Blind to Wholeness LO29685

From: leo minnigh (minnigh@dds.nl)
Date: 12/09/02


Replying to LO29662 --

Replying to LO29662

Dear LO'ers, dear At,

It is interesting to experience the process of a dialogue - a reply is
generated by the preceding answer. This chain of replies makes it more
easy to articulate thoughts wich were still sleeping in the mind.

At wrote:

> Jan Smuts thought of wholeness as the "whole and its field". For you
> that field go as far as "another world behind the horizon". Would you
> say that your experiences made you aware of this? If it is the case,
> can we conclude that when people are "senseless (blind) to wholeness",
> it is because of definite experiences which they had? What about the
> following experiences?

After reading your words and the whealth of richnesses of Jan Smuts' mind
contents, I think I am able to make clear what I mean with 'another world
behind the horizon'.
My strongest experience of this other world happened after leaving the high
school and my first years at the university. After the final examinations of
the high school, I had the feeling that I knew what mathematics was. Six
years of learning created with me the feeling that I understood mathematics.
It was a nice and satisfying whole. Then the first lectures on mathematics
started at the university. And soon I realised that only a small window to
an incredible complex world was opened at the high school. It appeared that
I only had touched a tiny bit of something that happened to be a whole
science which is still in evolution.

So this was what I had in mind with 'another world'.
As another example to describe this experience I will introduce the matter
of dimensions again. The mental effect of what wholeness could be may be
compared with the emergence to the next dimension. If we are flatlanders
living in a 2D world, we could explore the whole plane we live in/on.
However, the best view of this 2D world is when we could observe it from
'above', from the third dimension. And I think that the experience of a
'wholeness emergence' is somewhat comparable with 'sensing it from a higher
dimension'.
A simmilar thing is with a teacher. A teacher could only teach if he/she
'oversees' the subject to teach. That is another experience I had in Brazil
when I gave geology lectures at the university.

So At, I hope you are able to understand what I mean with 'another world
behind the horizon'. I think it comes close to what Jan Smuts thought.
>
> Sitting inside the four walls of a class to learn, day after day, sensing
> no world outside these four walls. As a teacher i was always struck
> by how exubirant pupils became when they were taken outside the
> class to learn something.
>
> Sitting at home, trying to understand something from information
> given by the teacher, not understanding it clearly, but not having
> any other information to explore. Be satisfied with a half baked
> answer.

I think I understand your examples. I know how sensitive you are for
'pressure from outside' (or the forceful introduction (injection) of
energy into a system). You are certainly right, however I see it less
negative. I think that enlarging the insight of what wholeness might be is
a process where others are involved. Like possibly Smuts is for you, are
you for me. And possibly learning about wholeness is even a group process.
It means that teaching and learning goes hand in hand; you cannot do it
alone. One needs another person who is willing to open a window with a
view to another world. Therefore people who are able to open these windows
(good teachers) are a necessity. I am afraid that these teachers are rare
today and whole populations will live forever within the four walls of the
mental classroom.

> Leo, i perceive many possible answers. But what i also try to discover,
> is a pattern among all these answers. I suspect that the abscence of this
> pattern will cause this "senseless (blind) to wholeness". But i will have
> to make sure. Unfortunately, the tools of science like experimentation
> and logic are of no use here. The only possibility is for us to explore
> together by dialogue the topic. I am most thankful for your and Jan's
> inputs here.

And thus At, I completely agree with you. We all need the dialogue and
teachings of a Vergilius, as Dante experienced in his Divina Comedia.

Leo Minnigh

-- 

leo minnigh <minnigh@dds.nl>

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