THE COSMIC CONNECTION AND THEORY OF UNIVERSAL FULFILLMENT

Please allow me to begin this brief discussion with some more questions. What messages do we want to give our children? What messages do we want them to receive?

I suggest that we've never really given these questions sufficient thought. Certainly we think we have, and like religious institutions massive educational institutions have grown up all around us. But like religion, education should be enjoyable and natural. Our mistake, once again, has been to panic.

We panic because we believe the body is all- important. And we think that provided the body is safe and secure everything else will follow, while the sublime joys of our inherent creativity lay dead or dying on the bloody battlefields of old; the dysfunctional home, nation, planet and universe.

Well I ask you, how many of you feel fulfilled even if you are well fed? How many of you wish you could be doing something else? And how many of you have realized that our current education system is condemning our children to the same sort of mechanistic/materialistic/soul destroying future?

This is not to say we should radically change the educational system but we should, at the very least re-assess and modify it. As it stands now the current system produces a small percentage of neat little packages that fit snuggly into those overly much coveted pigeon- holes of personal/economic stability while leaving countless other not-so-neat little packages drifting in a personal/economic wasteland. And even if that isn't the case, many of us reach the age of thirty-five or forty and wonder what we're doing here. Sometimes, if we're courageous enough we look back and wonder why we made the choices we did only to discover we did so for all sorts of reasons. Only those who have successfully negotiated the personal/economic obstacle course at a relatively young age emerge at the other end feeling personally and financial satiated.

It's because of this I suggest that we rename school and call it The Creator's Club and gradually introduce a new curriculum. Instead of merely aiming at socio/economic growth, education could help foster personal/spiritual growth. I know education claims to try and do this all ready. But does it try hard enough? Or is the current curriculum a mere cover-up for our underlying fears of being underloved and underfed? You just have to spend time with some authentic mums during canteen duty to realize they hope for more personal satisfaction for their children than what is currently on offer.

Proposals for educational reform –

1. Increased emphasis on communication skills such as listening and authenticity of self-expression.
2. Introduction of a community-based volunteer program (shared experience program) including parents, professionals, tradespeople and artists to increase the range of experience and opportunities.
3. Regular and good quality work experience.
4. The introduction and maintenance of a mentorship program for all ages and requirements.
5. Community service programs for all age groups.
6. Introduction of comparative philosophy and religion into all age levels.
7. Completely free and concurrent with the whole of life.

I must admit that I don't see the future as an improved global economy but as a co-operative gift sharing community. By learning who and what we are at an early age surely we will be better equipped to make the important choices. Major change can only be effected from inside where the source of our true creativity lies. The must give mentality will gradually supersede the must get mentality, for what else can a happy/fulfilled person do but give and share?

The Co-creative Cycle