EDUCATION

LET THERE BE LIGHT!

Education promises to solve many problems but will it?

What is the accumulation of knowledge really good for?
 Does it make us into better people?
Does it guarantee happiness? or wealth? or health? 
We have the potential to have greater ability to be critical, which is important. 

We may gain knowledge but still find life has unanswerable questions that also cause anxiety
and frustration.   Life still presents us with decisions and difficulties. 
We need to have self-confidence that comes with experience as well as knowledge.
We learn from our mistakes and strength comes with the determination to keep making an effort.
A wise person can admit they do not know but they are willing to seek for answers.

The teachings of Buddism teach about The Four Noble Truths
The noble truth of suffering
the noble truth of the origin of suffering
the noble truth of the cessation of suffering
and this is the noble truth of the path.

There is no experience that can bring complete lasting happiness.  But there is a happiness in doing what you like doing.

Until we find the origin of our pain and suffering only then can we see it in terms of cause and affect.
Ignorance can keep us trapped but as we seek understanding "the truth can set us free".
The causes of our suffering can be brought to an end.  We can find peace in our situation and it is a "peace of  God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus".  Phil. 4:7
It is accepting reality that holds possibility beyond what we can see, blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God." 

The path is the way of compassion and generosity and empathy.  We have been born with a desire to be happy and free of suffering.  Life flows all around us and we can choose hos much we want to be involved.
In seeking to help others who are suffering we find that we feel better.  Practice being helpful. 

We have been created with a diversity of mental faculties so we learn in different ways.  Reading and listening to teachers can help some of us and yet this is not the way for others.

We have been developing our pictures at the Superstore and at first we, your dad and I, found it hard to do; especially if we were to try and edit; but as we go back again and again it is becoming easier.  We are learning by making mistakes and having to start the process over and over again.  I have found just being in the store extremely tiring as I do going into to malls.

Along the road through life to learn to have compassion and genuine affection for others is one of the great lessons that we can cultivate by using our intelligence and our gifts and our ability to care for others.  I started out in life being shy but when I started visiting the elderly I found that more often than not I had to start the conversation.  If I told a story that was happening in my life it would bring to their mind similar experiences.

For others it is important to learn to listen.  We are realizing the importance of hearing now that we often do not hear each other properly.  I need to listen attentively when others express different opinions.  This is not because what I believe depends on their approval but because communication is important to our growth.

Problems rooted in violence can never be solved by more violence, and in fact as Jesus taught the destruction of our enemy only ends up destroying ourselves.  If we could learn to understand our enemies and realize how much we have in common maybe we could find peaceful solutions.  Swept up by emotions and the hyped up fear of terrorists and mislead by those we trusted we are now a country involved in war.  Some would blame religion but I agree with Douglas Todd that most people do not even know what their religion teaches to be able to justify qualifying it as having "the answers to all of life's important questions".  It is only one source among all the intellectual resources we have to call on. 

A religion based on sentimentalism which says all that matters is that I say "I love Jesus" when they do not realize all the controversial things he is quoted as saying and doing.  Religion should not in my opinion be based on whether we are going to get into heaven by leading moral lives and because we fear hell.

We like to think that we can respect our leaders and that along with knowledge they will have the  integrity and the wisdom to tell us the truth and to live honestly themselves.  The Bible talks about rebirth and a lot of this is cultivating new attitudes.  This does require a lot of thinking and contemplation as we apply our minds and our hearts to become human.

For me my life changed when I gave birth to my four children; and I poured my heart and energy into caring for them.   Then  with the added problems of poor health,  I gave up the dream  of  attending university which had been one of my first goals in life.  I was given the opportunity and the desire to learn the spiritual way which has been a twisting journey of arriving at a place only to find I need to keep on the quest. 

I do not know a lot about other religions as I am still learning about my own.  Religion can be taught in school so that we can be better inform.  "North American religious illiteracy threatens both our well-being as members of a civil society, and raises the spectre of grave misunderstandings in foreign policy".  Douglas Todd in the Vancouver Sun article "A Question About the Bible?  Go Ask An Atheist."  Although there is some truth in this I know of many people involved in Bible study and church attendance; not that this makes you a Christian believer, but at least you have some clue as to what you cannot believe.

I realize that religion, or the spiritual path or the way of faith needs to be open to critical analysis but from those who are willing to recognize it's value and yet do not accept the authority which has tried to control our lives.  I value my beliefs about prayer and scripture and the community of faith because they have taught me to trust myself to look for the light and leave the darkness behind!