Absolutely wonderful!! I have deeply chafed at phrases like “ fulfill MY destiny” while passing those without homes suffering in the heat and lying on concrete for beds. How can WE not be affected? Our transition from individuality into conscious collaboration is achingly painful but your writing and beautiful sharing so captures this essential human evolution. Thank you!
I followed Sam Harris And his Mindfulness app crap for a bit and found that the following around him, who it seems to tend to be independent minded tech people, exhibited this behavior, I am sure there are those who do not fit that but this paper backs my initial observations. Very interesting to see why or how this might be formed makes sense.
Even worse is Sam Harris and his belief and statement that we do not have Free Will and that a deterministic reality means that we are programmed to do as we do, it is not our fault what we do, therefore we should not blame a murder for their actions.
A combination of heartless ‘Mindful’ independent Libertarians, and deterministically mindless lack of responsibility sounds like an apocalyptic mess in the making; all heading to their headless dream of a future upload into the digital singularity, where you can leave all those shitty Serfs behind.
Aug 11, 2022·edited Aug 11, 2022Liked by Alex Ebert
Fascinating and it makes perfect sense. I’ll pass this along to my wife who is a Unity minister. Might be changing some of those affirmations they use. Thanks, Alex. I appreciate your insight.
Yes, it's such a simple shift, yet it means literally the world. I saw this article just after reading about Indigenous 'Potlatch' gift ceremonies, by which ties of reciprocity and interdependence are strengthened. It made me wonder if a 'crypto potlatch' could be a thing - competitive altruism on a digital level. The thing that is missing is maybe a connection to the land, which might actually be the crucial thing.
Thanks so much for sharing! Fascinating and important!! Mindfulness should be taught in schools only in an interdependent context! Not how it is at the moment.... all the me me me focus.
Were these mindfulness practices ones that had developed over a substantial length of time? Mindfulness can do a lot of good. Have you heard of Tara Brach’s Insight Meditation Community of Washington? She’s highly focused on compassion and community awareness. I don’t think sincere mindfulness practice needs to be taken down. It does help in our interactions with others, and much of Buddhist teaching emphasizes “Lovingkindness” cf Sharon Salzburg.
But I see also how the market skews some of these holistic and often Asian-derived teachings, and can contribute to a solipsistic focus on one’s lifestyle and wellbeing and less on attitudes toward others.
Words DO matter. I think that’s a great takeaway, here. The words we say to others, and also the words we tell ourselves, make so much more of an impact than we realize. ❤️
But, if meditation were taught when a person is at an impressionable age, would that not make the person more of an interdependent personality? I believe I was more accepting of Buddhism and the concept of interdependence when I came across it as a teenager because my I lived with my grandmother for six months when I was six, and she exposed me to Christianity, and even though she was poor, made sure I saw her take actions such as giving money to the gypsy who came to our door. It was those six months of my life, when my grandfather taught me to read and love learning as well, that I think were more responsible for the person I grew up to be than any other period of my life. So I don't think the Dalai Lama is incorrect, I think your study is a poor analogy since it dealt with adults whose personalities were already formed. Show me the same study with eight year olds and having the same results, then I may say he erred.
This is so interesting! I used to meditate, manifest, etc I even went on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago, all of this to „find myself“ „do me“…etc while realizing the best part of the pilgrimage was the other pilgrims and the community we had while walking.
The time I truly found something, was when taking care of my grandfather and spending time with him the past year before he died. When it is time we just put the elderly all away in special facilities, when in the past different generations took care of each other. We don’t want to see aging and dying especially the last few weeks when someone is dying from old age. Seeing all of this with my grandfather and now going through this again with my grandmother is truly humbling, beautiful, ugly and hard at the same time. Before I start rambling I will end this comment, but I thought this would fit to both subjects.
I loved the past two podcast. I had to slow down the speed a bit when Bard was talking to be able to follow along because English is not my native language, but it was worth it :) Great talks! Thanks, Alex
Thank you for this wonderful post! As an Asian American Zen priest, I write and speak a lot about how the cultures of Asian Buddhist countries developed over millennia as ways for human beings to live and practically embody Buddhist teachings--and how this has been whitewashed out of Western Buddhism to our collective detriment. Mindfulness is the prime example of this.
Re: the Dalai Lama's thoughts, my Zen line comes from Japan's samurai classes so it's easy to think of historical examples of meditators engaged in warfare. But some of those figures--like Yamaoka Tesshu, Miyamoto Musashi, and Yagyu Munenori (samurai who later in life became Zen priests)--did orchestrate negotiations and compromises that saved thousands of lives from needless battle and death. The consensus is that they were able to do so because of their cultivation of kiai (vital energy, charisma, presence) and their clarity of vision through meditation and other hard spiritual training.
I'm so happy to have found your newsletter! I have long loved your music. "Truth" is still my favorite, but I've also reflected often on the chorus, "I want to be the prayer, not the pray-er," from "I Don't Wanna Pray". Excited to keep reading.🙏🏼
Absolutely wonderful!! I have deeply chafed at phrases like “ fulfill MY destiny” while passing those without homes suffering in the heat and lying on concrete for beds. How can WE not be affected? Our transition from individuality into conscious collaboration is achingly painful but your writing and beautiful sharing so captures this essential human evolution. Thank you!
