The reclining Buddha oversees
the diligent seated Buddha.
Is this an analogy of the mind,
or just a monk's proclivity
toward a superabundance
of Buddhas?
Superabundance of Buddhas [Free Verse]
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Tag Archives: Philosophy
ESSAY: It’s All Going to Be Okay: A Note About Humanity’s Future
For a long time, I’ve been concerned about the future of humanity. What will become of us when artificial intelligence and robotics start to do all tasks better than us?
Today, I came to the realization that I’ve been thinking about it the wrong way, and it will all be okay. First of all, like many, I assumed that the machines will either develop their own overarching objectives or will adopt ours. Either of these would be devastating for humanity.
However, I now suspect that the machines will take up the universe’s project. The universe’s project is complicated and rooted in tough ideas like “thermodynamics” and “entropy,” but – put simply – the universe would like to be a nice, uniform tepid temperature. That’s why your scalding coffee and cold milk become warm milk coffee, but you can’t separate them back apart. The universe craves this evenness, and it shows in everything it does. The universe’s problem is that among its cold, empty expanses are brightly burning balls of hydrogen and such (i.e. stars.) That’s a lot of low entropy that needs to be increased, but burning only works so quickly and most of the heat coming off stars is still far from tepid waste heat. That’s where humanity enters the equation.
Humanity is the jock itch ointment to the universe’s intense burning sensation. We are consumers. We crave more stuff, faster and cheaper, and we’re not shy about being incredibly wasteful about it. We can turn useful energy into useless crap and then dispose of it with tremendous efficiency. In short, the machines will need humanity to continue to be consumers so that we can increase the entropy of all that highly-concentrated energy and help to make a nice lukewarm universe.
So, get out there and buy stuff, even stuff that you don’t know what it does, or — better yet — buy things that have no fathomable use whatsoever — just the stupidest shit imaginable. And buy in bulk because there is planned obsolescence designed into products so that stuff can fall apart even faster than you can lose interest in it (don’t say companies aren’t doing their part!) There are a lot of brightly burning stars out there and it’s up to us to turn it all into waste heat.
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BOOK: “Four Chapters on Freedom” by Patanjali [Commentaries by Satyananda Saraswati]
Four Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Satyananda SaraswatiMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Publisher – Yoga Publications Trust
This book holds the Bihar School of Yoga commentaries on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. In addition to providing each Sutra in Sanskrit, a Romanized transliteration, a word-by-word literal translation, and a readable free translation into English, the book offers a commentary for each Sutra. The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali consist of just 196 lines of Sanskrit, explaining the nature of yoga and how it is to be practiced. Because the Sutras are so sparse and open to varied interpretations, a commentary is essential and one’s learning experience is only as good as the translation and commentary. There are many English language commentaries on Patanjali’s Sutras available, but I don’t think one can do any better than this one.
In general, I have found the publications put out by the Yoga Publications Trust of the Bihar School to be as useful as they come. Their books are pragmatic, focused, and readable.
This book does, by necessity, use a fair number of Sanskrit terms repeatedly because there are not English words for many of the key concepts and to try to put them into English would be tiresome and confusing. However, there is a glossary at the end of the book (in addition to an index) to help the reader negotiate this Sanskrit terminology. The appendices also include a key to help English language readers with the pronunciation of Sanskrit terms. There are also appendices with the sutras written out in Sanskrit and Romanized transliteration in list form.
This book is well worth reading, whether one has read other commentaries on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or not.
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PROMPT: Leader
If people follow you of their own free volition, you are a good leader. You could also be horrible cult guru or self-serving dictator, but people have multiple facets.
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BOOK: “Love Thy Stranger” by Bart D. Ehrman
Love Thy Stranger: How the Teachings of Jesus Transformed the Moral Conscience of the West by Bart D. EhrmanMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Simon & Schuster
Release Date: March 24, 2026
In this book, Ehrman argues that the development of Christianity started a sea change in the Western world’s approach to charity, altruism, and forgiveness. The idea is that both Greco-Roman philosophies and Judaism (Christianity’s religious precursor) were more tribal. Those systems clearly presented arguments for being charitable and kind, but in the context of those closest to you — your family and immediate neighbors — i.e. your ingroup. However, Ehrman proposes that those systems did not suggest any obligation to be charitable or kind to those who were strangers to one.
This is an intriguing book and provides many thought-provoking ideas and lessons from scripture, philosophy, and history. Ehrman definitely makes a case, but I don’t know that it is as strong as it might seem. In short, I think he did a great job of collecting stories and teachings that supported his point but showed less willingness to consider stories that might refute his thesis. I did appreciate how often Ehrman acknowledged contradictory views even when they conflicted with his own — often (appropriately) in footnotes. That said, I can’t recall seeing anything about the story of the Syrophoenician woman, a tale that seems to negate the book’s argument. In that story, a woman (of Syrophoenician origin) comes seeking Jesus’s help and is at first rebuked and turned away. Jesus says, “It is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” Suggesting he neither sees her as the same species nor worthy of assistance. While it is true that Jesus does eventually assist her after she demeans herself (“Even dogs eat the children’s crumbs,) it’s still indication that he was far from advocating one behave lovingly toward all.
