(An excerpt from the original work, Real World Views, Book 5, by Professor Dr. Tan Man-Ho entitled, "The Canon Of Discovery, The Search For Spiritual Certainty And A Glimpse Of The Real World Views," December 1976 - April 1976 Discourses, Chapter 6: "The Educational Canon," pp. 257~272)

 

 

A.    THE EDUCATIONAL CANON

 

1  Contemporary education has surgically removed the master ‘I’s of the students and has trained them to obey instructions more or less slavishly-willingly, so that, as soon as they leave the body of education and deliver themselves to the various organizations for further extraction and exploitation or what is positively called contributing to society, they would repeat this same behavior and would not pose a danger to the general hierarchy of the existing organizations.  Some sociocosmic masters would punish them seriously if they upset this “harmonious order”.

 

2   In this crucial period, as I have already mentioned a number of times, regarding this strange oskianic or educational organization, I was assigned to a simple task there in one of these bodies for ‘educating’ younger beings.

I noticed that there occurred a peculiar oskianic perturbation in its general movement and that is, there was no genuine harmonious inner organizational motion due chiefly to the hierarchical obstructions and impractical policies, rules and regulations.  Although, I was not recognized by these three-centered beings with authority over the oskianic vibration, nevertheless, there was not a single day when every being-presence of myself as an oskianer in this organization would miss the curiosity for the “Martians” authority for earth.

Here every being-oskianer was a special vibration mentation, a ‘peculiar-oskianic-motor-reflexes-proceeding-within-it’ to be used to convert students into oskianic beings similar to themselves.

In this organization, as with others, from higher to lower, a peculiar weekly vibration is encouraged, a peculiar humming flow of ‘essence’ is instilled by the famous being-oskianer into beings called students.  This humming flow was then recognized as the nation-, state- and school-songs.  I did wonder why such a stopinder song could not be implemented also for the family, the group and for the individual himself.  These stopinder nation and state songs were being sung once a week, and peculiar enough, because the oskianic vibration processing system knew very little about the feeling center and was also quick enough to realize that these students only half-heartedly parroted these songs mechanically without understanding or right feeling.  They did what the parrots do!  And as you listen to it, you would be very worried about one thing, that is, the peacock that is expected, the crow has come.

Each day these beings were hypnotically chained to their chairs with a desk in front for about 8 hours, so much that the moving center served itself from the feeling center, that is, the first ‘shaft’ was finally broken.  As every what was called oskianer, in every period by their usual habit began their vibration (now written work) the second ‘shafts’ or ‘reins’ connecting their psyche bodies were also broken.  Even this was unfree and as a result, we could see pathological phenomena, or strange utterances by these ‘victims’ of education.

Mathematics, languages, history, geography, religion, sciences, arts, civics and all other subjects are objective being-psyche subjects.  It took me quite some time to learn, to see and to understand these ‘subjects’ as such but this time in a very different way.  I decided to make a study of the subsequent specific logical formats of ‘motor-reflexes-proceeding-within-it’ that would happen later to the thinking center of these students after the oskianic implantation. 

What students are required to do is to follow the path of motion in the narrow path somewhat conscious but actually dream-like mechanical manner of such motion evoked by reading through these being subjects.  There have been great historical advances before in the culturing activity of these being subjects.  Most oskianers were conservative followers and would stick to all these old useless garbage.

The authority was afraid of superior knowledge, which was better and more realistic.  It was afraid that it would cultivate a group of rebel students.  Thus, you see, they, like the old feudal conservatisms, were frightened of many things that might come from preaching, an old grandmother’s fear of the bad influences of the future generation.

 

3   The superiority of a teacher over a learner or the inferiority of a learner as compared to a teacher is an accurate “illusions”, and it remains to be so, so long as the true relationship between them is unknown.  The negation of being-a-learner is being-a-teacher just as the negation of being-a-teacher is being-a-learner, and the resolution of one into the other in the course of its progress is inevitable, since when the teaching spirit enters into its own contradiction, the learning spirit replaces it.  And, when the learning spirit clarifies itself, the teaching spirit arises.

 

4   A very important aspect of great morality is the appreciation of self-control, and this self-control is amongst the hardest thing to achieve.  A true self-controlled man must not aim to be man no. 1, 2 or 3 but to be man no. 5, 6 or 7.  This teaching of Gurdjieff has great significance to those who wish to be.

