Building the Capacity to Connect (part 1)

Written by Kamyar Saturday, 31 January 2009 19:23

What is education for?

Our answers to this question can build the foundation for defining the characteristics of educational institutes for a more sustainable future. This post is the introduction to a series of personal reflections on the question: what is education for? These writings should be considered as an act of loud thinking, in order to crystallize the concepts. Any suggestions or comments from the reader will help the process. Therefore I encourage you to drop a line in the comments on any thoughts or personal experiences regarding the subject.

The first answer to be explored will be: education for building the capacity to make authentic connections.

At the beginning it might seem like a vague answer, but it will get clearer as I try to describe what I mean by authentic connections. To do so, we will begin with identifying three basic types of connections:

1. connection with the self

2. connections within human realm, including families, friends, groups, communities, nations, and our species as a whole body.

3. connection with universe as a whole, including other species, nature, earth, and other universal forces.

By authentic connections, I mean an integral system of deep connections, through which every connection in any of the above three levels will reinforce all the other connections, no matter in which level. Sounds confusing? Let's have an example:

You are meeting with a dear friend who shares with you some of the deepest spiritual, existential or philosophical concerns you have. These concerns are best manifested in the words of one of your favorite poets, in this case Hossein Panahi. You decide to sit together in a park, on a silent corner, open a bottle of wine and go with the flow. Wisely, your friend has carried a booklet of poems.

The conversation starts by complains about life in Dubai and how everything is being measured by purely materialistic values, and how the soul of humanity is lost through "rapid developments." While enjoying the wine and as the dialogue emerges, your senses enhance, feeling as you are being more alive and present. You feel more connected to your self, to your dreams, to your values. At the same time you feel more connected to your friend. As you whisper the words, together with your friend, you feel the presence of the poet. After a while you are dragged into the beauty of the trees and flowers that you are surrounded with, and the song of the little bird at the background. All these connections reinforce each other. The poem reaches to it's peak: "what an excitement is humanity!" And then a silence ...

At that moment, there is no you, there is no friend, no trees, no flowers or birds. It's just one whole being. All those connections pre-existed, you just couldn't see it because of an illusion created by your mind. A thought emerges out of the moment and it captures your mind and your friend's: can these poems be translated to English and shared with many more people?

Our example turned into a story, but it just came without any plans. I hope it's clear enough as the first step to defining authentic connections. This dialogue will continue, and you are invited to contribute to it as it unfolds.

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