Or, somewhat more succinctly: https://m.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/what-living-do
30
When asked the best way to handle stress in our lives, The Dalai Lama replied, "There are only one of two things things happening at each and every moment of life, we are either inhaling or exhaling."
60
To Aliveness:
L'Chaim!
14
That's why poverty, injustice, discrimination, and oppression are so evil. They destroy the aliveness of people, of both the victims and the perpetrators.
68
Entertain lecture. But is there a take away? Or need there be?
5
Aliveness: The goal that's not a goal. The gift that comes around the corner that astonishes, ignites a tingling in the body, the mind. We can't work for it, only pray it comes our way.
Thanks for this poignant Christmas piece! The first surprise of Christmas.
25
Aliveness is awareness
25
The main lesson here is for the robotics research community: you ain't done til the robot's Head is in Mississippi.
2
Life is a verb, not a noun.
26
Was Bert do the est training? Cause it sure sounds like it!
4
My raven friends understand that perfectly
10
So when we are really alive we are not thinking about being really alive.
19
Awareness, perhaps? Of the exquisite kind.
11
Wonderful reflection on the meaning of aliveness. May I offer another view of it. Rather than the unity of past and future, is it not just fully experiencing the present, without the framework your mind has created from the past, and without the distraction of being a little more interested in the next moment? To have attention most fully here now, as much as an unenlightened human can, to bring awareness to that most basic sense of being, the "I am', infiltrates the body with the vibration of aliveness, and joy.
55
What Sean Kelly is unwittingly talking about is what positive psychology has been advancing for decades.
It's not just about Flow (which is basically what Kelly is talking about); it's about authentically making and finding fulfillment which renews itself in the living appeal and making and finding fulfilling time—beING one's time.
See, for example, "Flow in living well by design" ( http://gedavis.com/bw/006bw.html ).
Cheers, from Berkeley (and someone who knew Bert's enthusiasm intimately).
25
What I have learned from the good professor's lecture is that "aliveness" is surely not to be found within his tangled outpouring of words.
The more he tries to do otherwise, the more he divorces himself from life and reality, as he loses and ensnares himself amid the limitations, shortcomings and self-deceptions of mere words.
Yes, he weaves his web of words skillfully, hoping to entrance both us and himself. Yes, he plays with his pretty symbols, and stacks them into an impressive house of cards.
But like exquisite snowflakes falling through the air from pristine ivory towers, his words melt in the harsh sunlight of reality - leaving us empty, with nothing tangible or true or telling....
20
The essential human aspect is similarity of self to others without too much deviation. Then everything else is Sigmund Freud and how sane or wacky anyone might be scaled to a happiness index. Everything else is imagination and fancy again scaled to taker of serotonin blocker or antipsychotics. So, aliveness is paying your bills and taxes without crying like a baby.
4
"Be here now.""Live each moment as if it were your last." "The best revenge is to live well."
Easy to say. Harder to do. Practice, practice, practice.
20
Aha, a wonderful column explaining my life! After going thru self pity, addiction and other useless feelings I am experiencing aliveness.....filled with gratitude....
15
"If one day it happens
you find yourself with someone you love
in a café at one end
of the Pont Mirabeau, at the zinc bar
where white wine stands in upward opening glasses,
and if you commit then, as we did, the error
of thinking,
one day all this will only be memory,
learn,
as you stand
at this end of the bridge which arcs,
from love, you think, into enduring love,
learn to reach deeper
into the sorrows
to come – to touch
the almost imaginary bones
under the face, to hear under the laughter
the wind crying across the black stones. Kiss
the mouth
which tells you, here,
here is the world. This mouth. This laughter. These temple bones.
The still undanced cadence of vanishing."
60
Remain in place for at least one hour after the sun sets down on the rim of the Grand Canyon or body surf in a ruff Atlantic Ocean at Jones Beach.
Two days ago I sat and absorbed all the performers at the Big Apple Circus.
This Christmas morn I awoke and observed the fresh fallen snow. E.T.'s ability to rejuvenate flowers ! Aliveness ! Then one views a movie like
"First They Killed My Father" or reads accounts in this paper of the horror occurring in Myanmar or the toll of civilian deaths in the battles in Iraq and elsewhere. OK Professor......where do we go now ?
7
Professor Kelly,
In the book you co-authored with Bert, the two of you extolled the 'Whoosh' as being what we should seek in our lives. Is not that exhilaration what Bert may have meant by "aliveness"?
9
“I love the great despisers, because they are the great reveries, and arrows of longing for the other shore.” [Nietzsche] – Fully alive on the verge of going mad.
11
Thank you! I remember a French man who didn’t speak English was searching for the right word to describe a feeling of being freshly and firmly involved in the present moment and when he finally sort of gave up and said “like it’s alive” his eyes widened and brightened a lot and that’s it! The excitement of just being there fully can have an almost crazy Dr Frankensteiny feeling to it. Thanks again.
9
Aliveness rears its enigmatic head? Mysteries to be pursued on a full stomach. Count me in.
3
Waking Up to the Gift of a natural Endorphin cascade...that's the ticket.
6
Why do some get all misty and philosophical around the "holidays?" For what purpose?
Worse, after all the words and moods and sentimentality from this writer, I have no idea what he means by "aliveness." A better word might be "fantasy," but he gets to at least plug his book.
10
Lile most people, I have felt alive many times, but not every moment. It's been pretty good and i'm known as someone who does have a great aliveness of spirit, even as the decades have rolled on by. But a recent jolt in the form of a potentially fatal medical diagnosis has proven that there was room for more aliveness, for the obvious reason that the possibility that my actual aliveness might be threatened sooner than I had thought it would. What joy that diagnosis has helped me to bring to every moment. I've been happy and alive and enjoying those two dear friends with a gusto that helps me to feel the immortality of every moment in a way that I wish for everyone. Yes. Even a tough diagnosis (post sugrery, it turns out I may have beat the band......this time) can be a cause of aliveness, if we meet it with our eyes wide open, our hearts wide open, and a willingness to realize and accept a gift when it is given. Strange comment, I know. But, it fits life as I know it, and I am grateful to be able to say 'this is so."
