3 Comments
Sep 17, 2022Liked by Wabi Sabi

"Someone who aims for pleasure and doesn’t get it feels temporarily put out, but someone who wants to make a difference but can’t feels deeply, permanently stuck."

this struck with me.

"joy is about being alive"

I think people that have been through, rough, maybe even near death experiences make more sense out of it.

"Joy isn’t compromised by anxiety about the future, because it knows that by the time “then” arrives it’ll be “now” anyway,"

I'm intrigued by your wisdom, this exact part about 'future' being 'now' when it eventually arrives is a fundamental teaching of the Landmark Forum, the essence of the event is to be in the present and focus on what can be done in the present, summing it up perhaps is unfair since there is more to the program than that.

The final part of this piece reminds me of a tao monk who said something along the lines to be "absolutely useless" i'm starting to think that being joyful is what he meant.

I wonder if there's a Doubting Fred in everyone.

Excellent piece, I however have a request, what are/is the top book(s) that left a lasting impression on you?

Expand full comment
author

I hadn't heard of the Forum Vin - just looked it up, intriguing. I'm definitely highly influenced by Taoist thought on uselessness, simplicity and "doing without doing". My belief that past, present and future co-exist in a sort of eternal now is indebted to Buddhism, the thought of Ram Dass and - especially - the work of Hermann Hesse. Hesse's Siddhartha is the only novel that I can genuinely say changed my life - I divide my life into before reading it and after, and this blog wouldn't exist without it.

As for Doubting Fred, he owes his existence to the late Norm Macdonald. No-one funnier, may he rest in peace.

Expand full comment
Sep 21, 2022Liked by Wabi Sabi

I'll put that on my reading list, from what I sense from your experience, I think it may have a profound impression on me too. Thank you for sharing, much appreciated!

Expand full comment