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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 215 (Apr 13, 2025) — The Unconscious, Selfish Selflessness, Nondual Varieties, & More
The Sloww Sunday newsletter sends to 10,000+ readers slowing down to the wisdom within. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding this newsletter to others.
New to Sloww? Here’s what it’s about in a nutshell (which mirrors the newsletter sections below):
🎙️ New from Naval
Naval Ravikant is back for his first long-form podcast in a long time. While I haven’t followed him for a few years now, it was good to hear how some of his thinking has evolved:
If you’re new to Naval, I have you covered:
- Naval Ravikant: 15 Timeless Thoughts & 50 Naval Quotes on Peace, Happiness, the Meaning of Life, & More
- “How to Get Rich (without getting lucky)” by Naval Ravikant (Summary & Infographic)
- “The Almanack of Naval Ravikant” (Book Summary)
- 🔒 Sloww Premium members can skip ahead to the ultimate guide: Naval Ravikant Synthesis: How to Build Wealth by Being Yourself (+ Infographics)
0️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development (Sloww Stage Support)
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🙏 The Story of Socrates at the Market
A good approach to intentional living is to always remember the story of Socrates in the marketplace. Here’s one version by Anthony de Mello:
- “True philosopher that he was, Socrates believed that the wise person would instinctively lead a frugal life. He himself would not even wear shoes; yet he constantly fell under the spell of the marketplace and would go there often to look at all the wares on display. When one of his friends asked why, Socrates said, ‘I love to go there and discover how many things I am perfectly happy without.'”
1️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Intentional Living (Sloww Stage 1)
😃 Featured Product: The Hierarchy of Happiness: 100+ Powerful Perspectives on How to be Happy (Free eBook)
🤔 Selfishness is Selflessness?
This is a hard lesson for many to wrap their heads around, so I put together this handy guide to walk through it: Can you be Selfish AND Save the World? (🔒)
Some highlights:
- “‘Modern culture is pervaded by a taboo on selfishness,’ wrote Erich Fromm in his 1939 essay ‘Selfishness and Self-Love.’ Fromm notes that this cultural taboo has had the unfortunate consequence of making people feel guilty for showing themselves healthy self-love and has even caused people to become ashamed of experiencing pleasure, health, and personal growth … It may seem paradoxical, but I also found that people who scored higher in healthy selfishness were more likely to care about others and report more growth-oriented motivations for helping others.” — Scott Barry Kaufman
- “The fully developed (and very fortunate) human being working under the best conditions tends to be motivated by values which transcend his self. They are not selfish anymore in the old sense of that term … Self-actualizing people are simultaneously the most individualistic and the most altruistic and social and loving of all human beings. The fact that we have in our culture put these qualities at opposite ends of a single continuum is apparently a mistake that must now be corrected … The mutual exclusiveness between selfishness and unselfishness has disappeared. What is good for us is good for everyone else … seeking our own (highest) good is also seeking the general good … If you are doing the work that you love and are devoted to the value that you hold highest, you are being as selfish as possible, and yet are also being unselfish and altruistic.” — Abraham Maslow
- “Contrary to the conventions of our thinly moralistic culture, this emphasis on gladness and selfhood is not selfish … The ancient human question ‘Who am l?’ leads inevitably to the equally important question ‘Whose am l?’—for there is no selfhood outside of relationship … Go far enough on the inner journey, they all tell us—go past ego toward true self—and you end up not lost in narcissism but returning to the world, bearing more gracefully the responsibilities that come with being human … Self-care is never a selfish act—it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer to others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give it the care it requires, we do so not only for ourselves but for the many others whose lives we touch … When the gift I give to the other is integral to my own nature, when it comes from a place of organic reality within me, it will renew itself—and me—even as I give it away … I now know that anything one can do on behalf of true self is done ultimately in the service of others.” — Parker J. Palmer
2️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)
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🧠 Depths of the Unconscious
The previous newsletter covered Carl Jung’s thoughts on ‘psychic danger’ and ‘psychic epidemics’. I recently started exploring Jung with this long-form interview from 1957 (here are the top quotes), and I now have five of his books on my reading list:
- Modern Man in Search of a Soul
- Memories, Dreams, Reflections
- The Undiscovered Self
- Man and His Symbols
- The Red Book (there’s also a recent release called The Black Books)
Here are some initial things I found interesting from Jung about the unconscious:
The Unconscious: The unconscious is real and works by itself. It’s capable of independent action and autonomous intrusions into consciousness at any time it pleases. It can create the most horrible disturbances and determine human behavior to a very considerable degree. Any amount of unconscious things occur in our conscious condition.
- “This is very uncomfortable because I think I am the only master in my house, but I must admit that there is another—somebody in that house that can play tricks.” — Carl Jung
The Problem: The world hangs on a thin thread, and that is the psyche of man—which we know far too little about. The only real danger that exists is ourselves—the supreme danger is a psychic danger—and we are pitifully unaware of it. There is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics.
- “You are far ahead in America with technological things, but in psychological matters and such things you are 50 years back!” — Carl Jung
The Solution: The investigation of the psyche is the science of the future—the science we need most. The future will be decided by the psychic changes in humanity. Humanity’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious—our destiny is to create more and more consciousness.
- “The unconscious of man can reach God knows where—there we are going to make discoveries.” — Carl Jung
3️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Mental Mastery (Sloww Stage 3)
🧠 Featured Product: Mini Mind: 365 Days of Bite-Size Brain Food
☯️ What do you mean by ‘nonduality’?
If you’re into nonduality, what flavor(s) of it are you into? Did you even know there were flavors of nonduality? More specifically, Sean Esbjörn-Hargens has found at least 40 varieties of nonduality! He just wrapped up his second online course (I’m not affiliated) and is writing a book on the subject. Check out the podcast below for a great overview.
PS: Much of it comes down to various perspectives on the subject-object relationship (🔒).
Sean has also previously shared this breakdown which I found helpful:
4️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)
👣 Featured Product: Wise Walk: 365 Days of Enlightening Exercise
R. D. Laing from The Politics of Experience:
- “We can see other people’s behaviour, but not their experience … I see you, and you see me. I experience you, and you experience me. I see your behaviour. You see my behaviour. But I do not and never have and never will see your experience of me. Just as you cannot ‘see’ my experience of you.” — R. D. Laing
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All the best,
Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
