Taking up a spiritual journey is often a deeply personal quest, yet it becomes extraordinary when shared with a community dedicated to self-discovery.
In a recent interview with Guy Finley, founder and director of the Life of Learning Foundation, hosted by MysticMag, the roots of this transformative organization are unveiled. Guy’s path to spiritual awakening, marked by encounters with enlightened mentors and a pivotal moment with Vernon Howard, led him to establish the Life of Learning Foundation in 1992.
Today, the foundation stands as a beacon for sincere seekers worldwide, offering a unique approach to spiritual exploration characterized by interactivity and active participation. As we delve into Guy’s insights, we’ll discover the foundation’s evolution, its commitment to truth-telling, and a poignant narrative illustrating the profound impact of the Life of Learning Foundation on an individual’s spiritual journey.
Can you share the inspiration behind establishing the Life of Learning Foundation and its mission in the realm of spiritual discovery?
In a way, I think it was inevitable. From the time I was a child, I was called to a spiritual life and had a number of transformative experiences. As a young man, I left a successful music career to travel around the world seeking higher wisdom. I was fortunate to find an enlightened man, Vernon Howard, right here in the United States. I studied with him for 15 years. At one point Vernon told me I would one day have my own school.
He gave me the responsibility of running the Southern California branch of his school. And he encouraged me to speak, and ultimately write my own book, which became my first best seller, The Secret of Letting Go.
In 1992 Vernon died and I moved to Oregon to continue my work. I started giving talks in the area, and the Work grew. Ultimately, I founded the nonprofit Life of Learning Foundation, a Center for Spiritual Discovery.
Our mission is to help sincere spiritual seekers realize a conscious relationship with the Divine. Life of Learning is a welcome harbor for anyone wishing to let go of harmful negative states such as stress, fear, and resentment in favor of a life filled with more love, compassion, and excellence.
How has the foundation evolved since its inception, and what key milestones or achievements are you particularly proud of?
When I first started to hold classes in southern Oregon, I didn’t know what would happen, but I felt compelled to speak. At first, I spoke to a small group of students in a room provided by a local business. I continued to write books and distribute talks, at first on tape, and more and more people discovered our growing inner-life school.
Eventually, we built our beautiful headquarters in Merlin, Oregon where people are encouraged to visit and take part in our live events. With advances in technology, we developed first a tape-of-the-month club, then a CD-of-the-month club.
For a time, we held an online chat room. Now fast-forward 25 years. With the help of our volunteers, we now livestream all our talks. Twice-weekly Life of Learning talks are heard by hundreds of thousands of people worldwide through direct live-streaming via Go-to-Webinar, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook, as well as through replays that people can stream whenever they want. One of our programs I’m particularly happy with is our OneJourney.net site. This site was developed in conjunction with the publication of my book, The Seeker, The Search, The Sacred.
The purpose of the book, and the site, is to show that across time and around the world all human beings have the same wish to have a relationship with the Divine. At our core, we all want the same thing. If we understood this, our relationships with one another would be based on compassion, not competition.
The Living Book on the OneJourney.net site is an expansion of The Seeker book, using quotes
from great sages from across time and cultures to show they all have the same message about human nature and what we are meant to become.
In your perspective, what unique approach does the Life of Learning Foundation take towards spiritual exploration, and how does it differentiate itself in the field?
One of the aspects of Life of Learning that makes it stand apart is its interactive nature. Students are told not to rely on the teacher, but to do their own work, make
their own discoveries, and prove everything Guy says for themselves. At every class, students are encouraged to go up to the mic and share what they’ve seen about themselves.
Long-time students are invited to lead online study groups where they give a 15-minute talk on what they’ve learned and take questions from the audience. This allows them to put the principles they’ve learned into practice and develop themselves in ways they wouldn’t be able to without this extra level of work.
Life of Learning is not just for listening to truthful ideas but for working with them daily. Giving students a chance to actively work with what they learn strengthens their understanding. It has long been said that we learn by teaching. We provide many opportunities for students to learn in this important way.
As the Founder and Director, what challenges have you encountered in fostering a spiritual community, and how have you navigated those challenges?
If one is to be a true teacher one has to first, not want anything from students, and second, be willing to tell people the truth about themselves. This doesn’t mean one should be cruel, but it does mean not to sugarcoat matters and to help people become objective self-observers.
Sometimes people who have a false idea of what spirituality is about are offended by hearing the truth. They want to be told that they’re beams of light, that they’re special. They don’t want to hear that they are confused and self-centered and that the cause of their pain is not something they can blame outside of themselves but is due to a misunderstanding within themselves.
Our lower nature doesn’t want to hear that there’s anything wrong with it. Many people find value in their old nature and are not ready to let it go. Any true teacher tries to help people see for themselves that there’s another, higher nature they could be living from. But that means seeing through the misdirection of the lower nature, and many people close off as soon as they realize they have to point the arrow back at themselves. I don’t try to navigate this challenge, and I refuse to dilute my message to please others. If people aren’t ready to hear the truth about themselves, there’s nothing anyone can do.
But when a person is exposed to the truth, a seed is planted. It is hoped that one day, when, like the prodigal son, they wake up and find themselves eating husks, they’ll remember they once heard something true, and they will seek out a true source again.
Could you highlight a transformative story or experience that illustrates the impact of the Life of Learning Foundation on an individual’s spiritual journey?
Just the other day a long-time student shared an experience she had with her sister that was quite transformative. She said she’s a bit of an outcast in her family, largely because she’s in this Work instead of the church she was brought up in.
Her sister especially holds a lot of resentment for her. Several years earlier when their father passed, the sister just sent a text message, and clearly didn’t want to talk to her. Then recently this student received the first text from her sister since their father had died, to tell her their mother had a heart attack.
Again, the student felt the sister didn’t want to talk to her, but she thought this time she would do something different and call her. To her shock, the sister poured out all her hate and resentment on her. The student understood her sister was upset over their mother, and even though she couldn’t help reacting herself, because of her work the student understood not to fuel the fire by returning anger for anger.
So, she worked to stay present to herself, and she saw something she had never seen before. She realized for most of her life she had bought into the view her family had of her, that she was a horrible person who deserved to be punished. But now she saw that nature was not who she truly was, and she didn’t have to judge herself or feel sorry for herself, or try to gain the approval of others. To the point of your question, she said, it’s in these moments of awareness that a new choice can be made and we can be transformed.
She added, that what feels like an ending is really the ground of a new beginning, and doing this work does change us. This is a small example, but it illustrates the moments of self-revelation that change us if we will continue on the path to self-discovery.
Guy Finley is an internationally renowned spiritual teacher and bestselling author. He is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit center for spiritual self-study located in Merlin, Oregon. He is the best-selling author of The Secret of Letting Go and 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over 2 million copies, in 30 languages.
Guy offers online classes every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. These classes are free to all and have been attended by thousands of students throughout the world.
Find out more at: www.guyfinley.org
