Edible enlightenment from our eatery experts and colleagues Richard Nalley, Monie Begley and Randall Lane, as well as brothers Bob, Kip and Tim.

Le Jardinier

610 Lexington Ave., at 53rd St. (Tel.: 212-451-9211)

Chef Alain Verzeroli is steeped in the luxury-food traditions of both France and Japan. His ground-floor restaurant's leafy plants and its marble walls and tabletops shot through with veins of green create an ultra-stylish and tranquil garden-like oasis. The menu's centerpiece is its use of seasonal fruits and vegetables. A prime example is the sensational watermelon, heirloom tomato, ginger and mint appetizer. But Verzeroli doesn't stint on his fish selections, such as the perfect king salmon with mushroom bouillon, or in his meat offerings, like the smoky, rich and toothsome bavette au jus. Desserts are superb. You may never taste a more mango-y mango than in his mangocrmeux with coconut sorbet.

Agern

Grand Central Terminal, 89 East 42nd St. (Tel.: 646-568-4018)

This Danish contemporary spot serves up seasonal fare with a Scandinavian flourish. (It also makes a great Cosmopolitan!) The beef tartare is as tasty as it is beautifully presented, and the succulent pork shoulder is particularly noteworthy. The chef even makes fava beans exciting. Desserts are good but are perhaps the weakest link in an otherwise perfect meal. One caught for a restaurant in a rail station: Service is surprisingly slow.

MomofukuSsm Bar

207 Second Ave., at 13th St.

Arguably the most influential restaurant from New York's most important restaurant group of the past decade,Ssm has a new chef and a new menu focused on Singapore street food, such as skate roasted in banana leaf. While you can still furtively order a pork bun, the culinary theatrics are largely gone. Diners have noticed: It's never been easier to score a table.

Mimi

185 Sullivan St., between Bleecker and West Houston streets (Tel.: 212-418-1260)

You can't go wrong with anything at this tiny Village eatery. The menu is French with an updated take on many classics. For a tasty surprise try the veal brain appetizer. The softshell crab is among the best you'll have had all season, and Goldilocks would declare the hanger steak "just right." If you choose the baba au rhum for dessert, you won't need an after-dinner drink.

More:
New York Eateries October 2019: Where To Go -- And Not - Forbes

The work of the School of Educations Felipe Gacharn and his brother, Carlos Eduardo Gacharn, is being showcased in the Academic Staff Art Gallery in Bascom Hall through January.

Their photography series is titled, Flow: The Art of Felipe and Carlos Eduardo Gacharn. An opening reception is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 14, from 2:45 to 3:30 p.m. The Academic Staff Art Gallery is housed in room 270 of Bascom Hall. The exhibit runs until January 2020.

The Office of the Secretary of the Academic Staff launched The Academic Staff Art Gallery in the 2010 to showcase talented artists from within the academic staff. Exhibits change on a semester by semester basis.

Describing the exhibit, Felipe explains that artists and scientists now share similar positions on the edge of human understanding.

While scientists aim to enlighten by deciphering quantitative data, artists delve into the ephemera of the human conscience in the hopes of inspiring others, says Felipe. But what if enlightenment and inspiration share more than it appears?

The Gacharn brothers, who were born in Colombia and are both UW-Madison alumni, explore this very question through their photography. They use high-powered black lights and special fluorescent dyes in an effort to capture the material nature of energy itself.

That eternal, ever-changing force that controls and composes the universe might have something to teach us about the fundamental human experience, says Felipe. What if society learned to embrace change and transformation, even in times of loss? 'Flow' poses the hypothesis that if we accept the transient nature of life, like energy itself, we might be better able to appreciate the beauty of a single moment. We hope you enjoy these works as opportunities for quiet reflection - on the universe, and yourselves.

