Education is a mess – is there an integrative way to teach?

I have updated an introduction to the SunWALK model of human-centred studies;Ā 

SunWALK: Summary of the main meanings of the components represented inĀ 
the model and its ā€˜logo-diagram-mandalaā€™ ā€“ providing a teacherā€™s process modelĀ 

Ā 

sunwalk-logo

.

SunWALK: Summary of the main meanings of the components represented inĀ 

the model and its ā€˜logo-diagram-mandalaā€™ ā€“ providing a teacherā€™s process model

Give me a brief introduction:

SunWALK grew out of reflection on many years of teaching children and adults and particularly a period of five years teaching in a RC middle school ā€“ theorizing my practice via a PhD and practising my theory day-to-day.

SunWALK simply says that the quality of all of our lives will be higher if we undertake all education within the framework of deepening our humanity. Ā 

Deepening our humanity is a matter of developing technical competencies within the chief dimensions of the human spirit;Ā Caring (the Humanities), CreativityĀ (the Arts) andĀ CriticalityĀ (the Sciences & Philosophy) ā€“ all in local, national and world Communities. Ā These are the ā€˜4Csā€™ of the model ā€“ 3 intra-personal, 1 inter-personal.

We and our one planet will be better of if all of the technical stuff, from learning to read to Masters degrees in engineering, take place in the context of humanization/the 4Cs. Ā This requires international, national, school & classroom commitment to deepening the best of being human as the context for learning the technical.

We canā€™t afford to have character and morality and compassion asĀ hoped-forĀ accidentalĀ outcomes. Ā Moral Education, PSME, RE etc. donā€™t work as bolt-on extras. Ā They need to be the general context in which competencies are developed.

It is a model based on theĀ energy flowĀ of the human spirit ā€“ that is the given. That is physical, mental and spiritual energy that flows through all living human beings. Ā 

That energy, the human spirit, is the true ā€™stuff of educationā€™. Ā With the best of the past teachers need to equip children to face tomorrowā€™s challenges which will always be a mixture of new problems combined with eternally recurrent problems. Ā Building all education with will be the medium with which the teacher works to nurture and challenge balanced development.

Today we have lost the balance between specialization, and whole-systems thinking and acting ā€“ SunWALK model brings into harmony the best of ā€˜Westernā€™ & ā€˜Easternā€™ world-views.Ā 

OK ā€“ so whatā€™s the ā€˜Sunā€™ and the ā€˜WALK in the modelā€™?

The ā€˜Sunā€™ = the individualā€™s spiritual inspiration & values sources ā€“ accumulated and ongoing, as operating internally and as expressed in speech and behaviour.Ā 

WALK = Willing & Wise Action through Loving & Knowing ā€“ here seen as the general goal for education, and as the interiority, character and behaviour of the student.Ā 

The model/logo combines a range of sub-models including the following:

a) An ā€˜interiorā€™ model of the human spirit ā€“ in relation to ā€˜the worldā€™.

b) A model for re-positioning education within being & becoming human ā€“ in the world with others.

c) A general model of the curriculum ā€“ for primary, secondary and higher education.

d) A framework for the analysis and evaluation of teaching episodes or projects.

e) A model of education that makes non-faith-specific spiritual and moral education intrinsic to all learning.

Ā 

THE MODEL AND THE PROCESSĀ IN ONE (long) SENTENCE: –Ā 

The SunWALK model of spiritualizing pedagogy sees human education as theĀ 

storied

developmentĀ ofĀ 

meaning, which isĀ 

constructed, andĀ de-constructed,Ā 

physically,Ā mentallyĀ andĀ spiritually, throughĀ 

WiseĀ &Ā Willing

Action, viaĀ 

LovingĀ andĀ KnowingĀ ā€“ developed inĀ 

Community, through the

ā€˜Dialectical SpiritualizationĀ [1]ā€™ofĀ 

Caring,Ā CreativityĀ &Ā CriticalityĀ processes, all undertaken in the light of theĀ 

ā€˜Sunā€™ of chosen higher-order

valuesĀ andĀ beliefs, using best available,appropriateĀ 

content.

These underlined concerns are central components and focuses of the practice and theory in the model.Ā 

This is an intense combination of theory and practice. Ā It automatically requires the teacher to practice their theory and theorise their practice ā€“ dynamically as practice-based research. Ā It automatically enables the classroom to be connected to the school & community as a whole and to e.g. a relevant department in a university.

It attempts to suffuse all teaching with the demands, challenges and joy of being human in the world with others. Ā But it seeks to bring together the Whole and the parts, the ineffable and the concepts ā€“ not just concepts because as Heschel (1971:7) says, ā€œConcepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement.ā€

The diagram/logo/

The outer ring of the SunWALK logo combines two dimensions:

1 ā€˜Community i.e. the social,interpersonal dimension of interaction with other individuals or groups.

2Ā  ā€˜Cultural sourcesā€™ including such dimensions as the traditions, the political & the legal. Ā 

The three major divisions of the arts,sciences and humanities are here thought of as the stored, yet potentially dynamic, accumulation of knowledge and beliefs and procedures ā€“ everything from galleries to written laws of physics that the individual can draw upon or be influenced by. This is the ā€˜stuff out thereā€™ rather than the interiority of consciousness in which there is the perpetual flow and re-shaping, focusing de-focusing etc. of heart-mind.

In SunWALK everything within the inner circle = a representation of ā€˜interiorityā€™, i.e. human consciousness ā€“ the human spirit.Ā 

The human spirit is presented intra-personally as 3 ā€˜voicesā€™ ā€“ 3 modes of being & of engaging with reality & of knowing.

The three emanate from the singleness of ā€˜heart-mindā€™, consciousness. Ā 

They are presented (metaphorically) as the ā€˜primary coloursā€™ ofĀ CreativityĀ (the yellow of inspiration),Ā CriticalityĀ (the blue of reason) &Ā CaringĀ (the red warmth of love).Ā 

Creativity is the ā€˜Iā€™ voice of subjective engagement via an artistic medium ā€“ it is concerned with subjective knowing and is particularly related to the core virtue ā€˜beautyā€™ and its products are of course ā€˜the Artsā€™.Ā 

Criticality is the ā€˜ITā€™ voice of objective engagement which enables progress in the Sciences ( & Maths., Philosophy and ā€˜criticalā€™ studies). It is concerned with objective knowing ā€“ and it is related particularly to the core virtue ā€˜truthā€™. Ā The products of course are the sciences and technology Ā – but also philosophy and critical studies.

Caring is the ā€˜WEā€™ voice which enables moral engagement ā€“ for progress in the moral domain and in service of others. It is concerned with social knowing ā€“ related particularly to the core virtue ā€˜goodnessā€™ and to ā€˜the Humanitiesā€™.Ā 

All three of course need to be conditioned by the pre-eminent virtue of justice. Ā All students need to have these ways of engaging with reality developed in a balanced way. Ā High technical competence combined with moral dwarfism leads to ā€¦ā€¦

The physical dimension is seen as the instrument for the flow of spirit in all of its forms ā€“ e.g. via dance, drama & PE and sports.

Each individual develops her/his I, WE and IT voices, the 3Cs, via socialization, starting in the family, the local community and then later in formal education. A sense of justice is seen as paramount intrapersonally as well as inter-personally i.e. it enables us to engage with that which is beautiful, good or true with balance, clarity & due weight.

The essential process in all 4Cs is multi-level dialogue. In the case of the individual dialogue is seen as meditation, reflection and inner-talk. In the case of groups it is dialectical process via consultation.

The ā€˜Celticā€™ knot that surrounds the central shield indicates that the 3Cs are simply aspects of the one human spiritā€“ the flow of ā€˜heart-mindā€™.

The white shield at the centre represents the meditative state in which there is no ā€˜focusedā€™ engagement via one of the 3Cs ā€“ and in which there is relatively little of the interference or chatter that we experience in the unquiet mind.Ā 

This can enable us to ā€˜go beyond ourselvesā€™, i.e. transcend our normal knowing ā€“ any of the 3Cs (I, WE or IT modes), as gateways, can be a pathway to the transcendent and to subsequent improved insight into reality.

The black dot at the centre is the ā€˜well-springā€™ of consciousness. For artists (and great scientists) it is the Muse. For religionists it is the voice of God within (albeit distorted by the dust of self). For non-religionists it is the inner source of spirit as energy & inspiration ā€“ the bits of realization and insight that come to us for which we donā€™t make an effort.

