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Comparing Passive and Active Learning
American Education, Community and
Culture
Active Learning: “Coffee & Conversation”
Active Learning: “Music for Morning
Meditation”
The Three Horizons: Family Resemblances
Within Them
The Three Horizons: Possible Relations
Between Them
Metaphors We Live By: Horizon, Frame, Lens
“What I hear I
forget.
What I see I
remember.
What I do I
understand.”
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We live in the American culture of “utilitarian
values” and “rugged individualism.” Vance
Packard has called us “A Nation of Strangers.”
Even our educational settings are often
constructed in a such a way as is aesthetically
sterile and individually autonomous. Everyone is
“bowling alone.”
We need to re-imagine education to foster the
values of friendship, conversation,
collaboration and community within highly
creative and engaged learning environments.
T
H
N
“FAMILY RESEMBLANCES” WITHIN EACH HORIZON
Grand Fathers & Grand Mothers. Fathers & Mothers. Parents
& Children. Brothers & Sisters. Nieces & Nephews. Blended
Families & Adopted. Remember: “Families squabble!”
T
?
H
?
N
Some Relational Options
Separate-But-Equal (Dualism). Integral (Neutral Monism)
T is Prime Reality (Idealism). N is Prime Reality (Materialism)
We Don’t Know (Agnosticism). H Is What Matters (Pragmatism)
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So do we live in “one world” or “many
worlds?”
A “literalist” who doesn’t hear these as
metaphors will insist that “logically” only one
of them can be true, and will thus argue
against those who take the alternate view.
By contrast, one who hears these two ideas
as metaphorical rather than literal ways of
speaking will see that both of them can be
true within their own linguistic and cultural
contexts. They welcome paradox!
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Credulous
Affirming
Ambivalent
Doubtful
Skeptical
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Contemplative (cool): meditative, silent, still,
tranquil, reflective, mindful, illumined,
awakened, observant, sensitive, perceptive,
reverent, sacramental, sacred
Romantic (Warm): tender, intimate, wistful,
exotic, elegiac, longing, yearning, melancholic,
rhapsodic, idealistic
Ecstatic (Hot): joyful, transported, transfixed,
amazed, rapturous, euphoric, elated,
enchanted, exhilarated, blissful, delirious,
exulting, felicitous, intoxicated, jubilant
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Celebrating ecstasy in its many varieties:
intense bliss, soul-lifting rapture, communion
with nature, spiritual illumination, egotranscendence, mind-stilling peace, wild
eroticism, perceptual estrangement,
overpowering joy, self-renewal, moving
aesthetic responses, peak experiences, oceanic
movements, sacred encounters, and
consciousness expansion, as well as lifeaffirming emotions such as awe, wonder,
gratitude, and most important of all – love.
Drugs
Alcohol
Food
Sex
Money
Power
Politics
Religion
Clothes/
Cars
Gambling
Sports/
Games
Radio/TV
Phone/
Texting
Internet
Work
Relationships
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Some people seem to be born with an intense
need for such primal experiences as
contemplation, romance and ecstasy, that is, of
solitude, communion and union.
Other people may appreciate these primal
experiences if and when they come, but give less
attention and priority to them.
Still others, like Freud, are deeply skeptical and
suspicious of such primal experiences,
associating them with infantile regression,
wishful thinking, irrational escapism and
psychological neurosis.
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There are those who walk and talk like a
“mystic,” but they reject the name. For them it
has negative connotations.
There are not only transcendental mystics
who perceive a “higher dimension” of reality
beyond the finite human and natural physical
worlds.
There are also “humanistic mystics” and
“natural mystics.”
There are even some mystics who combine all
three horizons, and even the fourth horizon of
technology.
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One can be a mystic, transcendentalist,
contemplative and ecstatic, and still be a
multi-disciplinary “polymath” who is fluent
in higher education and the liberal arts.
Some people are able to combine the
transcendental, naturalistic and humanistic
horizons of insight, knowledge and
experience while respecting their different
assumptions, methods and approaches to the
polyvalent nature of reality.
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We get trapped by our literalizing, decontexualized and reifying use of abstract
language.
Abstract words like “transcendental,”
“humanistic” and “naturalistic” are historically
situated and culturally constructed. Each has
“multi-valiant” uses and meanings.
Abstract conceptual words typically have a
variety of both denotative and connotative
meanings.
From the time
they were
children,
some persons
possess an
acute sense of
the Infinite &
the Eternal, of
the Ineffable
& Sublime
Mystery of
Reality.
BEI
NG
Nou
n
X
PROC
ESS
Verb
They are not
ultimately
concerned with
representational
words but with
presentational
presence, with
“inner
knowing”
(gnosis) &
primal
experience.
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“The metaphysic that recognizes a
divine Reality substantial to the world
of things and lives and minds; the
psychology that finds in the soul
something similar to, or even identical
with, divine Reality; the ethic that
places man's final end in the knowledge
of the immanent and transcendent
Ground of all being — the thing is
immemorial and universal.”
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The Tao (that Cannot Be Named). Quantum
Leaper. Particle Rancher. Wave Rider. The
Universally Local Network. The Single Tree
and the Wind that Moves It. The Singular
Multiplicity. The Great Hologrammer. The Lord
of Fractals. The Cosmic DNA. Information
Central. The Big Blossoming (Big Bang?). The
Alpha and Omega helix. The Eternal Temporal
Mobius Strip. The In-Dwelling Aphrodisiac. The
Universal Object Subject of Our Affections. The
Care-ful One and Many. The End (Telos) of
Every Love Story.
