Are you allergic to the ancients? What images do the words ‘wisdom’ and ‘participation’ evoke for you? What’s at stake in our models of truth?
This month’s episode of Samsara Audio sees your host Matthew in a reflective conversation with Jonatan Anabalon, a Norwegian middle school teacher with a Master's in Anthropology from the University of Bergen. Matthew and Jonatan met through Samsara Study Group's ongoing Kyoto School reading group, which lead to this conversation about the tensions in various models and analogies for how we approach truth.
This dialogue delves into modern versus ancient philosophical outlooks, the concerns with conceptualizing truth as "beyond," the process of seeking and participating in truth, and much more. Matthew and Jonatan devote time to an exploration of the metaphorical imagery of the ox-herding pictures in Zen Buddhism as a framework for understanding personal and educational growth, trying to read this sequence from both Hegelian and Platonic angles.
This discussion seeks to work through some tensions in Matthew and Jonatan’s perspectives, and taps into some of the reasons why we might be allergic to the ancients and their conception of truth as a higher wisdom to be pursued. However, Jonatan also challenges Matthew and the listener to grapple afresh with the call of truth, goodness, and beauty in light of modern developments in critical philosophy.
Time stamps
00:00 Welcome
00:51 Purpose of the conversation
02:29 Diving into the Ox Herding Pictures
33:43 The Power of Myths and Symbolism in Understanding Reality
42:08 Energy as the intersection of Spirit and Technology
42:56 The Mystery of Brain Entrainment and Energy Transfer
43:54 The Unique Contribution of the Subject in Networked Realities
48:52 Navigating Ethical Dilemmas in a Complex World
51:05 Seeking Agency and Goodness Amidst Global Systems
52:55 Participating in the Good, True, and Beautiful
55:06 The Challenge of Truth in a Postmodern World
01:01:17 Comparing Buddhism and Christianity on Suffering and Emptiness
01:09:24 The Historical Development of Religious Toleration
01:20:06 Embracing a Participatory Conceptualization of Truth
01:24:22 Encouragement and Future Collaborations
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