Have you lost your wisdom teaching?
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Many people have completely thrown away the teachings of the most important knowledge in the world because of alienation with the institutions associated with the teachings.
At this time of year, many parents of high school juniors and seniors and their children are traveling around the world looking at colleges and universities to receive higher education. If scholarships are not involved, many families consider spending 20, 30, 40 or $50,000+ per year for this education.
What type of education and degrees are we willing to spend this kind of money on? Law, Engineering, Pre-med, Business, Liberal Arts, Art, Music, Psychology, etc.
Will you please answer these questions?
If you wanted to eliminate war from the face of the earth and instruct people how to peacefully co-exist, what type of education would you give to people?
If you wanted to eliminate hunger and homelessness forever, what would be the types of courses you’d make mandatory?
If you wanted to educate individuals on their power to cause the changes that they desire for themselves, their families and the world, what would you teach?
If you wanted drug and alcohol abuse to become a thing of the past, what would we teach people?
If you wanted each person in the world to have equally high self-esteem, what would we teach?
If you wanted to reduce or eliminate our dependance upon counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists, what would we have people learn?
What did you come up with?
I came-up with a self-study program that would either be free or cost less than $100. The education that I’m talking about which 
would solve each of these problems is available in a book or two for free at any library or for less than $100 at a bookstore.
Most of us had parents who raised us by bringing us to a religious service on a weekly or very frequent basis. Are you aware that today 17% of people go to religious services on a regular basis (more than 3 times per year)?
One of the reasons that our parents or grandparents attended services on a regular basis is that this service was the primary form of education within many faiths.
Did the education and knowledge that people found to be the foundation of their values for the last 2000+ years suddenly become irrelevant with my generation and by default for our children?
Do we really think that sports practice, dance lessons and Xbox 360 and Nintendo are really better uses of our time than developing our spiritual health?
I understand that many people have become alienated with the institutions themselves and/or with the fighting going on in the world which frequently seems to have religious ties.
If you’re unhappy with your particular house of worship, I’ll encourage you to do one of the following:
- Ask yourself if you’re letting the messenger get in the way of the message. The message is always good.
- If you can’t get past the messenger, search for a new house of worship whose messenger is more consistent with your personality.
- If that doesn’t work, create a home-study program for yourself and your family that allows you to spend time weekly (or daily) studying your faith and/or multiple faiths. In addition, meditation and prayer are habits that can be conducted anywhere at any time.
I don’t know of any God or any faith that promotes war. Do you? Any person that is using God as an excuse for war has corrupted the message that Allah, Jesus, Buddha and all of the spiritual teachings that I’m aware of.
The education that I believe each of us should receive, which would serve as the foundation for the education that we’ll need for our vocation, is an education on how to live with God-like qualities.
- Unconditional Love
- Integrity
- Service to others
- Kindness
Yesterday’s topic on BlogTalkRadio was God. Greg Stewart and I talked about some definitions of, perceptions of and reasons for believing in God.
A lot of people fight against the idea of God being real because they’ve never shaken God’s hand or been able to pull up any of God’s clips on YouTube.
I admit that going from a position of “I don’t believe in God” to “God is the center of my life and basis for each of my thoughts and actions” is a drastic jump. What I’ve recommended to many people who are interested in understanding and developing a relationship with God or living with God-like qualities on a daily basis is the following two-step process.
Here’s the first step. Read the teachings of people like Jesus and Buddha like you were reading any other book that you had to read while in high school or college. While reading the teachings, ask yourself the following types of questions:
- Do I agree with this principle?
- Do I incorporate this teaching into how I run my life today?
- If I agree with it and am not living it, why not?
- Would I be a better person if I practiced what this teacher taught?
- What type of person would I be if I began thinking, believing and behaving in this manner?
- Do I like what I’m capable of becoming?
- What would my community (or the world) be like if others lived their lives in this fashion?
- Could we eliminate each of the problems listed above if others were educated and lived with this knowledge?
This first step allows us to come to know how the world’s greatest teachers of truth have advised us to proceed towards enlightenment.
The second step is for you to decide how you want to proceed based upon 3 possible outcomes.
The first possible outcome (I don’t believe in these teachings)
After reading these teachings, you might decide that you absolutely disagree with these concepts. I doubt it but, it’s a possibility. If you do, you’ve made an educated decision.
The second possible outcome (I believe in these teachings and commit to living them but, I still don’t believe in God)
A second possible outcome would be that you’ve decided that this teacher or these teachers were very wise and that you and I would have happier lives and live in a peaceful world if each of us truly implemented the teachings.
I’ve thought about what the world would be like if each of us were educated in these principles and implemented them – even if we still didn’t believe in God.
We’d have a world without weapons -assault weapons, tanks, fighter jets – because there would be no need for them.
We’d have a world where people were better at listening to and understanding each other than ordering around and giving ultimatums. If we had disagreements – and we would – we would engage in conversation with the expectation of coming to peaceful outcomes.
We would have a world that treats every person on the planet with dignity and respect.
We would allocate our tax dollars toward education and solving the hunger and homeless issues instead of funding war with and security from our family members.
The third possible outcome (I believe in God)
A third possible outcome would be that you would come to believe that these teachings could have only come from someone with much higher thoughts about love, peace and compassion than any human you’ve ever met. That these thoughts were designed to have us works toward perfect love.
You might come to believe that there is tremendous causative, creative power that exists within you that manifests itself when aligned with the teachings that you’ve learned and implemented. You might come to believe that you have the ability to co-create solutions to every problem that exists when you combine your consciousness with that of God.
You might come to believe that the life that exists within you was created by and comes from the spirit of God that is dwelling within you and I and within every person in the world.
You might come to develop faith in a spiritual power that created the world and everything in it that you’ve never physically seen or touched.
We can’t ask others to do what we’re not willing to do ourselves.
Are you willing to make an educated decision for yourself?
Are you willing to discover whether or not you believe in and are willing to implement what the teachers of truth have taught us?
A WORD of CAUTION: These principles when acted upon will cause you to change and could possibly result in Sainthood and Enlightenment.
