From: "Paul Murray" Date: 24 September 2006 13: 38: 11 bdt to



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From: "Paul Murray"


Date: 24 September 2006 13:38:11 BDT

To: "'Jack Whitehead'"

Cc: "'Chris Keeble'"

Subject: Relating to Alan's Wisdom Enquiry as Muslim - please consider these few ideas in your Monday evening's educational conversation
Salaam Alaikum and greetings of peace and hope for the Holy Month of

Ramadhan which has begun on this sunny day, ma'shallah.
For a really vivid and accessible appreciation of how Ramadhan can be of

relevance to us all please listen to the talk given by my friend Sheikh

Khalfan Al-Esry to Oman's non-Muslim community at the Grand Mosque in

Muscat, Sultanate of Oman. This talk can be found at
http://islamfact.com/index/modules.php?name=Downloads&d_op=viewdownload&cid=

9
and then clicking on Blessing of Ramadhan.
Sh. Khalfan is an Ibadhi sheikh who is also a management consultant and

executive coach.
As I read Jack's rendering of Alan's 'characteristics' of 'wisdom enquiry' I

became uncomfortable, and then perturbed because there was no explicit

mention of God in Alan's notion of wisdom enquiry.
This 'absence' - as this is how it feels to me - could be so disturbing for

a Muslim who believes in the presence of Allah and shares in 'umaah' a

desire to communicate this relationship with Allah that s/he chooses to

ignore Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' because its characteristics do not include

Allah.
My view as Muslim is that this would be such a travesty, such a pity. Why? I

believe that Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' is a contribution to the flow of a

planetary wisdom that embraces enquiry and that holds that enquiry as an act

of humanity is an essential of wisdom. Though forgive me if you feel this is

reductionist as it is not my intent or wish to be reductionist here to be

reductionist here. Wisdom enquiry as suggested by Alan could help humanity

to live its potential more fully.
So how doe we overcome, perhaps transcend the exclusionary obstacle held in

Alan's statement of characteristics of 'wisdom enquiry' so that a Muslim

would engage with Alan's ideas rather than sensing them to be either

anti-Islamic or 'a-Islamic' with pretty much the same effect, I imagine?
I believe I can show you in this email how I have overcome that awful sense

of my way of life having been excluded from Alan's statement concerning

'wisdom enquiry'.
[1] Thesis of Context: This seems to be important at the moment in the West

where anti-Muslim racism (Tariq Modood, 2005) is becoming more crude,

obvious and rampant if the disgraceful performance of the BBC's John

Humphrey's last Friday morning was anything to by.
Imagine how it felt driving along the M4 from Heathrow having spent two

peaceful weeks in the Sultanate of Oman having discussions with Sheikh

Qahlan, the number two to the Grand Mufti of Oman, to hear Humphreys'

oppressive bigotry.
It is a tough thing for some 'relativists' to take on board but John Reid MP

is perceived to be an "enemy of Muslims" by some Muslims of the 'Umaah'

and/or perceived to be a state murderer of Muslims by Muslims who believe

that killing innocent Muslim civilians in Iraq (the acts of US and British

armed forces and their political commanders) were acts of state terror,

state violence and state murder. As a peaceful Muslim I hold this latter

view of John Reid's complicity and culpability.
Speculation about Reid's hatred of Muslims to the extent that he could be

called an 'enemy of Muslims' is something for the gossips to explore but I

have no knowledge to enable a sensible, helpful and placating comment. On

this subject I remain silently unknowing.
In a political sense John Reid has been actively complicit in the execution

of state violence and in this sense is culpable. To hear BBC's Humphreys

tell the Muslim brother who made similar, if more far reaching statements,

that if he didn't like it here then leave the country where Shari'a is

practiced reminded me of the time when I was five and my mate Martin Bones

Dad told me to f-off back to wog land, and that occasion when the HR

director of my university college told me, 'if you find it so difficult here

why do you stay?', and that precious moment etched into my memory when a

member of the Monday evening conversation wrote an email saying, 'Hope you

are now happy in your mixed-race'. It really is open season for racists and

related excluders.
Of course, in these fractious and difficult times characterized by

'ontological hysteria' - wondering how 'wisdom enquiry' takes into account

the distortions of enquiry conducted in a time of ontological hysteria -

there are surely better and worse ways of expressing this view about John

Reid. But either way it seems to boil down to the same sticky and glutinous

truth when placed over the flames of reason, affect and belief (i.e.,

Al-Eemaan).
The British government has willingly collaborated and participated in the

political preparation and the military actions of killing Muslims and as a

minister of state John Reid in a government that has chosen this path finds

himself in the mess of that ethical corruption right up to his bullish neck.

