Category: Holism

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

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

SunWALK: Summary of the main meanings of the components represented in 
the model and its ‘logo-diagram-mandala’ – providing a teacher’s process model 

 

sunwalk-logo

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

the model and its ‘logo-diagram-mandala’ – providing a teacher’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 – 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.  

Deepening our humanity is a matter of developing technical competencies within the chief dimensions of the human spirit; Caring (the Humanities), Creativity (the Arts) and Criticality (the Sciences & Philosophy) – all in local, national and world Communities.  These are the ‘4Cs’ of the model – 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.  This requires international, national, school & classroom commitment to deepening the best of being human as the context for learning the technical.

We can’t afford to have character and morality and compassion as hoped-for accidental outcomes.  Moral Education, PSME, RE etc. don’t work as bolt-on extras.  They need to be the general context in which competencies are developed.

It is a model based on the energy flow of the human spirit – that is the given. That is physical, mental and spiritual energy that flows through all living human beings.  

That energy, the human spirit, is the true ’stuff of education’.  With the best of the past teachers need to equip children to face tomorrow’s challenges which will always be a mixture of new problems combined with eternally recurrent problems.  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 – SunWALK model brings into harmony the best of ‘Western’ & ‘Eastern’ world-views. 

OK – so what’s the ‘Sun’ and the ‘WALK in the model’?

The ‘Sun’ = the individual’s spiritual inspiration & values sources – accumulated and ongoing, as operating internally and as expressed in speech and behaviour. 

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

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

a) An ‘interior’ model of the human spirit – in relation to ‘the world’.

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

c) A general model of the curriculum – 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.

 

THE MODEL AND THE PROCESS IN ONE (long) SENTENCE: – 

The SunWALK model of spiritualizing pedagogy sees human education as the 

storied

development of 

meaning, which is 

constructed, and de-constructed, 

physically, mentally and spiritually, through 

Wise & Willing

Action, via 

Loving and Knowing – developed in 

Community, through the

‘Dialectical Spiritualization [1]’of 

Caring, Creativity & Criticality processes, all undertaken in the light of the 

‘Sun’ of chosen higher-order

values and beliefs, using best available,appropriate 

content.

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

This is an intense combination of theory and practice.  It automatically requires the teacher to practice their theory and theorise their practice – dynamically as practice-based research.  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.  But it seeks to bring together the Whole and the parts, the ineffable and the concepts – not just concepts because as Heschel (1971:7) says, “Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement.”

The diagram/logo/

The outer ring of the SunWALK logo combines two dimensions:

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

2  ‘Cultural sources’ including such dimensions as the traditions, the political & the legal.  

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 – everything from galleries to written laws of physics that the individual can draw upon or be influenced by. This is the ‘stuff out there’ 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 ‘interiority’, i.e. human consciousness – the human spirit. 

The human spirit is presented intra-personally as 3 ‘voices’ – 3 modes of being & of engaging with reality & of knowing.

The three emanate from the singleness of ‘heart-mind’, consciousness.  

They are presented (metaphorically) as the ‘primary colours’ of Creativity (the yellow of inspiration), Criticality (the blue of reason) & Caring (the red warmth of love). 

Creativity is the ‘I’ voice of subjective engagement via an artistic medium – it is concerned with subjective knowing and is particularly related to the core virtue ‘beauty’ and its products are of course ‘the Arts’. 

Criticality is the ‘IT’ voice of objective engagement which enables progress in the Sciences ( & Maths., Philosophy and ‘critical’ studies). It is concerned with objective knowing – and it is related particularly to the core virtue ‘truth’.  The products of course are the sciences and technology  – but also philosophy and critical studies.

Caring is the ‘WE’ voice which enables moral engagement – for progress in the moral domain and in service of others. It is concerned with social knowing – related particularly to the core virtue ‘goodness’ and to ‘the Humanities’. 

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

The physical dimension is seen as the instrument for the flow of spirit in all of its forms – 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 ‘Celtic’ knot that surrounds the central shield indicates that the 3Cs are simply aspects of the one human spirit– the flow of ‘heart-mind’.

The white shield at the centre represents the meditative state in which there is no ‘focused’ engagement via one of the 3Cs – and in which there is relatively little of the interference or chatter that we experience in the unquiet mind. 

This can enable us to ‘go beyond ourselves’, i.e. transcend our normal knowing – 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 ‘well-spring’ 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 – the bits of realization and insight that come to us for which we don’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. 

Teaching is seen as nurturing and cultivating what is normally present, almost from birth, & certainly by the time we go to school – namely the flow of spirit expressed in nascent forms of Caring, Creativity, and Criticality – in Community with others. Holistic Learning takes place when the learner uses Creativity, Criticality and Caring – in Community – inspired by higher-order values – in dynamic combinations such as Creativity providing texts for criticality – 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 – it is intrinsic to all of its praxis. 

The SunWALK logo can also be seen as a mandala, or even as a plan drawing for a fountain or an ‘arts centre of light’!  

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 ‘human-as-computer, the fragmentary and the materialistic; seeking instead modelling that is based on flow/process, holism and the spiritual.   

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

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SEE ALSO these allied blogs ––

 Human-centred courses –

 Dictionary of Concepts

Home is HERE i.e. my ‘meta-blog’ -The ´1000 ways …of Celebrating the human spirit

 

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Slide presentation on Holistic Education & Person-centred Education

This slide presentation covers some aspects of the relationship between PCE (Person-centred Education) and Holistic Education.

 

 

A continuing discussion on the overlap and differences between Holistic Education, Person-centred Education and Human-centred Education would be interesting.

 

NB click on ‘screen logo’ (bottom right of slide frame) to get full size for viewing – click on screen to go to next slide – ESC to go back to website.

A slide version of the SunWALK holistic education model – on what it is to be fully and positively human

A slide version of the SunWALK holistic education model – on  what it is to be fully and positively human:

 

HERE

 

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On Holism and Holistic Health

A fascinating article by the The Natural and Holistic Study Group – Heidleberg tells us;

 

Does Holistic Health Education Exist?

Tanya Zilberter, Ph.D. and Michelle Bannister

The Natural and Holistic Study Group-Heidelberg

 

“Holistic philosophy is so diverse that practically every theorist can claim holistic credentials.”(Kolcaba R, 1997). 

 

 

Holism

Before we try to answer to the above question — if holistic health education exists — four problems will call for definitions:1. What is holism?
2. What is holistic health?
3. What is holistic education?
4. What is holistic health education?

1. Holism

Holism is first of all a philosophy. As such it proclaims the wholeness, let it be a human body, education, civilization, or ecosystem, and doing this it opposes the reductionism (Pruessner HT, Hensel WA, Rasco TL , 1992; Gunderman RB, 1995) and dualism (Jorgensen J, 1993; Adler RH, 1996). In the case of medicine, dualism means an acute distinction between soma and psyche, structure and function, from which it is evident that the dualism in medicine is not based on human nature. Rather, it is the result of the development and training of the observer (Adler RH, 1996). The last remark leaves no doubts about the nesessity of discussing the character of modern health education.

