Human Values
"Let us grow together; let us live together, let us study together, let us develop knowledge together, without conflict, with friendship, with broadmindedness."
Adult Learning and the 5 Human Values
Adults discover Sathya Sai Baba via various ways and means - more often than not, a book had been given to them, they have read it, and become curious to know more about Sai Baba and so begin a spiritual journey of discovery. Among the discoveries are the 5 Human Values. One of the questions most frequently asked by this group of newcomers is how to put these 5 Human Values into practice in daily life.
Many people read books, visit Puttaparthi, listen to divine discourses by Sri Sathya Sai and still ask the same question.
What could help is an understanding of the principles of adult learning and an appreciation of learners preferred ways of learning. Adults need to take sustained effort over time, use the principles Duty, Devotion and Discipline coupled with perseverance will help all to have self-confidence in practising the 5 Human Values.
Learning is not limited
Learning is not limited by any earlier learning in your life, or lack of scholarly learning. One does not have to have a University degree to learn. Learning and intelligence are two different things. Science and psychological research would tell us that Intelligence is often called a static thing - some professionals state that a person is born with a certain amount of intelligence or only has a limited capacity of intelligence, all through life. Sai Baba has said, use your intelligence well, and the giver will be pleased to give you more ...
Left The Classroom Forever
Many adults have left the classroom forever. Even a teacher cannot return to the classroom as a student. Different strategies are required for learning to be retained effectively and practised in a manner that indicates competency in that which has been learned. These different strategies suggest that adult learning be best achieved when the learning is
- Meaningful
- Active
- Concerned with first and last impressions (the remembering or forgetting curve!)
- Wholistic - it engages all the senses
- Practised and reinforced
- Feedback is given
- Reward is built into the learning process
Meaningful
The essential thing in learning is to incorporate the learning - embodying it and being transformed by what is learned. That only occurs if the material is meaningful, and that all of the learner's life experience is brought to the learning and acknowledged. 'Meaningful' here refers to moving from the known to the yet unknown - the learner is enabled to integrate learning into all the experiences they have had to date.
Active
Learning has to be active, and interactive. Swami has said that the journey to liberation cannot be carried on in solitude or alone. Learning carries power and energy (or shakti) when information is shared in a process that ensures interaction. In other words, we learn best when we interact with other people and bounce our ideas off them, and give responses to their shared experiences.
First and Last
That which is remembered most from a lesson or a meeting of people is usually the first and last impressions - both of the people we encounter (a mentor or tutor, or a Guru) and the material that is presented. The remembering/forgetting curve says that interest, attention and retention are at their highest at the beginning and at the end of a learning encounter. Various strategies have to be engaged in order for the entire session to be retained and the learner becomes aware of their learning.
Wholistic
Wholistic learning engages the emotions, the body and the mind. Drama, role-plays, hypotheticals, debates, and energy exchanges that engage these aspects of the person engage the energy of learning. There are different ways of taking in information: sitting and reading is the least effective way of learning and integrating for many adults. Educational research indicates we remember 20% of what we READ, 30% of what we HEAR, 40% of what we SEE, 50% of what we SAY, 60% of what we DO and 90% of what we HEAR, SEE, SAY AND DO. It is not without relevance to remember what Swami says about Namasmarana (repeating the name of the Lord). Swami says we must have both name and the form in our mind's eye as we do this.
Visual learners learn in information through use of posters, charts, graphics, slogans, advertisements, visual display, flipcharts, overheads, booklets, handouts, texts. Cartoons, memory maps, variety in colour, shape, size and brightness, in fact, anything I can see or watch. They need to "see" to understand.
Auditory learners learn best through question and answer, lecture, story, audio tapes, discussion ( pair or group) variety in tone, rate of speaking, pitch, volume, speeches, debates, jokes. The auditory types learn by listening. They love to talk, they think in sound and can be distracted by noise.