Educating the human spirit is seen as nurturing, and cultivating, the life-force which culminates in the developed human who, through higher-order consciousness, realizes abilities from within Caring, Creative or Critical engagements.Ā 

Teaching is seen as nurturing and cultivating what is normally present, almost from birth, & certainly by the time we go to school ā€“ namely the flow of spirit expressed in nascent forms of Caring, Creativity, and Criticality ā€“ in Community with others. Holistic Learning takes place when the learner uses Creativity, Criticality and Caring ā€“ in Community ā€“ inspired by higher-order values ā€“ in dynamic combinations such as Creativity providing texts for criticality ā€“ which then, via dialogue, produce/attract the spirit for more creativity.

In SunWALK spirituality is not a dimension; it is the model as a whole. In SunWALK moral education is not a dimension ā€“ it is intrinsic to all of its praxis.Ā 

The SunWALK logo can also be seen as a mandala, or even as a plan drawing for a fountain or an ā€˜arts centre of lightā€™! Ā 

SunWALK is a major shift to a process view of the world, of being human and of educating our young people. It rejects a worldview that is limited to the mechanistic, the ā€˜human-as-computer, the fragmentary and the materialistic; seeking instead modelling that is based on flow/process, holism and the spiritual. Ā Ā 

SunWALK is designed to enable teachers and students to become agents of change to transform a world that is still operated as atomistic, mechanistic and materialistic into one that is holistic, dialogic, and derived from the best processes and products of the human spirit.

The SunWALK logo and model of education Copyright Roger Prentice 1995 & 2009

.

Ā 

—–0—–

SEE ALSO these allied blogs –

Ā Human-centred coursesĀ ā€“

Ā Dictionary of Concepts

Home is HERE i.e. my ‘meta-blog’Ā -The Ā“1000 ways ā€¦of Celebrating the human spirit

Ā 

—–0—–

Ā 

Re Gaza: ā€œCertitude divides and diversity unifiesā€¦..We have to elevate religion above politicsā€¦..ā€ Amen.

Ā 

ā€œCertitude divides and diversity unifiesā€¦..We have to elevate religion above politicsā€¦..ā€
ā€œCertitude divides and diversity unifiesā€¦..We have to elevate religion above politicsā€¦..ā€ H.R.H. Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan BBC Newsnight 9th Feb 2006. Photo source: BBC

Ā Juxtapositioning creates new contexts. Ā Words and images are one such juxtapositioning.

I have suggested that the Finnish artist photographer Silomaki has shown new ways.

The images of the suffering of the people Gaza are currently relentless, none worse than those of parents carrying dead or Ā injured children.

These words came to mind – those ofĀ H.R.H. Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan on BBC Newsnight, 9th Feb 2006, “Certitude divides and diversity unifiesā€¦..We have to elevate religion above politicsā€¦..ā€

The image is one of a multitude. The words are rare wisdom.

When the rockets and shells fire no more how shall we live that wisdom? Ā 

Lead us Oh God to the ways and means!

Of seahorses and vilification; the story of the pregnant man and his wife

pregnant_man

Ā 

You can still see the touching story about Beatie on Channel4 HERE

Beatie’s original story is HERE

All major newspapers have views on the story.

If you search more widely the stunning experience, as with other stories, is the depth of the vile responses – it is a wonder to behold.

The video speaks of family, love and compassion.

A more compassionate response, linked to sexuality studies is HERE

Who will you be spending Christmas with?

If like me you are lucky enough to spend Christmas with someone you love spare a thought for those who are in some form of slavery;

More on YouTube or HERE

Is Eckhart Tolle the new Freud? – and what about ‘Applied Tolle’

man-below-water-shot-from-below-sun-behind-him

I think that Eckhart Tolle is a great spiritual teacher.

Following Oprah putting up on her website his New EarthĀ  as a free online course – see HERE – Tolle has reached millions.

In writing about him and his teachings my purpose is not to do anything but appreciate and applaud him – and suggest that a few ‘tweaks’ might make his teaching accessible and palatable to even more people.

Why?

Well his ‘experience’ and his life-time of ‘wrestling’ with that experience culminating in his 3 key books, audio talks and the Oprah course give us a whole range of insights ā€“ enough to change the world if they get taken up by enough people – but you must admit it has been a very un-typical life. And does that un-typical life restrict at all the take-up of his insights?

What, for example, would be different if he had spent those 30 years raising children or working in schools helping raise other people’s children? The emphases, the suppositions, the challenges in and from his teaching would be different. If you are a 35year old dad or mum with partner, 3 kids, and an uncertain future, the issues and their management are bound to be different.

He is compassionate and empathetic but I fear that the same criticism will be leveled against him as was leveled against Freud i.e. that he generalized on too narrow an ‘experience base’

Most people don’t get to spend 30 years processing their stuff, including 4 year-long episodes of sitting on a park bench. Many people from enduring commitments are lucky to find 40secs. I know the world is insane, but kids have to fed and chauffeured, and guided , and…….

A harsh critic (not me) might say, ā€œFreud generalized from experience largely confined to neurotic, middle-class Austrian women, and Tolle generalizes from a life of solitary, self-indulgent, self-obsession.ā€

His style does come down on the side I am talking about ā€“ compassion for ordinary people who are struggling to do their best in situations that they can’t walk away from ā€“ but I suspect that an even wider sphere of influence is needed than his present ‘constituency’. The breadth of constituency is also connected to another issue and that is the need for ‘applied Tolle’.

We need his wisdom to be as accessible and palatable right now.

The applied Tolle will take a little longer ā€“ but we can’t wait for a generation of PhDs, and PhDs have an average readership of 1.7 people!

We do however need right now the beginnings of Tolle applied to a whole range of areas including education, psychology, inter-faith understanding, therapies, politics.

Chanting, meditation and oneness: Aum, the sacred Indian mantra


Katinka Hesselink has brought together a range of videos and other stuff to do with ‘Aum’ – very useful despite the Squidoo tacky-fication.

via Aum, the sacred Indian mantra ; Om, Ohm – meditating unity

Squidoo also do pages of widely varying quality on luminaries, and others, e.g.

Karen Armstrong

Art, Nature and realizing our own Beauty

To look upon beauty, in art or in nature, is to realize our own beauty.

Buddha-face art

Photo source

The relative context of perspective – or new perspective from re-contextualizing?

Art teaches. Nature teaches.

Buddhism is compassion. When we realize our own beauty the boundaries of our compassion expand.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the

PhD. Summaries are HERE

SEE also Learning Motivation for Success

Compassion is love shaped into an embrace.

Coming Home: an Introduction to Spirituality

There are many who yearn for spiritual food who are put off by the antics and corruption of religions. Perennial Philosophy or mystical paths such as Sufism can provide that food. But what are the basics of this core belief that transcends religions?

This is the beginning of an attempt to provide such a n i.ntroduction. Currently I am developing it in a question and answer format.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming Home

—–

Waking up to the Spirit you have always been

—–

 

 

 

 

 

A book for the non religiously spiritual.

—–

 

 

Roger Prentice

—–

 

 

 

 

 

Introduction:

 

This is an attempt, using questions and answers, to present simply and clearly the truth about being spiritual ā€“ initially without reference to religions.

 

This is for family, friends and students – and all those who want to realize, i.e. realize the deepest in themselves. I haven’t achieved this to a high order. Many of you can out-do me in many good things. But it seems my task is to collect and re-present these insights. I am painfully aware of my shortcomings. But as Heschel says to be human is to suffer the knowledge of the difference between what we should be and what we are. The only ‘crime’ is to say ‘that’s the way I am and I’m not going to change’. To say that is also very dangerous. We are all designed to struggle toward our own perfection ā€“ to become more and realize our gifts more fully in the mutuality of love.

 

This is an action-based account i.e. there are a range of simple ‘To do’ practices that can help you relax into:

To do: Sit quietly as often as you can ā€“ and let your breath breathe you. (More to follow)

 

Part 1 is an attempt to present the ‘bare bones’ without reference to the great and the good, or to philosophies or religions.

 

Part 2 goes a stage deeper and introduces ideas from some of the great and the good ā€“ people such as Ken Wilber.

 

Part 3 goes deeper.

Coming Home

Part 1- Re-finding our-selves = re-finding the spirit we thought we had lost

 

Q. What is spirit?

A. All that isn’t simply physical.

 

Q. Does that mean mind as well as feelings?

A. Yes if we put mind and heart together we get ‘heart-mind’. Heart-mind = our interior landscape or simply consciousness ā€“ the great inner ‘sea’ of feelings and thoughts. Neither heart nor mind in this sense are physical.

 

Q. Is that all spirit is?

A. It a) is the life-force b) the force of attraction that holds all bodies together and c) it is walking on in the right spirit – until all becomes Spirit.

