Phil Nguyen

A worldview is not—by itself—a path. It is not a path because it does not show you where to put your foot next. It might provide some overall sense of direction (“the purpose of life is the positive evolution of consciousness”). It does not answer the question “what can I do for the next fifteen minutes that takes me that way?”

Fear of the emptiness of not-knowing gives rise to cynicism and blind faith. Although these seem like opposites, they are really the same thing. They are personal rigidity, as a defense against uncertainty. Both are dysfunctional. They cut us off from ambiguous situations.

Since the ideal strategy for many singles is to date around enough to find someone worthy of marrying, the “game” is of a finite length. At some point, singles will necessarily have to double down on a date, i.e. , switch to exploitation. If you don’t date around (explore) at all, you may very well get stuck dating (or even marrying or having... See more

Passion is the desire to actively connect with everything. You are interested in everything, eager to learn, and eager to intervene. Passion is the desire to create and enjoy. Passion drives projects, and also just tinkering with reality to see what happens.

A lot has been written about how the internet radicalizes people. But the same dynamics that turn a slightly lonely young man into a seething misogynist—recommendation algorithms; social contexts that concentrate and intensify discourse—are also the dynamics that turn a young person who “likes reading” into someone who spends a year reading Proust,... See more

The attitude of spacious passion makes the tantric concepts and methods make sense . It shows why they exist and how they work. It gives you an intuitive meta-feel for them; an automatic natural understanding.

the ebbs and flows of the therapeutic relationship are not auxiliary to the work — they often are the work. Without the internal prod of an agenda, I have a greater capacity to focus on what really matters in the room — the relationship.

The relationship between yanas and sects is easy to understand by analogy with the automobile business. A yana is category of vehicle, like SUVs. A sect (or Buddhist “school”) is a brand, like Ford.

Historically, work looked very different. In the 1700s, approximately 90% of Americans were self-employed or engaged in family-owned trades or agriculture. Even by the early to mid-1800s, around 80-85% were independent artisans or farmers, continuing the tradition of self-employment. This dynamic began to shift dramatically with industrialization,... See more