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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 095 (Feb 13, 2022) — Four Thousand Weeks, Noble Eightfold Path, Knowing the Meta-Crisis, & More
Happy Sunday!
Here’s the latest from Sloww along with the most interesting things I discovered last week. To respect your time and attention, every newsletter can be read in under 5 minutes. If you enjoy it, please take 5 seconds to forward the email version to some friends and family. 🙏
🌀 Sloww Stuff
🆕 Time Management for Mortals: “Four Thousand Weeks” by Oliver Burkeman (Book Summary)
If you live to be 80 years old, you get 4160 weeks of life. This book argues the perspective that mainstream time management as we know it has failed. If you’re a Premium member, I shared my personal thoughts and time management reading recommendations in the Sloww Society community.
“This book is an exploration of a saner way of relating to time and a toolbox of practical ideas for doing so, drawn from the work of philosophers, psychologists, and spiritual teachers who all rejected the struggle to dominate or master it. I believe it sketches a kind of life that’s vastly more peaceful and meaningful—while also, it turns out, being better for sustained productivity over the long haul.” — Oliver Burkeman
🌎 Modern Knowledge
Four Ways of Knowing the Meta-Crisis
15 mins | Perspectiva (YouTube)
Over the last couple years, I’ve become increasingly impressed with Jonathan Rowson’s work at Perspectiva—covering themes similar to Sloww like moving beyond consumerism, cultivating generalists who synthesize, embracing complexity & systems thinking, and much more. The video above is an extract from a recent full session at The Stoa. It connects the idea of the meta-crisis with John Vervaeke’s meta-theory of cognition in which we know phenomena in four main ways: propositionally, perspectively, procedurally, and participatively. To go deeper into the idea of the meta-crisis, check out the article Tasting the Pickle: Ten flavours of meta-crisis and the appetite for a new civilisation.
🔒 Premium members have access to a synthesis of meta-crisis resources in the Sloww Society community.
“We come to know who we are and what we most value by trying to bring about the world we want to live in.” — Jonathan Rowson
☯️ Timeless Wisdom
The Noble Eightfold Path
23 mins | Plum Village (YouTube)
Last week’s newsletter featured a short teaching on the Four Noble Truths from Thich Nhat Hanh—the Buddhist monk, peace activist, spiritual teacher, and prolific author who passed away recently at the age of 95. This week we’ll build upon that foundation with the Noble Eightfold Path.
Noble Eightfold Path:
1. Right View (free from all Wrong Views)
2. Right Thinking (understanding, compassion—no discrimination, no separation)
3. Right Speech (along with deep listening helps us restore communication)
4. Right Action (anything we do with our body that can support, protect, or save)
5. Right Livelihood (select a livelihood that goes along with non-discrimination, understanding, and compassion)
6. Right Diligence (remember to water your positive seeds daily and refrain from watering negative seeds)
7. Right Mindfulness (energy to help us in the here and now to live deeply)
8. Right Concentration (concentrating can help us make a breakthrough and to have the Right View)
“To think is already to act.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
🤯 Mind Expanding
Choose Your Own Micro or Macro Adventure
In the mood to go small or go big this week? How about both?
💡 New Learning
Spiritual but not religious
Wikipedia
· A life stance of spirituality that does not regard organized religion as the sole or most valuable means of furthering spiritual growth.
· Spirituality refers to the interior life of the individual (well-being of the “mind-body-spirit”); religion refers to organizational or communal dimensions.
💭 Deep Thought
Are you growing or diminishing?
· “Does this choice diminish me, or enlarge me?” — James Hollis
· “Choose uncomfortable enlargement over comfortable diminishment.” — Oliver Burkeman
· “To make the growth choice instead of the fear choice a dozen times a day is to move a dozen times a day toward self-actualization.” — Abraham Maslow
💬 Wise Words
This is my secret: I don’t mind what happens.
— Jiddu Krishnamurti
PS: This quote is often misinterpreted. Here’s a recent explanation I came across.
Sharing: If you enjoyed this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding the email version of this issue to some friends and family. It’s free for them to subscribe here.
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Feedback: Have something you want to say, or just want to say hi? It’s always greatly appreciated. Just send me an email or reach out socially.
Have an alive week!
Kyle Kowalski
Synthesizer & Solopreneur, Sloww
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