 

Q. Are there other names for the spiritual?

A. Yes many ā€“ love, energy, chi etc.

 

Q. So spirit, or love as attraction, holds everything together?

A. Yes. Another definition of being spiritual is ‘to live for others’, to be of service.

 

Q. What else comes from spirit, apart from the warmth of love?

A. The light of the mind, knowing. ‘Warmth and holding together’ and ‘the light of seeing and knowing’ ā€“ both flow from love.

 

Q. What about everyday activities? Is walking spiritual?

A. It can be.

 

Q. Is running spiritual?

A. It can be.

 

Q. Is Sky-diving spiritual?

A. It can be.

 

Q. Is sex spiritual?

A. It can be.

 

Q. Is breathing spiritual?

A. It can be. The great yogic teaching is that the breath is that which connects the physical and the spiritual.

 

Q. Why ‘can be’ in all of these?

A. It is ‘yes’ if we a) re-cognize such activities in the context of the spiritual and b) realize the eternal in ourselves.

But it is ‘no’ if we remain tied to the miseries of our own ego.

 

Q. Does that mean that everyone is spiritual?

A. Yes but each needs to plug in and switch on! We all spring from the Whole, just as sunlight emanates from the sun. But we have to allow ourselves to feel, & acknowledge, the awareness that deep down we know was there from the beginning.

 

Q. Is being spiritual a normal state of being?

A. Yes it is simply being more than self-centredness. It is being conscious of the Whole/the Source/the Spirit that is beyond our individual ego. This consciousness gradually widens the circle of its concern and allows us to lessen our attachment to our ego.

 

Q. So loving more widely ā€“ like the outflowing circles from a dropped stone in a pond – is freeing?

A. Yes – those who really achieve insight cease to be run by the pleasures and torments of the the ‘small self’ ā€“ the ego and tru freedom increases..

 

Q. Isn’t this something that only special people ā€“ saints or mystics ā€“ can do?

A. No it is part of being human and we all have such experiences. But we fail to realize their closeness and fullness, mainly because they are so simple & there all the time – we’ve failed to notice, for want of quietness and contemplation! In any case we are all mystical just as we are all philosophical its part of the package of being human ā€“ just as much as is being social, sexual and creative.

 

Q. How do we make those experiences a stronger part of our lives?

A. Contemplation or meditation ā€“ as one source says ‘Be still, and know …’.

 

Q. How do we stop or prevent ourselves being spiritual?

A. Not staying conscious of that Whole from which we spring (emanate). And by staying attached to the pleasures and torments of ego-identification.

 

Q. Is there any other sense that someone might not be, or stop being, spiritual?

A. When they are attached to any thing that prevents her/him from experiencing their true Self.

 

Q. How many kinds of attachment are there?

A. Many ā€“ we think of gross ones such as alcohol and drugs but many are subtle ā€“ materialism, status etc ā€“ some are very subtle, perhaps ultimately even the attachment to not being attached!

 

Q. What do I do if violent or filthy or self-destructive thoughts or ‘demons’ come into my head?

A. Let them pass as though they were moving across a cinema screen and say, ‘Hello good morning/ eve etc, thank you and goodbye.’ Our True Self is not our thoughts. Thoughts come from the ego.

 

Q. Why what good would that do?

A. It will help you understand that you are not your thoughts.

 

Q. If I’m not my thoughts then what am I?

A. You are part of the Whole, in the temporary emanation and form of being uniquely you for 80 or so years.

 

Q. The Whole of what?

A. The Universe and beyond (everything – and all that is beyond that isn’t a thing!)

 

Q. What else am I?

A. You are star-stuff made conscious (SEE the 3 recent BBC physics documentaries called ‘Atom’.)

 

Q. What else am I?

A. You are ‘a hairy bag of sea-soup’. (This is not only a joke but is an accurate statement about our physical make up and evolution!) Science and spirituality are two ways of approaching truth.

 

Q. Do rituals and practices help?

A. Yes providing we don’t allow them to breed complacency, narrowness, and self-satisfaction i.e. a state of attachment. The most important are contemplation/meditation, prayer, and service to others.

 

Q. What really is contemplation or meditation?

A. Being still to experience our True Self, instead of the mind chatter and ‘TV interference’ of the ego.

 

Q. And what is the ultimate secret of the universe?

A. It is pointed to, not described, in these the final sentences of Wilber’s The Eye of Spirit;

When the great Zen master Fa-ch’ang was dying, a squirrel screeched out on the roof. ‘It’s just this’ he said, ‘and nothing more’. SFB P.258

 

Q. I don’t geddit!

A. Here it is again from another master;

The world is illusory

Brahman alone is real;

Brahman is the world. (SFB p19)

 

Q. Still don’t geddit!

A. Here it is again from another master;

There is neither creation nor destruction,

Neither destiny nor free-will;

Neither path nor achievement;

This is the final truth. (One Taste p468)

Q. Still don’t geddit!

A. ‘Walk on‘ (The Buddha). Walk on in the right spirit ā€“ lighten up and have forgiving and compassionate fun – until all becomes Spirit.

 

End of Part 1 (To be developed)

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central SunWALK model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Wilber – a key passage to enable us to discuss his work in relation to education?

For some time I have been looking for a key passage as a way into discussing aspects of Wilber’s work – especially in relation to education. This is the best I’ve found so far.

….according to the great sages there is something in us that is always conscious ā€“ that is literally conscious or aware at all times and through all states, waking dreaming, sleeping. And that ever-present awareness is Spirit in us. That underlying current of constant consciousness (or nondual awareness) is a direct and unbroken ray of pure Spirit itself. It is our connection with the Goddess, our pipeline straight to God.

 

Thus, if we want to realize our supreme identity with Spirit, we will have to plug ourselves into this current of constant consciousness, and follow it through all changes of state-waking, dreaming, sleeping ā€“ which will (1) strip us of an exclusive identification with any of those states (such as the body, the mind, the ego, or the soul; and (2) allow us to recognize and identify with that which is constant ā€“ or timeless ā€“ through all of those states, namely, Consciousness as Such, by any other name, timeless Spirit …..

 

The moment this constant nondual consciousness is obvious in your case, a new destiny will awaken in the midst of the manifest world. You will have discovered your own Buddha-mind, your own Godhead, your own formless, spaceless, timeless, infinite Emptiness, your own Atman that is Brahman, your Keter, Christ consciousness, radiant Shekhinah ā€“ in so many words, One Taste. It is unmistakably so. And just that is your true identity ā€“ pure Emptiness or pure unqualifiable Consciousness as Such ā€“ and thus you are released from the terror and the torment that necessarily arise when you identify with a little subject in a world of little objects.

 

Once you find your formless identity as Buddha-mind, as Atman, as pure Spirit or Godhead, you will take that constant, nondual, ever-present consciousness and re-enter the lesser states, subtle mind and gross body, and re-animate them with radiance. You will not remain merely Formless and Empty. You will Empty yourself of Emptiness: you will pour yourself out into the mind and world, and create them in the process, and enter them all equally, but especially and particularly that specific mind and body that is called you (that is called, in my case, Ken Wilber); this lesser self will become the vehicle of the Spirit that you are.

 

And then all things, including your own little mind and body and feelings and thoughts, will arise in the vast Emptiness that you are, and they will self-liberate into their own true nature just as they arise, precisely because you no longer identify with any one of them, but rather let them play, let them all arise, in the Emptiness and Openness that you now are. You then will awaken as radical Freedom, and sing those songs of radiant release, beam an infinity too obvious to see, and drink an ocean of delight. You will look at the moon as part of your body and bow to the sun as part of your heart, and it is all just so. For eternally and always, eternally and always, there is only this.

 

But you have not found this Freedom, or in any way attained it. It is in fact the same Freedom that has lived in the house of the pure Witness from the very start. You are merely recognizing the pure and empty Self, the radical I-I, that has been your natural awareness from the beginning and all along, but that you didn’t notice because you had become lost in the intoxicating movie of life.

 

With the awakening of constant consciousness, you become something of a divine schizophrenic, in the popular sense of ‘split-minded,’ because you have access to both the Witness and the ego. You are actual ‘whole-minded’, but it sounds like it’s split, because you are aware of the constant Witness of Spirit in you, and you are also perfectly aware of the movies of life, the ego and all its ups and downs. So you still feel pain and suffering and sorrow, but then can no longer convince you of their importance ā€“ you are no longer the victim of life, but its Witness.

