Republic of virtue, 6/08

Smart schools vs sick schools

Posted by admin

Sunday, 15 June 2008 09:47

Now we hear that many schools do not have water and electricity supply, let alone computers to make the schools and students smart. I think our children deserve better than empty promises by the ministry in charge of human intelligence and social reproduction. Dr. Azly Rahman dr.azly.rahman@gmail.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it http://azlyrahman-illuminations.blogspot.com/ I read this excerpt of a news story below with disgust. '... One-third of Malaysia's schools do not have water and electricity, a minister said, pledging to fix the problem by 2010.... 'Deputy Education Minister Razali Ismail told Bernama that all 9,806 schools will have access to basic utilities by the end of a four-year education development plan....70 percent of schools already have access to water and electricity. The other 30 percent are mostly located in rural areas, but "we are confident the problem will be solved by 2010". ...Malaysia has implemented a series of five-year development plans with the aim of reaching developed-nation status by 2020..In the last national blueprint, announced in 2006, the government said RM1.15 billion would be spent to upgrade schools.' All we continue to hear are slogans such as '2010', 'Vision 2020', 'developed-nation status' and 'billions of ringgit of funding'. These cloud our vision of what schools ought to be. It is as if there is a 'manufactured crisis' going on: keep schools impoverished so that the government can keep making promises using empty slogans. The aim: only this government can continue to help those poor schools. This is the nature of mystification we have been fed with all these decades. recall then education minister Najib Abdul Razak making a statement about "smart schools" - "...that the first Smart School is being built at a cost of RM144.5 million. Apart from being wired, it would have a hostel for 800 students, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a hockey pitch, a hall and other facilities. Eventually all Malaysian schools will be operated on this concept. ..." Now we hear that many schools do not have water and electricity supply, let alone computers to make the schools and students smart. I think our children deserve better than empty promises by the ministry in charge of human intelligence and social reproduction. What has that ministry done since Merdeka to allow schools to be left in such a state? What paradigm of nationwide school improvement has the ministry been using in order to create such a deformed version of democracy and education? Is it a strategic plan to ensure that children of the poor will continue to perform the worst under such conditions, and that schools equipped with state-of-the-art technologies are select ones for children of the elite? No wonder we have an increasing number of Mat and Minah Rempit, Ah Longs and gangsters - they were educated in the most deplorable circumstances perhaps. They were schooled in environments with teachers who are not committed and motivated, but also imprisoned in classrooms that do not have the basic amenities compared to 'smart schools'. Overhaul long overdue It is simply unacceptable for this government to allow class stratification; schools not only become the stratifier of ethnic groups but also of classes of the poor, through the unequal distribution of resources. This is characteristic of the hideous form of schooling in Asian-style capitalist societies. How can we develop the child's intelligence to the fullest if schools are designed to fail them miserably? We must demand the exposure of the conditions of the schools - which schools get access to what and why. We must demand a comprehensive picture on why our schools are failing and unable to produce children smart enough to bring their intelligence, ethics, and problem-solving skills to the university and beyond an succeed in a world that is challenging. The new governments of the Pakatan Rakyat must undo what the Barisan Nasional (BN) government has done to the most under-privileged schools. They must gather data on what is lacking in the schools and how resources are shared. Certainly, if the situation has been exacerbated over the last 30 years of BN rule, how are we to see any changes in class and classroom stratification in the next 30 years? We see many projects like the Petronas Twin Towers, Multimedia Super Corridor, Monsoon Cup and Iskandar Malaysia carried out as fast, so that governmentally-linked companies can make money for the select few. Why does comprehensive school reform take ages to be implemented? This is the 'prison-industrial complex' approach we are taking in implementing national educational policy. By maintaining the sense of deprivation of the physical, psychological and intellectual aspects of the schools, we hope to produce more of those citizens who will be desperate enough to find ways be and become like the successful ones, but through desperate means. We are creating a larger underclass tempted by materialism in a system created to encourage conspicuous consumption - these citizens produced out of the smart schools-sick schools system. What then must we do to heal the system, to make our sick school smarter? This is for the education ministry and progressive parliamentarians to answer. Comments (74) ... written by ksmaniam, June 15, 2008 10:10:38 While being on the subject of education....I trust you can also look at the following:- 1, The education system in totality 2. The subjects taught, 3. The standard of language used and the flow of the language from one standard to another, 4. The flow of the subject from one standard to another, 5. The standard of the textbooks, 6. The standard of the teaching, 7. The standard of the teachers, on the subjects they teach and the command of the language, 8. The means and methods of choosing (or is it nominating) teachers, 9. The standard of the administration of the schools by the HM, 10. The standard and method the HM is chosen and the actual capability of the HM Dr Azly RAhman the whole malaysian education is in shambles, it needs a overhaul. The education system is the one which creates future malaysians. Talk to our youths and you will discover the faults. I think if not for the PARENTS taking a positive role in upbringing of their children this country will be shambles. The politicians are usually quick to point the finger at the parents. Which parent will want their children to go into doldrums. Why r we sending our children to tuition. Why don we need to give our children special tuition. During my time (Bernard Khoo patrolled our schools turning a gangster school into a real "school".) why do we need to ensure our daughters to be picked up by the parents. Why? report abuse disagree 0 agree 55 ... written by Rohani Hitam, June 15, 2008 10:16:23 The most despicable and embarassed thing that can happen in acountry like Malaysia. Where are we going to hide our face. Singapore laughing in their mind and feel relieved that there is no threat of competition from Malaysia for the next donkey years. report abuse disagree 0 agree 29 ... written by lynn, June 15, 2008 10:22:45 This issue on our public schools is long overdue. First, we cannot have buffoons / gutter politicians heading the MOE, including one that waves the keris to gain political mileage to raise that patriotic feeling to a higher level. Men without brains know only how to "promote" their issues via threats or acts of violence. Obviously the monkey has never heard of this "the pen is more powerful than the sword". Look at how the internet has helped to undone BN in GE12 thru the Real Time Media. Our schools are also "sick" in the sense different races mingle among their own races only. Religion also caused this divide,other races viewed as "infidels". If Malay kids want to learn to be competitive like some Chinese, they must mingle with the latter, play, eat, study together. That's how children learn, they mimic others. I know this as my son attended private school where Malays & non-Malays kids hv no problem mixing with each other of different race & religion. Ultimately, it benefited all three major races, for e.g. the weaker students in Maths learn from the better students who were different race. The Malays learned English because all their kawan2 speak to them only in English! Encouraging the Malay kids to mingle with other races will definitely help Malays to be well-rounded. Obviously the umno-led bn govt will disagree to this. This will eventually develop the nation into A One Race, which is bad for the corrupt govt to continue to retain political power & continue to drain the country of its wealth. A corrupt gov't can only hold on to power as long as the country is divided & forever squabbling over who gets what & who doesn't. One recycled method is to keep frigtening the Malays, "the non-Malays are questioning the Malay rights", "the Malays are losing political power" - I hope more Malays will read Dr Azly's well-written piece and ponder the situation; it's time the education system in bolehland be revamped, totally. report abuse disagree 0 agree 48 ... written by lynn, June 15, 2008 11:09:11 Here is a comparison between public schools in a developed country (USA) & a third-world country called Bolehland. In the US, when a school bus stops for students to alight or get on, traffic from both directions are required by law, to stop & allow school kids cross roads safely. When the orange lights on both sides of the back of the bus are switched off, then traffic resumes moving. In Bodohland, the cars don't have to stop, they occasionally ram into a kid or two, an incident treated as another statistic. Malaysia Boleh! Also in this country, the little buses or vans speed too otherwise those school kids may be late for school. Whose fault is it? Yours for having too many kids or the gov't's negligence for not providing efficient public transport & built infra in place? In the US, public schools are huge, well-equipped, every student has access to computers, libraries, well-kept landscaped gardens, ample parking, clean linoleum floors (mopped/swept twice a day), air-con in summer, heater in warmer, every student gets his/her locker, every student gets free text books which r huge volumes, use same textbooks for a number of years, cheap nutritious meals (the school issues a menu for an entire month) are served from sanitized stainless steel gleaming kitchens - meals incl. fresh milk, fresh fruit or fruit juices, yoghurt, bagels w/cream cheese,sandwiches or soft pretzels, broccoli, garden salad, scambled eggs w/toast, spaghetti, waffles w/syrup, baked cheetos with tender chicken, stuffed pasta shells, chicken fajita, cheese sub-sandwich c/w sun chips, pizza bars, bread sticks---- all food served in trays, covered with food wrap. How abt their washrooms? Yup, they are so clean because they hv janitors paid by govt to wash/clean them a few times a day! Back to this pathetic