The Journey Within

It’s back to the book on Maria Montessori. It’s quite amazing what she’s actually saying about kids, essentially about us when we were much younger. We unconsciously learn from the environment around us, be it from parents, siblings, uncles, granmas, friends, insects, trees, grass, bugs, stone, leaves, branches, bicycles, streets, neighbours, and the list goes on…

Yet, when we learn them, we learn them by making those lessons our own. What Maria Montessori promote as a teacher, is to show the kids how to do it, but only enough for them to understand what they’re supposed to do. For example, the teacher will show the action of pouring water into a glass. The act of this is to show that the water suppose to go from the jug to the glass, without spilling. If there are any spills, the teacher will just grab a cloth and wipe it off.

Now, the point here is that the teacher won’t say “you’re holding the jug wrongly”, or “the cloth should have the ‘Bart Simpson’ facing upwards”. The teacher will leave it to the kids to exercise their own creativity on how to accomplish the act of pouring water from the jug to the glass. In essence, the kids have to make this “act” their own, rather than imitating what the teacher does exactly.

I think this is important in anything that you’re trying to learn – you have to make it your own rather than imitating. For an internal martial art such as Tai Chi, this is very important because it’s not how it looks on the outside that you’re trying to learn, it’s what you feel on the inside that you’re trying to learn. And by directing the correct feeling in the body, the outward movement is just a by-product.

I guess this is also important if you’re trying to teach. To quote Maria Montessori:

Teach teaching, not correcting.

Teach the teaching, and not the corrections.

If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

I’m watching Friends, and laughing as though I haven’t seen the episode before (the one where Chandler is moving in with Monica). Friends are just such a mind relaxant. Kudos to the people who made it such a joy. And then my wife made a comment…

“You must be really stressed…”

I think she’s right, as usual.

I’m still reading the biography on Maria Montessori, and then I came across this line…

“Fatigue arises when mental activity and motor activity are forced to act separately.”

It sounds like it could be lifted off a Tai Chi textbook, and yet I found it in a biography about a woman and her research on children’s education.

In Tai Chi, we’ve been told to focus the mind on the action. Where the mind leads, the body should follow, all in unison. I guess that’s where the “flow” comes from. Athletes talk about this flow as well, when everything seems to connect. It’s when you’re “in the zone”.

So what happens when you’re not in the zone? Maria Montessori tells us, it’s fatigue. You get tired when mind and body are not aligned, when you’re doing what the mind is fighting against. She sees it in kids, where they’re being told to do what the adults think they should do, but the child is living in a child’s world, not understanding the adult’s definition of their world.

I guess I am feeling tired. I didn’t seem to feel it, until I laughed too loudly, at the silliest jokes. No offense to Friends, but I think it’s time to align my mind and body. How am I going to do that? I think the body’s going to tell the mind, which will in turn tell the body what to do. Sounds a bit loopy… ah… now I see where the word “loopy” comes from – going in loops (circles)… Another word for Wordie.

If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.

It’s been a while since i’ve last posted. I’ve been troubled with THE question lately.. what to do with life.. and apparently u can do a course on it! offered after milking every cent of your worth, by none other than the revered Harvard Business School. An unlikely candidate for such a course? see an article by the Financial Times in Money and morals clash.

I doubt i’m going to spend more than $100k on the course, and seriously doubt that they’ll even consider my application, but to find such a question posed by such a prestigious business school has its consolation. It does remind us that whatever we do in life, this basic question will always challenge us. We may stand up to its challenge, or let it pass us by without putting up a fight. but the question will remain. the question is as certain as death itself. in the face of death, everyone is the same. race, culture, language, religion, will be humbled by it. just look at the diversity of the people mourning after the tsunami victims on its first anniversary.

my.. such a gloomy outlook on the year ahead. and i thought going out shopping before christmas may get me into the festive mood.. until i picked up the book “Before you quit your job“… i haven’t had the courage to read the book yet.. i’ve got a week of holidays ahead of me to read it. this will be such an “interesting” holiday season…

Of course, i will not impose such negativity on my readers, so i sincerely wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you like what you read, you can follow me on RSS, by email, on Twitter, or on Facebook.