To be developed

SPIRITUAL MATTERS IN HOLISTIC EDUCATION ? FAQS

Roger Prentice

FOR CLASSROOM TEACHERS WHO ARE REFLECTING ON
THE SPIRITUAL WITHIN THEIR TEACHING
Update 5 – 8th Nov 2006 2704 version 2 - early stages - in continuous development

INTRODUCTION
The Spiritual Matters. The position taken by this site is that there are many sources, art, inspiring people, nature as well as religions from which people take spiritual sustenance. However all such nourishment is pointless if it doesn’t help us act in the world with greater virtue. The site seeks to be inclusive and integrative and as such it includes inspiration and ideas from the great world philosophies, humanism and socialism as well as from the great world religions.
The spiritual matters. The reader might do well to read the Section P) SunWALK FAQs first and some of the summaries of the model here http://www.sunwalk.org.uk/_sgg/m7_1.htm

The spiritual matters because it is what we are - spiritual beings. What is mean by ‘spiritual’? Primarily I mean the life-force (‘chi’ or ‘ki’ in other parts of the world). In life we are animated. Even arch-materialists have to accept that there is a significant difference between a corpse and a living human being.
By spiritualization I mean the ennoblement of a woman or man through relationship with positive spiritual sources – as evidenced not by learning but by the acquisition of virtues such as truth, beauty, goodness and justice.

Those sources need not be a formal religion, but formal religions have been the source of great ennoblement and insight, as well as crass ignorance and unspeakable cruelty via the mis-appropriation mis-use of them by ignorant men.

The spiritual matters. It matters because we are in a maelstrom of self-destruction and some form of spiritual change is necessary to make healing possible.
The spiritual matters because it is far too important to be left to religions. With religions it is a matter of convert or be damned, but what if Ghandi was right when he said, “God has no religion.”

The spiritual matters because in the vast majority of government schools there is diversity of ‘belief background’ and in the main schools faced with this thorny reality make only a feeble effort to nurture spiritualization.

The entire site, as well as this Spirit Matters section, is devoted to what we might do whilst we are waiting for all the people of the world to be converted to a single religion!

Consequently the site presents a meta-religious world-view. That is to say a worldview that respects all belief systems when;
a) from them come truth, beauty, goodness and justice and other such virtues,
b) insights into human nature, the world, reality as a whole.

As soon as a religionist starts acting counter to those virtues that are at the core of every true religion s/he is no longer truly religious, but is acting as a perverter of true faith position. Perhaps the very act of being against – certainly in the sense of ‘I know who I am because I know who I hate’ – is spiritual death. Becoming thus is to have ‘lost it’.

‘Meta’ is not a perfect term - meta-knowledge for example is knowledge about knowledge. The position is not so much one of knowledge about religions - potentially this is just a matter of sterile academics. It is a position in which one has a living relationship with the true, inner spirit of the great wisdom traditions. It is a position that is integrative in the Ken Wilber sense and transcendent of the particularities – especially the ‘exclusivities’ – of the religions. By ‘exclusivities’ I mean the teachings, usually man-made, that teach ‘all are damned except those that believe like me’.

This position is not one in which we each make ourselves the centre of a belief system. I say this even though an acceptance of the inevitability that every person’s faith and world-view is subjective is a vitally important thing for so many to understand. It is a matter of recognizing the great gifts to humankind that exist in the teachings of all of the world’s wisdom traditions, to be humbled by them, to acknowledge that there is but one ultimate source, inevitably shrouded in mystery since the finite human mind cannot know that which is infinite, that even with the great teacher-founders of those wisdom traditions we can only see from within our personal make-up, personal history and given culture.

The position I describe is a position of acceptance that other people’s answers about the unknown and unknowable are inevitably different to our own.
Throughout these ‘Spiritual Matters FAQs’ I have in mind the reflective teacher. That is to say the teacher who – for personal development, or as part of a course of studies, - is seeking to analyse and develop her/his practice and theory-making. Here the special focus is on the spiritual dimension, within a holistic view of education.

As with my own overall model, SunWALK, I have chosen the asking and answering of ‘FAQs’ to try to make clear as much as possible about the kind of spiritual questions to be asked within a holistic or integral studies view. Many of these questions I have been asked, or have asked my self (Self?). There is some overlap with the SunWALK FAQs.

