the difficult fools workshop
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Steve OnyettPresentation at the #2012waic Conference - Ghent, BelgiumTRANSCRIPT
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The Difficult Fools Workshop
Steve Onye8 24th April 2012
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”Without love, and hence holiness, foolishness is just foolishness, and wisdom mere inflated knowledge” Phan, 2001.
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From Phan, P. C. (2001). The wisdom of holy fools in postmodernity. Theological Studies, 62.
² The English mysOcal treaOse The Cloud of Unknowing, asserts that
² human reason is radically incapable of knowing God.
² The “ cloud of unknowing” which lies between God and the human intellect is not pierced by the intellect but by
² “a sharp dart of love.”
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Irony in a paradoxical world Socrates feigned ignorance and foolishness, asking seemingly innocuous and naive quesOons – these gradually undermine the interlocutor’ s confidence in his knowledge and wisdom, and finally brings him to seeing the truth.
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Challenging “Crack-‐pot” realism “Everywhere people ask: ‘What can I actually do?’ The answer is as simple as it is disconcer>ng: we can, each of us, work to put our own inner house in order” E. F. Schumacher. Small is Beau>ful. p. 252 (last page).
.
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The Way of Council
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“If we aCempt to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening our own self-‐understanding, our own freedom, integrity and capacity to love, we will not have anything to give to others”
Thomas Merton
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The spiritual and leadership
“Leadership is arriving at a Ome and place deep in ourselves and deciding to have an effect on the world”
Tim “Mac” Macartney, Finding Earth, Finding Soul. p. 122
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The Spiritual?
• What is my relaOonship with life? • What is my relaOonship with the present moment?
…. and what of belief?… • “The finger poin>ng at the moon is not the moon”
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The Spiritual and Uncertainty
• “Religions and their churches find it hard to resist the temptaOon to control. We have only to hope that, as so many now seek their own authenOc spiritual relaOonship with life, sufficient numbers will lead the way to new confidence in spirituality without belief”
Tim “Mac” Macartney. Finding Earth Finding Soul, p.110
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A quick
experiment
in foolery
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1.
2.
3.
4.
Change
1.
2.
3.
4.
Stability
1.
2.
3.
4.
1.
2.
3.
4.
Negative Results of Over-
focusing on Stability
to the Neglect of Change
Neutral Name of
Left Pole
Positive Results of
Focusing on Stability
Why?
Guide to Polarity Map Content
Negative Results of Over-focusing on Change to the Neglect of Stability
Neutral Name of Right Pole
Positive Results of Focusing on Change
Higher Purpose
Deeper Fear
*
* Thanks to John Scherer, Center for Work and the Human Spirit
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Freedom Equality
Love Compassion ConnecOon
Oppression
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Being able to hold the paradox of..
Self-‐differenOaOon
A8unement
Clarity about own beliefs, values and opinions ..even in the face of other’s anxiety or opposiOon.
Understanding and responding to others beliefs, values and opinions
Builds trust that opens hearts and minds
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• The AnOcipatory and PosiOve Principles?
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“What makes .. hope radical is that it is directed toward a future goodness that transcends the current ability to understand what it is” (p.103)
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“Don’t seek happiness. • If you seek it you won’t find it, because seeking is the anOthesis of happiness.
• Happiness is ever elusive, but freedom from unhappiness is a8ainable now, by facing what is rather than making up stories about it”.
Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth. p.96
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Knowing yourself? • “Nothing you can know about you is you” p.193 • It is content not essence. • Presence is moving from form to the formless • “SOllness is the language God speaks, and everything else is a bad translaOon” (cited. p.225)
Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth.
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The Fool as a Model of Presence!
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Achieving things • “..nothing can sa>sfy the ego for long. As long as it runs your life, there are two ways of being unhappy.
• Not geMng what you want is one. • GeMng what you want is the other”.
Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth. p.207.
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AcOon? • “Not what you do, but how you do it determines whether you are fulfilling your desOny. And how you do what you do is determined by your state of consciousness”
Eckhart Tolle. A New Earth. p.294.
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Of course this might all be nonsense
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Just fooling • Take in turns to coach each other in foolery for 7” each.
• Create a space for it. You might need to ask what that is!
• Foolery means abandoning any sense of propriety to come up with as many challenges and paradoxes concerning the theory and pracOce of AI as you can.
• Be unreasonable • Be naughty
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Then-‐ another 7” each…
• Tell me a story about a Ome when you had to deal with an internal conflict that ulOmately lem you in a be8er place.
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Form a band of fools
• Join with another pair to share themes. • Is there a higher level, at which these challenges and paradoxes become resolvable?
• What does this tell us? • Be prepared to share.
