I’m so deeply honored that you watched the presentation and wrote such an outstanding response. Please forgive the delay: we were traveling and then the whole family managed to be sick—ah, the joys of Winter. Max indeed asked an outstanding question (he’s awesome), and we actually met up a few days later to talk further (as well as on his work). It is not inherently problematic to receive or to have something bestowed on us—it’s inevitable this occurs, and in fact can prove very problematic if we never receive anything. The problem become “exclusive reliance” on receiving, for this is when we lose the capacities to motivate ourselves. Nietzsche noted that “the death of God” would lead to us having to be far more intrinsically motivated than we had to be in the past, a realization that would radically change everything. A way I put this in the paper is to say that though there is “bestowing in becoming,” the problem is that there is often not “becoming in bestowing”—the issue is order and focus.

To connect the point with your response, I think there’s a sense in which “bestowing” becomes problematic when it removes from us adventure, and indeed “adventure” is a huge theme of Nietzsche’s thinking. Now, in my books, I attempt to tie this thinking up with “the philosophical journey” of David Hume, and details on that have to be worked out, but in general I just wanted to say the way you are bringing Jung into this is excellent. I also think you are correct to associate Eastern thinking with more internal concern, which is suggested in the very way Schopenhauer loved the Upanishads, whose Will is translated into Nietzsche.

Anyway, there is much more to be said, and I hope the paper I just turned in accomplishes that task. Thank you again for reading, watching, and your interest in general—it really means the world!