country, most public schools bursting at the seams, most classes overflowing with unruly kids, go to the canteen & take a look. Here's what I saw: greasy, unwashed, smelly Indons cooking even greasier, unhealthy food for our kids, you can guarantee in every canteen in this country, we have hundreds of flies swarming over food consumed by our kids. Go & look at the toilets - toilet bowls cracked, shit plastered on the wall (poor kids had no toilet paper, that's why they swiped on the walls), basins choked & clogged, floors wet & urine ponding, someone pooped in one of the stalls, the poop hardened, the flush not working........, or there is no water, and you walk out & vomit your lunch. Shit. Malaysia Boleh! At the start of every school year, you bring your kid to school, don't forget to bring an old wet towel to wipe down your kid's chair & desk, the dust is at least half inch thick. Where are the cleaners? Tak ada cleaners. The first week, your kids white uniform will turn grey during the absorbing process of cleaning the chairs & desks on behalf of the bn govt. Every year, my kid's old text books cannot be given to another less fortunate kid FOC. Why? Cos the bookshop said: "got some changes in syllabus, all kids need to purchase new textbooks." Every year, the same ****ing story. Some bastard in the gomen is making money every year from printers of new textbooks, changing the syllabus so that parents keep buying newer and newer textbooks. This is only happening in a country run by corrupt politicians. In conclusion, most people are born stupid - ie. there are parents who continuously vote in bn come every election - they are screwing up their own children's future. They are directly responsible for bn screwing up this country, ultimately ****ing-up every aspect of this country. The well to-do politicians ain't gonna suffer, their kids park in international schools while your kids attend these horrible public schools. When the so-called VVIPs kids grow up, they go to the UK, US, Australia for their degrees. While your kids try to get a PTPTN loan to "further his studies". Laughable. report abuse disagree 3 agree 80 ... written by sarawakian, June 15, 2008 11:27:11 on visiting my children's school now, i find the facilities and situation to be no better than the schools i went to 25 years ago. all the talk about IT, smart schools, computers etc etc are just a JOKE and just a ploy to enrich cronies. look at the "computer equipment" provided. over-spec'ed, under-utilised and sold at at enormous price to the MOE. 2 years later, a complete upgrade is made, spending more money and the older yet barely used equipment are pushed into a store. look at the study textbooks they are using now. the teaching methods has hardly changed since when i was in school. how can we expect children now to be smarter and more prepared for the 21st century when the education system is still 20th century? as long as the BN/UMNO control the Federal Government, Malaysia is headed for doom. report abuse disagree 0 agree 28 ... written by jeffrey3005, June 15, 2008 11:37:51 Tu sum up everything very bluntly, it is all talk and no action, all empty promises of this and that . For 50 years we have been hoodwink into believing these goons have done good for the nation but the truth is they are only benefitting themselves.>>>>>>>>> report abuse disagree 0 agree 12 ... written by cwy, June 15, 2008 11:40:22 The education minister, the director-general of education, the vice-chancellor of all universities, the dean of education faculties and all of those involved in the educational development of our country are to be blamed! What are they doing all these whiles? Politicking? Honeymooning? Sleeping? Flirting? We have to 'check' the 'quality' and 'trustworthiness' of these key personnels who are supposed to take care of quality production in education! report abuse disagree 0 agree 17 ... written by Leon, June 15, 2008 12:15:56 Time for a thorough overhaul of the executive. Ministers should no longer be appointed from among MPs. Instead, it should be offered and advertised, like any normal job. Open the jobs for politicians and non-politicians alike. The people will only have to vote for candidates for the PM's post. This way, we will attract the best brains and talents to serve the government at the decision-making level. The PM as well as a selection panel of experts in their respective field (appointed by the Agong) will preside over the appointment and dismissal of ministers. What do you think? report abuse disagree 2 agree 12 ... written by jchew, June 15, 2008 13:03:17 ABD is saying that krismuddin has done a goo job and that is why he is keeping the same post. Kenapa semua anak orang kaya dari cabinet berlajar di luar negeri? report abuse disagree 0 agree 18 ... written by Tom n Jerry, June 15, 2008 13:40:52 Frankly speaking all the public schools are in questionable condition!If I have any sense of what is proper!Stories(real) of kids got robbed in primary school(in classes& at canteens)and secondary students bringing parangs in their bags!to vent their pent -up anger on fellow students after school!these are just some of the common activities happening regularly!Civic-consciousness & morality has gone to the dogs!Only a new education system that has been completely overhauled could possibly put our education on track! report abuse disagree 1 agree 8 ... written by temenggong, June 15, 2008 15:57:08 Its not just the school infrastructure, its the software too gone. Thats because the guys at the very top never had much. Now they know why non malays insist on keeping away from govt/malay medium schools! Neither the hardware nor the software this there. Instead the govt want to destroy the vercular schools too. report abuse disagree 1 agree 7 ... written by lynn, June 15, 2008 18:03:56 Our education system is completely wrong in every sense - all religions shld be kept out of school syllabus & the school compound. Schooling shld be purely educational & factual, beneficial in a way that stimulate the thinking processes. Blind faith without reason retard the grey matter over time. Religion may still be taught but on weekends at different premises. As parents, some of you would have noticed, your kids buy lots of "workbooks" -who is making money out of printing endless workbooks from year 1 to form 5? We are in a situation whereby you must fork out $$$ to buy all these buku2 workbooks for fear your kid lose out. Ever noticed the above, parents? Say hypothetically speaking, we have around 450,000 kids per year whole country, multiply that by 6 5 yrs of primary & secondary, and multiply that by RM0.50 per workbook by say, 7 workbooks, how much money is being made out from parents, year in year out, without effort? WHO is making all that money? After disinterested kids dropped out of school, what next if they flopped PMR or SPM? A worthy government would make it compulsory for all kids irrespective of racial or religious background to be required to undergo training of one or two life skills of their own choices such as electricians, tailoring, cookery, mechanics (whether it's motorsikal or cars), air-con, masonry, plumbing, landscaping, designing, etc. Otherwise, these kids lepak here, lepak there, bohsia, do drugs, go insane on the road at the stroke of midnight, charging down our highways with bohsia girl riding pillion, yes, our mat rempits have now turned into snatch thieves or robbers. In crowded places, I have seen young pickpocket lifting wallets out of pockets, WTF has this rich-in-natural-resources country turn to? I have seen Chinese youths (just to make a point not all Chinese got $$$, okay?) rummaging thru those tall green garbage bins here in PJ looking for aluminium cans & plastic bottles to sell for cash... So who cares this country is descending to hell? Let's not even go into sordid detail abt the escalating crime rate in bolehland. Some days, I really wonder, does Dr M read M2Day? Does he? Does his daughter? She shld & she shld also tell her daddy what the Malaysian people have to say here!!! This is the country he had managed for 22 yrs. Proud or not? report abuse disagree 1 agree 23 ... written by Richfyf, June 15, 2008 18:54:57 well I am not speculating. This is for a fact because I was there, I conduct a preview once for teachers in govt school on how to use multimedia programme to teach pre-school. ( pra sekolah) All the teachers comes with a laptop. When I installed the software I notice that of the 50 odds laptop there were only 4 hard disc ID, the rest are CLONE meaning the govt are using pirated software, My conclusion is this. This happen becasue the government buys the lap top form a 100% umnoputra registered government supplier. At a super markup profit of cause. No way will Dell or Acer supply them a clone harddisk report abuse disagree 1 agree 15 ... written by Rajen Bumiputra, June 15, 2008 20:11:20 SMART SCHOOL, SICK SCHOOL, APARTHIED SCHOOL Out of 523 Tamil School in Malaysia more than 300 are partial aided or BANTUAN MODAL. umNO BABI why after 50 years of Independence (MERDEKA) you still want to discriminate the HINDU students in Tamil school. The governments money is not your fathers money. You makan duit haram by marginalising Tamil, Chinese and Missionary School. Pi Mampus Menteri Pendidikan dan Pemuda UMNO, MCA, MIC, GERAKAN, pbb . UMNO, BABI, ANJING, KMM, ALMAUNAH, AL-QAEDA, JI, TALIBAN GO TO HELL Rajen Bumiputra Rakyat Sultan Azlan Shah HIDUP RAJA, HIDUP RAKYAT HIDUP MELAYU, CINA, INDIA, IBAN, ISLAM, KRISTIAN, HINDU report abuse disagree 2 agree 11 ... written by myke, June 15, 2008 21:43:19 And ***** tot he did wonders to the country but in actual this is one of the ills he produced. report abuse disagree 0 agree 8 ... written by Eskay Lim, June 15, 2008 22:21:21 The government has been making the same promises in their elections manifestos every 5 years. This habit of recycling their promises has been on going but that the ruling politicians are not aware. They make many promises and allocated huge amount of funds for those purposes only to have the allocations spent but those problems remaining, promises unfulfilled. report abuse disagree 1 agree 5 ... written by wood, June 16, 2008 01:19:14 CAKAP TAK SERUPA BIKIN!!! We are going to be left behind!! Pity the younger generations if things do not change. We need people who are PASSIONATE ABOUT EDUCATION ! report abuse disagree 0 agree 5 ... written by renoir, June 16, 2008 02:34:19 Things that puzzle me: What's educational? What's factual? What's the purpose of education? Are all schools in the US of the same quality - how about the inner city schools? What are the similarities and contrasts between American schools and those that we have in Malaysia? LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 5 ... written by teo siew chin, June 16, 2008 09:52:39 Dear Renoir May I ask why you compare with an american school? And pls dont hold back cos de doc's a big boy and can handle the heat report abuse disagree 0 agree 6 ... written by Sean E, June 16, 2008 10:10:03 We have huge schools built in the middle of nowwhere in rural parts of Sabah with low student enrolment. Why? Umno connected persons wanted big projects (big cut mah) from the education department. Why in the rural areas? Less public scutiny. So you know now where the education department's allocation has gone to. Meanwhile in the urban areas, we have two session schools, 50 students to a class, especially in the chinese primary schools. What a waste!