Panetics

Convictions, morals, other societies and religions.
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Kenazis
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Joined: Sun Sep 12, 2010 7:57 pm
Location: Satakunta - Limbo

Panetics

Post by Kenazis »

Just found this and knowing nothing about this I choose "ideologies and religions" to be the place.

Have anyone heard or studied this thing called Panetics? Sounds pretty important and useful thing.

"In 1991, the International Society for Panetics was founded by Ralph Siu and sixty other scientists, physicians, business leaders, scholars, artists and writers from several countries, including Kenneth Boulding and Johan Galtung. The society was dedicated to the study and development of ways to reduce the infliction of human suffering by individuals, corporations, governments, professions, social groups and other institutions." - quote from wikipedia

Ralph Siu wrote Panetics Trilogy consisting books:

- Less Suffering for Everybody. An Introduction to Panetics.
- Panetics and Dukkha. An Integrated Study of the Infliction of Suffering and Reduction of Suffering.
- Seeds of Reflection. Word Clusters for Meditation on the Infliction and the Relief of Suffering.

Is there some special aspect or something in these books and ideology than "usual" books about suffering? Maybe the bigger emphasis put on answering and ending the suffering vs. just explaining and pointing out what suffering is?
"We live for the woods and the moon and the night"
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Nefastos
Posts: 3029
Joined: Mon May 24, 2010 10:05 am
Location: Helsinki

Re: Panetics

Post by Nefastos »

Kenazis wrote: Tue Sep 22, 2020 11:28 amIs there some special aspect or something in these books and ideology than "usual" books about suffering? Maybe the bigger emphasis put on answering and ending the suffering vs. just explaining and pointing out what suffering is?

It would be great to hear if that is the case. The Paneticsarchive regrettably gives only the usual New Age guru hymn about the jolly fellow who was the society's founder, with no insight about the doctrine itself.

Among these twelve scholarly and reflective volumes, Siu's Cheerfulness may at first seem the most surprising/novel. But in its spirit and its insights it captures Siu's essentially optimistic and engaging persona. Siu wrote that "cheerfulness is probably the closest to the perfect state of well-being attainable under an actual set of circumstances," for it is "the agreeably exuberant vibrations spread over the broad expanse, generating waves of cheerfulness in every creature responsive to its effervescent grace." Just reading that thought may make you cheerful! But there is witty perspective on every page.
"Ralph was a genuinely cheerful man. Reading his works, in this website and beyond, we can come to understand why. We can "subsume and resonate." He has shown us the way."
-- William Lanouette
Chairman and Past President of The International Society for Panetics.

So it at least seems that what we have here is just the usual New Age idea that all those tedious suffering thoughts will go away if we put on the good ol' smile. But, I'd love to be wrong.
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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