Belief – Be pragmatic not dogmatic

One of the big advantages, which America possesses in comparison to Europe is its great common sense and developed pragmatism. While Europeans struggle with others and themselves about theoretical solutions, Americans have enough courage to take the risk of the unknown and discover new avenues. Europeans want to know everything beforehand and only want to start acting after having made up a “perfect” plan, which gives them a feeling of security, a feeling of having everything under control. America on the other hand always was more courageous and bold in doing what must be done than losing itself in fruitless discussions and philosophical considerations. And as experience shows, America is much more successful than Europe, which can blow up a question of minor importance to a question of heaven or hell, very easily. So what do I mean by the title of this post, when considering the issue of belief?

Europe very easily sticks to non-working systems although every rational mind must see, that it is not working. Europeans fall in love with their own ideas and concepts and try to force the world into them, no matter how much reality lets them run against a concrete wall. Best examples to mention are socialist, communist, atheistic and nihilistic thinking and the worldviews which were given birth by them. Once an American friend told me: “You Europeans never get it right! You are too afraid of the reality to act freely and accept the possibility of failure. Look, when it comes to religion and belief I have a very practical way of thinking. If I die and I did not believe in Jesus and his teachings, I got a big problem – and it cannot be solved any more. But on the other hand, if the bible is not true, I have nothing lost, for living according to the Scripture is not a bad life. So you have nothing to lose but everything to win! Who would not agree? Such a guy must be a moron!”. This kind of thinking is convincing for many atheist. But not so in Europe. Such arguments are seldomly heard here. For I think it would be an interesting approach towards the people unsaved. Most people are pragmatists deep inside their heart. But they where forced for many decades by ideologists to not consider the benefits, the advantages and the disadvantages of systems and ideas. For what ideologists hate most is to be confronted with a reality which does not confirm their mindset. As long as everything is in the mind and other people are infected by the same mindset you can feel comfortable. But facing the hard reality can make life hell for people who always want to be right, which is a typical characteristic of an ideologist.

So, what about believing, lets say believing into the bible for example? What does living a life according to the bible mean? People have a clear set of values, a tool for making decisions, a moral code in behaviour and the reassurance of a life in heaven (the last one is very important, but for a solely pragmatic person, it is of lesser importance, at least living in the here and now). The big questions of live like “Where do I come from?”, “Where do I go to?” and “What is the sense of my life?” become answered. I am sure, that living a live according to the bible burns away every neurosis, every personality disorder and every psychosis. The first question is: “What happens to a person, who is living according to the scripture?” In the beginning it is thinking, it is theory. Than you can observe the reality of living such a lifestyle in the life of other people who already live this way. But do not be too critical, for the bible leads to happiness and a good live in Christ for sure, but many people struggle and fail. God is not condemning failure, that is what the world does. The best of all ways to get insight is of course is personal experience! Once you change your life, and start living the new way, you will notice how the quality of your live is increasing. Such is true and you can see evidence in a two thousand year old history of Christianity and if you add the Hebrew culture you come up with more than three thousands years (Abraham – the first Hebrew - approximately live about 1750 – 1800 before Christ). If you asked me for an example of a man in the bible who had such a good live I would pick out king David, the great Leader of Israel. His life was blessed, he was successful in whatever he did, was rich, wise and beloved by the people. I think most people would like to have a life like king David. But, and that is the good news, David and the other great personalities of the bible where human beings, they where no super humans, angels or the like, but man and women who made mistakes, who had ups and downs, but a heart full of god. We can identify with them and we see the great love god has for all his children.

One thing I want to mention here: Belief and religion are not the same and there is a lot of confusion about the difference in some people. Belief means to honestly await things you do not see and very often your mind cannot imagine how they will happen. Religion on the other hand is a system, an institution made up by human beings. As important as a human church, a religious community is, there is always the danger to stick to traditions and convert them into a dogma of belief. We shall not worship anything or anybody but god! How do we see, what we are worshipping? That is very easy: Just look at the content of your heart. Whatever your heart is full of, that is what you are worshipping. How do you spend your time? What are you thinking most of? Where are your concerns? For example, if you are worrying and full of sorrows, that is what you are worshipping. You are worshipping your sorrows, not the Lord, not god father.

