The Basics

POINT TO PONDER: Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know- Pema Chodron

STORY LINE: I have been fortunate to have learned a great deal from many wonderful mentors, teachers, and bosses in my life. Even in the pressure cooker environment of High Technology people have taken the time to impart “soft” lessons to me. The following lesson, written by an unknown author, was given to me by one of my senior colleagues and a friend during the mid-part of my career. Looking back, he meant well.

The Basics

You Will Receive A Body
You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.  

You Will Have Learning Experiences
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school, you will have the opportunity to learn lessons - you may like the lesson or think them irrelevant and stupid.  

There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons
There is a process of trial and error; experimentation. The 'failed' experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately 'works'.  

A Lesson Is Repeated Until It Is Learned
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.  

Learning Does Not End. 
There is no part of Life that does not contain learning. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.  

'There' Is No Better Than 'Here'. 
When your 'there' has become a 'here', you will simply obtain another 'there' that will again look better than 'here'.  

Others Are Merely Mirrors Of You. 
You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.  

What You Make Of Your Life Is Up To You. 
You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.  

Your Answers Lie Inside You. 
The answers to Life's questions lie inside you. All you need do is look, listen and trust. 

You Can Forget All This or Make it Worthwhile.

Comments

[humble warrior]

"You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours."

I agree. we all have 24 hours in a day... and with internet, resources are so easily available to us now more then ever... converting yourself from dreamer into doer with these tools and resources... what do with them really is a choice, isn't it

[Sam]

"Your Answers Lie Inside You". I agree that the final answer to any question comes from within but the process could be such that we draw on the experience of others and by doing new things. Sometimes "looking inside" may hold us to our past.

[Levi's]

Thank you for sharing.
I feel there is a connection here to Richard Bach.
Bach wrote (after his wildly successful book Jonathan Livingston Seagull) a few other books, including "Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah", which contains a sort of user manual, too.
A few notable quotes include:

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.”

“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Rarely do members of one family grow up under the same roof.”

“We teach best what we most need to learn.”

“The best way to avoid responsibility is to say, 'I've got
responsibilities.”

“if you argue for your limitations they are yours”

[sujat]

Very useful.... i will keep on reminding myself about this. Thanks a lot.

My favourite among the listed truths of life above is - "Learning Does Not End.
There is no part of Life that does not contain learning. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned."

The very fact that we r using a physical vehicle for these 3D world explorations implies that we have still not completed our education. Simple!