https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=xVMAlSt2ubc
All right. Hey, John. Hey guys, great to see you again. Really good to see you again. Really good. Yeah. Yeah. So we’re doing this video. To help promote and, and let everyone know about the diet, the dialectic and the deal logo circling course that’s coming up, October 1 and second. October 1 and second. So it’s October 1 and second, I think it’s our, it’s going to be our fourth course that we’ve done. Yeah, I think it’s worth Yeah, we’re teaching it we’re teaching it along with Chris Christopher, and. And there is a discount. That is good until this coming Saturday. So I think it’s like a $50 discount so if you if you know that you’re going to do it, go ahead and sign up. It’s, you know, before Saturday for your to take advantage of that and after that, I think the course is 250 and it’s 195 right now. Right, right. So this is. So we’ll get this out just in time so everyone can kind of find out about that. And last time I had it I just, we had a bunch of people say that they hadn’t heard about it. So I’m trying to do a little better job of getting the word out so if if you see this video, and please share it to all of your, your accounts and Facebook and all this does all the all the places where the people are so we can get the word out so we really appreciate that. So I wanted just to cover a little bit of the logistics of what the course is a little bit of what it looks like. And then I wanted to talk with you john about go into a couple of things you’re in the middle of filming after Socrates. Yes, right, which is a whole series on essentially dialogs, right, yes. And, and I’m, I’m curious, I’m super curious to hear about all the connections that are coming. Come, come through that. And also you can do a lot of field work, right, you’ve been doing, you’ve been traveling a bunch. I know that you went to Vermont, and, especially I want to talk with you about what you what you learned out there in terms of the ecology of practices and the layering, and what you discovered by kind of being alive in the retreat. We also should talk about what happened in Washington State when I went to write it rave Kelly to return to the source. Yeah, because I taught dialectic in the deal logos and philosophical contemplation to them in the midst of their ecology. And so I want to talk about that too. Oh wow. Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, there’s a lot, there’s a lot happening right now. I’m very excited about all of it but do the logistics first. Yeah, totally. So, so basically, this is a, this is a deeply experiential course. You don’t have to have any, you don’t have to have any time there’s no prerequisites in terms of, you know, knowing philosophers or you don’t have to add any degrees, you don’t need to know any of that kind of stuff right this is about the. This is about actually the practice of philosophy, the experience of it. And what we’re in is john’s term necology of practice is what it’s based on. The dialectic in the deal logos is, you could say the culmination of this, but it’s really an advanced practice. And they’re in its layered on top of so many different things. The first thing that we do is, is mindfulness. Right. Then we go into philosophical contemplation. Then we go into circling, which is inner subjective meditation. Right. And then we go into that dialectic in the deal logos, right, we have all of those and builds on them and blossom to blossom to them. Yeah, very much. And they and we had we’ve been paying very careful attention to the feedback and we constantly are tweaking is very much still a work in progress. But it’s doing all of this, you know, really getting how to properly get that scaffolding going and a momentum and we’re getting. We’re getting amazing feedback. And many people are actually commenting because people take it more usually more than once, and they’ll comment on the improvements we’ve made and and and how sort of effective they are. I’m very excited about this project it’s very dear to my heart. And so, I’m very happy that we’re going to be doing this again. It’s, it’s going to be so cool because we’re going to be doing this, probably very close to when the documentary film about my work comes out in which I do a demonstration. At least I think it’s part of it will be in the film of that like they can do logos with Johannes Niederhäuser. And more importantly, close to when after Socrates is going to be coming out. And so, doing this course before after Socrates will, the two will just sing to each other. The two will just sing to each other so much. So I’m very excited about how all of this is really taking on a life of its own. So I’m very enthusiastic about all of this right now. It just, it seems to John I remember the first our first conversation. I was probably three years ago now at this point. But one of the one of the kind of the big connecting points it felt like or the insights was, I think we both got how deep your work has to do with relationship, right, like, like