In the end do not be afraid of your own belief, if you see what you are doing and what you are thinking. Just stay in the word of god and if you fail, don’t do it again. That is all: See what you did wrong, make a clear decision, be determined and don’t repeat the wrong action. Not every question is about life or death, about heaven or hell! Live, what I would call “serious easiness in belief”. If belief is for you like a heavy load, instead of making you free, you are not in the true belief. Get rid of your load and pass it over to the Lord, for that is what he wants you to do. Be free, be happy and most of all, be fulfilled!

Ferdinand III. of Castile and Léon (1199 – 1252)

One of the biggest heroes of Christianity, the Western World and especially Spain, was the famous third king with the name Ferdinand. He was born in August 1199 as the oldest son of king Alphonso IX. of Léon and Berengaria of Castile. He became king of Castile in 1217 following his uncle Henry I. and by the death of his father in 1230; he also became king of Léon and united the two kingdoms under his strong and wise reign. At that time, big parts of middle and southern Spain were occupied by the Moors and the north was split up into several kingdoms. The “reconquista”, the liberation of Spain from den Moors, went hand in hand with uniting and forming the kingdom of Spain which came to a successful end by the marriage of king Ferdinand II. “The Catholic”, king of Aragon with Isabella of Castile in 1474. From the reign of Ferdinand III. onwards, Léon and Castile were permanently united. Ferdinand III. is also know as “the Saint”, for he was canonized by the Pope in the 17th Century.

Under king Ferdinand III. the reconquista reached a new pinnacle and vast territories were liberated from the Moors. In 711 the Moors came to Spain and conquered the majority of its land. It took many centuries to regain the lost territories by the Christian Spanish nobility. One of the biggest steps in this big project was fulfilled by Ferdinand. Beside of Castile and Léon, Asturia and Galicia became part of the greater kingdom and by this the base of Castile’s glory and power was led. Ferdinand expanded the power of his state to the southern sea (Spain’s Atlantic coast to the south, next to Portugal). Glorious triumphs he made by defeating the Moors at Cordoba (a very symbolic act) in 1236, Jaén in 1246, Seville in 1248 and Cadiz in 1250. By this the majority of the Iberian Peninsula came under his reign. The Moorish kingdom of Granada stayed independent but became dominated by Castile until the final end of Moorish influence in Spain by conquering Granada and its symbol of power, the castle of the Alhambra (“the red one”).

In 1239 he founded the famous University of Salamanca. The legal system was improved by the king and a royal court of appeal was established, before which everybody could appeal. A code of behaviour as a strict rule, for all the clerks of the king was passed and became a guiding line for centuries of Spanish administration. Ferdinand was as strong believer and defender of the Christian believe. For he was not a brutal man and always united wisdom, belief and moderation but stayed strong and invincible about questions of belief. Being king and living a Christian life was always very difficult for occidental rulers. Ferdinand succeeded admirably, like other Christian Saints who were kings like Louis IX. of France or king Olaf II. of Norway. Ferdinand fought strongly against heretics and was eager to secure the purity of Christian belief. Many dioceses were founded by him. One well known building, he let built, was the cathedral of Toledo (another city which was reconquered by one of Ferdinand’s ancestors). Before the king could follow his plans to invade Africa to free the Christians in the Moorish land, he became very sick. Ferdinand’s main interest was not power, but promote the glory of Jesus Christ and bringing back people to the Christianity. Part of this plan of course was to win against the enemy with whom there was no compromise possible: Islam. None the less, he showed a great heart, by treating the unbelievers rightly and let them sell there goods and let them return to the African continent. Also he was enormously successful, he never became arrogant, stayed humble before god and devoted everything to the Lord’s greater honour. As an outer sign of this, he built the cathedral of Burgos.

