Managing Director and Group Head, Major Global Investment Bank, Chappaqua, New York
“The coursework has affected every facet of my life…”
The experiment has proved to be everything I wanted to learn about living a happy, productive, competent, and "human" life. The upshot - life makes sense, my experience is rich and meaningful. The coursework has impacted every facet of my life, particularly with regards to my ability to enjoy the passage of time and having the life I want - both in its content and my experience.
I have learned a framework - a context - a discipline for living my life whereby I have greater command of my response in the moment and am less swayed by my immediate biological, socially conditioned, or ego-driven responses.
I’ve learned to negotiate practical reality and have command over my interior conditions (emotions, mood, attitude, thoughts) so that I achieve a high level of performance and enjoy the decisive moments of life. I can bring my intelligence to bear in pressure or tension-filled situations and truly think, not fall back on conformity, imitation, convention or luck, to dictate my actions and the mood of my experience.
This ability to provide leadership – of myself (and others) has made a key difference in the quality of my life. It adds richness and meaning and allows me to make full use of my talents and interests. To my way of thinking, this is the leadership we want from ourselves. Of course, life is not all upside. There have been plenty of failures, adversity, and difficulty in these 29 years. Perhaps this is its greatest value – I am able to recover from life's unavoidable difficulties with resilience, understanding and humility. I can move on from failures with an ease I didn't think possible and where hard feelings are minimized.
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Assistant Attorney General, In Charge of Financial Affairs, Princeton, New Jersey
“Together we have done what I so wanted to see those years ago at Columbia…”
For me, the search for becoming a different kind of human being began in 1968 during the Columbia student revolt. Although I sympathized with the aims of the movement - the means seemed so contradictory - after all - the students were being as rivalrous as the causes against which they railed.
So I did not join but felt this deep longing for a world in which humanity would not be at constant odds with each other. It wasn't just my feelings toward the world at large. It was also that it was extremely difficult and painful for me to live within my own skin.
Sure - to others I looked like I had it all - that I was successful and happy and lived a grand life. But my internal experience was one of constant unhappiness and I was often mean spirited, angry, uncaring, cold, indifferent.
And then I was fortunate enough to become a student of Arnold who has developed a vocabulary and perspective which, as they say, "has made all the difference." It hasn't been an easy road - nor a quick trip. But slowly and incrementally, the person I used to be has vanished.
My anger, my dread, my fears, my rivalry, my constant comparing myself to others and finding myself lacking, my dreaming that happiness would only come when I achieved this job or this income status - all of that is now gone.
And in its place is a person who feels comfortable in her own skin, and who can be competent in the practical world, make a contribution, and rest at the end of a day knowing she has done her best.
And, this isn't just true of me. It is true of the students in the class who have stuck with this study. Together we have done what I so wanted to see those years ago at Columbia - human beings who have changed their humanity so that they can live in the world with each other in peace, fulfill the demands of practical life, which are not to be denied or diminished in their complexity, and live each day to the fullest.
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Hedge Fund Consultant, London, England
“A quiet mind is worth a fortune.”
From the outside, my life looks the same. I have a demanding job, family, friends, travel. But how I feel is completely different. I used to run at a constant low level of anxiety - worried about my status, and what people think of me. I was anxious all the time, briefly interrupted by moments of passing happiness.
Today, I am happy all the time, with moments of passing anxiety! My default mood is happy! Life is easier to manage because I am not in my head sulking and complaining. I am present in the moment so I am much more effective at work. My personal relationships are also deeper and full of love, because I am no longer self-absorbed in my own anxiety! A quiet mind is worth a fortune.
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Freelance Writer, Brooklyn, New York
“I want to witness the irony and honesty and wildness that are restored to the civilized mind…”
A skill which must be learned but can't be taught has to be watched or witnessed in others. Thinking is such a skill. But who can you watch thinking? Remarkably few can or will think spontaneously in public. Instead, from Presidents to talkers at TED, we watch important figures--many of them fine thinkers--feigning the inward motions of thought while reading off a prompter or reconstructing a memory. Brando once feigned this inwardness by waiting (ponderously) for his next lines to be delivered through an earpiece.
But if those who we pay attention to are actors, professional or otherwise, there's an awful likelihood we'll learn acting, not thinking, and end up miming an inner vitality we don't have a real experience of.
The subject matter of Autonomy and Life ought to be learned and can be taught. (Arnold's commitment to conveying the material he's mastered puts him in a league of pedagogues it's embarrassing to consider.)
But what keeps me coming back is almost separate from the subject matter, the way the lining is almost separate from the suit.
I return to watch this teacher think, spontaneously, before the students he's in dialogue with. I'm there for the lavish clues that out in the flesh. I want to witness the irony and honesty and wildness that are restored to the civilized mind when it is free of pretense.
There's a great line in Whitman. He's standing at the shore, chanting to the sea, which means something quite specific to him. But the line could as well be mine, sitting on a Saturday in a classroom in Manhattan, eager to learn the thing that can't be taught. The line goes: "Breathe to me while I hold you close the secret of the murmuring I envy." That this can happen, that the secret gets breathed, is why I'm there.
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Director University Planning, Special Advisor to the [University] President, PhD., Carlsbad, California
“…a journey into the world of profoundness itself.”
A few decades ago a writer looking at our modern technological and materialistic world noted wryly that “Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” Occasionally, when we stop the never-ending challenge to “stay on top of it all,” many of us have moments when we notice that our age does not supply the security nor the satisfaction that seemed promised when we were young. We would like to take the time to reflect on how to live a more enchanted life, a life with greater fulfillment, greater love and kindness, and with more profound fascinations.
Yet even if we had the time, we don’t know where to start or even where to find the tools.
For three decades Arnold Siegel has provided an opportunity for taking this ultimate adventure. Each year’s coursework—like a unique journey—carries the student to broad new vistas, not geographic in nature, but explorations of the human spirit in both its aspects: new understandings of a life worth living on the one hand, and new ways to gain mastery of ourselves on the other. This is more than a sojourn into the world of ideas, it is a journey into the world of profoundness itself.
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Senior Research Scientist, PhD., Marine Ecology, Kailua, Hawaii
"…we find a new understanding of the meaning of life."
As students of Autonomy and life we understand that how we live our life is an experiment and an art. It’s freeing (and enchanting!) to approach life like an experiment…. to watch the results of the experiment unfold, enjoy the process, choose to be OK with any outcome, and love what is. We learn to be realistic about getting what we want, about things going wrong and find that we can be OK regardless of circumstances around us. Setbacks, disappointments, conflicts become less “sticky” and we can move forward more easily.
In autonomy and life we gain maturity and become better thinkers. We see our lives, our place in history, in the world, from a bigger picture. We recognize how civilization and circumstances mold us to be ambitious, seek status, and acquire more. We learn to think and make independent choices while creating a life of our own design. In this bigger picture, we find a new understanding of the meaning of life. We find purpose and inspiration.
Increasingly we can set aside our blind rivalrous instincts, our need to be right, to be recognized. Instead we are inspired by human connection toward kindness, generosity, gratitude, curiosity. We are inspired toward a life of meaning, art, and contribution. We find peace in aligning our internal with our external lives.
Thirty years ago I did not even fantasize the delightful life I enjoy now. My circumstances are comfortable and fulfilling, but I cherish most my artistic endeavors, human intelligence (including my own), and the experiment of my still unfolding maturity.
“…I am satisfied and pleased with the life I am living…”
Living life WELL and to the fullest is complicated. We are groomed at home and influenced by friends to adhere to the social mores. And through education to be skillful in a job. But we emerge from college thrown into adult life asked to make important choices (where to live, whom to love, what to say on Twitter) with little guidance and not much of a big picture perspective on what will make for each of us individually…a rich experience of having lived our lives.
But the goal gnaws at us. And life’s demands press down on us. I for one felt ill-prepared to make good choices and to manage the feelings that welled up over the challenges and demands made on all of us in everyday living…although outwardly…I was doing life right!
In this class of Autonomy and Life I found a story I could align with on just what it means to be a human being and live out our 90 years on this planet. For me the greatest gift felt in the first few days of the retreat and onward throughout the years of continued study was the refinement of a more succinct and even better description of what is going on outside of me and inside of me that put the steering wheel in my hands to craft a life of my own design. One that resonated with MY temperament and also my capability.
Outside I look like everyone else. Married, raised a family. Ran a marathon. Have a successful career. Seen as a skilled executive, a kind friend and an interesting individual. But inside is the greatest reward. For my desires, my skills and my emotions have been placed (by me) into circumstances that I am fit to live within. Therefore, I am satisfied and pleased with the life I am living and the choices I have made that led me to this particular version of a life. And still yet outwardly others would say I am doing life right. I fit in.
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CEO, Corporate Communications & Brand Identity, New York, New York
“A life of our own design, artfully self-expressed, is a life worth living…”
We started talking, thinking and writing about Autonomy and Life many years ago. We took life seriously and began thinking seriously about it—the big universals and the day-to-day. No givens. No assumptions beyond questioning. Our aim was never theories or rules, but practical means to engage life with competent authority and effectiveness, to produce real world results (material, social and private) that trued with life today, with our feelings, values and tastes, that expressed our natures, granted us dignity and served our longings to gain and contribute a meaningful, free and original life.
Thinking for ourselves, and then striving to live true (responsible) to what we recognized to be true, has come to define us, individuate and connect us to life—a means for being more fully-human. The good life we dared to hope for has come through creative thinking, tested in action for proof of its value, and in the vitality found in the doing of it.
A life of our own design, artfully self-expressed, is a life worth living: rich, strong, fulfilling and satisfying, a never-ending inquiry intent on a finer experience of life, now and tomorrow. I thank Arnold Siegel for his ceaselessly pioneering work, his intelligence and his kind leadership. I thank our fellow students for their continued curiosity, boldness, honesty and accomplishment.
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Performing Arts, Artistic DIrector, Guggenheim Fellow, Teaneck, New Jersey
"The results continue to become deeper, more substantive…"
Over the years as I work on Autonomy what has clearly shifted is my ability to calm down. Since high school I have been hungry to understand more about life but was too nervous, self-conscious and anxious to be able to concentrate. I recall being too jittery to focus. I recall preferring that it be handed to me. I recall distracting myself with easy things like errands. But now I can happily say I calm myself down, manage my energy and follow my own instructions. I work steadily and quietly, plan doable objectives and for the most part accomplish those objectives. I have come to trust myself. My creative work as a choreographer, performer and writer has multiplied, the quality of that work deepened and my workload increased. I have become more comfortable with the process of creating work, not expecting results immediately, not running away, but enjoying the steady process of working and watching each work unfold in the time each one demands. The results continue to become deeper, more substantive, more imaginative, generous and nervy. To recognize not knowing how a work resolves, and being calm not knowing, has become a gift. And being calm enough to let each work move into new territory where it’s fun and scary is so fulfilling! I love it!
