This video is about how to learn skillfully: the science of study. If you duplicate and apply these methods in your study of Skillful Living, you will get much more out of the materials. Most schooling deliberately teaches you the wrong way to learn. First, you should not approach a subject because someone else is making you study it. You should approach it because you want to learn it and put it into practical use in your life. In other words, you should learn to acquire skills. The first necessary skill in the art of Skillful Living is how to learn skillfully.

1. Becoming Genius 1: Duplication
—The Dharmasar Solution—
dharmasar@gmail.com

2. This video is about how to learn skillfully: the science of study.
If you duplicate and apply these methods in your study of
Skillful Living, you will get much more out of the materials.
Most schooling deliberately teaches you the wrong way to
learn. First, you should not approach a subject because
someone else is making you study it.You should approach it
because you want to learn it and put it into practical use in
your life. In other words, you should learn to acquire skills.
The first necessary skill in the art of Skillful Living is how to
learn skillfully.
HOWTO LEARN

3. PRESENTATION DESIGN
• The presentation design in an informational course is intended to
leave you informed.The presentation design in this course is intended
to open up a new world of experience for you: the experience of Skillful
Living and specifically, the skill of being able to teach yourself any skill you
desire. We use an unusual form of presentation to accomplish this.
• We have developed precise language for the materials that experience
and testing show we must make available to deliver our promise to you.
Quite a bit of thought and testing has gone into the language: the
semantics, or the way things are stated.

4. • On most of the slides, we will read the slide aloud while you read
those same words silently to yourself. Please read the slides to
yourself at the same time you are listening to them being read. From
time to time we will pause to comment on what has been read,
demonstrate a technique or have a discussion with you.
• At any time, if you do not understand a word that is used, or the
meaning of what is read is not clear for you, please stop the video
and look up the term in a good dictionary. If you have a comment or
question about what has been read, please post it in the comments.
PRESENTATION DESIGN

5. • One reason we use this form of presentation is to deal with the following problem: When
we read a new or counterintuitive idea, often after we read all of the words in a passage,
we have to go back and read it again to get clear on the meaning of what we read.
• In fact, reading any new material to ourselves, often we are not clear about the meaning of
what is said in the beginning of a paragraph until we have read the entire paragraph. This
even happens with sentences, where the meaning of the beginning of the sentence is
sometimes not clear until we have read the entire sentence.
• There are a lot of new ideas in Skillful Living. In these cases, the impact of what was in the
first few words of a sentence, the first few sentences in a paragraph, or the first few
paragraphs in a section, is diminished.
PRESENTATION DESIGN

6. • The person reading this material out loud is familiar with the subject
being presented. As a result, we can convey the meaning of what is
being read through tone of voice, so it’s clear right from the
beginning. In addition, because the meaning is being conveyed by the
tone of the reader's voice, hearing it as it is meant will help avoid
misinterpreting the meaning of the material.
• If you have had the experience of listening to an author reading from
his or her own writing, you know that that experience is often much
richer than when we read the same thing to ourselves.
PRESENTATION DESIGN

7. • Moreover, because you will also be reading the words to yourself as they are
being read out loud, what is said comes in to you through two senses: hearing
and sight.
• The combination of reading when the meaning is clear from the beginning and
the use of two senses, results in a clarity and impact that is not available when
reading something challenging for the first time by yourself.
• We also intentionally employ a certain amount of repetition.We do this
because as the course proceeds and you master later material, reviewing what
we covered earlier deepens the meaning and impact of that earlier material.
PRESENTATION DESIGN

8. PRESENTATION DESIGN
• When listening to text being read out loud
while simultaneously reading it to yourself,
there is a 44% increase in comprehension
efficiency over reading to yourself only.
And in this study this increase was
produced by a computer-generated voice
that speaks with no understanding of what
is being read, as contrasted with the way it
will be read to you in this course.

