My Teachers, what do I need to learn?

Question

Namaste

Peace and Love

When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Then the teacher becomes the student.

The ultimate source of peace in the family, the country, and the world is altruism.
-His Holiness the Dalai Lama, The Meaning of Life

Answer 1

You need to look into the eyes of children and learn how to help them feel joy. Then, you need to learn how to feel joy.

You need to watch the life of a squirrel and realize that the squirrel needs no truth to survive, it only needs nuts and a mate. You need to realize you do not need truth, it exists all around you and it isn't yours to fully comprehend, nor anyone elses' to know either.

You need to know that most of what we passed forward from ages past are incorrect constructions of masters who were doing their best to understand their world. There is no resurrection, there is no reincarnation, but there is death and birth and life.

You need to know that even though they were working from faulty information, much of what they have to say is useful and valid; but not unreservedly.

You need to drop Peace and Love as they are catch phrases. Tranquility, or peace, comes from the human experience of low stimulus. In that environment, it is a positive thing. It isn't the goal on a roller coaster. Peace as in the absence of War is a denial of the human struggle just to survive. Wars are political failures, to wish peace is to wish others that they will not have political failures. Instead, be the prophet and help them succeed.

As to Love, it is a wonderful thing, but is it an end in itself. Is connection the goal? It might be, but you are imposing it with that phrase upon others who may have a goal of mastery instead of sympathy, of self rather than others. Or, it may be a hidden catch phrase of what you deeply want yourself and not an outward going expression.

Language has power, do not accept even the simple "Shalom alehem," as holding the group accepted meaning.

Even namaste cannot be literal in this web space since it is a non-physical thing. You cannot bow here.

Do not seek truth, for it is all around you and does not exist. Rather seek a way acceptable to you given your environmental constraints. Live optimally wherever possible, given what optimal means to you AT THE MOMENT. To live optimally, of course, requires significant rationality since it requires choices under uncertainty.

Answer 2

First learn that you don't need a teacher to find your own way... You could always pick up a teaching or a faith just because somebody said that you should, but if you did it wouldn't really mean anything to you. You could of course choose to follow the recommendation of another, but still you would have to understand, agree with it and make it your own before it holds any real value.

You could learn also, that you are just as valid a teacher as anybody else, and are perfectly entitled to teach yourself and find your own answers in your own way, be it from things you have encountered and feel strongly about (for example the concept of the christian god, a buddhist philosophy, or even a reasoned argument that the self is all important (or nothing is important!)), or you could forge your own way with your own ideas and theories.

The key is always that it must come from within, not from without.

Answer 3

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Thats all you need to know

Answer 4

Study history. You learn that mankind makes the same mistakes repeatedly. Knowing this helps brace you for the future.

Answer 5

Your intuition will tell you what you need to learn. If you explore metaphysics and become very interested or drawn to a certain subject, then that is your being telling you that is something that you need to know.

Answer 6

Learn the Prayer of St. Francis. Then live it.

Answer 7

You need to learn to think for yourself, and not rely on daddy divine to get through life or rationalize the unexplainable.

Answer 8

* "Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself: I am the lord." — Torah Leviticus 19:18
* "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." — Jesus (c. 5 B.C. - A.D. 32 ) in the Gospels, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 22:39, Luke 6:31, Luke 10:27
* "When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native-born. Love him as yourself, for you were aliens in Egypt. I am the lord your God." — Torah Leviticus 19:33-34
* "This is the sum of duty; do naught unto others what you would not have them do unto you." — Mahabharata (5:15:17) (c. 500 B.C.)
* "What you do not wish upon yourself, extend not to others." — Confucius (ca. 551 - 479 B.C.)
* "What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man." — Hillel (ca. 50 B.C. - A.D. 10)

* "None of you truly believes until he loves for his brother what he loves for himself." — Muhammad (c. A.D. 571 - 632), Hadith 13 of al-Nawawi's Forty Hadith.

Answer 9

Nothing. You know it all. Both the teacher and the student are within. ;)

Namasté

Answer 10

Yes, that is a start: Peace and Love
Do unto others as you would have done to you.