the culmination of your work the discovery of your work, the, the, the motivation of your work is deeply, deeply wedded to connections dialogue and relationship and I remember that there was just something special about kind of having that recognition with you in that first conversation about just how deep that that that goes, and it kind of, I was just flashing to that, and it kind of feels like. I mean, it wasn’t like the first time you thought, thought of that or anything like that but there was something there was something new about it that glowed or came together, and I think that was kind of the beginning of of the notion of that deal logos, right. Very much, very much. I mean, so yeah, the notion I actually developed an actor soccer pieces ratio religio, getting the properly proportioned connectedness man that the whole dialectic and the logo tradition is about these connections connection with yourself, and they’re all interwoven and interdependent and interpording connection with yourself connection with others, and connection with reality. And those are the connections that enhance meaning in life, the connections that help you overcome significant ways in which you could be falling into sort of self deceptive self destructive patterns and also enhancing the sense that your life is meaningful. And so, one of the one of the things we you pronounced it first and but I sort of left on it like a tiger, as you said well wait, circling is does the file a the getting of the fellowship relationship, and then what dialectic into the logos as we turn that And so, we turn that by Leo onto Sophia, and instead of talking philosophy, we give people the capacity to actually cultivate the, the individual and shared love of virtue and wisdom as something that as transformative Lee experiential and that’s what people talk about. And they talk about, I discovered kinds of intimacy that are not sexual and not friendship or familial but this other kind of intimacy with myself and other people, and with reality that I didn’t know but I’ve always been hungering for. And so, yeah, I mean, it is absolutely It is essential that we’re trying to get people to recover communication as community, as not just the exchange of information, but being in right relationship, rather than just holding right beliefs or asserting the right argument. Right. Yeah. And ultimately, what we, we are not suffering from a lack of information, we’re suffering opposite. We need a transformation to give us the discernment we need in order to track what is most real in all of that information. Yeah, totally, totally. I’m curious about what you. When you did the, the, is it the popular called Park a hardcore. Yes. Yeah, so let me, let me. Yeah, so first of all, major shout out to rave Kelly, and also the other instructors returned to the source was one of the most transformative experiences of my life, a very powerful ecology practices or there’s parkour martial martial arts meditative practices nature connection practices imaginal practices. And then they had me teach. In addition to teaching some Tai Chi Chuan, I taught. I taught philosophical contemplation and dialectic in the D logos, and rape and I also did some important discussions in which Socrates and Plato played pivotal roles. And this, this, this what it was really challenging for me. Because I was in a situation in which I was at tremendous disadvantage with a lot of the people I’m you know I’m 60 and I’m there with a bunch of 20 somethings. Now, they were wonderful people, and many, many of them that were there because I was there and they wanted to be able to talk to me. But it was it was definitely. Yeah, I wasn’t. Yeah, so I mean the martial arts started was very good at because the Tai Chi training was, you know, prepared me very, and the meditation stuff and that but yeah, the, the parkour and some of the other stuff. Jumping on rocks, especially. Yeah. And I got seriously injured. I mean I was this arm was purple, all the way. I really, I knew I was going to get seriously injured. By the way, that is not. That is not to tell you to not do this. Yeah, what was doing, like you just have to set yourself because, and you know, I was caught I was banged up. My ego was shattered because I’d be sort of clambering over rocks in this, you know, clumsy fashion and, you know, worried about seriously, and, you know, and rape daughter would be just sort of point point point past me and she’s like, I was like, you know, I was like, wow, and But what, what happened. It, you know, and rave and the instructors and a lot of the students came up to me afterwards and they said, you know, yeah, you’re not good at this, but you are dogged, you keep showing up, and you keep putting yourself into scary situations and going through it and I, I, I’m saying that because I hope this is justified. I’m really proud of that. It’s different. You know, it’s a, it’s a different kind of, I wasn’t, I was by no means the best or anything like that. But the fact that, you know, and that’s part of what that is it’s