Dear Cathie,
Yes, 'the Rock Garden Temple'. I've actually been there!
It reminds me of the attached painting, which has been in my mind a lot
recently, for one reason and another.
Below, I've pasted the passage from 'Inclusional Nature' in which its
origins and symbolism are described.
Warmest
Alan
---------------------------------
Comprehending Infinity as the Limitless Presence of Space
On September 15th, 2000, I made a desperate journey of around 130 miles,
through stormy weather and in the midst of a fuel-shortage crisis, with a
warning light flickering on my car's dashboard. I stopped to pick up my
sister, Joy, from her home in Woking, Surrey, and continued to the nursing
home near Bognor Regis, W. Sussex, where my mother lay dying. When my sister
and I entered the room, we found my mother speechless, wild-eyed and greyish
yellow. She had lost the swallowing reflex and her breathing was laboured
and noisy. She kept tugging at the sheets like a child desperate for a
security blanket. Every now and then, a nurse would come in to suck out the
gooey saliva that was accumulating in her mouth and try to make her more
comfortable.
I didn't know what to do or say. What could I do or say? Perhaps I could
only be lovingly present with her as she expired.
I described a dream to her that I had experienced a few weeks previously in
which I was on a plane that landed at Anchorage in Alaska. It was a
brilliantly clear day, so I looked out of the Airport window to see if I
could see Mt McKinley, the highest mountain in North America. Sure enough, I
could see a range of mountains and in the far distance was one that was
clearly higher than all the others. That must be it, I thought. But then, as
I continued to stare into the distance, I realized that what I had taken to
be clouds above the mountains were actually snow patches on an enormous,
summitless, barely visible peak that lay behind and beyond all the others.
As I reached the climax of this description, my mother let out a long, loud
sigh. I don't know whether this was just a reflex, or whether perhaps my
description had registered with her, but somehow it seemed to let loose of
all the pent up anxieties of her long and far from painless life. My sister
simply said, 'go and find that mountain, Mum!'
Some months later, I painted the picture shown in Figure 10.
INSERT PICTURE HERE
Figure 10. 'View from Anchorage' (Oil painting on canvas by Alan Rayner,
2001). The clear perspective of explicit landscape features grounded within
a fixed reference frame, is dwarfed by the implicit view taken in from
encircling flights of Snow Goose imagination, where cloud-dappled sky
becomes summitless, snow-patched mountainside, far beyond the peaks and
troughs, light and shadow, of rational consciousness.
This dream and painting seems to me now to relate very strongly to that most
mysterious of mathematical concepts, that of 'infinity', which had to be
developed in order to quantify curved structures using abstract linear
methods of analysis (the 'irrational' number, ?, is a product of such
imposition). But it also implies that to look for understanding of this
concept in limitless material terms makes nonsense. No matter how high we
try to pile the material quantities that we define as discrete numerical
units - isolated bodies - we will always fall far short in our comprehension
of fathomless depths and summitless peaks. Like it or not, to comprehend
infinity, we have to take a fearful leap of imagination, and in making this
leap, we have to shift our focus from material to immaterial presence. This
is the leap that conventional mathematical abstraction of content out of
context fails to make, leading it to make a meal out of the simultaneous
distinction and common identity of One and Many.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Cathie Pearce" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>; <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 10:48 AM
Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
> Dear All
>
> I thought I'd just add to what is being said by saying that I was recenlty
> told of a place In Japan (think its in Kyoto) where
> there are fifteen boulders placed next to each other and it is said that
> if you can stand amongst them, looking ahead but are able
> to see all fifteen then you are spatially connected with the world around
> you. We are not used to using our eyes laterally, and
> so this is not at all as simple as it might seem and yet it is not so
> impossible either! It is probably a jokey and somewhat
> gimmicky tourist thing perhaps and no doubt Alan will tell me that its
> theory is not quite right either! but it seems both
> important and worthwhile to think differently about connectivities...
> Alan's writings and others here too are always worth those
> kinds of engagements and struggles to my mind!
> best wishes
> Cathie
>
> Dr Cathie Pearce
> Research Fellow
> ESRI
> MMU
>
> tel: 0161 247 2074
>
> Before acting on this email or opening any attachments you should read the
> Manchester Metropolitan University's email disclaimer available on its
> website
> http://www.mmu.ac.uk/emaildisclaimer
>>>> "Alan Rayner (BU)" <[log in to unmask]> 03/13/09 8:41 AM >>>
> Dear Pip,
>
> Many thanks for your kind comments.
