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member, Human Development and Harmony Cluster, Pamayanang SanibLakas ng Pilipinas
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1. Total Human Development and Harmony Through Synergism 2. Holistic Health Care and Medicine 3. Deep Ecology and Harmony with Nature 4. Sense of History and Sense of Mission 5. Civics and Democratic Governance 6. Culture as Community Creativity 7. Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education 8. Gender Sensitivity, Equality & Harmony 9. Reconstructive/Restor-ative Justice 10. Associative Economics, Social Capital and Sustainable Development 11. Synergetic Leadership and Organizations 12. Appropriate/Adaptive Technology 13. Mutual Enrichment of Families and Friendships 14. Human Dignity and Human Harmony: Human Rights and Peace 15. Aesthetics Without Boundaries: 'Art from the Heart' . |
Experience Appreciation; Appreciate Experience By Surf Reyes President, Laboratory On Value Education Foundation, and an active member of the Sanib-Sinag Movement for Synaesthetis, of the SanibDasal Synergetic Inter-Faith Praying Community, and the LightShare e-mail List Group. This paper was presented at and adopted by the Lambat-Liwanag Paradigm-Specific Conference on Light-Seeking and Light-Sharing Education held in June 2002 at the Philippine Normal University. WITH THE OBJECTIVE of enriching the views given in this gathering of light, please allow me to respond from the point of view of LOVE Foundation, LOVE being the acronym for Laboratory on Value Education. Value education, like education in general, remains a much misunderstood, if not abused term. And like all things that go beyond the reach of the measuring sticks of the intellect, it eludes complete definition which can only point at it like a finger to a star; and the problem is when people get fixated on the pointing finger instead of turning to look at the star. In the executive brief on LOVE Foundation, the following are used as pointers to the meaning of value education: “Value education can be viewed as a kind of alchemy, the process of transforming the content of consciousness from fragmentation to wholeness. Value education can also be viewed as an environmental concern, where the environment is the human consciousness itself, the pollution of which distorts the image of the core reality, which is the oneness of all. This effects the separative attitude that is the source of all the problems in the family, the community, the nation, the world. And the pollution has become so bad that we can barely see the original state of our consciousness through the smog. Value education is learning to be free. Learning to be free of the pollution in the inner environment. It is the process of regaining awareness of our original state of consciousness, the original goodness, our true nature. Value education is the process of regaining awareness of the reality of the interconnectedness of all. And as in the concern to revive and nourish the physical environment, the need is for a sustained collective effort. Ultimately, value education leads to natural, effortless application of core values for the good of all, or for the good of the whole. LOVE Foundation advocates value education as the foundation of all human learning. Love as the foundation of all human activity.” Common to the views expressed this morning has been the seeking of light in redefining terms and objectives for the reformation of the present educational system. In the spirit of light sharing, we offer a master key that can make the process easier: Enlightened views and decisions, as in the reformation of education, will naturally fall in place when they are founded in awareness of the core reality which is the oneness of all. The universally accepted core values as love, peace, harmony, respect for all, equality, etc., that has remained largely as intellectual instead of experiential, can be brought down to a practical level only with the awareness of this core reality. The core values remain as utopian concepts in the intellect because of the attachment to the perception of everything and everyone as separate from each other. When perception of separation is taken as reality, conflict is inevitable. When perception is taken as reality, consciousness plunges into the darkness of ignorance. As all communicators know, there is a world of difference between perception and reality. If there was a thick piece of rope in the grass and one perceived it to be a snake, in reality it remains a rope, but his perception of it as a snake becomes his reality and would affect his feelings and his actions toward it. He would avoid it in fear, and maybe have sleepless nights worrying about its slithering into his room. Perception is an intellectual interpretation or judgement, and due to its inherent limitation and vulnerability to distortion is subject to error. The lack of awareness, or experiential knowledge, of the truth of reality tends to make one dependent on perception. To illustrate further, let us use another experiential model. Most of you have probably experienced viewing stereovision pictures in books entitled “Magic Eye”. To those who haven’t, these are computer generated pictures which when you learn to view with a certain unfocused look, you suddenly discover beautiful 3D objects within. It is not easy to learn the method of diverging the eyes to experience this unbelievable visual phenomenon. And you need to keep that altered way of looking or you lose the vision when you focus on the surface picture. People without experiential knowledge of the phenomenon would see only the flat outer picture, but those who have learned the “magic eye” look, see through the surface and into the inner 3D image. In the same way, perception can only see the outer surface of this world of appearances, but there is a way of seeing through the outer appearances and being aware of the inner core reality. To borrow from “The Little Prince”, only