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awareness - thinking: page 1........
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Our faculty of attention affects us in
countless ways. Our very perception of reality is tied closely to where
we focus our attention. Only what we pay attention to seems real to us,
whereas whatever we ignore—no matter how important it may be—seems to
fade into insignificance... Each of us chooses, by our ways of
attending to things, the universe we inhabit and the people we
encounter. But for most of us, this “choice” is unconscious, so it’s
not really a choice at all. > related page: meditation > image from Jeremy Hayward, PhD &
Francisco Varela, PhD. Gentle
Bridges: Conversations With the Dalai Lama on the Sciences of Mind |
 beauty and justice and
awarenessThere are two separate political arguments. One is the claim that beautiful things distract us from injustice.... The other is
that when we look at a beautiful object, whether a person or a flower,
we actually damage the object by turning it into a mere object that we
feel superior to. In the first one, we're assuming that human acts of looking are very good things, and therefore we want human attention to be directed to something such as an injustice so that an act of repair will come about. The second argument just assumes that we are incapable of generous and capacious acts of looking, and that we will actually damage anything that we're staring at. /// |
 Beauty
restores your trust in the world. ///And it's not just that beauty is neutral with respect to justice. Beauty is, actually, very much leading us to justice.... caring about beauty also leads to a diminution of injury. And the word injury and the word injustice are the same word. And I try to put forth a number of arguments to show that Plato was right, and many other classical philosophers were right when they said that beauty is a call on us to create something better. Philosopher Elaine
Scarry,
professor of aesthetics and the general theory of value at Harvard
University [Salon.com Nov. 9, 1999] |
~ ~ ~ ~
This interior life that we are supposed to have access to and live within is ostensibly kept from us because of this nature that we live from that wants to know what it is, what it's to do, how it's to do it -- at all costs, all the time -- and so we miss the truth that what we are from moment to moment is what determines our experience of the moment we are in.
When we begin to understand that, the moments themselves become beautiful reflections, expressions of ourselves to ourselves. We learn to be present to ourselves. That is what the path is.
Guy Finley - from his book Living Now - Secrets of the Extraordinary Life
available on his site Life of Learning Foundation~ ~ ~ ~
book: The Biology Of Belief:
UnleashingThe Power Of Consciousness,
Matter And Miracles
by Bruce H. Lipton, PhDOur conventional world is engaged in a ruthless survival of the fittest competition, based upon science’s endorsement of Darwinian theory, a belief that emphasizes, “life is a struggle for survival.”
In contrast, the new biology reveals a completely different understanding of our place in the world.
Science is now recognizing that we are an integral part of a giant living community, collectively referred to as Gaia.
The new science underscores the fact that our survival is based upon the cooperation of all the organisms in the biosphere.
Unfortunately, our social consciousness, shaped by Darwinian science, is so destructive to the environment that it has already precipitated the planet’s sixth mass extinction -- which of course threatens the survival of humanity.
Yet there is also good news. Just as some terminal cancer patients undergo a spontaneous remission, the living Gaia can do the same.
As with those cancer patients, all we need to do to save our world is change our beliefs, and this is precisely the consequence of the evolving new science.
My book provides an easy to understand explanation of how our thoughts and mind create both our internal (biological) and external (social) life experiences.
Bruce H. Lipton, PhD - from interview about
his book: The Biology Of Belief
~ ~ ~ ~
“...it is fun to play, and most discoveries are made by accident. A new impulse usually has to wait till our guard is down and our habitual views momentarily dimmed in order to break through into consciousness. It looks like an accident. Or an inspiration. But it is really an organic principle trying to find a soft spot to sprout in. It takes a long time to learn that nothing is wasted. It takes a long time, and a lot of suffering usually, to understand that there is more to life and to poetry than our conscious purposes.”
M. C. Richards .. [ her book : .Centering in Pottery, Poetry, and the Person ]
~ ~ ~ ~
the White Queen in "Through the Looking Glass"
~ ~ ~ ~
"We live in a culture," Susan Sontag said, "in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of authority and repression. "In my view, the only intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical, desimplifying."
