Dr Lee, on subject of grief. Grieving helps only when it's shared with someone who is like minded or who cares about you. Grieving alone is self destructive. You are an expert in the field. My understanding is that one should share their suffering (of whatever kind) with friends, family or relevant groups. I appreciate your effort in organizing weekly platform for sharing thoughts on situation in America which undoubtedly is alarming. We need more of this initiative from other experts as well.
However i am observing that intellectual circles are shrinking. Loneliness is increasing. People find it difficult to reach out & share their pain. This is broader trend of atomization of our global society which is being reduced to helpless, confused & anxious individuals. Dr Lee, despite the decline of first world nations like America, it still has intellectual depth due to people like you & many others who carry the light. Here, in my home country India - a failed poor 3rd world nation, the society is pretty much dead. Even its intellectuals are intellectually bankrupt. There's no Indian equivalent thinker like of Bandy Lee or Chomsky or Varoufakis or Stiglitz or Galbraith or others. There's no one in my home country with whom i can share intellectual thought. No one understands the issue of political anxiety. No one knows why country is failing. Here, our only remedy is Stoicism.
On California wild fires. I was actually thinking the same thing about the symbolic destruction which is coincidental with Donald Trump's takeover of White house. Like fire which spreads uncontrollably (if it's not dealt with timely action) and destroys everything in its path. Isn't this symbolic to Donald Trump's chaotic mental pathology?
Dr Lee, i am not a religious person or even spiritual by any means. But it came to my mind that what's happening in California is like a divine warning of the direction Trump will be leading the world.
Finally, i would also like for people to keep suffering of Palestinians in their thoughts. What happened in California is tiny fraction of the Genocide committed by Israel with US enabling.
Thank you, Sanjeev. Instead of thinking about and trying to impress those who are smarter than I, I really need to telephone my sister RIGHT NOW. Thank you again for the timely reminder. 🤝
On reaching out to others, I depend upon my church groups and my art history buddettes. The evangelical Xians and Jews alike allow me in as a "slackadaisical" agnostic. They have helped me so much simply by their presence. 😇
The essay posted here is one time that I broke out of my encrusted crustacean shell to care, really care about a dying young man. Of course, I fall far short of what I would prefer the extent of my compassion. But I keep trying. ❤️
P.S., I once travelled to India and made the acquaintance of a gentleman from the U.K. His parents, as 'untouchables', had done what many brave people do: take a risk for something better. 🥳
They, like so many immigrants, proved themselves among the best and most loyal citizens of their chosen lands. What he said to me staggerred me: that India has the means to feed everyone and to feed him or her healthfully. 😲
My temporary friend blamed the corruption of the state as being the source of the short-fall and its consequent misery. All of that occurred thirty years ago. Hopefully, life has improved. 🤞
There I go dating myself; hell, no one else will. 😉
Grieving is by its very nature something I must experience in solitude. To each the grief is so personal, yet all who have experienced grief understand each other completely.
Thank you Dr. Lee. I offer my contribution of this week here. The first is about the technology we can use to drop out of the delusion and into our bodies and reality.
From your lips to my clogged ears with your essays, Ravi. Great and insightful are your articles. Recently, I re-read 'The Culture of Narcissism', authored by Christopher Lash forty-five years ago. Though this citation did not register as much as I wish it had back then, Dr Lasch's thinking certainly resonates now: ✍️
"The real value of the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime is that it can be handed on to future generations. Our society [in the late nineteen-seventies] has lost this conception of wisdom and knowledge. It holds an instrumental view of knowledge, according to which technological change constantly renders knowledge obsolete and therefore nontransferable." 😵
Interestingly, for me at least, the first presidential election in which I voted presented a choice between the two best Presidents of my life-time: President Gerald Ford and Governor Jimmy Carter. 😇
Without the subsequent decades of experience, I could not appreciate how fortunate I was with that choice in 1976. President Lincoln sagely noted that, "The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend." President Ford and President Carter, in their subsequent bond of affection and respect, showed me the way as do you and others, each day, albeit in a little way. Like baseball, however, life is a game of inches. 🤝
I read Steve Schmidt last night and was stunned and touched deeply by the portrayal of Los Angeles and where we are now. (I am ordering Talking With Angels today.) Thank you so much for directing us to the article. And for all that you do. And even though The Guy is not getting a psychiatric evaluation now, as we hoped, I am grateful for Judge Merchan's sentencing because it has put a designation on T that probably will stick to him from here on out. Thank you again!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and expertise with us! It helps so much to have another Soul who understands…share, care and enlighten along the way. Your entries are very much appreciated Dr. Lee. 🙏
G-D bless you, Dr Lee, for putting that M.Div. to work. The shortest way to one's heart may be through the stomach as the old musing goes. So goes this possibility: the fast way to one's soul is through the mind. Obviously, I defer to you on that question. 🙏
Truthfully, I will have to re-read this extraordinary essay at least two more times. Not likely for my complete comprehension of it, but for the opportunity to progress toward that meaning. Half of me grieves and half of me wants to lay down my life to defend my country. 😳
Such binary thinking surely does not work right now. So, I remind me of a childhood hymn often sung over half a century ago. (Always badly, ¡but worth doing says G.K. Chesterton!) Your citation of man's inhumanity to man says it all. Ah, the difference women can make. ⚖️
I live 60 miles from the firestorms. I wouldn't say the city of Los Angeles is burning, but communities are burning--and these firestorms will only get worse. We Angelinos have learned we do not have the resources, skill, or ability to keep our own homes from burning in these firestorms. I'm reminded of Dresden.
