Brian’s Reflection: Friday, May 13, 2011

"Sometimes it’s a sort of indulgence to think
the worst of ourselves. We say, ‘Now I have
reached the bottom of the pit, now I can fall
no further,’ and it is almost a pleasure to wallow
in the darkness. The trouble is, it’s not true.
There is no end to the evil in ourselves, just as
there is no end to the good. It’s a matter of choice.
We struggle to climb, or we struggle to fall. The
thing is to discover which way we’re going."

Dame Daphne du Maurier; author; she
was born on this date, 1907, in London


So. Is not the question: Who, or What, is going to teach us how to “discover which way we are going”?

Dame du Maurier is wise, I think. “There is no end to the evil in ourselves, just as there is no end to the good.” After many decades, and much reading of the “history” (a dubious concept!) of the human race, I agree with her. We think we have reached the bottom of Evil ….. then Stalin or Pol Pot appears (I shall refrain from naming an American candidate). We think we have reached the height of Good ….. and then Warren Buffet gives multi-billions in hopes that it will help the human race advance. (May Bill and Melinda do a good job!)

I believe in the archetype that all human beings have a choice, that Choice is a “given” of being Human ~ despite the fact that many of us seem, by Life’s circumstances, to be deprived of the exercise of that freedom. But, if we are “lucky”, we learn and are taught that “We struggle to climb, or we struggle to fall”. And that we are responsible for the choice. Responsible to each other, and responsible to ourselves. No Human Being can “raise itself”. We are helpless when we are born. We depend on others to get us to the point when we can understand the choices and how to make them.

In my view, the essential point of Education is to get us to this place: to understand the choices, and to lead us to the knowledge of how wisely to make those choices. Only after that should we go on to learn skills or develop talents. I think we are failing abysmally ….. and (karma being karma) the consequences will become more and more evident ~ as I think the World presently manifests.

Children should first be taught by Mystics ….. of all types. Imagine Rumi and Julian of Norwich and Maimonides and Sai Baba and Amma the Hugging Saint all in one kindergarten room interacting with our kids!! Oh God, how I wish that we could get to the place where all faiths could accept each other’s Wisdom and work together to teach us all how to be Human!

Our main “learning” must be to “discover which way we are going”. This is what every school and every religion should be committed to teaching. No one has the Truth. We have it together.

Brian+