Thinking & Doing
“Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary.5 Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.” (Lk 10:41-42)
Is a philosopher better left alone or in dialogue? Why are thinkers introverts? What’s gained from dialogue?
Sonu (from Untouchables, by Narendra Jadhav, and the author’s mother) was a very simple person, and never changed at all even though her husband was so enlightened and tried persistently to enlighten her as well. Not only did she never get it, she never cared to get it and never saw the importance of anything that her husband tried to impart to her. So her husband, Damu, was very much into the movement to free the untouchables, becoming politically and socially involved, but Sonu, though an untouchable as well, never cared. Only one time in the book did she really take action when she actually saw extreme abuse right in front of her (during an attack by the Brahmins on the Dalits (untouchables). Why is it that some people can’t comprehend things, which are otherwise manifestly and manifoldly clear, unless they actually see it happening right in front of them?
Book learning and study /research vs learning by experience
People always denigrate book learning and say the real way to learn about life is to live it, and in many ways this is true, but the strange thing is that I’ve found that, unfortunately, this just isn’t completely true. I look around, and also read about people and all their troubles, and they keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again, never being able to change their thinking, but if you just tell them straight out, “Hey, this is what it’s like” and explain to them the reason for their problems and the flaws in their thinking and perception of the world, it can completely turn them around and give them huge relief from their suffering. But this is the kind of enlightenment that you can only get through careful observation and studying, and the most efficient way of doing this is through books. But it’s very strange – who can know more about a situation than the people going through it, and yet, most people go through life blindly, and they just don’t get the “lesson” unless you tell them directly what it’s all about.
Why are people so reluctant to learn? When they first invented TV, they put educational programs on. This was surprising to me when I first read this, but if you think about it, it’s the most sensible thing to do. But nobody watched them. Then they decided to switch to entertainment, and things have never been the same since.
Is it really the doers who have it all figured out? (I don't mean this in seriousness, but it's certainly something to think about.)
Related -- if everyone is supposedly equal, why is that creative types and thinkers live longest and report the greatest job enthusiasm?
Sonu (from Untouchables, by Narendra Jadhav, and the author’s mother) was a very simple person, and never changed at all even though her husband was so enlightened and tried persistently to enlighten her as well. Not only did she never get it, she never cared to get it and never saw the importance of anything that her husband tried to impart to her. So her husband, Damu, was very much into the movement to free the untouchables, becoming politically and socially involved, but Sonu, though an untouchable as well, never cared. Only one time in the book did she really take action when she actually saw extreme abuse right in front of her (during an attack by the Brahmins on the Dalits (untouchables). Why is it that some people can’t comprehend things, which are otherwise manifestly and manifoldly clear, unless they actually see it happening right in front of them?
Book learning and study /research vs learning by experience
People always denigrate book learning and say the real way to learn about life is to live it, and in many ways this is true, but the strange thing is that I’ve found that, unfortunately, this just isn’t completely true. I look around, and also read about people and all their troubles, and they keep making the same stupid mistakes over and over again, never being able to change their thinking, but if you just tell them straight out, “Hey, this is what it’s like” and explain to them the reason for their problems and the flaws in their thinking and perception of the world, it can completely turn them around and give them huge relief from their suffering. But this is the kind of enlightenment that you can only get through careful observation and studying, and the most efficient way of doing this is through books. But it’s very strange – who can know more about a situation than the people going through it, and yet, most people go through life blindly, and they just don’t get the “lesson” unless you tell them directly what it’s all about.
Why are people so reluctant to learn? When they first invented TV, they put educational programs on. This was surprising to me when I first read this, but if you think about it, it’s the most sensible thing to do. But nobody watched them. Then they decided to switch to entertainment, and things have never been the same since.
Is it really the doers who have it all figured out? (I don't mean this in seriousness, but it's certainly something to think about.)
Related -- if everyone is supposedly equal, why is that creative types and thinkers live longest and report the greatest job enthusiasm?