S2 - Ep.3: Encountering Death

03/14/21 • 66 min

In this episode, the hosts discuss about death and encountering the possibility of death amid the ordinariness of our everyday life. Even when we are feeling protected or in control, safe and stable, the possibility of death is always present in our lives in myriad ways, and nothing can fully protect us from it. At any time, at any moment, we could die, and we know for sure that such a moment will arrive for each of us within a limited span of time. The breath of death is omnipresent in ourselves and in the world: from the decay and disintegration observed in the natural world, the ending of each day, the seasons of our lives, our aging, our losses, witnessing the death of loved ones or the death of our dreams to encountering our own death. As Heidegger wrote, as human beings we are “being-towards-death” and by turning towards and encountering our mortality we have the chance to live an authentic existence, appreciate and care for life, and find meaning and fulfillment in our existence. Ultimately, encountering the very real and certain possibility of our own death addresses us personally and invites us to take up our own existence and live fully and meaningfully.

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S2 - Ep.2: Encountering Myself

In this episode, the hosts turn their attention from dialoguing about encountering others in and through love towards discussing how to encounter oneself. Simply put, encountering oneself means turning towards oneself the way one would turn towards someone one cherishes or loves and whom one would like to know more deeply and spend time with. Very much like encountering a dear friend or our beloved. Encountering oneself is a lifetime long pursuit. As Carl Gustav Jung wrote, “we meet ourselves again and again in myriad of disguises during our lives”. But how do we know that it is us whom we encounter? How can we know that it is us who show up when we turn our attention inwardly? And what does this look like? What is needed? Tune in and listen to this episode if you would like to find out more about how to encounter yourself and establish a loving, caring relationship with yourself.

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S2 - Ep.4: Encountering Desire

In this episode the hosts talked about desire, how we encounter desire in our lives, the existential significance of desire, various issues that surround experiencing desire such as the fear of desire, unfulfilled desires, or lack of desire, and how to honour and live our desires authentically and responsibly.

Desire is a fundamental human capacity to be attracted or drawn by something or somebody (the object of desire), or to experience yearnings for something or somebody that sometimes we might have not even known and yet speaks to us and calls our name. For the better or worse, desire is a powerful force in the human existence, a strong motivator, and a source of vitality. While there are dangers associated with desire, from an existential perspective, desire points to how we are reached by and connect with life, and how alive we feel. It reveals what we truly want, our deepest heart yearnings. It discloses our truest longings and attractions even if we are not willing to admit those. This way, desire reveals us with respect to the pathic dimension of our existence.

Desire invites us to leave our self-centeredness and to open up to encountering something outside ourselves that we experience as good or pleasurable. Lack of desire or avoiding our desires may lead to a flattened emotional life, chronic emotional tiredness, boredom, difficulties making decisions, and lack of fulfillment. Paying attention to our desires is essential for a rich, vital existence and deepens our self-knowledge and authentic responsibility whereas negating our desires exposes us to the danger of mindlessly acting out on impulse or to an impoverished, devitalized emotional and relational life.