ALICE PROJECT NEWS PART II

Introduction

From Buthan to India: Searching for the Shangri la of the Mind

Nature

This is the second part of the story of Ranjeet, a boy born into the family of the King of Bhutan, but kidnapped at the age of three and later adopted by an extremely poor Indian couple from Bihar. The story narrates the struggles of a boy’s journey to return to his father’s kingdom and eventually become King (see the third book). It is a symbolic parallel of a journey through consciousness: from the lowest state of realization to the highest achievement of non-duality.

Book

Ranjeet was lucky enough to meet a Guru when he was still a child. The Guru was disguised as a blind white rabbit. The friendship between the boy and the rabbit lasted for several years, until the Guru decided to leave his disciple. The Guru left because he wanted Ranjeet to become independent and able to find his inner Guru. Even after the Guru left, Ranjeet never felt alone because he knew that he could always rely on his inner Guru, known as the Voice. In order to be able to listen to the Voice, it was necessary to stop the external noise of materialistic things and the internal noise caused by thoughts and emotions such as desire, attachment, hate, jealousy and pride. 

Quieting the mind was the greatest challenge. How does one make the mind silent? In other words, how does one control his/her mind? The first step is integration, followed by transcendence. Ranjeet was taught that first he must integrate his own thoughts into his mind, then his mind into the heart. Then, the integration between mind and body will follow. Once body and mind are integrated, without conflicts and opposition, the external environment can be integrated.  

This is the meaning of the logo of our school. Let me briefly explain it in this introduction, because I think it is very important to understand the significance of the logo in order to understand Ranjeet’s story. This logo represents the unity of mind and heart. The union of knowledge and kindness is the target of our education project. Knowledge must be transformed into wisdom and the energy of our emotions must be transformed into compassion and good hearts.

Remember our motto: “Be wise and kind!” The face of the child is turned towards the right. This means that we look at the future with hope and a positive mind. Only if we bring our good hearts and wisdom into the future can we have a chance to defeat unhappiness and despair. 

In Ranjeet’s story, he embarks on a journey beginning in his divided dualistic mind all the way to the “cave of his heart,” or rather, transcendence. He must travel beyond the polarities towards that treasure in the deepest part of his being. His Guru told him that, deep in his heart, there is the magic castle of love, harmony and peace. He discovered many important things during his journey to the peak experiences of his consciousness: the illusion of the external world, the role of his mind in creating his own experiences, the power of his thoughts, the destructive and constructive energy of the emotions, and the substantial non-difference among his thoughts and their illusory existence.

The most amazing discovery for Ranjeet when he understood that it was he that was projecting the so-called external reality that he lived in, and that he did this through the delusory appearance of his own thoughts. Ranjeet realized that the quality of the world depends on the quality of his mind. He now feels responsibility for his actions and for the sufferings in the world, which are caused by the slavery of ignorance.

Ignorance is the cause of caste division, as well. Ranjeet promised to break the caste-system in the society through the freedom of the mind. That’s why he started teaching at a very young age through the folk stories of his native country.  It was thanks to his friendship with his neighbor Suneeta and her parents and grandparents from Bhutan that he succeeded in keeping alive the link with the culture of his native country. He was fond of listening to the numerous folk stories told in her family. The teachings of his Guru and the wisdom of those popular stories helped him to face the struggles in his life and to find inner peace. Later, he would adapt the stories to the culture and tradition of the place where he was living and teaching.  In fact, this book is not only for Hindu or Bhutanese students. Instead, it is aimed to communicate wisdom and ethical and moral values to students of all cultures and religions. For this reason, the reader can find stories from different sources and traditions in this story.

Ranjeet was an exceptionally bright and intelligent boy and he could easily understand complicated philosophical concepts taught by his Guru. But he did not leave these concepts at merely the level of the mind. He always tried to integrate them with the heart in both his life and behavior. This story narrates his journey from the darkness of an ignorant and uncontrolled mind to the peak of transpersonal consciousness, beyond thoughts and suffering. We will leave him at the feet of his Guru who will help him to become King of the kingdom of his mind (the real Shanghri la) before going back to the wonderful land of the Thunder Dragon. This is an interactive book, where the author, during the narration, asks the readers to participate to the story, with comments and suggestion.

