Re: taoism, zen, and PCP

Esteban Laso (eslaso@ibm.net)
Sun, 13 Sep 1998 17:51:28 -0500

Robert wrote:
>
>A psychotherapist I read about years ago would simply
>take his clients out into nature at night, equipped with a good telescope.
>By viewing the heavenly bodies, and contemplating their distances and
>movements and their relationship to the vast spaces between them, his
>clients gained a different perspective on their all-too-personal problems.
>They learned to construe their lives sub specie aeternitatis; a "reframe"
>(or perhaps a de-framing) which allowed for some relaxation of anxiety.
>

This reminds me of Kelly's discussion of "dilation" -the way in which
contemplating the stars and planets slowly moving can give a distressed
person a broader perspective of life. Have you read Lin Yutang's "The
importance of Living"? He cites a poem, "the 33 happy moments of Chin",
composed entirely of short descriptions of plain occasions like: "cutting
with a sharp knife a shining green watermelon over a big red dish in a hot
summer afternoon".
And here i come to what i consider kelly's most attractive feature: his
sense of humor! like Chesterton, or Lao Tse, kelly's words reveal the hidden
sides of the coin -ultimately aiming to show the fragility of what we
consider "real". Allport used to include the sense of humor in his
descriptions of what a healthy person should be. Little koans and taoist
stories can teach us a lot about humor!

Esteban

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