Friday, November 14, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Love Affairs
The ultimate aim of all love affairs ... is more important than all other aims in man's life; and therefore it is quite worthy of the profound seriousness with which everyone pursues it.
What is decided by it is nothing less than the composition of the next generation ...
What is decided by it is nothing less than the composition of the next generation ...
The Flourishing
Below I have outlined the principles and practices to evolve a humans soul. I call it the flourishing. A platonic approach
The flourishing
The principals
I propose seven exercises (or stages) to be practiced. The participant should always start at the first stage, but should not remain there for long. The later stages can solve the problems encountered at the first stage.
1. Fault control
During the first stage a list is drawn up. This list should include bad habits, behavioral faults and character flaws that the participant has been trying to change without success for a long period of time. These may include smoking, laziness, overeating, talking nonsense, watching too much TV, driving over the speed limit (breaking the law), swearing, lying or an addiction to drugs/pornography etc..... Then the participant attempts to completely eliminate these bad habits.
Correct behavior expands and maintains itself, and correct actions support and amplify each other. Likewise with errors and character flaws. Therefore, seeds of excellence should be cultivated and helped to grow.
2. Developing Focus
A calm, focused and centered way of doing things in everyday life should be developed. One should be poised and yet relaxed. It is not easy to describe this state of mind, but it is quite easy to attain - at least the first time, when it is initially attempted.
The difficulty lies in maintaining this state of mind throughout daily life, even when tired or weary, when things do not turn out as expected, or when distractions occur, preventing concentration.
Developing control of one's body includes maintaining good posture, with balance and poise. Furthermore, your actions, your words and your work should be focused and efficient.
Good focus maintains and expands itself. On the other hand, lack of focus and concentration also maintain and prolong themselves. These should be broken as soon as they are recognized.
3. Physical training
The Flourishing does not have its own system of physical exercise. The participant choose to partake in any sport that they deem suitable. This sport should involve real physical training. Examples of typically sports include yoga, weight training, running, swimming, martial arts, rock climbing and horse riding.
4. Reading
Reading is like a sport in that it can be performed at many different levels, from beginner to expert. Reading at the highest level requires a broad knowledge, a high level of perseverance, and even a type of courage.
Plan your journey of reading with careful ambition. Obtain rare and highly valued literary and scientific works. Preferably, read them in their original language. Do not be deterred by difficulties like mathematical equations or chemical compound names – regard them as riddles to be solved. By solving these riddles, you gain access to faraway lands of knowledge where few can ever enter.
5. Immediate action
This is an interesting exercise that makes it apparent just how much ‘strength’ and ‘weakness’ are illusions created by your attitude and way of thinking.
When doing something that is difficult, skip all the hesitation, procrastination and preparation, and do it immediately.
In The Flourishing, the concept of immediate action is also extended to passive qualities, including calmness, patience and avoidance of bad habits. These qualities should be attained immediately, without prepondering or preparation, without any method and without being overly conscious of them.
6. Silence
There should be a deep silence behind all actions. This silence should be silence in mind and heart. Time should be spent thinking of The Flourishing and the qualities and excellence that have been achieved through practicing The Flourishing. In actual fact, The Flourishing should not be thought of at all.
We all know that it is difficult to control our actions and habits. However, it is much more difficult to control our thoughts. For true shining to occur, we need to control our thoughts. Too many of the thoughts that we have are not only irrelevant and stupid, but also disrupt our concentration, our work, and even destroy our happiness.
It is not easy to replace the constant tumult of these worrisome thoughts with calmness and silence. It is impossible to do away with them once and for all. But you can diminish their influence, attenuating their loudness and removing them into the soft background of your mind where they mingle with forgotten, nonsensical dreams and irrelevant impressions.
This practice of the calming of your mind should be done during your daily chores, during work, during your conversation with other people. It should not be done whilst sitting and meditating. The inner silence attained in meditation is irrelevant for The Flourishing.
The Second Fault Control: The Shining
The final exercise in The Flourishing ladder of drills leads full circle to Fault Control. This time Fault Control should be implemented at another level - not by struggling against faults and bad habits, but by letting them slip away as thoughts slip away and sink into silence. Then Shining within will intensify and fill the empty space of this silence.