Originally posted here:
'Flow: The Art of Felipe and Carlos Eduardo Gacharn' on display at Academic Staff Art Gallery - University of Wisconsin-Madison

Catherine the Great is a new mini-series exploring the life of the Russian ruler (played by Helen Mirren). Available to stream in full on Now TV, the show follows the life of the monarch, as well as her long-lasting love affair with Grigory Potemkin (Jason Clarke). Another interesting moment of her life is how she found herself as a pen-pal to French philosopher Voltaire - heres everything you need to know about that.

HBO and Sky mini-series Catherine the Great is currently airing on Sky Atlantic on Thursday evenings at 9pm.

The series is also available to stream on Now TV in full for subscribers to the platform.

The Helen Mirren-fronted show follows the later years of her rule, including the love she shared with Potemkin.

Based on the real story of the Russian monarch who ruled from 1762 until 1796, the series chronicles a number of events in her life.

READ MORE:Catherine the Great location: Where is series filmed?

However, one thing that was not really explored in the series was her intellectual friendship with French philosopher Voltaire.

Voltaire is best known as a French enlightenment writer and philosopher who was famous for his wit and advocacy for freedom of speech.

Across his life he wrote more than 20,000 letters to various people of note, including Catherine.

The pair had a long-lasting correspondence over her rule, which showed echoes of the friendship they had.

READ MORE:Catherine The Great: How queen had affairs despite Potemkin romance

They wrote to each other for 15 years before Voltaires death in 1778, with mutual admiration for their respective fields.

Voltaire in particular approved of Catherines secular policies, given his advocation for a separation between church and state.

Alongside this were a great deal of references to the classic wit of the philosopher who called her an enlightened despot in one of their exchanges.

He also wrote to her of his wish to have been part of the Russia that she created, according to the New York Times.

In a letter to the ruler, he reportedly one said to her "If I were younger I would make myself Russian.

READ MORE:Catherine The Great: Who was her husband? How did he really die?

Much of the show has been based on historical research, with many of the cast and creators studying her letters.

However, it is only in recent times that this correspondence has been made available for wider use.

For years it was kept in a private collection before it was sold by a Moscow art dealer who retuned it to Russia in 2006.

The mini-series also covers a number of real events that happened during her rule, including how her lover Potemkin lost his eye, as well as her liberal reforms.

Part of the purpose of the series is to portray an accurate representation of her life, aside from the rumours that plagued her legacy.

READ MORE:Catherine The Great: How did she die? Are horse sex rumours true?

She was often criticised for her sexual liberation, which was constantly used as a tool to tarnish her reputation by her rivals.

However, getting past some of these salacious tales to the real truth of her story was a big part of the new mini-series, according to fellow actor Gina McKee who played Countess Bruce.

She spoke to Express.co.uk and other media about this in an interview before the launch of the show.

McKee said: I think weve got to move away from that b*** s*** havent we?

The way powerful women were treated historically and even now - its got to be changed.

Catherine the Great is airing on Thursdays at 9pm on Sky Atlantic and is also all available to stream on NOW TV.

Read this article:
Catherine the Great: Did the Queen really know Voltaire? - Express

On the border between China and Pakistan exists the worlds second highest peak: K2. While Mt. Everest is higher, K2 is a far more deadly mountain. One in four people who attempt to summit K2 perish. One man attempted to summit the mountain twice, and found himself on a journey of adventure and self discovery.

Adrian Hayes was born in the New Forest National Park in the United Kingdom and is 60 years old, although he doesnt look it. The former British military special forces soldier has spent most of his life traveling abroad, and is an author, adventurer, and business coach.

Hayes started mountaineering at age 16, and learned early on by climbing in Scotland and the European Alps.

I had this dream as a young kid of being a mountaineer, Hayes told The Epoch Times.

After serving as a Gurkha officer for the British Army in Nepal, Hayes began climbing in the Himalayas. In 2006, he summited Mt. Everest.

While enduring the beginning of a personal crisis involving contact with his children and a battle with his ex-wife, Hayes decided to attempt K2.

I suppose the reasons that I went for it [were] born out of that need to avoid pain, Hayes explained.

Hayes was determined, and was convinced he would succeed in summiting K2. He admits, however, that he may have been a bit complacent going into the expedition.

