What Is The School of Life?
Human beings long for peace in themselves, their families, their communities and the world. We want to know the meaning of life and to experience happiness. Unfortunately, happiness is believed to come from worldly things, which offer temporary satisfaction, but it must be realized that true happiness can only come from within. We must strive to raise our awareness, our consciousness, so that we may experience God intimately and receive the love that is our birthright. The limited materialistic view of life has led to denial of the validity of spiritual existence that coexists within. This is the source of all confusion and suffering that pervades society.
The teachings of the great masters state that the human being is a microcosm of the macrocosm; that when we learn about ourselves, we learn about the universe. Swadyaya – Know Thyself. They also teach Oneness, that we are part of a whole and what we think, say and do affects the whole, like drops in the ocean, trees in a forest, cells in a body.
Just as the microscope and telescope have opened up worlds smaller and larger than our eyes can see, the spiritual science of yoga provides tools to explore and perfect our Selves our inner world, the community around us and the universe in all its entirety.
In the early 1980’s when the Shanti Yoga Center for Harmony began, yoga was little known in the US and greatly misunderstood. Now one can find yoga classes in almost every neighborhood. Over the years, guided by Victor (Vyasa) Landa, this community has studied and practiced the many aspects of yoga, which include alternative health and diet lifestyles, and the teachings of various masters and spiritual traditions. We have confirmed and emphasized the commonalities between science and religion, between various religions, and between nature and nurture and applied this to our personal experience of life. We have seen clearly the universal truths in the various teachings and have found tools to improve and enrich our lives and those around us. We work to utilize this knowledge to help create the new world that is at our doorstep.
The School Of Life Educational Society was created to foster ethical and healthy lifestyles to prepare us physically, mentally, and spiritually to realize and awaken the spirit that is alive within us and in the world. We believe that limitation and over-abundance are both artificial and unnatural states producing the vicious cycles of fear and revolt in society with the rich and poor alike suffering the consequences. Therefore, our aim is to offer a God-centered, inter-faith, practical social system based on natural, spiritual and cosmic laws demonstrating that all of man’s material needs can be acquired without struggle and with right knowledge and right living.
The teaching at the School of Life is
values-based, multi-faceted and experiential through study, conscious living, and karma yoga (service);
with tools that help navigate the present world of stress, violence, materialism, competition, individualism, etc.;
and tools to get to know and explore the inner world while striving for a balance between our spiritual and material lives
Externally, we have chosen the focal points of supporting the healing of planet earth and bringing peace through the practice of non-violence which are defined through various projects inspired and supported by the School of Life members
Therefore, the mission of the School of Life is multi-faceted and interconnected:
To contribute to the spiritual evolution of individuals
To serve the community and society as a whole
To apply natural, spiritual and cosmic laws in a practical social system
To support healing of the planet and replacing violence with love and respect
“We need not fear the future, nor the present, if we are delivering our responsibilities within our God-Given capacities, [and] are not prey to materialistic enticements that drown the voice of our soul. [A] compassionate attitude towards existence demonstrates harmony between heart and mind. We still have time, but it is running short!” Victor Vyasa Landa