What's clear to me is Egoic society doesn't work. Every major scientific and spiritual tradition recognizes Ego must be tamed and perhaps even annihilated, yet the skills we have to identify, sideline, and see-through Ego are ignored in schools, churches, hospitals, businesses, and governments.
We live in an Empire of Ego where Egoic people like to say we need a strong Ego, not recognizing that Ego prevents us from seeing Oneness. A healthy, mature human being has a strong Self and an annihilated Ego.
Ego helps children grow into unique individuals, but similar to baby-teeth, is discarded if we are to mature.
Fossil fuels will continue to heat the planet to unimaginable temperatures. We will continue to release this ancient supply of solar energy into the atmosphere, destroy our ecosystems, and decimate untold species until we either 1) live non-Egoically in Oneness or 2) no longer have the capability.
The first step is sidelining our own Ego. Then we start to become able to see how Ego contaminates our arbiters of truth: science and religion and are able to do something about it.
On your physical location, prayer your way via Fed-Ex, Ric. 🙏
As to your thinking, When there are intellexuals like Ayn Rand (sic, perhaps sick) saying that greed is good and others like Dr Milton Friedman arguing that share-holder wealth maximization is the over-riding criterion of business success, ¿just what can one expect? 😱
Think of it like raising children. You always have children who misbehave with Egoic ignorance, but you appropriately remind, teach, and guide them as necessary. We do what's necessary at each age. We guide a 3 year-old with an unformed Ego differently than a 13 year-old who's Ego is almost fully formed.
I taught college for 20 years and was continually guiding the 20, 30, and 40 year-olds in my classes about constructive ways to manage themselves during the pain of the learning process--and for the most part they listened because what I said was reasonable, informative and useful. I called it Red Zone Management and said it was the most useful thing they'd learn in college because it's how professionals continually solve daily problems.
We raise children similarly. The love, guidance, fairness, and knowledge with which we raise young children is almost exactly the same as used when teaching college-age students how to solve almost intractable problems.
What's happened over the past 300 years is we lost the curriculum for identifying, sidelining, seeing-through, taming, and even participating in the annihilation of Ego. The knowledge and necessity for doing so has always existed, but our arbiters of truth have become increasingly hypnotized by Ego.
We haven't lost the ability; just the knowledge and desire to tame our own Egos.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for one of the clear, informative, and helpful essays on the Los Angeles and Southern California fires. Praying for the inhabitants and territories in a special way. Unfortunately, hindsight is no insurance against catastrophic disaster, although humankind is greatly indebted to history - and it's tight review - for avoidance of worse devastations in the future...
Dr Lee, on subject of grief. Grieving helps only when it's shared with someone who is like minded or who cares about you. Grieving alone is self destructive. You are an expert in the field. My understanding is that one should share their suffering (of whatever kind) with friends, family or relevant groups. I appreciate your effort in organizing weekly platform for sharing thoughts on situation in America which undoubtedly is alarming. We need more of this initiative from other experts as well.
However i am observing that intellectual circles are shrinking. Loneliness is increasing. People find it difficult to reach out & share their pain. This is broader trend of atomization of our global society which is being reduced to helpless, confused & anxious individuals. Dr Lee, despite the decline of first world nations like America, it still has intellectual depth due to people like you & many others who carry the light. Here, in my home country India - a failed poor 3rd world nation, the society is pretty much dead. Even its intellectuals are intellectually bankrupt. There's no Indian equivalent thinker like of Bandy Lee or Chomsky or Varoufakis or Stiglitz or Galbraith or others. There's no one in my home country with whom i can share intellectual thought. No one understands the issue of political anxiety. No one knows why country is failing. Here, our only remedy is Stoicism.
