Global Citizenship and Deep Dialogue in Education

© Jason Kunen 2014

In our global age, with the vast plurality of worldviews and cultures coming into contact with each other, is it not necessary for cross-cultural and inter-faith dialogue, coupled with a sensitivity that appreciates diversity, to be prevalent in society?  Such a skill would require learning the art and ethics of deep dialogue, that is, ways of inquiring into the framework and worldview of the Other without violating it in order to engender real appreciation and empathy.  We need to drastically evolve our current ways of being and living in the world if we are to face the crises of our time.  The presence of conflict, political upheaval, and the question of our sustainability requires new and innovative ways to educate the younger generations.

There is a need for a radical shift in the way in which we structure our learning institutions.  Philosophers addressing this matter, whether in the Western approach as in Plato’s Academy from the Greek tradition, or the Eastern mindset for example in Confucianism, have discerned that we must develop students’ capacities in all areas of life, and help them to connect on a deep level with themselves and others.  They should be well-versed not only intellectually, which is what our schools have emphasized, but should have also cultivated their physical, artistic, intuitive, spiritual, philosophical, and emotional sides as well.  Students need to be able to apply the knowledge they have learned, and also understand the how, why, and when behind this process.  Furthermore, is not the mark of a global citizen and student of wisdom realizing that all people can connect on a deep, genuine level when encountered from the ground of the human experience?  For all forms of life are deeply interconnected and mutually interdependent, and, as many of our wisdom teachers have shown, there is unity in diversity, and multiplicity in oneness.

The difficulty lies is giving people the tools and creating an environment where people can learn to cross worlds.  In other words, how can we dilate our minds in order to appreciate and understand a way of life different from our own?  People can begin to realize a deep interconnectedness by seeing that we are all sentient beings that face common problems both outwardly in society, and existentially, and that these problems can addressed more mindfully and reasonably if we learn how to unite in an authentic manner that does not eliminate difference, but celebrates it.  Uniting to face the dilemmas of the human condition, and seeing that cultures across the globe have been trying to address such issues, we mature to non-violent and more integral ways of dealing with the fragmentation of  inter-religious, cross-cultural, and philosophical conflicts and polar splits as we see in our current situation.

If one were to create an intellectually safe environment with the right teacher that allows students to engage in deep ontological self-reflection and dialogue with other worlds, he or she can reevaluate one’s own framework to develop the process of becoming a global citizen.  Learning to conduct our minds with a global vision allows us to promote harmony and compassion for all beings and the ecology, for we come to a deeper understand the vast relationships, on both a personal and worldwide level, that constitute our being.  This need to promote and facilitate an awakening of a holistic mind and to pave the way towards global unity can be accomplished through innovative pedagogies, awareness of how we are conducting our minds, mindfulness practices, and deep dialogue, among other practices that can be woven into the curriculum.

Related Articles and Videos:

On the Problems of our Age, Interconnectedness and Activism

Humanizing the Humanities: The Relevance of the Humanities in Education

Changing Education Paradigms, by Sir Ken Robinson

On Philosophy for Children, by Dr. Thomas Jackson

((Global Education)) by Dr. Ashok Gangadean

Thoughts on the Meaning of Life – Latest post

Ethics and Interdependence – The Shift from /I==It/ to ((I==Thou))

© Jason Kunen 2014

With the plurality of worldviews, religions, philosophies, and interpretive frameworks easily accessible through technology, it is clear that we need to reexamine our position on ethics in relation to the present, global age. It seems that many people have taken a relativistic stance on ethics, perhaps primarily due to the fact that being able to Dialogue across worldviews and frameworks is not a common skill, and therefore few know how to coherently integrate and understand multiple perspectives, particularly where religion is invovled.

What I would like for us to examine together is whether we can have secular ethics based on the common ground of experience, without relying on any religious, philosophical, or abstract metaphysical proposition. Let us start completely clear, with no motive to prove one idea over another or arrive at any particular conclusion.

Ethics is not an isolated abstract idea, but occurs in relationship. Life is constituted of relationships: to people, nature, objects, ideas, images, thoughts, emotions, and so on. As Krishnamurti says, “to be is to be related.” Ethics, therefore, is the conduct we embody within these roles and relationships.

So, if we are to examine the way in which we conduct ourselves in relationship, a natural starting point would be to first observe who is the self that is in these relationships. If we consider the image we have of ourselves, what is it that we find? Is it not the accumulation of memories, conditionings, and knowledge about ourselves? This is not according to the philosophy of someone else or of the author; you can see this for yourself if there is curiosity to inquire, without forcing oneself to arrive at an answer. If the image we have of ourselves is the collection of memories and details about ourselves, is this not a definition? This is an attempt to define ourselves.

However, to define oneself involves cutting oneself off from everything that one is not, or at least, it appears that there is a separation. If I want to define myself, to wear all kinds of religious, political, national, economic, racial, ethnic labels, do I not need to create a gap between that which is ‘me’ and that which is not ‘me’? If I call myself a Catholic or a Buddhist, or a Democrat or a Republican, doesn’t this separate myself from all others who are not wearing the same label? It is this process of separation that is the cause of conflict and violence. We are not saying that politics, or religion, or some other thing is the cause of problems. The real troublemaker is the habit of our mind to buy into the illusion of definition, of separation.

In order to define something, one needs to separate oneself from the thing one is trying to describe. Definition requires some thing is singled out in an attempt to classify it. But this process involves objectifying that which is on the screen of awareness, thereby creating a distinction between the observer and the observed. This division causes further conflict, however, we shall not go into detail of that at the present time, but if one is interested, Jiddu Krishnamurti has much to say on that subject.

