Interviews

Friendship, Politics, and the Inspiration of Poetry

With my friend Gustavo Esteva I explore the nature of real friendship, its relationship to politics in a time of upheaval, and the necessity of poetry as reflected in chapter 79, “Friendship,” of THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural.

Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:

• “Friendship is not a face smiling” and the inner smile of real friendship, even in the face of anger or depression: 4:36
• Friendship as beyond expectations: 14:19
• The place of friendship in the life of Ivan Illich and in politics: 18:17
• A question from Gustavo about the meanings of verse 782, “Friendship with wise souls—a moon waxing—fellowship / With fools—a moon waning”: 37:00
• The great need for the inspiration of poetry in the great desperation of present circumstances: 44:18
• Where Gustavo’s many writings are being collected and organized to be shared with anyone who wish to read them: 51:00

Photo Credit: redefineschool.com

Gustavo Esteva
August 20, 1936 – March 17, 2022
Rest in joyful conviviality, queridísimo Gustavo.

Gustavo Esteva can be described as a “deprofessionalized intellectual,” a nomadic storyteller, and the founder of the Universidad de la Tierra (University of the Soil) in the city of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. He is also a columnist for La Jornada and The Guardian. Esteva has been actively engaged in initiatives for reclaiming the commons with indigenous peoples, peasants, and those marginalized in urban life.

Here are the verses we talked about, in both English and Tamil:

From chapter 79, “Friendship.”

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
Beacon Press, Boston

Singing One’s Own Song in the World

With storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology Michael Meade, I was delighted to speak about being known well, dying before you die, and the presence of the divine as reflected in THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural.

Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:

• Being well known versus being known well 3:58
• Bringing the gift of one’s soul into the world 7:04
• The earth as the source of generosity and blessing 8:45
• Funeral as a central community ritual 13:00
• Glory as a person’s song in the world 19:56

Michael Meade is a renowned storyteller, author, and scholar of mythology, anthropology, and psychology. He combines hypnotic storytelling, street-savvy perceptiveness, and spellbinding interpretations of ancient myths with a deep knowledge of cross-cultural rituals. He has an unusual ability to distill and synthesize these disciplines, tapping into ancestral sources of wisdom and connecting them to the stories we are living today.

He is the author of “Awakening the Soul,” “The Genius Myth,” “Fate and Destiny: The Two Agreements of The Soul,” “Why the World Doesn’t End,” “The Water of Life: Initiation and the Tempering of the Soul;” editor, with James Hillman and Robert Bly, of “Rag and Bone Shop of the Heart”; and the creator of the Living Myth Podcast.

https://www.mosaicvoices.org/

Here are the key verses we talked about, in both English and Tamil:

From chapter 24, “Renown.”

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
Beacon Press, Boston

Learning to Mirror Delight

With artist, translator, and writer Ian Boyden, I was delighted to speak about children, the birthplace of empathy, and the joys of sulking and reunion as reflected in THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural.

Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:

• Material, ambrosia, and delight 4:50
• Mirror neurons and the birthplace of empathy 14:18
• Our capacity to listen and the Bodhisattva of Compassion 27:43
• Waiting like a crane 35:48
• Sulking and bliss 55:40

Ian Boyden is a visual artist, translator, and writer. Consistent across his productions are an intense interest in material relevance, place-based thought, and ecology, with a deep awareness of East Asian aesthetics. His work is interdisciplinary, and collaborations have involved a variety of scientists, poets, composers, and other visual artists. He has worked with two Chinese dissident writers and artists, Tsering Woeser and Ai Weiwei. In 2016, Boyden curated the exhibition Ai Weiwei: Fault Line, which led to his most recent book “A Forest of Names.” Boyden was awarded a 2019 NEA Literature Translation Fellowship to translate a manuscript of Woeser’s poetry.

https://www.ianboyden.com/

Here are the key verses we talked about, in both English and Tamil:

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
Beacon Press, Boston

The Fruits of Right Speech

With the award-winning writer, photographer, editor, and curator Shin Yu Pai, I was delighted to speak about awareness, silence, fruit, and thunder as reflected in THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural.

Here are a few highlights and where in the video you can find them:

• Clear seeing 6:29
• Cultural roots and notions of gender and silence 11:35
• Discriminating awareness 19:26
• Living with a verse as one lives with a koan 26:29
• Fruit as experience, memory, and metaphor 30:37
• Being able to thunder as an advisor and as a friend 39:05

Shin Yu Pai is the author of eleven books, including most recently Virga (Empty Bowl, 2021). In 2020, Entre Rios Books published Ensō, a 20-year survey of her work across creative disciplines including photography, book arts, public art, performance, personal essay and poetry. From 2015 to 2017, Shin Yu served as the Poet Laureate of The City of Redmond. She is a 2022 Artist Trust Fellow and was shortlisted in 2014 for a Stranger Genius Award in Literature. Her essays have appeared in Atlas Obscura, Gastronomica, ANMLY, Off Assignment, Zocalo Public Square, Tricycle, YES! Magazine, Seattle Met, and South Seattle Emerald. Her poetry films have screened at The Zebra Poetry Film Festival in Berlin and Northwest Film Forum. Shin Yu is a three-time fellow of MacDowell and has been an artist in residence at Taipei Artist Village, Centrum, The Ragdale Foundation, and The Pacific Science Center. She hosts, writes, and produces The Blue Suit, a podcast for KUOW on Asian American stories that will launch in July 2022.

https://shinyupai.com/

Here are the key verses we talked about, in both English and Tamil:

From chapter 20, “Freedom from Fruitless Speech.”

Translated from the Tamil by Thomas Hitoshi Pruiksma
THE KURAL: Tiruvalluvar’s Tirukkural
Beacon Press, Boston