His anti-Muslim gestures further exacerbate this tension because he is

perceived to be, by the weight and measure of his own comments and gestures,

an anti-Muslim racist: thus an enemy of the Umaah of Muslims. This is not

such a shocking deduction. Reid is now ensnared by the logic of his own

making. I do see John Reid as an enemy of Muslims by default or otherwise.
This truth cannot simply be washed away in the interests of multicultural

smoothness.
There is now a splintered and complex fracturing of the relations between

Britain's Muslim citizens and the British state and its healing will require

more than patient and sentient humanism. Dr John Reid is not the doctor for

this huge task.
The healing I have in mind requires many of us to address what future we

have in this country as citizens and whether it would be better to live in a

Muslim society as non-citizens of the country but as members of the Umaah.

What we lose in citizenship claims can be compensated for by the

psycho-spiritual and physical security of being a living practitioner of the

inclusivity of Umaah.
[2]Ramadhan and Alan's 'wisdom enquiry': The key to Ramadhan is to help us

in our journey to understanding Allah's wisdom. Ramadhan is a month of

spiritual and educational enquiry. It is a month of immersion in the

consciousness of Allah.
As Muslim I believe this is part of the essence of 'wise enquiry' and there

is a discipline for 'enquiring wisely' during Ramadhan.
Ramadhan is that time in the calendar of Allah-consciousness - that is

becoming more reflexively aware of Allah in our lives and practice in living

ways - when the Umaah practice a living form of Islam according to a

discipline, seek to reflect on individual actions, attempt to try out

something new, experiment in the spirit of enquiry and enhancement, and

discuss the impacts of such action in dialogue with Allah, with self and

most vitally with others (Muslim and non-Muslim). The purpose of this is to

deepen one's relational attachment with Allah through thoughtfully reforming

one's Islamic practice in the light of feedback one receives.
Ramadhan is a listening time.
Sheikh Khalfan enjoyed my attentive listening quality, my empathy for his

presence and being, my 'life coaching' as he put it, and the precise nature

of my feedback that in his words was 'spot on'.
All of this seems to corroborate the characteristics of Alan's 'wisdom

enquiry'. Patience is a key quality of the Muslim. But when ideas are

presented in ways that are not welcoming of Muslims we can often respond

defensively and curtly from a sense of the rejection of our views and

beliefs, our sensibilities, and our articles of faith. Creed is important

for Ibadhi Muslims.
So now I think you can share my sense of surprise when Alan's 'wisdom

enquiry' that is being offered as a guide for an inclusional way of life

fails to include Allah explicitly.
At first sight, I can imagine Muslims recoiling from Alan's 'wisdom enquiry'

pushed away by the absence of Allah-consciousness as a key characteristic of

wisdom, let alone enquiry. Some Muslims might at first be perturbed and

perplexed, feel excluded even, by what seems to be 'missing' from Jack's

rendering of Alan's 'characteristics of 'wisdom enquiry'. Some what

violently reject the ideas as being evil because they fail to recognise

Allah. Putting this account another way, Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' as

represented by Jack seems to want us to strive to a higher order of

consciousness, something exalted and enhanced, while ignoring the precept

that for all Muslims the criterion for a standard of judgement concerning

wisdom would include Allah. My consciousness of knowledge and understanding

as Muslim is inextricably linked to my deepening Allah-consciousness.
Allah is source of wisdom. This is incontrovertible for a Muslim.
Supplication and submission actually mean no more than accepting Allah as

source of wisdom, and one's consciousness as Muslim is mediated by this

sublime knowing.
Evaluated by this criterion of creed, or article of faith, Alan's 'wisdom

enquiry' seems to be well beyond the pale of Islam.
As such it can be readily dismissed as an artifact of jehannah (ie, the

community of evil).
However, this is not my take on Alan's suggested 'wisdom enquiry'. I like

point 10 of Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' - "10. It includes love".
Love is one of the Ninety Nine names of Allah. And thus Allan's 'wisdom

enquiry' seems to be implicitly inclusive of Allah. With this in mind (and

heart and soul) I am able to work creatively, inclusionally and productively

with Alan's ideas.
Rather than excommunicating myself from Alan's ideas of 'wisdom enquiry' as

Muslim I am, instead, able to extend, enhance and deepen communication with

Alan's ideas even if this takes us through the rocky waters of 'agonized

dialogue' that is key to the practice of decision taking in Islam.
Education, understanding, psyche (to include affect) and reason are

characteristics deemed vital to the peace that is required for wisdom: peace

in Allah, peace in community with others, and peace within oneself.
Islamic wisdom enquiry (i.e., Al-Hikmah) includes the ideas of peace in

those three dimensions and the idea of personal exertion towards

Allah-consciousness. If this form of English for explaining one's Islamic

exertion as 'Allah consciousness' feels uncomfortably unfamiliar, then

substitute it with an idea of awareness of God in one's life as this would

be a suitable alternative expression.
Thus, Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' is another wonderful contribution in the world

to 'Al-Hikmah' meaning wisdom: it is both blessed and helpful for humanity

at this incredibly fractious time.
The word Muslim refers to a person who is committed to personal and social

exertion (i.e., jihad) in the direction of a 'wisdom enquiry' that is

seeking to enhance my consciousness of my relationship with God (i.e.,

Allah-consciousness). Thus 'jihad' in its spiritual meaning as exertion is

crucial to a 'living practice' of Islam. As such it is an expression of

living theory as a living theosophy.
For an accepting Muslim, and Islam embraces the notion of pluralistic

acceptance of difference and variety, an understanding of the precepts of

creed in 'awqaf'(i.e., all matters to do with the articles of faith in

Islam, where belief in Arabic is 'Al-Eemaan') should not clash to the point

of severance with the characteristics of Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' because

they are not so much 'anti-Islamic' as 'a-Islamic' and it is easy for the

Muslim to appreciate these ideas as those of a non-Muslim' while engaging

with the heuristic wisdom and insight of those same ideas when mediated by

an accepting Islamic gaze. This is how I am approaching Alan's ideas in a

spirit of Islamic appreciation and engagement.
It is with unequivocal agreement that I feel Alan is blessed in knowing that

'wisdom enquiry' includes love.
It surely does include love because love is one of Allah's many names.
Thus as a Muslim I'd not be too perturbed by the fact that Alan's

characteristics of wisdom enquiry as rendered by Jack seems at first sight

not to be inclusive of an Islamic awareness, or Allah consciousness because

Islamic acceptance can easily become aware and inclusional of Alan,

Alhamdulillah.
But that said I'm perturbed by the thought that on a cursory consideration

Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' could be dismissed as 'a-Islamic' because of the

impression it gives of not including Allah. For a Muslim this would be

unthinkable, haraam even, because such 'un-thinking' would be forbidden.
So reading Jack's email I thought about the following,
1. How could Alan's characteristics of 'wisdom enquiry' be made more

invitational and accessible for Muslims?
2. How could a progressive Muslim use their knowledge of Islam to show how

Alan's 'wisdom enquiry' is consonant with the encouragement to Muslims to

embrace all teachings - Islamic and otherwise - to deepen our relationship

with Allah as we find peace with ourselves and with others with whom we

share the planet? For wouldn't this lead us in hope along the confluent path

of enquiring wisely together, Muslim and non-Muslim alike in respectful

equality?
Thinking about thee implications emerging from Alan's ideas I wondered how

to correct (here I'm using 'correct' in the sense of correcting vision, and

not in the sense of correcting mistaken belief for the sake of

conformity)for this 'a-' tendency. As Muslim one can creatively 're/-form'

Alan's idea of 'wisdom enquiry' by asking two critically engaging questions

-
How does Alan's notion of 'wisdom enquiry' enhance my understanding of the

kind of wisdom enquiry that would be helpful to me as Muslim?
How does Islam encourage me to be open to and accepting of the wisdoms

flowing through and from alternative religious and secular knowing that

appear, on first sight, to be out of kilter with Islamic creed and faith?
Hopefully this email response is a demonstration of how Alan's wisdom

enquiry has helped me to reform my peaceful engagement with Alan's ideas in

ways that energize my commitment to pluralism as a characteristic of my need

for a humanistic 'wisdom enquiry' that also enriches my awareness of the

power of God in my living practice of humanity and Islam, simultaneously,

i.e. this is one of the ways I understand Allah-consciousness.
For despite Western misconceptions, mischief, and anti-Muslim racisms

(typified by the likes of BBC's John Humphreys expressions of an

ontologically hysterical anti-Muslim racism) the truth is that the

conditions of human compassion, consideration, respect and love required for

secular humanism and Progressive Islam are in no senses mutually excluding.
Never have been, never will be: Alhamdulillah.
In this email I'm trying to exert my intellect, my reason, my affect, and my

spiritual energy simultaneously.
In my mind's eye I imagine a 'masala' of respect for Alan's wisdom enquiry

that is appreciative, and engaged in ways that show the values of Alan's

ideas reaching out toward and into the very heart of the matter of Islamic

wisdom enquiry, which requires Muslims to enquire wisely in respect of

Allah-consciousness.
This willingness to remain open to the universal flow of energies that

contribute to knowledge while remaining uncompromised as a Muslim requires

felicitous exertions around ethics, beliefs, reason, love, compassion, and

passionate enquiry that seeks to be informed by and influential of, wisdom

requires an incredibly imaginative, and creative form of exertion, which is

the meaning of the Arabic word 'jihad'.
The quality of this exertion (i.e., jihad) required by Muslims who live in

the West is exemplified in the reciprocal flow of energizing reason, affect,

patience and challenges I've encountered in trying - and failing - to craft

a thesis with Jack Whitehead as my supervisor.
In the face of gross distortions by media in the West in respect of the

wonderful variety of forms of Islamic wisdom enquiry that are peaceful,

accepting and pluralist.
The crudest crime against Islam that is being perpetrated by Western media

is in the representation of Islam, thoroughly ignorant and bereft of

respect, as a monolith, as a homogeneous set of practices, as if Islam is a

behemoth of medieval small-mindedness!
Western media and ideology has little awareness of our beliefs. British

Muslims(and more generally those Muslims living in the West)are living in an

ambience of sheer hatred for who we are, and what we are misrepresented as

being, day in and day out, in Britain. It is true that for many of us we are

made to feel that we are not longer welcome in Britain, that our citizenship

is ersatz, that we are second-rate citizenry, that our commitment to the

British polis is somehow questionable and divided in its loyalty.
Amartya Sen (2006) is so sensitive in his appreciation that British Muslims,

like me, have multiple identifications even when Islam is a most central

pillar in the house of our being.
Yet Muslims, like me, and unlike me, are genuinely disappointed by the way

that Blair's government seems to encourage the simmering pot of anti-Muslim

racisms bubbling away, and the apparatus of the state, and its ideological

ancillaries and capillary's (such as the BBC that used to command respect,

but no longer does among so many Muslims in UK and elsewhere, for the

insensitivity and ethnocentricity of its reportage) can see the 'disguised

blessing' of this anti-Muslim hysteria. How so? It requires of us an

extra-special dimension of exertion - jihad - amid such hostility, and this

exertion is a crucial test for Muslims living in the West.
As my friend Sheikh Khalfan Al-Esry puts it - "Yaqub, this may be a blessing

in disguise. How many of us, including myself, would have become articulate

and passionate about exerting our feelings, our creativity, our productive

enquiries, and our intellects in the direction of knowledge and

understanding of Allah-consciousness if this seething hatred of us had not

erupted in the West and elsewhere among non-Muslims?'
In the face of this oppression of our practice of wisdom enquiry (as

Muslims) it is true that many of us have taken (un-)certain steps towards

exploring and dialoguing new forms of wisdom enquiry that matter to us as

Muslims. My wisdom enquiry has grown not out of a hatred of anti-Muslim

racists but out of my love for our common humanity expressed for me through

Allah consciousness, and for you, perhaps, differently, and this is fine

with me, and the majority of Muslims.
And what I'm experiencing as wisdom, I believe, is the flow of peaceful

energies from my 'Living Islam'.
[3] Postscript - Spiritual Reflections on My Family visit to Oman: An Ibadhi

form of 'living wisdom' is emerging in Oman whereby Ibadha are actively

engaging with Hindu, Buddhist and other schools of thought (belief) not to

change them or distort them but to understand and appreciate their value

Islamic wisdom enquiry. This ensures that Ibadha cultivate living pluralism

in the face of other wisdom traditions - of all and any kind - without one's

Ibadhi commitment to Allah being affected adversely or compromised in any

way.
Jihad for me as Muslim is ensuring that in drawing on these traditions I

'know' why I am doing so in respect of my faith in God, and thus stretch,

extend, enhance, augment, deepen my attachment to the movements and flows of

wisdom energy in the planet (the principle of human connectivity) while

enjoying this 'exertion toward knowing and understanding' as ongoing, never

complete, always in fulfillment and yet dedicated to Allah-consciousness

through my humanistic responsibility for peace.
This piece of writing is a facet of my expression of 'jihad', which means

