Learning & Classrooms

Q:    The world is the classroom.  What does this saying mean?

The path exists to make better travelers who are more able to participate in the world.  The point of spiritual studies is to add capacity and integrate other aspects of consciousness.  This is done to raise the quality of every day interaction between people.

While a period of spiritual preparation apart from others might be required, and usually it is not necessary, this separation is for a limited period. The learning is to occur in the world; this is our classroom and the spiritual traveler has multiple abilities that cannot mature unless they are exercised daily in the world.

If God/Light wanted us to be solely of spirit and not participate in the physical, we would have remained in the spiritual realm.  The body and our emotions are necessary to this part of the journey.  Consciousness is a combination of physical, emotional, cognitive and spiritual stimuli; a balancing of these factors is required and is in part the goal of the spiritual journey.  In order for each traveler to mature in their role as God’s representative, all of these factors must reach full potential.

*          *

Over the years I realized

School and learning was not the same thing.

While I grew to love learning

Often school was dull and repetitious.

School is a preparation for life.
Learning is what life is about.

*          *

And he went into the desert to find the answers.

He looked into the sky and began to ask:

And the days past.

When no answers came

He looked across the land and asked again:

And the days passed.

When he realized the desert could not answer,

Tears from the heart began to fill his eyes.

And the tears fell like spring rain

Forming a small pool at his feet.

And he looked into the water

And watched the sands drink of his suffering.

Then the answers came.

*      *

Q:   Is the point of the Teaching to produce holy men and women?

The point of the Teaching is to produce the completed human being; a traveler who is in tune with the Source, participates in the every day world and consciously serves the Higher Will.

Each traveler is created with a wide range of talents and interests; the point of this life is to express these abilities in the world and do this as a servant of the Light.  We were not created to go off someplace, and live the life of a recluse.

The world needs better travelers who are in tune with the many aspects of them selves and work to make this world a better place.  Some do this as corporate workers, others as parents and some as disabled people in the local social service program.  Each has something to offer the world and this world benefits when each works together and submits to the Light.

*          *

You are a potential

Waiting to bud.

You are the door:

This blocks your way.

Pick-up the key.

Open the lock.

The key is inside of you.

*          *

We are heirs to a fabulous fortune.

O if we only knew

How to use it.

__________

Register for my upcoming retreat weekend atop Bangor Mountain, in the beautiful Pocono Mountains, Kirkridge Retreat Center on Sufism & Enlightenment, May 30- June I, 2014. For information scroll down to program listing: http://kirkridge.org/programs/upcoming-programs/. Then click on Detailed Information for full program highlights.

Read my 2 books: Sufism for Western Seekers: Path of the Spiritual Traveler in Everyday Life and The Ferryman’s Dream.  Both books are also in Kindle format and available on Amazon.com or local bookstore.