The Necessity of Lifelong Learning and Education

Xuefeng

January 13, 2024

Do people need to continue learning and receiving education when they reach the age of 80?

The answer is affirmative. Because the journey of life is still long, at 80 years old, one is still just a child. Because learning and receiving education are the primary factors leading to maturity and a better future. Once one stops learning and receiving education, the trajectory of one’s life becomes fixed, and one’s troubles, pains, and resentments will continue. Therefore, as long as one is alive and the mind is clear, one should not stop learning and receiving education.

If one knows that they are going to die in the afternoon, should they learn and receive education in the morning?

The answer is also affirmative. "If in the morning I were to gain knowledge of the correct path in life, I would be able to die at sunset without regret." ” If the morning’s learning and education can make the confusion of one’s life suddenly clear, one will not be attached to the world and will leave the world peacefully. Leaving peacefully will open the door to a better future.

Looking back on my life, if I am not creating, I am learning and receiving education. Creation brings me joy, learning and receiving education make me understand the truth, and also make me open-minded. Doing nothing and pure enjoyment actually leave me with regret and pain, only creation, learning, and receiving education make my life full of joy and satisfaction.

What should we learn?

In adolescence, learn knowledge, in youth, learn skills, after middle age, learn philosophy, in old age, learn Tao.

Why should we receive education?

Because of ignorance, or we are not omniscient and omnipotent. From my cognition, even the presidents of various countries in the world today, billionaires, scholars, and professors, none of them are perfect, and none of them understand life and LIFE. As for the general public, there is even more lack of knowledge, and their nonmaterial structure of LIFE is too defective, which will not only lead to their own unhappy future, but also lead to disharmony and disasters in nature.

I also found a problem, that is, ninety-eight percent of people did not receive good education from their parents when they were young, and they can be said to be underdeveloped. The reason is that one is that parents neglect to educate and guide their children, and the other is that the parents’ own outlook on life, values, outlook on LIFE, and worldview have problems. Parents are like molds, and the products poured out of defective molds will be branded with the defects of the molds.

If you didn’t establish a correct outlook on life, values, outlook on LIFE, and worldview when you were young, you will be affected by it for the rest of your life. Apart from the influence of innate factors, the education and guidance received when one was young is very important. Many people’s willfulness, stubbornness, shortsightedness, narrow-mindedness, and selfishness are caused by the cultural environment when they were young, and that kind of character is difficult to correct for a lifetime.

There is also a very serious problem, that is, almost all the knowledge taught in primary schools, middle schools, and universities around the world is how to survive, lacking the teaching of knowledge about being a person and the relationship between people and nature. Even if some countries’ school education includes some knowledge about being a person and the relationship between people and nature, it is still not comprehensive, even one-sided.

Who will implement education and guidance?

Parents, kindergarten, primary, middle, and university school teachers are the most critical factors. Craftsmen and masters and virtuous people in all walks of life, saints among human beings should all participate in education and guidance. Undoubtedly, these people have their own subjectivity and one-sidedness, so they cannot make the educated person sublimate in all aspects of body, mind, and spirit. Therefore, the ultimate education and guidance still have to rely on the Gospel in the New Testament of the Bible, the Diamond Sutra, and the Tao Te Ching.

In short, life is not easy, and one should use a lifetime to learn and receive education.