CxD #262: Identity Politics; Meditation; Tech-bro take-down; 📚'23 #29: The Circle of the Way ⭐️⭐️⭐️; Death of a poet + two of her poems
Happy Fall, CxDers!
Binary thinking often gets the better of us, and we slide into dogmatism—at first slowly and then all of a sudden.
Consider that structural racism is still a problem and that many of the theoretical and pragmatic solutions being argued about and being implemented are likewise problematic.
This is an issue that requires careful, subtle, and slow introspection, study, research, and a give-and-take process of listening and learning from people who have considered these issues way more deeply than most pop-cultural forms we see. The answers cannot be binary.
I’ve now listened to this conversation below twice —the first most potent hour you can listen to below for free; the second hour requires a subscription but is also worth it— and find Sam Harris somewhat of a blow-hard and prone to making the kinds of mistakes he is angry at the far left for making.
But his guest, Yasha Mounk, is the expert in the room and is much more balanced and capable of articulating the issues at stake with clarity.
I had the privilege of listening to this episode with my better half, who happens to be an expert in this field, and despite the two of us not agreeing entirely on all the claims and policies discussed, I concluded that the perspectives offered here would help us move in the right direction, despite all our current entanglements and rabid reactivity. Highly-recommended listening.
2. Humans are complex creatures, case study # 392383359837429:
On the one hand, Tim Ferris is one of the most sincere and thoughtful interviewers working today—he knows how to listen and ask non-regurgitated questions of his guests. I’ve listened to many of his long-form interviews and learned something of lasting value from most of them. He appears to be, now, a thoughtful person trying and actually doing good in the world, not least with his psychedelics philanthropic work.
Mix and match the above view with this extremely unapologetic critique of his multi-decade best-seller The Four-Hour Work Week in which the hosts roast Ferris for not only being a fraud but for hawking explicitly toxic advice that might kill you. It’s funny and sad in the way the best sarcasm with fangs is. These guys are not fans of tech-bros and their platitudes, and they really let Ferris have it.
We contain multitudes, indeed.
A kind note on our most recent conversation on Fire Philosophy:
Listen and read all about it here:
The Circle of the Way ⭐️⭐️⭐️:
“A comprehensive, accessible guide to the fascinating history of Zen Buddhism--including important figures, schools, foundational texts, practices, and politics.
Zen Buddhism has a storied history--Bodhidharma sitting in meditation in a cave for nine years; a would-be disciple cutting off his own arm to get the master's attention; the proliferating schools and intense Dharma combat of the Tang and Song Dynasties; Zen nuns and laypeople holding their own against patriarchal lineages; the appearance of new masters in the Zen schools of Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and later the Western world. In The Circle of the Way, Zen practitioner and popular religion writer Barbara O'Brien brings clarity to this huge swath of history by charting a middle way between Zen's traditional lore and the findings of modern historical scholarship. In a clear and often funny style, O'Brien parses fact from fiction while always attending to the greatest interest of contemporary practitioners--the development of Zen doctrine and practice as a living tradition across cultures and centuries.” (Publisher’s summary)
A really engaging writing style made this a joy to read. Why only 3 stars? I think for someone like me, who thinks they know some stuff about Zen, the “concise” part of the book's structure made me long for more depth at many of the cross-roads. Instead, I got a bit of that bloated feeling when you ingest one cookie after another and don’t have a belly like the Cookie Monster’s to take it all in.
But for those who are new to the tradition, it’s a useful overview.
My undergraduate poetry professor, Louise Glück died. It’s hard for me to know what to think of something like this. Or what to feel. Or what to think-feel. We were never close in any way, personally, though her poetry is of the most intimate kind.
But the best poem that I wrote all semester was the one she chose to workshop in depth. I always remembered that.
This is a free link to the New York Times that allows you access to an article about her life and her poetry.Two poems by Louise Glück:
SirenI became a criminal when I fell in love.
Before that I was a waitress.I didn’t want to go to Chicago with you.
I wanted to marry you, I wanted
your wife to suffer.I wanted her life to be like a play
in which all the parts are sad parts.Does a good person
think this way? I deservecredit for my courage-
I sat in the dark on your front porch.
Everything was clear to me:If your wife wouldn’t let you go
that proved she didn’t love you.
if she loved you
wouldn’t she want you to be happy?I think now
if I felt less I would be
a better person. I was
a good waitress.
I could carry eight drinks.I used to tell you my dreams.
Last night I saw a woman sitting in a dark bus-
in the dream, she’s weeping, the bus she’s on
is moving away. With one hand
she’s waving; the other strokes
an egg carton full of babies.The dream doesn’t rescue the maiden.
Matins
You want to know how I spend my time?
I walk the front lawn, pretending
to be weeding. You ought to know
I'm never weeding, on my knees, pulling
clumps of clover from the flower beds: in fact
I'm looking for courage, for some evidence
my life will change, though
it takes forever, checking
each clump for the symbolic
leaf, and soon the summer is ending, already
the leaves turning, always the sick trees
going first, the dying turning
brilliant yellow, while a few dark birds perform
their curfew of music. You want to see my hands?
As empty now as at the first note.
Or was the point always
to continue without a sign?