Following one’s own instructions seems so simple but is quite a feat. It is not easy to change, especially with our bodies designed to repeat themselves but now, with an understanding of my/our compulsive systems, I have gained greater understanding and compassion for the creatures we are and at the same time I have found a beautiful way to manage change and see myself grow, connect with the bigger world, and become a bigger person.
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Vice-President, Creative Director, Publishing, Katonah, New York
“…the single most important piece of my education...”
25 years ago I took a chance on a class that offered something I had never heard anyone talk about. At long last, someone was not only addressing, but actually offering an alternative to this endless pattern of talking to ourselves and the suffering that accompanied it. The possibility of being at home in the world? comfortable in my own skin? able to think for myself? no longer my own worst enemy? Sign me up. And so I did.
But the real story isn't just what the class promised, it's what, amazingly, it has continued to deliver, month after month, year after year, for the past 25 years.
This coursework in Autonomy and Life turns out to be the single most important piece of my education and, as it turns out, my evolution as a human being. From where I now stand, it's easy to see the limitations of my high school, college, religious school, and school-of-hard-knocks educations.
From here, it couldn't be more obvious that this exploration of what it is to be human, what it is to carve out a meaningful and satisfying existence, and what it is to do it all with a "go-to" I could bet my life on is absolutely essential, and otherwise missing. The circumstances and demands of life continue to be what they are, and the call for competence, as parent, spouse, employee, community member, etc. is always there.
But I'm clearer than ever about what's going on. I see (and mostly avoid) the red herrings and hollow promises that come in various shapes and sizes. I hang my hat on the sustained thinking that I do each day, as I address this unique subject matter, and with it, myself and humanity. I've learned to enjoy my mind and my solitude in a way I never imagined possible. My satisfaction, contentment, and peace of mind are mine to bring about — and knowing that gives life an entirely different quality, whatever the circumstances.
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PhD., Economics, Buchanan, Virginia
“…the process of creation of a more profound and authentic way of being…has been fulfilled.”
When I first heard Arnold speak I was struck by how he described and distinguished the human condition and by the ring of truth that was in his voice. According to Arnold, we, as the current model of being human, lacked authenticity. All of us were caught up in the dualistic nature of being human as codified by Rene Descartes, a material body and an imagined otherworldly mind located somewhere close by. Despite our best efforts each of us were always left with a remainder and unable to get to the essential "me." We all knew it, yet it seemed impossible to just be ourselves.
According to Arnold, however, it was a matter of comprehension, practice and learning from another. Nothing was missing; all of the necessary critical information was available in the current state of human intelligence. What was required was a profound change in our learning capacity so that we could alter the fundamental way that we were being human. The experiment was how this new authentic way of being would impact our experience of ourselves and the circumstances we lived in.
As far as any of us knew it has never been done before. No teacher had set out to rid their students of the Cartesian reductive ego. As students we could not even grasp the importance of such a feat. Yet he had the audacity to make the promise, to begin the process of creation of a more profound and authentic way of being. And today that promise has been fulfilled.
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Vice-President, Marketing, Fashion, Katonah, New York
“…I am proof positive that this discipline has practical value…”
Autonomy is both learned and earned. Those who take up this discipline are rewarded for their efforts by a powerful capacity to be in command of their responses to the world. Without attention to it, we see how the focus becomes narrowed to achieving the symbols of success, accepting that climbing the heights of the arenas in which we play will result in a fulfilling life.
We want to live a life where we are free to be in command, to choose what we value and to focus on living in the highest range of human ideals.
We do this because it works -- both in our practical lives, as well as in our day-to-day experience of ourselves -- free from the discord and anxiety so prevalent in the competitive marketplace. In this experiment, we have learned a perspective that supports our ability to succeed in the world as well as being comfortable in our own skin. This discipline has given us the ability to stop and think, responding to the challenge in front of us through thoughtful deliberation and the conviction of a place to stand; it gives us a framework that supports efficacy and helps us to grow in our compassion, intelligence and problem solving skills.
As a student in the classes and coursework of Autonomy and Life, I have developed a new perspective. I have learned that freedom is gained with command over my reflexive subjectivity, that my purpose is to reach for the highest normative ideals of humanity, and that meaning comes from living as I see fit. And I am proof positive that this discipline has practical value; a steadily progressive, financially rewarding and ethical career at the top of my profession, the ability to manage my health and well-being with care, and loving, peaceful relationships with family and friends. Words can hardly express my gratitude.
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Executive Director, Immigration Advocacy, Alexandria, Virginia
“…my approach toward life has gone through a gradual and remarkable metamorphosis.”
There are so few things that live up to their promise, that when I first started studying Autonomy and Life with Arnold Siegel I was deeply skeptical. Back then, I was often angry, frequently anxious and deeply alienated from a culture that seemed as simplistically superficial as it was ruthlessly competitive. But something about the teacher and the coursework struck me as so authentic, intelligent and practical that I decided to stick with it. I'm glad I did, for after many years of study and practice, my attitude and approach toward life has gone through a gradual and remarkable metamorphosis.
This is because the coursework focuses less on what we want, or on what we have to do to get what we want, and more on who it is that is doing the wanting.
As a result, I have come to know myself, ourselves. Instead of seeing myself as defined by my successes, standing and circumstances, I see myself as fortunate participant in humanity's struggle to free ourselves from righteousness indignation and arrogant antagonism in favor of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Instead of feeling doomed to repetitive thinking and behavior, I regularly experience the freedom to rise above petty thoughts, patterned practices and naïve judgments as I bring forth greater measures of generosity, humility, courage and acceptance.
Instead of seeing myself as a rebellious lost soul doomed to sadness and separateness, I see myself as a poet responsible for authoring my perspective, an artist more in command of what I think, say and do. I always wanted to be a better version of myself, but wasn't sure where to look for an education in being a bigger person. I found it in this coursework, and I am deeply grateful for that.
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Psychologist, PhD., Los Angeles, California
“…compassion for humanity present and future our life becomes about contribution.”
When this experiment started we were steeped in our circumstantial concerns, working within the limited scope of the cultural options. With an increased focus on human subjectivity we plumbed the depths from which all this buzz of cultural activity arose and gradually we awoke – only to find ourselves sitting on a projectile of enculturated fears and desires, realizing a fully programmed neuronally-based selfhood fully preoccupied with its image and competitive standing.
Notwithstanding this subjective predicament, our sensitivity to subjection and our desire for greater meaning and efficacy in the world drove us on.
Thinking for ourselves (using humanity’s intelligence and the vocabulary of Autonomy) we created a new vantage point from which to recognize our subjection. Though autonomy is an ongoing effort, all the distinctions, practices, perspectives and strategies of each class empowered us to be in the world with ever increasing competitive competence, creativity, intimacy, fulfillment and equanimity.
In our more meaningful moments we’re aware of our desire for a world in which our prevalent experience is that of love: compassion for others and ourselves expressed in all our interactions big and small, to those near and far.
The discipline of Autonomy and Life makes this possible. This vocabulary of subjective mastery allows us to identify with humanity and its subjective dilemma – the way in which each of us is an instance of nature’s experiment with language.
Examining the ground of being on which we stood, this experience of love became more than a temporary inspired glimpse, but a way of being. With love as the experiential foundation all the other values naturally follow: responsibility, accountability, integrity, prudence, fairness, cooperation, even the pursuit of enlightened self-interest. Out of gratitude for the cultural works of the past (upon which we stand) and compassion for humanity present and future our life becomes about contribution.
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Owner, Collectibles Company, Miami, Florida
“A life fully lived is incredibly thrilling and joyful each day…”
The long-term benefits of Autonomy and Life are maturity, stability, and a profound enjoyment of the experience of being alive. The course began for me with planning, goal setting and consciously setting priorities. The results of this initial work showed up as the elimination of bad habits and the establishment of a mature perspective, which allowed for better decision making.
When I first began studying with Arnold Siegel, I was living the fast life and I wasn’t very happy.
Over time, I learned that enjoying life was based upon being stable, responding to life’s challenges with mature decision making, and an acute awareness that beyond being an individual, I was only one example of the human race and fully interconnected with my fellow humans.
As the class progressed, I began taking more responsibility for my behavior and the effect I had on everyone I met. I moved away from talking pessimistically to myself and I learned how to quiet that anxious inner voice which was damaging my moment-to-moment enjoyment of life. Instead of turning inward, I turned my attention out to the world in order to make a contribution.
Looking outward, I found all kinds of areas where I could make a difference, where I could make people’s lives better and brighter--from being a better manager at work, to my community’s improvement through politics, to becoming an effective fundraiser for my favorite charities, and to even being a better friend. A life fully lived is incredibly thrilling and joyful each day, knowing that my life matters. Thank you, Arnold Siegel for teaching this amazing course.
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President, Public Accounting Firm, Austin, Texas
“It’s an awesome way of being human and an incredible contribution to humanity!”
Thinking about what it means to be human, has us thinking in bigger terms, a bigger picture of humanity looked at as a whole. Humanity has achieved so much in all the areas of our lives; health, science, technology etc. Yet for most of us there is a discontent, a disappointment in our lives, a sense of "is this all there is?" In the inevitable comparing of ourselves with others, we think we are lacking, that others have found and are living the "good life."
Many of us engage in excessive behavior - drink, food, or exercise, thinking this is the way to achieve some satisfaction with our lives. Many of us are seduced, often unwittingly by the advertisements of products promoting, as a fact of life, that if we buy them, we can achieve the "good life", the "American dream", especially since the people pictured are all handsome, fit, pretty and happy! And yet after possessing whatever has been promoted, there persists disappointment and discontent.
The discipline of Autonomy and Life addresses, from a unique perspective, the management of the human animal's verbal behavior, its thoughts, words and actions, in a very practical, useful moment-by-moment way. The coursework teaches us who we are, how we got to be who we are and how we can go about addressing ourselves; examining our thoughts, our words and our actions, evaluating them for consistency with what we want them to be, understanding the consequences of all our words and actions and if we choose, how we go about changing ourselves.
It’s also about managing our circumstances, making sure we are in circumstances that support us and if they don't, being responsible for changing them! Practicing this discipline has given me a profound sense of being alive, an experience of satisfaction, equanimity, fulfillment and happiness. It’s an awesome way of being human and an incredible contribution to humanity!
