tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6399176615124237715.post3820241441986623027..comments2016-07-09T11:49:21.344-04:00Comments on One Frame of Mind: Warts and AllTrevor Grahamhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17116401135931314768noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6399176615124237715.post-46338852685976219762011-11-15T19:00:47.420-05:002011-11-15T19:00:47.420-05:00I don't think this works. For an individual p...I don't think this works. For an individual person, it can solve the problem. But I don't see this as just, or even primarily, an individual-level problem: it is a problem of populations (large social groups). If only the occasional person were intolerant, those people would not be able to make their intolerance felt on a large enough scale to matter. The problem is that intolerance is quite endemic. In fact, I would guess it is the rule, not the exception.<br /><br />So how would we go about getting large numbers of people to undergo this kind of drastic personal transformation? Incentives? (What kind? Can we afford it?) Re-education camps? (Gulag?) I don't know how we would do it that way. I don't see how a one-person-at-a-time solution can really work.<br /><br />I do know, from decades of public health experience, that you can't deal effectively with a polluted water supply by telling people to boil their water before using it, Yes, if you boil your water consistently, you will protect yourself. But the reality is that people don't do it consistently. The only effective solution is a population-scale water purification system that delivers potable water at the tap.<br /><br />There is also the observation over history that personal attitude change tends to follow, not precede, changes in behavior and social norms. The Civil Rights era is a good and familiar example. We outlawed certain types of discrimination, and began enforcing those laws back in the 50's and 60's. Over decades, attitudes towards racial minorities changed. Yes, there remains a core of racism, and there is more to do--but things have come a long way. And it was the social imposition of new norms that preceded changes in personal attitudes.<br /><br />So, as I see it, the question is what population-scale interventions can we bring to bear on the problem of tolerance. (Which would in no way preclude individuals seeking to follow that path that Trevor set out, but would not depend on it.)Clyde Schechterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10037411039318795888noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6399176615124237715.post-35882214053198360512011-11-14T10:24:31.606-05:002011-11-14T10:24:31.606-05:00Spoken like a true yogi...
वस्तुसाम्ये चित्तभेदात...Spoken like a true yogi...<br /><br />वस्तुसाम्ये चित्तभेदात् तयोर्विभक्तः पन्थाः<br />vastu-saamye chitta-bhedaat tayor vibhaktah panthaah (Yoga Sutra IV.15)<br />Everything is empty; different minds perceive the same thing differently according to their own prejudices and states of mind.<br /><br />We cannot see anything in another that we do not have within ourselves. If we see love, kindness, compassion, goodwill or "inclusivity" in another being, that is because we have those qualities in us--we have put those qualities "out there" and thereby enabled ourselves to find them "out there." Conversely (or is it inversely?), if we see sourness, resentment, jealousy, hostility or exclusivity in another being, that is because we have those qualities in us and have put them out there.<br /><br />This phenomenon is a great gift; it is empowering, freeing. If, when we encounter unpleasant behavior in others we look for that same behavior in ourselves (which is usually very hard to find, but it is always there in some way), we have the opportunity to recognize a part of ourselves that we don't like, accept that it is and has been part of us, and move through it, see it for what it is without becoming attached to it, without self-righteousness (like, "Unlike him, I have a right to feel this way because...). And when we expose it to the light of day, we can let it go and opt for another way of being that will feel better and will attract the kind of others we want to have in our lives.<br /><br />The only way to find a peach without a bruise is to find our own bruises and accept them fully, which is pretty much what I hear Trevor so eloquently saying. How cool that yoga and so many other spiritual traditions have been saying the same thing for thousands of years.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00287518746012356590noreply@blogger.com