37
"Materialists, rationalists and atheists ultimately place their trust in certain propositions that require faith." citation needed
5
I will print this beautiful piece to read again...and again.
5
Thank you. There is a country music song in there somewhere.
Kalidan
6
Yes! Aliveness! Truth. A great reminder. Your words are the perfect morning gift. Thank you so much!
9
A perfect example of why I now feel my time spent studying philosophy in college was misdirected. The mind making up stories about why the mind is so darn important, and worshiping those who were able to tell you why. A hall of mirrors with reflections of self everywhere. I wish I could get my money back.
22
Through the magic of language, Mr. Kelly has brought back to life his great teacher.
I can feel the aliveness of Bert Dreyfus, no longer dead, who has been give the gift of aliveness on this Christmas day.
What a beautiful Christmas gift Mr. Kelly has delivered for all of us: the re-birth of aliveness.
7
The goal of life?
People (and other animals) have goals for objects and actions. My goal in going to the store was to get milk. You may ask what your goal is in life, but life itself has no goal. Goals are are given to actions, states and things by the animals that have those goals. Goals reside in the desirer, not in the desired.
If you mean we feel most fulfilled when we maximize aliveness, I want to know your empirical evidence; the question of what fulfills people is an issue for psychology, not for philosophy.
Come to think of it, when you say the goal of life is aliveness, what data do you bring to to the question?
3
Thank you Professor Kelly.
Lovely Christmas morning reading.
I am so very restless in the moment of the paradigm of the elusive lust for "aliveness"
4
I apologize if I cannot recall where Pascal talked about “aliveness” being the goal or purpose of life, but the elusive aspect of aliveness reminds me of Plato’s discussion of time and the elusive “present”.
I wonder how despair relates to aliveness? Or, as another philosopher remarked, “postponing suicide is not the same thing as being alive” (I paraphrase from memory).
Wonderful column for the holidays. Thanks for the gift.
8
When Kelly employs concepts like "meaning" and "sense" in his quest for "aliveness," I believe he is missing the point.
It's not about significance, understanding, or even joy. It's about being fully awake, here and now, to reality.
11
Professor Kelly,
So sorry for the loss of your dear friend, and yet what a gift (on Christmas!) to share his inspirations--and yours. Bert's influence on you reminded me of the influence of one of my own physics teachers from nearly 40 years ago who passed away in 2015. I still feel his influence, too.
I thought long and hard about "staring into the face of your lover" and what that means: passion, deep yet ephemeral. It holds special meaning for those of us who've only found our spiritual partner later in life. And why now? No matter your age, the hardest challenge we all face is to be ourselves. Is that "aliveness?" I think it is. It's taken me decades to realize that "being yourself" means allowing your ego to recede and your spirit to shine forth. That's what attracted us, and why we're together now.
Ken Wilber--whom I've been reading a lot of lately--says it best: "When the soul breathes through his intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through his will, it is virtue; when it flows through his affection, it is love. And the blindness of of the intellect begins when it would be something of itself ...a light shines through us upon things [that] as Emerson puts it, 'would make our knees bend.'" How beautiful. How alive.
Merry Christmas.
11
Pascal's noting that "aliveness" is the purpose of life, makes even greater sense if you understand Tibetan Buddhism's often weird and scary pictorial iconography which odd as it is points to aspects of our human experience, There is a frightening figure hoses to be on fire all over his body, but also has eyes all over his body. These flaws and eyes represent the aliveness and knowledge that comes from being totally aware.This figure, who is called "radula" the name of at the Buddha's son is the protector Diety of "the great perfection teachings also known as Dzogchen.
Being awake or completely aware is after all the goal of Buddhism and is why when the Indian Prince known as Siddhartha was asked about his experience, he said, i and Buddha (The Awakened One). All the teachings he offered were and focused on helping others also become Buddha's too.That still is the ultiatre point of all Buddhist teachings. Complete awakening!
5
To take a riff off of Justice Potter Stewart's famous line...
I may not be able to define "aliveness", but I know it when I feel it.
5
It's sounds as if you've experienced what Jung called "synchronicity" the seemingly magical co-occurrence of events. It seems that the "aliveness" you're discovering is a incresse in personal growth that Jung called "individuation" where you gain insight into you true inner self--where you finally experience both self-love, but the compassion that is love for the other. And, that is the true gift of this holiday season--the aliveness, the joy of universal love.
11
I think perhaps Sean has forgotten what can happen in a burst of gratitude felt in a classroom when a favorite teacher has excited and stimulated us past what is usually possible. There you are, writing notes, and suddenly you’re aware of a level of....yes, aliveness...you feel deep within yourself.
Noticing the burst of gratitude felt in that moment, you write out a sentence expressing that deep Joy and excitement...perhaps wording it as: Aliveness is the secret of life. And your sudden and unexpected recognition of that truth has at that moment been inserted onto the page of copious notes you’ve written for the class!
This has happened to me several times, and I too have thought later that the teacher must have said it. But it was me.
And it was YOU, Sean! You’re the author of that. And today I am grateful to YOU for expressing it in the beautiful way that you did.
5
Waking up each day is a blessing and a source of gratitude. Our choices during the day determine "aliveness". Being present and kind, rejecting selfishness is my definition.
11
As a 40 something, One hopes our most alive moments are not behind us.
But they are certainly not!
When I feel most alive, I find myself at play, with my children or my friends, or I find myself touching and being touched by the woman I love.