2. Holistic health

General considerations

Being widely used in empirical sense of the word, the term ‘holism’ nevertheless is infrequently specified accurately. People who identify themselves, for example, with holistic health practitioners in most cases mean their belonging to one or another alternative healing modality (Table 1). The entity of holistic educators in it’s own turn occasionally includes holistic health practitioners (Fig. 2), especially those concerned with body-mind model of a human being and Arts Therapies (e.g., Holistic Education: an interdisciplinary focus based in the department of curriculum, OISE homepage, 1997). Historically, the adjective “holistic” in medicine is assimilated by the practice of comprehensive and humane nursing care. However, even in such well defined and particular a field, the meaning of at least three “holisms” can be isolated:

 

  • As a practice-centered discipline, nursing gives a central role to whole-person holism. If mainstream medicine integrates the doctor-patient relationship and studies it scientifically, its model will change from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial one, thus satisfying many of the patient’s needs, which were so far neglected (Adler RH, 1995).

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  • In so far as nursing approximates medicine, it incorporates systemic holism emphasizing the importance of striking a balance between reductionist thinking (that dominates medical education) and whole-systems thinking (Pruessner HT, Hensel WA, Rasco TL 1992)

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  • From its basis in biology, nursing imports organismic holism (e.g., even “vascular holism”, Barnes RW, 1995).

    •  

    The three holisms seem incompatible because of the contrasting concepts of a human being, a system per se, and organism’s internal (functional) systems. This contrast is based on the presumable incompatibility of metaphysical, scientific and ethical axioms (Kolcaba R, 1997)


    Holistic Education.

     


    Who is who in holistic education.

    Both social science and medicine share, in differing ways, the uncertainty produced by the complexity of human characteristics. Within those who identified themselves as holistic educators or concerned with holistic philosophy in education, vast majority belonged to professional teachers and educators including holistic educators:


  • artists & art therapists 5%


  • computer scientists 5%


  • dancers 3%


  • ecologists 3%


  • educators 11%


  • holistic educators 7%


  • musicians 7%


  • philosophers 5%


  • physicians 4%


  • poets & writers 5%


  • psychologis 4%


  • psychotherapists 5%


  • researchers 5%


  • social workers & activists 3%


  • teachers 22%


    • What does holistic education do?

    Jack Miller, a recognized leader in holistic eduction and holistic curriculum (Miller J 1998, 1993) recently defined holistic education as rooted in holism, or the concept of an interconnected reality (Miller J 1997)

     

    To read the full article go HERE

    17 Central Concerns of Holistic, Human-centred or Person-centred education

    The 17 Central Concerns of Holistic, Human-centred or Person-centred education below are suggested as the planning or evaluative criteria for any model of education that calls itself  ‘Holistic’, Human-centred or, Person-centred  etc.

    Any such model, I argue will have to give a satisfactory, balanced, appropriate account of :

    1 what it is to be fully & positively human.

    2 the nature & characteristics of Holistic, Human-centred or Person-centred education.

    3 the place of story and storying.

    4 the central importance of meaning, its making and subjective & objective forms

    5 appropriate & challenging forms of construing (subjective forms of expression)

    6 appropriate & challenging forms of and de-construction(objective forms – ‘reading’ analysing etc.)

    7 Interiority – the physical, psychological & spiritual dimensions of learning & their inter-relationships

    8 the re-establishment of the central importance of wisdom.

    9 engendering and managing volition.

    10 active and experiential learning

    11 love /affect

    12 knowing, knowledge & personal transformation

    13 community – including friendship groups, class, family & wider community

    14 multi-level-dialogue – intrapersonal and within friendship groups, class, family & wider comm.

    15 the (chosen) sources of higher-order values & beliefs,

    16 inspiration – the nature & implications of those higher-order values and beliefs – inc. the Whole, the nature of reality & the inevitable context of mystery (world-view)

    17 finding & utilizing best available, appropriate, content for each element

     

    Suggested Readings for the 17 concerns

    1 Being Human – Heschel – Who is Man

    2 What is Holistic Ed? –  Jack Miller then Ron Miller

    Somewhat critical review of the Holistic Curriculum – but it shows a lot about the reviewer!

    3 Story & Storying –  Peter Abbs –  Narratology – Narrative Studies (Applied)

    4 Meaning and its making -Heschel – Who is Man

    5 Creativity – the subjective voice

    A) Teaching of Fine Art/Performing arts etc.   – best practice in all subjects.                                                                                                                                           B) Arts in education i) – All Our Futures NAC Report for DfEE  –  ii) – Peter Abbs

    6 Criticality – the objective voice

    A) PFC (Philosophy for Children)e.g. Bob Fisher Teaching Thinking: Philosophical Enquiry in the Classroom              B) Best practice re Maths teaching, Sciences teaching, Technology and IT teaching

    7 Interiority – Ken Wilber 

    8 Wisdom – HERE – NB Start with chapter by Gisela Labouvie-Vief   Prof Labouvie-Vief publications HERE

    9 Volition  – Rollo May (Love and Will) –  then Assagioli

    10 Active & Experiential Learning   

    11 Love/Affect – `Abdu’l-Bahá –  Affect (psychology)

    12 Knowing – knowledge – & personal transformation – Wilber – Heschel – Who is Man – 

    13 Community  – Bruner – Matthew Lipman 

    14 Multi-level dialogue – Nicholas C Burbules and Matthew Lipman – `Abdu’l-Bahá

    15 Inspiration – the (chosen) sources of higher-order values & beliefs – Perennial Philosophy and Universalism – and then the great wisdom traditions

    16 The nature and implications of those higher-order values and beliefs – Wilber –  Tolle – Karen Armstrong

    17 Content – derive from best thinkers in each subject discipline

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    For information on PCP Personal-Construct Psychology – George Kelly – start HERE

    On  Epiphany, insight via autobiography and ‘autoethnography applied’ see HERE

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    What stems from ‘Holism and Evolution’ the remarkable book by J C Smuts?

     

    Source WikiPedia
    Source WikiPedia

    Although the ideas of holism have roots that go back to ancient times the term along with ‘holistic’ stems only from its use in Field Marshal Jan Christiaan Smuts’ book published in 1926;  

    holistic Look up holistic at Dictionary.com – 
    holistic – 1926, coined, along with holism, by Gen. J.C. Smuts (1870-1950), from Gk. holos “whole” (see safe (adj.)). In reference to the theory that regards nature as consisting of wholes. Holistic medicine is first attested 1960.
    Online Etymology Dictionary

    Note that, ‘Holistic medicine is first attested 1960‘ Here are some quotations from the book Holism and Evolution  

    “Life has divided into millions of species, the fundamental units, each playing a unique role in relation to the whole” (Wilson, 1992) (p33).

    “Holism is an attempt at synthesis, an attempt at bringing together many currents of thought and development such as we have seen in our day. It is not a system of philosophy” (Smuts, 1952) (p289). “This (Smuts’ Holism and Evolution) is not a treatise on philosophy; not even on the philosophy of Nature; not even on the philosophy of Evolution. It is an exploration of one idea, an attempt to sketch in large and mostly vague, tentative outline of the meaning and consequences of one particular idea” (Smuts, 1926) (p319). 

    “All great truths are in their essence simple; and the absence of simplicity of statement only shows that the ultimate form has not yet been reached.” (Smuts, 1926). Holism simplifies life and causes a peaceful order.

    I suspect that a lot of scientists would challenge  the idea of univsersal simplicity – surely that simplicity is part of a world-view, closer to the mystical than the scientific – nevertheless J.C. Smuts was well ahead of his time in writing his book “Holism and Evolution“.  We have lost our sense of the whole. We focus only on ‘geo’ in geology, and have forgotten the whole to which ‘geo’ belongs i.e ‘ology’, the Whole.  (The same with all of the other ‘ologies’). Holism tries to maintain the harmony between parts and whole.