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CEO & Founder/Management Consultancy, Nyack, New York
“…fresh, relevant perspective that I carry with me at work and at home…”
Arnold offers a clear-eyed, pragmatic, and mind-opening examination of what it means to be human and to live with equanimity amid the competitive pressures and everyday absurdities of our society and culture. His classes always bring fresh, relevant perspective that I carry with me at work and at home. My work with Arnold over the past four years shows up in better thinking, behavior, and relationships.
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Fine Artist, New York, New York
“…a profound sense of connection with
the people in my life…”
As an artist I spend time alone, in my studio, face to face with either a blank canvas or a painting in progress. So employing a quiet, focused mind is crucial to having the wherewithal to follow through with where the creativity of the human brain might lead. Sometimes I know what I want to do and sometimes I have no idea how to paint a particular image.
As a long time student of Arnold’s, I’ve learned to develop the capacity to think creatively and critically, the courage to persevere with each challenge, the strength to succeed or fail, and not be disheartened by an unanticipated outcome. As a result of this study, I feel a profound sense of connection with the people in my life, fulfillment and success with my work, peace of mind and immense gratitude for this opportunity to acquire such a resourceful, imaginative and fulfilling life.
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Executive Vice-President, Manufacturing, Union, New Jersey
“It is like cutting our own puppet strings, delivering amazing control and emotional freedom.”
Autonomy is an interesting phenomenon. How much of our brain-body system do we really understand – let alone have control over? In this class, Arnold uncovers shared human blind spots where we react in thoughtless habit, blind spots that form the roots of subsequent disturbance, stress and upset. Each new insight gives us back a bit more conscious authority over our words, actions, and even moodiness.
It is like cutting our own puppet strings, delivering amazing control and emotional freedom.
About now, already, you probably want to bottom-line those insights. That desire for simple answers to a complex life actually is one such insight. The urge for quick answers is one of many pieces of information about the human condition presented in this class.
Arnold asks important questions, like: “How can we learn to live as we see fit, not as others would have us live?” Or, more provocatively: “Does it matter that we have even lived at all?” Such directed questions stimulate fruitful thinking, not coincidentally delivering a depth of meaning and emotional strength that can’t be supplied by simple sound bites. Practical value is found without giving away our authority to mysticism, spiritualism or superstition.
Science shows that self-consciousness is purely the result of a combination of evolved brain functions, but we mistakenly live as though we are some kind of mysterious ghost directing a separate body-machine. Although that pretense of Cartesian dualism was burst sometime around Darwin, over and over we allow our privileged feelings of exceptionalism to trump good thinking, with painful results.
In this class we take time from our too-rushed lives to consider important questions that palpably impact the enculturated and evolved basis of our beliefs, choices and stubborn moodiness. The relief is exquisite, hard-earned and empowering to our wellbeing, fulfillment and joie de vivre.
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Attorney at Law, San Diego, California
“This is your life altering discipline.”
Autonomy and Life is an incredibly profound and personal experience. It addresses what it means to be human in today’s world. Yet it’s also extraordinarily valuable at a practical level. What rings true about this experiment is that it affects outcomes. We hear so much about the desire to change, but never are we provided with an effective means of accomplishing any sort of a lasting transformation.
This is your life altering discipline. All of the tools needed for success are included within this coursework, the transformations are abundant. As students we’ve seen the impact that this discipline brings about in real time at work, in the home and as we go about society because we’re stable, fulfilled and satisfied. We’ve learned to identify our goals, plan for success and thrive in the accomplishment of these outcomes. Through a unique approach to solving challenges that often we all hold in common, Autonomy and Life addresses what it means to be alive and in the same breath transforms the experience of living.
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Senior Litigator, Buchanan, Virginia
“…an intense, provocative and fulfilling personal adventure…”
Autonomy and life is an exuberant and endlessly fascinating experiment in developing the perspective and command to create an equanimous, fulfilling life of one’s own design. One aspect of the experiment is testing how far we can free ourselves from the intense cultural forces that drive or inhibit us, and that subject us to a pervasive discontent. In other words, how free can we be from our enculturated blind ambition to keep up with the Joneses, and to instead live as we see fit? Instead of being eternally locked into the rat race, how closely can we harmonize our lives with our authentic identities?
Another aspect of the experiment is discovering how much “brainpower” and independent judgment we can summon by developing our natural capacity for thinking. How far out of our heads can we get (and our endless talking to ourselves) and how deeply can we penetrate the flow of humanity’s creative intelligence? How far can we push the envelope of our thinking and self-command?
Another aspect of the experiment is discovering whether we can prosper in today’s competitive world by embracing high ideals. On a like note, can we transcend the inhibitions of self-antagonism and the antagonism of others? Can we replace our automatic responses to challenge and adversity with something vastly more creative, resourceful and resilient? (Spoiler: we can!)
There are, of course, other aspects of the experiment—as would be expected from three decades of extraordinary creativity and discovery. But the territory is not the map, and the foregoing does not adequately convey the extraordinary experience of participating in the experiment. On one level, it is an intense, provocative and fulfilling personal adventure. On another, it is a profound and felt connection with all of humanity.
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Senior Executive Director, Publishing, New York, New York
“These are skills for the long haul.”
It’s so easy today to get swept up by busy schedules, obligations, and chasing the things we associate with “the good life.” It’s easy also to let stress, anxiety and resentments take their toll, or to feel restless or discontent, even when things are going well. What’s hard is to remember that each of us is obliged to master our own existence, to overcome the adversities life throws at us, and ultimately to figure out how to live meaningful and full lives.
The retreats and classes led by Arnold Siegel are the place to focus on just that. I find it a profound inquiry into what it means to be human today and a powerful antidote to life on overdrive.
As a result of Arnold’s ongoing study of the history of thought about humanity, he shares an evolving and contemporary perspective that helps us contextualize our lives. We see ourselves anew, and unravel much of what we think we know and what we have been enculturated to want. This makes way for new thinking and creativity in our interactions with others and in shaping personal plans and goals.
I have found tremendous relief comes with this big-picture perspective and I never fail to be surprised and inspired by the concepts discussed. After being a student these many years, I have embodied the benefits. I feel I am more confident in dealing with complex and changing circumstances, and have the insight needed to manage my life and emotional well-being. These are skills for the long haul. I’m very grateful to have found such a unique forum in which to explore the human journey, and to find my way in it.
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Attorney, Bratenahl, Ohio
“…the most incredible and uplifting course of study anybody could do…”
Because of your work, I’ve been able to use my brain to guide my life rather than being swept along by habits and musings, heavily influenced by the pessimism and inherited destructive habits of parents and grandparents or others in my life.
My life is really about being vulnerable to the changes that life brings, living with the uncertainty, and still holding firm on humane values, like optimism, perseverance and balance. I’ve really learned patience. I’ve found out that if I put out what I need to enough people, it generally results in getting what is required!! And I’m truly satisfied with my accomplishments now and in the past.
My general outlook is cheerful and upbeat; and this is a huge change from the fearful worried person that I used to be. Being satisfied with being complete is a great thing, rather than letting negative stuff, role-playing and keeping up with other people (Scoreboard) run my mind. It’s been absolutely the most incredible and uplifting course of study anybody could do; I’m so sorry for those in my environment who just didn’t or couldn’t work with you and who now manifest such negative and unhappy thoughts. The thinking has to be done daily, and there’s no easy way.
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Sales Manager, Apparel, Los Angeles, California
“Being engaged in {this discipline} has been the most important decision I have made in my life.”
For much of my life, I felt some "thing" was missing and I spent much of my professional and personal life searching for that missing piece. I tried filling the void and quieting the anxiety with all kinds of distractions; work, relationships, travel, material acquisitions. None of these endeavors produced feelings of any kind of lasting stability. Deep down I knew I was chasing my tail, but I didn't know what else to do.
Then I met someone who was a student of Arnold Siegel. He was different in that he was calm and didn't react to the unstable environment we live in the way most people do. He had a way with words and a way of navigating his mind that was intentional, self-directed and in control. He was kind and had a generosity of spirit for humanity. I realized this was the kind of experience I was seeking.
I immediately signed up for the first retreat I could. The discussions and conversations that took place in class were transformative. It made common sense that there was a relationship between being a better thinker, making wiser choices and having increased experiences of peace and equanimity. The other students are of all ages, professions and backgrounds and they are intelligent and sensitive to the experience of being human.
As a result of being in class and applying what I am learning I have more command with what I am communicating and how I am responding. The coursework has been more interesting, engaging and beneficial, than any class I ever took in college. Without changing anything in my life circumstantially, my personal and professional life are thriving.
This superior educational experience with Arnold Siegel has contributed to more meaning, purpose and connection in my life. Being engaged in the conversation of Autonomy and having subjective command has been the most important decision I have made in my life.
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Vice-President of Information Technology, Banking, Stoughton, Massachusetts
“…no longer so easily disturbed by people or situations…”
When I started my study of Autonomy and Life I had already been involved with the Transformation movement. I had tried many programs to help me live a better life. My war experiences in my late teens had set me back as is the case for many today. However, until I found this work the changes I wanted for myself and my family were not sustained. Our class work is complex and it teaches one to take responsibility for having a life that has meaning not just for oneself but for those with whom we come in contact.
I remember that when I first engaged Arnold’s assignments and the classes, subway rides became more pleasant. I also stopped arguing with my wife and children. My role at work in the financial services industry changed too. I chose to stay with my company for more than a decade rather than hop to the next job because I was upset or dissatisfied. I was promoted frequently and given more responsibilities year after year. I was no longer so easily disturbed by people or situations. I stopped incessantly talking to myself. Rather, I could think for myself and focus my attention on what I wanted to create more easily.
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Freelance Writer, Brooklyn, New York
“…words and their meanings are the solid stuff we build with and stand on.”
The problem of adding height to the design of a skyscraper, according to Cesar Pelli, isn't a matter of getting a few stories added to the top of a building. It's a matter of getting a few stories added underneath it. Pelli's corrective comes to mind when I remember a moment in Arnold Siegel's classroom.
A student had stood up and spoken about a problem she was having with her circumstances. Arnold took time and addressed it, as usual, to the satisfaction of the student and to the awe of the rest of us who'd been listening with the acute attentions of the eavesdropper. Then he said the part I remember: "I might have mentioned 7 or eight things that would have solved the problem." And I thought: Hmm...if that's right then her problem wasn't a matter of replacing a brick in the wall, of plugging the void of a fixed dimension.
