Retreat: How the Counterculture invented Wellness

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Great interview man. Love the record collection as background, instead of the standard bookcase. Also, brought up a bunch of stuff I'm unfamiliar with.

My trouble is largely regarding the discourse of much of this, and what sort of taxonomy ought to be employed to optimize one's understanding. I heard you describe some of this discourse as vedic, which I gather means that its derived from texts fundamental to hinduism (at least according to my understanding, which is largely limited to Wiki here).

But can "vedic" be used more widely than in that sense? I've been using "dharmic" as the master/umbrella term, but perhaps there is some nuance to these terms that I;m not appreciating.

The actual teachings I;ve been exposed to register intuitively enough. I;ve only read the Bhagavad Gita, and the Maha Mangala Sutta, which is quite short and the bulk of which book was largely exegetic. But the usage of conceptually paradoxical metaphors and whatnot actually hits home for me rather naturally - the trouble is more how to organize the discourse, what concepts to attribute to what traditions.

But maybe its fine if much of it blends together.
 

constant escape

winter withered, warm
Also thought this comment was funny

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Woebot

Well-known member
Great interview man. Love the record collection as background, instead of the standard bookcase. Also, brought up a bunch of stuff I'm unfamiliar with.

My trouble is largely regarding the discourse of much of this, and what sort of taxonomy ought to be employed to optimize one's understanding. I heard you describe some of this discourse as vedic, which I gather means that its derived from texts fundamental to hinduism (at least according to my understanding, which is largely limited to Wiki here).

But can "vedic" be used more widely than in that sense? I've been using "dharmic" as the master/umbrella term, but perhaps there is some nuance to these terms that I;m not appreciating.

The actual teachings I;ve been exposed to register intuitively enough. I;ve only read the Bhagavad Gita, and the Maha Mangala Sutta, which is quite short and the bulk of which book was largely exegetic. But the usage of conceptually paradoxical metaphors and whatnot actually hits home for me rather naturally - the trouble is more how to organize the discourse, what concepts to attribute to what traditions.

But maybe its fine if much of it blends together.
thanks for tuning in dude.

in terms of meditation styles vedic is about as specific as you can be. it refers to the principle set out by patanjali in the yoga sutras, vivekananda in raja yoga, shankara in the crest jewel of enlightenment that the mind is cleared. by which measure the self becomes evident.

the buddhist (or dharmic if you like) meditation principle on the other hand is specificied by the buddha in the pali canon/nikayas as mindfulness the seventh of the eight noble paths "Here a monk dwells contemplating the body... the feelings... consciousness... mind-objects, ardent, clear comprehending and mindful"

the buddhist principle picks up where that of the upanishads stops. but none of this is completely clear-cut. a buddhist text like ashvagosa's awakening of faith is extremely vedic in its emphasis when it comes to meditation. alot of buddhism seems to double-back to hindu principles - this is a large part of the split bewteen mahayana buddhism and the theravada which focuses on the earliest words of the buddha the pali canon.

the impetus towards mindfulness - relatively recent in historic terms - came from buddhism in burma which is prime theravada territory.
 

luka

Well-known member
the fact that this question keeps getting trotted out is clearly either a form of insanity or its Company Policy
Counterculture does seem to be very male-centric, did this ever come in the interviews you had done?
 

version

Well-known member
It does seem very male-centric, but the way that question's tossed into what's a very brief interview feels a bit lazy, as though they either "have" to ask it or simply can't think of anything else to ask or think through any other lens.
 
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