There have been many teachers in my life.
But this book is dedicated to my parents, Harrie and Mien, and my core teacher Dave Ormsby-Green, whose unconditional love, support, open-heartedness, humility, grounded yet artistic and holistic approach, smart thinking, with the accent on looking after the community and the environment, gave me not only the opportunity to lead a remarkable life but also extend their capacities and include those in this book.
It is also dedicated to the people who were part of my world when I studied for four years at the Academy for Expression and Communication (AVEK) in The Netherlands, in the 1980’s. It was here where the groundwork for the rest of my professional life was created.
The work of all these people has had a pivotal influence on my life generally, and on my ways of thinking, doing and being. I learned that life does not happen to me, but for me; that I am not a victim to the world around me but that my thoughts and actions create the world I experience.
The AVEK was a ‘first-grade’ teacher-training organisation, located in The Netherlands (Leeuwarden). It was set up by six drama-teachers who acknowledged the potential of expression and communication media and wanted to develop that potential in and as an educational institution. The curriculum consisted of experiential learning. We acknowledged, understood, and worked with the tension between three roles:
‘I’ as an individual,
‘I’ as a member of a learning collective, and
‘I’ as a member of society.
Both students and teachers applied the following six criteria:
coming from life experience and knowledge,
cooperation,
self-awareness,
development of self and environment,
equal validation of all existing phenomena, and
using all situations/subjects/objects as Expression and Communication ‘tools’ or opportunities to strengthen personal and organisational fitness.
A few important concepts of the AVEK that I later used in my PhD study were:
het veld [the field],
de kern [the core] and
de schil [the skin].
The Learning Plan of the Academy for Expression and Communication (AVEK) (1972) postulated that:
The field exists everywhere and always.
The field is the carrier of the total of all appearances.
None of these appearances have a set place or shape (they are not things) and they do not exist apart from one another; there are reference points and movements within the field.
The field consists of four elements, time-space-energy-substance and the processes in between these.
Further, that
De kern [the core] is ‘the point in the field where movement begins and through which the other is attracted.’
De schil [the skin] is the contact boundary or the space in-between self/other and the dynamics thereof.
The above concepts became key to my view of the world, and I later understood that they are reflected in complexity theory.
Complexity theory formed the theoretical framework for my PhD study that focused on understanding and working with the dynamics in cross-cultural education in an organisational and systems thinking sense. In this book, I refer to some of those dynamics.
I have integrated many concepts I learned from Dave Ormsby-Green into this book. Dave was a Māori wise man who passed away in 2010. I have incorporated his most important teachings into this book, creating a narrative that will hopefully inspire you.
I would like to start this book by inviting you into my world, for you to see how you can be part of and celebrate the Universal Heart.
I am confident that I will not tell you anything new, nothing that you did not already know somewhere deep inside.
I hope that you will not believe what I say but will not reject what I say either. Just see for yourself if there is anything that resonates with you, sounds true to you, and what you want to take away from reading this book.
I have also integrated many concepts I learned from Dave Ormsby-Green into this book.
#UniversalHeart #HeartChakraJourney #HeartCenteredLiving #UniversalLove #ChakraBalancing #HeartHealing #LoveAndLight #SpiritualAwakening #HeartChakraActivation #LoveFromWithin
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