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Marcus Bolt - Process Not Prozac

Instead of Testing. From Walter Segall, January 3, 2008. Time 18:5

When we test we are bothering The All Powerful and asking him for information which He hasn't chosen to make easily available to us. It may be that we should only test rarely and for good cause selecting problems for which we really can find no answer about right courses of action to take.

For almost all problems in the lives of ourselves and of Subud we might do well to solve them in ordinary ways using our hearts and minds.

From David W, January 4, 2008. Time 2:24

Hi Walter

I'm currently listening to a set of UC Berkeley lectures on existentialism.

You will need iTunes to download these. iTunes is a free download for Mac or Windows, A is available from here

You can find the lectures at here( http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/berkeley.edu.78023846 )

I think you would enjoy them.

In the first three lectures, Hubert Dreyfus, who it a top guy in philosophy, characterises Western culture as one which is both informed, and torn between, two powerful influences:

• the Hebrew

• the Greek

He says this tension both troubles us, and also drives our culture in a particularly powerful way. The Hebrew tradition emphasises revelation, personal history, and the particular importance of events in time. The Greek tradition emphasises reason, impersonal patterns, and the importance of what does not change over time.

In the first few lectures, he covers the joining of the two traditions, first in the Gospel of St John, and then by Augustine, Aquinas and Dante. The existentialists, starting with Kierkegaard, basically said that these attempts were failures, and offer something new.

What I think has happened in Subud is that many people have attempted to escape the tension by dumping reason and focusing on revelation. Dreyfus (you know from his name he is Jewish!) explains why this simply won't work. Both these lines of cultural heritage are important, and you can't deny either.

So just subordinating reason (heart and mind) may work in Java, with its cultural history. It won't work--nor has it worked--for us in the West.

Best

David

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