Profound Books, Perennial Philosophy, El Amor
Three Point Thursday
Hola amigo,
I turn 25 today. I’m so grateful for all the people that make my life so rich, and to even be alive in the first place. It is a strange miracle!
This week’s edition features some of my favorite books, speculation on the ultimate question, and an amazing quote about love.
Reread your favorite books.
I recently picked up some of my favorite books, and was quickly reminded why I love them so dearly. I even have them in a separate area from my main bookshelf. I’m talking about Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl, and The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus. Also in this special area are the following:
The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
On Writing by Stephen King
The Almanack of Naval Ravikant by Eric Jorgenson
Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson
While I’m here, let me mention some other favorites: Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, Essays and Aphorisms by Arthur Schopenhauer, Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Lessons of History by Will & Ariel Durant, Enlightenment Now by Steven Pinker, the short stories of Ted Chiang and Jorge Luis Borges, and Skin in the Game by Nassim Taleb. Speaking of Taleb, he once wisely said that “the reading of a single text twice is more profitable than reading two different things once.” In my experience, this has often proved to be true. Try it out.
The wisdom of The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley.
I’ve been reading The Perennial Philosophy by Aldous Huxley, and it is aligning with some deep intuitions I’ve recently felt. The book’s central claim is that there is a Divine Ground that the mystics of every great religion have experienced, and indeed anyone can experience through a number of ways—be it ethical behavior, community service, psychedelics, art, fasting, meditation, prayer, or unconditional love. It is not saying that every religion is saying the same thing. It is obvious that they are not, as any brief scan of the major religions’ primary texts will reveal. What the book is saying, however, is that there is religious experience that transcends specific faiths. It is much like the parable of the blind men and the elephant. People of any religion might feel a different part of the elephant’s body and draw their own conclusions about what it is. They will likely interpret it through their own geographic, linguistic, and cultural biases. But fundamentally, it is the same thing. It is God, whatever that means or is. It is the Divine.
A poetic line from a controversial story.
“I’m not frightened. I’m not frightened of anything. The more I suffer, the more I love. Danger will only increase my love. It will sharpen it, forgive its vice. I will be the only angel you need. You will leave life even more beautiful than you entered it. Heaven will take you back and look at you and say: Only one thing can make a soul complete and that thing is love.”
— Bernhard Schlink, The Reader
Keep shooting,
Jeff