 

In fact, because you are no longer afraid of your feelings, you can engage them with much greater intensity. The movies of life becomes more vivid and vibrant, precisely because you are no longer grasping or avoiding it, and thus no longer trying to dull or dilute it. You no longer turn the volume down. You might even cry harder, laugh louder, jump higher. Choiceless awareness doesn’t mean you cease to feel; it means you feel fully, feel deeply, feel to infinity itself, and laugh and cry and love until it hurts. Life jumps right off the screen, and you are one with all of it, because you don’t recoil.

 

p.45-6, EKW

This passage covers a lot – but that’s the point.

To be developed.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central SunWALK model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

The Promise of Happiness

The novel The Promise of Happiness by Justin Cartright is one of the very best pieces of modern fiction I have read. I suspect that many of those interested in the holistic will find this book a searching and compassionate piece of work.
The Scotsman
I doubt if there is a better English novelist of his generation. –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Time Out
With its devastating breadth of empathy, The Promise of Happiness is even better than 2002’s White Lightning.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central SunWALK model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Being human – an American high school principalĀ“s view

Many years ago a copy of this letter came my way – supposedly issued by a high school principal to his/her teachers on the first day of school.

It was seminal in the development of my world-viewĀ  – and it is worthy of re-circulation;

Dear Teacher

Ā Ā Ā Ā  I am a survivor of a concentration camp.Ā  My eyes saw what no man should witness:

Ā Ā Ā  Ā Ā Ā  Gas chambers built by learned engineers.

Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā Ā  Children poisoned by educated physicians.

Ā Ā  Ā  Ā Ā  Infants killed by trained nurses.

Ā Ā Ā  Ā Ā Ā  Women and babies shot and burned by high school and college graduates.

Ā Ā Ā  Ā Ā Ā  So, I am suspicious of education.

My request is: Help your students become human.Ā  Your efforts must never produce learned monsters, skilled psychopaths, educated Eichmans.

Reading, writing, arithmetic are important only if they serve to make our children more human.Ā 

SEE ALSO: http://www.hmh.org/ed_faqs.asp

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

‘Definition of God’ – and it still leaves us with the job of living with each other through the unity of mystery

The nearest I have ever come across to a satisfactory definition of God is as follows;

God is a circle whose centre is everywhere, whose circumference is nowhere.

Anonymous, ‘The Book of the Twenty-four Philosophers‘ (12thC)

Of course it isn’t really a definition – it’s more like a Zen Master’s ‘pointing’ – but what a pointing!

Of course I like it because it expresses my theological perspective and worldview – that of immanence plus transcendence i.e. panentheism.

Of course unless we lie through assertion or dupe through self-deception we don’t really, unequivocally, know. The best we can have is reasonably high degrees of certainty – and then preferably by combining several ways of knowing including sense observation, reason, intuition and the precedent of community precedents. We in truth live with mystery. As it says in the Koran ‘Man is my mystery and I am his‘.

ā€œWe are united by our doubts and divided by our convictions.ā€ Sir Peter Ustinov

Recognition of ignorance is strength not weakness as Saint Augustine pointed out;

I am in a sorry state, for I do not know what I do not know!

Because we have unique histories we have unique worldviews. In fact it is the fact that at our centre we need faith to bridge the gap that exists between knowing and not knowing between finite humanity and that other defining characteristic of God – infinity.

As I suggested elsewhere excesses of certitude cut us off from truth and can lead to horrors of cruelty ā€“ the Nazis were certain that Jews, and Gypsies were sub-human.

ā€œCertitude divides and diversity unifiesā€¦..We have to elevate religion above politicsā€¦..ā€

H.R.H. Prince El-Hassan Bin Talal of Jordan BBC Newsnight 9th Feb 2006

All desire to be united is as the drop that longs to come one with the ocean – the rub, and the joy, is that the duality through which we learn is the dynamic that exists between oneness on the one hand, via contemplative letting go of the ego, and l-one-ly separation on the other.

What if mothers did rule the world?

sally-field-reuters1.jpg

From QuakerDave we have a post we should all be asking – What if mothers did rule the world?

Funny. Sally Field is getting ripped by the Right because of her ā€œinsane rantingā€ at the Emmys last night. This savaging comes in spite of the fact that what she said (despite Foxā€™s attempt to censor her) is about as ā€œfamily valuesā€ as you can get. The war-hawkers at Fox had to cut what she said because she had the audacity to mention war in the context of her being (and portraying) somebodyā€™s mother, and Rupert couldnā€™t ever let that happen:

ā€œThis (award) belongs to all the mothers in the world – may they be seen, may their work be valued and raised – and especially to mothers who stand with an open heart and wait ā€” wait for their children to come home – from danger, from harmā€™s way and from war. I am proud to be one of those womenā€¦ If mothers ruled the world there would be no (expletive) wars.ā€

Hereā€™s the question for the day: What if mothers did rule the world? ………………

I would say:

Those that live under terror might then have security.

Those that hunger might be fed.

Those that thirst might have clean water.

Those that long for education and a means to earn a living might be affirmed.

Those that seek justice and a respected place in the human family might be given a place at the human family’s ‘table’.

To read QuakerDave’s answers go HERE

—–0—–

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Where does Aesthetics and Aesthetic experience fit in all of this? (re Wilber, heart-knowing, head-knowing, and the 3 ā€˜voicesā€™)

see post on September 5th, 2007

 

Where does Aesthetics and Aesthetic experience fit in all of this?

Aesthetics belongs to the science of philosophy (Criticality) BUT aesthetic experiences are ā€˜subjective-creative-mysticalā€™ i.e they are Creative and subjective.

 

The Indian philosopher Coomaraswami said that art and religion were not similar – they are, he said, the same. I would say that they are the same in that both involve engagement that involves a ‘loss of ego boundaries’ i.e. they are ‘unitive’ experiences. But both of these are or can be morally neutral activities. Religion on the other hand is false if its spirituality does not engender right action.

 

Aesthetic experience then, so I argue, is closer to artistic creation and is similar to mystical experience. We may or may not see our unitive experience as taking place within a moral context or a moral world-view, such as a religion. That is a unitive experience like membership of a religion, or a taste for spiritual food does not of itself mean that we and our actions are moral. We have more or less the sensibility and will to grasp the moral implications and act on them

 

Our moral sense comes from parents, family, schooling etc. If we are religious then a major shaper of our moral sensibility is the founder of the religion and his/her teachings. If we are Humanist or a ‘Free-thinker’ other inspiring individuals shape our moral sensibility.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

 

 

 

Wilber, heart-knowing, head-knowing, and the 3 ‘voices’ through which we engage with reality

Heart-knowing, head-knowing, and the 3 ‘voices’ through which we engage with reality

The three intrapersonal ā€˜voicesā€™ of human engagement, have previously been presented as Caring, Creativity and Criticality.

Our Caring, Creativity and Criticality ways of engaging are developed through internalizing the voices of parents and family and then all of the Humanities, the Arts and the Sciences experiences we have at school and in the wider society.

 

Corresponding to the three voices we have three ways of knowing:

1 the ā€˜social-others-centredā€™ way of knowing – in the case of Caring

2 the ā€˜subjective-creative-mysticalā€™ way of knowing – in the case of Creativity and

3 the ā€˜objective-reasoning-scientificā€™ way of knowing – in the case of Criticality

So;

Caring, the ā€˜social-others-centredā€™ way of knowing = the internalized voice of the Humanities, and is about engaging with reality via the moral viewpoint

 

Creativity, the ā€˜subjective-creative-mysticalā€™ way of knowing = the internalized voice of the Arts, and is about engaging with reality via the subjective viewpoint

 

Criticality the ā€˜objective-reasoning-scientificā€™ way of knowing = the internalized moral voice of the ‘Sciences’ and is about engaging with reality via the (supposed) objective viewpoint.

 

NB Criticality is wider that what is normally meant by the Sciences and scientific methods. It includes philosophy and such activities as Eng Lit criticism. Why? Because it is about reasoning and other ‘left-brain’ objective activities. The participant assumes the position of being objective and is learning or teaching about phenomena ā€“ s/he is not learning or teaching in the phenomena ā€“ a distinction that correlates with that between ‘knowing that’ (Paris is the capital of France) and ‘knowing how’ (being able to dance a response to a tragic event).

 

Heart-knowing and head-knowing, left-brain and right-brain

Heart-knowing, the ā€˜subjective-creative-mysticalā€™, is seen as partly an innate, intuitive way of knowing and seems to relate to right-brain activities.

 

The ‘methods of the ā€˜objective-reasoning-scientificā€™’voice’ seem to relate to right-brain activities.

