Podcast Benomtad

Various Strands of Buddhism and the Meaning Crisis (Clip)

Ian talks about various strands of Buddhism, including Tibet and its philosopher rule, and Zen’s founder’s saying a lot of words about the problems with expressing things with words.  This is within the larger context of Buddhism in the West and the Meaning Crisis.
 
(From a discussion on “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis, Ep. 13, Buddhism and Parasitic Processing”)
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/9TU3BUjLumw
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/vervaeke-buddhism-parasitic-processing/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
About our guest:
Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 
He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.
You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Brothers Grimm's "Bearskin"

A soldier returns from the wars, and now that his parents have died, he seeks shelter with his brothers.  But they reject him, and he wanders, penniless and starving, into a field.  The wind shifts, and a sly man in a green coat appears.  The soldier is to kill a bear, and he does so unflinchingly, so the green frocked man offers him a deal: if he wears the bearskin, which is what he will be known by, for seven years, without washing or dying, he will have great fortune.  But if he fails, his soul will go to the devil.
 
Bearskin agrees, and wanders the world wearing the devil’s green coat with its unlimited gold underneath the beastial covering.  After some time, rejected by humanity, he despairs at an inn.  However, hearing the cries of another man, he asks what is wrong.  The man has debts he cannot pay to support his family.  Bearskin pays them and the man offers his daughter’s hand in return.
 
At the man’s house, Bearskin is surprised at the man’s three daughters’ comeliness.  However, the eldest two are shocked at his appearance and reject him outright.  The third, however, quietly assents to pay her father’s debt.  Bearskin takes a gold ring, breaks it in two, and inscribes her name on his half and his on hers.  He says if she can wait for him for three years and pray to God for his life, they can be married.
 
Bearskin then wanders the world, giving alms to the poor that they may pray for his soul.  At the end of the contractual term, he returns to the clearing.  The wind shifts and the Devil reappears, looking at Bearskin angrily.  He moves to re-exchange their coats, but Bearskin insists he cleans him first.  After, he disappears and Bearskin, handsomer than ever, acquires a velvet coat and white horses.
 
Riding to the father’s house, he is not recognized and taken for a great general.  The eldest daughters ply him with wine, and laughing, leave to put on their best dresses.  The youngest, silent, remains, and Bearskin pushes a wineglass to her with his half of the ring in the bottom.  Finishing the glass, she sees it and fits it perfectly to her own, hung around her neck with a ribbon.  They embrace, and the sisters, returning and realizing what happened, run out of the house in jealousy and rage.  One drowns herself and the other hangs herself.  The Devil in his green coat knocks on the door and thanks Bearskin, for he has gotten two souls instead of one.
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/4oT1UC1ReKM
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimms-bearskin/
Von Schonwerth’s “The Scorned Princess:” https://youtu.be/F6gC0Sk9qJQ
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Going the Right Way Without Knowing It (Clip)

The story teaches that one wants to find the good-hearted, but hard-working parts, and bring in the creative magic, and over time, alchemize the tyrannical ruler, and overcome him, without ruining its good nature.  The sharpshooter follows that way, not knowing exactly what is happening, to a place he does not understand that is said to be at the edge of destruction.
 
(From a discussion on “Go to the Verge of Destruction and Bring Back Shmat-Razum”)
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/NrumhRwhgvI
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/go-to-the-verge-of-destruction-and-bring-back-shmat-razum/
 
A Video Reading of the Story:
https://youtu.be/8rgwtL5amZM
 
Go to the Verge of Destruction and Bring Back Shmat-Razum:
https://www.gutenberg.org/files/50011/50011-h/50011-h.htm#chap14
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
About our guest:
Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 
He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.
You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado
 
Searching for the Search:
https://zenyogagurdjieff.substack.com/p/searching-for-the-search?r=h5jz7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=audio-player
 
Compare: “The Crane Wife,” a Japanese tale:
https://youtu.be/etGR9Ir7rBM?si=thXvw8cnp3pJ_sMU
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Brothers Grimm’s “The Fisherman and His Wife”

The Brothers Grimm’s “The Fisherman and His Wife”
 
A fisherman lived with his wife in a miserable pigsty by the sea.  When he went fishing, he pulled up a large flounder, a prince who began speaking with him and negotiated his release.  The fisherman simply let the talking fish go, leaving a trail of blood behind it.  Back home, his wife, surprised that he did not ask for anything, sends him back to wish for a nicer home.  He goes back, and the water is a bit murky now.  He sings a ditty, letting the flounder know this is against his wishes, and the fisherman and his wife’s house is a cottage with animals and a yard no sooner than the aquatic prince gives the word.
 
