306 thoughts on “What is in a Qualification?”

1. Thank you Eleanor, as a society we have fallen for the lie of recognition and identification we receive from a qualification, easily overriding the importance of our connection within and the vast amount of wisdom we have access to when we live from our hearts. In time we will know that true intelligence comes from within and is lived for the good of all equally so.

2. What a blessing it will be when our children are brought up with a true perspective on education.

3. We all have so many skills and qualities that no amount of tests or exams could ever measure.

4. There is so much pressure on the young to get good marks and go to university that many end up studying things that they find they do not want to do as they haven’t given themselves the space to connect and feel into where there particular unit of expression can best serve.

5. Eleanor, this is very profound. Teaching us all that it is never about doing right or wrong. There is so much space in how you write and how you come with it is very loving and understanding. Sharing with us the profound teaching that is : “And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.”
   A beautiful way to show us that we are all exactly the same.

6. What is truly important in life is that we love – who we are, what we do, other people, our planet etc. Whatever qualification we have within that does not really matter.

7. A qualification can be either a piece of paper that meets current recognised standards of skills and knowledge to get a job or it can be a confirmation of the choice to dedicate and commit oneself to truly loving and caring for people.

8. There is often so much pressure put on getting the right qualification that life goes out of the window and for what a piece of paper. When we see them as a tool we can use our relationship with them changes from a need to more of a flow. Its the same with anything in life the moment we need it suddenly struggle comes in!

9. Nowadays, we put so much pressure on our kids to get “good” grades otherwise they will not get a “good” job etc. A lot of it stems from wanting to be comfortable in life and to build security. But that is not what education ought to be about. Education ought to be about preparing ourselves to live in the world, to be true to who we are and to serve others through our skills and abilities. We have lost sight of the true purpose of education.

10. The education system places a lot of emphasis and pressure on getting good grades at school and this can begin quite early in primary school with the Naplan tests. Often the school is more interested in their reputation and getting seen for their academic record rather than the health and well being of the student and the impact of the stress from the pressure of exams and achieving high marks.

11. The act of recall has been called out for what it truly is – a mental exercise with no connection to Love and the Wisdom of the body, and is championed by the education system in its current set up.

12. Yes… Universal intelligence really does sound like a energetic timebomb that is ready to be placed in the middle of all the university systems of education, the secondary school systems, all the way down to the primary schools… Imagine if we just connected with ourselves and we knew everything that was needed to be known… Quite a few things would be redefined I feel.

13. Many schools and universities today hold education as the be all and end all and do not take into account the people or children that are actually in the schools learning. If education was founded on the wisdom and intelligence found in the bodies connection and how that then can support and nurture people to prosper and use their unique qualities already found within, the education system would be very different. The beauty is that we al play a part in this and by choosing to move and express from our own connection to the body can not only support our daily lives but inspires others . It then shows that learning can be available anytime and we can bring change by simply moving in a way that brings true loving quality to the forefront.

14. We only need to look at young children to see there is a universal wisdom inside all of us, it is that wisdom – a whole body intelligence that needs to be nurtured and held.

15. As soon as we go into comparison with another we stop Appreciating ourselves and others, and lose sight of the amazing an unique gifts we are all here to bring. The current education system is a set up to fail from the outset, as it champions competition.

16. From quite young I knew that we all had access to an innate intelligence, this was confirmed when I met Serge Benhayon who presented on and lives that there is a universal intelligence that we can all tap into.

17. Education has the opportunity to hold and support our children, and everyone really, to grow and discover their strengths and what they bring as themselves, as well as providing us the necessary skills for working and living in the world, but education as we have it today serves more to force children into ways of being that are an anathema to our true nature. – into competitiveness, arrogance, rebellion, and often fear, inadequacy, feelings of lack of self-worth and stupidity.. How destructive is it to begin our working lives thinking we are stupid, or in fear that people may find out we are not ‘good enough’ – with true education, we can confirm the magnificence of each and every child and in that support them to allow their light to shine forth.

18. Qualifications tend to be held as the ‘keys’ to life as opposed to the tools.

19. Gorgeously shared Eleanor. We are all in fact already highly qualified beings, through our connection to our body and Soul, to access a universal intelligence available to all and that represents all, which far surpasses any deemed intelligence that comes from the world outside of us. We only need to work on our willingness to surrender to our love within, in order to discover we already are all that we need to bring to life the gifts we naturally are through our uniquely constellated bodies. As you have shared we all have something to offer, a light we bring to the world, and the more we surrender to our love within the more we are impulsed to bring our unique gifts to life, for humanity to be blessed by.

20. The expansion of our current limited definition of intelligence is something that will transform the world. At the moment we are focussed on such a tiny slice of the all.

21. Eleanor, this is spot on what you have shared: “there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper. And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.” – There is much you have shared in your blog I can relate to, especially having experienced a similar thing with going to school and the grades I got and also having gone to University and done several degrees. It is so important to have these degrees in our current world and it is required for certain jobs, but it is not the paper that makes us for we have to remember that we already are the amazing employees or the amazing workforce, it is just about making it a formality for our current world with this paper. Of course we learn things from doing our degrees and they are very needed, but in my experience having completed 3 university degrees, the real learning begins with we start the job because most often we have to un-learn what we have learned so that we can truly work properly. In my experience, It is also rare to use and put to practice more than 1/3 of what you learn as theory through your degree (and this is being generous as an estimate), hence why the real learning happens in the hands on a job, in addition to the un-learning that we go through! But despite how crazy this sounds, we still need the paper in today’s world! The bottom line is as you have said, let’s not make the degree what we are, for our inner intelligence is what is the key to be accessed and expressed.

22. What is more important, the qualification on a piece of paper or the ability to live this life knowing who we are and why we are here? This does not mean a qualification is not necessary for certain jobs we are choosing to do, but without love for all it will mean nothing.

23. But in my university study I see the total opposite and the urge to perform is huge, it is all made about the outcome and not the way we get there. It doesn’t give us a learning of how to care for ourselves or who we truly are. But instead get a qualification that ensures a good job, disregarding any of our true being.

    1. I agree it’s pretty crazy, it would be far more supportive to add subjects on self-care and true well-being as so many people burn out because they have not being loving or caring to themselves, you just have to look at the current statistics to see the amount of Doctors committing suicide because of this.

24. It is in our way of life that true intelligence is shown. I feel it is important to be aware of this fact that our life isn’t dependent on the grades we get or what qualification we hold. It is about being in service in what we are here for to do this life time, knowing what is our calling is the most important.

    1. I love this. The confirmation that ‘knowing what is our calling’ is true intelligence. Thank you, Benkt.

25. Yeah, I no longer hold anyone in higher esteem just because of their qualifications. It means nothing if the way they relate to others is not with respect, integrity or compassion. If we consider that a degree is for the purpose of bringing a certain service to humanity, then it makes no sense if we don’t use it in conjunction with our innate wisdom. Having all the read knowledge in the world doesn’t mean you automatically have the ability to connect with people.

26. I love your last line Eleanor – ‘the truth is we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that gives us access to it ‘. Very true – and it shows us how we are all equal. What do we choose?

27. “It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.” – Beautifully said, qualifications and learning are needed and essential parts of our life but they do not define who we are nor are they the markers of our worth.

28. Your last line puts it beautifully – plain and simple. If we’re open to the fact that we actually know more through our bodies than our mind let’s us think, then a whole other level of wisdom becomes present and we’re then given the opportunity to appreciate we’re enough and don’t ‘need’ the qualification, it’s just a practical thing we have.

29. I also “felt like a failure a lot of the time at school because it was a struggle for me to achieve the top grades.” It was as if it I was just not quite good enough. There was so much focus on the grades at the end of school I had no Idea what I was good at or what my strengths were and wasted my early 20’s partying in the name of self discovery rather than getting on with developing myself.

    1. Gosh, how many young people are devastated in this way by our education system?

    2. An all too familiar story Nicole and one that I too can relate to. As well as feeling I was less ‘intelligent’ than most of my class mates at school, I also had a brother and sister who always got good grades and seemed to excel at everything and consequently I always felt less than them. Although I ‘knew’ about things that I could not explain, my school work rarely came up to the mark. Undoubtedly an all too common situation for children everywhere.

30. Awarding qualifications has become a big business where I live. You can even get qualified to be a de-clutterer. It is like we cannot be bothered to feel, read and check things out for ourselves so instead ask a piece of paper to say this person is kosher. It is very retarding.

31. Great blog Eleanor. You helped me to see that I identified with my qualifications a lot! In fact for a long time I felt it was normal and even great that my educational achievements made me feel acceptable! Now I see how limiting and arrogant these beliefs were.

32. Our strengths or skills may not necessarily be the same as another but it doesn’t mean that any one is any better than another. If we leave comparison behind and truly appreciate ourselves and others then we can see how we are designed to work together as a whole in harmony.

    1. Well said Fiona – for when we center on the fact that we all have access to the one and same universal intelligence, through our connection to our body and Soul, there can be no comparison as the source of intelligence is the same, for the same purpose, we only express it differently though our uniquely formed bodies. And so the more we surrender to the grandness of who we are in essence the more we will see, as you have wisely shared ‘…how we are designed to work together as a whole in harmony.’

33. We place so much importance on qualifications in our society today. Putting others above ourselves at times if we don’t feel we measure up, or have qualifications that matter. But having life skills, being able to relate to people, communicate and connect with others is super super important too. A skill that is truly lacking in our communities a great deal and something that does need to shift if we are to have a world that fosters equality and brotherhood.

34. As a society we can place insurmountable pressure on ourselves and or our children to be successful and getting a qualification can be one part of that. This need or drive for success plays havoc on our bodies too, because we place so much stress on achieving something outside of ourselves that we give our power away to the qualification. When we see that the true power and wisdom lives within us already and that our natural qualities will aid us throughout our lives then we are using our qualities with their true purpose and the qualifications can then be used to serve all.

35. Great points Eleanor. The push to be ‘good enough’ comes from a withdrawal from living the fullness of our true self and from the ‘lack’ we thereby create by choosing to live in this state, we then strive to be filled through external factors such as good grades and thus the subsequent approval and accolades from others along with the recognition gained from this, to make up for the fact we are not living true to who we are.

    1. Thank you Liane Mandalis for sharing how the ‘push’ or ‘drive’ to achieve is an external factor that keeps us in the motion of never being enough or doing enough. We live in a world that promotes the need for self-identification and recognition that always leads back to self-gains. Little is spoken about its internal and external harm when we realise that what we have invested in is not the marker of what true living is all about.

    2. Push and drive act to distract us from our disconnection and the knowing and the treasuring of who we are. And then the focus becomes the outside and we can get lost in the investment of this, rather than building on the richness and the connection within.

36. Elanor – I did not go to university and do not have qualifications as such – and at times I have felt less because of this – but being in business has led me to see how it all comes back to people, it is always about people and relationships first and connecting with them and having conversations with them. I have learnt more from observing the world and people than I have from any textbook.

