More support for bringing the Buddhist notion of “practice” into the practice of effective public leadership:

from Feleppa, Robert. 2009. Zen, Emotion and Social Engagement. Philosophy East & West 59, no. 3 (July): 263-293.

In the past two decades a number of researchers in psychology, cognitive science, and philosophy have converged on a different understanding of the place of the emotions in action, one which emphasizes the important role they play in framing the context of decision making: sorting the relevant from the irrelevant, identifying salience, and directing decisions when uncertainty prevents definitive judgment. I shall argue that this view of the more complex integration of reason and emotion makes clearer why self-liberation is fundamentally a matter of liberation from judgmental habit and inflexibility, and lends support to Hershock’s advocacy of a Mahâyâna view that emphasizes compassionate engagement with others.

Will be worth bringing in more of Lakoff’s take from the neurological/cognitive perspective, to see where it fits with the idea of liberation and the ethics of compassionate engagement.