    SOURCE

    I take in that ‘ology’ has common root with ‘logos’ which means word, reasoning and much else see HERE  From this complex etymology we can see that logos means word, reason and much else.  I take it to mean The Whole – the reality of oneness that makes of all particulars the Whole.  For some it would be the Holy Spirit or the Breath of God.

    THE BENEFITS OF STORY-ING our experience – both children and adults

    “Let me tell you a story…………………………”

    To story = ‘to make a story of’.

    Storying = the looking at,  one, several or all aspects of your life as a story.  Storying acts among other things as a ‘glue’ that makes of the parts a whole.  This is both a matter of creation and re-creation.  Stories as films, radio plays, novels, films re-create us.

    This storying and re-storying seems to be natural to us as human beings.  “What was your day like dear?” elicits a story, at least a bare narrative.

    In Personal & Professional Development the issue is this, ‘How can we use, in Personal & Professional Development, storying, and re-storying, to enable the learner/client to get from where they’re at to where they want to be?’

    In teaching & parenting & home-schooling my SunWALK model when applied to education suggests that storying is one, or perhaps, the way to create holistic connections between subjects, between people etc.

    The curriculum can be seen as a nesting of stories: each child’s story, their family story, the class story, the school story, the community story etc.

    This great-looking series of books for children – click HERE lend themselves to the idea of creating story contexts for all subjects and sets of relationships,  including one that seems to work directly with this idea.  The challenge is how to keep storying going on up through the whole of education.

    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 – 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 – 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 – or timeless – 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 – in so many words, One Taste. It is unmistakably so. And just that is your true identity – pure Emptiness or pure unqualifiable Consciousness as Such – 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 – 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.

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

    Summaries are HERE

    Being human – an American high school principal´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-view  – and it is worthy of re-circulation;

    Dear Teacher

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

            Gas chambers built by learned engineers.

            Children poisoned by educated physicians.

            Infants killed by trained nurses.

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

            So, I am suspicious of education.

    My request is: Help your students become human.  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. 

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

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

    Getting our I, WE & IT voices Balanced – inspired by Ken Wilber

    Getting our I, WE & IT Voices Balanced

     

    Are your voices in a twist? We each have 3 God-given voices to sing different kinds of songs. Imagine if one voice dominates & consequently the other 2 ‘shrivel’ to almost nothing. Where would we be?

     

    Answer – where we and our world are now. This is how Ken Wilber explains our situation.

     

    All great wisdom traditions (and Perennial Philosophy) used to believe in the Great Chain of Being which taught that reality was a rich tapestry of levels starting with matter:

    spirit

     

    soul

    mind

    body

     

    matter

    Wilber suggests reality now is best understood as a Great Nest of Being – like a set of ‘Russian Dolls’ – same levels – ‘matter-body-mind-soul-spirit’ but like an onion. (All are forms of spirit?)

     

    He speaks of three historical periods: 1) before the Enlightenment = pre-modernism; 2) after the Enlightenment = modernism; 3) recently = post-modernism.

     

    What did the good side of modernism give us? The good side of modernism = we were able to develop separately the 3 voices of I. WE & IT – I, (Art) WE (Morality) and IT (Science)

     

    I = the subjective voice that we express in the arts (Beauty – and subjective truth)

    WE = the moral voice that we express in the Humanities including religion (Goodness)

    IT = the objective voice that we express in the Sciences (Objective Truth)

     

    In pre-modern times I, WE and IT were not separate voices. Before the Enlightenment the Church decided everything. It forced Galileo to recant the truth of what he saw scientifically through his telescope. The Church insisted the sun went around the earth. It also decided what was and wasn’t good, and what was and wasn’t beautiful in the arts.

     

    After the Enlightenment modernism gave us three voices developing separately I, WE and IT which were also three separate ways of knowing which I prefer to express thus:

     

    ‘I knowing’ = the subjective voice in the Arts (Beauty as pleasing patterns en-formed) -Creativity

    ‘WE knowing’ = the moral voice in the Humanities inc. religion (Goodness as fellow-feeling) -Caring

    ‘IT knowing’ = the objective voice in the Sciences (Truth as sorting, measuring, replicating) -Criticality

     

    The bad side of modernism = the domination by the IT voice (‘Scientism’) to create ‘Flatland’. That is the ITness of science has become so powerful that it has caused the other two voices, more or less, to become invalid. This has been called the dis-enchantment of the modern world.

     

    Therefore:

    Pre-modernism = science, the humanities & the arts couldn’t develop separate to ‘Church’

    Modernism = all three could develop separately (includes separation of Church and State)

    Post-modernism means different things to different people a) a reaction against modernism, b) a counter-balance to (Flatland) modernism or c) a continuation of modernism

     

    More narrowly postmodernism = the idea that there is no ‘truth’ only interpretations, and all interpretations are socially constructed (by elites to exploit groups e.g. women or colonies)

     

    Important in pm = ‘there is no grand narrative’ that binds – such as the Christian story. My answer = ‘yes there is – being human in the world, with others, seeking truth, beauty, goodness and justice = the perennial grand narrative’.

     

    The bad side of modernism = the empiricism of science has like a cuckoo forced out ‘I knowing’ and ‘WE knowing’. Inappropriately applying the scientific way of knowing (empiricism) to other areas of life is called scientism . (Creates ‘Flatland’)

     

    Fundamentalism is, in part, derived by rejection of modernism – especially separation of state & religion. Ultimately it = the unwillingness to let the I, WE & IT voices grow separately.

     

    The good side of post-modernism – it teaches us that

    1 Reality is not always pre-given, but in some significant ways is a construction, an interpretation. The belief that reality is simply given, is referred to as ‘the myth of the given’.

    2 Meaning is context-dependent, and contexts are boundless.

    3 Cognition must therefore privilege no single perspective. (SEE Wilber p121)

     

    Conclusion: We still validate science (the empirical and the rational), though we teach it poorly, but we don’t validate contemplation. Contemplation can also be thought of as heart-knowing – which is inspiration that follows meditation, especially the experience of at-one-ment/egolessness.

     

    Our interior self is a flow of ‘heart-mind’. – separating heart and mind has been a disaster that has invalidated, or diminished, the feminine principle in men and women. (Heart-mind is an ancient idea ‘xin’ or ‘hsin’ in Chinese).

     

    I, WE and IT ways need each other. If a person gets inspiration from contemplation (as Einstein did) s/he needs to order it or check it with IT knowing and WE knowing. Science needs I knowing and WE knowing as well. The Humanities need I knowing as well as IT knowing. Art needs WE & IT knowing.

     

    Organized religion has suffered because it couldn’t stay clear on I, WE and IT knowing. It has made a comeback via the arts and ‘pick and mix’ spirituality. Its special domain, like art is I knowing – + WE knowing as inspired by what it sees as the revealed word of God.

     

    Action needed = The world (especially the religions, governments & parents) need to nurture the I, WE and IT voices to achieve balance and concord. Unity, peace & development depend on validating objective truth and knowing, subjective truth and knowing and the moral wisdom that lies at the heart of all of the great traditions. The call is to the balancing of these three ‘voices’ of the human spirit.