He hadn't addressed her problem sentimentally either, or with a flattering patch to the ego. No, he had added something underneath. He'd gotten a story underneath her and it had improved her standing, her stability. Shoring her up a bit had handled the problem she'd located elsewhere. And if there were 7 or eight alternative ways of lodging greater context into her footing right then, there might be a hundred tomorrow, a thousand next week if she could do it for herself.
What Arnold seems to have known all along is that whole breeds of circumstantial problems have to be solved at the point of stance, with developed understanding. In the absence of a foundational self, words and their meanings are the solid stuff we build with and stand on. And if we're not working with them carefully and at a depth, we're probably going at self extension in unstable ways.
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Mother, Homemaker, Writer, Mill Valley, California
“I feel we’re a part of something historically significant…”
Every time I go to a class with Arnold I feel it—we’re part of something historically significant, something that could change the world, as Plato’s students at The Academy must have felt. I know, it sounds far-fetched, conceited even, but what if it were actually true? Game changing people are born every so often, and what if I, and maybe you too, just through happenstance were lucky enough to come across such a person who gave you the opportunity not only to change your life but to be involved with furthering human discourse?
To hear Arnold’s uniquely progressive and intelligent description of humanity past, present, and future and each person’s stake and opportunity in it, is a pleasure in itself. But even more significant are the results experienced by every single student. This class has allowed us to be so conscious of what’s going on in the world and have such creative command in it, so much heart and “soul.”
Life is complex—people take so much for granted, leaving so much unexamined, even our own finitude as we are caught up in regular demands, going for obvious rewards. It just makes sense to study with a (serious) teacher who can give us a whole new view, a whole new place to stand. Arnold has created not just a unique course of study, but a whole new discipline, that thoroughly examines what it means to be human, and in light of that, provoking us to figure out what we truly want and how to artfully go about getting it.
The strength, satisfaction, and fulfillment this brings about nearly every moment is remarkable! Often I think about how the things so concerning about our world today could be solved if everyone in every field could learn to address humanity with the level of creativity Arnold is pushing us toward. What a peaceful and productive place our world would be!
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Senior Vice-President, Loan Operations, Banking, Salt Lake City, Utah
“From the very first class a possibility opened up…”
Frustration and dissatisfaction brought me to this classroom years ago. I was a successful professional yet began to see peers passing me by. Fearful that my career was leveling off too soon yet unwilling to continue to blame others for what was out of my grasp, including rewarding and intimate relationships, I was angrier and moodier. Stuck. The walls of the rut were closing in. From the very first class a possibility opened up as a broader perspective than where I had my attention.
I learned to step away from a linear, vertical agenda to develop critical thinking skills that allow for creative control of a life of my own design. It took time to take attention off of what others thought I should do. With discipline and practice a rewarding and satisfying life has emerged that is not an illusion like a momentary spiritual high. It's a solid comfortable experience of myself at home in the world leading a disciplined life.
I look forward to the daily effort of thinking about a bigger perspective on what it means to be a human being and have come to understand who I am. Placing value on no longer being disturbed is a more generous and heartful approach to relationships. It brings openness, light and compassion when in dialogue with others.
And I have learned that through thinking change is easier and welcome rather than merely tolerated. It is a constant effort to live an inspired life. Yet through discipline and responsibility, as Arnold has guided us, an enlivened life can be cultivated, enjoyed and shared with those we love.
“…this discipline has taught the students how to acquire mastery of the experience of themselves…”
I am reminded of something I heard Bruce Springsteen say one time in a radio interview. He said that in his life what he had always wanted was to be “adult...in the drivers’ seat, not in the back seat.” And so when I think about the results of this experiment with this discipline in Autonomy and Life, that’s what I observe in the students: they seem very much in charge of and driving their lives. They seem to be going where they want to go, and feeling the way they want to feel. And whereas they could probably go for the gold and have a great deal of success with that, they seem interested and focused on how they’re playing out their lives.
Cultivating noble aims (and what I think Springsteen meant when he used the word ‘adult’) such as authenticity, care, responsibility, self-reliance, kindness, humility - loom large in the students’ work. In my observation, this discipline has taught the students how to acquire mastery of the experience of themselves so that they can bring it into play in their lives. The kicker seems to be that the students of this discipline didn’t just want this command as Springsteen mentioned, they actually acquired it - they are in command of themselves.
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Fine Artist, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
“…an extraordinary accomplishment of teaching and of learning.”
Reading the pamphlet from 1986 under the title, “What Does [Autonomy and Life] Offer?: Stability, Authenticity, Timeliness, Equanimity and Maturity” I realized they describe me and my life, who I am, who I have become. I had no intention of re-reading the pamphlet thinking how content I am to be where I am now and felt no need to go back. Yet these words originating in 1986 ring true for me now. I know and embody stability, endurance and peace of mind.
In Autonomy and Life, authenticity is a reality I can rely on. Unbeknownst to me, those decades ago, pretense, seeking admiration, feigning sincerity kept me locked into unreal practices of thinking, feeling and acting. I was trained to need them as tools for coping in the competitive and authoritative world, which frightened and numbed me. I did not understand myself in relation to the world nor was I at home there.
That this is no longer the case is an extraordinary accomplishment of teaching and of learning. Equanimity quieted inner anguish, anticipation and anxiety. Amazing are the resources of integrity and intentionality. We strive to become ever more fully mature human beings. This does not end. We mature gradually and incrementally. At any given moment we find ourselves whole, complete, content and satisfied. It is a momentous and profound privilege to be a participant in this experiment that has and continues to “revise human perception of reality.” I am deeply grateful.
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Homemaker, Bend, Oregon
“To make sense of such a finite life is a powerful reward.”
Being a student of Autonomy and Life in Arnold’s class has been such a rare, yet real opportunity! I am so very grateful to participate in this experimental process which produces such aliveness. The more I experiment with the information and ideas Arnold presents, the more meaningful and equanimous my life becomes. As the experimenter experimenting upon my own life, I am the one responsible for creating meaning in my life (or not).
And, as the subject of the experiment, I am the one experiencing the fulfillment in my life. I am finding that my happiness does not depend on my circumstances nor on the outcomes of my experiments. Results are not considered as “successes” or “failures.” Rather, they are considered information to be added to the body of knowledge utilized in designing the next experiment in the quest for what adds value to life and what works (or doesn’t work) to forward civilization.
This life-long experiment is both exciting and beneficial for me as I learn to create a meaningful life. It teaches me to open my mind to the bigger perspective, to create a bigger life and, thereby, enables me to make a bigger contribution. For the most part, I am able to move myself from a restless discontent into a satisfaction achieved through the Discipline of Autonomy. This autonomy precludes the need for approval. I author myself one thought, one action, one word, one experiment at a time…To make sense of such a finite life is a powerful reward. I am happy!!
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Apparel/Technical Designer, Brooklyn, New York
“…I've come to know the pure and unadulterated experience of being alive.”
The distinctions and insights gained in this experiment have proved to be profound and relevant to any human life. The result of this effort has provided an opportunity to think critically and creatively about the arrangement of one's life from within a sound framework. When we reflect in this way, we're not only better positioned to spend ourselves more productively but the value and meaning we give to life itself becomes apparent. From this place, we take on the world in its ever-changing circumstances and contingencies with a new found personal freedom and confidence.
It’s a place where one can craft a perspective, which addresses the many facets of being human. One that deals with our practical endeavors. One that satisfies the heart's (often muffled or subdued) deeper desires. We experiment, reflect, weigh and subsequently learn to navigate these vast and complex terrains with grace and dexterity. It is in this inquiry that we are known and heard, for perhaps the first time.
I fear I wouldn't have ever come to know myself without the distinctions and insights that have been created and shared as a result of this effort; staying fixed in the farthest reaches of my own reverie. Now, living in the world of meaning, each impending moment is as though the ground has given way beneath my feet; I've come to know the pure and unadulterated experience of being alive.
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Software Consultant, Denver, Colorado
“Embrace the journey of Autonomy and Life, and embrace life itself.”
Our lives come with no roadmap, no instruction manual. We are inserted into the condition and circumstance of our birth and raised to respond to the demands of civilized existence. Though we tend to take it for granted, the capacity to do this is remarkable. But it is also complex and many of us experience the burden as well as the freedom that inheres in being human.
The journey of Autonomy and Life uniquely addresses the complexity of our condition and circumstance. Its discipline emerges from a recognition that our equanimity, fulfillment and satisfaction are products of the subjective command we acquire and represent in the face of life's challenges rather than the sum of our accomplishments and acquisitions. Its daily practice provides a shift of focus to the process we rely on to inform and guide our lives.
This attention we bring to our capacity to evaluate and choose improves the quality of our response to life and its challenges. It reveals to us that our individuality and independence are constituted in these qualitative distinctions. Love, joy and excitement; frustration, disappointment and anxiety are all recast as part of the opportunity of life. We come to realize that it is in the struggle rather than retreat or fulfillment that make our lives worth living. Embrace the journey of Autonomy and Life, and embrace life itself.
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Clinical Supervisor of Audiology, Brooklyn, New York
“…a historical perspective of what it means to be human…”
I don’t know how he has done it but Arnold has been able to tie together a historical perspective of what it means to be human as an individual as well as how we have developed over time as human beings. What drew me to this work was a desire to feel more at home in the world and to be a better thinker and it has accomplished both.
Being in class, participating in this ever-evolving discipline, I’ve seen us develop greater and greater ability to take command of ourselves and our lives, as a resource to be depended on. If I could draw this perspective, the page would be filled with individuals of all shapes and sizes, like the timeline of humans becoming upright, walking from left to right; the left being from where we came over time in our efforts at autonomy to where we are now but all connected in that effort with more to go into the future. This both locates us in this day and age and connects us in this ongoing process. And there is solidity in that, a felt feeling of home.
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PhD., Political Science, Claremont, California
“…the phoenix factor of emboldened claim and enriched vocabulary…”
That we have life asserts a context for living fully human. The opus of autonomy and life tests and appraises just how we as living systems orchestrate life in terms of life’s own accord. Not unlike civilized pronouncements through the millennia ushered by human condition and circumstance, autonomy and life found its way articulated forth in the contemporaneous vacuum of depleted treatments of the human agenda.
Heir to, yet unconstrained by, such lineage, autonomy and life emerges the phoenix factor of emboldened claim and enriched vocabulary replete with irony of distinction signatory of its namesake. Marking a 30-year perspective: experimental design is replicable; empirical results are duplicable; hypothesis is validated; methodology of pedagogy is sound. However, it is truth-value utility of autonomy and life’s pragmatic in-the-world traction that summons the litmus test for living fully human viability.
