The Hidden Me (Workshop) - Video glimpse

Educating the complete child... sharing an effort.

The Hidden Me - workshop description and responses

The Hidden Me - workshop on writing and oneself

Glimpses - workshop on Sensory writing and Self Awareness

Senses and Sensitivity - workshop on sensory writing and self-awareness

The Essence of Education

 “What should be the main purpose of education?”  I ask a colleague who’s a mother, to answer the question spontaneously.  She does, “to be a better human being.”

Where does one find real education – the one that transforms the body, mind and soul?  It’s found in the spaces of your heart that are filled with light, and reaching there may need help!  Family is often has the strongest influence, one’s faith and sometimes the odd ‘good’ teacher with the midas touch, if you are lucky.  It is, however, still rare to find transformative education that addresses all dimensions of the human being, in an organized set up such as schools and colleges. But perhaps the time has come when this is set to change, and a new era is stretching its way to reality as more and more institutions try to live the essence of true education.

My earlier experiments and search for a deeper, wider and more relevant education led me to explore Integral Education, inspired by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. Integral Education is an education that seeks to transform the entire being – the body, heart, and head while seeping into the deeper layers of the inner being. An education that is not a mere rat race or a vanity appeaser, an education where the child is not a mere ‘product’, an education that lets a child be a child. One of the key features of Integral Education is to help the child to move a space of self knowing, while working on the physical, mental and emotional dimensions.  It is not just about acquiring information, it is about developing powers of the mind (concentration, memory, reasoning…), emotional development (sensitivity, compassion, joy…), having values, and a strong healthy body while discovering your deeper inner self. 

Integral Education, is more than all-around education, it has an integral approach. Knowledge is whole, we divide it into ‘subjects’ to ease the acquisition of knowledge. The human too, is an integral being, the physical, emotional, and mental dimensions are interconnected.  This means that the dimensions of the individual not only have to be addressed but also their integral nature, has to be understood.  Understanding the inherent connectedness of knowledge and the child’s own inherent interests is easily facilitated through hands on, interdisciplinary, theme based project work.

Needless to say, this is not easy when the vast framework of organized education is still in old moulds.  Firstly it needs committed educators who are constantly working on themselves, striving to become better people and better teachers.   It’s both a privilege and challenge, as the teacher is expected to facilitate self-discovery and self-discipline, rather than merely disseminate information. The child is not seen as someone to be shaped into a pre-set mould but a ‘soul in evolution’, someone in whose journey you get to hold their hand for a while. They do their own walking, but perhaps you can point to the light. Giving the child attention is important and that is why schools inspired by the principles of Integral Education strive to keep numbers small. Creating a friendly environment of ease, naturalness and approachability for the child, in contrast to ‘factory mode’ schooling certainly helps!  This is important to ensure physical, mental and emotional space for the child, where a child’s inherent nature can be observed and nurtured. 

One of the key aspects of Integral education is help the child go deeper within herself to find inner treasures while developing powers of the mind and qualities of the heart.  This is practically possible in schools by organizing regular classes geared to develop faculties of concentration, imagination, memory, creativity, while developing deeper values of compassion, care, calmness, honesty.  Periods of silent reflection can be interwoven with regular activities, thereby changing the feel and fabric of regular classes. 

Integral Education seeks to transform the individual from within, it strives to create a link to the bridge that takes the child to a whole new level of being.  A paradigm shift in education for the new age!

-   Harvinder Kaur

Published in: http://www.deccanherald.com/content/298101/integral-education-transformation.html 

Walking...

I have lived totally - as the only way to know the self or forget it. I’ve felt the feet fearful and excited as they walked without a destination, knowing only that the present was a minefield that had to be traversed. So I’d walked into the darkness on the air, riding the breeze of a dreamy desire… Yes, I risked things. I was young and put my heart at the altar of an unknown god. That was the condition you see, only by putting your heart there would you know the god from the false gods… and so I lost many pieces of my heart… bit by bit… but it still beats… and many of the parts that were crushed by the false gods, bitten off by the wolves, they grew again and yes, it beats yet…

This electric tingle that can be felt if you sit quiet in the room where I wrote poems, is from the moments where I dared to let the storms come. Yes, there are broken bricks and cinders, where an angry dash of lightning fell… but it lit some things too… a gentle fire for instance that holds light and warmth burning there in the corner of the room where I wrote so many poems… not everyone sees it, but it doesn’t matter.

Will something more bloom or this the journey’s end… not death but a stop as if in a station where the train never arrives? 

