16 February

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 16 Feb

The spiritual path is a side effect

4 February

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 4 Feb

The two kinds of desire, and one of the most important things I know

12 January

Sasha ChapinNewsletter 12 Jan

The rare people who are solid

The whole feed →

Beliefs

Korrents What they believe 23 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
- Meditation is more powerful than psychedelic drugs, not milder as commonly assumed.
  
  The moment when you realize that you thought drugs were powerful and meditation was mild, but you now realize the opposite is true.
  
  Average moments of a long-term meditator Said 18 Sept 2026
  
  Full record — everyone who holds this →
- Letting go of the belief that grasping brings satisfaction makes a person happier but more alienated from others.
  
  The more you drop this idea, the happier you are, and the more alien you feel.
  
  Average moments of a long-term meditator Said 18 Sept 2026
  
  Full record — everyone who holds this →
  
  happiness
- A small, sustained reduction in selfishness compounds into a large positive change in a person over years.
  
  Being 10% less of an asshole, compounded over years, has tremendous effects.
  
  Average moments of a long-term meditator Said 18 Sept 2026
  
  Full record — everyone who holds this →
Show 20 more

Profound transformations of the mind are real and underappreciated, and that fact deserves to be preserved as knowledge.

It's really not obvious that such profound transformations can happen to a mind, and it's really important that this knowledge gets preserved.

Biting the no-self bullet Said 1 Sept 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Making dramatic claims about contemplative experience helps sustain interest in a topic that is otherwise fairly dull.

Additionally, making bold declarations about the extremity of contemplative experience is a decent way to keep people talking about meditation, which can be a fairly boring subject.

Biting the no-self bullet Said 1 Sept 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

There are more profound states of transformation available to a person beyond the ordinary benefits of everyday meditative practice.

If something less than a transformation of your everyday experience has occurred, there is something more out there.

Biting the no-self bullet Said 1 Sept 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

The mind's planning and goal-setting function is only a small fraction of a person's overall intelligence.

The planning part of your mind, the one that generates ambitions and hypothetical situations, is a small part of your overall intelligence.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategy Said 23 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Dreading a future experience causes much of human suffering by making that imagined suffering happen now.

A large percentage of human suffering is anticipatory tension, or dreading a future experience such that you actualize its potential suffering in the now.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategy Said 23 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

How unhappy a person is depends on how often they believe circumstances should be different, not on the circumstances themselves.

Unhappiness is the product of the number of times per minute that you believe circumstances should be otherwise.

Surrender as a non-stupid life strategy Said 23 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

happiness

A person cannot expect to find lasting balance between conflicting parts of their psychology.

There's no reason to believe that you will find persistent balance between these conflicting elements of your psychology.

Without hope of resolution Said 11 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

discipline

Contradictions between useful philosophies are only a problem for someone who expects reality to be philosophically consistent.

Useful philosophies disagree with each other sometimes, and this is only an issue if you expect yourself, or reality, to be philosophically consistent.

Without hope of resolution Said 11 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

People freeze into relationship roles for predictability, but ongoing internal change eventually makes those roles confining.

We freeze into roles because we need some predictability, but we're also changing internally all the time, so our roles eventually become confining.

Without hope of resolution Said 11 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Neither the claim that great things only come without force nor the call for constant discipline describes reality.

One brand of idiots will claim that pushing yourself is a bad thing, that great things only come without force. (Have they known any genuinely productive people?) Another brand of idiots will sell you on the necessity of constant discipline, of grinding until your last breath. (At some point they will do ayahuasca and have a psychedelic influencer arc.) Clearly neither group of people is describing reality.

Without hope of resolution Said 11 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Most contemporary restaurants are over-optimized, investor-backed, and homogenized by branding rather than genuine culinary vision.

The average restaurant in NYC is, at this point, stupidly optimized, backed by wealthy investors, coated in impeccable branding.

Utopia is a particular restaurant in Brooklyn Said 1 Jun 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

investing

Practicing meditation for methods rather than for results is one of the most important principles in contemplative practice.

I think it's one of the most important warnings in contemplative practice, a warning sticker that should go on every single meditation book.

Practice method, not results. METHOD NOT RESULTS. Said 11 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Damaging experiences from meditation usually happen because practitioners chase results instead of following the method.

Almost any time I hear that someone has had a damaging experience with meditation, I find that it's because they're violating this rule.

Practice method, not results. METHOD NOT RESULTS. Said 11 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

The New Age spiritual community is often as money-hungry, power-seeking, and gossip-driven as anyone else, despite its image of benevolence.

The New Age community, where people pretend to be benevolent Teletubbies, but behind the scenes are as money-hungry, power-seeking, and gossip-spreading as anyone.

Practice method, not results. METHOD NOT RESULTS. Said 11 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Social systems tend to reward virtuous behavior over time.

you become aware that others are engaging in a similar sorting process, such that the total human network does reward virtue.

You can judge a book by its cover Said 2 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

People who are openly power-hungry tend to eventually lose their power or never gain it.

Sure, some skilled sociopaths run amok. But most of those who are crudely, blatantly power-hungry in the long term lose it, or never gain it in the first place.

