Getting to why? Contemplative practice as reflection on intentionality
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies March 23, 2015 DOI: 10.4102/hts.v71i1.2701
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractConflict and stuckness arise from actions, behaviors, or events—the 'landscape of action.' Attempts to escape by swapping one set of actions for another, without examining the intentionality or 'why' behind them, often perpetuate the problem. Alternating initiatives in the landscape of action offers only temporary relief. The intentionality behind actions must be revisited, and contemplative practices—such as mindfulness and reflecting on soul—can facilitate this reflection. This is a teleological exercise traversing the dimensions of 'what' (actions), 'how' (methodology), and 'why' (intentionality), drawing on the biology of human decision-making.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Interventions | Mindfulness reflecting on soul |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key finding | Alternating actions without reflecting on intentionality perpetuates stuckness; contemplative practices facilitate the needed reflection on purpose. |
Abstract
In my experience, conflict and other forms of being stuck or (as it is commonly referred to in narrative texts) ‘stuckness’ are related to actions, behaviour or events. If we consider a narrative paradigm, they happen in the realm of the Bruner’s ‘landscape of action’. Efforts at escaping these problem-saturated experiences mostly resort to replacing these actions, habits, modes of operation or rules with a different set of rules, without first reflecting on the intentionality or ‘why’ behind the actions. Most often this only serves to perpetuate the problem. This article will attempt to show that alternating between various initiatives in the ‘landscape of action’ provides only temporary respite to the problem, if any; that the intentionality behind these actions needs to be revisited and that contemplative practice facilitate such reflection on intentionality. This is therefore an exercise in reflecting on intentionality or even purpose, that is, a teleological question. This process traverses the dimensions of ‘what’ (actions), ‘how’ (methodology) and ‘why’ (intentionality), referring to the biology of human decision-making in the process of doing so. This article posits that this reflection may be facilitated by contemplative practices such as mindfulness and reflecting on soul.