Ewen's Newsletter - September 18, 2024
Hi All
Here’s this week’s newsletter.
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Film: The Red Balloon (1956)
Synopsis: A red balloon with a mind of its own follows a little boy around the streets of Paris.
Book: Zen and the Birds of Appetite
About: Merton, one of the rare Western thinkers able to feel at home in the philosophies of the East, made the wisdom of Asia available to Westerners. "Zen enriches no one," Thomas Merton provocatively writes in his opening statement to Zen and the Birds of Appetite ―one of the last books to be published before his death in 1968. "There is no body to be found. The birds may come and circle for a while... but they soon go elsewhere. When they are gone, the 'nothing,' the 'no-body' that was there, suddenly appears. That is Zen. It was there all the time but the scavengers missed it, because it was not their kind of prey." This gets at the humor, paradox, and joy that one feels in Merton's discoveries of Zen during the last years of his life, a joy very much present in this collection of essays. Exploring the relationship between Christianity and Zen, especially through his dialogue with the great Zen teacher D.T. Suzuki, the book makes an excellent introduction to a comparative study of these two traditions, as well as giving the reader a strong taste of the mature Merton. Never does one feel him losing his own faith in these pages; rather one feels that faith getting deeply clarified and affirmed. Just as the body of "Zen" cannot be found by the scavengers, so too, Merton suggests, with the eternal truth of Christ.
Music: Distortion
Artist: LXST CXNTURY
Project Update
You might begin to see some changes to my newsletter during this week, and this is because I’ve decided to put a pause on the newsletter. I do love doing this, and I do see the newsletter to become a great source of value for many readers, but I’ve decided to put it on pause to focus on my filmmaking aspirations. Film is where my heart is at and making the film I shot just recently has solidified this passion.
What I plan to do is change the newsletter into more of an email update. Instead of receiving a regular email from me every Wednesday, I’ll only be sending out updates on the project I am working on. I imagine these updates to come out very infrequently (i.e. once every 2-3 months or so).
With all this in mind, I am still available for all of you. Should you need any help, you’re always welcome to ask.
Grateful For
This week, I’m most grateful for: You all for taking an interest in my work.
What are you grateful for this week? (You’re welcome to share with me. But I encourage you to share your gratitude with those close to you)
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The Philosophy of Focus
When I was younger, I used to have a very set way of looking at the world. Like most growing up, I used to have an unwavering set of beliefs that were almost stuck on me. But as I’ve gotten older, all those beliefs have gradually fallen away to the point where I can’t even remember most of what I used to believe in. And now I don’t hold any beliefs. None whatsoever. And I am aware that this is quite antithetical to what most tell us. People say “You have to believe in something”, “You have to believe in yourself”, etc., etc. But I don’t believe in anything anymore.
What has brought this on has been my widened perspective. As I’ve come to new realisations of life, I’ve realised more ways in which I could disprove my beliefs. And quite naturally, my beliefs have eased. It’s not that I don’t have thoughts anymore. It’s just that I don’t believe any of my thoughts are true. They’re just words that float through my mind.
But what does all this have to do with focus?
Film
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Books
Buy the paperback versions of my books The Flow of All Things and The Shadow Stalker by clicking the covers:
Thanks for checking out this week’s newsletter. If you have any feedback or would just like to say “Hi”, you can simply reply to this newsletter. I do my best to respond to every email.
Have a great rest of your week.
Cheers,
Ewen
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