 

5   The famous education trains the younger generations how not to use their perceptive apparatus, how to contemplate only with the images projected in the brain, and how to believe them.  It does not teach the students to be masters of themselves.  This defect is evident in the curriculum ‑ the good-for-nothing-out-of-date curriculum, which would soon be revamped.

It is also reflected in the backwardness man of the textbooks, the sacred text of “contemplation” written by the blind bon-ton educationalists.  As regard to the famous texts of our philistine scholars who constantly preach in the educational institutions out-dated materials, full of unrealistic notions, wiseacrings of perverted psyche, nothing venturing and creative seems to appear with ease and encouragement.

 

6   This educational institution of ours, alas, has educated one to function, under some forms of hypnotism, a seeing-and-sensing-of-what-has-occurred-in-the-remote-past-as-recorded-in-the-texts, the text is the semantic truth for further semanticking.  This kind of education isolates the mind from the real world.

 

7   The so-called great exposition of literary thoughts with its massive production is often bon ton meaningless literature useful for inner titillation of high style mannerism.  They are great but in terms of essence, I see none.

 

8   I was assigned to this strange place for the meager income as an employed oskianer for transmitting various “Hasnamussian” sciences given under very mysterious heading called mathematics and integrated sciences and let me tell you that it was only recently that science has been connected with a new subject is created by just printing together materials from biology, chemistry and physics together with laboratory work.  One would like to ask what really has been integrated after all.  For the new word ‘integrated’ means, in the mind of the unsuspecting public, just the juxtaposition of beings side by side.

 

9   The various institutionalized sciences which young and adult beings alike have to feast have not yet played the note of bringing the mind any nearer to truth.  Now, I would like you to watch carefully what we called our educational system.  Walk around it and study it objectively, and you will soon see the backwardness and danger beneath these regimented sciences.  Not the idea but the power of the oskianers is the source of worry for the students.

 

10   When these centers are in disharmony, the rebellious students say: The oskianers just don’t understand my plight, not even the councilors.  They are all responsible for my terrible inner state.

And the oppressed minded student says about the oski-ano system:  The terror of the Hasnamusian oskianic system lies in the insistence of a fixed set of so-called “syllabus” to be implanted in the mind and to arrest the development of free of thought in the service of the power-possessing glory.

 

11   Your education presence, the whole system of thinking from the lowest to the highest, embodies many small buffered fragments as building blocks of psyche.  Yet, you are an incomplete being, an incomplete construction.  You may construct a ‘base but more often than not it is artificial, superficial and unrealistic.

 

12   A sound system of knowledge can be obtained from the esoteric circle.  Although one might be a university graduate, one might not have in possession esoteric knowledge.  One might not have a magnetic center.  Man does not have a truly right one.  A majority of people carries along in their psyche an eternal portion of doubt and confusion.

 

13   One can carry out all kinds of rites, teachings and wiseacrings, but there is really no great revolution or any significant change has occurred for the automatons with sleepy minds. You teach and teach and teach!  And everything still remains more or less the same to the ordinary mind, which is hungry for something not intellectual.

 

14   Being-psymattergy bearing the name man teaches one another through vibrations.  Teaching is a process of manipulating psychic vibration that enable of inner transformation in the learner.  It is the process of ‘eating’ psychic labor of the teacher.  If you ‘eat’ quality being psyche hydrogens, you will ascend innerly.  But if you ‘eat’ the lower grade ones, you could descend and degenerate like a dying dog.

Watch out!  Learning is eating.  Teaching is feeding.  (February 13, 1976)

 

15   My reflection on these organizations for ‘educating being’ by these being-teachers runs thus:

The “abnormal activities” of these beings of my acquaintance, which interest me, and that revolved round certain “centers” such as the being-teachers, the being-administrators, the students, physical body of the educating machines, the equipment and support facilities.  Communication and coordination within the organization, from my observation, was just “poor” and systems did not function properly.  The reward system was just as bad as all the other system.  The operating processes was equally bad ‑ timetable clashing, discipline poor, oskianic transfers not in the syllabus, etc.

