9 Books that will Meaningfully Reconstruct Your Worldview
The books that have had the largest impact on my life
1. The Religion of Tomorrow
This magnum opus by Ken Wilber has utterly transformed my understanding of religion, society, and spirituality. It’s indeed very long and dense, but for good reason. Wilber dives into all of the different aspects of developmental theory (moral, spiritual, aesthetic, cognitive, etc.) and how we need to drop the idea that religion is bad and rudimentary and instead understand that the development of society involves stewarding religions toward more and more inclusive (& developed) versions of themselves.
“Any spirituality that can’t pass inspection with science will not make it past the modern and post-modern tests for truth, and any science that doesn’t include some component of testable spirituality will never find an answer to the ultimate questions of human existence.”
"A major tier transformation: from a 1st tier of stages built by deficiency needs, scarcity motivations, absolutistic thinking, noninclusive and exclusionary practices, and hence human conflict and suffering to a 2nd tier of stages build by inclusiveness, embrace, abundance motivation, being values and caring kindness in its actions, tender mercies in its thoughts, exquisite patterns that connect in its ideas, and whole upon wholes upon wholes in its awareness."
2. Small Arcs of Larger Circles
Nora Bateson is a must-read if you’re into systems & complexity thinking. Reading Small Arcs of Larger Circles was such a refreshing change of pace from all the heady and intellectual systems thinking talks. Her perspective is like the feminine yin of complexity thinking to balance out all the map-making and masculine yang approaches to complexity.
"To be a participant in a complex system is to desire to be both lost and found in the interrelationships between people, nature, and ideas.”
“Understand ecology as a living pattern of relationships, a co - evolving set of relational dynamics between parts of a system.”
“To gasp at the unspeakable beauty of this process is perhaps the only appropriate response. The nexus of relationships that is providing knowing to a single minute gesture is ecological. It is intricate and intimate. It is the totality of patterns and relationships that any organism lives within.”
3. Ten Oxherding Pictures
I’ve found myself returning to this book consistently throughout the years. Every time I read it I’m re-invigorated by the depth of Zen and how deep the path can go. I’m humbled by this book. I’m reminded that I’m really just beginning this path towards Truth (with a capital T). That I’ve only taken the first step and it takes a lifetime.
"When one can serenely view the world without stumbling over it or being caught by it, then there is neither good nor bad, neither gain or loss, neither pleasure nor pain. One merely reflects the appearance of things of the world just as a mirror reflects objects."
"Once a student came to me and asked "What is the meaning of life?" when I replied "to play" he was disappointed. "Just to play is that it?" he asked and went away. Once you have reached the last station at the end of line there is nothing to seek, all one does is play. Here to have things is fine, not to have things is also fine. To live is fine, to die is also fine. To be happy is fine, to be sad also fine. If it rains that's fine, if it shines that too is fine. Everyday is good, everyday is good." - Yamada Mumom
4. The Ascent of Humanity
The Ascent of Humanity truly re-configured my entire relationship with life. The way that I view culture, politics, and society has never been the same. After reading this absolute masterpiece from Charles Eisenstein I no longer feel compelled to blame anyone in life. Ascent of Humanity is deep-dive into all the ways that the ineffective and hurtful acts of society are the systemic result of our anxiety around survival.
The way toward systems change isn’t through creating top-down solutions, but through changing the cultural fundamental ontology — from perceiving ourselves as separate to feeling ourselves as interbeing.
"How much of humanity's depredation, violence, and ruination arises from the cosmic alienation implicit in a mechanical universe?"
“Anxiety and boredom flow from a common confluence of sources. Technology has separated us from each other, from nature, and from ourselves, inflicting the interior wound of separation. Second, the definition of the self as a discrete entity, fundamentally separate from other being and the environment, contributes to our psychological loneliness. Third, the competitive view of the world that is inseparable from the edifice of science weaves anxiety into the very fabric of life, which becomes a competition for survival. Finally, the belief that the universe at its most fundamental level consists of atomic particles interacting according to impersonal forces creates an existential insecurity, an alienation from the living, enspirited world and selves we intuitively sense.”
5. The Way of the Superior Man
David Deida dives into a more conscious ideal for masculinity in the 21st century. What would it look like if we took a more spiritual lens on masculinity and sexuality and moved away from much of the shallow toxic masculinity that is endemic in our current socio-cultural sphere? David explores what it means to truly embody the masculine and to find one’s highest purpose in life, and how to relate with women in a way that keeps the polarity and sexual aliveness going.
“A man grounded in the unfathomable mystery of life, in touch with death’s vastness—rather than merely flitting from one busy surface activity to another—is sourced in his depth.”
“If she doesn’t want him, he should immediately cease pursuing her and deal with his pain by himself.”