I also started to cover some of this ground within my doctoral thesis which is elsewhere on this site. These ‘Spiritual Matters FAQs’ however are seen as an open and evolving document and will be updated and extended frequently.

The first section is concerned with basic, more general, issues and the later sections with ‘deeper’ issues. They are not intended to be entries like a dictionary. They are personal responses which might suggest possibilities for the reader. If nothing else the questions are there – and some at least need to be answered by any one reflecting seriously on education!

I should say something about purpose in this work. I believe that a new possible paradigm of education has become progressively clear. This site is all about ways and means that teachers and students of education might make this new paradigm clearer through their practice and theory-making.
In addition to working toward a new paradigm we are faced in today’s world by specific issues. Whilst much that is here has relevance to combating global warming, eliminating hunger, debt, disease and poverty the primary thrust is toward a worldview and mindset that might act as a curative or preventative to the sickness of fundamentalism, racism and such sicknesses of the soul.

NB I have not included primary definitions, contexts, basic facts & background material.

For these go to: ‘definition’ + chosen subject in to Google (Princeton), Wiki encyclopaedia, Creedopedia, etc

These thoughts are intended to any last word on the subjects, but like each of us they are works in progress. Start by picking out the questions that interest you. Write and tell me your ideas and your additional questions. I will try to point you in a useful direction.

Gradually I will put here in the first section all of the ‘concept-elements’ that seem basic, foundational, most general and introductory.

SECTION 1 INTRODUCTION - BASIC, MORE GENERAL ISSUES

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF THE SPIRITUAL DIMENSION IN EDUCATION IN GENERAL AND HOLISTIC EDUCATION IN PARTICULAR?
This is not a subject I feel qualified to answer - but it is a subject for future dissertations or theses. However a few remarks might be worthwhile.
Holistic Education, the spiritual dimension of education, as non-faith-specific indoctrination, and the Philosophy of Education are all astonishingly young subjects.

Whilst material in religious and philosophical writings go back to the ancient Greeks, and earlier, serious non-faith-specific study of the spiritual dimension of education, as a specialist academic concern, has a very short history. The vast majority of stuff written about the subject has been produced in the 1990s and since. The broader concern of the Philosophy of Education is not much longer established – just over 50 years in the case of the UK.
Allied to the ‘young-ness’ is the fewness of the specialists in the fields of Holistic Education and its spiritual dimension. There are literally only a handful – Jack Miller, and Ron Miller being pre-eminent. Often people fail to distinguish between practitioners and writers on other subjects, some of whose work is relevant to Holistic Education and the tiny number of practitioners and writers who have dedicated their careers to Holistic Education. The list of those whose work can be made relevant to the spiritual dimension or to Holistic Education is very large. Bringing the ideas of such writers into a Holistic Education framework provides almost unlimited numbers of projects – there is so much virgin territory.

CHILDREN ARRIVE IN SCHOOL WITH A VARIETY OF BACKGROUNDS AND DEGREES OF DEVELOPMENT IN SPIRITUAL MATTERS - HOW CAN THE TEACHER SHAPE UP TO THIS DIVERSITY?
By concentrating on virtues - primarily truth, beauty, goodness and justice. S/he can set standards and seek to model them in her/his own behaviour. For teachers - as with sales people - that which is talked about grows. Talk about and celebrate how pleasing it was that this truthful, good or beautiful act took place - in a child’s behaviour or in the class or in the community.

SO THERE’S AN INNER CORE THAN TRANSCENDS PARTICULAR BELIEF SYSTEMS?
Yes virtues are one way of thinking and talking about that which transcends particular belief systems.

WHAT IS SPIRIT, SPIRITUALITY & SPIRITUALIZATION?
Spirit is the life-force.
Spirit is the relationship of elements that determines levels of being; plant, animal, human etc.
Spirit is will, including the will to focus.
Spirituality is concern for the development of those virtues & positive characteristics that are pre-eminently human – chief amongst these are truthfulness, beauty, goodness and justice.
Spiritualization is the process of arranging for experiences – for self or others – that lead to the development of virtues and positive characteristics that pre-eminently make us human.

WHAT’S ‘PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY’
‘Perennial philosophy’ is that which all, of the great world religions hold in common about the spiritual life and the journey of development that each soul makes.

