INTERFAITHINTERFAITH
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The Golden Rule
I remember vividly when I received the sixth lesson in metaphysics studies, which is centered on friendship, my thoughts reached to combine early religious training with the friends I had at the time. Did I really have to be hurt or disappointed when a friend broke a date? Was I being spiritual when I held a grudge because of an unkind word or broken promise? I could let go, after all I was the one hurt the most by the resentment. I had not realized this before. I was only beginning to realize the power within me.
What did it mean to "do unto others as I would have them do unto me?" How could I bring the truth I saw into my dealings with others.
This became increasingly important to me because the way I related with others was constantly changing as my thinking was expanding. I found myself wanting to meditate rather than stay up past midnight repeating a conversation we had had two hours before. I had ceased indulging in mind-altering substances when I started classes, and was finding the friendships with those who continued to imbibe weakening. If asked at the time why our paths separated I would have said, we just don't have anything in common anymore.
I realized with Lesson Six the true import of what this meant and why it was so important. Time was becoming more valuable to me. My old friends were still looking for ways to pass the time. I'd always had a sense that time was rapidly slipping through my fingers. Now, I had the tools to give meaning to time. I no longer wanted to indulge in activities I considered a waste of time. As my learning accelerated I drew friendships with people of like mind to me. New opportunities for caring, sharing, loving.
Love had always been important to me, and now I had license to explore, discover, and live. I wanted to love completely, without condition, and as long as I was willing to look I could recognize and make improvement in this area. What a difference this made and continues to make in my life. I am progressively freer to express my ideas, to give love and compliments and praise. I can tell the truth, rather than hide it for fear of another's rejection or personal dislike. I have learned as much about letting go as I have about embracing.
What I am able to do, as I deeply consider thought provoking ideas such as these, is transform more than my relationships with others, more than my thinking, I transform me. So many awarenesses have changed the way I see myself and the world. I have defused issues that, left unresolved, would have produced unhappiness all my life. Arising from limited understanding of life experiences, questions like "why did my mother try to become part of my circle of friends when I was a teenager," "why did the love of my high school-college years suddenly choose homosexuality," "why did I fall ill every April" haunted me, begging for attention that I at last knew how to give. They were secret fears and pains and longings, echoing in my consciousness bringing insecurity and self-doubt.
Learning to ask the right questions freed me to discover some startling answers to problems like these. My consciousness moved into spaces where understanding reigned and generosity flowed. I reached a new height in experiencing love. When I learned how to respect my parents as people first, acceptance naturally followed. I didn't have to work at it. It was a matter of cause and effect. When I learned how previous existences are relative to the present, concerning both mental and physical heredity, I could understand the narcissistic attachment that holds people back. When I learned the connection between ways of thinking and the function of the physical body, health was in my hands. Self realization forms the kind of person I am, the kind of spouse and parent I am, the kind of leader I am.
By posing the quintessential questions - where did I come from? where am I going? why am I here? and who am I? - I understand how students are asked to stretch their minds in this course of study. They must reach into the storehouse of knowledge gleaned through their lives. To come to reasonable conclusions they must draw upon what experience has taught them about life and love and being and destiny. In this way they transcend the limited experience of one and elevate their awareness to what is universally true.
This greatest secret known to mankind is daily being revealed to me. To align your waking thoughts with that which is universally true for all people, is to realize compassion. As Emerson described it, "To know that what you believe to be true is true for all men, - that is genius." When your grasp of truth is the universal, you are connected with all people. You know your Creator.
If it sounds religious that's because it is, in the truest definition of the word. For years I've taught people that metaphysical study makes your religion more real to you, it does not take you away from your religion. I am more a Christian, in the true sense of the word, now than I have been in my entire life. Muslims and Buddhists I have taught say the same about their religion.
Free to move beyond the confines of dogma, I have come to know the richness in the religious Holy scriptures of the world. I draw from them for my own enlightenment as well as to inspire others toward enlightenment. This kind of openness comes with developing your own consciousness. You quickly realize the more expanded your consciousness, the more we have in common. When you leave behind small-mindedness you realize how small the world is.
Interconnectedness, unity born from enlightenment, is what the School of Metaphysics is bringing to the world. In a secular sense, schooling focused on cultivating genius, education centered on how to learn instead of what to learn, is unique in today's world. In a religious vein, schooling devoted to the Enlightenment of Spirit is virtually nonexistent for most. Opportunities to learn are far too rare.
As the Spiritual Renaissance approaches what has for ages been secret will be made known. Prophecies will be fulfilled in ways previously unimagined. Revelation will become an increasing part of all of our lives.
