"The Great Shortcut for Learning How to Learn" by Lam Luu Ngoc

THE GREAT SHORTCUT FOR LEARNING HOW TO LIVE

Part 1 - The Coversheet

Firstly, I used the less prosaic "5W1H" to find out my Final Project Goal as "The Great Shortcut for Learning How to Live".

Secondly, I committed to follow with this method in one year from now.

And lastly, after one year when this method will become my life's habit, I would introduce it to my wife and my children.

Part 2 - The Project File

I often use the less prosaic "5W1H" to plan a my project for a business, a job, or a study. These are the abbreviation of 6 questions as Why, What, When,Where, Who and How.

Similarly, this time I also set 6 questions to find out the Final Project Goal of the course "Learning How to Learn":

            1. "Why must we learn?"

            2. "What must we learn?"

            3. "How do we learn?"

            4. "Where do we learn?"

            5. "When do we learn?"

            6. "Who do we learn from?"

When these questions are set in front of me, I think about my life and my children.

The first is my learning story.

My name is Luu Ngoc Lam. I was born and am living in Vietnam. Now I am 43 years old.

I had 12 years in the primary and secondary schools, 4 years for Bachelor in the Finance and Monetary, 4 years for Bachelor in English. After that, I spent 2 years for the Postgraduate Diploma in Economic Principle from University of London, United Kingdom by distance learning, 2 years for MBA in Finance from Griggs University, USA which was hold in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Total number of years in school and universities is 24 years.

Beside, I have learned many things for my profession and my life: dozens of  professional certificates and many personal skills such as computer, internet, swimming, table tennis and tennis, communication, speaking, writing, car driving, business, managing money and time, parenting, health, body, spiritual and meditation, and etc,.

I read hundreds of books, watching hundreds of videos and attended dozens of conferences about many subjects of our life.

I became a long-life learner at what time I don't know. Maybe it is my destiny. Although my learning was often rather hard beside my work, I realized that I was often happy when learning. It seems that I was born to learn.

The second is my children.

I have two children. My boy is 14 years old now and learning the 8 class. The daughter is 8 years and learning the 3 class. They are very different. The younger is always happy. The younger is normal in learning, but always joy and happy. While the older seems to be very good in learning, but for him the learning is a burden. He often complains: "Too bored!  Today, this body must be dragged to the school."

The daughter is always very joy, living in every minute and doesn't care about learning.  But there was a miracle came with her but it shocked me. About a half of this month, she can hear and speak English fluently to me (even better than me), although she only can write a few words of English, and never communicate with any English speakers. There are many sentences she said but she does not know how to write these sentences. Then I realized that she was osmosis English in 5 or 6 years since she was 2, 3 years old through the cartoons on television that she has been enthralled daily. She taught herself English automatically (or diffuse mode) alone by only images and sounds on TV with subtitles in Vietnamese. And today what she automatically picked up from TV exploded outside. Her English and no method of her amazed me.

The boy learns very hardly, but most are forced by obligation rather than pleasure. He has 6 days per week in school plus 3 more sessions for gym, computer and vocational training. In addition, he must spend 5 sessions to learn more to improve mathematics, physical and chemical from other teachers. Going home, he has a load of homework. I see that he always must to learn, learn and learn. He is very upset.

He is taught by adults (including me) as: "Yes, it's good to learn to have better job later, and there will be a lot of money to live a happy life.". But it is very funny, now for learning he is not happy.

My two children are the two opposite mirrors which reflect the very myself. So I continue have to learn to find how to learn to help my children learning to have a happy life.

So before answer the first question: "Why must I do learn?", another question is set in front of me: "What is my life purpose?" I suddenly realized that the question: "What is my life's purpose?" must be set first, the rest are just details to show it.

After dozens of question for myself: "What do I want?" and continuing to ask: "What do I really want and why?", I know the ultimate answer for myself as: "I really want inner peace and pleasure.". That is enough.

Lao Tzu, an ancient Chinese sage dated around the 6th century BC, taugh in the Tao Te Ching: "When hungry, eat. When tired, sleep.". This is the Tao. Following with the nature flow is the Tao. And the Tao is peace.

That also means that only eat enough, stop; sleep enough, then wake up. Our body is natural, if it is lack or enough, it will let us know. We just listen to it and follow it. Follow it means follow with the nature flow. We are one with nature, there is no contradiction, no resistance. It is the freedom, it is the peaceful, of and from ourself.

However, it is not easy at all, it is too difficult. I often eat, sleep, play, work, learn and act according to my mind (or my willpower) and other people's desires; not follow with myself body. I overloaded many things in my  body. My body becomes too heavier, become overly tired, become overlap.