the requirement for me to make a personal exertion towards peacefulness in

my self, among others, and with Allah. All of which seem to be compatible

and confluent with Alan's inclusion of the characteristic of 'love' within

his emergent thesis of 'wisdom enquiry'.
My exertion here is to explain to friends and others, alike, what it takes

to be a Muslim who desires wisdom enquiry - in order to explain to explain

why I choose to exert life energy to developing discernment of my knowledge

judgements while remaining open, mune and interactively available to the

possibility of the brilliance that can flow from other personal and social

formations of wisdom that would not be recognised as being 'Islamic' in any

conventional or formalistic sense and yet through which I can enrich my

connectivity with what the world can offer without compromising 'al-emaan',

which means faith and belief.
The challenge to my educational activism is giving momentum by my commitment

and desire to becoming a reflexive Muslim.
It is not a precondition of faith for a Muslim to hold to the conception

that the brilliance of 'wisdom' only shines through Islamic traditions. To

think this is to be mistaken, Muslim, and non-Muslim alike.
However, there are several 'ayaat' that help us to wisdom enquiry as Muslims

and this is why the characteristics (or virtues perhaps?)of Alan's wisdom

enquiry seem to be resonating within me:
"...For the one who loves knowledge, who studies constantly, and who applies

in practice what he learned. The student of knowledge should distribute his

time between memorizing, reading, revising, researching, and reflecting'

(attributed to Ibn Hazm, in Don't be Sad, page 296, by Aaidh ibn Abdullah

al-Qarni, 2003, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: International Islamic Publishing

House)
The Holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) was clear in advising the companions that

education - what I understand to be inclusional of Alan's 'characteristics'

of a wisdom enquiry - is a central article of faith because it is a

prerequisite for Allah-consciousness.
Thus Muslims are encouraged to exercise full human license to explore,

evaluate and appreciate any forms of knowledge that enhance understanding,

insight, heurism, affective empathy, and individual growth. All forms of

knowledge are creatively available to Muslims in our desire to understand

and know Allah through our shared responsibility for the future of humanity.
This is an illustration of a pluralism that inheres to Islam and always has

inhered within Islam.
A 'masala of knowing' is held to be vital within Islam for developing the

kind of personal consciousness that enables a good life with others and a

truly profound attachment to Allah-consciousness.
The 'jihad' associated with a reflexive, spiritual, affective and

intellectual exertion seems to be a crucial practice for all of us who wish

to develop those criteria by which sound and sensible standards of

knowledge-judgment can be made.
The basis of discernment between and among knowledge judgements is

especially important for educators who are Muslim, where distinctive and

differentiated standards of judgement are required.
The idea I'm articulating here is held in the Arabic word, 'furqaan', which

means a criterion for making a judgement between 'right and 'wrong'. What

I'm trying to achieve here is to liken 'furqaan' (criteria for judgement) to

McNiff and Whitehead's enduring use of the idea of embodied or ontological

values emerging as living standards of judgement - that is , for me,

'furqaan' - through their practice over time.
This touches what it means (for me) to revert to an Islamic way of being.

In expressing these ideas I am committed to appropriately attributing those

sources of influence that are impacting the formation of my own

understanding and enquiry.
Thus, it is in this spirit of respect - may I respectfully suggest this is a

characteristic of a quality of wisdom enquiry I value - that I'm drawing on

the influence flowing from an Islamic wisdom enquiry I've enjoyed during the

past two weeks with three of Oman's leading Ibadhi scholars and Sheikhs; and

especially my friend Sheikh Khalfan Al-Esry who is an executive coach and MD

of his own OD business, while also being a member of an emergent and

upcoming generation of Ibadha sheikhs committed to wisdom enquiry with an

Islamic spin. Do visit Sheikh Khalfan's webpage - www.pros-per.biz
Alan's wisdom enquiry is profoundly important for peace in the world.
It is only Al-Mutaffifeen i.e. short changers, literally, or those who

