The Sangha Whisperer

Events happening this weekend:

• Stoic Breath w/ Steve Beattie. Everyday Sunday @ 10:00 AM ET.RSVP here. 

• Memetic Mediation Campfire w/ The Memetic Mediators. Every Sunday @ 3:30 PM ET. RSVP here.

• Metamodern Masculinity w/ Arran Rogerson. September 20th @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

Newly posted events:

• Raw Femininity w/ Aimee Walleston. September 27th @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• The Pandemic of Groupthink: Jung and the Collective Shadow w/ Uberboyo. September 28th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• Prerequisites for Communtias w/ Miriam Mason Martineau. September 29th @ 2:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• The Glass Bead Game w/ Laurence Currie-Clark. Every Saturday @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP here. Starting on October 3rd.

• Deconstructing Yourself w/ Michael Taft. October 6th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• How Feeling Beliefs May Be Sabotaging Your Entrepreneurial Success w/ Doug Tataryn. October 7th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• Community During COVID: Creating an Unlonely Planet w/ Jillian Richardson. October 12th @ 12:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

• Escaping Narcissism: A Rite of Passage to an Entangled Humanity w/ Theodore Taptiklis. October 13th @ 8:00 PM ET. RSVP here.

An event to get excited about:

• Metamodern Masculinity w/ Arran Rogerson. September 20th @ 6:00 PM ET. RSVP by clicking the link below.

Arran Rogerson returns to continue the conversation on “metamodern masculinity”, with the specific theme of sex and love. This event will not be recorded. You can watch Arran’s intro to the last session here.

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September 18, 2020

The next Buddha is the sangha. I have been thinking about this phrase for a while now. From a quick search it seems Thich Nhat Hanh was the one who first said it. My existential homeboys, John Vervaeke and Jordan Hall, were talking about this recently, in a way that expands the sangha beyond the Buddhistic tradition.

The way I am holding this phrase is in the expanded way: we cannot rely on waiting for an enlightened saviour. Instead we need to get into the right relationship with each other, in a deeply embodied way, aka communitas, in order to figure out how to address our individual and collective challenges.

I do enjoy listening to John and Jordan talk to each other, but there is resistance for me these days while listening to two super high-IQ guys talk for an hour. To tease out a reason why: when listening to people talk in the broadcast form, people whom I, and the vast majority of others, are not epistemic peers with, creates a certain dynamic. It creates a heroic dynamic, which interestingly enough was what John and Jordan were warning about in their talk. 

I know many really smart people, who for lack of a better term are popular, and I am friends with many of them. One thing I often find though, with the people who follow them, especially in a consumerist way that the broadcast media promotes, is a fanboy quality. I see this especially prominent in men. 

I see various degrees of this, and the worse is a sycophantic manifestation that often occurs. I do think it is important to recognize and appreciate genuine epistemic authority, and maybe some hero-worship is needed as a developmental transition phase, but if we are going to find our way to this Buddha-sangha thing, then this is something not to indulge in.

The Stoa does invite many epistemic authorities, and we have engagement with them via a Q&A style. My secret hope here is that sermons turn into reverse sermons, and it is my hope that the collective intelligence at The Stoa can start doing its thing, in a challenging yet compassionate way, to the point where the epistemic authority learns as much, if not more, than the group does.

When thinking about my role in all of this, as the steward of this place, the term Sangha Whisperer came to me. This is a play on the “horse whisperer” phrase, someone who deeply understands equine psychology, and applies non-forceful methods to tame horses. 

In order for us to move away from being a crowd of atomistic individuals who hero-worship super-impressive individuals, towards becoming the next Buddha-sangha, we may need liminal beings, we may need Sangha Whisperers.

I am not saying I will be this. I do intuitively grok interpersonal dynamics pretty well, and I have some intersubjective skills, so if I am not a Sangha whisperer, maybe I am a proto version of one. I do not really want this responsibility though.

The Stoa is getting more attention, and I am getting more emails, and in these emails I am getting more unsolicited suggestions on what I should do. I am feeling into the projections of these suggestions, and it feels like I am being pressured. The Stoa is not a panacea towards solving every single social problem, nor is it a place to virtue signal that it is. 

That would not be fun for me to do, and that is not an adventure I want to go on. I sense I will have to push back soon, gently, and wisely, especially if it will start feeling like I am being digitally shouted at. Nobody likes when they are shouted at.

Being whispered at is way sexier. Something has been whispering to me, and I have been trying to whisper in turn.

***

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