Philosophical Exercises

The jhanas are a series of blissful altered states of consciousness, achieved in sequence, in the context of the Buddhist spiritual exercise of Jhana meditation. They are mind-blowing. I am documenting my journey as I try to achieve them all. This blog post was originally a Bluesky thread. Please forgive the unusual format: life has been hectic and I found that this helped to get over my writer's block.  Picture of a butterfly on a flower, against a spiral-based hypnotic background. Image by Linnaea Mallette. Found on public domain pictures dot net. The jhanas are as difficult to achieve as learning a second langage, which is to say: tricky, yes, but not impossible, & infinitely rewarding. Every year, I spend the months of July and August trying to push the frontier of my ability with Jhana meditation. That quest makes me feel intensely alive. Jhana meditation consists in using steadfast concentration to achieve three things: 1️⃣ locating a sort of primal energetic joy alread...

The Dictionary of Relations created by Tsai Hsin-yun is a philosophical work of art, and more specifically, a phenomenological work of art, since indeed its aim is to mirror the necessary structure of subjective experience. In this way, it belongs in the same category as Sartre’s Nausea or Koltès’ In the Solitude of Cotton Fields. Yet, there is one crucial difference: it does not practice existential philosophy with words, but with drawn symbols. This is a tour de force many might think impossible, and yet it is plain to see on the page. Full transparency: I have worked on this project as a proofreader and as a translator of some of its introductory texts. I also received a free copy when I asked for one, after deciding on my own that I wanted to showcase this work of art on my blog. You are warned of the full context of my affection, and so now I can resume my enthusiasm: I would like to go into details as to why I think this work is so brilliant and interesting to think about. ...

 by Pierrick Simon (1 766 words) Willem van de Velde II (1633-1707) - Ships in a Storm “All-Divine have mercy! All-Divine have mercy!” frantically the two men prayed, swaying back and forth in their hiding spot. “ You two! Stop praying! It’s bad for morale!” yelled the Captain at the top of her lungs. No easy feat to be heard in the middle of the tempest rocking her ship. “ But… But… It’s a True Storm, Captain!” protested one praying crewmate. “ It’s not!” she snapped back “It’s a regular ass storm and we’re going to beat it.” The other praying crewmate , a foreigner who did not speak Sableonian very well, turned to his companion with eyes full of fright and screamed in his ear: “ Was ist ein ‘Ass Storm’ ?” The Captain groaned and plunged under the curtains of rain, leaving the two cowards behind. Looking out, she saw nothing but endless night, though naught but a few hours before the storm caught them in the middle of a sunny day. Suddenly, flashes of lightning within t...

Introducing new words into our vocabulary allows us to describe certain patterns of behaviour more effectively, but also to notice these patterns in the first place. Think, for example, of the effectiveness of the neologisms “mansplaining” or “sonder”. Words are so powerful that it is worthwhile to not limit ourselves to what is already in the dictionary. Instead we should dare to coin new terms that might change the discussions we can have. I propose that adopting “pangloss” as a verb can help us call out the attitude of those who uncritically assume that a thing must have a good reason for being the way that it is if the “competent authorities” have designed this thing. Costume design for a theatrical performance of Candide. It is a costume for Pangloss and a designer's note points to the hat and says "Change Hat (smaller)", another note below says "O.K". [see The Federal Theatre Project (FTP)] In his own words, Matt Colville is someone who seeks to “cha...