2020 (#293) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

Children love to
learn among themselves, and they learn things that
it would never be possible to learn from interactions
with an adult.

-Malaguzzi

He does great, unsearchable things,

Job 9:10

The one thing which we seek with insatiable desire is to forget
ourselves, to be surprised out of our propriety, to lose our sempiternal memory and to do something without knowing how or
why: in short to create a new circle.

Emerson

He begins to seek out the reason of things.
And thus it is that the human individuality is constructed
during this period of childhood.

Montessori

Didn’t you pour me out like milk,
then let me thicken like cheese?

10:10

Nothing great was ever
achieved without enthusiasm. The way of life is wonderful: it is by abandonment

Emerson

We speak because we have observed life, we have
observed nature and nature has revealed this fact. It is
only through freedom and by experiences upon the
environment that man can develop.

Montessori

You clothed me with skin and flesh
you knit me together with bones and sinews.

Job 10:11

That which returns is the constant affirmation, the “yes, yes”. That which signs here is in the form of a return, which is to say it has the form of something that cannot be simple. It is a selective return without negativity, or which reduces negativity through affirmation, through alliance or marriage (hymen), that is, through an affirmation that is also binding on the other or that enters into a pact with itself as other.

Derrida

You granted me life and grace;
your careful attention preserved my spirit.

Job 10:12

Content with whatever gain comes of its own accord, and free from envy, they are beyond the dualities of life. Being equipoised in success and failure, they are not bound by their actions, even while performing all kinds of activities.

Bhagavad Gita

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

Mathew 6:9-10

2020 (#292) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

What we have to do now is draw out the image of the
child, draw the child out of the desperate situations
that many children find themselves in. If we redeem
the child from these difficult situations, we redeem
ourselves.

– Malaguzzi

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah 6:6-8

I cast away in this new moment all my once hoarded
knowledge~ as ,vacant and vain. and now for the first time seem I to
know any thing rightly. The simplest words-we do not know
what they mean except when we love and aspire.

– Emerson

The first problem of education is to furnish the child
with an environment which will permit him to develop
the functions that nature has given to him. This is not
an indifferent question.

(Montessori)

He moves the mountains, although they don’t know it

Job 9:5

Here you stand, close to the first – undecipherable – stone, which is not one, or which — of all those stones, whether petrified by the Medusa, precious or not, that have marked your path — was, numerous. Calculus. Pebbles used in counting. Gravel.

Derrida

It is a question of co-operation with a command of nature,
with one of her laws which decrees that development
should take place by means of experiences upon the
environment. With his first step the child enters a higher
level of experiences.

-Montessori

He alone spreads out the sky
and walks on the waves in the sea

Job 9:8

The difference between talents and character is adroitness to
keep the old and trodden round, and power and courage to make
a new road to new and better goals.

Emerson

Just as the taste of salt pervades the great ocean and every single drop of sea-water carries the same flavour, so every experience gives me the touch of reality, the ever fresh realisation of my own being.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

“I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.”

John 1:32

Character makes an overpowering present: a cheerful, determined hour, which fortifies all the company by making them see that much is possible and excellent that was not thought of.

Emerson

²⁵ He did not need any testimony about mankind, for he knew what was in each person.

John 2:25

 ⁸ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit

John 3:8

2020 (#291) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

We cannot help saying : ” My child has today said his first
word ” and rejoice about it. Especially inasmuch as we
know we cannot do anything to bring about this event.
If, however, we realize that, although the development
of the child cannot be destroyed (because nature is too
strong for us, thanks be to God), it can however be kept
incomplete or retarded if the child is not given an oppor-
tunity of carrying out experiences upon the environment,
then a problem does arise : The problem of education.

-Montessori

 There’s a difference between the environment
that you are able to build based on a preconceived
image of the child and the environment that you can
build that is based on the child you see in front of you
— the relationship you build with the child, the
games you play. An environment that grows out of
your relationship with the child is unique and fluid.