with the heart can one see rightly, what is essential is invisible to perception and the intellect. This experience has changed my life. It has provided me with an experiential model to realize that all of the saints and ascended masters actually see a common core reality that they have difficulty in describing to those who have not yet learned to see with “magic eyes”. And so they talk in parables, in profound abstractions. But how else would you describe light to those who, blindfolded from birth, have no experience of it? LOVE Foundation points to this “essential” or core reality as the oneness of all, or the interconnectedness of all. Let us try to bring this to a more practical level using as another experiential model…the jigsaw puzzle. I’m sure all of you have experienced putting jigsaw puzzle pieces together to form one picture. It all starts with a cluttered jumble of separate and seemingly meaningless pieces that, together, form one meaningful picture. Let us experience the reality more closely. The pieces look quite alike in shape, and some even in color, yet no two pieces are actually alike. Each jigsaw puzzle piece is totally unique, with its own shape and colors, and designed to precisely lock with other pieces to form that one beautiful picture. Each individual piece has no real significance or meaning except as part of the whole. So each “I” has no meaning except within “We”. Hold that in your imagination for a while to serve as a mirror image of the core reality of the oneness of all. Consider all of us and everything in our environment, as the jigsaw puzzle pieces that form the one universal picture. From this core reality naturally spring all the core values. True self worth, respect for others, for instance. I have come to realize that a student’s low self image is a major block to learning and being creative. Low self image comes from perception, and making people aware of the core reality is the only antidote I know. So I once told a workshop participant, “Be aware of the reality that you are the only one of your kind in the whole universe, and the whole universe will collapse without you. If you remove one jigsaw puzzle piece, the total picture is ruined.” Then I concluded, “It does not matter how others perceive you to be, the reality cannot be changed: You are the only one of your kind in the whole universe, you are totally unique…like everybody else.” There, is the essence of equality. Equality is not in being the same, but in being equally unique, and equally important in the formation of the whole. Each jigsaw puzzle piece is so important that if it chooses to separate from the whole picture (though as a consequence it suffers loss of meaning, becomes lonely and insecure, etc.), the whole picture suffers incompleteness as well. Though this sense of separation is merely in perception, for in reality, nothing can be separate from the whole. Here is where the jigsaw puzzle game in the computer gives a more precise parallel. Those of you who have experienced playing this in the computer can better relate to this. In the computer, even as you are trying to put the “separate” pieces together, in the matrix of the program the whole picture is already there. The point is, that though to perception the pieces appear to be separate, in reality they are already as one whole. The process then is really regaining awareness of the core reality. It is said, “you cannot compare apples to oranges.” In reality, you cannot compare an apple to another apple. In the awareness of the reality of the uniqueness of each and all, the practice of comparing (as in one student to another) completely loses meaning. No jigsaw puzzle piece can be better than another. Trying to imitate somebody else is impossible and a disservice to the whole. Can you imagine a green jigsaw puzzle piece in the forest area of the picture wanting to be blue like the pieces in the sky area? Or one piece abhors another? In the context of the whole picture, no jigsaw puzzle piece can be “ugly”, or “less important”. When people talk of respect, they invariably focus on “respect for elders”. It sounds like we respect them for being old. Then we institutionalize ways of expressing this respect as in saying “po” at the end of our sentences, and kissing their hands. But what have we institutionalized to express respect for the young? True respect cannot be selective and must be founded on “sterner stuff”. True respect is founded in appreciation of each other’s uniqueness, and acknowledgement of each other’s important and indispensable role in forming the total picture. Respect must be for all, including the environment. Non-violence and compassion, cooperativeness, harmony and synergy in relationship with others, become as natural expressions of being aware of the core reality of the oneness of all. Responsibility and discipline find their true meaning in the realization that each is important to the whole and needs to play his totally unique role to the best of his ability since nobody else can do it for him. With this awareness, there is no need to impose or command discipline and responsibility. With the awareness of the interconnectedness of all, one has “response-ability”, where in ignorance (taking separation as reality), one can only be reactive or reactionary. On the proposed “learner-centered” approach, we offer the refinement of making it learning-centered instead. This provides the space to include the “teacher as pupil” idea. For on the teacher and student relationship, based on this jigsaw puzzle image, it is quite clear that both must learn from each other’s unique experience of the same one truth. Teaching and sharing then is not passing a commodity to another, but extending oneself through the other in the process of awakening to one’s whole being which is the total picture or the oneness of all. We cannot know the total picture except through each other. For we are, in reality, extensions of each other. This makes practical sense of Greg