Darrell Calkins's Blog - Posts Tagged "darrell-calkins-blog"
Anna Deavere Smith on Discipline and How We Can Learn to Stop Letting Others Define Us
21 May 2015
Anna Deavere Smith on Discipline and How We Can Learn to Stop Letting Others Define Us
by Maria Popova
“Art should take what is complex and render it simply. It takes a lot of skill, human understanding, stamina, courage, energy, and heart to do that. It takes, most of all, what a great scholar of artists and educators, Maxine Greene, calls ‘wide-awakeness’ to do that. I am interested in the artist who is awake, or who wants desperately to wake up.
Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility — both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that we know we don’t know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.”
~ Anna Deavere Smith
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
Anna Deavere Smith on Discipline and How We Can Learn to Stop Letting Others Define Us
by Maria Popova
“Art should take what is complex and render it simply. It takes a lot of skill, human understanding, stamina, courage, energy, and heart to do that. It takes, most of all, what a great scholar of artists and educators, Maxine Greene, calls ‘wide-awakeness’ to do that. I am interested in the artist who is awake, or who wants desperately to wake up.
Confidence is a static state. Determination is active. Determination allows for doubt and for humility — both of which are critical in the world today. There is so much that we don’t know, and so much that we know we don’t know. To be overly confident or without doubt seems silly to me. Determination, on the other hand, is a commitment to win, a commitment to fight the good fight.”
~ Anna Deavere Smith
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.ph...
"I’m just discovering your work through your website..."
27 May 2015
“I’m just discovering your work through your website, which is a refreshingly elegant, articulate and original integration of so much, with this strangely encouraging stream of sincerity running through. You’ve got an enormous, volatile mass of ideas and flashlights pointing in various directions. Part of me isn’t quite sure what to make of it all, especially as it relates specifically to your ‘Personal Skills Development’ subtitle. For example, as much as I like and enjoy Wade Davis’ Cultures at the Far Edge of the World presentation linked on your blog, I don’t immediately see the connection to personal skills. In general your offerings seem more in the category of philosophy or spiritual thought.”
Thank you for writing in with your reflections. I appreciate the feedback.
My hope and intent is to provide a wide range of resources and ideas that provoke real questions and considerations under the surface of common dialogue. With a definite thrust toward clues for moving beyond limiting patterns that restrict our personal and communal evolution and experience of, as well as effectiveness in, life. Part of that is about giving different angles of insight into the why and how of developing skills, whatever they may be. I think the larger discussion, or maybe the more relevant one surrounding skills development, involves what quality of fuel is being used to run the skill. Inevitably, and very quickly, this enters into considerations of how much of oneself one brings to the show. For example, anyone can learn a sophisticated skill in an extremely short period of time, once they’re completely convinced of the need, benefit and value of doing so and find enough full-bodied conviction to engage it accordingly (“You never hear anyone practicing a language; they simply listen and then begin to speak.” — Wade Davis).
There’s a tunnel between our external skill sets and our deepest longings and passions. People with the highest developed skills always know how to traverse that tunnel. That is, personal integration and wholeness — and consequent accomplishment and fulfillment — are largely about “enlightening” the tool with the best we have in us. The tool could be anything — a voice or body, a musical instrument or paint brush, a trowel or computer. But skill is made up of capability, and that requires practiced familiarity over time with how to inject into the moment our unique talents, virtues and qualities.
Concerning the Wade Davis presentation… That’s placed there for a number of reasons. First, opening one’s mind to the spectrum of human creativity, perception and ways of living can help to free us up from our own self-created restrictive constraints. We have a lot more options than we believe, everywhere and with everything. Second, his presentation itself is a superb example of high quality fuel; obviously he’s absolutely sincere and passionately (and compassionately) engaged in what he’s presenting, the tunnel is being traversed as he goes and it’s easy to see. Third, he’s done his homework across the board over time, so knowledge into skill into accomplished result is clearly on display. (I’m also a big fan of the idea that good communication can solve 90% of all problems, and he’s a good communicator, which is a very complex, and important, personal skill.)
There you go. I hope this helps to clarify, and thank you, again.
~ Darrell
“I’m just discovering your work through your website, which is a refreshingly elegant, articulate and original integration of so much, with this strangely encouraging stream of sincerity running through. You’ve got an enormous, volatile mass of ideas and flashlights pointing in various directions. Part of me isn’t quite sure what to make of it all, especially as it relates specifically to your ‘Personal Skills Development’ subtitle. For example, as much as I like and enjoy Wade Davis’ Cultures at the Far Edge of the World presentation linked on your blog, I don’t immediately see the connection to personal skills. In general your offerings seem more in the category of philosophy or spiritual thought.”
Thank you for writing in with your reflections. I appreciate the feedback.
My hope and intent is to provide a wide range of resources and ideas that provoke real questions and considerations under the surface of common dialogue. With a definite thrust toward clues for moving beyond limiting patterns that restrict our personal and communal evolution and experience of, as well as effectiveness in, life. Part of that is about giving different angles of insight into the why and how of developing skills, whatever they may be. I think the larger discussion, or maybe the more relevant one surrounding skills development, involves what quality of fuel is being used to run the skill. Inevitably, and very quickly, this enters into considerations of how much of oneself one brings to the show. For example, anyone can learn a sophisticated skill in an extremely short period of time, once they’re completely convinced of the need, benefit and value of doing so and find enough full-bodied conviction to engage it accordingly (“You never hear anyone practicing a language; they simply listen and then begin to speak.” — Wade Davis).
