On the Pedagogy of Suffering
Hermeneutic and Buddhist Meditations
Series:
Edited By David W. Jardine, Christopher Gilham and Graham McCaffrey
Chapter Twenty-Six: Happiness in Bricks (Alexander C. Book)
Extract
C h a p T e r T w e n T y - s i x Happiness in Bricks alexander c. cook Maslow (1962/2011) could not have been more right when he developed his Hi- erarchy of Needs. Humans are a multi-faceted and complex problem, and breaking them down was his analytical response to ease that complexity. That is a kind of response that can only be found in a moment of true Self-Actualization. For the rest of us, we can be found scattered between Physiology, Safety, Be- longing, and Esteem. Moments of victory bring us closer and closer to the seemingly mythical Self-Actualization, while pain is the great destroyer—tearing us back down to our most basic elements, and back to the foundations of Maslow’s Pyramid. I am no stranger to the victories of spirit, stepping up the great stones of Maslow’s Pyramid with the aims of reaching the light, and I am no stranger to the failures of the mind and body, stumbling and tumbling back to the pits. I would ar- gue that none of us are strangers to that ebb and flow as we work our ways through life, but I can only speak for myself, and what has been my evident progression and regression, through Maslow’s eyes. T h e m i n d The mind is an amazing thing. It enables us to achieve great feats of intellect and emotion, and it works independently of Maslow’s supposed Pyramid. If we 200 | alexander c....
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