Dear friends,
I wanted to share with you my ever-unfolding dream of being involved with the evolution of the public educational system. I feel like my whole entire short life thus far has been culminating towards it---towards the philosophy and spirituality of growing, of cultivating and nourishing oneself, and in turn others and the world, for thriving. For peace. Through mindfulness, exploration, opening, growing; through peace and peaceful interaction. Being with this process, present to it in myself and with others is the thing for me---it's what I want to cultivate and nourish.
I'd really love to see a peaceful, respectful and resourceful space in public high school education for young adults to be able to observe and examine themselves and the world and the way we interconnect. A place for us to start focusing on well-being on all the different levels---just a safe space that can facilitate the individual's own conscious development of themselves and their interactions with others. We already share together in the learning of math, science, language and social studies; what about sharing together in learning about well-being, healthy interaction, and conflict resolution? As a whole fifth subject in standard education. I really feel like it belongs. It seems to me that no matter how social you are or aren't, no matter what you end up doing, whether you drop out or continue education, whether you do factory work or house work or social work or military work or technical communication or art design or political writing or business owning or flower-picking or research or daydreaming, even if you locked yourself in a closet, you're interacting, with your environment, yourself, and (at least at some point) others. High school is an incredibly social place where most of us are pushed or push ourselves to really develop an identity (as cliché as that sounds). What a wonderful place of opportunity to start to consciously make space in ourselves for some of that growth and reflection, think about our well-being and the well-being of the world we live in, and cultivate some respect/compassion for ourselves/each other as we all share in some of the confusing mixture of human experience. Given all the complexity around us, it seems necessary to be able to integrate our sometimes-tendency of polarized thinking with a more holistic approach.
So I was recently inspired to write down some of the possible bones of a potential curriculum for such a subject. Many of the ideas here come from exchanges I've had with others: teachers I found in my parents, family and friends, in public, private, alternative and charter schools across the U.S., at Centauri Summer Arts camp, in the YFU program, in trains, planes, buses, streets, conferences, colloquiums, museums, businesses, non-profits, retreats, sanghas, monastic communities (like Plum Village, LoMB) and forests, throughout the U.S., Japan and Europe. I wanted to share this outline with you guys because I thought maybe you could give me feedback. I'm aware that this lofty aspiration is potentially risky in the way it could turn out (if ever it did), as facilitation can sometimes border on manipulation if not conducted well, and biases to certain view points can easily cloud or cut off the process. The dream is for mindfulness, openness, acceptance, transformation, reframing, the cycle of embracing and letting go, and peace. I was thinking maybe it could be a retreat or workshop, or even just start out as a discussion group...
Retreat/workshop/curriculum idea:
Cultivating peace, well-being, and conflict resolution on global, national, community, interpersonal, and inner levels.
With focus on participants’ explorations of:
- what it means to be healthy
- how to cultivate well-being through healthy interaction with self and others (and how to apply to any sort of conflict, from inner to global)
- how complexity can often cause us to feel lost and unable to make change or transform problems; how one can best (i.e. in most peaceful/respectful manner) reframe a situation in a non-reductionistic way that offers the individual more insight and feels more workable, if not less stressful
- emergent feelings/emotions (such as stress, sadness); where do they come from? What influences can they have on our life and others, how do they affect our body, our activities, our relationships, etc.? How can we modulate, manage and/or utilize these feelings in a healthy way, especially when we feel like we’re stuck or can't change?
- self; how to see oneself clearly and interact with oneself in a way that feels healthy to mind and body
- nourishment and balance; what do these concepts entail? What do they mean in the context of relationships, with self, others, community, environment, etc.
- peace; what does it entail? Where does it start, and how do we maintain it in ways that are consistent with our values and the ideal of peace we want to work towards?
- the relationship between the landscape, inner-space, "weather" or potential peace within us and the state of the external world (the landscape, "weather" or potential for peace in our immediate surroundings, state/national/international community, our past, future, etc.)
- how can we best maintain a lifelong healthy relationship between the two?
- the role of peace in life, the world, give and take, conscientiousness, social justice, industry and trade (looking at politics, economy (effects of trade on budget and debt, on individual), global resources, food industry (choice, consumption, effect on social dilemmas), etc.), responsibility, unwarranted aggression, confusion.
- desires behind consumption; what do we truly desire, and how do desires influence our consumption of material goods, ideas/beliefs, the media, identities/styles, anything we buy into, use or adopt.
- What do we desire in our relationships with others? How might our desires nourish/stimulate or constrict/damage those relationships? How can we sort out healthy wants and needs from those that might cause suffering for self and others? How might we voice our desires and needs to others such that we don’t suppress ourselves or hurt others, especially when expressing them feels difficult?
- change vs. facilitation; what are these concepts in the context of one’s motivations and actions in the world, with oneself and others? How might one learn to be able to freely change perspectives or open oneself to change in self and surroundings (while staying respectful of one’s needs)? What does it mean to be a facilitator? How could we go about facilitating growth in self/others/the world?
- resources for well-being, ranging from health clubs, community centers, and leisure sports, to discussion groups, spiritual community, integrative therapy, non-profit organizations and humanitarian or environmental projects
- passion in life, hobbies, work, activities or elsewhere; how can we cultivate meaning in life, and how can we pursue our dreams? What are resources that can help us or fuel us in following our hearts?
Goals for cultivating:
- ability to look at complex situations in an ecological way that integrates both global and linear/causal perspectives
- ability to embrace, express (constructively), move through and transform emergent/reactive feelings/emotions such as stress, anger, sadness, grief, anxiety, confusion, fear/discouragement, etc.
- awareness of the individual's life process, and patience and compassion for that process, in self and others
- ability to practice mindful listening and speech without necessarily compromising oneself or another; ability to identify for oneself a middle-way in a situation such that one can act in a manner that cultivates peace
- ability to, at any point throughout life, listen deeply to oneself and understand what one (personally) needs or can do to be healthy
- understanding interconnectedness (relationship) within and between communities, states, countries, and the world; awareness of the impact of decisions/actions/interactions (from voting, protesting, writing letters to voice opinions, issues, solutions, etc. to informed consumption and diversity of mental/physical input to affects on the individual by changes in seemingly distant/irrelevant politics, economy, and environment)
- a bank of resources for personal well-being that can nourish us and help us to thrive throughout all stages in life; resources that promote mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being
