Explorations in Deliberate Living

Field Notes on Travel, Philosophy, and Being

17 Ideas

17 Ideas That Changed My Life - Coffee Table Edition

Download the digital edition of my new “philosophical coffee table book,” 17 Ideas That Changed My Life:

About

Hey! I’m Ethan, an everyday explorer, philosopher, and mystic —turning travel, lived experience, and timeless wisdom into wider and deeper ways of life than consumer culture offers.

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All-Time Favorites:

The Shamanic Dance In the Waterfall

Read On
Why Wander? A 4 Min Video on Why I Venture Out

Watch It
"How Did I Get Here?" Moments

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What is a Mystic (And How to Be One)?

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Bookshelf: A Floating Shelf of My Favorite Books

Find Great Books
How I Learned to Float Against the Tide

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Cosmic Consciousness Speech @ Festival of Yes

Listen In
Why You Should Stop Watching So Much TV and Be More Like Bruce Dickinson

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Three Summers in Silver Gate, MT

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My Mind-Blowing Inner Experience of a 10-Day Vipassana Meditation Course

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Quotes from the Bookshelf:

"We are more struggling to survive than to thrive, more just “getting through” or trying to get to the top than finding out what is really at the top or was already at the bottom."

— Richard Rohr, Falling Upward
"It’s the job of dice therapy, like the job of revolution in the world as a whole, to enlarge free territory."

— Luke Rhinehart, The Dice Man
"We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world."

— Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance
"Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there?"

— Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now
"People don’t want to be millionaires—they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy."

— Tim Ferriss, The 4-Hour Workweek
"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah."

— Richard Bach, Illusions
"And it is true that everywhere dangers and difficulties are exaggerated by the local people, if only as a good excuse for extortion or malingering: one must go oneself to know the truth."

— Peter Matthiessen, The Snow Leopard
"In the 21st century, religion isn’t the opium of the masses — being entertained without being engaged and challenged is."

— Caveat Magister, Turn Your Life Into Art

Explorations in Deliberate Living

17 Ideas

17 Ideas

About

The Shamanic Dance In the Waterfall

Why Wander? A 4 Min Video on Why I Venture Out

"How Did I Get Here?" Moments

What is a Mystic (And How to Be One)?

Bookshelf: A Floating Shelf of My Favorite Books

How I Learned to Float Against the Tide

Cosmic Consciousness Speech @ Festival of Yes

Why You Should Stop Watching So Much TV and Be More Like Bruce Dickinson

Three Summers in Silver Gate, MT

My Mind-Blowing Inner Experience of a 10-Day Vipassana Meditation Course

"We are more struggling to survive than to thrive, more just “getting through” or trying to get to the top than finding out what is really at the top or was already at the bottom."

"It’s the job of dice therapy, like the job of revolution in the world as a whole, to enlarge free territory."

"We take a handful of sand from the endless landscape of awareness around us and call that handful of sand the world."

"Are you so busy getting to the future that the present is reduced to a means of getting there?"

"People don’t want to be millionaires—they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy."

"Your only obligation in any lifetime is to be true to yourself. Being true to anyone else or anything else is not only impossible, but the mark of a fake messiah."

"And it is true that everywhere dangers and difficulties are exaggerated by the local people, if only as a good excuse for extortion or malingering: one must go oneself to know the truth."

"In the 21st century, religion isn’t the opium of the masses — being entertained without being engaged and challenged is."

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