Master the Art of Living

The Golden Thread

The discovery that there exists only one student, one teacher, and one teaching holds within it the glad assurance that each of us possesses the potential to become Masters of the Art of Living.

Mastery Learning

In the 1970s American educational psychologist, Benjamin Bloom, challenged prevailing educational theories by conducting research to support what he called Mastery Learning.  This revolutionary instructional method presumes that a student can learn anything, if he or she is provided with the appropriate conditions.  Bloom held that students should not be introduced to a new concept until they had demonstrated proficiency with the current one.  By extension, a child should not be advanced to the next grade-level until he or she masters the material in the current one. 

Bloom’s research showed that one-on-one tutoring, while nearly impossible in most classroom settings, made it possible for almost anyone to master almost anything.  His findings led to subsequent research in the field of learning styles, which encouraged teachers to vary their instructional and evaluation techniques to meet the needs of every student.  This optimistic theory, emphasizing the intrinsic value of every human being, has  great made strides towards ensuring that “no child is left behind” within the American educational system.

The Art of Living

Those of us who consider ourselves spiritual aspirants can be described as “students” in the “classroom” of the “school” of Life.  But, aspirants are not unique; we are just more aware than the average sleeping person.  Whether we know it or not, every human being is on the planet to become a Master of the Art of Living.  We are being given one-on-one instruction by the Master Instructor who, like Bloom, adheres to the Mastery Learning approach.  This means we will not be advanced to the next level of the “celestial curriculum,” until we have mastered the lessons presented at this level.  It would be counterintuitive to assume otherwise; and yet, this is exactly what most of us expect to happen.

To extend the metaphor further, by seeing this “truth” in scale, each one of us requires a different instructional approach, because we are all endowed from birth with a unique set of preferences, tendencies, and attributes we can refer to as our essential nature.  And, as we have discovered and discussed on many occasions, we are placed within the exact learning conditions we require to teach us exactly what we need to learn to fulfill our particular life’s purpose.  These conditions include all of our interpersonal, socio-economic, ethno-cultural, and sexual orientations, which comprise the “look” of our particular learning environment.

Obstacles to Learning

Given this understanding of the perfect match between our learning style (essential nature) and instructional techniques (life conditions), what is it that prevents us from advancing to the next level?  In other words, what are the obstacles that prevent us from learning and/or slow down the process?  It seems strange that we’re here to learn—to become masters of the art of living for the purpose of self-realization; and yet, we continuously find ourselves stuck in the same old place.  If we truly want to learn, it seems we must start by identifying what’s holding us back.  This is the beginning of our real inner work:  self-observation for the purpose of discovering that which is interfering with learning.


If any of you have ever tried to learn a new sport, you know how hard it can be, especially if you played a sport requiring similar skills in the past.  Let’s say you played tennis in high school and decided to take up golf in middle-age.  You show up for your first lesson with the pro, and what are you thinking?  “I should be pretty good at this.  The skills are basically the same.  You’re just swinging a club instead of a racquet, and the ball is a little smaller.” In fact, you may be so convinced of the similarities between the two sports that you don’t really listen, when the pro starts to break down the physics of the golf swing.  All you can think is “just get out of my way and let me hit the ball.”  If the pro is wise, he’s seen this before and will let you do just that.  And, then what happens?  You whiff the ball!  Not once, not twice, but several times, until you’re thoroughly humiliated and decide to walk off the course or, better, shut up and listen!  What’s the problem here?  What’s the obstacle to learning?  You think you already know.

This is the biggest obstacle to learning, and we all do it all the time.  We think we have the answers, so we just operate on auto-pilot.  We have just enough knowledge and skill to get by, so we meet the conditions of our life in a dreary, mechanical sleep and wonder why we’re stuck.  We become our own teacher, repeating the same lessons over and over again.  We might even consciously read a book or attend a lecture to gain some new knowledge, but all the while the internal “teacher” is merely searching his or her data base to have what he or she has previously learned confirmed.  How in the world can anything new be born out of that?

