| Openness
and Flow
The
next morning, with renewed energy, they both started the
process all over again. Both felt different and from Vidya's
perspective, Prasad seemed to be paying a lot more attention
to her than before. Prasad noticed a shift in Vidya's attitude.
Though she was falling fairly regularly, she was indifferent
to her falls. She continued her practice with an openness
he had not noticed the previous day. And then, almost without
noticing, it happened.
Prasad was lightly holding the bicycle and Vidya was just
concentrating on riding. He noticed that she was balancing
better, focusing on gaining speed and managing turns well.
At one moment, he let go of her bicycle and watched what
happened. He had no expectations and was ready to catch
her if she fell and continued to run behind her. Surprisingly,
Vidya did not fall down and continued to ride around the
parking lot, oblivious to Prasad. He stopped following Vidya
at one point and quietly sat down on a nearby bench watching
her ride with amazing ease. It was a proud moment for Prasad.
It
took few minutes for Vidya to notice her accomplishment,
then disbelief showed up on her face. With Prasad cheering
her on, she continued to ride the bicycle in a state of
amazement. It was a magical moment for her. Effortlessly,
Vidya continued till she decided to take control of the
process. You know what happened then, don't you? She fell!
Surrendering
to the process of learning and staying open to the possibility,
Prasad and Vidya had learned their tasks unconsciously.
Vidya entered a state of flow in which she was only present
to the moment and not to her anxiety or to her intention
to ride a bicycle. It was a stage of 'peak experience' for
Vidya.
For
Prasad, it was special moment. By letting go of Vidya's
bicycle when he did, he set her flow state in motion.
Interestingly,
that moment of flow was not really pleasant, when it happened,
either for Vidya or for Prasad. Both were taut with tension
and Vidya's muscles were aching. Still Vidya felt later
that they were the best moments of her life and felt strangely
in control.
Manifestation
Obviously
Vidya was not ready to participate in a bicycle race that
week. She continued the process of mastering various skills:
turning, stopping, controlling the speed etc. She didn't
need Prasad anymore and she practiced all by herself.
Does
Vidya now know consciously 'how to' ride a bicycle? Probably
not. Prasad did not know the answer to that question until
he started teaching or training Vidya. By training Vidya,
several unconscious processes implicit in riding a bicycle
became clear to Prasad and those were his learnings. In
a curious way, teaching is learning.
Now
that Prasad successfully taught Vidya how to ride a bicycle,
does he know what worked and how Vidya learned to ride?
Maybe not. There are neither recipes nor short cuts to learning
together. You learn with somebody and somebody learns with
you. Learning occurs in circles and each time in a bigger
circle than before.
How
is Vidya doing? She rides regularly now and is coaching
other women friends who are eager to learn bicycle riding
too. She was telling Prasad that coaching others helped
her to understand more about learning than when she was
the student. Now, Vidya wants to learn down hill skiing
this fall. She is looking for a teacher to work with her
--- Any takers???
This
story is built on the learning model developed by the Mithya
Institute. A number of chapters from the manuscript Igniting
Your Natural Genius that is developed around the learning
framework can also be good material to understand the concept
of unlearning and the learning gap.
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