Ateneo Professional School
Makati City
November 4, 2015
As I was starting my career in business, and studying the Japanese system of management and philosophy, the emphasis for trainees and students was sunnao - emptying your cup/mind. Little did I know that this was Buddhist/Socratic philosophy at its best.
"The purpose of education is replace an empty mind with an open one" By Malcolm Forbes
Emptiness of ones emotion and mind are keys to understanding the realities of this world. Thus we may be prisoners of the barrage of advertising, so we cant quit being a shopaholic. Or we may be brainwashed by some people to be a prisoner of unreality.
Thus if we empty our mind, we accept the fact that there can be both good and bad on this earth; and that we are liberated from trite and little things that stop our growth. Our desire for material things anchor us and prevent us from moving on. This may be the same as ingenuity in Chris Lowney, the sense of being indifferent, of being detached from this world. And hence, living with one foot raised, ready to take on new challenges of this world.
From Journal of Yoga on Socrates and Buddha
Some key points in the pdf:
Only and empty mind has the ability to come to terms with the harsh reality, unfairness, and suffering of the world in a way that allows for an acceptance of the bad, while at the same time inspiring good. A similar point of view was shared by Socrates, who pointed out the necessity for people to develop a sense of humility with respect to their knowledge and intelligence. Just as Buddhism inspires people to come to terms with how little they know, or are able to control; the Socratic notion of the
knowledge of one’s ignorance allows for a person to clear his or her mind of the illusion that one is capable of a superior level of knowledge. Most people today, as well as over two millennia ago, cling tightly to a social pecking order that requires constant concern over who is smarter, who is richer, or who is more powerful.
When Socrates looked at the world around him he saw very much the same thing that Siddhartha saw – a superficial system that emphasizes relatively unimportant things and that enslaves people in the pursuit of imaginary goals. Emptiness and knowledge of ignorance are both key elements to dealing with such a world and at the same time maintaining one’s sanity. A humble person can approach such a world without becoming entangled in all of its superficialities. It is easy for an intelligent person to take a step back and overcome the simplicity of the machine that makes the world operate, but it is a much harder, if not impossible, for a person to repair the machine. The fools of the world, those who are not empty and are not aware of their own ignorance, will rush in to try to repair what they do not truly understand. The result is suffering. Suffering for those with power because they shortly realize that they are powerless, and suffering for the common person because they are now a pawn in a foolish scheme to fix the world.
People also inherently follow a competitive and exclusionary method of life. Today this principle can be seen in just about every aspect of life. If a person is not the best at work, they are fired. If a person is not better than others in school, they don’t make it to the end. People innately seem to discard the lesser part of society in a rush to move forward. To a selfish person who is engrossed in the rat race of life in the machine, this may seem acceptable. To a humble person, however, a person with and empty mind and with knowledge of one’s own imperfection, this solution does not seem as fair. The unfairness of the world also inspires thinkers, like Siddhartha and Socrates, to contemplate a solution to the problem. Eventually, however, it usually becomes clear that no solution to the problem is possible. To illustrate this point Socrates’ student Plato developed the allegory of the cave. In his allegory, all of the people of the world are in confined to a cave, able to see in only one direction. The only things that people are able to see are shadows on the wall. After a while everyone becomes convinced that the shadows are reality, without realizing that a small group of people behind them are holding up various aspects of the real world in order to create the false shadows on the wall. Plato goes on to tell of one individual who frees himself from his chains, escapes from the cave, and becomes aware of the real world above. Buddhism also encourages people to rise above the images on the wall and become aware of the real world. In Buddhist thought a person who achieves a complete understanding to the real world is said to be enlightened. A select few of the enlightened take on the cause of attempting to free the minds of others. Called the Bodhisattva, these people sacrifice a bit of their harmony in an attempt to bring others to a more peaceful level of understanding
My first reading on my first year in my undergrad (BA Philo) is Sophie's World by Jostein Gaardner, its a brief history of Philosophy from the Ancient to Modern World. But this book has talked about Socratic Philosophy. One of the quotes that have made mark on me is "Wisest is she who knows she does not know." I think that for someone to have a good perception and judgment (more so, no biases) is to accept that there are much things to be known in this world. Being humble will enable one to be taught and continue seek possibilities.
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