I am publishing the first episode of my new podcast today, Hot Bread for the New Planet. The purpose of this podcast is to discuss a wide variety of topics with exceptional educators, visionaries, and unique thinkers of all stripes.
Today we speak with Noah Levine, Buddhist teacher and psychotherapist, as well as author of notable books “Dharma Punx” and “Against the Stream.”
I recently had the pleasure to study with Noah for one month at Big Sur’s Esalen Institute. Always an engaging and articulate lecturer, Noah often used the word “Dharma” in his lectures to speak of a concept of “truth.” Our discussions ranged from suffering to compassion - but did not often touch upon sex or sexuality for a prolonged period. I wondered aloud to him whether there existed in the teachings of the Buddha a “Dharma of Sex” - which is to say, a system of thought that spoke to the lack of honesty and self-examination that seems to abound in this area of life.
What follows is our short discussion. Enjoy.
California is a dry husk. Avoid it. New orleans is an oyster for the taking. It helps if you have some money, but California is a shit baking in the desert with a little sugar on top. Only a sucker of mass insane proportions would try to squeeze that crispy lemon again. Forget it.
-James T. Martin
I’ve been reading a lot of Bill Simmons these days (”The Sports Guy” from ESPN). He can rock a column like no one I’ve seen since Hunter S. Thompson or Chuck Klosterman, and the beauty of it is, I don’t really care what he’s writing about. Yes, I’m partially fixated on his columns about the NBA because I’m a rabid basketball fan, but while I hate both football and baseball, I find that when Simmons is writing about them, I’m nonetheless totally interested. Some people are just geniuses like that. Hunter Thompson’s book on the 1972 McGovern campaign made me a political junkie for a few weeks, when in my real life, it’s something I basically can’t stand to even speak about.
Recently, one Simmons column featured an extended email-engagement with author Malcolm Gladwell (”The Tipping Point” and “Outliers”). Their debate focused upon a group of celebrity athletes whom Simmons had identified as the opposite of Gladwell’s “Outliers:” in his words, “Inliers.” Allow me to quote:
“In “Outliers,” your thesis was that success wasn’t as random as people seem to think, and that outside factors play a much bigger role than we realize. I thoroughly enjoyed the book even if you totally missed an obvious chapter: How the dawn of the Internet made Anna Kournikova about three times as wealthy as she would have been had she broken onto the tennis scene 10 years earlier. Does she bank $50 million in endorsements without horny teenagers Googling her? No way. . . I also think you should have done Donna Summer, Scooby-Doo and Jerry Seinfeld chapters.
My idea for the sequel? “Inliers.” Not as catchy, and it kind of sounds like a bad George Clooney movie, but bear with me.
Available as a PDF download with vivid, full-color comics!
Copyright 2010, Sam Benjamin