Some students of the Alice Project Theater Group (see photos) are playing the roles of the main characters of the story. Sometimes, the readers are requested to complete one tale which was purposely left unfinished.

The reader can also see him/herself inside the illustrations as substitute of the protagonist of the book.  In this way, we are trying to “bring the past into the present” giving the feeling to our students that, actually, it is they that are the real heroes of this story. 

Finally, we’d like to illustrate the conclusion of this introduction with a beautiful stamp from Buthan, titled “In Harmony with Nature”.  We chose it to represent the meaning of Alice Project and our educational research which is “Unity in Diversity”. The first unity, as we mentioned earlier, that we have to realize is with the internal reality, the inner environment, as Ranjeet understood. Then, when the harmony is in mind, naturally this harmony will spread outside: the body, the external environment, Nature, the society, the entire universe. This is the message of our story to the younger generations: if you want to save our seriously sick Earth that is on the brink of collapsing, first save and tame your mind and become Wise (symbolized by the old Sage on the right corner of the stamp) and compassionate. If you start with yourself, the rest will follow.

Note:-

If you are interested to buy the books, contact: valentino1@rediffmail.com – Universal Education School – Alice Project, Sarnath, Varanasi – U.P. India – Web. www.aliceproject.info – Ph.09973918773 –  Bank Address: Awakening Special Universal Education – Bank of India, branch Bodhgaya, Swift Code BKIDINBBCOS – Fcra: BKID0004479 – A.N. 447920100000010

ALICE PROJECT AND MAGAZINES – MANDALA October/November 2OO5

A Peaceful Wonderland of Learning Called Alice

by Darlene Lorrain

A little miracle in education is flourishing in poor villages in India. Alice Project, an experiment in ‘Universal Education’ is bringing unity of body, mind, and external world to students and teachers in Sarnath and Bodhgaya, India. By facilitating the discovery of the nature of mind, understanding the root of suffering, focusing on interdependence and cultivating happiness, Alice Project Schools are creating communities of peace and service. 

Girl

Above: Kindergarten child at Alice Project School, Bodhgaya.
Winter and summer uniforms are provided free to each child
by the school.

In rural India, where suffering is life’s journey, two veteran teachers from Italy embarked on an educational quest. Curious to see if the Alice Project methodology they developed in Italian public schools would also be effective in an entirely different cultural and socioeconomic setting, Valentino Giacomin and Luigina De Biasi started an educational service project in Sarnath, India. Now, eleven years later, Alice Project School celebrates the high school graduation of their first students, and a BA program in Education and Psychology is currently in the accreditation process. Since its introduction in Sarnath, Alice Project Schools and programs have taken root in rural Bodhgaya, Taiwan, and now Bogotá, Colombia. In India alone, Alice Project Schools offer accredited education to over 900 students from poor village families. The projects also include evening education for working children, a program for delinquent youth, adult education, a program for destitute women, and a touring theater group presenting psychosocial issues to surrounding communities. The Sarnath and Bodhgaya schools also have resident programs, housing students from troubled families or from areas of political strife such as Chakma youth from the Chittigong hill tribes.

Students

 Rural Bodhgaya. Older girls walk to school with their precious books wrapped in recycled plastic bags. Generally, girls drop out of school when they get older in order to tend to home chores and family. However, the drop-out rate at Alice Project Schools is much less than in any public school.