9. • With the combination of reading to yourself as we read out loud and the
other study techniques presented in this course, your comprehension of
the material will increase tremendously over conventional study methods.
• However:At all times during this video, if you hear a word you don’t know
the meaning of, or you can’t follow something that’s said, stop the video and
look up the words in a good dictionary. If necessary, post a query for
clarification in the comments.
• If you don’t do this, there is a good chance that you will be unable to apply
the material and will not be able to realize the full benefits of the course.
PRESENTATION DESIGN

10. The most important and powerful thing that you can
learn is how to learn. Once you know how to learn, you can
teach yourself any skill you want to know.This video presents a
simple method for teaching yourself any subject so that you can
apply it in practice in your life.
You would think that the first thing they would teach you in
school is how to study. How to learn stuff should be the first
thing you learn; then once you know how to learn, you can teach
yourself anything you want to know. If you think this makes sense
(and it does), then you don’t understand how school really works.
HOWTO LEARN

11. Here’s the truth: the people who manage the
educational system don’t want you to learn
independently; they are more interested in control than
imparting knowledge or skill. They deliberately make
you dependent on the school system so they can teach
you what they want you to learn, and to keep you away
from the subjects that they don’t want you to learn.
For example, the art and science of Skillful Living.
HOWTO LEARN

12. If you doubt this, then you should read up
on JohnTaylor Gatto, a really great teacher
who was named aTeacher of theYear in the
NewYork Public School system twice in the
1990s.
Then they fired him, because he started
telling everybody what was really going on
behind the scenes: why our schools are
such a mess, and why they don’t really
educate their students. On purpose.
“School is a 12-year
jail sentence!”
HOWTO LEARN

13. Gatto revealed that no public school has classes or
courses on how to study or how to learn, because their
purpose is not to help you learn, it is to train you to be
obedient to authority. He documents the design and
development of the current educational system, and
proves his points from the actual writings of the
architects of the public school system.This isn’t esoteric
knowledge; anyone can come to the same conclusions
by simple observation and experience.
HOWTO LEARN

14. In fact, only the very best private schools and colleges like
Harvard actually train their students in the scientific methods of
how to learn.Those are the schools of the social and economic
elite, so they want their kids to actually be smart—to actually be
skillful—so the same families can continue their dominance of
society. It is assumed that these kids are motivated to be
obedient to the system, because they have so much to lose if
they aren’t. So the offspring of the elites are given the
opportunity to actually become wise, if they so choose. Everyone
else is deliberately kept ignorant, and manipulated through the
media, financial controls and corporations.
HOWTO LEARN

15. By the way, being wise not only means knowing how to learn, it
also means knowing how to think for yourself. Most people
simply form opinions based on whether they like or dislike
something.Thinking is a higher-level skill. Knowing how to learn
comes first, because you have to know how to learn before you
can teach yourself how to think.And you have to teach yourself
how to think, because the very nature of thinking for yourself
means that it is one of those things in life that nobody can teach
you—you have to figure it out independently.That’s another
reason you need to learn how to learn.
HOWTO LEARN

16. With the simple method we present here, you can teach
yourself any subject or skill. Not just the theory or words about
the subject, but a skilled level of practical application. If you
apply this method consistently, you will get the result. It may
seem dry and boring at first, or too plodding and intellectual.
But let’s say it again: if you use the Skillful Living Science of Study
method you can teach yourself any skill.
Any subject or skill at all!
LEARNING HOWTO LEARN

17. Think about it—what would you like to be able to do,
but cannot learn to do at your present level of skill?
Of course we would suggest that you use the Science of
Study method to understand and teach yourself Skillful
Living. But you get my point: just on general principles,
everybody should learn how to learn, so they can teach
themselves any skill they want.
LEARNING HOWTO LEARN

18. The Science of Study self-learning method has
three main parts:
• Putting things in context
• Clearing misunderstood terminology
• Modeling relationships and functions
Now we will discuss each of these parts,
beginning with putting things in context.
LEARNING HOWTO LEARN

