Welcome to the Commune podcast. My name is Jeff Krasno. Many of you may receive my weekly Sunday commusings article where I address a breadth of issues

from the spiritual to the physiological to the sociopolitical.

Well, today we revisit one of my favorites, what I call Jeff's absurdly brief Eastern philosophy

handbook.

We live in an age of parisocial relationships.

We all spend time with people who are living and some posthumous relationships as well,

whose presence and influence is a complicated comfort.

Well, I think in terms of a parasycial best friend I've chosen quite well,

the British philosopher Alan Watts.

We've spent a lot of time together, him speaking, me listening,

as I've hiked the rugged trails of the Santa Monica Mountains. I've also interviewed heaps of

doctors and scientists on this show about the way our bodies work and thrive. And over and over,

I found that the metaphysical was patterned in the physical.

As I peered into the microcosm of my organism, macrocosmic truths were everywhere to be found.

My studies in Eastern religions revealed a universe understood as emergent, spontaneous, and

interdependent, governed by an intelligence that seeks

balance, or the middle way. And as I learned more about my physiology, I witnessed these exact

same characteristics. In fact, my body is engineered for balance. Okay, before we dive in, please find me over at

Substack at jeffcrasno.substack.com or email me at Jeff K at Onecommon. Okay, on to

Jeff's absurdly brief Eastern philosophy handbook. So over the past four years, I have listened endlessly to the British philosopher

Alan Watts unpack Eastern mysticism as I have perambulated through the hiking trails of the

Santa Monica Mountains. And across the same period of time, I have also interviewed hundreds of doctors in the quest

...