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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 211 (Feb 16, 2025) — Slow Down to See, Whole Brain Living, What is Vedanta, & More
The Sloww Sunday newsletter sends to 10,000+ readers slowing down to the wisdom within and downshifting into deeper living. 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):
🌀 Top 5 Life Lessons from Abraham Maslow
In case you missed it, the last several newsletters covered all things Abraham Maslow: his late-life thinking, self-actualization, transcendence, and more. Now, we’ll wrap up with some of my favorite Maslow learnings about the highest stages of human development:
1. Maslow says ‘all such people,’ ‘in all cases,’ and ‘without one single exception’ that the most developed humans are involved in a cause outside themselves:
- “In examining self-actualizing people directly, I find that in all cases, at least in our culture, they are dedicated people, devoted to some task ‘outside themselves,’ some vocation, or duty, or beloved job. Generally the devotion and dedication is so marked that one can fairly use the old words vocation, calling, or mission … Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves … Offering oneself or dedicating oneself upon some altar for some particular task, some cause outside oneself and bigger than oneself.” — Maslow
2. It takes a strong self to transcend the self:
- “The best way to transcend the ego is via having a strong identity … Transcendence of self—living at the level of Being—is assumed to be most possible for the person with a strong and free identity … (Self-actualization) paradoxically makes more possible the transcendence of self … (Self-actualization is a) transitional goal, a rite of passage, a step along the path to the transcendence of identity … The greatest attainment of identity, autonomy, or selfhood is itself simultaneously a transcending of itself, a going beyond and above selfhood.” — Maslow
3. You can transcend the selfish-unselfish dichotomy (what Maslow calls ‘synergy’):
- “Synergy transcends the dichotomy between selfishness and unselfishness … The fact is that self-actualizing people are simultaneously the most individualistic and the most altruistic and social and loving of all human beings … 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.” — Maslow
4. You can transcend the work-play dichotomy (so it’s all intrinsically rewarding, and you are ‘metapaid’):
- “The most beautiful fate, the most wonderful good fortune that can happen to any human being, is to be paid for doing that which he passionately loves to do … A large proportion of self-actualizing people have probably fused work and play, i.e., they love their work … Self-actualizing work or B-work (work at the level of being), being its own intrinsic reward, transforms the money or paycheck into a byproduct, an epiphenomenon … What is crucially important is the fact itself that there are many kinds of pay other than money pay, that money as such steadily recedes in importance with increasing affluence and with increasing maturity of character, while higher forms of pay and metapay steadily increase in importance.” — Maslow
5. You can transcend the free will-determinism dichotomy (Maslow often references Spinoza and Taoism here):
- “At level of metamotivation, one freely, happily, and wholeheartedly embraces one’s determinants. One chooses and wills one’s fate, not reluctantly…but lovingly and enthusiastically. And the greater the insight, the more ‘ego-syntonic’ is this fusion of free will and determinism … Transcendence of one’s own will (in favor of the spirit of ‘not my will be done but Thine’). To yield to one’s destiny or fate and to fuse with it, to love it in the Spinoza sense or in the Taoistic sense. To embrace, lovingly, one’s own destiny. This is a rising above one’s own personal will, being in charge, taking control, needing control, etc … The Taoistic feeling of letting things happen rather than making them happen, and of being perfectly happy and accepting of this state of nonstriving, nonwishing, noninterfering, noncontrolling, nonwilling … More apt to regard themselves as carriers of talent, instruments of the transpersonal, temporary custodians so to speak of a greater intelligence.” — Maslow
The Ultimate Guide to Abraham Maslow:
- “The Farther Reaches of Human Nature” by Abraham Maslow (Book Summary)
- Maslow’s Holarchy of Needs: Should the Hierarchy of Needs Pyramid be Redesigned?
