What is your idea of perfect happiness?

a video embedded in an article on Marcel Proust*

the title of this post – What is your idea of perfect happiness? – is the first item in the Proust Questionnaire (!?)

what follows is in response to that question

wanting anything is dukkha

wanting nothing is nirvana

wanting nothing other than that none want
anything more than needed
to be and let be, to live and let live,
with love, compassion, joy, and equanimity
is still wanting something, is still dukkha

that said,

anyone can balance dukkha with equanimity  
in this moment, the ever-changing present

with appamāda


20210125T1157−08*
*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*

phrases shown with links:

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Sir David Barclay, 1934–2021, survived by twin brother Sir Frederick

image source: Daily Telegraph obituary*

from the obituary:
In May 2003, when it was evident that the then [Telegraph Media Group (!?)] proprietor Lord Black of Crossharbour was at odds with other shareholders in his master company, Hollinger International, Sir David sent a fax from Monte Carlo which said simply: “I wish to register our interest should you contemplate any serious change in your UK interests”; to which Black replied: “Conditions are quite manageable. No assets are for sale.”

By November of that year, however, Black’s position was more vulnerable, and secret negotiations with Sir David began. A deal was struck …*
Sir David had an astute grasp of the political landscape and one friend recalled that he was “able to read the economic ‘tea-leaves’ like few people of his generation”. But as newspaper proprietors, it had always been the brothers’ policy to intervene barely at all in editorial decisions – though their editors knew that they supported Margaret Thatcher’s enthusiasm for small government, free markets, lower taxes, wealth creation and providing the means of social mobility to everyone.*
a copy-paste from the 2020 Sunday Times Rich List:
17 (17)    Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay    £7bn*


20210116T1542−08*
*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*




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2019 TED Talk: Matthew Walker on sleep

the more popular the science, the more vocal the critics*

from a review of Science Fiction, a book by psychologist Stuart Ritchie:
Ritchie also calls out scientists who write hype-filled books for the public. He singles out Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker, asserting that Walker’s book, Why We Sleep, blatantly misinterprets the underlying science, …*


20210112T1135−08*
*a link; see a note on notes and links; see also a disclaimer / … and maybe browse or search the post archive*

Posted