Expedition: Shamatha

The Economist's "Progress and Its Perils: Why is the Modern View So Impoverished?"

The cover article of this week's Economist is a remarkable, landscape-view of Western history, "Progress and its Perils: Why is the Modern View So Impoverished?" 

To quote Alan Wallace: "As a species, we have progressed in two ways, and two ways alone: knowledge and power.  Why has there not been commensurate progress in wisdom and compassion?"  Modernity remains a child of the Enlightenment, and The Economist its pamphlet.  This article feels a lot like a modernity that is wrestling with Wallace's question.  Science, modernity's dominant religion, replete with its own rituals and articles of faith, turns out not to be inherently ethical -- or even wise.  GDP, as it turns out, is not the same thing as well-being -- far from it. Capitalism is only as good as the character of the individuals who constitute its marketplace.  Are we a trading pit of hairless monkeys beset by fear and greed, or can we work towards a higher purpose than keeping up with the Joneses (or Chans or Guptas)?

The Economist's Carbon Emissions Figures for the U.S. are Wrong

The Economist just published a chart showing (on the left) annual CO2 equivalent emissions for different nations -- as part of its coverage of upcoming Copenhagen negotiations.

The U.S. looks pretty awful here, leading the world with 24 tonnes (we're #1!  we're #1!) - and unfortunately these numbers are misleading.  Sadly, I'm not helping the U.S.' case out on this one.  These figures (based on U.N. calculations) significantly understate the U.S., and other wealthy nations' emissions on two counts.

Inspiring Alan Wallace Article on Shamatha, in Tricycle Magazine

Alan Wallace just published this article in Tricycle Magazine, in which he outlines the profound implications of shamatha practice for the modern era. It's a great piece. I just returned from Phuket International Academy, which will include long-term retreat cabins and scientific labs, allowing the yogis and the scientists to partner in exciting ways.  The closing paragraphs from the article, with relevance to PIA:

Energy self-sufficiency is possible! (and really hard to pull off ... )

The New York Times has a piece today on a pioneering Danish island that has proven energy self-sufficiency is possible -- and really hard to pull off.  If you have time for a slightly longer read, and are interested in what it might take to actually live sustainably, skip the NYT article and go straight to Elizabeth Kolbert's outstanding New Yorker piece on Samso ("Island in the Wind").

You're continuing for another year? You're certifiably nuts!

Hello friends, some of you have expressed interest in learning more about what we’ve been up to with the Shamatha Project, so I thought I’d post something here for the brave to wade into.  Getting ourselves set up for this year-long intensive, off phone and email, has taken a lot longer than we’d hoped, and we’ve committed to start full time tomorrow morning, so I’m going to try to knock this out quickly – forgive, if this isn’t the most coherent.

Also, I’m pulling liberally from many sources here, including Alan (our teacher) – and in the interest of time, I’m not going to footnote. 

I’ll try to answer a few key questions: