AS AN educator of Basic Pranic Healing Course, I have come to internalize the teachings although my favorite will always be the section on Character Building. It’s one of the main reasons why I was attracted to this energy school in the first place.
Character Building forms part of the foundation that students learn. Grandmaster Choa Kok Sui, the founder of Pranic Healing and Arhatic Yoga, stresses five virtues for every student to practice. The second virtue being Generosity and Non-Stealing. Under this virtue is the encouragement to “share what you know with people who are ready and willing to learn.”
This resonates with me having been mentoring even when I was a full-time journalist. From this life-long career, I learned that we can never impose our beliefs, principles, and thoughts on someone who is not ready and willing to listen.
Maybe the person is willing to listen to you about some aspects of life, like learning some skills that you excel in. But this willingness to listen does not automatically mean the person is also willing to listen to your principles and convictions. So, teach the skills; do not preach.
Each person is on his own journey.
In our weekly service at the Davao City Jail, I would often remind the persons deprived of liberty (PDLs), particularly the Catholics, how the Holy Mass starts.
I’d often be met with blank looks. Attending the Holy Mass has become too mechanical (as our master educators would often say), the message is lost. So, just in case you did forget — the mass starts with the Confiteor or Penitential Act where the congregation declares: I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”
Every week, Catholics start their worship by admitting they have sinned—in thoughts, words, actions, and failures — through their most grievous fault.
And then they go back home blaming everyone else for what has befallen them. The message about coming out clean and admitting that everything in our life is through our own grievous fault through our thoughts, words, and in what we have done and failed to do.
Lucky for me, I have a captive audience in jail, I can tell that to them straight. But whether they are taking in the message, I wouldn’t know.
All we can be sure of is that - a person who is not ready and willing will never agree to whatever you may share that is contrary to what he believes in, and that’s okay.
Communicate on the level that a person is willing to listen and respond to what the person is asking. Share your skills and knowledge with anyone wanting to learn, and share your wisdom with the willing. Otherwise, give what is asked if you have it.
This brings to mind a short interaction with a friend whom I asked for healing energies as my mom had a medical emergency. This friend apparently assumed we have not been giving attention to the mom, and that we should do this and that and whatever. To which I snapped back, “I don’t need advice. I just need supplemental energy.”
Again, be generous with your resources, time, and attention, but temper the assumption.
*Stella is a Pranic Healing educator and an Arhatic Yoga practitioner. Email: saestremera@gmail.com, fb: /saestremera, IG: @saestremera