Lessons of Makrifat from Guru Kobayashi

Tauhid Nur Azhar

A few days ago, I went to the cinema with my beloved family to watch an animated film that we had been waiting for a long time: Totto Chan.
I was thrilled to see this animated film, as I had already read the book and was inspired by many aspects of the educational concept presented in a simple and straightforward manner by Tetsuko Kuronayagi, the author and main actor in the story.
Kuronayagi is the little girl in the window, alias Totto Chan. Kuroyanagi is a renowned Japanese actress and talk show host who has also founded the Totto Foundation, named after the protagonist of her autobiography and the title of her book.
Reading the book and watching the film left me in awe of Mr. Sosaku Kobayashi’s approach as the headmaster who warmly welcomed Totto Chan.
Tomoe Gakkuen School is not like any ordinary school; it’s a school with classrooms made from old train carriages.
Mr. Kobayashi demonstrated exceptional psychological competence as a teacher, teaching the concept of assertiveness marked by the ability to express one’s feelings and being willing to listen and accept.
As a result, his students felt encouraged to communicate and discuss their ideas, thoughts, and concerns without fear of being wrong. Mr. Kobayashi also implemented the concept of free learning in his classes at Tomoe Gakuen. Each student was allowed to learn whatever they wanted, whenever they wanted, during class. There were also classes that the students found extremely enjoyable, such as the eurhythmic class that combined cognitive, affective, and conative intelligence. The music flowed with rhythmic movements, accompanied by joyful laughter, which was truly a nourishing balm for the soul.

Mr. Kobayashi’s strengths at Tomoe Gakuen included his ability and good intentions to nurture hope and strong dreams in his students. He always believed that each student could become whatever they wanted to be, according to their desires and dreams.

The positive effect of Mr. Kobayashi’s approach is likely to inspire someone to change and become a person who “fits” with that positive expectation. In psychology, this effect is known as the Pygmalion effect.

The Pygmalion effect is a phenomenon where someone’s expectations or hopes for another individual can influence that individual’s performance. In other words, if someone is expected to succeed, they are more likely to succeed, and vice versa. The Pygmalion effect is also known as the teacher expectation effect in the context of education, as it is often observed in the relationship between teachers and students.

Neurologically, the Pygmalion effect can be understood through the concept of brain plasticity. Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt in response to experience and environment.

When someone receives constructive feedback or encouragement from others, it affects motivation, self-confidence, and self-perception, which in turn can influence brain activity and structural organization.

Several studies have shown that expectations or expectations given by others can influence brain activity. For example, a study by J.C. Wager and colleagues (2004) found that when participants expected to feel less pain, activity in the brain areas related to pain perception decreased.

This expectation-based approach will ultimately lead a person to strive to enjoy and appreciate every moment of their life, making life a flowing stream that is not just a cycle of repetition, but a spiral that revolves and unfolds in the vast expanse of the universe, and shines with the light of conscious awareness rooted in unquenchable longing.

Then, the learning experience transforms into a spiritual adventure. Free from conceptual prisons that tend to be textual, the liberated learner returns to the most fundamental things.

Neuroimaging studies have shown that spiritual experiences can involve various brain areas, including the frontal lobe, parietal lobe, and limbic system. Research by Newberg et al. (2001) using positron emission tomography (PET) showed that spiritual experiences involve significant activity in the parietal lobe, which they described as a feeling of selflessness or ego dissolution, a state of unity that merges into the AKU (the Self).

Regarding the flow and emptiness or void, if we get stuck in theory, which is then accompanied by indications of reduced aspects of the true essence that will grow beautifully if we internalize it.

Similarly, values, if we define and describe them as a reference standard, then the dynamic and adaptive volatility that promises a continuous harmony mechanism will slow down and may be hindered because the value system stops growing.

Because values are genetic and must be expressed through a series of transcription and translation processes that absorb the dynamics of change in the living environment or universe.

In line with the concept of transcendence in the context of surpassing all relative consciousness because of its dependent nature on perspective and the pressure of needs and desires, which becomes an affirmation or projection of subjective idealism that is local, relative, and biased.

What is our perception of life? Then, the construction of relative happiness will begin to be built from that foundation. Some people are happy with unanswered questions, some are happy with a sense of fullness and contentment, and some are happy with not knowing or not wanting anything.

From each condition, there is a contributing factor. Those who are silent also contribute, those who keep asking like Prophet Moses and Socrates also contribute.

Those who seem happy may not necessarily be happy. Those we think are happy may or may not be happy.

Perhaps giving and receiving are values and contributions, because giving can be internalized and receiving can be an expression of a willingness to share opportunities for the greater good, and so on. So, humans are justified in being angry and tired. Because in playing their role, there are many things beyond their power and will. Why do the wicked become wicked? We have no power to define it. Are we disappointed with the attitude and presence of various things/conditions that are not ideal for us? Again, we can be angry, disappointed, sad, worried, and anxious, because these are all attributes granted by Allah. Because with sadness, anger, and disappointment, we have a reference point for the feelings we want to experience and the desire to experience them, which will be projected onto others.

We, with a little bit of cleverness, become as if we know what others want to feel. Like game theory, which, after being tired of guessing what’s in people’s minds, is better off using statistical probability with a more deterministic and mechanistic approach.

Because probability is deterministic, it has a repetitive nature with a degree of uncertainty that will eventually be known through patterns and cycles.

So, life is a certainty, just like death. Certain not to know and certain not to be certain. Because the cycle of life is not a choice, it is a certainty that gives birth to uncertainty in the context of observation.

There is a heavy rotation of JKT 48, which we can learn, memorize, and even follow, because its rotation is short and observable. But there is a very large circle that is subjectively impossible for us to observe because we live too short a life and have a limited physical entity and intellectual capacity to see the entire cycle, so for us, the cycle becomes uncertain. Precisely undefined, and we attribute it to relativity beyond human understanding. Not just the heavy rotation of JKT 48, it changes into a mysterious spiral that offers a mystical journey filled with uncertainty.

At that moment, humans (read: us) experience turbulence of identity and “vomit” because they suffer from morning sickness when craving knowledge and enlightenment.

Because what is obtained is a layer of uncertainty that offers algorithms without choice. Algorithms without shadow. Because whatever path we take, we will return to the point where we started asking questions. The choice that returns. The choice that annihilates the process. The choice that kills time. The choice that folds space. The choice that negates relativism. Where existence or being is a relative definition that can be established if “connected with”.

With whom? If we are not connected, then all relative constructions will perish, won’t they?

So, it’s no longer important to give and receive, because receiving is giving, isn’t it? Giving opportunities, chances, and space to share. So, it’s good, just good, without purpose, because if we have a purpose, the purpose will become an intention, won’t it?

This is the essence of becoming, becoming what? Ah, not becoming anything, because we are not anything. Because there is only one that IS and EXISTS, and we are not that, so what do we want to become? Because if we want to become something, we will never be able to. Our disappointment becomes the world and changes into our universe, not the real universe. So, we get lost in our universe. Our universe, not the real universe.

Therefore, liberating education and good assumptions that awaken hope (Pygmalion effect) are necessities to give opportunities to clever souls to live life with sincerity. Not rushing to judge, not hastily interpreting phenomena that affect our senses.

Becoming humans who slow down and are not driven by desires, while not being trapped by strong desires.

Humans who collect blessings and continue to bring benefits and become a safe path for individuals and society.