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The most crucial time in all of history is this moment

Learning is about being in the moment and enjoying the extension of our skills.

" The first fish to leave the sea for dry land were not programmed to do so, but exploited unused potentials of their makeup to take advantage of the opportunities of an entirely new environment. The monkeys who use sticks to fish for ants at the mouth of the anthills are not following a destiny carved in their genes, but are experimenting with possibilities that in the future may lead to the conscious use of tools, and hence to what we call progress. And certainly human history can only be understood as the action of people striving to realize indistinct dreams.... The goals we pursue are not determined in advance or built into our makeup. They are discovered in the process of enjoying the extension of our skills in novel settings, in new environments."

If we continue to live in the past, we never take advantage of present circumstances and opportunities, and no future can become created inside our past, the box we have trapped ourselves in. Instead, we need to embrace the present moment if we are to learn from it.

In November of 1991, the Davis Cup Tennis Finals took place between the U.S.A, and France. France had not won the Davis Cup for over 40 years and Henri Laconte (representing France) had recent back surgery. Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras (who just won the ATP Championships), were both in the top 10 rankings for tennis players world-wide, and were playing for the U.S.A. The doubles team for the U.S.A. was also one of the best teams and it was natural for everybody to assume that the U.S. would win the Davis Cup easily. In the first match, Agassi played superbly against Guy Forget of France and won comfortably.

Being rated so far below Sampras, Laconte of France was not expected to give a tough fight. In the event, Laconte was everywhere and Sampras could not return Laconte's serves, who was also hitting beautiful backhand passing shots. Sampras lost in straight sets.

That victory changed the fortunes for France. With renewed hope, French players probably played their best tennis and soon it was France leading 2-1. Guy Forget, who lost badly to Andre two days earlier, played so well against Pete Sampras that France beat the U.S.A. 3 matches to 1 to capture the Davis Cup after so many years.

From the U.S. perspective, although Sampras played brilliantly, perhaps the team entered the finals feeling that the result was a foregone conclusion. In other words, it seems that even before the game it was thought of as being in the past. Each moment has no be lived `now' for maximum effectiveness, whether in sports or learning.

We spend a huge amount of time worrying about the past, and planning for and worrying about the future. Meanwhile we are so busy with these issues over which we have no direct control that we allow the present, the only potential we have for change, to slip by untouched. We are oblivious to the present moment, yet when we were infants we were aware of nothing else; infants, like cats and dogs, have no sense of future beyond a few seconds. Is it possible that what distinguishes a human being from other animals is a both gift and a curse at the same time? We have advanced significantly due to our concept of the future, but we seem to have become carried away with it and forgotten how to deal with the present.

When we do embrace the present, it seems timeless. "The present is the only thing that has no end"

One instant is eternity
eternity is the now
when you see through this one instant
you see through the one who sees. ---Wu-Men

Also by the same author:

Ten thousand flowers in spring,
the moon in autumn,
a cool breeze in summer,
snow in winter ---
If your mind is not clouded by unnecessary things,
this is the best season of your life.

We generally deal with all of this merely in intellectual terms rather than by changing our actual intentions. A standard test to decide which applies to us is to ask ourselves the question: What possibilities lying in front of us today, at this moment, are we ignoring?

In the life of one man, never
The same time returns.

---T.S. Eliot

If it be now, 'tis not to come;
if it be not to come, it will be now;
if it be not now, yet it will come;
the readiness is all

--William Shakespeare, Hamlet, 1600

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We cannot mend things unless we first break them

When we study history it sometimes looks as though the result was inevitable. If the event was carried out by our us, however, we should know better than to say that something `caused' us to react the way we did.

It is simply not true that someone becomes angry because their boss yelled at them, or that they ate some chocolate cake because it was `irresistible'. We are not automatons, and we have control over our actions. If we want to improve our responses we can choose to break the usual chain of events. Openness means entering the gap between cause and effect, and creating a new effect.

This is not different from how we live our daily lives. Relationships can break up and companies fail because people ascribe external causes to every effect that they notice.

Interestingly, research shows that many of our responses are unrelated to current events. When two people are talking together, one might say something which reminds the other of something else that happened in their life. If that recall brought back good memories, the response is positive. If not, the response might well be negative. This might have nothing to do with the first comment, although the first person probably assumes it has. That, in turn, might bring back memories of their earlier interactions (and miscommunications), so the next response is equally far from the original topic. It is easy to see how misunderstandings can occur.