>
> Of course, there is an element in what you say that always saddens me as I
> hear it reflected back to me from all kinds of people
> in all kinds of ways. This is the idea that inclusionality is somehow
> esoteric, far-removed from everyday lives, an intellectual
> escapade whose unfamiliar language and logic flies way over the heads of
> ordinary people. Yet for me, if I might make so bold,
> inclusionality represents the 'Mother Space' of Nature that holds all
> theories and experiences tenderly in place, opening what can
> otherwise become their opposing boundaries up so that they can drink each
> other in, co-creatively. It is not removed from everyday
> life, it is about everyday life. By its very nature, inclusionality does
> not prescriptively preclude (like rationality), it
> dynamically includes - but can only do so when allowed to loosen the walls
> of other-exclusion that define what describe themselves
> as 'other theories'. Inclusionality is not a 'special interest alternative
> theory' of 'one' amongst 'many'. It is what includes
> one in many and many in one in the limitless openness of everywhere.
> Inclusionality is not about extraordinary intellectual
> abstraction, it is about life in all its myriad manifestations. It is
> about opening up, not insulating the preserve of the
> intellect. I dare say it is about why Robyn - like all caring people -
> needs to care for the needs of her complex,
> local-in-nonlocal self as she cares for others whose lives flow not only
> contiguously, alongside and around her unique individual
> identity, but continuously, THROUGH her unique,
> receptive-reflective-responsive individual identity.
>
> Yesterday I felt immensely priviledged to read a poetic, autobiographical
> piece called 'Zarathustra's Mountain' by Harvey Sarles,
> an American Professor of Philosophy and Anthropology whose educational
> approach, commitment and love for his students to my mind
> epitomizes 'living theory' and 'inclusionality', though he does not as yet
> explicitly make that connection. I edited the piece (by
> changing just two words!) in preparation for publication in our journal,
> 'Transfigural Mathematics'. At the end of the piece I was
> moved to add:
>
> "After editorially checking through this piece, Alan Rayner responded:-
>
>
>
> Harvey, I must say that I found your piece an immensely evocative read
> and source of personal solace as I encountered and
> recognized so many thoughts and feelings that I have experienced myself
> whilst 'seeking the truth' of 'inclusionality'. I laughed
> out loud several times in recognition, and was moved close to tears in
> other places. In me, at least, your words resonated deeply.
>
>
>
>
> Increasingly, it seems to me that it is indeed the 'poetic' in us who
> serves as the 'isthmus' or 'corpus callosum', bringing the
> articulate and analytical into natural communion with the silent and
> intuitive - the transfigurer of words and worlds, who finds
> each in the other, through the figure who naturally loves self as
> neighbourhood and neighbourhood as self."
>
>
>
>
>
> Warmest
>
>
>
> Alan
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Pip/Bruce Ferguson
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 1:01 AM
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
>
>
> Hi all, especially Robyn, Jack, Geisha and Alan
>
>
>
> Sorry I'm just stopping in and out of these conversations, but family
> takes precedence at times like these. Robyn, I appreciate
> the points you are making about ethics in your practice, but it is also
> good to read of the families taking advice even if still
> giving you resentful-type vibes. That issue of what behaviour you're
> prepared to tolerate in your professional context is
> important - you have rights as well as your families, and it seems to me
> that in prioritising the latter, you may have made a very
> uncomfortable situation for yourself professionally. When I was teaching,
> I used occasionally to confront students when they used
> profanity or foul language, just saying that I'd prefer that they didn't
> use such language in my classes. This was a way that I
> felt I could operate within my own values, while not trespassing on
> theirs - if they want to swear etc. outside of class, that's
> their call, but at least they are being acquainted with the fact that some
> people don't find that acceptable behaviour. (And in
> response to your last email, I wish it WAS hot here - first day I've had
> to wear a sweater for weeks and weeks but it will be fine
> again tomorrow - do I sound like Little Orphan Annie?)
>
>
>
> Alan, I always admire the strenuous attempts you make to help those of us
> who have struggled with inclusionality, to make better
> sense of it. I don't think it is in any way a deficiency in either your
> thinking or your explanations; sometimes there are authors
> among us whose work is so focused in their own sphere that it is hard for
> some to understand (I think of Kereti Rautangata here; a
> Maori master carver whose work is way too esoteric for me to understand at
> present). But I have the most immense respect for both
> Kereti and you, as people who are pushing the boundaries in ways that can
> only benefit knowledge.
>
>
>
> And special greetings to Jack, who always works so hard to connect us up,
> and Geisha, developing your own theories of education
> in your own unique context. I'm about to 'sign out' for a while, like
> Robyn, while I have my family here for this brief period.
>
> Warm regards to all
>
> Pip
>
>
>
> From: Practitioner-Researcher
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Robyn Pound
> Sent: Friday, 13 March 2009 8:14 a.m.