37. Spot on Eleanor, true intelligence is far deeper than the intellect. The education system is a complete set up which takes us away from our true intelligence. If we were taught what Serge Benhayon presents at school, we would see from a very young age how incredibly intelligent we all are, and how this intelligence has nothing to do with your mental strength but comes from a whole body intelligence.

38. it is a sad reflection on ourselves that we as a society measure our self-worth by what we do and the outcome and grades of that achievement. To feel and know there is so much more to us than this and that there is a far greater potential simply being ourselves and deeply valuing what we bring by being who we are.

    1. Yes, I agree. Life skills, the ability to communicate and meet people is by far the most important skills to have and this is something you don’t get with a piece of paper qualification.

39. The fact is that day-to-day we come across people from all walks of life and educational backgrounds that have much wisdom to offer. This blog exposes the rot and ridiculousness of the all powerful “qualification”. We are all so much more than the piece of paper.

    1. Beautifully said Irena.

40. Education as it stands is failing, we only have to look at the lives of the pupils. At present education is solely about results and qualifications, what if we have been missing a key element, ‘there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper’.

41. Revisiting this again Eleanor it strikes me that we have already well and truly lost our way by the time we hit tertiary institutions. There is nothing in our education system all the way through that celebrates and fosters the ‘amazingness’ you speak of as something innately there. We ‘gain amazingness’ by our achievements from day 1 as it currently stands.

42. What I didn’t want to admit to myself was that I actually wanted to be an A grade student as well.’ This is being honest and getting to know ourselves better and beginning to understand why we behave the way we do and bringing in the possibility to have enough compassion for ourselves to change the behaviour that has held us back in life up until now

43. It’s great to gain new skills and knowledge, this can be a great asset in life. But there can be no mistake that these skills never ever, will add up or surpass the gentleness of someone’s hand, the warmth and generosity of their heart or just their inner essence, their divine spark. When we miss this bit and just value the skills, it’s like visiting the Grand Canyon and admiring only the park sign. Thank you Eleanor for this grand reminder that we are all brilliant and divine.

44. It’s very true Eleanor, the wisest person I know in every sense of that word, is Serge Benhayon. I have a series of tertiary qualifications and a lot of experience all in the arena of health and healing, yet Serge runs rings around me in terms of what he knows, can feel and can facilitate for another when it comes to healing. It has blown my concept that ‘intelligence’ and success comes from what we have learnt at school or university out of the water.

45. The drive that we can go into to qualify ourselves in some area can indeed be a misdirection of our true potential should we identify that what we end up doing is a measure of who we are rather than just an expression of it. It is through our connection to ourselves that true wisdom can be found and where the need to be defined by something no longer exists.

46. You’re absolutely right Eleanor, there is so much more to us than what a qualification can suggest. Even the fact that you studied Fine Art is a great example of how grades just can’t be the be all and end all. Whoever is marking your assessments has an opinion on your work, which will differ to the next person and the next person. Art in particular is subjective, so how can that even be marked universally? It doesn’t make sense? And then we lose ourselves because someone didn’t appreciate or understand the work we produced, but why did we place so much importance on that in the first place?

47. Maybe this is the only qualification we need “And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.” The qualification to live in a way that allows us to access universal intelligence. From this, then the knowing of that which is our unique way to support humanity will be revealed, and lived.

48. It is so easy to fall into the trap of needed more and better qualifications to make us feel better about ourselves. What we have to remember is that we are everything that we are ever going to be at the start of our life. It is a matter of learning to connect to that fact and then express our all with the all. It is not a matter of being empty and needing to be filled.

49. I hated the stress of exams, especially when they had a time limit and I felt rushed. Because of this I decided formal education wasn’t for me but looking back I sometimes feel I should have stuck with it a little longer as I was in too much of a hurry to get out in the world and start earning.

50. A lot of people see past the scores, qualifications and grades and know there is a lot more to us as people, such as humour and a warm heart. But what your simple words here show me Eleanor is that we don’t still realise just how reduced and controlled we have been to think that true knowledge is ever learnt. While we call this true intelligence, we make ourselves a dunce in the class of life, instead of seeing we are all beings with complete access to the library of the universe.

51. Serge Benhayon stands as a true role model of how amazing life can be when we live in a way that allows us to access universal intelligence and true wisdom – this is far grander than any qualification or job title will ever bring.

52. I don’t feel qualified (ha ha) to comment on this blog as I have never really been into the academic thing and never had any issues or restrictions around it, but I can see it causes a lot of stress to many people.

53. ‘It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.’ This last bit ‘losing sight of our true potential’ is showing us the illusion we live in with our qualifications and that we are losing our true purpose and cannot be who we are as a part of the whole we all are.

54. Where does comparison come from and where do we learn to express it? Like this blog highlights, school is a massive and main contribution to the way we perceive ourselves and measure up against each other. Where is the space for uniqueness when we are all trying to reach a same standard?

55. I work with a lot of people who have very different kinds of qualifications. This does not make anyone any less or better than the other, it just means that people have their role to play in the whole team. Before we have any qualification we are people first and foremost and that is the great equalizer.

56. I definitely put pressure on myself to do well to the point where my parents didn’t need to (and maybe they wouldn’t have anyway). It was borne out of recognition, comparison and not accepting or feeling good enough about myself. As you rightly say, we all have a special skill set – and rather than compete to be the top at something, why not work together to get the job done. It’s a different mentality but ultimately one which is based on harmony, not competition (and thus, separation).

57. Wisdom is not just something that we obtain through all the knowledge learnt during our education but rather our lived quality and openness to understanding the world and people around us.

58. It is interesting that the world is about quali-fications, you being quali-fied (or quali-fying) for this or that. It is about what you know and how that can help us. Your quali-ty seems to derived from you quali-fications. Yet, the quali-ty does not derive from quali-fications. Considering both of them as a bundle allows to ask another important question: what do you bring to this (job, task, group) and how that can help us to achieve what we want to achieve by working together.

59. I love your punchline, Eleanor: ‘And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.’ Wouldn’t it be a game-changer if we were taught this fact and how to access it at school rather than being inculcated into a system of so-called intelligence that is based on knowledge recall and has us cramming to pass exams in the stampede to be ranked against our peers? If we all have access to the same intelligence then it is equally available to all and no-one is greater than another.

60. Intelligence is more than the qualification on a piece of paper.. totally agree. Love – not the emotional kind – has a wisdom that is intelligent yet timeless, practical, all knowing, is stillness, is common sense, is not wanting to prove, is grace and true power. These attributes we discover within ourselves, and is not bestowed upon us by receiving a certificate on a piece of paper.

61. Imagine an education system where everyone was valued for their unique abilities and that these were actively developed and encouraged… Imagine how this would raise the bar of self awareness and connection

62. I have definitely looked back and felt that my exam results do not reflect what I call my ‘smarts’. I have felt disappointed in myself and dedicated myself to look for other opportunities to show I am intelligent exhausting myself in the process! I look at that way of being now and realise this is the least intelligent way of thinking!! The last few years I have been at Uni and have loved it. I am really enjoying what I am learning, it is practical and really interesting. I can get frustrated about the fact that I have to write in a particular way to tick a box, but when I have the freedom to apply the theory by understanding the research to apply it when I don’t have to tick that box, it has been wonderful in what I have been able to offer my local community. This, for me is why I went back to study – this is where one persons ‘smarts’ can be of service to all – adding to the pool of other peoples ‘smarts’ so everyone, if they choose to, can have an equal part and responsibility to the outcome of the whole.

63. For most the world is built up on levels of qualification and the status that this brings you. A hierarchy of intellect which dominates the right and wrong in the world. I know plenty of people that have not gone through the qualification process and are extremely successful in all area’s of their lives. I suppose it comes down to the definition of what successful is.

64. Qualifications confirm that we know what we are doing in certain workplaces – e.g. Builder, plumber, engineer, chef etc, but to lose oneself in the curriculum and then burn-out through lack of self care along the way, exposes that the system leaves much to be examined and changed to stop this being more important than people and students themselves.

65. Qualifications show that we have studied a certain subject or vocation but how do we apply this, and ourselves, in life? Until education is first and foremost how to be in life and relationship, qualifications will always fall short.

66. The weight that qualifications carry in our society must be balanced out by actually checking in to how we are living.

67. I wonder if there is an intrinsic and very integral link between responsibility and our level of intelligence. Sure we can manipulate others with loads of information and know lots inside out – one only needs to look at the dark web (black market on the internet) for proof of this – but how much do we intuitively know about another and how they are feeling or what they truly need to support them. Naturally we can all connect with each other on a deeper, truer level and know inside out the beauty and wisdom of life through connecting with others. This is a level of intelligence that is far beyond knowing lots of stuff and trying to regurgitate it all on an exam paper. This sort of intelligence is never for self, it is for all and I guess that is the key to it, something the education system as it currently is is most definitely not supporting or prompting in the way information is being given.

68. Well said “there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper”. To limit our understanding of intelligence to a piece of paper shuts us off to learning from every single person we meet in life.

69. I have been appreciating this in my workplace lately. It is great that we are all different and have different strengths, because all of these combined together make a beautiful team.

70. To open our hearts and minds to receive wisdom, is such a gift to all. As when one is ready to receive wisdom, it will be delivered, and not always through those we deem wise. Some of the greatest wisdom I have received has come from children. The saying, “Through the mouths of babes” begins to mean so much more.

71. I noticed myself when I completed high school and my two university courses, that there was a feeling of relief when I completed but not a feeling of achievement or fulfillment. Instead there was almost a feeling of emptiness and ‘what do I do now’? When you are studying you are always feeling like you are going somewhere, focused on the future on the next assignment or hurdle to jump. When you are studying you are sold the idea that this is everything you need in life but when you get there the feeling is far from that. Qualifications when used to feel complete or good about yourself leave you feeling like this. The qualification is really all about being able to do what will serve others best, using the unique qualities you have.

72. A qualification allows us to work in or practice in a certain field of work. A doctor, a nurse, a builder, a banker, a plumber. Most jobs need training and some need years of training to be able to practice. But that’s it. We have turned the qualification into seeing ourselves as more or less than another or even as a way to identify ourselves as someone. I have studied many things and it was about being needed, to be considered as interesting and really just to fill my own self-worth. Studying with Serge Benhayon has helped me understand that a piece of paper does not maketh the person and a person can be fully confident and know who they are within one. The qualification is seen by some as everything. But we are the ones who are everything and we just happen to get our qualifications so we can bring our everything to the work we choose to do.

