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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (69904)	1/18/2009 2:59:59 PM
From: koan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

>>What would you tell me about self-actualization? Is there a recommended procedure for pursuing/encouraging this event/process?<< The recommended procedure is the desire to persue it. You relentlessly follow the path though you have no idea where it is going, or what you will find. It is a matter of making the journey. The reason Maslow put it at the end of the hirerarchy of needs was becasue one had to have the time as well as commitment to do it. Self actualization is an awareness that has no words. It is the understanding of the need for the journey and what that entails that is important. Neitzsche said when he first read Doestevsky tears came to my eyes as I had found a brother. Zen and existentialism. Self Actualization I think is both profound and confusing. The Japanese are both the most polite and poetic and enlightened, yet can be the most cruel. Many religions teach the pursit of knowldege. Just not ours-so much-lol.

To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (69904)	1/19/2009 12:21:01 AM
From: JF Quinnelly	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

I vote with the inner engineer. "self-actualization" is one of the raft of terms that no one can define, but everyone pretends to know. It makes me think of the actor who gave a speech to the Modern Language Association. The speech was filled with high-sounding jargon that appeared to say that science is bunk. It was well received by the Modern Linguists, until they were told that the speech was a hoax designed to show that they couldn't understand the very gibberish that they routinely use in place of thought. Deconstruction deconstructed.

To: Jacques Chitte who wrote (69904)	1/19/2009 11:49:05 AM
From: Rambi	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

JC, You do understand it. Freddy is right- it's one of those terms that has been kidnapped and tried to be made to mean more than it does- as if it contains superior and esoteric knowledge than the average person can't achieve without some enormous ubermensch effort. All self-actualization means is attempting to live to your potential. (It is the final level of Maslow's hierarchy only because a starving person isn't too interested in understanding the world around him and his place in it.) I have known you all here for over ten years. You are one of the most brilliant, wellread and educated people around, and Freddy is an autodidact of astounding breadth. I also know you both on more personal levels, and what each of you has been through. It is terribly presumptuous for someone to come in here and tell you that you don't "understand" something and should read more! It would be arrogant of any of us to make these assumptions about someone else's life journey. I would even presume to say that what we do here on SI is a form of self-actualization. We think, we read, we write, we integrate, we communicate. Your openness to learning more speaks to your ongoing effort to know yourself. Really, the Army encapsulated it with "Be the best that you can be". It just means you are motivated to learn, to do the best you can with your life, to try to understand your place in it- something I know you, Freddy, I, are all constantly doing- whether we label the process with some literary or psychological buzzword or not. I love Koan's enthusiasm, but I don't believe that throwing terms around grants some sort of real insight or authority when it comes to life.