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Friends!
Was it a difficult year for you? Even if lockdown regulations went away (and it seems almost inconceivable that they were in place just earlier this year, doesn’t it), even if the dread of the US President’s every move seems to have dissipated… was it a hard year? Did anxiety seem to alight on everything? Did you feel in touch with a sort of uncertainty that woke you or didn’t let you sleep?
Anxiety is a call to attentiveness that leads us to command. Another way to express that attentiveness is gratitude. The world is seeking to be seen for what it is, and the only way to do that is to look with love.
To talk about this, I invited therapist and teacher Michael Lipson back on the show. Michael last appeared on the show on AEWCH 139; a listener favorite. His new book of gratitude, Be: An Alphabet of Astonishment is a profound meditation on being.
ON THIS EPISODE
meeting strangers • on being afraid of spiritual reality • jouissance • keeping individuality while meeting the other • longing for connection • what happens when out desires conflict with our ethics • needs vs wants • the spiritual being with a TV for a head • magic and the Moon • why every life matters even though we reincarnate • the three loaves of bread as an occult secret • Simone Weil and affliction •
SHOW NOTES
WHAT BOOK YOU SHOULD READ?
I mentioned Denis Johnson’s small masterpiece of a novel, Train Dreams. If you’d like to see what living without attachment was like before our culture enhanced and amplified attachments, this is the book. And I think everyone who loves beautiful writing should read it.
WHAT OTHER EPISODE SHOULD I LISTEN TO?
Michael talks about the pursuit of the intensity of the real, a subject I talk abotu in depth with literary critic Stephen Kern on AEWCH 42. It’s a great episode and one of the lesser-known ones.
MORE ON MICHAEL
Michael’s first book, Stairway of Surprise is a beautiful and plain-language ascent through Rudolf Steiner’s basic exercises. It’s a great way to encounter these exercises however much or little you feel comfortable with spiritual realities. You can also sign up for Michael’s group meditation sessions and read his blog via his website. (And you can read his other book about those sessions, Group Meditation.)
This is the last episode of the year friends, so sit with it and I’ll meet you all again in 2023!
With love,
CH
Conner Habib 
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