Some of you may be curious about the name of this blog. I think this first post is a good place to address that.
Subtle Thread pays homage to my Indian heritage and the ancient and forgotten tradition of composing sutras. Works such as the Yoga Sutras and Nyaya Sutras, delved into deep topics, such as how to quiet the mind and epistemology—how we know what we know is true. Unfortunately, in an age of increasing anxiety, mental illness, and “fake news”, when we could’ve used these texts the most, they have mostly been forgotten—perhaps we can dive into these in a future post.
However, common to all sutras is the same pursuit: to address a complex topic and to distill the solution or teaching down to a single sentence—a sutra. Then, the highly structured collection of these individual sutra become the sutras.
I want to pursue a similar goal with this blog: to condense the explanation and solution to complex ideas and problems in a size more suited for our retention and modern attention span.
You may still be wondering what Subtle Thread has to do with sutras. Well for one, I want to explore nuanced and difficult topics. And for the second, the word sutra in Sanskrit literally means thread. The beauty of the sutra, however, lies in its figurative meaning. The sutra or thread of knowledge should not be thought of as an independent concept or rule, but as the knowledge that can be woven into various domains and facets of our lives. Similarly, my posts will exist both independently and intertwined in a larger tapestry of ideas.
Also, I’d like to extend this notion of interconnectedness to to my readers. I hope to provide you with insights through my posts, but also please share your thoughts with me in the comments. If you have some ideas that expand upon my thinking or provide a new perspective, I’d greatly appreciate that.
Thanks and stay tuned!