Education for Life
- Pathways of Possibility
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
In this article, Joanna Infeld offers her thoughts and insights about life and its purposes — and the journey of learning beyond the classroom.
I went to kindergarten when I was five. I went to school when I was six, and graduated when I was 18. Then I went to university and the course I was in lasted five years. Within those 18 years of schooling and education, never was the question answered or debated why I was here on Earth and what was the significance of being born.
Yes, I can read and write, and these are wonderful tools to have and implement—they have allowed me to research religions and find out what philosophers throughout the ages have said about life and its purpose.
Although various religions claim to know what the afterlife will be like, and how we all will be judged and assessed according to our decisions and actions in this life, these predictions do not necessarily add up with the accounts of people who have had near death experiences, or out-of-body experiences, and have come back to life to tell of their adventures on the other side.
So today I am wondering where is this heaven or afterlife, and why can’t we see it through our most powerful telescopes? It would seem that there is another dimension somewhere out there where all souls come from when they reincarnate onto this planet. And if there are other planets that are inhabited by humanoids, do the rules and regulations about reincarnation apply there as they do on this planet? Does anybody really know what we must do to earn another life on this planet, and is that the best we can achieve when living our earthly existence?
If our life here determines where we go after the death of the physical body, why are more people not interested in living a pious, generous life filled with good deeds, helping one’s neighbors and sharing one’s wealth? On the contrary, most people are shortsighted in that they try to have a good life while here on Earth. They do not seem too concerned about their next life. And those who do try and prepare for themselves a better next life, like some monks, nuns and fakirs, are not able to demonstrate a proof that they are going to heaven, or to a better life when they leave their current body behind.
It seems to me that this life is a challenge and a test to see how we will respond in various situations, and that as we grow older we have the opportunity to adjust our beliefs and become more based in reality, knowing that no one has ever cheated death and that we are all heading toward the exit.
Will our next life be better than this one? And why are we here, with no memory of where we came from? Will our many questions be answered in our next life, or shall we have to start from the beginning again, going back to kindergarten and learning to read and write one more time? Is life
a graduated process—one step at a time, as each incarnation teaches us what not to do and how best to be?
Perhaps living is such a complicated and multidimensional skill that it takes several attempts to become a master and to graduate to the next level. Perhaps we are still in the kindergarten of life and most of us have a long way to go before we are harmonized with the purposes of Creation and able to become its willing servant.
It would seem that the human is one of the most advanced life forms in the universe, and maybe there already exist people who can heal with their hands and see into the realms of energy. Here on Earth there might already be different levels of humans with varying skills and beliefs. It might be our privilege to find them and learn from them.
Our life here is multidimensional and it is choice that makes it so varied as we navigate our way through the years.
So I will settle for this life and try to make it an education and a test, as I prepare for what is next without expectation or bias, but with the idea of surrender to a higher purpose and understanding.
(Excerpted from Joanna's book Little Wisdoms for a Big Life.)
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