The Journey to Wisdom

Transformative learning refers to the process of reflection with regard to choice-making and a specification of the frames of assumptions embedded within one’s beliefs. Transformative learning is crucial in order to deal more effectively with different worldviews, to expand our critical consciousness and to encompass nonrational ways of knowing (McWhinney & Markos, 2003).

The outcome of transformative learning can start due to a sudden, dramatic loss or a slow awakening of a loss of meaning in life. A process of self-evaluation initiates this learning cycle whereby the individual crosses a threshold so that normal activity and expectations are changed (McWhinney & Markos, 2003). The transformative passage will eventually entail processes of unlearning, research, exploration, and testing possible new roles. The individual fully or partially reintegrates into everyday life often with new assumptions, more socially responsive relationships, and a more open and flexible worldview. Rather than adopting a right or new point of view, transformation is about becoming more open and flexible in one’s world view (Cranton & Roy, 2003).

Transformative learning implies a deliberate cognitive activity in contrast to unreflectively taking in information that fits our frames of reference and rejecting other information. Some examples include, but are not limited to: (a) pondering about big questions; (b)visualization, which focuses on the use of symbol to promote insight; (c) body focusing, which is a form of knowing that is situated in the body; (d) writing poetry or stories (e) free-form writing, such as, journal writing (Hart, 2003). Such contemplative practices add balance to the analytic approach (Hart, 2003).

The key factor is the active reflection on the experience that brings about learning or a change (Merriam, 2004). There is a distinction between reflecting on content or process as opposed to reflecting on assumptions about ourselves, others, or our culture (Merriam, 2004). Shifting perspectives, nevertheless, can lead to discomfort or can result in an emotional upheaval, according to Moore (2005).

Transformation does not happen quickly. Some time is required until a set of new assumptions is reintegrated. Some re-integrations are successful as the individual performs as expected with more socially responsive relationships; however, an individual may also remain in a liminal state taking on a spiritual life or remain partly in a liminal world and partly in the everyday environment (Merriam, 2004).

Given the massive amount of learning resources on the Web, online communities and web-based learning can certainly contribute to the process of transformative learning as various theorists such as Downes argues as well.

Presence by definition refers to awareness—being present in the moment as opposed to our habitual ways of doing. It allows one to let go of habitual ways of understanding and our own fixed sense of identity. It leads us towards “making choices to serve the evolution of life.” (Senge, 2008). A shift in our awareness can lead to the manifestation of an emerging and desirable future.” (Rome, 2008).

Senge and Scharmer (2007) developed the following theoretical framework that proposes a three-stage model for deep change, with the letter “U” serving as a simple device (“Theory of the U”). The lefthand, downward stroke of the U is called “sensing,” the turn at the bottom is “presencing,” and the upward stroke is “realizing.”

- “Sensing”: This is a deeper kind of observation that involves a specific set of innate capacities that must be developed, namely: suspending, redirecting, and letting go.

“Suspending” is the ability to pause one’s habitual flow of ideation and mental models built up in the past, in the service of opening up a space of consciousness that is free from already-formed concepts.

“Redirecting” refers to the ability to “see from the whole to the part”. It requires one to dissolve the boundaries between seer and seen, subject and object. “

“Letting go” is the capacity to “surrender our perceived need to control.” In contrast to fixed views and attachments, the gesture of letting go brings us back to the present moment as both concrete reality and an endless open field of fresh possibility.

- “Presencing:” This refers to the transformative moment of “a paradigm shift in which in accordance with the arising of new, previously unimaginable options for action, one’s sense of being is altered.

- “Realizing”: A three-stage process of operationalizing the radical learning achieved in “sensing” and “presencing.” After the slowing down and deepening of the earlier stages, realizing must be executed with swiftness and courage.

It is only through a rapid cycle of self-observation and correction in real-time that one can come to a new realization. A flow of improvisation in which the particulars inspire the evolution of the whole and vice versa is essential to this process.

The capacity to do all of this depends on personal mastery, and on the ability for reflective awareness. As Senge says:

“Western culture’s growing reliance on reductionist science and technology over the past 200 years fits the revealing a play of forces that create growing technological power and diminishing human development and wisdom. . . . By giving us perceived power, modern technology reduces the felt need to cultivate our own sources of power.”

One of the leading researchers on the process of effective choice-making- Caroline Myss- stated that, “Managing the power of choice, with all its creative and spiritual implications, is the essence of the human experience.”So, the “choice to choose” has an inherent spiritual power and it has an ongoing interaction with ones’ inner life Myss, 2003). Managing the process well is what determines the direction and outcome of people’s lives. Myss (2003) also wrote that even when choices made from fear lead us to what we desire, they generally also produce unwanted side effects.

Based on our choice to choose, intended outcomes orchestrate the biological mechanisms to fulfill themselves. As Chopra noted, “Your cells are constantly processing experience and metabolizing it according to your personal views. You don’t just funnel raw data through your eyes and ears and stamp it with a judgment. You physically turn into the interpretation as you internalize it.”

Our essential nature, who we really are, is the domain of ever-present witnessing awareness that is beyond our physical and mental layers. Accordingly, the spirit can be seen as a functioning system and a part of our daily lives (Myss, 2003). It embodies our thoughts and emotions. “When your heart is not in something, you can bring technical skill, but you will never bring in artistic skill, intuitive skill, love skill, and so forth.” (Myss, 2003). To bring in this intuitive skill, one should look deeply into oneself in the spirit of self-inquiry and self-understanding. It doesn’t require that we change anything, rather that we pay attention to things as they are.

