This classic story is not, of course, too realistic, and it is possible that the beggar would have chosen some other day to experiment with the experience of blindness if he had been told about the gold. Or he may not -- we will never know. But it does serve to highlight the topic of intention. Unless we actively look for something, we tend not to see it.

This is true both literally and metaphorically. Our conscious mind would be inundated with excess data if we studied everything within view with maximum intensity. That is the great benefit of our ability to see patterns; once glanced at and recognized, it can safely be ignored enabling us to concentrate on newer information. But sometimes, as with optical illusions, try as we might we cannot avoid our minds coming to conclusions that are quite wrong.

The same is true of our thinking process. In the box that we have chosen to live in, we need to make the effort to look for the way out; it will not be apparent otherwise. The door has become too commonplace to notice, and after a while we might even forget the need for a door in the first place.

While I grew up in India, I did not care very much about Indian values, its heritage or its culture since I was mostly unconscious of what it means to be an Indian. When I moved to the United States, my culture, values and beliefs came into sharper focus and the contrast provided an opportunity to learn more about my previous conditioning. If I had never left India, I probably would have never wanted to learn many of the things I've now learned about myself.

No man sees far; the most see no farther than their noses.

--Thomas Carlyle, Count Cagliostro, 1833

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To go vaguely in the right direction is to go in the wrong direction.

There is no such thing as a vague intention to look for change. If any intention is vague, it cannot be an intention. If it is vague, it cannot be an intention. Every large bookstore has self-help book shelves full of exciting exaltations like `do it now!' , 'take charge!' and 'turn your goals into a winning formula for success!' They mostly say that if you don't know where you're headed, how do you expect to get there?

They are right, of course. In this book we have tried to avoid the breathless prose of the instant enrichment genre, but there is no doubt that intentions to change are a necessary ingredient of the process. It is easy to fool even ourselves by going through the motions of planning something when we have no real intention of carrying it out. We might, for example, buy a language tape that remains on our shelf, unused. Who would do such a thing? The publishing industry will tell you that it is a common phenomenon. We may do it out of vanity, or we may be tricking ourselves. We may like the concept of learning or growing, but today is not a good time to start.

We could even play the language tape and still not learn from it, because without any genuine intention to learn it will flow over our heads. Grim repetition will fail. We need to want to learn so much that the process itself will be enjoyable. We can therefore dramatically increase our rate of learning if we remind ourselves that we really do want to, perhaps by visualizing not only the benefits afterwards but the pleasure during the process. Or, rather than be inhibited by the language tape and considering the course a chore, we would do better to simply play it one day and see if it is interesting, with no heavy agenda attached and, consequently, no possibility of failure either.

When we travel by plane, how many of us pay attention to the instructions the flight attendants give on the right ways to buckle up, and where to find oxygen masks and flotation devices? The ritual bores us. However, if the plane developed serious engine trouble in mid flight, everyone would suddenly pay very close attention indeed. Although such motivation could hardly be higher in survival terms, because of the stress of the situation some people would still miss many of the instructions given. Because there is no inherent pleasure in learning about the equipment itself, the mind still finds itself wandering.

We only relate to information when it matches the level we perceive we are at. Maslow suggested that human needs change and grow. We begin with basic survival needs, and only when they are satisfied do we progress to stimulation needs (activity, exploration), then safety and security, followed by love and belonging, self esteem, and, finally, self actualization.

We can quickly revert to lower levels, for example in an emergency or illness. We would trade our home and all our wealth for a life raft or a cure for a life-threatening sickness. Our ability to learn, being a direct function of our interest in the subject under review, generally parallels these changing levels, although during moments of transformation we can leapfrog entire levels in a moment.

But we, we have no sense of direction; impetus
Is all we have; we do not proceed, we only
Roll down the mountain,
Like disbalanced boulders, crushing before us many
Delicate springing things, whose plan it was to grow

-- Edna St.Vincent Millay, Untitled poem, Make Bright the arrows, 1940

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We cannot plant new crops before we uproot the old. We need to unlearn before we can learn/A>

I once heard a story (I am sure this story is retold in so many ways in different cultures) about a professor who was an expert on Buddhism. He wrote several books and was a real scholar. After several attempts, he had an opportunity to go to Tibet and meet with an enlightened master. Our professor was so happy that he presented a set of his books and a list of questions to the master.

The master offered tea to the professor and he accepted. While pouring tea, the master did not stop when the cup was full, but continued to pour until the professor stopped him. The bewildered professor was told that the cup resembled his brain and unless he was willing to empty it, nothing more would fit inside!

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We might travel the world for a lifetime; trapped inside our own jail

The only barriers to learning are those we have created. Many people assume that once someone is settled in to their box they cannot fundamentally change their patterns, beliefs, and personalities. People are generally resigned to our `inadequacies' and assume that this is the way they always will be. Such thinking becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because they think they see validation for their beliefs everywhere they look.