     

    My educational model towards this end I have called SunWALK = we need to teach our children, and ourselves, to pursue Wise, Action, through Loving and Knowing guided by the Sun of higher-order values SEE www.SunWALK.org.uk Roger Prentice Email; rogerprentice@bigfoot.com Ver 8.7.06

    Adapted from and inspired by the work of Ken Wilber in The Marriage of Sense & Soul

    —–0—–

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

     

    Wilberian Studies; integral and holistic studies that draw on inspiration from Ken Wilber

     I therefore sought to outline a philosophy of universal integralism. Put differently, I sought a world philosophy—or an integral philosophy—that would believably weave together the many pluralistic contexts of science, morals, aesthetics, Eastern as well as Western philosophy, and the world’s great wisdom traditions. Not on the level of details—that is finitely impossible; but on the level of orienting generalizations . . . a holistic philosophy for a holistic Kosmos, a genuine Theory of Everything.        —Ken Wilber (TOE, p. 38).

    For my own work, and for the benefit of those with similar interests, I have decided to keep a list of sources that I come across that fall under the category of ‘Wilberian studies’. That is integral and holistic studies that draw on inspiration from Ken Wilber. These include leadership studies, education, philosophy, psychology etc. I am collecting these interesting variations on, and adaptions and applications of Wilber’s four quadrants and three voices of I, WE and IT. – SEE especially Wilber’s The Marriage of Sense and Soul.

    My own diagram/application is at the foot of this posting.

    Here are the first few other Wilberian ‘four quadrants’ variations, adaptations and applications ;

    5 The Promise of Integralism A Critical Appreciation of Ken Wilber’s Integral Psychology by Christian de Quincey

    wilber-grid2-four-quadrants.jpgHERE

    4 Intimations of Jung in Integrative Psychology and in Ken Wilber’s Quadrants by John Giannini

    four_arch-four-quadrants.gifHERE

    3 Integral Spiral Dynamics by Michael Dowd

    spiral-integral-spiral-dynamics-by-michael-dowd-four-quadrants.jpg HERE – click to see full size. Click HERE to see the 4 parts of the diagram in detail.

    2 Developing Leadership Capacity: Searching for the Integral – by Wood and Hessler-Key

    wilber2-wood-and-hessler-key.gifHERE

    1 Prof Slaughter’s article

    slaughter-3-1-four-quadrants.jpgHERE

    My own application;
    sunwalk-logothumbnail1.jpgHERE was to suggest that teachers see the raw material of their work as the flow of spirit (the student’s spirit and their own) – that spirit inevitably being socialized in to the three voices of I, WE and IT. Teaching thus becomes the work of nurturing refinement in abilities within the I WE and IT voices. The real concern is the learner and her/his holistic development
    The real stuff of education thus is spirit – that uses community and cultural stuff drawn from the Arts, Humanities and Sciences – the Arts being the ‘food’ of the I voice, the Humanities being the food of the WE voice and the Sciences being the ‘food’ of the IT voice. Proceeding like this I have suggested constitutes a) integralization and b) spiritualization i.e. a paradigm shift and one that in my personal experience greatly strengthens the academic concerns of teaching.

    “The Self is an ocean without a shore”: Bill Viola, a perfect match of spirit and form?

    THE ARGUMENT The past lives only in the present in that our consciousness is marked and shaped by those whose insights we come to re-realize – including those that come from the great spiritual teachers. Memories are like art and sacred writings that are simply marks made – but marks made that can transport us to our own high realization in inspired consciousness. Bill Viola is now re-presenting us through his mastery of one of newest of mediums, video, with access to that spiritual core at the heart of the great world wisdom traditions. Is this a perfect post-modernist match of spirit and form?

    In my SunWALK model about ‘what it is to be human‘ and about ‘how can we spiritualize education without the exclusivity of sectarian religion‘ I was inspired by several quotations as well as by Seamus Heaney’s poem Personal Helicon.

    Bill Viola from ‘Ocean Without a Shore‘ – click to see full size – Source artdaily

    “One of the things the camera taught me was to see the world, the same world that my eye sees, in its metaphoric, symbolic state. This condition is, in fact, always present, latent in the world around us .”
    – Bill Viola

    I was interested to see news about Bill Viola’s recent work ‘Ocean Without a Shore’ (shown at Chiesa di San Gallo, Venice). Viola’s website cites the following two inspirations;

    “The Self is an ocean without a shore. Gazing upon it has no
    beginning or end, in this world and the next.”
    Ibn al’Arabi (1165 – 1240)

    From the Viola site we learn;

    ‘Ocean Without a Shore’ is about the presence of the dead in our lives. The three stone altars in the church of San Gallo become portals for the passage of the dead to and from our world. Presented as a series of encounters at the intersection between life and death, the video sequence documents a succession of individuals slowly approaching out of darkness and moving into the light. Each person must then breakthrough an invisible threshold of water and light in order to pass into the physical world. Once incarnate however, all beings realize that their presence is finite and so they must eventually turn away from material existence to return from where they came. The cycle repeats without end.

    The work was inspired by a poem by the 20th century Senegalese poet and storyteller Birago Diop:

    “ Hearing things more than beings,
    listening to the voice of fire,
    the voice of water.
    Hearing in wind the weeping bushes,
    sighs of our forefathers.

    The dead are never gone:
    they are in the shadows.
    The dead are not in earth:
    they’re in the rustling tree,
    the groaning wood,
    water that runs,
    water that sleeps;
    they’re in the hut, in the crowd,
    the dead are not dead.

    The dead are never gone,
    they’re in the breast of a woman,
    they’re in the crying of a child,
    in the flaming torch.
    The dead are not in the earth:
    they’re in the dying fire,
    the weeping grasses,
    whimpering rocks,
    they’re in the forest, they’re in the house,
    the dead are not dead.”
    (from David Melzter, ed. Death – An Anthology of Ancient Texts, Songs, Prayers and Stories (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1984)

    The Ibn al’Arabi quotations reminded me of my attempt to portray our state in visiting ‘the shoreline’ and encountering the unknowable Whole – in my Personal Myth and the four key qutations (SEE below)

    The poetic sense of the dead speaking in the ‘dying fire, the weeping grasses’ etc is secondary for me to how they live on in the consciousness that we possess, because of them. Our spirits continue to live out their consciousness through ours.

    FOUR KEY QUOTATIONS

    The Ibn al’Arabi quotation also reminded me of the inspiration I got from four key quotations in relation to a sense of the Whole and to a panentheistic and Universalist perspective I hoped that they contributed to the leitmotif that made of the thesis parts, a whole;

    Text 1)

    “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer
    the shoreline of mystery.” Unknown author

    Text 2)

    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 other

    As time and calendar, as violin and melody,
    as life and what lies beyond the last breath.

    The tangible phenomena we scrutinize with our reason,

    The sacred and indemonstrable we overhear

    with the sense of the ineffable.

    Heschel A. J. (1971), Man is Not Alone, New York: Octagon Books p.8

    Text 3)

    Tao, the subtle reality of the universe

    cannot be described.

    That which can be described in words

    is merely a conception of the mind.

    Although names and descriptions have been applied to it,

    the subtle reality is beyond the description.

    One may use the word ‘Nothingness”

    to describe the Origin of the universe,

    and “Beingness”

    to describe the Mother of the myriad things,

    but Nothingness and Beingness are merely conceptions.

    From the perspective of Nothingness,

    one may perceive the expansion of the universe.

    From the perspective of Beingness,

    one may distinguish individual things.

