We had a nice party last night. Thanks for the empanadas, tiramisu, cakes, brownies, risotto, chicken wings, cheeses, bread, quiche and coffee. Keep in touch and have a nice summer.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thanks
We had a nice party last night. Thanks for the empanadas, tiramisu, cakes, brownies, risotto, chicken wings, cheeses, bread, quiche and coffee. Keep in touch and have a nice summer.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Your turn #4: Update, Update2 Update 3 (last post, closes next Tuesday) keep it going-growing
Today: Zen techniques, "talking silence" (John Cage's 4:33), "the fool," (think of Arlecchino, Lazarillo, from Simplicius, Scapin, Melville's deaf-mute, to Felix Krull and Erasmus' The Praise of Folly), "doing poetry" (from the poet as "possessed" [manikos] in the same sense as the Pythia at Delphi), "doing nothing" (read: doing the laundry), etc. Anyone can be a master, Zen is nothing special. See you this Thursday for the final exam and later, dinner, chez moi. By the way, here is a review of Just Another Love Story (the Danish movie we talked about in class).
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Today: poesis as antidote for unproductive lives, The Art of War: Sun Tsu's meaning of "force," winning without fighting, contrarian philosophy, Tao's cycles, strategy, suntsuian "complete victory," Chuang-Tzu's dream thought experiment (or "how to connect verbal subjunctive with travel in parallel realities"), levels of insult, "the impossible is possible" as chuang-tzuian poetry, Tzu's "leveling of all things into ONE," Who is crippled?
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Since we only have a week left, let's make this post more ambitious and include Taoism (up to the post below on wu-wei), even if it means making your comments a little more comprehensive. Feel free to comment on Confucianism or Taoism or -better- both.
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I enjoyed our last discussion because of its socio-political dimension. Confucianism's social project strikes me as a sort of communitarianism. The jūnzǐ suggest a middle-point between individuality and community. Each one of us -as individuals- is embedded. “Li” is the social bond, a proto-ethical set of habits that translate as civility, the cohesion needed to foster individual happiness. Aristotle would agree with Confucius that personal fulfillment (eudaimonia) cannot exist without a community. Can “li” become petrified? Certainly, but this is no fault of its original purpose, not at least if “shu” is properly applied. Go ahead.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
D.T. Suzuki's Zen
From Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki's Essays on Zen Buddhism
Zen is the art of seeing into the nature of one's own being. It points the way from bondage to freedom. By making us drink right from the fountain of life, it liberates us from all the yokes under which we finite beings are usually suffering in this world. We can say that Zen liberates all the energies properly and naturally stored in each of us, which are in ordinary circumstances cramped and distorted so that they find no adequate channel for activity. 2- This body of ours is something like an electric battery in which a mysterious power latently lies. When this power is not properly brought into operation, it either grows moldy and withers away or is warped and expresses itself abnormally. It is the object of Zen, therefore, to save us from going crazy or being crippled. This is what I mean by “freedom,” giving free play to all the creative and benevolent impulses inherently lying in our hearts.
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War within
Je suis en guerre contre moi-même. Cette guerre... terrifiante et pénible, mais en même temps je sais que c’est la vie... donc je ne peux pas dire que j’assume cette contradiction, mais je sais aussi que c’est ce qui me laisse en vie, et me fait poser la question, justement: “Comment apprendre à vivre?”
(I am at war with myself... a terrible, pitiful war... that’s life. But I cannot say that I can solve that contradiction; although it is this riddle that keeps me alive and moves me to bring forth the question: How can one learn to live?).-- Jacques Derrida
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With a little help from Derrida's quote above, let's take Sun-Tzu's Taoist strategy of battle inside of ourselves. It's the endless struggle of becoming...
(I am at war with myself... a terrible, pitiful war... that’s life. But I cannot say that I can solve that contradiction; although it is this riddle that keeps me alive and moves me to bring forth the question: How can one learn to live?).-- Jacques Derrida
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With a little help from Derrida's quote above, let's take Sun-Tzu's Taoist strategy of battle inside of ourselves. It's the endless struggle of becoming...