 

The third form, i.e. social knowing, is seen as deriving from the cultural interpersonal matrix of family and community relationships, internalized as the Caring seems to draw upon both sides of the brain (as do architects!).

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

NB All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

 

 

 

 

Heart-rending testimony of an Afghan woman in Fazal Sheikh’s online book, ‘When Two Bulls Fight the Leg of the Calf is Broken’

afghan-woman.jpgBe sure to visit Fazal Sheikh’s on-line HERE

Take a look at the heart-rending testimony of an Afghan woman in ‘Fazal Sheikh’s online book When Two Bulls Fight the Leg of the Calf is Broken’.

Here is a short extract;

‘When our great Islamic revolution succeeded, we thought our day of deliverance had come. Finally we would be free and independent. Afghanistan was released. But once again women were treated as the goat in the game, pulled this way and that by one faction or another. Once again, on all sides, indiscriminate bombing and rocket-attacks, bullets and mines killed Afghan children in their mother’s wombs. We were forced to flee with bare feet and uncovered heads to escape the killing. Some of us fled to foreign countries and became refugees. It should not be forgotten that some of us were forced to flee to Moscow for our safety!

I shall never forget how so many of us spent frightened lonely nights waiting patiently in the front line for a single loaf of bread. How many of us were abducted by armed men from Mujahedin parties in the middle of the day in busy streets. How many of us were raped. How many of us threw themselves from buildings to keep their chastity. How many of us were taken from the scorching refugee camps in Jalalabad to become a commodity for men in neighboring countries. How many widows were forced to sell themselves to feed their families.

Those who have come to power, those with guns, continue to leer at us, to make fun of us, to take pleasure in harassing us. These men who think of themselves as the defenders of our faith, as our fathers and brothers sent to protect us, are the same ones who call us “Honey”. They say: “Don’t come out of your bottle, the flies might touch you.” The flies are the men that rush at you. Others tell us that we are “live wires that must be covered.” It is a pity they don’t recognize us as individuals, as fellow human beings. Over the loudspeakers they announce that years of holy war has simply been to cover Afghan women in Muslim dress.

That, dear brother, dear father and son, I am sure was not the purpose of the holy war……’

—–0—–

Of course people need water and food but as Maslow pointed out long ago security is a comparably important need.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

NB All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Perennial Philosophy or Primordial Tradition?: Huston Smith, Aldous Huxley and Ken Wilber – a view by James Baquet

James Baquet has a very interesting site – Take a look at Baquet’s site HERE It has a lot to say about Perennial Philosophy an the Primordial Tradition;

The modern popularity of the term can probably be attributed to the work of Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), who used the three words “The Perennial Philosophy” as the title of his erudite anthology of religious ideas. (See the Table of Contents here.) In defining the Perennial Philosophy in this book, Huxley doesn’t lay out the same four steps I described above; rather, he (fittingly) gives a more “esoteric” definition:

the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; [and] the ethic that places man’s final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being (vii)

(I discuss this definition, and the following one, more thoroughly in my article “This World and That“, in the section subtitled “Two Definitions of the Perennial Philosophy.”)

Closer to my formulation, but still not identical with it, is the definition he gives in his Introduction to the Bhagavad-Gita (as translated by Prabhavananda and Isherwood):

At the core of the Perennial Philosophy we find four fundamental doctrines.

  • First: the phenomenal world of matter and of individualized consciousness–the world of things and animals and men and even gods–is the manifestation of a Divine Ground within which all partial realities have their being, and apart from which they would be non-existent.
  • Second: human beings are capable not merely of knowing about the Divine Ground by inference; they can also realize its existence by a direct intuition, superior to discursive reasoning. This immediate knowledge unites the knower with that which is known.
  • Third: man possesses a double nature, a phenomenal ego and an eternal Self, which is the inner man, the spirit, the spark of divinity within the soul. It is possible for a man, if he so desires, to identify himself with the spirit and therefore with the Divine Ground, which is of the same or like nature with the spirit.
  • Fourth: man’s life on earth has only one end and purpose: to identify himself with his eternal Self and so to come to unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground.

(bullets added)

My four points are implicit in his, but I spell them out differently. As described here, they are quite similar, but Huxley’s 2 and 3 are reversed in comparison to mine.

Huston Smith

Huxley died (on the same day as JFK) in 1963. While he was still alive, another, younger, scholar was already making his mark on the “world religions” scene. Huston Smith, now in his late 80s (born 1919), has been both expounding and living the Perennial Philosophy for all of his adult life. (I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Smith speak in 1997, before I went to Japan; someday I’ll post my notes from that afternoon.)

Dr. Smith uses the term “The Primordial Tradition” to discuss what I have been calling the Perennial Philosophy. He believes that, since “perennial” means “at all times,” it neglects the “everywhere” aspect of this philosophy. You can read more about this in this interview. In a nutshell, Dr. Smith says that the Primordial Tradition is both timeless and spaceless as well, “because it was not only always, but everywhere”–echoing Vincent of Lerins. The universe, he says, “fits into the primordial tradition but does not exhaust it. There are reaches beyond the physical.” He says that science is doing a fine job of learning about “the physical reaches of reality,” but that we are in danger of losing sight of the “other regions of reality which continue to exist whether we attend to them or not”–in other words, the “something bigger.”

He also noted that in writing his book The Religions of Man (now published as The World’s Religions), which focuses on what is different in the individual religions, he “became more and more struck by recurrent themes which seemed to surface just time and again like echoes.” Later, in another book entitled Forgotten Truth, he explored these “common denominators that ran through them all.”

Forgotten Truth examines our place in the various levels of the world around us. The modern view, Dr. Smith says, reflects the primordial, in that humans are in the center between a “world above” and a “world below.” Look at this chart, from page 4:

Dr. Smith’s footnote points out these parallels:

2-views.jpg

Modern=Scientific=Secular

Primordial=Humanistic=Sacred

In the Modern/Scientific/Secular view, humans occupy the “Meso-world,” between the larger (in simple terms, “galactic”) world above and the smaller (“microscopic”) world below. The Modern hierarchy is based on both size and the strength of the binding forces; these are measures of Quantity.

Both of the Primordial models, on the other hand, look to measures of Quality: in the popular notion, happiness or “Euphoria” is highest at the Heavenly level, and lowest in Hell; we on Earth are in between. The more sophisticated, “Reflective” Primordial view sees Being as the source of this hierarchy: the Higher Planes participate in Being in greater amounts; the Lower, in lesser. Again, Euphoria and Being are measures of the Quality, not Quantity, of things, and this emphasis on quality unites the Popular and Reflective worldviews.

This kind of connective thinking, seeing that worldviews have changed but that they are still based on hierarchies of Things Above and Below, will be returned to in the discussion of Neo-Perennialism below. But I offer them here as evidence of Dr. Smith’s deep thinking about how the Elementary idea (in Campbell/Bastian’s term) of Hierarchy has manifested itself various times, and even in different forms to the popular and reflective minds of the same era.

Ken Wilber

Reluctantly leaving Dr. Smith for now, we turn to an even more contemporary thinker, Ken Wilber (born 1949). Best known for his Buddhist and psychological writings, Wilber is also a proponent of Perennial themes. In the heart-rending story of his wife Treya’s battle with cancer, Grace and Grit, Wilber presents a long interview on his “Seven Points of Timeless Wisdom,” conducted by Treya before her death. You can read the full interview here; I will present only the Seven Points themselves:

  1. Spirit exists
  2. Spirit is found within
  3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within
  4. There is a way out
  5. The way leads to direct experience of Spirit
  6. This experience marks the end of sin and suffering
  7. Social action and compassion result

Looking again at my Four Points, we see these parallels:

Neo-Perennialism Wilber
1. There is something bigger than us 1. Spirit* exists
2. Spirit is found within
2. We either are (West) or seem to be (East) separated from it 3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within
3. Through various means we can become reunited with it (or realize that we already are) 4. There is a way out
5. The way leads to direct experience of Spirit
4. Once the separation is overcome, we will lead larger, richer, fuller lives 6. This experience marks the end of sin and suffering
7. Social action and compassion result
*Wilber’s use of the word ā€œspiritā€ leaps ahead and assigns a value to the ā€œsomething biggerā€ in a way that my Point 1 does not. Needless to say, that this quality ā€œis found withinā€ is a further elaboration of something I am not yet willing to concede. This will become clearer in my discussion of Neo-Perennialism below.

Again, a reading of the full interview will give you a better idea of Wilber’s thinking.