3
Thank you Sean Kelly AND your amazing NYT’s readers for sharing so many profound “gifts of aliveness” on this Christmas morning. A fire and candles lit, carols playing and the column and its comments became our morning meditation. A rich discussion ensued! Aliveness manifested. Gratitude abounds. May we carry this awareness of what really matters forward into the New Year.
4
Existentialism IS aliveness. That’s it’s essence. The challenge comes in living the definition. As you age, you begin to grasp this dilemma. Unless you are a Zen Buddhist master.
4
I read the article because of the extraordinary illustration. A human, suspended in air, feeling in that instant, without thought, alive. Alive! Alive! I watch young men (where are the women in this sport?) perform their near-miraculous moves. And I know how hard it is to learn to control those moves. And how dangerous they are. The reward is surely that second of alive! Alive!
2
Great piece, Professor Kelly.
It's "thought" that renders a great deal of life empty and meaningless, it would seem. And yet thought appears inescapable. The brain takes over and the mind gets the back seat. We seek security in daily repetition, yet it is that very sense of security that is so confining. When we strive to become like Casanova, we get momentary pleasures, and even ongoingly alive narratives for days or weeks, but soon it becomes apparent that we are lying to ourselves, that our seeking pleasure is empty and meaningless.
The past and the future clearly melt away when we are fully in the present, yet somehow we can connect ourselves to who we always were/are. Seeing, caring, listening, working, doing as opposed to thinking, are all moments of aliveness. Repeting the past (false) narratives of our lives are not aliveness.
5
Eighty seven years young I feel embraced by aliveness when my single prayer, "Help me stay present in loving service to all beings and things" is answered by my doing this.
10
Sean,
Professor Dreyfuss first heard the line from the visiting Pascal scholar -
George Watson who discussed the connection between Augustine/Pascal
and Kierkegaard with Bert in the mid-1980's.
1
My mother-in-law suffered a major stroke at the age of 82. She had always been a vibrant, non-stop whirlwind that never allowed a pause in conversation to occur. The stroke paralyzed one side of her body and robbed her of the ability to speak. She is now 87, still lives at home by herself (with some background help from family to do errands), is stooped, frail, and barely communicable. But...looking into her eyes I see that "aliveness" of which you speak. A fire and intensity that tells me her soul is still engaged and desirous of this life, no matter how limited the body it resides in. In the end, maybe that's what true aliveness resembles; the soul's fire within our body to experience this temporary residence regardless of its outward circumstance.
5
It reminds me of my Buddhist teacher telling us rather over-thinking students of his that the meditative practices can bring us joy. “Joy,” he said. “It’s the opposite of depression.” Sean Kelly, thank you for adding to my inner “lecture notes” of my beloved teacher.
May all of you, and all beings, be joyful this day and every day!
3
To me, "aliveness" is sensate. The ability to touch, to taste, to smell, to hear to see - the opposite of death.
It is to be aware of the processes of your body - to feel the breath filling your lungs and be aware of the blood coursing through your veins at every push of your heart. To move.
To be aware of your mind. Of your thoughts. Of being able to decide to think about something, learn something, be aware of something, to contemplate, to decide.
To use the senses to perceive the world and those in it, to experience nature in all it's aspects - including your fellow human animal.
To be able to affect the things around you, consciously, with a purpose.
I guess awareness is the crux of the matter. Knowing that you know.
Other animals are capable of such appearance of aliveness - my dogs burst with life - but as far as we now know - are not aware of their aliveness.
My aliveness exists along a continuum, from the unawareness that condemns us not to be alive, to the fully aware when I realize and appreciate my alivenesss.
I strive for more moments of aliveness before I die.
5
"Someone to hold you too close,
Somebody hurt you too deep
Someone to sit in my chair, and ruin my sleep
And make me aware of being alive." Sondheim
To quote my brother, we are all on the "treadmill of life" in one way or another. Life, aliveness, happens when the treadmill stops or you fall off...sometimes pain is aliveness, too. It's all huge-trying to be connected to one's true self, even part of the time, is my goal. Gratitude comes naturally when you see where/who you really are. Peace-
3
Waking up is 90% of my day. What I do with it is the other 10%.
3
This essay is a wonderful Christmas present! Although not readily apparent, I agree that aliveness is the place we all intuitively know to be our true home. Thank you Sean and you professor Bert. Merry Christmas!
4
I read this piece after reading a portion of Cynthia Bourgeault's book, "The Holy Trinity and the Law of Three," then keeping my first meditation period. I truly feel I am celebrating Christmas and the joy that all things come together in Christ. I have never felt more alive than I do now at 84 and do finally embrace my entire life including those many things for which I am utterly repentant as well as my forgiveness for those who have hurt me. The thing is: this aliveness continues. Well beyond my death. In the mystery of life itself. Thank you for your Christmas gift.
4
Thank you for this beautiful meditation on life’s purpose. Though published on a Christmas morning, the piece resonates with the wisdom of Jewish sages concerning the same question: how can I be fully alive? Kelly’s answer at first appears to be that we should each strive to be as fully ourselves as we can in each moment. And, of course, there is great magic and wonder, joy and fulfillment, in that self embrace. But the answer he doesn’t explicitly write, though it permeates not only his essay, but plainly his whole being, is to then take that aliveness and offer it to others so that they, too, may discover and live their truest selves. Begin with yourself, but do not aim at yourself. There, said the Jewish sages, lies the path to true fulfillment. Jesus taught much the same thing. So on this Christmas morning, may all of us — Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Atheists, Taoists, Sufis, Sikhs, and Jains — search for and embrace our deepest selves, and then share those selves with the generosity that this and every day demands.
11
Truly beautiful piece of remembrance, and a wonderful tribute to Hubert Dreyfus, and to Philosophy itself, I might add. There are lots of activities that help make us feel alive. For me, doing philosophy is the most sustaining and most meaningful activity I know. I see the ignorance and senseless destruction all around me and I want to get back to the ground of metaphysics and knowledge to put it right. With the accumulated works of all the previous thinkers I have access to a wealth that exceeds anyone's earthly billions. Now is the greatest time to do Philosophy because, in all likelihood, we will never have this access again.
