This week's written snapshots.
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It has an intense focus on good and bad (defilement), a clear conception of hell, a strident moral directive evangelize (alleviate suffering), and even included a chapter of detailed logical argumentation to prove the another world is more real than our physical world.
I did not expect the book to rhyme so closely to my experience as a reformed Baptist high schooler — there even multiple passages that even vilifies sexual desire!
Over the past few years, I had focused on Confucianism and Daoism which feels totally foreign from Christianity. I assumed Buddhism would be similarly divergent. It wasn’t, and I needed a quick primer on Buddhism to reset my expectations.
This short essay by Robert Eno was exactly what I needed. It covered a lot of ground in a quick read and I enjoyed Eno’s slightly irreverent tone. He’s taught this material many times to sleep deprived college students.
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To wildly speculate on parallels with Christianity, Buddhism came as a reform religion, stripping away calcified rituals, with an focus on (avoiding) the next life, and had an egalitarian imperative that energized it to spread across the continent.
In contrast, Confucianism and Daoism were uninterested in the question of salvation. These were elite philosophies that were wrestling with how to craft a state (or withdraw from the brutality of court politics) in the throes of a dying empire.
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As a pantheistic atheist, I often worry about the old warning “if you believe in nothing you’ll believe in anything”. Hopefully I don’t fall into that trap, but I also can’t shake the intuition that billions of people can’t be all wrong. At the very least, there must something that has made these teachings worth transmitting to the next generation again and again over the millennia.
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I never skip a chance to plug Robert Eno’s great chinatxt website. Go check it out.
I started a Great Courses lecture series by Malcom David Eckel, I’m enjoying it so far (two hours into the twelve hour course).
28 Apr 2023
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<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/hangzhou-hua/">Hangzhou Hua</a></h2>
<p><p>My wife and her parents speak dialect at home. It can be off-putting to be left out at the dinner table, but I speak English with my wife, so it evens out.</p>
I occasionally mention that she should teach the kids Hangzhou Hua, but I know that it will never happen. My sister and I also started in Chinese but migrated to English after hitting elementary school.
The other day, we tested them on the dialect. Like my halting mandarin, they have a functional knowledge of their mother’s tongue without speaking it.
Amidst the lunchtime banter, the decades collapsed into a flicker. One day, this unique set of vocalizations will disappear from the aural background of our home.
Unless we move to Hangzhou, my wife’s dialect will follow her parents. Her childhood will go mute. Like other indigenous languages, it will disappear slowly then suddenly.
Another casualty of mass culture, one more accommodation in an immigrant’s story.
26 Apr 2023
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<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/excerpts-from-tao-te-ching-ursula-k-le-guin/">Excerpts from Tao Te Ching, Ursula K. Le Guin</a></h2>
<p><p>I’ve always thought I’d read some Chinese philosophy, someday. </p>
That day came on a sunny afternoon my mind was blown as I was parking my car behind E-Jo, a Korean bone broth restaurant. The History of China podcast was talking about a Han dynasty emperor who used Daoism as his ruling ideology.
That blew my mind. I always thought Daoists were crazy drunks in a forest, not competing with Confucians in the halls of power.
Don’t get me wrong, the Tao Te Ching is great stuff for skipping out into the woods. But there is plenty of “leadership advice”. Timely stuff before landing a gig as a Project Manager representing the State.
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True leaders
are hardly known to their followers.
. .
. When the work’s done right,
with no fuss or boasting,
ordinary people say,
Oh, we did it.excerpt from Tao Te Ching 17
My project teams have been complimentary of my leadership. Of course, I’m the source of their next project, so it’s hard to know how much of it is sincere. Then again, I guess such compliments are better than the alternative. On my end, I believe that I have the easiest job on the team. I move some paper around and they do all the real work.
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And so the wise soul
predominates without dominating,
and leads without misleading.
And people don’t get tired
of enjoying and praising
one who, not competing,
has in all the world
no competitor.excerpt from Tao Te Ching 66
A hidden benefit of joining the State is that any promotion includes a significant increase in stress for a marginal pay raise. There is no financial incentive to rise up the hierarchy. As such, I have no competition in my office. If someone else wants the headache, let them have it.
John Minford’s commentary for this section includes this short poem by Li Bo for his friend the Taoist Hermit Yuan Danqiu.
I envy you, my friend,
Dwelling on East Mountain,
Lover of beauteous hills and valleys,
Asleep in the green season of spring
Among empty forests,
Rising long after daybreak,
The wind in the pines
Blowing through your sleeves,
The stony brook washing your soul.
I envy you,
Lying there unperturbed,
Pillowed high
On your emerald mist.
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How to make peace?
Wise souls keep their part of the contract
and don’t make demands on others.
People whose power is real fulfill their obligations;
people whose power is hollow insist on their claims.excerpt from Tao Te Ching 79
In the heat of the moment, it’s easy to get annoyed at an underperforming contractor or consultant. Such tendencies get worse the longer I hold this comfortable position of power. I need to constantly remind myself that I don’t have to insist on my rights — I hold the fucking checkbook. Unfortunately, I’m sometimes forced to remind my partners of their obligations and my expectations of their performance, but there’s no excuse for losing my cool.
Whosoever lacks Inner Power will try to control Others by Force, will demand a due, exact a tithe, and Bitterness will ensue. The Tao of Softness and gentleness wards off Bitterness. Hardness and Strength, Vanity and Pride create Bitterness and Resentment
John Minford’s translation of Magister Liu’s commentary
25 Apr 2023
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<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/nobody-speak-dj-shadow-feat-run-the-jewels-2016/">Nobody Speak, DJ Shadow feat Run The Jewels, 2016</a></h2>
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I was waiting for Election Day to share this banger with Run the Jewels.
But today (with the twin firings of Tucker Carlson and Don Lemon) was too perfect not to share.
25 Apr 2023
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<h2><a href="https://www.grizzlypear.com/the-box-marc-levinson-2016/">The Box, Marc Levinson, 2016</a></h2>
<p><p>I’m only a third through <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691170817/the-box" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">The Box</a><em>, </em>but I can already recommend it.</p>
A good history book creates context and energizes the mind. As we wrestle with the advent of AI, Levinson tells a a story of disruption that rhymes with what I fear we will see in the coming years.
The world of shipping was completely different up through the first half of the 20th century before the invention and adoption of containers. Then the 50’s and 60’s flipped it upside down.
It’s mindblowing that we had a world of international trade with individually packed ships. How did we supply two world wars on opposite oceans merely with muscling things in and out holds?
What American doesn’t feel some sense of pride at a crazy innovator- entrepreneur stumbling into the creation of a new system to revolutionize the world?
The next chapter tells the utter devastation that this change wrought upon New York City. But was it ultimately for the better?
And chapter 6 details the struggles of the Longshoremen unions grappling with this change. (Good luck to us white collars, without any union support!)
I’m curious what the next chapters will bring. It’s already been well worth the time. So surprising that the boring shipping container is the center of such a riveting narrative!
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Here’s a gratuitous plug for the boardgame Container by Franz-Benno Delonge. It’s one of my favorite games — a basic ruleset for a brainbursting experience. It’s been out of print for a while but can be easily DIY’ed.
24 Apr 2023
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Thanks for reading! Justus