Living library

If one wants to get out of prejudices and negative thinking about different type of people, one can attend Living library. The idea is that there are several books, who are real beings i.e. anorectic, priest, police, MS patient, lesbian, pilot, vegetarian. Then there comes the readers who can choose a book and interview for ab 20 minutes at a time usually.

It is very inspiring communication system especially in the schools. I have attended ab 10-20 living libraries as a book and enjoyed of meeting all kinds of people. It is not only that I can tell about my life style as yoga nun, but also to meet people who are really, really interested about yoga and spirituality, and not less interesting is to meet the other books - all such great and courageous personalities.

I think this type of communication is very great in the present society, where people are mainly chatting on the net and forgetting about the real coming together and sharing.

According to PROUT and Sarkar, education stands: The real meaning of education is trilateral development – simultaneous development in the physical, mental and spiritual realms of human existence. This development should enhance the integration of the human personality.

Emphasis should be given to moral education and the inculcation of idealism – not only philosophy and traditions. The sense of universalism should also be awakened. Real education leads to a pervasive sense of love and compassion for all creation.

Special importance should be attached to children’s education because today’s child is tomorrow’s citizen. The receptive capacity of a child is great…By learning the world language; students will develop a feeling of world citizenship in their minds. Students should be encouraged to involve themselves in social welfare and other constructive activities within their school or campus. After completing their education, students should be guaranteed appropriate employment.

Education must be free from all political interference. Education should be free at all levels. Grown-up students, that is, adults, may take part in the non-academic side of administration. The teaching of science must always be encouraged.

Educated are those who have learned much, remembered much and made use of their knowledge in practical life… Let everyone possess as much mental and spiritual wealth as possible… It is certainly possible to transform the craving for physical enjoyment into intellectual hunger by channelling it toward a different goal through proper education. Human society today is badly in need of such education….According to the type of education imparted; one’s psychic environment is built up. The psychic environment is more powerful in human life than the physical environment.

A kindergarten school is something basic and the mission of making human beings is accomplished here. If one has already become a thief or a criminal, in that case university education for such a person is of no avail. If one receives the fundamentals of education in the formative period of one’s life, one will keep oneself alright in the teeth of the greatest trials and tribulations in life.

We must make arrangements for the food, clothes, education, shelter and medical treatment of each and every individual, so that all can live in this world as long as possible, and become assets to the earth. PROUT does not reject the western educational system. But at the same time, the western education system utterly failed to inculcate a sense of morality, reverence and a high standard of behaviour…

Without education democracy can never be successful….So, education is a must – education is mandatory – and you should do something to spread education in each and every village throughout the world. Proper education means elevating the standard of downtrodden humanity.

We have to keep in view three fundamentals before imparting education. The first is that education must always be based on factuality. There must not be the injection of any dogma or fanaticism or any type of geographical or racial chauvinism in the education system.

The second fundamental is that education must awaken the thirst for knowledge in the students’ minds. The students themselves will create environmental pressure by persistent demands for answers to queries like: What is the answer? Is it correct? The longing, “I wish to know and… I wish to understand and assimilate the entire universe” should be created.

The third fundamental of education is that teachers and students should have a balanced mind, unaffected, unassailed by unimportant entities…Education should impart an awareness of who I am and what I ought to do… So we must start primary schools throughout the entire world to create a spiritual urge amongst the little pupils….To arouse the cooperative spirit among the people, there should be extensive training and education, but moral education must take precedence over everything else so that people do not give greater importance to individual interests at the expense of the collective interest.

When the underlying spirit of humanism is extended to everything, animate and inanimate, in this universe – I have designated this as Neohumanism. This Neohumanism will elevate humanism to universalism, the cult of love for all created beings of this universe.

Neohumanism will give impetus and energy to PROUT to remove all disparities and artificial barriers. This Neohumanist education will impart proper training to the mind. And at the same time there should be spiritual practice for proper psychic transformation. This is what we require most…It is most undesirable for the inherent intuition in human beings to be neglected in preference to theoretical knowledge or information memorized by rote.

Now in the case of Neohumanism, we have to consider how far the individual rhythms of human beings and other living creatures and plants are maintaining adjustment with the Cosmic rhythm.

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Didi Annapurna