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I like Arthur Brooks. He seems to be a voice of reason in this crazy world. Having just read his recent book and both the books he mentions in the article, I a

I like Arthur Brooks. He seems to be a voice of reason in this crazy world. Having just read his recent book and both the books he mentions in the article, I actually started to understand what is being said here. On the first page of the Tao Te Ching (Stephen Mitchell translation), it talks about the true source of understanding is darkness. > Free from desire, you realize the mystery. > Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations. > Yet mystery and manifestations > arise from the same source. > This source is called darkness. > Darkness within darkness. > The gateway to all understanding. We can't teach kids nor ourselves to fear the world. We have to step into the darkness to gain clarity of who we are and what we are here to do. That's the only way to learn. This somewhat adds onto Scott Barry Kaufman's new ideas of self-actualization. Kaufman uses a sailboat as a metaphor in which the hull is security and the sail is growth. https://scottbarrykaufman.com/sailboat-metaphor/ https://scottbarrykaufman.com/sailboat-metaphor/ Which reminds me of the famous quote: > A ship in harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67896.Tao_Te_Ching https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/67896.Tao_Te_Ching https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49625550-transcend https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/49625550-transcend

hotpotamus 4y ago
Arthur Brooks strikes me as a genuinely nice and interesting person. But I wonder, how much did he get paid to run a billionaire funded thinktank (and that tank of thoughts seemed mostly full of "give tax cuts to billionaires")? I assume it paid pretty well. I also assume it's pretty easy to be nice and easygoing and thoughtful when you don't have to worry about where your kids next meal or health insurance payment is coming from.
amatecha 4y ago
I think knowing the darkness helps you know the "light" too. when I was a teenager I sought out the unfiltered truth of what humans were capable of, so I could properly understand what humanity "is". I found a lot of disturbing stuff (because I sought it out) and it helped me grow as a person and know how to interface with the world and get a better sense of what the full spectrum is. It didn't cause me to be fearful or anything, just aware. Anyway, maybe not 100% on-topic but what you said reminded me of that.
- thenerdhead 4y ago
  Exactly. That's what they mean by "embodying the light". Also in the tao te ching in the introduction.

hotpotamus 4y ago

Arthur Brooks strikes me as a genuinely nice and interesting person. But I wonder, how much did he get paid to run a billionaire funded thinktank (and that tank of thoughts seemed mostly full of "give tax cuts to billionaires")? I assume it paid pretty well. I also assume it's pretty easy to be nice and easygoing and thoughtful when you don't have to worry about where your kids next meal or health insurance payment is coming from.

amatecha 4y ago

I think knowing the darkness helps you know the "light" too. when I was a teenager I sought out the unfiltered truth of what humans were capable of, so I could properly understand what humanity "is". I found a lot of disturbing stuff (because I sought it out) and it helped me grow as a person and know how to interface with the world and get a better sense of what the full spectrum is. It didn't cause me to be fearful or anything, just aware. Anyway, maybe not 100% on-topic but what you said reminded me of that.

thenerdhead 4y ago
Exactly. That's what they mean by "embodying the light". Also in the tao te ching in the introduction.