Reflections on the first experience reports on truth-coordinated living, October 5, 2011
Some of you are at cruising altitude, while some of you still have not begun. Everyone needs to struggle for discovery, but there is a time to give additional help, and this is it.
So you’re upgrading your habits of nutrition, rest, or exercise. What more might you say in a project report on truth-coordinated living? Why not layer in a little scientific information? Why not explore the meaning of health? Construct a concept map, linking health to other key concepts that are meaningful for you. What further goods are served by health? How does health support the quest for truth, beauty, and goodness? Is there anything more to say about the connections between health and your highest spiritual or philosophical values? “Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth, beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience.” (I’m still working to understand this thought; please help.)
So you’ve tackled a front-burner personal growth need. Congratulations. How might you integrate this better with truth-coordinated living? There are lots of things that could be said, but here are some that have already begun to be effective in conversation with a couple of you. The problem has a history; there is a causal story to tell. The causes and effects may may involve genetics, early childhood experience, unfortunate decisions of your own, and various other factors. The point in listing these possibilities is not to get you to plunge into a detailed mapping of the unbeautiful past, let alone describe these details in your project report. The point is simply to enable you to begin to add some scientific categories to help you expand your understanding of how your present situation has an intelligible context.
The next thing to do is to look at your highest spiritual or philosophical values and envision the person you can become as you take responsible steps to move in that direction. As you develop a broad picture of your life, you have a more meaningful framework within which to understand the truth of your actual and potentials. As more of your mind organizes around this combined concept of understanding and destiny, your past-present-future, you are learning to integrate scientific realism and philosophical or spiritual idealism. This phrase captures the project in a nutshell. This is the simplest way to focus your project. Unless you are explicitly combining these two dimensions in your philosophy, you are not there yet.
I expect you to make an appointment with me if you have any questions after reading this.