Braden’s “Isaiah Effect”, meaning in the reality of the interconnectedness of all, each one’s consciousness and actions affect everyone and everything else. Of course these are all invisible to those who are attached to perception, for in ignorance, they take the appearance of separation as reality. As I once wrote: Perception is to illusion as being is to reality. Knowing the difference is true wisdom. “Knowledge” is yet another term that needs to be redefined. Many mistake intellectual knowledge with experiential knowledge. In reality, all knowledge come from experience (That is the reason we say life is the only true teacher). Then descriptions of the experiences are recorded as informational data or intellectual references. But one can have these intellectual knowledge by reading and listening to lectures and yet not have the experiential knowledge. One, for instance, can have so much intellectual knowledge about swimming or riding a bicycle without ever being in water or touching a bike. The failure of formal education is in merely being a repository of purely intellectual references acting like a computer server feeding data into the intellectual hard drives of students turning them into mere computers. Many educators are satisfied with collecting intellectual knowledge (much like many businessmen collect money for its own sake), and, depending on the size of their collections, confer upon themselves academic titles (i.e., Doctor of Divinity). The challenge of true educators then, is in turning these intellectual references back to experiential knowledge in themselves, and in their students. They must, for instance, not be satisfied with collecting beliefs. It is no longer enough to believe in love, peace. We must be, live love and peace. Belief must turn to being. This is most pronounced in the “study” of spirituality. Theology is defined in the American Heritage Dictionary as, 1. The study of the nature of God and religious truth; rational inquiry into religious questions. Theology, as defined, can be viewed as quite presumptuous. It assumes that the immeasurable can actually be measured. The words “study” and “rational” point to using the intellectual mind as the instrument for knowing God and Truth. It is like a group of people blindfolded from birth trying to learn about daylight by going through lectures and studying books in braille. Towards the same objective, it is obviously better to make them aware of their blindfolds and how to remove them. This will lead to direct experience of the truth. They can be, live in daylight and not merely believe the truth about it. It is in this light that I propose Egology as a kind of “practical theology”. Ego is the attachment to the appearance or illusion of a self separate from the whole. We define Egology as the study of the ego, the block to awareness of Truth. It is learning to be aware and be free of the veil that covers the Truth. It is learning to grow from knowing with the mind to knowing with the heart. We should redefine the term “study”, which tends to be limited to collecting intellectual knowledge, to mean learning to experience appreciation of the miracle of life, through whatever subject or course it may be. A computer can collect and process data, but it cannot appreciate. Only creative consciousness can. Creativity is of the heart, and the computer has none. Prof. Torres correctly calls the intellect-bound-system, “alienating education” . What is essentially alienated is the heart faculty from the intellectual faculty. The prevailing educational system is so enamoured with the intellectual faculty, it has made it all-important, the be-all and end-all. It develops the intellectual faculty at the expense of the heart faculty. The child starts as a heart person, free of prejudice, malice, greed, not harboring ill will. Through its still fully open heart the child remains directly in touch with the reality of the awesome miracle of life. Then the veiling of mental conditioning begins the path towards total dependence on, or enslavement to, the intellect. And by the time the child reaches the age of reason, he has become unreasonable. Through ignore-ance, the door of the heart closes. Thus the “alienating education” produces the intellect-bound who have become ignorant of the value of appreciation and caring for others. We find them everywhere, particularly in business and politics, manipulating for control of power for their own self interests. The small minority power elite that dominate and exploit the poor masses of the world come from and utilize this “alienating education”. Their strategy for control of power is based on the manipulation of perception. In focusing on the ill effects of overdependence on the intellect, we are not putting down the value of the intellect. We are only putting it in its proper place. The intellect is an awesome miracle. It is a powerful tool, when you realize its nature and its limitations, and be its master rather than its slave. It is a tool for measuring the measurable, in length, weight, distance, direction and time. It is useless to measure the immeasurable as dignity, caring, art, the reality. Reality as in love, peace, joy is not a matter of knowing but a matter of being. The intellect can only point to reality like a finger to a star but never reach it directly. It is like a mirror that can only reflect the image of reality but never contain reality itself, for reality is beyond the intellect. Like any tool the mind has its limited uses. And as a screwdriver may be best to fasten screws with, it would be unwise to pick your nose with it. And this is what we do when we use the intellect in regretting and worrying, in judging people and situations by their outward appearances. Education must focus on learning to listen, which is only possible with a quiet mind. The mind is most powerful when it is silent, free of internal dialoque, as Krishnamurti puts it. Being full of answers is the block to listening. Formal education