This session returned to the experience I only got to the edge of exploring in my recording a couple nights ago and delved in deeply alongside some loving admiration of passages from Shunryu Suzuki’s “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind” and Dogen-zenji’s “Genjokoan”. I really tried to express some key ideas of non-attachment and sitting within calm presence, even in the heart of painful desires.
Philosophy Riffing | “It shouldn’t be this way” – Zen Practice, Living in the Burning House
19 Jul 2023 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing Tags: Buddhism, Depression, Dogen, Practice, Samsara, Shunryu Suzuki, Wittgenstein, Zen
Philosophy Riffing | Agency, Neuroplasticity, and the growth and freedom at the heart of practice
18 Jul 2023 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing Tags: Agency, Aristotle, Change, Emotions, Fear, Free Will, Metaphysics, Mindfulness, Neuroplasticity, Plato, Practice
I recorded this session with a much different target in mind, an exploration of the sense that “This isn’t the way it should be,” a damning felt sense of samsara. I get to this topic very briefly at the end but speak at great length about how we can’t choose how we feel, and the small space we have in awareness to change our patterns to move towards different emotional and perceptual patterns.
I also reference this element of the famous painting, The School of Athens, by Raphael (retrieved here from Wikipedia):
Philosophy Riffing | Emptiness/Form, Fixation/Liberation, Language/Life, Love/Loss, and Trauma/Understanding
14 Dec 2022 2 Comments
in Healing, Philosophy Riffing, Psychology Tags: Camus, Chöd, Gadamer, Heidegger, Hermeneutics, Love, Philosophy of language, Piaget, The Heart Sutra, Wittgenstein
This post went through a myriad of ideas and sources, from Buddhist nuns in the 1100s to Camus’ in the 1950s. I love where this one went and am grateful for anyone who walks along in these ideas and cares to comment or reach out for further conversation.
May this inspire many thoughts and your own healing.
Philosophy Riffing | Life Challenges, Living as the Person I Want to be in the World vs. “I’m a good person”, BPD, and Stoic and Buddhist Wisdom on Letting Go
14 Dec 2022 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing, Psychology Tags: Buddhism, Chöd, Cognitive-behavioral psychology, Life stages, Meaning, Mental Health, Self-criticism, Self-reflection, Stoicism
I speak at length about coming to the end of cycles, struggling with the developmental shifts of life, being tested, living up to the person you want to be in the world, some random musings about borderline personality disorder, and wisdom about some of these topics from Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Machik Lapdrön (the Tibetan founder of Chöd – amazingly insightful and modern feeling insight from a female nun in the 1100s!!!).
This recording rambled a bit more than normal I feel. I hope there are pieces that resonate to any who may listen to the end. I’m grateful for you all.
Philosophy Riffing | I-You, Ethics as first philosophy, pursuing the Good, and Stoicism
02 Dec 2022 Leave a comment
in Ethics, Philosophy Riffing Tags: Buber, Buddhism, Epictetus, I-You, Marcus Aurelius, Stoicism, Wittgenstein
Recent reinvigoration of my interest in Stoicism inspired this somewhat meandering discussion of a meaningful, value-driven life with riffs on Buber, Wittgenstein, Buddhism, and most definitely Stoicism. May this inspire others despite its lack of clear organization.
Here’s the key book I mentioned late in the recording: How to Think Like a Roman Emperor by Donald Robertson .
Philosophy Riffing | Virtue Ethics Revisited, Interdependent Origination, & Kindness
29 Aug 2022 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing Tags: Aristotle, Buddhism, Heart Sutra, Interdependence, Loy Ching-Yuen, Paramitas, Plato, Taoism, Virtue
I return to philosophy riffing after a long hiatus. This session had a lot of meandering ideas. I’m not sure I expressed much succinctly, but I enjoyed the associations and efforts to explain some things. If nothing else, I think this was sweet, well-intentioned, and inspirational of some fresh thoughts and learnings for others.
Philosophy Riffing | Ethics cont. – evil is mistaken choice, a challenge to that, virtue ethics and friendship/relationships, and choosing a partner
30 Mar 2022 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing Tags: Aristotle, Bodhisattva, Ethics, Friendship, Growth, Love, Nicomachean Ethics, Plato, Poetry, Relationships, Socrates, The Buddha, The Dhammapada, Virtue, Wisdom
This was another meandering exploration of this topic with a payoff in the particular of our connections to others and how they should enhance our excellence. I take a lot of time in the first half of exploring the Socratic position on evil and my problems with it. There are also examples of the Buddha prior to giving the sermon on the Four Noble Truths and some further commentary on the bodhisattva ideals and goodness as well.
An aside: I wanted to include this brief poem by Yung Pueblo somewhere along the line, but I didn’t remember to place it anywhere in the discussion. Adding it here for it’s brief, beautiful resonance with the second half:
it is not love
Yung Pueblo, Inward, p. 12
if all they want
from you
is to fulfill
their expectations
I just found this other great poem when looking through as well.
when passion
Yung Pueblo, Inward, p. 24
and attachment
come together,
they are often
confused for love
And as promised, here is the link to the previous post I reference in the second half: Love in Romantic Relationships: Cultivating Self and Other through Friendship.
Philosophy Riffing | Ethics – excellence, ethics vs. morality, good and evil, and a spiritual expansion
16 Mar 2022 Leave a comment
in Philosophy Riffing Tags: Aristotle, Buddhism, Creativity, Ethics, Excellence, Happiness, Morality, Nicomachean Ethics, The Dhammapada, Utilitarianism, Virtue
This was a meandering recording that pulled up a lot of details I didn’t originally have in mind and left many others unsaid that I had originally intended. May come back with a part 2 soon. I hope this gives others many things to ponder or at least some ideas/sources for them to go look at further. Feel free to ask questions in comments.
Note: At about an hour and 10 minutes, I make a mistake with Carl Schmitt. He described the distinction that grounds the concept of the political as the friend-enemy distinction.
Philosophy Riffing | Heartbreak | Lack of anger, Chöd, the Hermit, Truth, and Kindness
09 Feb 2022 Leave a comment
in Anger, Buddhism, Philosophy Riffing, Presence, Tarot Tags: Chöd, Compassion, Dainin Katagiri, Emptiness, Existentialism, Heidegger, Narratives, Sartre, Spiritual Materialism, Stoicism, Tao Te Ching, The Dhammapada
This recording was about as much a pensive self-care/processing exploration as any kind of philosophical analysis, but there are some good ponderings in here without many real answers. I hope that it will be of value to others who are also stumbling along the Way of the Hermit/Sage.
Philosophy Riffing | Karma, Emotional Reactivity, Free Will, and Ressentiment
02 Dec 2021 Leave a comment
in Buddhism, Karma, Philosophy Riffing, Psychology Tags: Bruce Lee, Emotional Reactivity, Free Will, Marcus Aurelius, Nietzsche, Paramitas, Responsiveness, Stoicism, Taoism
This session ended up being a journey into a lot of topics with quite a lot of musing and meandering through Buddhism, Taoism, Nietzsche, and Stoicism. May it provide benefit to those who listen to it.
On the Way 
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