In the name of God, I am at your service to present the eighth article; I have considered the title of this article to be "Mind Training, Education, and Nurturing".

Text of the Article

Mind Training, Education, and Nurturing: Human society is formed based on interactive relationships. These relationships allow individuals to be influenced by their society while also exerting influence upon it. Consequently, institutions ranging from the family unit to schools and universities define their primary mission as education and nurturing, or the cultivation of the human mind.

In the education phase, the goal of the instructor(s) is to shape a structured and adaptable mind. Thus, activities such as introducing objects, understanding relationships and functions between them, directing abstract perceptions, and defining conventional frameworks for shaping thought within the external mental space—according to prevailing norms—are emphasized. The mental propositions of an individual at this stage manifest as "If this, then that." The outcome of this phase is a person whose mind is heavily dependent on time and space constraints, offering narrative or imitative descriptions of life’s issues. Naturally, such an individual, when faced with new temporal and spatial phenomena, struggles to generate insightful analyses and instead experiences doubt, anxiety, and frustration.

In the nurturing phase, the goal is to develop a self-organizing mind. The initiation of this phase is marked by the individual’s inquiries into "what" and "why"—questions that must be welcomed and encouraged by the mentor. Here, the mind is permitted to question all previously learned concepts, doubt their functionality, and seek analytical explanations and storytelling from the mentor regarding various subjects. The mental propositions of this stage begin with inquiries into causes and mechanisms. Through experience, reflection on outcomes, and repeated evaluations of different topics, the individual formulates new questions and proposes solutions. The indicator of success in this phase is a sense of satisfaction, the resolution of doubts, and mental tranquility. The outcome is a creative, inquisitive, assertive, and thoughtful mind—one that possesses the capacity to expand both structural and abstract thought.

Explanation of the Article

First, I draw your attention to two terms which are the essential concepts of this article. In one place, I speak of a mind that is supposed to be structured (adaptable/organizable), and in another place, the talk is of a mind that should be self-organizing. We also referred to two phases: one is education and the other is nurturing. Since education precedes nurturing, I will first explain the education phase, and after that, we will have an analytical discussion about the problem of this phase; a problem that, if not paid attention to, can bring about future problems.

In most societies, when we reach the education phase, the instructors—who can be parents, or teachers working in schools and universities—concentrate their first basis of work on shaping the mind; they introduce objects and things, put names on them, and their goal is to direct the learner's mind. They also introduce the function of objects and the relationships between them. Up to this point, everything seems correct and good; but the problem starts from where the method of thinking of the mind under training and those abstract perceptions common among humans are placed in conventional frameworks and given a shape; meaning frameworks that must be paid attention to as a norm in that society. If the matter is supposed to end here, you have trained a human who can only detect that if this topic occurred, then what they should do. Especially since these types of issues have constraints of time and space; meaning the society that is larger and plays the role of the teacher for the next generation, proposes conventions based on its own constraint of time and space. So what it places at the disposal of the mind under training is a narration of what it has encountered itself and insists that you too must imitate these perceptions. But the phenomena we will face are new phenomena in terms of temporal and spatial situation. We must train a human who can analyze new issues; if they cannot, we will obtain no result other than having trained a human who is continuously in doubt and anxiety and is not successful (satisfied).

So let us go and enter the nurturing phase. Again, I emphasize that education is necessary, but relying on frameworks and insisting on them is a matter that must be set aside. The nurturing phase must begin after the education phase. So we must train a self-organizing mind. Where do we start? The sign of starting is that the person under training starts asking questions; it is always like this. Questions begin with "what" and "why". The mentor must welcome and encourage this phase and allow the mind under training to ask questions about the issues we have educated them on, to doubt their functionality and comment, and even ask us, as the mentor, to analyze and set aside the narration and tell them a parable (story/explanation); that in what constraint of time and space this issue or the frameworks we explain for them exist, where they started from, and through what path we reached these results. You see that in this case, the mental propositions of the trained individual will be beyond "if this, then that"; rather, it begins from the why and how, and they themselves also find this permission to experience that topic and see what results they reach. They must also be allowed several times to raise topics and place them under question, doubt, and analysis. This is where you can expect the trained individual to present their own solution and opinion. The sign of success in this phase is that the individual has satisfaction of heart, is no longer subject to doubt, and a peace is created in them; a peace that enables them to make this routine permanent. Meaning a creative mind that can question, demand, and think. If such an individual faces new topics, they are not empty-handed; because they have learned that they must look at issues analytically, raise questions, and look for new solutions. These types of individuals can both transform the Shaped Space and propose new abstract thoughts and be a pathway-opener for those around them and their society.

Summary

We accept the education phase; it is obvious that we must familiarize the next generation with our own theories and experiences. But the problem that exists in some societies is that they do not link the education phase to nurturing. If this work is not done, it is obvious that the individuals who are trained will not be the children of their own time; rather, they will be the children of their fathers' and mothers' time.