The desired result: stability of the living system in variant contingency that characterizes its environment.
The value-added delivered: autonomy and life straightens out subjected human thinking. Via historical revision of human cognitive development, it shatters myth and dispels illusion.
Newly locating such deliberation in domains of solitude and competence, the human subject with realistic systemic vocabularic intelligence negotiates a place to stand. Envisioned what to see, the variance of uncertainty is vaporized by consonance of spontaneous response.
Autonomy and life is not inherited. It must be taught. It can be learned. It is panhuman in appeal. At 21st century intersection of individual prerogative and state sovereignty, it melds the interface of human-personal responsibility and sustainable humane-social accountability. Autonomy and life is its own progenitor implicit in living human. Poised future-forward in best goodness-of-fit experiment, its opus is ever more explicit in living fully human in worldly-realm reach for meaningful substantive equanimity.
“The coursework has affected every facet of my life…”
The experiment has proved to be everything I wanted to learn about living a happy, productive, competent, and "human" life. The upshot - life makes sense, my experience is rich and meaningful. The coursework has impacted every facet of my life, particularly with regards to my ability to enjoy the passage of time and having the life I want - both in its content and my experience.
I have learned a framework - a context - a discipline for living my life whereby I have greater command of my response in the moment and am less swayed by my immediate biological, socially conditioned, or ego-driven responses.
I’ve learned to negotiate practical reality and have command over my interior conditions (emotions, mood, attitude, thoughts) so that I achieve a high level of performance and enjoy the decisive moments of life. I can bring my intelligence to bear in pressure or tension-filled situations and truly think, not fall back on conformity, imitation, convention or luck, to dictate my actions and the mood of my experience.
This ability to provide leadership – of myself (and others) has made a key difference in the quality of my life. It adds richness and meaning and allows me to make full use of my talents and interests. To my way of thinking, this is the leadership we want from ourselves. Of course, life is not all upside. There have been plenty of failures, adversity, and difficulty in these 29 years. Perhaps this is its greatest value – I am able to recover from life's unavoidable difficulties with resilience, understanding and humility. I can move on from failures with an ease I didn't think possible and where hard feelings are minimized.
“Together we have done what I so wanted to see those years ago at Columbia…”
For me, the search for becoming a different kind of human being began in 1968 during the Columbia student revolt. Although I sympathized with the aims of the movement - the means seemed so contradictory - after all - the students were being as rivalrous as the causes against which they railed.
So I did not join but felt this deep longing for a world in which humanity would not be at constant odds with each other. It wasn't just my feelings toward the world at large. It was also that it was extremely difficult and painful for me to live within my own skin.
Sure - to others I looked like I had it all - that I was successful and happy and lived a grand life. But my internal experience was one of constant unhappiness and I was often mean spirited, angry, uncaring, cold, indifferent.
And then I was fortunate enough to become a student of Arnold who has developed a vocabulary and perspective which, as they say, "has made all the difference." It hasn't been an easy road - nor a quick trip. But slowly and incrementally, the person I used to be has vanished.
My anger, my dread, my fears, my rivalry, my constant comparing myself to others and finding myself lacking, my dreaming that happiness would only come when I achieved this job or this income status - all of that is now gone.
And in its place is a person who feels comfortable in her own skin, and who can be competent in the practical world, make a contribution, and rest at the end of a day knowing she has done her best.
And, this isn't just true of me. It is true of the students in the class who have stuck with this study. Together we have done what I so wanted to see those years ago at Columbia - human beings who have changed their humanity so that they can live in the world with each other in peace, fulfill the demands of practical life, which are not to be denied or diminished in their complexity, and live each day to the fullest.
“A quiet mind is worth a fortune.”
From the outside, my life looks the same. I have a demanding job, family, friends, travel. But how I feel is completely different. I used to run at a constant low level of anxiety - worried about my status, and what people think of me. I was anxious all the time, briefly interrupted by moments of passing happiness.
Today, I am happy all the time, with moments of passing anxiety! My default mood is happy! Life is easier to manage because I am not in my head sulking and complaining. I am present in the moment so I am much more effective at work. My personal relationships are also deeper and full of love, because I am no longer self-absorbed in my own anxiety! A quiet mind is worth a fortune.
“I want to witness the irony and honesty and wildness that are restored to the civilized mind…”
A skill which must be learned but can't be taught has to be watched or witnessed in others. Thinking is such a skill. But who can you watch thinking? Remarkably few can or will think spontaneously in public. Instead, from Presidents to talkers at TED, we watch important figures--many of them fine thinkers--feigning the inward motions of thought while reading off a prompter or reconstructing a memory. Brando once feigned this inwardness by waiting (ponderously) for his next lines to be delivered through an earpiece.
But if those who we pay attention to are actors, professional or otherwise, there's an awful likelihood we'll learn acting, not thinking, and end up miming an inner vitality we don't have a real experience of.
The subject matter of Autonomy and Life ought to be learned and can be taught. (Arnold's commitment to conveying the material he's mastered puts him in a league of pedagogues it's embarrassing to consider.)
But what keeps me coming back is almost separate from the subject matter, the way the lining is almost separate from the suit.
I return to watch this teacher think, spontaneously, before the students he's in dialogue with. I'm there for the lavish clues that out in the flesh. I want to witness the irony and honesty and wildness that are restored to the civilized mind when it is free of pretense.
There's a great line in Whitman. He's standing at the shore, chanting to the sea, which means something quite specific to him. But the line could as well be mine, sitting on a Saturday in a classroom in Manhattan, eager to learn the thing that can't be taught. The line goes: "Breathe to me while I hold you close the secret of the murmuring I envy." That this can happen, that the secret gets breathed, is why I'm there.
“…a journey into the world of profoundness itself.”
A few decades ago a writer looking at our modern technological and materialistic world noted wryly that “Everything has been figured out, except how to live.” Occasionally, when we stop the never-ending challenge to “stay on top of it all,” many of us have moments when we notice that our age does not supply the security nor the satisfaction that seemed promised when we were young. We would like to take the time to reflect on how to live a more enchanted life, a life with greater fulfillment, greater love and kindness, and with more profound fascinations.
Yet even if we had the time, we don’t know where to start or even where to find the tools.
For three decades Arnold Siegel has provided an opportunity for taking this ultimate adventure. Each year’s coursework—like a unique journey—carries the student to broad new vistas, not geographic in nature, but explorations of the human spirit in both its aspects: new understandings of a life worth living on the one hand, and new ways to gain mastery of ourselves on the other. This is more than a sojourn into the world of ideas, it is a journey into the world of profoundness itself.
"…we find a new understanding of the meaning of life."
As students of Autonomy and life we understand that how we live our life is an experiment and an art. It’s freeing (and enchanting!) to approach life like an experiment…. to watch the results of the experiment unfold, enjoy the process, choose to be OK with any outcome, and love what is. We learn to be realistic about getting what we want, about things going wrong and find that we can be OK regardless of circumstances around us. Setbacks, disappointments, conflicts become less “sticky” and we can move forward more easily.
In autonomy and life we gain maturity and become better thinkers. We see our lives, our place in history, in the world, from a bigger picture. We recognize how civilization and circumstances mold us to be ambitious, seek status, and acquire more. We learn to think and make independent choices while creating a life of our own design. In this bigger picture, we find a new understanding of the meaning of life. We find purpose and inspiration.
Increasingly we can set aside our blind rivalrous instincts, our need to be right, to be recognized. Instead we are inspired by human connection toward kindness, generosity, gratitude, curiosity. We are inspired toward a life of meaning, art, and contribution. We find peace in aligning our internal with our external lives.
Thirty years ago I did not even fantasize the delightful life I enjoy now. My circumstances are comfortable and fulfilling, but I cherish most my artistic endeavors, human intelligence (including my own), and the experiment of my still unfolding maturity.
“…I am satisfied and pleased with the life I am living…”
Living life WELL and to the fullest is complicated. We are groomed at home and influenced by friends to adhere to the social mores. And through education to be skillful in a job. But we emerge from college thrown into adult life asked to make important choices (where to live, whom to love, what to say on Twitter) with little guidance and not much of a big picture perspective on what will make for each of us individually…a rich experience of having lived our lives.
But the goal gnaws at us. And life’s demands press down on us. I for one felt ill-prepared to make good choices and to manage the feelings that welled up over the challenges and demands made on all of us in everyday living…although outwardly…I was doing life right!
In this class of Autonomy and Life I found a story I could align with on just what it means to be a human being and live out our 90 years on this planet. For me the greatest gift felt in the first few days of the retreat and onward throughout the years of continued study was the refinement of a more succinct and even better description of what is going on outside of me and inside of me that put the steering wheel in my hands to craft a life of my own design. One that resonated with MY temperament and also my capability.
Outside I look like everyone else. Married, raised a family. Ran a marathon. Have a successful career. Seen as a skilled executive, a kind friend and an interesting individual. But inside is the greatest reward. For my desires, my skills and my emotions have been placed (by me) into circumstances that I am fit to live within. Therefore, I am satisfied and pleased with the life I am living and the choices I have made that led me to this particular version of a life. And still yet outwardly others would say I am doing life right. I fit in.
“A life of our own design, artfully self-expressed, is a life worth living…”
We started talking, thinking and writing about Autonomy and Life many years ago. We took life seriously and began thinking seriously about it—the big universals and the day-to-day. No givens. No assumptions beyond questioning. Our aim was never theories or rules, but practical means to engage life with competent authority and effectiveness, to produce real world results (material, social and private) that trued with life today, with our feelings, values and tastes, that expressed our natures, granted us dignity and served our longings to gain and contribute a meaningful, free and original life.
Thinking for ourselves, and then striving to live true (responsible) to what we recognized to be true, has come to define us, individuate and connect us to life—a means for being more fully-human. The good life we dared to hope for has come through creative thinking, tested in action for proof of its value, and in the vitality found in the doing of it.
A life of our own design, artfully self-expressed, is a life worth living: rich, strong, fulfilling and satisfying, a never-ending inquiry intent on a finer experience of life, now and tomorrow. I thank Arnold Siegel for his ceaselessly pioneering work, his intelligence and his kind leadership. I thank our fellow students for their continued curiosity, boldness, honesty and accomplishment.
