High and Low

Extremely Weird Weirdness

So here is something I wasn’t looking for. And it’s only because of Jeff Kripal that I am able to bring this craziness to your attention. So don’t blame me. There will be more from him about all of it in his next book coming out in the spring, but for now we have the pointers from the talk Jeff gave last spring at the Harvard conference on Henry Corbin. Suffice it say that he was talking about his friend Stuart Davis and his mantis encounters, and other bizarre experiences. (At the time I was totally incapable of hearing pretty much anything he said that day—he seemed a very nice man but beyond that my memory is utterly blank). When done with that, he said (he maybe didn’t actually because the paper he sent me is much longer than the talk…) but he might have:

Consider, as a final exemplar, Jeremy Vaeni. Jeremy is my friend and teacher. I read him in a long line of nondual and idealist visionaries, none of whom, I must add, sound anything like Jeremy Vaeni. Except for Stuart Davis… The thing about Jeremy Vaeni is that he can and will laugh at just about anything, even things you definitely don’t want him to laugh about. Which might mean that Jeremy is truly trustworthy.

So now, many months and many strangenesses later, I can begin to process… whatever all this is. And so I asked Jeff for the text of his talk (which is expanded into a couple chapters in the new book). I’ve read it several times, which is apparently what it takes for me to get these ideas into my closed little world. I thought “OK wow so Jeremy Vaeni… teacher of Kripal. I should read him.” So I did. I read his newest book, just out in 2023. I will read the others too, or so I expect. This is the new one:

You can get it on amazon.

I recommend that you all read it. Gotta say, I found it a real slog, because I’m not used to reading this kind of stuff… because… well, here’s the thing: this seems to me to be a mash-up of mostly low-brow humor, and flashes of brilliance and lots of weird - a real jumble. And I found quite much of it really tedious. But I couldn’t put it down—which annoyed me. Until I got towards the end, when I really couldn’t put it down. And now that I’m done with it, I want to read it again—parts of it—but I can’t find the parts… And weirdly (of course) it has made me feel very strange. I think I know why but I’m not entirely sure. I think it’s because he dismantles SERIOUSNESS so thoroughly—blasts right past it without giving a fuck. I’ve been very proud of my recent discovery (guess) that “we” (by which I always mean me) need the following attributes in order to (not quite sure here, but be fully human or something): Hospitality, Humility & Humor. Now, I really think that is true—it’s a great epitaph, a great summary of … something deep. But damn, it’s still pretty serious. Vaeni doesn’t seem to have that in him. Well, he does, he does, but only when it’s really needed, as you’ll see.

Damned if he hasn’t changed my life. That’s maybe a bit much, but he sure has given me another push in the right direction. For which I have to thank Jeff Kripal again!

And, in that same vein, don’t miss the most recent Substack post by Bailey Richardson on Art Dogs about Takashi Murakami and, among other things, the relation between HIGH culture and LOW culture in Japan and elsewhere. Which reminds me of this 1991 book (and exhibition) by the late, great Kirk Varnedoe and his friend Adam Gopnik, High and Low. Out of print but still available used. I have a copy that amazon tells me I bought TEN years ago! We are getting old my friends, so read Jeremy Vaeni to find out what’s really important…