We aren't born with the knowledge that we need to operate
effectively in the physical environment to fulfill ourselves. However, we are
born with the need to know. This need to know operates as a driving force in our
lives coming from the innermost depths of who we are. Our natural sense of
curiosity compels us to explore and learn.
Boredom acts as an inner force compelling us to look for something new to discover and learn about.
Attractions also act as an inner force, compelling us to move through the environment to discover and create experience.
To learn a skill, we usually have to break the skill down into a series of small steps and concentrate on each individual step until we can put all the steps together into a series of effective movements. By concentrating on each small step, we narrow our focus of attention to the point where we are oblivious to anything else going on in the environment.
Without this characteristic of our nature, where our skills drop to an unconsciousness level of operation, we would find it nearly impossible to move beyond the performance level of a typical infant. Just think what it would be like if we had to concentrate on all the movements necessary just to pick something up the way a typical infant does. We didn't always have the eye/hand coordination that we take completely for granted. We had to learn it. We learned it because we were attracted to things in the environment we wanted to experience with our sense of touch. As we learn each skill, we can automatically access the series of movements to execute the skill so we don't have to concentrate on any of the individual steps, which then frees our attention to explore and continually expand what we can become aware of.
Learning is a function of our existence. It will occur quite naturally through our powerful sense of curiosity and what we find ourselves attracted to in the environment that we just need to know everything about. At the most fundamental level, learning will happen just because we are alive and have to interact with the environment to stay alive. So we will learn something. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that what we have learned is very useful with respect to how we might go about fulfilling ourselves in some satisfactory way. We have very little control in our early years over what we learn about the nature of the outside world and how it works.
Each change we make on the inside simultaneously changes our perspective and perception of the outside. The outside environment is different because we are operating out of new insights and understandings as a result of what has been added to or changed on the inside. Each new insight makes available to us new and different choices on how to interact more appropriately with the environment to change the quality of our experiences.
Since none of us is at the level of perfect knowledge, we can assume that within every experience we have with the physical environment there are other probable experiences resulting from other choices that were available but unknown to us at the time, the point being that what we end up with in any given situation will correspond exactly with our level of understanding, insight, and ability to act on what we know.
The more we allow ourselves to learn, the better able we are at making assessments about the possibilities that exist in some future moment.
If we aren't willing to acknowledge that in any given situation more information and choices exist than what our beliefs allow us to perceive, then we will never learn to recognize or anticipate the existence of these other more satisfying possibilities.
By acknowledging the possibility that a more appropriate set of steps exists, we open ourselves up to perceive and then learn the steps that can lead to greater levels of satisfaction. Refusing to acknowledge the existence of these possibilities would be the same as claiming that electricity didn't exist before it was discovered.
The outer environment becomes assaulting because it is offering us more to learn about the nature of the ways in which things exist and we are simply refusing to learn.
when there is a balance between the inside and outside, we experience the opposite feelings of joy, happiness, and satisfaction. So it would stand to reason that any time we feel these negative emotions, it is because we either didn't know the most appropriate set of steps, resulting in frustration and disappointment, or we don't know what to do next, resulting in stress, anxiety, and confusion. In any case, our feelings will always tell us about the state of our relationship with the environment and point the way to what we need to learn to experience greater degrees of satisfaction.
The first assumption would result in investigation, learning, and expansion, leading to greater levels of effectiveness and satisfaction. The last two assumptions would obviously lead to more dissatisfaction. The names and places may change, but we will experience the same kind of painful conditions over and over again. These cycles of dissatisfaction will continue until we acknowledge there is something we need to learn and go about the task of learning it.
Boredom acts as an inner force compelling us to look for something new to discover and learn about.
Attractions also act as an inner force, compelling us to move through the environment to discover and create experience.
To learn a skill, we usually have to break the skill down into a series of small steps and concentrate on each individual step until we can put all the steps together into a series of effective movements. By concentrating on each small step, we narrow our focus of attention to the point where we are oblivious to anything else going on in the environment.
Without this characteristic of our nature, where our skills drop to an unconsciousness level of operation, we would find it nearly impossible to move beyond the performance level of a typical infant. Just think what it would be like if we had to concentrate on all the movements necessary just to pick something up the way a typical infant does. We didn't always have the eye/hand coordination that we take completely for granted. We had to learn it. We learned it because we were attracted to things in the environment we wanted to experience with our sense of touch. As we learn each skill, we can automatically access the series of movements to execute the skill so we don't have to concentrate on any of the individual steps, which then frees our attention to explore and continually expand what we can become aware of.
Learning is a function of our existence. It will occur quite naturally through our powerful sense of curiosity and what we find ourselves attracted to in the environment that we just need to know everything about. At the most fundamental level, learning will happen just because we are alive and have to interact with the environment to stay alive. So we will learn something. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that what we have learned is very useful with respect to how we might go about fulfilling ourselves in some satisfactory way. We have very little control in our early years over what we learn about the nature of the outside world and how it works.
Each change we make on the inside simultaneously changes our perspective and perception of the outside. The outside environment is different because we are operating out of new insights and understandings as a result of what has been added to or changed on the inside. Each new insight makes available to us new and different choices on how to interact more appropriately with the environment to change the quality of our experiences.
Since none of us is at the level of perfect knowledge, we can assume that within every experience we have with the physical environment there are other probable experiences resulting from other choices that were available but unknown to us at the time, the point being that what we end up with in any given situation will correspond exactly with our level of understanding, insight, and ability to act on what we know.
The more we allow ourselves to learn, the better able we are at making assessments about the possibilities that exist in some future moment.
If we aren't willing to acknowledge that in any given situation more information and choices exist than what our beliefs allow us to perceive, then we will never learn to recognize or anticipate the existence of these other more satisfying possibilities.
By acknowledging the possibility that a more appropriate set of steps exists, we open ourselves up to perceive and then learn the steps that can lead to greater levels of satisfaction. Refusing to acknowledge the existence of these possibilities would be the same as claiming that electricity didn't exist before it was discovered.
The outer environment becomes assaulting because it is offering us more to learn about the nature of the ways in which things exist and we are simply refusing to learn.
when there is a balance between the inside and outside, we experience the opposite feelings of joy, happiness, and satisfaction. So it would stand to reason that any time we feel these negative emotions, it is because we either didn't know the most appropriate set of steps, resulting in frustration and disappointment, or we don't know what to do next, resulting in stress, anxiety, and confusion. In any case, our feelings will always tell us about the state of our relationship with the environment and point the way to what we need to learn to experience greater degrees of satisfaction.
The first assumption would result in investigation, learning, and expansion, leading to greater levels of effectiveness and satisfaction. The last two assumptions would obviously lead to more dissatisfaction. The names and places may change, but we will experience the same kind of painful conditions over and over again. These cycles of dissatisfaction will continue until we acknowledge there is something we need to learn and go about the task of learning it.
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