On California wild fires. I was actually thinking the same thing about the symbolic destruction which is coincidental with Donald Trump's takeover of White house. Like fire which spreads uncontrollably (if it's not dealt with timely action) and destroys everything in its path. Isn't this symbolic to Donald Trump's chaotic mental pathology?
Dr Lee, i am not a religious person or even spiritual by any means. But it came to my mind that what's happening in California is like a divine warning of the direction Trump will be leading the world.
Finally, i would also like for people to keep suffering of Palestinians in their thoughts. What happened in California is tiny fraction of the Genocide committed by Israel with US enabling.
Thank you, Sanjeev. Instead of thinking about and trying to impress those who are smarter than I, I really need to telephone my sister RIGHT NOW. Thank you again for the timely reminder. 🤝
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4953155/user-clip-vice-president-harris-atlanta-shootings-16mar21 💔
On reaching out to others, I depend upon my church groups and my art history buddettes. The evangelical Xians and Jews alike allow me in as a "slackadaisical" agnostic. They have helped me so much simply by their presence. 😇
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2024/04/letter-126-to-friends-and-familares-e.html 🙏
The essay posted here is one time that I broke out of my encrusted crustacean shell to care, really care about a dying young man. Of course, I fall far short of what I would prefer the extent of my compassion. But I keep trying. ❤️
P.S., I once travelled to India and made the acquaintance of a gentleman from the U.K. His parents, as 'untouchables', had done what many brave people do: take a risk for something better. 🥳
They, like so many immigrants, proved themselves among the best and most loyal citizens of their chosen lands. What he said to me staggerred me: that India has the means to feed everyone and to feed him or her healthfully. 😲
My temporary friend blamed the corruption of the state as being the source of the short-fall and its consequent misery. All of that occurred thirty years ago. Hopefully, life has improved. 🤞
There I go dating myself; hell, no one else will. 😉
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2010/12/letter-25-to-friends-and-family.html
Grieving is by its very nature something I must experience in solitude. To each the grief is so personal, yet all who have experienced grief understand each other completely.
True in the initial stage; I agree with Sanjeev. For grief to better my soul and deepen my life experience. I need other people.
So often they aren’t there.
Thank you Dr. Lee. I offer my contribution of this week here. The first is about the technology we can use to drop out of the delusion and into our bodies and reality.
Take the Red Pill: Why Buddhism Is True, and Needed | Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-pacific-heart/202501/take-the-red-pill-why-buddhism-is-true-and-needed
And about President Carter
Duty Vs. Self-Enhancement in the American Psyche | Psychology Today https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-pacific-heart/202501/duty-vs-self-enhancement-in-the-american-psyche
Wonderful articles! Thank you for pointing them out!
Morpheus played by Bob Marley in "Redemption Song" (1980):
Emancipate yourself from mental slavery
None but ourselves can free our minds
From your lips to my clogged ears with your essays, Ravi. Great and insightful are your articles. Recently, I re-read 'The Culture of Narcissism', authored by Christopher Lash forty-five years ago. Though this citation did not register as much as I wish it had back then, Dr Lasch's thinking certainly resonates now: ✍️
"The real value of the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime is that it can be handed on to future generations. Our society [in the late nineteen-seventies] has lost this conception of wisdom and knowledge. It holds an instrumental view of knowledge, according to which technological change constantly renders knowledge obsolete and therefore nontransferable." 😵
https://www.c-span.org/clip/public-affairs-event/user-clip-like-father-like-son-chapter-1/5148595 (From President Carter's funeral; President Ford's pre-scripted eulogy.) 🙏
Interestingly, for me at least, the first presidential election in which I voted presented a choice between the two best Presidents of my life-time: President Gerald Ford and Governor Jimmy Carter. 😇
Without the subsequent decades of experience, I could not appreciate how fortunate I was with that choice in 1976. President Lincoln sagely noted that, "The best way to destroy an enemy is to make him a friend." President Ford and President Carter, in their subsequent bond of affection and respect, showed me the way as do you and others, each day, albeit in a little way. Like baseball, however, life is a game of inches. 🤝
I read Steve Schmidt last night and was stunned and touched deeply by the portrayal of Los Angeles and where we are now. (I am ordering Talking With Angels today.) Thank you so much for directing us to the article. And for all that you do. And even though The Guy is not getting a psychiatric evaluation now, as we hoped, I am grateful for Judge Merchan's sentencing because it has put a designation on T that probably will stick to him from here on out. Thank you again!