Ferdinand became famous as “the protector and defender” of the church. There are very beautiful paintings which show the Saint, which are seated in the Prado-Museum in Madrid and the Louvre in Paris. The Cathedral of Burgos owns a painting on which the king can be seen with the devil in the body of a dog, which is lying under the feet of Ferdinand. The royal family had a lot of offspring. As the result of the first marriage of Ferdinand with Beatrix of Swabia (the daughter of the German emperor Philipp of Swabia) arose seven sons and three daughters. His daughter Eleonor (1241 – 1290) became the wife of king Edward I. of England.

Ferdinand died on May 30th in 1252. In 1671 be became canonized by Pope Clement X. His day to remember is May 30th, the day of death.

False tolerance - Truth first!

Tolerance! What a praiseworthy, what a high value?! Who could ever be against it? Who could dare to criticize this great value? Well, I can and I will. Not tolerance per se, but tolerance without intelligence, without reason is what I do criticize! We always have to consider what is the base of our tolerance. From the outside it may look very beautiful, but viewed from the inside, tolerance can be a result of weakness or ignorance. Many people are tolerant because they think that if you do not attack someone else’s position, the person will not attack yours. People may be tolerant out of fear, out of a lack of strong character. Such a tolerance may lead to an outside peace, but it destroys your own soul, it destroys what should be stable inside of you, what is the solid rock in a stormy ocean. Tolerance can never mean to give up your own character, to violate your own boundaries, so that you do not have any conflict with other people.

Tolerance has its place, of course. But if tolerance means to give up truth, not to say what you mean, because it could harm someone and it could make someone feel bad, then it is false tolerance. You are not on earth to have a good understanding with other human beings. It is nice to have it, but it is not necessary. Your job in life is to fulfil your mission, to spread truth on earth and to prepare for the life after life. May the world hate you or not. There is nothing bad about being hated. Being hated for truth is sweet, very sweet. Think of the great Greek philosopher Socrates. He died for truth, also he could have avoided to drink the mug of poison. But his love for truth was bigger than fear of death. What a great person!

A world community, where absolute values are given up, because of harmony and understanding of human beings, is a big lie. It would be better if the world lives in a permanent state of war, than giving up truth! This is a hard saying, I know, but it is rightful and therefore I do not fear to make it public. We see in our world too many compromises, too much of false tolerance. We have to change! And we have to change quickly! Otherwise we will end up in a world of outside peace, but inside terror.

Imagine a world, where people live like the old hippies thought: Love and peace and understanding, no hunger, no war, no terrorism. Again who could not want this? What an evil person someone must be not to love such a “paradise”? But what is the price for such a world? Ignorance of basic principles! It would mean giving up the absolute values, of truth! Such a world would be possible, but it would be an evil world inside, a world without real principles, a world without the complete guidance of the creator! It is a world that is very seductive, it looks so nice and seems to fulfil all the wishes of human beings. The heart of such a world is devilish, is governed by the Antichrist. But it would be too late for the people who glorify this world. The moment they find out what really is set up in the heart of such a world (evil), they are all going to lose their freedom and end up in the worst nightmare imaginable. Evil very often comes disguised by beautiful masks. Or as the old saying goes: The devil is dressed in an angel’s gown and is carrying a bible in his hand to approach a poor soul.

Beware of the nice one, of the people who demand tolerance, harmony, peace and understanding! They are people who want you to give up you character, to give up your (absolute) values. Truth is absolute and it is as hard as a diamond, nothing can split it off. Whoever wants to tell you about moral relativism, who wants to tell you that good and evil are relative and dependent on the situation or time, is not a friend of you, but someone who wants to take what is yours, like a thief in the night. Therefore the only thing, which really counts is: TRUTH, not tolerance! Let truth, and only truth, be your guiding light! That is the only way to end up at the place that is set up for you long before you where born.