5
Bingo. "Anybody can adjust himself to an environment - which we all do because it is the easiest thing to do. But we have to be so alive inwardly that the environment plays very little part. And what we are discussing, what we are going into, is to bring about this state of aliveness, an alertness, a quickness; and that demands an astonishing seriousness on your part." http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-context.php?tid...
1
Ironically, the times I remember feeling most alive were when I consciously directed myself to be aware of the moment and my experience of it, and when I totally forgot myself.
3
Spontaneity and monotony equals aliveness, spiced with reason and passion.
1
"Aliveness" describes a moment in life when "well done" signifies a personal accomplishment of thought, word or deed.
It is that visceral feeling one experiences by finally achieving a difficult goal or performing the impossible (or at least what seemed to you to be impossible). It's that first real ...........,!
1
So happy that I read this before I even glanced at the headlines.
Thank you for this gift.
3
Your gift from Bert reminds me of a moment that happened to me after my brother's sudden death five years ago. Each time I wrote an email to a friend or relative I went to sign it with love. But each time I typed love it turned into live. So I started typing live and love at the end of my emails.
Live and love,
Beth
6
Everything in moderation, including excess.
4
When I think of what it means to be alive, I think immediately of all the courageous but very vulnerable human beings in the world today who are fleeing the most unimaginable atrocities in a effort to simply stay alive and achieve some basic level of safety and stability for themselves and children. Everyone deserves a life free from fear, terror and violence, so my Christmas wish is for refugees and other migrants to be welcomed and accepted here in the United States. Compassion, empathy and respect should be extended to everyone regardless of their circumstance.
9
I came to what he is calling aliveness but I call moments of bliss a short time after my father and brother were killed in an accident. I was able to put aside the guilt I felt at being alive when I had pulled myself back from the mesmerizing horror of the dark chasm. I began to live in the now and future grabbing bits of bliss each day, planning for bits of bliss in the next. It isnt exactly happiness, rather looking for and squeezing all the joy out of small slices of beauty, a song of a bird, silliness of a dog, a look of love, of a moment. And now, 50+ years later I am still looking for my moments of bliss.
2
I think therefore I am. Descartes
To be is to do. Buber
Do be do be doo. Sinatra.
2
What you and Mr. Dreyfus call aliveness I think of as the critical human need to avoid boredom. I had a patch of time in my life that lasted about six months when I was bored stiff in my job. Thankfully I was able to get out of there. Boredom is one of the great underestimated forces in American life. I truly believe it played a major role in bringing about the election of the oaf we call Trump.
4
I read this beautiful and profound piece on Christmas morning, on my way to visit my husband of 50 blessed years, who has advanced Parkinson's and who may experience his last Christmas. Our daughters are far from home, but well and seemingly at peace. What would seem to be loneliness for me is, on the contrary, not. For every day I try to live in the moment. Dwelling on the past is not my thing, so to speak. Thinking about an unknown future, with an emphasis on "unknown", only triggers anxiety. Perhaps, it is my background, in which Italian-American parents in spite of challenges and struggles, embraced life, love. And maybe that is the answer to the question of what is "aliveness." Love and living life to the fullest and willingly bringing meaning to even the mundane or painful.
10
What is the meaning of a marathon? For some it is winning, for others it is completing the course. Perhaps there are some who feel they have to run it against their will. The hardest part is in the middle, when the thrill of beginning is disappearing in the background and the end is beyond sight. A feeling of monotony may set in. How do individuals experience the race? Does competition dominate their feelings? Or do they enjoy the process of breathing deeply, using their amazing muscles, interacting with the earth and sky? Is it a spiritual experience or a grind? Do they enjoy the company of their fellow runners or seek distance? Some may choose to drop out, seeing the whole experience as meaningless. For me, my goal in life is to complete the course and enjoy the process of running it, believing that I have no choice. As I near the end, I feel a greater appreciation and a sense of mystery about why the task was set before me. I guess that's aliveness.
10
Big text - Thank you for this perfect analogy, for me, at least. For years, my Central Park running friends and I trained for the New York Marathon. While we ran purely for exercise through the winter, in March or April we began longer training runs each weekend. By the summer, these runs were from 18-22 miles at an easy, conversational pace. We talked about everything and anything, and nearing the end, we sprinted from 79th Street to the designated 'finish line' at 90th Street. Flush with endorphins and pure physical and emotional satisfaction, I returned home relaxed and minus the stresses of the work week. I truly felt alive, optimistic and grateful for the experience of those Saturday mornings. The marathon itself was gratifying because I completed the objective of all those runs, but never as enjoyable or fulfilling.
2
To me, "aliveness" comes from awareness. When I feel most alive I am most aware. The more present I am, the more aware I am. The less present I am, the less alive I am. I cultivate presence through awareness.
11
Thank you, Bert, for this important line. Makes me think of two things: 1. Billy Joel's "I love you just the way you are" when he says, "I took the good times,I'll take the bad times" keeps me always present to the people I love and the people I meet. Thinking of a beloved friend,placed in a nursing home through a series of unfortunate events, was abandoned by her sisters who told everyone, oh, don't go see her,remember her as she was.I disagree. I went to see her frequently and although diminished,her essence was still in her;just because it takes longer,response is slower, more work is involved, if we are always present then in those moments both she and I are fully alive. 2. My dad had no education&a childhood of neglect,yet he was always observing life, people, situations,and was always learning;everything fascinated him;somehow he was able to teach me algebra in high school by using logic;same with conjugating verbs;his perpetual aliveness was his openness to everything around him,constantly learning just by observation and never,ever bitter or complaining.
