Practical Wisdom, Dharma, and Ethical Guidelines

Last updated on: January 5, 2011 at 11:17 am by Dosho Port

Practical Wisdom, Dharma, and Ethical Guidelines 2011-01-05T11:17:00-06:00 Dosho Port

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

The above presentation by Barry Schwartz is a complementary reflection regarding the Eido Shimano situation, dharma, and ethical guidelines. Schwartz suggests that neither rules nor incentives move us to what we really want – for ourselves and others to serve the greater good. They’re necessary but the exercise of “practical wisdom,” he says, is better:

“There is a collective dissatisfaction with the way things run…. Even as we do our own work, all too often, we find ourselves having to choose between doing what we think is the right thing and doing the expected thing, or the required thing or the profitable thing…. We worry that the people we depend on don’t really have our interests at heart or if they do, they don’t know us well enough to figure out to allow us to secure those interests…. There are two kinds of responses to this general dissatisfaction. The first response is let’s make more rules…. And [the second is,] let’s come up with particularly clever incentives….”

Neither carrots nor sticks, however, work all that well. There’s always a seam in the rule and incentives often reward the surface behavior but not the deeper purpose.

Schwartz is into Aristotle and talks about how Aristotle was into watching craftsman do their work. When stone masons needed to measure round columns but had only wooden rulers, they came up with the measuring tape – and bent the rule.

Although the expression now has the nuance of being self-serving – bending the rule to suit one’s selfish interests – originally it expressed flexibility and practicality in serving our purpose for others. Aristotle and Schwartz call this “practical wisdom.”

In Buddhism, this is “dharma” in the sense of how to do things – like the dharma of eating breakfast – seamlessly with the other meanings of dharma (truth, teaching, and phenomena).

Practical wisdom as a practice is “clear comprehension” (or sampajañña) which the Buddha almost always pairs with mindfulness. There are four aspects to the clear comprehension reflection:

purpose (Pāli: sātthaka): refraining from activities irrelevant to the path.
suitability (sappāya): pursuing activities in a dignified and careful manner.
domain (gocara):[11] maintaining sensory restraint consistent with mindfulness.
non-delusion (asammoha): seeing the true nature of reality

In Zen communities, it seems to me, we have a great possibility of not only having ethical guidelines (click here for the Boundless Way draft that are well done, imv) but also creating a culture together where ethical reflection is the warp and woof of community life.

Real ethical reflection and living a creative life cannot occur when traditional power is predominant (the tyranny of the autocrat). Nor can it occur when group think is pervasive. This is “modern power” where the group acts as the authority, prescribing and enforcing norms (which can become the tyranny of the collective). I’m concerned the Zen Studies Society and Eido Shimano incident will push American Zen even further into this mode of relationship. It’s an improvement, of course, to traditional power and the attendant abuses (see the comments to the last post), however, it isn’t the ideal.

The ideal, imv, would be to come together as responsible beings, tolerant of others’ narratives, and reflect open-heartedly about how to apply practical wisdom in whatever situation we are presented with. This is what I regard as post-modern power and is an on-going way of being, not a call for more committees or discussion groups.

Uncategorized

Previous Post

January 2, 2011

Eido Shimano and Where You Really Don't Want to Wind Up

Next Post

January 9, 2011 One Good Year

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 August 2021 June 2021 April 2021 February 2021 January 2021 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 August 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 December 2016 October 2016 June 2016 April 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 August 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 June 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011 December 2010 November 2010 October 2010 September 2010 August 2010 July 2010 June 2010 May 2010 April 2010 March 2010 February 2010 January 2010 December 2009 November 2009 October 2009 September 2009 August 2009 July 2009 June 2009 May 2009 April 2009 March 2009 February 2009 January 2009 December 2008 November 2008 October 2008 September 2008 August 2008 July 2008 June 2008 May 2008

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who wrote Lamentations, mourning Jerusalem's destruction?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Obadiah Isaiah Jeremiah Ezra