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and expertise with us! It helps so much to have another Soul who understands…share, care and enlighten along the way. Your entries are very much appreciated Dr. Lee. 🙏
G-D bless you, Dr Lee, for putting that M.Div. to work. The shortest way to one's heart may be through the stomach as the old musing goes. So goes this possibility: the fast way to one's soul is through the mind. Obviously, I defer to you on that question. 🙏
https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7259852498906025984/ 💔
Truthfully, I will have to re-read this extraordinary essay at least two more times. Not likely for my complete comprehension of it, but for the opportunity to progress toward that meaning. Half of me grieves and half of me wants to lay down my life to defend my country. 😳
https://youtu.be/hw-Hu9J2NiE 😇
Such binary thinking surely does not work right now. So, I remind me of a childhood hymn often sung over half a century ago. (Always badly, ¡but worth doing says G.K. Chesterton!) Your citation of man's inhumanity to man says it all. Ah, the difference women can make. ⚖️
https://nedmcdletters.blogspot.com/2023/10/letter-180-post-107-in-israel-and-time.html 🤔
I live 60 miles from the firestorms. I wouldn't say the city of Los Angeles is burning, but communities are burning--and these firestorms will only get worse. We Angelinos have learned we do not have the resources, skill, or ability to keep our own homes from burning in these firestorms. I'm reminded of Dresden.
What's clear to me is Egoic society doesn't work. Every major scientific and spiritual tradition recognizes Ego must be tamed and perhaps even annihilated, yet the skills we have to identify, sideline, and see-through Ego are ignored in schools, churches, hospitals, businesses, and governments.
We live in an Empire of Ego where Egoic people like to say we need a strong Ego, not recognizing that Ego prevents us from seeing Oneness. A healthy, mature human being has a strong Self and an annihilated Ego.
Ego helps children grow into unique individuals, but similar to baby-teeth, is discarded if we are to mature.
Fossil fuels will continue to heat the planet to unimaginable temperatures. We will continue to release this ancient supply of solar energy into the atmosphere, destroy our ecosystems, and decimate untold species until we either 1) live non-Egoically in Oneness or 2) no longer have the capability.
The first step is sidelining our own Ego. Then we start to become able to see how Ego contaminates our arbiters of truth: science and religion and are able to do something about it.
On your physical location, prayer your way via Fed-Ex, Ric. 🙏
As to your thinking, When there are intellexuals like Ayn Rand (sic, perhaps sick) saying that greed is good and others like Dr Milton Friedman arguing that share-holder wealth maximization is the over-riding criterion of business success, ¿just what can one expect? 😱
Think of it like raising children. You always have children who misbehave with Egoic ignorance, but you appropriately remind, teach, and guide them as necessary. We do what's necessary at each age. We guide a 3 year-old with an unformed Ego differently than a 13 year-old who's Ego is almost fully formed.
I taught college for 20 years and was continually guiding the 20, 30, and 40 year-olds in my classes about constructive ways to manage themselves during the pain of the learning process--and for the most part they listened because what I said was reasonable, informative and useful. I called it Red Zone Management and said it was the most useful thing they'd learn in college because it's how professionals continually solve daily problems.
We raise children similarly. The love, guidance, fairness, and knowledge with which we raise young children is almost exactly the same as used when teaching college-age students how to solve almost intractable problems.
What's happened over the past 300 years is we lost the curriculum for identifying, sidelining, seeing-through, taming, and even participating in the annihilation of Ego. The knowledge and necessity for doing so has always existed, but our arbiters of truth have become increasingly hypnotized by Ego.
We haven't lost the ability; just the knowledge and desire to tame our own Egos.
Thank you Dr Lee ✌️💙❤️🙏
I ordered "Talking with Angels" after your post about the children and what they were shown. It was backordered, so hasn't gotten here yet.
I have no words, but I know what you have stated, Dr. Bandy are true.
Thank you, Dr. Lee, for one of the clear, informative, and helpful essays on the Los Angeles and Southern California fires. Praying for the inhabitants and territories in a special way. Unfortunately, hindsight is no insurance against catastrophic disaster, although humankind is greatly indebted to history - and it's tight review - for avoidance of worse devastations in the future...