May 12 2013: People, how many friends and relatives do you know who say they are not creative? Do you say that about yourself? Do you? If you do you are flat wrong!! Any human being who says they are not creative are in the majority in western culture, especially in America. And they think that way because of the dominant philosophy of schooling Robinson is talking about. Aand the result is defeat. And all those who think they are not creative are wrong, no exception; everyone. They, we, are all of us creative and that essential creativity can be awakened in seconds! In seconds! No kidding. I've been doing it for forty years. And then once awakened, once people feel that fiery wonder within they begin to nourish it themselves. All we teachers have to do is facilitate the development and maturation of the creative impulse. But no, our system is designed so that it creates a sense of failure within its victims. And that is a crime,a withering and inexcusable crime. Every kid, every one of us has to learn that our mistakes are not failures. Our mistakes are seeds, opportunities, reasons to get up in the morning. We can -each one of us- awaken that need, that burning need to learn. God let it happen.
Mar 14 2013: Developments in the general topic of renewal of species is beginning to happen faster than we might have thought. In Germany a species of bison is being released into unfenced forests.
Mar 13 2013: The deepest sadness arises in us when we understand at last that the bully needs to make others seem small or unattractive or ugly. The bully needs to do that to make him/her self feel good. And this sadly stupid motivation is rooted in the tribal culture we all grow up in: dominate, control, fear.
The behavior is not genetic in children. It's their Western heritage. And, y'know? ... it's adolescent.
We behave like adolescents in the Western culture til we die. We don't need to accept that.
Nov 6 2012: This talk is all about the thinking of inexperienced and callow youth. Csikszentmihalhyi has found the secret of happiness in flow. Right. Centuries ago the Zen masters found the secret of happiness in immersion in NOW: Chop wood, carry water. Be here now. There is nothing but NOW. Why get attached -ATTACHED- to anything else? To be attached to memories or to future fears and desires takes one out of the singular reality of NOW. This talk is science sucking on the nipple of adolescence.
Jul 14 2012: My 92 year old friend just gave up driving. She lives in a rural district. There is no public transport. She has no way to get to the store or to church or to any kind of entertainment and she is otherwise healthy and sportif but with only an occasional friend who will come out to her and give her a ride. She needs an autonomous vehicle in order to get food. How soon will this happen?
Will she live long enough to acquire such a car?
Jun 24 2012: I wish more people would get the monumnetal truth beneath our fascination with the solar system: it is where we came from. Our atoms are its atoms. Its atoms are our atoms. We are a manifestation of the solar system. We came from the same exploded star that the sun and all those planets and gas and rocks came from. Our full appreciation of that fact will help us grow emotionally and spiritually and take us away from our attachment to out little egos. Thos egos are a wart on the ass of time in relation to who we really are.
Jan 30 2012: I hope some of you keen observers noted that the basis of their creativity lay in play, in playing freely with the materials, the conditions at hand.
Jan 23 2012: I think this talk about who we are is too complicated. There are three aspects to our identity.
First, we are an expression of the universe and as such we are the universe aware of itself. Secondly, our unique DNA creates or expresses an individual unique in itself, a persona or mask totally unlike any other even when twinned, and thirdly, we begin at somewhere around age four developing a role in society, the ego, that we continue to develop through life. That "ego" is not unlike the role an actor prepares for the stage or screen except the actor lets go of the role when the curtain comes down. Every society encourages the development of different kinds of role. Pakistanie egos are not like Alabama egos.
The big problem is that people are generally not made aware they create this role and soon they begin to believe the role defines who they are. At that point they -we - begin to do the worst thing we can do to ourselves: believe the role is all and that it defines us. The Buddha (the Man who woke up) realized that worst thing was attachment to our role in life.
In other words, enlightenment (awakening to our cosmic reality), arrives when we find the true answers to the three primal questions: Who are we? Children of Earth and Cosmos. Where are we from? We are StarStuff. Our "little bits" were once out there in space exploded from a star. Why are we here? There is no cosmic answer to that question. The best answer, one we must discover for ourselves and incorporate into our culture, is that we must take responsibility for all we are related to; that is, to Earth and ALL its children and care for that place and its children with reverence. When we find the answers to these three questions we find both transcendence and compassion.
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A comment on Talk: Ken Robinson: How to escape education's death valley
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The behavior is not genetic in children. It's their Western heritage. And, y'know? ... it's adolescent.
We behave like adolescents in the Western culture til we die. We don't need to accept that.
And we can change that.
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A reply on Talk: Chris Gerdes: The future race car -- 150mph, and no driver
Will she live long enough to acquire such a car?
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First, we are an expression of the universe and as such we are the universe aware of itself. Secondly, our unique DNA creates or expresses an individual unique in itself, a persona or mask totally unlike any other even when twinned, and thirdly, we begin at somewhere around age four developing a role in society, the ego, that we continue to develop through life. That "ego" is not unlike the role an actor prepares for the stage or screen except the actor lets go of the role when the curtain comes down. Every society encourages the development of different kinds of role. Pakistanie egos are not like Alabama egos.
The big problem is that people are generally not made aware they create this role and soon they begin to believe the role defines who they are. At that point they -we - begin to do the worst thing we can do to ourselves: believe the role is all and that it defines us. The Buddha (the Man who woke up) realized that worst thing was attachment to our role in life.
In other words, enlightenment (awakening to our cosmic reality), arrives when we find the true answers to the three primal questions: Who are we? Children of Earth and Cosmos. Where are we from? We are StarStuff. Our "little bits" were once out there in space exploded from a star. Why are we here? There is no cosmic answer to that question. The best answer, one we must discover for ourselves and incorporate into our culture, is that we must take responsibility for all we are related to; that is, to Earth and ALL its children and care for that place and its children with reverence. When we find the answers to these three questions we find both transcendence and compassion.
The society and the culture are not yet informed.