Then I saw that I need to check again, need to learn from myself, need to learn to love yourself.

In this journey, I found the article "365 Days of Self Love?" by Teal Swan in the website: http://tealswan.com/processes/365-days-of-self-love. After reading this article, I was shocked and I committed to practice this lesson in one year. I can summarize her lesson as following.

"Right now in the current life we are living, we most likely struggle with being sure of our decisions because the basis by which we make our decisions is not that of self love. Instead, we make our decisions based on things like principal, wanting approval or symptom relief.

In order to live the life we were meant to live, we have got to get back in touch with our own personal truth and our own personal joy. Those two things need to become the principal motivations for any decision we make. Self love needs to be the foundation which we lay first and build the details of your life upon second.

To apply this process, we need to get a calendar and mark the day we plan to begin and the day we plan to end (365 days later). Then we need to make a personal commiment. For exactly a year, every single day we are hoing to live our life by this mantra: "What would someone who loved themselves do?".

We are going to ask ourselves this question any time we have to make a decision no matter how small or large, whenever we have a spare munite where we have the opportunities to decide what to do with our time.

Basically, all day, every day for an entire year, we will live our life according to this one simply question. When we ask this question, the answer will come to us immediately. It will come as an immediate flash of intuition.

Intuition is defined as immediate insight of understanding without conscious reasoning. To truly listen for intuition means to listen with all of our senses.

When we ask ourselves that question above, we are going to receive the correct answer for our personally in the form of intuition. And the next part of the process is the action part on the answer we receive in line with self love.

When we begin to apply this process, we will quickly find that we make decisions constantly throughout the day. The idea behind this process is of course that by the end of the 365 days, it will be habit for us to live our life in alignment with self love.

We will meet with our joy, our purpose and freedom. We will meet with who and what we really are."

So, my Project as following:

“My 365 days of self love”

Beginning day          : Wednesday, 22nd 2014

Ending day                : Wednesday, 21st 2015

I commit that for exactly a year of 365 das from the Wednesday, 22nd 2014 to the Wednesday, 21st 2015, every single day, I am going to live my life by this mantra:

"WHAT WOULD SOMEONE WHO LOVED THEMSELVES DO?"

I am going to ask myself this question any time I have to make a decision no matter how smal or large.

I am going to ask myself this question whenever I have a spare minute where I have the opportunity to decide what to do with my time.

All day, every day for an entire year, I will live my life according to this one simple question.

For me, this process answered the six big question of  5W1H:

1. "Why must I learn?":

I learn for my inner peace and pleasure.

2. "What must I learn?":

I learn how to love myself and how to live my life. After one year, when I will be fluent in this method,  when it will be my habit,  I would introduce it for my wife and my children for their life's happy.

3. "How do I learn?":

I learn just by asking myself the simple question: "What would someone who loved themselves do?" for any decision, anywhere and anytime. When receiving the answer from my intuition, I will act following to this answer. In the whole process, I keep silent in my mind to observe every my emotions and my thoughts from myself. I will learn from my intuition to know who and what I am.

To compare with modalities from the course of "Learning How to Learn", I see that there are many similar things. I can explain by eight methods as following.

+ The focused and diffuse modes of thinking:

I see that when I ask this question I can focus into my situation to have immediately a solution. This means that I focus into my process at now, here and just moment, not focus into the product, or outcome or results. I only act following with the answer from my inner, I let my thoughts to free as diffuse mode. But I realize that both mode happen immediately at the same time.

+ Chunking:

The whole process of life can be chunked into many small  our daily actions such as  from eating, sleeping to learning, working, or playing and etc,. Every action is a choice. The matter is to have a suitable choice to our body, ourselves inner. This question is reasonable to us can focus on one thing we need rather than distracted by overwhelming things. We can joy in every action.

+ Deliberate practice:

Practicing this question is an entirely proactive experience, it comes from inner and inward. When finishing a job, I continue to ask and receive the next new instruction.

+ Interleaving:

There is not a single activity that last too long to depress for ourselves. By this question, all activities of the day are interleaved and interconnected together according to the real needs of the natural self body. The answers will help us realize what our natural body really needed at that moment.

+ Procrastination:

When we follow it means to give immediately what our natural body really need, boredom is no longer available, so the delay is no longer available. At this point, we no longer have to use willpower or tricks to overcome procrastination anymore.

+ Mindset:

This method of thinking for me is a completely new mindset. It is very concise, easy to understand, going straight inwards. And we can act and feel by the entire our senses.

+ Life-long learning and broadening your passions:

This journey give us the result in every second, every minute of every single work as well as the whole process chain of life. The joy seems to be available by the slowly realize new things from the inside.