“Don’t tell her what to do, but do it with her, with your body. If she is tense and closed down, lift her arms up above her head and kiss her heart. Don’t just tell her to open up. Actually open her up”
“Feel the need that drives you, for most of your adult life, to yearn for a woman, in flesh or in fantasy. And discover what it is you really want. You’ve had tit. You’ve had pussy. You’ve had nurturing. You’ve had wild passion. And none of it lasted. It wasn’t even that good as long as it did last. Your need is far deeper than any woman can provide. So what is it? Your ultimate desire is for the union of consciousness”
6. Poke the Box
This book is a simplified call to action that will re-frame the mind that tend to over-complexity everything. Are you suffering from analysis paralysis? This book will shift that. It’s a short little read, but holy shit has it shaped my approach to career and life purpose significantly. Seth sets down a call to action. A call to shipping the thing you’ve always wanted to shift. A call to lead in the way you’ve always wanted to lead. A call to engage in the world in a meaningful way, rather than letting our fears create fantasies about what we’ll do in the world all the while remaining in the comfortable world of our own imaginations.
“We rely on the disobedient few for innovation, but today, innovation is our only option.”
“The relentless act of invention and innovation and initiative is the best marketing asset.”
“The challenge, it turns out, isn’t in perfecting your ability to know when to start and when to stand by. The challenge is getting into the habit of starting.”
7. The Listening Society
An absolute masterpiece. Hanzi is one of the most complex thinkers. This book is the first part in his series that breaks down culture, society, politics, and life in one of the most on-the-money ways I’ve ever read. Ever wondered why there’s so much tension between the traditional right-leaning political orientations and the neo-liberal left? Hanzi is your guy. He elegantly remains impartial in his deconstruction of politics and puts forth his own meta-theory called Metamodernism which he perceives to be an integration of all the previous modes of thought and an extension of the pitfalls of postmodernism.
“there is an intimate connection between understanding how humans grow and evolve—intellectually, cognitively and emotionally—and how good or bad society is going to be. Hence, it should—or must—become a top political priority to support the psychological development of all citizens.”
“Metamodern politics aims to make everyone secure at the deepest psychological level, so that we can live authentically; a byproduct of which is a sense of meaning in life and lasting happiness; a byproduct of which is kindness and an increased ability to cooperate with others; a byproduct of which is deeper freedom and better concrete results in the lives of everyone; a byproduct of which is a society less likely to collapse into a heap of atrocities.”
8. Recapture the Rapture
What does it take to transform our consciousness in a way that leads to lasting psychological impact and the ability to engage with the problems of the world sovereignly? Jamie elegantly breaks down the value and drawbacks of what he calls Meaning 1.0 and Meaning 2.0 (aka Religion and Science). I’m planning on writing a multi-part series going into the impact that this book has had on my worldview and what I find most meaningful and exciting in the world, mainly what it may look like to create protocols towards deepening our connection, cultural intelligence, spiritual depth, and moral inclusiveness.
What if we practiced dying to our stories, our pain, and our pleasure, dying to our rightness, to our wrongness, dying every moment and living into the Deep Now? It’s a radical practice. Psychedelics, meditation, breath work, sexuality, martial arts, and extreme sports—all can become death practices. So practice resurrection. Die to all of it. And see who we are on the other side.
“That changes everything. If we hope to democratize Nirvana, we can’t rely on hand-me-down descriptions; we have to be able to go and see for ourselves. Reading inspirational quotes or gazing longingly at images from the Hubble telescope isn’t going to cut it. We need the launch codes for actual liftoff. Crucially, that experience of gnostic death/rebirth initiation is content neutral. What you glimpse or understand in that rarefied state is yours and yours alone. The psychological narrative that you choose to run could be agnostic as you mull the infinite wonders of consciousness. It could be theistic, as you commune with the gods and angels of your pantheon. It could be aesthetic as you marvel at the fractal symmetries of your mind’s eye. There’s room for all of it on Team Omega. Believe what you want to believe. Just never lose the Faith.”
9. How to Overcome Your Childhood
Alain De Botton and the School of Life crew wrote a powerful piece on how the child within us is still struggling and how psychotherapy gives us insights into the nature of many of the psychological struggles of adulthood.
“It’s usually not that a parent did something evidently appalling; the things that went wrong could quite fairly be seen as rather ordinary and not very dramatic: a few rows, a despair in our father, the feeling that our mother took our school results a bit too seriously…”
“The parent fails to keep in mind the complexity of the inner world of the child, and children are very poorly equipped to explain the nuances of their emotions.”
“If a parent is grumpy, the child sees the sullen face, hears the curt answer or a raised voice and assumes that they themselves must be the cause. It’s impossible for the child to imagine that the parent might be beset by a feeling that they didn’t know where their career was going, that they were under too much pressure at work or that they would never have a happy love life.”
We are equally not encouraged to note the way in which contentment with modest achievement can be a sign that things have gone very well for someone emotionally. It is evidence of health to have no particular wish to be famous and not to mind too much if one does not have a fortune; to be able to have a so-called ordinary life, to place friendship and love at the centre of things.
Thanks for reading.
Have you read any of these books? Reply to this email and let’s discuss it!
Life is hard, yet life is beautiful. You’ve got this. I believe in you.
Till next time.