In other words, we are using a mental software that is programmed to objectify all experience and life in an attempt to classify and analyze it. We can call this an /I==It/ way of minding. Of course this has its use, but we have been conditioned to apply this to all aspects of our life, particularly our psychological life, and this creates much suffering and mental anguish. When something is seen as separate from us, as an ‘other,’ and something lesser, do we not mistreat, misuse, or act against it? If one looks at this habit of mind closely, one will realize that it is when we objectify, that we cause harm to others. Thus, this /I==It/ technology of mind is destructive in our relationships.

When we become aware and understand this process, that is the very action needed to ((rehabilitate)) the mind. In the understanding that the image of ourselves, definitions, and the objectifying nature of our /mind/ is an illusion brought on by thought and conditioning, we begin to develop a sense that all things are interconnected. To break that /cycle/ not through force or discipline but by awareness, sensitivity, and understanding, we ((See)) Life and Reality as undivided from ourselves. Is this not echoed throughout our wisdom teachings from across the ages? To love one another as oneself…is this not one of the crux of the teachings of many of our great teachers?

By breaking this conceptual prison through awareness, understanding, and curiosity to look at ourselves, we shift from an /I==It/ technology to an ((I==Thou)) technology of mind. Such a ((transformation)) is to see the Sacredness of all Life, of all Reality. In that way, how could we possibly even think of harming another? When you are aware that you are the world and the world is you, one directly perceives that to cause harm to another is to cause suffering to oneself. To make the leap from /I==It/ to ((I==Thou)) is to affect the entire web of relationships.

If one inquires into what real relationship is very seriously, one will find that one’s individual consciousness is in fact, not at all individual! If we know how to look at the anger, frustration, desire, hope, jealously, greed, confusion, uncertainty, insecurity, acquisitiveness, competitiveness, comparison, conflict, loneliness, the craving to become something, the search for something greater, moments of joy, the clinging to those memories of happiness and wanting to repeat it, and so on, within ourselves, we can recognize that this is the ground of the human experience…it is a shared experience common to all humankind. So, when we inquire into these matters, we are really looking into the consciousness of all humankind.

Ethics, therefore, is when ((right relationship)), ((I==Thou)), is one’s being, and it affects all of our relations. One understands, not intellectually, but through one’s heart-and-mind, that any separation between oneself and anything or anyone else is only an illusion of thought. Therein lies the foundation of compassion. That which is unethical comes to be when live from a place of /I==It/, whereby we perpetuate conflict, violence, division, and and so on.

Related Articles:
On Relationships
Philosophy is a Path of Happiness
Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy
Other essays: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756
Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by Tony Parrotto
The Mazeway Project
That Which Is, by Martha Randolph and Elizabeth Campbell

((Philosophy)) is a ((Path of Happiness))

Courtesy of http://www.mrroaming.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/DSC01880-2.jpg

Courtesy of http://wallpaperswide9.blogspot.com/2013/05/lord-buddha-hd-wallpapers.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently saw a play called Philosophy for Gangsters, where it was suggested that philosophy and happiness have nothing to do with each other.  After hearing this, I thought for some time about this topic.  Does philosophy lead to happiness?  Is there a connection?

Philosophy is the “love of Sophia,” meaning wisdom  Let us inquire into these two terms.  ((Wisdom)) may perhaps best be suggested as understanding the nature of ((Reality)), in other words, seeing the truth of ((what is)) in the moment.  Love, not /exclusive/ or /possessive love/, but ((real love)) seems to be a ((total absorption)) with something, such that no /divisions/ or /separateness/ exists between one and the other.

We may not necessarily even be speaking of romantic love, but ((love)) in general.  Imagine for example, the martial artist who becomes absorbed in his or her practice, or the athlete that loses his sense of self on the field such that there is just movement, or the musician who is lost in the music.  A sense of /self/ disappears, and there is only ((action)).  The kind of love which we speak is unconditional; there is no separation between /one/ and the /other/ on any level, but a complete and total ((union)).

((Philosophy)) therefore would mean a ((total absorption and understanding into what is)), i.e., ((the nature of reality)).

Through ((wisdom and love)), we break through the /illusion of separation/.  ((Seeing)) that there is no /separation/ is already the flowering of ((love)).  Thus, ((wisdom-and-love)), ((truth-and-compassion)), are interconnected and co-arise.

As we said in previous articles, an “I” appears to exist because of memories and sensations.  However, if we look closely with sensitivity and awareness, we can see that it is thought that creates a thinker.  The narrative we tell ourselves everyday is an illusion, perpetuated by thought in order to preserve a sense of continuity.  This separation between the thinker and the thought, the experiencer and the experienced, creates conflict and divisions within us.

Since thought operates only in the past and projects the future, there is a conflict between what should be (according to thought), and what is.  This /self/, the /ego/, projects all kinds of labels, categories, divisions, and judgments on reality and experience.  As we can never escape from the present, from what is, we lead a double life: experiencing what is, and what we think should be according to our desires, thoughts, conditionings, and memories.

In order to define itself, thought creates labels, judgments, and all kinds of divisions.  This causes us to objectify all experience, people, relationships, language, and reality, and view as /other/ anything which does not fit our own definition.  The /ego/ operates in an /I—It/ technology of mind.  ((Wisdom-and-love)), brought to Life through ((Living Philosophy)), creates a shift from /I—It/ to ((I==Thou)), whereby objectifying habits are dropped, and there is insight in the ((Sacredness)) and ((Interrelatedness)) of all things.

