In “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis,” Ep. 13, “Buddhism and Parasitic Processing,” John Vervaeke, based in Stephen Batchelor’s idea that we’ve gravely misinterpreted Buddhism in the West, outlines how we might understand core parts of the Buddha’s teachings.  For suffering, he interprets it as a form of parasitic processing, a reciprocal narrowing of the connection between oneself and the world.  And for moving towards enlightenment, he shows how it might be the opposite of that, a kind of Platonic ascent, famously outlined in “The Republic.”  Ian criticizes this, and we discuss how suffering and enlightenment might be different and how true Buddhism is alive and well in the West.  Both approaches may be useful in reducing suffering and increasing insight and wellbeing.

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For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/9TU3BUjLumw

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/vervaeke-buddhism-parasitic-processing/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

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Facebook:

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About our guest:

Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 

He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.

You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

On appearances: Robin Hood voluntarily descends in society.  That way, he can see what is happening on the ground.  Perhaps those who truly speak to the people attract all sorts. 

For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/vtACZtly05A

Audio episode:

https://youtu.be/uslCz3O2V_k

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

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Facebook:

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Did the evil stepmother queen in “Snow White” grow a bit from then to this story?  Well, she is still trying for unchanging beautiful perfection.  She does not go the way of nature.  (From a discussion on Jonathan Pageau’s “Rapunzel.”)

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For the video episode:

https://youtu.be/eX0YUp4bTn0

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/jonathan-pageaus-rapunzel-summary-and-discussion/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

https://x.com/Benomtad

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The king’s best hunter shoots a bird, wounding it, and it begs him to not kill it, instructing him to bring it home, put it on a window sill, and strike it.  When he does so, it turns into a beautiful woman and they marry.  She sees that he is wearied by his daily hunting and instructs him to borrow money from everyone he knows to buy silk.  She summons two youthful magical helpers and they craft a tapestry of the whole kingdom, down to the smallest detail.  At her direction, he takes it to the marketplace to sell it for whatever is offered.  The merchants are struck dumb, but the mayor, traveling through, offers a very high price for it.

Back at the palace, the mayor shows it to the king, who is so impressed he forces him to sell it to him for a much higher price.  Wanting to commission another such work, the mayor goes to the hunter’s home but falls in love with his wife.  He tells the king, who then dispatches the mayor to get rid of the hunter.  Baba Yaga meets the mayor in a wasteland and tells him to send the hunter on a quest from which he’ll not return.  The king summons the wife to his castle, but she escapes him, flying through a window in bird form.

The hunter’s wife gives him a ball he is to follow on his way and a towel he is to use rather than any he is offered.  It brings him to a castle with women who recognize their sister’s towel, and they help him by summoning the animals of creation.  Only a lowly and old frog knows where to find the Shmat-Razum.  He is given a bowl of milk in which to carry the guide.  When they cross a river, the frog increases in size and the hunter rides him over it.

He hides in a cave where there is a table set, and spies on two old men who eat and are waited upon by a servant.  When the men leave, the hunter offers to be the new master of the servant, who is glad to have someone who is grateful for his help.  On their way back, Shmat-Razum begins to carry the hunter, and they fly fast as the wind.  In the middle of a large lake, they stop and are visited by three merchants, who exchange their magical gifts for the hunter’s servant.  On their way, though, the servant abandons them and returns to his grateful master.

Upon returning to his wife, the hunter uses the magical gifts to establish a beautiful castle and gardens on the shore.  The king, looking upon the success with envy, sends troops who are defeated by an army from one of the gifts.  The king is killed in the battle, and the hunter and his wife are free, prosperous, and unhounded by rivals.

We read and discuss this tale and related ideas.

Searching for the Search:

https://zenyogagurdjieff.substack.com/p/searching-for-the-search?r=h5jz7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=audio-player

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/NrumhRwhgvI

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/go-to-the-verge-of-destruction-and-bring-back-shmat-razum/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

https://x.com/Benomtad

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/benomtad

About our guest:

Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 

He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.

You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Brothers Grimm’s “The Golden Bird” 

A king’s garden is robbed of a golden apple, and he sends his three sons, one at a time, to discover the culprit.  The first two fall asleep, resulting in two more missing apples, but the youngest son shoots a feather off the thief–a golden bird–with an arrow on the third night.  The king finds it’s so valuable that he sends his sons, one at a time, after it.  On the way, they each meet a fox, and the eldest take aim at it, but only the third heeds his advice to steer clear of the exciting inn and instead stay in the humble tavern ahead.  

The next morning, the fox rejoins the youngest son and tells him to go to the castle past the sleeping guards and into a chamber where he will find a golden bird.  He is not to take it out of its wooden cage and put it into the golden one.  But when the son arrives, he does just that and the bird sings, alerting the king, who has him arrested.  The only way to keep his life is to go on on his journey and capture a golden horse.

His fox companion again rejoins him, ferrying him like lightning on his tail, and advises him not to outfit the horse with the golden saddle, but only the common leather and wood one.  At the stable, the horse neighs loudly, alerting the grooms after he went against the fox’s council.  The grooms seize him and the only way for the king of that castle to spare his life is for him to bring back the princess from the Golden Castle.