In a Rolling Stone article in 1979, Jonathan Cott called Sontag a writer who was "continually examining and testing out her notion that supposed oppositions like thinking and feeling, consciousness and sensuousness, morality and aesthetics can in fact simply be looked at as aspects of each other -- much like the pile on the velvet that, upon reversing one's touch, provides two textures and two ways of feeling, two shades and two ways of perceiving."
..
A self-described "besotted aesthete" and "obsessed moralist," Sontag sought to challenge conventional thinking.
> from Los Angeles Times obituary Dec 29 2004
~ ~ ~ ~
 It's a book about
rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of
an eye.
When you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. Well, "Blink" is a book about those two seconds, because I think those instant conclusions that we reach are really powerful and really important and, occasionally, really good. You could also say that it's a book about intuition, except that I don't like that word. In fact it never appears in "Blink." |
Intuition strikes me as a concept we use to describe emotional reactions, gut feelings -- thoughts and impressions that don't' seem entirely rational. But I think that what goes on in that first two seconds is perfectly rational. It's thinking -- its just thinking that moves a little faster and operates a little more mysteriously than the kind of deliberate, conscious decision-making that we usually associate with "thinking." In "Blink" I'm trying to understand those two seconds. What is going on in inside our heads when we engage in rapid cognition? When are snap judgments good and when are they not? What kinds of things can we do to make our powers of rapid cognition better? Malcolm Gladwell - about his book Blink: The Power of
Thinking Without Thinking
> quotes from gladwell.com |
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. Now he's questioning global warming in his new thriller, "State of Fear," about eco-terrorists who plot a series of natural disasters -- earthquakes, underwater landslides, a tsunami -- to prove that global warming is a threat to humanity. A ragtag band of scientists and lawyers uncovers the scheme. |
More
than three years ago, the 6-foot-9-inch Crichton read about global
warming
and grew curious.
Having a conventional view that global warming is a threat, he began to study climate data and charts, expecting to find proof. However, the more he hunted, the more unsatisfied he became with the evaluations and speculations. "I have a lot of trouble with things that don't seem true to me," Crichton says, his large, manicured hands gesturing to his graphs. "I'm very uncomfortable just accepting. There's something in me that wants to pound the table and say, 'That's not true.' " He spoke to few scientists about his questions, convinced that he could interpret the data himself. "If we put everything in the hands of experts and if we say that as intelligent outsider, we are not qualified to look over the shoulder of anybody, then we're in some kind of really weird world," he says. > from article Michael Crichton, man of 'Fear' - CNN.com / AP, December 14, 2004 / AP photo |
~ ~ ~ ~
..
Liz Smith : Do you believe in reincarnation? Nicole Kidman : I don't know. There are times when I say "yes," it has to be true and other times, I don't.
Liz Smith : That's so typical of you, seeing both sides of everything.
Nicole Kidman : That's pretty much the way I am. I know it infuriates people. That's why I can't really argue with people.
My mother always says to me, "Hey, hey, stop jumping around."
But I think that's what gives one the ability to be compassionate, particularly as a parent.
Liz Smith column Oct 29, 2004 / photo by
Jeff Vespa/WireImage, at Venice Film Fest
premiere of the film "Birth""Divergent thinking has positive social and emotional value. Gifted adults possessing this trait are able to find creative solutions to a wide variety of problems, including interpersonal problems, and are able to see several aspects of any situation."
..
..> Deirdre V. Lovecky, Ph.D.
