Kon'nichiwa (こんにちは) from Kyoto 👋
🇯🇵 Less than 12 hours ago I landed in the home of geisha, tea ceremonies, kimono and 2,000 temples. Already, I love the juxtaposition of it’s calm stillness with the endearing earnestness of the people. I’m giddy with intrigue to explore this Shinto universe, the zen gardens, onsen and seemingly entirely new ways of orienting in the world (I also have no clue what I ate for dinner last night but it was delicious).
🤯 But in the meantime, I could not be more enthused to share this mindmeld of a podcast conversation with you. I've been listening to Cory's podcast the Astral Hustle for years now. As well has being one of the deepest thinkers I’ve come across— I tend to think of him as the Alan Watts of the 21st century.
🔥 This conversation with Cory really lit me up. We bounced between the role of humour in spiritual exploration and what he calls the 'upside of impermanence':
"To have that level of understanding about consciousness or being you must inherently have the same, you must have a grow sense of humor about it because like that level of macro comprehension is not possible without seeing the absurdity of it all and in the natural elicited response from that is laughter."
📝 We also dive into some of the more practical aspects of meditation—how it changes the way we experience the world and allows us to get out of our own way and begin to author our own future:
"The fragments of the self that are shattered you know the different pieces of you that exist within they’re the broken pieces of the mirror that been through the meditation or through creating the space they have the space to start to reconnect into one singular piece of mirror of yourself so that you can look into it and quote-unquote reflect and then begin to understand what you are and then begin to author your future."
📚 We didn't have time to cover it in this episode but Cory has a background in music and produces Binaural Beats, which I've been using daily for the last few months to both meditate and focus at work. You can find these, as well as the lowdown on his superb new book 'Now is the Way' – which is available as of today over at nowistheway.com
🎧 You can find our full conversation by searching for Curious Humans in any good podcast player or clicking the play button above. The full transcript is also available on Medium here.
❤️ If you enjoy this conversation or if these updates bring any joy to your days please consider sharing this newsletter with a friend who might also enjoy it, or you can become a supporter of all things Curious Human by clicking below.
🙏Thank you. I appreciate you.
The Joyful Absurdity of Existence