Another slant on this obstacle is allowing the authority of others to condition our responses to the events of life.  Spiritual aspirants and intellectuals are particularly vulnerable to this tendency.  We hear something or experience an event and immediately go into memory to dredge up some theory or teaching we learned from a book or a guru and respond by saying, “So-and-so says the Archangel Gabriel is choosing certain people to enlighten the planet, and our new candidate for President is one of them.  I love this speaker, and know he’s the ‘real deal,’ so that candidate has my vote.” Or, we might say, “The famous talk-show host says our current administration is trying to redistribute the wealth in America and my taxes are about to go up 10%, so I think I better vote for the other party.” This may sound ridiculous, but you’d be surprised at how many of us allow the authority of what others have supposedly experienced or conjecture to influence our responses to the conditions of our life. 

Experience As Teacher

The bottom-line is the particulars of the experiences and opinions of other people are irrelevant to our learning, particularly if they are of the subjective variety.  They only serve to feed the comparative mind and confuse us.  “Why don’t I have experiences like that?” we ask.  “He must be further along than I to have seen the Angle Gabriel or to know so much about politics.” we cry.  None of this matters!  It might be exciting to hear about other’s experiences or their strong  opinions in much the same way as riding a roller coaster or listening to a ghost story is thrilling or titillating, but the end result is the creation of emotional sensation and nothing more. What we must learn to do is experience what life brings us, and let this experience be our teacher.  At the very least, we must remind ourselves to test what we read or anyone tells us in the arena of our own lives.  Most of us spend way too much time seeking second-hand knowledge which could be much better spent experiencing real life first-hand.

The reason why we’re continuously reading, watching television, seeking out vicarious forms of entertainment is that we’re afraid we’ll disappear, if we just sit still and let life unfold before us.  If we have nothing to shore up our false identity, we cease to exist.  We’re like children in the classroom who are distracted by seeing children on the playground outside our window.  We’d rather be doing something else than experiencing life on life’s terms and accepting what we have been given to teach us what we must learn.  Watch this in yourself.  See this tendency towards restlessness and rushing to get from point A to point B.  We’re never here.  We’re like a dog chasing its tail!

Masters

Many of us have known or, even, worked with people we call “Masters.”  We enjoy being in their presence, because we can see that they’ve been touched by something greater or higher than others.  They seem to “know” more than we, and they very well may.  But, do we ever stop to ask ourselves why?  If they are genuine Masters, it is because they have become their own authority or, better said, they have embodied a higher authority.  They and their Teacher have become one. 

They have also suffered and continue to suffer when they are met with challenging conditions and choose to surrender what their personality thinks it “knows” about the situation in favor of allowing the moment to unfold naturally.  They are intimately familiar with all that is false within them and have trained themselves to look this self square in the eye, silently suffering over the truth of what they see. 

They know they must not allow any images to be built around or within them, because they have discovered through experience the truth that nothing in this world of time and space is permanent and lasting and to do so is sheer folly.  They do not self-reflect as they meet the conditions of their lives, because they are too engaged in the moment as they meet it—fully absorbed in whatever life has brought them both internally and externally.  This quality of mind has given them the confidence to stand squarely in front of whatever experiences come, with the sure and certain knowledge that who and what they are cannot be increased or diminished by the winds of time.

They do not strive to “elevate” beyond the point in which they currently reside and only recognize that they have “risen,” when they realize, almost by accident, that they can see more clearly than they had previously from their newfound “lofty” perch.  There is no judgment or criticism of others who have not yet risen, only true compassion and unending patience, because they see themselves in everyone.

They do not seek to teach, instruct, or correct others, but choose instead to lead by example.  They have seen that there is only one Instructor and know this Intelligence is working within everyone at all times, and all living things are right where they need to be to learn what they must.  On the other hand, they do not continue in relationships which have been outgrown, realizing they cannot continue to learn in “classrooms” where they have mastered the curriculum.  When they depart they do so with love and without arrogance, praying that their classmates will soon follow them.  They know the truth that we must all, eventually, see the truth of ourselves for the cycle of suffering to finally end.

Genuine Masters of the Art of Living are concerned with just that—living in the here and now.  They put their houses in order and tend their gardens well.  They are “present” in every relationship, whether with family, friends, finances, or co-workers.  For they know that it is through these relationships—not in isolation—that they will continue to learn the lessons they must learn to know themselves more fully.  Finally, they know without hesitation that the learning never ends.

Exercise: Let Experience Teach

Notice how we turn to thought (what we already know or what someone has told us) to provide the appropriate response to the conditions we meet every day.  The next time you catch yourself doing this, inwardly say “I am learning and will let this moment show me the way.”  Then, see what comes.  A true response is natural and requires no thought.