Essential Education
 |
In Buddhism we have an incredible arrangement, universal education from the beginning at birth up until death, as an old man. I feel these things could be put into a universal language. Give up religion, give up Buddhism. Go beyond Buddhism. Put the essential aspect of the philosophy into scientific language. This is my aim. |  |
|
–Lama Thubten Yeshe, January 1983
|
||
Essential Education is being developed and promoted by The Foundation for Developing Compassion and Wisdom, an educational charity established in the UK in January 2005. HH The Dalai Lama is the Patron of the Foundation, and Lama Zopa is its Honorary President. It is affiliated to the FPMT.
The Foundation is primarily a training organisation, which aims to provide the resources, training and support that will enable people to introduce Essential Education into their personal and professional lives. Its vision is to create a worldwide network of people who are themselves ambassadors of compassion and wisdom, and who have the confidence and skills to share these values and teachings in the home, the workplace and the community, in whatever ways are most effective.
The Foundation is currently developing resources, training and support in three areas:
About Essential Education
The aim of Essential Education is to create a more peaceful world by helping people everywhere to develop their natural capacity for compassion and wisdom - to be kind and wise. It offers a contemporary and accessible presentation of perennial wisdom which is rooted in Buddhist psychology and philosophy, combined with complementary perspectives from the natural and social sciences, and from other spiritual and wisdom traditions.
Essential Education, formerly known as Universal Education, was originally the vision of Lama Yeshe, founder of the FPMT. Lama Yeshe urged his students to find fresh ways of sharing the methods and teachings of Buddhism, and to heal the gulf between spirituality and science, so that “people can understand the essence of all the ancient religions without belonging to any of them.” He expressed the hope that everyone in the FPMT would contribute to Essential Education in some way.
Lama Zopa Rinpoche has described Essential Education as a key method for bringing more peace and happiness into the world, especially for “the people for whom the normal presentation doesn’t fit.” He has stressed the importance of using contemporary methodologies such as drama, the arts, games, videos and computer games that can reach out to people of all ages and cultures, most particularly in places where there is violence.
|
Whatever religion a person has, or whether a person doesn’t have any religion, this is an education for how to live life. If you are able to introduce Essential Education as widely as possible, and people are able to live in this education, then there is a lot of hope for the future. The future world will have much more peace than now. | |
|
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche, October 1992
|
||
Essential Education represents both the essence of education, and the education that the world needs most urgently. Suitable for people of any faith or none, it offers wisdom and methods for use in schools, businesses, prisons, hospices, social and healthcare projects, and the home. With its combination of the practical and the profound, Essential Education is also proving a popular subject for study and outreach courses within FPMT centers, whose students can then be trained and encouraged to take it out into the wider world.