In searching for truths in life I've realized that the more I eat the apple of knowledge - the recorded products of the observations and experiements of men - the more I have dived into the pool of self-growth. As far as I'm concerned, the understanding of life and its problems and misconceptions have been more helpful and more practical than the basic system of education (academically) that our society offers. Indeed it is fulfilling and I'm truly grateful for the opportunities that I've been given to acquire and study these basic truths in life. Yet (I’m ashamed to admit) I lack the most important ingredient - action, which is truly what the purpose of education is - to do it.
I've stopped pursuing my degree (for the third time) last year after a series of realizations. One of the reasons why I stopped going to school (not stopped studying, as what people think of it) is because I realized that I was trying to find out the solutions to the "problems" in the future that I "may not even have" while neglecting or totally disregarding the more important issues that needed to be taken care of - my present problems. These problems are the effects why we continue to have bent principles and false beliefs. We grow physically because we cannot stop ourselves from doing so and these false beliefs that we get from the (sick) society tell us that physically growing is enough to reach maturity. However, there is a more important growth that we brush aside every single day that brings us to our sickness and deathbeds with a frown that we forget and it is the spiritual (mental) growth.
I believe that our self-growth is the most important growth of all. Your family, friends, and even the television may tell you that "this is the right way" and they could be right. If they are then you are lucky, if they aren't (which leads us to false beliefs and principles) then you're one of us. The problem is "how do we know" who's (and what's) right? That's exactly the root of the problems of the (sick) society. How are we contributing to the sickness of our society? Our lack of awareness or rather our laziness to explore and to understand and to find the solutions to these problems - these present problems - contribute to the sickness much more than what we thought. We might, in fact, think that we are helping the world out of the actions that we do, not knowing that we silently yet rapidly destroy the own world we thought we were enriching.
I owe it to the mystics, to the scientists, to the poets, and to the people who have courage for documenting (writing books, making movies/documentaries, making audiobooks) their observations and realizations for the future people to read and understand. I also owe it to the people who have unconsciously given me problems, painful problems, for they provided me practical applications or let's say the "work book" to compensate what the textbooks lack. And lastly I owe it to God for making all things connect and reflect. Since I am a product of my experiences, in response to these people who have influenced me more than anything else, I pay it forward. I believe that it is a sin to be greedy. The lamp that provides me the light would be better used if I share it than keep it to myself.
I therefore, in my desire to help others (and also be helped by others), want to contribute to the society by twisting the corkscrew and opening our "bottle of awareness" so we could drink the wine of growth and be drunk in celebrating our birthday - our birth to maturity - with our friends. I encourage you to help me by helping you. I also encourage you to help yourself by helping others in any way that you can.
What's on my mind is what Eldridge Cleaver said in the sixties "If you are not a part of the solution, then you are a part of the problem".
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