No this not a complaint… it is the a story of someone who took a train not knowing where to land… but knowing that a train had to be taken and   maybe, maybe you’ll find the destination… It matters little now… perhaps there is no destination, nowhere particular to land.  Sometimes the scenes outside are not beautiful, sometimes the compartment is empty,  or full of people who speak languages that mean nothing to you. 

I speak as one on the train yet and though all the scenes are not my liking and though I can say nothing of destinations, I’m glad I took the train…

Can I force eternity to speak to me? Can I look at the window and ask the darkness to unfold a question or a dull gaze and become a living story?  Perhaps I can ask but don’t know if the there will be answers... we can but ask, we can but walk, we can but move in starry wonder… knowing that the heart may be crushed at the altar of false gods, that the train may lead nowhere, that darkness may forever remain dark... but to take a step forward, that is for us to do and in that lies our freedom our adventure of being human.

Everybody wants the window seat!

 I sit in my office facing the cool blue ocean, its hues changing with the sky above. Every time you look up from the computer, the soothing azure canvas sweeps over your eyes and your heart. Beauty unfolds subtly like a bud to sunlight.

This is about to change.  We have to move into a newly constructed room where some of us will be sharing the space. This saddens, even peeves me. The room is organized into cubicles and of the four (more later) of us have to occupy the given space, the two window spaces have been grabbed by two of the four. And why not! They are the most beautiful spots! Besides these are the guys who joined before me, and were instrumental in organizing the space, that gives them the privilege. I guess. One friend tries to make me happy by asking me to specify the third and fourth preference. There’s hardly a choice left, but the yogi in him allows me to choose between the third and fourth spots, with “If you want the balcony seats, you’ll have to talk to them yourself!”  Whoever wants to bell the cat!

I do. I ask my colleague to toss a coin, he says, “this is not our custom”   Which means he’s to retain the seat, don’t talk of petty things like that!  I suggest a six month rotation. All ears are closed. I offer him chocolate – naah!  I offer my rationale – I’m the poet and photographer the ocean would inspire me! Sorry, not good enough – he’s doing heavy management deals he needs it more! There’s no hierarchy operational here, we all have separate departments/fields.  I don’t play the woman-card – the only woman in a cage full of men – there are no dragons and no knights these days!  Only limited window seats.  I wonder if he’s read ‘A Room with a view’.  It may help or at least be interesting.  He’s a management guy doing some path-breaking brilliant work in the field.  I’m trying to do the same in education.  This is a problem children face in schools, parents face at home, managers face in the office,  political leaders face all over the world.  This is an existential problem!  And there doesn’t seem to be a solution than for someone to ‘live with the disappointment’.  Whether it’s me or him that’s besides the point. The whole world wants the proverbial balcony seat! How do you solve a problem like that? 
   

It’s a heaven sent situation for all of us, we who seem to be trying to work for setting up systems for the manifestation of new consciousness.  (Oh boy! that’s some tall claim!) If we can deeply and truly solve this, we can avert serious issues – at the world level.  Most of our world problems are because we all want the window seat and there aren’t enough windows! Nations want the place with oil and Natural resources, they want to grab it for ‘their people’.  Everybody wants to have the best for themselves.  So, we have wars. Some of us are brought up on ‘living for others’.  But the point is not sacrifice, the whole world cannot live in a sacrificial mode for long (or can it?). What is the solution? The real solution. How can everyone be happy when the demand is more than the supply?  In a sense that will always be the situation.  Normally we play musical chairs in life, our education prepares us to be smart so that you don’t lose out too soon in the race. Here, we’ve come up with games like ‘cooperative musical chairs’ where people learn to support each other with fewer chairs.  Can we do this in life?  Everybody needs a chair if it is to be sustainable. Everybody needs to be comfortable, but also satisfied. Satisfaction is the issue – tough that!

Would I be happy if I get that seat if it disappointed him?  Frankly, no.  That’s just winning a tug of war. I don’t want a tug of war! Preferably! I can philosophise to console myself  – I don’t even know how long I’m going to be around in this place, even in the world, besides I can keep walking around to the balcony etc. etc. etc.  There are plenty such notions to cushion the disappointment.  I remember as kids how my mother solved it. I would slice the big mango my dad brought home into three equal shares for the three of us kids. Then we would sort of playfully pick lots as to who would get to choose first.  All three of us wanted the ‘guthali’ (the seed – there’s only one per mango!) but we had to ultimately leave it to ‘luck’.  It seemed fair, a clever management technique to keep fairness and peace among siblings who all wanted the same thing. I learnt my first lesson of fair division then! My friends don’t want that, they want a spiritually amicable solution. I think that’s truly noble, only I don’t see a better alternative arrived at.  Not till now.  