7
"The goal of life is aliveness": this is much more graspable if you expand the definition of life to all of the universe. When we open up our view we can see the absolute yearning of life for itself. Thinking about individual happiness is a recipe for dissatisfaction. For myself, I notice aliveness when I'm not striving for it.
4
This little essay spoke to me so directly and meaningfully where I am in my life and thought right now, at 63, happily but poignantly alone in a cabin over Christmas, enjoying many rich hours of reflection and thought, music and art, reading and writing. The final few lines of the piece are especially moving. I thank you, Sean Kelly, for putting into words so eloquently and clearly your insights into the meaning of being alive. As you suggest, we are always made up of parts of others that seep into and sometimes illuminate us with flashes of insight. I had such an experience reading Pascal as a youth in a French school ("faîtes semblant de croire et bientôt vous croirez"); I have had it reading through old letters from a former and now gone teacher; and I had one now reading this memorable piece of work. Thank you!
16
What an gem to read this morning! I traveled to DC for the women's march last January. This was a true pinnacle of 'aliveness' for me perfectly encapsulated in these words:
"But sometimes we are right, deeply right — we say what is really and actually true — without knowing that we are right or understanding why. And when that happens our words and actions take on a life of their own — they come from us but extend beyond us, extend beyond even themselves."
Thank you Professor Kelly!
9
The answer to feeling "alive" is moderation. In this example, both Kant and Casanova are correct - to a point. Life needs routine. Life needs exploration. Those peak moments can come at any time. The trick is in savoring them.
6
Yes! I agree this "aliveness" is happiness. I find many ways to achieve it - listening carefully to a friend who is talking to you; studying languages - for me Latin and ancient Greek, walking - at age 77 I do these things and I'm loving life.
10
As I move into my 70s, I seem to be experience more moments of “aliveness.” I practice mindfulness meditation, so I can readily draw myself back into the immediate when my mind wanders, but there are moments that are more than just mindful: my whole being is energized and I am accepting of every single aspect of the moment. The really interesting thing, however, even more than the joy itself, is the feeling that someone is behind me, gently nudging me into this experience. Guidance and encouragement from some place, I guess. Lovely essay. Thanks.
14
Thank you for this beautiful piece. Yes, aliveness -- surely it is this that seduces to spirit to embody itself in mortal form, to experience time. Aliveness that we feel through the ever changing moment of the present, these are things that physics cannot begin to deal with.
7
What a gift to savor this on Christmas morning! Decades ago when I grew up in Ireland, my father called this elusive phenomenon "the living business". Not surprisingly, his most joyful moments in the "living business" were experienced in the majesty of nature. He was way ahead of his time in this and nearly every other respect.
12
I guess I missed the significance in the description of "aliveness." This is a fine tribute to a teacher, though.
3
Abraham Maslow's "self-actualization" allows for a more operational definition of aliveness. It is knowing that what you are doing or feeling comes from the unique you -- your DNA memories, your experiences, your essence. I have always been struck that new-born humans have a distinct and observable self that immediately interacts with others and the world of experiences in their own way. We are who we are and expressing that in relationships and actions is self-actualization and knowing that becomes a deep awareness that one is truly alive. Repeating that feeling and seeking out opportunities for its expression is what being alive is.
9
What a truly great piece - much gratitude to Sean Kelly for writing it. And what a contrast to most other pieces in this and other papers that are nothing more than doom, gloom and victimhood.
22
Thanks for a lovely story. Does it disguise some serious philosophy?
Hubert Dreyfus was a wonderful teacher and philosopher, much beloved by generations of devoted students. I took his course on phenomenology at UC Berkeley in 1972. It felt transformative. The mysteries of existence illuminated! I don’t remember Pascal, but there was a lot on Kierkegaard. I still wonder whether Dreyfus might have really been on to something. I bet Sean Kelly thinks so.
The book they wrote together in 2011, All Things Shining: Reading the Western Classics to Find Meaning in a Secular Age, is itself a terrific read.
9
And so I am reminded of the 1988 song by The Godfathers: "Birth, School, Work, Death." Yep, that is the human flowchart ascribed by our culture to which we can only hope to add a little grace, style, and (wait for it): fun! Moments of aliveness (positive or negative) are simply a bonus in what is really a big, cosmic "muddle through." Thanks for approaching the subject and the fine article.
13
I too appreciate this provocative and insightful essay which offers me solace and meaning at a time when I very much need that. However, I add that I do not think that the photo selected (by the editors, no doubt) is right for this piece. Considering alternatives, I recognize that It would be totally subjective to select a photo or drawing to illustrate "aliveness" in the general sense, and "aliveness" as discussed in this essay.
4
The goal of life is staying alive. (Not only on Saturday nights) It implicates staying away from complete predictability. Life builds itself on exploring in an unpredictable way how energy might become predictable and part of the structure of life. And upon succeeding to incorporate this, in an unpredictable way, how it might make another part of this strange phenomenon we call energy predictable for itself, the way life expresses itself in form, structure and function. Life creates integrated, layered energy controlling systems. And based upon this ‘inner’ certainty and predictability life steps into the unknown and with passion, love and alive and well. And so, for us mere humans, we need to overcome fear, have faith and love. Because otherwise, we don’t live.
11
In my experience the way to be most alive, and most happy, is to work to bring healing and joy to others, even at great cost to oneself.
10
What I felt missing in your depiction of aliveness was the notion of gratitude for being conscious of the enormity of sheer being in this unfolding mystery. Our natural need for connection to others, our natural inclination to love and be loved, is the very life juice of existence. What a marvel. How can one not be devoured by gratitude.
29
I have realized late in life that I can take one of two attitudes toward ANYTHING happening in my life: Complaint, or Gratitude. Gratitude cancels out all negative feelings and resentments. Our indoctrination as "critics" serves us in certain situations. But when you look at the big picture and your parents are gone, you may realize that there will always be something to complain about but nobody to complain to. If you believe there is an observant God, then the best approach to hardship is the stoic approach of Job.