Alice Project methodology was birthed in the early ‘80s when Giacomin and De Biasi initially took up the challenge of addressing the widespread educational issue of students’ lack of attention, inability to concentrate, and aggressiveness that was a concern in Italy, just as it is currently in the US and other Western countries. Originally motivated and inspired by the teachings and inspired writings on Universal Education of Lama Thubten Yeshe and, more recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, they found guidance in the Buddhist philosophy of mindfulness, non-duality, and understanding of the root causes of suffering to begin their educational research experiment…

… Recognizing that learning is not readily attainable or sustainable if a child’s mind is not present, Alice Project integrated a “special program” curriculum into the government-mandated academic curriculum. Exercises in attentiveness, mindfulness, perception, and self-inquiry were presented, refined, and documented over a ten-year period, revealing students’ increased ability to concentrate and learn, associated with a decrease in aggressive behavior. An equally important finding was that all children, even kindergartners, were found to be not only capable but also eager to discover and share their awareness of thoughts, emotions, and life’s interdependence. Also, teachers and families found this new perspective compatible with their own religious traditions….

Special Program attention training is understood as cultivating the awareness of mind and perceptions and emotional intelligence as well. “Before having a feeling there is a thought, and this thought is what causes an emotional reaction,” says Giacomin. To investigate this interrelationship of thought and emotions, Giacomin questions his students: “How is your rage?  What size is it?  What color? From where did it come? What are your thoughts?” This inquiry process aims at the cognitive reframing of students’ perceptions of themselves and the external world. Says Giacomin, “This was Lama Yeshe’s vision: Reality changes, if you change your vision of reality. Knowing yourself – your psychology, your physical condition – this it universal education.”

My heightened curiosity about this radical methodology brought me to the Alice Project Schools in India. I was struck by a school culture that constantly and directly reminded me to amend to the nature of my mind and projections. My experience teaching in contemplative schools in Colorado was reflective, but not so direct and challenging to my own perspective. I experienced everyday Dharma practice that the Indian children happily practiced with me. The children and teachers were joyfully present and accepting of most any situation as workable and positive – quite a stark contrast to the reality of most US public schools.

Alice Project Schools begin each day with an all-school assembly gathered in the school compound. A Buddhist stupa, a Christian altar, and a Hindu shrine encircle the area. With stubs of pencils and worn blue uniforms, the children arrive barefoot through rice paddies eager to join the teachers for sitting, silent prayer, songs, and a dedication of gratitude to invite an open mind and the opportunity to learn. After assembly, the older children then head off to yoga class while the younger ones stay to listen to and discuss moral stories.

Each academic class begins and ends with attention exercises to bring awareness to the child’s state of being. It is a wonder to see the children, even five-year-olds, sitting silently, eyes closed, then calmly sharing their perceptions of their experience. The children gradually learn to see the basis of different perceptions other than their own and, in the process, gain tolerance and compassion for others with different motivations. Older children are guided into investigating the origin of their thoughts and perceptions at a deeper level.

Midway through class, the teacher will also present a concentration exercise often related to the subject at hand. It is not unusual to see fidgety unfocused students transform after such an exercise, completing challenging spelling lists and math problems with ease and efficiency. 

While Alice Project methodology appreciates the need for academic and scientific knowledge, it simultaneously fosters the discovery of our youth’s deeper questions. Inquiry about life and death, thoughts and feelings, perceptions and reality requires both time and attention to ponder and investigate with the students. Through teacher modeling and “special program’ curriculum (meditation, guided visualizations, self-inquiry discussion, breath and yoga practices, and moral stories)’ children develop familiarity and knowledge of their inner world and the ability to concentrate more deeply in their academic world’

Teaching academics alone is usually a reductionistic process of learning how to identify and separate the world around us into words and concepts in order to classify’ analyze, and evaluate. While this division may be part of the Iearning process, it does not reveal the whole truth.  Alice Project promotes what both Buddhism and physics agree on: There is no distinct division between the things we perceive around us, but rather energy and interconnectedness.  Our understanding of this is only limited by our perceptions.  Children have a deep and intuitive knowing that there is more to life than academic knowledge and will accordingly become disinterested and disengaged if they are not presented with a view of the world that is credible and integral to them.

Teachers are the key to successfully implementing any methodology, and their self-reflection, compassion’ and understanding of themselves and their perceptions is crucial to their teaching. Indian teachers speak of the honor to work in Alice Project Schools, how it supports their personal integrity and gives a higher purpose to their life and teaching.  Giacomin and De Biasi lead teacher trainings regularly in Italy, in Sarnath and Bodhgaya, and also in Taiwan, Bogota, Munich and California. To continue the research and development of the methodology, Giacomin regularly presents teachers with new ideas to explore and access.  He has written many texts and stories to guide teachers and children in this methodology.

