Modern times mystery

We need mystery in our lives, for it gives us hope. We hear much talk about end times. What we need to realize, is that when ultimately our soul joins with Spirit, the phenomenal world will have come for us to an end and we will know that all is One (people who practice real deep meditation will attest to that)., the ever existing, ever conscious, ever new bliss, and that the phenomenal world and its forces of creation, maintenance and dissolution are nothing but an expression of the One. It is a cosmic play in which we as spiritual beings participate.

Jesus said: "My food is doing the will of the one who sent me and completing his work.” (John 4:34). We need to be God centered realizing that we are spiritual beings and live in accordance with the laws of the universe.

A glance at education

There are two types of education, the education about the material world and the demystifying of nature. This we may call the science of education. The objective is to have a mastery of the forces of nature so that we can make use of this understanding in order to make our lives comfortable and enjoyable.

Knowledge is acquired through learning. We engage with an authority on the subject to obtain understanding for ourselves. We listen to what is said. The words convey meaning which is nothing more than an expression of ideas. We attach ourselves to the ideas, we are being informed, and that information forms part of education. Thus, the process of education is: information, education and result oriented instruction.

A similar process applies to spiritual education. We read spiritual literature or listen to talks. We are exposing ourselves to the ideas contained in a written or spoken word, which is composed of ideas, we ponder these ideas, internalize the meaning according to our understanding and use our free will to follow, or not follow the do’s and don’ts that are being expressed. We educate ourselves. Among other things, we are told not to become a victim of anger, greed, passion etc. because these are neither acceptable to society, nor conducive to the process of spiritual awakening since awakening requires a quiet mind. Hence, spiritual education means being well informed about the subject of contemplation. We generate and become saturated with ideas, and attempt to share them in our lives as opportunities present themselves.

How did scriptures come into existence?

When we study the lives of prophets, saints, holy people, we realize that scriptures of all denominations are nothing but experiences that people like us had and who made an effort to outgrow their ignorance and succeeded. Having succeeded they wanted to share the experience of their journey. We read and absorb these ideas and profess that we educate ourselves. In fact we attempt to pattern our lives after these teachings. Yet we soon realize that experiences are unique to the one who has the experience. We may have comparable experiences, but they can never be exactly the same. This tells us, that real education is more than just knowing about things, we need to have our own experience.

By knowing about things, we base our understanding on faith only.

Knowing things implies that we live by what we know and from a spiritual viewpoint we realize that the laws of God are written into our soul. God’s voice in us is our conscience. However, we have free will to either follow our conscience or ignore it.

Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work. (John 4:34)

What have different spiritual teachings in common?

All legitimate religious or spiritual teachings say that there is a Reality beyond appearance. The Reality is Divine and is called by different names. Spiritual teachings tell us that names are nothing but concepts of Eternal Reality which is manifest in this diverse world. This diversity has four pillars to stand on: Name, Form, Qualities and Utilitarian value. When we take away these diversities, the Spirit, the Essence of Existence, the Reality is what remains.

When we realize that Spirit is expressing in and through us as us, we gradually become aware of our weaknesses and begin to re-educate ourselves to hopefully fulfill our inner potential. In the process we develop our intuition and become more and more Self referring in managing our affairs.

Integration of science and religion

We need to be clear, that the education of science helps us to improve our quality of life.

Spiritual science teaches us that we are infinite potential and that that potential needs to express in an ethical manner. It teaches us that we ought not to be victims of greed, of jealousy, of anger and passion etc. It teaches us to improve the quality of our personality by employing four faculties: rationality (rationality implies the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons to believe, or of one's actions with one's reasons for action), emotionality (a measure of our emotional reactivity to a stimulus), ingenuity (the quality of being clever, original, and inventive) and will power (the faculty by which we decides on and initiates action).                       .

We need to seriously ponder where and how we invest our time and efforts. We need to have balance in life. To say that investing in material comforts is to be avoided, is saying that we deny the fulfilling of our legitimate needs. To neglect our spiritual nature is equally foolish, since we neglect living in accordance with our true essence.

Matthew 6:19-21(KJV)

19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

21 For where your treasure is there will your heart be also.

We need both, material and spiritual education. But instead of separating them, they need to be combined and thus become a way of daily living. Ideally, we work and we are spirit guided

As we have seen, the approach to education whether material or spiritual is the same. 

The difference is the objective

In our daily lives we need to serve our fellow human being as a manifestation of the Divine. We need to realize, that the Divine is everywhere present and interact with Divinity as a devoted educated servant; we need to realize, that the Spirit in all of us is the same. There is only one Spirit. We ought to see our life as a reverent, interaction with the awareness of the presence of life, - God.