Editorial - We make a life by what we give

5 October 2012 06:30 pm

With corruption and crime, selfishness and greed, hypocrisy, deception and other vices rampant in society today, the Government needs to tackle the roots of this crisis by discussing with religious and other leaders practical means by which religious education for children is given highest priority.

The vital education sector is in crisis and chaos today with hundreds of thousands of A Level students still awaiting answers to a multitude of questions, while university professors and lecturers are on their largest-ever strike demanding a higher budgetary allocation for education and assurance that the free education service will be protected. Last Monday’s virtual riot at Vidyaloka Vidyalaya in Galle over the appointment of a new principal shows the extent to which the rule of law and discipline have broken down even in schools. That is why effective measures need to be taken in schools to give religious education top priority.



With the globalised capitalist market economy and its main policies based on self-centredness and greed sweeping across virtually the whole world including Sri Lanka, religious education needs to be transformed from head-level doctrines or rituals to the dimensions of liberative spirituality. Students need to be convinced that selfishness and greed, deception and hypocrisy eventually lead to self-destruction while also damaging or destroying relationships with others also.

Students need to come to an understanding that if they are selfish they will never be happy. This is the foundation of liberative spirituality. A person who is selfish is essentially insincere if not deceptive and hypocritical. Such a person, even when appearing to be doing good to others, has a secret agenda of seeking some personal gain or glory. When this is the attitude, we damage ourselves and damage others.

Religious education or liberative spirituality needs to transform our nature, our heart and our thinking pattern, whereby we could help others without expecting anything in return. Essentially it is a transformation from self-centredness to other-centredness.

Until this transformation takes place we put up an act – one thing inside and another outside. Inside we have selfishness and greed, hatred and anger, bitterness, unforgiveness and jealousy. But we wish others well and say “peace be with you”. That is why Shakespeare said "The world is a stage and we are actors." Others know we are acting, we know they are acting, and the act goes on till we tumble and the stage crashes. That is basically what is happening in Sri Lanka and the world. Thus there is an urgent need for religious education based on liberative spirituality, so that students coming out of school or university will have not only wisdom and knowledge, but also a spirit of selfless sacrificial service to others. We need to remember that we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give. All that is not given is lost.