There’s a tunnel between our external skill sets and our deepest longings and passions. People with the highest developed skills always know how to traverse that tunnel. That is, personal integration and wholeness — and consequent accomplishment and fulfillment — are largely about “enlightening” the tool with the best we have in us. The tool could be anything — a voice or body, a musical instrument or paint brush, a trowel or computer. But skill is made up of capability, and that requires practiced familiarity over time with how to inject into the moment our unique talents, virtues and qualities.
Concerning the Wade Davis presentation… That’s placed there for a number of reasons. First, opening one’s mind to the spectrum of human creativity, perception and ways of living can help to free us up from our own self-created restrictive constraints. We have a lot more options than we believe, everywhere and with everything. Second, his presentation itself is a superb example of high quality fuel; obviously he’s absolutely sincere and passionately (and compassionately) engaged in what he’s presenting, the tunnel is being traversed as he goes and it’s easy to see. Third, he’s done his homework across the board over time, so knowledge into skill into accomplished result is clearly on display. (I’m also a big fan of the idea that good communication can solve 90% of all problems, and he’s a good communicator, which is a very complex, and important, personal skill.)
There you go. I hope this helps to clarify, and thank you, again.
~ Darrell
The word wakefulness is a synonym for mindfulness...
The word wakefulness is a synonym for mindfulness. Wakefulness is described by the American physician Jon Kabat-Zinn as a state of mindful awareness. By being fully awake in the present moment, Kabat-Zinn suggests that we can live fully, with great awareness and intent, which has the potential to give us and those around us an improved sense of peace, joy and well-being.
"Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else - it's about being where you are and knowing it. We are talking about awareness itself: a whole repertoire of ways of knowing that virtually all come through the senses.
My definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are, so that you can do whatever you can to optimize your potential, whether you are living with chronic pain or having a baby. You can't control the universe, so mindfulness involves learning to cultivate wisdom and equanimity- not passive resignation-in the face of what Zorba the Greek called the full catastrophe of the human condition."
Jon Kabat-Zinn
http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/11...
https://youtu.be/EFwbgamhaWU
https://youtu.be/8Voz1YwviMU
"Mindfulness is often spoken of as the heart of Buddhist meditation. It's not about Buddhism, but about paying attention. That's what all meditation is, no matter what tradition or particular technique is used.
In Asian languages, the word for mind and the word for heart are the same. So if you're not hearing mindfulness in some deep way as heartfulness, you're not really understanding it. Compassion and kindness are intrinsically woven into it. You could think of mindfulness as wise and affectionate attention.
Mindfulness is not about getting anywhere else - it's about being where you are and knowing it. We are talking about awareness itself: a whole repertoire of ways of knowing that virtually all come through the senses.
My definition of healing is coming to terms with things as they are, so that you can do whatever you can to optimize your potential, whether you are living with chronic pain or having a baby. You can't control the universe, so mindfulness involves learning to cultivate wisdom and equanimity- not passive resignation-in the face of what Zorba the Greek called the full catastrophe of the human condition."
Jon Kabat-Zinn
http://healthland.time.com/2012/01/11...
https://youtu.be/EFwbgamhaWU
https://youtu.be/8Voz1YwviMU
"It is up to us to devise our own rituals. I feel that ritual rises from the earth..."
"It is up to us to devise our own rituals. I feel that ritual rises from the earth. If we slow down and listen to the land we are on, we will know what to do. Our rituals must speak to the particular ways we've been shaped, or misshaped, by our culture. One of the values of ritual is that it has the capacity to derange us, to shake us out of old forms. We need that derangement, because the current arrangement isn't working. We have ceremonies, but we come out of those pretty much the same as when we went in. You're supposed to emerge from a ritual wondering what the hell just happened."
~ Francis Weller
https://youtu.be/EaI-4c92Mqo
Continue reading on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
http://www.cobaltsaffron.com/blog-dar...
~ Francis Weller
https://youtu.be/EaI-4c92Mqo
Continue reading on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
http://www.cobaltsaffron.com/blog-dar...
Humor in Wisdom
"Laughing is the shortest distance between two people." Victor Borge
"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight." Leo Rosten
"Laughter is carbonated holiness." Anne Lamott
"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." Margaret Mead
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright
"Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly." Paulo Coelho
Humor in Wisdom
http://www.wisdomcommons.org/virtues/...
Guided Meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m...
Thank you, Carter
Read more on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
http://www.cobaltsaffron.com/blog-dar...
"Humor is the affectionate communication of insight." Leo Rosten
"Laughter is carbonated holiness." Anne Lamott
"Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else." Margaret Mead
"A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort." Herm Albright
"Life is short. Kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly and forgive quickly." Paulo Coelho
Humor in Wisdom
http://www.wisdomcommons.org/virtues/...
Guided Meditation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92i5m...
Thank you, Carter
Read more on the Darrell Calkins CobaltSaffron Blog...
http://www.cobaltsaffron.com/blog-dar...