switches on the thinking process without teaching when and how to switch it off. It tends to overdevelop the mind to the point that it actually becomes a block to being, or conscious living. Mind and body must be as one. People who have become attached to the thinking process, suffer the loss of synchronization of body and mind. You see people eating while thinking of problems. Their bodies are in the present, breathing, walking, etc., while their minds are in the past or the future, regretting and worrying, analyzing and planning in the virtual reality of thought. Even in bed at night, the body remains restlessly awake while the mental process uncontrollably continues. There is stress, dis-ease. In this state of fragmentation, of internal conflict, being in the awesome miracle of creation is ignored. Ignoring turns to ignorance. This brings us to the need to redefine the term “intelligence”. True intelligence certainly can not be measured, and the term “I.Q.” is a typical example of verbal delusion. The intellect only appears to have intelligence, much like a computer. It has no intelligence of its own, like the moon does not have its own light but merely reflects light from the sun. True intelligence is creative consciousness. It expresses itself on a practical level in creative work, in unconditional love, and in knowing how to live in unconditional happiness. However much they know, those who can love or be happy only if certain conditions exist cannot be said to have intelligence. They are enslaved by conditions and consequently, by fear, pain and suffering. And if that be intelligence then what use do we have for it? Education to be relevant must be of practical use in the development of the human society. And 15 years of mostly academic education wastes much of the prime years of youthful energy that can be utilized for social development. Development of the intellect should go hand in hand with experiencing being an active part of community and social development. The underestimation of the youth as needing at least 15 years of purely academic education to be useful to society has the effect of disrespect and condescension towards the youth, though it stems from overestimation of the intellectual faculty by intellect-bound adults who think they know better than the citizens of the future who carry within them upgraded software or blue-prints for “unfolding the universe as it should”. In this light, education becomes a stumbling block that slows, rather than quickens, the development of humanity. Education to be relevant must be of practical use to the particular needs of each community. The present institutional practice of having the education department of the government design and dictate a common curriculum for all, completely disregards the reality of the uniqueness of each community. The organic way would be to have the stakeholders in each community design and decide the curriculum they deem relevant to their practical needs. To the teachers, and even parents, who continue to support this “disempowering” educational system, we will not impute malice, for it is quite clear that, in general, they do this merely in ignorance. They are also victims of this system. Without being aware of it, they inadvertently become instruments for teaching wrong values instead. Their insistence on controlling the outer appearance of students under the guise of “discipline”, for instance, insidiously teaches the wrong value that people can actually be measured by their outward appearances. Presently, value education is being taught merely as a separate subject. It is our position that value education cannot be divorced from all forms and levels of education. The bottom line objective of all learning must be to make students as positive and constructive members of society. It must be clear to both teacher and student that the objective of learning any discipline is to ultimately use it as an instrument for serving others. Without this values orientation or foundation, there is the definite danger of turning out heartless machines instead of human beings, and of using the acquired knowledge to hurt others. The most dramatic proof of this is the creation of technologies unmindful of their destructive effects on the environment and the creation of germ warfare technology and nuclear bombs which could actually destroy planet earth. True education, therefore, must be firmly founded on core values. In this context, it can be truly said, the inventor of the nuclear bomb is indisputably learned, but unfortunately, not educated. The failure of education dissociated from values is also reflected in the high levels of suicide rates in highly educated sectors of society. What is alarming then, is not so much the incapability of the present educational system to be a source of light to help quicken the growth of human consciousness, but rather, its being instrumental in polluting that consciousness and pushing humanity into the dark path to self destruction. Fortunately, light will always dominate darkness. And to those who can see through the veil with “magic eyes”, this gathering of light is a sign of the coming of day. Let me bring us back to the image of the jigsaw puzzle. Imagine that the one universal picture that we all form together is just another jigsaw puzzle piece. Imagine that the one universal picture that we all form together is just another jigsaw puzzle piece that, together with others, form the one cosmic reality. In that light, true education is the process of developing or awakening to the fullness of being human up to the level of its universal and cosmic dimensions. And formal education must help in this process or crumble to extinction, as all institutions must that get in the way of nature and the “unfolding of the universe as it should.” |
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FEEDBACK BOX: |
Seeking light as pursuit of reason and not of mere information, as
pursuit of wisdom and not of mere knowledge
