Timeless Ideas | October 24, 2021
Here’s your weekly dose of timeless ideas to sharpen your mind, make smarter decisions, and live better.
Quotes
I.
Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.
― Theodore Roosevelt
II.
What is all knowledge but recorded experience, and a product of history; of which therefore, reasoning and belief, no less than action and passion, are essential materials?
— Carlyle
III.
Chaos is not dangerous until it begins to look orderly.
— Max Gunther
Ideas
I.
One of the hazards of the spiritual path is that the seeker may mistakenly study with a false teacher, someone who is either self-deluded or an imposter. An even greater danger is the man who has reached some level of realization. His quality is usually enigmatic, and he often possesses remarkable powers which he uses to intrigue and manipulate people who are not so evolved as himself. Alas, such men have the ability to fascinate and imprison people by their personal charisma, which is the exact reverse of Kabbalah, whose object is to free men from bondage.
Z'ev ben Shimon Halevi in The Way of Kabbalah
II.
People think they will love only when they find a perfect man or a perfect woman. Nonsense! You will never find them, because perfect women and perfect men don’t exist. And if they exist, they won’t bother about your love. They will not be interested. I have heard about a man who remained a bachelor his whole life because he was in search of a perfect woman. When he was seventy, somebody asked, “You have been traveling and traveling—from New York to Kathmandu, from Kathmandu to Rome, from Rome to London you have been searching. Could you not find a perfect woman? Not even one?” The old man became very sad. He said, “Yes, once I did. One day, long ago, I came across a perfect woman.” The inquirer said, “Then what happened? Why didn’t you get married?” Sadly, the old man said, “What to do? She was looking for a perfect man.”
Osho in Being in Love: How to Love with Awareness and Relate Without Fear
III.
One human being may desert another in danger, but animals rarely do so. The sense of self-preservation is of course very strong in all creatures, but animals are more dedicated lovers than human beings. Their friendship can be relied upon. It is unconditional, while relationships between people are full of conditions. We build walls around ourselves and lose touch with our own inner being and then with others. If the instinctive sensitivity for our relation to others is regained, we can become realized without much effort.
Swami Rama in Living with the Himalayan Masters
Articles Worth Reading
I.
Why the ‘Big Short’ Guys Think Bitcoin Is a Bubble
Michelle Celarier | The Atlantic
During the past year of COVID-induced market mania, cryptocurrencies have gone up so much — bitcoin is up about fivefold, while many other crypto projects are up far, far more — that even reluctant Wall Street institutions have begun to tiptoe into the arena. A blazing rally that began this month has helped bitcoin shoot up nearly 50 percent in two weeks. But doubters remain — and their ranks just happen to include many of the same prominent investors who saw the financial crisis of 2008 coming.
II.
Pamela Lyon | Aeon
Cognition did not appear out of nowhere in ‘higher’ animals but goes back millions, perhaps billions, of years. Just as we have come to think of our bodies as evolved from simpler forms of body, it is time to embrace Darwin’s radical idea that our minds, too, are evolved from much simpler minds. Body and mind evolved together and will continue to do so.
III.
Can MasterClass Teach You Everything?
Tad Friend | The NewYorker
We turn to the Internet for answers. It’s a fraught pursuit. As the Web keeps expanding faster and faster, it’s become saturated with lies and errors and loathsome ideas. You may have seen one advertised online, among the “weird tricks” to erase your tummy fat and your student loans. It’s MasterClass, a site that promises to disclose the secrets of everything from photography to comedy to wilderness survival. Studies suggest that it takes at least a decade to achieve real expertise. MasterClass promises transformation in a few hours.
If there are any topics you would like covered in future newsletters, please let me know through this form. Please feel free to share any other thoughts/feedback about the newsletter as well.
Want to read more? You can read the full archives here and other posts on our website as they are published. Was this email forwarded to you? Join the club by signing up below: