The Overexamined Life

Do You Love A ‘Person’, or Your Mind’s Projection? - Jayasāra

The Overexamined Life

Show Notes

Can you fall in love with another person, or only with the picture of them you carry around in your head? This week, a Buddhist nun who walked away from a PhD, a career, and most of the things you and I would call fun tells me you can't. Jayasara lives celibate in a forest hermitage, wakes at 3am, and chops a lot of wood. We talk about booze, lust, gossip, whether a monk's life costs you the best nights of your life, and why the fireworks you set off on a mountain in Japan are now, according to her, just a blip on the screen of consciousness.

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