I’ve been giving this some thought, philosophers need a religion of their own. Most philosophers that I know are generally irreligious in some respect. They either have no religion or have very unique views on it. Personally, I’m pretty irreligious myself, but I think that structure, which religion generally has, can have benefits for anyone. I’ve also thought that there is some evidence for the practice of meditation, both in terms of mental health, and as a general practice. So I’ve thought of combining this with one of my favorite philosophers, Wittgenstein, in the hopes of perhaps bringing a little structure to my life.
The general rule of Wittgensteinian Zen is the clarification of difficult concepts and the coherence of practice. We are presented with difficult concepts everyday that are clouded and confused. It is the purpose of meditation to clarify these concepts and make them coherent with our actions. W-Zen is not a religion of supernatural, but of the entirely natural and everyday. It is agnostic about what is and is not beyond human understanding. The mantra of W-Zen is, to paraphrase Bruce Lee, it is to look not at the finger, but to look at the moon that it points at, otherwise we will miss all the heavenly splendor. Similarly, we are to look not at words and behaviors we perform, but at the concepts.
What does it mean to clarify a concept? I’ve written on this before in my Everyday Philosophy piece, so I’ll only touch on it briefly here. Clarification is a two step process of elucidating the reasons and claims, then examining the relationship of the arguments for the reasons and the connection to the claim. There’s more to be said in my other piece, but that’s the basis of it.
Coherence is the other aim of the practice. Coherence is simply the harmonious unification of one’s behaviors into non-conflicting concepts. The way that one behaves will be in line with one’s rules, but more importantly, the way that one evaluates the world will always be coherently. If one applies one rule for understanding subject A, and subject B is the same type, then one ought to apply the same rule. It sounds simple, but in reality we are all hardly this consistent. Just think of simple moral rules. Most of us think that it is good and that we ought to give to the poor, but how often do we actually do it? Hence the need for coherence.
The method to gain clarity and coherence is through two fold meditation. The first meditation is a simple zen ritual of focusing on one’s breathing and slowly calming one’s mind. After this is achieved, one focuses on recent behaviors and thoughts. This is done without value judgments, but instead just by examining and reflecting on whether it cohered. The purpose is to do this without relying on language and instead to focus on the behaviors themselves. Focus on the moon, not the finger pointing to it. Meditation both relaxes and helps elucidate the structures that we live with in everyday life. Whether we mindfully adopt a perspective, or simply have one, we should know what it is and whether we do live up to it. It is also in elucidating the concepts underlying our everyday actions that we determine whether we need to change. Meditation serves to bring forward these concepts, the change is up to oneself.
The second ritual is writing. The purpose is to reintegrate language into the concepts and behaviors meditated on. Language can help us connect the concepts that we have and reveal their integration into a wider scope. After reflection on them during meditation, it is time to meditate on the language used surrounding the concepts. This is done by writing (or talking to oneself). Through writing, one not only learns to live a coherent life, but to be able to express a coherent life, both to others and oneself.
That’s the basic outline for my conception of W-Zen. It relies heavily on the idea of meditation as a source for clarification and harmony, but does so in temperance by also choosing to express what is learned through meditation. I find that the latter is just as important and meditative as the former, and often one does both when one writes. But I like to separate them out into two distinct processes where I think outside of the categories that I usually put things in and try to reclassify them. It takes some getting used to, I’m by no means a guru at it. But I do perform a similar set of rituals as this with my blogging, mood journaling, and meditation, so I thought that I’d share it and try to start a supernatural-agnostic religion at the same time. It’s been a great help to have this basic outline in stabilizing my moods, so maybe it’ll have use to people who are more normal than myself too. I am after all a fan of clarified concepts in everyday life.
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Philosophy, Science, Bipolar I, and Life
I’ve been giving this some thought, philosophers need a religion of their own. Most philosophers that I know are generally irreligious in some respect. They either have no religion or have very unique views on it. Personally, I’m pretty irreligious myself, but I think that structure, which religion generally has, can have benefits for anyone. I’ve also thought that there is some evidence for the practice of meditation, both in terms of mental health, and as a general practice. So I’ve thought of combining this with one of my favorite philosophers, Wittgenstein, in the hopes of perhaps bringing a little structure to my life.
The general rule of Wittgensteinian Zen is the clarification of difficult concepts and the coherence of practice. We are presented with difficult concepts everyday that are clouded and confused. It is the purpose of meditation to clarify these concepts and make them coherent with our actions. W-Zen is not a religion of supernatural, but of the entirely natural and everyday. It is agnostic about what is and is not beyond human understanding. The mantra of W-Zen is, to paraphrase Bruce Lee, it is to look not at the finger, but to look at the moon that it points at, otherwise we will miss all the heavenly splendor. Similarly, we are to look not at words and behaviors we perform, but at the concepts.
What does it mean to clarify a concept? I’ve written on this before in my Everyday Philosophy piece, so I’ll only touch on it briefly here. Clarification is a two step process of elucidating the reasons and claims, then examining the relationship of the arguments for the reasons and the connection to the claim. There’s more to be said in my other piece, but that’s the basis of it.
Coherence is the other aim of the practice. Coherence is simply the harmonious unification of one’s behaviors into non-conflicting concepts. The way that one behaves will be in line with one’s rules, but more importantly, the way that one evaluates the world will always be coherently. If one applies one rule for understanding subject A, and subject B is the same type, then one ought to apply the same rule. It sounds simple, but in reality we are all hardly this consistent. Just think of simple moral rules. Most of us think that it is good and that we ought to give to the poor, but how often do we actually do it? Hence the need for coherence.
The method to gain clarity and coherence is through two fold meditation. The first meditation is a simple zen ritual of focusing on one’s breathing and slowly calming one’s mind. After this is achieved, one focuses on recent behaviors and thoughts. This is done without value judgments, but instead just by examining and reflecting on whether it cohered. The purpose is to do this without relying on language and instead to focus on the behaviors themselves. Focus on the moon, not the finger pointing to it. Meditation both relaxes and helps elucidate the structures that we live with in everyday life. Whether we mindfully adopt a perspective, or simply have one, we should know what it is and whether we do live up to it. It is also in elucidating the concepts underlying our everyday actions that we determine whether we need to change. Meditation serves to bring forward these concepts, the change is up to oneself.
The second ritual is writing. The purpose is to reintegrate language into the concepts and behaviors meditated on. Language can help us connect the concepts that we have and reveal their integration into a wider scope. After reflection on them during meditation, it is time to meditate on the language used surrounding the concepts. This is done by writing (or talking to oneself). Through writing, one not only learns to live a coherent life, but to be able to express a coherent life, both to others and oneself.
That’s the basic outline for my conception of W-Zen. It relies heavily on the idea of meditation as a source for clarification and harmony, but does so in temperance by also choosing to express what is learned through meditation. I find that the latter is just as important and meditative as the former, and often one does both when one writes. But I like to separate them out into two distinct processes where I think outside of the categories that I usually put things in and try to reclassify them. It takes some getting used to, I’m by no means a guru at it. But I do perform a similar set of rituals as this with my blogging, mood journaling, and meditation, so I thought that I’d share it and try to start a supernatural-agnostic religion at the same time. It’s been a great help to have this basic outline in stabilizing my moods, so maybe it’ll have use to people who are more normal than myself too. I am after all a fan of clarified concepts in everyday life.