The School of Souls

5 minute read

The School of Souls is the life we live, in case you are wondering what on earth I might be trying to convey through words born from the madness of my mind, because this is certainly beginning to take shape around my existence, perhaps also in the minds of those who know me... Those comfortably settled into the boredom of everyday life need read no further.

A year ago I might have said that my life was pursued by misfortune, by the immanent evil hidden in our thinking, and that it was not worth living... but I would have been right in only one sense: life is not worth living without love in it. Everything else that happened in my life was for my good and, implicitly, for my happiness.

Living divine love has a boomerang effect, and its path through our lives is elliptical. At certain points it intersects our lives and its existence is revealed to us; for the rest of the time, we can only remain conscious of its presence around our lives. The hardest moments were those in which I knew that I was suffering for nothing, that nothing happening to me was truly grave, and especially that time would pass over everything. The only problem was getting through it. Perhaps I dramatised it because it was nothing new. I had fought the mind many times before, but each time it seemed new because it was lived in real time, and this gives every moment its uniqueness even when it is the same. Our perception differs, but the moments are the same. The experience of love is the same. There is no more or less, no cleaner or dirtier, no stronger or weaker. Love is reflected in our existence as it is. It does not arrive by measure, but reveals itself exactly as it is, without the dualism and limitation imagined by our minds. The problem lies only in our own courtyard, in our limited minds. This is why love sometimes seems more intense than at other times, or why we imagine that what we live is no longer as intense as it once was. Yet a few moments of crisis can be enough to make us realise that things were not quite as we imagined.

Our deceptive mind gives us the impression of satisfaction, peace and evolution when we struggle for the petty things around us, but this usually ends almost as soon as they have been achieved, because routine and boredom soon settle into our lives. A soul that has truly tasted love, and senses that life is more than what we see around us, will feel compelled to fight until the thoughts bound to the trivialities surrounding the ego of the identity given to us at birth in the material world have died.

Everything in our lives happens in order to make the soul conscious of its existence and purpose. People have always spoken about the meaning of our existence, the purpose of our lives, liberation from the slavery of our thinking, and knowing the one who always speaks within and never leaves us in peace... until we truly listen. When we learn to listen to the one who speaks within, we will find peace and happiness in our existence. And how could you hear him if your mind is always chattering like a broken mill? Silence repairs this anomaly within us, and at last we can see what is hidden there. From that moment, we will have respect and reverence for the god within, because all of us conceal gods inside while worshipping the idols outside, including our bodies, passions and desires. The God within is the same for everyone, but each of us perceives it differently, or not at all, because a mind left to its own devices will play with our lives, imagining and creating all kinds of ideals, purposes, games and scenarios... all to carry you farther from your own 'self', to lay more dust upon the mirror of your heart, and to fasten the blinkers more firmly over the eyes of the soul, which is to say over the mind. We identify so completely with our thoughts and minds that we forget who the 'master' within us is. Most of us are not even conscious of its existence. Even if we are told, even if suffering is placed in our lives to awaken us from 'sleep', nothing may succeed in giving us the slap we need to begin the path towards the soul's liberation.

So many things and pieces of information that were once considered sacred now surround us and are within our reach, helping us to escape the traps spread like a spider's web across the existence of the soul. This knowledge used to be revealed only to initiates and was not accessible to neophytes. It is true that there is now so much information that we can no longer distinguish what helps the soul from what does not. Yet continual prayer and attention turned inward will bring the silence and awareness needed to understand and sift what the soul truly needs.

Our soul needs three things in order to be genuinely happy and fulfilled:

Continual prayer, as it was said: 'Pray without ceasing!'

Continual attention as an observer, also known as watchfulness.

True love, for 'God is LOVE!'

These three are woven together and complete one another. Whichever one you begin with on the path towards the soul's liberation, the others will be revealed along the way. There are only two books I recommend, although one is enough: The Way of a Pilgrim and The Little Philokalia of the Prayer of the Heart. They can help on the path of unceasing prayer and of releasing the soul from the restraints of existence.

Perhaps the book Hearts of Love will also help when absolute and infinite love begins to burn within you, or when you believe that human love is the reflection of infinite and absolute love in the soul...

The School of Souls called life is difficult only for those who cannot see the light within their lives, who do not struggle for the soul's liberation, who allow thought to govern them even while their souls remain sad and desolate, longing for the one thing that makes them happy: Infinite and Absolute Love...

First published in Romanian on 4 July 2011. This English translation preserves the perspective of that period.

Original Romanian article: Școala de Suflete.