The Messenger - Wisdom Walk

Search

Tuesday, 14 October 2008

Home

Archives 2008

Jan/Feb

Wisdom Walk

PDF

| Print |

E-mail

Written by Sage Bennett

...learn ways to reduce
stress and find balance
from addictive behaviors––
through simple
wisdom practices.

In 1984 I had a crisis in my life. Some call it a “dark night of the soul”. I was completely out of balance––overworking, failing relationship, and stressed out to the max. Then I got sick and in the long nights of recovery I finally rested, meditated, and questioned my life. While in the process of my divorce, I began to live in a meditation center while teaching classes at a nearby university. Part of my responsibilities at the center included working in the library. There I was exposed to many spiritual paths and traditions. The wisdom practices helped me heal the difficulties in my own life and find my spiritual center.

After I left the center, I moved to California and began teaching. In one of the classes, world religions, I was able to share what I had gained from the major spiritual traditions. In my classes I took students on a wisdom walk—a journey through the world’s spiritual traditions with the aim of gathering wisdom we could use in our daily lives. Their lives changed.

The benefits of taking such a wisdom walk are three-fold.

First people learn ways to reduce stress and find balance from addictive behaviors––through simple wisdom practices.

Second, people learn about a wide array of spiritual traditions. The ability to understand each other’s traditions hold the possibility of peace––appreciating differences instead of judging them.

Third, people explore the “charges” they have toward different aspects of spiritual traditions. Charged material refers to unresolved or partially unconscious issues, usually rooted in your personal history or attitudes taught early in life. This reaction may prevent you from taking in the wisdom in the practice. The wisdom walk includes a healing of these charges.

In today’s world, we oftentimes lose touch with ourselves and find ourselves overworking, feeling stressed, and wondering how we lost our balance. The nine practices of Wisdom Walk take us down a path towards home to a place of rest inside, where we can be quiet, satisfied, and serene. Once we find this center, the activities in the outer world also reflect balance including our work schedule, our spending habits, and our mental states.

Making time for the Sabbath is one of the hardest assignments for students in Wisdom Walk classes. I find it revealing that the idea of resting from work seems so difficult. Taking a day off each week gives us a time to replenish our physical, emotional, and spiritual selves. It’s wise to have time with family, friends, and our spiritual connection to God, universal presence, peace—whatever we call this larger life.

In a Wisdom Walk we learn we can appreciate our own tradition and still participate in the wisdom practice from another tradition. As an example, we can create a home altar, which gives us a sanctuary in our own home to connect with a spiritual source. We create a place in our homes to commune with a sense of peace and spirituality.

We often treat our appliances better than we treat ourselves. Who would leave a vacuum cleaner on for fourteen hours a day? ”Of course we wouldn’t. Our appliance would burn out.“ Yet, we think nothing of leaving our minds thinking, figuring things out for this time without resting. Developing a meditation practice helps us give our minds and bodies a rest––allowing us to tap into levels of peace that can have a healthy effect on mind and body.

Another meditative process is Visioning. We can learn how to vision by sitting quietly and putting aside any preconceptions about what can happen. The truth is, we are each here for a purpose. Visioning helps us to connect with our purpose, the divine pattern within us. By putting aside our own individual ideas, we can gain access to the ocean of wisdom available to us.

I recently heard someone say at an interfaith gathering. “Until we have understanding of each other’s religions we will not have peace among nations.“ What if what happens in a Wisdom Walk class can happen among world leaders. We have attitudes and misconceptions about each other’s traditions and heal these through understanding and learn to appreciate the wisdom contained within each tradition. Most importantly we delve into some inner work and try to understand our reactions. Then at the end of the class we sit around a table and share a meal, laugh, tell stories. I wonder, if we can do this in one class, could we do in on a larger scale in the world?

Excerpted with permission from Sage Bennett’s book, “World Walk,” published by www.NewWorldLibrary.com

[ Back ]

Main Menu