In his September 23 entry, henry bugbee begins his explanation of the two concepts her claimed to have illustrated in his previous entry1: immersion and commitment. Bugbee defines immersion as “living in the present with complete absorption.” This absorption he says is not the “congeal attention,” wich one might experience in zen meditation, where one focuses on one’s breathing.
The “present” where absorption happens is not “a discrete moment in a series”; it expands “extensively into temporal and spatial distances.” This is definitely not the present that I have been familiar with in zen. It is not the “here, now” if it transcends it. Does Bugbee mean that the mind is absorbed into wandering? Into mental excursions? Into walks? And that the time and space covered by such mental walks is what he refers to as “present”?
During immersion, Bugbee explains that one perceives everything “in alignment with a center.” One moves from this center to greet everything. When one moves from thing to thing, they exhibit “sameness as continuing of meaning.” This seems to be related to what Bugbee calls “universal meaning.”
Bugbee then proceeds by dropping a quote, which I find baffling but which I cannot fully grasp for now:
Metaphysical thinking must rise with the earliest dawn, the very dawn of things themselves. And this is the dawn in which basic action, too, comes into being. It is earlier than the day of morality and immorality.
Although not fully clear to me, Bugbee seems to establish a close connection between metaphysics (thinking about things) and basic actions. Both of them, he seems to suggest, are more funndamental than ethical talk. He proceeds by talking about commitment. We are used to thinkigng that all actions have a reason behind them. However, Bugbee seems to suggest that reason is not always necessary for actions. He introduced the concept of “true affirmation.” He says that we are able to commit to actions without always articulating our reasons. Sometimes, the most important action we take eludes “discursive articulation.” We can manifest responsibility even “in depth,” even without words.
Bugbee does not support a complete rejection of the articulation of goals and reasons for acting. He simply wants us to be cautious in using them. Commitment in depth happens when one acts “consciously with the felt universe” and when universal meaning is collapsed in actions. In such cases, the action itself does the explanation.
References
Bugbee, H. (1999). The Inward Morning: A Philosophical Exploration in Journal Form. The University of Georgia Press.