Welcome to this week’s edition of the Meditate or Die newsletter.
We are 4 editions in, and the new format here on Substack is working well.
In part because it is short and pithy, which gives you lots of value and doesn’t take me too long to write.
What this means is that I can spend time thinking, researching, and writing in-depth essays and articles for you.
I believe this gives more value all around.
(If you’ve been enjoying the newsletter please consider telling a friend and/or post the link to your Facebook so others can benefit. Just post the link – https://clarkescott.com/newsletter)
What I’ve Been Thinking
It seems to me that the downs of life have an inherent quality.
This may seem an odd thing to say and I surely do not enjoy them myself but, when things are not going well, and the vicissitudes of life are banging at the door, there seems to be an innate response to endue with the assumption it will be over at some point. And this response is like a reflex, a natural response, towards the suffering.
What this means is that our natural response is one of wisdom. And it is only when the egoic mind steps in and tries to make sense of it all, (I’m suffering because of this or that) that things go wrong. If I remain calm and level-headed, and do not let the ego get in the way, life seems to have a teleological nature.
The question remains if this is so, or the degree to which it is so. And if it is so, how so.
The key takeaway for me is to know that hope can be found in the idea of a teleological explanation of suffering. And this hope plays both an explanatory and utilitarian role throughout life.
My intuition feels that the numinous life is the core of the of key to understanding the meaning of all this. It is what unlocks many of the strange things that can occur in life as long as you live long enough. And if that is the case, it is the heart of a truly meaningful life regardless of the tradition you choose to follow.
What I’ve Been Reading
Recently I’ve been researching the topic of numen and the numinous life.
In part because I am going to write a series of essays on the topic (but I’ve also been researching as part of my own personal practice).
It is also a topic that is not really spoken of in much detail in Western Buddhism and I think that is a shame.
While the idea is not new, I first heard of the term from my good friend and CEO of Wisdom Publications Daniel Aitken.
So, with that in mind here is one of the seminal works on the subject:
– The Idea of the Holy: An Inquiry Into the Non-rational Factor in the Idea of the Divine and Its Relation to the Rational by Rudolf Otto
– Mysticism East and West: A Comparative Analysis of the Nature of Mysticism by Rudolf Otto
What I’ve Created
This week has not been that productive. Well, that is not entirely true. It has but I’ve not published anything. And the cycle of publishing articles here is going to be longer because I want to write in-depth pieces with a lot of value.
And that is why I chose to call this section of the newsletter “What I created,” not “What a published.” So this section is a bit of a peek behind the scenes of what I’m working on.
So this week i started writing an article on the dream I had the night my teacher passed away. It was an incredible dream. One I will never forget, obviously but, one that is packed with meaning that I can share with you and have be meaningful to you also.
In order to be able to do that, however, I’ve had to go into some detail of the background of my relationship with my teacher for the dream to make sense.
Suffice it to say, the outline itself runs over 1450 words, so it is likely to be a nice read. I will also do a podcast episode and both will be available to premium subscribers in the coming week or so, I hope.
Fingers crossed and no more “vicissitudes” life events will get in the way.
Until next week.
Take care,
Clarke Scott