sort of made like it’s perfectly pitched, so that everything is like really challenging and doable because of the facilitators and the teachers. But, and that, and you’re supported in terms of the virtue of your performance, as opposed to, right, just sort of objective measures of how well you’re doing something. And it was. What happened is, right. I sort of earned everybody’s trust. And then we went in and we did these practices. And I did the paraphrasing practice with them to to get them warmed up. So we did the philosophical population the paraphrasing practice and then we did dialectic into D logos, and there, and the response to all of those was very powerful. For some of them it was unexpected. So it was very interesting because this was a real test case, the real test case because we’re normally doing this course and we’re in everybody’s in their comfortable place and it’s all on zoom. This is in person. This is literally in the wilderness, and we’re in this very different set of circumstances in the middle of very demanding course, and yet it you know it really resonated. It really took that that had a, you know, and I, you know, and so they other instructors wanted, like, one of the instructors asked me to teach him Lexio divina because he wanted to pick up on some of the other practices. Yeah, so that was. Yeah, that was that was very, very significant. And I want to thank Ray again, and I want to recommend return to the source and his other retreats very strongly. And the other thing that was going on is that David Fuller and Chris all tough were there, and they were filming the documentary. I was going to be in the document that’s going to be in the documentary Wow. All together. This is great. Yeah, yeah, very much. So I would imagine. Well a couple of things I like that you shared about the, the challenge of it but also what what was praised is not like that the measurable outcomes but the, your, the virtue that you were exercise. And so it’s like even though, like everyone is younger and you weren’t as coordinated and you’ve been up and stuff like that it, I would imagine that it was the courage to do something. Yeah, I mean I, first of all, I mean I, I deeply respect. I mean, rape is a very important person for me. And so I was, and then I very quickly Kyle and Aaron and Robert. I very quickly came to trust them. And, and the Socratic training, really, I mean, there’s no way to say it. And, and you know I can see people just easily dismissing it but I’m just going to say it straight out the Socratic training enabled me to do it. That’s what it came down to. That’s really what it came down to. And, and so, and, and, and, and to get to. I wanted to do it because I wanted to put myself through that test. And, yeah. And so, that was just. And then I went, oh, and, and by the way, the perspectival knowing and the participatory knowing that are so important to dialectic and to be local schools. And that was so important for everybody. Yeah, yeah, return to the source, like just get that book cat everybody kept saying the vocabulary, and this was so helpful for understanding the practices and what’s going on. So that was deeply, deeply resonant. You’re doing this is you’re talking about the vocabulary is funny I kept getting the sense of you kind of grabbing rocks, right. I can imagine, did people start to draw a lot of the parallels between when they, when they were doing dialect to deal logos there to the actual exercises that you guys were doing the physical. You can kind of like, you can feel. Oh and I wanted to tell you something else. I mean, because you and I and Chris have been discovering discussing that two person practice. Yeah, I did that there as well. And, but it was something interesting because what I had them do is I had them do the practice, not just in general, but about the this, this day that had a really challenging and pivotal event in it, and they did and a lot of people said that really also was a Yeah, we might want to. I’m sorry I don’t want to be too cryptic but I don’t want to give away stuff until we’re, we know, but Guy and Chris and I are also putting together ideas for sort of a second tier course to build on their first one and so I put one of those into into participant experimentation to see how that works. Oh wow. Also worked very well. Okay, good. Well, well, well, that that one’s coming. Well, well, that’s that when that’s when that’s nailed down. Oh wow so, and then, and then you also went to Vermont, right. Well in between. So, remember all the positive things I said about return of the source in between I went from Lord of the Flies in return to the source, and then I went to our and I went to Tuscany, Italy, in one of the most amazing resorts in the world for the symposium on embodiment, and I met James King, who wrote the divine double, and I got to talk to him about the logos and the aspirational relationship to your future self. And he said that was an amazing conversation and he said that was a very good interpretation of his work. So I got it. And