LEARNING from LIFE
Teacher of Love 1.2
by Sophia Roselyn Breillat
(continued from part 1)
TEACHER of LOVE
A real teacher does not teach in a way that is formal, structured or authoritarian. A real teacher loves others, helping them to learn, open, awaken, perceive, 
come fully alive with beauty and vitality in a way that is wholly and deliciously enticing. A real teacher knows and loves life with a passion that inspires natural creativity of spirit and natural harmony of being.
When the vibrant fire of this passion is transmitted, both teacher and learner disappear, revealing the beauty of that which is mysterious, intangible, yet wholeheartedly real. True learning is not about transferring knowledge from teacher to student. True learning is about imbibing, experiencing, fully knowing, not on an intellectual level, but from within the body, within the heart, within the spirit.
True learning is an art, as true teaching is an art. Such an art creates no past, no future, no stress, no conditioning. It reveals a clear inner space that is not cluttered with unnecessary data. Rigid teaching and learning systems promote beliefs and judgements, causing a child to become stuck in a mental rut.
Before too long there is a conflicting collision of thoughts, dogmas, prejudices and identities that stifle its individual uniqueness. When teaching and learning become one, when there is no separation between learner and teacher, there is a flowing river of joy, delight, liberation and adventure that reveals the inner life as being the only real teacher.
All of life is a lesson to be embraced within a spirit of wonderment, eagerness and mystery. There is no place for rules, authority, strictness or control in this awesome school of life, for it knows only freedom.
CREATIVE SPIRIT
Education means nothing if it dulls a child’s innate capacity for listening to the birds’ song, inhaling the flowers’ fragrance, chasing the dancing butterflies, from feeling and being with the beauteous wonder of life’s many mysteries.
Any form of education that controls a child, “teaching” it to fit into the madness of the world, to conform to the rigid structures of society, is not real education. True education expands beyond conformity, penetrating deeply into the body and being.
It embodies a deep inner silence that shines beyond boredom and lack of interest. It sparks the divine light of creative genius without burdening the mind’s clarity with facts, figures, data and information.
Such learning creates a wonderful inner flowering that reveals a sense of oneness with the earth. It never becomes a torturous prison that denies our innate sense of freedom and love of life.
Too much emphasis upon the intellect, reasoning, thinking and knowing leaves very little space for the natural enjoyment of life. Through this method of learning, everything becomes dull, burdened, deadening, repetitive, routine.
Our inherent uniqueness, individuality and fountain of creative spirit are then stifled beneath a tremendous fear of authority. Learning that is founded in obedience and control creates robotic beings who lose touch with their freshness, aliveness and spontaneity.
NATURAL LEARNING
Young, open and innocent, a child is in union with the beneficent spirit of the natural world. Seeing the fiery glow of the sunset, feeling the gentle whisper of the breeze, hearing the rejoicing chorus of the cicadas, it simultaneously knows its own inner beauty and natural sense of place upon the earth.
Seeing the madness of the corruptive world, feeling the oppression of the stinking pollution and imbibing the intensity of the roaring traffic, it knows the ugliness of modern society. Everything in the surrounding environment passes through its pristine psyche, creating newly formed impressions that have a momentous impact upon its emotional, psychological, psychic and physical behaviour.
Through inner stillness, full attention and openness of all the senses, a child learns more easily, sees more clearly, hears more perceptively, feels more deeply, lives more joyfully. When a small child is “taught” to concentrate, instead of softly, sweetly and intelligently opening to the play of life, great force enters its body, creating emotional contraction and imbalance.
When children are repetitively forced to study a subject that does not awaken their enlivening fire of inspiration, they become bored and disinterested in many other areas of their life. They never know the profound sense of fullness and completeness that arises through being immersed in the joy of creativity.
The true spirit of natural learning has been replaced by the accumulation of knowledge, information, possessions, thoughts, emotions. Developing a distorted identification with qualifications, degrees, certificates and rows of letters after our names, we then rigidly believe that this is who we really are.
There are no degrees for being loving, compassionate, giving, kind or gentle of spirit. There are no qualifications for tenderness, openness, openheartedness or vulnerability. Yet everyone upon this beautiful earth is born with all these inherent qualities before the control of the conventional learning system begins to seep into the pure clarity of consciousness.
Whenever we learn something new, we are discovering our unique skills and talents, opening more deeply to our divine purpose and how we are to serve upon this planet. If this natural learning process becomes repressed through forceful and limiting teaching methods, we are denied the joy of spontaneous creative expression.
When children learn within a natural environment, they are learning who they are. And they learn the truth of who they are through the outer reflection of their innate openness and love. The purpose of real learning is not about finding the right career or competing and striving to reach the “top”.
It is about learning to love what we are doing, making, creating, discovering, in a way that opens the heart and being to infinitepossibilities.When we learn about a subject we love, we are able to function easily in the outer world whilst simultaneously knowing inner completeness.
When we are fully present with whatever we are learning, without any desire to move from the moment and towards an outcome, we experience the blissful delight of inner fulfilment. When we are totally immersed in the pure joy of natural learning, we know the infinite beauty of inner richness and divine inspiration.
We experience learning as a precious gift that is vital, wondrous, expansive, adventurous. We become more aware of the dance of life, of the nurturing mystery of the earth that surrounds us. We become whole.
© ~ Sophia Roselyn Breillat ~ not to be reprinted without author’s permission
Sophia is a woman who lives, writes and paints from the heart ~
She may be contacted at: wullegurra@hotmail.com
www.wildheartwisdom.com
Roslyne Sophia Breillat
Within the womb of every woman glows the consciousness of Mother Earth. Wildheartwisdom is a web site for nurturing the truth of this powerful feminine spirit and offers support for the female psyche’s many cyclic transformations. Wildheartwisdom focuses upon the deeper joy and purpose of menstruation, lovemaking, pregnancy, childbirth, mothering, relationships, menopause and beyond. Find spiritual guidance for healing from eating disorders, sexual abuse, miscarriage and abortion. There are currently three galleries featuring Sophia’s art and a selection of her article excerpts. As wildheartwisdom evolves more art and articles will be added as well as an extensive resource section. Sophia’s beautiful art and illustrations are for sale and she is currently seeking a publisher for her two books.