The positive side of globalization

Talking about globalization, very quickly leads to strong controversies among people. What the media is presenting us, is mostly the negative side (bad news is good news). And the meaning of the globalization is everything else then good, that is the way it looks for many. Therefore I want to write a little bit about the positive side, which is, what I believe, not covered enough. I only write about aspects which are visible now, I do not speculate about what is or could be coming or what expectations people have. It is definitely true, that a big part of disappointment about globalization is caused by propaganda (economic and political) which has not been fulfilled, as well as wishes people had, projections of one’s own interests.

The first aspect I want to cover is an economic one. Barriers of commerce have been decreased, international standards have been established and a mutual competition among companies has led to the optimized use of capital, workforce and know how. Crops and commodities are available in nearly any quantity and at any time. The liquidity of financial markets is providing enough capital for national and international growth. International credit standards and accounting standards make companies more transparent and enable people to compare companies of different countries with each other. That was a big problem for many years for capital administrators, when looking for foreign investments. One thing should be mentioned here: Globalization is nothing new in the world of economics. Before World War I. the international trade volume among different nations has been nearly as high as today (in relation to the size of nations, population etc. of that time of course). Barriers where build up during the first half of the 20. Century and it took many decades to get rid of them. Internationalization and globalization are everything else but knew.

Democracy is spreading around the world. Even if many nations resists this development (at least until now – look at Northern Africa, I am sure in the near future we are going to see some major changes there!), more and more people become aware of their human rights. The idea that there are human rights which are given to everybody, not by the government, but by nature of human beings itself, is becoming well know to a big part of mankind. An easy and transparent legal system which guarantees private property to people and secures personal values, is necessary for economic growth, as well as the freedom of conscious. This becomes common knowledge around the planet. Even totalitarian regimes are not able to control the information their people get nowadays. We have seen this impressively in the last years. And a few courageous companies, who have a strong backbone, show us how not to give in “the evil”.

People speak at least one foreign language, apart form their mother tongue, and the understanding of foreign cultures and civilizations gets improved. Means of communication are very quick and everywhere available, so what was exclusive and very expensive decades ago and only possible for a small elite, became part of every person’s daily life. The internet is the symbol of globalization of communication. Of course, most of what can be found in the net, is of low or very low value, but let us not forget the pearls which exist and which can be found. We have an enormous amount of information but what is mostly missing is a strategy to cope with it. Communication takes too much of our short time and the personal and/or economic value we get out of it, is quiet low. I am sure we will learn to cope with information in a way that provides better results in the future. The increase of the productivity of mental work of work based on knowledge, is one of the big tasks management is given in the 21th century.

Culture: We also see a better understanding of others cultures in most parts of the world. We watch the same movies, read the same bestselling books. Actors, writers, artists are know throughout the world. Many think that this global unity would destroy the local character of culture. That was true for the beginning of this development, but the more people are globalizes, the more they ask themselves about their own roots. There is a rising awareness of the culture you come from. The farer the branches reach out into the world, the more the roots get strengthened. That is the new human of the 21th century. You do not push aside your home, your origins, you live them more consciously, the farer away you are form your home.

Religion: For most big religions, globalization is nothing new. Most of them offer solutions for all human beings and they are represented all over the globe not only for years but for centuries. There knowledge could be very valuable in the ethical and moral development of the world. But there has to be paid attention to the theological depth of the belief. There is a big danger in staying on the surface, of presenting a religion “light”, which is nothing more than a lifestyle, which changes very quickly. Religions are fundaments, are solid rocks, in an ever changing world. The highly moral demands of the religions must stay as they are completely and unchangeable! There cannot be any change in questions of belief itself. Religions are more demanding than most of the other “systems” we know in the world. But if rightly understood, they have an enormous potential for the good. They fulfil the most demanding need of human beings: the need for sense in life. So religions could really become the “salvation” for the world.

These are just a few aspects of the positive side of globalization. There are many more and I do not claim to have covered the topic in its wholeness. That would not be the sense of a short article, written on a private blog. But I hope I could make sure, that globalization is not something negative per se. We have concentrated too much on the economic development and have very often let aside the other parts (social, political, ethical and most important the moral side!). It will be the job of the next years and decades to develop a complete globalization which includes all aspects of human life. Well, there is a big job to be done.

