Action Item 1) JRLU’s Theology, Psychology and Philosophy – Programs and Core Curriculums

The Practice empowers the individual and is the grounding of our revolutionary approach to education based on a new theology, psychology and philosophy. JRLU’s “Theology” is one of “Intentional Playfulness”. One need only observe babies, children, puppies, kittens or anything in nature to notice that fun or playfulness is a natural state of being. Watching the trees and plants dance in the wind, or to experience the luscious dance of our physical sense perceptions awakens us to the grander consciousness of what it is to be a human-being. Of course, the perspective requires a person to step outside of the confines of limited human, mental-consciousness. The “Psychology” of JRLU is “Life Affirmation”, creating a natural culture around recognizing that all is positive as a person comes to notice one´s own being and the inherent miracle of life and consciousness here on earth and the cosmos. Finally, the “Philosophy” of “Reverence for Life” is about establishing practice in action.

The Practice rounds out our foundational view of conscious awakening stimulated by a simple realignment of perspective and “being” (thinking, actions, behaviors). The Practice defines our philosophy. The philosophy goes beyond traditional academic understandings, beyond a mental or cognitive process, but embraces our whole being, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. This grounding philosophy allows us to tap into the greater relevance of existence and experience. And, in that realization, gain access to the full potentialities of our lives and our experience here on earth as human-beings and as the human-community.

Reverence for Life is about re-cognizing and “grounding” ourselves in a state of “Self Full-ness”. That is, learning to accept ourselves as breathing life: Spirit morphing into the four elements, earth, air, fire and water. This trans-formation, or metamorphosis, is only achieved through experience. As we find our true nature through The Practice and conscious deep breathing (CDB) we are ushering in what the JRLU team calls the Age of Experientialism. Our new theology, psychology and philosophy, both a cognitive and “feeling” place, empowers us to celebrate life—recognizing the reality of life being motivated through intentional playfulness. Our affirmational psychology teaches us the skills necessary to solve and overcome all challenges at every stage of our lives.

The JRLU philosophy goes beyond the cognitive and ushers in new thinking and understanding through action, or practice. Through action, intentional playfulness and reverence for life we will be incarnating and making real the Age of Experientialism. This age affirms that the universe, which is created more from the inner-spaces of our being, is already ours and is complete and in perfect harmony—Now. Conscious Deep Breathing is the basis, the starting point of knowing this truth “reality”, captured in the statement “I AM”. “I AM” sharing from the full-ness of my-Self”, is what JRLU students will come to comprehend and know in a very profound way. The Practice teaches that the answer to our problems and challenges in life are not dealt with by “turning without” but by “turning within”. Previously people were constrained to experience “I AM” because they didn’t have the skills, but now they do through The Practice and Reverence for Life.

“I AM spirit morphing into the four elements, in physical form, manifesting the vibrational nature of their expression, because these are the elements of full Self expression”. Desmond Green

The Practice: The foundation of individual empowerment and success strategy for JRLU.

The Practice defines a body and process of core principles that when applied set the stage for life affirming demonstrations. The value of these core principles have all been well documented. For the most part the principles are presented with focus on their applications scripting new behavior patterns for productive living.

Core Principles                                              Supplementary Principles
- Conscious Deep Breathing                          - Integrity
- Self Talk                                                       - Sensory Attunement
- Healthy Nutrition                                        - Challenging Belief Systems
- Exercise       
- Unconditional Self-Acceptance
- Vision
- A Spirit of Generosity

In the JRLU perspective, The Practice builds a core set of “skills” for personal empowerment and transformation. Building on the simple action of noticing ones breath, a whole new scope of awareness is attuned to, almost, a spontaneous “Reverence for Life”.

Kids (people), computers and T.V. – killing creativity, imagination, wonder and appreciation

It seems that the status quo each day is to wake up and operate within the rigid lines of our past belief systems, those of limitation, scarcity and competition. In order to invite in a new world, a new reality, we need to break these patterns, these habits, and open the mind again to magic, wonder, discovery—the experience.

Rather than allow the things that others have created before to be the boundaries, we can re-cognize these barriers to become our starting point. We need again, as we did in childhood, to take the time to discover the wonder of clouds, our own sensations, the amazing capabilities of a fly, a mosquito, of life and the cosmos.

And then the fun really begins. This is because where thought, feeling, imagination are finally cut loose of the tether of old ideas, that life really unfolds: in wonder, reverence, appreciation and Love. This is the space of Reverence for Life, outside the rigid boundaries of what has been “with-out”, or outside of our be-ing, and through learning to look “with-in” where all that we see out-side of ourselves was first created in thought, imagination: from our inherent creative capacities that we were endowed with. This is the true “motherload” where God, Source, the higher-power reside and is waiting to be awakened and embraced: in the Now, in the Creative Space, in Feeling.

Here are some words that we can describe our current educational paradigm: words, facts, figures, tests, answers to questions, rules, schedules, performance, competition, winners and losers, pictures and drawings of trees on chalkboards to learn about trees rather than to learn from the actual trees.

And here are words associated with Reverence for Life University: Self-discovery, wonder, imagination, experience, creativity, peace, serenity, joy, excitement, creativity, freedom, fun, adventures, unlimited, abundant, pure potential, nature, life, the stars, light, Love.

And yet these words cannot really go-the-distance to what truly lies in the path of this discovery process for Reverence for Life because words can never capture the ‘thing” itself, the sensations, the experience. But as one looks at the lists of words we know which ones we would have our children “evolved” with instead of being “involved” with—the latter being the case with the current educational paradigm. Reverence for Life is an invitation.

The Core Content Areas

The Reverence for Life team has expertise in the areas of personal development, art, social sciences, technologies, tourism and agricultural, and rural economic development, etc. Our team has developed strategies throughout the U.S. and internationally with a primary aim to create an educational initiative like Reverence for Life. In the core areas, our focus will be on personal empowerment, art, community and regional development, technology, tourism. As mentioned previously, actual curriculums will be developed through a deliberate planning process. However, for a conceptual beginning the following “generic”, broad-based areas have been identified as a starting point for various programs of study.

Diagram 9: JRLU’s Core Content Curriculums

Another way to identify which programs and courses to offer will be to match the needs of the various constituents with the expertise of our team. A number of people on our team have been in education for several years and are well acquainted with the challenges and opportunities in Jamaica. These are some of the “tentatively” proposed specific educational offerings.

JRLU Core Curriculum Offerings

- Personal Empowerment and Transformation – The Practice, Moods-Channel
- Art, Cultural Fusion, Radical Inclusion, Technology innovation
- Experiential tourism, sustainable economic development, 
    agricultural innovation, real-world technology applications
- Art, Personal empowerment
- Social/community development, language, culture
- Personal Empowerment/Healing, Foundations for balanced relationships
- Tourism, restaurant services, hospitality, entrepreneurship
The Walking School
- Outdoor recreation, experiential learning, spiritual and religious philosophies in education

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