GOLDEN AGE AND UNIVERSITY LIFE
Question
Thank you so much for everything you teach us. I can't believe how more and more beautiful life becomes every single day. It makes me want to help as many beings as I can. As you always say, we truly live in a golden age. It is amazing how many blessings we in Shaolin Wahnam receive from Heaven.
-- Miguel, Netherlands
Answer
Indeed, we live in a golden age. Just a touch of a button and you can have light in darkness, and heater that warms the weather in winter. People in the Netherlands in the 17th century during its pinnacle as a military and trading power, or the glorious Tang Dynasty in China might have lanterns to make nights like days, but they certainly didn't have answers to questions at the touch of a button.
Wanting to help other beings is a blessing in Shaolin Wahnam. Live everyday peacefully and joyfully, which practicing our arts will give us. It is wonderful that the biggest group of people who write to thank me is not the people I have saved -- and I have saved a lot of people from so-called incurable diseases -- but healthy people like you who are at peace with the world and find every day a joy.
Question
I wanted to ask you a more personal question. Currently I am doing two studies, one in Chinese medicine and one in Renaissance history. Unfortunately I do not like my history study very much as the teachers aren't motivated and I feel I have more of a duty and find enjoyment in Chinese medicine. My history study is a two year masters. I have completed one year and am not sure whether to continue.
Answer
History can be made interesting, and much of it depends on the teachers. I remember that when I was in Form 4 (which is equivalent to the fourth year in high school), I had a very bad history teacher. He, literally, came into class, wrote on the blackboard "Read Chapter 5" (or whatever chapter we were supposed to study) and continued himself with his newspaper. He did that, factually, in every history lesson.
He was eminently qualified. He had a master's degree in arts and a master's degree in science. Most other teachers had only a bachelor degree in either arts or science. When I went to Form 5, which was the final year before taking the common school certificate examinations, I had a very good history teacher. He is Mr Leong Yee Foong. He not only taught, but inspired. When I went to Form 6, which, consisted of 2 years, Lower 6 and Upper 6, and is pre-university, I also had a very good history teacher in Mr Rao. When I went to teacher's training, I took history and English.
I taught history in my early years as a school teacher. Later I mostly taught English. I not only taught, but inspired. Sometimes I acted in my history lessons. For example, when I taught Parameswara, the founder of Malacca Sultanate in Malaysian history, I acted like Parameswara. My classes enjoyed themselves very much, and of course they improved in their history.
Renaissance history can be interesting. You can read up the life histories of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other inspiring persons. Renaissance history is not just facts and figures. It is an interpretation of life, and we can learn a lot from it. It is a two-year course, and you have completed the first year. You can complement it with Chinese medicine, which personally I find more urgent for Western societies.
University life is enjoyable and interesting. Make the best of it.
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