Help
Sign In
RSS Feed
|
DTS Ex. 18 Pastness KnowledgeDavidu said Nov 9, 1:40 PM: |
||
|
Once you have developed confidence in your own willingness to activate new knowledge, you are ready to explore the ways that the past has conducted knowledge forward. Look in terms of humanity’s past; in terms of your own personal history; in terms of the last week or the last five minutes. Be especially sensitive to the quality of endless repetition, so characteristic of a time governed by pastness. Trace out the time wasted through not knowing how to conduct knowledge beyond the recorded patterns of the presupposed. Now take the knowledge and resolve that come from such reflections and apply them in your daily life. How can you act in ways that expand beyond self-imposed limits? How can you go beyond what feels comfortable? Beyond likes and dislikes? What special efforts will let you climb the ladder to a lighter way of being—toward the enlightening? How can you make this effort in a way that does not duplicate old patterns? DTS p.313 DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledge A. To open the past as resource for knowledge, look back at the immediate past, reviewing a period of a week or so. What mistakes did you make during this time; for example, wrong choices, miscommunications, or steps that you forgot to take? As examples of mistakes begin to surface, trace out the consequences they have led to. What patterns did they reinforce? What new difficulties have they led to or are they likely to lead to? What limits have they helped to set in place? Can you see how such mistakes have actually reduced the knowledge available, or even the knowledge potentially available? See if you can ask these questions in a fresh, new way, discovering mistakes you may have previously overlooked, or seeing connections different from the ones you usually make. It may help to look from a distant perspective, as suggested in Exercise 8. Comment 18A Often we undermine the availability of the past as a resource for knowledge through a kind of disrespect for what has already happened. If we look to the past at all, we tend to approach it as we might study a dusty book that we pulled down from a library shelf. This exercise asks us to become more deeply involved in the past, so that what we are looking at comes alive. In this way knowledge takes on the transforming depth of inwardness. B. Studying the history of knowledge can serve as a valuable gateway to inward time. For example, we might trace out lost battles in the struggle for knowledge: the past as a record of defeat. We could see how knowledge has been trapped and limited and denied; how the human spirit has been reduced; how willful ignorance or unconscious patterns have slowed the growth of knowledge. We could also look at the ways that human beings respond to what time presents, molding the ways that knowledge will manifest. Confronted with the constant momentum of change, individuals and cultures seek to shape it toward their own purposes. They pursue their own judgments as to what is best and accord their conduct with their judgments. Values emerge, expressed in terms of virtue, happiness, spirituality, or truth, shaping the ongoing search for meaning. Look at a period of history that interests you with this way of understanding in mind. Alternatively, investigate a news story of current national or international interest in terms of such questions. How would you rewrite the stories you read to reflect this focus on the knowledge dynamic? Comment 18B The many schools of knowledge that have flourished in the past—schools of science and philosophy, history and religion, social thought and political theory—can guide us to a deeper appreciation for knowledge in time. Each new set of theories or beliefs must somehow engage the accumulating weight of history, trying to make sense of what has gone before. Whether consciously or not, each engages in a twofold inquiry—not only judging, but judging how best to judge; not only knowing, but knowing how best to know. Systems of knowledge are put into effect, shaping human achievement at every level. In the study of such developments knowledge is available, ready to be thawed or melted in the ‘infolding’ of time. The patterns set in place in this way range through extremes that could never be imagined in advance. In some periods what happens seems to depend almost entirely on individual choices about livelihood and ways of life and on the free play of a knowledge available for each person. In other eras almost the opposite seems true: Fate is determined for the whole culture, with individuals caught up in a destiny not of their choosing. In history’s endless variations, some eras simply seem to function better than others. In such times the choices made promote more knowledge and a greater sense of purpose and well-being, leaving a legacy of accomplishment. Sometimes it is clear why this is so; in other periods, the interplay of forces follows a patterning that remains mysterious. But as we investigate there is always the opportunity to ask questions that can illuminate and reveal, deepen and enlighten. There is a way to look at these different patterns objectively and without taking a position—as one would look at scenery from the window of a passing train. Yet inquiry must also be guided by a deep caring, for being the disinterested bystander is one of the most rigid positions of all. Maintaining a balance between these two factors does not require careful maneuvers; instead, it is the natural outcome of deepening inquiry. At the point where the inwardness of knowledge meets the infolding of time, ‘objectivity’ and ‘caring’ are in no way opposed. The special availability of the past as an object of study in today’s world offers a unique opportunity. We can discover in each alternative way of knowing, each system and each set of choices, a way to transmit knowledge. We can draw on any or all of them. But the past is not simply a storehouse. We are not likely to have good results if we sort through old models in order to adopt one particular way of knowing as our own. Nor do we need to comb the records of the past in search of lost techniques or overlooked mechanisms. The availability of the past gives us an opportunity at a different