    Both are for the conceptual convenience of the mind.

    Although different concepts can be applied,

    Nothingness and Beingness

    and other conceptual activity of the mind

    all come from, the same indescribable subtle Originalness

    The Way is the unfoldment of such subtle reality.

    Having reached the subtlety of the universe,

    one may see the ultimate subtlety,
    the Gate of All Wonders.

    Ni, Hua-Ching (1997), The Complete Works of Lao Tzu, Santa Monica, USA: Seven Star Communications – Tao The Ching (‘Chapter’ 1)

    Text 4)

    ….set then yourselves towards His holy Court, on the shore of His mighty Ocean, so that the pearls of knowledge and wisdom, which God hath stored up within the shell of His radiant heart, may be revealed unto you….
    (Baha’u’llah: Proclamation of Baha’u’llah, Pages: 8-9)

    The past lives only in the present in that our consciousness is marked and shaped by those whose insights we come to re-realize – including those that come from the great spiritual teachers. Memories are like art and sacred writings that are simply marks made – but marks made that can transport us to our own high realization in inspired consciousness. Bill Viola is now re-presenting us through his mastery of one of newest of mediums, video, with access to that spiritual core at the heart of the great world wisdom traditions. Is this a perfect post-modernist match of spirit and form?

    The mystic inner core of the great world wisdom traditions is incorrectly named as Perennial Philosophy

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

    Two views of the structure of Perennial Philosophy are HERE

    Viola in our sea of uncertainty, and maelstrom of violence, is helping us re-connect.

    Perhaps also Viola is showing us that video can do more fully what photographers – Minor White for example – have longed to do – to ‘en-form’ the spiritual?

    —–0—–

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

    Summaries are HERE

    Inspiring quotations for PhD thesis

    Like heroes and heroines certain key sayings inspire us. Here I’m assembling the ones that have meant most to me.

    As I re-find them I am putting the NEWEST at the top:

    From my thesis;

    The four texts that contributed to the leitmotif that, I hope, makes, of the thesis parts, a whole

    Text 1)

    “The larger the island of knowledge, the longer
    the shoreline of mystery.” Unknown author

    Text 2)

    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 other

    As time and calendar, as violin and melody,
    as life and what lies beyond the last breath.

    The tangible phenomena we scrutinize with our reason,

    The sacred and indemonstrable we overhear

    with the sense of the ineffable.

    Heschel A. J. (1971), Man is Not Alone, New York: Octagon Books p.8

    Text 3)

    Tao, the subtle reality of the universe

    cannot be described.

    That which can be described in words

    is merely a conception of the mind.

    Although names and descriptions have been applied to it,

    the subtle reality is beyond the description.

    One may use the word ‘Nothingness”

    to describe the Origin of the universe,

    and “Beingness”

    to describe the Mother of the myriad things,

    but Nothingness and Beingness are merely conceptions.

    From the perspective of Nothingness,

    one may perceive the expansion of the universe.

    From the perspective of Beingness,

    one may distinguish individual things.

    Both are for the conceptual convenience of the mind.

    Although different concepts can be applied,

    Nothingness and Beingness

    and other conceptual activity of the mind

    all come from, the same indescribable subtle Originalness

    The Way is the unfoldment of such subtle reality.

    Having reached the subtlety of the universe,

    one may see the ultimate subtlety,
    the Gate of All Wonders.

    Ni, Hua-Ching (1997), The Complete Works of Lao Tzu, Santa Monica, USA: Seven Star Communications – Tao The Ching (‘Chapter’ 1)

    Text 4)

    ….set then yourselves towards His holy Court, on the shore of His mighty Ocean, so that the pearls of knowledge and wisdom, which God hath stored up within the shell of His radiant heart, may be revealed unto you….
    (Baha’u’llah: Proclamation of Baha’u’llah, Pages: 8-9)

    “The utterances of the heart — unlike those of the discriminating intellect — always relate to the whole.” (Jung)

    Also from the thesis;

    Introduction to Chapter 1 – an ‘overture’

    By way of a short introduction I want to ‘sound’, as in an overture, certain ‘notes’, or themes or resonances. They are from writers, and a film-maker, whose statements have come to mean a great deal, in the struggle to search out my own story, and its meaning educationally.

    Autobiography is a journey inward. St Augustine said:

    Men go to gape at mountain peaks, at the boundless tides of the sea, the broad sweep of rivers, the encircling ocean and the motion of the stars; and yet they leave themselves unnoticed; they do not marvel at themselves.
    St. Augustine, Confessions X2

    Autobiography is not entirely a matter of re-collecting objective facts: it is re-creation as well as re-collection, but it is a seeking after a kind of truth; the truth of authentically being in oneself. Peter Abbs (1974 p. 7) calls autobiography: the search backwards into time to discover the evolution of the true self. It is, as such, about self-knowing, but something beyond the fripperies of the ego. Baha’u’llah, Founder of the Baha’i religion, in one of His own writings, cites a tradition from Islam: He hath known God who hath known himself. (Baha’u’llah: Gleanings, MARS database3 p.178).

    For the theistically religious the more we come to know our true selves, the closer we come to the Divine within us, and vice versa. I make no claim, beyond a few faltering steps, but the ideas continue to inspire.

    The ‘Thesis Poem’
    I have chosen the following poem by Seamus Heaney (1996 p.14) as ‘the poem’ for the thesis because it shows beautifully how we resonate now, in relation to what we sensed and experienced as children. It also shows how, through metaphor, the objective connects with the subjective to thrill, to the very quick of our being.

    About the poem, ‘Personal Helicon’ Pelligrino (2003 p.1) explains;

    Mount Helicon is a mountain in Greece, that was, in classical mythology, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. From it flowed two fountains of poetic inspiration. Heaney is here presenting his own source of inspiration, the “dark drop” into personal and cultural memory, made present by the depths of the wells in his childhood. Now, as a man, he is too mature to scramble about on hands and knees, looking into the deep places of the earth, but he has his poetry – and, thank God, so do we.

    Of course if Heaney was reading it we would have that wonderful voice, like an aromatic tree giving up the sap, and perfuming the air with all the good things from the soil.

    Personal Helicon by Seamus Heaney
    for Michael Longley

    As a child, they could not keep me from wells
    And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
    I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
    Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.
    One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
    I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
    Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
    So deep you saw no reflection in it.
    A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
    Fructified like any aquarium.
    When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
    A white face hovered over the bottom.
    Others had echoes, gave back your own call
    With a clean new music in it. And one
    Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
    Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.
    Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
    To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
    Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
    To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

    Later I take up the issues of resonance, and of objective and subjective meaning combined in metaphor, and the power of the subjective in personal history, to continue to generate the new in the meaning-making we do. The darkness echoes, as we stare into the part darkness of the self, and its memories – we stare, each a big-eyed Narcissus.

    The final ‘sounding’, or theme, in the Introduction to Chapter 1 concerns identity and the moment, which lives on, and in which the past continues to create. The piece is by Jorge Luis Borges4, who says:

    Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made
    up of a single moment – the moment in which a man finds
    out, once and for all, who he is.

    The one moment could conceivably be a choice – as in Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda’s After Life where a group of 22 people are suspended between earth and heaven with a week to answer the important question: “What is the one memory that you choose to carry into the afterlife?” When each chooses his or her memory, this is all that will be remembered for eternity.