It is time for man to move beyond believing into a state of knowing.
We believe, and from our research we know, that you can teach someone how to realize Self as soul. This has until now been solely religious territory. Science avoids the issue. Eastern faiths do not address the existence of soul. For most Westerners soul is a concept, a result of faith. It's something you believe exists -- somewhere. You hope that your soul will be saved from any kind of punishment or purgatory or hell or damnation in the future because you live a good life. This is the extent to which most people go in their thinking. This is the commonly-accepted Western view of the soul.
A metaphysician thinks beyond the norm, embracing bold insights that bring new awarenesses to mankind. Metaphysicians recognize that they are a soul and that the physical body is a temporary form the soul inhabits. They realize the physical conditions of their lives are transient, coming and going in a constant state of change. They only exist in as much as the soul needs to learn. From this vantage point, the physical world becomes the soul's university, offering the opportunity to learn.
Learning -- or more appropriately understanding -- is the sole reason for the soul to assume physical form. It is the height of understanding for someone to identify with the soul, to know what the soul needs, and to be about the work that the soul has to do in order to become whole.
Most people's recognition of the soul is through dreams -- their nighttime dreams. Far too many people don't pay attention to their dreams at all. Many people say, "I don't dream." When in reality, what they mean is "I don't remember dreaming." Scientifically we know that dreams occur in cycles every time we sleep.
Some people have access to their soul or recognize their soul in telepathic experiences. They think of something and the person that they are with says it out loud. Or they have a kind of rapport with a best friend or spouse; one person starts a sentence and the other one ends it. This kind of mind to mind communication, or telepathic rapport, is one expression of the soul.
Some people commune with departed loved ones or angels or other entities that exist beyond physical vibratory creation. Others have inklings or clairvoyant experiences perceive probabilities that indeed occur. Then there are those whose talent propels them far beyond the accepted boundaries of the average. Such proteges harmonize with inner resources and draw upon considerable wealth of wisdom to make everyone's life easier. These are ways that some people understand and know their soul.
Any intuitive faculty is a way for you to access your soul and therefore know that it exists. However for most people esoteric knowledge is left to chance. It comes and it goes seemingly on its own whim and without any kind of direction or any kind of understanding on the part of the individual. The course of study in the School of Metaphysics changes your fate. You are no longer at the mercy of some kind of force that is beyond your understanding and control.
Through spiritual discipline you begin to bring into your domain the understanding of the nature of your own consciousness. The limitless power in it. And the awesome responsibility of it. You begin to recognize yourself not only as a soul but also as a spirit. Not only as a child of a God, or a Creator or a The Source, but as one who is maturing and trying to reach compatibility with that Maker. This is the kind of education that will become increasingly in demand in the years ahead.
I can look back on those days during that first year of my study, recalling them so keenly I can again see as I did, hear as I did, feel as I did. I bask in the warmth of their glow and timbre to their excitement. I was learning to live the ten commandments as positive guidelines to peace and contentment. I was learning that those same guidelines appear around the world in Holy scriptures. I was secretly thrilled that I now knew of ways to be closer to the Master I had learned about at my parent's knee, the one called Jesus of Nazareth. I had wanted to be like Christlike, to be wise, from the time I was young, and now I was understanding why.
When one of the founders of SOM pointed to the front door of the School and said, "Someday through that door will walk a Christ," I silently hoped I might have the honor of being his or her metaphysics teacher. I was overwhelmed by my own boldness of thought, but I did not shy away from the secret thought that immediately welled up in response to his words. Rather I committed myself to endeavor, to strive, to prepare. Later my consciousness would expand sufficiently to learn that it is in the striving that enlightenment comes upon you like a ray of sunshine on a spring day.
I now openly profess that through our doors walk many Christs, many Buddhas. Spiritual consciousness is the destiny of all mankind. It is time for mankind to evolve into its next state of being.
Each individual must come to his own spiritual enlightenment at his own appointed time. Enlightenment cannot be bought or sold or loaned. It is not worn like a garment or awarded by another in recognition of effort.
Enlightenment is a state of being, a state of knowing, a state of consciousness. It is wisdom. As medical pioneer Jonas Salk, the inventor of the Salk polio vaccine, once remarked, "Wisdom is the fitness of the future."
Thanks to the School of Metaphysics, for everyone seeking wisdom, that future is now.
from the book Spiritual Renaissance by Barbara Condron, copyright 1999 School of Metaphysics
copyright 2002 School of Metaphysics