Without any /divisions/ or /separateness/, there is no inward conflict, for conflict can only exist between /one/ and an /other/.  Without conflict, there is not only ((clarity)), but ((order)).  In this sense, ((order)) is not forced, disciplined, or adherence to some moral law, but is a natural spontaneity that is in itself ((ethical, creative, and harmonious)).  For the one who embodies ((love-and-wisdom)), he or she would not even consider /violence/ or /actions/ that would harm others, for they are ((aware)) of the ((interconnectedness of all things)).  Order seemingly brings about virtue and goodness then, and these give rise also to harmony.  Of course, we must keep in mind that these ((qualities)) such as order, virtue, wisdom, love, etc., do not arise in a linear or cause-and-effect manner, but also ((co-arise)) together, and are ((interrelated)).

Therefore, if there is no /self/ in conflict or that is /divided/, but simply the ((manifestation)) and ((action)) of these ((qualities)), would this not be happiness?  For the very /pursuit/ of happiness obstructs its flowering, because there is a pursuer and the pursued.  But without that conflict, and just the ((total absorption and flowing into what is)), ((the present moment)), there is bliss.

Thus, ((Philosophy)), not intellectual jargon, debates, and complex theories, but real ((Living Wisdom)) is the key to ((Happiness)) and ((Human Flourishing)).  This ((meditative intelligence)), the ((understanding and awareness)) of ((what is)) is ((Living Philosophy)).  ((Philosophy)), therefore, is a ((Way of Liberation)).  It is not a path “towards” happiness, as that would create a division between the path and a goal, but rather, ((Philosophy)) is a ((Path of Happiness)).

Related Articles:

The Game of Life – Don’t Take it Personally

On the Nature of Happiness

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary

When Life Falls Apart

On Uncertainty

Link to my book – Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy

Link to my other essays – http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by Tony Parrotto

The Mazeway Project

That Which Is, by Martha Randolph and Elizabeth Campbell

The Game of Life – Don’t Take it Personally

© Jason Kunen 2014

We have become so caught up in playing the game of life that we have confused playing the game with really living itself.  When we are obsessed with what masks we wear to show the world, it is no wonder that we are an age of judgment, anxiety, and self-importance out of fear.

What do I mean when I say “playing the game of life?”  It is the daily struggles, the conflict, the pain, loneliness, anger, frustration, desire, judgment, self-consciousness, anxiety, and concern with our self-image and how we appear to others.  How many masks do we wear everyday?  And is seems that we have become so accustomed with putting up a facade that we ourselves come to believe this very illusion.

These masks are constructed based on ideas of ourselves, the images we believe other people have of us, the memories, experiences, psychological scars, and our conditionings.  But wearing a mask constricts your vision.  Psychologically, retaining this image we have of ourselves and others limits what we see and how we interact in the world.  When you carry around an image of yourself all the time, you naturally set yourself up to be hurt, anxious, lonely, and frustrated, and counteract such feelings by trying to build up even more self-importance.  In putting oneself on a pedestal, there will naturally be a fear of falling off it.

We crave psychological security and comfort, which leads us to cling to what we know, to the story we tell ourselves everyday, in order to have some kind of certainty.  But nothing is static, and therefore, there is always the constant threat of insecurity.  Certainly, we need memories and experiences in order to function in the world, carry out various responsibilities, and perform at our job, but we must ask ourselves, is this all that there is?  Because we feel that outside of playing this game there is nothing, we feel fear and uncertainty, as though there is an empty void waiting to swallow us into nothingness.  The more we feel such psychological fear of letting go, the more we realize how much we are psychologically dependent on the known.  And in fact, what we really fear is not an actual void itself, but merely an idea in our mind that we have of it…the fear we have is of not wanting to let go of the known.

So, if you are at all interested in this sort of inquiry, be aware of your mental habits, your relationships, your interactions, your judgments, and your mental attitude while playing the game of life.  If you are sensitive, if you’re really curious, you will see how absurd it is to take life seriously and personally.  This is not a claim that we should waive our responsibilities, disregard courtesy, or have the right to do whatever we wish…that is thinking immaturely.

It is simply to say that we take the game of life so seriously, so personally, that we accumulate more and more baggage and scars, and because we have been hurt in the past, we try to control and shape the future according to our desires to we don’t get hurt again.  We fall into a vicious cycle of pursuing pleasure and avoiding pain.  Such thinking prevents us from learning various lessons in life, and enjoying things as they.  Whether life is a tragedy or a comedy is largely a matter of one’s mental attitude.

I am contemplating making follow up videos on Youtube to these posts.  If you think that would be helpful and interesting, let me know.  I am also open to suggestions for topics.

If you like these posts, please share them with others.  There are links to share this on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and others below.  Many thanks!

When Life Falls Apart – Last week’s post

Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by Tony Parrotto

The Mazeway Project

That Which Is, by Martha Randolph and Elizabeth Campbell

On Free Will – Awareness and the Power of Choice

For centuries, free will has been a widely debated subject.  However, for our purposes, abstractions are not helpful.  We can debate free will at length, and see how it is affected depending on one’s worldview and such, but we are not here to discuss philosophical theories.  Our purpose here is to discover if there is a way of living that is radically different from the self-centered, ego-oriented, fragmented, and objectified way of minding that is the cause of suffering, inwardly and outwardly, on a planetary scale.

So, putting aside all theories, abstractions, ideologies, belief systems, philosophies, etc., what is free will?  Clearly, it is not reaction is it?  A reaction is not free of the initial stimulus which caused it, so obviously, reactions cannot be free.  But that is how most of us are living is it not?  We are constantly reacting to all the challenges and experiences of life.  Your opinions, judgments, prejudices, comparisons, behaviors, emotions, inclinations, and thoughts…they are all reactions to your experience.  Because we are operating from our conditionings and memories, which are of the past, we encounter new challenges and experiences with the same old habits and patterns.  There is nothing new in those reactions; they are stuck in the past, in your memory, in your conditionings.  Your reactions are your ego, your self-image, trying to control, shape, label, and categorize experience based on certain dispositions and judgments, all of which are of the past.  Surely, this cannot be freedom or acting out of free will.

