Mastery

The concepts of education and mastery have been hijacked by the corporate-educational complex, aided by government-mismanaged loan programs in the U.S.. Education has become a cash cow for banks and university administrators at the expense of indebted students. This process is mirrored in the corporate-medical complex.

 

Mastery of anything requires practice for all but the rare savant. Anyone who studied a foreign language which was never used in daily application will understand this. Use it or lose it.

 

My humanist practice is an attempt at mastery. I attempt to master my own mind, my own body's functionality, my own immediate environment, which falls under my maintenance and responsibility. I believe this is the most important form of human mastery, from which all other functionality evolves more effectively.

 

What good is a PhD if I am sick, deluded or disconnected from my environment? What contribution can I really make to the world without first mastering my own inner world? How much of the dysfunction in the world is propagated by those who attain power based on institutional credentials without also mastering their own humanity, their own compassion, their own truthfulness?

 

The quest for mastery of the self can begin in this moment without tuition and fees. Learning the map of my own mind begins with internal evaluation and honesty. It is aided by daily meditation, daily exercise and daily human interaction. Being the master of my own life is the only way I know to become the better person I wish to be.