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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 166 (Dec 17, 2023) — Million More Steps, Inquiry as Passion, Choice Thought Experiment, & More
Sloww Sunday shares my latest and greatest creations and curations to 10,000+ students of life. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding the email version of this newsletter to other lifelong learners.
📘🌀 Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development
Can inquiry be a passion?
In the West, most people don’t think of thinking as a passion because there’s a far bigger emphasis/bias on action (and most don’t consider thinking an action). If I recall correctly, my epiphany that thinking itself could be a passion came from the insightfully titled book Ken Wilber: Thought As Passion by Frank Visser. In the book, Wilber is quoted as saying:
- “Basically I’m just a thinker. And because I had some new ideas, relatively interesting ideas, I felt I should communicate them. And to communicate them I had to write them down. But I didn’t particularly enjoy that part.”
For years now, I’ve been saying thinking is my primary passion. But, I realized something recently. I now see the limits of thinking. More importantly, I’m aware of the limits of the mind. What I’m actually passionate about is inquiring that transcends and includes thinking. Inquiring incorporates the investigative/thinking aspects as well as goes beyond thinking/mind (especially as it relates to self-inquiry).
Have you considered that thinking and/or inquiring may be your passion(s)?
Pair with:
- 50+ Quotes to inspire Inquiring Minds to start Questioning Everything
- 10 Deep Characteristics of Living Life as Inquiry
- 🔒 Living Inquiry Synthesis: 20 Characteristics of Living Life as Inquiry
Explore more: 50+ posts on Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development (Sloww Stage Support)
🌎 Lighter Living
Want to walk 1,000,000+ more steps next year?
I did test Wise Walks all week this week. I’m able to walk about 2 miles (3,500 steps) in 30 mins. If I do that every day of the 2024 leap year, that’s 732 extra miles (or 1,281,000 extra steps)!
Want to join a growing group of us who will be walking 1M+ extra steps next year? As a perk for those who sign up now, I’ve added a bonus week beginning next week on Dec 25th where we’ll explore Susanne Cook-Greuter’s incredibly life-changing work on ego development theory.
I also mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I’d share a list of female spiritual teachers. Here’s who I’m currently considering for Wise Walk (final list TBD, but each week will rotate between male and female teachers): Tara Brach, Pema Chödrön, Sharon Salzberg, Joan Halifax, Byron Katie, Gangaji, Joan Tollifson, Diane Musho Hamilton, Ellen Emmet, Shakti Caterina Maggi, Amoda Maa, Bernadette Roberts, Dorothy Hunt, Mukti, Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche, Pravrajika Divyanandaprana, Judith Blackstone, Miranda Macpherson, Cheri Huber, Neelam, Jac O’Keeffe, Cynthia Bourgeault, Sally Kempton, Soeng Hyang, Ganga Mira, Jessica Eve Nathanson.
Everything will be shared in a private space within the Sloww Society community for accountability and encouragement with your fellow wise walkers.
If you want to walk with friends/family or gift Wise Walk to others: Please let me know, and I’ll help you get everyone signed up (and can offer a discounted rate for 3+ people).
Explore more: 100+ posts on Intentional Living (Sloww Stage 1)
🧭 Higher Purpose
Have you read and tried Ikigai 2.0?
I’d love to hear from those of you who have read the Ikigai 2.0 ebook and tried to find purpose by following the model. Did it work for you? Please respond and let me know what you liked, didn’t like, etc. All feedback is welcome.
Explore more: 50+ posts on Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)
🧠 Mental Mastery
Are you ever free not to choose?
This short thought experiment from philosopher Galen Strawson shows why (in Jean-Paul Sartre’s words) we are condemned to be free (in other words, we aren’t free not to choose).
Here’s the beginning of the thought experiment, but check out the full post for more about determinism and moving beyond deep moral responsibility: Condemned to Choose: Cake vs Oxfam Thought Experiment (Galen Strawson Excerpts)
- “Suppose you arrive at a shop on the evening of a national holiday, intending to buy a cake with your last ten-dollar note to supplement the preparations you’ve already made. Everything is closing down. There’s one cake left in the shop; it costs ten dollars. On the steps of the shop someone is shaking an Oxfam tin—or someone is begging, someone who is clearly in distress. You stop, and it seems completely clear to you that it is entirely up to you what you do next. That is, it seems to you that you are truly, radically free to choose, in such a way that you will be ultimately morally responsible for whatever you do choose. You can put the money in the tin, or go in and buy the cake, or just walk away. You’re not only completely, radically free to choose in this situation. You’re not free not to choose (that’s how it feels). You’re ‘condemned to freedom,’ in Jean-Paul Sartre’s phrase. You’re fully and explicitly conscious of what the options are and you can’t escape that consciousness. You can’t somehow slip out of it.” — Galen Strawson
Pair with:
- Galen Strawson’s ‘Basic Argument’ against Ultimate Moral Responsibility
- 🔒 Is Ultimate Moral Responsibility a Myth?
Explore more: 75+ posts on Mental Mastery (Sloww Stage 3)
☯️ Spiritual Seeing
Ramana Maharshi on Free Will & God’s Will
This new post highlights 15+ Ramana Maharshi quotes on the doer, free will, & God’s will. The quotes are currently curated from Be As You Are edited by David Godman (Book Summary), The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words edited by Arthur Osborne, and Who am I? The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi (Book Summary).
- “The radio sings and speaks, but if you open it you will find no one inside. Similarly, my existence is like the space; though this body speaks like the radio, there is no one inside as a doer … The present difficulty is that man thinks he is the doer. But it is a mistake. It is the higher power which does everything and man is only a tool. If he accepts that position he is free from troubles, otherwise he courts them … Find out to whom free will or destiny matters. Find out where they come from, and abide in their source. If you do this, both of them are transcended. That is the only purpose of discussing these questions. To whom do these questions arise? Find out and be at peace.” — Ramana Maharshi
Pair with: 🔒 How to Practice Self-Enquiry with “Be As You Are” by Ramana Maharshi (+ Infographic)
Explore more: 50+ posts on Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)
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All the best,
Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