It seems to me that free will is the power to ((choose)) and ((change)) our way of minding, of how we process experience.  This is not an abstraction, as we can clearly see this for ourselves in everyday life.  We can choose to face a challenge or situation with our typical habits and reactions, or we can choose to see if the problem can be encountered in a different way.  If something does not go your way, you can get angry, or you can watch what happens when your mind’s inclinations are not satisfied, and discover if there is a different way you can approach the situation through your awareness.

Freedom doesn’t mean license, being able to do whatever you want.  Being free means being completely open and receptive to each and every challenge and experience of life and responding to it creatively and in the present, without the filter of the past.  Free will is our ability, our power, to choose how we wish to conduct our mind.  We can empower ourselves this way by being aware each and every moment.  Watch and observe your mind, reactions, judgments, opinions, behaviors, language, etc., and you will discover for yourself how much baggage we carry over into the present such that we never really experience it; we never truly experience life that way.  Living from the past, operating based on reactions, prejudices, and judgments, and never being creative, responsive, joyous…that does not seem like living in its highest sense.

It is important to understand that the ((power of choice)) of which I am speaking means being aware of our way of minding.  Through an awareness that is non-judgmental and choiceless (as Jiddu Krishnamurti would say), our mental habits begin to drop, thereby freeing us to be responsive and creative, but this is not something that we can choose to do.  ((Transformation)) takes place when the ground is fertile for it to come by itself, it cannot be invited or induced.  Any such action that tries to force such things is ego-centric action based on self-centeredness and the desire to escape from what is.  Furthermore, any kind of “transformation” or “realization” one believes to have experienced in trying to induce such a thing is self-projected, and therefore an illusion.

The greatest power we have is our awareness.  Mindfulness of our mental habits can cause a ((shift)), but this ((change)) is not something that can forced, induced, or controlled.  Trying to change in that way means one has difficulty facing what is; they do not want to look at themselves as they are, so they set up some ideal, some virtue, some belief that says “If I transform, meditate, do this or that, then I will be happy” or “then I will be enlightened” or some other wishful thinking leading to a feeling of accomplishment and gratification.  Action based on /ego-mentalism/ is self-centered, fragmented, and objectifies, and leads to further conflict, inwardly and outwardly.  /Ego-mentalism/ is not to be put down, judged, rebuked, or escaped from, for only by understanding it fully is change possible.  Be aware, see what is; inquire and be open to understanding yourself.  Once there is understanding, ((right action)) will follow.

Related Post: On Freedom (Reaction vs. Response)

If these posts are helpful and interesting, please share them with others.  There are links to share this on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and others below.  Also, if you have suggestions on topics or questions, feel free to leave comments below.  Many thanks!

Related Links:

Home Page

Link to Last Week’s Post: Changing the World Starts with Understanding Yourself

Here is a great book by my good friends Martha Randolph and Elizabeth Campbell that discusses spiritual evolution in a clear and simple manner.  I highly recommend it, especially to young persons interested in these topics.  It is called, That Which Is.

I also recommend reading the book Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by my good friend and colleague Tony Parrotto.  Here is a link to his website, The Mazeway Project.

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Book, The First and Last Freedom – On Amazon or Online

A Call to ((Action)): On The Problems of our Age – We are as we mind – Interconnectedness

Everywhere we turn nowadays it seems there is another crisis on the horizon, a crumbling of an outdated system, or some other major predicament that we are unsure of how to address.  We have incompetent leaders fueled by lust for power, greed, and promoting their own agendas, the gap between the rich and poor continues to increase, the environment continues to be subject to our negligence, more and more families are struggling financially, the majority of companies and entrepreneurs have no coherent or moral vision of ways to use their money to help others, we have a failing economy, an antiquated educational system, a breakdown in meaningful dialogue and communication, an unstable job market, and more conflicts and wars on both a local and a global scale.  These are just a few examples of the issues we face today.

These are the great issues of our time, the crises of our era, the problems of our world.  But what do we mean when we say phrases like that?  Don’t they imply that the problems are somehow “out there”?  It suggests, doesn’t it, that we the people are subject to these unfortunate circumstances, and have to learn to survive and cope with such a world, as if we are victims of others’ actions?  But are these issues really separate from us?  It would be an odd thing, wouldn’t it, to say that these are society’s problems or the world’s problems, yet somehow the world or society does not include myself?  Now if everyone were to have this mentality, then what is left?  Isn’t society is constituted by the vast network of relationships between you and me, the environment, and our neighbors across the street and across the globe?  Therefore, if we wish to solve these issues, the first thing we must address is our own psychological process, for each and every one of us played a role in creating these dilemmas.

I am not blaming or trying to make anyone feel guilty, but we must understand that we are not separate from the world, from these issues.  Think, if we are living a life of competition, greed, anger, violence, objectification, apathy, ignorance, envy, hatred, and self-centeredness, could the world be any different?  The world is a projection of ourselves; we are as we mind.  The way in which we conduct our mind, that is, our way of minding in the world, is the world.  So, if we want any hope of creating a coherent and moral vision of how we can creatively respond to these issues, we will have to pay very close attention to the way we are conducting our minds.

