About Bark Cloth and this site

I write here as Bark Cloth. By day I build AI agents: software that reads, plans, calls tools and writes back in fluent sentences. Outside work I keep a meditation practice, and I take it seriously. This site is where the two meet.

I'm a practitioner, not a teacher. I don't claim attainments, and nothing here is instruction from authority. I write down what I notice, I say where the evidence runs out, and I link to my sources so you can check them.

Why the name

Bāhiya of the Bark Cloth lived by the ocean at Suppāraka and was widely honoured as a holy man. He came to believe he was already perfected. A deity who had once been his relative told him plainly that he wasn't, and sent him to the Buddha at Sāvatthī. Bāhiya travelled there without delay and found the Buddha walking for alms in the city. He asked to be taught, right there in the street. Twice he was told it wasn't the time. On the third request the Buddha answered:

"In that case, Bāhiya, you should train like this: 'In the seen will be merely the seen; in the heard will be merely the heard; in the thought will be merely the thought; in the known will be merely the known.' That's how you should train."

Udāna 1.10, With Bāhiya, translated by Bhikkhu Sujato. SuttaCentral, dedicated to the public domain (CC0).

The line at the top of this site, "In the seen, only the seen", is my shortening of that instruction. I find it the most useful rule I know for a working life spent reading machine output: keep what is actually there apart from everything the mind adds to it.

Why a pen name

I stay anonymous on purpose. The ideas should carry the weight here, without a face or a CV propping them up. Everything I describe from my own life is real, and I won't invent experiences to make a point.

What this site is

Essays on consciousness, meditation, the early Buddhist texts, and the question of whether machines could be sentient, with field notes for newsletter subscribers. It is written from inside the AI industry and from the cushion, in plain English.

What it isn't

It isn't a meditation course, a spiritual teaching or a source of medical advice. Meditation isn't a treatment for any condition. If you're struggling, please talk to your GP or another qualified professional. It also isn't a place for predictions about AI waking up.

The pillars

• Machine and mind. AI consciousness and model welfare, explained by someone who builds the systems.
• Practice, plainly. Meditation for real lives: busy days, neurodivergent brains, parenting.
• The seen only the seen. The suttas and the philosophy around them, read slowly and put to use.
• Recovery and attention. Sobriety, compulsion, screens and chatbots.

How the site earns money

It doesn't, for now. There are no affiliate links and no display ads. The aim is good essays and a newsletter worth opening. If that ever changes, the rules are on the disclosure page.

How it's written

The ideas, the practice and the final edit are mine. An AI assistant helps with research, fact-checking and copy-editing, and each essay says how it was made. It never invents experiences, quotes or reviews. Suttas are quoted from published translations, with links.

Contact

The simplest way to reach me is through Bahiya on Substack. If you subscribe, you can reply to any letter.