- Reasoning exercises (impersonal, objective)
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Poetry writing
- Involvement in poetry reading societies
- Exercises concerning discipline of will
- The observance of good debate teams
- The reading of some much loved fiction
- Intelligent (not sour or critical) company
- Homoeopathic prescriptive for tolerance
All
men are energetic to life’s offerings! They are excited and
enthused, rapportive and ecstatic - responsive and collective - they
love
life! However,
during certain episodes within a lifetime we can be presented with
too many incoming choices and experiences, many of which we have to
‘dutifully’ come to ignore, for the sake of propriety, for
‘peace’ or for tardiness.
Unfortunately,
very quickly, the elated and most passionate of feelings are
associated with those things that are disruptive or unobtainable to
our person. When we begin to become excited or delighted there is a
dismay which is fast padding its way behind - an elemental queasiness
that says ‘let's be sensible’, or mutters that of former
disappointments and so forth.
The
philosophically weak are generally such fellows that due to past
circumstances have held grave disappointments about themselves and
the way it has all worked out. They may be, by contrast (yet true to
this nature) the most wonderful of idealists at heart - but due to a
depressed ego (‘depressed’ as
in sad, and
‘depressed’ as
in held under)
their tolerance is poor, their reasoning ability lacking tensility,
and their sense of self forever in question, or awash in some
watercolor splash of ‘oneness’ or nothing.
Reasoning,
of itself, brings further gifts to any individual who just happens to
be around it, even regardless of their thinking. The child who grows
up in the company of those who can reason well (a pure uncontaminated
reasoning, rather than a selfish, exploitative, manipulating, lower
band of reasoning) shall grow with that mind-space ever after
apparent, when compared to the dear little souls who have not had
such an advantage. This is measurably illustrated.
To
a lesser degree the same can be for adults whose needs are that they
should be exposed to some bright minds which correspond upon the
higher ethers and make party there amongst the thought.
Philosophy
is not frivolity, but it does require a level of happiness that the
thinker is relaxed enough to be open to his new ideas. A sad mind
cannot comprehend new thought, but closes off from the world and
often, because of this, counselling to the sad needs come from the
past with those ideas that they already have available - for it is
not a time or a possibility to introduce spheres of hitherto
unexplored terrain to help move them out from themselves - the
condition itself does prohibit it.
And so, for the reasoning, we would look to a balance of happy and enjoyable imaginative experiences, with also the more practical enstrengthening exercises. There is a need for ‘sound’ thinking which holds a proven basis in reality, and there are exercises which can be managed to do just that - re-establish the connections between the mind and the truth which lives independently of the thinker.
And so, for the reasoning, we would look to a balance of happy and enjoyable imaginative experiences, with also the more practical enstrengthening exercises. There is a need for ‘sound’ thinking which holds a proven basis in reality, and there are exercises which can be managed to do just that - re-establish the connections between the mind and the truth which lives independently of the thinker.
3 comments:
http://www.bach-flowers.co.uk/remedies/bach_beech.asp I've looked for a homeopathic prescriptive for tolerance, and this one came up. There are most probably others.
Human Indication for Beech: for people who are constantly making criticisms, intolerant of other people’s shortcomings and unable to make allowances. They find it hard to see the good in others. They have a strong sense of their own superiority, can be judgmental and arrogant and are easily irritated by other people’s mannerisms or habits. They are convinced that they are always in the right and everyone else in the wrong. The positive potential of Beech is tolerance and a sense of compassion for and unity with others. The positive Beech person can see the good in others despite their imperfections.
“…I get annoyed by the habits of others”
“…I focus on others’ mistakes”
“…I am critical and intolerant”
Reasoning exercises.
Abstract Reasoning: abstract reasoning exercises
www.mentesenblanco-razonamientoabstracto.com
Here is an exercise of this kind, quoted from Boyd Barrett's book Strength of Will and How to Develop It (New York, Harper, 1931): "Resolution—Each day, for the next seven days, I will stand on a chair, here in my room, for ten consecutive minutes, and I will try to do so contentedly." At the end of this ten minutes' task write down the sensations and the mental states you have experienced during that time. Do the same on each of the seven days. The following are excerpts from reports contained in the book:
"1st day: Exercise a little strange, unnatural. Had to smile or cross my arms and stand akimbo in order to feel contented. It was arduous to me to hold or keep myself in an attitude of voluntary satisfaction doing nothing. Naturally I was distracted by various thoughts, for instance: 'What will this experience lead to?', etc.
"2nd day: The time of the exercise passed easily and agreeably. I had a sense of satisfaction, of pride, of virility. I feel 'toned up' mentally and physically by the mere fact of exercising my will, and by holding to my resolution.
"3rd day: Have had a sense of power in performing this exercise imposed by myself on myself. Joy and energy are experienced in willing, and in the practice of willing. This exercise 'tones me up' morally, and awakens in me a sense of nobility, and of virility. I maintain an attitude, not of submission and resignation, but to will actively what I am doing, and it is this that gives me satisfaction."
Boyd Barrett proposes several other exercises of the same kind, which we quote in part: "1. Repeat quietly and aloud: 'I will do this, keeping time with rhythmic movements of a stick or ruler for five minutes.
2. Walk to and fro in a room, touching in turn, say, a dock on the mantelpiece and a particular pane of glass for five minutes.
3. Listen to the ticking of a clock or watch, making some definite movements at every fifth tick.
4. Get up and down from a chair thirty times.
5. Replace in a box, very slowly and deliberately, one hundred matches or bits of paper. (An exercise particularly adapted to combat impulsiveness.)” Similar exercises can be invented ad libitum. The important thing is not the doing of this or that exercise, but the manner in which it is performed. It should be done willingly, with interest, with precision, with style. Try always to improve the quality of the work, the dearness of introspection, the fidelity of the written account, and above all to develop the awareness and the energy of the will. It is good to compete with oneself; in other words, to assume a "sporting attitude" in the best sense of the word.
-The Training of the Will, By Roberto Assagioli
Post a Comment