Thursday, October 31, 2013
Group One Post
Happy Halloween! it was so nice to finally be sitting in a class with other people dressed up so i didn't feel so stupid. lol
The beginning of our class time was allocated to exam #2 (extra credit for costumes and candy)
Before we began our discussion we watched kathy's video the science of happiness which was an experiment where people wrote down information about someone who they admired who had made an impact in their life. after writing it down they were then asked to call the person and read to them what they wrote. it was an act of showing how the person that wrote the note received gratitude and that contributes to happiness. don't forget to call your loved ones on a daily basis to let them know how you feel about them. we are not guaranteed tomorrow so don't be the one wishing you had told them something after it's too late. "don't wait for the terminal diagnosis to make the call."
We flipped through a slide show of photos of random acts of kindness.
Today was the first day of our discussion on our new book The Happiness Myth by Jennifer Hecht. I personally am glad to get out of the buddhist stuff. i have never been so confused in all my life!
The chapter we discussed was entitled "Get Happy." Dr. Oliver discusses his post from Up At Dawn with regards to the chapter and an overview of the author. since we had the exam first, we did not have a lot of time for discussion today.
have a good weekend everyone!
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Question—Jennifer Michael Hecht argues what four doctrines are consistent in all of happiness theory from wisdom literature, philosophy, psychology, and self-help?
ReplyDeleteAnswer: Know yourself, control your desires, take what’s yours, remember death.
I’m with you, Leigh. Just three pages into JMH’s The Happiness Myth and I too felt I just got released from several weeks of Buddhism hell. Flanagan is talented and he writes with clarity (I bought his 2007 book, The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World), but if I have to further contemplate a magic anatman that only disappears into nothingness once I relinquish the urge to type the letter “I” to start a first person account of some event that happened, me, myself, and I may lose my mind.
Then again, you can’t say there’s no “I” in Buddhism—it’s literally the seventh letter in. Take that, Buddhists!
Here’s a link to one of JMH’s poems entitled Funny Strange.
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poem/31200
I hate to be this guy (says Jon, facetiously) but I is actually the sixth, not seventh, letter in Buddhism. Sorry, I had to do it!
DeleteI'll agree with you, though. Buddhism is a tough nut to crack, if you'll pardon the cliché. Flanagan set out on the noble (if slightly overbearingly superscripted) task to naturalize Buddhism and while I'm not entirely sure if he does that, the discussions we've had in class about cherry-picking and Cosmopolitanism have really been useful to me, and I'm just not sure we'd have that perspective really brought forth if not for Flanagan. So, I take it in stride, as the hopelessly pragmatic part of my soul requires, and I learn to love it.
In fact...the second episode of my newly-founded radio show, which will air Fridays from 7-9pm Central, is set to focus on cherry-picking and Cosmopolitanism from this very perspective.
The show, incidentally, is called Incoherent Ramblings with Jon Gill...just makes me want to sing LedZep all day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKVp-atyiVA
But even with the pragmatic view of Flanagan in my mind, I must admit that JMH is entirely more engaging to me, and I look forward to that in future. Your (below) analogy of the country roads is really perfect. Let's not forget that plenty of people still get where they need to go on the pot-hole-ridden gravel road, though, and we shouldn't count them out, no matter how nice the Asphalt is...though, to those who have the luxury, nothing beats a nice smooth highway ride. All in the goal of getting where we're going.
Have I overextended that metaphor enough?
Ah well, that's enough digression for now.
Ah, you're right--6th letter it is! I got so caught up in my greedy desire to make a snarky comment it must have clouded my math skills! Karma's a bitch! Lesson learned.
DeleteCongratulations, Jon, and thanks for posting the information! Hope you have a great time with this.
DeleteSorry, I didn't mean to put anyone thru Hell. Just wanted to explore another corner of the happiness landscape.
ReplyDeleteBut, the great thing about Buddhist hell is: you don't get smoked or singed.
I've actually come to find "anatman" (read naturalistically, Hume-anized) the least problematic thing in B'ism. No enduring soul/self (we were already down with that message), just a "sic transit gloria" chance to live, love, and contribute a small spark to the torch of life as it passes to the next generation. Another way to say, with Prof. Dawkins, "we are the lucky ones, we got to live."
Of course, when you say it that way you minimize or even contradict the "life is suffering" theme. Nor is life hell, except for the unfortunates (the diseased, the dispossessed, the oppressed, the impoverished) for whom it is... and for whom ameliorative B'ism stands as a glimmer of hope.
Sorry, I didn't mean to insinuate you put us through hell. I think it's been so long since I've tried to peer through the lens of religion's glasses, I couldn't get my bearings. After a while, the supernatural jargon started to give me a slight epistemic rash. Flanagan was doing his darndest to naturalize it.
DeleteWhen I started reading JMH's book, it reminded of that moment in the country when you leave a washed out, pot-hole ridden gravel road and turn on to a smooth two-lane highway.
And, yes, you're right: Buddhism's "life is suffering" "Truth" is hard to square, especially with happy hour…even if happy hour is only temporal.
I think that makes us one of the luck ones.
oh no...you didn't put us through hell! class was the only part that i was understanding. the book was just very dense for me. the lecture and discussion parts are the only reason i could understand it at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post, Leigh, and your link to those awesome photographs! I am also glad to move on from Flanagan. Look forward to reading Hecht and her range of topics.
ReplyDeleteGlad I'm not the only one who is -happy- to be moving on from Flanagan. Haha! I felt very confused throughout, but perhaps the words of Edward Murrow are fitting here: "Anyone who is not confused doesn't really understand the situation."
ReplyDeleteI don't mean to bash Flanagan or Buddhism in any way, I think the style of writing/subject matter was just over my head. Lots of headaches while reading, haha!