“Value Education for

Consciousness Transformation”

- Jeevan Vidya, ‘Coexistence’

Workshop

Faclitator: Shriram Narasimhan

zshriram@gmail.com

Based on the Coexistential Philosophy (Madhyasth Darshan) by A.Nagraj -

www.jvidya.com
 Module 1:
Identifying the Questions of life

Chapter 3:
How do I live?

Lecture 10: Resolution comes from

understanding
Conclusion from last lecture
• Conclusion 1: I have to study myself (Human Being)
• Conclusion 2: I have to study Relationships with Humans -
in Family & Society
• Conclusion 3: I have to understand Relationship with
Nature
• Conclusion 4: I have to study Existence (all that exists)
Understanding for Resolution
• We need to study and understand all of the above since
we are an integral part of all of this – we, you, I every
Human Being is inextricably a part of this.
• At this juncture, you can ask yourself this question:
• ‘Do I have to understand and live in all these aspects,
or can one of them be dismissed or ignored?’
• You can also ask yourself:
• ‘Is there anything more than this that I live with?’
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding Myself:
We have ended up believing/assuming many things about
ourselves without really studying & validating it.
We have read a lot of books, we have gone through years of
silent and subtle conditioning about who we are, what we
want and how we should behave, what work we should do,
etc. -In short ‘how to live!’ We will have to begin 'knowing'
ourselves and explore & test our many views & beliefs.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding living in Human relationships:
• With Family: How I see myself, influences how I see other
people and my relationship with another person, other
humans.
• If I can understand myself better and clearer, I am able to see
the other better and clearer. And this understanding can then
become the basis for my relationship with the other person.
• In order to have harmony with other people, we also need to
understand the expectations in human relationships and
• how they can be fulfilled.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding living in Human relationships:
• With Society: As we understand ourselves and our
relationship with others in the family, we also understand
others in society, and are able to fulfill our relationship with
them.
• We will shall also delve into Societal Order & assess our
present condition.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding living with Nature:
• We are on this earth. We live with the air around us, and in the
air, grass, plants, and trees, birds, animals & other humans
surrounding us and we live in this large, beautiful and intricate
eco system that we call ‘nature’.
• Regardless of where we are, our village, town, city or country
is within this eco-system or natural habitat.
• We shall understand how nature is and the how we are
related to Nature.
• We shall assess the current issues in this aspect.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding Existence:
• Nature, the things we see, are an exciting reality we study.
We will shall explore the various dimensions to of these
realities and how they are inter-related.
• Our planet is surrounded by a larger system of planetary
bodies and that includes the moon, the sun and the infinite
star and planetary systems that surround us.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding Existence:
• Our earth is a part of the solar system that co coexists
with everything all of that there is in this entire ‘existence’.
• And there is all that emptiness or ‘space’ between planets!
All these things together are called existence. ‘Existence’
means all that exists. We exist in this totality, this ‘whole’.
Understanding for Resolution
• These 4 aspects of understanding or ‘realities’ cannot
be separated from each other.
• ‘I’ cannot be separated from Family, which in turn that
cannot be separated from Society, and all these cannot be
separated from Nature, which cannot be separated from
the Existence, space and the various Galaxies in the
entire Universe.
• We see that these realities are inseparable. These
realities are ‘together’. In other words, there is a
coexistence of these realities.
Understanding for Resolution
• Put together, we can call the entirety of these realities
as ‘Coexistence’.
• To study & understand this ‘Coexistence’ thus becomes
our need. For, this will result in the ‘Resolution in all
aspects of our living’ we seek.
• This ‘resolution’ will ensure we do not have problems or
conflict, and hence result in our happiness.
Understanding for Resolution
Understanding for Resolution
• We human beings have the ability to know everything and
based upon this knowing – can accept and live with
everything.
• We can only ‘accept’ things when we are clear and sure of
them – when we know them or understand them directly
without any beliefs / assumptions / conditioning.
• Most of us live without an understanding of these states
or, these realities that we are a part and parcel of, and as
a result our desires and feelings are not stable and
definite.
Understanding for Resolution
• Our desires are forever transient and unstable wherein we
wish for something in one instant and another in the next.
• We experience feelings of guilt, doubt, uncertainty as
there is little to no stability in our views & desires.
• Our thoughts are many and we start nurturing opposing
views within ourselves. We become unable to take
decisions and are scared of making choices.
• We can easily see that all these problems are to do with
one some or all of these 4 aspects or realities of
Coexistence and these in turn impact us in our own
aspects of living.
Where is our attention today?
• Given that we don’t have understanding, where is our current
focus?
• It is not hard for us to see that while the basic issues lie in the
Intellectual and Behavioural aspects of our living, and the wrong
assumptions we carry in/about them, our predominant focus today
is on the Material aspect.
• This is what we study (via physics, chemistry, biology), this is what
we seek (material comforts) and to ensure such comforts we are
even busy studying or preparing to study, this is what we even
base some of our relationships on, this is why we are going to war
Where is our attention today?
• We are not paying enough attention to our 2) relationships- we are
largely focusing on accumulation of 1) material things.
• This is basically because we largely assume that 1) material things
is all we need, and we end up ignoring our relationships (2).
• Our primary focus today seems to be on material things, as
individuals, and also as a society.
• The final outcome of our education too seems to be merely to earn
money, so we can have material comforts! Whereas, the larger
part of our problems arise from human interactions (2) and in
ourselves (3).
Where is our attention today?
• This may seem like a trivial thing, but it is very important. We live a
significant portion of our lives in relationships with humans.
• For example: If you had a tiff with your father, brother or friend, it
can stay with you and bother you for a very long time, so much so,
that till the issue is resolved, you may not be able to focus on
anything else!
• We can see instances of people living their entire lives, without
recognizing their own mistake.
Where is our attention today?
• It is no wonder that our problems persist, and are in fact
magnifying by the day, because we are simply not paying attention
to where we need to!
• We need to pay attention to understanding all these 3 aspects of
our living.
Conclusion
• Our individual and collective focus today: in education, as a
society is not on having ‘Understanding’.
• We are largely focused on the study, consumption & accumulation
of material-things.
• Our material dimension is predominant– we are ignoring the
important intellectual and behavioural dimensions of living – This
is called ‘being materialistic’.
• We need to have ‘understanding’ in order to be resolved & have
solutions to our living. This results in happiness & prosperity