Some approaches to learning and growing focus primarily on action to get results. In case some actions do not work, a new set of actions are tried to get results, with limited effectiveness. Ontological learning looks at the source of powerful actions.

 

A simple example to illustrate this would be of a sailor who still believes that the world is flat and heads out to discover new lands. When he heads out to the sea, he is unlikely to go beyond a certain distance, having a fear of falling off. His body would be on high alert as he keeps heading further towards the horizon.

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His capacity to explore is limited by his language (the world is flat), his emotion of fear, and his tensed up body. The language, emotion, and body are in a dynamic interplay and in coherence with each other. Together they constitute a Way of Being and the Observer that we are. The observer views any situation in a particular way and his actions are in a dance with the way of ‘seeing’. The results are in direct relation to the actions.

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Shifting the Observer that we are, allows access to new ways of being and ‘seeing’ which open up new possibilities for action and hence results.