A life in Zen: Decades of practice have changed my mind
https://aeon.co/essays/let-me-tell-you-about-my-journey-through-35-years-of-zen-practice
EXCERPTS: In the end, I had to conclude that all the ideas I held about Zen practice when I started were wrong or, at the very least, misleading. There is no persistent state of enlightenment. The pursuit of such a state is vain by definition. There’s no ‘fix’ for the human condition in the sense that I originally sought. The Way is not accomplished by gaining ‘understanding’ in the conventional sense or by forcing the mind to shut up – no matter how appealing that prospect seems. These conclusions arose out of my own direct experience but also out of my reading of the Zen literature, which, for more than 1,000 years has been stating things differently.
The founding documents of the Chán schools in China and the Zen schools in Japan are a fistful of manifestos that point to the particulars of human experience and talk about how to practise with them. These are full of aspirational formulae and encouragement, but, at the same time, fiercely discourage the ‘pursuit’ of awakening or the idea of ‘learning’ how to be enlightened. Instead – at the risk of oversimplifying something that’s bafflingly complex – they describe two major modes of engagement that characterise Zen practice...
[...] So, what are we to do? How are those of us still caught in the flux of the ‘modern’ world supposed to find peace, alleviate suffering, and confront human folly? My own experience might suggest a deprecation of monasticism, but this would be inaccurate. Monastic practice, tuned as it has been for thousands of years, is an excellent vehicle for exactly this exploration. A person who completely gives themselves over to the forms and schedules prepared for them is constantly being reminded of the beauty and the burden of conventional cognition. Again and again, they are given the opportunity to lay down their burden. Initially, they may not even recognise this invitation. Later, they might ignore or resist it, clinging to ideas they’ve developed about how things ought to be. But, in the long run, at least some practitioners are able to loosen their grip.
That said, of the few people who are financially and logistically able to take advantage of extended monastic practice, fewer still are able to follow those forms and schedules completely... (MORE - details)
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In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos (review)
https://www.publicbooks.org/strangers-in-the-family-album-reflections-on-soviet-amateur-photography/
EXCERPT: Many scholars have underscored the paradox of family photo albums being, on the one hand, cherished objects, and, yet, also full of banal images with often predictable themes shared across cultures. To all but social scientists—and even to them at times—viewing other people’s family albums is a form of torture; we simply do not know any of the people in the pictures and, without knowing them, we do not care.
In Visible Presence shows us that Soviet family album owners themselves also encountered strangers in their photo albums. The appearance of strangers within family photo albums was part of how a Soviet imagined and imaged community was constructed and sustained.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies this familial focus on strangers as remarkably as the genre of group portraits. In many such photographs—like the one documenting a visit to Moscow’s Red Square, reproduced below—the individuals in the “group portrait” did not actually know one another. The individuals are not a collective traveling together, but, rather, merely all those who the thrifty street photographer in Red Square could fit into a single frame. Once he developed it, the photographer would send a copy of the photograph to addresses left behind by each of the subjects.
The very same portrait could become a cherished item in many domestic photography collections across the vast geography of the Soviet Union. And, today, that same photograph would appear in the family albums of diverse individuals, who may share nothing other than once having been Soviet and partaking in the quintessential Soviet ritual of posing for a group photograph in Red Square... (MORE - details)
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Francis Bacon’s "Essays" explore the darker side of human nature. 400 years on, they still instruct and unnerve
https://theconversation.com/francis...ars-on-they-still-instruct-and-unnerve-259051
EXCERPTS: It’s 400 years since the publication of the complete edition of British philosopher Francis Bacon’s Essays. Not without pride, Bacon (1561-1626) muses in the preface that his little book’s Latin version might “last, as long as books last.” The Essays have, in fact, never been out of print since 1625.
[...] Bacon’s Essays are indeed written with an ornamental grace. ... Almost every line reads like a quotable proverb.
[...] He is best known today for his vital role in making the case for a new “advancement of learning” in early modern Europe. His 1620 work, Novum Organum, modelled a “new method” for studying nature, with rules for making structured observations, then tabulating and interpreting findings, which would inspire the later experimental sciences.