-Malaguzzi

To get to the idea of playing it is helpful to think of the
preoccupation that characterizes the playing of a young child.
The content does not matter. What matters is the nearwithdrawal
state, akin to the concentration of older children
and adults. The playing child inhabits an area that cannot be
easily left, nor can it easily admit intrusions.

-Winnicott

²¹ He will yet fill your mouth with laughter
and your lips with shouts of joy.

-Job 8:21

The new position of the advancing man has
all the powers of the old~ yet has them all ne\v. It carries in its
bosom all the energies of the past, yet is itself an exhalation of the
morning.

Emerson

• • The Master observes the world

but trusts his inner vision.

He allows things to come and go.

His heart is open as the sky.

-Tao Te Ching

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

Isaiah 6:1-4

There is no duality. Your present knowledge is due to the ego and is only relative. Relative knowledge requires a subject and an object, whereas the awareness of the Self (God) is absolute and requires no object.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

-Luke 6:37

the kingdom of God is within you.

-Luke 17:20

2020 (#290) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

Each one of us needs to be able to play with the
things that are coming out of the world of children.

Malaguzzi

you won’t have to fear destruction when it comes —

Job 5:21

In nature every moment is new; the
past is always swallowed and forgotten; the coming only is
sacred. Nothing is secure but life, transition; the energizing
spirit.

Emerson

To stimulate life,–leaving it then free to develop, to unfold,–herein lies the first task of the educator

Montessori

you’ll be able to laugh at destruction and famine.

Job 5:22

Of lower states, of acts of routine and sense, we
can tell somewhat; but the masterpieces of God, the total growth and universal movements of the soul, he hideth; they I are in ..
calculable. I can know that truth is divine and helpful; but
how it shall help me I can have no guess, for so to be is the sole
inlet of so to know.

Emerson

We must free childhood from repression that weighs upon it

Montessori

for you will be in league with the stones in the field,
and the wild animals will be at peace with you.

Job 5:23

in play, things lose their determining force. The child sees one
thing but acts differently in relation to what he sees. Thus, a condition
is reached in which the child begins to act independently of what he
sees.

Vygotsky

Passing through the [dry] Baka Valley,
they make it a place of springs,
and the early rain clothes it with blessings.

Tehillim 84:7

and we saw his Sh’khinah,

John 1:13

There are two ways of achieving surrender. One is looking into the source of the ‘I’ and merging into that source. The other is feeling ‘I am helpless myself, God alone is all powerful and except throwing myself completely on Him, there is no other means of safety for me’, and thus gradually developing the conviction that God alone. exists and the ego does not count. Both methods lead to the same goal. Complete surrender is another name for jnana or liberation.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

 full of grace and truth.

John 1:14

The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.

For everything there are innumerable causal factors. But the source of all that is, is the Infinite Possibility, the Supreme Reality, which is in you and which throws its power and light and love on every experience. But, this source is not a cause and no cause is a source. Because of that, I say everything is uncaused. You may try to trace how a thing happens, but you cannot find out why a thing is as it is. A thing is as it is, because the universe is as it is.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

(John 3:8)

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

(Mathew 6:9-10)

2020 (#289) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

Each one of us needs to be able to play with the
things that are coming out of the world of children.

Malaguzzi

The same law of eternal procession ranges all that we call
the virtues, and extinguishes each in the light of a better.

Emerson

When we understand that
these powers belong to an unconscious mind which must
become conscious by work and experience carried out
in the environment …

Montessori

We do encourage our children’s fantasies; we tell them to paint what they want, or to invent stories. But unfed by our common fantasy heritage, the folk fairy tale, the child cannot invent stories on his own which help him cope with life’s problems. All the stories he can invent are just expressions of his own wishes and anxieties. Relying on his own resources, all the child can imagine are elaborations of where he presently is, since he cannot know where he needs to go, nor how to go about getting there.