"The results continue to become deeper, more substantive…"
Over the years as I work on Autonomy what has clearly shifted is my ability to calm down. Since high school I have been hungry to understand more about life but was too nervous, self-conscious and anxious to be able to concentrate. I recall being too jittery to focus. I recall preferring that it be handed to me. I recall distracting myself with easy things like errands. But now I can happily say I calm myself down, manage my energy and follow my own instructions. I work steadily and quietly, plan doable objectives and for the most part accomplish those objectives. I have come to trust myself. My creative work as a choreographer, performer and writer has multiplied, the quality of that work deepened and my workload increased. I have become more comfortable with the process of creating work, not expecting results immediately, not running away, but enjoying the steady process of working and watching each work unfold in the time each one demands. The results continue to become deeper, more substantive, more imaginative, generous and nervy. To recognize not knowing how a work resolves, and being calm not knowing, has become a gift. And being calm enough to let each work move into new territory where it’s fun and scary is so fulfilling! I love it!
Following one’s own instructions seems so simple but is quite a feat. It is not easy to change, especially with our bodies designed to repeat themselves but now, with an understanding of my/our compulsive systems, I have gained greater understanding and compassion for the creatures we are and at the same time I have found a beautiful way to manage change and see myself grow, connect with the bigger world, and become a bigger person.
25 years ago I took a chance on a class that offered something I had never heard anyone talk about. At long last, someone was not only addressing, but actually offering an alternative to this endless pattern of talking to ourselves and the suffering that accompanied it. The possibility of being at home in the world? comfortable in my own skin? able to think for myself? no longer my own worst enemy? Sign me up. And so I did.
But the real story isn't just what the class promised, it's what, amazingly, it has continued to deliver, month after month, year after year, for the past 25 years.
This coursework in Autonomy and Life turns out to be the single most important piece of my education and, as it turns out, my evolution as a human being. From where I now stand, it's easy to see the limitations of my high school, college, religious school, and school-of-hard-knocks educations.
From here, it couldn't be more obvious that this exploration of what it is to be human, what it is to carve out a meaningful and satisfying existence, and what it is to do it all with a "go-to" I could bet my life on is absolutely essential, and otherwise missing. The circumstances and demands of life continue to be what they are, and the call for competence, as parent, spouse, employee, community member, etc. is always there.
But I'm clearer than ever about what's going on. I see (and mostly avoid) the red herrings and hollow promises that come in various shapes and sizes. I hang my hat on the sustained thinking that I do each day, as I address this unique subject matter, and with it, myself and humanity. I've learned to enjoy my mind and my solitude in a way I never imagined possible. My satisfaction, contentment, and peace of mind are mine to bring about — and knowing that gives life an entirely different quality, whatever the circumstances.
“…the process of creation of a more profound and authentic way of being…has been fulfilled.”
When I first heard Arnold speak I was struck by how he described and distinguished the human condition and by the ring of truth that was in his voice. According to Arnold, we, as the current model of being human, lacked authenticity. All of us were caught up in the dualistic nature of being human as codified by Rene Descartes, a material body and an imagined otherworldly mind located somewhere close by. Despite our best efforts each of us were always left with a remainder and unable to get to the essential "me." We all knew it, yet it seemed impossible to just be ourselves.
According to Arnold, however, it was a matter of comprehension, practice and learning from another. Nothing was missing; all of the necessary critical information was available in the current state of human intelligence. What was required was a profound change in our learning capacity so that we could alter the fundamental way that we were being human. The experiment was how this new authentic way of being would impact our experience of ourselves and the circumstances we lived in.
As far as any of us knew it has never been done before. No teacher had set out to rid their students of the Cartesian reductive ego. As students we could not even grasp the importance of such a feat. Yet he had the audacity to make the promise, to begin the process of creation of a more profound and authentic way of being. And today that promise has been fulfilled.
“…I am proof positive that this discipline has practical value…”
Autonomy is both learned and earned. Those who take up this discipline are rewarded for their efforts by a powerful capacity to be in command of their responses to the world. Without attention to it, we see how the focus becomes narrowed to achieving the symbols of success, accepting that climbing the heights of the arenas in which we play will result in a fulfilling life.
We want to live a life where we are free to be in command, to choose what we value and to focus on living in the highest range of human ideals.
We do this because it works -- both in our practical lives, as well as in our day-to-day experience of ourselves -- free from the discord and anxiety so prevalent in the competitive marketplace. In this experiment, we have learned a perspective that supports our ability to succeed in the world as well as being comfortable in our own skin. This discipline has given us the ability to stop and think, responding to the challenge in front of us through thoughtful deliberation and the conviction of a place to stand; it gives us a framework that supports efficacy and helps us to grow in our compassion, intelligence and problem solving skills.
As a student in the classes and coursework of Autonomy and Life, I have developed a new perspective. I have learned that freedom is gained with command over my reflexive subjectivity, that my purpose is to reach for the highest normative ideals of humanity, and that meaning comes from living as I see fit. And I am proof positive that this discipline has practical value; a steadily progressive, financially rewarding and ethical career at the top of my profession, the ability to manage my health and well-being with care, and loving, peaceful relationships with family and friends. Words can hardly express my gratitude.
“…my approach toward life has gone through a gradual and remarkable metamorphosis.”
There are so few things that live up to their promise, that when I first started studying Autonomy and Life with Arnold Siegel I was deeply skeptical. Back then, I was often angry, frequently anxious and deeply alienated from a culture that seemed as simplistically superficial as it was ruthlessly competitive. But something about the teacher and the coursework struck me as so authentic, intelligent and practical that I decided to stick with it. I'm glad I did, for after many years of study and practice, my attitude and approach toward life has gone through a gradual and remarkable metamorphosis.
This is because the coursework focuses less on what we want, or on what we have to do to get what we want, and more on who it is that is doing the wanting.
As a result, I have come to know myself, ourselves. Instead of seeing myself as defined by my successes, standing and circumstances, I see myself as fortunate participant in humanity's struggle to free ourselves from righteousness indignation and arrogant antagonism in favor of fulfillment and satisfaction.
Instead of feeling doomed to repetitive thinking and behavior, I regularly experience the freedom to rise above petty thoughts, patterned practices and naïve judgments as I bring forth greater measures of generosity, humility, courage and acceptance.
Instead of seeing myself as a rebellious lost soul doomed to sadness and separateness, I see myself as a poet responsible for authoring my perspective, an artist more in command of what I think, say and do. I always wanted to be a better version of myself, but wasn't sure where to look for an education in being a bigger person. I found it in this coursework, and I am deeply grateful for that.
“…compassion for humanity present and future our life becomes about contribution.”
When this experiment started we were steeped in our circumstantial concerns, working within the limited scope of the cultural options. With an increased focus on human subjectivity we plumbed the depths from which all this buzz of cultural activity arose and gradually we awoke – only to find ourselves sitting on a projectile of enculturated fears and desires, realizing a fully programmed neuronally-based selfhood fully preoccupied with its image and competitive standing.
Notwithstanding this subjective predicament, our sensitivity to subjection and our desire for greater meaning and efficacy in the world drove us on.
Thinking for ourselves (using humanity’s intelligence and the vocabulary of Autonomy) we created a new vantage point from which to recognize our subjection. Though autonomy is an ongoing effort, all the distinctions, practices, perspectives and strategies of each class empowered us to be in the world with ever increasing competitive competence, creativity, intimacy, fulfillment and equanimity.
In our more meaningful moments we’re aware of our desire for a world in which our prevalent experience is that of love: compassion for others and ourselves expressed in all our interactions big and small, to those near and far.
The discipline of Autonomy and Life makes this possible. This vocabulary of subjective mastery allows us to identify with humanity and its subjective dilemma – the way in which each of us is an instance of nature’s experiment with language.
Examining the ground of being on which we stood, this experience of love became more than a temporary inspired glimpse, but a way of being. With love as the experiential foundation all the other values naturally follow: responsibility, accountability, integrity, prudence, fairness, cooperation, even the pursuit of enlightened self-interest. Out of gratitude for the cultural works of the past (upon which we stand) and compassion for humanity present and future our life becomes about contribution.
“A life fully lived is incredibly thrilling and joyful each day…”
The long-term benefits of Autonomy and Life are maturity, stability, and a profound enjoyment of the experience of being alive. The course began for me with planning, goal setting and consciously setting priorities. The results of this initial work showed up as the elimination of bad habits and the establishment of a mature perspective, which allowed for better decision making.
When I first began studying with Arnold Siegel, I was living the fast life and I wasn’t very happy.
Over time, I learned that enjoying life was based upon being stable, responding to life’s challenges with mature decision making, and an acute awareness that beyond being an individual, I was only one example of the human race and fully interconnected with my fellow humans.
As the class progressed, I began taking more responsibility for my behavior and the effect I had on everyone I met. I moved away from talking pessimistically to myself and I learned how to quiet that anxious inner voice which was damaging my moment-to-moment enjoyment of life. Instead of turning inward, I turned my attention out to the world in order to make a contribution.
Looking outward, I found all kinds of areas where I could make a difference, where I could make people’s lives better and brighter--from being a better manager at work, to my community’s improvement through politics, to becoming an effective fundraiser for my favorite charities, and to even being a better friend. A life fully lived is incredibly thrilling and joyful each day, knowing that my life matters. Thank you, Arnold Siegel for teaching this amazing course.
“It’s an awesome way of being human and an incredible contribution to humanity!”
Thinking about what it means to be human, has us thinking in bigger terms, a bigger picture of humanity looked at as a whole. Humanity has achieved so much in all the areas of our lives; health, science, technology etc. Yet for most of us there is a discontent, a disappointment in our lives, a sense of "is this all there is?" In the inevitable comparing of ourselves with others, we think we are lacking, that others have found and are living the "good life."
Many of us engage in excessive behavior - drink, food, or exercise, thinking this is the way to achieve some satisfaction with our lives. Many of us are seduced, often unwittingly by the advertisements of products promoting, as a fact of life, that if we buy them, we can achieve the "good life", the "American dream", especially since the people pictured are all handsome, fit, pretty and happy! And yet after possessing whatever has been promoted, there persists disappointment and discontent.
The discipline of Autonomy and Life addresses, from a unique perspective, the management of the human animal's verbal behavior, its thoughts, words and actions, in a very practical, useful moment-by-moment way. The coursework teaches us who we are, how we got to be who we are and how we can go about addressing ourselves; examining our thoughts, our words and our actions, evaluating them for consistency with what we want them to be, understanding the consequences of all our words and actions and if we choose, how we go about changing ourselves.
It’s also about managing our circumstances, making sure we are in circumstances that support us and if they don't, being responsible for changing them! Practicing this discipline has given me a profound sense of being alive, an experience of satisfaction, equanimity, fulfillment and happiness. It’s an awesome way of being human and an incredible contribution to humanity!