    Professionally, the lesson, or pair of lessons, upon which this thesis is, in part, an extended reflection contains the one memory I would choose. Ideally it would be the whole of the two ‘story’ lessons.

    If it was reduced just to seconds it would be the moment that one ‘deviant’ boy offered an explanation of the possible symbolic meaning of the two fishes that I had drawn on the blackboard. One fish was a line drawing, the other a similar shaped fish, but its shape was delineated via chalk shading (i.e. from ‘the outside’).

    “Mr P I think one fish represents bounded imagination, and the other stands for unbounded imagination.”

    His brilliantly insightful comment was the jewel in the crown of an outstanding lesson in which the class and I, so I felt, was as ‘one-mind’, intellectually sharp but attitudinally contemplative, in ‘cross-over’ from extreme left-brain and extreme right-brain engagement – and here he was, the boy always in trouble with various teachers, speaking my as yet unrealized thoughts, and riveting me to that moment.

    It was the supreme moment, within the supreme experience in a life-time of teaching, and it was, as Jack Nicholson and the movie title say, ‘As good as it gets’.

    One key quotation is missing from this section. It is; “The larger the island of knowledge,the longer the shoreline of mystery.” Anon. I now find that in a piece of his work Bill Viola was inspired by;

    “The Self is an ocean without a shore. Gazing upon it has no
    beginning or end, in this world and the next.”
    Ibn al’Arabi (1165 – 1240)

    The ocean and island metaphors, the limitless Self, the fathomless self, the moment and memories, ‘After Life’, self-knowledge and the impossibility of knowing the Self – all these and more are essential threads in my attempt too present in SunWALK a model of what it is to be positively and fully human as well as a model of how education can be intrinsically spiritualizing without the narrow sectarian religion.

    —–0—–

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

    Summaries are HERE


    De-mystifying the mystical and deciding on your definition of ‘mystical’?

    What’s your definition of mystical and mystical experience? The one I came up with is as follows;

    ‘The mystical is positive, ineffable, unitive, experience that enhances insight or knowing – in a spiritual or religious context.’ (My composite definition to use with Hick’s definition below)

    This is a composite developed from a range of authorities I looked at. In addition to developing a definition that works for me I want to de-mystify the mystical. Many mystics are presented as rare creatures but I wanted to emphasize that mystical experience is part of everyday life – like philosophizing. There are neutral and even negative such experiences. The essential thing is the experience of being at one with the Whole and losing what Wilber and others call our ego-boundaries of self (ego).

    Positive such experiences provide us with deeper insights into reality and the will to do good in the world. This may or may not be in a religious context.

    Neutral or negative such experiences – I will leave it to you to decise which is which – include sex, drugs and rock and roll and such experiences as are available via flotation tanks. Music must surely be included.

    What proof is there that such experience is part of normality? Perhaps there are clues in everyday language such as the phrase, “It took me out of myself?” or “I was transported…” (rather more 19thC).

    I think that the ‘rarification’ of such people as mystics can be part of how a power elite has in the past exerted power over the common people. Fundamentalists are wary of mystics because they might have a view that’s different to the ‘party line’.

    Apparently mystics flowered only for a short time in England.

    Of course submitting your own experiences to reason and reasonableness helps create a balance.

    My slightly adapted ‘John Hick’s definition’ of the mystical is helpful – the mystical is nothing more or less than direct religious experience’. It’s especially useful if combined with the Christian idea that you will ‘know them by their fruits’

    The point is the mystical is subjective. We might be self-deceiving – so its a good idea to have some teachers whose ‘living of the life’ and creating of ‘good fruit’ qualifies them to be seen as authorities.

    The bottom line is beliefs matter less that action – so why vilify or kill those whose only difference is that they might hold different beliefs?

    Of course – but there’s a sting in the tail – there’s room in my world for fundamentalists, but there’s no room in their world for me. Hmm……..

    Addendum

    ” Mystical experience…..does not seem to me to be anything other than first-hand religious experience as such. This is, however, the core of religion.

    …the explanatory function of religion is secondary and derivative. Religion consists primarily in experiencing our life in its relation to the Transcendent and living on the basis of that experience….

    …..in terms of Ninian Smart’s six-dimensional analysis – distinguishing the

    ritual,

    mythological,

    doctrinal,

    ethical,

    social and

    experiential dimensions of religion

    – mysticism is a general name for religious experience together with part at least of the network of religious practices which support it.

    …. Brother David (Steindl-Rast) defined mysticism as “experience of communion with the source of meaning“; and he stressed that all who worship, and indeed all who are conscious of the divine, are mystics. ….and Swami Prabuddhananda defined mysticism as ‘the realization of relationship between the individual soul and the infinite reality‘” P423

    Hick, John, (1981) Mystical Experience as Cognition in Understanding Mysticism, ed. Richard Woods, London: The Athlone Press

    —–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 ‘voices’)

    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 ‘subjective-creative-mystical’ 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.

    —–0—–

    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 ‘voices’ 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 ‘social-others-centred’ way of knowing – in the case of Caring

    2 the ‘subjective-creative-mystical’ way of knowing – in the case of Creativity and

    3 the ‘objective-reasoning-scientific’ way of knowing – in the case of Criticality

    So;

    Caring, the ‘social-others-centred’ way of knowing = the internalized voice of the Humanities, and is about engaging with reality via the moral viewpoint

     

    Creativity, the ‘subjective-creative-mystical’ way of knowing = the internalized voice of the Arts, and is about engaging with reality via the subjective viewpoint

     

    Criticality the ‘objective-reasoning-scientific’ 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 – s/he is not learning or teaching in the phenomena – 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 ‘subjective-creative-mystical’, is seen as partly an innate, intuitive way of knowing and seems to relate to right-brain activities.

     

    The ‘methods of the ‘objective-reasoning-scientific’’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!).

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    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……’

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

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    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 “spirit” leaps ahead and assigns a value to the “something bigger” in a way that my Point 1 does not. Needless to say, that this quality “is found within” 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

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

    Summaries are HERE

    Key photography quotations toward defining a photographic aesthetic

    This is a running list of quotations selected to help me move toward an understanding of my own photographic aesthetic – based on the SunWALK model.

    “The camera is an instrument of detection. We photograph not only what we know, but also what we don’t know. ” Lisette Model

    The book (Camera Lucida by Roland Barthes) develops the twin concepts of studium and punctum: studium denoting the cultural, linguistic, and political interpretation of a photograph, punctum denoting the wounding, personally touching detail which establishes a direct relationship with the object or person within it. Wiki

    While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see. ~Dorothea Lange

    A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into. ~Ansel Adams

    There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer. ~Ansel Adams

    The camera can photograph thought. ~Dirk Bogarde

    I think the best pictures are often on the edges of any situation, I don’t find photographing the situation nearly as interesting as photographing the edges. ~William Albert Allard, “The Photographic Essay”

    When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence. ~Ansel Adams

    The goal is not to change your subjects, but for the subject to change the photographer. ~Author Unknown

    A photograph is memory in the raw. ~Carrie Latet

    All photos are accurate. None of them is the truth. ~Richard Avedon

    The camera cannot lie, but it can be an accessory to untruth. ~Harold Evans, “Pictures on a Page”

    You don’t take a photograph, you make it. ~Ansel Adams

    Most things in life are moments of pleasure and a lifetime of embarrassment; photography is a moment of embarrassment and a lifetime of pleasure. ~Tony Benn