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! report abuse disagree 0 agree 7 ... written by Su Dhanoa, June 16, 2008 16:34:35 We should look at the quality of the subjects/syllabus. Look at the History books (matter) today - we have people like Mis Boon and brothers and family mentioned. Where is the real history of Malaysia - British / Malaysian - totally disappeared from the books. We have as well, teachers giving out test paper questions to students during the ugama class - and who are they - malay students. Mind you this is happening in the primary schools!!!! report abuse disagree 1 agree 9 ... written by Amy Chan, June 16, 2008 17:51:22 The problem with the education system in this country is that it mixes up with politics and religion. It is not the best and the smartest that matter but who you are counts. Sad. report abuse disagree 1 agree 5 ... written by macakmy, June 16, 2008 20:10:19 Su Dhanoa, I studied history in my secondary years (78-82). Even at that age and maturity level it made me realize who actually fought for independence and who sold this country and its people out. You think they want more people to find out? report abuse disagree 1 agree 7 ... written by apa jadi, June 16, 2008 21:48:11 Well written Dr. Azly. Look at the problem another way. We have smart students from the sick schools produce. They got sick and drop out after going into the smart schools. Where has the system gone wrong? Big slogans, big visions, but mediocre outcome. Is it the fault of these smart schools with first class facilities? Or is it the fault of the education system? Many of us rather send out kids to these sick schools and come out achievers? Why? report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by renoir, June 16, 2008 23:57:52 teo siew chin wrote: >May I ask why you compare with an american school? ]] Hi Teo - that's actually a reference to the posting above on American schools. Many innercity schools in the US aren't that well-equipped. Some not only didn't have the computers, but also had to make do with broken windows, creaky chairs, and an ever shrinking lunch menu (my daughter served as a counselor at a DC school). During the 80s, when poorer school districts complained of a lack of government aid for school lunches, to the extent that they couldn't afford greens on certain days of the week, the wonderful "trickle-down" quack economist Ronald Reagan claimed that ketchup could replace that item. On the whole, American schools are of course superior to their counterparts over here. The point is, other than less corruption, the ban on discrimination of students on the basis on race, creed, or religion, the availability of better (generally) trained teachers, there's still the matter of the definition of education, its purpose and goals. Let there be no doubt: American education is a vast socializing enterprise. Its purpose is to reduce the student to being a cog in the largely White, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant (WASP) capitalist machine. Those who resist the system are unlikely to succeed, while many who did are apt to become followers of Rush Limbaugh (the subject of a book entitled "Rush Limbaugh is a Big, Fat Idiot"). Question: Can education be otherwise? Didn't the reverse happen in socialist or communist countries? Can anyone be educated without being brainwashed? The saving grace of most Western systems is that alternative views COULD be obtained in the libraries and other knowledge sources, something non-existent in our often poorly funded, poorly managed, and poorly staffed school and public libraries. But as in this country, the average American seldom has the inclination to ferret out what's not stated in the school texts, and also seldom interested in offending or disputing the "authoritative" publicly-sanctioned sources. Centuries ago, when "mechanics institutes" were established in England, the purpose was to train the populace for that nation's bourgeoning industries. Naturally, some of the sponsors - the capitalists and clergy who made up the elite - thought that in addition to mechanical skills, the unwashed masses should also be taught how to be civilized, to behave like their masters and to refrain from their alleged sexual proclivities. In other words, the goal was to train good, submissive workers who knew their "station." It's not surprising that when Winthrop landed in the New World, his speech on the ship (The Arabella) included the statement that "in all times some must be rich and some poor, some high and eminent in power and dignity and some mean and in subjection." Sounds like a new caste system, eh? So are we wiser today? Do we need autonomous, critical thinkers rather than worker bees who could do what the system needs but no more than that? Granted: as high tech moves in, the necessity for critical workers becomes, well, critical. And this is the dilemma: can a smart workforce end that smartness at the factory and not carry it to other areas of life? Can a well-trained physicist refrain from questioning how his work might result in a Doomsday weapon? Can an excellent education system not mean the rise of a people most likely to overthrow the very government that produces them? These are not original thoughts (though possibly such thoughts aren't encouraged as they tend to be subversive - at the very least it spoils the illusion of a benevolent government), and without acknowledging thus, many previous thinkers have sought to overcome the dilemma by introducing in its curriculum the ideology it wants to promote. In other words, there was the hope that even skilled, critical workers could be made to obey if 1) they were sufficiently well-rewarded materially, and 2)they were inculcated with the WASP ideology. Part of this WASP ideology was that capitalism was the only system sanctioned by God, and that upper-class whites were the chosen people of God. Of course, as noted earlier, that kind of belief couldn't be stated openly, but a study of Matthew Arnold's writings on English literature would show that the aim of education wasn't just the propagation of any culture, but UPPERCLASS BRITISH (white) CULTURE. And this goal - for the West - remains valid today just as it was applauded during Victorian times. >And pls dont hold back cos de doc's a big boy and can handle the heat]] Always knew he's a big boy. Didn't have time to read over my jottings - will correct them if need be later. LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 8 ... written by renoir, June 17, 2008 08:20:58 Good morning, a few hours sleep can do wonders, especially when you're in the 6th decade of life. Here's one error that jumps out immediately: >many previous thinkers have sought to overcome the dilemma by introducing in its curriculum the ideology it wants to promote.]] Should be: "many previous thinkers have sought to overcome the dilemma by introducing in the curriculum the ideology they want to promote." We should be aware, of course, that a CERTAIN ideology would always exist, even when we don't consciously promote it. Just as Orwell insisted that not taking a stance IS taking a stance, so it is that not assuming an ideology is by itself an ideology. There isn't any such thing as an ideologically neutral world, not since God created Adam and Eve. LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 4 ... written by teo siew chin, June 17, 2008 09:17:31 And a good morning to you too Renoir. And yup, sleep can do wonders whether one is 6, 6 , or 6 I'm not surprised Rush Limbaugh had a following - he was the voice of the regular big fat american (idiots ?) (I had actually just picked up his old book from a reject shop ) "...that a CERTAIN ideology would always exist..." - i most certainly agree with that statement though i cannot for the life of me figure out what sort of ideology promotes churning out 80,000 unemployed graduates I don't think we are reverting back to slavery, right? We now await Dr Azly to come back and overhaul our system, amen. report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by teo siew chin, June 17, 2008 09:18:55 sigh. i mean 6-plus, 6-plus plus, or 6-plus plus plus plus plus... geez, somtimes tech can piss us off report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by renoir, June 17, 2008 10:08:26 Hi Teo: for a moment I thought you were saying "whether one is 666." By "wonders" I meant more than just feeling nice or refreshed: it's somewhat miraculous in the sense that it isn't always the case that one could really sleep. We need not bore readers about certain afflictions, such as acid reflux, that seem to haunt us as the years pass by. About the 80,000 unemployed graduates, we should remember that unemployment is an essential ingredient of the capitalist system. In our specific case, it also provides an opportunity for some people to act as the indispensable benefactor to their constituency. LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 4 ... written by teo siew chin, June 17, 2008 10:54:00 hahahahahaha Renoir, "666"? well, believe it or not, even the devil may have difficulty sleeping . He may feel left out cos no one yells - in the name of the DEVIL, let us wage war!!!!! (btw my dad used to sleep with a slightly elevated upper body to prevent acid reflux. do give it a try.) TQ for your 'comments-made-easy-for-idiots-like-me' . (shhhhh - I find it easier to learn from your comments rather that the doc's article cos most times he uses too academic language ;. and yes, i was educated by de msian system.) Have a good week! report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by SocratesI, June 17, 2008 14:22:53 I remember Marina Mahathir writing in the Star sometime long ago, comparing the way Malaysians behave to our fellow neighbours in Thailand and Singapore, and other countries and lamenting that the average M'sian is not at all civic-minded. She goes on and on about M'sians being inconsiderate and unneighbourly etc. and kurang ajar, and downright biadab too, with the Mat Rempit etc being an extreme example. Of couse what she hadn't done is used her brain to analyze why we have a problem here and not in most other places. I beilieve that all this anti-social behaviour as exhibited by the average M'sian is the culmination of witnessing the country's leaders all helping themselves and enriching themselves while they couldn't care less about the RAKYAT who they are SUPPOSED to serve. The average M'sian must be thinking deep in their psyche ... "Why the hell can't I do the same and get