So this Perennial Philosophy (despite its immense implications) is a fairly simply idea to grasp. It reflects humankind’s universal impulse toward union with something bigger, which has been exercised in myriad ways throughout human existence. With that, I conclude my comments on the Perennial Philosophy itself.

Take a look at a range of materials on Baquet’s site HERE

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

NB All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

Free Schools India – work worthy of your support?

You might feel that this work is worthy of some support, we do;

Free Schools India is a small organisation made up of people dedicated to sustainable development, and to the ideal that all children should receive a free, quality, education. We are a collection of people from several fields who have come together to start a school for the children of the rural poor in several villages. From this idea our vision for this project has grown into something bigger, and we have already moved into the provision of health care also. Our plans do not stop here though. We would one day like to be able to provide full medical insurance for the families of our children and the wider community, and maybe one day start some micro industry.

The Inspiration

While working for an anti-child labour non-governmental organisation (NGO) in Delhi , Joanna HƤrmƤ and Gaurav Siddhu had the opportunity to speak with children in the city and in villages about their experiences with school. They found in one village that several girls could have attended school, if only it had been completely free of cost. Their families were not at all reliant on the income these children received from stitching footballs all day, but the costs associated with schooling were prohibitive for them, and yet they amounted to only US$15 per annum.

Go HERE to read more about Free Schools India

Go HERE to read BBC report on Free Schools India

free-schools-india.jpg

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

Story and storying: the teacher’s self as text in reform of education

Parker Palmer in, The Courage to Teach, (1998 p.3), says that his book:

explores the teacherā€™s inner life, but it also raises a question that goes beyond the solitude of the teacherā€™s soul: How can the teacherā€™s selfhood become a legitimate topic in education and in our public dialogues on educational reform?

It turns out that this site is an attempt to answer Palmerā€™s question.

In a similar vein Sondra Perl (1994), (in Laidlaw, Mellett and Whitehead 2003) says:

Stories have mythic powers. To know this ā€¦ is to know the shaping power of the tale. But how, I wonder, do we see beyond the boundaries of a familiar story and envision a new one? What, in other words, are the connections between texts we read and the lives we live, between composing our stories and composing ourselves?

Stories are one answer to the question; ‘What is it that makes of the parts a whole?’.Ā  Story-making of our experience is in-built.Ā  Conversely we tend to read the world according to the stories to which we subscribe, or that we ourselves have created.Ā  A religious world-view would be an example of the former.Ā  Concerning personal stories and how we construe the world see the psychology, and methodology, of George Kelly HERE

I am seeking on this site, and have sought in my thesis, to see beyond the familiar stories of my life, and of education as it is has been, and, through ‘a re-composing’ of my life via autobiography, my teaching and dialogues, I have sought to envision a new story for education.Ā  This is what is meant by ‘applied autoethnography’.

Starting your own school

Today someone wrote me from Mexico and asked about starting a holistic school or centre. Below is what I wrote back but I will add more as I think of it;

If I were much younger and was able to start a school, my hard-won general principles would include;

.

1 Find the finance to buy a school that is already successful. Develop its potential further – including the summer period. Don’t change anything until you understand everything and fully have the trust of the parents staff and children. Alternatively if all you can do is teach 3 children under the village tree then do that. Or support others in home-schooling.

.

2 Develop an MA course and get it accredited by an internationally acceptable university.

.

3 Draw your MA students from around the world and pair them with classroom teachers for at least half of each day. The teachers with their MA student assistants would consequently be involved in on-going research that was classroom-inspired – what is the best way to teach Maths?, how can the spiritual dimension of all subjects be developed?, what is the optimum amount of physical expression e.g. drama, dance etc.

.

4 Make sure that you eventually institutionalize the holistic procedures – one school I about to be holistic when the core charismatic teachers left.

.

5 Live what you teach.

.

6 Be democratic – use PFC Philosophy for Children but realize that your responsibilities as an adult mean that it is you that will be held to account! Make clear contracts between all stakeholders including children, teachers, parents, community members etc. Authority must be given to the Head – revising policy by others should be restricted to just a few meetings per year.

.

7 If the children can help build and care for the school, along with community members, it would be very useful!

.

Of course there are a whole bunch of more general principles that you can assemble – have sufficient finance to last if your development stages take 2 or 3 times as long as you expect. etc.

.

One UK source of relevant advice is the Human-scale Education movement

.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

The Whole and the parts, awe and concepts, head and heart

loch_awe_wild_island-600.jpgSource

Central to Heschelā€™s belief and teachings was that we should stay in touch with that experience of the Whole that engenders awe and wonder (what he also calls ā€˜radical amazementā€™). He says that;

The secret of being human is care for meaning. Man is not his own meaning, and if the essence of being human is concern for transcendent meaning, then manā€™s secret lies in openness to transcendence. Existence is interspersed with suggestions of transcendence, and openness to transcendence is a constitutive element of being humanā€¦ā€¦. Indeed, the concern for meaning of human being is what constitutes the truth of being human. A J Heschel P66 Who is Man 1965 Stanford Unity Press

This emphasis on at-one-ment however is not to the exclusion of our duality with the ā€˜realā€™ world:

The search for reason ends at the shore of the known;on the immense expanse beyond it only the sense of the ineffable can glide.It alone knows the route to that which is remote from experience and understanding. Neither is amphibious: reason cannot go beyond the shore,and the sense of the ineffable is out of place where we measure, where we weigh. Citizens of two realms, we must all sustain dual allegiance:we sense the ineffable in one realm;we name and exploit reality in another. Between the two we set up a system of references,but can never fill the gap They are as far and as close to each otherā€¦as life and what lies beyond the last breath. Man is Not Alone p8.

We learn through the dynamic switching between experiences of the Whole and experiences of the parts. Wilber also helps illuminate the ā€˜dance between the Whole and the parts;

ā€œTo understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts. To understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole. Such is the circle of understanding. We move from part to whole and back again, and in that dance of comprehension, in that amazing circle of understanding we come alive to meaning, to value, and to vision: the very circle of understanding guides our way, weaving together the pieces, healing the fractures, mending the torn and fractured fragments, lighting the way ahead – this extraordinary movement from part to whole and back again, with healing the hallmark of every step, and grace the tender reward.ā€

Eye of Spirit; an integral vision for a world gone slightly mad by Ken Wilber (1997)pub. Shambhala p.1.

Since on this site, and in the Build a Better Model of Education course, we are about to become ā€˜traders in conceptsā€™ we should keep in mind Heschelā€™s wonderful statement:ā€œConcepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazementā€- A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone p.7

This need to experience the Whole as well as focusing on parts, such as concepts, is also contained in the following metaphor:ā€œThe larger the island of knowledge,the longer the shoreline of mystery.ā€ Anon

The above quotations teach us a lot about the theme of ā€˜parts and the Wholeā€™. Another major theme is that of generacy, as opposed to degeneracy. This includes the ability to see particulars as part of the Whole in such a way as to experience their full significance (and perhaps stop time and go beyond place). The alternative to being taken out of yourself is to be eternally burdened with self!

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

ā€˜To see a world in a grain of sandand a heaven in a wildflower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,and eternity in an hour.ā€™ William Blake

Mystical implications of photography

andre-ker1.jpg Photo by: Andre Kertesz – source

For some time now I have been interested in how both cinema and photography might be compared to mystical experience. I will post separately re cinema.

One point of comparison lies in how the two see the moment.

In the mystical the moment is seen as out of time – a visit to the eternal present.

In photography the moment is given duration, brought frozen into time – up to a theoretical eternal existence.

Of course a major source of inspiration, in both his photography and his writings, is Henri Cartier-Bresson;

cartier-bresson2.jpg

A wonderful retrospective is HERE at Magnum

However in assembling some materials to help articulate a view re photography and the mystical I have discovered some fine materials high amongst which is The Ongoing Moment by Geoff Dyer. Concerning Andre Kertesz, see photo at the top of this post, he says;

What Kertesz sees when he looks out at the street is often this silhouetted representative of his own feelings about being adrift and unappreciated in New York. The people in the streets, heading to shops, are emissaries of his own sadness. That is the lot of the photographer: you walk the streets or sit on a bench – or you look out of the window at people……

Some more wonderful photographs by Andre Kertesz;

TO BE DEVELOPED

andre-old-musician-and-little-boy.jpg

andreker3.jpg

andreker4.jpg

andreker5.jpg

andreker6.jpg

andreker7.jpg

andreker8.jpg

andreker9.jpg

You can hear a fascinating Ā interview with Geoff DyerĀ HERE

Ā 

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

Love is Beauty, Knowledge, Intellection: Abdu’l-Baha, St Augustine and Saul Bellow

dawndeer_33500v3.jpgSource

Experience needs to be transcendent as well as of the here and now if we are to create teaching that is holistic – that is we have to give kids opportunities to sense the Wholeness as well as the parts. But it doesnā€™t necessarily have to be within one particular religious context.