The Essays, in contrast, address social, moral and political subjects... (MORE - details)
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https://aeon.co/essays/let-me-tell-you-about-my-journey-through-35-years-of-zen-practice
EXCERPTS: In the end, I had to conclude that all the ideas I held about Zen practice when I started were wrong or, at the very least, misleading. There is no persistent state of enlightenment. The pursuit of such a state is vain by definition. There’s no ‘fix’ for the human condition in the sense that I originally sought. The Way is not accomplished by gaining ‘understanding’ in the conventional sense or by forcing the mind to shut up – no matter how appealing that prospect seems. These conclusions arose out of my own direct experience but also out of my reading of the Zen literature, which, for more than 1,000 years has been stating things differently.
The founding documents of the Chán schools in China and the Zen schools in Japan are a fistful of manifestos that point to the particulars of human experience and talk about how to practise with them. These are full of aspirational formulae and encouragement, but, at the same time, fiercely discourage the ‘pursuit’ of awakening or the idea of ‘learning’ how to be enlightened. Instead – at the risk of oversimplifying something that’s bafflingly complex – they describe two major modes of engagement that characterise Zen practice...
[...] So, what are we to do? How are those of us still caught in the flux of the ‘modern’ world supposed to find peace, alleviate suffering, and confront human folly? My own experience might suggest a deprecation of monasticism, but this would be inaccurate. Monastic practice, tuned as it has been for thousands of years, is an excellent vehicle for exactly this exploration. A person who completely gives themselves over to the forms and schedules prepared for them is constantly being reminded of the beauty and the burden of conventional cognition. Again and again, they are given the opportunity to lay down their burden. Initially, they may not even recognise this invitation. Later, they might ignore or resist it, clinging to ideas they’ve developed about how things ought to be. But, in the long run, at least some practitioners are able to loosen their grip.
That said, of the few people who are financially and logistically able to take advantage of extended monastic practice, fewer still are able to follow those forms and schedules completely... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In Visible Presence: Soviet Afterlives in Family Photos (review)
https://www.publicbooks.org/strangers-in-the-family-album-reflections-on-soviet-amateur-photography/
EXCERPT: Many scholars have underscored the paradox of family photo albums being, on the one hand, cherished objects, and, yet, also full of banal images with often predictable themes shared across cultures. To all but social scientists—and even to them at times—viewing other people’s family albums is a form of torture; we simply do not know any of the people in the pictures and, without knowing them, we do not care.
In Visible Presence shows us that Soviet family album owners themselves also encountered strangers in their photo albums. The appearance of strangers within family photo albums was part of how a Soviet imagined and imaged community was constructed and sustained.
Perhaps nothing exemplifies this familial focus on strangers as remarkably as the genre of group portraits. In many such photographs—like the one documenting a visit to Moscow’s Red Square, reproduced below—the individuals in the “group portrait” did not actually know one another. The individuals are not a collective traveling together, but, rather, merely all those who the thrifty street photographer in Red Square could fit into a single frame. Once he developed it, the photographer would send a copy of the photograph to addresses left behind by each of the subjects.
The very same portrait could become a cherished item in many domestic photography collections across the vast geography of the Soviet Union. And, today, that same photograph would appear in the family albums of diverse individuals, who may share nothing other than once having been Soviet and partaking in the quintessential Soviet ritual of posing for a group photograph in Red Square... (MORE - details)
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Francis Bacon’s "Essays" explore the darker side of human nature. 400 years on, they still instruct and unnerve
https://theconversation.com/francis...ars-on-they-still-instruct-and-unnerve-259051
EXCERPTS: It’s 400 years since the publication of the complete edition of British philosopher Francis Bacon’s Essays. Not without pride, Bacon (1561-1626) muses in the preface that his little book’s Latin version might “last, as long as books last.” The Essays have, in fact, never been out of print since 1625.
[...] Bacon’s Essays are indeed written with an ornamental grace. ... Almost every line reads like a quotable proverb.
[...] He is best known today for his vital role in making the case for a new “advancement of learning” in early modern Europe. His 1620 work, Novum Organum, modelled a “new method” for studying nature, with rules for making structured observations, then tabulating and interpreting findings, which would inspire the later experimental sciences.
The Essays, in contrast, address social, moral and political subjects... (MORE - details)
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