Some of our schoolmates dropped out of school quite early while some of them completed their PhD and some continue to study even to date. Everybody went into the depths of different subjects accordingly. The dropouts started having life experiences in different businesses and jobs they got. Thus, everybody's knowledge is a sum total of the knowledge gained at schools and colleges and the life experiences gained while doing a job, business, and living with the family.
It is fun to watch an interaction between the two sets of friends: the early drop-outs and the PhDs. The early-drops outs are generally very confident on almost all the subjects of the universe. They can discuss with confidence quantum physics, the functioning of the brain, cosmology, philosophy, and every other subject on the Earth. They would know how to run the Government better than the prime minister. They would know what exists inside the atom better than the Physicist. They would often consider a PhD to be a waste of time and the poor PhD would never stand in discussions before these fellows because of the sheer confidence these people gather. Probably, the PhD has studied so many possibilities that his brain takes time to find the most appropriate answer to the question. However, the dropout knows one single solution to all the problems and that is the reason why he is so quick to respond to any question on Earth.
On the other hand, the PhD may not be that street smart and may struggle in making arrangements for a function, finding out the best pastry shop in the town, or even investing his money wisely. These things may be done by a dropout quite easily. Thus, depending upon the sum total of our choices and life experiences, we gather different skills that help us live our lives. A person may be able to drive a car well but may not know anything about the engineering of the car, while an engineer may not know how to drive the car.
Similarly, the "school of life" too offers a wide variety of subjects to study. Mother Earth is itself so diverse and it is almost impossible for anyone to know even a very small fraction of it in one's lifetime. Leave aside the cosmos and human psyche which is by and large still a mystery to the entire humankind. Despite relentless research and studies in these fields, we hardly know anything about these things. Some of us remain interested in different subjects being taught in the school of life and keep trying to understand the meaning of life, life long. On the other hand, most of us get tired of it and just drop out of the "school of life" and make our own meaning of life mostly in terms of pleasures and pains. They keep making their life comfortable and keep gathering resources. They get a mastery in this art like a surfer surfing on the waves of an ocean for a long time. However, when it comes to entering the depths of the ocean, they hardly know anything. On the other hand, there are many of us who remain interested in exploring different subjects in the "school of life". They get to know some of the depths of the ocean. However, at times they struggle to surf on the waves.
The surfers feel that the divers are wasting their precious time. On the other hand, the divers feel that the surfers have never experienced the depths of the ocean and that is why their life is quite shallow. The divers can not ever continue inside the oceans and have to come to the surface and when they come to the surface, at times they struggle to surf and survive. However, despite all these struggles, there is something magical inside the depths of the ocean that pulls them again and again to the depths. The surfers make fun of them when they struggle. However, the divers know what they experience when they go deep inside the oceans. They find it difficult to explain to the surfers. Surfers are busy surfing the waves and do not take an interest in diving. It is quite difficult to explain as to how somebody develops an interest in diving. It may be the first experience with the parents, or incidentally entering into the depths of the ocean, or it may be the past life karmas. However, once a person experiences diving, it is difficult to settle life with surfing.
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