level. Tracing its various manifestations through time, not confined by the positions that we ourselves have adopted and now are playing out, we can go past positioning to awaken the infolding dynamic of knowledge. C. Review your own past for points where knowledge was explicitly denied or rejected, or less consciously covered over or erased from the canvas. Try reviewing the events of the past day; then conduct the exercise again, focusing on events earlier in your life. At least initially, it is better to focus on events that are fresh rather than incidents that you have rehearsed in your memory hundreds of times before. On another occasion, review events in recorded history that seem to reveal similar patterns. As you conduct your review, you are likely to see characteristic moments when a decisive turn was made: moments when emotionality came to the fore, when clarity was somehow lost, or when situations erupted into conflict and tension. Focus on such moments, developing a sense of the feelings involved and the impact they have on knowledgeability. Attempting to explain how such moments arose is likely to lead back into the realm of stories. Instead, you can conduct a more subtle inquiry. The past can refer you forward to the present; the present can lead you with renewed insight into the past. Feelings can disclose motives; present emotions can guide us toward past arising. D. Another way to conduct this inquiry is to look for a more encompassing knowledge embodied in each situation. Is this unacknowledged knowledge affected by the more specific turn away from knowledge that you are investigating? Is it covered over? If you are willing to feel the pain or sadness that comes from knowledge denied and knowledge distorted, you may be able to bring into the open knowledge that was previously rejected or covered over. Even though you are focusing on the past, you may find that this discovery of knowledge availability has a powerful impact on the present and on the way that events unfold in the future. Comment 18C-D The moment we call the past into question in the name of knowledge, willing to let our questioning transform the present, we can conduct knowledge inward. In this inward conducting, past and present and future are equally the carriers for knowledge, and each is freely present, not bound by the ‘from’ and ‘to’ of directional time. Embracing the knowledge they conduct, we can see to it that we invest our time—including the time that has already ‘vanished’ into the past—in fruitful and productive ways.
Willingness gives us the power to conduct inwardly. We discover that whether knowledge emerges into the light depends on our attitude. After all, in this emerging, there is nowhere to go, no direction to set out in, and no goal to be attained. There is only the commitment to human freedom and human capacities. The patterns of the past pull on us with a powerful force. Deeply involved in conducting the past forward, we enact a commitment to the pre-recorded. Yet this trend can be reversed. We can be lovers of knowledge, seeking to cherish rather than possess, free from the wish to take on yet another dogma. Then the daily unfolding of our lives can become a rich source of knowledge. In times past, men and women have walked the earth who have followed such a path of inquiry, learning to abide in wisdom and communicate compassion. If we know how to look, we can discover the strong impressions such persons have left on the ‘stuff’ of history. Drawing on their example for inspiration, we can learn to walk in their footsteps. Eventually we make a remarkable discovery: It is their time that we now inhabit. DTS pp. 313-319 |
|||
Permalink
Print
Email
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:14 PM: |
||
|
Thnx David…gol…am thinking Bruce sent u a pm that said…”pls. get star out of my hair!!!” lmao… |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:19 PM: |
||
|
We could also look at the ways that human beings respond to what time presents, molding the ways that knowledge will manifest. Confronted with the constant momentum of change, individuals and cultures seek to shape it toward their own purposes. They pursue their own judgments as to what is best and accord their conduct with their judgments. Values emerge, expressed in terms of virtue, happiness, spirituality, or truth, shap ing the ongoing search for meaning. |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:23 PM: |
||
|
oohlala…i liked this…i like it all…but some parts excite me more…esp. the parts that bring the past…alive and open…a knowledge NOT frozen by time…presencing into the future… |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:25 PM: |
||
|
Another way to conduct this inquiry is to look for a more encompassing knowledge embodied in each situ ation. Is this unacknowledged knowledge affected by the more specific turn away from knowledge that you are investigating? Is it covered over? If you are willing to feel the pain or sadness that comes from knowledge denied and knowledge distorted, you may be able to bring into the open knowledge that was previously rejected or covered over. Even though you are focusing on the past, you may find that this discovery of knowl edge availability has a powerful impact on the present and on the way that events unfold in the future. |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:28 PM: |
||
|
I am so inlove with this vision… |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness KnowledgeDavidu said Nov 9, 2:26 PM: |
||
|
Hi Star, No, he didn't say anything to me. You are both my friends, and anytime you post something a notice shows up on my Profile Page. I saw all the activity so I came over. I remembered enjoying this thread. I noticed Bruce's TSK reference and decided to look it up and decided to post it. |
|||
|
|
Re: DTS Ex. 18 Pastness Knowledgestarlight said Nov 9, 2:35 PM: |
||
|
lol…oh i knew that…i b silly…but yes…this is great…and i find that all of TT's writings are so openended that rereading them always is new pretty much…such an amazing vision…so thankful u love it as well…and so grateful for u posting this…it is awesome…i will probably be reading it over and over as well…it is just so nice to be able to communicate with you about it…so grazie mio caro bella amico!!! |
|||
