Hell is Endless Autobiography

Hell is Endless Autobiography

From Hints and Guesses by Kent Dobson

April 30, 2025 · 1h 1m · Episode 124

About this episode

The episode explores the dangers of self-absorption in spiritual life and offers insights from various thinkers.

In an age obsessed with "knowing oneself," how do we not get stuck in endless autobiography and self-absorption? At its best, a healthy spiritual and religious life helps free us from the cul-de-sac of narcissistic feedback. In the episode, we'll look at a story from Saint Antony, a paragraph from C.S. Lewis about hell, and I'll outline the four foundations of a spiritual life from the book Journey Into Emptiness by Robert Jingen Gunn (a book about Dogen, Merton and Jung). See below for the link I promised in the episode about the Cree mountains of human development. Enjoy! https://decolonialfutures.net/portfolio/fourmountains/#:~:text=Each%20mountain%20represents%20a%20stage,one%20mountain%20to%20the%20other. https://www.patreon.com/c/kentdobson

People in this episode

Host: Kent Dobson

Topics covered

  • self-absorption
  • spiritual life
  • narcissism
  • Saint Antony
  • C.S. Lewis
  • Dogen
  • Merton

Keywords

  • self-knowledge
  • spirituality
  • narcissism
  • Saint Antony
  • C.S. Lewis
  • Journey Into Emptiness
  • human development

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Journey Into Emptiness

More episodes of Hints and Guesses

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Hints and Guesses podcast page.