The fox, disdaining but pitying the poor boy, helps him again.  He is to not let the princess say goodbye to her parents.  He does so, however, and is made to dig away a hill that blocks the king’s windows.  The fox performs the impossible task overnight, and the hapless third son leaves with the princess.

The fox tells him the horse belongs to the princess, and tells him a ruse to get it.  After the rejoicing and feasting, he takes leave of the princess last while mounted on the golden horse, absconding with her.  Then, back at the first castle, with the princess in the fox’s care, he steals the golden bird while still mounted on the horse.  Now with the horse, bird, and princess, the fox warns him to not buy gallows flesh or sit by rivers.

Back at the town of the two inns, he sees that his profligate brothers are set to hang.  He buys their freedom, and on the way home, before the river, they push him in and take his princess and animals.  Drowning, he is again saved by the fox, who warns him of his brothers’ spies and asks him to cut off his head and feet, but the prince refuses.  He walks on and exchanges clothes with a poor man on the road.  Upon his return home, no one knew him but the princess stops weeping, the bird begins to sing, and the horse begins to eat, and the king realizes he is the one who saved them.  The wicked brothers were seized and put to death, and the third son married the princess and was declared heir.

A long time later, the King’s son was once again walking in the wood, and the fox again made his unusual request.  He did it and the animal was transformed into a prince, and none other than the princess’s brother.  They all lived happily ever after.

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For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/2MNCaPiE9DE

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimm-s-the-golden-bird/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Robin Hood & the Tinker: The Sheriff of Nottingham sends out a warrant for Robin Hood’s arrest.  Local men don’t want to take it up, but a Tinker from out of town brags he will serve it.  Robin Hood is able to get him drunk and avoid a fight, but then has to fight him down the road.  The Tinker breaks Hood’s staff but the outlaw calls his men, and they make him one of their own.

The Shooting Match at Nottingham Town: The shamed Sheriff gathers his men in newly-minted armor and marches into London to ask the king to help him with the outlaw.  The king admonishes him, and he returns with the idea of a ruse: surely a shooting match will ensnare the proud Hood.  All the best shooters compete, but a mysterious stranger comes away with the prize begrudgingly bestowed upon him by a seemingly suspicious Sheriff.  RH cannot resist, however, and has a note shot into the Sheriff’s Hall letting him know he has been bested by his nemesis yet again.

Will Stutely Rescued by his Good Companions: Now a merry man in friar disguise is discovered and captured by the Sheriff’s foresters.  Robin Hood and others go to rescue him from the gallows, and in the process they thoroughly bepate the Sheriff’s men and humiliate the clever leader.  The Sheriff departs Part I silently and thoroughly, and holes up in his hamlet for days.  

Ian and I summarize and discuss these fine tales of the legendary hero of the people.  

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/vtACZtly05A

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/howard-pyle-s-robin-hood-part-i/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

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Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

https://x.com/Benomtad

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/benomtad

About our guest:

Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 

He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.

You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The lack of taking in feedback of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes.  With many adherents of these ideologies, anything is justified.  We are reflecting on Howard Pyle’s Robin Hood, where the outlaw hero gives feedback, often rough, to the leadership of an illegitimate and rapacious regime.

RH on Project Gutenberg:

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/10148/10148-h/10148-h.htm

Jonathan Pageau’s Robin Hood:

https://open.spotify.com/episode/7GLGQRr2BM8vHfUBy1BsbM?si=5b436210cd9e4891

The Emerald: Tricksters

https://open.spotify.com/episode/23wxZblaSN2AGiySe94wJl?si=fedb567231c8473c

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the video episode:

https://youtu.be/WeKojww2hkk

For the audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/robin-hood-s-origins-little-john-the-trickster/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

https://x.com/Benomtad

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/benomtad

About our guest:

Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 

He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.

You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

An old woman lives alone in a small cottage in the woods, with bitterness and her rapunzel cabbages as companions.  She prizes the plants, however, attending them relentlessly.  Now a newly-married woodcutter and his pregnant wife live nearby, and the woodcutter eyes the greens in passing because his wife craves them.  The crone notices his taking one and says she’ll take what is most precious should he do that again.  He and his wife agonize over it, but she must have it, so he takes a bushel on his trip and brings peace to the house.  But after the baby is born, the witch steals into the house at night and absconds with their green-eyed daughter.

Twelve year-old Rapunzel lives deep in the woods, happy but lonely, with long flowing golden hair and bound by a magic circle.  One day Zoran calls to her from a tree outside, and she leaves the circle and joins him to view the heavens.  On the way down, her hair gets caught in the branches and she falls, bloodying herself a bit.  The witch screams at her in anger and fright, and Zoran flees.