Monday, June 8, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Confucianism
Confucius molded Chinese civilization in general and judging by the Analects, one can see that he exerted great influence on Chinese philosophical development. There is a humanistic tendency in Confucius’ thought; he did not care to talk about spiritual beings or even about life after death. Instead, he believed that we can make the Way (Tao) great. Confucius concentrated on man.
His primary concern is a good society based on good government and harmonious human relations. Confucius believed in the perfectibility of all men and in this connection he radically modified a traditional concept, that of the “superior man” or chün-tzu. One can broadly sum up Confucius system in a handful of principles:
1- T’ien (or heaven) is purposive, the master of all things. Tian is immanent: “Heaven sees through the eyes of the people, Heavens listens through the ears of the people.” Not necessarily anthropomorphic but anthropogenic, T'ien is embodied in the people and exemplified by the people. Heaven is a principle and that relates to human as that of part/whole relationship. 2- The Mandate of Heaven or T’ien-Ming consists of a Supreme Being who institutes a moral principle which then operates all by itself. That’s the principle of Heaven, T’ien Tao (later on called T’ien-li).
2- Jen (also pronounced as “ren” means indistinctly, altruism, humanity and fairness and appears more than 100 times in the Analects. Jen requires compassion.
3- “Do not impose to others what you don’t want.” This is a negative form of the Golden Rule, which is essential in Confucianism. “If you want to establish yourself, establish others. If you want to promote yourself, promote others.” To be able to apply the golden rule one has to follow a method,
4- “Shu,” which means to be empathetic, i.e., to be able to understand the circumstances. Shu necessitates
5- “Xue” or learning. Not an achievement verb, but rather a stronger sense of affecting oneself whether by improving one’s sensitivity, understanding or ability. With “xue’ one appropriates what’s learned, a process of becoming transforming. Xue is accompanied by
6- “Si,” that is, reflecting. “Learning without thinking, one will be perplexed, thinking without learning, one will be in peril.” (A, 2:15).
7- The Doctrine of the Mean or “Zhong-Yong.” It means centrality, not to be “one-sided.” It doesn’t mean staying in the middle regardless or no matter what. The idea is to stay between two vices, not between excellence and vice. “Excess is as bad as deficiency.” (A, 20:1). One very important element in Confucianism is the idea of
8- Li which is the idea of ritual propriety. Li can be seen as the embodiment of refinement that rules one’s life. If jen is the internal quality that makes a person an authentic person, then li is the body of external behavior that allows jen to be manifested and applied publicly. When li is properly performed, it becomes "yi,” a word that can be translated as righteousness. Li provides the fabric of social order. It’s the proper social behavior of a person embedded in a community of equals. Li is also a vital constituent of education: Humans are like raw materials, they need to be carved, chiseled, grounded and polished to become authentic individuals. By doing li one learns and instills oneself in the practice of li.
Finally, there’s an aesthetic dimension to the cultivation of li. Elegance and aptness has a beauty to it, i.e., the cultivation of oneself that is expressed through the individual’s actions.
His primary concern is a good society based on good government and harmonious human relations. Confucius believed in the perfectibility of all men and in this connection he radically modified a traditional concept, that of the “superior man” or chün-tzu. One can broadly sum up Confucius system in a handful of principles:
1- T’ien (or heaven) is purposive, the master of all things. Tian is immanent: “Heaven sees through the eyes of the people, Heavens listens through the ears of the people.” Not necessarily anthropomorphic but anthropogenic, T'ien is embodied in the people and exemplified by the people. Heaven is a principle and that relates to human as that of part/whole relationship. 2- The Mandate of Heaven or T’ien-Ming consists of a Supreme Being who institutes a moral principle which then operates all by itself. That’s the principle of Heaven, T’ien Tao (later on called T’ien-li).
2- Jen (also pronounced as “ren” means indistinctly, altruism, humanity and fairness and appears more than 100 times in the Analects. Jen requires compassion.
3- “Do not impose to others what you don’t want.” This is a negative form of the Golden Rule, which is essential in Confucianism. “If you want to establish yourself, establish others. If you want to promote yourself, promote others.” To be able to apply the golden rule one has to follow a method,
4- “Shu,” which means to be empathetic, i.e., to be able to understand the circumstances. Shu necessitates
5- “Xue” or learning. Not an achievement verb, but rather a stronger sense of affecting oneself whether by improving one’s sensitivity, understanding or ability. With “xue’ one appropriates what’s learned, a process of becoming transforming. Xue is accompanied by
6- “Si,” that is, reflecting. “Learning without thinking, one will be perplexed, thinking without learning, one will be in peril.” (A, 2:15).