Now, if you believe this is our human nature and we cannot change but through another, or you believe we cannot change how we conduct our mind, or you have any answer to this question without truly seeing any of this for yourself, then there is no communication between us.  If you wish to live a life of competition, misery, violence, suffering and the rest of it…it is your life, not mine.  But for those of us truly interested to see if there is a different way we can conduct our mind, who are open to the possibility that perhaps we can understand our psychological process and thereby change ourselves, then let us inquire together regarding this connection between ourselves and the world.

Firstly, we should recognize the fact that when we attribute the problems of our world to some external factor, we are deferring our responsibility to another.  When we do that, we separate ourselves from the problem.  This leads to apathy and inaction, because now you believe that someone else is tasked with the mission of solving such problems.  We turn to our leaders to solve wars, end poverty, change education, and the like, yet we ourselves in our own lives continue to be violent, greedy, and surrender the responsibility of educating our children to another.  First and foremost, we must recognize that we ourselves are responsible for these problems, but instead of feeling guilty and powerless, we must also see that we also have the power to become aware of this way of minding and change it.  While this realization may be distressing at first, it is also very empowering.

By ((transforming)) our /ego-centric and self-centered/ mindset and ((evolving)) to a way of ((minding)) that is guided by compassion, love, wisdom, intelligence, understanding, dialogue, and free of fear, we affect the network of relationships around us.  This doesn’t mean one goes out to convert others or impose one’s ideas on another, that is still violence.  Do you see why it is violent?  You cannot accept the way I am living, my views or religion or whatever else, and you believe you are right, that you have the “truth”; so you impose your ideas in an attempt to make me a copier of your beliefs, a second-hand, mechanical human being living on your words.  No, the change that happens to others when you are free of fear and transform your way of minding is different.  Others feel your presence is safe and loving.  If they are at all open and aware, they will begin to feel as though you are different, and it may spark something in them.

If we care at all about these issues, and are serious about being open and changing ourselves to make the world a more peaceful, compassionate place for ourselves and future generations, then we must start with becoming aware of ourselves, our psychological process.  For more on this, I recommend reading my previous posts:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

and On Psychological Freedom:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/20/on-freedom-reaction-vs-response/

This awareness of ourselves and our reactions must extend to our relationships with others, not be confined to a cave in the mountains.  Society is the vast network of relationships, and how we conduct our mind affects our relationships thereby affecting the society.  Therefore, solving the problems in our world means addressing them within ourselves.  If we know how to look at the violence, anger, loneliness, suffering, pain, and the rest of it within ourselves, without judging or condemning it, but observing to understand it, then we can begin to understand others and work to solve these great issues.  Once we realize that we have a responsibility to humankind, to the planet, and to ourselves, we take the first step towards ((transformation)) through ((Self-knowledge)).

I also recommend reading the book Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by my good friend and colleague Tony Parrotto.  His valuable work and accessible terminology has influenced my own ideas and language.  A link to the book and the his website, The Mazeway Project are below:

Link to the Mazeway Project website: http://mazeway.org

Link to the book, Navigating the Mazeway:

http://www.amazon.com/Navigating-Mazeway-Fulfilling-Possibilities-Individuals/dp/0874260701

My teacher, Ashok Gangadean, has also been instrumental in shaping my ideas, and I have included a video of him speaking below.  His website is: http://awakeningmind.org

Related links:

Global Philosophy, talk by Ashok Gangadean:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODCfj0rV6DY

Changing Education Paradigms, by Sir Ken Robinson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U

On Philosophy for Children, by Thomas Jackson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNX_SvkrzjA

Listen to yourself and find answers, by Jiddu Krishnamurti:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VWnf9OBpQA

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose and Fear Part 1:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-1/

Part 2: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-2/

On Education: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/reflection-on-education-10142013/

On Dialogue and Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/reflections-on-dialogue-and-education-10162013/

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

On Freedom (Reaction vs. Response)

Freedom can be discussed at many different levels, but in this inquiry, we shall be discussing the nature of psychological freedom.  Now, most people say they want freedom, but what they really want is license, that is, the “freedom” to do whatever they want.  Is that really freedom?  Let us inquire and see if there is such a thing as psychological freedom.

In my previous posts, we have taken up the fact of conditionings.  That is, since our birth we have been conditioned by our parents, schools, religions, politicians, and other influences of society.  These conditionings set up parameters for how to think, act, behave, what to like and not like, and how to process experience in our life in order to conform to the same mental patterns of the culture.  Now, can such a mind that is operating based on conditioned patterns that one is unaware of be free?  For example, if someone hurts your ego, insults you, slashes your pride, what do you do?  Many of us would react with some negative remark about the other person perhaps, and some of us would restrain ourselves maybe because we’ve been told to have self-control.  We’re not discussing here what is the right or wrong answer, we are simply using this scenario to look at psychological freedom; I’m sure you can think of many other examples.  In either of these cases, if one is reacting to the person, based on our patterns of mind we have been conditioned into, is one engaging in this scenario with psychological freedom?  Perhaps this is not a very good example, but the point is: if we react, aren’t we being controlled by some initial action?  That is the definition of reaction isn’t it?  An action that comes about as a result of some initial stimulus.

Therefore, as Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, “there is no freedom in reaction.”  And that is how the vast majority of us go through life, just reacting to stimuli, reacting to experiences that come across our path.  If one is all the time just reacting to things, we are merely passive victims of our experience.  Can such a life really be the extent of living?  Is that living?  Our conditionings, which define and shape how we function in the world, give us established patterns as to how one ought to judge and react to experiences.  But if we’re unconsciously operating from these mental patterns, there is no freedom in our action.  In fact, there is no creative action or appropriate response at all, for creative response requires a mind that is not limited or blinded by any conceptual imprisonment.  Such a mind encounters experience in the present moment, it sees what is, and does not process experience through the filter of conditionings.

