Students of Life

They say that "when the student is ready, the teacher appears." I have a slightly different take on this idea -- I would say that when the student is ready, he finally notices the teacher who has been there all along!

Life itself is an ever-present teacher, and we are designed (quite literally) to be its perennial student. Unfortunately, something quite different takes control of our lives from practically the moment we're born. From Day 1 we're introduced to this sneaky little feeling called "desire" -- and immediately we begin learning how to please ourselves. Whether it's a child crying in order to get his mother's attention, or an adult buying expensive clothes and a fancy car to maintain her image of being successful, the process is the same -- desire first defines, and then seeks, its own fulfillment.

And actually there is nothing wrong with wanting things from life -- it's just that the things we desire were never meant to be the driving forces of our lives. Because if I'm driven by some picture in my head of how great life will be once I get this or become that, I actually become the slave of that desire AND of its dark twin -- fear. Meaning, first I fear never getting what I've imagined I need -- and then when I do get it I fear losing it!

There is another way. There is a path we can take that answers the question of why we never seem to reach a place of true contentment, no matter what we get or accomplish in life. This path gives new context to the insatiable desires that push us to do and get more...never allowing us to rest. But we only come upon this higher path when we begin to grow weary of the world's dead-end paths. Only then do we begin to see life as it is truly meant to be seen -- not as our conquest, but as our teacher.

And thus begins the true journey that leads us away from a life subjected to the dark twins of desire and fear, and towards a life that promises to reveal our true potential and purpose!

The first step on this higher journey is straightforward, and is simply this -- Know Thyself. What you don't see about yourself can never be changed. A person who has never truly seen his arrogance, for instance, will simply continue to be its unconscious slave, talking and acting from this unenlightened state. But because Man has been gifted with self-consciousness, which separates him from all of God's other earthly creatures, he can work to raise his self-awareness -- to shed light on the previously unknown, dark parts of himself -- and thus be elevated above a life controlled by worldly desires.

The primary aim of this site is to share exercises that have helped me to see that if you want a different life, you must first be different. All of the ideas found within these pages come directly from my studies with a living teacher of Truth, Guy Finley, at his center for self-study, Life of Learning Foundation in Southern Oregon. My gratitude for having found this body of work is quite inexpressible.

My hope for you is that, by sincerely and persistently working with these ideas as well, you will begin to see that all events in your life are actually customized, personalized lessons designed to reveal you to you. Because, as stated by GF:

In the seeing is the freeing!