Happiness and peace and development would be greatly helped if we recognized that there are many paths to the summit of the hill.

From Christianity, amongst other sources, we learn that ‘God is love’. But what else is love and how does it relate to learning and knowing? Perhaps the following quotations indicate that love (affect) and what we choose to identify with determines, or at least shape, what we come to know. Learning ultimately takes place within a love relationship:

A person is only as good as what they love.ā€ Saul Bellow.

Love revealeth with unfailing and limitless power the mysteries latent in the universe.ā€
ā€˜Abduā€™l-Baha.

Love is the beauty of the soul.ā€ St. Augustine.

ā€œKnowledge is love.ā€ `Abduā€™l-Baha.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

Quotations by Tolstoy on ‘What is Art?’

tolstoy-and-child.jpgSource

Professor Julie Van Camp placed a large number of quotations by Tolstoy from his What is Art? The first few are presented below. A number of them centre on the relationship between artist, art and ‘receiver’ of the art.

In a previous posting I suggested as a useful definition;

Art is culturally, and personally, significant meaning, skilfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.
(After a definition by Richard Anderson quoted in Freeland (2001 p. 77))

Adding the ‘and personally’ phrase is vital because there is a vital distinction between the cultural and the personal in an aesthetic experience.

Professor Van Camp includes a list of questions for discussion but I’m wondering if another way of approaching Tolstoy’s thought is to bring into focus the view he appears to have of what it is to be human. Of course many of the implications of what Tolstoy says are what has preoccupied writers about art over the last century but on this site I am suggesting a neo-humanistic form – and such documents as this by Tolstoy can help in such a project.

I don’t have the time to do this at present but I have included some questions, and underlined some of what seem to me to be the key words/phrases in the first few excerpts – to indicate an approach to discovering how Tolstoy was answering the question, “What is it to be fully and positively human?” – in the context of his thinking about the aesthetic.

CHAPTER FIVE (excerpts). . .

#1. In order correctly to define art, it is necessary, first of all, to cease to consider it as a means to pleasure and to consider it as one of the conditions of human life. Viewing it in this way we cannot fail to observe that art is one of the means of intercourse between man and man. (RP Isn’t it pleasurable as well as being intrinsically human?)

#2. Every work of art causes the receiver to enter into a certain kind of relationship both with him who produced, or is producing, the art, and with all those who, simultaneously, previously, or subsequently, receive the same artistic impression. (RP Does it? If so what kind of relationship? Is it different now?)

#3. Speech, transmitting the thoughts and experiences of men, serves as a means of union among them, and art acts in a similar manner. The peculiarity of this latter means of intercourse, distinguishing it from intercourse by means of words, consists in this, that whereas by words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings. (RP Doesn’t art deal in ideas as well? Isn’t speech intimately connected with feelings? Is the issue more to do with differences in the respective modes and how they govern perception?)

#4. The activity of art is based on the fact that a man, receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it. To take the simplest example; one man laughs, and another who hears becomes merry; or a man weeps, and another who hears feels sorrow. A man is excited or irritated, and another man seeing him comes to a similar state of mind. By his movements or by the sounds of his voice, a man expresses courage and determination or sadness and calmness, and this state of mind passes on to others. A man suffers, expressing his sufferings by groans and spasms, and this suffering transmits itself to other people; a man expresses his feeling of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to certain objects, persons, or phenomena, and others are infected by the same feelings of admiration, devotion, fear, respect, or love to the same objects, persons, and phenomena. (RP Is the accurate ‘re-producibility’ of emotion really a fully satisfactory explanation – when we consider for example contemporary fine art? However empathy and compassion are surely the basis of much movement in art – aren’t they?)

#5. And it is upon this capacity of man to receive another man’s expression of feeling and experience those feelings himself, that the activity of art is based. (RP Tolstoy seems to assume that we ‘receive’ rather like hearing a radio broadcast. Doesn’t this down-play too much the nature of subjectivity and personal history?)

#6. If a man infects another or others directly, immediately, by his appearance or by the sounds he gives vent to at the very time he experiences the feeling; if he causes another man to yawn when he himself cannot help yawning, or to laugh or cry when he himself is obliged to laugh or cry, or to suffer when he himself is suffering – that does not amount to art. (RP So is the difference that art requires symbolic conventions as well as empathy and compassion?)

#7. Art begins when one person, with the object of joining another or others to himself in one and the same feeling, expresses that feeling by certain external indications. To take the simplest example: a boy, having experienced, let us say, fear on encountering a wolf, relates that encounter; and, in order to evoke in others the feeling he has experienced, describes himself, his condition before the encounter, the surroundings, the woods, his own lightheartedness, and then the wolf’s appearance, its movements, the distance between himself and the wolf, etc. All this, if only the boy, when telling the story, again experiences the feelings he had lived through and infects the hearers and compels them to feel what the narrator had experienced is art. If even the boy had not seen a wolf but had frequently been afraid of one, and if, wishing to evoke in others the fear he had felt, he invented an encounter with a wolf and recounted it so as to make his hearers share the feelings he experienced when he feared the world, that also would be art. And just in the same way it is art if a man, having experienced either the fear of suffering or the attraction of enjoyment (whether in reality or in imagination) expresses these feelings on canvas or in marble so that others are infected by them. And it is also art if a man feels or imagines to himself feelings of delight, gladness, sorrow, despair, courage, or despondency and the transition from one to another of these feelings, and expresses these feelings by sounds so that the hearers are infected by them and experience them as they were experienced by the composer. (RP Are the external indications’ conventions including symbolic conventions? Does art sometimes work as directly as immediate compassion and empathy in real life?)

Copyright Julie C Van Camp 1997

To see the whole list go HERE.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

40 Meditation Practices – the Chris Corrigan collection

buddha.jpgSource Wiki on Meditation

A certain Chris Corrigan has assembled 40 meditation practices (a few links need re-newing)

 

 

Forty meditation practices

 

40 meditation practices in 4 positions

Walking Meditation

Standing Meditation

Sitting meditation

Lying meditation

Be sure to visit Chris Corrigan’s amazing collection of stuff HERE

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

Story and Personal Myth in making our selves, and our education, whole

island.jpg

My personal myth Island, Shoreline and Ocean ā€“

a view of story in Personal Development and in Holistic Education

Introduction:

By way of an introduction here are a few succinct thoughts. Skip this if you want to go straight to my ‘personal myth’;

Myth operates in us – its part of being human – like philosophizing. Therefore we should make the most of it – in terms of the mythology we make, and that with which we choose to identify.

Story is central to our meaning-making and how we (choose) to make sense of the world and give account of our encounters and experiences.

Myth, as opposed to story generally, is about our deepest concerns and is characterized as narrative that gives account of the unknown and unknowable as well as some of the known. E.g. we die but we don’t know what, if anything, happens after that. Myth creates and is derived from beliefs.

Myth intrapersonally is the clothing we give to the psycho-spiritual dynamics of inner experience.

Myth interpersonally is the stories we tell each other to explain encounters with the (mainly) unknown and unknowable.

Karen Armstrong’s A Short History of Myth is a must because it makes clear the relationship between myth and religion and world-views.

“Without myth, cult, ritual and ethical living, a sense of the sacred dies,” says Armstrong. Without the discipline of mythical thinking and practice, it was difficult for many to avoid despair. The dark epiphanies of the 20th century can be blamed on “the absence of a viable mythology” that could help us face the unspeakable. Guardian review by Tim Radford

A personal myth operates in us whether we choose to articulate it or not. It is closely allied to what one psychologist called ‘our personal script’ and the another (Kelly) called our set of ‘personal constructs’.

We can help in healing ourselves by articulating our personal myth in comparison and contrast to the group myths around us – or that exist as historical artifacts.

Restorying, (e.g.by writing different versions of) our personal myth can enable us to re-frame our personal experience and gain degrees of control and depths of energy that previously were denied us through locked-up pain.

Creating a personal myth can facilitate better self-understanding and there is potentially a powerful tool for teaching and learning.

My personal myth is here;

The ‘Island, Shoreline and Ocean’ personal Myth

The personal myth that follows was written as a ā€˜one-pageā€™ way of expressing a) a sense of the relationship with the cosmos, the Whole, and b) of a range of the ideas in, and behind, SunWALK. Jane is part of me, perhaps the same Jane as in Janeā€™s Short Story in Chapter 1.