THE SEVEN MAJOR POINTS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY - TWO VIEWS A) BY KEN WILBER AND B) BY DEB PLATT
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 LEMENTED 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)
• 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
(SEE Aldous Huxley or Chap 2 of Jack Miller’s Educating for Wisdom & Compassion)
Holistic Education doesn’t have allegiance to anyone religion or philosophy, but Perennial Philosophy is very important for many and is the position of this site.

SECTION 2 - GOING DEEPER
INTRODUCTION
In seeking to go deeper in Spiritual Matters we inevitably ask, ‘Where to start’? All particulars, all parts, point to one reality, the Whole. Where else could they point? Answer: only to the hell of relativity, to a sea of disconnected bits. Even if that is not true it is part of the ‘fine deception’ though which we humans could lead kinder, more harmonious lives!

‘Where to start’? In seeking to honour all of the great world-views my choice of a starting point is to place together a poetic fragment by the Zen master Dogen with a fragment by the great rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel:

From Dogen:
“This slowly drifting cloud is pitiful:
What dreamwalkers men become.
Awakened, I hear the one true thing-
Black rain on the roof of Fukakusa Temple.”

Heschel says:
“Concepts are delicious snacks with which we try to alleviate our amazement.” A. J. Heschel, Man Is Not Alone p.7

Perhaps everything is contained in these two, but I want to emphasize one or two points. The first concerns what we might call ‘excessive observance’ – I read recently of some meditator leaving his wife and children for ten years just to go up another level in his meditation. It is very difficult to see how such neglect can be seen as an instrument for truth, goodness, beauty or justice - or any other virtues. What is the point of spiritual practice if it doesn’t enable us to act in the world with greater virtue?

Excessive desire for the unitive state can become lust in which no credence is given to the equally important ‘living in duality’. In duality we give attention to the particulars, to the concepts, to noticing the wonder and awe behind the image or sound of rain falling on a roof. Compulsive anything can become the ‘world’ that comes between us and expressing the good. In any case this writer takes the unitive and the dualistic as being the two blades of the ‘scissors’ by which we engage reality – and, if you like, cut the cloth of our lives. Unitive junkies may not be as dangerous as fundamentalists (unless you have to be their wife or child) but they can be a distortion of their true selves.

Heschel points to the true state – of awe and wonder – which I take to be the same as the goal of the meditator in other traditions, but the wit of downgrading concepts to snacks should be seen as exaggeration for the purpose of restoring balance. Duality is as vital to us as is the unitive. It is from the dynamics between the two that we come to know. Talking is important as well as silence – but silence needs to be emphasized more. Attention to parts is important as well as experience of/in the Whole – but the unitive experience needs emphasis because so few of us have it satisfactorily in our lives.
Dogen on the other hand brings us back to the reality that each particular points…………….

NB - in continuous development. At the foot of this document there is a list of possible concepts for the Spirit Matters FAQs – and indeed for any general model of Holistic Education. Additions will be made from time to time. Concepts will be progressively taken from the list and used and added to the FAQs.

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF POSSIBLE CONCEPTS FOR SPIRIT MATTERS