The moment Hayes arrived in Islamabad, Pakistan in 2013 everything started to go wrong. First, he had to spend a week procuring the proper visa. The weather was terrible, and lots of climbers had recently been killed. Moreover, the Taliban had murdered 11 climbers at the base camp of the ninth highest peak in the world.

Despite the dangers, Hayes and 19 other climbers attempted to summit K2. The weather was too severe and 18 of the climbers including Hayes decided to turn around.

However, father and son Marty and Denali Schmidt, who Hayes had befriended, attempted to continue. Tragically, they were killed by an avalanche at camp three.

I literally sat on a rock two days before in tears that it was all over, probably because I knew I was going back to absolute chaos. When we heard that they had been killed, I sat on that rock again thinking My goodness, that was a reason [we came down],' Hayes recalled.

When Hayes returned home, he sank into a deep depression. He had failed to summit K2, two of his friends had been killed, and his family strife continued. However, in 2014 Hayes was determined to try again. This time he was completely focused, and complacency didnt enter his mind.

Fortunately, on this second trip the weather was favorable. After acclimating to the altitude for four weeks, Hayes and the other climbers set out to summit K2 after they had waited for optimal weather conditions. The final push took seven days.

After reaching camp four on day four, they trekked through the night to reach the summit on day five before trekking down the last two days.

That fifth day is the biggie. Thats the one. Thats where youre going to make it, or youre going to get killed, Hayes explained.

When Hayes reached the summit of K2, there was a quick celebration of fists in the air and hugs. After about five minutes of taking pictures and congratulations, they had to descend as they were running out of oxygen and the weather was deteriorating.

On July 26, 2014 Hayes had successfully summited K2. Hayes was exhausted and starved of oxygen, but maintained his focus and made it down alive.

Throughout his experience attempting to summit K2 twice, Hayes learned a lot about life and himself. Firstly, Hayes learned that he and others climb mountains for themselves, the challenge, respect, and recognition. The expedition is not to raise money for charity or raise awareness for a cause, which is okay.

The second lesson Hayes took away was that we live in a world of information overload and social media.

When you go on these expeditions your mind goes on a different frequency. Your connection with nature. Your connection with the earth. Your awareness muscles. Your observation. Your problem solving muscles. Gut instinct. All these skills are being swamped by social media and screen time, and its a real struggle coming back, Hayes said.

Hayes also learned about the fundamental importance of teamwork and relationships, which helps him a lot with his work in team and leadership coaching. Hes also become more humble, and become better at gauging people and their intentions.

Two years after summiting K2, Marty Schmidts daughter encouraged Hayes to write One Mans Climb: A Journey of Trauma, Tragedy and Triumph on K2. Hayes discusses not just the climb itself, but his personal struggles and the lessons he learned from his two attempts to summit K2. The climb, his personal struggles, and writing the book taught Hayes a lot.

Through the depths of despair comes our greatest learning, Hayes said.

Follow this link:
Finding Enlightenment on the Summit of K2 - The Epoch Times

October 3 2019, 12:01am,The Times

Modern science may be on the brink of uncovering a trove of ancient wisdom

The Roman resort of Herculaneum once stood in the Bay of Naples. Like Pompeii, it was buried in volcanic ash by the catastrophic eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD79. In the mid-18th century workmen discovered the site, including the remains of a magnificent building thought to have been the residence of Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the father-in-law of Julius Caesar.

It has come to be known as the Villa of the Papyri, because it contained a library of some 2,000 papyrus scrolls. The volcano left them as blackened chars, yet new scientific techniques may now allow them to be read. And riches may lie in wait.

