The DPO Project

This week Zi and Vindesh explore what it takes to lead a joyful life.  According the Buddha, joy is the purpose of life and suffering is inevitable.  Zi explores what happens when life events prevent us from seeing the joy all around us.  If we are lucky, we have 100 years here and this week we focus on what habits beget longevity. 

Why don’t we pay attention to the signs and wait until it’s too late? Zi and Vin explore this question this week especially regarding omens for your personal health.  As Zi puts it, omens are preview of things to come and are not always negative. They serve as mile markers on a journey. However, humanity has this ability to override this information and like Zi says, “Go golfing during a lightning storm.”

This week Zi and Vindesh talk about what happens when a movement or symbol starts begins with a good intention, but ultimately, like fruit left out too long, becomes rotten.  Movements or symbols become co-opted by other individuals with different agendas.  We’ve seen this play out in “woke” culture.  Now, we don’t even know what that really means.  They discuss this topic and how it plays out in different arenas of life.

This week Zi and Vindesh continue the conversation from last week’s topic.  They discuss the change that occurs before evolution can even take place. Like running a marathon, just the commitment to finish can be enough to take you farther than you thought you could run.  Zi and Vindesh talk about why pressure to change something initiates from the inside.  It’s often the hardest part of getting started, but the most rewarding.

This week Zi and Vindesh discuss evolution and technology’s role in the development of the current human condition.  Ultimately, Zi says technology should work for us and not us for it.  He describes the big advancements being made in the medical field but because it is not valued in the news stream, we do not know the substantial information coming through regarding cancers, Alzeiheimers and other positive news.  They explore whether we are actually evolving or declining.  Zi shares a personal experience that helped him understand the signs that a civilization is evolving.

This week Zi and Vindesh pull stories from the week and focus their attention to the current cancel culture.  Zi just asks one question, why can't we just live and let live?  Every movement spawns a new movement, but we've stopped listening to each other.  In this madness, we are becoming less resilient.  Vindesh points out that evolution does require some conflict but we've made it so hard to have discourse.  They have a fun time exploring these themes and as always find a way to connect it back to the opt-out philosophy.  

This week Zi and Vindesh review the influencer culture and how it’s shaped the socioeconomic landscape.  In this reflection, they notice that honor does not seem to be valuable in this society.  Zi highlights stories from this week and discusses the reviews of Dave Chappell’s new comedy special “The Closer.”  They examine the current human condition and why these political battles are impacting our overall health.

This week Zi and Vindesh explore their feelings on...feelings! They are inspired by the recent whistleblower Frances Haugen who ousted Facebook's data recovery program which revealed that negative information or news spreads faster than positive.  It keeps Facebook members more actively engaged on their platform.  Zi shares his insight on how feelings can be deadly and how they do impact our health.  

This week Zi and Vindesh explore what it takes to read people and increase situational awareness.   Vin brought this topic up because of the recent report that violent crime is up, there are public service announcements everywhere promoting mental health and the general physical health of people is declining.  Zi shares his experience and the techniques he applies when he reads people and ideas as to how to navigate these events.

This week Zi and Vindesh ponder the question, “Why is the rich man’s chance of going to heaven so bad?” It’s a phrase Zi opens with as he and Vin discuss why “materially poor” people seem so much happier.  Whether it’s because the former seem to pursue the endless pursuit or the latter are much more in check with what they actually need, we can’t seem to ask ourselves at the end of this podcast, “what does our heaven on earth” look like?  Zi ends the note with a meditation that may help us with this question.