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Welcome to the website for Sher School of Wisdom. Read on to learn about the nature of the School, our goals and programs. To start, it will be helpful to describe what is meant by the term ‘wisdom’ and by implication, what the nature of this Wisdom School is.
Upcoming Events
The next Enlightenment Intensive is being given from February 25 – 28, 2010 located in lovely Pine Mountain, California. There are no Free Lectures or 1-Day Intensives scheduled at this time. We will be offering them in the Spring of 2010. In the meantime, we hope you will enjoy the articles describing the School.
The Nature of Wisdom and Goal of the School
The meaning of Wisdom that guides this School is: Wisdom is the art and science of spiritual transformation that leads to an awakening to one’s own true nature or essence. We also refer to it as the Intelligence that comes from within through contact with Spirit, the Divine or Transcendent. This science has existed for millennia and is the basis of all the great world religions as well as the much more private Mystery Schools that have existed throughout history.
While this transformational process is deeply individual and personal, our goal is to assist those wishing to engage in it, and do so in a new way that does not involve retreating from “real life” into an enclosed temple, monastery, or other similar setting.
We are in a stage of history where the old division between so-called real life and the pursuit of spiritual transformation must be replaced with a new model. Our ability to thrive and even survive is threatened by the magnitude of the problems facing humankind. These threats cannot be successfully met in the old way. It is time for an evolutionary leap. We can no longer separate the work of spiritual transformation from normal life, or treat it as a luxury for the few.
Wisdom-Intelligence: A New Model
Our culture equates the concepts of knowledge, thinking, wisdom and intelligence. This only furthers confusion. It is important to truly examine the nature of intelligence and wisdom, beginning with the realization that we use only a small portion of the human brain. This portion contains the sum total of our conditioning by genetics, family, teachers, religion, society, etc. In fact, the brain has evolved through centuries of conditioning as a storehouse of memories that go far beyond one’s personal experience. This conditioning limits us greatly and operates mostly in an automatic way below our awareness.
The terms Wisdom and Intelligence are not used here to refer to the mental process of solving problems or making good choices, or the accumulation of useful information. These things are important, but is that all there is? Can there be Wisdom or Intelligence when most or perhaps all of what we know and how we think is the product of conditioning? Or is it possible for anything new to occur? And if so, under what conditions? Perhaps we need to look at these questions closely.
Our minds are full of knowledge, opinions, beliefs and habits of thinking from the past and which condition and control us. This can be discovered clearly. And when it is, we realize that as long as this is true, we are not free or able to discover new ways of Being-in-the-World.
Quieting the Mind
When we recognize that all our thoughts and stored information are from the past and condition us more pervasively than we have realized, we can see what is needed to move beyond that state. We must learn to quiet the mind, that is, that part of the mind that has been monopolizing our interior airwaves for so long. Only then can the “still small voice” from the rest of the mind be heard. Only then will we be able to discover something completely new.
But how do we accomplish this? Must we retire to a cave on a mountainside? This is the difficulty, especially when we realize that the answers that come to mind will inevitably come from, you guessed it, our past conditioning — the very thing that we hoped to quiet. So, we now have our first real challenge and our first definition of Intelligence as well: The outcome of a quiet mind is the beginning of Intelligence. It was Jiddu Krishnamurti who said that “Intelligence’ comes into being when the brain discovers its complete limitation and fallibility, when it knows what it is capable of and what it is not.” This is a process in which we can engage. The purpose of this School is to assist this process.
The Experience of Wisdom-Intelligence
The following is hearsay, that is, a second-hand account of something directly experienced by another. By many others, actually. It is important to know that it is hearsay, for to believe something because others have reported it is an obstacle to having one’s own direct experience. We are habituated to think that we can know something based on what others have said about it. This works well enough for many aspects of everyday life, but it is not a substitute for one’s own authentic experience in the realm of the spiritual. Second-hand reports are a useful guide, but as the saying by Alfred Korzybski goes, “the map is not the territory.”
With that said the experience of wisdom-intelligence – as reported by those who have experienced it – is that new qualities emerge that that can only be described as an evolutionary leap. Here are just a few:
- The ability to use the mind without being controlled or limited by it.
- Openness to the infinite- transcendent levels of consciousness where there is freedom and the ability to access the new.
- Being in an awakened state of joyful participation.
- Openness to real relationship, rather than projecting one’s own needs and wants onto another.
- The ability to assess situations and know what to do or not do for the best outcome for everyone concerned.
- Unity consciousness- a state beyond duality consciousness.
- We become able to participate fully and integrally with those closest to us, our community, and the world.
To learn about the 3-day Enlightenment Intensive and who might benefit from this Work, please read here.
To read more about the Philosophy and approach of the Sher School of Wisdom, go to our Philosophy section here.