2
Thank you, for this beautiful and meaningful article, on Christmas morning.
Having read it after just coming inside from the place where I always feel most alive: out in nature, with today the wind blowing, birds passing quickly overhead, branches crackling, the smell of leaves and earth - no matter what day or season, when out in nature it's impossible not to feel the aliveness, interconnectedness, and the simple awe that we are all one with this magnificent planet Earth.
I pray that mankind can take care of it, so that others may also have this experience.
67
I always feel transformed after a nature walk!
2
Guy Murchie wrote in "The Seven Mysteries of Life" about the transcendency of life, the ability of humans to see in others that which is unique and universal to all. We experience the loving support of those closest to us when we are newborn, learning to love the recognition of those close faces. But as we mature, we experience the consequences of personal suffering and learn to see that suffering in others. We learn to compassionately appreciate the struggle that others endure. The passage of transcendence of self enlarges our consciousness to include those others, seeing ourself in them. As the heart grows in it's capacity to hold others as oneself, life becomes the stage whereon all are it's actors, the leaves of one tree, the eye of the one humanity, the consciousness that transcends life and form. To be "alive" is to be living within the transcendent heart of humanity.
10
A teacher of mine used to say that purpose or passion were needful for happiness--what you might call aliveness. And the best of all was to have both conjoined in work or love. It sounds like that's what teaching was for you and for Bert as well, and what it is for my wife as a physician, and for many of all kinds of lives. I wish it to all, this Christmas morning, wherever you are.
12
Perhaps the most important points about whatever we are talking about here--call it "aliveness" if you will--is that it is transcendent, full of being; that it is enigmatic and elusive, given beyond grasping; and that it is ethical, full of the call of the other, whatever that may be.
6
My freshman English professor told our class that the quality we would value most in our lives is insight. Many decades later, I understand why he chose that particular quality, and I have added three more: compassion, empathy, and purpose. For me, this constitutes aliveness. Thank you, Dr. Kelly, for your insightful essay that has reminded me of that which I value most.
41
How interesting that so many readers reesonate to "aliveness" and then offer examples -- varying examples, not one-size-fits-all examples -- of how that term can apply to their personal expeerience of being. For me, aliveness is found by contemplating, and being in, the natural world. "Get out in the weather" works for me, or even just staring at it through a window. Staleness flees.
11
If you have a chance to read "All Things Shining," Kelly and Dreyfus really do evoke this sense of aliveness, of sudden meaningfulness breaking out and shimmering in life. One thing I've wondered is whether they're familiar with the psychological concept of flow -- what Csikszentmihalyi and Maslow were writing about. As a student of both philosophy and psychology, this is the single best point of connection, the overlap of the Venn diagram.
12
This article makes me think about the relationship between meaning and "aliveness". For me, meaning is not derived from some absolute, rather from interconnectedness. In language, each word is described and defined by other words. Thus, the meaning of a word is not contained within the word itself, but rather through it's association to others. And it seems to me that "aliveness" has this same quality.
"Aliveness" does not exist in a vacuum. Rather, it is a knowing that comes from our relationship to others. It comes from being fully immersed in the world and being connected to those that live in it.
In a strange way, I think I feel this most when I contemplate suffering. When I imagine the suffering of someone halfway around the world. Someone I have never meet, yet for whom, I feel a very deep sense of connection. I also feel it when I contemplate the entirety of the world in which we live and it's relationship to the entire universe.
In this context "aliveness" is deeply related to a sense of "awe". Perhaps the single most important aspect of my life, because it is this "awe" that leads me to what I would describe as a humbling state of grace. And for me, that state is as profound as it gets.
It's what it means to be fully human, for it is the defining quality of humanity itself - this "awe", this "aliveness". And in so far as we and our society lose touch with it, we lose touch with the world itself and those in it. And that never ends well.
Peace to all.
37
Socrates was the most alive man ever. His epitaph:
"the best and wisest and most righteous man."
He lived an examined life and taught others how to do so.
His wisdom: humility.
His strength: bottomless curiosity blended with massive patience.
His reward: a fearless life of endless mental adventure.
The best role model of all time.
46
This idea of "aliveness" definitely describes up a feeling I've sought out without naming, but I am wondering if the quote also meant something about just being alive. That Pascal's goal wasn't a feeling like (happiness, peace fulfillment), but to wake up and breathe.
4
Forgive me for being reductive but the "Gift of Aliveness" resides in the present - in the world of feeling - those FULL BODY sensations of joy, grief, fear, anger, love, etc. How do you feel when you hug a puppy? Shed tears for the loss of a loved one? These are extremes but only when we welcome life with equanimity can we hope to be fully alive. An interesting question is to refer back to is, "How do I feel, right now?"
19
Thank you. Your essay is a wonderful gift for Christmas morning. I am in my fourth year of retirement, ( though I still teach graduate students during the fall term) and puzzling about what life would be like without the routines of a 40 year career. I often think that it would be satisfying to return to the ways I felt at 9 years old when I woke up each morning wondering what I would discover that day. And now in some measure you have given that wish a name “aliveness”. In some ways it feels like learning to walk again without all the supports that a career provides.
90
Isn't it sad that we only recognize at the end of our lives the gift that childhoood is?
3
Maybe too simplistic, but I feel most "alive" (physically and emotionally) when I focus on the deep gratitude I feel for the people and moments in my life which I hold dear.
19
Agree. When I’m present to gratitude, I’m fully present to the blessings of my life.