so he and I have really clicked. Yeah. And so, you know, we’re going to be doing work together. He heads up the Harvard initiative for transcendence and transformation amazing guy, just amazing. And I, and I get my conversation with him and I gave a talk there and very, very well received. Very powerfully received. And then I came back. And then Sarah and I both had coded. So he did that for a few days. Luckily I was quadruple back so it didn’t last very long. Right. And then I went, and then I went to Vermont and race was there again. And what we were doing in Vermont was, we were getting many of the leaders of these emerging communities of practice to enter into deep discussion and there was a lot of invocation of dialectic into the logos and people were, and it kept, and it kept happening. And, especially the logos, and it was very, very powerful. Unexpectedly so, not to the besmirch any of the people. And I was worried, you know, we’re coming from different backgrounds and, but it was wonderful and productive. And we, it was a big thanks to the community there. It was the maple monastic Academy there and just amazing and so that to. Yeah, that was was deeply hopeful and encouraging to me that. So, you know, yeah, that this kind of thing can help to build a community of communities, create a viable subculture. Yeah. For responding to the meeting crisis so yeah, yep did that too. So everyone so everyone. Even, even though it came from different backgrounds and I know that different people when they’ve created a body of work can oftentimes can get really dug in or defensive about their work and other other things so it sounds like this was not the case. Well, so they had to be committed to the commitments was, you know, respect. Yeah. And basically humility and one of the logos they had to, they had to commit to be a logos that they were going to engage in the logos. Well, I didn’t do a lot of the formal dialectic into the logos but I did a lot of the informal and sort of bringing that in, and we had some of the monks actually observing some of the ones where I was especially really trying to get the logos into shape and it would take fire. And they were like, wow, that’s really like yeah. They can recognize it, they can recognize when when the logos catches, which is important thing about this that we didn’t we didn’t really mention that I think it’s probably important. But when we say the logos right. Well, we’re distinguishing was distinguishing something that you can’t. You can set the conditions for right, but you can’t actually will. You can’t. Right, you can’t. Similar to like we can you can plant it, you can plant the garden, you can set up all the conditions for the garden but at the end of the day, you don’t actually grow the the garden grows itself. And so, so the dialectic right is something like shaping the garden, you know, getting the right conditions down right the attunement and all the layers of practice that we do beforehand. And then, by an act of grace. If the spark catches, and the deal logos happens. That’s where you could say that everyone involved in some sense, kind of merges with with the logos, right and you start saying things that you didn’t know that you know. Right. That’s right. Yeah, you get, you get this collective flow state in which people are experiencing insights that they know they could not have experienced on their own. And I’m sure everybody who’s watching this video has had those conversations that have taken off the life of their own and taking everybody into a place they didn’t expect they would get to, and had an impact on how they saw the world in some significant way. Right. But what we’re trying to do is take that and afford it more and explicate it more. Yeah, and cultivate. Totally. Absolutely. So that was really that’s that’s really interesting so it’s like so that the people who have been developing these kind of ecology of practices, right, we’re able to come in and, and attune to the, to the deal to the deal of. Right, and, and can be vulnerable to it and open to it and catch fire, it can caught caught with them. That’s really encouraging. It caught fire for me. I was always people here were amazing. I was coordinating something with. Well, basically, a discussion between between Steve March from Aletheia coaching and Zach Stein. Right. Yeah. And, and we were talking about sort of wisdom and the qualities of the wise person but also various kinds of transformation. And that was happening. Right. And before that I had given a talk about my work on relevance realization, and a monk had asked me a question that I had answered it. And I do not know where that answer came from it just sort of came out of me. And that got taken into the discussion with Zach and Steve and then later on I recorded the video with, with Steve and I’m going to release it right. I don’t know if I followed up with but this this idea that relevance realization can come to the place where it realizes, because it’s always, always recursively interested in itself, where it realizes that