It has been said that we rarely listen properly to our partners, children and co-workers. In most discussions we act out what is called the `collective monologue.' While one person talks, the other is thinking of what to say next. So it often happens that two quite separate conversations, more properly called monologues, are taking place. This is sometimes how people participate in meetings. As an experiment, if somebody tells the truth in a meeting where polite lies are commonplace, it might break the hold the past has on the present, and it may give courage to others to tell the truth and be more open and productive. It takes some courage to break with patterns.

Imagine life being like a kaleidoscope. We study the first, random pattern so carefully that we do not want to change it. It might well be attractive, but we have become so used to it that we assume it should always look like that. We never think to turn it once in a while to see what other patterns might exist. In this way we can develop a frozen lifestyle, relationship, job and attitude. For example, we might have spent so long focusing on earning money, climbing up the corporate ladder, buying the right house in the right area, and so on, that we forget exactly why we do it. We are supposed to find happiness once we accumulated the right mix of ingredients. In a panic, we may feel disillusioned and trapped. But who trapped us?

Sometimes the pattern falls apart --- we lose our job, the stock market crashes, a relationship ends, or someone close to us dies --- and we see our lives suddenly disintegrate. The familiar shape in the kaleidoscope is gone, and in our stress all we see in its place is chaos and randomness. We are unwilling to let the pieces fall where they will and create a new pattern which, although strange at first, will have just as much beauty as before, perhaps more. To the kaleidoscope, each pattern is equally valid.

Research in the 1970's and 1980's showed that most people did not often change radio frequencies in their home, yet when driving they often switched between stations. The reason was that preset buttons were not common on home radios, and people were afraid of losing their preferred station. Now that most radios are digital, with many presets, people are more open to experimentation.

Perhaps learning is about intentionally creating new patterns rather than being satisfied with the old ones; once in a while perhaps we should all shake up our kaleidoscopes and see what emerges.

Through loyalty to the past, our mind refuses to realize that tomorrow's joy is possible only if today's makes way for it; that each wave owes the beauty of its line only to the withdrawal of the preceding one.

In that context, not only should we never be surprised at change, but we should expect it and enjoy its new possibilities. `Nothing is permanent but change' is in itself validation of the eternal truth of its message; it was written around 500 B.C.

When we try to avoid change it is because we fear failure in it. No matter how intrigued and curious we may be about the future and the changes it holds for us, and no matter how determined we think we are about embracing those changes, at the last minute it is only the fear of failure that can sabotage us:

Perhaps the final word should be from someone who made a speech about change in 1963, and whose death later that same year was itself instrumental in profound change:

Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or the present are certain to miss the future.

All is change; all yields its place and goes

-- Euripides, Heracles, c.422 B.C.

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The only worthwhile journeys are leaps in the dark

To be open means to be open to new potentials, new patterns. By definition, we do not know what these are at the time we open ourselves up to them. It is therefore something of a leap in the dark. We need to let go of our ego in order for it to happen.

The boundaries of our experience are not meant to prevent us from going further; they merely denote where we have been before, which is interesting for historical purposes but need not be limiting.

We are not suggesting that everyone should take up high risk activities on a whim. Tragically, it is much smaller fears that inhibit and disable us. When we all look around at some of the saddest cases of lives wasted by frustration and fear, we uncover that one person's barrier would have been, to others, an elementary task. It is not the wild opportunities for dangerous exotic adventures that we decline and then regret, so much as the wasted years of mundane existence which, on later analysis, could have been avoided by small but timely leaps of faith. It is not dramatic circumstances that prevent us from growth, but more subtle killers like a slight lack of self esteem.

As my friend Anne Stadler once said: high learning is like white water rafting. You are not in complete control. This certainly does not mean that you can leave everything to chance; you have to paddle, and hard. But whenever you realize you are moving in the direction you want, you sit back, watch it happen and go with the flow. Sometimes a minor movement of one oar is enough to keep on track, but at other times you need to paddle furiously. Either way, the river is really in charge of your exact position at any time, yet you are the person responsible for the trip's ultimate success.

So, we have a choice over our destiny. We may not be able to choose our exact position at all times, but we can choose which river to take, and indeed, whether to travel at all. Even when we act on reflex and intuition, choice makes its mark: we are a summary of our past decisions, and these now shape our beliefs and attitudes. These govern how we react to the events taking place. The following is a model used in the book Attitude Education.