I followed Sam Harris And his Mindfulness app crap for a bit and found that the following around him, who it seems to tend to be independent minded tech people, exhibited this behavior, I am sure there are those who do not fit that but this paper backs my initial observations. Very interesting to see why or how this might be formed makes sense.
Even worse is Sam Harris and his belief and statement that we do not have Free Will and that a deterministic reality means that we are programmed to do as we do, it is not our fault what we do, therefore we should not blame a murder for their actions.
A combination of heartless ‘Mindful’ independent Libertarians, and deterministically mindless lack of responsibility sounds like an apocalyptic mess in the making; all heading to their headless dream of a future upload into the digital singularity, where you can leave all those shitty Serfs behind.
Cheers
A fucking men to that!
Agree , we are all connected,thank you Alex Ebert ,I have been fighting a lot between philosophy,religion and teaching , you help a lot 🙏🏻
Fascinating and it makes perfect sense. I’ll pass this along to my wife who is a Unity minister. Might be changing some of those affirmations they use. Thanks, Alex. I appreciate your insight.
Yes, it's such a simple shift, yet it means literally the world. I saw this article just after reading about Indigenous 'Potlatch' gift ceremonies, by which ties of reciprocity and interdependence are strengthened. It made me wonder if a 'crypto potlatch' could be a thing - competitive altruism on a digital level. The thing that is missing is maybe a connection to the land, which might actually be the crucial thing.
Thanks so much for sharing! Fascinating and important!! Mindfulness should be taught in schools only in an interdependent context! Not how it is at the moment.... all the me me me focus.
Ah shit. Never mind. My post on Tuners turned out to be the opposite of RIP. 😬😂
Were these mindfulness practices ones that had developed over a substantial length of time? Mindfulness can do a lot of good. Have you heard of Tara Brach’s Insight Meditation Community of Washington? She’s highly focused on compassion and community awareness. I don’t think sincere mindfulness practice needs to be taken down. It does help in our interactions with others, and much of Buddhist teaching emphasizes “Lovingkindness” cf Sharon Salzburg.
But I see also how the market skews some of these holistic and often Asian-derived teachings, and can contribute to a solipsistic focus on one’s lifestyle and wellbeing and less on attitudes toward others.
RIP personal sovereignty. I’m in!
Words DO matter. I think that’s a great takeaway, here. The words we say to others, and also the words we tell ourselves, make so much more of an impact than we realize. ❤️
But, if meditation were taught when a person is at an impressionable age, would that not make the person more of an interdependent personality? I believe I was more accepting of Buddhism and the concept of interdependence when I came across it as a teenager because my I lived with my grandmother for six months when I was six, and she exposed me to Christianity, and even though she was poor, made sure I saw her take actions such as giving money to the gypsy who came to our door. It was those six months of my life, when my grandfather taught me to read and love learning as well, that I think were more responsible for the person I grew up to be than any other period of my life. So I don't think the Dalai Lama is incorrect, I think your study is a poor analogy since it dealt with adults whose personalities were already formed. Show me the same study with eight year olds and having the same results, then I may say he erred.
This is so interesting! I used to meditate, manifest, etc I even went on a pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago, all of this to „find myself“ „do me“…etc while realizing the best part of the pilgrimage was the other pilgrims and the community we had while walking.
The time I truly found something, was when taking care of my grandfather and spending time with him the past year before he died. When it is time we just put the elderly all away in special facilities, when in the past different generations took care of each other. We don’t want to see aging and dying especially the last few weeks when someone is dying from old age. Seeing all of this with my grandfather and now going through this again with my grandmother is truly humbling, beautiful, ugly and hard at the same time. Before I start rambling I will end this comment, but I thought this would fit to both subjects.
I loved the past two podcast. I had to slow down the speed a bit when Bard was talking to be able to follow along because English is not my native language, but it was worth it :) Great talks! Thanks, Alex
"whenever two or more of us interact there is a higher power."
~ Donald Hoffman - Portals into the realm of consciousness
Let's give it a whirl! I love that expression!
Thank you for this wonderful post! As an Asian American Zen priest, I write and speak a lot about how the cultures of Asian Buddhist countries developed over millennia as ways for human beings to live and practically embody Buddhist teachings--and how this has been whitewashed out of Western Buddhism to our collective detriment. Mindfulness is the prime example of this.
Re: the Dalai Lama's thoughts, my Zen line comes from Japan's samurai classes so it's easy to think of historical examples of meditators engaged in warfare. But some of those figures--like Yamaoka Tesshu, Miyamoto Musashi, and Yagyu Munenori (samurai who later in life became Zen priests)--did orchestrate negotiations and compromises that saved thousands of lives from needless battle and death. The consensus is that they were able to do so because of their cultivation of kiai (vital energy, charisma, presence) and their clarity of vision through meditation and other hard spiritual training.
I'm so happy to have found your newsletter! I have long loved your music. "Truth" is still my favorite, but I've also reflected often on the chorus, "I want to be the prayer, not the pray-er," from "I Don't Wanna Pray". Excited to keep reading.🙏🏼