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What is Practical Philosophy?

What is Practical Philosophy?. Dennis Blejer School of Practical Philosophy, Boston 5 April 2008. The School of Practical Philosophy. Non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the study and practice of philosophy as it applies to living a truly happy and harmonious life.

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What is Practical Philosophy?

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  1. What is Practical Philosophy? Dennis Blejer School of Practical Philosophy, Boston 5 April 2008

  2. The School of Practical Philosophy • Non-profit, educational organization dedicated to the study and practice of philosophy as it applies to living a truly happy and harmonious life. • Affiliated with a world wide network of schools that began in London, circa, 1940s.

  3. SPP Boston • Offer an introductory course in practical philosophy at the Boston Center for Adult Education, Boston, and the Theosophical Society, Arlington • www.PhilosophyWorks.org

  4. Outline • The three aspects of man (male and female) • Body, mind, and consciousness (spirit) • Identification • A false belief in who or what one is • Liberation • Becoming free of identification and being oneself

  5. The Body • Physical or gross • Includes the brain • Has size, weight, color, texture, odor, etc • Appears to be alive and animated • Speaks, moves, breathes, eats, excretes, and procreates

  6. Body - continued • Requires earth (food), water, fire (heat), air, and space • Includes the organs of sense: smell, taste, sight, touch, and hearing • Instrument by which we experience sensation and perception, which are interpreted as pleasurable and painful by the mind

  7. Mind • Mental or subtle • Thinks, reasons, decides, wills, feels, dreams, and desires • Includes the emotions • Brain • Transducer between the mental and physical; links the body and mind • Example: a radio as a transducer

  8. Mind - Thought • The most obvious feature of mind • Thought is not physical • Does not have size, shape, weight, or location • How does thought arise? • Strongly connected to language as we generally think in words

  9. Thought - continued • Thoughts can be coherent or incoherent, relevant or irrelevant (distracting) to the needs of the present moment • Example: If I am thinking about what I want for dinner instead of attending to what is going on in this meeting

  10. Mind - Reason • Defined philosophically as: discrimination between the true and the untrue • The “aha” experience • At some point in the thinking process the rightness of the solution is recognized • Proof in mathematics • Often the truth of the theorem is known before the proof is made • The proof serves to confirm what was known • The proof can lead one to truth if not known beforehand

  11. Mind - Dreaming • Occurs during sleeping and waking states • During the waking state it is known as daydreaming • Daydreaming is considered a state of absent mindedness • Can be very dangerous, as for example, during driving

  12. Consciousness • Attention is closely connected to consciousness • You must “pay” attention to be conscious of the present moment • One pays to get something in return • Knowledge of what is happening and what needs to be done • Peace of mind • Allows reason and memory to function

  13. Consciousness - continued • How do we know what we think, feel, dream, etc? • Observation by consciousness • “As God is my witness” • We refer to ourselves as human beings • Being means conscious existence • The most basic aspect of ourselves is that we are conscious – we are conscious all of the time

  14. Consciousness - continued • Is the observer of mind, so lies beyond it • As mind is to body, consciousness is to mind • Consciousness does not move or change • When mind is still the unmoving, unchanging nature of consciousness is known • “Be still and know that I am God” • Meditation

  15. Identification • The false belief in who or what one truly is • You cannot be that which you observe • Not anything smelled, tasted, seen, touched, heard, thought, felt, or known • The five sheaths of Vedanta that conceal the Self • (1) I am the physical body, (2) I am alive, (3) I think, (4) I know, and (5) I am happy

  16. Liberation • Being free of identification • Self-realization • “The thing that you seek is that which is looking”, St Francis • What is looking is referred to as the witness

  17. Liberation - Witness • Witness is from wit, which is from the Sanskrit root vid, meaning knowledge • A witness is full of wit, meaning funny and smart, or happy and intelligent • A witness in a court of law is someone who has observed something and can speak about it truthfully

  18. Witness - continued • A witness has the following qualities: • Observant • Knowledgeable • Happy • Truthful

  19. All the World’s a Stage • The world is a stage where we are actors • An actor knows: • Who he is and is not deluded by his role • He knows that the play is just a play and isn’t real • He knows what is real

  20. How Do We Wake Up? • Let the mind acknowledge consciousness • Do not believe in any limited identity • “Not this, not this” • Stillness – “Be still and know that I am God” • Meditation

  21. “To Be or Not to Be, That is the Question” • Satchitaanada • Knowledge, consciousness, and happiness • There is only one Self • Practice, practice, practice

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