But the man’s wife increasingly hounds him to order better and better housing, and more and more power.  They ascend the social order, growing higher to the heavens, angering the sea and making themselves more and more anxious, until the linear story becomes a circle.
 
Please join us for a reading-commentary on this story, followed by discussion!
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/9ss-E5nyXo8
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimm-s-the-fisherman-and-his-wife/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Two Passive Brothers Mindlessly Moving Through Life (Clip)

The first two sons of the king’s gardener are passive, choosing the pleasure inn over the shabby one, and they end up as condemned robbers.  These hedonistic brothers ignore wise advice and go instead with their senses.  Their passivity may be rooted in their upbringing.  They may be like the pleasure-seeking erotic man who keeps expanding the outlets for his desire and eventually step on someone’s toes.
 
(From a discussion on the Grimm’s Bros.’ “The Golden Bird”)
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/2MNCaPiE9DE
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimm-s-the-golden-bird/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Vervaeke Buddhism & Parasitic Processing

In “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis,” Ep. 13, “Buddhism and Parasitic Processing,” John Vervaeke, based in Stephen Batchelor’s idea that we’ve gravely misinterpreted Buddhism in the West, outlines how we might understand core parts of the Buddha’s teachings.  For suffering, he interprets it as a form of parasitic processing, a reciprocal narrowing of the connection between oneself and the world.  And for moving towards enlightenment, he shows how it might be the opposite of that, a kind of Platonic ascent, famously outlined in “The Republic.”  Ian criticizes this, and we discuss how suffering and enlightenment might be different and how true Buddhism is alive and well in the West.  Both approaches may be useful in reducing suffering and increasing insight and wellbeing.
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/9TU3BUjLumw
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/vervaeke-buddhism-parasitic-processing/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
About our guest:
Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 
He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.
You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Unconcerned with Outward Glory (Clip)

On appearances: Robin Hood voluntarily descends in society.  That way, he can see what is happening on the ground.  Perhaps those who truly speak to the people attract all sorts. 
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/vtACZtly05A
 
Audio episode:
https://youtu.be/uslCz3O2V_k
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Witch’s Unchanging Having of Beauty in Jonathan Pageau’s “Rapunzel” (Clip)

Did the evil stepmother queen in “Snow White” grow a bit from then to this story?  Well, she is still trying for unchanging beautiful perfection.  She does not go the way of nature.  (From a discussion on Jonathan Pageau’s “Rapunzel.”)
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the video episode:
https://youtu.be/eX0YUp4bTn0
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/jonathan-pageaus-rapunzel-summary-and-discussion/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

Go to the Verge of Destruction and Bring Back Shmat-Razum

The king’s best hunter shoots a bird, wounding it, and it begs him to not kill it, instructing him to bring it home, put it on a window sill, and strike it.  When he does so, it turns into a beautiful woman and they marry.  She sees that he is wearied by his daily hunting and instructs him to borrow money from everyone he knows to buy silk.  She summons two youthful magical helpers and they craft a tapestry of the whole kingdom, down to the smallest detail.  At her direction, he takes it to the marketplace to sell it for whatever is offered.  The merchants are struck dumb, but the mayor, traveling through, offers a very high price for it.
 
Back at the palace, the mayor shows it to the king, who is so impressed he forces him to sell it to him for a much higher price.  Wanting to commission another such work, the mayor goes to the hunter’s home but falls in love with his wife.  He tells the king, who then dispatches the mayor to get rid of the hunter.  Baba Yaga meets the mayor in a wasteland and tells him to send the hunter on a quest from which he’ll not return.  The king summons the wife to his castle, but she escapes him, flying through a window in bird form.
 
The hunter’s wife gives him a ball he is to follow on his way and a towel he is to use rather than any he is offered.  It brings him to a castle with women who recognize their sister’s towel, and they help him by summoning the animals of creation.  Only a lowly and old frog knows where to find the Shmat-Razum.  He is given a bowl of milk in which to carry the guide.  When they cross a river, the frog increases in size and the hunter rides him over it.
 
He hides in a cave where there is a table set, and spies on two old men who eat and are waited upon by a servant.  When the men leave, the hunter offers to be the new master of the servant, who is glad to have someone who is grateful for his help.  On their way back, Shmat-Razum begins to carry the hunter, and they fly fast as the wind.  In the middle of a large lake, they stop and are visited by three merchants, who exchange their magical gifts for the hunter’s servant.  On their way, though, the servant abandons them and returns to his grateful master.
 