When in this position they are so used to the box that it becomes invisible to them, (but perhaps not to others). Learning is not possible until we unlearn about our current box.

There is an old fable about a frog in a pond. A new frog arrived from the ocean. He asked this visitor how big was the ocean. `The ocean is very large and the pond is so small compared to the ocean', the second frog responded. The frog in the pond could not imagine anything bigger than the pond it lived in and therefore it went away thinking that the second frog was the biggest liar it had ever met.

They are ill discoverers that think there is no land, when they see nothing but sea.

-- Francis Bacon, The Advancement of Learning, 1605

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Of all the prisons in the world, the one most difficult to escape from is the one at which we are the jailer

Self esteem and self confidence are very much part of the box in which we imprison ourselves. Once boxed in, it is difficult, but again not impossible, to break out. But only we hold the key.

While I was leading a workshop in India, a woman told me that she attempted to learn to drive twice and then gave up. Why? The car stalled three or four times while she was attempting to change gears. She had not mastered the interplay between clutch, accelerator and the brake pedal. She did not have the tolerance for her 'mistakes' and decided that she was not good enough to learn how to drive a car.

I also remember meeting a brilliant young doctor who had a mental blind-spot. For some reason she was absolutely petrified of taking answering machine messages for other people. If ever she attempted it, her mind would freeze and she either would not listen or she would write down incomplete messages. This was despite the fact that she knew some messages could be urgent. Instead of seeking help, she was adamant that she could never master this, and she remained totally unwilling to be coached.

Steve: The same applies to the world of computers. Some people are so frightened of having to use them that the term `computer phobic' is in common use. I used to work for a computer hardware manufacturer who ran teams of customer training consultants. Sometimes the entire installation of an expensive computer system, perhaps replacing one that was archaic and error-prone system, would hinge on one person who refused to have anything to do with it because of a lack of self confidence.

It was frequently a delicate psychological situation; the trainer would need skills far beyond those learned in computer school to prevent emotional factors overwhelming the customer's office. Until a breakthrough occurred, the person being trained would sometimes become physically ill with worry and stress. After the breakthrough, a sudden transformation would take place; that same person could often be seen enthusiastically showing off the system with pride, and recommending it to acquaintances.

The solution to these blockages is usually not found in merely spending more time practicing, because no amount of repetition automatically improves low self confidence. Our expectations get in the way of our learning; only when the attitude changed was there a breakthrough.

My son Pravin has been learning to swim with air-wings that support his weight. One day we both were getting ready to swim and I was cleaning the pool. When I turned my back to him, Pravin jumped into the pool and in his excitement, forgot to wear his wings. He was able to swim for about a minute before noticing the absence of his wings and the extra effort that he had to exert to stay afloat. Then fear took over and he frantically shouted to get my attention and stopped swimming. Luckily, I rescued him right away and even attempted to get him back in the water so that his fear would not create a box around his mind.

Steve Johnson adds:

Some years ago when I was a sales training manager, every week for a year I interviewed every salesperson on every course, and later I would be able to compare my assessments with their performance in the field. I was trying to analyze what made the top salespeople successful. After the analysis I excluded the factors which made no difference: age, gender, education, previous job, similar experience, etc. The only thing left was their drive. Most people wanted to succeed, but often this was not quite enough. The top performers simply had no doubt that they would make it happen.

Sometimes we meet someone who we recognize as `driven'. When they say they are going to do something we know it will happen because they, themselves, are so sure. It is simply going to happen, no matter what.

These cases display more than desire or motivation. Something larger than that seems to be at work. It is the strength of that conviction that gives it its force, and this applies to learning as much as anything. They have learned to make things happen by believing they will.

I once heard the story of a young boy in a small village who spent years in the same grade and was given up as mute and retarded.

A new teacher joined the school, and taking note of the child, spent a long time studying him. Committed to helping him, he attempted many ways to engage him. One day he drew a figure on the blackboard. It was a drawing of the boy's dog.

The boy was visibly moved by the image, and asked the teacher whether it was his dog that was being drawn. Encouraged by the boy's response, the teacher spent the next few minutes finding more information about the dog. Then he wrote 'RAMA,' the name of the dog, below the drawing. The student was puzzled and asked what it was. The teacher told him that it is the dog's name and asked the boy to write the name down. The boy burst into tears and confessed that he did not know how to read or write. It was clear that he was so ashamed of his lack of progress at school that he had given up long ago. He needed to unlearn his opinion of his capabilities.

The teacher gently guided the child in writing the name Rama, and once he wrote it there was a visible transformation in the boy. The boy went on to advance through the school effortlessly in the next few years and went on to become a scholar in his own right.

It is we that are blind, not fortune.

-- Sir Thomas Browne  Religion Medici, 1642

Compliments create the very skills they are complimenting

We can change someone's self image and beliefs by the way we acknowledge them.