3
A million thanks to this author for this inspiring piece! Recently I decided to leave a job that left me completely depleted of any kind of authentic aliveness, so huge and complete was the toll on my physical, intellectual and spiritual energy. I am at an age where I know that some situations truly do not improve, no matter what, without totally sublimating one's true, alive, aware and most engaged self. Better to utilize my infinite and positive energy to explore other ways to be truly alive and engaged. As I move away from that mind-numbing, soul-crushing job, I am re-reading Pascal and Kant, but also wonderful books like "Aha" - all about exploring creativity in thousands of ways - plus "A Whole New Mind" which makes the case for right-brain exploration and reflection (plus hundreds of stimulating resources) and "Write It Down, Make It Happen" - a compendium espousing mindful observation, goal-setting and focus on aliveness. For those who want to be more "alive" these books transcend self-help; they are life-savers.
24
Feeling alive, being alive--aliveness--are granted to all sentient beings. To the extent that we acknowledge and appreciate these gifts, but most importantly how we use them, can determine our degree of happiness or sadness at any given moment. Some of us who are lucky are congenitally happy, others unfortunately are congenitally sad. I am happily among the former, and my cat is too, so with her as a playmate and an occasional dip into Walt Whitman's poetry, I am able to celebrate my aliveness daily.
10
The value of being "alive to" something, whether life or a different perspective, is not exactly news. Socrates is said to have argued that "The unexamined life is not worth living," which has been interpreted in a number of ways. I've always read this to mean that our life will (or perhaps only can) have value to the extent we are willing to examine it, to look into the opinions and beliefs we hold and test them against experience. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling this is what your friend Bert had in mind.
5
Reading this filled me with a sense of peace and gratitude. I'm going to keep it at hand to read again, as I often feel like I plod through life like Kant the German. Happy New Year.
24
As the parent of a middle schooler, I recently visited a high school where 10th graders made a "poster presentation" based on a self administered sleep survey. The data was largely a measure of "aliveness" upon awakening vs various variables. It was a good exercise in that groups of students explored their own hypotheses based on the data and defended and presented it, but I was not comfortable with the word "aliveness".
Thank you for giving it some gravitas with this lovely and thoughtful piece. It addresses the Big Question of meaning so well.
A l'aise, Blaise!
4
At my advanced age, just waking up in the morning is treasured because it means I made it through another night. What I found about "aliveness" in my life was how rare it was to recognize a special moment of being alive and being able to stop what you are doing and appreciate it. What has kept me going through the years is always having something scheduled or planned for the next week, next month, next year and next decade. Having something to look forward to is the key. All too many of my aged peers have given up doing that and that, to me, is when the end is nigh.
102
How right you are, Tom! At 81 I know that this is what has kept me going, too, looking forward to something. And usually, it is the small things that are my beacons. Just sayin"
3
What a beautifully inspiring way to usher in this season of hope and renewal. Aliveness to the present moment does not require that we 'like' or 'approve' of the moment. It does not require us to feel comfortable or happy in each moment. It asks us to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into the life we are in. My thanks to Professor Kelly for this profound reminder of how to live a life that matters.
62
As I think about this piece and my own experience I am struck by the almost complete difference in what might be called "aliveness". I am an architect. My most meaningful, "alive" moments came not in connection with other people or even thinking about the concept. My "alive" moments were when I was immersed in my work...solving the many problems of design...working, re-working, discarding possibilities, and even upon deciding on an appropriate solution to a design problem, continuing to question, to search.
33
Hubert Dreyfus: "The goal of life for Pascal is not happiness, peace, or fulfillment, but aliveness"?
I know nothing of Hubert Dreyfus and am not sure about the goal of life for Pascal. What is more interesting is the concept of whether the goal of life is aliveness. From my wide reading over the years and examination of history, what I find is what certainly has come down to humanity, and with great reluctance from most of humanity, I might add, worth preserving, is exceptional accomplishment, trajectory out of the ordinary and capable of standing out, reducing, abbreviating the distance to this or that goal, whether the goal is the raising of a building or attaining greater definition in representation of reality (painting to photography) or expression of knowledge in language (poetry to prose to terse statement packed with knowledge) and so on.
I don't know how much this is physical, an animal aliveness or just (just?) an increasing charge of mind, an increasing animal aliveness of mind, but it does still seem to this day we do not exploit it as we should, that to this day precisely the people in past we deemed forgettable over time, all the mere businessmen, politicos, et. al. are still the people most in limelight, controlling things, apparently thinking and feeling life is about themselves being alive as possible, and that no charge of mind is beyond themselves, their doings, when of course being alive, at least to me, has got to be beyond these doings of the day.
4
I too was awake early on Christmas. A time of reflection. First, my condolences loosing Dr. Dreyfus, your friend, teacher & collaborator. This has to be hard. But what I think you have here is an example our humanness, the sense of aliveness which the line speaks. The meaning of things as you say aren’t revealed all at once- they’re a germ waiting to find cognition when the conditions are right. Our teachers plant these seeds not expecting they’ll bear fruit the moment they’re heard, but with a hope, an expectation the student will grow into their meaning and find coherence.
You wrote that line, yet it took all these years for the words to appear on the page, and for you to convey them here to bring their liveliness to the world again. Thank you.
40
I am most alive when I play with my son experiencing his life. And when I stand before an orchestra and conduct great music.
11
I am alive only when I am touched by another. My wife's hand. The Aria from Goldberg Variations reaching my ears. My granddaughter's deep, mysterious eyes laughing with me. Moments of connection are when we are alive.
I love solitude and seek it when possible. But even when I am alone in the woods, heart pounding with effort and love, feeling fully alive, it is anticipation of the next touch that fills me.
Merry Christmas!
142
I read this beautiful essay on a Christmas morning in which I marvel at the beauty of life and remember my sibling who died on a particularly sunny and beautiful Christmas Day four years ago.
Part of the aliveness the author speaks of, it seems to me, is being able to accept the paradox of life, to somehow reconcile the opposites: the joy and the suffering especially.
As we do so we become more and more authentic, we are able to animate those around us. We all know people who come into a room and fill it with energy. Sadly, there are those who seem to deaden everything they touch, for they are hollow.