73. Hello Eleanor and the old to be educated or to be not educated, but what is truly education? and does this define intelligence? Is it a certificate or a form because I have seen people with certificates and forms that say one thing but when I see them I don’t see the intelligence part. I am not critical of those that study if that is what they are drawn to do but does that automatically make you intelligent or define you as intelligent or make you educated? If so what about recognising other forms of education and intelligence, like a life education or a people or humanity education. Those that have real life experience may not have the paper to back them up but certainly get my ear when it comes to learning. I didn’t adapt well to learning at school or University, I did what I needed to do to get through but anyone that could bring a practicality to what they were saying, a lived experience, you couldn’t help but listen to and learn. There is much more to education then we deem it to be, no one owns it and certainly there should not be a monopoly on where it comes from. Serge Benhayon like me has a education in life, real life with real people. The education that comes from that is letting us all know that life is about people and true relationships, sure have what ever you feel you need the only key is the quality. I don’t mean charity or helping people I mean being true to what you feel and having the confidence to stand with what you truly feel without hiding behind anything. We can’t build a life around simply being educated or intelligence, as we are seeing this doesn’t work and in fact is making us more unwell.

74. Yes if we are willing to live in a way that gives access to the intelligence of the universe, that is the crux of the matter and I would say a reason people attack Serge Benhayon and anyone else who doesn’t have the qualifications to present in their eyes about true knowledge aka wisdom. Serge is not special he just makes choices most of us refuse to do as it always comfortable to do so and requires a commitment to love and truth that makes that the paramount not the conditions and measurements of comfort the majority of humanity chooses to live in.

75. ‘It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves… harm’ – Absolutely; when a qualification or the letters after our names are the be all and end all of what we’re worth, then what’s the point in looking after ourselves, developing loving relationships and putting effort into other things, our work etc.? This is the insidiousness of how we’ve set up grades and the education industry

76. Education and qualifications are one of the harder aspects of life. They take time, they cost money, we don’t get paid for them until, perhaps, afterwards, in many cases there is a lot of material that is less useful and it can come with a consciousness that is quite unpleasant. They can also be very, very useful, a bit like a lot else in life.

77. The quality in which you live is what makes the most impression, a qualification merely allows you to apply that quality in your chosen profession.

78. Your description of Serge Benhayon is very accurate – ” Not only is he a super presenter, this man also lives life with amazing integrity, openness, and love, which he shares with every person he meets. He is also an example of a person who lives with absolute responsibility in everything he does, and has a vitality that most people can only dream of.” When someone writes this about another person ought we not to stop for a moment and deeply consider how Serge does it. Is he just special or is there a way of life that he lives that allows him to have access to a different form of intelligence? Surely it is time to drop our arrogance and ask such questions? That would be true intelligence, i.e wisdom.

79. True intelligence does not require the ability to score top grades and a photographic memory but an open heart and a connection to our soul.

80. I used to be concerned about qualifications, mainly for myself so I could be of value to the world. Yet despite now having qualifications, I have found in life that my greatest offerings of service to my fellow man are not about what I know, but rather who I am.

81. ‘And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.’ This is the key that unlocks us from the constraints of so called intelligence. It is not a gift, but a choice (constant choices) in how we choose to move and live.

    1. I agree. That key allows us to deal with education and intelligence in an ‘intelligent’ way, incorporating love and harmony and truth.

82. “Each and every one of us is an amazing asset to society, regardless of the jobs we do or the qualifications we have.” It’s great to go through the university system and still appreciate this truth and not hold a superior air from having that qualification.

83. If we have a qualification with no connection to ourselves or awareness of energy, the qualification becomes another form of identification that we can loose ourselves in for yet another lifetime.

84. The education system has us fixated on qualifications but our young don’t get valued for all the other fabulous qualities they have so they/we end up feeling like failures if we don’t pass our exams.

85. I absolutely love meeting people and getting to know them when there is no such thing as qualification egos involved. I know many people including myself that have not attained high qualifications but are super successful and capable of being in top positions in whatever career they naturally excel at. Really what we do does not define who we are? What we do is an expression of who we are. Serge Benhayon has been sharing this since 1999 and it removes any kind of identification that we want from what we do. So free and I Love it.

86. I sat GCSE exams like you Elanor, and remember the struggle and difficulty completing them at the time considering these papers would define my life. Since then as many say, I never looked back or referred to what I ‘learnt’ and no one has even ever asked me to talk about or use them in any way. To me, they feel more like a strange traditional endurance ritual rather than anything to do with wisdom and growth. I wonder what our world would be like if we replaced these regurgitation exercises with simple classes where students spoke and connected? To me this is likely to reveal much more than any paper or test that I sat.

87. We set so much store by the letters and numbers on our CVs, or for some the letters after our names – we see qualifications as a way of defining our place in the world and our worth, and yet as Einstein said, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, it will spend its whole like feeling like an idiot. We cannot all be learn, be marked or tested in the same way and so we miss out on a lot of potential by keeping our measures so narrow.

88. A qualification for something is like reading the manual about how to use a gadget, it is useful but it neither makes someone smarter nor better equipped to do the task at hand. What we get in the end is dependent on the quality of love, truth, harmony and responsibility with which the person lives and how much of their essence they choose to openly bring to the moment.

89. We are brought up to believe that intelligence is the only way we can evolve and grow and what I have come to realise and friends and family share with me is that this couldn’t be further from the truth. We only need to look around and see what we as a supposedly intelligent species are living with the rise of ill-ness and dis-ease and see that the choices we are making are not so intelligent.

90. Intelligence is often seen as an ability to process information more quickly or to be able to recall many facts. That is useful but there are many other life skills that do not depend on these abilities.

91. It is a strange world we have created where more emphasis is placed on the “qualifications” we attain rather than the quality with which we live and use our skills. Every choice and action can add to humanity’s robotic existence, separation, self preservation, competition, greed, mistrust and the lack of care we treat one another, however good and benevolent it may look. In contrast it can be impulsed from our Soul and remind us that we are all connected, equal, divine, loving and responsible to one another. Surely a qualification is simply an addition to our skills so that we can serve humanity in life, no more no less.

92. There is much to learn and become qualified in our lives, but we first need to understand and embody the enormous wisdom and intelligence of ourselves in our inner hearts.

93. Very true, Eleanor. If everyone was encouraged to develop their own unique abilities, we would be constantly inspiring one another and living a more soulful expression.

94. I agree Sandra, great comment. If we teach our children to recognise their true worth then perhaps they feel less pressured and are more able to connect to their natural qualities and skills and to be more themselves.

95. To me our intelligence is not necessarily based on our qualifications but our willingness to access our innate intelligence and our lived experience. So I find it interesting why we tend to place a lot of emphasis and pressure on our qualifications.

96. I spent many years kicking myself for not doing so well at school and getting better grades, going to university and getting a good job because that was what I perceived to be successful. In the last few years I have really come to accept and celebrate where I am in regards to where I am and what I bring to my workplace and how what we do will never amount to who we are. We are so much grander.

    1. Yes, Christopher. By living from our true essence we are re-defining success.

97. Children are a great example of these fact…”… there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper.” So often the empty vessel idea is given concerning children and education and yet anyone who has spent even the smallest time with a young child, will know they are full of opinions, understanding and exploration and often a deep consideration for others humans….wisdom is not the same as remembering information, which has its place, but wisdom is the heart speaking, from an infinite well.

98. It is so true that we are much more than a piece if paper, and yet we put so much pressure on ourselves to be something – a credential or a degree or an award as a form of proof we are good at something when this is just the quickest way to go into comparison.

99. I too struggled with exams. I had to put a lot of effort into studying. I would get bored and want to give up. I realise now that it is about commitment to all areas of my life and this includes studying should the situation ever arise for me to do so.

    1. I agree, there are many ways to study and the more valuable the purpose of the study, the easier it becomes to actually doing the studying.

100. I have always loved learning and exploring the expression of humanity. As a result I showed early promise in school, and was expected to get good grades. But I never liked the pressure to perform which is required for grading. So, I chose to get by, and not fail, but not excel either. I cannot blame my teachers, for they were stuck inside the same system I was. The responsibility to change our way of learning sits with us all.

101. ’I carried a feeling that if I wasn’t pushing myself, I wasn’t going to do well.’ – A trap I have fallen for many times…

102. But so often people put too much pressure and importance on the grades and assessments – something I have done myself – which results in giving our power away to it and losing track of the fact that we are already awesome with or without that piece of paper. I wish I had of held onto that knowing from when I was very young and not given in to the pressure of having to fit in with everyone else and leave my natural amazingness.

103. It is also awesome when your qualification can support you to express and deliver truth in your work, it feels like everything is aligned which is an amazing feeling !

104. I remember when I first listened to someone play the piano without one iota of jealousy and comparison in my body. It was an extraordinary experience because my huge appreciation of the playing was equally and simultaneously matched by a huge appreciation of myself. If we hold each other as the absolute equals that we all are, then the individual qualifications and skills of one, are just opportunities for us all to expand.

105. My qualifications are marks of truth that I have felt and know and are then a daily rock in my life. My qualifications are time spent studying the Way of the Livingness. My qualifications are the love and equality that I have felt from Serge Benhayon and many others and that I then express out to the world. My qualification is the fact that I am the son of God. This is what supports my life.

106. Education and the question of qualifications is such a minefield. Because we lack appreciation of who we are and make life all about function, grades and getting jobs we go into competition with each other over it and life becomes a merry-go-round of stress (beating off the competition) comparison, jealousy, arrogance or lack of self worth depending on what it is we end up doing. To me the perversity of this is horrific because it is so deeply entrenched in our consciousness when in fact it need not be this way if we were to so collectively choose.

107. It was pretty clear to me at Uni that the qualification process wasn’t to be taken too seriously and most of my fellow students were the same, but the attitude then became slackness, getting just enough done, missing as many lectures as possible, copying from each other and hanging out at the uni bars. We learnt to write in a way that the lecturers wanted us to – ‘play the game’ and get the qualification. All of this was not a true education, where we learn to love knowledge as something to ponder, study, explore and develop as a livingness. That education really only began more recently when I became a student of Universal Medicine.

108. I never had any self-confidence I was so looking outside of myself for approval that I was doing things right. This made me a prime candidate for education and studying one thing after another and constantly being surprised I didn’t ever feel mastered at what I studied despite being filled up with knowledge. But any bit of wisdom I have has come through my lived experiences. When I’m spouting something from something I’ve recalled I notice people at best politely listen; but when they hear from my body something I have lived and know to my core, this is felt.

109. I see so much suffering among students who are desperate to obtain top grades so that they can not only get a piece of paper declaring their skill, but that it will be from an institution of the highest repute. This all to satisfy the perceptions their family or culture has on what is of worth and value. As a consequence students will do anything needed to achieve the outcome, be it cheating or abusing their bodies with weeks of little sleep. And the consequences of failure are devastating because it is not seen for what is, but as a lack of worth and sense of deep shame. Of what true value does this ill-drive bring? If the emphasis is on the quality of the person and the uniqueness they can bring first, then the skills they develop will complement what they do, no matter if they are top of the class or not.

110. This is fascinating, so the pressure never stops, it just keeps on going and going. Why does education have to be so stressful? Education is actually very glorious, to learn is one of our most greatest gifts, it is our tool for evolution, it is a great commonality amongst all of mankind, that we all must learn, no matter how small or grand the subject, education and learning are vital to human life. So why do we construct these systems where only the very few survive unscathed, whole and intact?

