Krznaric was a Political Scientist… amongst other jobs he had over the years. He worked his ideas out through a carpe diem mandala… indicating that a balance of the 5 elements it contained was needed in order to live a fulfilled life, and the 4 ways in which those vital elements could be used negatively or inappropriately.
Curiously, his mandala graphic has a distinctly “Eastern” … Chinese aesthetic … for a Western audience? For example … the Yin Yang symbol in the centre … Hmmm!
The notion of ‘spontaneity’ … seize the moment … is a pillar of Lao Tzu thought … Wu Wei … “Dao De Jing”
What aspect of the book has made you want to buy it? I have linked to the summarised short essays of each chapter in my previous email below, and will be reading them now myself.
Krznaric does mention that the origins of the notion were around millennia ago, and even beyond then… I guess the mandala/Yin Yang symbols is an ode to that.
To me, Western philosophy just seems to always be a reworded offering of the pre-existing concepts and ideas that have always been around since the beginning of the arrival of a conscious man, and to that end philosophy is simply transient.
He seemed to be a familiar favourite with the crowd, but new to me… but I am sure that we at the group will see him again for his next talk. I did not stay for the 2nd half/the discussion part of the talk, so I will just have to put my debating steez on hold till the group’s next talk.
As I asked for a mandala card on my way out he said… I hope you feel better soon, I said… Hey, thanks. A historical moment for him I’m sure.
…but the divide and conquer application has put paid to that, starting from back when rising kingdoms started trading with each other… swapping monetary payment for rustling and then downright blatant thievery… I think that one of the 4 barriers on Krznaric’s mandala covers that.
And that is the precedent that brought us to this present day.
There’s always the possibility it will all change tomorrow.
Since we are animals … seems logical to expect that our animal nature would bring us to where we are today. We simply need to wait for the cosmic event that will lift us out of … place us beyond … transform … our animal nature to a spiritual nature.
Looks like a nice guy. I can see in his eyes that he really cares about me. Something you cannot see in zinnat’s eyes even though he ends each one of his posts with “with love, sanjay”.
…sounded like a nice guy… the familiar to-him crowd seemed taken with him, so your observation is sound enough, and he did found the world’s first Empathy Museum and the digital Empathy Library.
Why did Zinnat eventually fall out of favour with near everyone? and why did he come to mind to you to mention here now?
Prompted by your post I read a bit about Santayana. I immediately fell in love with his quote:
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Also triggered a memory:
Isaiah 25:7
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I prefer the word “veil” to shroud.
In the 2,500 years or so since Isaiah the veil has not been lifted … yet one could argue the material the veil is made of has become less opaque … more transparent. Ergo … we know much much more today.
Why wouldn’t this process continue until the entire shroud/veil has been lifted?