Topic
started: 10/15/2008
Can we "think" our way out of the crises we face? What are alternative ways of knowing?
What I "think" about this question is that it is a leading question with a "right" answer lurking somewhere. Actually, this question sounds to me like the kind of question in a 5th grade science magazine, at the end of the chapter. Is it a test to see whether I've seen enough of the videos? Aren't many of them already answering this question?
I feel that to get others to help from a place that they really feel that they have something to contribute, we need to be open to their perspectives in a radical way: to ask not as a test, but as a real call for help. When I feel that someone really is in need, and open to another way of approaching a situation than the ways they have or the perspectives they have, I am more inclined to respond. That's my honest reply to this question.
How great that you are willing to take the time to provide such candid feedback! As the one who penned that question, I can now see how it can come across as a leading question. My intent, however, really wasn't, and isn't, to trick or test. It is to have a discussion about the role of the intellect vs other ways of knowing, as a means for making our way through the problems we face.
I personally don't think it's an either/or answer...I think it is likely a marriage of intellect and "other" that we need, but I admit a bias because I feel our Western way of knowing is distinctly lopsided toward the rational.
However, that is a digression from your point, which is, as I understand it, that questions asked in this dialogue can be effective to the degree they aren't leading, don't test, and instead evoke a genuine and original contribution coming from perhaps a radically different perspective. Am I reading you right?
Toward that end, do you have any suggestion(s) for a way this question might be rephrased?
Tree Squirrel wrote:
"When I feel that someone really is in need, and open to another way of approaching a situation than the ways they have or the perspectives they have, I am more inclined to respond."
This is the idea of world-centric as opposed to ethno-centric. When one is open to seeing another's perspective it enables compassion, empathy and change.
This morning I received this quote from the book "Beauty : The Invisible Embrace" by John O'Donohue, which suggests that in the current time of global conflict and crisis, we need to invoke beauty!
Quote from the book:
"Thought is an amazing thing: it can be a mirror, a lens, a bridge, a wall, a window, a ladder or a house. There is nothing in the world that has the cutting edge of a new thought. It is fascinating to watch the clearance it can make and the new life it can bring. Often, without knowing it, we are waiting for a new idea to come and cut us free from our entanglement. When the idea is true and the space is ready for it, the idea overtakes everything. With grace-like swiftness, it descends and claims recognition; it cannot be returned or reversed. It becomes more forceful than any single action could be. Indeed, it becomes the mother of a whole sequence of new feeling, thinking and action. Though we live mostly in the visible world and our personalities, roles and work distinguish and identify us externally, we dwell more forcefully elsewhere. A person can dwell inside a thought.
Yet each individual who thinks is limited and confined within his own mind. The poignancy of thought is that it can never bridge the distance between the self and the world..."
Integrity is the adequacy of a thing to itself. There is here a sense of achieved proportion between a thing and what it is called to be. Creation is always in the heave of growth; the integrity of beauty is that inner straining towards goodness and completion. There is a wonderful urgency within things to realize the dream of their individual fulfillment. Nothing is neutral, everything is on its way. Aquinas insisted that goodness, truth and integrity belonged essentially to beauty. In light of this we can see that much of the current cultural breakdown can be understood as failure of vision with regard to beauty.
Seana, that is a powerful quote, and your concluding paragraph is no less potent. I like how O'Donohue illustrates various modes of thought, and how "we are waiting for a new idea to come and cut us free from our entanglement". Oh, how true that feels. I also appreciate how unique an original thought is, and creative, and yet, how limited it is if action doesn't result from it.
This makes me consider how thoughts originate. Are some more legitimate than others? Who judges? What makes one thought worthy of respect and another inadequate? Is there such a differentation?
And, what is the relationship of vision to thought? Does a beautiful vision involve thought? Does vision need thought to make itself meaningful in the world?
Your call to invoke beauty is compelling, and I suspect that once invoked, beauty may indeed call upon thought to be a bridge into the world of action. Beautiful acts flow from the heart, but is thought part of this alchemy?
When I read this question, I was reminded of the following quote by Albert Einstein, "The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.”
Along the same lines, it seems that we have forgotten to ask or even consider, whether what we do is in service to life? Are our actions, our inventions, our ideas and plans informed by a wide understanding of the biological systems that have evolved and keep life in balance on this planet? Imagine if each person asked this question before they implemented any plan, scientific discovery, idea or invention? Then the mind could be in service to that part of us that innately perceives the interconnectedness and could be used to explore a deeper understanding of life's way of being and to bring forth discoveries that are informed from within nature.
As our society has become more industrialized and more mechanized, so have our minds and many people now behave as automatons. Just because we can do something, does not mean we automatically should do it. Imagine if we viewed each discovery within the context of nature, in other words, does this work if it is imbedded in life?
Below is the Mission Statement of an organization called The Nature Institute, which really captures what is needed:
"Mission: Nature around us is whole and interconnected. Though we are part of nature, we do not yet fathom her depths, and our actions do not embody her wisdom. A fundamental shift in our way of viewing the world is necessary if we would contribute to nature's unity rather than dissolution. At The Nature Institute, we develop new qualitative and holistic approaches to seeing and understanding nature and technology. Through research, publications, and educational programs we work to create a new paradigm that embraces nature's wisdom in shaping a sustainable and healthy future."
Cloe, I really like that Einstein quote. I wasn't familiar with it, but I'm certainly going to make note from now. And, I'm also impressed by The Nature Institute's mission statement. But I particularly want to call out your point, that we need to learn to ask whether what we do, indeed everything we do, is in service to life.
I think of how we are so conditioned to be in service to ourselves. Your suggestion reminds me of the ritual of giving thanks before eating...it honors something larger than our selves and our intellects. "Does this work if it is embedded in life?" That's a question to remember to ask.
Crisis is symbolized by 2 symbols in the Chinese written language danger and OPPORTUNITY, which way are you looking at crisis?
Good question! I think as much as I try to look at crisis as opportunity, I spend a fair bit of energy habitually looking at it as a danger. Some of that has to do with the constant reinforcements surrounding me/us from the media and from fearful others, but it has at least as much to do with my own attachments to "what is", and my fear of letting go.
There's no question, however, that these responses, like subterranean rivers, flow with considerable complexity under my surface. For as much as I am attached to things endangered on the surface, I also thrill down inside to the changes and upheavals we're experiencing, for their promise of change and the opportunities that arise with it.
No we cannot think our way out of this crisis. We can however intuit our way out. By connecting with the spiritual aspect of existence and remaining in a state of learning, all things are achievable.
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