"And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years."
A. Lincoln

For many of us, our ideas on what is true are constantly changing. Our idea about reality is formed by the world view of the culture in which we live. On the other hand, we also form an idea about reality and truth on the basis of our own experiences and inner knowing. Because of this, we may come to a realization that things are intrinsically different from what we had first assumed to be based on the world view of the culture in which we live.

While Western science was long regarded by many as the absolute authority on truth, an ever-growing number of people no longer regard it as the only true authority. The world view derived from traditional, reductionist science in fact restricts our scope to perceive and for many people is no longer satisfactory.

The great traditions of wisdom all assert that among the many possible truths, something of the nature of a Universal Truth should exist (de Vries, 2007). As De Vries (2007) asserts in the book "The Whole Elephant", rather than being the collection of information, the Universal Truth distinguishes itself from rational thinking through the integration of the heart. This Truth is independent of time, culture, religion and the multitude of our own different relative truths.

Depending on our skill to establish inner contact with a multidimensional world via our soul we distinguish between Truth on the one hand, and theories, concepts and opinions on the other (de Vries, 2007). Already centuries ago, the Christian mystic Eckhart (1260 - 1328) advised: “Love is required to know Truth, and knowledge of Truth is expressed by Love. (...) Whenever truth and love are separated from each other, the result is either sentimentality or dry intellectualism, in which power is divorced from compassion.”

He indicates that many of our modern predicaments are due to our dedication to truth as an exclusively mental attribute, while both these attributes, truth and love, are in fact the most essential aspects of the human soul.

The Western Sufi Ahmed Murad Chishti (Lewis, 1971) once mentioned as the reason why we don’t solve problems the fact that the answers often interfere with our concepts. In other words, we tend to look with and through our conscious mind, rather than going into the shadow side of our subconscious where the answers may lie. On another level, we can see all of the characters and elements of the story as occurring within one psyche.

Seven hundred years earlier, the Persian Sufi Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi said(Barks translation, 1990, p. 113):

"The inner being of a human being is a jungle. Sometimes wolves dominate, sometimes wild hogs. Be wary when you breathe! At one moment gentle, generous qualities, like Joseph's pass from one nature to another. The next moment vicious qualities move in hidden ways. A bear begins to dance. A goat kneels!"

As we go beyond these beyond the emotional boundaries and mental concepts related to who we are, we discover an inner landscape that is both richer and less controlled than the safety of fixed ideas and rules. Gregory Bateson (1974) called this type of approach “ecology of mind,” recognizing that consciousness operates much more like an eco-system than anything else, and that “mind” is embedded in an ecological reality, within and without.

As we recover a sense of the wild within, we may also come into a new relationship with nature outside us. Each being in the natural world is beautiful and of value in itself: each is a unique face of the inexpressible, the divine Beloved. Between these two extremes--personal limitation and boundless Unity-- lie all the movement and personality training that needs to be done. As one narrows the gulf felt between personal limitation and divine freedom, one perfects one's movement, so to speak, in all areas of life.

The Arabic word ‘aql refers to the intellect that combines reason and the higher intellect in the sense of intelligence-understanding, or mind-heart (Durham, 2007). Such an intelligence transcends the limiting conditions of the mind” (Durham, 2007). Throughout the history, such a higher faculty of intellection has been seen as the means of approaching the Divine Intellect by eminent scholars such as Ibn Sina (Avicenna). It is through this intellect, that man can understand the inner essence or principles of created things by means of direct apprehension or spiritual perception. Dwelling in the depth of the soul and constituting the innermost aspect of the Heart, the intellect is not only an organ of contemplation (Durham, 2007). This faculty provides us with the capacity to penetrate to mythical, archetypal and symbolic meanings. As Pascal said “We know the truth, not only by reason, but also by the heart”.

The word ‘aql' encompasses all reason, insight, conceptualisation through language, direct spiritual perception and a moral dimension; so it refers to the multi-levelled conception of intellect (Durham, 2007). The moral and cognitive dimensions are therefore intertwined, and not separated. In a hierarchically ordered conception of human faculties, cognitive psychology is part of moral philosophy, which is itself derived from, and subordinate to, spiritual revelation (Durham, 2007). This is also evident in the the Arabic conception of ‘excellence’ that is inseparable from goodness and virtue, whereas the Western conception of ‘excellence’ is limited to personal mastery, achievement and success (Durham, 2007).

Investigators in different fields who are now questioning the definition of intelligence accepted by many scientists, are also are advancing concepts such moral intelligence and ‘wisdom’ in addition to social or moral intelligence. The mention of the word "wisdom" should also be noted; it basically refers to a blend of knowledge and understanding within one’s being manifested in personal integrity, conscience, and effective behaviour.”

According to Crow, “the mystery of human intelligence or cognition is the subject of current neurological-based studies in the field of ‘cognitive psychology’”. He concludes that one of the key components of the concept of ‘aql was “ethical-spiritual: teaching how to rectify one’s integrity and to cause one’s human impulses, faculties and latent powers to flourish, with the purified emotions promoting the operation of a higher intelligence” (Durham, 2007).