LEVEL 1: LIST OF SPIRIT MATTERS CONCEPT-ELEMENTS
This is the master list of the main Elements’/Themes/ Concepts for the SunWALK model with additions & with
a new set of emphases related to ‘Spiritual Matters’.
Not all are discussed extensively in text.
See also the Glossary of Terms + Glossary of Baha’i terms/concepts.
Aesthetic/s see Beauty see Creative
Abilities
Action see Behaviour
Affective see feelings
Attitudes
Adulthood
Alienation
Aims & Objectives & Goals
Appearance & reality
Attachment
Authenticity
Authority
Authority
Autobiography see story
Autonomy
Awakening
Awareness
Awe & wonder
Beauty – see the Creative, the I voice, aesthetics
Behaviour see Action
Being & becoming
Belief/s
Brain - ‘left brain’ & ‘right brain’
Caring
Centering
Certainty
Change
Character
Childhood
Cooperative learning – see
community
Commitment
Communication
Community
Compassion and empathy
Competition
Conceptual development
Conflict resolution
Conformity
Connectedness see holism
Conscience
Consciousness & c. raising/expanding
Consultation - group process
Contemplation
Contemplative practice
Context/ual/ization
Control
Core ethic for relationships – to relate to others so as to help them in their struggle to develop
Creative thinking
Creative /ity
Crisis
Critical thinking
Criticality
Culture
Curiosity
Curriculum
Decision-making
Democracy and democratic process
Detachment
Development
Dialectical = problematization + dialogue
Discipline
Discovery
Discrimination
Doing
Dualism
Discovery (inc. curiosity)
Ecology see environment
Ecstasy
Education
Educational environment
Ego
Emotion/s and feeling see affect
Empathy see compassion
Energy see spirit & chi
Engagement – see modes
Environment/ecology/inner being
Epiphany
Essence
Ethics - see moral/ity education
Ethos/Atmosphere
Evaluation
Evil
Existence
Existential/ism
Experience just two kinds
Experiencing outside of the box. As with Drawing with the
Experimentation
Faith
Falsity
Fear
Feelings see affect
Flow
Free will- see will
Freedom
Global development
Goodness – see caring
Group process-PFC/Consultation
Team work/co-operation
Growth see development
Habit
Harmony - h. in diversity
Having c.f. being/doing/becoming
Heart-knowing
Holism/whole/Holistic Ed
Holy Spirit
Human being - h. nature/spirit
Humankind – humanity
Human Rights
Humour and comedians
Ideals
Imagination
Independence see autonomy
Individual/ity c.f. individualism
Indoctrination and ‘Absolving’
Indwelling/intuition/inner being
Information – i. and knowledge
Initiation – education as
Inner being/spiritual/insight – see
interiority
Insight see intuition &
Interiority
Integrity
Intuition - insight/inner development
Insight
Instinct
Intelligence
Judgement
Justice
Justification – see knowledge
‘Know that’ – see Knowledge
Knowledge I WE IT voices
Language
Learning & Teaching
Life-force/energy/spirit/chi/inochi
Literature
Love - affect/spirit – see caring
Management
Materialism
Mechanistic models
Meaning & Meaning making
Meditation c.f. contemplation
Memory
Men/gender - see left brain/right brain
Metaphor
Meta-religion
Meta-religion and Perennial Philosophy
Methods in learning
Mind
Modes of experience & engagement
Moral development
Moral sensibility
Moral/ity in relation to the spiritual
Mystery (in human nature)
/potential/subconscious/unknown
Narrative see story
Nature
Needs
Negotiated learning – see democratic
process
Non-reflective learning
Norms
Objectivity
Openness
Paradigm
Paradox
Participation
Perception/attention/forms/field &/
Perennial Philosophy
Person/hood see human being
Personal history see story autobiography
Personhood – see also
authenticity/autonomy
Philosophy
Philosophy for children PFC
Physical self
Planning
Play
Poetry
Politics
Political correctness – a fascistic disease. Good manners, a commitment to unity in diversity and a willingness to forgive or apologise - and some license for comedians - is what is needed.
Positivism
Potential
Power & empowerment
Principles
Problem-solving v posing
Qualitative the
Qualities, spiritual e.g. empathy
Questioning
Rationality/reason/able/ness
Real/ity
Reductionism
Reflection - reasoning/meditation
Reflective learning
Rejection
Relationships
Relativity
Religion
Science – see also objective knowing
Seeing with the eye of God
Self
Self-esteem
Self-image
Self-knowledge
Sensitivity
Service to others
Socialization
Society
Soul
Spiritual/ity/ization/ see energy
Spiritual/ity/ization methods
Spiritual qualities (e.g. empathy)
State
Story & Autobiography
Subjectivity
Synaesthesia
Tacit knowledge - see knowledge
Teacher Education
Teaching & Learning
Teacher thinking
Teacher thinking about the child’s
spirituality/holistic development
Test/s
Thingification, ITness and Flatland
Thinking /caring /creative /criticality
see mind
Time
Tradition
Training (v. education)
Transformation
Truth/beauty & goodness
Understanding
Unitive experience – via contemplative practice
Utilitarian
Validity
Values core
Violence & awe
Vision
Volition - see will
Wholeness – see holistic
Will
Wisdom
Women/gender - see left & r. brain
Wonder
Work – re identity & purpose
Key Books
Hart Tobin (2001) From Information to Transformation, New York: Peter Lang