If you want to know your past life, look into your present
condition; if you want to know your future life, look at your
present actions.
Padmasambhava
Editorial
,
Having gained an unlikely Ph.D in Nuclear Physics, I have
something to say about education. However, it's not what you
might think! That's the subject of this issue's article.
Yesterday, I cam across an excellent program called "The Personal Power Course" by Wallace D. Wattles. If you don't know, he
lived in the early part of the 20th century and is the author of
the highly regarded "The Science Of Getting Rich". Personally, I
did not know that this other course even existed. I bought it,
took a look, and find it to be excellent - as good as his better
known work. It is all about achieving abundance through using
esoteric principles. I recommend you take a look for yourself:
When I was a kid of about ten or so, I wanted an Encyclopedia
Britannica. My parents couldn't afford one, and so it had to wait
until my late twenties, when I finally had a job and bought
myself a set. I have to admit that I didn't really read it that
much. Nevertheless, it looked great on the bookshelf! And I
felt I had finally arrived.
Oh well....
Education is a great asset to anyone, and is rightly prized. Yet,
there is a difference between education, and the mere collecting
and memorizing of facts. The latter is, all too often, the stuff
of schools, universities, degree qualifications and the like.
Indeed, we see people on general knowledge quiz shows who can
regurgitate an almost infinite amount of data. Interestingly,
these people, despite seeming like geniuses, often hold quite
lowly and poorly paid jobs. Actually, it's no coincidence.
Who needs a walking encyclopedia of useless information when
there are printed versions readily available?
The modern education system stuffs as many useless facts into a
child's head as possible, teaches them to memorize and
regurgitate those facts on a periodic basis, and then throws them
out onto the street as "educated", where they promptly forget all
that they sweated blood to engorge. Moreover, most of this
"education" leaves them poorly placed to get a job.
Really though, what use is it to be force-fed data like: what
happens when copper sulfate is added to nitric acid; or to be
able to prove some obscure geometry theorem? No wonder the
majority of people are totally put off education for life!
Education, in the purest sense, has little to do with any of
this. An educated person may have few, or even no, formal
qualifications. A truly educated person is one who has a
commitment to lifelong learning and excellence; to knowing what
needs to be known in order to maximize one's opportunities in
life and expand one's talents to their fullest, in order to be of
the most value and service to mankind as possible.
Too many people come out of the school education system all
twisted up, feeling like failures, because they could never get
the hang of memorizing and regurgitating endless lists of
useless facts, and stringing them together to form even more
useless bodies of information that would never be used in real
life. They say they are no good at Math, when the reality is that
their Math teacher was HOPLESS at teaching it to them, and left
them scarred and mathematically handicapped for life! Is it any
wonder that kids forget all this stuff within weeks of the exams?
They never had the slightest interest in it in the first place,
nor any practical outlet where most of that "education" could be
used.
Meanwhile, there is a strange absence of the sort of thing that
would actually set you up well for life. When were you ever
taught to ask yourself what you actually want to do with your
life, let alone create a plan for achieving it? So many people
lack a life purpose because they have honestly never thought
about it. Certainly, their schools never did anything about it.
But isn't this every bit as vital as the reaction between copper
sulfate and nitric acid?
Or how about goals? When were you taught how to set them and
visualize your desired future until it came to pass? Yet, these
are VITAL educational skills that schools never teach us.
Instead, we learn who won the Battle of Waterloo - as if we
really care.
Certainly, it is important to understand the basics of science,
art, mathematics, history and the like. This is NOT an argument
against any of that, but rather it is an argument FOR a proper
BALANCE in the training we receive that is supposed to be setting
us up for life!
It is vital to be taught how to find the information you seek,
and to do your own learning, i.e. to become a self-educator,
rather than someone to whom education passively "happens". What
is more important is to be given an enthusiasm for learning
itself and a commitment to self-education that lasts a lifetime.
True education should allow you to explore and expand your own
intelligence, rather than be made to feel like a retarded dumbo -
an impression that is often retained for life. All too often, the
educational system leaves people swearing that they will never
read another book as long as they live, or tearing up their
course notes on graduation day. I've seen that happen!
Did you know that roughly 85% of books bought in bookshops are
bought as gifts for someone else?! There are many people who
never visit bookshops and have never bought a book for themselves
in their entire lives. Very sad.
Why?...
True self-education is behind every success story that there has
ever been. You only get anywhere in life through a continual
commitment to updating your base of knowledge. It makes all the
difference in job applications, the amount of money you earn, and
even the level of satisfaction you experience in your life.
In America, fully 95% of people who retire do so broke,
complaining that the State didn't do enough to support them, or
whatever. However, a continual commitment to education and
retraining, coupled with a flexible mind and a determination to
be self-responsible, would go a very long way to drastically
reducing the numbers who end up this way. They would learn that
their own well-being is THEIR own personal responsibility, and
not someone else's.
All too often, you hear people complain that they "can't afford"
some book, course or training seminar that could really make the
difference for them. The reality is that they can't afford NOT
to. In this fast changing world, if you are simply standing
still, you are really going BACKWARDS! For example, people who
are poor (in the West) stay poor because they don't KNOW how to
change their situation, even though there is plenty of
information available on exactly what to do about it. But they
stay poor because they claim they can't afford the education to
change their lot. But there's really NO excuse for it.
Personally, I would beg, borrow or... - well, let's just leave it
at that, shall we? - in order to get money to buy the knowledge I
needed!
You hear a similar attitude with companies - mostly small to
medium-sized ones. Their grumble goes like this: why waste good
money on employee training when they're only going to leave and
work somewhere else? Here's a much worse scenario to dread: what
if you DON'T train them and they STAY?!
Do review your commitment to self-education. It is the answer to
most any problem you may have in your life. Whatever your
experience may have been of the educational system, you were born
a genius and, despite the best efforts of the educational system
to take it all away, you can be a genius again. All it takes is
the commitment to do so. Commit to your own education and growth,
each and every day!
Copyright Asoka Selvarajah 2004. All Rights Reserved.
Asoka Selvarajah is a writer on personal growth and
spirituality,
and the author of "The 7 Golden Secrets To Knowing Your
Higher
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