 |
 |
In my experience, there have been several messengers from the East (in our Western perspective) during my lifetime, who have helped build Zane’s ‘third leg’ for us over here. (Sadly it seems to getting very shaky over there)In the 1960’s, the Maharishi was sent to London quite specifically with the mission to diffuse the Cold War dangers by introducing a simple and easily learnt method of mantra meditation - later called Transcendental Meditation - which I then learnt. Unfortunately, his organisation gathered a lot money and fame which went to their heads and sidetracked some of them into tricks and sensationalism. But it nevertheless left behind large numbers of genuine meditators and made the idea of meditation mainstream in Western societies.Later, the Dalia Lama had a less narrowly focused and much broader and deeper influence throughout the Western world.Later still, Tich Nath Hanh was able to build on these influences and introduce ‘Mindfulness’ as a practice which received widespread acceptance as an effective aid to building Zane’s ‘third leg’.To name but three …Also in my experience, among many others, Albert Schweitzer made a substantial contribution to the building to Zane’s first leg in my time - because each generation has to build that leg for itself anew. We are sadly in need of someone to strengthen that leg for todays youth. Maybe Greta Thunberg has made a start … ?As for the second leg, I think Western philosophy has excelled over millennia here; and there is no end of inspiration to be found. The willingness is all! And - alas - our age suffers from a great lack in that respect.Deeply touched by this conversation … !PercyPercy MarkRecent books: “Lanya’s Journey ” - NESt Publications, 2019;
“The World-View of Reverence for Life ” - NESt Publications, 2020;
“My Path with Albert Schweitzer ” - NESt Publications, 2020;
“Lanya - I,II,and III " - in a few months.
On 20 Jul 2023, at 11:46, Zane Diamond <[log in to unmask]> wrote:Dear Larry and allNot necessarily. In my research cross culturally of how societies develop wisdom in their members, there appear to be a few common elements that need to be purposefully developed.Most commonly, bounded communities establish a moral or ethical code of living that members. It's a form of mastery approximation where one learns discipline of one's behaviours etc. There seem to be many different manifestations of these rules to live by but they all involve learning to set boundaries or abstinences that allow one to understand one's motivations, values, behaviours etc.The second involves cognitive education in all the skill and knowledge one needs to live a good life and be a problem solver beyond one's own interests towards the common good (this links back to the moral/ethical decision making developed by the first)The final is becoming less common, even among more contemplative and Indigenous communities, is some sort of approach that purposefully allows a human to go inside and experience the calm abiding of the internal self.I have described this combined set of practices using the metaphor of a pot with 3 legs. Some people are more strong in one leg than the other 2.The trick is to balance all three legs to enable wisdom to emerge out of this purposeful balancing.Does philosophy play a part? It certainly has done in Western traditions as an element of the second leg of the pot, the cognitive insight part. Can this open the door to wisdom? Yes, I think so.But not by doing more philosophy but by paying attention to the other 2 elements, allowing everything to get into balance.Yours in the study of wisdom developmentZane DiamondEtymologically, “Philosophy” means "the love of wisdom"
On Jul 20, 2023, at 5:44 AM, Eri Mountbatten-O'Malley <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Absolutely! It needn't be formal philosophy, just asking philosophical questions is enough...
Does it make sense that philosophical thinking is the door opener to wisdom?Larry Kueneman
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1
To unsubscribe from the FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D list, click the following link:
https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/WA-JISC.exe?SUBED1=FRIENDSOFWISDOM-D&A=1