Mindful Living Guide (New Blog)
Hear ye! Hear ye!
A new blog is born, uncovered by another aspect of yours truly.
Hesitate no longer, folks, step right up ... but do so with awareness!
Mindful Living Guide
"In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is gained.
In the pursuit of freedom, every day something is let go of."
***
An Explanation for iNoodle.com Readers:
Where iNoodle.com is centered largely around reason, thinking, suggesting that I, and you, are "noodling" on ideas that are on our respective minds, Mindful Living Guide is about dropping those thoughts, simply being aware of them … and letting them go.
I am presently listening to a dharma talk by Gil Fronsdal. One may, therefore, accuse me of fragmenting my awareness by doing two things at once. And, I will say, "true, you are, indeed, quite right," and for this reason I have just paused this archived (11/06/06) talk. In it, Gil speaks of those who come to the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California -- for which he is the primary teacher or guide -- and how many of them, of which he includes himself, are "recovering thinkers". This propensity to be a thinker is yet another aspect of mine. I can be maddeningly logical, sharp-thinking, intense in my thoughts and in my quest to understand, to know. Studying philosophy was a natural extension of this aspect.
When I first registered the domain name, iNoodle.com, I was developing a high-growth, venture-capital-worthy business concept focused on a web portal designed to inspire and challenge young people who, I feel, are in sore need of quality, un-Disney-like educational and informational content which could truly help them to develop, not only intellectually, but as grounded, ethical human beings within modern society.
I had long been struggling with whether to continue my entrepreneurial aspect, my management consulting aspect—with the idea of making my proverbial fortune so that I could, then, focus on my own philosophical education, walk in the woods even more, make art, and play my guitar—or, to cease-and-desist from business altogether. I had already been managing a, then, unique management consulting firm that I had co-founded with my wife, Rebecca, in 1994, shortly before I left my corporate career to go off on my own.
At any rate, this is how I explained (in the spring of 1999) the use of the name, iNoodle, within the pre-business-plan concept paper which was shortly thereafter in the hands of interested venture capitalists:
A year before entering graduate school in 2002 to study Western philosophy and classics—one of those sweet dreams that in coming true still seems utterly magical, particularly in finding a school (St. John’s College) which hearkens back to a sort of eighteenth-century, enlightenment-era mode of classical liberal arts education—I completed my first ten-day Vipassana meditation course. Originally, I had been accepted into the first of my two graduate programs for the Fall 2001 term, and would have matriculated on or around the same day that I, instead, began the intensive residential meditation course. But, I decided for a number of reasons to defer entry to the Graduate Institute at St. John's College until, at least, the following year. As it turned out, I did matriculate the following year. Somewhat ironically, I was entering one of the most traditional, classically oriented liberal arts (largely philosophy-centric) programs in the US if not the Western world; but, I was doing so as a Vipassana, or Buddhist, meditator. For those who may not know much about Buddhist meditation, conceptual thinking is not what it's about.
The upshot to this, is that I entered my formal Western philosophy and classics studies grounded in meditative awareness, experiential knowledge.
And, while I have the propensity to lose myself (a very Buddhist thing to do!) in Western philosophy, as it suits my logical, "noodling" mind, I recognized before embarking on the program the inherent shortcomings of intellectual conceptualization. This would, ultimately, culminate in my writing my master's thesis on the limits of human understanding. The tongue-in-cheek-for-the-initiated, and therefore perhaps pompous, title of my thesis (actually an essay, in the traditional sense of the word) was "An Essay concerning Human Enquiry: Exploring the Intersection of Hume and Kant—Perception, Causation and the Limits of Human Understanding".
Three years later—and another master’s degree program, in Eastern (India, China and Japan) philosophy and classics, completed—I am all the more convinced that while conceptual thinking certainly has a role to play in our day-to-day, and indeed in our philosophical, lives, it, in and of itself, is not the highest form of being. In short, conceptualization and the language we use to construct our thoughts have inherent limitations. And, so, while not denying my conceptual-oriented, noodling aspect, I have long been focusing more and more on my more mindful, more meditative aspect, as I know, experientially, that therein lies peace of mind, and the wisdom which can, then, bubble-up in an experiential, rather than conceptual, way.
While I will continue to write, and intend to carry-on with the iNoodle.com pursuit, I have also decided—as has Rebecca—to offer both group workshops, and one-to-one guidance, in mindful living (as the goal) and meditation and personal writing (as the means or practice). These—mindful living, meditation and writing—have for many years been our foundational pursuit. However, our personal practice and life experience, our formal education, and our skills as teachers are, naturally, culminating in such a way that it makes sense for us to take one more—in some ways quite big, in other ways quite small—step toward more mindful living, ourselves, by way of our working with others who are interested in doing the same.
My new, Mindful Living Guide, blog, therefore, is an outgrowth of both Rebecca's and my own practice and our work guiding others in mindful living, meditation and writing.
Please stop by the still-early-stage blog for a visit, and let us know if you have questions or comments regarding the site, any of its contents, or our work.
In peace,
Sean
A new blog is born, uncovered by another aspect of yours truly.
Hesitate no longer, folks, step right up ... but do so with awareness!
Mindful Living Guide
"In the pursuit of knowledge, every day something is gained.
In the pursuit of freedom, every day something is let go of."
An Explanation for iNoodle.com Readers:
Where iNoodle.com is centered largely around reason, thinking, suggesting that I, and you, are "noodling" on ideas that are on our respective minds, Mindful Living Guide is about dropping those thoughts, simply being aware of them … and letting them go.
