Replying to LO24109 --
Andrew:
was cleaning house and discovered this and thought that it deserved
comment. I can know only that which has been taught, by the world, and
her representatives, my teachers. You said:
> Listen for heavens sake, listen.
yes
> The most important factor is you yourself, rather than your teacher.
My teachers bring me to the edge of my knowledge faster and deeper than I
would alone. At 58 there are many things I wished that I had known
earlier but the teacher was not there. The teacher is a coat that I put
on and wear until it is too hot for coats. The place of the child.
> When
> you study hard, what you receive from your teacher is the spirit of study.
Through imitation I receive play but without the depth of experience.
The place of the child sitting in the East.
> That spirit will be transmitted from warm hand to warm hand. You should do
> it, that's all.
Because the coat is too large and heavy I must feel safe in such heaviness
if I am to play with impunity. Sitting in the East I am enlightened to
find that the coat has a life of its own and would rule me if I became its
feet.
> Listen, listen will you? To practice is not to collect
> things and put them in your basket, but rather to find something in your
> sleeve.
Only when the coat has been ripped apart through analysis and watered with
practice will it become my experience within rather than my teacher's
garment.
The South. The place of the student, the place of war and business.
But Andrew may I continue? Your Master didn't finish the model.
The new skill must then be performed as a message to one's colleagues in
an act of dialogue. Maturity and Wisdom in wise ethical action based upon
the depth of skill raised to natural action. The place of the West and
maturity. Information and communication raised to the skill of Art.
"Quetzalcoatl sits in Tula but cannot stay......" He pursues values for
their own sake but he cannot stay. Perfect performance and wonderful
chats in restaurants and on the net. And money, oh so much money, beyond
our wildest dreams. "Quetzalcoatl grew cotton from the ground even in
colors... but Tezcatlipoca opened his eyes and Quetzalcoatl saw his works
were ultimately not art but artifice...." The place of the performer.
And finally to sit in the place of the teacher, the North, the place of
responsibility, night, renewal, truth, cold lying in a cotton cloth at 18
thousand feet in the warmth of mastery and old age. One who does not
complete the North does not have the courage to be reborn to the
vulnerability of imitation. Teaching seals the knowledge.
So Andrew we know that Senge listened to music and Navajos. He said so
and put their art on his cover. But did he make his peace with the
brutality that the Aztecs knew came with such commitment to learning?
Hell, have the Buddhists?
"I can know only that which I have been taught!" Cherokee proverb.
Richard, you can just send this on to Andrew if you feel that it is
diverting. To me it embodies what I got from the book when I
first "heard" Senge read it on tape while I drove to Ohio. I used
it in a lecture to Doctoral candidates at Columbia U. a few years
back as an introduction to the "Reflective Practitioner" books of
Donald Schon (umlaut missing). The foreign students "got it"
while the locals wanted me to steal the learning by telling them
the "answer."
[Host's Note: Thanks Ray... I think this is not diverting at all. ..Rick]
Ray Evans Harrell
artistic director
The Magic Circle Opera Repertory Ensemble, Inc.
200 West 70th Street, Suite 6-C
New York City, 10023
mcore@idt.net
--"Ray E. Harrell" <mcore@idt.net>
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