111. Our human spirit will find anything to seek recognition and can start from an early age at school and the need to get good grades. Valuing what we do and achieve opposed to who we are in our essence will always lead to striving for achievement. We can then spend a whole lifetime seeking knowledge which often goes hand in hand with always feeling the need for additional qualifications, or we can appreciate who we are at the core of our being and enjoy the learning skills without the drive or push.

112. To me, the person with all the qualifications, all the letters before or after their name, makes no difference to me, because at the end of the day they are just a person like you or me but it is interesting how we can give our power away or think that they may know more when in fact just because they read the book does not mean they truly know or have experience. I will take a lot more or listen to and be inspired by he who walks his talk and had the experience long before the one who has just read about it and knows it merely from knowledge.

113. Serge Benhayon is living truth of this: “We all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.” What an inspiration to have in our lives! Thank you Eleanor!

114. “So on practical terms, qualifications are useful tools to have in life, as long as we don’t see them as the be all and end all and keep reminding ourselves that they do not define us as people.” – Thank you Eleanor, for this is so true – qualifications are well needed in our current world but are certainly not something that we need to use to substitute the amazing qualities that we are each able to bring. In fact if anything, a qualification is a means for us to express and bring our true qualities through as well.

115. Qualifications are definitely needed to set a standard of qualified people that do their job properly. But to me what is more important is the quality of energy they’re doing it in. What if in the future we would energetically assess people whether they’ve got a commitment to life or not. Which we can feel if we read the energy in people’s bodies. This standard is set by the EPA, the Esoteric Practitioners Association. This association simply understands and applies the standards that are needed to be able to energetically discern what they’re doing. This is simply remarkable. And, the way forth!

116. I once had the head of my Sixth Form tell me that I am not capable of passing A-levels, all based on one set of results – we have created a reality where this is how we establish the capacity for success of individuals.

117. “To get almost any kind of qualification we need to go through some kind of assessment, albeit an exam or coursework or practical work, which is the bit that I usually had trouble with.” I had this same problem with exams and assessments Eleanor, and even though I knew about a subject and understood it, when it came to exams I rarely did well. So much about our future life can hang on a piece of paper, and can have far reaching consequences for so many people if they are not able to retain certain information in order to get a pass mark. Our whole lives can be coloured in this way and form how we feel about ourselves.

118. If we are encouraged and supported in our learning for who we are opposed to what we achieve, then we would have a very different education system and would result in us accessing true wisdom opposed to just knowledge.

119. I feel it would be fantastic if we changed our approach to qualifications and broadeded the process to consider how well we interacted on topics, how engaged we were with others in working on problems, what qualities we bring to our classes. We could have a learning process that encourages people to work in unity and togetherness, a degree in understanding others. Of course we wouldn’t have to do away with the current process, but make it more accepting of the different approaches to learning that exist. Our current systems of education massively fail as they make people feel stupid when really they just learn in different ways.

120. “It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.” I love this section as it gives me the sense that there is a freedom here to be gained. That freedom is knowing I am enough just as I am and then the qualification can assist my forward movement in the world. It is not there to own my uniqueness, just there as a support along the way. Like a specific spice that goes into making up an incredible meal. It is just one of the ingredients, there is so much more within me to share through the qualification.

121. It is easy to see how teenagers get stressed with the build up to exams, but what has always stood out to me was how you perform on the day determines your achieved grade. Surely assessing someone’s ability in a none stressful environment during the whole school year would be more accurate than relying on one day of testing.

122. Reading your blog reminded me of a dear friend who had been to art school and I was jealous of at the time. I had always wanted to go to art school and felt that she must be a better artist than I. It all began when she hired me to work with her in the Caribbean painting murals. We worked so well together, like sisters but I always had this thought that she must be better because she had had formal training and I had not. One thing she shared with me, that changed things for me was “Rosie, your art is from you and hasn’t been changed or twisted to fit a certain way. It’s a good thing you didn’t go to art school, you should consider yourself lucky!”
     After hearing that, I changed my whole perception on having to have a qualification to be an artist and I never ended up going to art school and I don’t regret it either. Sometimes a qualification is good and needed, and sometimes it is not but we are not more or less because we have one.

123. It is indeed an art to master study – to walk a line between lack of commitment and over-investment. Perhaps this is what our academic awards should focus on: acknowledgement of a student’s ability to acquit themselves well, and without losing themselves and compromising their health and wellbeing in the process.

124. It’s a great trap to believe the kind of ‘intelligence’ university promotes is ‘it’, the epitome of all life has to offer us. Yes, it can be useful to obtain a degree to do the kind of work we need to do in life but to invest in it beyond that is to invest in a loveless system that rewards the mind at the expense of the body.

125. It’s true we have to be willing and choose to live in a way that supports our natural intelligence to be heard. Sometimes the background noise is a low din other times a full on racket is being created about our ability. I’m discovering more and more it’s not about intelligence it’s directly related to my willingness to be responsible.

126. True intelligence is not that which we can regurgitate and easily memeorize but that which comes from within and takes into consideration the whole being never compromising the true nature of who we are.

127. The wisdom of our experience is our greatest qualification, and that wisdom may be attained throughout many lifetimes and alive in our bodies. Our temporal qualifications give us the knowledge we need in our chosen field and opens the doors for us to deliver and share our innate wisdom.

128. Intelligence is typically measured through our brains and what we know and can recall and often at the expense of the body when studying or working in some instances. What Universal Medicine has shown me, and I am forever grateful, is that my body has a great intelligence. The intelligence of my body is now my compass through life.

129. Yes, Stephen, we have been ‘measuring intelligence and qualifications in narrow frames of reference’ indeed!

     How have we all allowed our educational systems to ignore (what, I feel, we all need and are suffering without) the most basic qualifications around how to live life with quality and integrity from the in-side out?

     How did we get so far away from valuing teachers who can provide examples of living from a deep understanding of life with true, consistently, well being and true care for everyone and everything?

     How is it we continue to ignore the fact that our schools are not addressing the topic of “how to be YOU and live life in a full, purposeful, loving and joyful way”?

     Are we simply avoiding being exposed as not living in this way by avoiding those who do; those who show us another way we can be?

     Have we given up on it (living a beautiful life of service and unity) even being possible?…
     It is not at all impossible. Serge Benhayon is the ultimate qualified human being; qualified to live and teach by example and presentation what life is about and how loving and effective we can be if we but choose to be who we truly are.

     Serge Benhayon has all the qualifications I could ever dream of and have always wanted in a teacher.

130. It is so true, Serge Benhayon shares incredible wisdom in his talks and yet he has never been to University. There are others who I have met in my life where they have been to University and do not hold the same level of innate wisdom. Children equally come with so much wisdom and should never be underestimated.

131. Wouldn’t the world be an amazing place if we all understood and appreciated the fact that we are all born with all the true qualifactions we need.

132. Talking to graduates that are completely over the moon that they now have a qualification, with most being under 25.
     It’s hard to tell someone that a qualification isn’t as important as the quality that you live.

     We spend years, hours and many sleepless nights achieving a qualification and anyone who diminishing that achievement may be in hostile waters.

     How could anyone say that there is a way to be more intelligent in life that actually considers everyone equally oppose to acquiring knowledge to better one’s self

     What if intelligence was driven to benefit the whole of humanity instead of bettering many individuals.

     One may say this is the same thing but acquired through different methods however I respectfully disagree.

     The undercurrent of bettering yourself always has self preservation as the core agenda therefore all action will never give the pure intention to help others.

133. It can be easy to learn or memorize stuff, but to live what we learn and develop the wisdom that living it brings us leads to a whole different and enriching way of being.

134. Not everyone is good at exams, I for one have always preferred essays and practical work, and therefore I always knew traditional University was not for me and instead chose to do a part time distance course so i could work alongside, honouring my strengths

135. I feel the best qualification that we can have is one that helps us to understand life. I feel more qualified for life than I ever have before after 8 years of attending Universal Medicine presentations. This is more than a qualification. It is priceless.

136. It is so easy to get into the whole system and conform to the what we think is needed – not to say higher education is not needed. But we are able to do this in a loving way where by we support our bodies and not to get attached to information that you are learning. Some subjects are a lot more intense than others so it is great to really be aware of what it is you are actually studying and how that can be affecting you.

137. Having a foundation in knowing our own worth and wisdom gives us a solid platform from which we can make the most of any qualification that we get and truly know how to use it. Without that we’re just at the whim of whatever we’re told.

138. It’s true we are already amazing well before we get qualifications. The piece of paper is obviously hard fought and lots of work has gone into it – but we have enormous worth before, during and after the process of getting it. It doesn’t make us valuable, who we are comes from deep within, and it’s there right from the start of life.

139. What’s more important? The person in front of you…or the certificate on the wall behind them.

     1. So true Otto – how can we loose sight of what is in front of us?

140. Learning academic skills are important, but when we ignore the intelligence that resides in our bodies, we deny our selves access to the immense wisdom of God.

141. I have driven forklifts for over 40 years, it was always a tool for the work I did. When I got ready to retire a few years ago for the second time, before starting my next, unknown job I went and paid to get a License for driving forklifts. Over time the qualification’s had changed and I needed a current card for something I had in mind to fill my time. I got my ticket and after a few months of sorting out my new direction in life, I went to a temp job agency and inquired about forklift driver jobs… I started the next day. I worked three of four days a week on 12 hour days. One day in the warehouse the MD of the company came and talked to me about how an American came to be driving a forklift in his factory. I gave him the short story and then added I just liked driving forklifts… and he was paying me to have fun. Qualifications are a means to an end and this one just lead to something that was fun and they paid me do it!

142. I went to a ‘top’ private school in the UK and (apparently) received the “best education money can buy”. I was railroaded to university to study Civil Engineering. After one lecture I knew I was in entirely the wrong place so I walked out, went to London and got a job as a tea-boy. I am now very successful in my industry of choice…and have never ever ben asked about or mentioned a single one of my educational qualifications….mmmm?

143. Eleanor qualifications have great purpose however what if during our period of study for a qualification we are told things and educated in a way that does not represent the truth? What if through that qualification we are unknowingly blocking truth from one generation to the next? I’ve recently experienced a team of graduates who were marked down at University for a particular point they made, this was a point that was widely understood in society but a team of academics choose to “re-write” history and in one generation the truth is buried. It shows how true wisdom is something that is needed first before the qualification or we get very lost.

144. I have seen through my education, exams and grades have such intense pressure on young adults that they seek medical and psychiatric support for that time. Surely this should not be a normal part of education?

145. Your blog got me thinking today Eleanor that we generally think of intelligence as a learnt thing, or else as a capacity to learn. It’s a most interesting possibility to entertain that ‘wisdom’, which is perhaps the only seemingly inherent ‘intelligence’ is something we ‘connect to’ by virtue of the choices we make in our day to day. That would see a much needed overhaul to our current education system if that were accepted and fostered in our youth.

