Tag Archives: Philosophy

BOOK: “Kindred Spirits” by Edward C. Sellner

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Kindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and ZenKindred Spirits: Thomas Merton, Jack Kerouac, and Zen by Edward C. Sellner
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Publisher Site — Monkfish Books

Release Date: July 28,2026

This book intertwines the biographies of two prominent 2oth century American authors, Beat novelist Jack Kerouac and Trappist monk Thomas Merton. Besides the two writers’ general interest in Eastern philosophy and mysticism and the fact that they had broadly overlapping lifespans, I wouldn’t have placed them in the same basket (despite having read works by each and found both writers’ works enjoyable – though in distinct ways.) However, Sellner dives down into other points of commonality — e.g. Columbia University educated, lifelong Catholics, love of drink, ladies’ men (at some point, at least,) desire for a hermetic existence, etc. Of course, another important commonality was dying young, Kerouac at 47 and Merton at 53.

This book is a fascinating look at two authors who forever changed American perception of Zen Buddhism and Eastern philosophy more generally, though who did it through the lens of Catholicism. At its heart, however, it’s the tale of the struggles of two men to find something, something elusive yet for which they each felt a strong compulsion, something which even successes only left them hungering for more.

If you’re interested in the lives of writers, this book is an excellent read and I’d highly recommend it. Regardless of what you might feel about the connective tissue between them, both of these writers had an interesting life.

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BOOK: “Swami Kripalu’s Ladder of Yoga” by Richard Faulds

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Swami Kripalu’s Ladder of YogaSwami Kripalu’s Ladder of Yoga by Richard Faulds
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Publisher Site – Monkfish

Release Date: April 7, 2026

This book discusses the organizational structure of yoga as described by prominent 20th century yoga guru, Swami Kripalu, an approach that draws on (but distinguishes itself from) the 8-limb (Ashtanga) framework outlined by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras. Swami Kripalu deemphasized yogic ethics (Yama and Niyama,) and put great emphasis on hierarchy among the elements of yoga — i.e. that one must pass through the lessons of some limbs before you can begin to move up to the next. (This idea is certainly taught in Patanjali’s Sutras, but not with the same emphasis — hence Kripalu’s “ladder,” rather than “limbs” — making clear that these are not independent elements but rather are completely dependent.)

The greatest strength of this book is in distinguishing concepts like dhyana (meditation) from samadhi, distinction of which is often given short shrift with simplistic soundbite-like definitions in books on yoga. The book is not the usual yoga text in that it spends a great deal of time discussing the “higher limbs” of yoga (to resort back to Patanjali’s formulation.) Faulds adds benefit by discussing his own subjective experiences, the lack of access to subjective understanding often gives even students actively training with teachers doubts about their experiences.

I should point out that the book does also spend a good deal of page count (perhaps more space than any other subject) on pranayama (breathwork,) both covering it over several chapters in the book’s midsection and then further in a couple appendices that get into the physiology of breathwork.

One nice feature is that almost all of the chapters end with sections entitled “Be a Discerning Student” and “Applying this Chapter in Practice” to help readers with practical insights into what is by and large a philosophical discussion. There are also several appendices (the most useful one to me was a discussion of the shifting understanding of the term “samadhi” over time and across disciplines.)

If you want to explore what the higher limbs are and how they are distinguished, I’d recommend this book. (As I said, it also deals with Pranayama in some detail, but that will likely offer less new insight for students and teachers of yoga who’ve received an education in [and maintain a practice of] yoga.)

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PROMPT: Goals

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Daily writing prompt
How often do you say “no” to things that would interfere with your goals?
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In playing football, I find telling linebackers “no” is not beneficial. Words are strange things, at once infinitely powerful or powerless, depending upon context and will.

Nomad [Free Verse]

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Photograph taken in the Parsi Temple of Baku, Azerbaijan. 
One who doesn't feel 
   a lot at home anywhere
 Begins to feel a little
   at home everywhere.

He sees not strangeness 
   in strangers --
 No more than he sees
   in himself.

Any one place is not
   greater nor lesser
      than anywhere else.
 
Lands of gold and riches
   are as likely devoid of 
      authenticity - of soul -
   as impoverished places
      are dripping with it.

PROMPT: Every Day

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Daily writing prompt
What do you wish you could do more every day?
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Be spontaneous.

PROMPT: Negative Feelings

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Daily writing prompt
What strategies do you use to cope with negative feelings?
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Sakshi Bhavan, the dispassionate witness, giving feelings one’s full attention without allowing rumination that compounds the effect.

Not technically a strategy, but I think it’s on point.

PROMPT: Fate/Destiny

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Daily writing prompt
Do you believe in fate/destiny?
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I don’t believe. I don’t disbelieve. I have insufficient data on which to draw a conclusion.

Superabundance of Buddhas [Free Verse]

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Photograph taken inside a Buddhist Temple in Luang Prabang, Laos. 
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?

ESSAY: It’s All Going to Be Okay: A Note About Humanity’s Future

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A photo taken from the mountain of Hong Kong Island toward Kowloon.

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.

BOOK: “Four Chapters on Freedom” by Patanjali [Commentaries by Satyananda Saraswati]

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Four Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of PatanjaliFour Chapters on Freedom: Commentary on the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali by Satyananda Saraswati
My 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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