+ Learning independently:

Nobody else go inside me by myself. This process helped me completely independent. I am the student when I ask, also I am the teacher when inside I reply. I am the object which is been observed (means my actions, my thoughts and my feelings), while I am just a watcher (means the stillness inside of me). I am the object be tested, be studied; at the same time, I am the subject to learn and adjust.

4. "Where do I learn?:  Everywhere, in my home, in my office, in my way,...

5. "When do I learn?":  Any time.

6. "Who do I learn from?": I learn from my instinct, from my intellect, from my intuition. I learn from myself  body.

I noticed that what about intuition from Teal Swan is coincident with the words of Osho (1931-1990) - an Indian mystic, guru and spiritual teacher - defined about the intuition very deeply in the "From Misery to Enlightenment, Chapter 4" as following:

 "Intuition is the highest rung of the ladder, the ladder of consciousness. It can be divided into three divisions: the lowest and the first is instinct; the second, the middle one, is intellect; and the third, the highest one, is intuition.

The word "in" is used in all three. It is significant. It means these are qualities inborn. You cannot learn them, there is no way to grow them with any outside help."

Previously, I read "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu, I vaguely understood how to live in accordance with nature. Through this lesson from Teal Swan, I learned that living in accordance nature means living with what my nature self truly needed.

Eckhart Tolle (1948-) - a German/Canadian spiritual teacher, motivational speaker, and writer - said in "The Power of Now" that there is a way to escape suffer by living totally in the now and what you really have are just now and here. Thanks to this question from Teal Swan, I really understood how to live completely in the here and now, here is the very yourself inside.

This question is used in the third person and plural. It can be seen that if it  used in the first person and singular, for example: "If I ask myself, what would I do?" or "What do I want?", seems to be a very personal question, completely selfish and ego. Therefore, the question in the third person and plural shows great objectivity so that receive the answer correct and unbiased.

The mantra is very short, but there is a great strength as Teal Swan said: "This particular process is much more profound than it seems". I find the whole schema "5W1H" that I often use are converged here. I see a lot of learning methods that have collected for many years as well as from the course of "Learning How to Learn" was focused on that. I learned that the justifications for our life of Lao Tzu, Osho and Eckhart Tolle is not confusing anymore. This process is the Great Shortcut.

I have practiced and followed it for one week up to now in most of my action: from waking up in the morning until sleeping in the night, from brushing and face washing to eating, bathing and hygiene, from working in my office to tree caring, recreation and meditation, etc,. The answer that I get from it is always right.

After a week of applying this method, my emotions such as anxiety, nervousness, sadness, angry because of the pressures from works and living has been greatly reduced. Joy in my daily life greatly increased. I recognized that the joy comes from each action itself rather than its result, because the pleasure from the act is the result of itself. The process and its product was incorporated as the one. I seem to find that the past, the present and the future are united as only one, just here and now, just moment.

It can be seen that this is the way to learn to adjust myself very well and suit with my inner, in harmony with both the external relationships and environment. I noticed that in compliance with it means to follow myself, there is no more internal conflict and no longer resistance. When integration in myself is meant united with others, and is also a one with nature.

The course of "Learning How to Learn" has given me many great learning methods, and from that I found "the Great Shortcut for Learning How to Live" for myself.

After a week of experience, I completely believe in this process and continues to practise in another year until it will become my habit, become my passion for living. I will instruct to my wife and my children to experience it and understand it.

I would also recommend this process for the teachers and students of the course "Learning How to Learn". I think that this process may be helpful for your life right now to get joy and peace inside.

In order to verify the correctness of this process, you could study more documents from the wisdom people as follows:

1. "Tao Te Ching" by Lao Tzu from:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao_Te_Ching

2. "From Misery to Enlightenment" by Osho from:http://www.oshoworld.com/osho_talk/talks/misery04.asp

3. "The Power of Now" by Eckhart Tolle from:http://www.eckharttolle.com/books/now/

4. "365 days of Self Love" and many materials from Teal Swan from:  http://tealswan.com

But you should not believe them, you should only believe absolutely in your instinct, your intellect and your intuition. These documents only help you to refer, to help you find the way that suits you. The rest, you need direct experience to understand it. You need to believe in yourself, believe absolutely from within you. And that is how you really love yourself.

If you want to experiment, let's go.

In the journey that you experiment, if you want to exchange, please kindly send an email with the subject "The Great Shortcut for Learing How to Live" to my address: luungoclam@gmail.com. I am happy to share with you.

Good luck.

Lam Luu Ngoc

Date: October, 29th, 2014