OPM 118 offers three important citations that provide context for much of the terminology I am using in these meditations. And because the writing is non-linear, the citations appear almost out of nowhere, and are received like echoes that have arrived from unknown sources.
Of course, the sources are identified and happen to be two of my principal interlocuters: Arendt and Heidegger.
The first citation, of Arendt, speaks to the 'counter-cultural' quality of meditative thinking, identifying it to be estranging from both sides: the side of the one who experiences it, and the side of the dominant cultural ways of being, especially as these are being normalized and reproduced in formal settings of education. OPM 118: "Arendt captures well the 'non-activity' of meditative thinking as an estranging or 'disruptive' event when she writes, 'Thinking is out of order because the quest for meaning produces no end result that will survive the activity, that will make sense after the activity has come to its end." Here with Arendt we appreciate both that the meaning making of thinking, specifically, the meaning made via philosophical dialogue (significant conversations between friends) is 'meaningless' from the perspective of calculative and instrumental reasoning. This is especially true if the meaningfulness of the conversation remains within the event of the dialogue, recaptured only through the memories of those who participated, and/or when those same participants reconvene for another conversation. Even the 'recording' of the conversation doesn't quite capture the meaning that is made, because it the significance is felt. And this is why OPM 118 emphasizes the 'outcome' of such conversation to be a state of consciousness shared between the participants; a shared 'mindfulness' that is more than the memories of what was said. OPM 118: "This 'product' is the mindfulness that emerges as the spirit of the community qua community..."
The second citation, of Heidegger, picks up the themes of temporality and meaning, reiterating that meditative thinking, as a shared event, is something that appears and disappears with the gathered dialogic congregation. And, as outcome, 'nothing' is produced. OPM 118, citing Heidegger: "Philosophy is the immediate, useless, but at the same time masterful knowing within mindfulness. Mindfulness is inquiring into the meaning, i.e., into the truth of be-ing. Inquiring into the truth is leaping into its essential sway and thus into be-ing itself." Here, through Heidegger, we are reminded that meaning isn't so much 'made' as it is experienced through the inquiry into be-ing, which is another way of describing the gathering as an experiment in being together. In other words, the 'inquiry into the meaning of be-ing' is an experiment in coming together through listening, hearing, and speaking, through the attentiveness that perceives the play of difference and unity, singularity and community.
The third citation, of Arendt, is offered in the form of fragments of a larger excerpts. The first of these fragments qualifies the 'experiential' nature of meditative thinking by highlighting Arendt's use of Aristotle's energeia. The dialogue we experience when we gather with friends is the outward experience of the 'silent dialogue' we have with ourselves. In both cases we experiences what Arendt calls the 'sheer activity' of being alive. And this is precisely what I am referring to when I said, above, that the meaning/significance of the conversation is felt. What's more, it is the felt force of life that forms the mindfulness or consciousness of the community, the shared sensibility that we are sharing a world together. (This is what I was getting at yesterday with my commentary when I was emphasizing the larger, shared global implication of inter/intra-spiritual dialogue as happening on the oikoumenē ‘the (inhabited) earth.’)
The larger fragment that brings it all together is the one where Arendt affirms that the experiential, felt significance happens in a location beyond language; or, in that location where all we can do is listen and hear, and feel the power of Life. Meditative thinking, "is ineffable by definition. the only possible metaphor one may conceive of for the life of the mind is the sensation of being alive. Without the breath of life the human body is a corpse; without thinking the human mind is dead...Aristotle speaks of 'philosophical energeia, activity,' as the 'perfect and unhindered activity which [for this very reason] harbors within itself the sweetest of all delights." Indeed, and the power of this activity is amplified when it is moving between a gathered community, between friends.
Of course, the sources are identified and happen to be two of my principal interlocuters: Arendt and Heidegger.
The first citation, of Arendt, speaks to the 'counter-cultural' quality of meditative thinking, identifying it to be estranging from both sides: the side of the one who experiences it, and the side of the dominant cultural ways of being, especially as these are being normalized and reproduced in formal settings of education. OPM 118: "Arendt captures well the 'non-activity' of meditative thinking as an estranging or 'disruptive' event when she writes, 'Thinking is out of order because the quest for meaning produces no end result that will survive the activity, that will make sense after the activity has come to its end." Here with Arendt we appreciate both that the meaning making of thinking, specifically, the meaning made via philosophical dialogue (significant conversations between friends) is 'meaningless' from the perspective of calculative and instrumental reasoning. This is especially true if the meaningfulness of the conversation remains within the event of the dialogue, recaptured only through the memories of those who participated, and/or when those same participants reconvene for another conversation. Even the 'recording' of the conversation doesn't quite capture the meaning that is made, because it the significance is felt. And this is why OPM 118 emphasizes the 'outcome' of such conversation to be a state of consciousness shared between the participants; a shared 'mindfulness' that is more than the memories of what was said. OPM 118: "This 'product' is the mindfulness that emerges as the spirit of the community qua community..."