19. The proper context is a
requirement for consciousness or
awareness of anything. For
example, we will not be aware of
a black cat on a black rug in a
black room with the lights off at
midnight.The same cat is easily
visible on a white rug in a white
room at noon on a sunny day.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

20. So everything has a proper context, and this context is
the key to its real meaning. Every word, symbol,
picture, sound, gesture, facial expression, experience,
action, perception, sentence, discussion, feeling, idea
and intention exists in some context.When we hold it
in the wrong context, we miss the real meaning and
become confused or frustrated.When we hold it in
the right context, we see the real meaning and have an
“Aha!” moment—a moment of insight into reality.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

21. For example, everyone has an experience of school. If
we try to hold that experience in the context of
learning, it doesn’t make sense, and we feel confused
and frustrated. But once we read or hear JohnTaylor
Gatto, we get that we should actually hold our
experience of school in the context of a social control
mechanism. Aha! Now it all makes sense, and we can
understand that if we want to become wise, we have
to take responsibility for our own education.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

22. Similarly, if we try to hold our experience of life in the
context of the ordinary materialistic understanding, it
doesn’t make sense, and we feel confused and frustrated.
But if we hold life in the context of Skillful Living, we will
have not one but many “Aha!” experiences as we get
insights into the real meaning of our existence and activities.
Similarly, all learning should be held in the context of
acquiring a skill.Acquiring skillfulness is also a skill in itself.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

23. When we want to read a book, we hold
it up to the light.Why? Because we can’t
read in the dark; we need the context of
light to see the page. Similarly, if we are
having trouble understanding or applying
a subject, it is because we are holding it,
or parts or pieces of it, in the wrong
context or in the wrong relationship to
the other parts.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

24. Finding the right context is both a science and an art.The
subject of context will come up again and again as we go
through the materials on Skillful Living. If you already can
sense its importance and want some advanced training,
we will have links later on to our source materials. But
everyone can understand the difference between
foreground and background, content and context. If you
can’t get something, then try putting it in another context.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

25. So here is the first principle of the Science of Learning:
If you feel confused or frustrated about
learning, understanding or doing something,
you are holding it in an inappropriate context.
The rest of this video gives some practical tips on how to
resolve contextual problems while studying. Knowledge of
Skillful Living is very scientific and precise.To transfer this
knowledge to you, we must find a way to define and
communicate precise concepts. So the first area of
content and context is in the definitions of terms.
FOREGROUND & BACKGROUND

26. Each and every letter, word, symbol, figure—even the
graphical layout of a text—has a specific meaning and
definition. If you cannot quote the definition, you don’t
know the meaning of the terminology. In other words,
you’re guessing, and will probably get it wrong.
Misunderstood terminology can stop you from getting the
sense of a subject and distract you from learning how to
apply it skillfully. In fact, the main reason a student becomes
discouraged and gives up the study of a skill is because of
misunderstood terms.
MISUNDERSTOODTERMINOLOGY

27. Misunderstood terms are different from not-understood
terms. Everyone knows when they see a math equation or a
big word like ‘antidisestablishmentarianism,’ that they don’t
understand it.Then they can look up the definition in a
dictionary or search engine.
But when we think that we understand the meaning of a
word or symbol, but actually don’t, then we’re in trouble
because we will sail right on by it without recognizing that we
got it wrong.This is the definition of a misunderstood term.
MISUNDERSTOODTERMINOLOGY

28. Much of the terminology used in the expert-level material
on any subject—including Skillful Living—is extremely
specialized, scientific or technical.Terms originating in
other languages and cultures may have no direct English
equivalent. Some terms used in the study of Skillful Living
are so laden with significance that an elaborate discussion
with intricate logic is required to define and understand
them to the point where you can apply them skillfully.
MISUNDERSTOODTERMINOLOGY

