Restoring the linkage between applied and contemplative learning.
Too many people assume glibly that technological understanding is all that is required for advances in engineering. Meaningful advances occur only when engineers and researches bring a sound worldview to their work. We each need to think carefully about relationships among living things that constitute nature as a persistent life force. And we need to erect our worldview on a foundation of the insights that our thinking yields. A strong sense of purpose and a sense of involvement in a great cause are exhilarating. Insights gleaned from contemplative learning fuel advances in applied learning. Engineers who yearn to achieve breakthroughs inevitably look sources of inspiration. And more often than not, they discover those sources in contemplative learning.
