I freely admit my errors. When I used the expression "literally" wrongly

It's important for ethical, decent human beings to admit when they made a mistake,

and support a culture where people confess mistakes big and small.

This should be celebrated, emulated, become the social norm.

Here's one of my mine.

After I wrote a scathing article complaining about people not using the word "literally" correctly

definition of literal, figurative: People are "literally" insane. What about sutta translators?
January 31, 2025


Today I suddenly remembered when I've publicly used the expression "literally" incorrectly.

Correct usage of "literally"

Here, I'm saying the Buddha didn't imply, use a pun,  or use code language, he 'literally' used the pāḷi word meaning "shit".
AN 5.30 Fame and fortune: the Buddha literally called it a 'shitty pleasure'. Don't undermine the power of 'shit' with 'filthy' or 'vile'
July 28, 2022

Wrong usage of "literally"

Thursday, February 15, 2024

fun full lotus moves: finger toe spacers, and slapping palms to bubbling wells

In that article, I explain a move where I slap the bottoms of my feet while in full lotus pose,

really hard,

many times,

"literally slapped the shit out of myself".

That did not happen.

I did not shit, I did not even fart on that occasion after slapping myself.

Somehow the insidious wrong usage of "literally" common today,

slipped into my unconscious, slipped past my speech and critical thinking faculties,

and I made that heinous offense, using "literally" when I really meant "figuratively."

Alternative preferred correction to "figurative"

What does very commonly happen though, 

not just myself, for everyone, animals even,

when you do the tap and slap therapy,

is that jhānic forces hindered by blockages in the body do get released,

and you can "literally" burp, fart, or feel the onset of gas emission that does not necessarily consummate.

Just like patting your old parents or a baby on the back to help them burp.

Edit: About an hour later after originally posting this article 

I went back to double check the article where I claimed to literally shit...

and realized, 

I actually "literally" did slap the shit out of myself.

excerpt from article:

I slapped my feet about 48 times, and then I had to go excrete feces. After doing move #2, I had to go to use the bathroom #2. 

So the good news is,

I do know how to use the expression "literally" correctly.
Why did I make this error?
When I recollected this morning about how in the past, I had said after doing a particular exercise,
"I literally slapped the shit out of myself",
I remembered [correctly] that I did not shit in my pants while I was still in a full lotus posture.
so I thought, "wow! I must have used the word 'literally' when it was figurative!"
I did a google search on my blogs to find the article where I said, "slap the shit...",
confirmed I wrote that,
and then published a public apology.
But then an hour later, 
I thought to myself, "am I getting old? Am I really that careless and dumb now?"
So I went back to read the article in the full context,
and realized I did indeed slap the shit out of myself, but it was one or two minutes AFTER
emerging from the full lotus posture.

So what I am guilty of

1. I should trust myself more

2. Should check the full context of what I thought was a misquote before drawing conclusions.

3. looking really dumb for apologizing for what I thought was an error and finding out it was not an error, and in the process looking even more dumb.

What is good about me

1. intention and follow through to demonstrate integrity,  accountability, honesty, transparency

2. willingness to look dumb,  and not let that prevent me from doing the right thing. I was not even tempted to delete this article and pretend it never happened.