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Imagine what it might be like if everyone were
willing and able to share with the rest of us the truth of their lives. We all have
learned so much from experience, in one degree or another, that we each have something to
teach others. And, as Edgar Cayce reminds us and as common wisdom attests, there's no
better teaching than that which comes from our own experience. If everyone were to share
their personal truths, might it lead to some kind of communal enlightenment? I once had a
dream suggesting so.
In this dream, we are dancing in a circle. We each
display a symbol expressing some personal truth and we meet, greet, and celebrate one
another in turn. When a fountain of sparks blossoms up from the center of our circle we
find our enlightenment!
In one of Edgar Cayce's readings for Atlantic
University there was a description of everyone, from the President to the Custodian,
participating in the educational process. When I began teaching at this university some
twenty five years ago, I used this dream to portray an idealized education, where students
go within for their information, correlate and compare it with what they read, apply and
test their insights in their lives, then communicate their resulting wisdom with others.
This process has yielded many satisfying sparks of illumination.
Recently I read a student slogan for Atlantic
University: "Education, Application, Transformation." That's great, but it is
incomplete. For example, students, especially prospective ones, often ask, "What can
you do with a degree from Atlantic University?" The common answer is, "Anything
you want to do you can do better after A.U." I think there's a greater answer, and it
involves what's missing from the student slogan. That is, "Communicate!" The A.
U. graduate can serve the larger world by being able to communicate--not just abstract
ideas, but the practical side of spiritual principles, and can put them in personal terms
anyone can understand.
Consider this: "Your truths--those you have
discovered for yourself--have value and importance, and you have the right to share them,
you have a responsibility to humanity." These words are from a new book, Your
Creative Voice: Reaching and Teaching From Your Experience (Adventures Into Time
Publishers). I use it as a required text for my A.U. course, "Creating a
Transpersonal Career." We all are engaged in the career of integrating our soul
manifestation into service to others, so the theme has universal applicability. The basic
premise of the book, in the words of the author, Henry Bolduc, is "Your creative
voice is your gift to humanity." The book contains two gifts that serve both the
needs of the aspiring A.U. student as well as the rest of us who wish to manifest our soul
most creatively and generously on this planet.
First, Bolduc inspires us to accept the
proposition that our expression as a being is what gives our life purpose and value. The
A.U. student needs to realize that knowledge, skills, certificates, and degrees--those
things the student first looks for in the university--are empty tools except in the hands
of someone who is prepared to share of themselves in a loving, caring, and committed way.
Connected inwardly to the creative source, connected outwardly to the community, a person
can learn to share of themselves in a manner that is both inspired and practical.
Second, although Bolduc presents an idealistic
vision of every person as an informal teacher, he also lays out the practicalities of
making teaching a professional vocation, a true calling, where economic prosperity and
soul expression are co-creative forces in a person's life. There are tricks of the trade
that can only be learned by experience. From his thirty plus years as an itinerant teacher
Bolduc reveals all the useful techniques he has learned. As he explains his craft, you
learn that many tips involve an appreciation of our inter-relationship with all the other
people with whom we contact. A born teacher who is quick to share anything that he knows,
Bolduc is a master of assembly, creating audiences receptive to his sharing, whether it be
parties of one or rooms of hundreds.
I interviewed Bolduc for this essay and videotaped
it for my students. They were inspired by his genuine enthusiasm and sincere desire to
help others. With only a high school education, but with a spirit of adventure and a
winning personality, he taught himself how to do past-life regressions before the term was
invented. His most recent book on the subject, Life Patterns (reviewed here in previous
column) was a landmark contribution to the field. His life is a living testimony to the
validity of his book's premise. We all have something to teach others, whether it is
simply to share with a neighbor what we have learned in our garden, or maybe to share it
more widely at a garden club meeting or even in a national gardening magazine. If everyone
were to practice the principles in Bolduc's book, really a gift book to humanity, we would
live in an enlightened world, I'm sure.
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