Do We Have a "Self?"

Find the exact point where you end and the rest of the world begins. Not roughly, exactly. You might say it’s your skin, but close your eyes and see if you can actually feel that border. No matter how much I meditate on this, it’s murky. This is non-dualism, the idea that the “me in here, world out there” split is a story the mind lays over the top of experience. Stanford-trained psychologist and philosopher John Astin treats it as an experiment you can run on yourself, and he reckons it’s a life-changing discovery. In a good way.More John Astin here: https://www.johnastin.com/Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’d swap protein powder for malaria nets in a heartbeat if science said generosity was the healthiest thing we could do for ourselves, so what if it is? Liam McClintock ex-private equity, ordained Buddhist monk and neuroscience scholar, walks me through the neuroscience of kindness and the practical frameworks behind what he calls a “life of bliss”.Find more from Liam:https://fitmind.org/https://fitmind.org/bookSick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We are on the precipice of turning every creative into one big sad grey cube, and I’d like us to not do that. This is my case for why you should be the starting point and AI thecleanup crew, and never the other way around.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if trying to be happy is exactly what's stopping you from being happy? Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What if getting lost, wandering aimlessly and being completely bloody confused by life should actually be our goal? Thoughts from one of the most seminal travel authors of all time, Tom Lutz.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Doing nothing used to be normal. Now it's an extremely weird radical act. A solo episode on the lost art of staring into space.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Can you fall in love with another person, or only with the picture of them you carry around in your head? This week, a Buddhist nun who walked away from a PhD, a career, and most of the things you and I would call fun tells me you can't. Jayasara lives celibate in a forest hermitage, wakes at 3am, and chops a lot of wood. We talk about booze, lust, gossip, whether a monk's life costs you the best nights of your life, and why the fireworks you set off on a mountain in Japan are now, according to her, just a blip on the screen of consciousness.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclubWant to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primoWATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My guest today thinks nature might be one of our greatest teachers. Forty years ago, Mark Coleman was a punk rocker and self-described anarchist in London, until he found Buddhism and began looking inward.Today, he’s a renowned meditation teacher who takes mindfulness out of the temple and into the woods, believing nature can transform how we experience ourselves and the world.We get into nature, self-care, ADHD, and the ethical dilemmas of taking the natural world seriously.Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Joan Tolifson spent the sixties drinking herself into blackouts before becoming one of the most unflinching voices on addiction, shame, and what actually gets you free of them — a path built not on willpower, but on attention. Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re gonna get to the bottom of whether or not “you” exist. Here’s why it matters practically. If you don’t exist, you might navigate life with so much more joy. Because what exactly are you protecting, every time you get defensive, jealous, insecure, anxious? Nothing. Sick of being ruled by your emotions?Join our Patreon for AD-FREE listening, Free Gratitude Club, bonus episodes, and mindfulness exercises that are actually fun: patreon.com/TOLclub Want to learn how to meditate? Get 30 days of the Waking Up App FREE: wakingup.com/primo WATCH THE PODCAST on YoutubeFollow Jonah Primo on Instagram or Letterboxd visit his WebsiteJonah writes on SubstackYou can contact The Overexamined Life at [email protected] Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.