The Flourishing is not a rigid system of dogmas. Anyone can create their own version of The Flourishing: their own set of drills and methods; their own understanding of Shining and Silence.
The flourishing
The principals
I propose seven exercises (or stages) to be practiced. The participant should always start at the first stage, but should not remain there for long. The later stages can solve the problems encountered at the first stage.
1. Fault control
During the first stage a list is drawn up. This list should include bad habits, behavioral faults and character flaws that the participant has been trying to change without success for a long period of time. These may include smoking, laziness, overeating, talking nonsense, watching too much TV, driving over the speed limit (breaking the law), swearing, lying or an addiction to drugs/pornography etc..... Then the participant attempts to completely eliminate these bad habits.
Correct behavior expands and maintains itself, and correct actions support and amplify each other. Likewise with errors and character flaws. Therefore, seeds of excellence should be cultivated and helped to grow.
2. Developing Focus
A calm, focused and centered way of doing things in everyday life should be developed. One should be poised and yet relaxed. It is not easy to describe this state of mind, but it is quite easy to attain - at least the first time, when it is initially attempted.
The difficulty lies in maintaining this state of mind throughout daily life, even when tired or weary, when things do not turn out as expected, or when distractions occur, preventing concentration.
Developing control of one's body includes maintaining good posture, with balance and poise. Furthermore, your actions, your words and your work should be focused and efficient.
Good focus maintains and expands itself. On the other hand, lack of focus and concentration also maintain and prolong themselves. These should be broken as soon as they are recognized.
3. Physical training
The Flourishing does not have its own system of physical exercise. The participant choose to partake in any sport that they deem suitable. This sport should involve real physical training. Examples of typically sports include yoga, weight training, running, swimming, martial arts, rock climbing and horse riding.
4. Reading
Reading is like a sport in that it can be performed at many different levels, from beginner to expert. Reading at the highest level requires a broad knowledge, a high level of perseverance, and even a type of courage.
Plan your journey of reading with careful ambition. Obtain rare and highly valued literary and scientific works. Preferably, read them in their original language. Do not be deterred by difficulties like mathematical equations or chemical compound names – regard them as riddles to be solved. By solving these riddles, you gain access to faraway lands of knowledge where few can ever enter.
5. Immediate action
This is an interesting exercise that makes it apparent just how much ‘strength’ and ‘weakness’ are illusions created by your attitude and way of thinking.
When doing something that is difficult, skip all the hesitation, procrastination and preparation, and do it immediately.
In The Flourishing, the concept of immediate action is also extended to passive qualities, including calmness, patience and avoidance of bad habits. These qualities should be attained immediately, without prepondering or preparation, without any method and without being overly conscious of them.
6. Silence
There should be a deep silence behind all actions. This silence should be silence in mind and heart. Time should be spent thinking of The Flourishing and the qualities and excellence that have been achieved through practicing The Flourishing. In actual fact, The Flourishing should not be thought of at all.
We all know that it is difficult to control our actions and habits. However, it is much more difficult to control our thoughts. For true shining to occur, we need to control our thoughts. Too many of the thoughts that we have are not only irrelevant and stupid, but also disrupt our concentration, our work, and even destroy our happiness.
It is not easy to replace the constant tumult of these worrisome thoughts with calmness and silence. It is impossible to do away with them once and for all. But you can diminish their influence, attenuating their loudness and removing them into the soft background of your mind where they mingle with forgotten, nonsensical dreams and irrelevant impressions.
This practice of the calming of your mind should be done during your daily chores, during work, during your conversation with other people. It should not be done whilst sitting and meditating. The inner silence attained in meditation is irrelevant for The Flourishing.
The Second Fault Control: The Shining
The final exercise in The Flourishing ladder of drills leads full circle to Fault Control. This time Fault Control should be implemented at another level - not by struggling against faults and bad habits, but by letting them slip away as thoughts slip away and sink into silence. Then Shining within will intensify and fill the empty space of this silence.
The Flourishing is not a rigid system of dogmas. Anyone can create their own version of The Flourishing: their own set of drills and methods; their own understanding of Shining and Silence.
In the pursuit of happiness
Happiness
Plato Held that happiness involved the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues
Kant rejects this rational result, stating if happiness was the ultimate aim of human life, nature would have given us instincts alone and not rationality.
