Word: mind
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Chutzpah is the term that comes to mind when reading Israel Katz's response to President Obama's efforts to solve the West Bank--settlement issue. Israel accepted $2.4 billion in aid last year from U.S. taxpayers, yet the Katz family and fellow settlers tell us to "butt out." Californians could use that money to ease our budget crisis, and we know better than to bite the hand that feeds us--even when it's our money in the first place. Doris Concklin, CARMICHAEL, CALIF...
...aren't absolutely certain how to proceed is liberating, and crucial. I like paradoxes, which is why, even though I'm not particularly religious, Zen Buddhism has always appealed to me. Take the paradoxical state that Buddhists seek to achieve, what they call sho-shin, or "beginner's mind." The 20th century Japanese Zen master Shunryu Suzuki, who spent the last dozen years of his life in America, famously wrote that "in the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, but in the expert's mind there are few." Which sounds to me very much like the core of Boorstin...
...sessions, I learned that B loves to think about psychology. Though his humor appears effortless, it is really the product of constant analysis. He makes hypotheses about what kinds of laughs might be associated with particular brain states. He keeps a running list of what people say about the mind as he watches television. He finds food for thought even in exercise competitions. "Harness your psychic powers to enhance your muscles and annihilate your opponent!" he remembered an overexcited host saying. B wondered why the show would portray the mind as so dominant over the body...
...conception of the psyche is more complicated. As a child, he gained a reputation for his skill at untangling knots of wires. He thinks of his mind as another knot in need of continuous untangling. He aspires to help others achieve mental order by becoming a psychologist. Already, he is working to make people healthier. As a peer sex educator employed by Henry Street, he journeys around New York City to give workshops on HIV/AIDS. He takes his job seriously. When I remarked that his workshops might save a life, he replied quickly: "Probably more." (His message, he said, would...
...after a long day of work. I was wearing glasses, and couldn't see very well. But B called to me just as I walked outside. He had been slowly teaching me about greetings, and he extended a pound. I flubbed on the first try—maybe my mind was tangled. Then I asked B and one of his friends about handshakes. I had always felt that the pounders were somehow excluding me, and was sure that B and his friends knew a few gestures that marked off cliquish social groups. B told me that I was wrong...