The goal and the way

Viktor E. Frankly (1905–1997), the great Austrian psychiatrist and founder of the Logo-Therapy, once said that there are two kinds of people in the world. On the one hand, there are the ones who think that reaching a goal, justify any means, which are necessary therefore. On the other hand, there are the ones who believe, that the way of reaching a goal is equally important than reaching the goal itself. But how do we decide? How do we make valuable decisions? How do we really come to a judgement which has its roots in moral and ethics?

Many people in our times think that what counts in the end is what feels good for them. I have written about the feel-good society in a previous post (If it feels good, do it!). The lack of moral standards has become a disease of our times. People have become very suspicious when it comes to the decision of right and wrong. We have seen throughout history that a legion of different systems claimed to have the absolute truth. In different countries and times, right and wrong was what authority claimed to be right or wrong. That has led, in the course of liberation of men, to a position of uncertainty, a kind of moral vacuum which could not be filled. And whoever claimed to be able to fill this vacuum, did not get the support of the majority of the people. What stays left, are a moral relativism and a huge amount of cynicism, which is always the result of uncertainty and anxiety underneath. People crave for clear standards, but it seems that nobody can provide such standards and declare its usefulness. Scientists expand the relativity of their own business onto ethics and moral. In the end right and wrong are subjective and depend on circumstances, persons, society, politics and a lot more. Nobody is completely satisfied, but we are told, it is the best we can get. The hunger for sense und direction stays, but we have to hold it out and stay unsatisfied. At least the human ego can celebrate itself as a modern hero, who goes through a senseless life but shoulders the heavy burden with pride. After centuries of being guided and controlled by someone else, human beings crave for freedom, freedom of men, freedom of systems, freedom of ideology and indoctrination. But in many cases the pendulum has swung too much into the other direction. More and more people see, that freedom can never mean living without rules. As well is it can never mean to deny all rules coming from outside.

But true freedom is a process which always puts the ego into the second row and let something greater than human rule the life. It takes humbleness to accept such a rule of “the father”, as Christian, for example, would call. The reign of “the father” makes free, but the reign of human beings puts you into bondage. This paradoxical fact is everything else than easy to be understood and it takes emotional, intellectual and spiritual maturity to reach at such an insight. And it can never come solely from outside. Nobody can be made to act morally, the light of insight must shine from within and the ignition is always a kind of grace, nothing human being could completely reach by himself.

We definitely live in more complex times, than any generation, who lived before us. Moral questions have never been more difficult to be answered. What is lacking is a solid rock in the stormy sea, the one thing we can rely on. It is easy to see, that nobody can make complete and wise decision who has not found himself. A person, without complete knowledge of his or her own values, is unable to stay “on course” during hardship and turmoil. Emotional balance is crucial to decision making. The power to make decisions is one of the characteristics of a complete mature person. Opportunism is immaturity as well as anybody is not a complete person who uses other human beings as tools for his own fulfilment and joy or reaching his goals. For a wise person it is never true that sweet fruits come out of evil deeds – never! Nobody does a crime and gets away with it – never! Also many people nowadays believe that being smart hides the evil intention and action. An immature person will believe so, but the wise one knows: The reaction will come, sooner or later, with certainty! Look at all the white collar crime. For many years people are heroes of the masses, the media, but in the end they fall deep, deeper than anyone could have imagined. Nothing stays hidden forever; everything gets disclosed in the end.

