Welcome to my inaugural newsletter. I’m only, like, five years late to the trend!

I’ve been running a lot of experiments lately: social media videos, a third weekly podcast episode, and putting on a meditation retreat. This is yet another experiment. And like most experiments, it’ll probably be coltish and awkward at first. So please hit me up with your feedback. Too short, too long? Too frequent, not enough? Let me know.

For now, at least, each newsletter will consist of three sections: recommendations, a podcast update, and some behind-the-scenes stuff.

I’m thinking about calling the recos sections…

Fixations

I’m constantly falling in love with shit (meditation/dharma/happiness-related and otherwise). This is where I’ll endeavor to convert you to whatever benevolent cult I’ve recently joined.

As a motif, my colleague Marissa Schneiderman suggested we use the Buddhist notion of the “sense doors.” In the West, we have the five senses: seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and touch. In Buddhism, they include a sixth sense: the mind. As my meditation teacher Joseph Goldstein likes to point out, at any given moment, whatever’s happening in your head, no matter how complex or operatic it may seem, is just some medley of these six senses.

So, every week, I’ll pick a few sense doors and let rip.

SEE

One of the doormen at my favorite hotel in New York City, the Hotel Chelsea, recommended I watch a documentary about the Rolling Stones called, The Stones in Exile. It’s about the making of their masterpiece, “Exile on Main Street.” I love documentaries that capture the creative act. Especially when it involves my favorite art form, rock music. I thought I had watched pretty much every rock doc available, but I had somehow missed this one.

It’s 1972. The Stones have fled the UK for tax reasons. They’re in the south of France, recording in the basement of a mansion that Keith has rented. There are kids running around, electrical cables everywhere, humidity warping the guitar strings, way too many drugs. The lifestyle will eventually catch up with the band (and their families); it always does. But what emerges from the shambolic process is one of the best rock ‘n’ roll records of all time, a thing of true beauty.

Watching songs like “Loving Cup" or "Ventilator Blues'' go from musical fragments to fully-realized songs—there are few things more thrilling than that for me. I’m filled with awe and envy. As the Stones sax player Bobbie Keys said, “It was as spontaneous as a hiccup.” Whatever that means.

I also re-watched a documentary on Kurt Cobain, called Montage of Heck. Really loved it. And it got me back into listening to Nirvana again. I think Kurt’s the most compelling rockstar of my generation.

MIND

It’s no surprise to me that I’m loving two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Colson Whitehead’s latest novel Crook Manifesto. A couple years ago I started reading The Underground Railroad (yet another example of my being late to a party) and I immediately ordered some of his other books; I just wanted to stay in his head. Colson’s work is astonishingly beautiful and brilliant and horrifying. Crook Manifesto, the second book in his Harlem Trilogy brings us back into the world of Ray Carney, a furniture salesman and part time criminal. Hopefully we can get Colson on the pod next year.

For a list of some of my favorite meditation/dharma books, click here.

HEAR

It makes sense that the first episode of the Ten Percent Happier podcast I ever recorded was with His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The second one, though? An episode with Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo, indie rock god and committed meditator.

I mention this because I suspect my newsletter will feature frequent musical recommendations. Heads up, my taste is somewhat limited: classic rock, indie rock, and the occasional hip hop, pop, or EDM track. 

So I’ve started a playlist called the impatient ear. You’ll find my first few picks there. More to come.

Pod News

I was recently on a call with our executive producer, Kimmie Regler, where she coined a phrase to describe our approach to making this show: sanely ambitious.

I loved that concept so much that we launched a whole series on how to approach work with a combination of equanimity and ambition. We interviewed some fascinating people about such topics as: boosting your calm quotient without losing your edge, how to integrate mindfulness into work, and how to handle feelings at the office.

This is one of my favorites: Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy | Emotions at Work. We get mixed messages about how to handle emotions at work. Some say emotions don’t belong in the office at all; you should be stoic and Spock-like. Others say you should bring your whole self to work, whatever that means. Liz Fosslien and Mollie West Duffy have found a middle path. They point out, and I agree with this, that it would be unwise and probably impossible to stifle your emotions at work—but that you also don’t want to be a dysregulated, sloppy oversharer. Liz and Mollie have come up with seven rules of emotion at work.

I loved all the episodes. Be sure to check out my interviews with Simone Stolzoff, Matthew Hepburn, and Bruce Feiler on our new playlist: Sanely Ambitious: The Dharma of Work.

BTS

I love this pic from a recent taping of Meditation Party, yet another experiment we’ve launched of late. These episodes feature two close friends of mine (and great Dharma teachers) Sebene Selassie and Jeff Warren. This is the third time we’ve recorded a Meditation Party episode (think: morning zoo, but deeper). The real agenda here is to show that meditation doesn’t have to be a solo death march; it is vastly enhanced by having friends.

In this latest edition, we had a big conversation about magic, mystery, and the time when I was crossing the New Hampshire/Maine border and had an eerie premonition.

We also answer your voicemails (feel free to call in, btw).

It’s also not too late to join our Meditation Party retreat next month, Oct 13–15. Actually, it is too late to join in person, but you can sign up virtually on the Omega Institute livestream. In person tickets sold out pretty fast, but unless we absolutely fuck it up, we’re planning on doing lots more in person events in the future. Register for livestream here.

App

Want some guided meditations, teachings, daily features and community features to support your mindfulness journey? Check out the Ten Percent Happier app.