The personal myth is an attempt at re-storying one kind of knowing. A felt need to undertake a re-storying of knowing can lie in acknowledgement of the fact that we know, and need to know, and need to express that knowing, in more ways than the empirical-reasoning mode ā€“ hence Island, Shoreline, Ocean. To admit other ways of knowing, is to admit that in our wholeness we are more than our senses and our reasoning. It is also to admit that in our knowing we are surrounded by mystery, which we encounter. We in various ways give accounts of those encounters.

3:3 Island, Shoreline and Ocean

a personal myth concerning the nature of mystical experience & its relationship to consciousness, & to knowledge creation ā€“ as such it is an attempt to include as much as possible of what I learned during the eleven year journey of the thesis – in a ā€˜one pageā€™ story

The sun always woke her. Every day Jane walked through her garden, inspecting this plant and that, analysing what needed to be done. The quest was never-ending. Sometimes she sat a while on an old tree stump in order to consider the tasks and challenges, trying to work out the feelings and puzzles of what didnā€™t seem quite right, what didnā€™t feel quite right. What she couldnā€™t physically arrange she sometimes tried to paint or write ā€“ she had an imaginary garden as well as a real one. Sometimes she looked at her neighboursā€™ gardens, wondering if that would give her inspiration, but she was always left with the feeling that her most important answers came from elsewhere.

Every day beneath the practical considerations she felt a longing. Having made her review of her garden Jane walked over the fields, across the two streams that eventually made their way down to the sea, and along the cliff, and down to the shoreline. At the shoreline she breathed in her sense of the infinity of the ocean, along with the ozone-heavy, sea-weedy, sea air.
Frequently she imagined the islandā€™s shoreline around the islandā€™s circumference. In her mindā€™s eye she saw each place being shaped in some different way by the ocean – which was sometimes gentle, and was sometimes awesome in its relentless might. Sometimes the feelings that filled her were so powerful that she was overcome. Sometimes the beauty of being in the presence of the ocean was so great that she felt that neither garden nor painting nor poetry would ever fully satisfy the deepest longing.

Often after such reverie she slipped into the sea.

The sea had so much salt that she just floated. And, when the temperature was right, in floating, eyes closed, she lost all sense of where she ended and where the surrounding sea began. There was no separate sea, no separate self – it was just ā€¦.. being. It was always that way, just being. At such times she felt both full and empty, both powerless and at that same time she felt herself to be the very ocean that insistently carved and re-carved the island shoreline.

Mostly at that point she just wanted to stay, to be just part of this place between land and sea, like a driftwood sculpture, ocean-polished, that had been thrown up after a long journey from some river bank, high up some vaguely-remembered river. The shoreline was exquisitely the best of places. But she always took that first step. A first step on the walk back to her garden. And with the walking the experience that was ineffable started to give up insights and possibilities to both refine the garden, and to extend it into some more of the islandā€™s familiar, wilderness, space.

In the evenings she and her friends sat beneath the moon, in whichever was the most interesting of their gardens, at that particular time, and they discussed the issues that concerned them. They all, more or less, had similar such deep experiences as Jane. The ongoing conversation was what united them, along with their respect for how they clothed so differently, in imagination and form, the experiences that were ineffable.
C. from an unpublished doctoral thesis by Roger Prentice, Northumberland ver July 2003

—–0—–

Karen Armstrong’s book A Short History of Myth is HERE NB Read the Customer Reviews which are excellent and ignore the Editorial Reviews which are carping, mean-spirited and self-serving!

Relevant book that looks interesting Restorying Our Lives: Personal Growth Through Autobiographical Reflection HERE

Island map SOURCE

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD. Summaries are HERE

The Golden Rule as one aspect of the world-view shared by most holistic educators

rule.jpg

The Golden Rule

Two aspects of the world-view shared by most holistic educators are Perennial Philosophy (see separate post) and the Golden Rule.

 

 

One measure of the challenge facing us is in the following. In looking for short definitions that might be useful I was struck by the fact that several (many?) Western encyclopedias actually refer to the Golden Rule as a Christian doctrine! Ethnocentricity rules! The point is also well pinned down in an interesting article from Arab News by Iman Kurdi

Below are some of the most interesting sites that present and explore the Golden Rule along with some suggestions for lessons and all ages.

 

http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/goldrule.htm

http://www.goldenruleradical.org/

Home

 

SOME SUGGESTIONS FOR LESSONS/Discussion

1 In what sense is the Golden Rule the same as or different to acting justly?

2 Collect some examples, via interviews, of where the Golden Rule was applied with good effect?

3 Choose several of the problems that exist in the world and see how far you can a) analyze the problem and b) obtain inspiration for steps toward a solution.

poster.gifSource – for your poster Golden Rule info and much more

 

A TOUCH OF IRONY: The Wiki entry on the Golden Rule currently shows the price of democracy in that it is hung up in disputes! Re-named as the Ethic of Reciprocity – has it been hijacked or up-lifted by philosophers! I’m sure it will settle eventually – in the mean time there is a lot of good stuff alread on the site – including additional sources.

ā€”ā€“0ā€”ā€“

NB All postings to this site relate to the central model in the PhD.

Summaries are HERE

 

 

 

 

PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY – TWO VIEWS A) BY KEN WILBER AND B) BY DEB PLATT

wilber-ken-b-w.jpg

Even a cursory glance at the ideological and physical conflicts of today will indicate the desperate need for understanding that enables a ‘clearing in the forest’ of beliefs – one that will enable harmony in diversity.

.

On this site I argue that the deepest recognition has to lie in our humanity which we hold in common with all others – I am human, you are human, they are human – we all are human. However since religion exists in many and powerful manifestations the most important of all questions is, “In what ways is there a common light at the centre of of all of the great world religions?” The answer is presented in Perennial Philosophy. Perennial Philosophy is not a particularly good title – something like ‘core mystical reality’ or ‘the great chain of being’ are more accurate, albeit much clumsier titles.

In many ways the appeal to recognize sameness in others, harmony in diversity, is also a call to a kind of federalism. That is to say such a recognition will enable the people of the world to hold an allegiance to the whole as well as to the particular – much as most Americans or Germans hold an allegiance to their national government as well as to their state governments.

.

HERE IS HOW KEN WILBER SUMMARIZES THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY, IN HIS BOOK GRACE AND GRIT:

1. Spirit exists.
2. Spirit is found within.
3. Most of us don’t realize this Spirit within, however, because we are living in a world of sin,
separation, and duality–that is, we are living in a fallen or illusory state.
4. There is a way out of this fallen state of sin and illusion, there is a Path to our liberation.
5. If we follow this path to its conclusion, the result is a Rebirth or Enlightenment, a direct experience
of Spirit within, a Supreme Liberation, which–
6 marks the end of sin and suffering, and
which
7 issues in social action of mercy and compassion on behalf of all sentient beings.

.

THIS IS HOW DEB PLATT PRESENTED HER LATE LAMENTED SITE ON WHICH SHE BROUGHT TOGETHER A VAST AND BEAUTIFUL SELECTION OF QUOTATIONS FROM WORLD RELIGIONS

.

If anyone knows what happened to her site please tell me. Her site was a truly great contribution toward religious understanding and its disappearance a great loss. Equally if you managed to copy her site before it was taken down please let me know (onesummit ATgmail.com replace AT with @).

This is the ‘universal’, mystic heart of all of the great wisdom traditions as Deb Platt presented it;

ā€¢ There’s a reality beyond the material world:
ā€¢ Which is uncreated.
ā€¢ It pervades everything,
ā€¢ but remains beyond the reach of human knowledge and understanding.
ā€¢ You approach that reality by:
ā€¢ Distinguishing ego from true self
ā€¢ Understanding the nature of desire
ā€¢ Becoming unattached
ā€¢ Forgetting about preferences
ā€¢ Not working for personal gain
ā€¢ Letting go of thoughts
ā€¢ Redirecting your attention
ā€¢ Being devoted
ā€¢ Being humble
ā€¢ Invoking that reality
ā€¢ Surrendering
ā€¢ That reality approaches you through:
ā€¢ Grace
ā€¢ The teacher
ā€¢ You’re transformed so that you embody that reality by:
ā€¢ Dying and being reborn

Holistic Education doesnā€™t have allegiance to any one religion or philosophy, but Perennial Philosophy is very important for many and is the position of this site. It is motivated by recognition of the essential oneness of the great wisdom traditions

(SEE also Aldous Huxley’s Perennial Philosophy or Chap 2 of Jack Miller’s Educating for Wisdom & Compassion)