Theos-Talk Archives (April 2003 Message tt00051)

Hi all of you,

In my last email part 1 of 2 was mailed.
A sufi version af teacher, pupil, time-place...

Here is part 2 of 2 in the below:

A CURRICULUM OF A SCHOOL (part2)

"Man has few alternatives in his search for truth. He may rely upon his
unaided intellect, and gamble that he is capable of perceiving truth or even
the way to truth. This is a poor, but an attractive, gamble. Or he can
gamble upon the claims of an individual or institution which claims to have
such a way. This gamble, too, is a poor one. Aside from a very few, wo/men
in general lack a sufficiently developed perception to tell them:"

1. Not to trust their own unaided mentation;

2. Who or what to trust.

"There are, in consequence, two main schools of thought in this matter. Some
say 'Follow your own promptings'; the other says: 'Trust this or that
intuition'. Each is really useless to the ordinary wo/man. Each will help
him use up his time."

"The bitter truth is that before man can know his own inadequacy, or the
competence of another man or institution, he must first learn something
which will enable him to perceive both. Note well that his perception itself
is a product of right study; not of instinct or emotional attraction to the
individual, nor yet of desiring to 'go it alone'. This is 'Learning How To
Learn."

"All this means, of course, that we are postulating here the need for
preparatory study before school work takes place. We deny that a man can
study and properly benefit from school work until he is equipped for it: any
more than a person can study space-navigation unless he has a grasp of
mathematics."

"This is not to say that a man (or a woman) cannot have a sensation of
truth. But the unorganized and fragmented mind which is most people's
heritage tends to distort the quality and quantity of this sensation,
leading to almost completely false conclusions about what can or should be
done."

"This is not to say, either, that man cannot take part in studies and
activities which impinge upon that portion of him which is connected with a
higher life and cognition. But the mere application of special techniques
[often to everyone, regardless of their current state and requirements] will
not transform that man's consciousness. It will only feed into, and
disturb, more or less permanently, centers of thought and feeling where it
does not belong. Thus it is that something which should be a blessing
becomes a curse. Sugar, shall we say, for a normal person is nutritionally
useful. To a diabetic, it can be poison."

"Therefore, before the techniques of study and development are made
available to the student, he must be enabled to profit by them in the
direction in which they are supposed to lead, not in short-term indulgence."

"Thus our curriculum takes two parts: the first is in the providing of
materials of a preparatory nature, in order to equip the individual to
become a student. The second is the development itself."

"If we, or anybody else, supply such study or preparatory material
prematurely, it will only operate on a lower level than it could. The result
will be harmless at best. At worst, it will condition, train, the mind of
the individual to think and behave in patterns which are nothing less than
automatic. In this latter way one can make what seem to be converts,
unwittingly play upon emotions, on lesser desires and the conditioning
propensity; train people to loyalty to individuals, found and maintain
institutions which seem more or less serious or constructive. But no real
progress towards knowledge of the human being and the other dimension in
which he partly lives will in fact be made... ... ...."

Taken partly from: "Learning How to Learn" by the Afghan sufi-author Idries
Shah


end part 2 of 2




A Sufilight comment or view: There is no RELIGION higher than TRUTH.
Truth is shown everywhere in cosmos - as reality. What is truth ?
Truth is God - ParaBrahman - Neti Neti (ie. Not this, Not that)...

I hope it was all worthwhile...

from
M. Sufilight with a big and happy smile and the like...