Category: philosophical counseling

• August 16, 2019

  Being Laced With

  The reality is that our selved experience is laced with dukkha. Dukkha, a Pali term used by the Buddha, refers to the basic unsatisfactoriness of experience, the feeling, as I’d say, of something being off, if only a little bit. When we say that “X is laced with Y,” we mean that Y occurs in small or…
• August 15, 2019

  Ecodharma And Our Climate Emergency

  During an interview with the Buddhist scholar David Loy yesterday, we were speaking about ecodharma, a neologism that tries to synthesize the teachings of the dharma with a commitment to ecological engagement. Loy thinks we have every reason to believe–and so he argues in his book Ecodharma–that we’re right in the thick of a climate…
• August 14, 2019

  What Wisdom Is

  The word wisdom is thrown around a lot these days, especially in business circles. This person is wise; that was a wise thing to do; what wise leadership; such wise counsel indeed. The explosion of interest in philosophy in Silicon Valley (I’m thinking of Stoicism, Buddhist philosophy, and to a lesser extent Aristotelianism but also of philosophically minded people like Paul Graham,…
• August 13, 2019

  This Is Contemplation

  “Always,” he said,”I’ve got to do this or that.” “Always,” he said, “what is next and what is next.”  “Always,” he said, “when I finish this or that, then I say to myself that I’ll be fulfilled.” “But,” he said,” I am not fulfilled and there is no peace.” Yes, because peace cannot be had…
• August 12, 2019

  Optimism Is Betrayal

  Let optimism be defined as faith that the future, individually or collectively, shall be better than the present situation. Then optimism, I say, is betrayal. When you’re a child, being optimistic is a legitimate pragmatic fudge. You often benefited from believing that the thing around the bend would lift you out of the funk, that your concerted…