Tag: Education

What Should We Unlearn?

Happiness

Our reality is largely what we are told that it is, from the explanations and examples of our parents to the education we receive to the religion or lack of religion that we follow. Our starting point for understanding our place in the world, or the universe, is received from other people.

It is only later in life, as our childhood becomes adulthood that we really start to question the foundations of understanding that we have been taught. Some understandings, particularly religious ones, it seems, can last a lifetime without being questioned.

There are many understandings of things, both religious and non-religious, that create divisions, which are further worsened by seeing a them and an us. More and more I am starting to believe that there are no divisions or categories or labels except the ones we create to understand the world and the universe, to give us a framework from which to go about our daily lives.

Don’t get me wrong, without such things we would not have science or medicine or a great many other things, but there is much, I think, that we have to unlearn about how we see each other and our place in the grand scheme of things.

The Pursuit Of Ignorance

Happiness, Success, The Pathway To Fulfilment

I took this title from this TED Talk about science and education and how the best way to educate and pursue science is to explore what we do not know. It should not be the collecting of facts and showing the ability to repeat them on command.

This applies to our lives too. We usually know very little about how to live a fulfilling life, because no one teaches us how to find this out. We don’t really know what questions to ask or what parts of ourselves to explore.

The guidance is there in religious texts and writings on philosophy and psychology, but we are not exposed to them in our education. Or if we are, we are not given guidance on what questions to ask. In some cultures and religions we are told “This is the way” and are expected to follow it.

My advice is to read widely, use a journal to explore ideas and get to know different kinds of people. Learn what it is like to walk in another person’s shoes and then learn how to walk in your own. Your life is a journey, so don’t spend your life living in a cul-de-sac.

The Lessons Of Life

Happiness, The Pathway To Fulfilment

The experiences we have help to steer our way through life by causing us to pull away or pull closer to aspects of life, depending on what happens to us, and the meaning we apply to the experiences.

There is a saying that ‘when the student is ready the teacher will appear.’ I believe that this is true of the experiences we have. If we look through the lens of a student as we navigate through life, then the experiences we have become our teachers.

There is a danger, however, that unless we have the clarity of wisdom, we will likely draw inaccurate conclusions and make assumptions that skew our understanding. This is why Acquiring Wisdom is the first Step in my Pathway To Fulfilment.

Life can be a great teacher when we begin with wisdom, because it opens us up to new and unexplored wisdom. If we begin with ignorance, the lessons that life offers are often not even seen and we succumb to fear, shame and anger; emotions that dominate those without wisdom.