Is this making sense?  Let me summarize: Our mental habits, which have been instilled in us since birth, lay out the so-called “appropriate” or “right” way to think about and experience events in our life, whether major or minor.  We are inquiring whether there is any psychological freedom in this or if there is such a thing.  If we look at examples in our own life, it becomes clear that we are reacting to stimuli happening to us based on these mental habits.  And reaction, as we have said, is not free; firstly because it depends on an initial action, and secondly, because it stems from thought, memory, and conditionings, which are based in the past.

In previous posts, I have discussed that we can rehabilitate our mind through non-judgmental awareness and observation of our reactions and fears in order to understand and dissipate our conditionings.  Now, many of us will be tempted to ask how; how does one do this?  How does it work?  The moment you ask the how question, you are no longer interested in understanding or inquiry, you want a method, a system, a practice, something you can depend on to help you so you don’t have to go through the work of finding out or understanding the process yourself; you just want an answer, you’re no longer interested in the question.  Either that, or you doubt such a thing is possible without giving it any thought for yourself, so you want someone else to provide you with an answer that you can argue with; in that case, you are no longer interested in inquiry, and communication between us has broken down.  This is not a mono-centric debate (or an egologue) between your position and my position and one trying to convince the other of being right.  This is an inquiry, a dialogue, which requires openness, attentiveness, curiosity, and interest in understanding.

Jiddu Krishnamurti also said, “there is no such thing as freedom of thought.”  Wherefore?  Because not only is thought of the past and based on memory, but it is limited to whatever conditioning/framework one is using to process experience.  Therefore, our conditionings are a conceptual imprisonment aren’t they?  Those patterns of thought came from others, not from ourselves, and if we’re just repeating those words, those actions, those patterns, without any critical inquiry, awareness, or experience of our own, aren’t we just secondhand, mechanical human beings?  So what we are discovering here is that if we wish to have psychological freedom, it requires stepping out of our conceptual imprisonment.

Now, if we can in fact become aware of our reactions and conditionings and rehabilitate our mind, would this not lead to psychological freedom?  If we can encounter our experiences in the moment, and see what is, without processing it through the filter of our conditioned patterns of mind, we can respond.  Response is not reaction.  Response is in the moment; it is pure action coherent with what is, and not dependent on an initial stimulus.  The event and the action are interconnected, are coterminous.  We can encounter the event as it is, rather than the image constructed in our mind based on the past.  For more on this, please refer to the post:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

and you may also be interested in watching my youtube video on Meeting Each Other in the Moment (which was made quite some time ago and by no means professionally done, but it gets the point across – I was still discovering how to use Youtube and speaking to a camera instead of an audience, so be easy on me):

http://youtu.be/ICPS6S9ieQo

Thus, response is creative, as it is not confined by conceptual boundaries.  It is like a Zen kōan.  Think of the martial artist.  If she reacts to an attack, she must think about what to do, and then take action, but it is too late.  But if she responds to the opponent, it is like a dance; she flows and takes the appropriate and necessary action to stop the attacker.  Therefore, if we are at all interested in psychological freedom, we must become aware of our conditioned habits of mind and our reactions.  This awareness will allow us to rehabilitate our mind so that we can live and respond in a creative, attentive, open, presencing manner to everything we experience.  We no longer are victims of life’s experiences or sufferings, but become ((R-evolutionary co-creators)) of a new humanity guided by compassion, wisdom, awareness, and understanding.

If you find this or other posts/links here to be helpful, I ask you to please share with others whom you think would be interested.  I would very much appreciate your support.  Thank you!

Other Links:

About: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/about/

Other Posts/Home Page: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my (old) youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 2)

Click here to read part 1: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-1/

Let us continue our discussion of destiny, meaning, purpose, and fear.  We left off saying that when we ask what the purpose of our lives are, we are actually asking for its use.  Living beings, however, are changing, flowing, learning, and are not static; they are not objects.  The problem is, isn’t it, that we are using a technology of mind (ego-mentalism) that objectifies all experience, including ourselves?  In coming to think of ourselves as objects, we therefore try to find out what our function is.  But, as we said, something that is alive cannot have a static function or use, but its purpose must also be flowing, a movement that is changing.  We then said that if we wish to find out the meaning of our lives we must let go of all the answers we have been given so that we have the clarity and psychological freedom to see for ourselves the reality of what is.  So long as we cling to conditionings and the baggage handed down by others, all past memory and knowledge, we remain secondhand mechanical human beings.  It therefore takes great awareness and energy to pay attention to our reactions so that we can clearly see our conditionings, fears, desires, and the rest of it.  Does this make sense?  I hope I haven’t lost you.

We then said that if we observe the experiences of our life, we find that there are certain encounters that seem to repeat themselves in various forms until we have been able to understand our fears and resistance to them, and that when we have true understanding, they no longer repeat.  We finished by saying that it seems as though life is a journey of encountering, facing, understanding, and letting go of our fears and becoming aware of our psychological process.

Why is it so important that we encounter and let go of our fear?  We’re not talking about running away or escaping from it, pushing it away, pretending its not there, or fighting it.  Fear will dissipate with understanding, not through any force your ego uses to face it.  Really look, and see.  Isn’t our fear interfering in our relationships, not just those we are close to, but with everyone, and with the planet?  Do you see all of the distrust and suspicion around you, and even within you?  And it’s reflected in our language isn’t it, with sayings like: trust no one, no good deed goes unpunished, better safe than sorry, etc?  Fear leads to mistrust, which inevitably leads to closing ourselves off from people.  Don’t rely on my words, see it for yourself.  How can we be open, caring, and attentive to someone we don’t trust?  In fact, we’re not even open or trusting of ourselves!  We’re constantly running away from having to face who we really are.  That is why so many of us cannot stand being alone; we have to face ourselves as we are, but since we’re so full of judgment and guilt and cannot accept who we are, we run away from it.  The experience of being alone has many negative connotations nowadays, unfortunately.  So, if we cannot be open, trusting, understanding, and attentive to ourselves, how could we possibly be any of that with another?  In this case, it is clear that our relationships, and communication among us, breaks down.

