What Does It Mean to Be Human?

What Does It Mean to Be Human?
A Conversation with MaMaTa on Anthroposophy and the Art of Living Whole

Interview originally published by The Present Move | October 19, 2024

Have you ever felt the world spinning so fast you can barely keep your footing — that somewhere in the rush of daily life, you've nearly lost sight of who you truly are?

This is the question that Anthroposophy invites us to sit with. Not to answer quickly, but to live into — slowly, honestly, with open eyes.

I sat down with Woranun Donavanik, known warmly as MaMaTa, Managing Director of MaMaTa Co., Ltd. and co-founder of The Human Academy in Bangkok, Thailand. For over twelve years, she has been one of the quiet but steady forces bringing Anthroposophy and Waldorf education into Thai family life — not as a curriculum, but as a way of being.

"Every Human Being Is Already the Real Thing"

When asked to define Anthroposophy in her own words, MaMaTa doesn't reach for a textbook answer.

"Anthroposophy helps us see our humanity more clearly. There is something beyond what we can observe through our ordinary senses. Every human being descends into this world with intention — and each of us carries our own Life Mission."

She is equally clear about what Anthroposophy is not — it is not a system of judgment, nor a set of rules about who qualifies as a "true" practitioner.

"As for defining what 'authentic' Anthroposophy looks like — I believe every human being is already 'the real thing.' Because every person is born full of potential, simply waiting for the right moment to reveal itself."

Her own path began unexpectedly — with a book given to her by a friend during her pregnancy. You Are Your Child's First Teacher by Rahima Baldwin Dancy arrived, she says, at exactly the right moment. She was 35, and had just begun to ask herself: Why was I born? What is my purpose?

That question has never left her. It became the seed of everything MaMaTa has since grown.

A Village in the Middle of a City

Inspired by what she was learning, MaMaTa founded Baan Samran Community — a gathering place for families with young children, where parents come together on weekends to share experiences, learn through art, and simply be present with one another.

"What we do here is what village life used to look like — people living together, raising children together. As the African proverb says: 'It takes a village to raise a child.' But modern urban life no longer works that way. Families have become isolated. That loneliness is what gave me the idea to create Baan Samran."

The practices woven into life at Baan Samran are deliberately simple — rhythm and repetition, reverence in daily tasks, free play, oral storytelling without pictures, faceless dolls, an outdoor play space, and mindful limits on screen time. These are not rules. They are, as MaMaTa describes them, a kind of nourishment — an environment shaped to support healthy, wholesome human development.

Life Unfolds in Seven-Year Phases

One of Anthroposophy's most striking insights, in MaMaTa's telling, is the 7-Year Phase of Life — the understanding that human development moves through distinct seven-year cycles, each with its own quality and its own needs.

0–7: The Age of Willing. The child learns entirely through doing — through imitation, movement, and direct experience. This is the most important foundation of all.

"The work of early childhood is like driving the foundational piles deep into the ground. You cannot see them — but they hold everything."

7–14: The Age of Feeling. Emotional life deepens. Children need adults who can offer a safe, receptive space — not to fix their feelings, but to help them name and navigate them.

14–21: The Age of Thinking. The individual self begins to clarify and emerge. The family steps back into the role of supporter, rather than guide.

And at 28, even when life appears stable, something stirs. Deep questions return. A significant inner crossroads is reached — a kind of reset, a crisis that opens into new possibility. This pattern, MaMaTa notes, repeats at 35, 42, 49 — each threshold a new Coming of Age.

"If the groundwork hasn't been laid well enough — when children grow into teenagers and adults who must face the world — they may feel anxious, unstable, unsure of themselves. Preparing a human being for life is a matter of extraordinary delicacy. It is not simply about getting through each day in a kind of sleepwalking."

There Is Always Another Chance

One of the most quietly powerful things MaMaTa says in our conversation is this:

"Life always offers us another chance. If we understand the Life Process — and allow the present moment to work with the experiences of our past — we can reconnect with our truest self. We can learn the meaning that life offers us through all that has already unfolded."

This is not optimism for its own sake. It is a recognition that human development does not stop in childhood — that adults, too, are always in process. Always becoming.

"Every human being already carries their own particular wisdom within them — waiting for the right moment to reveal itself. Like a seed that has been planted, it needs good soil, water, and air. The right environment allows every person to grow in their own way — whether child or adult."

Anthroposophy Is Not a Style — It Is a Way of Living Whole

MaMaTa is gentle but clear on this point: seeing Waldorf education only through the image of storytelling, wooden toys, and nature walks is to see only the surface.

"Anthroposophy is about living in wholeness. It touches all of life — food and nourishment, education, farming, medicine, art, self-care. Everything is interconnected."

It works, she says, through three forms of learning: Willing, Feeling, and Thinking — or Hand, Heart, and Head. And it meets each person through whichever doorway they are ready to enter.

The invitation is not to adopt a philosophy. It is to begin with a question — and to stay curious long enough to let the answer find you.

Woranun Donavanik (MaMaTa) is the Founder and Managing Director of MaMaTa Co., Ltd., a Bangkok-based social enterprise rooted in Anthroposophy and Waldorf education. She is co-founder of The Human Academy, Thailand's exclusive distributor of Mercurius International B.V. Netherlands (STOCKMAR art materials, Floris Books, Hawthorn Press), and initiator of the Seeds of Wisdom Fund*.*