Interesting. I have never thought of the 'work' - or any kind of spiritual effort as a 'technology.'
I also sense that the NYC foundation has been far more influenced by the 'vocabulary' - esp. of Ouspensky, than the Paris centre was (in the early 80's anyway). I don't remember Pauline de Dampierre ever referrring to octaves, mi-fa...or the enneagram...altho it was marked out on the floor in the movements hall.
Nevertheless, a new group was always confronted with the same message about 'mechanicality.'
Of course, Foucault made the term 'Technologies' popular in the Humanities in the early 80's:
'As a context, we must understand that there are four major types of these “technologies,” each a matrix of practical reason: (I) technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform, or manipulate things; (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4) technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform I themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.'
'Moreover, I wish to discuss the subject not only in theory but in relation to a set of practices in late antiquity. These practices were constituted in Greek as epimelesthai sautou, “to take care of yourself”, “the concern with self”, “to be concerned, to take care of yourself”.
The precept “to be concerned with oneself” was, for the Greeks, one of the main principles of cities, one of the main rules for social and personal conduct and for the art of life. For us now this notion is rather obscure and faded. When one is asked “What is the most important moral principle in ancient philosophy?” the immediate answer is not, “Take care of oneself” but the Delphic principle, gnothi sauton (“Know yourself”).
Interesting. I have never thought of the 'work' - or any kind of spiritual effort as a 'technology.'
I also sense that the NYC foundation has been far more influenced by the 'vocabulary' - esp. of Ouspensky, than the Paris centre was (in the early 80's anyway). I don't remember Pauline de Dampierre ever referrring to octaves, mi-fa...or the enneagram...altho it was marked out on the floor in the movements hall.
Nevertheless, a new group was always confronted with the same message about 'mechanicality.'
Of course, Foucault made the term 'Technologies' popular in the Humanities in the early 80's:
'As a context, we must understand that there are four major types of these “technologies,” each a matrix of practical reason: (I) technologies of production, which permit us to produce, transform, or manipulate things; (2) technologies of sign systems, which permit us to use signs, meanings, symbols, or signification; (3) technologies of power, which determine the conduct of individuals and submit them to certain ends or domination, an objectivizing of the subject; (4) technologies of the self, which permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform I themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.'
'Moreover, I wish to discuss the subject not only in theory but in relation to a set of practices in late antiquity. These practices were constituted in Greek as epimelesthai sautou, “to take care of yourself”, “the concern with self”, “to be concerned, to take care of yourself”.
The precept “to be concerned with oneself” was, for the Greeks, one of the main principles of cities, one of the main rules for social and personal conduct and for the art of life. For us now this notion is rather obscure and faded. When one is asked “What is the most important moral principle in ancient philosophy?” the immediate answer is not, “Take care of oneself” but the Delphic principle, gnothi sauton (“Know yourself”).
https://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en/
And the perceptive Italian philosopher writing about technology a few days ago
https://www.quodlibet.it/giorgio-agamben-il-toro-di-pasifae-e-la-tecnica
Of course, as you know, techne does mean art-skill-technique-craft...'the art of living.'