For all the progress updates in one place:
Progress Update: September 2024
Here are the books I read/listened to for my research during September 2024
Ride the Tiger (Julius Evola)
Steppenwolf (Hermann Hesse)
The As If Principle
Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Carl Jung)
The Noonday Demon
Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?
The Consolations of Philosophy (Alain de Botton)
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone
Embracing Uncertainty
The Big Questions of Life (Om Swami)
What Are You Doing With Your Life (J. Krishnamurti)
Fear (Thich Nhat Hanh)
Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect
Dance First. Think Later.
Philosophy in 40 Ideas
Why Buddhism is True
The Meaning of Life
Heartbreak
The Consolation of Philosophy (Boethius)
A More Exciting Life
Lyrical and Critical Essays (Camus, only read selected essays)
Essays:
—On Self Respect by Joan Didion
—Nietzsche for Today by Julius Evola
Notes:
Nothing remarkable from this past week’s reading except for some passages from Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse—damn, he could write! Here’s a taste:
“A wild longing for strong emotions and sensations seethes in me, a rage against this toneless, flat, normal, and sterile life. I would rather feel burned by diabolic pain than to live a life of complacent mediocrity...For it is through the intensity of pain that one awakens to the fullness of life, transcending mere existence and rising to the realm of the soul’s deeper knowledge.”
• Almost all books from this past week were good. “The Noonday Demon” had some of the most moving accounts of going through depression I’ve ever read. It’s an emotionally heavy read, but worth it.
• “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” has a concept I’ve never seen before: the book follows the author, a therapist, as she helps her patients while simultaneously working on her own issues with her therapist. It was an insightful journey into psychotherapy from the perspective of someone who has been both a practitioner and a patient.
• “The Consolations of Philosophy” has a section on Montaigne and one on Nietzsche that were a joy to read. Alain de Botton is a great writer who keeps you engaged throughout.
• Nothing great this past week, but here are a few notes. I read “Social” because the philosophies I like most focus on the individual and are often criticized for not having a more social dimension. My thinking is also centered on the individual, but I wanted to take a closer look at the influence of social life on our psychology. It was worth the read for the research.
• On a different note, although I am not a fan of Krishnamurti and read him only to get an overview of his thinking, I enjoyed his criticism of reincarnation as another form of immortality delusion and of mainstream meditation as a distraction from real introspection and mindfulness. It was surprising to read those positions, given that he has many Buddhist undertones.
• Another book worth mentioning is “The Consolation of Philosophy” by Boethius. It was not an easy style to get through, but the book’s value lies in the context in which it was written.
Boethius had a reputation as the most accomplished man of his time (~500 AD). He was a statesman, musician, poet, and philosopher. He also had status, power, wealth, good friends, and a loving family. Within a year, his life took a drastic turn, and he found himself in a cell awaiting his execution, stripped of titles, wealth, and separated from friends and family. It was not his fault, it was simply the twists and turns of fate.
It is in this context that Boethius turns to philosophy for consolation. His writings are an emotionally charged introspection on how to interpret events in our lives. It’s worth the read if only to feel that you are giving company to this poor soul thrashed around by the whims of fortune, going from being on top of the world to facing an untimely and unjust violent death.
We are all Boethius, at the mercy of forces we can’t control and with no guarantee of how long our good times will last...or how drastically they will turn. His story is our story, and just for that reason, we should read his thoughts.
There wasn’t a book this week that I would highly recommend, but I got a lot of good bits and pieces from all of them. I especially liked reading “A More Exciting Life” by Alain de Botton. Alain is a great writer and deep thinker who can take complex subjects and make them accessible.