Perhaps the solution is not in the system at all, perhaps we can’t have a ‘system’ that resolves this. Picking lots leads of childish even blind strengthening of the notion of fate, may be they are right, it’s not such a great idea after all.  I’m not sure if I know what is the way out,  perhaps an inner attitude of calmness and acceptance (like my colleague who let me choose between spot three and four)?  It’s a question, yet.  A naturalness? An inner peaceful attitude that will make everything fall into place, let’s just assume that everyone has a ‘rightful’ place in life! Perhaps that will make us happy, or maybe we’ll just get used to our seats after a while or get so bugged that one unhappy person will rebel. It remains to be seen. We haven’t really found an existential answer to this basic problem. I only know of tugs of war and disappointment in their varied forms. If I find a real answer, I’ll post it. Meanwhile chew on the issue.

Letting go

Letting go is not an art, it is a happening.  

A timeless moment, when the mind jumps out of the linear mode of how and when.  When there is an easing off, not an effort to do or push - it’s a letting, a fall, an allowing. To try to gain or to try to rid, is one and the same type of energy. There is no essential transformation that can happen when it comes to the deeper layers with this.  These ‘efforts’ are movements of the mind and necessary for doing things in the world. 

To push or to pull requires exertion whether it is of acquisition or removal of something undesirable, letting go is of a different nature, a separate dimension.  When I truly let go, there is no ‘I’ there, no effort, no sense of egoistic achievement that strengthens the self. It is a consciousness shift and it connects us to our deeper being. Letting go is going within, on an effortless breeze.  The linear mind always asks, ‘Yes, but how to let go?’  That’s the paradox! The ‘how’ puts you on the same track, try, try, try… all trying takes us to the point where it has to be dropped, where you see the futility of trying, where you simply… let go.  That is not a doing, it is a happening.

After the ‘wow’, what?

Wowness-deludes. There is a ‘wow’ virus affecting our times. It’s there invisible and strong, changing form, influencing our lives and mind, wanting us to live in the heady wow-thrill.  The advertising agents are great patrons and exploiters of it. We want our lives to have that extra sheen, so we look for or create hype. Weave a magic web of maya, create castles of rainbow-dreams, make it appear larger than life. Entice with illusion. We expect something that doesn’t really exist till then, all the ‘thought manifestation’ literature serves as a hope booster. If you think hard enough and long enough it will happen – the windfall, the soul-mate, the dream house, the perfect job.  And why not, the Wright brothers dreamed and manifested the airplane and so did the scientists and inventors. We'll be the next, such is the power of dreams. The mad, the creative artists, the lovers, you, I, us... lose ourselves in make-believe worlds. Lose.  We live in hope than in reality.  We hope life, social-systems, destinies and other people will change, maybe we will too in the process. A lot of energy is spent in dreaming, hoping and trying create worlds inspired by wow-ness. 

To work to create, to build, to dream, to hope is a part of the bigger picture, agreed, but only a part.  We seldom understand that we are a part of the picture, a fibre in the fabric.  We perceive the tail of the elephant or the tusk, if you like, not the whole. Life’s reality independent of hype, independent of our own power of thoughts and feelings, hits through now and then. Usually when something breaks or fades – a relationship, a success story, a loss. That’s when we realize that there’s a reality beyond our dreams and our knowledge, independent and untouched by them as it were.

Wisdom is not just about creating a world of our dreams, it’s also about accepting that there is a world beyond our dreams, knowledge and power. 

Joy-paths

Joy is a spilled-over cup. When you have plentiful free flowing energy, it becomes joy. Of course, it can become anger and restlessness too, but when the channels are clear and ready, it becomes joy. It’s a lot about keeping the paths - the joy-paths clean, so when there’s an energy gush, they can flow on the track of joy. The neurons catch fire and explode, the energy patterns get established in the brain and the nervous system, that trigger of feelings of exuberant joy.

A delicious yawn is joyful, it doesn’t mean much if you are polite and suppress it. It’s a yawn, not a biscuit. You can’t break it into pieces. The joy of the yawn is in its fullness, in the open mouthed, loud, gutsy release of breath and sound. Politeness in a yawn doesn’t work - it kills the energy. The spiritual life doesn’t teach politeness, it teaches naturalness and a discipline which is not forced but intrinsic, or at least properly assimilated.

Kick the football hard and send it flying! Treating the football like a rose is not being polite but silly. Yet, we can’t seem to tell the difference unless the forms are as obvious as the football or the rose. That’s the secret in being able to see what is, as it is. It is not necessary to have a stock behavior of politically correct necessities, but a living vision. To see clearly helps to keep the internal paths clean and joy can flow when it will.