The scrolls have for 250 years resisted investigation because of their fragility. Any attempt to open them has destroyed

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The Times view on reading the scrolls of Herculaneum: Enlightenment Entombed - The Times

Photograph courtesy of The Black KeysMurder on the Orient Express

Agatha Christies murder mystery follows Hercule Poirot and the rest of the trains passengers as they try to discover which of them killed the American tycoon found dead in his compartment. Oct. 2-27. $36. Meadow Brook Theatre, 378 Meadow Brook Rd., Rochester; 248-377-3300; mbtheatre.com

The 1993 cult classic about a trio of wicked (but funny) witches comes to life just in time for Halloween. Watch actors from the Goblin King Players recreate scenes from the movie while the actual film plays on the big screen. Oct. 4-6. $15. Redford Theatre, 17360 Lahser Rd, Detroit; 313-537-2560; redfordtheatre.com

Get in the fall spirit with Blakes apple cider and donuts as well as plenty of seasonal activities. This autumnal event will feature crafts, lawn games, food trucks, inflatables, horse-drawn hayrides, and more. Oct. 5. No cost. Beacon Park, 1903 Grand River Ave.,Detroit; empoweringmichigan.com

Best known for her hit single Love Song and her powerhouse vocals, the singer-songwriter and actress is embarking on her Amidst The Chaos Tour after releasing an album of the same name in April her first musical work since 2015. Oct. 5. $35+. Fox Theatre, 2211 Woodward Ave., Detroit: 313-471-3200; 313presents.com

With all new material, but the same lively improv and high-energy bits, Dane Cook whose 2005 comedy album Retaliation is the highest charting comedy album in nearly three decades is embarking on his first national stand-up tour since 2013. Oct. 5. $49.50+. The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward Ave., Detroit; 313-961-5451; thefillmoredetroit.com

Six-time Grammy Award-winning indie rock band The Black Keys has just released its new single Lo/Hi, their first new material since 2014, and is coming to Little Caesars Arena as part of the groups Lets Rock tour. Oct 5. $40+. Little Caesars Arena, 2645 Woodward Ave, Detroit; 313-471-3333; 313presents.com

This exhibit focuses on the range of works by American artists that depict industry in the U.S. They convey both positive and negative themes, including dehumanization of workers, prosperity, and environmental consequences. Oct. 5-Dec. 30. No cost with museum admission. Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St., Flint; 810-234-1695; flintarts.org

View more than 40 works exploring 19th and 20th century American life and culture from painters of the era, including Jane Peterson, John George Brown, and Francis David Millet. Oct. 5-Dec. 30. No cost with museum admission. Flint Institute of Arts, 1120 E. Kearsley St., Flint; 810-234-1695; flintarts.org

French artist Jean-Antoine Houdon is considered the greatest sculptor of the Enlightenment. This exhibition showcases his pieces, including his busts of Benjamin Franklin and George Washington that date back to the 1700s. Oct. 6. No cost with museum admission. Detroit Institute of Arts, 5200 Woodward Ave, Detroit; 313- 833-7900; dia.org

Best known for their multiplatinum single Monster, the Grammy-nominated hard rock band has sold more than 11 million units worldwide. Now theyre touring in support of their 10th album, Victorious. Oct 6. $29+.The Fillmore, 2115 Woodward, Detroit; 313.961.5451; Thefillmoredetroit.com

Read more from the original source:
10 Things to Do This Weekend (Oct. 4-6): The Black Keys, Cider, More - Hour Detroit Magazine

Over the past two days I have attended the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment financial planning conference.

This is the continuance of the original Institute of Financial Planning conference following the merger with CISI.

I first joined IFP in 1992 and it was the organisation that had the greatest effect in developing my career in financial services and helped shape my business.

Since then I have missed just two conferences and only because of childcare responsibilities.

The IFP was a great place to develop financial planning and the annual conference was the place to share with other financial planners and learn from them.

There was little competition or rivalry, as members of IFP were only too happy to grow their world.

Some people feel that this kind of community and camaraderie has been lost since joining the larger and more corporate CISI, but to my mind this is more to do with the people making the criticisms than the environment.

There have been downsides to the merger that I will not go into here, but CISI has been on a learning curve and has endeavoured to understand the needs of the ex-IFP membership, and it now recognises inclusion is just as important as financial planning.

