in a burnout society, your inability to rest is not your fault

To me, this is the most interesting episode so far – but my lapel mic is off. Audiophiles, I am so sorry, but it does get better after 20s and markedly improves after 06:00. If you can deal with the static and erratic bass thumping from the club downstairs, you will be greatly rewarded.Timestamps00:00 landing in the body05:08 a personal story about my Traditional Chinese Medicine journey08:22 theme 1: exploiting oneself as both master and slave (refer to Materials below)12:24 prompt 113:17 theme 2: rest as a divine right, not a productivity tool18:52 prompt 219:36 integration & closingMaterialsThis week, we focused on passages from “The Burnout Society” by Byung Chul Han, a South Korean-German philosopher. “The acceleration of contemporary life also plays a role in this lack of being. The society of laboring and achievement is not a free society. It generates new constraints. Ultimately, the dialectic of master and slave does not yield a society where everyone is free and capable of leisure. Rather, it leads to a society of work in which the master himself has become a laboring slave. In this society of compulsion, everyone carries a work camp inside. This labor camp is defined by the fact that one is simultaneously prisoner and guard, victim and perpetrator. One exploits oneself. It means that exploitation is possible even without domination.”“If sleep represents the high point of bodily relaxation, deep boredom is the peak of mental relaxation. A purely hectic rush produces nothing new. It reproduces and accelerates what is already available.” In the closing meditation, I read the poem below:Lost by David WagonerStand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside youAre not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,Must ask permission to know it and be known.The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,I have made this place around you.If you leave it, you may come back again, saying Here.No two trees are the same to Raven.No two branches are the same to Wren.If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knowsWhere you are. You must let it find you.Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you are not lost.Wherever you are is called hereReflective Writing Prompts* How do you exploit yourself? What is your relationship to your inner master and inner slave?* What is your relationship to rest? How can you share these concepts with your community so that people don’t think it’s a moral or personal failure? * At this point in our society, rest is resistance, naps are resistance, slowness is resistance – all these ways of being human are resistance. You have to wonder: what are we in resistance to? What does our society shape us to be, that makes being human a form of resistance? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yunshu.substack.com