The second citation, of Heidegger, picks up the themes of temporality and meaning, reiterating that meditative thinking, as a shared event, is something that appears and disappears with the gathered dialogic congregation. And, as outcome, 'nothing' is produced. OPM 118, citing Heidegger: "Philosophy is the immediate, useless, but at the same time masterful knowing within mindfulness. Mindfulness is inquiring into the meaning, i.e., into the truth of be-ing. Inquiring into the truth is leaping into its essential sway and thus into be-ing itself." Here, through Heidegger, we are reminded that meaning isn't so much 'made' as it is experienced through the inquiry into be-ing, which is another way of describing the gathering as an experiment in being together. In other words, the 'inquiry into the meaning of be-ing' is an experiment in coming together through listening, hearing, and speaking, through the attentiveness that perceives the play of difference and unity, singularity and community.
The third citation, of Arendt, is offered in the form of fragments of a larger excerpts. The first of these fragments qualifies the 'experiential' nature of meditative thinking by highlighting Arendt's use of Aristotle's energeia. The dialogue we experience when we gather with friends is the outward experience of the 'silent dialogue' we have with ourselves. In both cases we experiences what Arendt calls the 'sheer activity' of being alive. And this is precisely what I am referring to when I said, above, that the meaning/significance of the conversation is felt. What's more, it is the felt force of life that forms the mindfulness or consciousness of the community, the shared sensibility that we are sharing a world together. (This is what I was getting at yesterday with my commentary when I was emphasizing the larger, shared global implication of inter/intra-spiritual dialogue as happening on the oikoumenē ‘the (inhabited) earth.’)
The larger fragment that brings it all together is the one where Arendt affirms that the experiential, felt significance happens in a location beyond language; or, in that location where all we can do is listen and hear, and feel the power of Life. Meditative thinking, "is ineffable by definition. the only possible metaphor one may conceive of for the life of the mind is the sensation of being alive. Without the breath of life the human body is a corpse; without thinking the human mind is dead...Aristotle speaks of 'philosophical energeia, activity,' as the 'perfect and unhindered activity which [for this very reason] harbors within itself the sweetest of all delights." Indeed, and the power of this activity is amplified when it is moving between a gathered community, between friends.
3.0 - Today is Sofie's 28th birthday. She's the second kid, but not at all the middle child, because Jaime was born when she was 14 and Kat 16. Sofie stands out for lots of reasons (all 3 of my kids are unique and quite different from one another), but one in particular is that she was an infant when I started teaching at Hofstra. So with each birthday I also complete an anniversary. This day is her birthday but also the beginning of my 29th year at Hofstra!
ReplyDeleteThe 2.0 commentary above covers a lot of ground and reads like an authentic commemoration of OPM 118. What jumps out to me from the writing on this day is the whole matter of thinking as producing nothing tangible or for Arendt "useful," i.e., there isn't a tradable commodity produced by thinking. Thinking is wholly experiential. This is one of the reasons I haven't been emphasizing "thinking" in the new book. Not because I am describing a philosophical education that produces an "outcome," which it does to the extent that the "mindfulness" of the community (described above and in OPM 118) is a outcome of the dialogue that happens in the learning community. Rather, because I am emphasizing study and the philosophical education as the search for and discovery of meaning, first in Reading then Writing and finally in Discussion (the aforementioned dialouge). "Study" has replaced "thinking" and that is part of my strategy to write in a way that is accessible and somewhat didactic, straightforward, what Kelly, who's read a sample, described as informative. The speculation is offered in a more subtle way, but it's there! Drawing from OPM 118, the Heidegger fragment is illuminating on this point: "Mindfulness is inquiring into the meaning, i.e., into the truth of be-ing." If "Being and Learning" is a deep dive into ontology, "The Dialectic of a Philosophical Education," is an application of that ontology. The former described Being, whereas the current describes how the relationship between Being and Learning happens in the relationships for the learner. In this sense it is a study of "beings" and learning!