    A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense, and is, thereby, a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety. ~Ansel Adams

    I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help. ~Ruth Bernhard

    A Ming vase can be well-designed and well-made and is beautiful for that reason alone. I don’t think this can be true for photography. Unless there is something a little incomplete and a little strange, it will simply look like a copy of something pretty. We won’t take an interest in it. ~John Loengard, “Pictures Under Discussion”

    I just think it’s important to be direct and honest with people about why you’re photographing them and what you’re doing. After all, you are taking some of their soul. ~Mary Ellen Mark

    Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man. ~Edward Steichen

    The photograph itself doesn’t interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality. ~Henri Cartier Bresson

    The creative act lasts but a brief moment, a lightning instant of give-and-take, just long enough for you to level the camera and to trap the fleeting prey in your little box. ~Henri Cartier Bresson

    Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. ~Henri Cartier-Bresson

    If I could tell the story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug around a camera. ~Lewis Hine

    A photograph is like the recipe – a memory the finished dish. ~Carrie Latet

    Everyone has a photographic memory, but not everyone has film. ~Author Unknown

    Photographs that transcend but do not deny their literal situation appeal to me. ~Sam Abbel

    A picture is worth a thousand words; a slide show is both. ~Author Unknown

    One photo out of focus is a mistake, ten photo out of focus are an experimentation, one hundred photo out of focus are a style. ~Author Unknown

    All photographs are there to remind us of what we forget. In this – as in other ways – they are the opposite of paintings. Paintings record what the painter remembers. Because each one of us forgets different things, a photo more than a painting may change its meaning according to who is looking at it. ~John Berger

    I didn’t want to tell the tree or weed what it was. I wanted it to tell me something and through me express its meaning in nature. ~Wynn Bullock

    Photography deals exquisitely with appearances, but nothing is what it appears to be. ~Duane Michals

    The negative is the equivalent of the composer’s score, and the print the performance. ~Ansel Adams

    Useful sites

    http://www.photoquotes.com/ Blogs on Photography

    http://photosleavehome.blogspot.com/2005/03/john-berger-understanding-photograph.html

    http://www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/

    http://moma.org/collection/depts/photography/index.html

    http://www.photo-seminars.com/fame.htm

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    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 Härmä 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

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    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 teacher’s inner life, but it also raises a question that goes beyond the solitude of the teacher’s soul: How can the teacher’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 Palmer’s question.

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

    Stories have mythic powers. To know this … 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?’.  Story-making of our experience is in-built.  Conversely we tend to read the world according to the stories to which we subscribe, or that we ourselves have created.  A religious world-view would be an example of the former.  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.  This is what is meant by ‘applied autoethnography’.

    Personal Helicon by Seamus Heaney; resonance, memory, self-understanding and depths of the soul

    well-of-life.jpgSculpture the ‘Well of Life’, Zagreb – source

    I chose the following poem by Seamus Heaney (1996 p.14) as ‘the poem’ for my doctoral thesis because it shows beautifully how we resonate now, in relation to what we sensed and experienced as children. It also shows how, through metaphor, the objective connects with the subjective to thrill, to the very quick of our being.

    About the poem, Personal Helicon Pelligrino (2003 p.1) explains;
    Mount Helicon is a mountain in Greece, that was, in classical mythology, sacred to Apollo and the Muses. From it flowed two fountains of poetic inspiration. Heaney is here presenting his own source of inspiration, the “dark drop” into personal and cultural memory, made present by the depths of the wells in his childhood. Now, as a man, he is too mature to scramble about on hands and knees, looking into the deep places of the earth, but he has his poetry – and, thank God, so do we.

    Of course if Heaney was reading it we would have that wonderful voice, like an aromatic tree giving up the sap, and perfuming the air with all the good things from the soil.

    Personal Helicon by Seamus Heaney
    for Michael Longley

    As a child, they could not keep me from wells
    And old pumps with buckets and windlasses.
    I loved the dark drop, the trapped sky, the smells
    Of waterweed, fungus and dank moss.
    One, in a brickyard, with a rotted board top.
    I savoured the rich crash when a bucket
    Plummeted down at the end of a rope.
    So deep you saw no reflection in it.
    A shallow one under a dry stone ditch
    Fructified like any aquarium.
    When you dragged out long roots from the soft mulch
    A white face hovered over the bottom.
    Others had echoes, gave back your own call
    With a clean new music in it. And one
    Was scaresome, for there, out of ferns and tall
    Foxgloves, a rat slapped across my reflection.
    Now, to pry into roots, to finger slime,
    To stare, big-eyed Narcissus, into some spring
    Is beneath all adult dignity. I rhyme
    To see myself, to set the darkness echoing.

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    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

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

    What is art? – definitions

    tate_modern_london_2001_07.jpgSource

    What is art?

    One definition that works for me is;

    Art is culturally significant meaning, skilfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.

    Richard Anderson quoted in Freeland (2001 p. 77)

    I would make one change;

    Art is culturally, and personally, significant meaning, skilfully encoded in an affecting, sensuous medium.

    There is a whole range of art that I know has cultural meaning but for it to enable an aesthetic experience in me it has also to have personal as well as cultural meaning.

    TASKS:Lesson questions

    How far, and in what ways, has art , through the dominance of conceptual art, replaced philosophy?

    How far, and in what ways, has art replaced religion?

    More resources

    Extensive quotations from Tolstoy at Professor Julie van Camp’s site are HERE

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

    Gandhi, certainty and the ‘Healthy Doubt’ – as the basis for ‘federating’ common ground

    mohandas_gandhi_resized_for_biography.jpg

    Whatever our religious background we tend to say something equivalent to, ‘I know that my Redeemer liveth’. This is an assertion of certainty. For some of us strength of certainty is an indicator of the quality of faith. Unfortunately, to take an extreme example, unconditioned certainty can lead to unspeakable horrors – the Nazis were certain that their killing of millions was a right and proper thing to do. So is a smidgen of doubt, the cousin of humility? And might it also be that such a conditioner of faith as a ‘healthy doubt’ hold us back from continuously negating ‘the other’.

    I’m also suggesting that water-tight, hermetically-sealed certainty might put a break on an individual’s willingness to recognize the essential sameness in all of the world’s great faiths. Why can’t we be one? Well because we think our path up the mountain is the only right one – and because we are familiar and comfortable with it.

    I can only think of three possible solutions. Firstly we all become Baha’is, Unitarians or or some form of Universalist worldview. Secondly we all wait to see which religion dominates and then hop on board (a time-honoured method but not out of Morality’s top drawer). Thirdly we take a leaf out of Ghandi’s book and expand our heart and consciousness so that we can revere our own tradition and the inner essence of all of the other great world religions.

    Gandhi said;

    I came to the conclusion long ago … that all religions were true and also that all had some error in them, and whilst I hold by my own, I should hold others as dear as Hinduism. So we can only pray, if we are Hindus, not that a Christian should become a Hindu … But our innermost prayer should be a Hindu should be a better Hindu, a Muslim a better Muslim, a Christian a better Christian. (Young India: January 19, 1928)

    This is interesting because it suggests that we can have a universal heart that works from within the particular. Is that possible? Is it only possible for a few? Whether or not we go with Ghandi ‘s ‘particular-to-the-universal way we need to break through from narrow-mindedness and close-heartedness. To be able to cherish both the particular culture into which we were born and have a heart that embraces the inner light of all of the great world religions seems to me to make sense – just as federalism makes sense in say America or Germany.