from article : Gifted Women: Identity
and Expression - by Douglas Eby
~ ~ ~ ~
 There's
a reluctance to confront reality and a desire to soften unpleasant
realities
... by giving them slightly different names. The various areas where euphemistic language -- euphemistic usages -- crop up are meant to hide the truth, soften reality, make something a little more pleasant or less unpleasant. /// There's a conditioning that's been done to us, largely, I think, from religion. I have always felt these [sexual terms] are legitimate words created by humans as part of their ways of communicating with each other, and... they shouldn't be considered wrong or apart. ... Part of what my impulse is with things I've said or done, I think it is an attempt to demystify these things, to take them out of the realm of the forbidden and the disgusting and the off-base, and to at least bring them into the discussion. And then, if you choose... to avoid that kind of expression, fine. But I don't think everybody should have to be subject to these largely superstitious practices and conventions. /// |
 Someone
said, if you scratch a cynic, you find a
disappointed idealist, and I would cop to that.[But] the important thing is to, first of all, question everything you read or hear or see or are told. Question it. And try to see the world for what it actually is, as opposed to what someone or some company or some organization or some government is trying to represent it as, or present it as, however they've mislabeled it or dressed it up or told you. George Carlin / CNN.com Nov 2004 |
~ ~ ~ ~
If we lose IT [information technology], all progress stops and civilisation as we know it collapses.
..
..There are those who choose to write off IT and look toward the newer sciences of biotech, nanotech and materials for the future.
Increasingly I see it as the same thing - they are all inseparable. To try and categorise them as entirely different is about as dumb as thinking that chemistry, physics and biology are separate sciences - in reality there is just science. What is totally knew, and not previously evolved by nature, is knowledge. Getting from a sea of bits to information, and then to knowledge, is a whole new ball game - one we have not even started to play yet.
> Professor Peter Cochrane OBE, BSc, MSc, PhD,
DSc, CGIA, FREng, FRSA, FIEE, FIEEE> from his silicon.com column Uncommon Sense:
A Sea Of Bits - 20-10-2004 [on his site]...Uncommon Sense : Out of the Box Thinking for An In the Box World - by Peter Cochrane
~ ~ ~ ~
Each of us has the ability to put our unique human potential into action and to acquire a desired result.
But the one thing that determines the level of our potential, that produces the intensity of our activity, and predicts the quality of the result we receive is our attitude.
Attitude determines how much of the future we are allowed to see.
It decides the size of our dreams and influences our determination when we are faced with new challenges. No other person on earth has dominion over our attitude. People can affect our attitude by teaching us poor thinking habits or unintentionally misinforming us or providing us with negative sources of influence, but no one can control our attitude unless we voluntarily surrender that control.
> Jim Rohn - from his Weekly E-zine Oct 26, 2004 /
his site Jim Rohn International
~ ~ ~ ~
 |
"When
combined, the conscious mind and its symbolic technologies generate a
powerful
chemistry. The brain-symbol interface is the birthplace of art,
science,
mathematics, and most of the great institutional structures humans have
built" (Merlin Donald).
This quote at the beginning of the second chapter titled "Art and the Rise of Consciousness" captures the main idea in Robert Solso's very interesting book... Solso seeks out an answer to the question as to what type of conscious brain guided the hand that created art that first appeared on earth many years ago. By examining the evolution of the human brain and cognition, he develops a new theory that he calls conscious AWAREness describing the evolution of consciousness and its relationship to the emergence of art. from mentalhelp.net review by Kamuran Godelek, Ph.D. Robert L. Solso. The Psychology of Art and the Evolution of the Conscious Brain |
~ ~ ~ ~
 .. .. But also to create false divisions, false distinctions and false unities, which become possible the moment they're put into words. /// Every family invents its own dialect, as members bring home this or that expression from school or work and add televisionese or song lyrics to the general mix. |
A
separate lingo binds people, but I find another motive persuasive too:
our endless need to express the sheer feel of being alive.
How does the brain convey that to itself and others? Only through language, memory's accomplice. Diane
Ackerman, PhD - from
her article photo from her site dianeackerman.com ...An
Alchemy of Mind : The Marvel and Mystery
|
~ ~ ~ ~
....
The mind, which can be defined as a process that regulates the flow of energy and information, emanates from the activation of neuronal circuits.
..
..This flow, however, occurs not only within the skull, but also between two skulls (as in a "relationship"), and among many skulls (as in a family, or as in the Internet). ...
Since energy and information can flow beyond the boundaries of the skin-defined self, mind is a process that is beyond merely brain anatomy and biology. Behavior, and the mental processes that motivate it, are a product of the interface of the neurophysiological processes of the body and the interpersonal processes, of relationships, family, community, and the larger culture.
Daniel J. Siegel, MD - from PBS / frontline site -
Work in progress: how much do we really know about the brain?...The Developing Mind: How Relationships and the Brain Interact to Shape Who We Are
~ ~ ~ ~
....
| The
science/religion dualism is one of the most deeply ingrained patterns
of
all.
We (Boomers and older) were born into a time when the dualistic pattern was everywhere. It was ingrained into us from birth, and it bred in us a sense of insecurity -- we look for validation through the praise of those in authority. And we're not good enough unless we're better than someone else. .... And it requires a consciously developed mindfulness to overcome our ingrained patterns. .... The time is "ripe" for a new story, in that a new generation has grown up under different circumstances with different cultural patterns than their parents -- circumstances that have allowed some of the younger generation not to learn their parents' dualistic habit, but to learn the habit of "both/and." That's why I believe the cutting edge of all disciplines -- science, religion, philosophy, art, architecture, economics, politics, agriculture, you name it -- has embraced a variant of what mey be called an emergence paradigm, and has done so at about the same time. .... |
 .. .. Lorraine
Filipek, PhD -
in her article Thinking
on the Edge, image
from book: Mindfulness
in Plain English |
~ ~ ~ ~....
The only time you ever have in which to learn anything or see anything or feel anything, or express any feeling or emotion,
or respond to an event, or grow, or heal, is this moment, because this is the only moment any of us ever gets.You're only here now; you're only alive in this moment.
Jon Kabat-Zinn - author of book Wherever You Go There You Are
~ ~ ~ ~
|
of what is familiar and trying to formulate really probing questions about it." Iris Murdoch "They
say about me that I am the strangest person,
Imagine a dark, subterranean prison in which humans are bound by their necks to a single place from infancy. Elaborate steps are taken by unseen forces to supply and manipulate the content of the prisoner’s visual experience. This is so effective that the prisoners do not recognize their imprisonment and are satisfied to live their lives in this way. Moreover, the cumulative effects of this imprisonment are so thorough that if freed, the prisoners would be virtually helpless. They could not stand up on their own, their eyes would be overloaded initially with sensory information, and even their minds would refuse to accept what the senses eventually presented them. It is not unreasonable to expect that some prisoners would wish to remain imprisoned even after their minds grasped the horror of their condition. But if a prisoner was dragged out and compelled to understand the relationship between the prison and outside, matters would be different. |
 .. .. from article Plato's Cave & The Matrix - by John Partridge The Matrix Reloaded [dvd] / The Matrix [dvd]
The Gospel Reloaded: Exploring Spirituality and Faith in The Matrix The Matrix and Philosophy: Welcome to the Desert of the Real |
~ ~ ~ ~
I like nonsense, it wakes up the brain cells.
Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life
through the wrong end of the telescope. Which is what I do.
And that enables you to laugh at life's realities.Theodore Seuss Geisel (1904-1991)
| Tom
Morris, a
philosopher with a doctorate
from Yale, left his job as a Notre Dame professor eight years ago to
become
a "public philosopher."
It was a job description he invented for himself, he says. "I'd always been an academic, teaching and writing articles that about 37 people could understand. I thought that was what my life would be." Then he was asked to speak at the Chamber of Commerce in South Bend, Ind. He led a session on ethics that unexpectedly opened a floodgate of speaking invitations. "People seemed starved for philosophy. They'd say, 'We never talk about important things anymore, like we did when we were young and sat up late discussing good and evil, life and death, the meaning of it all.'" Word of mouth spread. "Soon I was flying around the world. I had to hire a speaker's bureau to represent me. There was this tremendous pent-up desire for ideas that have stood the test of time, ideas that people can trust." |
 .. .. from The new insight - Today's practical philosophers are finding a public hungry to dust off and discuss the big issues looming since Socrates' day. By Bettijane Levine, LA Times Sep 23 2003 photo of Morris from his site: Morris Institute for Human Values |
*more on philosophical counseling on page:**nurturing mental health~ ~ ~ ~
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