In understanding ourselves, we naturally become more compassionate towards others.  If we are full of fear, we spend our time and energy seeking our own psychological comfort and making up for our insecurities; this leads to a self-centered attitude.  Don’t judge yourself for it, or say that I shouldn’t be this or that.  All these religions, philosophies, self-help books, gurus keep saying don’t be self-centered, help others.  But how can we help others in any significant way if we are full of fear?

Become aware of your conditionings, understand your fears.  Observe your relationships.  Letting go of our fears allows us to be open and trusting.  In coming to understand our psychological process through encountering fear, our self-centered orientation begins to dissolve.  We begin to see that we are profoundly interconnected with all things, not as a theory, but as a fact.  We become more and more open and trusting to others, and to what is.  We become less and less steeped in objectifying others, and become more compassionate and attentive.  Why?  It is the recognition that others are full of fear, envy, sadness, loneliness, mistrust, longing, violence, anger, and the rest of it.  This, in turn, is projected into the world.  Having understood our own psychological process, we see that we are the world.  We are as we mind.  What goes on in the world is a projection of what we are and what we do.  We are what is.  Seeing this for yourself, not intellectually or as a theory, but experiencing it for oneself…that is the journey.

Now, some of you who are reading this might say, “He didn’t mention anything about purpose, or meaning, or destiny.”  And others might say, “why didn’t you just say the answer from the beginning?  Why this roundabout method?”  So what if I or somebody else told you your meaning or your destiny?  How would those words, that knowledge, help you?  You would take it and go on your way, once again believing and repeating somebody else’s ideas.  You can read all kinds of books.  And how many of them tell you purpose is to return to wholeness, to God, to Allah, to Emptiness, to be in union with the Dao, or whichever name you like to use?  But how long have those answers been around, and have they really changed people?  Has humanity psychologically matured with those answers?  It is important to see this, to experience and understand it for yourself.  If you are psychologically mature, then you can see the immense power behind the words and wisdom of these books.  Otherwise, we just go on repeating answers, memorizing words, which doesn’t help us understand ourselves.  So first and foremost, see for yourself what is.

Links to previous posts, essays, and my book:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

On Happiness:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

On Boredom:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/on-boredom-102213/

On Dialogue and Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/reflections-on-dialogue-and-education-10162013/

On Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/reflection-on-education-10142013/

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

About:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/about/

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 1)

What are we really asking when we talk about meaning and purpose and destiny?  If we really look deeply at these terms it would appear that we’re really asking about functionality, that is, the purpose of a thing.  For those of you who are familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein, the German philosopher, this idea resonates with his idea that when we ask for the meaning of the term we’re really asking for it’s use.  Therefore, what we are really asking when we ask about our meaning or our purpose, is actually what is our use; what purpose do we serve?  Living beings, however, that are changing and learning, are not objects created for such specific instances, as objects to be used in this or that situation.  Beings are not the same as tools in a toolbox, where each item is an object that has a particular function.  Objects are static, beings are flowing.

Before we can seriously consider this question regarding the meaning of our lives, we must first understand why this question arises at all.  Having an answer with no real understanding is not intelligence.  But that is what has been happening worldwide for centuries.  We are given all sorts of answers, from the priests, teachers, politicians, parents, and society, that we begin to rely on their words.  Their so-called answers become the foundation of our life, and we live according to others’ words.  Our life becomes mechanical, because we go on repeating answers and beliefs we have been given but never thought about.  We are living according to a reality someone else has promised us.  If we see this, then we can really begin to understand why we feel so empty inside.  We realize the illusion of it all, and start asking questions like what is my purpose, why am I here, who am I?  This is vital, because it is when we feel groundless that we can see the situation without all this baggage we have been carrying.  If we ask these questions from a ego-mental standpoint (defined here as a standpoint of objectification wherein all experience and testimony is filtered through our own lens created by accumulated biases, prejudices, opinions, beliefs, memories, and conditionings thereby creating the illusion of a permanent self), our inquiry will be distorted.  So long as you carry all that baggage with you, you will only find a projection of what you hope to find, not actually what is.

Therefore, to deeply inquire into these questions without distorting your search requires one to move against the patterns of society, which takes tremendous courage and awareness.  The society since you were born has been saying who you should be, what you should do, what to believe in, and so on, and if you want to find the truth, you will have to reject any ready-made answers they give you.  Some of their answers might sound appealing or ideal, but if you don’t find an answer for yourself and always depend on another’s answer, you will never have psychological freedom.  So here is the problem: the answers and conditioning that society has imposed no longer satisfies us, and we seek to find some other way; but, there is fear because one must go against the whole movement of society.  Thus, we are stuck in a kind of purgatory.  We don’t wish to move back, because that would mean accepting beliefs and answers that are not coherent with our experience, and we don’t want to move forward because the fear of standing alone against this movement.  Therefore, we find ourselves in a groundless, nihilistic state and full of fear.  Nihilism is nothing but the rejection of society’s patterns and conditionings, and the fear to stand alone and inquire for oneself what is beyond that.  This is an important step to finding out what is beyond all the conditionings, because we must first realize that we are stuck within these ego-mental patterns before we can understand how to be free.  However, the fear which holds one back from exploring the depths of our being, our psychological process, stems from our conditionings, and so even when we reach this point, we are still falling back into these same mental patterns.