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
>
>
>
> Alan, Jack,
>
> I have enjoyed this flurry of engagement. I will go quiet again
> now because I'm back to work tomorrow and at a study day
> in the weekend before summoning the energy to start it all again on
> Monday.
>
>
>
> Jack, I still have those old VHS videos are they any use now? You
> are right I did learn more about myself from looking at
> them with others during the validation exercises.
>
>
>
> With regard to you both and Pip who will be just waking up in
> glorious summer.
>
>
>
> Robyn
>
> --- On Thu, 3/12/09, Alan Rayner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> From: Alan Rayner <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: The real usefulness of living theory
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Date: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 3:48 PM
>
> Dear Jack and Robyn, I don't know if this will clarify further, but, for
> me, inclusionality combines the 'bodily contiguity'
> (adjacency)of 'alongsidedness'with the 'spatial continuity' of 'natural
> communion'. This distinctionis very important to
> understanding the 'turning point' into inclusionality, as might be evident
> also in the attached short piece published last year in
> 'Transfigural Mathematics'. These days, I would therefore add 'continuous'
> to the list of'relationally dynamic', connective
> (=contiguous), reflexive and co-creative. In the 'continuity' lies the
> 'receptive openness' of Agape that isvital for the [dynamic
> loving energy] flow of 'one in the other'. Warmest Alan --On 12 March 2009
> 14:54 +0000 Jack Whitehead <[log in to unmask]> wrote: >
> On 12 Mar 2009, at 12:50, Robyn Pound wrote:> >> Dear Jack,>> Ok, now I
> have got it. The shift from collaborative dialectic that>>
> focuses on living contradictions (in the personal values that are>>
> emergent through practitioner action research - basis for my>>
> research) to inclusionality that you see as relationally dynamic,>>
> connective, reflexive, co-creative. Jack I always thought it
> was>> all those qualities.> > > Hi Robyn - in your inspiring research into
> alongsideness in health> visiting it was all those
> qualities! In your thesis you draw insights> from propositional theories
> and dialectics in your inclusional> relationships as a
> health visitor. What Alan's idea of inclusionality> has enabled me to do,
> in the creation of my living educational theory,> is to
> better understand and communicate the relationally dynamic nature> of
> space and boundaries in my explanations of educational
> influences in> learning. I continue to be motivated by experiences of
> living> contradictions when I experience my values being
> negated and to draw> insights from propositional theories such as those
> of Amartya Sen> (economic theory of human capability) and
> Mohammad Yunus (social> business).> > I like the points you make in
> response to my point about multi-media> accounts in the March
> 09 paper;>> 'As I conclude, I am wondering if I have persuaded you that
> the>> expression of such flows of energy, with values,
> require action>> researchers to move beyond limitations of printed text
> based>> narratives into multi-media accounts of their
> values based>> influences in the world?'> where you say:> >> "I cannot be
> sure however that my interpretation of what I amseeing>>
> is the same as your interpretation or even what was intended by the>>
> actors. But then again does it matter? If my intention in
> watching>> the video is to understand for myself and add to the generation
> of>> my own values for use in practice than what it
> meant for the actors>> may not matter. In my view it is the lived
> experience which carries>> most meaning."> > This is why I
> stress the importance of validation groups of peers in> sharing
> interpretations. I've usually found that a group of peers>
> responding to visual narratives helps to strengthen the validity of my>
> own interpretations. Where I'm making a claim to know
> something about my> educational influence in the learning of others, I
> have found it> important to include in my own narrative the
> voices and interpretations> of the others in ways the help to check the
> validity of my claims about> my influence in the
> learning of others.> > You also say:> >> "My real reason for not videoing
> myself in action is ethical. Not>> only would it change
> the dynamic if we videoed ourselves (may be for>> the better!) But it
> would not be ethical to share the lives of the>> families
> who are interesting because of their struggles in a public>> arena.
> During my research process I shared nearly all the stories>>
> that appeared in the thesis with the people concerned. In the same>> way,
> I shared my counselling case study with the client
> before>> submitting it to the examination board. The research stories I>>
> didn't share with the family were those where my
> account of their>> trials would not have been helpful to them at that
> time - perhaps>> driven them into even more discouragement.
> It was my learning from>> our engagement that I was studying."> > I do
> agree with your ethical considerations here. There are
> many> contexts and relationships in which it is inappropriate to video.>
> However, you may recall a video-clip of you with a baby
> and her Mother> where you are sitting on the floor. I believe that this
> clip can help to> communicate your embodied expressed of
> alongsideness. I'm thinking here> of your awareness of:> > * the
> importance of power relations in the health-visitor- client>
> relationship, * the recognition and expression of the value of the other,>
> * your energy-flowing and life-affirming humour> * your
> pleasure in being with the other.> > Love Jack.>>
>
>
>
>
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