Absolutely. To start with, I give a simple concrete suggestion in the first paragraph above about how to deal with physical pain.
Another concrete suggestion might be: any time you feel annoyed or angry, express in words exactly what the annoyance or anger is like, using metaphors, and going back and forth between your words and your experience to make sure you’ve captured the experience in as accurate and original—or non-cliched—a way as you possibly can.
A broader way to say the same thing might be: focus on those experiences that cause you emotional disturbance and express them, as accurately and as originally as possible, into an artistic medium of your choice (words, music, painting, whatever), using metaphors appropriate to that medium to convey what your experience is like.
If you do that, my contention is that you will find that your negative experiences bear within them a wealth of beauty.
There’s more to it than that, but those are a couple of concrete suggestions.
Constructive suggestion: Write more like this, less like what you posted about.
Substantively, I think one could substitute any emotion or sensation and get the same advice. Thus:
Had good sex? Write a poem exploring the feelings you experienced—it will enhance the positive experience of the sex.
Which I expect is true. But pain is generally no fun, and it isn’t clear that you think avoiding pain is worth the effort.
When I stub my toe, I’m not doing something wrong by first choosing to figure out why I stubbed my toe and what to change to avoid that in the future. And once I’ve done that, I’m not sure I have time to do what you suggested.
The reason I write like I do above is that I’m giving a philosophical vision, not a series of concrete suggestions. I’m trying to explain why suffering exists generally, and how humans have freedom not just in spite of—but because of suffering.
Of course you are right that you can express anything and possibly enhance it. But I don’t necessarily think that self-expression always alleviates pain, and I don’t think enhancing positive experiences is its point either.
What I think it does is something different. It opens up an aesthetic dimension of experience.
Let me give you another example. You watch a sad movie and are totally absorbed by it. Then you remember that it’s just a movie. And you start to think about and notice the acting, the cinematography, the set design, the costumes, the writing.
Now that doesn’t make it any less of a sad movie. It remains tragic. But it opens up aesthetic aspects of the movie-going experience.
Or to take your example of sex. Thinking closely about experience of “good sex” might actually reveal it to be, upon thought, not so good sex. So your memory of it, once you become more critical, might actually become more negative. So it need not enhance your experience.
What it will do, regardless, is deepen the aesthetic facet of the experience, deepen your appreciation of the complexities of it.
The reason I write like I do above is that I’m giving a philosophical vision, not a series of concrete suggestions.
In this venue, philosophical vision that doesn’t have implications for personal choice and behavior is not valued, which might partially explain your prior negative reception.
That said, I’m not sure you need concede that you have no suggestions for folks. You seem to be suggesting that “deeping appreciation of the complexity of experience” is something worth doing, and you have some thoughts about how to do that.
Yes, focusing would be related, and it certainly seems like an excellent technique, but it’s not quite the same thing. Focusing is particularly oriented towards bodily sensations, whereas I’m talking about experiences in broader terms, including but not limited to the body. Focusing is also a bit more passive (waiting for thoughts to occur to you) and less oriented towards art & expression. Focusing is also more oriented towards words, whereas I talk more broadly about other means of expresion. And of course the underlying philosophical frameworks are also different.
What you suggest has the benefit of improving one’s eloquence and accuracy in conveying experience.
What you suggest can turn the unproductive to the refreshingly inspired productive.
These suggestions need no philosophical support, lest another challenge the assumption they are inherently desirable. Simplicity of expression carries with it persuasion, for the reader can decide themselves whether they want the effects; pre-emptive arguments can turn them away.
Absolutely. To start with, I give a simple concrete suggestion in the first paragraph above about how to deal with physical pain.
Another concrete suggestion might be: any time you feel annoyed or angry, express in words exactly what the annoyance or anger is like, using metaphors, and going back and forth between your words and your experience to make sure you’ve captured the experience in as accurate and original—or non-cliched—a way as you possibly can.
A broader way to say the same thing might be: focus on those experiences that cause you emotional disturbance and express them, as accurately and as originally as possible, into an artistic medium of your choice (words, music, painting, whatever), using metaphors appropriate to that medium to convey what your experience is like.
If you do that, my contention is that you will find that your negative experiences bear within them a wealth of beauty.
There’s more to it than that, but those are a couple of concrete suggestions.
Constructive suggestion: Write more like this, less like what you posted about.
Substantively, I think one could substitute any emotion or sensation and get the same advice. Thus:
Which I expect is true. But pain is generally no fun, and it isn’t clear that you think avoiding pain is worth the effort.
When I stub my toe, I’m not doing something wrong by first choosing to figure out why I stubbed my toe and what to change to avoid that in the future. And once I’ve done that, I’m not sure I have time to do what you suggested.
The reason I write like I do above is that I’m giving a philosophical vision, not a series of concrete suggestions. I’m trying to explain why suffering exists generally, and how humans have freedom not just in spite of—but because of suffering.
Of course you are right that you can express anything and possibly enhance it. But I don’t necessarily think that self-expression always alleviates pain, and I don’t think enhancing positive experiences is its point either.
What I think it does is something different. It opens up an aesthetic dimension of experience.
Let me give you another example. You watch a sad movie and are totally absorbed by it. Then you remember that it’s just a movie. And you start to think about and notice the acting, the cinematography, the set design, the costumes, the writing.
Now that doesn’t make it any less of a sad movie. It remains tragic. But it opens up aesthetic aspects of the movie-going experience.
Or to take your example of sex. Thinking closely about experience of “good sex” might actually reveal it to be, upon thought, not so good sex. So your memory of it, once you become more critical, might actually become more negative. So it need not enhance your experience.
What it will do, regardless, is deepen the aesthetic facet of the experience, deepen your appreciation of the complexities of it.
In this venue, philosophical vision that doesn’t have implications for personal choice and behavior is not valued, which might partially explain your prior negative reception.
That said, I’m not sure you need concede that you have no suggestions for folks. You seem to be suggesting that “deeping appreciation of the complexity of experience” is something worth doing, and you have some thoughts about how to do that.
Have you heard of Focusing? It’s a psychological system based on that premise.
Yes, focusing would be related, and it certainly seems like an excellent technique, but it’s not quite the same thing. Focusing is particularly oriented towards bodily sensations, whereas I’m talking about experiences in broader terms, including but not limited to the body. Focusing is also a bit more passive (waiting for thoughts to occur to you) and less oriented towards art & expression. Focusing is also more oriented towards words, whereas I talk more broadly about other means of expresion. And of course the underlying philosophical frameworks are also different.
What you suggest has the benefit of improving one’s eloquence and accuracy in conveying experience.
What you suggest can turn the unproductive to the refreshingly inspired productive.
These suggestions need no philosophical support, lest another challenge the assumption they are inherently desirable. Simplicity of expression carries with it persuasion, for the reader can decide themselves whether they want the effects; pre-emptive arguments can turn them away.