“…fresh, relevant perspective that I carry with me at work and at home…”
Arnold offers a clear-eyed, pragmatic, and mind-opening examination of what it means to be human and to live with equanimity amid the competitive pressures and everyday absurdities of our society and culture. His classes always bring fresh, relevant perspective that I carry with me at work and at home. My work with Arnold over the past four years shows up in better thinking, behavior, and relationships.
“…a profound sense of connection with
the people in my life…”
As an artist I spend time alone, in my studio, face to face with either a blank canvas or a painting in progress. So employing a quiet, focused mind is crucial to having the wherewithal to follow through with where the creativity of the human brain might lead. Sometimes I know what I want to do and sometimes I have no idea how to paint a particular image.
As a long time student of Arnold’s, I’ve learned to develop the capacity to think creatively and critically, the courage to persevere with each challenge, the strength to succeed or fail, and not be disheartened by an unanticipated outcome. As a result of this study, I feel a profound sense of connection with the people in my life, fulfillment and success with my work, peace of mind and immense gratitude for this opportunity to acquire such a resourceful, imaginative and fulfilling life.
“It is like cutting our own puppet strings, delivering amazing control and emotional freedom.”
Autonomy is an interesting phenomenon. How much of our brain-body system do we really understand – let alone have control over? In this class, Arnold uncovers shared human blind spots where we react in thoughtless habit, blind spots that form the roots of subsequent disturbance, stress and upset. Each new insight gives us back a bit more conscious authority over our words, actions, and even moodiness.
It is like cutting our own puppet strings, delivering amazing control and emotional freedom.
About now, already, you probably want to bottom-line those insights. That desire for simple answers to a complex life actually is one such insight. The urge for quick answers is one of many pieces of information about the human condition presented in this class.
Arnold asks important questions, like: “How can we learn to live as we see fit, not as others would have us live?” Or, more provocatively: “Does it matter that we have even lived at all?” Such directed questions stimulate fruitful thinking, not coincidentally delivering a depth of meaning and emotional strength that can’t be supplied by simple sound bites. Practical value is found without giving away our authority to mysticism, spiritualism or superstition.
Science shows that self-consciousness is purely the result of a combination of evolved brain functions, but we mistakenly live as though we are some kind of mysterious ghost directing a separate body-machine. Although that pretense of Cartesian dualism was burst sometime around Darwin, over and over we allow our privileged feelings of exceptionalism to trump good thinking, with painful results.
In this class we take time from our too-rushed lives to consider important questions that palpably impact the enculturated and evolved basis of our beliefs, choices and stubborn moodiness. The relief is exquisite, hard-earned and empowering to our wellbeing, fulfillment and joie de vivre.
“This is your life altering discipline.”
Autonomy and Life is an incredibly profound and personal experience. It addresses what it means to be human in today’s world. Yet it’s also extraordinarily valuable at a practical level. What rings true about this experiment is that it affects outcomes. We hear so much about the desire to change, but never are we provided with an effective means of accomplishing any sort of a lasting transformation.
This is your life altering discipline. All of the tools needed for success are included within this coursework, the transformations are abundant. As students we’ve seen the impact that this discipline brings about in real time at work, in the home and as we go about society because we’re stable, fulfilled and satisfied. We’ve learned to identify our goals, plan for success and thrive in the accomplishment of these outcomes. Through a unique approach to solving challenges that often we all hold in common, Autonomy and Life addresses what it means to be alive and in the same breath transforms the experience of living.
“…an intense, provocative and fulfilling personal adventure…”
Autonomy and life is an exuberant and endlessly fascinating experiment in developing the perspective and command to create an equanimous, fulfilling life of one’s own design. One aspect of the experiment is testing how far we can free ourselves from the intense cultural forces that drive or inhibit us, and that subject us to a pervasive discontent. In other words, how free can we be from our enculturated blind ambition to keep up with the Joneses, and to instead live as we see fit? Instead of being eternally locked into the rat race, how closely can we harmonize our lives with our authentic identities?
Another aspect of the experiment is discovering how much “brainpower” and independent judgment we can summon by developing our natural capacity for thinking. How far out of our heads can we get (and our endless talking to ourselves) and how deeply can we penetrate the flow of humanity’s creative intelligence? How far can we push the envelope of our thinking and self-command?
Another aspect of the experiment is discovering whether we can prosper in today’s competitive world by embracing high ideals. On a like note, can we transcend the inhibitions of self-antagonism and the antagonism of others? Can we replace our automatic responses to challenge and adversity with something vastly more creative, resourceful and resilient? (Spoiler: we can!)
There are, of course, other aspects of the experiment—as would be expected from three decades of extraordinary creativity and discovery. But the territory is not the map, and the foregoing does not adequately convey the extraordinary experience of participating in the experiment. On one level, it is an intense, provocative and fulfilling personal adventure. On another, it is a profound and felt connection with all of humanity.
“These are skills for the long haul.”
It’s so easy today to get swept up by busy schedules, obligations, and chasing the things we associate with “the good life.” It’s easy also to let stress, anxiety and resentments take their toll, or to feel restless or discontent, even when things are going well. What’s hard is to remember that each of us is obliged to master our own existence, to overcome the adversities life throws at us, and ultimately to figure out how to live meaningful and full lives.
The retreats and classes led by Arnold Siegel are the place to focus on just that. I find it a profound inquiry into what it means to be human today and a powerful antidote to life on overdrive.
As a result of Arnold’s ongoing study of the history of thought about humanity, he shares an evolving and contemporary perspective that helps us contextualize our lives. We see ourselves anew, and unravel much of what we think we know and what we have been enculturated to want. This makes way for new thinking and creativity in our interactions with others and in shaping personal plans and goals.
I have found tremendous relief comes with this big-picture perspective and I never fail to be surprised and inspired by the concepts discussed. After being a student these many years, I have embodied the benefits. I feel I am more confident in dealing with complex and changing circumstances, and have the insight needed to manage my life and emotional well-being. These are skills for the long haul. I’m very grateful to have found such a unique forum in which to explore the human journey, and to find my way in it.
“…the most incredible and uplifting course of study anybody could do…”
Because of your work, I’ve been able to use my brain to guide my life rather than being swept along by habits and musings, heavily influenced by the pessimism and inherited destructive habits of parents and grandparents or others in my life.
My life is really about being vulnerable to the changes that life brings, living with the uncertainty, and still holding firm on humane values, like optimism, perseverance and balance. I’ve really learned patience. I’ve found out that if I put out what I need to enough people, it generally results in getting what is required!! And I’m truly satisfied with my accomplishments now and in the past.
My general outlook is cheerful and upbeat; and this is a huge change from the fearful worried person that I used to be. Being satisfied with being complete is a great thing, rather than letting negative stuff, role-playing and keeping up with other people (Scoreboard) run my mind. It’s been absolutely the most incredible and uplifting course of study anybody could do; I’m so sorry for those in my environment who just didn’t or couldn’t work with you and who now manifest such negative and unhappy thoughts. The thinking has to be done daily, and there’s no easy way.
“Being engaged in {this discipline} has been the most important decision I have made in my life.”
For much of my life, I felt some "thing" was missing and I spent much of my professional and personal life searching for that missing piece. I tried filling the void and quieting the anxiety with all kinds of distractions; work, relationships, travel, material acquisitions. None of these endeavors produced feelings of any kind of lasting stability. Deep down I knew I was chasing my tail, but I didn't know what else to do.
Then I met someone who was a student of Arnold Siegel. He was different in that he was calm and didn't react to the unstable environment we live in the way most people do. He had a way with words and a way of navigating his mind that was intentional, self-directed and in control. He was kind and had a generosity of spirit for humanity. I realized this was the kind of experience I was seeking.
I immediately signed up for the first retreat I could. The discussions and conversations that took place in class were transformative. It made common sense that there was a relationship between being a better thinker, making wiser choices and having increased experiences of peace and equanimity. The other students are of all ages, professions and backgrounds and they are intelligent and sensitive to the experience of being human.
As a result of being in class and applying what I am learning I have more command with what I am communicating and how I am responding. The coursework has been more interesting, engaging and beneficial, than any class I ever took in college. Without changing anything in my life circumstantially, my personal and professional life are thriving.
This superior educational experience with Arnold Siegel has contributed to more meaning, purpose and connection in my life. Being engaged in the conversation of Autonomy and having subjective command has been the most important decision I have made in my life.
“…no longer so easily disturbed by people or situations…”
When I started my study of Autonomy and Life I had already been involved with the Transformation movement. I had tried many programs to help me live a better life. My war experiences in my late teens had set me back as is the case for many today. However, until I found this work the changes I wanted for myself and my family were not sustained. Our class work is complex and it teaches one to take responsibility for having a life that has meaning not just for oneself but for those with whom we come in contact.
I remember that when I first engaged Arnold’s assignments and the classes, subway rides became more pleasant. I also stopped arguing with my wife and children. My role at work in the financial services industry changed too. I chose to stay with my company for more than a decade rather than hop to the next job because I was upset or dissatisfied. I was promoted frequently and given more responsibilities year after year. I was no longer so easily disturbed by people or situations. I stopped incessantly talking to myself. Rather, I could think for myself and focus my attention on what I wanted to create more easily.
“…words and their meanings are the solid stuff we build with and stand on.”
The problem of adding height to the design of a skyscraper, according to Cesar Pelli, isn't a matter of getting a few stories added to the top of a building. It's a matter of getting a few stories added underneath it. Pelli's corrective comes to mind when I remember a moment in Arnold Siegel's classroom.
A student had stood up and spoken about a problem she was having with her circumstances. Arnold took time and addressed it, as usual, to the satisfaction of the student and to the awe of the rest of us who'd been listening with the acute attentions of the eavesdropper. Then he said the part I remember: "I might have mentioned 7 or eight things that would have solved the problem." And I thought: Hmm...if that's right then her problem wasn't a matter of replacing a brick in the wall, of plugging the void of a fixed dimension.
He hadn't addressed her problem sentimentally either, or with a flattering patch to the ego. No, he had added something underneath. He'd gotten a story underneath her and it had improved her standing, her stability. Shoring her up a bit had handled the problem she'd located elsewhere. And if there were 7 or eight alternative ways of lodging greater context into her footing right then, there might be a hundred tomorrow, a thousand next week if she could do it for herself.
What Arnold seems to have known all along is that whole breeds of circumstantial problems have to be solved at the point of stance, with developed understanding. In the absence of a foundational self, words and their meanings are the solid stuff we build with and stand on. And if we're not working with them carefully and at a depth, we're probably going at self extension in unstable ways.
