Wisdom in wonder

By watching Mr R Dowkins interview, what I was impressed the most was his extreme obsession and  passion for pursue the truth. His discovery and struggle, his life story was also very interesting to watch, however, as I mentioned before that I cannot fully appreciate his discovery or level of understanding as I am a dancer.
However, his possession and passion, they are both incredible. To me, his amazing discoveries are just the outcome and the results from his obsession and passion of his strong will. Therefore, I was more curious about his personality and principal rather than his discovery; how his mind works.

It is not just his speciality as I often see these type of people in any genre. And from my experience, these people are usually quite successful in whatever they do.

Bill Gates, Ray Kroc, Steve Jobs, Thomas Edison, etc...We all hear how they struggle till they archived their success. However, what people say, common sense or already established well known theories, nothing could make stop their strong will. Their obsession and passion was the engine which kept them going.

"Next time someone tells you something that sounds important, think to yourself, is this the kind of thing that people probably know because of evidence or is that kind of things people only believe because of tradition, authority, or revelation. And, next time somebody tells you that something is true, why not say to them what kind of evidence is there for that? And if they can not give you a good answer, I hope you will think very carefully  before you believe a word they say."

Professor Dowkins comments on his interview. He explains  he was trying to tell people HOW to think, not WHAT to think.



There are no compromise, he choose not to believe anything without an evidence.

"I am rather less interested in what other people think, but what is true."

And, he also do not care what people think of him. Compare to the joy of eureka, nothing matters to him.

So, why I am explaining of these? How are these relevant to my inquiry? I have been using these example to everyone to understand how important to question about what we do. That is my point.

Especially in the world of ballet is built by tradition and authority. To me, very dusty. It is so dusty that this tradition is blinding people, or it is puroposely designed this way by certain people, which I have explained on  my blog about the system and atmosphere which trainer creates to control trainee. Professor Dowkins warns everyone in his interview as  "People should have never say our people always believed X, so you should believe X. Authority should never say Professor so and so believe in X, therefore you should believe in X, or your priest believe X, so you should believe X. Or revolation have this inner conviction that X is true, therefore you should believe in X. No, the only reason should believe in X is, there are evidence for X. " . I do agree with him about we all need to be careful with what we choose to believe.

Another example, there are an unique character call Gideon from the bible. Why was he so unique? Why did he stood out from the other characters in the bible to me?

"If You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken, 37 behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece only, and it is dry on all the ground, then I will know that You will deliver Israel through me, as You have spoken.” 

“Do not let Your anger burn against me that I may speak once more; please let me make a test once more with the fleece, let it now be dry only on the fleece, and let there be dew on all the ground.” 

Gideon, who doubt God's appearance, more than once! His behavior interested me.
Gideon had to be sure that the messages were from God. I am sure there were people who doubt God's appearance but, it was not so easy to doubt God's appearance in that era. It was almost a taboo to doubt God, but Gideon did it anyway and he doubted out loudly. He asked for some evidence to God like Professor Dowkins does in life.

The importance of question has been mentioned in the book of Mr Mamoru Ito's "If I were a rabbit's coach" too.  In his literature, he explains how to guide students to right direction;

1, To guide them to use their own brain and words to think.

2, To encourage them to make an action based on their own way of thinking.

3, To evaluate results by thier own major or standard, not by anyone else critics or estimation.

Mr M Ito encourages people to use their own brain to think and also to take full responsibility of their action; to be happy with the outcome and accept the results, as most important thing is the process, not the results.This is very similar to one of the Cunningham ten rules, which is posted by Ms Nottingham. His rule number 9; Be happy whenever you can manage it.  Enjoy yourself.  It is lighter than you think .

There is nothing wrong with questioning the common sense or to doubt the rule. In other words, all the great discovery was born by doubting the common sense and by rebuild the structures of the way people think.

Example, Charles Darwin reliesed his "Evolution theory", after Richard Owen's evolution theory has been very much became as the theory of evolution in their era.

Columbus proved that, the earth is round shape, not flat, when everyone believed the earth is flat.

These people did not take other people's words or common sense. They followed their intuition or instinct. And, they did not give up till they get an answer which is good enough to calm their appetite of pursuit of true.

Answers will never be given, if, there are no questions. So, my aim is to create the relaxed atmosphere when I teach, so everyone can question whatever they want to ask.

Therefore, I am very interested in Socrates method. I think that is the method to bring inner intelligence of us human.

At last, "Wisdom in wonder", Thank you Socrates!







Socrates