(Read Part 1 first = StarGazer Feb. 17 = https://tribune.net.ph/2024/02/16/choosing-the-right-path-1)

And so, Aaron and Anthony embraced and struck the deal of their lives — a school, a Universe University, men of the Universe molded into modern-day disciples of the Lord. The concept was so radical, it invited ridicule from conservatives.

The students did not pay tuition. Instead, the school paid them. Aaron argued that it was not a profit-making venture. The screening was so strict that only 22 applicants qualified out of 6,555. This group was the crème de la crème, the best of the best. The focus was on skills not of the mind but of the heart, not the teaching or platform skills (that was an assumed requirement), but the ability to give of one’s self, to sacrifice comfort levels, the ability to love.

The first step was to immerse the students in humility and poverty. Anthony adopted the style of St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuit Order. Everyone was made to beg for food in front of a church of their choosing in the daytime, do fasting (bread and water), and hold a vigil of prayer and meditation inside the church in the evening. They slept on the doorstep of the church. Anthony and Aaron joined the group. It was a spiritual cleansing process that took a whole month.

When they met after the immersion, Anthony and Aaron noticed how all of them had lost a lot of weight, but they were very happy and excited. Somehow, the physical fasting drew out their spiritual energy. They were to become Navy Seals for the Lord.

The second step was “school immersion.” They went out as teachers to various universities worldwide — in Karachi, Singapore, Manila, etc. They taught for one school year a new elective subject entitled Introduction to Missionary Work. They did not screen applicants. They taught anyone, who was interested.

The effect was mind-boggling. When they assembled after teaching for a year, it took the 22 participants three months to share each other’s experiences to the last detail. One by one, they shared the lessons they had learned. This became their primer for teaching. All the lessons learned were documented and compiled in a book and on video, which became their bible for how to mold men for the Lord. It was a textbook based on the experiential wisdom of the magic 22.

Three UU graduates taught Steve Job’s “love marketing” at Harvard, Yale and Oxford. They imbued their students with a spiritual awakening, not taught before in business schools. This angered many business professors who wanted them out. But they prevailed because Harvard, Yale, and Oxford believed in their cause. They started revolutions in the hearts of many Ivy League universities.

Four UU grads taught nurses and nursing care groups in big hospitals in India, the Philippines, Germany, and Ukraine, imparting an expertise on dealing with patients with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. They adopted the caring style of Filipino nurses based on loving your patients, dispelling the old notion that nurses should not get emotionally involved with their patients. Involvement is an essential part of caring.

And so, Aaron and Anthony became pioneers in a radical form of caring that began to change business schools, hospitals, medical schools, and nursing care centers across the globe. UU grads became disciples of the Lord in all fields and aspects of education and health.

Light and Darkness

You are standing at the edge of a cliff, viewing the panorama of a purple sunset that holds you in awe.

You are breathless, hypnotized by the light. But as you look down below the cliff, you see a dark mysterious abyss that scares you. In the dark haze, you see ghostly figures. You move a step backward in fear of falling into the darkness.

How do you reach the light and avoid the darkness? How do you bridge the chasm to get to the horizon? This question haunts everyone in search of one’s self. Your entire destiny, your entire being, is at stake before the big jump to nowhere and everywhere.

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