The Journey Within

I was lucky enough to be invited to stay over at an organic farm, only to be the generous blood donor to those pesky mosquitoes. So here I am typing this article while the bite marks stare evilly back at me. Still, I’ve enjoyed the stay. It’s a breath of fresh air, literally, from the monochrome buildings that I’ve been working at every day.

I’ve read Michael Pollan’s book – the Omnivore’s Dilemma, where he writes a lot about the way our food is prepared and how difficult it is for us to get a decent wholesome meal that respects the environment and the animals that we eat. This is my chance to see an actual organic farm in action. But one night stay was only sufficient for me to sample the fruits from the farm.

I spoke to the couple who’s managing the farm, so I can only get a glimpse into their 10 years’ toil (and still going strong!) into this farm. I guess to sum up, it’s not easy. It takes a lot of observation, a lot of trials and errors, before something decent can come off the farm. Even selling the fruits from the farm proved to be testing. The shops will demand a low price, but sell them off at 600% mark up! (Beware organic food buyers!)

I think they should go direct, and make people go to their farm, instead of them going out of their way to market their fruits, but our conversation did not get that far (yet). Maybe I can propose something the next time I’m up, and I believe there will be a next time, with my insect repellent at hand of course.

Nevertheless, I have been trying to connect the dots of how we manage the environment, in the literal sense and in a broader sense as well. If you’ve been following my blog, I’ve been reading a biography on Maria Montessori, and she also mentioned about creating an environment suitable for the child’s learning. My current Tai Chi teacher is also trying to create such an environment so that we learn more wholesomely rather than just copying what the teacher does (see article on avoiding imitation).

So what’s the line connecting these dots?

I believe it’s “respect” – respecting the environment, respecting the people around us. The organic farmer will try his best to respect the soil he’s standing on, to respect the plant’s whims, to respect the uncertainty of the weather, to respect that brute force is not the best force for the plant to grow. The children’s teacher will need to learn to respect the child as having her own thoughts, respect that the child will know what’s best for himself. The Tai Chi teacher will need to respect that each student is unique, and that there’s a time for growth for that student, and the time may not be now when the student’s not ready.

All these doesn’t mean that we should allow free flow, and let the environment survive on its own. You might as well grow weeds. It also doesn’t mean the student should be left alone to do whatever she wants. The title of this article is managing the environment, so we have to place certain limitations for growth.

It sounds contrary to growth, but it’s only with limits that we are liberated to do what we can. See my recent example on how limits are liberating.

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A panda destined to be a Dragon Warrior, and yet do not have a clue how. Let’s face it, have you seen a panda fight? Even his teacher is clueless how to teach this panda kung fu.

So the movie begins with how each other found faith and belief in each other, and themselves – the panda to believe he can learn kung fu, and the teacher to believe he can teach kung fu – to anyone.

The best quote I liked from this movie is this:

There is no special ingredient

If you’re waiting to learn about one special ingredient so that you’ll progress tremendously in whatever you’re trying to learn, you’ll be disappointed, because there’s no such special ingredient. You can definitely get away with the skills you have, but it will not bring you very far, unless you realise that there is no special ingredient, then your mind opens and everything is acceptable.

This is the mind of the child, the absorbent mind, as discovered by Maria Montessori. And maybe, this should be the mind of the learning adult as well.

p/s: i like kung fu movies, even the really bad ones, and this is not half as bad. Do watch it. It’s hilarious, if you don’t mind it being a cartoon.

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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.

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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.

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I’m currently reading a biography on Maria Montessori – an educator among other roles. When she teaches kids, one of the features of her method is to let them learn through their senses first, before labeling what their senses tell them. For instance, the children will learn to listen as they explore the different pitch of each bells (one of her education tools). It’s only later that the teacher will start labeling for the children, to tell them that this note is Do, Re, Mi etc.

She believes in stimulating the children’s senses first, rather than forcing an adult version of the interpretation of those senses, like long/short, loud/soft, far/near etc.

In a way, I’m also adopting the “action, then label” method when learning Tai Chi. I used to want to know each and every name of each movement, each posture. It’s only recently that I didn’t even bother learning those names anymore. It forces me to just see the action of the teacher, rather than saying “oh, that’s single whip” and then I’ll just have my own version of single whip.

I guess we have been conditioned to want to label things, almost too eager to put them in words so that we don’t lose it or forget it. It is easier, and I’m doing it all the time, by writing down my thoughts. It’s a good way to reflect but it’s not a good way to learn. You don’t learn music from learning to read the notes. Similarly, you don’t learn Tai Chi from learning the words. For music, it’s listen first. For Tai Ji, it’s observe first.

p/s: Picture courtesy from Fatima

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