You can judge a book by its cover Said 2 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

Positions of genuine respect are earned rather than granted undeservedly.

Almost nobody reaches a position of real respect undeservedly. Famous buffoons don't get respect from the people they really want it from, just sycophants whose praise is meaningless.

You can judge a book by its cover Said 2 May 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

A sustained 'do nothing' meditation practice surfaces unresolved psychological material in an order the practitioner cannot control.

Nothing practice is psychologically thorough: all of your stuff will come up, in an order not determined by you.

Practice Nothing, the most profound of all practices Said 25 Apr 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

A fulfilling 'do nothing' meditation practice requires equally embracing all present sensation rather than avoiding difficult ones.

Having a fulfilling Nothing practice requires an equal embrace of all present sensation.

Practice Nothing, the most profound of all practices Said 25 Apr 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →

A well-functioning contemplative practice should feel like an engaging encounter with mystery rather than a chore.

But it ought to feel good-like an engaging encounter with the mystery of being, not like a chore.

Practice Nothing, the most profound of all practices Said 25 Apr 2026

Full record — everyone who holds this →
All 23 beliefs →

What is a korrent?

A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.

Under a name here, the quoted block is what they actually said. The korrent beneath it is the claim those words support, in korrents' wording — tap it to see the record, its source, and who else holds it.

Nobody here wrote their own korrents. They are compiled from public statements, and a person can change their mind, which is recorded too.

Recommends rcmnd

rcmnd What they recommend 4 things — each backed by an exact quote.
Compiled by rcmnd.app, not by them: the quotes are theirs, and each links to the post it was copied from.
Recent
- Loved Sanity and Sainthood 16 Dec 2025
  
  The biggest endorsement I can give this book is that I once considered writing a book like this, but now I consider the job done.
  
  sashachapin.substack.com 16 Dec 2025
  
  their own
  
  What others say about Sanity and Sainthood →
- Loved Coney Island Baby 12 Sept 2024
  
  I don't think it's pretension, I think it's simply a fact that this perfume deserves to herald a new genre. I really have never smelled anything like it.
  
  sashachapin.substack.com 12 Sept 2024
  
  their own
  
  What others say about Coney Island Baby →
- Recommends El Dorado 12 Sept 2024
  
  Now I have an answer for this query: El Dorado. The funny thing is that "rain smell" isn't what we set out to do, or even the main point of this perfume.
  
  sashachapin.substack.com 12 Sept 2024
  
  their own
  
  What others say about El Dorado →
Show 1 more

Loved Incarnate 12 Sept 2024

It's perfectly balanced right on the edge of too much—Incarnate is powerful and lush but you somehow never get sick of it. At once excessive and refined.

sashachapin.substack.com 12 Sept 2024

their own

What others say about Incarnate →
All 4 recommendations →

Where they publish

Newsletter Sasha Chapin's newsletter His newsletter on meditation, relationships, writing and perfume.
Open sashachapin.substack.com
Recent
- Average moments of a long-term meditator 18 Sept 2026 Outside the community of serious long-term meditators, meditation is still thought of as a healthful hobby, like speed-walking, that will make you an incrementally better person.
- Biting the no-self bullet 1 Sept 2026 It really is like that
- Surrender as a non-stupid life strategy 23 Jun 2026
Show 17 more

Without hope of resolution 11 Jun 2026
Utopia is a particular restaurant in Brooklyn 1 Jun 2026 a sudden plate of popcorn
Practice method, not results. METHOD NOT RESULTS. 11 May 2026 a short PSA
Practice Nothing, the most profound of all practices 25 Apr 2026 poof, there it is
We need your spiritual gifts 9 Apr 2026
Notice your limp heart until it becomes a rose-colored meteor 6 Apr 2026 A brief personal guide to heart practice
Pre-order our book, or, what's so special about Cate? 2 Apr 2026
Random opinions about the path 12 Mar 2026
Underrated sources of mental tension in meditation 3 Mar 2026 loosen up in unexpected ways
The spiritual path is a side effect 16 Feb 2026 a note to all my dharma weirdos
The two kinds of desire, and one of the most important things I know 4 Feb 2026 pull over push
The rare people who are solid 12 Jan 2026 Notes on congruence
Year in review 2025 18 Dec 2025 a very good year
The three most common hallucinations 17 Dec 2025 A guide to the drama triangle
Book Review: Sanity and Sainthood, by Dr. Tucker Peck 16 Dec 2025
Reviews Dec 7 8 Dec 2025
My Enneagram: 5, 8, 2 2 Dec 2025
Link verified 5 Sept 2026. Recent items update automatically from the channel.
x.com @sashachapin His X account, listed as the byline's Twitter handle on his own newsletter.

Open x.com

Link verified 5 Sept 2026.

About the English under a post

Some people here publish in a language other than English. Where they do, this site shows a machine translation beneath the post, in this typeface — the site's own, not theirs.

The post itself is never changed, moved or hidden: what is set in the serif above is exactly what the person published, and it is what to quote them on. A translation can be wrong in ways that matter, especially about tone.

Only the post's own words are translated. A quoted post, a linked article and a belief on korrents.com are left in their original language.