The leap in the dark is very much our choice. We may not know the exact outcome; we may know some of the likely possibilities, but openness is all about not prejudging events.

The strongest principle of growth lies in human choice.

Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier .

-- Charles F Kettering, Quoted in Profile of America, 1954

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In the stillness of the moment we can find we have made the biggest leap

When one scientist discovered that germs are responsible for the deaths of mothers and children during childbirth, nobody believed him. There had always been a high mortality rate at childbirth (by today's standards), so it was assumed that there was nothing that could be done about it. It was only after insurmountable evidence that washing hands before delivery did in fact reduce deaths that people became open to the idea that germs were deadly.

Perhaps we limit our thinking if we believe that we are replicatable Thomas Kuhn, in his famous book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions describes paradigm shifts. He realized that scientific theories are not easily overturned; the current generation of scientists will cling to the old theory for as long as possible.

When scientists find information that is outside of their model, either they distort it until it fits their rule or they just won't see that information at all.

Rather, for most scientists, major theories, or paradigms, are like spectacles which they put on in order to solve puzzles. Every now and then a `paradigm shift' occurs in which these spectacles get smashed and scientists put on new ones that turn everything upside down, sideways, and a different color. Once the paradigm shift takes place in any scientific field, a new generation of scientists is brought up wearing the new glasses and accepting the new vision as natural or `true'.

When paradigms change, the world itself changes with them. Led by a new paradigm, scientists adopt new instruments and look in new places. Even more important, during revolutions [paradigm shifts] scientists see new and different things when looking with familiar instruments in places they have looked before. It is as if the professional community had been suddenly transported to another planet where familiar objects are seen in a different light and are joined by unfamiliar ones as well.

Kuhn also said "When we are in the middle of one paradigm, it is hard to imagine any other...." Each paradigm has its own body of knowledge, beliefs and attitudes, processes and content of learning.

Paradigm [is a] shared set of assumptions... The paradigm is the way we perceive the world; water to the fish. The paradigm explains the world to us and helps us to predict its behavior.

A positive way of looking at a paradigm is by calling it a world view; a negative synonym is dogma. Change the paradigm and you change the nature of learning, or certainly the body of knowledge, skills and attitudes which apply. First, nothing happens, then a lot happens all at once. Breakthroughs in learning occur in this sudden gap.

We cannot unconsciously learn to move to a new paradigm; the will is required to make the change in thinking. Our perceptions create our paradigms. Stephen Covey tells a story of a father and his noisy children. Everyone within earshot was irritated with the kids until they found out why they were that way. This example teaches us that one of the ways to help us recognize our own paradigm is to consider what circumstances it might take to shift our viewpoint. In this way, we begin accepting that our perspective is not sacrosanct.

Other ways include the recognition of phrases that set off warning bells, like:

We don't do things like that in this company
That's impossible
One things's for certain....
It's never worked before
We have learned from experience that....
I am not good at....
My customers won't....

History contains many amusing quotations from highly respectable people who made laughably incorrect judgments at the time:

Mr Bell, after careful consideration of your invention, while it is a very interesting novelty, we have come to the conclusion that it has no commercial possibilities. --J. P. Morgan's comments on behalf of Western Union after a demonstration of the telephone.

This is the biggest fool thing we have ever done... the bomb will never go off, and I speak as an expert in explosives. (Admiral William Leahy to President --Truman, discussion the atomic bomb in 1945.

There is no plea which will justify the use of high-tension and alternating currents, either in a scientific or a commercial sense. They are employed solely to induce investment in copper wire and real estate. --Thomas A. Edison, 1889.

It is after the shift that much new learning, in the light of the new model, is made. Just as a change in our values and beliefs triggers off innumerable new opinions, a scientific paradigm shift creates a wake of reassessments and updates to be done. These can be considered an aftershock, or afterthought.

We have no access to the gap except through direct experience. What we call learning might simply be transcending the gap. When we are open, we are free from the ego for a precious moment, and a moment is all it takes, but it requires taking the more difficult and even unreasonable path:

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.

Consciousness shifts or expands while we are in the gap. It is a sudden new awareness. It feels like waking up from a dream or surfacing after a good movie, and realizing that only now do we know that what seemed so real only moments earlier was not so. It all seems so obvious after the event.

Progress is a nice word. But change is its motivator. And change has its enemies.

