maria on sanctuary

maria popova – jan 2023

notes/quotes from 40 ish min talk (she starts at 30 min):

31 min – iris murdoch.. term ‘unself’.. borrowed from .. essay on the sublime and the good..

14 page pdf of the essay: http://timothyquigley.net/pmi/murdoch-s%26g59.pdf

notes/quotes from essay (read maria’s post first.. so only a few from here.. she got the best ones already):

(p 11 of 14): The enemies of art and of morals, the enemies that is of love, are the same: social convention and neurosis..t

Freedom is exercised in the confrontation by each other, in the context of an infinitely extensible work of imaginative understanding, of two irreducibly dissimilar individuals. Love is the imaginative recognition of, that is respect for, this otherness.

maria on sublime and good essay: https://www.themarginalian.org/2022/01/08/iris-murdoch-the-sublime-and-the-good/

notes/quotes from maria’s post:

Most commonly known as the Golden Rule, it mistakes the reality of the self for the only reality, taking one’s own wishes, desires, and longings as universal and presuming that the other shares those precisely — negating the sovereign reality of the other, negating the possibility that a very different person might want something very different done unto them.

The remedy for this malady of selfing is to remember that there are infinitely many kinds of beautiful lives,..t each with its singular longings for and visions of beauty, goodness, and gladness.

(maria quoting iris): Art and morals are… one. Their essence is the same. The essence of both of them is love. Love is the perception of individuals. Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. . t Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.

Love is the imaginative recognition of, that is respect for, this otherness.

pearson unconditional law et al

32 min – an occasion for unselfing

34 min – wonder sighting.. the most reliable sanctuary i know..

35 min – sanctuary.. on the interweaving of all things.. every instance of wonder is a homecoming to sanctuary

36 min – experiences of wonder lift us up into a state of loose association.. transcending our ordinary way of thinking.. a liberation from the prison of mental habit.. the ultimate exercise in unselfing

there are terribly seductive counterfeits out there.. every false sanctuary is some form of selfing.. once scared/overwhelmed we humans cave in for protection..

37 min – but if aren’t careful/sensitive enough.. inner world becomes a stand in for the world.. that succulent self righteousness.. makes sense.. most vulnerable thing in world is to not know.. this whole life mostly mystery.. but we barely understand 5% of what it is

38 min – wonder is the antithesis of self righteousness.. ‘to not know’ ‘to be astonished’.. astonishment is a thing of the unself.. has to do w what is not us.. that lovely way the world has of surprising us.. blasting in a whole new vista of understanding..

39 min – if sanctuary is to be found in wonder.. it demands we step in that liminal space between knowledge and mystery.. where true openness .. only then can we be wonder smitten by reality..

40 min – become overcome by interconnectedness

thurman interconnectedness law

41 min – we invented and figured things out.. with our instruments of curiosity and delight.. we invented telescopes, ice cream, math, music.. to me that is the daily wonder of being alive

song to 48 min – start q&a

49 min – so much of our best ideas are things that can’t be calculated.. when we try to consciously create.. they become too predictable.. the most creative things have an element of surprise

graeber unpredictability/surprise law et al..

imagine if we listened to the itch-in-8b-souls 1st thing everyday & used that data to connect us (tech as it could be.. ai as augmenting interconnectedness)

52 min – on instagram use.. not take a pic of something until i actually take it in.. so sometimes i miss documenting it.. this pause moment for self before capturing..

55 min – inspiration when in nature.. not that a tree gives it.. but being in that space sparks things (paraphrase)

57 min – i am afflicted with frequent visitations of depression.. and sometimes so bad.. but still important to try.. best way to feel the edge of life.. is to just become interested.. a survival tactic for those periods.. we’re such mechanical puppets.. so i rest more.. then feeling rested/calm/mindful.. helps me.. but also.. at times realize you’re just in the pits and be ok with that.. and wait to come back up

1:02 – i’m lucky and unlucky i’m my own boss.. and i’m a pretty intense boss

1:03 – not having the rhythm was detrimental to my internal stability.. so i made a routine.. a daily habit.. a constant negotiation between creating enough rhythm that feels vitalizing and not make it feel compulsive

1:05 – late state capitalism has many downsides of creative ness.. and some downsides.. the machinery behind econ has devalued spiritual substance of an art form.. and we have been complicit in that.. completely erasing the human element of it.. becomes currency for very c enterprise.. music is the cautionary tale of all of it if we let it go.. we have agency in this.. we don’t have to go by the script.. go to shows.. buy records.. donate to their projects..

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