The total oskianic vibration is a sick organizational being.  Evidence of good qualities is rather invisible.  There is no substantial evidence of:

1. Productivity and quality oskianic labor

2. Realistic  education

3. Better books for the brain of the students

4. A well-tune timetable that could tune harmoniously with the functional needs of the student's body

5. A non-privilege merit based system of evaluation and selection

6. A well-balanced and a human salary scales that could increase satisfaction

7. A non-bossy administration

8. A no organizational police-system

9. A gradual improvement in the mentation, the feeling and the ‘doings’ of the oskianers, despite training by higher oskianers

10. The philosophy of paper chase becomes a trend

 

16   Another peculiar event that enters my reflection is the haunting spirit of our teacher-student-and-examination tension triad.  Once having achieved this “invaluable” certificate, three centered beings could show their “horns” to press down the ego of one another.  The teacher-student dialectics moves on in a spurious manner.  The contradiction or tension could be softened if the psychological factors of human relationship are valued.  As you shall see, these unreal man always get caught in a suspicion, fear and hate position in their own psyche that could polarize relationships.  I deduce that for him something that I think is no good for parasites must be discarded, and something that I think does not destroy parasites must be accepted.

 

17   What kind of a person is he if he thinks that the knowledge acquired from a university is the only knowledge of value?  And having obtained that certificate, like a peacock, shows his colors wherever he goes.  And whose eyes are fixed on money and vanity that he might get.  Now don’t tell me that I’m not watching you and you’re not watching me.  To see is to see through a being.

 

18   Now on this question of education of the feelings, we shall follow the teachings of Gurdjieff.  Hitherto, our so-called students are being-fed with foods rich in the fuels for processing by the motor of the intellectual center.  Limited amount of feeling fuels is available for the emoting process of the feeling center.  The force feeding under the cane and shame pressure of formal education, so far as I know, is quite poisonous and harmful to the inner harmony of the students. Here, what we called formal oskianers or teachers can only provide low grade hydrogen because of their past organizational preparatory conditionings.  Our so-called students are “trained” to see the world in the manner of the oskianic input.  Foods of various poor grades abundantly found in ‘religion’, ‘history’, ‘civics’ and the like being sold in these organs of education.  Nay more, informal foods without headings, rules, moral values are also fed to these students.

 

19   The oskianic organ for processing raw psyche hydrogen grade H in the body of these young three-brained beings into the higher grade ones or ‘educons’ is created through sociocosmic mandate required of by parliamentary law.  This would be the fourth sociocosmic dimension for the sociocosmic processing of the life of three-brained beings.  The first dimension is his individual life dimension, the second is his group life dimension and the third is his family life dimension.  This fourth dimension is his education life dimension, as a student in these oskianic organs.  Although the oskianic flow took about 20 of their three-brained years or ¼ of their life span to complete, many would flow out of this oskianic flow on their maiden voyage and join the other organs positioned in various corners of the body of the Great Sociocosmic Being.  These organs would extract their life force for processing them into goods and services for the consumption by all.

These oskianic organs are not perfected during presence.  Now concerning this ill-fated contemporary education model, wherein being must retain through examination just those ‘evaluative’ records bearing the name ‘certificates’ by whatever means so as, because they were taught so, to secure a higher position in the other functioning organs at a later half of their life span.  And they must succeed in achieving this goal.

During their large-scale processing in these ill-fated organs these students are packed like sardines, and are taught a bunch of good of rules and moral sets so that they become useful willing ‘I’-less beings for harvesting in these other neighboring organs and even at the service of exploiting classes.  Such an educational system only faces a serious pressure for change by all factors.  The oskianic process did change from time to time on its own perfection quest.

 

20   We shall now, not to plunge into fantasy, speak of only the likely ways which these ill-fated oskianic organs might be transformed for the harmonious development of the Great Sociocosmic Being.

The contradictions resulting in disharmonies are:

1. amongst oskianers and students, both subjective and objective wherein ‘educons’ cannot flow properly due to abuse of authority, power, negative psychology and poor knowledge, skill and commitment

2. amongst oskianers and administrators wherein the system authoritatively controlled

3. poor and unbalanced allocation or distribution of labor and work

4. low wages

5. Bad ‘educon’ flow  ‑  perpetual disagreements, textbook gimmicks,  coded lies and bluffs, harmful body language transfers, brutal disciplining, high examination pressure, favoritism, keeping “pets”, victimizing “enemies” and belittling the stupid beings, and so much more that no words can describe

 

There is a possibility that these fundamentally old model oskianic organs be transformed or be replaced a superior model.  The school should serve humanity, otherwise, it becomes dysfunctional or tools of exploitation.  The school should aim at education, improving health and prepare individuals for serving and changing society.

