we
have walked this path many times
together,
you and i,
like
a beaten path, it can seem so familiar
yet
everything has changed in its own way
so i
see it in a new way, for a new day
each
path represents two:
one
is the force of habit
which
lets me feel comfortable,
obscure
and anonymous.
the
other is the choice to see it as new
traversing
every pebble
with
the mincing steps of a ballerina
making
steps into art forms, avoiding double takes
formulas
and tired beats.
avoiding
every snail shell, picking up every worm
ensuring
that the slug has a grassy knoll to burrow in
ensuring
that my steps are kind, not careless.
the
path of wisdom is a never a beaten path.
it
always starts new with each step.
which
dares to turn the familiar into a question
which
dares to treat each step as a venture into the unknown
which dares
to choose the mindful over the mindless
seeing
your options, you need to consider:
will
you take this path with me?
will
i take this path with you?
don’t
feel pressured to answer for all time
as
you can never know how you will answer next.
*
Exercise 1: Creating a Wisdom
Object
Take a look at the poem on
wisdom. As in previous exercises, try to explore the central metaphors,
images or thoughts that you associate with wisdom. Save your work under the
file name “Exercise 1: Wisdom”.
Exercise 2: Looking at Wisdom and
its Relation to Knowing and Unknowing:
Before starting this exercise, take
a look at my video, "Knowing and Unknowing":
After watching this video, consider:
where does wisdom stand with regards to the known and the unknown? Does wisdom
transcend these categories altogether, or does it incorporate known/unknown in
some distinct combination or mixture? Consider how you might represent wisdom
if you were to create a visual or sound object to present to others.
Exercise 3: Wisdom and the Ladder of
Technical Rationality/Reflection/Contemplation
Contemporary thinkers have been
reflecting on where wisdom lies on a progressive ladder of abstraction. In his
work The Contemplative Practitioner, John P. Miller (2014 )
distinguishes between three distinct layers of abstraction. The first layer is
known as “Technical Rationality”, and it refers to the kinds of knowing that
often follow from procedures, or clearly delineated processes. Donald
Schon has pointed out that most professionals generally cannot rely exclusively
on technical rationality, but must, rather, use a combination of principled
rationality and reflection based on experience, particularly when there are any
unknowns or new problems arising which haven’ t been previously encountered in
the professional’s life. Schon (1983) uses the example of jazz
improvisation to explore how experienced professionals in a certain area must
rely on a blend of explicit and tacit knowing.
Miller suggests a third view,
contemplative knowing, which he believes comes closest to the notion of wisdom.
Miller suggests that even though reflection can go far in moving a person away
from exclusive reliance on procedures, it relies very heavily on rationality.
Miller suggests, however, that this way of knowing focuses on an intellect that
is somewhat divorced from the body, soul and surroundings. Such an epistemology
assumes that there are isolated, disconnected ‘knowers’ who must rely on
intellect to solve problems. Miller suggests that contemplative practices
such as meditation and yoga can help a person access ways of knowing which are
interconnected with others, particularly through a quality known as Presence.
Writes Miller:
Phenomenologically, Presence
is experienced as unmediated awareness. This awareness is characterized by
openness, by a sense of relatedness, and by awe and wonder. When we
experience Presence, duality drops away, and as teachers, we see part of
ourselves in our students (2014, p.26).
The implicit understanding of
contemplative knowing is that there an already existing interconnection between
people, which comes out in the deep ways that stories can connect people.
Writing about the role of myth in meaning making, psychologist Rollo May (1991)
suggests that "Myths are like the beams in a house: not exposed to outside
view, they are the structure which holds the house together so people can live
in it" (p.15).