That brings us back to the beginning of this article: The way is equally important, than the goal, the end! The end depends on the beginning. In our times, where society is split up into more groups than ever before, the potential for conflict is even bigger than ever before. Many groups try to wipe out others and deny their right to exist. The “majority” is ever changing and people will learn than in most cases they will be part of a minority. Being a member of the minority becomes completely normal! That is a situation most people are no used to. And the consequences are enormous. The security of the group is gone and individuals will be confronted more and more with a strong wind blowing into his face. Without personal values and boundaries, one will be blown through life like a leaf in the wind. The permanent self-betrayal will lead to depression, senselessness and tragedy in life. The world will not help you, for nobody is interested in your good but yourself (and your creator of course). Mature people will conclude that the only way to guarantee peace in modern society is by having a few basic principles on which a people is built. We need a real respect for the other ones as human beings. If respect depends on a certain worldview, political opinion, religion or the like, an understanding is impossible. Imagine an atheist and an evangelical preacher. Without accepting each other as human beings, one side will always believe in superiority. Superiority and inferiority thinking poisons every social climate and by the way are never justified at all!

Never before, ethical and moral values have had a bigger impact on politics, whether it is national or international, economy and society as a whole. After the times of crises there is always a time of new clarity. After this time of common relativism we will see a time of new orientation and clarity. When people of good heart stand as a moral example and act by it, how much resistance they may every face, people will start trusting and learn that trust is better than mistrust. Without a basic optimism, no society can exist for long. If human beings do not trust east other, if society is divided it must be doomed to fall. If a house fights against itself the result will be ruin. If the devil fights against himself, he cannot prevail. Lucky is who possesses a strong moral code of ethics, by which his feet are guided. America is rooted in Christendom. The founding fathers always prayed and quoted the bible more often than any other works of philosophers and thinkers. Also Europe can find its eternal moral values in its history if it is ready to reconcile with its history and origin. As for the individual the task is the reconciliation with the source – so salvation, moral action and wise decision will be the prosperous harvest!

What is esotericism?

Last week I wrote about anthroposophy and Mr. Rudolf Steiner. As I told, the idea came into my mind by meeting an old friend of mine after many years within which we haven’t met. I did some research and found out about anthroposophy, which descended originally form theosophy, and its teachings. But what was even more important for me, was to take a close look at my fiend’s life. This was a true revelation! His life had turned into a chaos, since he began to become involved with anthroposophy. A once happy marriage was divorced, he doesn’t want to have any contact with his children any more, his money is gone (all to the society which he now serves) and he is living from public welfare. But what is most surprising it, that he does not see the reality of his life. According to his statements, he has risen very high on the ladder of spiritual levels and is about to become a masters. Therefore he has to avoid all people with “low” character, and most of the world would be to dirty for his “pure” thoughts. It would only take a short time from now and an uprising of the planet would take place, but only for the “chosen” one of course. Everybody else would be sent to lower levels of beings, for the world (which is considered a living being) would be taken to a higher (lighter) state of being (I somewhere heard the same nonsense from some 2012-the-end-of-the-world people).

I haven’t heart a bigger nonsense for many years. This reminds me of many people who are involved within the New-Age or Esotericism scene. They believe to come into contact with “higher” worlds or spheres. Well, from the scientific point of view such phenomenon are nonsense, may be some hallucinations, a case for psychiatrists and in worst case for mental institutions. But other religious traditions, especially Christian ones are aware of the existence of such “worlds”. For example, the Catholic Church is still education exorcists to free people from evil spirits. Whatever we think about such practises, one think that cannot be denied is the fact that people make experiences and that there are many ways by which such experiences can be made. Whoever meditates for a certain time will have experiences, which are not explainable by scientific ways. Even the most “reality”-orientated person cannot deny such experiences.

The word esotericism originates from the old Greek and means, hidden, secret, inside. It is the same as the Latin word occultism. But occultism has some negative connotations and most people interested in the “paranormal” or “supernormal” use esotericism for it sounds much more harmless and is more attractive. But the fact stays that it is the same. Esotericism cares for all things that cannot be perceived in the ordinary, sensual way, we live our daily life. Many people start esotericism, because they are disappointed by the experiences, which they made within their traditional religions (if they have any experiences there at all). They come into contact with the “supernatural” and this experience makes them believe. In contrary the traditional religions did not give them this experience and stay boring and old fashioned in their minds. Many think esotericism offers them the freedom they are searching for. Religion seems to be a way to rule people and take away their freedom. It is nothing to accuse people for, for the reign of humans brings slavery, but the reign of God makes you free. But people consider God being a bigger kind of human being. They have never understood God, they believe in the old point of view of the old polytheistic religions. Gods are a kind of superhuman, according to these traditions, they have bright characteristics and dark characteristics. If you see God as a superhuman with a good and a bad side you haven’t understood a think of the truth of Christendom.