This years conference has been a demonstration of that, with quality platform presentations, very topical workshops about dealing with vulnerable clients, as well as practitioner presentations.

Awards are hard won and highly respected.

The rest has been up to us: the networking, catching up with friends and making new ones, sharing ideas and best practice.

To me, none of that has been lost and what has been refreshing is meeting up with the young, aspiring and hopeful planners who hang on to our every word.

Financial planning is gaining momentum as a profession and it has been a long time coming.

Change happens, that is life, and it is not always for the best, but usually there is a great deal of good that overcomes the bad.

So I say to those who could not embrace this particular change, give it another try and risk the opportunity of renewed enlightenment.

Marlene Outrim is managing director of Uniq Family Wealth

See the article here:
Changes: Turn and face the strange - FT Adviser

By Damian Flanagan

Along the riverbanks of a fairly nondescript town in the far north of Japan a Union Jack flutters eternally. This is not because Rupert Brooke or any other Englishman laid down his life here, but because this stretch of riverbank is famed as "The English Coast," having been named so by the region's most famous literary son, the poet and fairy tale author Kenji Miyazawa (1896-1933).

At first sight, there is nothing particularly "English" about it -- in fact nothing to distinguish this bit of river from any other river. But if you delve into the origin of the phrase, it all starts to get rather intriguing.

Back in Kenji's day, before the river was dammed, the river levels periodically rose and fell dramatically and when low, revealed wide stretches of white mudstones, which in the hugely fertile imagination of Kenji Miyazawa became associated with the chalky white cliffs of Dover. Hence he started calling this beloved stretch of riverbank his "English Coast."

As a child, Kenji was an avid amateur geologist and collector of stones -- he was even nicknamed "ishikko," "the stone kid." As an adult and a teacher at a local school, he brought his pupils to his "English Coast" to ferret for unusual stones and fossils.

I must confess that I am not the greatest fan of Kenji's stories. There's an air of child-like whimsy in classic stories like "Night on the Galactic Railroad" with which my hard-boiled self doesn't readily connect. All Kenji's stories are suffused with a passionate desire to transmit his Buddhist beliefs (Kenji was a devotee of Nichiren Buddhism) and many people find his writings profound, expressing compassion to all beings and a sense of transcendent universalism combined with a deep love for his local area.

But for me, the best writers are not those who offer enlightenment, but who have raging arguments going on in their own heads, who keep toppling one set of ideas with their own contradictions, conflicts and counter-arguments. Kenji was more of the let-us-spread-good-works school, which he admirably kept up in his almost saintly life, having no romantic experiences of his own and devoting himself selflessly to the promotion of local agriculture and the relief of poor farmers.

What no one can quibble with, however, is the extraordinary richness of his imagination, which was able to transform the ultra-ordinary world around him into something newly realized and fascinating. As well as an interest in English and German, he had a fascination with Esperanto (that universalizing tendency again) and referred to his native Iwate Prefecture with the Esperanto-inspired term "Iihatobu," transforming the region from a mere province of Japan into a fantasy region of his mind, just as the ordinary-looking river bank he daily walked along became "The English Coast."

But still, are his writings not too much filled with starry eyed wonder, magical animals and leaps of imagination? I became fascinated to discover that some of the fossils that Kenji discovered in the now-sunken mudstones of the "English Coast" were those of elephants. You might tend to think as you go about your daily routine that elephants are as far removed from your life as any animal might be, but once they too walked along the "English Coast" and may even now be buried beneath your feet.

Looked at in that light, Kenji's imagination begins to seem less like "whimsy" and more like excavations into the strangeness of the world around us. The journey from a simple stroll along a Japanese river to an odyssey with elephants along an "English Coast" becomes something like an exploration of our own jumbled, interconnected depth consciousness. In flights of imagination we discover strangely miraculous sunken depths of reality, to which the banal surface appearance of things often offers little clue.

@DamianFlanagan

(This is Part 13 of a series)

In this column, Damian Flanagan, a researcher in Japanese literature, ponders about Japanese culture as he travels back and forth between Japan and Britain.

