*LEARN - see MYSTERY, MEANING, GROWTH, UNDERSTAND, EXPERIENCE, KNOWLEDGE, TRUTH, REALIZE, PRACTICE, AWAKEN, AWARE, TRANSFORM, CONSCIOUSNESS, EVOLVE, WISDOM
Antonmys: IGNORANCE
The meaning of this life is to learn. Everything that happens to us helps our learning and nothing helps us to learn more than death. (p61) We must learn how to use both our femininity and our masculinity and learn how to approach the same problem with both our right brian and our left brain. (p111) We need to learn how to return the gift of our children and entrust them to God. (p114) (Further)
Faith is important to God, for "without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb 11:6), but our faith is not blind! Most of us find that the more we learn, th e more our faith is assured by the facts. (p47) We are "always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the Truth" (2Tim 3:7) because we seek truth apart from God. The only way you will ever find eternal, ultimate truth, is by seeking and finding God. If you reject the truth, the only thing left to accept is a lie. (p87) (Beginnig of the End)
---------Children Learn What They Live-----------------
If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.
If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.
If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.
If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.
If children live with ridicule, they learn to be shy.
If children live with jealousy, they learn what envy is.
If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.
If children live with tolerance, they learn to be patient.
If children live with encouragement, they learn to be confident.
One learned man is harder on the devil than a thousand ignorant worshippers. To spend more time in learning is better than spending more time in praying. Who are the learned? They who practice what they know. (Islam, Wisdom, p321)
Learn to know thyself, who knows himself, knows his Lord. (Islam, Wisdom, p321)
Self-knowledge is thus the wellspring from which many other blessings flow. THOSE WHO HAVE SUFFERED MUCH HAVE LEARNED TO LOVE MORE. When another's suffering arouses our compassion, we are more likely to give a consoling word or some sympathetic silence. [Likewise with God] we tend to communicate in a more respectful way and then we can grow in the knowledge of God. At the moment Job was depleted vitally and dubbed by himself and others an abject failure functionally, he became really pleasing in the sight of God. Job came to know more of God in his adversity than in all of his prosperity put together. (Dark Night, p126-8)
St. Augustine's memorable phrase from the Soliloquies, "Let me know myself, Lord, and I will know you." St. John of the Cross finds confirmation of the connection he found between self-knowledge and knowledge of our Divine Source (DN I:12). (Dark Night, p130)