After a few weeks of doing therapy sessions with AI (both LLMs and via a HIPAA compliant solution connected to my therapist), I asked the AI:

"Based on what you know about me, which artist or musician should I explore that would align with where I am heading right now, but also help me grow along the path?"

It recommended Kandinsky.

Eventually, I found myself at the Philips Museum in Washington, DC staring at, and meditating on 3 of his works.

The one that really grabbed my attention was "Succession," but each was mesmerizing in its own way.

After digging a bit more into the man and his work, I not only developed a newfound appreciation for abstract art, but I started to see a pattern emerging across art, music (the AI also suggested Stravinsky), spirituality (Zen, Tao, Kabbalah), and technology.

Tech may seem weird, but from my perspective, much of what we try to accomplish with technology is remove the friction associated with interacting with the physical world to discover and experience "value" (e.g. the things we value which, for some reason, connect to our essence), and thus are tools for digging to essence.

My yoga teacher once said "yoga is a technology for presence," which is what helped me connect those dots.

Bottom line...and this may be a stretch, I wonder if every meaningful pursuit is really, at its essence, someone's conscious (or unconscious) pursuit of the Essence.