But let us return to this question regarding the purpose of life.  As we go through our lives, we encounter all kinds of experiences and emotions: boredom, anger, sadness, loneliness, happiness, fear, lust, and all the rest of it.  It would seem to me that people desire happiness and wish to avoid pain.

You can read my post “On the Nature of Happiness” here: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

However, in wanting to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, fear arises doesn’t it?  It is our sense of self, the “I”, the ego, the sense of “me” which is really just a collection of memories and conditionings that just appears to persist through time, that has this fear.  It wants its own separate space because it believes itself to be self-sustaining, thereby cutting itself off from what is.  There is not only fear of that pain, but also fear of losing pleasure, fear of not reaching pleasure at all, and this fear, in turn, leads to anger and suffering when our hopes, desires, and dreams don’t come to fruition.  And isn’t it the case that certain experiences that cause fear and resistance in ourselves repeat, but when we open up to them and we eliminate that fear, that we no longer encounter those experiences?  It would seem then that whenever we encounter fear and resistance in our psyche, there is clearly a lesson that must be learned so that we can assimilate that experience into our psychological process and be free of that fear.  Wouldn’t that imply then that life is a journey of accepting, facing, and letting go of the fears and resistance, and understanding our psychological process?  This is, in essence, learning to lose fear of what is.

Link to Part 2:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-2/

Links to previous posts, essays, and my book:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

On Happiness:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

On Boredom:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/on-boredom-102213/

On Dialogue and Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/reflections-on-dialogue-and-education-10162013/

On Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/reflection-on-education-10142013/

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

On Relationships (Encountering Others in the Moment)

© Jason Kunen 2014

When you meet someone, it is important to ask: who are you really meeting?  That is, when you an encounter another, your parents, your children, your friend, your partner, your neighbor, who is it that you are really meeting?  Are you meeting that person as they are, or are you meeting something else?  Please, do not answer according to your tradition which is someone else’s ideas, or some new age philosophy given to you about being the present which you have never experienced, but really observe this question and let us examine it together.

What is our first reaction when we meet another, whether someone close to us or a stranger?  It is typical that we bring forward thoughts that categorize and label this person.  We call to mind all of the knowledge we have of this person, or if they are strangers, we think of various prejudices and stereotypes to fit him into our mental framework.  In other words, we judge this person.  These judgments may even be unconscious; our conditioned habits may create these judgments.  These judgments are based on thoughts of the past, on memory.  Therefore, what has happened is that through memory, we have judgments of others, thereby creating an image of the person.  If we have such an image of the person, are we actually meeting the person as they are?  Are we even really meeting that person?  Please examine and observe this for yourself; the author cannot do it for you.

Clearly, the knowledge we have of the person, this image created from past experience, has a purpose.  Without it, the person would always be a stranger; it would be like having amnesia.  We can use this knowledge to interact with another in a deeper way.  However, rather than using the knowledge when it is needed, we become stuck in a pattern in which we encounter others solely through this image that acts as a filter.  Because we are psychologically insecure, we seek permanency in all things; this applies to these images of others as well.  In other words, we believe that image to be the actual person.  That image, since it is based on the past, is static and unchanging.  Nothing is permanent, and everything is always changing.  Think back to when someone you know did something unexpected.  Why did their actions surprise you?  Isn’t it because it went against the image you had of them?  Their action was perhaps contradictory to what you thought they could or would do based on past memories, and it becomes clear that the image you had of them is no longer accurate, so you now have to create a new image.

So, if we meet people with this image, which we said acts as a filter from seeing the person as they actually are, aren’t we encountering them with half-truth and half-lie?  Physically we might be present, our image of the person may correspond to the person in front of us (unless we easily confuse our acquaintances), but psychologically we are not totally there.  Instead of using the image to help us interact with the person, we are interacting with the image.

I find Miranda Fricker’s book, Epistemic Injustice: The Power of Ethics and Knowing to be a good book on some specific details of this subject.  I also talk about encountering other in the present in my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy, available at lulu.com and amazon.com as listed below:

Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Lulu.com: http://www.lulu.com/us/en/shop/jason-kunen/meditations-on-zen-and-martial-arts-philosophy/paperback/product-20178964.html

Understanding that this is how we typically meet people, we can then ask, is there any way to interact with the person fully?  Can we encounter another without this image that distorts our experience and dialogue with them?  It is not enough to get rid of the image, because what is to stop a new image from being produced in our mind and falling into the same pattern?  These judgments are created from past memories, but judging itself in this way arises from our mental framework.  Our judgments that hold on to stereotypes, prejudices, labels, traditions, religious values, and all the rest are rooted in our conditioning.  We are brought up and conditioned in a certain way, to think, interact, categorize, label, judge, and believe, in a certain way.  This is where these judgments come about.

Therefore, if we can become aware of our conditioning, we can understand how we judge others and what framework we are using to do so.  In this way, we release our attachment to this framework, these judgments, and these images.  It is not that we are incapable of creating images of the person (again, it’s not some kind of amnesia we’re talking about), but the image no longer obstructs our ability to meet another in the present moment.  We see the person as they are, without a filter.  This allows us to understand them in a deeper way, and we realize they are not a static object, but a living, changing being.

Though I made it some time ago, I have a short youtube video speaking on this subject below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICPS6S9ieQo

Links to other posts, essays, youtube channel, and my book:

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 1):

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-1/

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose and Fear (Part 2): 

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-2/

On Happiness:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

On Boredom:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/on-boredom-102213/

On Dialogue and Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/reflections-on-dialogue-and-education-10162013/

On Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/reflection-on-education-10142013/

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756