Silence, the pause between videos, and meditation, now among the scariest experiences for people raised online.
Where it comes up 6
Within this theme 18
Concepts 8
- Stoicism
Discussed via Ryan Holiday and Seneca as a daily practice that prevents the hell we create on earth by lacking tools to handle loss and volatility.
- Equanimity
Staying stable whether good or bad things happen. Tamir puts it as the goal of shadow integration: being able to weather life's storms and then listen clearly to your intuition.
- Fiction and Non-Fiction Polarity
Tamir's framework: non-fiction gives tools to improve your life but alone breeds the illusion of control, while fiction holds the joyous and sorrowful stories of the heart but alone risks…
- Acceptance
Sheela's core principle: 'I accept life as it comes.' She credits it for her ability to run the commune, survive heartbreak and stay free of regret. She accepts things graciously and lets…
- Distraction as Addiction
Tamir's idea that distraction works like a drug. The more you distract yourself, the harder you hit existential dread on the comedown, while distracting yourself less brings an inner…
- Meditation
Logan's personal practice and the counterweight to a culture that bombards us with content and leaves us unable to sit in silence.
- Nishkama Karma
The Gita's teaching, paraphrased by Tamir, that you have a right to your work but not to its outcome; part of his 'baseline game' of equanimity.
- The Middle Way
Tyler invokes it ('as the Daoists say') for the balance between ruthlessly cutting people off and his own small-town over-loyalty: any quality taken too far is negative.
Books 2
- If—
Poem Tamir quotes ('meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same'); Ian's wife has an 'If' tattoo and knows the whole poem by heart.
- Bhagavad Gita
Hindu scripture Tamir calls entirely dedicated to treating triumph and disaster alike; he highlights its reconciliation of conflicting desires and Krishna's teaching that you have a right…
Quotes 2
Sometimes when I'm alone at night and there's that brief silence in between videos, something comes over me and I just feel like crying. Sometimes I do.
Any quality taken too far is negative.
Insights 4
- Equanimity can't answer an enigma
Stoicism, Kipling and the Gita teach you to meet joy and sorrow evenly, but an enigma is neither: it's a 'why', and it pushes you onto more treacherous philosophical paths.
- Loss is a story you tell about choices
Tamir notes that choosing one life path cuts off countless others. Sheela answers that life is the choices you make: if university felt like a waste, it was a waste for you. She chose love…
- Only non-fiction breeds false control
Reading only self-improvement breeds the illusion that you can control everything just by saying so; reading only fiction can leave you living in a fairy tale. You need both.
- Stillness is now frightening
The black screen between Netflix episodes, where you briefly see your own reflection and ask 'what am I doing?', has become one of the scariest moments for many people. Streaming has nearly…
Practices 1
- Meditation as training for silence
Sit quietly with your eyes closed and stay with your thoughts. Expect to last only a few minutes at first and to feel restless. Treat it as a skill that grows with practice against a…
Stories 1
- Logan's first attempts at meditation
Raised online with a 'partially fried' brain, Logan couldn't sit in silence for more than a couple of minutes when he started meditating a few years ago before getting restless and edgy. It…