146. I can so relate to this Eleanor. I am about to embark on a short study course next year which will be quite intensive and i am very aware that i need to hold myself in the process and not get pulled into striving for good marks. This striving creates the anxiety, which I know well, and detracts from the joy of new learning.

147. Most beautifully said Abby.

148. I totally agree that the most intelligent man I have ever known is Serge Benhayon. What he offers the world is incredible, practical wisdom. He understands life like no other. This is not what he learned from a book, this is the intelligence that comes from his soul.

149. This is a discussion that is truly called for – the current education system is made to breed the ‘good grades’ rather than inspiring true connection between the students and the fact that everyone equally have something unique to bring to the class/group/work place.

150. School has taught us that intelligence is a certain way, but we are all born with natural intelligence it just isn’t fostered, instead we parent to make children in the image of ourselves.

151. I love this blog – reading it I could so see myself in what you had described, not being the A-grade student but desperately wishing I was and making up for it by pushing myself and seeing my grades as a measure of my own worth and intelligence – major anxiety! I have been working on seeing the worth I bring to the world that cannot be measured by a percentage, so that when I approach an exam or essay I see what I can bring to it, rather than what it gives me.

152. Intelligence and qualifications are two different things as Serge Benhayon is very clearly showing us in a very profound way. Whenever we have the idea that our qualifications making us better than someone else we are in pure illusion. We need a qualification when we want to enter in a certain area of work but it is always the quality we live in, the way we connect with people that determine true success.

153. “The beauty of humanity is that we each have our different strengths and weakness.” – Yes for sure, it is beautiful how we are designed to all work together, complementing one another and bringing our precious piece of the puzzle to the whole.

154. It’s a great topic Eleanor, one that I am certain most can relate to. I recall being at school and it wasn’t until year 9 (I was about 15) that I began to push myself more academically. I noticed that I was being noticed, not that I was ever class dux, but I began doing better than I ever had. I wanted that attention, even if some of it was comparison. Since that time I have gained many certificates, diploma’s and a degree, simply so I can say, “oh I have done that” – pure recognition. But really none of those lists of letters and pieces of paper tell me about who I am. I am not the qualification in that piece of paper, like I am not the job I do. Whatever I do I am still me. I absolutely see the value in having a qualification, for I would not be in the work area that I am without it, so it’s needed. But the qualification does not make the person we bring to our work. Who we are remains everything. Lets face it, if it was everything we think it is, our planet would be in a much different state.

155. I found that to achieve in my qualifications was a way to prove to myself, my own worth. I have slowly shifted and am turning that around by realising within myself a quality that is worth far far more than any grade or examining board could muster, a place of confidence as I get re-accustomed to living with the value I bring to the table.

156. I always used to refer to my qualification as a piece of paper. I never hung it on the wall or gave it any importance in that regard, but having it has opened many doors for me. What has been great to realise is that it was never the piece of paper that opened the doors, but the committment that it represented. It represented a committment to work in particular areas and to learn the necessary skills that were required.

157. What we need to understand is that with competition and comparing ourselves, which very much happens in any educational system, we hand ourselves over to something that then runs us, as we, from our innate being, would not compete with each other.

158. Not being academic I left school with very few qualifications and carried a feeling of not being good enough as my piers all sailed their exams. Finding Serge Benhayon I learned of Universal Wisdom that can be accessed through connecting to our inner heart. From his presentations and living way he is by far the wisest, intelligent man I know. I now know that what I have to bring is not defined by qualifications but how I live, the qualities I live and bring this to the skills I have, a huge shift from my school days. Thank you Eleanor.

159. It is very common that people without qualifications do not feel valued or value themselves because of the way society puts the emphasis on the paper qualifications in the world today. When we look outside of ourselves for confirmation of our worth, we will get squashed when we are not successful in the world’s eyes. It shows we are not recognising our true value, quality or vitality we can bring everywhere we go, because we are living in disconnection to our own love inside us.

160. Everything you present rings so true for me Eleanor. Learned intelligence is great for carrying out function but true wisdom allows us to navigate all relationships in a way that nurtures productivity, joy and connection.

161. “What is in a qualification” – great question Eleanor, and from my own experience in having read two degrees, i’d say detrimentally – exhaustion from recognition, competitiveness, the be all and end all, and a false sense of worth… all of which i brought into work once i started professional life. Living life differently now through working on dissolving such external identifiers, i hold qualifications differently too, and as being (necessary at times) a part of life/work or a job, but by no means what life is all about.

162. Getting qualifications are important in life as we currently live for they provide the foundation for work and careers and making a valid contribution to society. However, it is equally important that as a society we stay open to the exploration of new awareness and truth and don’t become lost in a self-affirming but very limiting education system. If we insist that all study has to be referenced to a previous ‘authority’ to be valid, we box ourselves in and this is dangerous in my view. Do we know everything there is to know already? I doubt that very much and in fact we know this is not true. I feel we must remain humbled by all that we do not know and hence be ever open to more and more new discoveries that evolve our education systems to greater levels of awareness.

163. Love what you are sharing, I was never a great student, struggling to get good grades but I have a zest for life and people, I dropped out of high school at age 15 but now run many successful businesses. I am all for getting a degree if it supports what field you choose to work in but there is so much expectation placed around study and over achieving theses days, it almost feels like it has nothing to so with the practical aspects of your chosen career.

164. The society we live in today is, as I see it, a clear reflection of the fact that we have put paper grades ahead of wisdom and listening to our bodies. The much needed qualification has been ranked above taking care and looking after ourselves and for this reason perhaps, its why seeming intelligence does very unintelligent things. What a great reflection though of bringing back some more balance to life, learning skills that are needed but not making the skill more than who we are.

165. I feel to offer something here that is basically small if one was to make comparisons with all the wonderful comments that have been shared. Having left school after the Intermediate certificate, was basically looked down on by others for not being so intelligent, however, after being dis -enchanted by working in a bank for 18 months, I successfully completed in secretarial work, especially pitmans shorthand (just loved using hieroglyphics) and had amazing places of employment to follow. Fast forward to my children’s education they were sent to boarding school from year 9, then no choice, but to Uni.or College of some sort. If you asked me if I would make the same choices now I would doubt I would, but I was caught in the belief system that formal education would be the only saving grace in life – how wrong, harmful and half baked that belief system is. If only I had had the wisdom to know and remember then what I know and remember now. Thank God Universal Medicine is providing platforms for conversations such as this sharing with us wisdom about whole body intelligence. This makes so much more sense.

166. I find that in the profession that I work in there is more and more push to excel academically but not enough focus on how to be with ourselves and other people. We need both if there is to be true education.

167. Eleanor, I can so relate to this, ‘I carried a feeling that if I wasn’t pushing myself, I wasn’t going to do well.’ For my whole education I held this belief, I thought that I had to work really hard at every subject because it just did not come naturally to me and so I pushed myself and studied long hours to try and keep up with others – this was not healthy and not a true way of studying, it was very unloving, I had a lack of self worth and didn’t value myself. I put the studies and results before my own health and well being.

168. ‘It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.’ I think you have nailed it here Eleanor. The trouble is, too many of us see ourselves as failures because we don’t make the grades. I believe our education system needs an overhaul.

169. I used to think I was not good at maths. That feeling of not being ‘good enough’ in certain areas really does hold people back and can become a fixed mindset from a very young age. I hear 11 year old students saying I’m not good at x, y or z and so they give up even before having a go.

170. I pushed myself really hard at school and university and topped my year group in both but I remember feeling exhausted, very anxious and not content at the end of it all. I then started work and realised that all of those great grades did not necessarily make me a better health care professional. Within a year nobody at work remembered what grades you got at uni! So I then realised I had been thoroughly duped into thinking it was so important to do well at school and uni and get top grades when really in my opinion my energy and time would have been better spent studying me and life and getting to know those things on a deeper level.

171. Incredible, but true that in some families, your worth is measured not by who you are, but by qualifications, profession and earning potential.

172. For the first half of my life I used qualifications or the pursuit of them to define who I am. The whole focus of school was to get through a series of educational hurdles, weekly termly assignments, GCSE O and A levels, university or college entrance, assessment, annual and final exams. Gaining a qualification did not make me change the way I felt about myself, insecure and lacking deep self worth. Self care and changing the way I lived, did. Formal education – schools, colleges, universities continue to pursue old and outdated models of education that focus on the wrong set of values and have a narrow view of ‘success.’ We don’t just need national curriculums, we need a universal curriculum that supports children and young adults to be who they truly are, honour themselves and connect with deeper human qualities of self care, love, respect, kindness, gentleness, and having equal regard for self and others.

173. Yes, Eleanor, universal intelligence is something completely different from what can be learned at any school or university. By connecting to our inner heart, we can access a plane of life where everything can be known, because we are intrinsically a part of it.

174. Reading this blog again really made me ponder on why I never pursued a greater education and I have to admit I just didn’t like the stress of exams and I really didn’t like studying, but the fact is although there are many exceptions to the rule, qualifications are a real necessity in most cases to earn a decent income.

175. Superb article Eleanor, thank you. I agree, “there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper.” and the proof of this is that we can live in a very un-intelligent way as we achieve this qualification, as proven by the partying culture so prevalent in Universities today. Enter Serge Benhayon, a person who lives intelligently based on the relationship he has established with his body’s intelligence and innate wisdom. The qualifications are living qualities, a vitality, integrity and openness that can be immediately felt and inspire others to find the same within them selves. I have studied different subjects on and off throughout my life and nothing has taught me the key principles of intelligence with such power and clarity as Serge Benhayon has done and continues to do. True intelligence is reflected in our vitality, awareness and relationships. It cannot ever be proven by a mark on a piece of paper or an awarded title, as neither truly represent the living intelligence that resides within us, only the quality of our daily choices will truly reflect our ability to connect with and express our innate intelligence within.

176. Throw your hat into the ring was about boxing and excepting a challenge. It was also a qualification for carpenters. You made a top hat out of wood and when there was work required the call to throw your hat into the ring was your qualification of the quality of your trade.

177. I remember that after getting my degree, I didn’t feel it was worth it, that is worth what I put my body through and all the very late nights, and not having enough time for my children. The whole education system is result driven which requires you to push and disregard the body in order to get ‘the pass’. And we all fall for it in the belief that getting the pass will secure our future.

178. A great blog for all the students out there and for anyone going to undertake any kind of study. We are all equal in that we are all students of life, and we are all here to learn, to grow an evolve, and we each travel at the pace we chose.

179. If one has not learnt how to apply the knowledge gained by a qualification in everyday life then the qualification ‘is not worth the paper it is printed on’.

180. Very true Eleanor, tapping into the wisdom of the soul is the most expansive knowledge we could hope for.

181. Rattling up our frenetic obsession with accumulating qualifications and getting top marks, this article is a breath of fresh air, giving us space to consider carefully the quality of our lives not simply the quantity of initials after our names.

182. I’ve found that our qualifications cannot measure our level of intelligence or how amazing we are. The example you gave us of Serge Benhayon is brilliant, it just shows our intelligence is based on a lot more than just our education/qualifications, it is how we live, our life experience, and our connection to ourselves, to people and to the wisdom available that matters.

