Vinaire's Blog

Reference:  The Human-Centric Fixation

This is an interesting lecture that tries to establish what happens in the mind during the process of enlightenment. However, in my view, there is a lot more that we do not understand.

Listen to the segment especially from 43:05 to 45:40. It is fascinating!

The key point that neuroscientist and author Todd Murphy makes is that

The sense of self comes from the activation of the same area of the brain as hallucination.

Professor Murphy draws the conclusion that the sense of Self is a hallucination. “It is not something intrinsic to your being. It is something created… The self is a hallucination. It is a constant, functional ongoing illusion… it’s function is to unite everything that happens to us internally and externally into a single core that the rest of our system can identify with…”

Buddha acknowledged the presence of self, but he declared that self is always changing and that there is nothing at the core of self that is permanent.

Professor Murphy goes on to say that

You as an individual cannot reincarnate.

“If you take birth into  another body and build up a new body-mind complex you will create the neuro-substrates for this process once again and go on existing without having to have it to be carried from one life to the next.”

But we do wonder about the innate genius that some people display. Mozart is a great example. There also seems to be memories that do not seem to belong to this life, and the full recall and purging of which does bring relief to many afflictions.

According to Buddhist thought, “When this physical body is no more capable of functioning, energies do not die with it, but continue to take some other shape or form, which we call another life… Physical and mental energies which constitute the so-called being have within themselves the power to take a new form, and grow gradually and gather force to the full.” ~ What the Buddha Taught (1959) by Walpola Rahula.

So, there is no permanent soul, but there are physical and mental energies that continue beyond the death of the body and the soul.

This is pretty much the view taken on this blog. The question then becomes, “What is the nature of physical and mental energies that take up the form of the body and the soul respectively?”

On this point the research on this blog starts with: Universe and Awareness.

On enlightenment, it seems that the person breaks through the confinement of a narrow self and starts to view the reality from the viewpoint of reality itself.

Maybe the flows in the brain become more balanced as a result.

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Reference: Subject: Education

You may read the transcript here.

Here are the main points from this talk (August 2008):

(1) I wanted to build an argument for primary education in a very specific context. What happens to education as it gets remote from urban centers and resources?

(2) Studies show that test results drop with the remoteness of schools from urban centers. Most teachers in remote areas are not very motivated. Educational technology would have much greater positive impact in these remote areas than in urban areas.

(3) An alternative primary education is required where schools don’t exist, where schools are not good enough, where teachers are not available or where teachers are not good enough, for whatever reason.

(4) A possible alternate system is SOLE (self-organizing learning environment) that was observed in a set of “hole-in-the wall” experiments. It was discovered that a child could self-learn to browse on Internet within 8 minutes. They could even self-learn English by locating an English teaching site on the web.

(5) We found younger children teaching the older one. Six to 13-year-olds could self-instruct in a connected environment (group), irrespective of anything that we could measure. We got a clean learning curve, almost exactly the same as what you would get in a school. They seem to be learning as much by watching as by doing.

(6) The conclusion was that primary education, or parts of it, can happen on its own. It does not have to be imposed from the top downwards. It could perhaps be a self-organizing system. All natural systems are self-organizing.

(7) So, the conclusions are:

• Remoteness affects the quality of education.
• Educational technology should be introduced into remote areas first.
• Values are acquired; doctrine and dogma are imposed.
• Learning is most likely a self-organizing system.

(8) it gives us a goal, a vision, for an educational technology pedagogy that is digital, automatic, fault-tolerant, minimally invasive, connected and self-organized. We can call this educational technology “out-doctrination,” It could be a goal for the future.

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Reference: Course on Subject Clearing

These methods are described at

5 Alternative Teaching Methods

The common features of these methods are:

1. All of these methods are against indoctrination. 
2. They support “self-learning.” 
3. They believe that a child is capable of learning by oneself.
4. Best learning is hands on and experienced with all senses.
5. One should feel free to make mistakes and learn from them.
6. Learning should be free of evaluation by others.

These methods are summarized as follows.

1. MONTESSORI

1. Children are born with absorbent minds and are fully capable of self-directed learning. They are not born as “blank slates.”
2. Educational environment should empower children with the freedom to choose how they spend their time in school. In such environment children would seek out opportunities to learn on their own.
3. Structured lessons and teacher-driven curriculum inhibit a child’s natural development. Children enjoy and need periods of long concentration.
4. Most learning takes place through tactile sensation.
5. Education should be non-competitive without grades, tests and other forms of formal assessments.
6. Evidence shows that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills.

2. STEINER/WALDORF

1. Humans have the inherent wisdom to uncover the mysteries of the world.
2. Education should focus on the development of the “whole child,” with an emphasis on creative expression and social and spiritual values.
3. First 7 years of a child’s life (up to 2nd grade) should be marked by imitative and sensory-based learning and devoted to developing a child’s non-cognitive abilities. Kindergartners are encouraged to play and interact with their environment. Children are encouraged to write before they learn to read.
4. From age 7-14, creativity and imagination are emphasized, including learning of foreign languages and expressive dance and performing arts. Demands for standardized testing are restricted.
5. By age 14, students are ready for a more structured environment that stresses social responsibility.

3. HARKNESS

1. The educational method involves all students in the learning process. It is an approach designed to get at the individual boy.
2. Students sit with their classmates and teacher around a large oval table and discuss any and all subjects, from calculus to history, often in great detail. Individual opinions are formed, raised, rejected, and revised.
3. The teacher’s main responsibilities are to ensure that no one student dominates the discussion and to keep the students on point. No conversation is ever the same.
4. The group is small enough so that the shy or slow individual is not submerged.
5. The intimate setting of the Harkness table forces students to take responsibility for their own learning and encourages them to share their opinions.
6. In addition to learning about topics being discussed, students also learn valuable public speaking skills and to be respectful of their fellow students’ ideas.
7. Studies have supported the method’s effectiveness in increasing students’ retention and recall of material.

4. REGGIO EMILIA

1. Children are competent, curious and confident individuals who can thrive in a self-guided learning environment where mutual respect between teacher and student is paramount.
2. This educational approach is about exploring the world together and supporting children’s thinking rather than just giving them ready-made answers.
3. This approach is most important for teaching children aged 3 to 6.
4. It emphasizes the importance of parents taking an active role in their child’s early education.
5. Classrooms are designed to look and feel like home and the curriculum is flexible, as there are no set lesson plans.  Emphasis is placed on art and on a variety of creative projects.
6. Extensive documentation of a child’s development, including folders of artwork and notes about the stories behind each piece of art, is kept.

5. SUDBURY

1. The basic postulate is that students are inherently motivated to learn. Students are capable of assuming a certain level of responsibility and of making sound decisions. In the event that they make poor decisions, learning comes in the form of dealing with the consequences.
2. Sudbury schools operate under the basic tenets of individuality and democracy and take both principles to extremes. Students have complete control over what and how they learn, as well as how they are evaluated, if at all.
3. At the weekly School Meeting, students vote on everything from school rules and how to spend the budget to whether staff members should be rehired. Every student and staff member has a vote and all votes count equally.
4. Students regularly engage in collaborative learning, with the older students often mentoring the younger students.
5. Annual tuition for the Sudbury Valley School, which welcomes students as young as 4 years old, is $6,450 for the first child in a family to attend the school.

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