Meandering Aspirations On A Wobbly Table Of Context
Behind-the-scenes meets work-in-progress for my book.
So, why did I decide to write a book?
Why does anyone, really?
I suppose it’s like Jeff Bezos and Amazon — a kind of regret minimization.
And then there’s this cognitive itch that I would like to scratch.
While I would have liked this post to be an orderly table of contents, instead I offer you a wobbly table of context, like one of those tables at a diner where one of the legs just won’t land flat no matter how much it is adjusted.
Start With Why
When I first mentioned this project, I was moved by the misfortune of one friend while simultaneously challenged by another.
In a sense, one aspect of this is to bring some measure of convergence to the default divergence of my mind — the inversion of the idea that one thinks before one writes. I hope to clarify my thinking through writing.
It is a kind of self-discovery, an attempt to take the threads accumulated over a lifetime and weave a tapestry of text in service to humanity.
I’m not even sure I can pull this off, but I feel I must try.
Inspirations
I would like my writing to sing with the poetry of The Prophet and the laconic wisdom of the Tao Te Ching.
I am moved by many of the wisdom traditions and wish to draw from as many as I can — in the spirit of Aldous Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy.
Of course, to have a chance of being perennial or engaging, there must be story, grounded in my own experiences as a musician, educator, autodidact, traveler and spiritual seeker. Fiction, non-fiction, or somewhere in-between remains to be determined.
I want to blend the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gita with the martial knowledge of Miyamoto’s Book Of Five Rings and The Art Of War; to marry 4E (or perhaps Vervaekian 6E) cognitive science with insights from polyvagal theory and trauma resolution.
While psychology is a relatively young science, it would be remiss to overlook findings of Big Five and g-factor, two of its most robust findings, while also incorporating psychology of the flow state from Czikszentmihalyi.
Integral theory and developmental psychology is fascinating to me and deserves inclusion as well.
These are some of my influences.
At its core, it is a philanthropic project.
Why philanthropy?
If we take the adage from Yehuda Berg about the value of compassion: “Hurt people, hurt people.”
Perhaps then the reverse is also true – healed people heal people. What is it to be healed? Health is wholeness, integration and flourishing. To undo the fragmentation and see through the fundamental illusion of our separation and disconnection – with ourselves, each other, the world, and the cosmos.
If our capacity to be human includes this capacity to suffer, then perhaps we also have the greatest power to cause and pass on this suffering.
Therefore, the greatest potential healing or reduction in suffering is addressing the human condition.
And perhaps it is all for naught – that it is a fool’s errand. That these problems are insoluble and unworkable.
Yet we are at a crossroads. Perhaps we have always been at a crossroads.
Each individual has this opportunity.
To abandon hope and succumb to darkness, nihilism and getting by. Perhaps hope is intrinsic to the human endeavor of not merely surviving, but thriving in prosperity.
What is it to be free?
How do we cultivate a culture that grows integrated humans capable of expressing themselves courageously without apology, ultimately in service to the public good while remaining true to their own nature?
It is a curious thing, human development. This progression from powerless infant to dependent child, at the whims of the world, transitioning to the individuating adolescent and adult discovering and navigating their place in the social hierarchy of their fellow humans and the natural world at large.
Childhood entails inevitable wounding which typically results in some combination of polarization (“I’ll never be like my mother!”) and imitation (“You’re just like your father!”). Maturation involves resolution of this wounding.
And if we are all bound by our shared mortal destiny of death and decay, what then is the point of our brief time here?
How best to make use of this precious allotment of our breaths and heartbeats?
Learning what kind of person you are and what gets in the way. Resolving and integrating it. Then expressing yourself as fully as you can.
If we have the power of gods, how do we develop and dovetail the wisdom of the gods to temper this precarious imbalance?
Humanity has harnessed the power of the atom and the bit, electricity, flight, connected the world digitally and conquered time and space at the global level with international flights and telecommunication networks. As I write machines of the utmost sophistication are being deployed that rival our greatest minds and are only continuing to iterate exponentially. There are many fears and hopes about this coming age of artificial intelligence.
What remains for the human enterprise?
While this may seem like a novel question, it is in fact very old.
Aristotle asks this in his Nicomachean Ethics – and the idea of arete, excellence or virtue speaks to this.
The concept of eudaimonia or well-being touches on this as well.
Then there is the somewhat analogous term dharma in Hinduism and Buddhism, one of four puruṣārtha (the others being artha (prosperity), kama (desire), and moksha (liberation).
What is uniquely human? What is the good life? How do we practice it, embody it and live it? Is there a way out and through the perennial problems that plague us all or are we merely doomed to repeat it ad infinitum?
Buckle up and stay tuned.
And what is left but to pray?
May Athena, Saraswati, Odin, Thoth, and all deities of wisdom from across history and culture bless this endeavor.
I humbly beseech thee for inspiration.
I aspire to become a vessel for divine wisdom, a conduit of knowledge that benefits humanity in this time of darkness, to be a beacon of hope amongst those who despair and an instrument of the peace that passeth understanding.
Man, I'm so excited to read your book! And this piece as a way to lay the foundations and justification is great. Loved how it "starts with why" and then meanders into the deepest parts of humanity, amazing! Also, saw this tweet recently that made me think of your book: https://twitter.com/nickgraynews/status/1651040340395040769
What you've laid out here perfectly matches what he's saying. Happy and excited to see how this progresses!
You just wrote your prologue or introduction it seems! I'd would totally buy this book if this were the first thing that I read!