Now her mother has a tower built for her and she wiles away the days singing.  When the witch visits she calls up to Rapunzel, who lets down her hair to climb up.  One day a prince was wandering in the woods and saw the visit, and when the old lady left he did the same.  The maiden was surprised to see a man, but he spoke kindly to her and they began regular visits.  But one day the witch saw a flower in her hair given to her by the prince, and her mother flew into a rage and cut her long locks.  Leading her down a hidden staircase and through a tunnel, she banished Rapunzel into the woods.

On the prince’s next visit, he was startled at who was in the tower and lost his trip and fell down it and into thorns which pierced his eyes.  He then wandered for years as a mendicant, being laughed at when he told his story.  He eventually came upon a crowd and learned that his father had died and that another was being crowned in his place.  His shame and anger were unbearable, and he stumbled out of town and fell, hurting himself.  A voice asked him about himself, and a hermit brought him to his hamlet.

Over the next days, the prince healed as the hermit spun flax, and he told the story to the old man.  The old man also told him stories, but distorted ones that the prince corrected, including his own story of losing his crown and that of Snow White, his mother.  When he left, the man reminded him to attend to his own story.

Soon after, in the silence after a loud cawing of a crow, he heard the faint singing of his beloved once again.  He followed the sound and, after days, went to the small, abandoned cabin she’d settled into to raise their children.  Upon reuniting, her tears washed away his blindness, and he decided to live a private life, knowing that contending for his crown could put his children into danger.  

LL and I summarize and discuss this retelling of the Grimm’s folktale, and then discuss its meaning.  Please join our discussion in the comments!

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the video episode:

https://youtu.be/eX0YUp4bTn0

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

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Facebook:

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I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Going into wholeness or connection, on the one hand, or solipsism and individualism, on the other hand.  It seems one can find one’s way to solipsism if one does not “return to school,” and patiently gain virtue so that one can hold one’s gifts non-egotistically and share them with the world.  And where the world goes depends on how people use their gifts.  From a discussion on the Brothers Grimm’s story.

Project Gutenberg Free (from “Household Tales”):

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5314/5314-h/5314-h.htm#chap99

A Summary of the Story:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_in_the_Bottle

The Spirit of Life Podcast Episode: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0WvSewpERjCyXPD4MdTi4V?si=6e6463c571d84992

Supplement: The Myth of Proteus: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proteus

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the full video episode:

https://youtu.be/j479tvASC18

Audio episode:

https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-spirit-in-the-bottle-from-the-brothers-grimm/

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

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Spotify:

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X:

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Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/benomtad

About our guest:

Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 

He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.

You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

LL and I read and discuss this lovely folktale.  A man had three sons, the youngest called Dummling (Simpleton), who was mocked and sneered at.  The eldest son wanted to hew wood in the forest, and his mother packed him cake and wine.  On the way, a small grey man greeted him and asked him to share the food, but the son refused, saying he would have none left.  At a tree, he cut his arm and returned home.  The second son does the same, and cuts his leg.

Now Dummling asked repeatedly to go, and his father relented, reasoning that he might learn a lesson.  His mother sent him off with cake baked with water and in cinders, and sour beer.

On the way, the same grey man appeared, but Dummling shared his meal, warning him it wasn’t much.  But when he pulled out the food, it was cake and wine.  The man thanked him after eating and directed him to a tree to cut down.  After Dummling did so, there appeared a goose whose every feather was golden.  He took the wondrous bird to an inn to spend the night.  

The innkeeper’s had three daughters, and when Dummling had gone out, the eldest tried to take a feather from the goose but became stuck to it.  The second daughter came for a feather and got stuck to the first, and the third, despite being warned away, fared likewise.  

The next morning Dummling set off on his way, heedless of the three daughters.  Soon, a scolding parson, a scheduling sexton and would-be-helpful laborers joined the ridiculous party.  They came to a town where a king had offered the hand of his serious daughter to anyone who could make her laugh, and as soon as she espied Dummling’s impromptu retinue, she laughed as if she would never stop.

However, when our simpleton went to claim her hand, her father, revolted by this ugly, ridiculed fellow, gave him a further task: to produce a man who could drink a cellarful of wine.  Dummling thought of the grey man, and at the felled tree sat a sorrowful man, who couldn’t drink water and who had just had a barrelful of wine but needed much  more.  He brought the man to the king’s cellar and he drank until his loins hurt.  

But the king now made a new request: a man who could eat a mountainful of bread.  Again he returned to the tree, and again he found a man who completed the task.  And for Dummling’s final extemporaneous task, he had to produce a ship that could traverse land and sea.  This time, the original grey man was waiting at the tree, and he said he would do it, “Since you have given me to eat and to drink.”  Finally, the king could resist no longer, and when he died, Dummling inherited the kingdom and lived for a long time contentedly with his wife.

LL and I discuss this fine story of persistence in the right despite others’ resistance, the magical help and helpers that then manifest, and wisdom itself.  

Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  

For the video episode:

https://youtu.be/yfp5PaSPEYw

For more in this podcast, please go to:

Podbean:

https://benomtad.podbean.com

Apple Podcasts:

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863

YouTube:

https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos

Spotify:

https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ

X:

https://x.com/Benomtad

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/benomtad

I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.