Andrew said
> I am beginning to appreciate or glimpse if not fully understand and see
> how it might be that animals have no 'need' of a state of happiness,
> principally because they do not long for things as we do and so create
> unhappiness.
> They are not driven, as we so often seem to be.
Recently, I've been reading from William Isaacs new book, "Dialogue".
(Isaacs' 15-years study of dialogue, beginning as a graduate student and
affiliated with Bohm's work, was used in Peter Senge's book "The Fifth
Discipline".) One example of getting dialogue started was the comment of a
participant that people tend to look to the future or the past and not to
the present. Isaacs in the dialogue taking place then said, basically,
let's be mindful of the present. What seemed to me to be an important part
in the interchange was an additional factor of the comment that Isaacs
responded to--that people do not think of the present because of sorrow.
Now, it may be that my account of the conversation is not entirely
accurate; however, with that basic understanding I thought about my
thinking. Hmm, I seem to be "minded" of a time in the future when things
will be better, when things I've hoped for will be present, when
understandings will interact more freely, when benefit will abound, when
it will be very easy and commonplace to bring about good for another, and
so on. Sometimes the thoughts may be as near as "when I get to work" or
"when I get to the computer" or "after work". Yet as for the very present
moment, what can or should I do now, it seems that my thought had not been
"here". Even as I write to others these words, I'm inclined to think,
"once I've gotten over the words that introduce the idea" or maybe "once
people have the idea and can respond". I do not mean to say that such a
phenomenon, whether or not it describes behavior or not, should bring
alarm. Yet it did get me thinking and lead to awareness of what my
thoughts had to do with the present time.
It so happened that another experience (or case of repeated experiences)
followed my new awareness of thinking of the present time. I do not mean
to be rude or to enable temptation; however, the example seems to be of
benefit, so here it is; I found myself, while probably thinking about
thinking of the present (and not really thinking of the present time)
instinctively drawn to the form of woman. Now, my leading disclaimer was
needed because the instinct was not what I'd call "artistic", instead
instinctive--noticing myself unintentionally (or at least without
strategic intent) seeing women and responding as to an object. I believe
that Jean-Paul Sartre spoke of objects and subjects in a related regard.
His comment was that one has to make a subject an object before being able
to treat it in a selfish manner. I'm sorry that my comment is going on and
on :) The main point was that I had an ongoing state of mind quite happy
to recurse over whatever thought I was having; then I'd see a woman and
find an instinctive responding state of mind; (I often think of these
uninvited thoughts as programs operating on my computer (brain) and my own
consciousness (the main program) trying to deal with these other programs
(thoughts).); because of the context of "thinking about the present time",
it came to mind that these "notions" (or anti-notions=instinctual
responses=sudden awarenesses that I didn't want to approve) were lessened
when I'd THINK MORE about the person that I happened to see, when I'd
reckon that love was due to them, that they were a person, that they had a
right to pass before my eyes without me erring in return; when I brought
my thoughts into the present, actively thinking about the present time and
event, my control of my thought increased, and I could "think what I
wanted to" in the sense of choosing to think something and indeed thinking
that :) Then I saw that in not thinking about the present time, I was
giving present experience over to chance or instinct or habit--however I
responded because I certainly didn't plan to think about it :)
Longings are real and long-term plans have meaning too, yet we can only
truly build with a hammer and nails in the present moment. I don't know
that thought should take on the exact same limitation as carpentry, though
the idea has merit insofar as it brings to mind and together thought and
action. Maybe part of the congratulation of new colleagues will
immediately follow thoughts in their presence of "what should I do now?"
Have a nice day
John Paul Fullerton
jpf@myriad.net
--"John Paul Fullerton" <jpf@myriad.net>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>