 

21  Class influences also the educational administration by putting in people into the organizational setup irrespective of what the type of subject matter taught.  What these three-brained beings really need to strive is to station their educational vanguards into the administration of the organization.

Young growing beings still cultivating their feelings and thinking are the targets for conversion or havatvernonization.  For the havatslam, formatory beings at the age of about 12 years old were initiated into the cult through a mysterious process called circumcision, which is just a process of removing the skin of the most sexually sensitive organ of the three-brained being’s body.  And these organs are none other than just the being-penis and the being-vagina, which are also the sites of the gravity-center vibration pleasure.  In this manner, the God, the Havatslam and the organs of great pleasure are hermetically sealed in the ‘formatory apparatus’.  This period, our favorites called it the period of traumatic awakening of pleasurable fear of organization and Great Nature.  The fear would then be crystallized in the Almighty and His messengers, the holy spirited humans.  At the center lies the world of emotions of love, faith and hope, which is again centered at fear.

 

22  Grammar, like any other excrescence of mentation moves due to consciousness.  Consciousness is the driver behind the ever-changing thoughts and ‘visible’ shapes of a language.  The thoughts must move along certain well-defined routes by dictate or structure approved by the controlling dictator, the formatory apparatus, when one is institutionalized.  Those who disobeyed because of creativeness ‘punished’ in the name of ‘the bad ones’.  If you can see the hollowness of these oskianic dictators, you are great.  I think it will be better and more progressive if harmful dictates are removed to ease the tension in oskianic processing.

 

23  The sons and daughters of the bourgeois and proletarians are unhappy about this state of affairs due to the continuous interference of the true spirit of oski-ano.  Different power group strives to annihilate the oskianic institution of others or to forbid it to grow in terms of more quality subjects by accusing the bad egg before it is laid.  Each tries to abolish the educational system of the other in order to be the ‘master’ of its own peculiar brand of education under its control.

 

24   As an oskianer, I have been watching the pupils in my own school for a long time and daily.  I, as you know, am peculiarly interested in their bobbin-kandelnosts.  What I have noticed is that a majority of them have all these bobbin-kandelnosts mixed up in disharmony and their ‘shafts’ and ‘reins’ are either spoilt or broken.  This evil of contemporary education and highly unskillful method of processing the raw being-oskiano at most contemporary oskianic service factories by other three-centered oskianers has created batches of disastrous individuals for the proper functioning of society in the future.

Such oski-ano processing factories normally keep their student beings “tied” to their chairs and desks, notwithstanding the facts of human nature that the three bobbin-kandelnosts must be quite well-looked after.  They are then required to listen to certain oskianic emanation from beings called their “teachers” who are battling hard unknowingly to win the battle of passengerism in the body of these students.  In most case these teachers do win and awarded a passenger seat in the bobbin-kandelnosts of these students.  Now, it is whether this passenger is good or bad, and I can tell you that most of them are mechanical and therefore bad, in my eyes.

This reflection of mine, I am certain is not really untrue.  After years of observation and reasoning, I am convinced, by the reality of the situation, that the oskianic processing factories or ‘schools’ have no mission to produce real ‘I’.

This peculiar land of examination becomes really an interesting ‘spot’ for carrying out the sports of examining the heads of beings.  And most fail because of inner turmoil.  The heads are forbidden to really mentate in the manner of that which is not in the syllabus and scheme of the dominating class.  In fact, some of these beings who, after receiving doses of ‘opium’ that their future lies in having the paper qualification, are often dishearten once they leave these oskianic organs.  Today, I see why situations can be so complicated.

 

25  In peaceful areas, a school could impart undisturbed impulses to its pupils.  A smooth issuing of streamline conscious peaceful thoughts in a conducive environment without any perturbation is possible.  If there is perturbation of the mind, the mind must learn to shut itself off from it.

 

26   Definition wiseacring, definition deducing, concept expanding and words playing ‑ this is a peculiar property of these bourgeois type oskianers.

 

27  Contemporary education is as such that it demands a very peaceful mind of a person not affected by ‘labors’ other than those that have something to do with education.  For the sons and daughters of the proletariat who live in poverty, starvation and being the exploited group, they have no time for this oskianic gift.  It is precisely this that contemporary education has been naturally devised by man themselves to exploit this situation.  It is an economic fallout.  The child been unfree is therefore unable to develop freely along the line laid by the education system.  They soon turn into school left outs, a natural and unavoidable victim of the educational system.  Many notice this problem but none can do much.  The educationalists, headmasters and teachers prefer to remain silent.

