Karma Yoga
Tomorrow’s events:
Writing Meditation w/ Adam Robbert and Peter Limberg. May 13th @ 12:00 PM ET. Patreon event.
The Philosopher Is Present w/ Andrew Taggart. May 13th @ 4:00 PM ET. Clubhouse event.
Missing the Green Temple for the Trees? w/ Jordan Hall and Brent Cooper. May 13th @ 6:00 PM ET. Patreon event.
An event to get excited about:
Metagame Mastermind: One Year Later w/ Daniel Kazandjian. May 16th @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here.
The sexy Armenian returns to The Stoa to discuss his findings from engaging in metagame masterminding for over a year. ‘The Metagame Mastermind’ was one of the original series at The Stoa’s wisdom gym, and it was a Stoan favorite. A special announcement will happen at the end of the session.
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May 12th, 2021
I had a good conversation with David Deida on Monday. I felt a strong energy during the call, which both of us acknowledged. It is apparent that the guy is plugged into something. It is really weird, this mysterious place called The Stoa, as I am encountering a lot of people who are plugged into something.
I am not that sophisticated with all the spiritual stuff. I can sense when somebody has that ‘plugged into something’ quality though. Soryu Forall comes to mind here. The last time I spoke with him one-on-one was when I was going through all my spiritual craziness. He had a really strong groundedness about him. It was a kind of groundedness that encouraged me to be in my own sovereignty. I liked that. I want to be plugged in like that.
Some sessions at The Stoa give me a sense of this. Today’s session, Stewards on Stewardship with Luea Ritter and Nancy Zamierowski, was such a session. I do not know what all of this plugged in stuff is about though, and I do not really consciously practice how to do it. I do not meditate, do yoga, nor psychedelics, and I do not do breathwork these days either (sorry Steve). I hardly do marijuana as well, even though it is legal in Canada.
I just drink espressos and journal, and smoke the occasional cigar, which I did today. I do not even know what this daemon thing is. It is just a word that felt most right to describe a certain quality of intuitive experience I have been plugged in to throughout my life, and this experience has been pretty salient since The Stoa started.
I am just a simple man of reason, who has been experiencing weird things, and I am trying to reason about them, and with them. I have a lot to learn from people who have sophistication in this area, both in the propositional and in the practical.
Maybe this Stoic Cowboy needs to get his ass on the cushion, or take ayahuasca and DMT like all the cool kids do. I am not called to do that kind of thing though. I am not called to go to a monastery, or a retreat, or take all these crazy things to alter my experience. Maybe one day I will be called, but I do not think I need to do all of this stuff right now.
I do like the idea of doing karma yoga though, which is a yoga of action. Yogis of action are indifferent about the rewards of their actions, and are mainly motivated by their ‘dharma.’ Here is a passage from the Bhagavad Gita about this …
Your work is your responsibility,
not its result.
Never let the fruits of your actions
be your motive.
Nor give in to inaction.
Set firmly in yourself, do your work,
not attached to anything.
Remain evenminded in success,
and in failure.
Evenmindedness is true yoga.
This resonates with my Stoicism, as mentioned in a previous entry: Stoics are philosophers of the world, not philosophers of the word. The formula is pretty simple here: listen to the daemon, then do cool stuff. Everything else is what the Stoics call a preferred or dispreferred indifferent, or to state this with less philosophical fanciness: do not fuss about shit that is outside of your control.
This is something good to get good at, and this is something I am happy to be plugged in to.
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