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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 197 (Sep 1, 2024) — Pride of Achievement, Integral Theory, Dharma Inquiry, & More
Sloww exists to share the art of living with students of life. The Sloww Sunday newsletter delivers my latest and greatest creations and curations to 10,000+ lifelong learners every week. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by sharing this newsletter with others.
🆕 New News
New Podcast with Life Itself
I chatted with Rufus Pollock of Life Itself in June, and the episode just went live! This is another wide-ranging conversation about my decade-long journey so far. If you’re newer around here, this would be a good intro and place to start: YouTube | Spotify | Apple
Also, be sure to check out the great work from Life Itself like their meta-crisis mapping projects and Second Renaissance project.
📚 Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development
Everything about Integral Theory
That’s a wrap on all things Integral Theory! I recently finished reading my 6th Ken Wilber book and synthesized everything here: 🔒Ken Wilber Synthesis: Everything about Integral Theory (10+ Visuals)
This is one of those posts that I feel like covers the cost of Sloww Premium all by itself. But, if you want to take a stab at piecing everything together on your own, here are the 6 individual book summaries:
- “The Integral Vision” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
- “A Brief History of Everything” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
- “A Theory of Everything” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
- “Integral Psychology” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
- “Integral Spirituality” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
- “Finding Radical Wholeness” by Ken Wilber (Book Summary)
🔒 Sloww Premium Deep Dive:
- Ken Wilber Synthesis: Everything about Integral Theory (10+ Visuals)
- Integral Psychology & Spirituality Synthesis: How to Develop Holistically with Ken Wilber (10+ Visuals)
- How to Wake Up with The Witness & One Taste from Ken Wilber (+ Infographic)
🌎 Lighter Living
Deeper Sleep Reader Recos
In the last newsletter, I asked for reader feedback about getting more REM and deep sleep—specifically, what tips, tricks, products, etc actually work in your real life. I’ve organized everything I received below. Please keep in mind the typical disclaimer when it comes to this stuff: this is not medical advice, I’m not a medical professional, yada yada.
- Physical: Daily exercise/movement, last meal 2+ hrs before bed, avoid alcohol/caffeine, “digital sunset” with no device blue light 1+ hrs before bed (increases your cortisol which reduces your melatonin), warm bath, go to bed early at a consistent bedtime (and wake time)
- Mental: Read, write random thoughts and to-dos before bed (get them out on paper), nervous system breathing techniques, Transcendental Meditation, Yoga Nidra on Insight Timer app
- Wearable: Blue light blocking glasses, Oura ring, sleep mask, earplugs, mouth tape
- Environmental: Blackout shades, cold temp, no electronics in bedroom
- Supplemental: Magnesium Glycinate (Pure Encapsulation), Magnesium Powder, SureSleep (DoNotAge), Sleep Soundly (Banyan Botanicals), SleepThru (Gaia Herbs), Inositol Powder, Kefir, Avoid Melatonin (leads to dependence)
Explore more: 100+ posts on Intentional Living (Sloww Stage 1)
🧭 Higher Purpose
Dharma Inquiry
I initially shared this article 4 years ago—all the way back in Sloww Sunday #031! I’m highlighting it again because Daniel Schmachtenberger recently updated it. It includes a list of prompts for inquiry and journaling that can offer insights into your unique life path. Here are 10 of the top questions from the list (in my opinion):
- Which issues in the world upset you the most?
- What do you see as most deeply wrong with or “off” in the world?
- What are the possible gifts associated with my greatest pains, failings, or flaws?
- What would I love to study just because it’s interesting? (+ If I was going to go back to school, what would I study?)
- What is my attention repeatedly called to? (+ What can I not not pay attention to?)
- What are you doing in your life and where is the motivation for that doing coming from?
- What do I enjoy doing for its own sake, independent of producing results or getting acknowledgement?
- What would you spend your time working on if you could succeed but no one would ever know that you did it?
- What are your actions in service of?
- What is more important to you than your own life?
Here’s the kicker: Then ask “why” to your answers to each of these questions, until you come to something that feels fundamental (also pair with the 5 whys).
