EPISODE 46 Enjoying Hell: The Life of Ikkyu Sojun (Part 2)

March 25, 2019 Daniele Bolelli

“Even if I go to Hell, I’ll find a way to enjoy it.” — Ikkyu

“Watching my four year old daughter dance, I can’t break free of her. Forgetting my duties, I slip into freedom.” — Ikkyu

"After ten days in this temple, my mind is spinning. Between my legs the red thread stretches and stretches. If you wish to find me in the future, you better look for me in a fish shop, a sake parlor, or a brothel.” — Ikkyu

“…tasting life and enjoying sex to the fullest.” — Ikkyu

“Thus the so-called ‘traditional arts of Japan’ all felt his influence: tea, ceramics, Noh drama, rock gardening, and haiku poetry. No historian was keeping track of this cultural movement with Ikkyu the axis of a vortex; but with hindsight one can see how deeply Japanese medieval art forms are indebted to him.” — Jon Covell

So many History on Fire episodes feature incredibly violent pages from humanity’s past. This is not one of those episodes. The hero of our tale was too busy enjoying life in 15th century Japan to join the civil wars raging around him or to go around killing people. As the illegitimate son of the Emperor of Japan, Ikkyu Sojun experienced the harsh side of life from the moment he was born, but always looked for a way not to let it spoil his good mood. His main passions (in no particular order) were Zen Buddhism, sex and drinking. And in the midst of the endless party that was in life, he managed to have a tremendously powerful impact on Japanese culture. In this episode, we see Ikkyu’s wanderings taking him through torrid love affairs, friendships with pirate-merchants, and clashes with the Zen establishment. Living in an age of shoguns being assassinated, peasant uprisings, and the fury of the Onin War, Ikkyu found the time to save very Zen temple he had criticized throughout his life, and to launch an artistic renaissance that would have a lasting impact on Japanese history. In the course of our journey, we’ll find out how Ikkyu affected the creation of tea ceremony, how he and Lady Mori shared the greatest love story in Japanese history, and Ikkyu can teach about finding joy in the midst of suffering.

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EPISODE 45 Sex, Sake and Zen: The Life of Ikkyu Sojun (Part 1)

March 18, 2019 Daniele Bolelli

“The autumn breeze of a single night of love is better than a hundred thousand years of sterile sitting meditation.” — Ikkyu

“Thirsty, you dream of water. Cold, you want fire. Not me: I want the firm warm breasts and wetness of a woman.” — Ikkyu

"Drinking and lust, no man can match me in these things.” — Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones

“You will always be wild and strange among men—wild and strange even when they love you.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“…to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life.” — Henry David Thoreau

"Where can I find the best beer and the prettiest women?" — Drukpa Kunley

So many History on Fire episodes feature incredibly violent pages from humanity’s past. This is not one of those episodes. The hero of our tale was too busy enjoying life in 15th century Japan to join the civil wars raging around him or to go around killing people. As the illegitimate son of the Emperor of Japan, Ikkyu Sojun experienced the harsh side of life from the moment he was born, but always looked for a way not to let it spoil his good mood. His main passions (in no particular order) were Zen Buddhism, sex and drinking. And in the midst of the endless party that was in life, he managed to have a tremendously powerful impact on Japanese culture. In this episode, we will tackle the odd phenomenon of people being more comfortable with warfare and violence than sex, how Tom Robbins introduced me to Ikkyu, Sovannahry’s Ikkyu painting (the first thing I see every morning), the odd circumstances of Ikkyu’s birth, a history of Zen, Ikkyu’s training and attempted suicide, Ikkyu’s burning of his ‘certificate of enlightenment’, his clashes with the Zen establishment, Jack London’s Call of the Wild, becoming ‘the Crazy Cloud’, Drukpa Kunley and his… ehm… ‘flaming thunderbolt of wisdom’…

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EPISODE 44 Dan Carlin

February 18, 2019 Daniele Bolelli

“You keep using this word. I don’t think it means what you think it means.” — The Princess Bride

"Political parties exist to secure responsible government and to execute the will of the people. From these great tasks both of the old parties have turned aside. Instead of instruments to promote the general welfare, they have become the tools of corrupt interests which use them impartially to serve their selfish purposes. Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government, owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people. To destroy this invisible government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day." — Theodore Roosevelt

Dan Carlin is the undisputed king of historical podcasting, and one of my favorite human beings. Today we sit down to chat about the differences between Nazism and Socialism, the right-wing vs. left-wing paradigm, our favorite past U.S. presidents, the feeling you have when witnessing slow moving historical catastrophes, and much more.

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A huge thank you to https://www.dynastyforge.com/ for sharing with me their amazing swords.