If we live our life fully alive, as teachers, parents, friends, cops, politicians, accountants, poets, whatever, we will also find ourselves living a life of service to ourselves and others. We will listen and act from a place deep inside of us, not from the false self, the egoism social mask we wear.
I pray that 2018 will reflect a shift of power from those who are false and hollow to those who are authentic and fully alive. Perhaps then we will see the rise of compassion and service again.
336
Well said...
5
Mindfulness: conscious awareness of thoughts, feelings, body sensations, experiences, relationships. Pausing, living with intention, being deliberate. Appreciating. Calling forth compassion, empathy, forgiveness, love. Reflecting as well as striving. Service to others. Awareness of this all so precious and short life. All of these and more - 'Aliveness.'
161
That's exactly what I was thinking as I read this article. The secret of "aliveness" resides in being in the present fully, focused, mindful.
As a psychiatrist I can think of neurotransmitter correlates to this state, but why bother - or bore? Living the present moment fully aware is to be alive!
2
Well said
1
Thank you. Captures the feeling I had as a young medical doctor in training when I would arrive around 6am to check on the patients before the day started with exams, X-rays, family visits, blood draws and even more doctors. The stillness in the hospital was a rare peaceful moment broken only by the coughing and coughing echoing out of the rooms ... I felt it was very much a message to appreciate not only being healthy enough to take care of others, but a sort of mediation on how much trust and meaning there was in the encounters with each person. To me it was a two way street of healing and I couldn’t imagine being more moved or feeling more alive during those quiet mornings.
108
I wonder if you've gazed too long at Bert's "face". Somehow in this discussion, to me at any rate, it killed off not just what aliveness may be but why seek it in the first place. The pitting of Casanova against Germanic duty both reduces aliveness to ends that in their extremes have little to do with aliveness thereby missing altogether what it does have to do with.
I am an artist, artisan and craftsman, with a classic education courtesy of the University of Chicago. Getting my masters degree, in design for theater because for me interpreting visually great works was what makes my heart flutter even through the more dreary and anxiety provoking bits, I chose Candide as my thesis project and propose instead that through the combined chorus of Voltaire and Bernstein a better, more understandable, even perceivable path to aliveness because it has life as it's goal:
Make my garden grow.
You can[t listen to the intro and closing song of the musical Candide and not feel not just purpose but joy.
In these times theater is more hard to do than I can manage but in my practice of theater elsewhere, I make my garden grow every day, still after all these years.
14
This is my favorite of all the Stone pieces I have read. It calls for many rereadings. Thank you.
Aliveness must not care too much what others think. People may praise or condemn aliveness when they see it; anyone who takes this praise or condemnation too much to heart will lose the aliveness itself. But the aliveness can help a person take others' judgments in stride.
I think of a passage in Buber's I and Thou (translated by Walter Kaufmann), where he describes the encounter with being:
"You cannot come to an understanding about it with others; you are lonely with it, but it teaches you to encounter others and to stand your ground in such encounters. And through the grace of its advents and the melancholy of its departures it leads you to that You in which the lines of relation, though parallel, intersect. It does not help you to survive; it only helps you to have intimations of eternity."
36
Thank you for your comment, Diana.
2
Reading this beautiful tribute to life and learning, to knowing and unknowing, in the stillness and fullness of this moment, I smiled recalling the voice of an inspiration embedded deep within me:
"I don't believe people are looking for the meaning of life as much as they are looking for the experience of being alive."
Joseph Campbell
226
A teacher and friend of mine spent long hours with me speaking about his life as a New York City cop and of his later work as a self-taught sculptor of exotic hardwoods. His muse was the ballerina. We'd walk and talk for hours around our Brooklyn neighborhood. I became familiar with every tree and structure and most of the people it seemed during those years. Yet as I sometimes break the routine and follow a different path to the supermarket or pet store, a house will seem to pop out of nowhere into view on a familiar street and stun me into understanding that I am still a child and need to hear the story over again because it yet gives such joy.
83
The difference in being alive and "aliveness" is found in the stillness and meaning each moment of life is infused with. A Christmas morning, before the house has yet to explode with the enthusiasm of gifts, is one of an infinite number of such times. Each day harbors it's own explosion, for good or ill. But it is within the undisturbed, and in these days, undistracted, moments of silence where we can find the invigorating vibrations of peace and awareness.
25
Thank you. What a beautiful gift from Bert to you and from you to us. 'Aliveness' is an ethos that has such potential to propel us all to our own individual great destinies. If this were to be the fountain from which we drink each and every morning and if we did so not only with a sense of ourselves but with love for others, our lives and those around us would be enriched and brought to life in vivid color.
Just imagine, or better yet, just seek aliveness!
33
I had the same wonderful reaction as the previous reader on a chilly quiet X-mas morning. Here's my favorite paragraph and bravo too for reminding us as to why philosophy -- well taught -- truly matters. Happy Holidays all. And let's help others find happiness today and moving forward.
Quote: And isn’t this, ultimately, another way to be alive? That we overflow with words and actions and ideas, at each moment saying and doing what it seems we must, but rarely understanding in its full depth why it is required? And sometimes we are wrong; we say or do things that mischaracterize or mistake. But sometimes we are right, deeply right — we say what is really and actually true — without knowing that we are right or understanding why. And when that happens our words and actions take on a life of their own — they come from us but extend beyond us, extend beyond even themselves.
36
Thank you for these wonderful observations as I sit here waiting for everyone else to awake and appreciate the beautiful stillness of this snowy Boston morning.
53
Rising early this Christmas morning, finding the quiet before the sun rises, I see and read this article, to find: "There are things that you know must be said, that are necessary, even though you don’t know why. And only later, in your later years, will the necessity and the significance of those statements become clear. Because you grow into them, or they grow into you. Or both." -- A worthy journey comes from this. Thank you.
120