What, then, are the characteristics
of contemplative knowing that can foster wisdom? Miller suggests particular
attitudes that are common to contemplative practices as follows:
· openness-
looking at things with a beginner's mind and attitude
· release
(letting go)- the ability to maintain equanimity and not chase after pleasure
or avoid pain
· being
as opposed to doing- the ability to appreciate being intrinsically for its
own sake
· acceptance-
seeing all states of being with equanimity and being able to work with
whatever is arising in mind
· big
mind- seeing the mind as immense, like a vast sky that is able to hold many
things, including contradictions
· gratitude-
seeing life as a gift of grace
Adapted from
Miller (2014) pages 32-35
|
Exercise: Reflect on a particular
activity that you enjoy doing the most. Write down the ways in which the three
ways of knowing (technical reasoning, reflection, contemplation) might be
involved in this activity. I have included an example below:
Table 1: The Ways of Knowing in
Action Example: Writing a Poem
Technical Rationality
|
Reflection
|
Contemplation
|
Using language to put together
words
Trying to research symbolic images
and literary tropes to decide which to incorporate into a poem
|
Using reflection and imagery to
decide how to use the words powerfully
|
Slowing down awareness to savor
the process of connecting with words and images
Rather than trying to ‘plan’ out
the poem, staying open to the surprise images or connections that spontaneously
emerge while composing the poem
|
Ability to determine what rhythm,
metre, number of verses to use, based on similar poems learned in the past
|
Improvising on rhythm; going
beyond a simple rhyming scheme to decide when it’s a good time to stop the
verse
|
Going beyond form to look into
what underlies the language itself
|
I approach the poem as one of a
long line of similar poems of a certain tradition; maintaining continuity of
form
|
Using the medium of poetry to
stretch, challenge or contradict traditional forms
|
Not attached to either form or
‘challenging’ form; seeing the totality of all things; language is only the
medium to highlight already existing connections
|
When you are finished, save your
work as Wisdom Exercise 3: Ways of Knowing in Action. Feel free to post to your
blog when finished.
Exercise 4: A Buddhist View of
Wisdom
For this last module, we will be
reading and exploring Master Sheng Yen’s The Six Paramitas, p.50-58,
“Wisdom”.
Master Sheng Yen considers wisdom (prajna)
to be a fundamental aspect to Buddhist practice. He remarks, “when you uphold
the precepts or practice generosity without prajna, you are really only
cultivating merit” (p.51), without cultivating the insight to be able to
overcome or transcend a life of suffering. While there’s nothing wrong with
practicing merits, Master Sheng Yen suggests that it doesn’t quite take a
person beyond a world of trying to seek certain states and avoid others, which
can lead to a very agitated state of mind. Commenting on the Buddha’s
teachings, Master Sheng Yen remarks:
The Buddha meant that when ignorance
and vexation arise, we do certain deeds, and then we receive the retribution
from those deeds. In receiving retribution our vexation causes us to commit
more deeds, prolonging this long chain of suffering, which is ultimately the
chain of birth and death.” (p.51)
Master Sheng Yen furthermore
distinguishes ‘general’ from ‘specific’ prajna. “General” prajna refers to a
gradual, often stage-based approach to emerging from suffering, using a
principled understanding of specific Buddhist teachings—for instance, the Five
Skandhas and the Twelve Links of Conditioned Arising (p.52-53). These teachings
are intended to show that there is no substantial, enduring sense of self, and
thus to emerge from a state of ignorance into enlightenment.
The one problematic aspect of the
‘general’ approach to wisdom is that it assumes that ignorance is
something to be avoided at all costs, and thereby transcended through a gradual
immersion in Buddhist teachings and practices. With the specific approach
to wisdom, on the other hand, there is no effort to “liberate one’s body and
mind from suffering to another state.” (p.53). Rather, as Master Sheng Yen
remarks: “There is no need to escape to another world to gain liberation. As
long as you can put down attachment to one’s body and mind, it is already
liberation” (p.53). By not attaching to either the notion of ‘wisdom’ or
‘ignorance’, people on the bodhisattva path can le go of self-attachment and
interact with everyone, even in places of deep suffering and ignorance.
Finally, Master Sheng Yen talks
about forms of contemplation as a way of cultivating one’s wisdom: subjective,
objective, direct and absolute contemplation (p.56). I summarize these in point
form below:
- Subjective Contemplation: looking at the ways in which how we see the world is influenced by values, previous conditioning and other factors related to one’s perceptions and previous experience.
- Objective Contemplation: this is the process of reaching a collective consensus about what to do or what rules to instate in a particular situation. As Master Sheng Yen remarks, “there is no such thing as being absolutely objective. Objectivity is really just several people’s subjectivity. When a group of people agree on something, it becomes subjective.” (p.56) By seeing that our ideas of objective truth are consensual, we learn to harmonize with others without necessarily believing that our views are absolutely ‘objective’ while others’ views are subjective.
