Having a practical bent can mean that I am pragmatic. But I prefer to engage the modifier “practical” more broadly. I can train myself in the techniques of a given kind. To do so is to put them into practice. Among the myriad of practices lies theorizing, meditating, pondering, reflecting etc., all kinds of contemplative activity. The practical spirit involves mindfulness. It means engaging in a particular set of skills corresponding to a given area of life. It does not exclude the theoretical, i.e. contemplative.

The practical spirit manifests in at least three empirical modes: contemplative, scientific, and operative. Of course, both contemplation and science, by being deemed practical, have operational aspects. Some kind of working idea or process arises from doing either. Moreover, the operative relies on the ability to ponder and the ability to experiment. The asserted differentiation relies on which is brought forward for engagement.

To practice some forms of contemplation is to enter the realm of imaginative possibilities. It does not require the material world for more than a jumping board. This opens wide the doors of free fantasy. Scientific practice limits itself to focusing on the material world, the measurable probabilities. A scientific experiment works according to how formal understanding can explicate material conditions. Finally, the operative approaches the world by way of what works, how things get done. The operational bent is the most common for many. Almost all instruction in the Current Empire prioritizes “useful outcomes” and “predictable successes”. It places these over critical reflection and playful experiment. Each signifies a particular way of relating to what cannot be controlled or predicted.

1. Contemplative spirit struggles with mystery beyond the everyday, always aware that not everything can be captured for measurement.

2. Scientific spirit seeks to domesticate mystery by connecting the unexpected to earlier discoveries that allow for categorization.

3. Operative spirit tries to remove mystery. It does this by preferring predictable patterns. These patterns especially allow for profitable exchange and better organization.¹

This set of distinctions begins a series I am calling “Transgressing the Fourfold Ambiguity of Emptiness.” Ironically, it will address why we should make fewer distinctions. Hopefully, it will also explore how to free ourselves from the tyranny of finessed notions.

But I start where most folks are. They are swimming in a sea of differentiation. They do not really know how to navigate or when to simply drift. The prevalence of the operative over the others in this threefold structure reveals the need for transistance under the Current Empire. Living requires using mindful practices to move through and beyond established orientations. This journey takes us back toward the uncertain, the unexpected, and the uncanny.

Our operationalism has brought about mechanisms of systematic dehumanization—forever wars, genocidal mania, human trafficking, incarcerated slavery, etc. These mechanisms render all three approaches untenable without a great deal of effort on our part. I must disentangle the powers of the practical spirit: They have come to serve the ends of the Current Empire. The contemplative struggles with heavy issues for a time. However, it soon retreats into abstractions that assuage the soul. These conjectures hide the reality to which I contribute everyday. The scientific continues on from successful categorizing. However, in its institutional guise, it often avoids the complicity in lived suffering that techno-science carries. The operative maximizes utility and convenience. Yet, it does this without following the lines of its collaboration within the very systems producing harm.

To transgress the imposed limitations, I look toward that which offsets everything–Emptiness. The series will meander through the terrain of intellectual history. I will seek hope of liberation that erodes authoritarian obsessions with security, predictability, and control.

Tentative Series Outline:

• Whispering New Directions {CURRENT]
• A Fourfold for the Current Empire [NEXT]
• Decluttering Awareness: Nagarjuna and Emptiness [NEXT]
• Showing-Up for Emptiness: Excellence Between Obsession and Apathy
• Responsive to Skillful Attention
• Care-Free Wandering (Zhuangzi)
• Traversing not Avoiding Nihilism (Nishitani)

1. Of course, merely possessing the social role that might be associated with one of the modes–artists and philosophers; scientists and engineers; politicians and businesspersons–does not mean they uniquely possess the corresponding aspect of the practical spirit. ↩︎