Wishtank
Heretics Anonymous Talks Tank
by: Carol Price
Dear Editor,
Recently, our discussion group, Heretics Anonymous, discussed your two-part essay on mindful living. It was the perfect springboard for the sort of dialogue we aim to generate at our monthly meetings. We discuss philosophical concepts and matters of meaning because these topics rarely arise spontaneously in everyday life. Your essay was rich with important, reflective questions which gave us much to run with: What is the human potential? How does culture influence my decision-making? What does it mean to exercise one’s free will wisely? What is wisdom? These open-ended questions are not only worth examining in order to gain a clearer understanding of the human experience, but grappling with them is excellent sport for refining thinking skills.
I liked that your essay brought out the value of curiosity as an internal compass that can lead us to potential sources of meaning in our lives. Much like intuition, it is an emotional guidance system that is commonly neglected. Too often emotions are dismissed on the basis of not being rational. But when you think of it, it is not emotions that are unreliable; after all, emotions “obey” ones beliefs and perceptions. They emerge after an evaluation of an experience. They are a reaction. If there is an error, it is an error in understanding the experience, an error in thinking.
At any rate, you have reminded us that being mindful is not just thoughtful awareness, but if we are to live up to our potential we must also be emotionally astute.
Thanks for providing the food for thought. I’m sure we’ll be coming around soon to raid the “Tank” again.
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