When I was at the high school, I was not interested in Geography class at all. During Geography class, I used to do something else such as drawing or reading other books that had nothing to do with Geography. I didn’t make any efforts on Geography tests, so I got a grade of “1.” In Japan, we use the grade “1” to “5”. “5” is the best and “1” is the worst. I didn’t care much about my low grade, until one day when the teacher told me that I might not be able to graduate because of the low grade of Geography.
I didn’t know until that time, that my high school had a certain standards of our grades to be able to graduate. In my case I had the grade of “1” in “Geography class” and “Health and Physical Education class.” It was in January in my third grade of high school. The graduation day was in March. In order to graduate, the teachers of these two classes gave me an assignment to copy the entire books.
This assignment is based on our Buddhism culture. We have a Japanese term “Shakyo.” It means hand copying sutra. For us, copying sutra, brings us peace of mind, just like similar to meditation.
At that time while I was copying the entire books, it was far from meditating or bringing me peace of mind. You know why? Because I was in the middle of studying for the University entrance tests. I was so frustrated. I thought to myself that I would not need to study Geography in the future.
However, as years passed by, it turned out I needed to study Geography.
Now I live in America. One of the advantages to live here is to enjoy the opportunities to meet people from different countries. I have met the people from the countries that I never heard of. I want to know about my new friend, so I look it up his/her home country and their culture and weather. Whenever I am interested in the new country, the information can come into me smoothly. I don’t need to struggle to memorize the information for a test. And I think that is how we should study. Not just to memorizing for a test, but to fulfil our interest to know.
So, I came to understand that we all have divine timing to study. When we are not interested in, it is not the divine timing. But the diving timing will come to us. And it is when we can digest the knowledge fully. My point is we don’t need to concern about the grades in school that much, because we will be provided the necessary knowledge at the right timing.
♬ Any feedback? (^^♪
three wisdom 