away with it ?? Although I can't enrich myself the way these LANUN are, but why should I care about others and be considerate ??" So, my dear Marina Maha-Shithead, the answer is quite clear. Most of the social ills in M'sia is brought about by the shining example of your DESPOTIC father's CORRUPT REGIME and its effect it has had on the younger generation's minds in Malaysia !! Monkey see, monkey do. No education system in the world will be able to positively influence our young people without leaders of INTEGRITY at our helm ! The easiest way to learn is to imitate and with the present and past 22 years' of massively corrupt leadership, is it any surprise that we have so many juvenile delinquents in Malaysian society today ??!! Reformation the education system must begin with REFORMATION OF THE COUNTRY'S LEADERSHIP !! report abuse disagree 0 agree 11 ... written by SocratesI, June 17, 2008 14:25:10 REFORMATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM MUST BEGIN WITH THE REFORMATION OF THE COUNTRY'S LEADERSHIP !! report abuse disagree 0 agree 7 ... written by renoir, June 17, 2008 17:57:09 SocratesI wrote: >REFORMATION OF THE EDUCATION SYSTEM MUST BEGIN WITH THE REFORMATION OF THE COUNTRY'S LEADERSHIP !!]] Yes, that's the gist of one of my past articles for Malaysiakini (January 2003). My conclusion: "For until the ruling party cleans up its act, discards racially divisive policies, no amount of social or educational engineering or suppression of vernacular or religious schools can build good citizens or foster national unity. Before the ruling party thinks about educating children with moral values, or imbuing them with a sense of unity, it should first learn from the remark: "Physician, heal thyself." Teo: thanks for the tip ... I've been sleeping that way for the past 3 months. Think my stomach had intruded above the diaphram (a kind of hernia). LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 6 ... written by shahidan, June 17, 2008 20:53:41 LChuah, thanks for reminding us that education and other organised intellectual/cultural pursuits do not operate in a vacuum. As a fundamental pillar of the superstructure for the transmission of the dominant ideology – capitalism in its uneven stages of development globally is its economic base – the content of education is in general a reflection of the interests of the dominant classes. The early phases of industrialization in England and in Europe demanded a literate workforce which could read and understand basic instructions as a new method of production, or mass production, was being developed. Investment in educating the working class with the three Rs became a necessity. As the industrial capitalist economy evolved and grew along with technological innovations, underpinned by an expanding colonial system and extraction of wealth from the colonies, the level of skills and knowledge required to meet this economy meant the middle class and later the working class were able to get access to tertiary education, a special preserve of the aristocracy and the newly emergent industrial capitalist class. Even as the children of these hitherto lowly classes were trained in the arts and sciences in an education system designed to meet the demands of the industrial economy, they were also socialized into the values of the upper classes and ideologically imbued with capitalism’s values of self aggrandizement and mindless consumerism. For many of the working class students and intellectuals the one mitigating factor that kept them close to their roots was the constant battle of the labour movement for greater wealth distribution and democracy, which reminded them where they came from. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 12:03:24 capitalist models r collapsing one by one....100's of thousands of students r dropping out...not completing pmr n spm levels..our edukasi system,our maggie mee n cintan mee instituts,our uni's semua ditailor made utk capitalist ekonomi perlu dirombak...dan semakin hari..pusat pusat pengajian negara kita semakin hilang punca...yg jenis prebet pulak mau ontong...memang satu major overhaual diperlukan report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 21:47:15 About the Alternative Teaching Methods There is a growing stream of thought in India to make the education system more student or learner-focused - by adopting innovative and comprehensive educational methods that make learning easier, faster, more joyous and context-oriented. The philosophy behind the fundamental shift in the approach to the learning process is that the learner is a living and growing human being. He/She is unique, that is, he/she has a will, a temperament, and a way of development, of his/her own. Hence the education of the students should be a process where their innate knowledge and potentials should be brought out and allowed expression. The role of the teacher should be that of a facilitator in such a learning process. Learning should be given more importance than conventional teaching methods. The curriculum, the learning materials and method, evaluation of the learning, organizing the learning time, the classroom environment, classroom management, administration, all these should have the student and his/her learning level as their focus. A brief discussion of some of the methods used at Auroville schools report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 21:49:17 RISHI VALLEY METHOD Learning the subject fully at one’s own pace and acquiring a capacity for self-learning are the hallmarks of this method. The Isai Ambalam school has transformed into Tamil the educational method discovered and successfully used by the Rishi Valley Rural Schools in Andhra Pradesh in India. The system entails the use of one multi grade multi level classroom, containing all the primary grades. report abuse disagree 0 agree 0 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 21:49:52 The children learn 4 subjects, their mother tongue, Maths, Environmental Science and English – by means of a number of study cards. Some 500 cards for each of the subjects are prepared and stacked in a gradual sequence of learning. Joyous learning as well as group activities are in-built in these study cards. The children study the cards one by one and learn the subject matter by themselves. To identify the cards that they should study next, the children use a ladder system report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 21:50:32 THEMATIC PROJECT WORK AND EDUCATION BY DESIGN METHODS For older Young Adults who wish to continue their studies, Thematic Project Work Method and E.B.D. Method (Education By Design) are used and an appropriate classroom environment has been created for them to use these methods. In the E.B.D. method, as part of their learning process, the Young Adults are given challenges or problems to be tackled, that involve the study of their subject matter. The teachers create the challenges or problems from the subject matter to be learnt such as staging a play enacting the important events in the Indian Independence Movement, or the preparation of a chart with appropriate illustrations to teach simple prepositions in English. The Young Adults do Project Work assignments in groups to tackle such problems. The teachers help them when needed. Resourceful and intelligent use of this method can bring out the innate talents and faculties of the students. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 18, 2008 21:51:49 GLENN DOMAN METHOD This method enables a child to learn a large number of things in a short time. Glenn Doman, an American, who conducted research for making brain-injured children normal, discovered it. He succeeded in finding effective ways that made those children normal. When he applied those methods to normal children he got stunning results: 5 year old children were able to read like an adult, to learn several languages, to recognize the notes of classical music, to distinguish between the paintings of great artists, to perform fantastic gymnastic feats. His method is simple and can be considered as a systemized use of flash cards, accompanied by the stimulation of auditory and visual senses. Creative and playway activities are daily given to the preschool children. Apart from these activities, the teachers apply the Glenn Doman method for imparting reading skills in Tamil and English and general knowledge to the preschool children who joyously respond to this method of learning. The staff members also teach the parents to apply this method to the children at home in a fruitful manner thus shortening their learning time. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by renoir, June 19, 2008 01:33:41 > innovative and comprehensive educational methods that make learning easier, faster, more joyous and context-oriented. The philosophy behind the fundamental shift in the approach to the learning process is that the learner is a living and growing human being. He/She is unique, that is, he/she has a will, a temperament, and a way of development, of his/her own. Hence the education of the students should be a process where their innate knowledge and potentials should be brought out and allowed expression. The role of the teacher should be that of a facilitator in such a learning process....]] The idea has been there for a long time - Dewey, Piaget, Vygotsky, and Paulo Freire come to mind. And before that is the ancient Chinese concept of the child DOING, something like the active learning concept that's so popular today. Add that to the Confucian advice to reflect, and not merely read, and we already have an idea of what modern educationists called "Constructivism." LChuah report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by KM Wong, June 19, 2008 16:00:28 The kris waving bastard should commit suicide by performing hara kiri using his famous kris. report abuse disagree 0 agree 5 ... written by crayon, June 19, 2008 18:01:20 i miss school! but seriously, that point aside, i agree with some of the comments before mine, that the facilities of public schools today are no better than those we attended decades ago! what is going on? report abuse disagree 0 agree 3 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 22:59:49 The philosophy behind the fundamental shift in the approach to the learning process is that the learner is a living and growing human being. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "the learner is a living and growing human BEING" dis means knowledge expanding to infinite level(supramental)..and as the knowledge grows so too does the growth of the man(to d highest state of man) ..knowlege at d hisghest state si called revelationlah...knowledge appears as truth hearing ,truth seeing..inspired knowledge..no mental logic, no mo mental speculation..etc etc.. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:03:29 sat chit ananda vijnana(existance conciousness bliss supramental)...the vedic rishis,nabi muhammad(saw),sri aurobindo and the mother,plus yogic seers/bhaktas n alwars brought down knowledge power frm supramental level.. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:05:42 The Supramental Thought and Knowledge Arya - October 1920 The Supramental Thought and Knowledge The transition from mind to supermind is not only the substitution of a greater instrument of thought and knowledge, but a change and conversion of the whole consciousness. There is evolved not only a supramental thought, but a supramental will, sense, feeling, a supramental substitute for all the activities that are now accomplished by the mind. All these higher activities are first manifested in the mind itself as descents, irruptions, messages or revelations of a superior power. Mostly they are mixed up with the more ordinary action of the mind and not easily distinguishable from them in our first inexperience except by their superior light and force and joy, the more so as the mind greatened or excited by their frequent coming quickens its own action and imitates the external characteristics of the supramental activity: its own operation is made more swift, luminous, strong and positive and it arrives even at a kind of imitative and often false intuition that strives to be but is not really the luminous, direct and self-existent truth. The next step is the formation of a luminous mind of intuitive experience, thought, will, feeling, sense from which the intermixture of the lesser mind and the imitative intuition are progressively eliminated: this is a process of purification, shuddhi, necessary to the new formation and perfection, siddhi. At the same time there is the disclosure above the mind of the source of the intuitive action and a more and more organised functioning of a true supramental consciousness acting not in the mind but on its own higher plane report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:06:59 This draws up into itself in the end the intuitive mentality it has created as its representative and assumes the charge of the whole activity of the consciousness. The process is progressive and for a long time chequered by admixture and the necessity of a return upon the lower movements in order to correct and transform them. The higher and the lower power act sometimes alternately, - the consciousness descending back from the heights it had attained to its former level but always with some change, - but sometimes together and with a sort of mutual reference. The mind eventually becomes wholly intuitivised and exists only as a passive channel for the supramental action; but this condition too is not ideal and presents, besides, still a certain obstacle, because the higher action has still to pass through a retarding and diminishing conscious substance, - that of the physical consciousness. The final stage of the change will come when the supermind occupies and supramentalises the whole being and turns even the vital and physical sheaths into moulds of itself, responsive, subtle and instinct with its powers. Man then becomes wholly the superman. This is at least the natural and integral process. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:07:39 would be to go altogether outside present limits to attempt anything like an adequate presentation of the whole character of the supermind; and it would not be possible to give a complete presentation, since the supermind carries in it the unity, but also the largeness and multiplicities of the infinite. All that need now be done is to present some salient characters from the point of view of the actual process of the conversion in the Yoga, the relation to the action of mind and the principle of some of the phenomena of the change. This is the fundamental relation that all the action of the mind is a derivation from the secret supermind, although we do not know this until we come to know our higher self, and draws from that source all it has of truth and value. All our thoughts, willings, feelings, sense representations have in them or at their roots an element of truth, which originates and sustains their existence, however in the actuality they may be perverted or false, and behind them a greater ungrasped truth, which if they could grasp it, would make them soon unified, harmonious and at least relatively complete. Actually, however, such truth as they have is diminished in scope, degraded into a lower movement, divided and falsified by fragmentation, afflicted with incompleteness, marred by perversion. Mental knowledge is not an integral but always a partial knowledge. It adds constantly detail to detail, but has a difficulty in relating them aright; its wholes too are not real but incomplete wholes which it tends to substitute for the more real and integral knowledge report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:08:13 And even if it arrived at a kind of integral knowledge, it would still be by a sort of putting together, a mental and intellectual arrangement, an artificial unity and not an essential and real oneness. If that were all, the mind might conceivably arrive at some kind of half reflection half translation of an integral knowledge, but the radical malady would still be that it would not be the real thing, but only at best an intellectual representation. That the mental truth must always be, an intellectual, emotional and sensational representation, not the direct truth, not truth itself in its body and essence. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:08:55 The supermind can do all that the mind does, present and combine details and what might be called aspects or subordinate wholes, but it does it in a different way and on another basis. It does not like the mind bring in the element of deviation, false extension and imposed error, but even when it gives a partial knowledge, gives it in a firm and exact light, and always there is behind implied or opened to the consciousness the essential truth on which the details and subordinate wholes or aspects depend. The supermind has also a power of representation, but its representations are not of the intellectual kind, they are filled with the body and substance of light of the truth in its essence, they are its vehicles and not substituted figures. There is such an infinite power of representation of the supermind and that is the divine power of which the mental action is a sort of fallen representative. This representative supermind has a lower action in what I have called the supramental reason, nearest to the mental and into which the mental can most easily be taken up, and a higher action in the integral supermind that sees all things in the unity and infinity of the divine consciousness and self-existence. But on whatever level, it is a different thing from the corresponding mental action, direct, luminous, secure. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:09:28 The whole inferiority of the mind comes from its being the action of the soul after it has fallen into the nescience and the ignorance and is trying to get back to self-knowledge but doing it still on the basis of the nescience and the ignorance. The mind is the ignorance attempting to know or it is the ignorance receiving a derivative knowledge: it is the action of Avidya. The supermind is always the disclosure of an inherent and self-existent knowledge; it is the action of Vidya. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:10:28 second difference that we experience is a greater and a spontaneous harmony and unity. All consciousness is one, but in action it takes on many movements and each of these fundamental movements has many forms and processes. The forms and processes of the mind consciousness are marked by a disturbing and perplexing division and separateness of the mental energies and movements in which the original unity of the conscious mind does not at all or only distractedly appears. Constantly we find in our mentality a conflict or else a confusion and want of combination between different thoughts or a patched up combination and the same phenomenon applies to the various movements of our will and desire and to our emotions and feelings. Again our thought and our will and our feeling are not in a state of natural harmony and unison with each other, but act in their separate power even when they have to act together and are frequently in conflict or to some degree at variance. There is too an unequal development of one at the expense of another. The mind is a thing of discords in which some kind of practical arrangement rather than a satisfying concord is established for the purposes of life. The reason tries to arrive at a better arrangement, aims at a better control, a rational or an ideal harmony, and in this attempt it is a delegate or substitute of the supermind and is trying to do what only the supermind can do in its own right: but actually it is not able wholly to control the rest of the being and there is usually a considerable difference between the rational or ideal harmony we create in our thoughts and the movement of the life. Even at the best the arrangement made by the reason has always in it something of artificiality and imposition, for in the end there are only two spontaneous harmonic movements, that of the life, inconscient or largely subconscient , the harmony that we find in the animal creation and in lower Nature, and that of the spirit. The human condition is a stage of transition, effort and imperfection between the one and the other, between the natural and the ideal or spiritual life and it is full of uncertain seeking and disorder. It is not that the mental being cannot find or rather construct some kind of relative harmony of its own, but that it cannot render it stable because it is under the urge of the spirit. Man is obliged by a Power within him to be the labourer of a more or less conscious self-evolution that shall lead him to self-mastery and self-knowledge. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:11:16 The supermind in its action is on the contrary a thing of unity and harmony and inherent order. At first when the pressure from above falls on the mentality, this is not realised and even a contrary phenomenon may for a time appear. That is due to several causes. First, there may be a disturbance, even a derangement created by impact of the greater hardly measurable power on an inferior consciousness which is not capable of responding to it organically or even perhaps of bearing the pressure. The very fact of the simultaneous and yet uncoordinated activity of two quite different forces, especially if the mind insists on its own way, if it tries obstinately or violently to profit by the supermind instead of giving itself up to it and its purpose, if it is not sufficiently passive and obedient to the higher guidance, may lead to a great excitation of power but also an increased disorder. It is for this reason that a previous preparation and long purification, the more complete the better, and a tranquillising and ordinarily a passivity of the mind calmly and strongly open to the spirit are necessities of the Yoga. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:11:55 Again the mind, accustomed to act in limits, may try to supramentalise itself on the line of any one of its energies. It may develop a considerable power of intuitive half-supramentalised thought and knowledge, but the will may remain untransformed and out of harmony with this partial half-supramental development of the thinking mind, and the rest of the being too, emotional and nervous, may continue to be equally or more unregenerate. Or there may be a very great development of intuitive or strongly inspired will, but no corresponding uplifting of the thought mind or the emotional and psychic being, or only at most so much as is specially needed in order not wholly to obstruct the will action. The emotional or psychic mind may try to intuitivise and supramentalise itself and to a great extent succeed, and yet the thinking mind remain ordinary, poor in stuff and obscure in its light. There may be a development of intuitivity in the ethical or aesthetic being, but the rest may remain very much as it was. This is the reason of the frequent disorder or one-sidedness which we mark in the man of genius, poet, artist, thinker, saint or mystic. A partially intuitivised mentality may present an appearance of much less harmony and order outside its special activity than the largely developed intellectual mind. An integral development is needed, a wholesale conversion of the mind; otherwise the action is that of the mind using the supramental influx for its own profit and in its own mould, and that is allowed for the immediate purpose of the Divine in the being and may even be considered as a stage sufficient for the individual in this one life: but it is a state of imperfection and not the complete and successful evolution of the being. If however there is an integral development of the intuitive mind, it will be found that a great harmony has begun to lay its own foundations. This harmony will be other than that created by the intellectual mind and indeed may not be easily perceptible or, if it is felt, yet not intelligible to the logical man, because not arrived at or analysable by his mental process. It will be a harmony of the spontaneous expression of the spirit. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:13:09 As soon as we arise above mind to the supermind, this initial harmony will be replaced by a greater and a more integral unity. The thoughts of the supramental reason meet together and understand each other and fall into a natural arrangement even when they have started from quite opposite quarters. The movements of will that are in conflict in the mind, come in the supermind to their right place and relation to each other. The supramental feelings also discover their own affinities and fall into a natural agreement and harmony. At a higher stage this harmony intensifies towards unity. The knowledge, will, feeling and all else become a single movement. This unity reaches its greatest completeness in the highest supermind. The harmony, the unity are inevitable because the base in the supermind is knowledge and characteristically self-knowledge, the knowledge of the self in all its aspects. The supramental will is the dynamic expression of this self-knowledge, the supramental feeling the expression of the luminous joy of the self and all else in supermind a part of this one movement. At its highest range it becomes something greater than what we call knowledge; there it is the essential and integral self-awareness of the Divine in us, his being, consciousness, Tapas, Ananda, and all is the harmonious, unified, luminous movement of that one existence. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:13:41 This supramental knowledge is not primarily or essentially a thought knowledge. The intellect does not consider that it knows a thing until it has reduced its awareness of it to the terms of thought, not, that is to say, until it has put it into a system of representative mental concepts, and this kind of knowledge gets its most decisive completeness when it can be put into clear, precise and defining speech. It is true that the mind gets its knowledge primarily by various kinds of impression beginning from the vital and the sense impressions and rising to the intuitive, but these are taken by the developed intelligence only as data and seem to it uncertain and vague in themselves until they have been forced to yield up all their content to the thought and have taken their place in some intellectual relation or in an ordered thought sequence. It is true again that there is a thought and a speech which are rather suggestive than definitive and have in their own way a greater potency and richness of content, and this kind already verges on the intuitive: but still there is a demand in the intellect to bring out in clear sequence and relation the exact intellectual content of these suggestions and until that is done it does not feel satisfied that its knowledge is complete. The thought labouring in the logical intellect is that which normally seems best to organise the mental action and gives to the mind a sense of sure definiteness, security and completeness in its knowledge and its use of knowledge. Nothing of this is at all true of the supramental knowledge. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:14:21 The supermind knows most completely and securely not by thought but by identity, by a pure awareness of the self-truth of things in the self and by the self, atmani atmanam atmana. I get the supramental knowledge best by becoming one with the truth, one with the object of knowledge; the supramental satisfaction and integral light is most there when there is no further division between the knower, knowledge and the known, jñata, jñanam, jñeyam. I see the thing known not as an object outside myself, but as myself or a part of my universal self contained in my most direct consciousness. This leads to the highest and completest knowledge; thought and speech being representations and not this direct possession in the consciousness are to the supermind a lesser form and, if not filled with the spiritual awareness, thought becomes in fact a diminution of knowledge. For it would be, supposing it to be a supramental thought, only a partial manifestation of a greater knowledge existing in the self but not at the time present to the immediately active consciousness. In the highest ranges of the infinite there need be no thought at all because all would be experienced spiritually, in continuity, in eternal possession and with an absolute directness and completeness. Thought is only one means of partially manifesting and presenting what is hidden in this greater self-existent knowledge. This supreme kind of knowing will not indeed be possible to us in its full extent and degree until we can rise through many grades of the supermind to that infinite. But still as the supramental power emerges and enlarges its action, something of this highest way of knowledge appears and grows and even the members of the mental being, as they are intuitivised and supramentalised, develop more and more a corresponding action upon their own level. There is an increasing power of a luminous vital, psychic, emotional, dynamic and other identification with all the things and beings that are the objects of our consciousness and these transcendings of the separative consciousness bring with them many forms and means of a direct knowledge. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:14:54 The supramental knowledge or experience by identity carries in it as a result or as a secondary part of itself a supramental vision that needs the support of no image, can concretise what is to the mind abstract and has the character of sight though its object may be the invisible truth of that which has form or the truth of the formless. This vision can come before there is any identity, as a sort of previous emanation of light from it, or may act detached from it as a separate power. The truth or the thing known is then not altogether or not yet one with myself, but an object of my knowledge: but still it is an object subjectively seen in the self or at least, even if it is still farther separated and objectivised to the knower, by the self, not through any intermediate process, but by a direct inner seizing or a penetrating and enveloping luminous contact of the spiritual consciousness with its object. It is this luminous seizing and contact that is the spiritual vision, drishti, - “pasyati”, says the Upanishad continually of the spiritual knowledge, “he sees”; and of the Self conceiving the idea of creation, where we should expect “he thought”, it says instead “he saw”. It is to the spirit what the eyes are to the physical mind and one has the sense of having passed through a subtly analogous process. As the physical sight can present to us the actual body of things of which the thought had only possessed an indication or mental description and they become to us at once real and evident, pratyaksha, so the spiritual sight surpasses the indications or representations of thought and can make the self and truth of all things present to us and directly evident, pratyaksha. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:15:43 The sense can only give us the superficial image of things and it needs the aid of thought to fill and inform the image; but the spiritual sight is capable of presenting to us the thing in itself and all truth about it. The seer does not need the aid of thought in its process as a means of knowledge, but only as a means of representation and expression, - thought is to him a lesser power and used for a secondary purpose. If a further extension of knowledge is required, he can come at it by new seeing without the slower thought processes that are the staff of support of the mental search and its feeling out for truth, - even as we scrutinise with the eye to find what escaped our first observation. This experience and knowledge by spiritual vision is the second in directness and greatness of the supramental powers. It is something much more near, profound and comprehensive than mental vision, because it derives direct from the knowledge by identity, and it has this virtue that we can proceed at once from the vision to the identity, as from the identity to the vision. Thus when the spiritual vision has seen God, Self or Brahman, the soul can next enter into and become one with the Self, God or Brahman. This can only be done integrally on or above the supramental level, but at the same time the spiritual vision can take on mental forms of itself that can help towards this identification each in its own way. A mental intuitive vision or a spiritualised mental sight, a psychic vision, an emotional vision of the heart, a vision in the sense mind are parts of the Yogic experience. If these seeings are purely mental, then they may but need not be true, for the mind is capable of both truth and error, both of a true and of a false representation. But as the mind becomes intuitivised and supramentalised, these powers are purified and corrected by the more luminous action of the supermind and become themselves forms of a supramental and a true seeing. The supramental vision, it may be noted, brings with it a supplementary and completing experience that might be called a spiritual hearing and touch of the truth, - of its essence and through that of its significance, - that is to say, there is a seizing of its movement, vibration, rhythm and a seizing of its close presence and contact and substance. All these powers prepare us to become one with that which has thus grown near to us through knowledge. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:16:23 The supramental thought is a form of the knowledge by identity and a development, in the idea, of the truth presented to the supramental vision. The identity and the vision give the truth in its essence, its body and its parts in a single view: the thought translates this direct consciousness and immediate power of the truth into idea-knowledge and will. It adds or need add otherwise nothing new, but reproduces, articulates, moves round the body of the knowledge. Where, however, the identity and the vision are still incomplete, the supramental thought has a larger office and reveals, interprets or recalls as it were to the soul's memory what they are not yet ready to give. And where these greater states and powers are still veiled, the thought comes in front and prepares and to a certain extent effects a partial rending or helps actively in the removal of the veil. Therefore in the development out of the mental ignorance into the supramental knowledge this illumined thought comes to us often though not always first, to open the way to the vision or else to give first supports to the growing consciousness of identity and its greater knowledge. This thought is also an effective means of communication and expression and helps to an impression or fixation of the truth whether on one's own lower mind and being or on that of others. The supramental thought differs from the intellectual not only because it is the direct truth idea and not a representation of truth to the ignorance, - it is the truth consciousness of the spirit always presenting to itself its own right forms, the satyam and ritam of the Veda, - but because of its strong reality, body of light and substance. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:17:12 The intellectual thought refines and sublimates to a rarefied abstractness; the supramental thought as it rises in its height increases to a greater spiritual concreteness. The thought of the intellect presents itself to us as an abstraction from something seized by the mind sense and is as if supported in a void and subtle air of mind by an intangible force of the intelligence. It has to resort to a use of the mind's power of image if it wishes to make itself more concretely felt and seen by the soul sense and soul vision. The supramental thought on the contrary presents always the idea as a luminous substance of being, luminous stuff of consciousness taking significative thought form and it therefore creates no such sense of a gulf between the idea and the real as we are liable to feel in the mind, but is itself a reality, it is real-idea and the body of a reality. It has as a result, associated with it when it acts according to its own nature, a phenomenon of spiritual light other than the intellectual clarity, a great realising force and a luminous ecstasy. It is an intensely sensible vibration of being, consciousness and Ananda. The supramental thought, as has already been indicated, has three elevations of its intensity, one of direct thought vision, another of interpretative vision pointing to and preparing the greater revelatory idea-sight, a third of representative vision recalling as it were to the spirit's knowledge the truth that is called out more directly by the higher powers. In the mind these things take the form of the three ordinary powers of the intuitive mentality, - the suggestive and discriminating intuition, the inspiration and the thought that is of the nature of revelation. Above they correspond to three elevations of the supramental being and consciousness and, as we ascend, the lower first calls down into itself and is then taken up into the higher, so that on each level all the three elevations are reproduced, but always there predominates in the thought essence the character that belongs to that level's proper form of consciousness and spiritual substance. It is necessary to bear this in mind; for otherwise the mentality, looking up to the ranges of the supermind as they reveal themselves, may think it has got the vision of the highest heights when it is only the highest range of the lower ascent that is being presented to its experience. At each height, sanoh sanum aruhat, the powers of the supermind increase in intensity, range and completeness. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:17:50 There is also a speech, a supramental word, in which the higher knowledge, vision or thought can clothe itself within us for expression. At first this may come down as a word, a message or an inspiration that descends to us from above or it may even seem a voice of the Self or of the Ishwara, vani, adesha. Afterwards it loses that separate character and becomes the normal form of the thought when it expresses itself in the form of an inward speech. The thought may express itself without the aid of any suggestive or developing word and only - but still quite completely, explicitly and with its full contents - in a luminous substance of supramental perception. It may aid itself when it is not so explicit by a suggestive inward speech that attends it to bring out its whole significance. Or the thought may come not as silent perception but as speech self-born out of the truth and complete in its own right and carrying in itself its own vision and knowledge. Then it is the word revelatory, inspired or intuitive or of a yet greater kind capable of bearing the infinite intention or suggestion of the higher supermind and spirit. It may frame itself in the language now employed to express the ideas and perceptions and impulses of the intellect and the sense mind, but it uses it in a different way and with an intense bringing out of the intuitive or revelatory significances of which speech is capable. The supramental word manifests inwardly with a light, a power, a rhythm of thought and a rhythm of inner sound that make it the natural and living body of the supramental thought and vision and it pours into the language, even though the same as that of mental speech, another than the limited intellectual, emotional or sensational significance. It is formed and heard in the intuitive mind or supermind and need not at first except in certain highly gifted souls come out easily into speech and writing, but that too can be freely done when the physical consciousness and its organs have been made ready, and this is a part of the needed fullness and power of the integral perfection. The range of knowledge covered by the supramental thought, experience and vision will be commensurate with all that is open to the human consciousness, not only on the earthly but on all planes. It will however act increasingly in an inverse sense to that of the mental thinking and experience. The centre of mental thinking is the ego, the person of the individual thinker. The supramental man on the contrary will think more with the universal mind or even may rise above it, and his individuality will rather be a vessel of radiation and communication to which the universal thought and knowledge of the Spirit will converge than a centre. The mental man thinks and acts in a radius determined by the smallness or largeness of his mentality and of its experience. The range of the supramental man will be all the earth and all that lies behind it on other planes of existence. And finally the mental man thinks and sees on the level of the present life, though it may be with an upward aspiration, and his view is obstructed on every side. His main basis of knowledge and action is the present with a glimpse into the past and ill-grasped influence from its pressure and a blind look towards the future. He bases himself on the actualities of the earthly existence, first on the facts of the outward world, - to which he is ordinarily in the habit of relating nine tenths if not the whole of his inner thinking and experience, - then on the changing actualities of the more superficial part of his inner being. As he increases in mind, he goes more freely beyond these to potentialities which arise out of them and pass beyond them; his mind deals with a larger field of possibilities: but these for the most part get to him a full reality only in proportion as they are related to the actual and can be made actual here, now or hereafter. The essence of things he tends to see, if at all, only as a result of his actualities, in a relation to and dependence on them, and therefore he sees them constantly in a false light or in a limited measure. In all these respects the supramental man must proceed from the opposite principle of truth vision. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:18:43 The supramental being sees things from above in large spaces and at the highest from the spaces of the infinite. His view is not limited to the standpoint of the present but can see in the continuities of time or from above time in the indivisibilities of the Spirit. He sees truth in its proper order first in the essence, secondly in the potentialities that derive from it and only last in the actualities. The essential truths are to his sight self-existent, self-seen, not dependent for their proof on this or that actuality; the potential truths are truths of the power of being in itself and in things, truths of the infinity of force and real apart from their past or present realisation in this or that actuality or the habitual surface forms that we take for the whole of Nature; the actualities are only a selection from the potential truths he sees, dependent on them, limited and mutable. The tyranny of the present, of the actual, of the immediate range of facts, of the immediate urge and demand of action has no power over his thought and his will and he is therefore able to have a larger will-power founded on a larger knowledge. He sees things not as one on the levels surrounded by the jungle of present facts and phenomena but from above, not from outside and judged by their surfaces, but from within and viewed from the truth of their centre; therefore he is nearer the divine omniscience. He wills and acts from a dominating height and with a longer movement in time and a larger range of potencies, therefore he is nearer to the divine omnipotence. His being is not shut into the succession of the moments, but has the full power of the past and ranges seeingly through the future: not shut in the limiting ego and personal mind, but lives in the freedom of the universal, in God and in all beings and all things; not in the dull density of the physical mind, but in the light of the self and the infinity of the spirit. He sees soul and mind only as a power and a movement and matter only as a resultant form of the spirit. All his thought will be of a kind that proceeds from knowledge. He perceives and enacts the things of the phenomenal life in the light of the reality of the spiritual being and the power of the dynamic spiritual essence. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 19, 2008 23:19:17 At first, at the beginning of the conversion into this greater status, the thought will continue to move for a shorter or a longer time to a greater or a less extent on the lines of the mind but with a greater light and increasing flights and spaces and movements of freedom and transcendence. Afterwards the freedom and transcendence will begin to predominate; the inversion of the thought view and the conversion of the thought method will take place in different movements of the thought mind one after the other, subject to whatever difficulties and relapses, until it has gained on the whole and effected a complete transformation. Ordinarily the supramental knowledge will be organised first and with the most ease in the processes of pure thought and knowledge, jñana, because here the human mind has already the upward tendency and is the most free. Next and with less ease it will be organised in the processes of applied thought and knowledge because there the mind of man is at once most active and most bound and wedded to its inferior methods. The last and most difficult conquest, because this is now to his mind a field of conjecture or a blank, will be the knowledge of the three times, trikaladrishti. In all these there will be the same character of a spirit seeing and willing directly above and around and not only in the body it possesses and there will be the same action of the supramental knowledge by identity, the supramental vision, the supramental thought and supramental word, separately or in a united movement. This then will be the general character of the supramental thought and knowledge and these its main powers and action. It remains to consider its particular instrumentation, the change that the supermind will make in the different elements of the present human mentality and the special activities that give to the thought its constituents, motives and data. Sri Aurobindo in "The Synthesis of Yoga" - Part 4: The Yoga of Self-Perfection SABCL Volume 21- Pages 795-809 published by Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Pondicherry diffusion by SABDA or report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 20, 2008 11:22:47 2 make it simple,look at uslah(4 example)..mula mula kita sprem ya ,then bayi,then kanak knak(curu bapa ulta sofistikated hanpon mau main java games ),n then remaja,lepaih tu jadi dewasa,lepaih tu tua,n last kali kong kali kong...TAPI..pada satu juncture,samada ada pada state kanak kanak,remaja dewasa,atau owang tua..kita boleh "transform" ke tahap yg leleh tinggi..process perubahaan boleh dipercepatkan memerusi yoha integral..oatau kita boleh tunggu sajele...transformasi di atmosfera,dan kita berubah secara berperingkat peringkat mengikut time n space report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 23, 2008 12:06:03 perubahan di atmosfera memang telah berlaku secara berperingkat peringkat..ini lah evolusi yg sebenarnya... report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by SUV, June 23, 2008 12:09:49 SITE OF SRI AUROBINDO & THE MOTHER AUROBINDO.RU Home Page | Workings by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother | Agenda | Vol.1 Mother's Agenda January 4, 1969 (Mother gives roses to Satprem, then breathes in the smell of a bunch of small yellow flowers [[Hymenantherum, small yellow daisies. ]] near her.) It smells nice! It's for my own satisfaction. These, and the "New Birth," [[Origanum vulgare, marjoram. ]] oh, these two fragrances are so clean .... (Pointing to the bunch of daisies) This is "Simple Sincerity" You know, a sincerity that doesn't make any fuss! So what are you bringing me? Nothing, Mother. Nothing ... On the 1st, something really strange took place .... And I wasn't the only one to feel it, a few people felt it too. It began just after midnight, but I felt it at 2, and others at 4 in the morning. It was ... I told you a few words about it last time, but the surprising thing is that it didn't correspond to anything I expected (I didn't expect anything), or to any of the things I had felt. It was something very material, I mean it was very external - very outward - and luminous, with a golden light. It was very strong, powerful. But its character was a smiling benevolence, a peaceful joy, and a sort of blossoming in the joy and the light. And it was like a "happy new year," like a wish. I must say it took me by surprise. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by SUV, June 23, 2008 12:11:30 It lasted - I felt it for at least three hours. Afterwards, I stopped concerning myself with it, I don't know what happened. But I told you a few words about it, and I spoke to two or three others: they had all felt it. Which means it was VERY material. They had all felt a sort of joy like that, but an amiable, powerful joy, and ... oh, so sweet, very smiling, VERY BENEVOLENT ... something ... I don't know what it is. I don't know what it is, but it's a kind of benevolence; so it was something very close to the human. And so concrete! So concrete. As if it had a taste, so concrete was it. Afterwards, I didn't concern myself with it anymore, except that I told two or three people about it: they had all felt it. Now, I don't know whether it has mingled or ... It hasn't gone, it doesn't give the feeling of something that comes only to go away. It was far more external than the things I usually feel, far more external .... Hardly mental at all, I mean there was no sense of a "promise" or ... No. It would rather be like ... My own impression was that of an immense personality, immense (meaning that for it, the earth was small, like this [Mother holds a small object in the hollow of her hands], like a ball), an immense personality, so very benevolent, and coming to ... (Mother seems to gently raise the little ball in the hollow of her hands). It was the impression of a personal god (yet it was ... I don't know) who comes to help. So very strong! And so sweet at the same time, so understanding. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by SUV, June 23, 2008 12:12:04 And it was very external: the body felt it everywhere, everywhere (Mother touches her face, her hands), all over like this. What has become of it? I don't know. It was the start of the year. As if someone on the scale of a god (someone, that is) had come to say "Happy new year," with all the power to make it a happy year. It was like that. But what was it? ... So concrete ... I don't know. Is it ... is it the personality (because it didn't have any form, I didn't see any form, there was only what it brought along [Mother feels the atmosphere with her fingers], sensation and feeling, these two things - sensation and feeling), I wondered if it wasn't the supramental personality ... which will, then, manifest later in material forms? Since then, the body - this body - has been feeling (it has been permeated by that everywhere, a lot), it has been feeling much more joyful and less concentrated, living more in a happy, smiling expansion. For instance, it speaks more easily. There's a note ... a constant note of benevolence. A smile, you know, a benevolent smile, and all that with a GREAT FORCE .... I don't know. Haven't you felt anything? That day, I had a sense of contentment. Ah, that's it! Yes, that's right. report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by Tom n Jerry, June 26, 2008 08:22:16 We are all one in this infinite universe!Put things metaphorically,each humanis like a piece in a jig-saw puzzle!When assembled together it makes a complete piece,scenic & beautiful!But the reality is not many people understand this!Many people think in terms of I,me,mine,which are all concepts,not ultimate reality!Human beings who have been synchronised with the energy of the cosmos will think rationally &compartmentally(similar to star&indigo children)exuding a quality of compassion& wisdom of the highest degree!SUV you are just being put into the natural flow of the universe and the divine!May you be well & happy! report abuse disagree 0 agree 2 ... written by SUV, June 26, 2008 23:15:19 may all of us realise we r part of the divine,may we realise that every entity is divine,may we realise everything is for the divine,may we realise nothing but the divine.. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by kclim, June 28, 2008 22:53:39 Well again malaysia boleh each and every time! Aussies are pretty cluey ( smart) about things say what we like about foreigners. You see they have the foresight to book out our superb sporting facilities way in advance. Now we have to beg outsiders to let us share/ use our own facilities. What a joke. Please read this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/spor...le/7616316 So we Malaysians are not so smart afterall. We just pretend and make believe that we are up there with the developed nations. So what if we have built 21st century facilities but have not organised our mental faculties nor sharpen our skills to compete globally. Apparently in a short few years from now some African countries ( e.g Nigeria) will show us the heels of their shoes as they zoom ahead of us in development of their so called 3rd world status. What can we do with the bunch of leaders that we currently have. The saying that the people deserve the government that they voted in rings true. So we have only ourselves to blame really. report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by Tom n Jerry, July 05, 2008 00:45:04 Our existing bunch of politicians talking cock&crap,no substance!We are laughing stock of the world;our politicians so low IQ EQ!Icredible how they got there in the first place!Something really wrong somewhere!These gang of four(badawi,khairil,najib.7 rosmah)should be exterminated before we can start anew! report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 ... written by Tom n Jerry, July 05, 2008 00:56:24 It is undoubted that IQ & EQ is a built -in ifrom our genes(DNA)but it can be scientifically enhanced especially our EQ;with proper nourishment from young;nowadays expectant mothers are already on special diet from Anmum;this is ot ensure theiroffspring is on high EQ level! report abuse disagree 0 agree 1 Write comment This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment. You must be logged in to a comment. Please register if you do not have an account yet.

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