Bettelheim

⁹ For God does great deeds beyond investigation,
wonders beyond all reckoning.
¹⁰ He gives rain to the earth,
pours water down on the fields.
¹¹ He raises the lowly on high
and lifts mourners to safety.

Job 5:9-11

Let me live onward; you shall find that though
slower, the progress of my character will liquidate all these
debts without injustice to higher claims.

Emerson

This is where the fairy tale provides what the child needs most: it begins exactly where the child is emotionally, shows him where he has to go, and how to do it. But the fairy tale does this by implication, in the form of fantasy material which the child can draw on as seems best to him, and by means of images which make it easy for him to comprehend what is essential for him to understand.

Bettelheim

¹⁸ For he wounds, but he bandages the sore;
his hands may strike, but they also heal.
¹⁹ He will rescue you from six disasters;
yes, in seven no harm will touch you.

Job 5:18-19

Let things happen as they happen — they will sort themselves out nicely in the end. You need not strain towards the future — the future will come to you on its own. For some time longer you will remain sleep-walking, as you do now, bereft of meaning and assurance; but this period will end and you will find your work both fruitful and easy.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

It is the highest power of divine moments that they abolish
our contritions also. I accuse myself of sloth and unprofitableness
. day b.l’ day; but when these waves of God flow into me I no
longer reckon lost time.

Emerson

There are always moments when one feels empty and estranged. Such moments are most desirable for it means the soul had cast its moorings and is sailing for distant places. This is detachment — when the old is over and the new has not yet come. If you are afraid, the state may be distressing; but there is really nothing to be afraid of.

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj

Every thing is
referred to a force capable of interpreting it; every force is referred to
what it is able to do, from which it is inseparable. It is this way of being
referred, of affirming and being affirmed, which is particularly innocent.

Deleuze

The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.

John 3:8

What is the being inseparable from that which is
becoming? Return is the being of that which becomes. Return is the being of becoming itself, the being which is affirmed in becoming. The
eternal return as law of becoming, as justice and as being.

Deleuze

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.

John 3:8

your kingdom come,
your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.

Mathew 6:9-10

‘Sh’ma Yisra’el, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad [Hear, O Isra’el, the Lord our God, the Lord is one], ³⁰ and you are to love Adonai your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your understanding and with all your strength.’^[d]

Mark 12:29

⁹ This was the true light,
    which gives light to everyone entering the world.

John 1:9

2020 (#288) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

We must move beyond just looking at
the child to become better observers, able to penetrate into the child to understand each child’s resources
and potential and present state of mind. We need to
compare these with our own in order to work well
together.

(Malaguzzi)

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
and naked I will return there.
Adonai gave; Adonai took;
blessed be the name of Adonai.”

Job 1:20

The key to every man is his thought. Sturdy and defying
though he look, he has a helm which he obeys, which is the idea
after which all his facts are classified. He can only be reformed
by showing him a new idea ‘which commands his own. The life
of man is a self-evolving circle, which, from a ring imperceptibly small, rushes on all sides outwards to new and larger
circles, and that without end.

Emerson

I may liken the effects of these first lessons to the impressions of one who walks quietly, happily, through a wood, alone, and thoughtful, letting his inner life unfold freely. Suddenly, the chime of a distant bell recalls him to himself, and in that awakening he feels more strongly than before the peace and beauty of which he has been but dimly conscious.

(Montessori)

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
    and naked I will depart.^[c]
The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;
    may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Job 1:20

The natural world may be conceived of as a system of con ..
centric circles, and we now and then detect in nature slight
dislocations which apprise us that this surface on which we now
stand is not fixed, but sliding. These manifold tenacious quali …
ties, this chemistry and vegetation, these metals and animals,
which seem to stand there for their own sake, are means and
methods only-are words of God

Emerson

This is the basic or fundamental truth,–whether it be a question of species or of individuals, there persists always the forward march of those victorious ones in whom this mysterious life-force is strong and vital.

(Montessori)

¹³ Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights.

