http://blog.foghound.com/18/ News and views about marketing and communications Fri, 21 Nov 2008 18:33:17 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.1 http://blog.foghound.com/18/#comment-3 Scott MacIver Sat, 17 Sep 2005 00:00:00 +0000 http://foghound.com/blog/?p=18#comment-3 Is it the story, the telling, the one who tells or recites a story, which of these truely makes a difference? If I tell a story ... you don\'t have to listen. The difference is when we consider the listening; the one who listens.\r\n\r\nWe listen for the sake of fear, interest, relevance, greed, escapism, intrigue, novelty, enlightenment, joy, entertainment and, sometimes, when we are fortunate, we listen to learn.\r\n\r\nStories have been used throughout time to open up the hearts and minds of those who are willing to listen. What makes us willing? That is a decision that each of us must make.\r\n\r\nONE SMALL EXAMPLE OF STORYTELLING WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT\r\n\r\nThe Koan\r\n\r\nA koan is a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to Intuition. Koans are often used by Zen practitioners as objects of meditation to induce an experience of enlightenment or realization, and by Zen teachers as testing questions when a student wishes to validate their experience of enlightenment.\r\n\r\nZen teachers and practitioners insist that the meaning of a koan can only be demonstrated in a live experience. Texts (including koan collections and encyclopedia articles) cannot convey that meaning. Yet the Zen tradition has produced a great deal of literature, including thousands of koans and at least dozens of volumes of commentary. Nevertheless, teachers have long alerted students to the danger of confusing the interpretation of a koan with the realization of a koan. When teachers say \'do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon\', they indicate that awakening is the standard ? not ability to interpret.\r\n\r\n-- Thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, for helping me collect these thoughts. \'This was originally posted on the Foghound Blog.\'' Is it the story, the telling, the one who tells or recites a story, which of these truely makes a difference? If I tell a story … you don\’t have to listen. The difference is when we consider the listening; the one who listens.\r\n\r\nWe listen for the sake of fear, interest, relevance, greed, escapism, intrigue, novelty, enlightenment, joy, entertainment and, sometimes, when we are fortunate, we listen to learn.\r\n\r\nStories have been used throughout time to open up the hearts and minds of those who are willing to listen. What makes us willing? That is a decision that each of us must make.\r\n\r\nONE SMALL EXAMPLE OF STORYTELLING WITH SIGNIFICANT IMPACT\r\n\r\nThe Koan\r\n\r\nA koan is a story, dialog, question, or statement in the history and lore of Chan (Zen) Buddhism, generally containing aspects that are inaccessible to rational understanding, yet that may be accessible to Intuition. Koans are often used by Zen practitioners as objects of meditation to induce an experience of enlightenment or realization, and by Zen teachers as testing questions when a student wishes to validate their experience of enlightenment.\r\n\r\nZen teachers and practitioners insist that the meaning of a koan can only be demonstrated in a live experience. Texts (including koan collections and encyclopedia articles) cannot convey that meaning. Yet the Zen tradition has produced a great deal of literature, including thousands of koans and at least dozens of volumes of commentary. Nevertheless, teachers have long alerted students to the danger of confusing the interpretation of a koan with the realization of a koan. When teachers say \’do not confuse the pointing finger with the moon\’, they indicate that awakening is the standard ? not ability to interpret.\r\n\r\n– Thanks to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, for helping me collect these thoughts. \’This was originally posted on the Foghound Blog.\”

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