Yesterday, I asked my students what they did during the Christmas break which they did for the first time? A male student shared how it was the first time he smoked with his mom, a female student shared how it was the first time she drank alcohol with her father and how her father always kept her glass full with beer. A petite female student shared how it was her first time to attend her high school reunion and how she drank with her batchmates from 9pm to 7am in the morning. Another student shared how it was his first time to sleep in the sunken garden. Another shared...
Ego often gets in the way of learning because learning involves acquiring new skills and insights by opening yourself to the world. But ego is a form attachment to the world you have been used to, and so learning must involve a way of giving up the ego so that one's being can be enlarged to achieve a certain type of agreement with world. This does not mean that ego is not important. It means one should not be attached to it to the point of arrogance that makes one incapable of learning and enjoying the world as it is. Hence, the mark of a true master is the same as the mark of the...
Work, work, work. But do not be afraid to let go and start again. Trust that life always has good things to offer. Oftentimes we can be ready to accept these blessings by letting go and starting anew. Every breath is new, and we can experience peace and happiness by paying attention to that breath. From how it goes to our nostrils, to our neck, lungs, stomach, and slowly back...
Moral dilemmas do not tell us that moral principles/rules are useless. On the contrary, they give us the opportunity to clarify what the rule means. Rules or principles are also given content by the agents who apply them and the activities to which they are applied. The indeterminacy that remains once the rule has been made clear to us is a natural and inescapable component of all types of rule following and norm-based human action. Regardless of how rigid a rule is, following a rule according to the rule does not preclude judgment and decision. Hence, it always entails commitment...
The point of a metaphor is intimacy. It offers a unique way of drawing people closer to one another: “The speaker issues a kind of concealed invitation. The hearer expends a special effort to accept the invitation. And this transaction constitutes the acknowledgement of community.’ (Cohen, 1978,8).
It is remarkable how Cohen describes metaphor as if he were describing Wittgenstein’s language-games. Language-games are indirect ways of drawing people closer together into a community.
The more I spend time writing (philosophy), the more I realize that ideas have a life of their own. Awareness of the thoughts in my mind initially give me the confidence that I know exactly what to say. Yet when I begin to write, words fumble, thoughts do not fit, and ideas are simply lacking. I have to endure the process of experiencing gaps of thought as I desperately try to fill the space between them. This is excruciating since you come face to face with a sense of absence and even inadequacy which you were blissfully unaware of before. One simply perseveres in waiting,...
