| Chapter 1: | Path Lights |
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Pilot Lights: What Fires Up the Light on the Path of This Inquiry
True victory is not defeating an enemy. True victory gives love and changes the enemy’s heart.
—Morihei Ueshiba (O-Sensei), quote from Mitsugi Saotome
(in Leonard, 2000, p. 150)
Surely, if as O-Sensei said, we might achieve victory by giving love to transform an enemy’s heart; it makes eminent good sense to apply this transformational idea to classroom practice. A pilot light is a small flame that is always on and that serves as the initiatory spark for a bigger and hotter flame. O-Sensei has provided a pilot light.
Some years ago I had the opportunity to be at a day-long presentation with Dr. James Bugental, a white-haired elder who is one of the original developers of humanistic psychotherapy (see Bugental, 1992). He was 80 years old at the time and mounted the stage using two canes. His mind was sharp, his ideas clear and fascinating, and the demonstrations very engaging. What was particularly outstanding to me was how little he seemed to do during the demonstrations and yet how much happened. I asked him about the economy of his interventions, and he replied, “It’s kind of like rolling a bicycle wheel along with a stick. It takes some effort to get it going, but once it’s moving, it only requires the occasional tap to keep it going and on course.” In my view education is like that. Educators need to be awake, put in sufficient effort at initiatory moments, have a feel for what is the optimal intervention in the moment and within the context, and the ability to stay with the process.
Here are 10 integrated pilot lights:
- 1. The ongoing discovery and inquiry into the purpose of a person’s life and how to live well is core to all education. This discovery process is integrated with the adventure of the search for the source of all experience, along with the far reaches of its expression.