Shai Tubali - Is Enlightenment Worth It?

ManTalks Podcast

Connor Beaton

Relationships, Education, Society & Culture, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.8 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 28 October 2024

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Talking points: mindset, psychology, meditation, spirituality Meditation and mindfulness get a lot of air time these days, especially on the more “crunchy” side of wellness spectrum. But is it all it’s cracked up to be? I sat down with Shai to really dig into this, from the wildly esoteric and spiritual side of the question to the more practical, tactical side. Because what’s the point of enlightenment if it doesn’t make things, well, a little lighter? (00:00:00) - Shai’s feeling of being “outside” the usual human experience, the difference between detachment and dissociation, and using things like meditation to avoid life (00:09:52) - What IS consciousness, and the West’s obsession with enlightenment (00:25:45) - Why are humans even capable of self-reference? What’s the point? (00:34:16) - Do these complex, philosophical ideas help with our day-to-day lives? (00:43:20) - How can men develop greater mental flexibility and combat closed-mindedness? (00:56:55) - What to do to get your calm back in a conflict (01:02:07) - The ultimate test of mental flexibility: putting yourself in a loved one’s shoes (01:09:41) - On reigniting imagination and using it for good Shai Tubali is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Leeds, UK. He has a doctorate in philosophy of religion from the School of Philosophy, Religion, and History of Science at the University of Leeds. He’s the author of the monograph Cosmos and Camus: Science Fiction Film and the Absurd (Peter Lang) and a contributor to the Routledge Companion to Absurdist Literature, as well as a prolific published author, having written over twenty books, including award-winning and bestselling titles. Among his diverse publications, one can find prose, poetry, practical books on meditation and self-development, and philosophical treatises on South-Asian philosophy and classical Greek philosophy. Connect with Shai -Website: https://shaitubali.com/ -Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shaitubali/ -Flexible Mind: https://yourflexiblemind.com/ -YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQwf6sSC-F2sH4uDOmJkKsw *** Pick up my book, Men's Work: A Practical Guide To Face Your Darkness, End Self-Sabotage, And Find Freedom: https://mantalks.com/mens-work-book/ Check out some free resources: How To Quit Porn | Anger Meditation | How To Lead In Your Relationship Build brotherhood with a powerful group of like-minded men from around the world. Check out The Alliance. Enjoy the podcast? If so, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or Podchaser. It helps us get into the ears of new listeners, expand the ManTalks Community, and help others find the tools and training they’re looking for. And don't forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify For more episodes, visit us at ManTalks.com | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right. I have to say it now, Dr. Shy.
0:11.8	Shy, welcome. Welcome to The Mantok Show. How are you doing today?
0:15.9	Doing wonderfully. Really happy to be here.
0:19.1	Likewise. Likewise. I'm going to preface this for the listener
0:23.6	in saying probably what I said to you before we got on that I have a sense. My intuition says
0:29.6	that we are going to bounce around from the esoteric and existential into the tactical and practical.
0:36.2	And so I'm just saying that for the listener that maybe is looking for the tactical
0:42.0	and practical or the listener that doesn't care about that and just wants to roll
0:46.1	around in existential molasses.
0:48.6	And so we'll probably cover both forms of terrain here.
0:53.8	And with that, I wanted to start off with just a pretty simple question, which was on your
1:00.5	website, you said that since early childhood, you've had intense observational tendencies and have
1:06.2	felt that you are not fully part of the human experience, but rather watching and studying it from the
1:11.9	outside. And I think that many people have had some form of that throughout their life. And I was
1:18.6	hoping that you could just expand on that and give some more context, because I think it'll flavor the
1:23.1	rest of our conversation. Well, yes, I think it has something to do with the nature of human consciousness, the nature of
1:32.9	human awareness.
1:33.6	And when we're more sensitive to it than others are, we tend to develop this kind of observation, or observing tendencies, sometimes intensely so.
1:48.0	I think I really felt like an alien in this sense.
1:52.0	And this makes it there sometimes easier for some
1:56.0	to engage in spiritual practice, in meditation,
1:59.0	in all kinds of philosophical activities that make
	...

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