- What is Self-Actualization? Here’s what Maslow said about Self-Actualizers
- 🔒 Self-Actualization Synthesis: How to be a Healthy Self-Actualizer with Maslow (+ 2 Infographics)
- 🔒 Behind the Scenes: My Self-Actualization Self-Assessment
- What is Transcendence? The True Top of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
- 24 Characteristics of the Self-Actualizing Transcender (Maslow Theory Z Summary)
- 🔒 Transcendence Synthesis: How to be a Self-Actualizing Transcender with Maslow (+ Infographic)
0️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development (Sloww Stage Support)
🧠 Featured Product: Synthesizer Course: The Flagship Course for Synthesizing Minds
👀 Slow Down to See
In the very early days of Sloww, I read the book The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down by Haemin Sunim (Summary | Amazon). So, it was especially fun to revisit my notes and see what quotes resonate the most years later:
- “Why am I so busy? When everything around me is moving so fast, I stop and ask, ‘Is it the world that’s busy, or is it my mind?’ … It isn’t the outside world that is a whirlwind; it is only my mind. The world has never complained about how busy it is … The wise do not fight the world. In the most relaxed and playful manner, they simply embody the truth that they are one with it.” — Haemin Sunim
- “When you are so busy that you feel perpetually chased, when worrying thoughts circle your head, when the future seems dark and uncertain, when you are hurt by what someone has said, slow down, even if only for a moment. Bring all of your awareness into the present and take a deep breath … In the stillness of the pause, the entirety of our being is quietly revealed … Wisdom is not something we have to strive to acquire. Rather, it arises naturally as we slow down and notice what is already there.” — Haemin Sunim
- “If I had to summarize the entirety of most people’s lives in a few words, it would be endless resistance to what is. As we resist, we are in constant motion trying to adjust, and yet we still remain unhappy about what is … If I had to summarize the entirety of an enlightened person’s life in a few words, it would be complete acceptance of what is. As we accept what is, our minds are relaxed and composed while the world changes rapidly around us.” — Haemin Sunim
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)
🧭 Top 5 Life Lessons from Viktor Frankl
Similar to Maslow above, the last couple newsletters covered all things Viktor Frankl. So, we’ll do the same here and wrap up:
1. Survival needs a ‘why’:
- “The truth is that as the struggle for survival has subsided, the question has emerged: survival for what? Ever more people today have the means to live, but no meaning to live for … The question was not just survival, but there had to be a ‘why’ of survival … There is much wisdom in the words of Nietzsche: ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’” — Viktor Frankl
2. If all else fails, your final freedom is choosing your attitude:
- “No matter the circumstance, you always have the last of the human freedoms: to choose your attitude … The ultimate freedom is always, and remains always, reserved to ourselves. That is the freedom to take a stand to whatever conditions might confront us. How we react to the unchangeable conditions is up to ourselves. In other words, if we cannot change a situation, we have always the last freedom to change our attitude to that situation.” — Viktor Frankl
3. You don’t ask the questions, life does:
- “The question can no longer be ‘What can I expect from life?’ but can now only be ‘What does life expect of me?’ … Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.” — Viktor Frankl
4. Success, happiness, and self-actualization are all byproducts / side effects:
- “Success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side-effect of one’s dedication to a cause greater than oneself or as the by-product of one’s surrender to a person other than oneself … The less you care for happiness, for self-actualization, and so forth—the more you give yourself and forget yourself—the more you are fully human and you become fully yourself … Self-actualization is possible only as a side-effect of self-transcendence.” — Viktor Frankl
5. Everything you do is ‘saved into reality’ for eternity:
- “In the past nothing is lost, but on the contrary, everything is stored forever. It is not annihilated by transitoriness, but on the contrary, it is becoming preserved forever. Something you have done can never be undone … What you have done has been done forever—in both a negative and a positive way—it cannot be undone. The past is a storehouse of what you have done, what you have experienced, what you have gone through—and what you have done out of all the negative and tragic aspects encountered within your life.” — Viktor Frankl
The Ultimate Guide to Viktor Frankl:
- 50+ Viktor Frankl Quotes on Meaning, Survival, & Self-Actualization
- 10 Purposeful Themes & 25 Top Quotes from “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl
- “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl (Book Summary)
- 🔒 How to Find Meaning in Life with “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor Frankl (+ 2 Infographics)
- “Yes to Life” by Viktor Frankl (Book Summary)
- 🔒 How to Live Meaningfully No Matter What with “Yes to Life” by Viktor Frankl (+ Infographic)
2️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)
🧭 Featured Product: Ikigai 2.0: A Step-by-Step Guidebook to Finding Life Purpose & Making Money Meaningfully (+ Bonus Workbook)
🧠 Four Characters of Whole Brain Living
The most recent week of Wise Walk featured Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor. The unique combination of her personal experience (left hemisphere stroke survivor) and professional expertise (cellular neuroanatomist) makes for some incredible insights. If you aren’t familiar with her, she gave the first-ever viral TED Talk. More recently, she wrote a book called Whole Brain Living (Summary | Amazon) which highlights the so-called ‘four characters’ of the brain:
This quote is still one of my favorites from the book:
- “Pre-stroke, I had known who I was because there had been a group of cells in my left brain that manufactured my identity as Jill Bolte Taylor. These cells that made up my left-brain ego-center knew who I was, where I lived, and tons of other details like what my favorite color was. These ego-center cells had worked day in and day out to keep me abreast of all the tidbits, details, memories, and likes and dislikes that had made up my identity. I, Jill Bolte Taylor, existed because the cells in my left-brain ego-center told me I existed. When those cells of my left-brain ego-center shut down, and I shifted into the oblivion of my right brain, I had no idea who I was and I could not recall anything about my pre-stroke life. It was not as though I was missing a memory that I simply could not put my finger on; it was more like that memory (and I myself) had never existed at all. I know it’s a bit disconcerting to think that who we are is completely manufactured by a small group of cells in our left brain, and that we can lose ourselves at any moment, but that is exactly how fragile our ego identities are.” — Jill Bolte Taylor
3️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Mental Mastery (Sloww Stage 3)
🧠 Featured Product: Mini Mind: 365 Days of Bite-Size Brain Food
☯️ What is Vedanta?
Here’s a new summary of the short book What is Vedanta? by Swami Sarvapriyananda (Summary | Amazon). If you aren’t familiar with this excellent spiritual teacher, here are 50+ Swami Sarvapriyananda quotes on Advaita Vedanta, Reality, Self, & more.
One interesting thing he covers in the book is the difference between the two main spiritual approaches:
- God-centered spiritual approach: The search for God. If you ask the question, what is the reality about this universe – that is the search for ‘God’. The God-centered religions and mentality are likely to be dualistic, devotional, worship-oriented, and temple-church-mosque oriented. You are likely to see lots of worship, joyous celebrations, music, food etc. All the Abrahamic religions are God-centered, they are theistic religions.
- Self-centered spiritual approach: An inquiry into the self (‘What am I? or Who am I?’). If you ask the question, what is the reality about yourself – that is an inquiry into the individual. There are religions and systems like Buddhism, Jainism, Sankhya and Yoga that are based on Self-Inquiry. The religions based on Self-inquiry tend to be relatively more introspective. Think about Buddhism, it tends to be inquiry-based and meditative, rather than devotional. It tends to be a bit more intellectual, more monastic and more meditation-hall-oriented rather than temple-oriented.
So, what is Vedanta? The bringing together of both spiritual approaches:
- “The great insight of Advaita Vedanta is, the reality you reach through the God-centered approach, and the reality you reach through the Self-inquiry approach, is exactly the same reality. By bringing them together, the stunning insight is that indubitable personal existence is also the infinitude of God (tat tvam asi, ‘that thou art’, Atman is Brahman). The unproblematic, infinite nature of God and the indubitable certain existence of the self are brought together.” — Swami Sarvapriyananda
4️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)
👣 Featured Product: Wise Walk: 365 Days of Enlightening Exercise
“Spirituality is something like when you close your eyes, you find peace within, and when you open your eyes, your attitude is what can I do for you.” — Swami Ranganathananda
Explained by Swami Sarvapriyananda:
- “The whole idea of ‘tat tvam asi’ (that thou art / you are that) as the oneness of the universe and the divinity within, is expressed in this statement. When I close my eyes, I feel the divinity within and I find peace, when I open my eyes, the same divinity exists outside, so of course I want to serve.” — Swami Sarvapriyananda
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Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