It is true there is a world of God and there is a world of humans. And in between we find many spiritual phenomena with angels, demons, light-beings and the like. It is true, that they exist, they are no illusions. But one think is an illusion: To think that the spiritual world can bring salvation, you can never be free by caring for the spiritual world. God is much higher! And another thing: God is absolute, the spiritual world is a relative (good and evil) and it never serves mankind. There are a lot of lies, which have it’s origin within this spiritual world. The idea, that human beings have a divine potential or that human beings and god are the same. Esotericism thinks human beings can do things on their own if they follow certain rules. Truth is, that without God human beings are unable to help themselves. Nobody can find the way to God without the grace of God. God alone can do the revelation, whatever human beings do, they can never find it on their own (for example Buddhism thinks human beings have Buddha-nature, which is one of the big lies of Buddhism!).

In many of my next posts on this blog, I will explain more in detail the relationships between esotericism, religions and spiritual experiences.

An unusual way of learning

Learning is one of the most important skills of our times. What we learn and what we have to learn during our lifetime changes where quickly. New inventions, ever changing circumstances demand a growing awareness and flexibility, not only in physical movement but even more in mental abilities. But even when things around us are changing, there are certain stable rocks that change very slowly if ever in our lifetime. One of such stable components is the way we learn. School normally suggests that there is a right way for learning, as well as there is a right way to do things. In effect, pupils and students are forced to accept a certain way of doing things, whether it applies to the individual personality or not. Whoever fits into the educational system will be promoted and probably get successful. But the ones who fail or have learning habits, who are very far away from what is called “normal” will get bigger problems, or in worst case, fail completely and are called dull or mentally underpriviledged. One indicator by which this can be seen, are the school marks. For good marks tell very little about the real abilities of children, but even more about the adaptability to the system. The more you conform, the better your marks will be. Smart pupils always knew that in order to get a good mark, it is not necessary to be enormously intelligent, but to impress the teacher, by telling him what he wants to hear.

This leads me to the question of the style of learning. Many people do not know their own style of learning or thoughts, and believe that it is not really necessary to find one’s way of learning things. School is over (for luck), they think, and the rest is a more or less successful struggle through life. I cannot agree to this and more and more people can’t because they feel the negative consequences of not knowing their one learning habits. So there are people who prefer reading things (reading types) or others, who do best, when they hear, what they have to learn (hearing types). These are the types, who will be most successful in the traditional school system. Then there are others special types of learners, like the one’s who have to read aloud or walk through a room by learning (like a lawyer before court). Some people have all kinds of rituals to promote their mental awareness and creativity. Think of poets like Friedrich v. Schiller (1759-1805) who had always old apples on his desk, while working or many artists who have their muse to inspire their mind to produce their most wonderful works of art.

I am sure that there are many other ways of learning, which are as individual, as there are personalities on earth. My personal way of learning is writing. I never learn better, than when writing about something. This blog is one way of doing so. Whenever I read or hear about something new, I sit down and write a few sentences about the topic. By doing so I recapitulate what I have got to know, I structure the lessons learnt and express myself. It took some time to find out, that this is the optimum of doing so for me. Until a few months ago, I was sure my way of learning would be walking through a room and recitate what I have to learn. It was a very well working way for me, which was successful for many years. But now I have found another and even better path to learn. It is not what will be accepted very well at school. I got to know that Sir Winston Churchill (1874-1965), the famous British Prime Minister, did learn exactly the same way. Well if someone winning the Nobel Price for Literature was learning in that way, it may not be the worst choice for me also!