Teaching Methodology

Eckhart Tolle tells us that “It is only our lack of awareness that limits us.” So how do we cultivate awareness, and how do we open ourselves to our full potential?

The current common educational systems are flawed and impede true learning processes. A classic classroom system fails us in that it creates dependency, regimentation, and apathy, and dulls the fire to learn. The follow-the-orders way of learning (and living) stifles the imagination and is tremendously wasteful of our human potential. We need to break away from this mold in order to reclaim our minds and spirits, and experience the richness of our creative power.

Our world is confronting desperate problems and we need all possible human creativity and pro-activity to solve them. We cannot just blindly follow our leaders, teachers, gurus and so-called experts. We must rise up together to make positive change and to break away from the collective insanity. This means we need a new way to learn.

The very nature of living a simple and sustainable lifestyle elicits a new manner of learning in and with the world. It is a constant first-hand learning-by-doing in which we participate with our bodies, see our hands as useful tools, grow in emotional stability, and feel the power of our own potential. Since we are active participants in our cycle of livelihood, what we do or don’t do affects the whole system for better or worse, and reflects back on us. Through this direct interaction, we begin to understand that there is no separation between the world and us. Recognizing this connectivity automatically makes us more responsible and aware beings, freeing us to indulge in our limitless creative intelligence.

By engaging in simple, sustainable living, we are already making the world a better place—using less of the world’s resources, setting an example for others, and rising up to our full potential as a free creative beings.

At Mama Roja, we are a fellowship of learners and teachers, encouraging an atmosphere conducive to personal growth, where we can all thrive mentally, physically, and spiritually. “The teacher and the taught together create the teaching.” We invite an expanded learning experience by seeing each other as valuable resources. Each of us has a vast treasure-store of knowledge and experience, and sharing that with each other allows us all to have more tools in our “personal toolboxes.” And we need all of the tools we can get to take part in the reshaping and redesigning of this world!

Just as learning from each other is natural, vital, and beautiful, so is making mistakes. If something is learned in a process, even if it “fails”, it is no longer a mistake! If you are stuck and just following orders, you are not really learning. So, ask questions, experiment, explore new techniques, bounce ideas off each other, and search for natural, healthy solutions, and congratulate yourself if you make a mistake.

It is up to each of us to make life a rich, rewarding experience. So let the learning process be fun and joyful! If we are not enjoying what we are doing, then we are doing something wrong. “Growing and developing should be lifelong activities—one of the most pleasurable and exciting experiences of life at all ages.” –W. Coperthwaite