Great review. Great book. It has the best introduction of any book I have read.
And as you point out there are so many other aspects of his story that are illustrative of many of life's truths. Because of the especially powerful effect of *stories*, by putting these in a candid memoir they have so much more communicative power than were the underlying principles articulated in the abstract.
I had a similar question about the brazen infidelity: when did you stop and why? (Which I asked directly in his Substack, but did not receive a response.) I would be interested in getting an answer someday.
Confessions and the Inferno are part of a body of literature known as the "Literature of the Mid-Life Crisis." Merton's Seven Storey Mountain is part of this corpus, too. What they ultimately deal with is the condition of dissatisfaction and the behaviors one succumbs to manage how unbearable it can become. But, want a challenge? Dissect these books from a behavioral economic lens and try to determine where the "short-circuit" is/was that leads to non-optimal, and social capital destroying behaviors. Attachment theory strikes again. Then, look how each dealt with dissatisfaction to attain a new way of living. What changed?
So, it seems we may have another book to add to this body of literature it seems...
Alternatively, practice Vipaassana meditation as taught by my late teacher S N Goenka. My first course in 1972 changed my life and probably saved it. Vipassana is taught in ten-day residential courses for which there is no charge.
https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search for the US. I'm in Australia. Courses are available in almost all countries, a search for "Vipassana meditation as taught by S N Goenka" should produce a relevant link.
Great review. Great book. It has the best introduction of any book I have read.
And as you point out there are so many other aspects of his story that are illustrative of many of life's truths. Because of the especially powerful effect of *stories*, by putting these in a candid memoir they have so much more communicative power than were the underlying principles articulated in the abstract.
I had a similar question about the brazen infidelity: when did you stop and why? (Which I asked directly in his Substack, but did not receive a response.) I would be interested in getting an answer someday.
Confessions and the Inferno are part of a body of literature known as the "Literature of the Mid-Life Crisis." Merton's Seven Storey Mountain is part of this corpus, too. What they ultimately deal with is the condition of dissatisfaction and the behaviors one succumbs to manage how unbearable it can become. But, want a challenge? Dissect these books from a behavioral economic lens and try to determine where the "short-circuit" is/was that leads to non-optimal, and social capital destroying behaviors. Attachment theory strikes again. Then, look how each dealt with dissatisfaction to attain a new way of living. What changed?
So, it seems we may have another book to add to this body of literature it seems...
Alternatively, practice Vipaassana meditation as taught by my late teacher S N Goenka. My first course in 1972 changed my life and probably saved it. Vipassana is taught in ten-day residential courses for which there is no charge.
Is there a link to this course?
https://www.dhamma.org/en-US/courses/search for the US. I'm in Australia. Courses are available in almost all countries, a search for "Vipassana meditation as taught by S N Goenka" should produce a relevant link.
Thank you!
Try the shorter version first. This is not for every one.
WOW!!! Powerful!!! Thank you John!
Von Neumann famously quipped "some people profess guilt to claim credit for sin".