04 - The Fourth Keystone
Endeavor to learn new things and be educated by others.
The Fourth Keystone – handed down to us by the Paraclete, speaks to the endless quest for education and self-betterment. Only by bettering ourselves can we ensure we better those around us; akin to a rising tide, better humans lift all ships.
One of the keys to our advancement as a species, and what brings us closer to divinity, is our ability to come together, learn from one another, and overcome the hurdles imposed upon us by the world and our own personal limitations. This is the power of education, and the value it can bring to each of us.
Education should not be conflated with schooling. Education is the path to betterment via learning things useful in life and in the community, while schooling is merely attendance at an institution, with the goal (and certainly the hope) of attaining an education. Sadly, it is often a lucky byproduct or a fortuitous side effect of schooling. The focus has long ago ceased being the actual education of students – this is precisely why, each of us must take up the mantle of taking in knowledge in our everyday lives. Only by taking up this task can we truly take our own future into our hands and bring ourselves up, and closer to the divine.
A key part of the education journey is participation. The quest for learning, and for truth, is not one to be taken lightly – it must be engaged with and robustly questioned. Passive agreement with others may yield short term gains with agreeableness, but is a true disservice in the larger journey. Intelligent dissent and curiosity must accompany the learning process – to truly understand and internalize something, it must be dissected, and prodded with words. Engaging in respectful and reasoned debate is a key part of this. The parties must make sure they are critically thinking about the topic, and not merely exchanging barbs over a perceived disagreement; only then can the lesson be deconstructed. Once the idea is taken apart, each piece can be studied, internalized, and reassembled as one’s own. It then becomes a part of ones knowledge library and can be called upon to solve bigger and greater issues.
This sort of rational discourse and language are the tools to understanding the world and our place inside of it. Once we begin to understand that, can we begin to ascend and bring our community up with us.
