Life is a classroom. And in the classroom of life, there are many lessons to learn every day. However, for some, lessons are never visible, it seems as though they enter the classroom of life with closed eyes — to be self-aware, to have my third eye open, to be a spiritual student, is the first step to seeing lessons and learning lessons.
If I consider myself to be a student, it is then that I will see lessons in everything I do and in all life around me. Even my own past contains valuable lessons for myself. And perhaps I have chosen to not look at certain aspects of my past experiences — perhaps through some kind of pain or fear, or guilt or shame — I have chosen to look away from some past experiences.
However, with spiritual knowledge, with faith in myself, and with faith in the process of spiritual growth, I can look at the past and i can extract invaluable lessons from the past.
How to learn lessons is maintaining the attitude of being a spiritual student and looking for virtue. And the highest of all studies is the study of virtue. So, I choose to ask myself, What virtue was a particular situation asking me to develop within myself?
In some situations, perhaps i need to develop self-respect. Sometimes humility. In other situations, perhaps I need to learn how to forgive. I need to learn how to develop grow greater compassion. In other scenes and situations, I need to learn courage or determination.
And so, let me simply focus my vision upon the virtue that I need to develop further, and carry that learning — that knowledge — into my present and future. Simply take what is useful, what makes you grow.
And if you do that, you can allow the situation to dissolve into the past. Lessons come in various forms. But I also know that where there is the aim of learning and growing, life cooperates and allows me to moves forward.
If I consider each situation to be a teacher for me, if I consider even people I find difficult to be teachers in disguise, I will continue to learn, to evolve, and to grow. And hence my life moves forward. I move forward, and the situations go into the past. And I am free.