I am presently listening to a dharma talk by Gil Fronsdal. One may, therefore, accuse me of fragmenting my awareness by doing two things at once. And, I will say, "true, you are, indeed, quite right," and for this reason I have just paused this archived (11/06/06) talk. In it, Gil speaks of those who come to the Insight Meditation Center in Redwood City, California -- for which he is the primary teacher or guide -- and how many of them, of which he includes himself, are "recovering thinkers". This propensity to be a thinker is yet another aspect of mine. I can be maddeningly logical, sharp-thinking, intense in my thoughts and in my quest to understand, to know. Studying philosophy was a natural extension of this aspect.
When I first registered the domain name, iNoodle.com, I was developing a high-growth, venture-capital-worthy business concept focused on a web portal designed to inspire and challenge young people who, I feel, are in sore need of quality, un-Disney-like educational and informational content which could truly help them to develop, not only intellectually, but as grounded, ethical human beings within modern society.
I had long been struggling with whether to continue my entrepreneurial aspect, my management consulting aspect—with the idea of making my proverbial fortune so that I could, then, focus on my own philosophical education, walk in the woods even more, make art, and play my guitar—or, to cease-and-desist from business altogether. I had already been managing a, then, unique management consulting firm that I had co-founded with my wife, Rebecca, in 1994, shortly before I left my corporate career to go off on my own.
At any rate, this is how I explained (in the spring of 1999) the use of the name, iNoodle, within the pre-business-plan concept paper which was shortly thereafter in the hands of interested venture capitalists:
The name is a lighthearted play on words of the oft-used "i" for dot-coms (e.g., iVillage) and "I" as the first-person pronoun, with "noodle" referring to creative thinking or analysis, suggesting the phrases I think, I reason, or I ponder.The following—from an earlier rendition of the iNoodle.com website, pre-blog-state—explains, in retrospect, what happened next:
After a solo camping trip [also in the spring of 1999] to Cape Cod [Massachusetts] to consider whether I really wanted to found and manage another startup company, I soon decided amongst the natural beauty and solitude of the off-season Cape that I did not . . . not no way, not no how. Perhaps this decision was bolstered by the fact that I was then reading the works of Henry David Thoreau, a fellow Massachusetts-born freethinker and advocate for the simple life.And, so, the whole iNoodle concept developed around thinking, analyzing, and being intellectually awake, returning to our natural pondering philosophical, reasoning selves.
However, Rebecca and I continue to like the name, iNoodle, as it reflects both our contemplative personalities as well as the mindful enthusiasm we bring to our work as educators, consultants and writers.
A year before entering graduate school in 2002 to study Western philosophy and classics—one of those sweet dreams that in coming true still seems utterly magical, particularly in finding a school (St. John’s College) which hearkens back to a sort of eighteenth-century, enlightenment-era mode of classical liberal arts education—I completed my first ten-day Vipassana meditation course. Originally, I had been accepted into the first of my two graduate programs for the Fall 2001 term, and would have matriculated on or around the same day that I, instead, began the intensive residential meditation course. But, I decided for a number of reasons to defer entry to the Graduate Institute at St. John's College until, at least, the following year. As it turned out, I did matriculate the following year. Somewhat ironically, I was entering one of the most traditional, classically oriented liberal arts (largely philosophy-centric) programs in the US if not the Western world; but, I was doing so as a Vipassana, or Buddhist, meditator. For those who may not know much about Buddhist meditation, conceptual thinking is not what it's about.
The upshot to this, is that I entered my formal Western philosophy and classics studies grounded in meditative awareness, experiential knowledge.
And, while I have the propensity to lose myself (a very Buddhist thing to do!) in Western philosophy, as it suits my logical, "noodling" mind, I recognized before embarking on the program the inherent shortcomings of intellectual conceptualization. This would, ultimately, culminate in my writing my master's thesis on the limits of human understanding. The tongue-in-cheek-for-the-initiated, and therefore perhaps pompous, title of my thesis (actually an essay, in the traditional sense of the word) was "An Essay concerning Human Enquiry: Exploring the Intersection of Hume and Kant—Perception, Causation and the Limits of Human Understanding".
Three years later—and another master’s degree program, in Eastern (India, China and Japan) philosophy and classics, completed—I am all the more convinced that while conceptual thinking certainly has a role to play in our day-to-day, and indeed in our philosophical, lives, it, in and of itself, is not the highest form of being. In short, conceptualization and the language we use to construct our thoughts have inherent limitations. And, so, while not denying my conceptual-oriented, noodling aspect, I have long been focusing more and more on my more mindful, more meditative aspect, as I know, experientially, that therein lies peace of mind, and the wisdom which can, then, bubble-up in an experiential, rather than conceptual, way.
While I will continue to write, and intend to carry-on with the iNoodle.com pursuit, I have also decided—as has Rebecca—to offer both group workshops, and one-to-one guidance, in mindful living (as the goal) and meditation and personal writing (as the means or practice). These—mindful living, meditation and writing—have for many years been our foundational pursuit. However, our personal practice and life experience, our formal education, and our skills as teachers are, naturally, culminating in such a way that it makes sense for us to take one more—in some ways quite big, in other ways quite small—step toward more mindful living, ourselves, by way of our working with others who are interested in doing the same.
My new, Mindful Living Guide, blog, therefore, is an outgrowth of both Rebecca's and my own practice and our work guiding others in mindful living, meditation and writing.
Please stop by the still-early-stage blog for a visit, and let us know if you have questions or comments regarding the site, any of its contents, or our work.
In peace,
Sean
posted by Sean M. Madden at
5:20 PM
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