Contemplation and Technology

The tragedy of modern man is that his creativity, his spirituality, and his contemplative independence are inexorably throttled  by a superego that has sold itself without question or compromise to the devil of technology.

Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, 129.

A monastic community . . . is an efficient, living, useful survival of the past.

Thomas Merton, The Inner Experience, 125. [emphasis mine]

 

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The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz

Written by Don Miguel Ruiz, this is an interesting little book packed with distilled Toltec wisdom. Here are the four agreements, taken from the jacket cover:

1. Be impeccable with your word. Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don’t take anything personally. Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality…
3. Don’t make assumptions. Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. 
4. Always do your best. Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstances, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse, and regret.

 

A Whole New Mind

Abundance has brought beautiful things to our lives, but that bevy of material goods has not necessarily made us much happier. The paradox of prosperity is that while living standards have risen steadily decade after decade, personal, family, and life satisfaction haven’t budged. That’s why more people–liberated by prosperity but not fulfilled by it–are resolving the paradox by searching for meaning. As Columbia University’s Andrew Delbanco puts it, “The most striking feature of contemporary culture is the unslaked craving for transendence.”

Daniel Pink argues that we should be developing the right side of our brains to compensate for the over-developed left brain skills. The areas for growth include:

• Design
• Story (or Narrative)
• Symphony (big picture thinking)
• Meaning
• Empathy
• Play (Joy/Celebration)

Daniel H. Pink, A Whole New Mind: Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age, 35.

 

Because of Winn-Dixie

The grace said by the preacher at the party Otis organized at Gloria Dump’s backyard:

Dear God, thank you for warm summer nights and candlelight and good food. But thank you most of all for friends. We appreciate the complicated and wonderful gifts you give us in each other. And we appreciate the task you put down before us, of loving each other the best we can, even as you love us. We pray in Christ’s name. Amen
 

Kate DiCamillo, Because of Winn-Dixie (Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2000), 153.

 

Malcolm Gladwell on Frugal Decision Making

truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking. . . . Deliberate thinking is a wonderful tool when we have the luxury of time, the help of a computer, and a clearly defined task, and the fruits of that type of analysis can set the stage for rapid cognition. . . . in good decision making, frugality matters. . . . even the most complicated of relationships and problems . . . have an identifiable underlying pattern. . . . Overloading the decision makers with information . . . makes picking up that signature harder, not easier. To be a successful decision maker, we have to edit. . . . Snap judgments can be made in a snap because they are frugal, and if we want to protect our snap judgments, we have to take steps to protect that frugality.

Malcolm Gladwell, blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, 141-143.

 

Frank Baron’s definition of a good fisherman

My desire to become a good fisherman hasn’t changed since I was a child. But my definition of a good fisherman sure has. It’s no longer about quantity or quality or even consistency. It’s not about catching fish when others aren’t or catching more when they are getting a few. It’s about respecting and appreciating fish, the environment, and the rights of other anglers while enjoying every aspect of every moment on the water… Fishing is my chosen umbilical cord, one that reconnects me with nature.

Frank P. Baron, What Fish Don’t Want You to Know: An Insider’s Guide to Freshwater Fishing, p148, 150

 

The perfect freedom

The perfect freedom is reserved for the person who lives by their own work and in that work does what they want to do

R. G. Collingwood, British philosopher and historian (1889-1943)

 

J. I. Packer interviewed by Faith Today

you ought, as a regular thing, to be getting words and thoughts of encouragement and visions of glorious things from the Lord. If you’re not getting those, you are in a rut. If you are in a rut, for goodness sake get help. Become a partner with someone you are accountable to. Walk together.

http://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/NetCommunity/Page.aspx?pid=5653&srcid=5636

 

Become more real, more authentic, more myself

In a letter to Robert Meuchin dated 15 January 1966, Thomas Merton wrote:

I would say that there is one basic idea that should be kept in mind in all the changes we make in life, whether of career or anything else. We should decide not in view of better pay, higher rank, “getting ahead”, but in view of becoming more real, entering more authentically into direct contact with life, living more as a free and mature person, able to give myself more to others, able to understand myself and the world better.

Thomas Merton, Witness to Freedom: Letters in Times of Crisis, 254-255.