183. A superb blog Eleanor, particularly the statement… ” there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper…” This is very true, as one could be very intellectual, but lack the ability to hold conversation or have no ‘bedside manner’… All the qualifications in the world can not make up for, or be a replacement for having a quality interaction with another.

184. I consider myself intelligent but have a poor memory therefore any exam that depended on recall like History, for example, was in my Failure zone. My intelligence is in problem-solving and I’m good with numbers, so if I can work it out I don’t have to remember anything, just understand how things work. So I could pass exams but never top grades, I was mediocre most of my school life and that feeling of mediocrity followed me for many years, every job I tried I left because I didn’t feel fulfilled, until I started my own business and combined all my personal skills. Qualifications open doors, they do not indicate anything about a person’s character, apart from their ability to pass exams and assessments.

185. The push for top grades or apathy towards commitment to life can cause serious health issues in the body either way.

186. I have often resisted being educated formally, because I did to think it was a truly representing what people are really made of, I used to really react to this…and now I am able to get qualified in something new, because it has a purpose in life. I move in the system of education with more ease. I know we all have something to bring to life that supports the whole of humanity, no need to compete, or compare, but appreciate what each of us share.

187. I appreciate the example you have offered of Serge Benhayon who does not have a formal higher education, yet the way he lives and what he expresses offers the deepest level of wisdom and understanding about life that I have ever come across. Playfully I was considering that if we had qualifications for living the highest qualities of a human being and supporting countless others to deepen their own understanding and evolution in life, he would have the highest level of qualification ever. But alas humanity has not so far chosen to pay much attention to such qualities.

188. I was a very focussed student at high school and many years later in my tafe course and found that the way I was in those studies was very anxious and stressful because I was pushing myself to get such amazing grades to be seen as successful, but at what cost and toll was it having on my body? Any study or qualification we undertake can be very useful if approached from our own connection to our hearts and bodies. It makes a marked difference to the quality in which any type of education is then undertaken.

189. A much needed discussion Eleanor, when we strip it down its interesting to observe how qualifications serve us as both individuals and as a global population.

190. My experience of qualifications is that I have needed them foremost to tick a box, I wouldn’t have been employed in some of my jobs without a degree, and yet the degree did not really have much influence on my ability to do the job, in fact most roles I have undertaken have relied far more on an ability to engage and communicate with people, which no bit of paper teaches you.

     1. It is ironic that one frequently requires a qualification for job yet the qualification does not prepare one for the job.

191. A qualification is an attempt to reduce us to a trained talent. The talent gets qualified, never us.

     1. I so agree with you Felix, are we not round pegs hammered into square holes that can bind us for lifetimes doing things that are never about us? One needs only look at family lineage for being doctors, police, military and many other professions for generations just to carry on the family tradition… where is self?

192. The piece of paper opens the door, but what we bring can be vastly more when we come from the wisdom within, and at this point in time is not rated but it sure delivers and expands way beyond the teachings we get at institutions.

     1. Yes, I agree Merrileepettinato. I have found our life experience outweighs our qualifications. Most people I have met are a lot more interested in my experience at job interviews, they hardly ever look at my qualifications. This to me shows that our life experiences are pretty crucial, and our intelligence is not limited to just an educational level but it is something we have access to continuously, our body for example is a lot more intelligent than we think.

193. Serge Benhayon represents the true intelligence and wisdom that are available to all as long as we heal our hurts and live in a way that makes us a reflection of and conduit for divinity and The Ageless Wisdom.

194. I’ve been noticing that pressure alot at the moment – a push from outside to do better, try harder, get it done within the timeframe…. Yes these pressures exist, but ultimately the thing is to just be myself and then share that. If I lose that what do I deliver… an empty, stressed and reduced version of what I’m capable of, and the world loses out on the potential that lives in every one of us.

195. It is true that qualifications help us to do a job and that is pretty much it, the real importance is the way we do the jobs we do, the quality the way we express. Imagine how awesome a bus drivers job, a road sweepers job actually is an amazing opportunity to lay an energetic imprint for anyone who walks the street to reconnect to the essence of God – Incredible!

196. Qualification are often a necessary part of obtaining a job, and if this means getting the job you are drawn to and love doing all the better, there is a certain intelligence in leaning. But the true intelligence that Serge Benhayon speaks about comes from love, true divine love that connects us to the universal wisdom of our bodies and our inner heart.

197. It is more and more coming to light that true intelligence is not that what comes from a degree or text book and that we are in fact far more that what we are qualified to do. What you have shared is so powerful Eleanor, as living in connection to who we are is what allows us to explore the unlimited universal intelligence that is available to us, ever-present and accessible through the union of our body and Soul. We only need to look around at the harmful behaviours of those in held positions of deemed intelligence to see that smoking, taking drugs, being in abusive relationships, anxiousness or suicide in not a wise and honoring way to live or address life’s challenges, and that even with this acquired intelligence there is something greatly missing. Yes we need skills for humanity to function, however the quality and purpose in which these skills are acquired is what then brings and offers the quality of true service to us all equally to feel supported to live, learn, share and evolve in a far more loving and harmonious way, together.

198. A qualification that serves a purpose is great, yet if this has been ‘achieved’ at the expense of the body we cannot truly call it intelligent. True wisdom is born from a connection with our body and allowing it to inform us.

199. There is so much recognition involved with education, schooling, work, careers, etc. I’m definitely not free of it and with that recognition can come judgement of others. Awesome what you say, Eleanor, about all of us working harmoniously together to get the job done, whatever it may be. True teamwork.

200. Rates of depression are super high among the young and the pressures and environments of university seem to contribute to this during those years, yet also set the student up by not teaching allowing them to explore themselves outside of the curriculum and what they have to offer that is far and beyond the qualification alone can deliver.

201. What truly speaks is not a qualification rather the quality we express with.

202. Education today is far from what true education could and should be, Most would agree that our schools and universities are, on the whole, loveless institutions that do not put people first – teachers or students – because of the strain and necessity of having to ‘achieve results’. But what results do we end up with in our communities? There are some amazing teachers, principals and educators that work within this system, and I take my hat off to them. But we all need to take responsibility and look at what quality we are producing in and through our education system today.

203. In general I would say that we do have a very linear or compressed view of what defines intelligence and from this we can end up negating the vast wisdom or intelligence that people share just because they don’t have a certain set of letters after their name. Great blog, thanks Eleanor.

204. “And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.” . . .so true Eleanor and many now are willing to make the necessary changes in their lives thanks to the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.

205. Well said Eleanor. I have several qualifications but have found that there can never be enough ‘pieces of paper’ to make up for lack of self-worth or self-love. We can study and achieve for ever but it will never compensate for any feelings of inadequacy we hold within ourselves. For this we have to reconnect to a different kind of intelligence that is innate in us all.

206. “It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.” This line is universal and you could easily take out qualification and put in anything really….job, role, mother, daughter, father, son, flatmate, partner, etc…. What you are sharing with us is that we may need to do certain tasks/jobs/obtain qualifications but it is not who we are. It may support what we do in life absolutely but it is not a drop in the ocean compared to the amazingness of who we are and what we bring just by being ourselves.

207. True intelligence is known through the body not held in the intellect.

208. It is true that our true worth cannot be defined by any outer achievements, accolades or education.
     We may choose to study and achieve a set of skills and education but never does this contribute to or detract from our worth.

209. And what’s more Serge Benhayon is willing to share the way that he lives and inspire us to also be able to access the Universal Intelligence that is there waiting for us to tap into.

210. When intelligence is seen as the universal wisdom that it is, rather than memory and a level of recall, then how we are as human beings and how we live in the world will completely change.

211. Great blog Eleanor. I am studying at the moment and can say I find it still hard to let go off wanting good results completely. Yet I am finding the more I value myself and what I bring by my quality, care and presence the less important recognition in that way becomes. Never of course forgetting the importance of knowing what I am doing and why.

212. Whether we strive or give up, there is so much comparison in education. This is the way education is setup, to rank and compare us to an ideal outcome. No wonder so many of our kids and teenagers dislike school.

213. I think this blog has done a great job to expose some of the ways we deal with education and study. The anxious/stress response and the cruising, ‘so long as I pass’ response are two of the most common. I have just started studying again this year and have been so surprised how many old patterns are there that make it seem stressful or difficult. I have loved the reading part and have realised just how passionate I am about my chosen field. But when it comes to putting an assignment together it all seems a bit much. However even though I ‘think’ this, I find that when I stop worrying or delaying and just get on with it, the issues really aren’t there.

     1. And what an amazing way to re-imprint your relationship with studying, Fiona.

214. A brilliant article, Eleanor. I have also found that I have told myself that unless I study something or get a piece of paper to justify myself to others, I do not have the right to contribute to some areas. While I would not want a doctor to operate on me who has not gone through the rigorous study needed to do so competently, I also feel that we all have an inner knowing about a wide range of subjects that does not require the justification of a qualification.

215. I have met many people over the years who have been to uni and get a degree often with no idea of what to do with it. The drive to get a degree seems to be the main focus even though it may leave them in debt and in a job thats not even related to their studies. It doesn’t make sense but it does if we place our worth on having a degree. I left my university course after the first year, the pressure was not worth it and I don’t feel lesser for having dropped out but the idea of this at one point did come with a whif of shame. Passing uni with stress, anxiety, debt and no idea or direction for life forward with me and my paper simply wasn’t worth continuing for.

216. Once upon a time, having a degree was enough to secure a job in a profession. Nowdays, people are needing double degrees and further qualifications because having a degree now is commonplace. But at what cost to the person studying who leaves University totally exhausted? How effective is a young Dr or other professional who is already burnout from studying before they’ve even started work?

217. Knowledge can be learned but wisdom is innate.

218. So lovely to read your blog Eleanor – and to appreciate that underneath all the qualifications we are all the same and when we connect knowing this we let go of the need to be anything other than who we truly are.

219. I agree with you Eleanor, our qualifications are predominantly a measure of one thing… our ability to recall information we have taken in. We do have a general understanding that there are a variety of ways in which we can be ‘intelligent’… emotionally, ‘street-smart’ etc. However the sort of ‘intelligence’ you refer to with regards Serge Benhayon is something quite different again. The ability to access great wisdom is something we recognise, though still attribute to ‘special’ individuals in history. Serge Benhayon is the first to propose (in fact insist) that this is not so, but is something accessible to every person equally, depending on choices made. Now THAT is worth studying… in my book!

220. I went the other way to you Eleanor. I went for the top grades and become the consistently top achieving student of nearly all my classes. I was sold on the fact that I was giving it my all and this was the consequence but in truth I was always stressed out to the max if I got anything lower than an A. A clear lack of self worth and self love here!

