Monday, January 28, 2013

When Reason Met Sentiment: Left- and Right-Brain Activity in Tzu Chi Volunteer Work

In my last post I described my observations and experiences from a simple vantage point, without too many thoughts or concepts or analysis. You could call it my "sentimental mind" or alternatively my right-brain thinking.

But sometimes, when I think about Tzu Chi, another part of my brain turns on. I call it my rational, conceptual mind. Conceptual mind means I am critical not only of myself but of the way we do things. It's the left-brain thinking. This mind promises to give suggestions and recommendations for improvement. But it also opens one up to criticism.

For future blog posts, I will link as a label whether I think the post has elements of "right brain" and "left brain" thinking.

Returning to the simple premise of yesterday's charitable activity: Find poor people and help them. This simple basis, however, can be translated to many different activities and channels, not only the one I described yesterday. On the basis of this, two questions naturally follow:
  • What does it mean to be poor?
  • What does true "help" mean? 
I will be analyzing these two questions further in the coming days... Stay tuned! 

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