Welcome! This newsletter wanders and wonders where spirituality, philosophy, politics and science meet. It is non-dogmatic, broad-roaming, fearless (or trying to be), and awake to the global crises we are facing. 

“Empty is that philosopher’s argument by which no human suffering is therapeutically treated. For just as there is no use in a medical art that does not cast out sicknesses of bodies, so too there is no use in philosophy, unless it casts out the suffering of the soul.”

-Epicurus (340-270 BCE)

(Quoted by Martha Nussbaum in The Therapy of Desire)

Why subscribe?

The Buddha said that we should seek, in whatever we do, to benefit both ourselves and others. I write this substack to help both myself and others achieve more tranquility and human flourishing in the challenging circus of life, and also to help pay the bills. I work as an independent teacher and journalist as well as a practitioner of Chinese Medicine, and at some point you may see some of my Chinese philosopher-heroes here alongside the usual western suspects.

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Who Am I?

I have been obsessed with the question of how to avoid living the “life of quiet desperation” most adults seem to live since I was 12 years old. After years of experimentation with different lifestyles as a teenager I became a Forest Monk in the Thai Buddhist tradition at 21, and was a monastic for three years.

Since then I have continued to explore, experimenting with observant Jewish practice, Advaita Vedanta, Zen, Tibetan Buddhism, and Western Esoteric traditions while all along the way reading philosophy and science. The philosophical teachings of the Buddha, Hellenic (particularly Stoic) philosophers, and the rogue genius Baruch Spinoza have been consistent conversation partners for me and still are. Over the years philosophy has always been what I come back to as refuge, and these days it is where I make my primary home.

I taught meditation for 15 years, and have worked as a Yoga teacher, Ayurvedic counsellor, Chinese medical acupuncturist, teacher, community leader and education director, journalist, writer of creative nonfiction and ghostwriter.

I have written extensively for Tricycle: The Buddhist Review and have been published in Philosophy Now, Lions Roar, Ricochet, the Forward and elsewhere. For the last few years I have published mainly in Tricycle and on Medium and Substack.

Here is a brief guide to my writing.

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Thank you and I look forward to reading your comments or seeing you at a salon.

Memento mori, memento vivere-

Matthew

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