Respond to Challenges: Strength and Education

Fangcao Lu, Shanghai, China

Each day often begins with the opening of your eyes. Unless you've gone 24 hours without sleep, and let's hope you enjoyed those 24 hours. The beginning of the morning can lead to a day filled with challenges, problems, and there is always a possibility that each day could be your last.

A person walking down the street could be hit by a car. A person who reaches down to pick something up might touch an electrical wire by mistake, and those in the office buildings on September 11th, 2001 went to work on a normal day only to become famous participants in the worst terror attack and mass murder on American soil in history.

Danger can arise at any moment, and there are challenges waiting for your in each day. Some big and some small. Some physical and some in the mind. As an ordinary citizen, one cannot predict changes such as a terrorist attack or a car crash, but you can prepare yourself for the mental challenges in life.

The way is to begin with strength of education. There is a famous saying that people only believe what they hear. If a person hears the same thing over and over again, they will start to believe it eventually. You must anticipate that this is always a possibility, so the need to verify facts and information is paramount.

Mental clarity can only come when deception has been eliminated, the same way illumination can only come when the light has been brought to the dark. Even on the darkest of nights,  you must become the moonlight. Then, you must always remember the moon produces no light of its own. Moonlight is a just a reflection of light from the sun. You must become the moonlight and the sunlight.

Then, remember that the sun is a star itself, and the sunlight is actually starlight. You are the moonlight, the sunlight, and the starlight all in one.

Education has many layers and many interlocking features. You must study them as much as possible, but factoids alone are idle without precise self-reflection and evaluation.

Argumentation and debate cannot take place if one side is not being factual or using deception and misleading information. Therefore, there is a large necessity on the strength of education.

Challenges will take many shapes and forms during your days. The only way to know to find a true acceptance for the challenge is to know your material and believe in a pathway toward goodness.