7- The Doctrine of the Mean or “Zhong-Yong.” It means centrality, not to be “one-sided.” It doesn’t mean staying in the middle regardless or no matter what. The idea is to stay between two vices, not between excellence and vice. “Excess is as bad as deficiency.” (A, 20:1). One very important element in Confucianism is the idea of
8- Li which is the idea of ritual propriety. Li can be seen as the embodiment of refinement that rules one’s life. If jen is the internal quality that makes a person an authentic person, then li is the body of external behavior that allows jen to be manifested and applied publicly. When li is properly performed, it becomes "yi,” a word that can be translated as righteousness. Li provides the fabric of social order. It’s the proper social behavior of a person embedded in a community of equals. Li is also a vital constituent of education: Humans are like raw materials, they need to be carved, chiseled, grounded and polished to become authentic individuals. By doing li one learns and instills oneself in the practice of li.
Finally, there’s an aesthetic dimension to the cultivation of li. Elegance and aptness has a beauty to it, i.e., the cultivation of oneself that is expressed through the individual’s actions.
Monday, June 1, 2009
Reaping a destiny (apropos of Dhammapada's Twin Verses)
Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Update: Your turn #3 (this post closes Thursday@10pm)
Last class we talked about the Buddhist revolution: 1- Its pluralism (there are different ways), 2- its universalism (anyone can be saved), 3- The etioloy of Buddhism is pretty simple: There is universal causation: pratityasamutpadda. How to dispel avidya (ignorance), which causes tanha (craving) to cause dukkha (suffering)? The 8-fold path. I stressed the first three: right view/right intention/right speech: from the inside to the outside. Good mental formation leads to good actions. I brought up Husserl's epoché, as a way to dispel the gooey everydayness,* the baggage that each one of us brings into the life-equation: all kinds of protectiveness, assumptions including our personal brainwash. How much of what I take to be ME is really me? We touched briefly upon Sartre's nausée, to Kirkegaard's angst to illustrate the point. For some reason that escapes me now, I mentioned Kafka's idea of inexplicable (Unerklärliche) in this short story. Buddhism suggests that one can become authentic (a helping hand again, from Existentialism: Heidegger's idea of Eigentlichkeit or "one who owns oneself"). Buddhism is not an abstract discourse achievable only by a chosen few. At the end of the class I introduced the Buddhist idea of "self" as a flame, which is very akin to the Existentialist idea of self as process. I stop for now. Go ahead.
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*The term in Heidegger's philosophy is Alltäglichkeit, which means the daily routine of life.
A link for Georges Bataille's Theory of Religion here.
Dalai Lama's buddhist program for world peace
"When we rise in the morning and listen to the radio or read the newspaper, we are confronted with the same sad news: violence, crime, wars, and disasters. I cannot recall a single day without a report of something terrible happening somewhere. Even in these modern times it is clear that one's precious life is not safe. No former generation has had to experience so much bad news as we face today; this constant awareness of fear and tension should make any sensitive and compassionate person question seriously the progress of our modern world.
It is ironic that the more serious problems emanate from the more industrially advanced societies. Science and technology have worked wonders in many fields, but the basic human problems remain. There is unprecedented literacy, yet this universal education does not seem to have fostered goodness, but only mental restlessness and discontent instead. There is no doubt about the increase in our material progress and technology, but somehow this is not sufficient as we have not yet succeeded in bringing about peace and happiness or in overcoming suffering. We can only conclude that there must be something seriously wrong with our progress and development, and if we do not check it in time there could be disastrous consequences for the future of humanity. I am not at all against science and technology -they have contributed immensely to the overall experience of humankind; to our material comfort and well-being and to our greater understanding of the world we live in. But if we give too much emphasis to science and technology we are in danger of losing touch with those aspects of human knowledge and understanding that aspire towards honesty and altruism.
(Read more below)