221. The educational system that I grew up in was all about preparation to go to university. I went along with it reluctantly and got a degree.
     I have not needed the degree to do any of the work I have done in the world. Basically all my job skills I learned by doing.
     The concept of learning by doing is a way to get skills that you can not get any other way.
     I am understanding that another powerful way of learning is observing life and be open to the unlimited possibilities that the world offers, because we are being offered everything, we just need to not let our beliefs of how things should be, get in the way.
     Thank you Simple-Living Global and Universal Medicine for presenting a way of life that supports me to access the amazingness that I am.

222. Indeed there is a vast difference between the knowledge of a qualification and the wisdom that comes from a deeper connection to your own essence. Both can complement each other when allowed to do so.

223. qualifications only show the level of implied intelligence, from what we can recall from what we have been taught. And as I just started Uni I can feel this is all that it is aimed at. But in truth the education we get prepares us for the task we have in our society that we feel within. It is a tool to be able to work in a certain profession, but does never show our worth or universal intelligence.

224. Qualifications are a piece of paper that stamps a seal that one is able to show and apply certain skills. It is interesting how we extend this with levels of control and recognition that then divides us into the can and can not’s. I work in a field where I have assistants who have fewer stamps on their paper work (officially) but the quality that they bring is far greater and equal in all with the service that they provide the community each day and often people comment on not being able to tell the difference between the workers and management.

225. I love that Serge Benhayon does not have any qualifications, as it proves from the amount that he delivers and presents without preparation that the greatest wisdom is delivered from living from your inner heart.

226. An amazing article Eleanor I’m getting to the end of my university degree and realising I already had everything at the beginning.

227. Universal intelligence. so valuable and universally accessible that it’s priceless and can’t be given on a qualification.

228. Qualifications are often something we use to hide behind or portray as the be all and end all. But ultimately just because you have this or that piece of paper does not make you wise about the subject. We only have to look at a lung specialist who smokes or a doctor who drinks alcohol to see that true intelligence and the accumulation of knowledge do not always go hand in hand.

229. Educational ‘Qualifications’ serve a purpose in the world in that they are needed in order to obtain the right to be employed in specific areas and with specific labels but these educational facilities do not open us up to the wisdom and higher intelligence that comes from within. My observations of both these ‘intelligences’ are that in many cases one separates and grades people and the other connects people and fosters true brotherhood.

230. To be a universal man such as Serge Benhayon is so much more than any PhD or degree can provide, unless of course it is the study to become a universal man (or woman) as this is a degree that lasts for life times.

231. Eleanor it is great to read this article. I have allowed many years to pass, and many excuses to never let me feel in truth what I wanted to do in my life. I have now felt it and have chosen to study. Truly feeling my purpose has ment that any doubt or unsureness I encounter as I study, holds no power, as the unwavering commitment to doing what is needed is greater, encouraging me as I do the study needed.

232. A super important topic to be writing about – the education system today can be likened to a loveless machine that has the purpose and function of producing human resource that can the in turn function in various echelons of society to keep a much bigger (loveless) machine going. Every child that enters into the education system as it is today, unless they have parents that are fully aware and thus supportive, is thwarted by a system that tells the child that the grades are what will define you, and that it is what you produce, what you achieve and the marks that you get, that will be your companion trophy or otherwise – what you will be marked with throughout your life. And it is this marking we are branded with that we then take into adulthood and into all that we then do, and we become a puppet of a system that keeps us all reduced to the false identification that our measure of worth is defined by how well we perform, the ladder we climb or fall down from etc etc

233. Not having been to University myself has never held me back in the jobs that I chose in my early years. I wasn’t particularly inspired by my work situations either . The jobs that I have enjoyed and felt worthwhile doing have all been volunteer work. When I look at this I feel this has been through a belief that I was not valuable enough (because of my lack of education ). A CATCH 22 situation . I am beginning to understand that by loving and nurturing myself and seeing myself as equal with all others is all the qualification I need to be a valuable part of this world!

234. Identification, recognition and acceptance are the things that we are seeking when we are at school from our grades and exams, and we push ourselves so hard and judge ourselves so much when we don’t get a grade we deem as acceptable or good enough. All the while, within, we are these amazing bodies of great inner wisdom and love, just waiting to be connected to and lived.

235. Eleanor – what a fabulous blog to write – As I read this I can see that you are not invested in the education system to be everything – and that is HUGE coming from a teacher. What a blessing your pupils must get! That they do not need to prove their worth by competing with each other for good grades. I did not attend university either and I have never regretted it – however there is much judgement placed on those who have not been to university. But in this judgement we forget the wisdom that is possible outside the classroom.

236. I have met a lot of very successful (multi-millionaire) business people and entrepreneurs who have not been to university or have dropped out. I have recently had a house built and most of the builders were massively more intelligent and exemplary in how they worked together than very “qualified” people I have met in high corporate positions who behaved extremely unintelligently. Passing exams is a feature of recall not intelligence.

237. It is so easy to fall for the push and drive in doing well or in giving up and not wanting to go through it at all. What you show is that certain things in life are necessary but that it should never be at the expense of our own well-being, and that we can approach it by looking at how we feel and are in certain situations, and what needs to be looked at and healed to let go of the anxiety, stress and worry we go into.

238. Great reflection Eleanor – qualifications are empty without connecting with the intelligence of our bodies as Serge Benhayon and his family members have showed us. A case in point is all the scientific advancements in medicine and we have a greater incidence of many major diseases! Where is the intelligence in this reality? Much appreciation for Serge Benhayon was felt when reading of your experience.

239. This says it all – you have nailed it ” if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.”

240. I will soon start another training and have already started studying the subject with a friend. In former times it was dry and hard work, now I feel a lightness and ease with it, which comes from how I live my life.
     To make these changes in my life I have been inspired by Serge Benhayon and the love and wisdom he shares with those who are open to it.

     1. I can relate to what you say Kerstin. My relationship with study has been transformed. Before it often felt like hard work,something I had to do, now it’s what I’ve chosen to do, is joyful and like you ‘feel a lightness and ease with it’. As I have changed so has the quality of my relationship with study. Again, like you inspired by the Serge Benhayon.

241. Both my sons picked up the fact at school that it was all set up to push to get good grades but was not about people first. If school and universities were run on the premise of first of all meeting people for who they are then this would go a long way in reducing stress and competition that is rife in these institutions.

242. Qualifications are super supportive and needed if done for the right reason.

243. “It’s when we identify ourselves with the qualification and see them as a direct measure of who we are that we end up doing ourselves and others harm and losing sight of our true potential.” Eleanor this is so spot on and yet the whole system is geared up for us to not see this. We measure our worth by external results rather than simply for being ourselves in the knowing of what we bring.

244. I absolutely agree with what you’ve shared Eleanor, qualifications and the letters at the end of our names are often seen as the be all and end all of someone’s ability; the more letters, the higher marks, the more intelligence and wisdom that person has. In truth everyone has their own experience and observation of the world to share, and if everyone were to achieve 100% in all tests and gather tens of qualifications this would strip humanity of it’s diversity and people’s uniqueness of wisdom.

245. Great subject Eleanor and one that indeed needs to be talked about. Similar to you I grew up feeling I was an intelligent human being, although did not excel at anything I did at school or otherwise, and always felt less as a result as my brother and sister and some of my close friends all did better than me when it came to grades. But the difference between us, and was something that I always felt, was that I just knew about things that we didn’t learn in school or get taught. To me this was just ‘common sense’. It is this inner knowing that we all have access to, and what Serge Benhayon is presenting that cannot be denied. This is true intelligence and needs no piece of paper to prove its validity once it is felt.

246. Great discussion to initiate Eleanor with so much emphasis currently being put on attaining education and qualifications but the worth of so many courses not being properly assessed. At school I did well in exams because I had a good memory but I always felt like a fraud and by the time I got to uni had, to a large extent, given up. With qualifications I have undertaken since, including teacher training, I have struggled to see the point of a lot of what I was being asked to do and in my current role formal qualifications are not a requirement. For me it is always the connection I have with other people that is key and that is not something that can be taught in a classroom. Yes we have to learn certain skills to undertake many roles but the quality that we execute these skills with is the essential part and the true measurement of that still eludes the current standards that are being applied.

247. I have to totally agree with what you say here Eleanor: “there is much more to intelligence than a qualification written on a piece of paper.” Some people with lots of qualifications, and therefore considered to be intelligent, still smoke cigarettes which are of course known to cause cancer, and many also drink alcohol that is actually a poison, so where is the intelligence when they make these harmful life style choices. You can have all the qualifications possible, or conversely none at all, but to me it is in the way you live, the love you bring to yourself and others, and the common sense and integrity that you bring to everything you do that is the gauge of true intelligence.

248. Many years ago, when I took a final practical exam for my qualification, I really thought I had messed it up because I didn’t know the specific subject at all. I never used to know how I passed, ( I thought it was a fluke) but I understand now because without realising it at the time, I had connected to my true inner wisdom. Once we know this, we can connect to it wherever we are, whatever we are doing.

249. It would be interesting if we were also given grades for how loving we are, how much self-worth we have, how much self-care we have, how much we are responsible for the effects of our actions on others and so on. We place so much importance on our qualifications at the expense of so much which would be bring true benefits us and to humanity.

250. I love the simplicity you present with Eleanor. You have really cracked the consciousness that says that a ‘qualification’ is the be all and end all. I can see that qualifications are useful but they are also narrow boxes used to control and suppress people built on a foundation of comparison. It is little wonder that we are slammed when we identify with a qualification.

251. When I was at school it didn’t make sense to me what they were teaching us. We were learning things like different soils in countries and landslides or battles that happened years ago but nothing was about what was going on at the time, and when I looked around me there was a lot going on and it was not good! For me it was and has always been about people and most importantly how people were feeling or what was going on for them. From observation over time our communities and societies have got worse … bullying, disregard, struggle, exhaustion, stress, depression, anxiety, obesity, self-harming, suicide, more drugs and alcohol being used, an increase in illness and dis-ease such as cancer. Yet our education system continues to make it about grades and grades only regardless of our well-being. Yet the so called ‘intelligent’ people make very unintelligent decisions for example I heard only the other day the whole Health and Well-being Team within the council had been deleted for the borough because they didn’t feel it was needed!!! We have so much to learn, not from a text book but of life, the choices we make, how they affect us and others and ultimately about true evolution (signpost to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for this). I always considered myself to be a bit thick and was in a lot of the bottom classes at school just because I was rebelling about what was being taught and so did not want to learn. However, now I am halfway through studying for my degree and getting really good marks. The goal for my degree is not the grade I get but how much more I will be able to do for people once I have this bit of paper in my hand. As you have shared qualifications are great for practical terms but they do not define us for who we truly are and never will.’So on practical terms, qualifications are useful tools to have in life, as long as we don’t see them as the be all and end all and keep reminding ourselves that they do not define us as people.’

252. Qualifications are indeed good things to have if we want to get a job that requires them. Over time, though, I came to realize that there is another important part of what we bring to the world that has nothing to do with our qualifications but with our qualities.