- Direct Contemplation: this involves being able to look at things without applying “any interpretation or judgment to it” (p.57), as well as not labelling and comparing
- Absolute Contemplation. This refers to being able to contemplate the empty, impermanent nature of phenomena in daily life, using the wisdom arising from this insight to approach one’s problems. Master Sheng Yen remarks, “In absolute contemplation, without imposing one’s preferences, one applies common sense, experience, and skill in dealing with people’s problems. The important thing is to perceive what is really going on, without reference to one’s own likes or dislikes, and to do what is most appropriate to help someone” (p.57).
Personal Reflection: Of the
four kinds of contemplation referred to above, which do you find most
challenging to practice? Do you notice any conflicts or contradictions between
the four modes of contemplation? Write a brief paragraph reflection, and save
it as Wisdom Exercise 4: Reflection. Feel free to post onto your blog when
done.
Exercise 5: Contemplative Dialogue
in Digital Settings- Exploring the “Wisdom Allowances” of Digital Media
Now that you have had an opportunity
to learn about different kinds of wisdom contemplations, let’s explore these
kinds of wisdom in digital settings.
Take a particular digital
communication medium such as MSN messenger, Twitter, Facebook, cellphone, Skype,
chat room or other communication tool. Pick a time when you are engaged in a
conversation with someone, possibly even taking a record of that conversation
through digital media itself (such as conversation trail left by
messenger). The important point is to try to be as relaxed and as engaged
in the conversation as possible, using the principles of not attaching to
thoughts, feelings or particular points of view, or to a fixed sense of self.
When communicating with the other person, try as much as possible to embody the
notion of “communicating with an understanding that person, and doing what is
most appropriate and beneficial for them” (Sheng Yen, p.57-58).
After completing your digital
conversation, consider the following:
- What aspects of the technology you were using most helped you to remain engaged in the conversation? Consider the digital media’s look, design, settings, capabilities, speed, and so on. Does the digital media allow for face-to-face interaction, and how did this affect (or not affect) your ability to engage with them in a selfless and understanding way, with the others’ benefits in mind?
- What aspects of the technology do you think may have impeded the process of using contemplative wisdom to engage with the other person
- What do you feel you’d most like to improve bout the technology to help you better engage with the other using wisdom?
The purpose of this exercise is to
get you to think about how people interface with technology, and whether
this interface itself can help foster and cultivate one’s sense of wisdom.
Exercise 6: Relating Wisdom to the
Other Paramitas
Now that you have completed the
module on Wisdom, go back to the previous paramitas we had studied (Generosity,
Morality, Patience, Diligence, Meditation). Can you think of ways in which your
understanding of wisdom might lead you to a more nuanced or informed way of
looking at all the paramitas in general?
Go back to one of the paramitas you
have learned about that particularly resonates with you. Consider: what would
happen if this paramita were practiced without wisdom, or without a
contemplative, holistic stance? For this exercise, you might want to choose
either discussing the paramita itself (using examples), or starting with a
particular ethical dilemma which involves the paramita in some way. Some
examples are listed below:
Generosity
Should you give money to anyone who
asks for it, or should generosity by tempered by other concerns?
Morality
Is it always ethical to refrain from
killing animals, or are there situations where it is ethically necessary r
responsible to do so?
Patience
How long would you wait for your
friend if they were running late, before either complaining to them or going
home? What factors do you consider when you are deciding whether to wait on
something or simply move on to something more pressing?
Diligence
Are all forms of diligence good, or
are there some which are not guided by wisdom? Consider occupations in which
hard work may create more negative impacts to other beings (e.g. butcher,
ammunitions manufacturer, pest exterminator, etc.) Given your present
understanding of diligence and wisdom, how would you define a ‘good occupation’
or right livelihood?
Meditation
Should people meditate when they are
doing complicated tasks such as driving? How might it be done in those moments?
END OF MODULE 6
References
Miller, J.P. (2014). The
Contemplative Practitioner: Meditation and Education in the Workplace.
Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Shengyen (2002). The Six Paramitas:
Perfections of the Bodhisattva Path. Elmhurst: Dharma Drum Press.
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