Kuo-Jam Chen - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Kuo-Jam Chen

The need for a new printing of this book affords me an opportunity to try to clear up certain dif... more The need for a new printing of this book affords me an opportunity to try to clear up certain difficulties mentioned in letters from some of my readers, difficulties which arise in trying to teach themselves to apply my technique. What troubles most of them is: "How to do it". Some of these correspondents have rated me quite severely because, as they put it, they are not able to teach themselves from what I have written down in my books. Yet they must be well aware that, in spite of all the textbooks on the subjects, many people are unable to teach themselves to drive a car, play golf, ski, or even to master such comparatively simple subjects as geography, history and arithmetic, without the aid of a teacher. They should not be surprised, therefore, if they find that they are unsuccessful in learning to apply my technique, particularly since in attempting to change and improve the use of themselves they are called upon to work to a new principle, and further, that in this process they must inevitably come into contact with hitherto unknown experiences, because the carrying-out of the necessary procedures calls for a manner of use of the self that is new and unfamiliar, and when first experienced "feels wrong". In any attempt therefore to apply my technique to changing and improving the use of the self, it is courting failure to continue to depend upon the "feeling" which has been the familiar guide in the old habitual "doing" which "felt right", but which was obviously wrong since it led us into error. May it not be that some of those who have complained of difficulty in trying to teach themselves, may have overlooked this point, and to that extent be responsible for their own failure? And here I would like to add a word of warning to those I am trying to help, for a study of the letters in which the writers tell of experiencing difficulty in understanding, show signs of having been written after a quick reading rather than a close and careful study of the subject matter. I read recently an article suggesting that people should practise reading quickly, although the habit of too quick reading in which understanding becomes dominated by speed-that royal road to the physical and mental derangement of mankind-is an only too common failing today. This is only one example of the habit of too quick reaction to stimuli in general, and to its prevalence may be vii viii

The need for a new printing of this book affords me an opportunity to try to clear up certain dif... more The need for a new printing of this book affords me an opportunity to try to clear up certain difficulties mentioned in letters from some of my readers, difficulties which arise in trying to teach themselves to apply my technique. What troubles most of them is: "How to do it". Some of these correspondents have rated me quite severely because, as they put it, they are not able to teach themselves from what I have written down in my books. Yet they must be well aware that, in spite of all the textbooks on the subjects, many people are unable to teach themselves to drive a car, play golf, ski, or even to master such comparatively simple subjects as geography, history and arithmetic, without the aid of a teacher. They should not be surprised, therefore, if they find that they are unsuccessful in learning to apply my technique, particularly since in attempting to change and improve the use of themselves they are called upon to work to a new principle, and further, that in this process they must inevitably come into contact with hitherto unknown experiences, because the carrying-out of the necessary procedures calls for a manner of use of the self that is new and unfamiliar, and when first experienced "feels wrong". In any attempt therefore to apply my technique to changing and improving the use of the self, it is courting failure to continue to depend upon the "feeling" which has been the familiar guide in the old habitual "doing" which "felt right", but which was obviously wrong since it led us into error. May it not be that some of those who have complained of difficulty in trying to teach themselves, may have overlooked this point, and to that extent be responsible for their own failure? And here I would like to add a word of warning to those I am trying to help, for a study of the letters in which the writers tell of experiencing difficulty in understanding, show signs of having been written after a quick reading rather than a close and careful study of the subject matter. I read recently an article suggesting that people should practise reading quickly, although the habit of too quick reading in which understanding becomes dominated by speed-that royal road to the physical and mental derangement of mankind-is an only too common failing today. This is only one example of the habit of too quick reaction to stimuli in general, and to its prevalence may be vii viii