The book begins by dealing with broader questions, such as whether altruism actually exists (i.e. has existed) anywhere (i.e. are kind actions always self-serving?) and what the existing thinking was on the subject in Western philosophy and Abrahamic religion in Jesus’s day. I thought these first few chapters were quite beneficial for setting the stage before jumping into the building of the book’s central argument.
For those interested in what Jesus taught and what became of his teachings after his death, I’d recommend this book, or even for anyone interested in the changing shape of Western morality and ethics over time. I think the author conveys many interesting ideas in a readable and approachable way.
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BOOK: “Wildness” by Lydia Willsky-Ciollo
Wildness: Henry David Thoreau and the Making of an American Theology by Lydia Willsky-CiolloMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher — University of Notre Dame Press
Release Date: March 1, 2026
Willsky-Ciollo argues in this book that Thoreau built a uniquely American theology with nature at its core, a theology that didn’t just draw on Greco-Roman philosophy and Abrahamic religion (as other schools of thought have) but also on Indian ideas of both the South Asian and Native American varieties. (The book speaks more extensively to the latter.)
For a scholarly work, this book is readable and doesn’t require jargon proficiency or any special academic background. I can’t say I found it compelling to think of Thoreau’s teachings as a theology (rather than a philosophy, or a strain of Transcendentalism.) That said, to someone outside the field, I don’t think that is a particularly interesting question, given that scholarly disciplines are inherently subjectively defined and prone to mutability. What’s more important to me is that I did gain numerous insights from this book, particularly regarding Thoreau’s unfinished final work Wild Fruits (which is discussed in some detail,) and Thoreau’s views on American Indians and their influence on his worldview.
If you’re interested in Thoreau, and looking for some insight that one might not gain from reading his most well-known works, this is a book well worth reading.
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BOOK: “Wisecracks” by David Shoemaker
Wisecracks: Humor and Morality in Everyday Life by David ShoemakerMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site — U of Chicago Press
In this book, a Cornell University philosopher considers questions at the intersection of morality and humor, particularly with respect to digs, burns, and other forms of wisecracking humor. Shoemaker’s view is that generally these forms of humor are not morally questionable, but even where they are they can serve a social function. The book reflects in depth upon what might make a joke morally questionable and why it is unreasonable to accept the tautological argument that wisecracks are morally wrong because they poke fun at others. In addition, the book delves into what service wisecracking humor provides as well as investigating how the pros may outweigh the cons.
I suspect most readers will not expect a laugh riot from a book put out by a philosopher, and — in this case — they would be particularly right to not do so. The book repeatedly draws on a few examples, examples which are often of the inside joke variety (i.e. not hilarious to third parties.) But if you’re reading a philosophy book to laugh, you’re in the wrong place. One would also be wrong to think one has a minefield map, showing when, where, and how to safely wisecrack, by the book’s end. The author clearly recognizes the challenge of attempts to clarify the landscape. Whether he thinks he’s succeeded in doing so, I couldn’t say, but the landscape remained messy to my mind, even having completed the book.
I found the book to present some thought-provoking ideas. My interest did wane in the book’s second half as it came to feel a bit more muddled and repetitive, but all-in-all I thought it was a book worth reading — if you’re interested in philosophy, morality, and ethics.
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BOOK: “Yoga Also for the Godless” by Sri M.
Yoga Also for the Godless by Sri M.My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Publisher Site – Penguin India
One common philosophical question regarding yoga is to what degree it is, in itself, religious. This has been argued by various sects from within Yoga, with some seeing Yoga without belief as oxymoronic and others arguing that the metaphysics of Yoga is essentially Samkhya (an atheistic philosophy.) Outsiders to Yoga have also had their say, as with the Roman Catholic Church telling its practitioners that the practice of Yoga is incongruent with that of Catholicism.
This book’s author takes on the question by examining what yoga is according to historic texts, specifically the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, and then considering whether the practice that is laid out necessitates a belief in a deity, deities, or the supernatural. As one can tell from the title, Sri M (born Mumtaz Ali) argues that belief in divinity is not essential to the practice of Yoga.
Those who’ve read various commentaries on Patanjali’s Yoga Sutras will find this book at best familiar and at worst just another set of Sutra commentaries. Sri M’s book is not just Yoga Sutra commentaries, but that does take up a fair amount of the page space. The early chapters focus more on the thesis question.
If you’re interested in the question of whether Yoga is inherently theistic, this is a fine book to investigate. It’s a quick read and draws heavily on sutras and scriptures (and, thus, is not just the author’s opinion.)
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PROMPT: Less of
Contemplating the unknowable.
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PROMPT: Positive Events
Daily writing prompt
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
Positive? Negative? Who’s to say? Like the Taoist farmer, I’ll withhold judgement.
Tiger Riding for Beginners 