Stating we tend to “reason” that the securing of some good, will make us happy – say a big house, pretty partner or better job. But once we have these things, we tend to find they have not made us completely happy . in fact they have not removed our desire for more goods more pleasure or more security at all. The happiness effect wanes quite quickly.
Thus happiness is not something we can permanently secure and worst yet the desire for happiness often leads us morally astray, setting kitten of fire because its fun.
For Kant it was doing one duty would bring the greatest happiness
Now the ultilarians (David Hume) posed that happiness was the goal of all moral action.
If happiness is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as stated then how should/would we increase every ones happiness.
Could we make the majority happy by exterminating a few?
It all seem to end in a moral question.
Should i give my spare money to UNICEF or buy a Wii which will make me happy?
The Greeks come back to the rescue with a way out.
Greeks concern themselves with the cultivating of virtue (Human Flourishing) not only does this put happiness at the centre of our heart for a quest to live to the full and also connects morality with every day concerns.
Further to this rambling thought .....
Humans are essentially reasonable, reasoning beings, and the individuals reason will tend to lead each of us to live properly.
The problem with this assumption is that it presupposes that reason is in control.
One may argue it ought to be but it often find itself the slave of passion.
Reason is like a rider on top of an elephant, he may be able to steer the elephant around, but when the elephant decides to do something else, all the ride can do is hang on for dear life.
The Greeks recognized that it take more that good argument to get people to be happy. It seem people need to be trained to desire the right acts that will bring about a fruitful life.
Aristotle’s basic insight regarding moral education is that people don’t learn how to live virtuously (happy) in the classroom or week end seminars, because virtue requires practice.
A good argument might help but it will not be enough to transform us.Striving for virtue is in itself the pursuit of happiness.
And one important point is happiness is by virtue subjective, and as such very hard to dictate. (ones subjective well being)
Greeks would recommend excellence as possibly the most useful endeavour when one wishes to pursue a happy and fulfilled life.
The question is not what should we do
The question is how should we live.
Greg :o)
Plato Held that happiness involved the cultivation of moral and intellectual virtues
Kant rejects this rational result, stating if happiness was the ultimate aim of human life, nature would have given us instincts alone and not rationality.
Stating we tend to “reason” that the securing of some good, will make us happy – say a big house, pretty partner or better job. But once we have these things, we tend to find they have not made us completely happy . in fact they have not removed our desire for more goods more pleasure or more security at all. The happiness effect wanes quite quickly.
Thus happiness is not something we can permanently secure and worst yet the desire for happiness often leads us morally astray, setting kitten of fire because its fun.
For Kant it was doing one duty would bring the greatest happiness
Now the ultilarians (David Hume) posed that happiness was the goal of all moral action.
If happiness is the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain as stated then how should/would we increase every ones happiness.
Could we make the majority happy by exterminating a few?
It all seem to end in a moral question.
Should i give my spare money to UNICEF or buy a Wii which will make me happy?
The Greeks come back to the rescue with a way out.
Greeks concern themselves with the cultivating of virtue (Human Flourishing) not only does this put happiness at the centre of our heart for a quest to live to the full and also connects morality with every day concerns.
Further to this rambling thought .....
Humans are essentially reasonable, reasoning beings, and the individuals reason will tend to lead each of us to live properly.
The problem with this assumption is that it presupposes that reason is in control.
One may argue it ought to be but it often find itself the slave of passion.
Reason is like a rider on top of an elephant, he may be able to steer the elephant around, but when the elephant decides to do something else, all the ride can do is hang on for dear life.
The Greeks recognized that it take more that good argument to get people to be happy. It seem people need to be trained to desire the right acts that will bring about a fruitful life.
Aristotle’s basic insight regarding moral education is that people don’t learn how to live virtuously (happy) in the classroom or week end seminars, because virtue requires practice.
A good argument might help but it will not be enough to transform us.Striving for virtue is in itself the pursuit of happiness.
And one important point is happiness is by virtue subjective, and as such very hard to dictate. (ones subjective well being)
Greeks would recommend excellence as possibly the most useful endeavour when one wishes to pursue a happy and fulfilled life.
The question is not what should we do
The question is how should we live.
Greg :o)
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