Upon returning to his wife, the hunter uses the magical gifts to establish a beautiful castle and gardens on the shore.  The king, looking upon the success with envy, sends troops who are defeated by an army from one of the gifts.  The king is killed in the battle, and the hunter and his wife are free, prosperous, and unhounded by rivals.
 
We read and discuss this tale and related ideas.
 
Searching for the Search:
https://zenyogagurdjieff.substack.com/p/searching-for-the-search?r=h5jz7&utm_medium=ios&utm_campaign=audio-player
 
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/NrumhRwhgvI
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/go-to-the-verge-of-destruction-and-bring-back-shmat-razum/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
About our guest:
Ian Reclusado is currently off exploring the poetic wilds of psychology, neuroscience, and spirituality. 
He also offers guidance services for those interested in delving into their own inner wilderness.
You can find his weekly dispatches at www.thekindknife.com or follow him on Instagram: @ian_reclusado
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.

The Brothers Grimm’s “The Golden Bird”

The Brothers Grimm’s “The Golden Bird” 
A king’s garden is robbed of a golden apple, and he sends his three sons, one at a time, to discover the culprit.  The first two fall asleep, resulting in two more missing apples, but the youngest son shoots a feather off the thief–a golden bird–with an arrow on the third night.  The king finds it’s so valuable that he sends his sons, one at a time, after it.  On the way, they each meet a fox, and the eldest take aim at it, but only the third heeds his advice to steer clear of the exciting inn and instead stay in the humble tavern ahead.  
The next morning, the fox rejoins the youngest son and tells him to go to the castle past the sleeping guards and into a chamber where he will find a golden bird.  He is not to take it out of its wooden cage and put it into the golden one.  But when the son arrives, he does just that and the bird sings, alerting the king, who has him arrested.  The only way to keep his life is to go on on his journey and capture a golden horse.
His fox companion again rejoins him, ferrying him like lightning on his tail, and advises him not to outfit the horse with the golden saddle, but only the common leather and wood one.  At the stable, the horse neighs loudly, alerting the grooms after he went against the fox’s council.  The grooms seize him and the only way for the king of that castle to spare his life is for him to bring back the princess from the Golden Castle.
 
The fox, disdaining but pitying the poor boy, helps him again.  He is to not let the princess say goodbye to her parents.  He does so, however, and is made to dig away a hill that blocks the king’s windows.  The fox performs the impossible task overnight, and the hapless third son leaves with the princess.
 
The fox tells him the horse belongs to the princess, and tells him a ruse to get it.  After the rejoicing and feasting, he takes leave of the princess last while mounted on the golden horse, absconding with her.  Then, back at the first castle, with the princess in the fox’s care, he steals the golden bird while still mounted on the horse.  Now with the horse, bird, and princess, the fox warns him to not buy gallows flesh or sit by rivers.
Back at the town of the two inns, he sees that his profligate brothers are set to hang.  He buys their freedom, and on the way home, before the river, they push him in and take his princess and animals.  Drowning, he is again saved by the fox, who warns him of his brothers’ spies and asks him to cut off his head and feet, but the prince refuses.  He walks on and exchanges clothes with a poor man on the road.  Upon his return home, no one knew him but the princess stops weeping, the bird begins to sing, and the horse begins to eat, and the king realizes he is the one who saved them.  The wicked brothers were seized and put to death, and the third son married the princess and was declared heir.
A long time later, the King’s son was once again walking in the wood, and the fox again made his unusual request.  He did it and the animal was transformed into a prince, and none other than the princess’s brother.  They all lived happily ever after.
Thank you for the likes! A comment and a subscribe really helps us out!  
 
For the full video episode:
https://youtu.be/2MNCaPiE9DE
 
Audio episode:
https://benomtad.podbean.com/e/the-brothers-grimm-s-the-golden-bird/
 
For more in this podcast, please go to:
Podbean:
https://benomtad.podbean.com
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/podcast-benomtad/id1748320863
YouTube:
https://m.youtube.com/@scissorsandpaper/videos
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/show/4kJPGlaJjGVyLa9AKhci6t?si=8XXrX9FUT3CU71reCfA5kQ
X:
https://x.com/Benomtad
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/benomtad
 
I plan to conduct more interviews with various guests, so please check back later for those.