This past year the West called out to learn more about Alice Project and its provocative methodology’.  The Garrison Institute, a visionary center examining the intersection between contemplative practices and engaged action in the world, requested Valentino’s participation in a contemplative education symposium, initiating his first US tour.  After New York, he presented his work at Naropa University in Colorado, Thubten  Norbu Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center in New Mexico, Tara Redwood School in California, and Centro Yamantaka in Bogota, Colombia. Like Alice’s journey “through the looking glass” the Alice Project methodology is filling an unmet need of educators in the West to look more deeply into the nature of mind and its essential role in the learning process.

At a time when children and families in Western culture are becoming more fearful of others perceived as ‘different’ and more protective and aggressive, there is a pressing need to responsibly address our thoughts and feelings and to question the truth of our perceptions. The mind holds the key for tolerance, compassion’ moral values, and inner harmony. Awakening each teacher and student to the nature of mind and perceptions plays an essential role in developing sustainable education and a culture of peace. A peaceful mind with wisdom will naturally foster tolerance of diversity and inspire universal responsibility for community as well as the environment.

This is the bright vision Alice Project brings into this world.

Ritten by: Darlene J. Lorrain, Adjunct faculty Early Childhood Education, Naropa University, Colorado; Master Teacher – Alaya Preschoo (both started by Chdgyam Trungpa Rinpoche).

Article Terra Nuova  -  March 2009 

Alice in the country of Gandhi

 Manuel Olivares

A pedagogical project conceived in Italy and developed in India to form a more conscientious youth with a planetary conscience.

Childrens

Alice Project, today fully operative in a couple of schools in Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh, owes its name to the famous book of Lewis Carrol and the “journey” of its young character in the domains of the subconscious mind.  This has undoubtedly represented an important component in the configuration of the pedagogical paradigm of 64 year old Valentino Giacomin.  He is a retired teacher and journalist with a strong humanistic and transpersonal background in psychology.  Albeit conceived in Italy, Alice Project is deeply rooted in the oriental culture too. In fact, it could be considered an excellent example of an “intercultural meeting”.

I met Valentino in one of his schools founded in Sarnath, a suburb of Varanasi, the capital of Shivait Hinduism, in Uttar Pradesh.  We agreed to an hour-long interview, but the typical oriental time dilation prevailed.

The significant problem of education

Valentino taught for many years in Treviso (Italy) and there he started to ponder over educational issues.  “At first -he says- I thought that today’s school problems could be essentially identified in the didactics.  But then I realized that the main issue was not there.  By reading school programs, it becomes evident the necessity to deeply educate the human being, the person, to educate to emotions.  The dramatic evidence is that, whereas there exists a didactic for, say, mathematics, what is missing is an education of the emotions, for instance.  If it is there, then there is no performance verification.  Our intuition made us work harder on this forgotten aspect of education, trying to keep in mind what kind of persons we wanted to form”.

The need to better educate supposes that we face the authentic nature of the individual, of we humans.

“From an educational stand point -Valentino continues- one needs to understand that there are aspects of it that go beyond the psychological dimension of the self.  While this conviction has always existed in the East, in the West it has been introduced by scholars such as Jung and transpersonal psychologists.  They came close to demonstrating the existence of the higher dimension of conscience: the so-called transpersonal conscience.  How? “Through pathologies”.

“Such scholars”, Valentino adds, “discovered typologies of anxieties which neither derive from our instinct nor, for instance, a lack of professional realization.  Rather, these kinds of disturbances affect “straight people”, emotionally and professionally successful people who, nonetheless, fall into depression.   What is then the origin of such phenomena?  The answer is that probably such pathologies arise from the highest levels of conscience that have not been properly nourished in particularly from the school.  My thought, shared by other teaching colleagues – in particular by Luigina De Biasi – is that by limiting education only to the “me” level it is, as if, upon climbing a mountain, we would stop half way through.  What is happening today in Western schools is the tendency to form strong individuals capable of fighting their way through society.  Convinced of having arrived to the summit, they confuse the bivouac with the top.  We believe that to reach the summit one needs a different kind of equipment.  It is also necessary to cultivate the highest levels of the conscience by using methods mainly of the Oriental tradition.  On these assumptions Alice Project commenced.”

