| Chapter 1: | Path Lights |
|
|
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
In the service of this undertaking, my intention is to write the way my consciousness actually flows, which just may be close to the flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997) that others are either in or looking for.
Daoist vocabulary offers another way to describe this state:
A Daoist way of being emerges over a lifetime of practice. Being in tune with the Dao in an educational environment means knowing in a substantial way what the context, content, and atmosphere of the environment are in the moment, each moment, with an awareness of what has been and what possibilities exist. The process is what is important, not in and of itself only but for the fullness of each step along the way and the learning that occurs through experiencing that process. From the Dao-field consciousness, ideas emerge that are felt as much as thought, imagined as much as described, and seen as much as dreamed. These ideas are like “impressions,” different from abstract ideas that construct propositional statements. Impressions issue forth as if they are constructing themselves and have a life of their own. They seem to inscribe themselves into me. In fact, if this writing had emerged from everyday consciousness, characterized by calculations, lists, plans, anxieties in the moment and about the future, and daily events (not to disparage the important place that all these phenomena have in daily life), then it would fail to show and enact the significant coherence between form and content, medium and message. The words that you read are impressionistic inscriptions of my consciousness in the Dao-field.
My hope is that this book will encourage you to imaginatively try out ideas, and I hope that this will be an absorbing process for you. Optimal learning occurs when three major and integrated ingredients are present: It has personal meaning, it is experiential, and it has substantial content. My intent with this writing has been to engage these three dimensions throughout, and hopefully, I have succeeded with this undertaking.