Angeles Arrien, a cross cultural anthropologist, once said that each person is a leader, and effective leaders are ones who know how to acknowledge others. She also says that there are four ways to acknowledge a person:

• Acknowledgment of skills (eg skills in delivery, performance)
• Acknowledgment of character (integrity, gentility, generosity, strength, trustworthiness)
• Acknowledgment of appearance (smile, twinkle of the eye, posture, beauty, grace)
• Acknowledgment of impact (on me, others, inspiration, empowerment, clarity)

The power of such positive comments is such that it can cause a change to occur in the other person; once their beliefs and their self perceptions are changed, anything can happen. Because of this, they start to focus and develop in that area. It becomes self fulfilling.

When you cannot get a compliment in any other way, pay yourself one.

-- Mark Twain Notebook, 1935

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The person with the highest IQ may be the least intelligent

Learning begins with an appreciation of our differences and realities.

Everyone has heard of IQ tests, and many assume that they are the best way of assessing intelligence. It now emerges that this is a very narrow test indeed, so its persistence is highly misleading. We need to unlearn about IQ importance.

Howard Gardner writes of multiple intelligences, arguing that we have at least seven different ways of knowing the world. Instead of merely the logico-mathematical intelligence that is measured in standard IQ tests, Gardner talks about other, equally valid intelligences. They are language, spatial representation, musical thinking, kinesthetic intelligence, interpersonal and intra-personal intelligences. In a world obsessed with the standard IQ model, we run the risk of demotivating intelligent people who fail a limited and fairly arbitrary but ubiquitous test. Furthermore, those who pass may be given undue accolades, and be closed to further learning.

We all use our very different ways of relating to the world when solving the problems that we have; in other words, we all have different approaches to solving problems. It is also now widely recognized that we have different learning styles , learning modalities (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) and creativity styles.

Unless we use different approaches when engaging different people, we may not hardly be heard, let alone hope to communicate in any meaningful way. Everyone has strengths in one or more of these seven areas, which combine to become part of that person's individual reality. If we find that we cannot easily understand or like someone, by speaking to another of their `selves' we can find talents and gifts we little suspected. This is true empathy; consciously learning about their world and dealing in their reality.

Intelligence is quickness in seeing things as they are.

-- George Santayana Little Essays, 192

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It is not our good health that makes us happy, but our happiness that gives us good health

If one of our most important realities is our health, we have more ability to influence it than we used to think. We need to look at the complete picture when wishing to accelerate learning; our bodies and our minds are not separable.

I met a high level administrative officer in India. He told me the story of his son, who was diagnosed as being severely mentally retarded. Almost everyone gave up on the child when doctors told the family that he would probably never be capable of eating his own food let alone taking care of himself. That is, everybody gave up except the mother, who spent all her time taking care of him, singing to him, telling him stories, taking him for walks. This continued for years.

This same son is now in his second year of music college, can type 100 words a minute, speak three languages, and can cook, clean and take care of himself. Doctors and educators come from all over to see this miracle and the only answer the mother has for them is that there is nothing that cannot be cured by love. She never, for one second, believed that her son was a vegetable and she did not let the child believe it either. Whatever mechanism took part in this case, it begs the question how many times have we ourselves have given up on learning new tasks just because we felt incapable? How many chances do we give children to learn before we brand them uneducable?

It seems, therefore, that we can learn how to improve our own health. There is much evidence of the relationship between our mental state and our body's immunity to disease, as well as our ability to learn. During depression we not only find it hard to learn but we increase our forgetfulness. If we are surrounded by an environment where we experience trust, love and compassion, healing between inner and outer selves starts. Learning can only thrive when we feel free to learn, which in turn only takes place when we feel whole, which is our natural state.

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

-- E. M. Forster, Two Cheers for Democracy, 1951

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Unlearning summary

In this chapter on unlearning, we investigated the process of innovative or generative learning through the process of unlearning. This seems like a contradiction, however, we need to throw away the old models and replace them with better ones before significant new learning can take place.

We need to intend to change, because the process is not automatic. We best experience a desire to learn in a whole or loving environment. As we become aware of what lies outside the box, we see and hear things we were previously oblivious of. We gradually develop a creative tension between our desire to change and our resistance, which is a fear of the unknown; we confront the old model, unlearn what was holding us back, and begin to open up enough to dissolve the old box, and create anew. That moment is one of breakthrough and great awareness. For a while there is reduced attachment to the past and reduced anxiety about the future.

Such transformations lead to dramatic increases in openness and create a space, a gap between current reality and the future vision. Learning in such a gap is the subject of the another chapter. If you like to read the chapter on Openness chapter, Click on Openness: Exploring the Gap

You can see the learning framework which includes unlearning as an integral part, you may click here: The Learning Framework

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