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The Sympathetic Participant in All suffering
and Delight. The Knower, the Known, and
the Knowing. The Verb That Activates All
Other Verbs. In-dwelling Spirit. The Womb
of Becoming. The Eternal Not Yet. The EverEvolving One and Many. The Beginning
Without Ends. The Source and Sorcerer. The
Black Hole Where Love Embraces Death.
The All-Inclusive None and Void. The
Subject that Encompasses All Predicates. The
Cosmic Web Master. Weaver of the Warp.
Central Casting’s Cosmic Host,
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Wonder/Awe. Gratitude. Anxiety/Dread.
Joy. Grief/Mourning. Reverence.
Empowerment. Potentiality, Purpose,
Vocation. Empathy/Compassion. Sacred
Outrage. Hope. Trust. Humility. (Sam Keen)
Love. The Thou. Joy. Suffering. Evil. Pardon.
Crucial Moments. Nature. Silence. Propitious
Places (R. Panikkar)
Profane power is:
Sacred energy is:
Mechanistic
Coercive
Forceful
Speedy (Chronological)
Diminished by being
shared
Divisive
Competitive
Purposeful
Alluring
Erotic
Patient (Kairotic)
Increased by being
shared
Uniting
Cooperative
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Transcendent: “Above & Beyond” Physical, Emotive,
Rational Realms Immanent: “In and Through” the
Physical, Emotive, Rational Realms
Ineffable Mystery: “Via Negativa” – “Inner Stillness &
Living the Questions”
Revelation & Illumination: “Via Positiva” – “Outer
Witness & Inner Light”
Metaphysical Ideals: Beauty, Goodness, Truth; Light, Life,
Love;
Justice, Mercy, Peace; Being, Consciousness,
Bliss, Yin, Yang, Tao...
Primal Peoples’ Phenomenological Cosmogony:
Above -Infinite-Invisible-Eternal-Heaven
Human Being: “Between-ness”
Below-Finite-Visible-Temporal-Earth
Eastern Wisdom Traditions
1. Being, Consciousness,
Bliss
2. Non-attachment,
Mindfulness, Compassion
3. Yin, Yang, Tao
Western Wisdom Traditions
1. Justice, Mercy, Humility
2. Faith, Hope, Love; Light,
Life, Love
3. Submission, Passion,
Ecstasy
Shankara:
Union with the
One
Transpersonal
Absolute
Ramanuja:
Communion
with the
Divine Lover
and Creative
Source
The goal of life is
to merge and
become one with
Being, like sugar
dissolving in
water.
The goal of life is
not be become
sugar that
dissolves but taste
sugar in intimate
communion
YIN in the Integral Tao
Feminine
Night
Moon
YANG in the Integral Tao
Masculine
Day
Sun
Passive Principle
Intuition
Cold
Active Principle
Logic
Hot
Soft
Hard
YIN PHASE
Tribal Societies
Epoch I
YANG PHASE
Coercive
Civilizations
Epoch II
INTEGRAL
FUTURE
Planetary Holism
Epoch III
Magic
Folk, Aesthetic,
Commercial Arts
Labor, Exercise,
Sports, Dance
Life as Art
Work
Integral Movement
Incipient Phase
Caste/Class Phase The Great Integrity
Birth of Humanity Technological
Rebirth of
Revolution
Humanity
NF: Intuitive–Feeling:
Oceanic Idealist:
“Harmony”
The Way of the Mystic
Secular Poet
SP: Sensing-Perceiving:
Volcanic Artisan:
“Devotion”
The Way of the Shaman
The Secular Artist
NT: Intuitive-Thinking
Ethereal Rational:
“Unity”
The Way of the Sage
Secular Philosopher
SJ: Sensing-Judgment
Territorial Guardian:
“Works”
The Way of the Prophet
The Secular Reformer
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Modern Secular “Immanent-Transcendence”
These surrogate “Gods” may function as
“Immortality Projects”
Nature, History, Humanity, Reason, Romance,
Community, Sensuality, Sexuality, Imagination,
Creativity, Will, Courage, Education, Science,
Technology, Music, Poetry, Art, Freedom,
Democracy, Capitalism, Socialism, Liberalism,
Conservatism, Money, Status, Power, Fame, etc.
Secular Modernism seeks a Grand Narrative not
through Religion and Mysticism but through
Science and Philosophy.
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Post-Modern Secular “Immanence without
Transcendence”
Post-modern constructivism seeks to live without
any Grand Narrative or Theory of Everything, only
an endless varieties of versions of “reality” and
“truth” that have local culturally constructed
meanings but no universal claim to truth or
significance.
Such abstract concepts and reifications as “Reality”
and “Truth” are simply words we made up and
then “conflated” with real objects of experience.
“Reality” and “Truth” are “useful fictions.”
Eros: Desire
Agape: Sacrifice
Affirmation: Fullness
Self-Expression
Egoistic: What I Want
Creativity: Look What I
Made!
Desire: Enjoy the Good Life
Hedonic Pleasure: Savor Life
Seeking Life: Potentiality
Transference: Attachment
Renunciation: Emptiness
Self-Surrender
Altruistic: What Others Need
Compassion: How Are You?
Duty: Serve a Greater
Purpose
Heroic Suffering: Save
Others
Accepting Death: Limitation
Transfiguration: Letting Go
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Q. What does the Transcendental Horizon
mean you?
Q. Why does it matter, or not matter, in today’s
world?
Q. How do people recognize and cultivate the
transcendental horizon?