This site discusses psychology, philosophy, and spirituality as an investigation of human life.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
14 Oct 2021 3 Comments
in Letting Go, Loss, Love, Narratives, Philosophy Riffing Tags: Buber, Compassion, Concepts, Courage, German, I-You, Nena, Nietzsche, Plato, Recording, Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior, Stanley Cavell - The Claim of Reason, Wittgenstein
Here is the second birthday creative gift post for myself. I’ve gotten responses from multiple people that they liked my posts of audio clips and wished I would do something more intentional or even more like a podcast. I attempted that last night with a general theme of “Liebe wird aus Mut gemacht” – “Love is made out of courage”. This almost hour-long first attempt at this kind of post is very much philosophy riffing and shared experience. I hope that people enjoy it as much as I enjoyed recording it.
NOTE: One detail I got wrong multiple times early in the recording – the dialogue I mention is Plato’s Phaedrus, not Phaedo. I tend to get those two dialogues’ titles mixed up in my mind, and it’s been years since I’ve read either.
Please give me any feedback on whether you enjoy this post or have themes you’d like me to explore in the future. Furthermore, let me know if you like the riffing style or would prefer something more structured! I’d love any feedback to consider whether to do more of this in the future and how best to go about it.
Previous post on Love and Language
Post from my other blog with some related analysis regarding experiences of love and language in relation to post-rock
On the Way 
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