'short change' the ideas of others in the Academy by giving 'less weight and

measure' to their ideas and contribution, who actually decrease the 'rights

of others'. These are indeed the terrorists as Lyotard identified them to

be.
My response carries my wish to enhance Alan's rights and perhaps some of the

thoughts shared here can inform, if not actually influence, the social

formation of your conversation about Alan's 'wisdom enquiry'.
Yaqub
A glossary of terms that could be helpful to make unfamiliar terms more

accessible, insha' allah:
1. Omani refers to nationals or citizens of the Sultanate of Oman.
2. Ibadhi is the name for a follower of a school of thought and living

practice of faith within the 'umaah' (community of Islam) known as Ibadhism

- a collective term for several Ibadhi's is 'Ibadha', while 'Al-Ibadhiya'

refers to the collective consciousness and physical existence of Ibadhi's

among the Umaah (of Islam). Note - by way of a helpful analogy, Ibadha

within Islam are perceived rather similarly to Educational Action

Researchers within mainstream educational research as being quirky,

irritating, weird, and to a large extent 'marginal' despite some of the

wisdom that flows from scholars and practitioners in the educational AR

tradition.
3. Umaah refers to the multi-billion community of believers, who are

referred to individually as Muslim. While the Umaah gives the sense of a

unitary and homogenous group this is not the actual situation. Islam is

heterogeneous and pluralistic because of the various 'schools of thought',

rather than sects within Islam (my thanks to Sheikh Qahlan Al-Kharusy for

this insight)who are held together in umaah (i.e., community and

communication)by what they hold in common rather than what differentiates

them as Muslims. Islam is characterized by agonistic dialogue arising from

the debate over sameness and difference like any other pluralistic and

anti-totalizing community.
4. Sheikh is the name given to those who are wisdom enquirers and whose

wisdom is held to be valid by members of the Umaah; there is no requirement

for any consensus concerning the expression of such wisdom just as there is

no need for a consensus concerning the wisdom of Alan or Jack. Yet there

would have to be more than one person who is affected by the sense of a

person's wisdom before they are referred to as 'sheikh'.
5. Al-Eemaan means faith, belief
6. Al-Hikmah means wisdom, and can mean 'as-sunnah, or rules for religious

governance, too.
7. Jihad means 'exertion' to understand, to know, to conduct wisdom enquiry

that is dedicated to enhancing peace with God (Allah), peace in the world

with others, with pace with oneself so that one learns to trust the

friendship of one's inner voice when it speaks, while remaining especially

willing to challenge the comfortable assurance of this voice, too. In this

dialectics lies 'al hikmah' (i.e., wisdom) it seems to me because the

dialectics of agreement/disagreement seems to be fundamental to all self

questioning, and human reflexivity.
8. Aayaat - signs, proofs, evidences, indications, verses, hadith i.e.,

stories of wisdom told about the life and views held by the Holy prophet,

Muhammad, some of which are dubious in provenance.
Bismillah ur rahman ur rahim.
-----Original Message-----

From: Jack Whitehead [mailto:A.J.Whitehead@bath.ac.uk]

Sent: 22 September 2006 09:04

To: Undisclosed recipients:

Subject: Wisdom Enquiry - addition for Monday evening's educational

conversation
5.15-7.00 in 1WN 3.8 on 25/09/06
Alan Rayner has sent in the following characteristics of 'wisdom enquiry'

and I'm looking forward to an exploration with Alan of their implications

for our conversation on researching our educational practices of

inclusionality.
Love Jack.
"I think wisdom enquiry has the following fundamental characteristics,

from which many others can be derived.

1. It seeks understanding of nature and human nature and does not attempt

to set these apart.
2. It is unprejudiced and hence in a sense un-objective, based on

considering all available evidence from all available perspectives.
3. It recognizes the restrictive nature of any fixed, uniquely situated

perspective in which an observer is distanced from the observed.
4. It does not isolate reason from emotion or give precedence to one over

the other.
5. It corresponds with and is therefore not set in opposition to natural

dynamic processes and geometry, thereby obviating conflict and paradox.
6. It does not, except as an analytical tool, impose an artificial

rectilinear frame upon nature or regard linearity as precursive to

non-linearity.
7. It does not, except as an analytical tool, deliberately exclude or

ignore some vital aspect of nature for the sake of convenience.
8. It recognises that all form is a dynamic inclusion of space - not an

occupier of space - and so is not definable in absolute terms.
9. It recognizes that all is included in and influenced by all - content

is inseparable from context at any scale.
10. It includes love."
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