Working on border lines 

The history of religion and different psychological avantgards teaches us that the levels of human conscience development are, potentially, infinite.  Nonetheless, there is a guideline to follow that we might summarize in expanding border lines.

An instinctive-like conscience has very narrow borders, within which primary needs are high-handedly central.  Such borders certainly broaden when you are talking about rational conscience, but particularly when one reaches a transpersonal or transegoic conscience where the more profound feelings of love and compassion lay.

“It is essential to cultivate this kind of conscience education” underlines Valentino “because only thanks to this panoramic view can you see the dying Gange and the disappearing Amazon forest, inasmuch as they are within your reference frame”.

Both in the East and the West philosophers, mystics and psychologists agree that an interesting tool to expand the limits of one’s conscience is the so-called “I-wetness”, i.e. being able to watch the mental show, refusing to identify with the thoughts.

This way it is possible to create what the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti used to call the “freedom corridor” between the “I” observing the mind, and the mind itself.

This is a wonderful definition” comments Valentino. “The broader the corridor, the lesser the mental suffering.  Psychologists also say: neurosis appears when this space shrinks.  When the I becomes one with its thought you are done for!  That is why we started to teach this to children.  We tell them: close your eyes, what do you see?  When they focus on a mental object we ask them to analyze it.  Children concentrate on their mental objects and it is amazing the attention they pay in observing the details.  We then teach them to name the mental phenomenon and the different emotions: jealousy, envy and love.  Naming your emotions means to recognize and not to identify with them, acquiring power over them.  However one must not stop just there, obviously.  You have to be able to further elaborate a coherent synthesis from that starting point.”

Alice in the land of Dharmic wheel

The first school of the Alice Project  saw the light in 1994 in Sarnath, where Buddha, newly enlightened in Bodhgaya, (today’s Biharheld), gave his first sermon to his disciples, thus beginning the “Dharma wheel”.  Today, the school has 750 students between the ages 5 and 15, 25 of which are permanent residents.

About seven years later, the second school, about nine kilometers from the Bodhgaya, became operative.  Both, with a total of more than a thousand students, have received the blessings of the Dalai Lama who, from the start, encouraged Valentino to pursue his inclinations as an “innovative pedagogue”.

Similar pilot projects are active today in Italy and Taiwan. They raise hopes that soon schools could be open there too.  “In our schools” explains Valentino “we are trying to reintroduce the value of the sacred, religious symbols and mythology in a transreligious perspective.  Despite the great majority of Hindu students, we also have some Muslims, Buddhists and Christian students.  We have verified that religious differences are completely reabsorbed in the universal language of symbols (where rationality divides, symbols unify) and silence: the silence of vipassana meditation, of the yogic Dyane, of concentration and visualization exercises, of the inner trips in which we try to accompany our students.  This is all part of our pedagogical program together with mathematics, of course, geography, chemistry and everything else included in the national programs of the country where we operate”.

In India, primary and secondary education is developed in 12 grades.  The Alice Project schools are, so far, legally recognized up until the eighth grade.  From grade nine to twelve, they are affiliated with another school.  The monthly cost is 70 Rupee, a bit more than a Euro and few cents.  Those families who cannot afford even this minimal amount, can pay 20 Rupee or, in desperate cases, nothing. 

