WORK AS MEDITATION FOR THE CARE OF THE SOUL

This is an essay on teaching as an occupational hazard & the care or neglect of the soul, based on a reading of Thomas Moore`s , Care of the Soul:

`Not understanding soul, companies look to the work of other cultures and try to mimic their methods. What they don`t realise is that method is not the only thing. Another culture may be successful in its business because it is still mindful of the needs of the heart. It may not be enough to copy surface strategies, ignoring the deeper evaluation of feeling and sensibility that gives work grounding in the human heart and not just in the brain.

Care of the soul requires ongoing attention to every aspect of life. Essentially it is a cultivation of ordinary things in such a way that soul is nurtured and fostered. If we do not tend the soul consciously and artfully, then its issues remain largely unconscious, uncultivated, and therefore often problematic.

As a school student, I observed what I saw as good and bad teachers, but what impressed me most about my education was just how futile I felt the overall schooling process was. Therefore, as a teacher, I am aware that whatever our teaching title, I endeavour to impart some wisdom, intimacy or maturity about life into what is taught. If we are honest, we may recognise that many of our parents and teachers meant well, but often acted largely unconsciously at times. As a result, unless we grow in reflection, we will harm our children in the same way. We must try to teach children to do their best to avoid being moulded in the same way as their parents and the previous generation have before; crippled by a society which only wants behavioural norms and obedient students.

Especially when thinking of educating children, we should remember that all of mankind, everyone, is miserable until they find a pattern of life which suits their nature; one which gives expression to their inner qualities and allows them to realise their creative gifts. There is no satisfaction or fulfilment in living a life predetermined by well-intentioned people ? parents or teachers- who decided that it would be good, it would be the best thing, if someone followed a certain path. Naturally we want to help our children by foresight to avoid some of our own judged mistakes and grievances which we felt ourselves: but this is freedom and it can be frightening to all concerned.

The misery felt from not knowing who you are or what you are supposed to do is very deep and it is one of the causes of the frenetic activities in which modern man finds himself incessantly engaged. He or she is always searching but does not know what for. Sometimes it is money, sometimes status, almost always success, but what they fail to see is that all this activity is a cover-up. Modern man is searching for himself, his soul, or a purpose and he has been lost because he has not been taught where his real self is to be found. He has always been taught to look outwards, never inwards, and if a person does pause so that his energies start to be redirected, he immediately feels restless, then bored, then odd and eventually frightened, so people avoid boredom at all costs because in boredom fear arises.

The fear is senseless because it is only a self adjusting process. The energy is moving inwards instead of outwards, but this is healthy. Something is changing and this is what we have been taught to fear. So here we have one of the origins of the sense of guilt.It represents the feeling that something has gone wrong, and things are not what they should be. Its origin lies in the difference between a person`s potentiality and their actuality, between what they are actually doing and what is within their potentiality to achieve.

Guilt has several origins. One is taught by parents and society as thou shalt nots, this is right and that is wrong. Others come from the persons themselves- from a conscious or unconscious knowledge of their real capabilities, of their real nature. The first is likely to be phoney because much of it will be artificial. The second one is real, however. People know they have certain abilities or attributes which they could use to enrich their lives or the lives of others but they are failing to use them and hence they have a feeling of disease, or sense that things are not as they should be. Once the essentials of life have been catered for, realisation of this potential ought to be a secondary aim of society. .

To live the spiritual life in earnest, what emerges in clarity is the impersonality of all life: in other words if this is recognised deeply, we are always ceasing to live a life which is only for ourselves. Generally what most people seek is only happiness. But teaching requires us to address this self-centred position through inquiring very deeply into the question, `What is life really about? ?Are we here only to have and to get? Or is there a deeper understanding of life which involves everyone`s education?`

Teaching children is a noble occupation if we don`t use teaching to force students into pre-set ways of doing things and encourage them to find ways to express their inner qualities. If you have the passion to teach with openness and in awareness, you will learn a lot about yourself through it, so don`t let anyone - even yourself, knock it!