“Dharma, as it is used here, means something like right relationship with Life … Dharma loosely relates to the English concepts/words of mission, purpose, ethics, virtue, character, integrity, vocation, calling, the good life, self-actualization and transcendence–but is not fully contained in any individual concept … Dharma involves your being, your doing, and your becoming … Our dharma is a continuous unfolding.” — Daniel Schmachtenberger
🔒 Sloww Premium Deep Dive:
Explore more: 50+ posts on Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)
🧠 Mental Mastery
Thought Experiment on 6-Pack Abs (or anything, really)
Superficially: You don’t see anyone holding a gun to my head coercing me to get 6-pack abs, nor do you see any physical condition preventing me from doing so. So, without any external or involuntary constraints, it appears that I’m free to pursue or not pursue getting 6-pack abs. And, you’d observe me not pursuing it, so you’d say I’m exercising my free will to not get a 6-pack. That it’s simply “up to me” what “I want to do,” and “I’m choosing not to pursue it.” Done deal.
But, let’s go deeper: First of all, the very thought about getting a 6-pack isn’t even something that seems to arise in my awareness for whatever reason (the only reason it’s in my mind right now is because it came up in conversation with someone and my mind—again not by choice of course—found it interesting that I don’t have thoughts about a 6-pack). Since it’s not a thought that arises, therefore it’s not something in my “conscious choice space” if you will.
- “If you pay attention to how thoughts arise, you’ll see that they simply appear—quite literally out of nowhere. And, you’re not free to choose them before they appear … Thoughts just emerge in consciousness. We are not authoring them. That would require that we think them before we think them. If you can’t control your next thought, and you don’t know what it’s going to be until it arises, where is your freedom of will?” — Sam Harris
Why doesn’t the thought about a 6-pack arise? Well, I guess because I don’t have a desire for it (desire pulls you along) nor am I suffering from not having it (suffering pushes you to change). Why don’t I have a desire for it? I don’t know. I could come up with a story about why I don’t have a desire for a 6-pack, but ultimately it ends in mystery. I certainly didn’t ever consciously choose to not have the desire. And, I’m not sure why mimetic desire doesn’t work on me, or why Instagram photos don’t influence me, etc.
- “You are free to do what you want, but where do your wants come from? … Where is the freedom in doing what one wants when one’s wants are the product of prior causes—which one cannot inspect, and therefore could not choose, and one had absolutely no hand in creating? … We can’t choose what we choose in life. When it seems that we choose what we choose, we don’t choose to choose what we choose.” — Sam Harris
What if I’d like to ‘want the want’ of a 6-pack? Well, that’s a problem too:
- “Suppose you do want to acquire a want you haven’t got. The question is, where did the first want—the want for a want—come from? It seems it was just there, just a given, not something you chose or engineered. It was just there, like most of your preferences … The question just re-arises: Where did that want come from? You certainly can’t go on like this forever. At some point your wants must be just given. They will be products of your genetic inheritance and upbringing that you had no say in. In other words, there’s a fundamental sense in which you did not and cannot make yourself the way you are.” — Galen Strawson
TLDR: Am I really free to pursue a 6-pack if the thought doesn’t arise and therefore isn’t in my “conscious choice space”—and even if the thought did arise, am I really free to pursue a 6-pack if I lack the necessary desire, intrinsic/extrinsic motivation, etc (which were not free choices I ever made in the first place)?
Note: You can perform this same thought experiment by inserting anything you’d like in the place of “6-pack abs.”
🔒 Sloww Premium Deep Dive:
- Is Free Thinking Even Possible?
- Is Ultimate Moral Responsibility a Myth?
- What’s our Problem with (Mis)Attribution of Agency?
Explore more: 75+ posts on Mental Mastery (Sloww Stage 3)
☯️ Spiritual Seeing
On the (Misguided) Pride of Achievement
I love chapter 1, titled “Pride of Achievement,” from the book Pointers From Nisargadatta Maharaj. Here’s a short excerpt: The Misguided Pride of Achievement (Nisargadatta Maharaj Teaching Pointer)
One thing to note is that this is inspired by Nisargadatta Maharaj’s teachings but written by Ramesh Balsekar and edited by Sudhakar Dikshit. So, it should not be referenced as direct verbatim quotes from Nisargadatta Maharaj. Still a very potent pointer:
“Is it not that very infinitesimally tiny sperm cell which is now so proud of his achievements? … Do think along these lines. Then perhaps you will have some idea of your true identity. Thereafter, consider if you could possibly be proud of what you have ‘achieved.'”
🔒 Sloww Premium Deep Dive:
Explore more: 75+ posts on Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)
💬 Wise Words
“The cultural center of gravity acts as a pacer of development—a magnet—pulling you up to the average expectable level of consciousness development. Beyond that, you’re on your own, and lots of luck, because now the magnet will try to drag you down.” — Ken Wilber
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All the best,
Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
