Cracks in the Armour - a Great Gift!

     “I just went through a series of heart attacks, and the greatest gift that’s come out of that for me is a deeper appreciation of vulnerability, which is usually seen as weakness. But I’m experiencing it as a kind of porousness, of feeling less defended, less armored. If we can impart to younger people the gift of that vulnerability, it may help them to embrace aging.”           Frank Ostaseski

      To successfully negotiate transitions requires full open-hearted conscious engagement – mind, heart and body – so that all aspects of the learner can be transformed. According to models of normal human development, the learner becomes one step more mature, which results in a greater ability to comprehend and deal with complexity. One’s “self-concept” is a fluid, evolving process. One first develops an ego, then slowly we let go of egocentricity, gradually becoming hypoegoic, allocentric and ecocentric. Mystics and saints in various traditions strive to shed their ego altogether.

      “We all operate in two contrasting modes, which might be called open and closed. The open mode is more relaxed, more receptive, more exploratory, more democratic, more playful and more humorous. The closed mode is the tighter, more rigid, more hierarchical, more tunnel-visioned. Most people, unfortunately spend most of their time in the closed mode.”           John Cleese

JMW Turner (1775–1851)   The Burning of the Houses of Parliament