Earl R. Smith II's Blog, page 38

Finding Meaning Without Manufacturing Meaning

The human tendency to label - and call the label the meaning of the thing - can prevent us from experiencing the world as we find it. Insisting that the meaning of something is what we say it is is rather like shouting loudly at somebody that is trying to tell us something important and then insisting what we were shouting was their real message.

Unintended Consequences

As a direct result of the policy, not only did Wall Street start to look more like a gambling casino but the affiliated industries began to be corrupted. The rating companies whose job it was to pass judgment on the quality of a given investment began to apply AAA ratings to assemblages of junk mortgages. Regulators, whose principal job was the oversight of an industry critical to the health of the US economy, increasingly turned a blind eye to an obviously building crisis. Politicians, who were elected by the people to protect their interests,

Don’t spend your life trying to live up to your performance expectations

If the idea behind my comment was that simple, such would certainly be a well-founded criticism. But like most concepts that arise out of Zen Theory, the closer you look the more complex and subtle the argument becomes. Perhaps a bit of poetry might help you understand what I'm getting at. Rudyard Kipling's poem, The Conundrum of the Workshops, seems a good place to start. And, as with all good writing, the best place to begin is at the beginning.

Westerners, Roadblocks & Zen

For Westerners, Zen can be a particularly maddening series of suggestions about how to experience life in a different way. One of the major reasons that this is so is that all Westerners are essentially children of Aristotle. As such, we tend to prioritize rationality over instinct. To be clear, the Ancient Greeks did not do so. They had Dionysius as well as Apollo. They had their own Trinity: Zeus, Hades and Poseidon. But Western culture and spirituality as aggressively pruned the tree. With limited exceptions, Aristotle and the worship of rationality dominates the field.

A couple of interesting if irrelevant tendencies

A contributions to a conversation about Zen Philosophy by nihilists or agnostics is not really a conversation about Zen Philosophy. It is simply the inadequate working out of fear and self-loathing.

The territory behind rhetoric is too often a mind with equivocation

For me, nothing is more gratifying than this kind of breakthrough. To see someone who has been struggling for years begin to smile both at their own foibles and the path which now lays before them is a gift worth more than fortune and fame. A life has been reclaimed. A star will begin to shine.

Less Substantial Friendships

Underlying the technological trends that have dominated the last part of the twentieth century and the early pars of the twenty first is that anti-humanist tendency that lead my client and the subjects of the Sunday morning piece to seek solace in warm shallow waters. The internet, emails, websites, instant messaging, networking events, elevator speeches and social networks provide the same kind of solace. A salve for the loneliness of having few, if any, deep relationships with fellow humans.

Meditation – What’s it Good For?

Earl R. Smith II. PhD DrSmith@Dr-Smith.com Dr-Smith.com (Read More From My Blog) For Westerners, one of the most maddening things about Zen (and Buddhism in general) is that it is neither a

Seeking the Upward Path

The recent TV series Stargate SG1 popularized the idea that it was possible to 'ascend' by finding and keeping to this 'path'. Most of this - including the TV series - is popularized and remanufactured bits of Buddhism.

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