The study of dharma reveals a powerful insight: Meaning-making is a practice.
P.R.A.C.T.I.C.E
Unlike Western thought (Aristotelian, to be precise) which creates an either-or dichotomy between theory and practice, Dharmic thought seeks balance between opposites and seeks to transcend the tension between those opposites.
In other words, to discover dharma is to discover Arjuna within who can stand in between the two sides of the battle and sit squarely with the dharmasankata. And when you are able to sit in that uncomfortable, liminal space of dharmasankata, you get access to the divine within and transcend the dharmasankata.
Why is meaning-making practice extremely important?
In order to be sane amidst the vast sweeping changes happening around us, I am increasingly seeing the importance of having regular meaning-making standups. ( I do this regularly in the safe intimacy of my sangha)
Much like everyday standups in corporate contexts, these meaning standups play a vital role in examining three questions that make up our inner lives."
Who am I?
Where am I? (Not talking about the location where one lives).
In doing what I am doing, what am I really doing?
As much as we swear by todo lists that punctuate our working lives, we don't pay much attention to the tobe lists that stir our inner lives.
Today, digital technologies have made it easier to lose self-awareness and as our lives get increasingly marooned by digital technologies, I strongly see the need to have regular meaning standups to take stock of our lives and do a fundamental balance sheet to reconcile our being with doing.
I am in the middle of reading a fascinating book that largely confirms my intuition about where Artificial Intelligence is headed. "Why Machines Will Never Rule the World" is not a book written by a Luddite. It has been written by a philosopher along with an AI/ML researcher.
This a neat summary of the argument in the book to prove why artificial general intelligence is impossible.
Obviously, our fears don’t go away with intellectual reasoning. Today, our engagement with AI is coloured anxiety about who we are as humans.
When AI and Chatgpt machines are racing faster than humans to pursue anything that is known and knowable, perhaps the best way to figure out our imperfect humanness is constantly playing around "not-knowing".
And to discover “not-knowing”, meaning-making is the sadhana we have to do every day.
Do you do meaning-making standups? How do you do regular meaning-making?