Profile:

Damian Flanagan is an author and critic born in Britain in 1969. He studied in Tokyo and Kyoto between 1989 and 1990 while a student at Cambridge University. He was engaged in research activities at Kobe University from 1993 through 1999. After taking the master's and doctoral courses in Japanese literature, he earned a Ph.D. in 2000. He is now based in both Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, and Manchester. He is the author of "Natsume Soseki: Superstar of World Literature" (Sekai Bungaku no superstar Natsume Soseki).

Original post:
Edging Toward Japan: The Japanese town where a Union Jack flutters eternally - The - The Mainichi

David Nichtern is, by most metrics, a very successful person. As a longtime practitioner in the Shambhala lineage of Tibetan Buddhism, he has been empowered as a senior teacher and has served as the director of Karme Choling Meditation Center in Vermont and the Dharmadhatu Meditation Center in Los Angeles. As a musician, he won four Emmy award, has been nominated for a Grammy twice, founded Dharma Moon and 5 Points Records, and has worked with Stevie Wonder, Jerry Garcia, Lana Del Rey, Maria Muldaur, and Paul Simon, to name a few.

In a new book, Creativity, Spirituality, and Making a Buck (Wisdom, October 8, 2019), he offers his advice from both sides of his life on how to figure out what one wants to do and how to get there. Tricycle spoke with Nichtern about the book and his conviction that we do not need to separate our spiritual pursuits and our career goals.

You titled your book Creativity, Spirituality, and Making a Buck, three topics that arent often talked about in the same breath. What inspired you to write a book about this?

This book is the culmination of my actual life as a practitioner, a creative, an entrepreneur, and a businessperson, and it challenges the long-accepted divide between spiritual life and the way we operate in the world, in which our livelihood and issues of money are seen as soiled. On the one hand, people will say that a yoga class should be free, and on the other hand, people have the notion that topics like ethics should be reserved for church on Sunday. Render unto Caesar what is Caesars. But all of those elements exist together in peoples actual lives. The people in the spiritual communities and the secular communities are the same people.

The third piece, after spirituality and making a living, is creativity, which speaks to our individual life journeys, or what I call the life puzzle. Every person comes to a point where they need to express themselves as a unique individual. Some people might think that goes against Buddhist teachings on non-self or non-ego, but thats a total misunderstanding of the definition of anatman (Skt., no-self). We do exist individually, but we dont exist absolutely individually.

A fundamental Buddhist teaching is that the path to end suffering involves letting go of desire, but this book teaches people how to pursue their goals. Where does your work fit within the renunciant traditions?

Its important to be extremely precise about the root of suffering. The origin of suffering is not desire, but attachment, fixation, or objectification of the desire. And the operation where you cling to your projections and solidify them is what is being renounced. There is a hidden question here: Is it possible to have a career, a livelihood, or a relationship that does not become fuel for clinging, and therefore create further suffering?

In the renunciant path, they say, no, you cant do it. For certain people, that is the appropriate path. It was the right path for Pema Chdrn, who was a household practitioner and decided to become a nun. Its an honorable tradition within the Buddhist world, and the monastics and the nuns are centrally located historically. But so are the householder yogis and the patrons, who are part of the larger society.

Related: Death, Sex, Enlightenment & Money

In todays society, we have little to no role for renunciation. We dont have the type of framework that was once common in India and Tibet. People who dont work are called hippies or bums. So we have to move toward creating a relationship to livelihood that doesnt create further suffering.

One of the practices you offer in the book is metta meditation, which you apply to the business advice to not negotiate against yourself. How do those fit together for you?

When you start a job, for instance, you negotiate an agreement to work at that place. Now, if you have low self-esteem, you probably didnt create the optimal circumstance to be appreciated and respected for what your capabilities are. Negotiating against yourself, in the broader sense, is a matter of not being kind to yourself, not appreciating yourself. And on the flip side, you dont have to be an arrogant psychopath either. Its a middle way kind of situation.