Kinaesthetic learners generally learn by doing or 'hands on'. They like to feel, grasp, catch, have the concrete example. They learn best through doing to learn, team activities, acting out, role-play, role reversal, coaching, demonstrating to others, anything they can do. They are constantly moving, tapping pens, shifting in seats. Perhaps the long darshan waits in Prasanthi Mandir are important learning experiences for the "shifting types"!!
Practising and reinforcing
Values are guides to action. Values tend to be practised in one of three ways. Lets look at these and use the example driving a car.
Compliance
is obeying the letter of the law. Speed limits are there to provide for safe driving and to protect life. A motor vehicle takes a farther distance to stop the faster it is travelling. Compliance practice of values means a person will drive at the speed they choose and only slow down in the presence of the police. The letter of the law is only observed in the presence of the law.
Role Modelling
Role Modelling is copying someone else. One would like to be like an admired other and possess their qualities and capture their admiration. Role modelling with the speed limit in the motor vehicle is driving at the same speed everyone else is driving. In the absence of others, or the admired one who passed appreciative comments on our driving, the driver reverts to the former behaviour of any speed that satisfies them.
Internalisation
Internalisation is behaving and observing the value for its own sake. It is understood to be a value that preserves order, life and the public safety. The driver of the motor vehicle drives at the town and city limit, because they know that this speed gives them the optimum stopping distance. They observe the limit for the open highway for the road is constructed to support that driving speed, with the curves, the camber, the presence of signs, the foundation of the road. Therefore, the driver who has internalised obeying the speed limit recognises the inherent value it contains.
Compliance, role modelling and internalisation are all stages we progress through in the practice and reinforcement of the 5 Human Values.
Feedback
Feedback is the capacity to put the ego aside and listen to another or observe another's reactions to our behaviour. Swami frequently tells in His Divine Discourses that every action produces a reaction, and that everything in this world is reaction, reflection, resound. It takes a sharp, alert, aware person to perceive the small messages that convey the response to our behaviours. Swami says Life is Awareness. This awareness can be developed and garnered through asking others for feedback on interactions and values.
Another method is the daily review that Swami suggests we practise before sleep. This is simply a review of the day and a checking out of things that have happened and being open to impressions, images, and words about our actions in the day. This is not an opportunity for breast-beating, self-condemnation or abasement. Swami says, simply, be sorry and make a resolve to do better. We are not allowed to call ourselves sinners, and the worst sin, Swami has sometimes said, is to call the Divinity within you sin.
Building on experience
Learning is generally thought of as the acquisition and practice of a new skill, or the integration of new information into our lives. Simply reading something and trying it out, and giving it away if it does not work out too well, is submitting to the tyranny of the ego. Visual learners, auditory learners and kinaesthetic learners would all benefit from some structured and progressive reflection on personal experience and keeping a record of one's progress in a permanent form.
Many people say "One step forward and two steps backwards" or "Learning and applying the values is a long, trying process fraught with difficulty and failure" Well, the answer to that is beware of such thoughts and statements. Swami has told many, many times in discourses that you become what you feel, and that any thought you send out will return to you fulfilled. Make the building on experience an exciting process, dust yourself off, get up and don't let go. Swami, when He revealed Himself as the Sai Avatar, taught a song on that very first day. It had the message that life was difficulty, and the best way through it was to select a guru (one who knows the goal and can lead you to it) and HOLD ON!
Reward built into the learning process
The reward of a life spent in lifelong learning and practice of the 5 Human Values is that Peace, that Happiness, that Bliss which Swami frequently tells us, we inherently are. This is our true nature. Learning and practising the 5 human values is like blowing on an ember and bringing the coal to life, burning brightly and pure. Each time we practise, reinforce and build on previous experience instead of assassinating ourselves as a failure or a sinner, we are burning away the dross of the ego that surrounds the pure divinity within us. It is true that Swami is the one who proclaims who is devotees is. He has said, Truth, Love, Right Conduct, Peace, Non Violence: Practice any one of these, You are Mine, I am Yours.