it itself is irrelevant. Where would relevance realization realize that it’s irrelevant, when it is addressing being as such, the ground. Yeah, right. Yes. And, right. Yeah, yeah, right. Yes, but that makes sense of the phenomenology and the cognition and you know exactly. And, and, and, and, and, and I always had this gap because I had all this stuff about relevance realization altered states of consciousness higher states of consciousness all of that, and then I had stuff over here about, you know, these experiences of the ground and one and I was like, oh, I see, but, but there was this spark between them, and it just boom. And what I’m saying is, it emerged dialogically, both in my interaction with the monk, and then in right in the interaction with Steve and with Zach and then again with Steve. And so, I experienced exactly that. And so, again, it’s like, it’s, it’s hard to convey. That’s just one example of many of these that many people had in Vermont, I have to thank Nathan Vanderpool for putting it together and organizing it. And, like I said, the maple monastic Academy, just beautiful, modest, very beautiful grounds beautiful people. Yeah, it’s just like, when those moments happen. Yeah, you get. And this is not hyperbole and many people say this even in the course right there. You get a sense of the sacred that is viable for you. Again, it doesn’t have to be connected to a supernaturalistic metaphysics that you don’t find, you know, relevant or plausible, but you get this, you get this direct sense of a sacred connectedness to the depths of yourself and others, and like where intelligibility springs from that. It, these are, these are. I don’t know, like, they are. things that empower us in all the senses of that word, to realize virtue, to realize wisdom. Yeah, as you’re talking, I keep thinking about how Heidegger talks about the event of philosophy, the event of truth, right? Everything that you’re saying, like both the content and description of the experience of saying it and realizing it has this, shows itself to me as like a happening, right? This kind of opening up. Yeah, it’s wonderful. It’s full of wonder. Yeah. And so we all came away from that charged, like really energized and also the ancient sense of charged obligation. So, and you know, there was a lot about doing that and then directing it towards, you know, ex-risk factors, ameliorating the meeting crisis, addressing the meta crisis, which I think are absolutely central and important. So yeah, those were the three main events. And then tomorrow I fly out to Thunder Bay for the conference on consciousness and conscience, and I’m going to be doing, entering hopefully into the logos with Paul Van der Kley and Jonathan Pagio in person. Fantastic. Fantastic. I’ve been calling this my thunderbolt summer. Yeah. It’s bleeding into, it’s bleeding into September. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, I’m just glad that that’s all, all that’s coming together and we’re just going to funnel all of it into this, into this two day experience that we have. Yeah. It’s interesting. Very like really interesting. So many different things there that I want to go, that we’re going to go into. I want to go in deeper with you, but I think we should probably bring this to a completion. I know that you have to go here pretty soon. Yeah. But I’m glad we had this opportunity to, to. I mean, and I want people to know you and Chris released the video. I was absent because I was involved. Yeah. All of this, all of this stuff. And yeah. And so yeah, this is, this is, there’s a, I have a strong sense of a clear growth arc for dialectic into the logos. And I’m excited to get involved in the workshop again and get that in and start working on the, on the second tier course with you and Chris and your team. So I’m just, I really, I’m really juiced and jazzed to get into this. I can’t wait. And then, but, and by the, probably by the next one, we may actually have the, we may have the, the, the, the, the digital town square of the ecology of practices set up and ready to go. So, so, so one of the things that we’ll be able to do is once that’s set up where it’s like people pay like a, you know, a modest membership fee, and then we’re going to have the ecology of practices layered throughout the day, every day, circling and all kinds of different practices going on throughout the day that people just are part of a membership and show up and, and can do all of this all day long if you want every day. So that’s going to that’ll be available probably after not, not this one. We’ll probably have it set up after the next dialectic in the deal logo. So people can just roll into that. So really good. Also, so many good things going on. Yeah. So much. Yeah. It’s very exciting. I’m really, I’m really, I’m looking forward to this weekend too. I mean, the weekend of the, of the, of the, of the workshop. Yes, right on. Okay. First and second, all the links are below to register. Come and catch fire. Come on, come and catch fire. Let’s do it. All right. Bye. Bye.