    There are some other of Ghandi’s thoughts that are relevant to the view expressed here;

    • God has no religion
    • My whole soul rebels against the idea that Hinduism and Islam represent two antagonistic cultures and doctrines. To assent to such a doctrine is for me a denial of God.
    • We must respect other religions, even as we respect our own. Mere tolerance thereof is not enough.
    • A religion that takes no account of practical affairs and does not help to solve them is no religion.
    • (When asked if he was a Hindu) Yes I am, I am also a Muslim, a Christian, a Buddhist, and a Jew.
    • “The sayings of Muhammed are a treasure of wisdom not only for Muslims but for all of mankind.”
    • The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives. Source WikiQuotes

    If we can’t quite yet expand our consciousness to recognizing the inner oneness of all of the great faiths at least the Golden Rule (separate postings) is an ethic through which we can start to clear a meeting place within the forest of beliefs.

    It is only beliefs that prevent the realization of our oneness. And it is only realization of oneness that will enable us to overcome our current ‘hardening of the hearteries’. That ‘hardening of the hearteries’ = beliefs so narrowed as to prevent us seeing ourselves reflected in the eyes of the ‘other’.

    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;

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

    Holistic Education doesn’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)

    Jane’s Short Story; teaching children ‘nowness’ in creative writing and photography

    cartier-bresson-child-carrying-painting.jpgSource

    In the unpublished doctoral thesis, from which this piece and Jane’s Short Story, is largely taken, the range of concerns include ‘the perpetuation in the present of early experience’. I’m interested to discover that one definition of ‘nowness’ is presentness: the quality of being the present; “a study of the pastness of the present and…of the presentness of the past”.

    I wrote Jane’s Short Story to see what a Year 7 class (11 – 12 year olds in the UK) could ‘handle’, but it has become a major piece for teaching me, as well as for teaching others.

    Jane’s short story (line numbers are simply to help in discussion)

    1 “Come to mummy Jane. Come on, yes, you can do it.” Ste…steppp…stagger step..step got there BIGKISSmmmms’nice. Her mother’s nose stroked back and forth across her neck, as giggles of delight and laughter bubbled from Jane.
    “Jane pay attention otherwise you’ll be asking me what the work is in five minutes time.”
    5 (’Oh no I won’t Mr Moaner, I know perfectly well what you’re asking – so stop picking on me!’)
    “Images Jane, images.”
    Tulips. Gigantic red tulips, opened a bit beyond their best, and bigger than any red thing and redder than any red thing and she crawled to grasp, to know the greenness of the green cool green stems and embrace them and lose herself in the redness that was ……..
    10 “I want you all to pay attention to the structure of your story……..”
    How could she tell her mother that she never felt safe after he left. Only in his hugs with the smell of him did she ever, could she ever, feel safe. She chewed over this and poured herself another bowl of corn-flakes, sensing school time getting nearer and nearer. Her mother had left without giving the bus fare.
    Yet again Jane’s leg itched from the nylon thread in the seam of her skirt.
    15 She grasped the chair to ease her leg away from the itch, only to put her fingers under her chair and into some freshly placed chewing-gum. “Ugh! Boys are so disgusting!”
    “Thank you Jane. I’m not sure what that has to do with careful control of your narrative but I suppose we should be grateful that at least you’ve re-visited our world, even though the visit will no doubt be brief. The trouble with you Jane is that you don’t use the possibilities and talent you have.”
    20 Endless possibilities. The muddy brown wet sand, miles and miles of it. She sensed freedoms beyond the edge of her imagination, she would be all creation itself.
    “Put your hat on Jane and come here – you’re not going in the sun until I put some cream on you.” Jane submitted to the sun-cream and enjoyed it but also remembered the tug of the harness around her shoulders – tug tug, with her running but not going anywhere.
    25 “……and do try to put some images into your writing – do make it come alive.”
    The finch, with feathers going in directions they shouldn’t, struggled on its side. The broken leg would not need mending because the shock was already killing the tiny creature. Jane hated the cat with an acid and granite hatred.
    “You have ten minutes to finish your story.”
    30 Jane sat back on her rump and examined her mother’s radiant face.
    She spat out the tulip petals as her sadness entered her.
    She was as rigid as the door he had slammed behind him.
    She willed the incoming tide to consume her castle and leave only empty sands.
    The finch stopped its fluttering and took on the stillness of death.
    35 Jane wrote some lines.
    Jane felt the tug tug of the harness and struggled to go somewhere.

    —–0—–

    Jane is, substantially, but not wholly, me.  It was an attempt to make the feminine side of my soul ‘walk and talk’

    In writing the story I reached back down to early memories with which to ‘clothe’ some of the levels in the streams of consciousness.

    In continuing to work with children, or adults, I still sometimes use Jane’s Short Story – as a way to encourage others to create their own stories, made from their own real, and imagined, experience. I discovered how powerful it is if PFC (Philosophy for Children), and creative task-setting, are combined/interwoven – so much so that I believe that the two, when harnessed, together create something akin to ‘exponential development’ i.e the most powerful form of transformative learning. It is still a joy, and a learning experience, when children make their own creations walk and talk, sing and shout, just as Jane became ‘real’ to me, some 9 or 10 years earlier. From time to time I revisit the story and change a few words. Once I also gave it to the same class on succeeding years and asked them to see what they could see compared to their ‘reading’ of the previous year – and to say what differences they felt between the two readings. On the success of this I think that it is worth doing something similar with every class, i.e. for them to re-visit a piece two years running. What they are looking at, with each re-visiting, is, in part, the growth they have had via another year’s experience – a very useful exercise in meta-cognition for the children.

    Although it was written when I was in my early fifties I include the story here because it encapsulates some of how autobiography is expressed in even the most creative, or the most abstract, of our work. The story was written in a ‘stream of consciousness’ style to see how well my classes could be at deconstructing the text. It was written in my second year of doing PFC. Sometimes I use it just as a text, sometimes the classes go on to write their own episodes from Jane’s life.

    My experience is that children in Year 7 or 8 take a little time to decode the levels in the ‘stream of consciousness’ but then respond most sensitively to the possibilities that exist in and around the story. It seems to work at quite a deep level for some, and very few, except perhaps in initial perplexity, reject the story. It also helps to teach them that story, in its different kinds of truth, can combine re-collected personal experience and meld it with imaginative material. It can be a minor revelation for children who see ‘story is story’ and ‘real life = the truth.

    Jane, both as part of my spirit and personal history, and as an independent spirit, has continued to exist, but she has also been transmogrified into the creations of other authors, adults as well as children. It is Jane in the personal myth called Island Shoreline Ocean, presented at the beginning of Chapter 3. My (our) past is re-presented and it is continuously transmogrified, in further re-representations. Each of us re-experiences what we are, as we engage or re-engage, with our beliefs, values, attitudes memories and new experiences. We echo past experiences in each new experience, even when we are seeking to help others in their creativity. Jane’s short story lives on in me as a crystallization of the feelings and images deep in my soul, deep, one might say, in my ‘present’. It has generated versions from 11 – 12 year olds, but also from an 84 year old man who, on one of my courses, wrote the first story he had ever written in his life. (He was pleased and amazed; I was deeply moved by his openness and courage!)

    TASK/SUGGESTED LESSONS: It would be fascinating to combine the ideas above with photography!

    Great photography blog HERE