Articles
SANDOR: Lessons/Curiosities
Notes by Maria Elci Spaccaquerche
“Don’t ever pre-occupy yourself; just occupy yourself” (Sándor)
Sándor had an interesting feature: he had the ability to give only and completely what had been requested. He never anticipated answers for which the person wasn’t yet ready.
“Let’s observe” was Prof. Sandor’s most important or favorite sentence.
According to him, more than theories – even though he knew many of them, or maybe just because of that –, one must carefully consider the phenomena expression, and that made him always draw our attention to the observation of facts, of phenomena.
To closely observe the processes that occur through bodily and therapeutic labor is the first condition for a good work. In fact, this close observation is the “re-ligare”, which means “to connect with” or “to connect again”, to re-establish a connection between the world that surrounds us and our spirit. It is to unite what is above with what is below.
Prof. Sándor’s other feature was the acceptance of everyone he noticed or felt was truly interested in the work with the human being. For that reason, in his group studies there were people from different fields of knowledge, with different academic backgrounds and of different age groups. They could be physicians, physiotherapists, or even preschool or elementary school teachers, besides psychologists, mostly.
His lessons at Sedes, in the late 1980s, took place in the auditorium because the number of students would no longer fit a simple classroom. It often reached one hundred people! They were very different; how to maintain harmony amidst so much diversity? What could be observed in these big audiences was a deep respect for everything that was learned. All of us would leave the classes nourished, with a positive disposition, enthusiastic in the true sense of the word – en-theos –, which means that God is within. Sándor proposed that we should hold back whatever perceptions and feelings we had: “Leave in silence, the class isn’t supposed to end up in pizza” (Sándor). He knew that this restraint is necessary for better content integration. In general, talking too much takes away or reduces the strength of experiences.
“Don’t raise a doubt, make a question” (Sándor)
Still in classes, if someone said they had a doubt, prof. Sándor would tell he didn’t address doubts. He would ask the person to propose a question and then he would disclose what he knew about the subject. He would then explain that the word “doubt” etymologically comes from duos, from the Latin dubitare, “not to be sure, to hesitate”, from dubius, “the one who hesitates between two possibilities”. Consequently, there would be two positions and this could cause a conflict. If one has a question, he or she is more open to a widening of knowledge. In the case of the doubt, however, one waits for an answer that will take him or her out of uncertainty and hesitation, and this cannot happen. The doubt proposes dissension. The question proposes knowledge.
These and so many other lessons remained in the memories and the hearts of his students who seek to carry out these gems in their lives and practices.