253. Very pertinent post Eleanor, and absolutely re Serge Benhayon, as in meeting and hearing the enormous and great wisdom that comes from his being in all his presentations and conversations, i’ve found shows direct indication that true education is not solely [or even resigned to being] a paper thing, but instead first a bodily thing.. mix this with the paper or certificate, and what you have is temporal divinity in action.

254. Eleanor, great article,I love this, ‘Each and every one of us is an amazing asset to society, regardless of the jobs we do or the qualifications we have. The beauty of humanity is that we each have our different strengths and weakness’, I can feel how powerful it would be if this was taught in schools, if each child was seen for who they are and what they bring and they were encouraged to work together with all their unique qualities, rather than how the system seems to work at the moment which is all about results and academia and making the children be in competition with each other rather.

255. Qualifications are neutral, it is the meaning we place on them that defines our relationship with them. If we use them for identification and recognition then they can mask deep levels of insecurity. If we see them as routes to gaining greater knowledge in a particular field or specialism and draws on the wisdom we already have, they can be fun and expansive to work towards.

256. A qualification can sometimes be just an identification, something that makes us feel better about ourselves, because of the amount of effort we may have put into, therefore the sense of achievement, and of course the qualification itself that makes us think we are someone at last – even though we have lost ourselves in its process.

257. Gosh Eleanor, you are not alone in having measured your worth by your achievements at school or university. It is great to discuss this, to expose how little most of us have valued ourselves and the quality of our being.

     1. Yes exactly Janet and we have an education system that fosters the idea that the greater the qualification, the greater our value. If we don’t grow up with a solid sense of who we are as being everything (and who does lets face it) then, it is near impossible to escape the measure of our worth being in some way connected to our education level.

        1. Very True Jenny – for in abandoning our innermost truth we will easily accept an outer anything to define who we are and to measure our worth by.

        2. Yes even understanding we have a ‘worth’ that’s inherent, is a revelation for most. There is little if anything in our lives from an early age that supports us to know this. We are applauded at every turn from the time we first smile for the things we do and achieve in life, so little wonder.

258. Good question – are we willing to live in a harmonious way, and one that allows us to access universal wisdom? A wisdom that starts by connecting to and listening to our own bodies first,

259. I have seen quite a few courses advertised where you can attend a lecture just for a day or two, sitting and listening and be given a piece of paper at the end of the day saying you are qualified in such and such. You can practically buy a ‘qualification’ off the shelf. Your example of Serge Benhayon is a great one – he may not have any official qualification, but boy oh boy, his lived authority in what he presents qualifies him the bestest teacher ever.

260. “And in truth we all have access to the same universal intelligence if we are willing to live in a way that allows us to access it.” It is not what you do but the quality with which you do it that matters. Serge Benhayon and his family are the living proof of this.

261. There is far more to people than the qualifications they hold yet we as a society like to judge people according to the qualifications they have. Intelligence has nothing to do with qualifications, intelligence has everything to do with how much we are connected with our body and can express from our essence.

262. I have often felt less about myself for not having temporal qualifications, therefore not having a career, so it just shows how powerful the consciousness is that thinks that to be ‘intelligent’ we need to have A grades or a degree etc. Certainly, if we need qualifications for a certain profession then yes they are necessary, but true intelligence comes from within, so what I have learnt from Serge Benhayon is to not judge myself or others based on their level of temporal qualifications, but to accept everyone in equal intelligence, knowing that all we have to do is connect to it.

263. The irony and the tragedy of qualifications and how they are pushed in the current age of education seems to bury students further in a false version of life, and how they live. So many doctors graduate medicine hooked on sugar, alcohol and caffeine, or worse various drugs to help them maintain a semblance of function – yet these are the ones most highly trained supposedly in looking after our health and wellbeing! Education truly is about bringing forth what is inside and developing that potential rather than being crushed into a lineal intellectual desert bereft of the quality that we all know deep down is part of us, and that we could all live but have mostly abandoned in the survival in the loveless world that we have created.

264. Great post Eleanor. Education today is all about getting good grades – but it is all about the mind and there is no heart. I so agree with your comments about Serge Benhayon… “Yet I can say from my experience that this man presents with a wisdom and intelligence that goes way beyond the stuff anyone can learn at school or Uni.” This all begs the question – what is true intelligence?

265. Thank you for this Eleanor. It’s really important that we stop seeing our grades as a measure of our self worth, which is what we are taught to do in school. The fact that everyone carries this so deeply in their bodies is an indictment to the way the education system is set up and how we all fall for, or buy into, the current education consciousness. Understanding there is a difference between who we are and what we do is a great way to start unpicking what is going on. Deeply honouring and appreciating who we are before we do anything is a great way to heal the hurts of our education and to simply see it for the tool that it is.

     1. An absolutely great point Michelle. Education should ever only be a tool used to aquire the skills we need for our chosen profession – our grades, marks and qualifications should never replace who we are; they are merely what we do or have done. Sadly though our society is based on recognition and until we support and value others (including ourselves) for who they (we) are and the quality they (we) bring then identification and recognition will be what is chased. A poor second to the love we are and deserve.

266. I just did a Master’s degree and am now doing another one. The key is to stay connected to your heart. Everything else follows. University is a very strong environment but being connected easily makes up for it.

     1. Thank you Christoph, what you are sharing proves that we can have the temporal qualification, and if we remain connected to our innate intelligence which comes from our inner heart, then we don’t get caught up in the system and end up drained and disillusioned.

     2. Christoph, I have re-discovered the joy of working towards and gaining two awards that have specific relevance to my work, family and health and well-being. It is not a Bachelors or Masters that inspired me to want to progress towards higher qualifications and not for the piece of paper, but was to gain deeper understanding of a specific disease, now said to the the leading cause of death in the UK (Dementia). (i)

        (i) Independence Newspaper 14 November 2016 – source Office of National Statistics.

267. Great blog Eleanor, I left school with very little qualifications preferring to go straight into working but there has been many a time I wished I had stayed on at school and had a greater education or obtained a few more skills. You are totally right though we all have access to the same universal wisdom if we are prepared live in true connection with ourselves and everyone with true love. Serge has definitely shown us how to do this by his presentations and the way he lives.

     1. True Kev, there are different forms of education, formal and informal and our innate knowing, the deepest of all, connects us with universal wisdom. At the same time, true pursuit of qualifications is worthy too. Learning is life long and many courses degree and otherwise offered on-line straight into our front rooms. The possibilities are endless.

        1. Exactly right that there are many paths and only one true intelligence that is universal, it can be found anywhere by anyone.

268. Qualifications are just keys to a door! Some doors are bigger than others and take longer to get the key to the larger doors. To drive a car and to be a doctor both require training and qualifications… the only real qualification is the experience of doing the job. A piece of paper with a tick in the box is just a paper chase.

     1. A way to be with people in the areas that are needed and we choose for our career – to bring our light to. A means to an end and not who we are.

269. Qualifications are super-supportive for being in the workplace and who would want someone doing a major plumbing job in the home, who had no idea how to even change a washer on a tap :). Yet there are many people who would make naturally amazing, responsible and dedicated nurses, policemen or firemen etc but maybe unable to have their innate skills developed in the workplace, because they are not even called for interview as their exam results on paper are deemed unsuitable.
     Serge Benhayon is a great example and role model in that anything is possible, even without university degrees or accepted ‘deemed suitable’ qualifications, when we live with the absolute integrity and responsibility that he does 24/7.
     “He is also an example of a person who lives with absolute responsibility in everything he does, and has a vitality that most people can only dream of”.

270. Qualifications are needed for certain jobs and it is the quality we are in when attaining these qualifications that is important not the grades we get. Yes we need to pass but no we do not need to get top marks unless that is something that comes naturally with out a push.

271. To be able to drive a car you have to learn how to manoeuver the vehicle and master the rules of the road but you do not have to be a Formula 1 racing driver constantly competing to go faster than the other drivers. It is the same with education that we need to acquire the skills to enable us to be competent in the work we have chosen. True wisdom does not come from a piece of paper.

     1. i agree Mary – we may get our ‘License’ but it is the quality we bring to our driving that makes the difference and we can feel that difference and everyone around us can feel the difference.

272. On another note, no matter how qualified someone is or how well they do their job, they may not be so great to be around as people or work colleagues because of their less developed people ‘skills’ such as being reliable, organized, tidy, being caring, appreciative, respectful, communicating, considerate, aware, fun etc.
     These other life ‘qualifications’ that make for a life that is light, fun and happy and inspire us to learn, work and be together in an ongoing sustainable way
     … a life worth living.

273. I have been struggling with issues of self worth at work for a little while now, so it feels timely to read your blog today Eleanor about qualifications. I have no qualifications in my field, beyond my working experience. I entered my field in a specialized area with no formal training. I feel like I fall short of the mainstream industry standard and have been wondering in terms of self worth if I need to go and get that ‘piece of paper’ and then would I feel/ be more capable and confident. I too have wanted to be an ‘A”Grade student, and feel I have the aptitude but not the skills to match. This is such a valuable opening up of the topic around what it means to be successful. I ask myself, do I value me for what I bring beyond my skills. The questions continue around how are we measured within our industry or in society, how we compare with each other, what and how much do our own personal efforts and merits contribute? There can be layers of oppression in these societal and work norms that it can be hard to feel our worth beyond what and how we are in work/life. I am also aware of my own tendency to strive for perfection and high expectations of self and my work and being critical when my efforts or others don’t live up. I can reflect as I write that I have create my own insecurity in this regard.

274. Yes we do need qualifications to do what we need to do, but we do not need to be defined by them or to be held hostage by them. Yet many of us are, my experience of college was similar to yours Eleanor, in that I didn’t get the grades I wanted and then gave up, (still did enough to pass) and it’s only been later that I’ve managed to get over this, it took another uni course to do so! There was an attachment in being seen to be smart, being seen to find it easy and being seen to be in the top of the class, I was very identified by it all, and now years later I can understand the pressure and expectations I put myself under where I expected to get it first time and didn’t give myself the support and space to truly understand, or even admit that I didn’t as I felt I would loose face if I did, and of course in doing this I made things more difficult for myself than they needed to be. There is so much more to education than we currently allow in our systems right now, it’s about supporting the person to learn while understanding that they in themselves are already complete; and we have some way to go to see this as the core, and once we do it will very much change our learning environments.

     1. I agree. Both underdoing and overdoing education are disharmonious practices.

275. I’m finding this a really interesting conversation at the moment particularly in relation to job-searching as I find that sometimes I have stuff come up around not having a piece of paper as an official qualification. At the same time, I know that of course that while there are certain skills required for particular jobs, that there is also an innate quality and wisdom that I can bring to a workplace which cannot be measured by a piece of paper. And so what an important reminder that each of us has a natural wisdom within that is the true marker of universal intelligence.

     1. This is a beautiful confirmation of what you bring Angela. Sometimes we are all the wiser for not having a qualification as we bring new ideas and experiences to the table.

     2. I definitely agree with you here, Angela. I know exactly what I bring to a company first – who I am. Fun, playful but dedicated and hard working. Then comes the background, qualifications or career history.

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