There are no coincidences - es gibt keine Zufälle

After I had just posted yesterdays text, the doorbell rang and a package from Amazon.de had arrived.....it contained 2 DVDs and it is called: Eckart Tolle Findhorn Seminar "Stille inmitten der Welt" - this then was the visuell edition of a remarkable event that had taken place at Findhorn - in the North of Scottland in May 2004.

I went to Findhorn for the first time in May 2005 and took part in a retreat with Neale Donald Walsch - another well known spiritual teacher....so this then was a video recording of an event with the German born teacher Eckhart Tolle....when I thumbened through that small book that came with the 2 DVDs I stopped at this text on page 28 ( kein Zufall !!) and it is in direct relation to what I had just posted... and since the book is a German translation I will quote the text in its German form:

Es gibt eine schöne Geschichte von der Frau,die Ein Kurs in Wundern geschrieben hat.Sie hatte eine Vision,in der sie in einer alten Kiste eine Pergamentrolle fand,eine sehr alte Rolle,und als sie diese Rolle auseinanderrollte,sah sie Zeichen auf der linken und andere Zeichen auf der rechten Seite und sie hörte eine Stimme sagen:"Wenn Du liest was links steht,kennst Du die Vergangenheit,und wenn Du liest,was rechts steht,kennst Du die Zukunft".

Sie betrachtete die linke Seite und die rechte,und dann rollte sie zurück zur Mitte und da stand:Life just is.Da sagte die Frau:"Das ist alles,was mich interessiert.Etwas anderes will ich gar nicht".Und die Stimme sagte:"Herzlichen Glückwunsch,Du bist angekommen"

Die Fau hatte es geschafft,sich ganz dem gegenwärtigen Augenblick - ( jenem NOW auf der Mitte unserer Zeitachse ) zuzuwenden.

This story fits nicely with what happened to me during the test. When my students wrote their first test on September 24 I had the occasion to somehow sit on top of an empty desk nicely in their midst and as I was stilling myself I suddenly began to notice each one of them in a different way......these were no longer just the Jenny, Bobby,Taylan, Katarina and eighteen others.....somehow something else about them had become visible - some sort of aura or light spot had appeared and I immediately felt a deep affection for the group....this lasted for about 30 seconds - maybe 60 seconds at the most but " it" was there - "it" was around them and "it" was felt within me! Being in the moment I had briefly overcome my usual perception of separation.How wonderful this felt - so free and easy.

And I guess we as teachers all long for these special moments when a sense of Oneness with our students re-energizes our heart. This then is what I had meant to say when I spoke of the AHA! effect that can occur when we center ourselves in the NOW and seeing the left part and the right part of the time-line axis model for what they are: nothing but thought based constructs.

Begin with the end in mind

One of the many teachings my mother tried to get across to me was the idea to think things through - to begin with the end in mind.....so where will writing this blog take me to?And what about my students? When they started their first semester this August - did they think their decision through? Did they have the end in mind? Did they wonder how they will be or might be different once they graduate in a few years?Did they envision some form of academic studies thereafter?Did some future job related visions cross their minds?How did each of them structure the BE DO HAVE paradigm?

And will they be able to mentally align in the here and now to achieve what they may have set out to achieve? Will some of them even begin to become aware that searching for a sense about who they truly are in the realm of good grades and college diplomas might ultimately be a frustrating enterprise ?What has my role been in this process so far?

In some of our early lessons we drew a horizental time line and and marked the point in the the middle of the axis THE PRESENT...everything to the right we named THE FUTURE and the line to the left of it we called THE PAST and then we entered six different tenses at their appropriate spots: going to future;will future on the right and Present Perfect,Past and Past Perfect on the left - what a nice and easy to remember model - and yet so very much misleading. It graphically deepens the idea that reality can be divided into these time slots - totally ignoring the fact that these tenses are nothing but thought constructs that always find their ultimately fulfillment only in the Here and Now - for the NOW is truly the only moment that really is......and so did I deepen this illusion by writing and even testing for the appropriate key words on the board:soon,tomorrow,next year,in the year 2010, and their counterparts for the past: ago,when I was,yesterday,in the year 2001,last year?

So where will this preoccupation with the various tenses lead us to....will there be the added joy of some sort of AHA! awakening ( in some or even in all of us ) or will our efforts with the tenses simply end with certain grades as a result of yesterday's first test??

In today's lesson we watched the first part of: The Whale Rider and ended where Paikea calls out to the whales for help - does this mean she is thinking things through until the end? Well,we will certainly find this out after we return from our well deserved Fall break!

Second thoughts

Now that my first post has been successfully accepted by the program I begin to have some second thoughts about the project...will the students go along?Will they see any benefit in blogging?Will the learning curve become too big of a challenge? Who will be encouraged and motivated and who won't? How will their English entries be formulated?

Only Two More Days

It feels very good to be back as a blogger......my adult students and I are only two days away from our Fall vacation and when we get back we want to start on our blog-writing project.I have a few ideas about where we want to go with this and in the end we will be positively surprised how well we all did and how nicely our writing skills will have improved...this will be fun and I can't wait to get started...it is as the old saying goes: when the student is ready...the "right" teacher will appear - in this case it will be a program called blogspot!