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Thought of the Week Archives
July 1999
July 5
Normal human consciousness always depends on contrasts...and tends to
ignore what is constant even though it provides the necessary background
for the perception of change. ... If a pleasureable state is to be conscious,
it cannot be constant, for there will be no contrasting ground against
which to feel it. ... Pleasure is thus...the configuration pleasure/non-pleasure...in
which the first term is the figure and the second the ground. ... Therefore,
to find or seek pleasure in the figure, it must be lost or hiddin in the
ground. ...No specific situation is constant, for whatever is constant
tends to become the ground. (30)
...
In watching drama or reading a story we know that the situation is "in
play"...therefore we have no objection to there being a "villain of the
piece" or other agency which upsets the status quo...this is just what
we expect, and at the end of the show hero and villain alike are applauded.
... the stage enables us to see that the deeds of the villain are grounds
for the heroism of the hero, and we recognize the necessity for the relationship.
...by framing the ground, the stage makes it mutually significant with
the figure. (30)
...
In life, however, the situation is different. We tend to ignore the significance
of the ground, as well as its necessity. Hence the restless pursuit of
pleasure as if it could be a constant figure, ignoring and making no allowance
for its non-pleasurable ground. ...it impinges on our senses however much
our conscious attention may attempt to ignore it. (31)
...
The ground sensations that we try to avoid are such things as disorder,
emptiness, non-pleasure, boredom, monotony, anxiety, darkness, and death.
In terms of most value systems, these are meaningless. But myth...is a
comples of images which gives significance to life as a whole. [Myth]
dramatizes the order/disorder of the world in such a way as to make disorder
relative to order, to give the villain his part and the Devil his due.
(31)
Alan Watts, The Two Hands of God
July 12
Overly sensitive people may not see the positive side of their character.
They see the obsession but not the ability to persist. They see the sensitivity
to pain but not the potential for sensitivity to others. They see their
need for empathy but not their ability to empathize. They see their strong
fear of failure but not their strong capacity to succeed. They see their
cautious hesitancy to act, but not their imaginative foresight. For each
neurotic problem area there is a corresponding positive desire and ability.
However, because of their idealism and perfectionism (these qualities,
too, have positive aspects) neurotic people focus on the defects and feel
inferior. They use their strong analytical powers on themselves in a negative,
unproductive manner.
David Reynolds, Ph.D.
Water Bears No Scars: Japanese Lifeways for Personal Growth
July 19
In our constructive life we aim at recognizing and acknowledging all
feelings (not just the pleasant ones) and practicing the positive actions
that are called for by these feelings. If you are anxious about new job
responsibilities, then you want to do well, to succeed at your new tasks.
What can you do (action) to prepare yourself for these untried areas of
work? How can you go about developing social skills to combat your shyness?
What is your timidity telling you about your need for training, for social
action, and experience? Grief tells us about the value of someone or something
and urges us to repair the holes left in the tapestries of our lives created
by the absence. Every kind of hurt directs us to some positive self-developing
action. Trying to satisfy our associated desires in negative or destructive
ways leads only to more unpleasant feelings (such as guilt and remorse),
which tell us that the destructive paths are unsatisfying. The original
suffering remans.
David Reynolds, Ph.D.
Water Bears No Scars: Japanese Lifeways for Personal Growth
July 26
Far from wishing to waken the artist in the pupil prematurely, the
teacher considers it his first task to make him a skilled artisan with
sovereign control of his craft. The pupil follows out this intention with
untiring industry. AS though he had no higher aspirations he bows under
his burden with a kind of obtuse devotion, only to discover in the course
of years that forms which he perfectly masters no longer oppress but liberate.
He grows daily more capable of following any inspiration without technical
effort, and also of letting inspiration come to him through meticulous
observation.The hand that guides the brush has already caught and executed
what floated before the mind at the same moment the mind began to form
it, and in the end the pupil no longer knows which of the two--mind or
hand--was responsible for the work.
But, to get that far, for the skill to become 'spiritual,' a concentration
of all the physical and psychic forces is needed, as in the art of archery--which,
as will be seen from the following examples, cannot under any circumstances
be dispensed with.
Eugene Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery
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