“I feel we’re a part of something historically significant…”
Every time I go to a class with Arnold I feel it—we’re part of something historically significant, something that could change the world, as Plato’s students at The Academy must have felt. I know, it sounds far-fetched, conceited even, but what if it were actually true? Game changing people are born every so often, and what if I, and maybe you too, just through happenstance were lucky enough to come across such a person who gave you the opportunity not only to change your life but to be involved with furthering human discourse?
To hear Arnold’s uniquely progressive and intelligent description of humanity past, present, and future and each person’s stake and opportunity in it, is a pleasure in itself. But even more significant are the results experienced by every single student. This class has allowed us to be so conscious of what’s going on in the world and have such creative command in it, so much heart and “soul.”
Life is complex—people take so much for granted, leaving so much unexamined, even our own finitude as we are caught up in regular demands, going for obvious rewards. It just makes sense to study with a (serious) teacher who can give us a whole new view, a whole new place to stand. Arnold has created not just a unique course of study, but a whole new discipline, that thoroughly examines what it means to be human, and in light of that, provoking us to figure out what we truly want and how to artfully go about getting it.
The strength, satisfaction, and fulfillment this brings about nearly every moment is remarkable! Often I think about how the things so concerning about our world today could be solved if everyone in every field could learn to address humanity with the level of creativity Arnold is pushing us toward. What a peaceful and productive place our world would be!
“From the very first class a possibility opened up…”
Frustration and dissatisfaction brought me to this classroom years ago. I was a successful professional yet began to see peers passing me by. Fearful that my career was leveling off too soon yet unwilling to continue to blame others for what was out of my grasp, including rewarding and intimate relationships, I was angrier and moodier. Stuck. The walls of the rut were closing in. From the very first class a possibility opened up as a broader perspective than where I had my attention.
I learned to step away from a linear, vertical agenda to develop critical thinking skills that allow for creative control of a life of my own design. It took time to take attention off of what others thought I should do. With discipline and practice a rewarding and satisfying life has emerged that is not an illusion like a momentary spiritual high. It's a solid comfortable experience of myself at home in the world leading a disciplined life.
I look forward to the daily effort of thinking about a bigger perspective on what it means to be a human being and have come to understand who I am. Placing value on no longer being disturbed is a more generous and heartful approach to relationships. It brings openness, light and compassion when in dialogue with others.
And I have learned that through thinking change is easier and welcome rather than merely tolerated. It is a constant effort to live an inspired life. Yet through discipline and responsibility, as Arnold has guided us, an enlivened life can be cultivated, enjoyed and shared with those we love.
“…this discipline has taught the students how to acquire mastery of the experience of themselves…”
I am reminded of something I heard Bruce Springsteen say one time in a radio interview. He said that in his life what he had always wanted was to be “adult...in the drivers’ seat, not in the back seat.” And so when I think about the results of this experiment with this discipline in Autonomy and Life, that’s what I observe in the students: they seem very much in charge of and driving their lives. They seem to be going where they want to go, and feeling the way they want to feel. And whereas they could probably go for the gold and have a great deal of success with that, they seem interested and focused on how they’re playing out their lives.
Cultivating noble aims (and what I think Springsteen meant when he used the word ‘adult’) such as authenticity, care, responsibility, self-reliance, kindness, humility - loom large in the students’ work. In my observation, this discipline has taught the students how to acquire mastery of the experience of themselves so that they can bring it into play in their lives. The kicker seems to be that the students of this discipline didn’t just want this command as Springsteen mentioned, they actually acquired it - they are in command of themselves.
“…an extraordinary accomplishment of teaching and of learning.”
Reading the pamphlet from 1986 under the title, “What Does [Autonomy and Life] Offer?: Stability, Authenticity, Timeliness, Equanimity and Maturity” I realized they describe me and my life, who I am, who I have become. I had no intention of re-reading the pamphlet thinking how content I am to be where I am now and felt no need to go back. Yet these words originating in 1986 ring true for me now. I know and embody stability, endurance and peace of mind.
In Autonomy and Life, authenticity is a reality I can rely on. Unbeknownst to me, those decades ago, pretense, seeking admiration, feigning sincerity kept me locked into unreal practices of thinking, feeling and acting. I was trained to need them as tools for coping in the competitive and authoritative world, which frightened and numbed me. I did not understand myself in relation to the world nor was I at home there.
That this is no longer the case is an extraordinary accomplishment of teaching and of learning. Equanimity quieted inner anguish, anticipation and anxiety. Amazing are the resources of integrity and intentionality. We strive to become ever more fully mature human beings. This does not end. We mature gradually and incrementally. At any given moment we find ourselves whole, complete, content and satisfied. It is a momentous and profound privilege to be a participant in this experiment that has and continues to “revise human perception of reality.” I am deeply grateful.
“To make sense of such a finite life is a powerful reward.”
Being a student of Autonomy and Life in Arnold’s class has been such a rare, yet real opportunity! I am so very grateful to participate in this experimental process which produces such aliveness. The more I experiment with the information and ideas Arnold presents, the more meaningful and equanimous my life becomes. As the experimenter experimenting upon my own life, I am the one responsible for creating meaning in my life (or not).
And, as the subject of the experiment, I am the one experiencing the fulfillment in my life. I am finding that my happiness does not depend on my circumstances nor on the outcomes of my experiments. Results are not considered as “successes” or “failures.” Rather, they are considered information to be added to the body of knowledge utilized in designing the next experiment in the quest for what adds value to life and what works (or doesn’t work) to forward civilization.
This life-long experiment is both exciting and beneficial for me as I learn to create a meaningful life. It teaches me to open my mind to the bigger perspective, to create a bigger life and, thereby, enables me to make a bigger contribution. For the most part, I am able to move myself from a restless discontent into a satisfaction achieved through the Discipline of Autonomy. This autonomy precludes the need for approval. I author myself one thought, one action, one word, one experiment at a time…To make sense of such a finite life is a powerful reward. I am happy!!
“…I've come to know the pure and unadulterated experience of being alive.”
The distinctions and insights gained in this experiment have proved to be profound and relevant to any human life. The result of this effort has provided an opportunity to think critically and creatively about the arrangement of one's life from within a sound framework. When we reflect in this way, we're not only better positioned to spend ourselves more productively but the value and meaning we give to life itself becomes apparent. From this place, we take on the world in its ever-changing circumstances and contingencies with a new found personal freedom and confidence.
It’s a place where one can craft a perspective, which addresses the many facets of being human. One that deals with our practical endeavors. One that satisfies the heart's (often muffled or subdued) deeper desires. We experiment, reflect, weigh and subsequently learn to navigate these vast and complex terrains with grace and dexterity. It is in this inquiry that we are known and heard, for perhaps the first time.
I fear I wouldn't have ever come to know myself without the distinctions and insights that have been created and shared as a result of this effort; staying fixed in the farthest reaches of my own reverie. Now, living in the world of meaning, each impending moment is as though the ground has given way beneath my feet; I've come to know the pure and unadulterated experience of being alive.
“Embrace the journey of Autonomy and Life, and embrace life itself.”
Our lives come with no roadmap, no instruction manual. We are inserted into the condition and circumstance of our birth and raised to respond to the demands of civilized existence. Though we tend to take it for granted, the capacity to do this is remarkable. But it is also complex and many of us experience the burden as well as the freedom that inheres in being human.
The journey of Autonomy and Life uniquely addresses the complexity of our condition and circumstance. Its discipline emerges from a recognition that our equanimity, fulfillment and satisfaction are products of the subjective command we acquire and represent in the face of life's challenges rather than the sum of our accomplishments and acquisitions. Its daily practice provides a shift of focus to the process we rely on to inform and guide our lives.
This attention we bring to our capacity to evaluate and choose improves the quality of our response to life and its challenges. It reveals to us that our individuality and independence are constituted in these qualitative distinctions. Love, joy and excitement; frustration, disappointment and anxiety are all recast as part of the opportunity of life. We come to realize that it is in the struggle rather than retreat or fulfillment that make our lives worth living. Embrace the journey of Autonomy and Life, and embrace life itself.
“…a historical perspective of what it means to be human…”
I don’t know how he has done it but Arnold has been able to tie together a historical perspective of what it means to be human as an individual as well as how we have developed over time as human beings. What drew me to this work was a desire to feel more at home in the world and to be a better thinker and it has accomplished both.
Being in class, participating in this ever-evolving discipline, I’ve seen us develop greater and greater ability to take command of ourselves and our lives, as a resource to be depended on. If I could draw this perspective, the page would be filled with individuals of all shapes and sizes, like the timeline of humans becoming upright, walking from left to right; the left being from where we came over time in our efforts at autonomy to where we are now but all connected in that effort with more to go into the future. This both locates us in this day and age and connects us in this ongoing process. And there is solidity in that, a felt feeling of home.
“…the phoenix factor of emboldened claim and enriched vocabulary…”
That we have life asserts a context for living fully human. The opus of autonomy and life tests and appraises just how we as living systems orchestrate life in terms of life’s own accord. Not unlike civilized pronouncements through the millennia ushered by human condition and circumstance, autonomy and life found its way articulated forth in the contemporaneous vacuum of depleted treatments of the human agenda.
Heir to, yet unconstrained by, such lineage, autonomy and life emerges the phoenix factor of emboldened claim and enriched vocabulary replete with irony of distinction signatory of its namesake. Marking a 30-year perspective: experimental design is replicable; empirical results are duplicable; hypothesis is validated; methodology of pedagogy is sound. However, it is truth-value utility of autonomy and life’s pragmatic in-the-world traction that summons the litmus test for living fully human viability.
The desired result: stability of the living system in variant contingency that characterizes its environment.
The value-added delivered: autonomy and life straightens out subjected human thinking. Via historical revision of human cognitive development, it shatters myth and dispels illusion.
Newly locating such deliberation in domains of solitude and competence, the human subject with realistic systemic vocabularic intelligence negotiates a place to stand. Envisioned what to see, the variance of uncertainty is vaporized by consonance of spontaneous response.
Autonomy and life is not inherited. It must be taught. It can be learned. It is panhuman in appeal. At 21st century intersection of individual prerogative and state sovereignty, it melds the interface of human-personal responsibility and sustainable humane-social accountability. Autonomy and life is its own progenitor implicit in living human. Poised future-forward in best goodness-of-fit experiment, its opus is ever more explicit in living fully human in worldly-realm reach for meaningful substantive equanimity.