Were you ready to face every aspect of life when you've finished your education?
Our current system prepares us quite well to succeed in our external world in general. But what about preparation to tackle our internal world? WHO is going to prepare us for that??
Who will educate us on how our mind works, what is an intuition, how to practice listening to it?
Who will teach us how to work with our own emotions?
Who will make us understand how WE work, and who we actually ARE?
Based on my own experience, I believe most of us were clueless as to what the answers to these questions were. We had more important things to worry about like to get hired and start earning. We had to worry about our EXISTENCE first, no?
But what if we got it all wrong? What if the answers to these questions are much more important? What if we should have had these worked out long before we've even chosen our careers, PRIOR to going into further education?
Our current educational system builds skills by focusing on our mind, by cultivating our Ego.
It does so by promoting competition and comparison: “Be better than…. be the best” It is a tier system based on reaping rewards, gaining recognition and importance, power. Right from the start the intention behind wanting to do well is getting something back. If we flip it the other way, meaning if we don’t get nothing back we don’t have to do well, or it is ok not to do it at all. Our intentions are SELFISH. It is ok to be just a TAKER - not a giver. Current system also promotes individuality, NOT in terms of celebrating diversity, but in terms of dividing us from other forms of Life. Instead of promoting connection and placing us NEXT TO others, it puts us in an opposition to them. And worse.... It disconnects us from finding out who WE truly are. From finding out that we are not our Ego, that we are not our mind and who we THINK we are.
Our current system of education enables our Ego's growth, for us to be able to survive in our environment, and amongst other egos. And our Ego does a pretty good job of it! Yes, because we are surviving!
Not living….surviving….
Most importantly, it prevents us from finding out that we ARE, above all and amongst other discoveries, Life itself.
The difference between living and surviving is huge.
If you don't know what this means, believe me when I tell you that you are only surviving on this planet.
We are all here to fulfill our purpose - we are here to have a LIFE, to do what we truly love with passion! We are here to nurture our talents, and find our gifts we can contribute to this world to make it a better place for our next generations. We are here to feel ecstatic from feeling alive every single day, and every Monday morning.
It is our right, IF we choose to do so. IF we choose to learn more about our inner world, and ourselves.
Are you doubting that we were born to just survive and DIE??
We are more evolved than any other species. But unless we become aware of our privilege of having a Life, we will be only surviving similar to other, lower forms of life. And we will become the endangered species ourselves....
You may laugh, thinking about our population rising, but THAT in itself, for example, is a result of our ‘survival focused' way of living.
When we LIVE, I mean when we feel every cell of our bodies ALIVE, when we really KNOW and FEEL who we are, we know we are Life itself. We understand that we, and everything we do, is connected to other forms of Life.
If we really understood this equation, we would also UNDERSTAND how our survival attempts affect the rest of the Life.
Our world is being polluted by substances. Our society is being intoxicated by people hungry for power. We are bringing more children into this world without true responsibility, with a selfish NEED - ensuring our OWN happiness. Growing numbers of our own species have a knock on effect on other species and their extinction. We are poisoning the fertile ground under our own feet.
This is how SHORT SIGHTED we are, this is how selfish and irresponsible our Egos are.
But Ego is all about survival, don't expect anything else of it!
We teach our children to stand up for themselves NOT in a self-loving way, but rather as means of survival. We don't teach our children to help or stand up for others, no! This is outside Ego's capabilities. Ego is only after its own survival, it does not care about anyone and anything else....
But if we are being so short sighted and irresponsible with the education of our generation, if we are not educating them beyond their Ego, how do we ensure that they will take care of the next generations in a sustainable fashion? That humanity won't destroy itself, together with our planet's Eco systems?
Being human implies having empathy. We cannot call ourselves HUMAN simply because we were born human. We have to EARN IT!
And being EMPATHIC is how….
Empathy is feeling how other Life-form FEELS, how it is affected, hence understanding how we are all connected. Empathy is the prerequisite of a conscious evolution and survival of our own species in a balanced environment.
It is the GLUE which connects all living creatures together, transcending our individualistic Egos. Empathy is heart to heart connection, ego is only mind to mind connection. Mental understanding ALONE of another human Being is a superficial form of connecting.
The connection through feelings has an entirely different depth - infinite, multidimensional and expansive, and ALIVE as Life itself!
But empathy doesn’t come easy to some of us, because in the world of Ego 'FEELING' is degraded.
Even shamed.
So is being emotionless a step towards success?
Vulnerability was until fairly recently considered a weakness. Ego wants power, and feeling means being vulnerable, so strictly speaking success in doing business is where it ends. Because there is more to life than just doing business, right?!
Do we want to live our life the way its been intended for us at birth? Or do we want to become only life’s ‘survivors’?
It isn’t a hard call or choice to make. and we have to choose quickly. Wisely.
Wisdom is understanding Life, ourselves - knowing who we are, and cultivating our heart. It is our duty to make sure our children understand the importance of knowing who they are. It is imperative they are taught techniques, like meditation, which help them on their journey WITHIN. That they are taught self-love and self-respect, knowing how to care for themselves without neglecting their feelings, or their bodies. We simply cannot share GENUINE understanding and care for others if we do not practice it within first. It is desirable our children understand the impact their Ego has on them. Because only then they will understand its impact on any other living creature, only then they will have the skills to genuinely care for other forms of Life.
Thank you for reading. If my article contributed to understanding yourself, please be generous and share it with others.
Copyright © 2016 Michaela Patel