-- Robert F. Kennedy, The Pursuit of Justice, 1964

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The more we prepare ourselves for a peak experience, the more we prevent it from happening

True breakthroughs cannot be anticipated, because, if we are able to predict personal growth ahead of the event, we would not need the event in the first place.

Many of us have had an occasional experience like it; a sudden jolt of recognition, a flash of inspiration, or a burst of insight. In a moment, we see a piece of truth that we did not recognize before, yet all along it was there for all to see. In a moment, we understand ourselves and the world a little better, we see things differently, and we know that we have irreversibly changed in some small way. Always, we feel good. It is profoundly satisfying to tie up the loose ends of our brain. It creates a surge of warmth and energy, and we feel more complete as a result.

We never doubt the validity of the new wisdom; somehow we simply know it to be true. It can only be a breakthrough if it impacts more then one part of our thinking, and when realignment takes place, it triggers off countless other reactions of the mind, solving unresolved problems, and they, in turn, cascade down into smaller and finer connections, until we can sense that our brain is more alive than moments before.

This is high learning. We put labels on it: Aha, eureka, openness, gap, resolution, breakthrough, transformation. They lead to expanded awareness and empowerment.

Many of us are seeking a meaning to our lives. Is there a higher purpose to it all? What gifts, what value do I have? These are serious questions that most address at some point of their journey. Whenever such insight does take place, however small, it can only do so through the gap. Only through openness could it have happened at all.

In that moment, we see richer and deeper patterns, and we feel our learning accelerate. In the glow of the aftermath, we function more fluidly. A breakthrough in playing an instrument is immediately noticed by the listener; there ceases to be anxiety over the score, and the playing is for enjoyment only. The music seems to take on a life of its own. There is magic in the performance, and those touched by it are changed.

Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us.

-- Boris Pasternak, Speech "On Modesty and Boldness", Writers' Plenum, Minsk, 1936

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We see the most clearly what has disappeared

In the instant of openness when we tumble through the gap, we are oblivious of time and space. They effectively disappear.

A great leader is one who simplifies complex issues. When listening to such a person speak, we experience a series of small breakthroughs, moments of recognition that speak the truth to us. Time flies by as we hop from little gap to little gap.

Laughter has the same effect, because it also has the same origin. We can only truly laugh when we are surprised at the sudden connection we have made in our minds, and we feel rapidly intoxicated by it. During that split second, we wonder whether it will last forever, and we explode with mental energy. On the scale of enjoyment, it ranks at the very top, higher than mere pleasure. We are a child again, free from the burdens that we accepted in later years.

Perhaps that is a strong analogy. Piaget's model of solving discrepancies seems to work as well for an adult as for a two year old. It is a release from discomfort, and the pendulum swings so far the other way that we are swept along with it.

If this state of mind is so good, can we hold onto it? No, we cannot. By its very nature, it is transient. Those who claim to be supremely open on a permanent basis have, on closer examination, other problems after all. As they are blind to those problems, they are not as open as they think. Through obsession with openness, they lose their grip on reality, and forget that we all need to develop a balance in our lives.

Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure.

-- A.E. Houseman, The Name and Nature of Poetry, 1933

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Openness Summary

In this chapter, we began to identify the source of our empowerment and the context in which reframing can take place.

The gap is being outside the box; we expand our vision. During that moment, when we flow with insight, we realize that many of our limits are self imposed. We are tempted to explore new territories that we did not even know existed. We are free again.

Accelerated learning takes place at that moment. Even though what is uncovered is directly related to the intention to uncover it in the first place, the mind is expanded to absorb more perspectives than were bargained for.

Life is simplified during that moment of creation. There is a sense of broader vistas, and a feeling that `if this bigger pattern exists here, what other big patterns are hidden to me that I might search for?' This leads to a heightened maturity and confidence, with the potential to redefine such concepts as compassion and truth.

We probably all brush with moments of openness several times a day, much of it barely consciously. When we are aware of it, our cognitive minds tend to negate the potential experience, as it does not understand the gap. Your fleeting curiosity is usually submerged with sudden doubt and justification for the status quo, and you move on.

If you do embrace the moment, you cannot stay in the gap for long. Your conditioning, your intentions, and the unlearning necessary for the experience define what will result, but you become stretched in some new way, resulting in a new `you' as it emerges on the other side of the gap. There is a brand new box awaiting you. This may be bigger or more flexible than before, and you are one step better equipped to experience new freedoms the next time. The way this manifests itself is the subject of the next section.

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

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