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I think that the root of this goes back all the way to Zen-type of thinking. In Zen, it's often taught that mind is elusive/delusive and action matters. "Mindle
by euske 10y ago
I think that the root of this goes back all the way to Zen-type of thinking. In Zen, it's often taught that mind is elusive/delusive and action matters. "Mindlessness (mu-shin)" is often thought of the best way of carrying tasks, and I see a similar principle in many traditional martial arts/craftsmanship; a new learner should just do certain tasks without thinking/questioning, and eventually their muscle memory will learn it. It's conceivable that people applied the same principle for safety.
I also think that this illustrates the difference between the Western religions and Japanese (or Asian) religions. Western religions are mostly declarative; you need to believe such and such statements. Whereas Japanese religions are procedural, i.e. doing rituals is more important than believing.
- cm2187 10y agoIt does sound very similar to plane checklists where the pilot has to call every item verbally.
- acjohnson55 10y agoI was going to say, it reminded me of those classic scenes from Dr. Strangelove of the bomber crew going through their procedures. Which I assumed to be pretty accurate for military environments. I think it's so exotic to my American eyes because there is something to the idea of putting the good of the collective ahead of your own ego that is so foreign to the American culture of fetishization of individual liberty, except maybe in our military.
- dpatriarche 10y agoYes, you're right! My father was an Air Force pilot and then flew a private plane into his 60's. for 40 years he religiously followed the checklists, calling out and pointing to the relevant part of the plane for each item on the list: "windows and doors, check; wing flaps set for takeoff; seats latched; seat belts locked; etc." http://www.mooneyland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mooney_M20C_Checklist.pdf http://www.mooneyland.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Mooney_... I work on medical software now. It's kind of a well known story now how doctors are resistant to using checklists, like pilots do, even though it has been proven in studies to reduce medical errors. It's an interesting idea that maybe we could employ a form of point-and-call checklist system in software development or operations.
- knob 10y ago> It's an interesting idea that maybe we could employ a form of point-and-call checklist system in software development or operations. Maybe copy/pasting. Highlight part of the code, copy. Go to gedit (or whatev) and paste. Doing this while "calling it".
- omgam 10y agoCollaborative general purpose editors nowadays show one user's text selection to other users, so this is straightforward to implement.
- omgam 10y agoIt's been applied to surgery with 90-99% reductions in line infection rates. Head nurse calls the surgeon out on checklist violations.
- throwanem 10y agoExtending the metaphor, some of the older Mesoamerican religions are imperative, in that they involve a lot of telling people what to do. Contrariwise, hermetic magic is purely functional, in that the practitioner expresses a series of state transformations with no side effects.
- dkobryn 10y agoCould you elaborate on the idea that hermetic magic is purely functional? How does a practitioner make a state transformation in oneself?
- throwanem 10y agoIt's a joke, the meat of which is that hermetic magic involves complex series of esoteric invocations that consume time and effort to no meaningful result. I didn't work it out very well, though, and it didn't land. So it goes. The next one will be better.
- dkobryn 10y agolol, thanks for the clarification.
- omgam 10y agoOne example might be that spirits are said to be bound by arbitrary functions (bizarre ritual ingredients being a famous example). That they respond to and recognize cues. Another aspect of spirit lore is that the more central or higher in the hierarchy, the less different "pointers" or cues may be required for evocation, and stronger expression of those fewer cues may result. The lower/more numerous spirits might require more specificity or larger seed. Transformations at a minimum: by inducing a receptive trance state, then by self-suggestion.
- peletiah 10y ago> doing rituals is more important than believing. Erm, catholicism?
- abrowne 10y agoÀ propos, there are Jesuit priests who are Zen masters...