People might attend prestigious universities and be taught by scholars with vast learning, distinguished credentials and impressive academic achievements – they might study with brilliant researchers and even Nobel Laureates – and the world might understand and believe that they have received teaching from the ultimate source of knowledge – But would this be true?   Are they getting true knowledge? By worshiping traditional academia, it is easy to lose sight of the TRUE source of higher wisdom.

It might seem naïve to suggest that life’s ultimate teacher – the source of real knowledge – is God. Compared to what can be learned in traditional academia, or, even, in a faith-based traditional university that acknowledges God’s Presence as the Ultimate Teacher, can knowledge gained from a personal, mystical relationship with Divine Spirit measure up?  If the pursuit of scholastic achievement, whether secular or non-secular, becomes the idealized goal then, to attain it, the student must become but a clone or robot, echoing the dogma of the particular academic institution or the theology of the particular denomination to which the student adheres. Life is then scripted, even programmed, from outside sources rather than created by the guidance of the Inner Source, the TRUE Teacher, God or Divine Spirit. The student, though educated, remains asleep to the larger reality of life.

One of the greatest examples of learning from the TRUE Teacher was the Master Jesus.  While learning extensively what Judaism offered in his day, He found that it was too limited.  The traditional teachings spoke about God and how God wanted a person to live, but it did not teach how someone could be taught by God directly.  He had to turn inward, to the source of true knowledge – the God of the heart – Divine Spirit. The traditional doctrine of the time produced parallels to the standard religious universities of today–the cloning of theologies, rather than teaching directly from the Presence of Divine Spirit within oneself.  This does not create whole people, which should be the goal of learning–but rather robots mechanically acting out the programming they’ve downloaded. 

Mystics, as a rule, are not upset by the scholastic programs of this world. They know that the vast majority of souls that have incarnated into the physical world today are not ready for ultimate teaching. They are, in a mystical sense, asleep and must be taught, gently, by the standards of lesser awareness.  The teachings of the world, teachings offered by traditional academic institutions, are most beneficial for producing technicians trained in a specialty to help others. Medical doctors, scientists, builders, artists, skilled workers of all kinds are valuable and needed for the maintenance of all worldly things – but, to produce whole and complete spiritual people requires something that traditional teaching cannot provide. Real knowledge requires the inspiration of Divine Spirit and that cannot come from a standard institution of learning, no matter how prestigious it might be.

Until a person has awakened to mystical awareness, the inner mystical union with God’s Presence within themselves, they cannot be taught by the True Teacher–Universal Consciousness, Divine Spirit, or God.  It is only by awakening that the knowledge of academia will be seen in an entirely new way by a person becoming whole and complete, where wisdom and the living of it from the True Teacher becomes a way of life.

To experience True Wisdom, synonymous with true Spirituality, and not merely the knowledge of academia, you must seek to wake up. Wake yourself up by any means available. Wake yourself up and then wake up everyone else. Only then will the wisdom of the True Teacher become manifest in your life and the world.