دسته بندی نشده

Earlier in the thirty-eighth episode of the first season of the Shams Academy Podcast, I presented a program entitled “What and How to Learn?”. Also in the eleventh episode of the second season of this podcast, I mentioned to write an article about education and its difference with learning. In this article, I will concentrate a little more on these issues and I will fulfill that promise. We often train or pursue our personal studies to gain knowledge and awareness and to increase our knowledge. Of course, we have another goal that for most people, this goal is a priority and even urgency: the foundations of life such as getting good marks (in school) and finding a better job. 

Does formal education bring happiness?

Before answering this question, we need to know the concept of happiness. We will definitely talk about happiness later, and since I do not want to get out of the subject of this article, I will only provide a definition of it: Happiness is a state that keeps a person completely and constantly satisfied without being dependent on something else. I wanted to talk about the relationship between formal education and happiness, but as it is clear now, the definition of happiness also has a clear answer to that question. But for the readers who follow my courses academically, I explain that formal education, with all its undeniable traits and benefits, can certainly not directly lead to human happiness. It may be the cause (the necessary condition), but it alone does not guarantee happiness (it is not the sufficient condition).

What should we learn?

What makes us happy! And if we ask what makes us happy, the answer would be “what we enjoy.” In other words, if you are exposed to training contents that you do not enjoy, those never lead you to happiness, definitely. So if you do not avoid it, wasting your time will be the least consequence. This condition will be exacerbated if you receive trainings from someone or something or a system that needs to be modified!

How to learn?

Patiently and wisely! While learning, we need to be patient. Give what we learn a chance to take place in our spirit. It is not possible to set a timeline to this, because it will be different to everyone. The next point is that in order to learn effectively, we should not move on to the next content until we understand the earlier well. So we can say it now: learn patiently, wisely and lovingly to become happy.

Shams, or if we want to know his full name, “Shams ol-Din Mohammad ibn Ali ibn Malekdad Tabrizi” is a mystic who shook Mawlana Jalaluddin Balkhi (Rumi) very much. Shams shook him while no one even thought of touching Mawlana. He is an Islamic jurist who prevented another jurist (Mawlana) from practicing jurisprudence. He is a bird that does not want that Mawlana walk on the ground, because he sees Mawlana’s place in the sky. Mawlana, who himself indeed is famous for his eloquence and wisdom, and has many disciples and listeners from far and near lands. But for him, all this is not only nothing but a lot! It is a lot, because it is a veil for the eyes of his heart. How many jurists and speakers whose words are heard only during their lifetime; and how many ears are looking for a new sound every day, not a new word. Not a word that creates a new world for them, that only puts an absurd dream in front of them.

Meta-Questions!

Shams Tabrizi was not only like a bird, but also a mighty questioner. Why a bird? He was traveling from city to city to acquire knowledge and wisdom; so he was nicknamed Volant: Shams Volant! He was asking Meta-Questions from sages, poets and mystics that he met. Those were questions that were making another question: how could this issue is emerged in your mind? It should be noticed that in most cases, Shams both asked and answered! It was as if he had asked to teach, not to learn! Shams with this kind of questions stimulated inquisitive and pure nature of Mawlana and made him give up everything and be follower of him. 

The most famous question that is mentioned about the meeting between Shams and Mawlana is that “why a mystic like Abayazid Bastami says “Praise to me, who my glory is great”, while the Prophet of Islam did not make such a claim? He also asks about the genesis and the origin of human (we may talk more about these questions and answers later). But in the case of Abayazid, Shams’s answer was just one word: capacity!

Why is human capacity so important and influential?

Abayazid has been a great man with limited capacity rather to the Prophet Mohammad (peace be upon him). Of course, Abayazid is admirable as a great man. However, he has revealed some mystical secrets, so that expressing it to others may be his fault; a mistake that Mansour Hallaj also committed it. So, his speech was not wrong. It was just misplaced, which was due to the finite capacity.

If I want not to be involved with mystical pathology and return to the subject of my article, I would like to say that Shams gave new life to Mawlana. I am not alone about this inference. Professor Mohammad Hasan Naser-eddin Sahebzamani has expressed this point delicately in his unique book entitled “The Third Line”. Shams changed Mawlana from “lover” to “be loved”. Mawlana loves God, but as I mentioned in the thirty-second episode of the first season of the Shams Academy Podcast, Shams made God fall in love with Mawlana. 

 “Who am I” and “What is my effect in life” are questions that are plying a specific role in our minds and lives. As a solution and in one sentence, I tell you that ask yourself “Who am I”? Because more than the answer, it is the path of finding the answer that opens the way to discover the truth. By the way, this solution is one of my tweets that I have also published on my LinkedIn page. I mentioned this so if you are eager to see my notes, follow those pages. “Who I am” and “What role I have in this world” are fundamental questions that have occupied the human mind since the beginning of history. Of course, this may not be so clear to everyone (i.e. emerging these questions to everyone). Some people come across other forms of these questions, and some people ask these questions in situations such as criticizing themselves or blaming themselves for something. For example, they might say, “What have I really achieved in such a job all these years?” What role did I play in the world? Or maybe someone else is wondering why I wasted my time in school and college for years? 

These are the questions that come to the mind of every intelligent person. I used the word “smart” because I really consider someone who has not faced such a challenge, deprived from intelligence. In fact, it does not matter how I evaluate such a person; what is important is that this person does not get anything from his life and he/she will not be satisfied with it. I will definitely talk about cognition of human in more details in my next articles and I will answer your questions as well, but let me just focus on this topic in this article.

Why the way of finding the answer of mentioned question is more critical?

Everyone has variety of experiences of life, faces different challenges and learns from them. This is an appropriate idea by default. But do we really learn from life? Is it possible to consider that what we have learned are correct? How successful have we been to observe all aspects of the issue? Have we had pure experiences to see and learn? Definitely, the farther we are from pollutants and impurity, the better we learn. But what I want from you is to focus on this issue: How to get through all this happenings and challenges?

Without a doubt, complexity and fast-paced events are features of life. It is neither possible nor efficient to fight these factors. The right way is to confront them (instead of fighting them). People want to win when confronted and take on all the coordinates that form from something like a race in their mind. But while confronting, people will learn how to learn! There is no need to worry about “who” or “what to learn from”. I have no doubt, you who are reading this article agree with me about the previous sentence. A wise man/woman does not block the way of learning. Learns and crosses. Therefore, the concern that remains is how to learn or, as I mentioned in the headline, is the way to find the answer.

Releasing yourself while being determined to be aware is the keyword for finding an answer to this question. Determined and being serious to be familiar with yourself and discovering the meaning of life are basic procedure. Even while drinking water, look for a paraphrase of yourself and life. When you feel good smell, think about… I prefer not to say what you should think! Do this yourself as a personal task; if you have not discovered anything sensible and meaningful from this task, share your experience with me so we can talk about it.