“With the monthly rate we are able to barely cover the cost of cookies” comments an almost amused Valentino, who supports the project with his own pension and a generous German donor”

“Money from the sponsor arrives each year in March” he tells me at the end of the interview.  “I always wait for them in trepidation because without it, we wouldn’t know how to carry on.  But every year, punctual as always, the check arrives and the project can continue to survive.  We are doing all we can – with some success, I must say -not only to overcome difficulties, but also to develop Alice Project in India and, hopefully, in the world”

Article  – Colombia – 2005

Semana.com

Alicia en el país de las maravillas

Valentino Giacomin, italian psycopedagogist, creator in India of the ALICE PROJECT, teaches in Colombia a technique to develop the emotional intelligence in children and adolescents.  Silvia Camargo spoke with him. 

-What was what bothered you?  – He inquired. 

-That he told me stupid  answered Juan. 

-And what is stupid? 

-Is a word – responded Juan.. 

-And from where did that word come?  – Continued the teacher. 

- From the mouth of Pedro said Juan.

Just then, the student could visualize the scene and understand that it was not worthwhile to fight by that incident.  He imagined the words going back and entering again in the mouth of his schoolmate. 
“The word stupid is in the mind of Pedro.  It is alone a word in Pedros mind, so there is no reason why you should allow your mind to be affected! said the teacher.

This exercise between the teacher and his student is known as gymnastics of the mind and has been a fundamental part of a training to develop the emotional intelligence of the students at the school Centro Piloto Nueva Tibabuyes, located in the sector of Suba , North West of Bogot. 

Since last week, the school is organizing training for children and teachaers on how to educate the emotions.  The training is based on the Alice Project methodology, developed 20 years ago by the italian psycopedagogist Valentino Giacomin, in order to introduce in the classrooms the approaches of Daniel Goleman, the psychologist that popularized the term ‘emotional intelligence’.  Giacomin is now in Colombia , where he is sharing its experience with children from 10 to 17 years of age. The theme of the emotional intelligence has been applied in the work area , in politics, in businesses, “but not with students”, says Valentino.  The Alice Project, at present, handles three schools in India with more than 800 students. 

Its techniques are based on the intuition of Daniel Goleman. Nevertheless, Giacomin, as opposed to the american psychologist, has focused all the mental gymnastics to modify the ideas and not the emotions. ”Before feeling there is a thought, and this is what causes a reaction”, says Valentino.  “The emotional problems occur because we think in a wrong way. We have invalid thoughts.  Perhaps, if we change what we think that emotion will also be modified”. 

Though the teachers are in the classroom to transmit knowledge and not so much to resolve  psychological problems of the students, the training of the emotional intelligence of Giacomin permits the educators to be involved in the theme because finally the root of the emotion has to do with the cognitive capacity of the students, “and the professor can work in this rational aspect in spite of not being a psychologist”. 

The majority of exercises are aimed to give a new framework to the emotions.  This process is known as reframing and consists of reconstructing the erroneous perceptions to change the feeling.  The emotions disturb the students and interfere in their academic performance. Giacomin helps even very young children to handle their emotions through knowing them in all their variety and ex-pression: jealousy, rage, high-handedness, and sadness.  In his workshops, instead of scolding a boy for what he is feeling, he exhorts him to express his perception about that sensation. Then he questions them: How it is your rage? What size does it have? Which is its color? From where did it come? 
“When they speak of the anger or of any another sensation, they feel freed and that is a way to control their emotions”, affirms Giacomin.  

As well as the knowledge of external world means control and power over the environment; in the same way, to know our own emotions generates control and power on them. 
(The following sentence was edited by Giacomin in order to make the translation more clear)

The majority of educational systems at present classify the emotions in negative and positive ones, and the tendency is to repress the first at any cost. In the Giacomin system, the emotions are neither good nor bad.  The rage, the happiness or the love stem from the same mind and anything that produces the human brain should be considered like natural.  We want to avoid that the students have a wrong  feeling towards their own emotions. For instance, if we feel guilty of our hate it would be as if we put wood into the fire (adding a negative emotion to another negative emotion). 
“We do not want to repress our emotions nor the express them, but to give them space to know them!

Last week, during the break time, in his school, Pedro told Juan that he was a stupid boy. This made Juan very angry; so much that he wanted to hit Pedro. But before he moved a finger, his teacher intervened. He neither threw sermons nor he scolded.  Simply he approached Juan with a series of questions.

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