Only the undisturbed mind of the higher and middle classes, free from economic and time constraints are able to follow the long course to the university.

 

28   A “crystal” of labor called a “writing piece” depends on the inner “numbers” tagged to the writer.  A writer whose emotional center (2) is active only  “feels his way”, whose intellectual center (3) is active  “reasons his way”, and whose moving physical center (1) is active only  “provokes you to fight” to act without reason and  “meaningful feelings”.

A man of other higher “numbers” may even be an “atheist” or whose “god” is entirely different as conceive by a religious person of lower “number”.  Such enigma of religion has to be reckoned.

The physical existence of contemporary education is there, but the inner structure, the subject matter, etc. depend greatly on the schools which the education belong, where the educators are trained in the ideologies of the educators.  Contemporary education may even ruin the emergence of developed men, and this is precisely the case of this evil contemporary educational system of ours.  The various “teachings” of our contemporary education could not free itself from a victorious controlling state and all victorious states must mandatory control education and called it free at the same time in a mind positioning strategic initiative exercise.  It must legitimize the favorable texts that could boost the culture of the powerful beings in power.  That is to say, we have all the subject matter taught in schools from standard one to the university, duly selected only the “quality” ones or those superior ones that becomes “acceptable” to the powerful ones.  Both with the aim of suppressing subjects relating the unwelcome enemy culture and for ensuring the belief of kundabuffer and idealism or theory which is upside-down or silent topics and subjects that could not serve the interest of the state.  A group of scientists in power over the state would be dutiful for more science subjects to be introduced to the curriculum and the religious fanatics might even make their religion compulsory for all the students.  What they called great men are advertisements, like any other advertising of commodities.  This is misleading to the eyes of the masses.

The educators trained under contemporary education are themselves mere higher automatons their “sum total of correct mentions” are themselves faulty, since their books are equally faulty or at least we say they are short-sighted and incapable of reflecting reality correctly.  This embraces also the sciences, low and high.  And why?  Because the writer themselves are influenced by their incubating school.  Islam produces Musulmen; Buddhism produces Buddhicmen ......  The peculiar subject matter ‘wiseacres’ in a peculiar way, as if constructed unrealistically.  In the course of great historical transformation, when also one class replaces another, one form of education in favor for another, from the lowest level to the professorial level, from the roots of grass to the tip of the leaf, supersede another form of educational system.

This is very obvious in all countries there should be no doubt about it.  But here our gentlemen, thinks there they are great under the incubation of ‘contemporary education’ ‑ frightens the birds away, and ‘crow’ wherever they go.  Whoever deserves to be a man needs no fear of being criticized.  Only he who has a small mind like the philistine ‘grandmother’ is afraid of criticism.

We must see a person what he really is not what he is ‘certified’ for.  A person may be a holder of honors degree in social science, but he is equally one-sided.  This is not impossible.  A personal qualification, nevertheless, can be used in our study of a person for it assists us in the necessarily analysis of the activity which he has specialized and even the operations of his psyche, his inner nature.

 

29   The contemporary education does not train a person to be master of his own self.  It threatens with the spiritual cane and forcing the pupils to listen to masters, and as a result their ‘I’s are not present at the time when they should have them.

Contemporary education is entirely institutionalized.  Knowledge flow is conditioned by sociocosmic forces and the individual cannot flourish creatively.  “Surgical” removal of master ‘I’ has converted the students into perfect horse-drawn hackney carriages.  In place of their ‘I’s, they can now sit comfortly like a passenger and enjoy at ease the fruits of their brain-washed student labor.

 

30   Always avoid reading mechanically and always read consciously.  This is an important point to remember.

 

31   I am a lifelong student from 3 universities - the universalities of my inner world, the universalities of my outer world and the universalities of my third world.  A part of my life I have been processed by two traditional universities and one university-without-walls both of which are from the universalities of my outer world.  These universities are private profit-making universities and not public universities.  These universities are private profit-making universities and not public universities.  During the neoliberal period, education loans are growing to generate debt-slave students to creditor-parasite lenders both private and public before they begin their productive life.  The same plight will happen to health too!