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books

  • Showing-Up for Emptiness: Excellence Between Obsession and Apathy

    The concept of “showing-up” emphasizes active existence over passive presence. It involves intentional engagement with the world, others, and oneself. By exploring the balance between appetite, emotion, and intellect through the lens of askēsis, individuals can cultivate a deeper, responsive… Continue reading

    Showing-Up for Emptiness: Excellence Between Obsession and Apathy

  • The Limits of Jaspersian Patience

    Philosophical faith and dialogue might seem hopelessly inadequate. “Playing the long game” can also feel inadequate when people are being threatened, disappeared, or killed.  Here I attempt to outline why Jaspers was no fool about this. Continue reading

    The Limits of Jaspersian Patience

  • Philosophical Faith in the World: Neither Sinner nor Consumer

    Karl Jaspers small text provides us in 2025 with a manual of quiet defiance. For queer and other marginalized thinkers, educators, counselors, and all who remain exposed in the neoliberal storm winds, Jaspers offers us Way to reassert the soft power… Continue reading

    Philosophical Faith in the World: Neither Sinner nor Consumer

  • Health as Shame Generator

    Lots of shame comes out of the Health Industrial Complex. Whether it’s a physician measuring your failure in pounds or a fitness guru manipulating your desire to “look fit and attractive,” shame plays a HUGE role in keeping most people… Continue reading

    Health as Shame Generator

  • Travis Wright reviews Latour’s Down to Earth

    Bruno Latour’s Down to Earth is, functionally, a call to rethink and re-describe our political reality in accordance with the changing forces that shape it. Latour lays out his argument in 20 brief sections, each deceptively quick to read. Section… Continue reading

  • licking fingers, touching pages

    a civilization of fetishists not surprising really see how we treat the book as idol the paragraph the sentence the phrase the word and yet we wonder how could people commodify and even fuck clothing shoes cars but it is… Continue reading

    licking fingers, touching pages

  • A Shot And A Book: How To Read In Bars : NPR

    Reading requires — especially today — intense discipline and the capacity to sit still and engage. It’s a skill you can develop, this quieting of the mind. Some books make it easier than others, sure, but the fact remains: A… Continue reading

    A Shot And A Book: How To Read In Bars : NPR

  • These are words that go together well – confused of calcutta

    Wonderful book review that becomes a thoughtful piece on translation. Translators do a very hard job, and are often underappreciated. We take them for granted. Yet they perform a very important function, expressing something from one language into another, switching… Continue reading

    These are words that go together well – confused of calcutta

  • World’s greatest bookshops | Lonely Planet

    Bookshops are a traveller’s best friend: they provide convenient shelter and diversion in bad weather, they’re a reliable source of maps, notebooks, and travel guides, they often host readings and other cultural events, and if you raced through your lone… Continue reading

    World’s greatest bookshops | Lonely Planet

  • The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish – Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic

    …Last year I wrote about some very interesting research being done by Paul J. Heald at the University of Illinois, based on software that crawled Amazon for a random selection of books. At the time, his results were only preliminary,… Continue reading

    The Hole in Our Collective Memory: How Copyright Made Mid-Century Books Vanish – Rebecca J. Rosen – The Atlantic

  • The Last Words of Hassan i Sabbah | Burroughs

    Okay. Another video from William S. Burroughs. But look here: NSFW. This is an example of the cut-up technique developed by Brion Gysin and perfected by Burroughs. It does not necessarily make complete sense. But it is very cool. And… Continue reading

    The Last Words of Hassan i Sabbah | Burroughs

  • When Did I Stop Wanting to Be President?

    Originally an essay, here Burroughs answers the question talking about his boyhood and early flirtations with the idea of political power, describing a potential panorama of a glorious career as a commissioner…. Related articles Naked Lunch (myoldaddiction2.wordpress.com) William S. Burroughs:… Continue reading

    When Did I Stop Wanting to Be President?

  • Zen Gateway Online

    A brief guide to The Zen Gateway website – the online community for Chan/Zen Buddhism. via Zen Gateway Related articles Learning To Live In The Moment With ‘The Dude’ (wnyc.org) Hakuin: The sight of one hand clapping (japantimes.co.jp) Temple teaches… Continue reading

    Zen Gateway Online

  • Along the Great Way

    “If you do not change direction, you may end up where you are heading.” – Laozi “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” – Buddha “Oh beloved Phaedrus, where are you going & from whence do you come?”… Continue reading

  • The Socratic Sign

    There comes a time when you notice that a good swathe of your contemporaries are only worth engaging in order to sharpen your rhetorical weapons. To improve your mindful practice, you must turn to those much younger who recover within… Continue reading

  • Young people are screwed… Here’s how to survive

    Wow. This is a really good piece that is totally worth a read. And then a reread. And then maybe a further read. If you are someone who entered adulthood in the last few years, you are a Generation Y… Continue reading

    Young people are screwed… Here’s how to survive

  • Los Angeles Review of Books – Philosophy As An Art Of Living

    A really nice set of book reviews for some texts I would recommend myself. Along with Pierre Hadot’s Philosohpy as a Way of Life, these are the kinds of texts people should be looking into for changing themselves. As the reviewer… Continue reading