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For those of you who may be interested, here is a lecture series I created about Taoist philosophy: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/taoist-lectures/

EPISODE 43 The Melian Dialogue (The Peloponnesian War and Morality in History)

January 21, 2019 Daniele Bolelli

“The strong do what they want, and the weak suffer what they must.” — Athenian embassy to Melos via Thucydides

“As far as right and wrong are concerned, our people think there is no difference between the two—that those who still preserve their independence do so because they are strong, and that if we fail to attack them it is because we are afraid.” — Athenian embassy to Melos via Thucydides

“This is no fair fight, with honor on one side and shame on the other. It is rather a question of saving your lives and not resisting those who are far too strong for you.” — Athenian embassy to Melos via Thucydides

“Don’t quote laws to men who carry swords.” — Pompey the Great

“The present policy of the Government is but a continuation of the same progressive change by a milder process. The tribes which occupied the countries now constituting the Eastern States were annihilated or have melted away to make room for the whites.” — Andrew Jackson

“And do you know what “the world” is to me? Shall I show it to you in my mirror? This world: a monster of energy, without beginning, without end… This world is the will to power—and nothing besides!” — Friedrich Nietzsche

In the midst of The Peloponnesian War (431-401 BCE), the Athenians paid a visit to the inhabitants of the island of Melos and tried to make them an offer they couldn’t refuse. The dialogue that emerged from their negotiations is a classic in political philosophy, and raises fascinating questions about the nature of morality in history. In this episode, Darryl Cooper (from “The Martyrmade Podcast”) and I tackle them all, and leave no stones unturned.

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And thank you also to https://www.snowroast.com/ for their delicious coffee. Use the code TAO18 for a 15 % discount.

A huge thank you to https://www.dynastyforge.com/ for sharing with me their amazing swords.

f you’d like to explore the history of gladiators while in Italy, join me on this tour in 2020! http://geeknationtours.com/tours_post/signature-battlefield-series-arenas-of-blood-spartacus-and-the-gladiators-of-ancient-rome-2020/

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For those of you who may be interested, here is a lecture series I created about Taoist philosophy: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/taoist-lectures/

EPISODE 42 Joan of Arc (Part 4)

December 13, 2018 Daniele Bolelli

“It is true that I wished and still wish to escape, as is lawful for any captive or prisoner.” — Joan of Arc

“I have greater fear of failing my voices in saying something that displeases them than I have of answering you.” — Joan of Arc addressing a group of theologians in charge of deciding whether to burn her alive

“Tear me limb from limb. I would rather have you cut my throat than tell you all I know.” — Joan of Arc

“I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.” — Jesus quoted in John 15:5-6

“There had been unjust ecclesiastical trials before, but Joan’s was one of the most unjust trial ever undertaken in any ecclesiastical court.” — Timothy Wilson-Smith

By 1429, the heir to the French throne was about to give up and flee in exile. The English and their Burgundian allies controlled huge parts of the country. With Orleans likely to fall in a not too distant future, the path was open for the English to conquer the rest of France. It looked like the game was up for him. As much as he tried, he couldn’t see any logical path to victory. But little did he know that help was on its way—a kind of help that didn’t seem to be logical, reasonable or likely. Help was coming in the form of an illiterate teenage peasant—a female at that—who was going to change his fortunes; a young woman who through sheer willpower would radically change the course of the war. She arrived at the royal court during France’s darkest hour with news that God had sent her to lift the siege of Orleans, and make sure the heir to the throne would be crowned King of France.

The young woman was Joan of Arc, and she was one of the most unusual individuals in history.

At 13 years old, her life was turned upside down when she began hearing voices and having visions of angelic figures delivering her messages. The voices told her that no one on earth—neither knight nor king—could restore the kingdom of France. No one could—no one that is… except for her.

Ok, so we have a possibly insane girl hearing voices, This is hardly the stuff that makes the history books. At best, this would be an interesting case study for the history of mental illness. But that’s not what happened here—because the girl and her voices did change the course of the Hundred Years War between France and England. The voices propelled this young woman away from the typical existence of farm girls in the 1400s, and transformed her into a force of nature who embraced a heroic and tragic destiny that was entirely beyond what anyone from her gender, social class, and age could legitimately expect.

According to logic and common sense, none of the things that happened in our story should have been able to happen. A untrained peasant leading an army of knights? A young woman succeeding where the entire French nobility had failed? What she accomplished would have been exceptional if done by an aristocratic, seasoned male leader. But it seems downright impossible for someone like her. The world she lived in was hyper patriarchal and very class conscious, so on the surface there should have been no chance whatsoever that a young peasant girl could pull it off. She belonged to the wrong gender, wrong social class, and wrong age to achieve what she dreamed of. And yet she did.

In this final episode of this four-part series, Joan challenges the law of gravity and loses, King Charles’ betrayal, Bishop Pierre Cauchon lacking the guts to be a proper savage, 70 clerics vs. a teenage girl, Cauchon doing his best Darth Vader impersonation, institutions vs. mystics, food poisoning & a trip to the torture chambers, forcing a confession, entrapment, burning at the stake, impersonators, the retrial, the end of the Hundred Years’ War, surviving an assassination attempt thanks to layers of fat, Joan becoming a saint, and the mystery of Joan of Arc’s visions.

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Here is a link to the audiobook of my “Not Afraid”: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/not-afraid-audiobook/

For those of you who may be interested, here is a lecture series I created about Taoist philosophy: http://www.danielebolelli.com/downloads/taoist-lectures/