Working a job or being involved in the business world is an extraordinary learning opportunity and a very underrated spiritual training ground. You spend eight hours a day at work, but only 20 minutes to an hour a day practicing on the cushion. But those eight hours are also a practice. Youre practicing being kind to yourself, having compassion for others, being insightful, developing good work habits, teamwork, leadership, and so on.

You also write about self-deception. How do you suggest we find the balance between self-compassion and self-criticism in our careers?

The short answer is: its no different from anywhere else where you spend time and create relationships. The underlying principles are the same because theres only one person, which is you. Those principles are mindfulness, awareness, compassion, consideration for others and for oneself, a sense of adventure and enjoyment, and appreciation for life itself. None of that is excluded from the sense of personal journey that each of us are undergoing.

Ive watched spiritual communities develop for 50 years, and up until recently, this part of peoples lives has been a huge missing link. People go get money so they can go off on their retreats, as if the job itself were unholy. I was taught that the job is part of the sacred environment.

The term McMindfulness is often used to criticize people for using spiritual practices without an ethical framework. How is your project different from mindfulness as a way to relieve stress so that employees can work harder?

Thats a good question. Sometimes what is being taught is what I would call pre-mindfulness, which is relaxationlike using a body scan to improve sleep. I dont see any big harm in that; its better than taking an Ambien, for sure. But its pre-meditation. Mindfulness involves both relaxation and becoming more aware of whats going on by focusing the mind and observing non-judgmentally. If you teach somebody how to do that practice, you may not be taking them all the way to full realization, but youre helping them to work with their minds, to become more stable and focused, and to relieve stress, which is certainly a form of suffering.

Youre suggesting that the boss at the office could usurp that practice: Great. Now that youre focused, work harder, work more efficiently. And Ive said before that mindfulness alone could make somebody a better assassin. I have some meditation students who are coming from the corporate world, and the thing I tell them is that there is a second stagethe B-side of the mindfulness recordand that is related to discovery, ethics, and compassion.

I start every student with mindfulness, and so would any classical monastic Buddhistthe Karmapa [the head of the Karma Kagyu lineage of Tibetan Buddhism], for example. After developing focus and stability, theres a second step, which is making friends with yourself and understanding yourself and the world better. Then the third process, which I call transformation, involves shifting your habits to make them more beneficial for other people. And those practices actually apply very well to leadership and teamwork.

What role does creativity play in this schema?

Creativity is important to me because Im a musician. Thats how Ive made my living. My whole adult life I have had to make things up and get you to pay me for it. Otherwise, I cant pay my rent. What I do is completely subjective in a way. It comes from nowhere; no one can explain where creativity comes from. Yet, whether or not you call yourself a creative, every human being is creative all the time.

Even though from a Buddhist point of view our sense of individuality might be distorted, our sense of being an individual, creative force in the universe is not distorted. Each flower, each tree, each insect has its own individuality. This is a tremendous part of whether people are happy or not.

Related: Why Right Livelihood Isnt Just About Your Day Job

I make a distinction between your offeringpoetry, music, artand your livelihood. They can be the same thing, but that is a huge choice. The day you say, this is what I want as my livelihood, theres another conversation to be had that can be very helpful. I know a lot of people who say, Im doing this, but Id really rather be doing that, and a lot of what they need to learn is simply business skills: how to make contacts, how to negotiate deals, understanding royalties and intellectual property, and so forth.

A lot of the advice you offer seems to have nothing to do with spirituality. For example, you write about the importance of understanding intellectual property. Why did you include those sections?

The whole thrust of the book is saying, find your vision, and once you do, then begin to bring it down to earth. This is the principle of joining heaven and earth, a classical paradigm in Asian thought. Heaven is the progenitor or the primordialthe pure realm of mind or consciousness in Buddhist terms. Earth is the realm of relative reality, which is subject to impermanence. If people have too much heaven, they have vision but dont know what to do with it. If theyre too mired in the earth, they have no vision, no direction, no kind of ultimate sense of what theyre doing.

