The world is full of people (myself included) that teach. Teaching is an art, a science, a tradition, a method of exchange that leads ( hopefully) to insight and understanding as well a skill set to apply to something to do something.
There are many varieties of teaching platforms and methodologies. Teaching can be one on one or a room filled with thousands…. there are also books, videos, podcasts, workshops, classes, YouTube, The great Google…. all these ways to learn and some how we do the things we know are harmful to us and the world. This is a curious thing.
This writing today is not about pointing out the ignorance or the denial, the willful beliefs that trap the mind in cages of paralysis to a singular thought or ideology. This is not about the painful inadequacies many feel despite the investment in education and knowledge. Nor is it about the the way we are overloaded with information that is raw, unfiltered, misshapen, honest, lying and misleading.
This is a writing about maybe looking for the things we value that provide and produce people, human beings that act in ways that are truly caring and compassionate. Teaching that makes life better for others, opens doors for opportunities, inspires action and design, art and science. Teaching that gets people to think about how they contribute to not control the world and the lives of others.
One of the exercises I ask my students to do as an entry point towards understanding their relationship to the world starts with these 3 questions:
🤔 Who am I? This explores the feelings, thoughts, motivations of where your consciousness awareness is residing. This is a bring it to the moment question. It is a be here now, in each breath honest assessment of who you are in that moment. What are you feeling, thinking understanding about yourself in the situation?
🤔 What am I doing? This is the question of actions. In response to the first question. What is being delivered to that moment in response to the environment and the person. Is it a reaction from past knowledge or a response from the experience? Is there a subconscious response? A knee jerk action? Is it fight or flight? Or the need for love? Interaction. Even more basic are you building something, deconstructing something? Or learning something?
🤔 How does it serve? Are these actions in relationship to the experience contributing to the great good? A cause for supporting sustainable and symbiotic communities and social growth. Are we making the world a better or worse place with our actions?
From these questions one can begin the process of learning about the direct engagement one has with the world. These can also help to slog through the swamp of information and begin the process of developing discernment. We begin to recognize the things that push emotional buttons and the things that stimulate curiosity. We also can see how we are motivated either through fear/addiction or curiosity/love. We earn how to ask the questions that lead to answers or direct us to the resources for further examination and exploration.
Shaman @ Large 