In philo-sophical practice

In the philo-sophical process, after we have gained some understanding of the boundaries of our perimeter, it is time to “listen” beyond them. This “listening” is possible because we are not totally enclosed in our perimeter: We have the inner resources to appreciate other ways of understanding and other ways of relating to the world. In a sense, we are already beyond our perimeter, but we are not fully aware of this. Our task now is to “connect” to those hidden resources.

This is usually not easy. We tend to feel resistance, criticism, or dislike towards anything outside our own familiar ways of being. Even though we may declare tolerance in a theoretical way, in practice we often resist the possibility that other attitudes may speak in us and animate us. After all, our perimeter is sustained by powerful forces.

At this stage, therefore, it is important for the philo-sopher to avoid theoretical arguments. This is the time to open ourselves and “listen” to other understandings and other attitudes that may speak in us. We do not criticize or analyze, we do not worry about correct or incorrect, we simply open ourselves for new understandings. But it is not enough to understand in a theoretical way – to think ABOUT alternative attitudes. The challenge is to understand FROM alternative attitudes, in other words to find new understandings speaking inside us. The mere fact that we open ourselves to additional inner fountains is already a step beyond our perimeter and towards a new dimension.

EXERCISE

Observe yourself during the day, and look for moments in which different inner understandings animate you.

In order to do so, start by becoming aware of small everyday events or moments: a passing thought, a sentence you utter, your body posture and your voice as you speak, your eye-contact and your hand movements, your sense of tension or of boredom – when you are waiting in line, or chatting with a friend, or washing the dishes. Don’t analyze and don’t evaluate. Simply familiarize yourself with the way these event flow out of you, and thus with your usual attitudes to your world, to others, to yourself.

And now look for moments that diverge to some degree from these familiar attitudes. Ask yourself what attitudes these moments express, and try to answer this question in words. Next, ask yourself how these attitudes interpret or “understand” the situations in which they appear. Finally, ask yourself whether or not these understandings are broader in scope than your usual everyday attitudes, in other words whether they emerge from outside your usual perimeter, from a broader appreciation of reality. (You may object that these questions are too vague, and that you need more instructions. But it is best to leave these questions open, so that you will explore them in your own way. After all, philo-sophia is a personal journey.)

LESSON 10