Abstract:
In my experience, conflict and other forms of being stuck or (as it is commonly referred to
in narrative texts) ‘stuckness’ are related to actions, behaviour or events. If we consider a
narrative paradigm, they happen in the realm of the Bruner’s ‘landscape of action’. Efforts
at escaping these problem-saturated experiences mostly resort to replacing these actions,
habits, modes of operation or rules with a different set of rules, without first reflecting on
the intentionality or ‘why’ behind the actions. Most often this only serves to perpetuate the
problem. This article will attempt to show that alternating between various initiatives in
the ‘landscape of action’ provides only temporary respite to the problem, if any; that the
intentionality behind these actions needs to be revisited and that contemplative practice
facilitate such reflection on intentionality. This is therefore an exercise in reflecting on
intentionality or even purpose, that is, a teleological question. This process traverses the
dimensions of ‘what’ (actions), ‘how’ (methodology) and ‘why’ (intentionality), referring to
the biology of human decision-making in the process of doing so. This article posits that this
reflection may be facilitated by contemplative practices such as mindfulness and reflecting
on soul.
