Dear Brian,
Forgive my inherent scepticism about this list of "positive accomplishments" of science. It may just be the negativity bias of my own brain, BUT, one of the reasons the environment & climate is in the mess it is, is due to human interference & manipulation of the natural environment and our failure to learn how to live within it with practices of sustainability....working with the natural environment rather than against it.
Genetic editing (Crispr); the use of AI to re-create reality will have it's own negative side effects, just like our "miracle pharmaceuticals".
There is no doubt that the human race has made progress in many spheres but it's been at the expense of other (extinct) species of plants, fish, birds & animals.
I'm less optimistic than Doug McGill & Steve Pinker. You'll get to make that evaluation years after I'm dead & gone.
Best wishes that I'm wrong,
Joe
Dear friends,
I felt this reality check + reminder from my friend & teacher, and former NYT & Bloomberg journalist, Doug McGill, and cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker would be worth sharing. Happy New Year to all!
Love,
brian :)
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Dear Friends,
As a New Year's resolution, I am making a glowing bit of wisdom from the cognitive scientist, Steven Pinker, into a guiding star for my 2024.
That's because, when I was thinking about what I most wished to share with you for the year ahead, I came back over and over to just one word: Relaxation.
Pinker's wisdom helps me to relax.
As a journalist—and like most of us simply a consumer of media and news—you'll see why his quote really hits home:
"The news is systematically misleading because
it is a non-random sample of the worst things that
happen anywhere on Earth on a given day."
It's powerful Dhamma to remember this!
It's the Buddha's most fundamental message: Be careful what stories you pick up and attach yourself to. Do you know where they come from and why?
Stories aren't reality.
Whenever you can, let go!
It's a huge relaxation to remember the news is, by its nature, always biased towards greed, hatred and delusion. As the Buddha reminds us, again and again, that's the mind's nature. And that's not a bad thing. We need to stay alert to danger.
But danger isn't the whole of reality.
It's usually the smallest part, by far.
By just remembering that, we relax.
You can recall these wondrous little miracles too:
"1,000 Bits of Good News You May Have Missed in 2023."
Watch for all the good news in 2024!
With deep gratitude for your spiritual friendship, the enormous inspiration of your practice, and your radiant love and support.
We can't wait to see you all soon.
Happy New Year with much love to all 🙏 ❤️
Doug & Donna
P.S. Our quarterly meditation retreats are on sabbatical in 2024. But Monday Friends starts its New Year, full-steam, starting next Monday, January 8, at 7 PM. It's a one-hour weekly Zoom meeting with meditation and spiritual friendship.
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