29. But most technical terms are easily recognized as not-
understood terms, so they are easy to notice and get
cleared up. Most misunderstood terms are simple words
that specify relationship, such as and, thus, if, such, that,
which, up, though and so forth.We think that we know
what these words mean, but on close examination we will
find that our concept of their meaning is so vague that we
cannot define them coherently.These small relationship
words are the most commonly misunderstood terms.
MISUNDERSTOODTERMINOLOGY

30. The main symptom of misunderstood terminology is that one is
unable to skillfully apply the subject or information one is studying.
Other symptoms of misunderstood terms include degradation of
consciousness or loss of comprehension; you feel that the
information you are studying makes no sense; forgetfulness, short-
term memory loss, or loss of comprehension of material immediately
after it is presented or read.You may also feel tired, sleepy, yawning,
distracted, dreamy, dizzy, spinny, lightheaded, tense, short of breath,
intoxicated, introverted, fearful, panicky, paranoid, angry, belligerent or
rebellious when there is no real reason to feel that way.
SYMPTOMS OF MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

31. You may have eye trouble: the page appears to go blank, or looks
dark, you feel like something is in your eyes or see shadows moving
in your peripheral vision.You may have a strong irrational urge to
disrupt the class, interrupt your study, close the book or escape
from the classroom or other learning environment. Some people
may desire to project their irrelevant personal opinions or negative
emotional reactions onto the material, the presenter or the teacher.
All these symptoms have one and the same cause: you have
encountered a misunderstood term or symbol and gone past it
without getting it properly defined.
SYMPTOMS OF MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

32. When you are trying to learn something and you observe the
symptoms of misunderstood terms, stop. First realize the actual
cause of the symptoms, then go back and find your misunderstood
terms so you can look them up and clear them.
The misunderstood terms will always be before the point where
you experience the symptoms. Go back to where you were doing
OK and understanding everything clearly.Then go through the
material very carefully, word-by-word, until you find a term that you
cannot define.That is your misunderstood term.There may be
more than one. Note down your misunderstood terms so you can
methodically clear them.
FINDING MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

33. CLEARING MISUNDERSTOODTERMS
• Look up the term in a good dictionary, encyclopedia, technical manual
or original source where you can find a good definition.
• Scan through the definitions until you find the exact definition that
applies in the context where the term is used.
• Make up several original sentences using the term in the exact
definition found in the original context.
• If the definition includes other terms that are misunderstood, look
those up too until you are absolutely clear on the definitions of all terms.

34. What are we doing when learning something? Actually when
reading or studying we are constructing a mental model of
the relationships and functions of the subject and its parts.
When we get confused, stuck or discouraged in learning or
cannot successfully apply the material, it means that our
model is an inaccurate representation of the subject; it does
not work the same way as the thing we are learning about
actually works in real life.
MODELING MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

35. Sometimes we find that even after clearing our misunderstood
terms, we still do not feel good about a subject or cannot apply it
skillfully.The best cure for this problem is to get the model out of
your mind and into physical space where you can handle it directly.
This is a simple but very powerful technique:
• Make a model of the thing you are trying to understand out of
modeling clay, blocks or odds and ends.
• Label its parts and walk through how the thing works by moving
the model with your hands.
MODELING MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

36. Let’s say you are studying astronomy and having a tough time
understanding planetary transits. No matter how hard you
try, clearing terms until you’re sure you understand them, the
subject still doesn’t seem to jell in your mind. OK, it’s time to
get out the clay and make a model of the solar system. Label
the parts and model what physically happens during
planetary transits by moving the pieces, until something clicks
in your head and you understand the subject.
MODELING MISUNDERSTOODTERMS

37. If you go through this Science of Study carefully and apply it in
your own study, you will notice a sharp increase in your
comprehension and especially, in your ability to apply the
materials skillfully. Clearing misunderstood terms may go slowly in
the beginning, but before long your reading speed will increase
beyond anything you thought possible.
In our experience, full comprehension of, and ability to apply the
Skillful Living materials depends on your using the techniques in
this video. Don’t believe me, but take some time to experiment
with our methods and experience their benefits for yourself.
SCIENCE OF STUDY BENEFITS