So, youre right. A lot of what I discuss in the book is earthly wisdom. But many spiritual people have bypassed earthly wisdom at their own risk. Lets say your cabinet is falling off, and you see that you need a Phillips head screwdriver. If you have the right tool and understand that tool, youd be able to fix your cabinet. Otherwise you have somebody whos supposedly enlightened but theyre standing there with a flathead screw and a Phillips head screwdriver. To me, that is not an enlightened person.

It reminds me of when you see a spiritual center with terrible graphic design.

Or a funky website that makes it hard to get information or register, or when you get there, stuff is not working. I firmly believe that theres a way to integrate these things thats positive for everybody.

A lot of people harbor stress and shame around issues of money. Did that factor into your decision to write the book?

Sure. Stress and shame are spiritual problems. Those are not financial problems. Theres nothing inherent that I can see about proper livelihood that needs to be stressful or shameful. But those are obstacles. When someone bypasses that by saying Im spiritually enlightened, but Im stressed out and shamed about livelihood or money, what I hear is thats the next area that really needs to be illuminated. That doesnt mean becoming a greedy, stuffed pig. It means being a healthy person.

Read the original:
David Nichtern Wants to Make You Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise - Tricycle

By Ayushman Jamwal

What is it like, to wade in your darkness and ride the violent chain reactions of your actions? The latest attempt to understand the iconic villain of the Batman Universe, The Joker, has once again endowed the character with gritty realism, mirroring the horror and liberation of our own personal demons on the movie screen.

Beyond the legendary iconography of the Joker, Todd Phillips beautiful direction and Joaquin Phoenixs masterful performance show the origin of evil in a loveless world, how the underbelly of society can create its own monstrous avatar.

Emotional tether

The emotional tether philosophy states that people can bear the cruelty, unfairness, isolation and indifference of their social and professional lives, if they are tethered to an emotional constant. For many of us, the tether is our parents, siblings, spouse and/or other relatives and friends, who help us nurse the wounds from the slings and arrows of the world. Every superhero possesses that tether to reconnect with sanity as they wade through their and the worlds darkness.

Batman has Alfred who repeatedly reminds him that the Caped Crusader is Bruce Waynes attempt to conquer the chaos of his world. Superman has his mother Martha Kent, Spiderman has his aunt May, Iron Man has his wife Pepper, and there is a universe of characters who play the voices of reason and are the sources of love which keep heroes on the side of order, justice and humanity.

In the poverty-stricken projects of Gotham city, with no handle on a job and a fleeting aspiration to be famous, Arthur Fleck struggles on, caring for his sick mother, creating phantoms of relationships to fill the voids in his life, taking whatever help he can from the city governments fledgling mental healthcare program. The Joker emerges when he loses that one tether, the mother-son bond that turns out to be a fraud, a trauma that eviscerates his identity, his real and delusional ties to others, and most importantly, his fear of cause, consequence, order and death.

Apostles of chaos

The father of Nihilist philosophy Friedrich Nietzsche once said, if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you. The Joker represents the perfect symbol of Nihilism, highlighting that civilisation can create its own agents of destruction the forgotten, nameless, faceless class of the urbanised world, who find no fairness or empowerment in society, and who choose to seek purpose as apostles of chaos.

Humanity, time and again, moves from one social order to the next, terming God, state and philosophy as the ultimate social arbiters, but the Joker is the emperor of nothing and unburdened by dogma, becoming the ultimate agent of disorder.

There is no search for a greater mystery, only pursuit of power, by tearing down socio-political institutions of human administration, as they seem meaningless. Power in futility is the ethos of the Joker where Nietzsches God is Dead meets the Bhagwad Gitas Destroyer of Worlds philosophy. The acceptance of the meaninglessness of existence and the rejection of the fear of authority or code is his enlightenment and inspiration. The more comprehensible and mechanical his universe, the more pointless it becomes, and the more powerful his resolve to upend it.

DISCLAIMER : Views expressed above are the author's own.

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The joker philosophy in a loveless world - Times of India