Job 2:13

Omnipresence is a
higher fact. Not through subtle subterranean channels need
friend and fact be drawn to their counterpart, but, rightly con ..
sidered, these things proceed from the eternal generation of the
soul. Cause and effect are two sides of one fact.

Emerson

Turn, Lord, and deliver me;
save me because of your unfailing love.

(Mizmor/Tehellim/Psalms 6:4)

⁵ The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome^[a] it.

John 1:5

There is a light that shines beyond all things on earth, beyond us all, beyond the heavens, beyond the highest, the very highest heavens. This is the light that shines in our heart.

(Chandogya Upanishad)

The light shines in the darkness,
    and the darkness has not suppressed it.

John 1:5

44 “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. 45 It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God.’[d] Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me.
(John 6:44-45)

One must, in a certain way of course, inhabit the
circle, turn around in it, live there a feast of thinking, and the gift, the
gift of thinking

(Derrida)

I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
(John 17:6)

For whoever does the ratzon Hashem, this one is my brother and my sister and mother. (Markos 3:35)

2020 (#287) : “SING TO ADONAI A NEW SONG!” שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, שִׁיר חָדָשׁ; שִׁירוּ לַיהוָה, כָּל-הָאָרֶץ –

the child walks, runs, jumps and by doing this
he develops his legs. Nature first makes the instruments,
and then develops them by means of functions, through
experiences upon the environment.

Montessori

He determines how many stars there are

Tehillim 147:4

THE eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the
second; and throughout nature this primary figure is repeated
without end. It is the highest emblem in the cipher of the world ..

Emerson

 When the child has acquired independence, it is by exercising this independence that he will develop.

Montessori

He gives food to the animals

147:9

Our life is an apprenticeship to the truth that around
every circle another can be drawn; that there is no end in
nature, but every end is a beginning;

Emerson

the behaviour is affirmed
in each individual by the experiences this individual
carries out upon the environment

Montessori

the strength of a horse

147:10

there is always an other dawn risen on mid-noon, and under every deep a lower deep opens.

Emerson

It’s important for the teacher who works with young
children to understand that she knows little about
children.

Malaguzzi

In gold or emerging into the clear bluish haze

Of uncertainty. We come back to ourselves

John Ashbery

a runner’s speed

147:10

We have to understand that they are moving
and working with many ideas, but their most important task is to build relationships with friends.

Malaguzzi

wait for his grace

147:11

In what height is my abode? Ascending, I’ve never counted the steps leading to myself–and where the steps cease, that is where I have my roof and my abode. *

Nietzsche

A will that wills what the individual does enters
upon a road of conscious development. Our children
choose their own work spontaneously and, repeating this
exercise of choice, develop a consciousness of their
actions.

Montessori

he blesses your children within you

147:13

One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.

Bhagavad Gita

He sends his word out over the earth

147:15

“‘Be sure! From now on I will take interest only in necessity! Be sure: amor fati will be my supreme love!’”–There exists the possibility you’ll go that far

Nietzsche

sends crystals of ice like crumbs of bread

Then he sends his word out and melts them

148:17

 The Furies, isn’t that just a
derogatory name for the Graces?

Nietzsche

One who sees inaction in action, and action in inaction, is wise among men, and he is in the transcendental position, although engaged in all sorts of activities.

Bhagavad Gita

he makes the winds blow, and the water flows

148:18

 It is true that the Divine will prevails at all times and under all circumstances. Individuals cannot act of their own accord. Recognize the force of the Divine will and keep quiet. Everyone is looked after by
God. He created all.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

A person can receive only what is given them from heaven

John 3:27

Similarly, the soul or jiva subjected
to the threefold activity of creation, preservation and destruction,
which takes place merely due to the unique Presence of the
Supreme Lord, performs acts in accordance with its karma, and
subsides to rest after such activity.

Sri Ramana Maharshi

By myself I can do nothing

John 5:30

Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother.

Mark 3:35

Let the children come to me, don’t stop them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

Mark 10:14