A Review of LIFE 101
By DH
Life 101 starts off strong, and it only gets stronger. Let's say you live your life
as you may have been, likely out of touch with yourself and caught up in the rat
race (or if not that, busy with the seemingly endless tasks that need to be completed).
Somehow, anyhow, you find the book in question without previously knowing of the
author or his other works. It's an interesting title, as it ought to be. Simple,
but intriguing. You open up to the first page and this is what you see:
“After twelve (or more) years of schooling, we know how to figure the square
root of an isosceles triangle (invaluable in daily life), but we might not know how
to forgive ourselves and others.”
Wait what?! Hold the phone! You might have been expecting a few tips and
tricks to get ahead in life, but what you have is a profound journey into yourself
first and foremost. Is it too much? No doubt, for some it may be. But for many, it
hits like a splash of cold water. You've plunged into something greater than you
could have hoped – And you want more.
There's lessons for everyone. Not saying that every lesson is for everyone,
in fact many lessons are not. However, Peter is one step ahead of us all on this
matter, indicating that one might not agree with the entirety of the book but also
that one need not do so. That is the case for me
I already had strong feelings coming in, so we were at different ideological
stages. We still are, I think, though the gap is steadily decreasing. This is not
through the little things (this reminds me of the Dr. Mantell quote about “small
stuff”), but indeed the big ones. Allow me to share the biggest thing I took with
me from the many great lessons Life 101, the one that most clearly resonates in my
thoughts.
What I'm talking about is the area of thought surrounding the concept of
the “Master Teacher”. This is fairly wide, and in the context of Peter's book, covers
many aspects. Those include: Meditation, sanctuary, healing, thought, learning, and
teaching. One of my favorites is the idea of a sanctuary that you can retreat to
during meditation. I believe he describes it as a being surrounded in a white light
(I tend to prefer a warm, amber color) and then coming up into an antechamber of
sorts. And then that's where you have your off-shoots like the healing chamber where
you can let your worries go, the meditation chamber where you can be engaged in whatever
thoughts you wish, and of course the interaction with your personal “Master Teacher”
from whom you take guidance.
I say “personal” because Peter also makes mention of “Master Teachers”
that are all around us. This is an area in which he and I differ, at least superficially.
For example, he states that many of the “Master Teachers” in our lives come in the
form of mistakes, aspects of anger, fear, pain, and “dis-ease”. Initially one might
think, “Well hold on now, how's any of that good?”. Mr. McWilliams went on to explain
how you might learn from all of those. I see where he comes from, especially in the
area of mistakes. That's a given, right? But to that I add some food for thought...
Say there was no reason for any of those things to happen or be, and also that they
didn't. Are we really losing out? Perhaps not.
However, here we reach the crux of things, at least for what I have personally gathered
and what I have interpreted the lesson to be: Those things do happen. That being
the case, don't let it get you down. The best way to recover from that is to glean
something positive from it. Once again, it's easiest with small mistakes. Many times
it's not so easy with the big mistakes or other misfortunes. For example, I make
a distinction between fear and awareness, believing that fear has no spiritual positive
and that awareness can better serve me. Though, since the former remains regardless,
the lesson still applies. Hey, I'll stand up to it, but I won't hold hands with it.
So, to each their own. Few things are clear-cut in this world. I say, keep
your mind as secure as your home – Just make sure to answer the door and step out
from time to time. Life 101 gives you the tools to do that, and tools are definitely
a good thing in my figurative book. It's up to you how to use them. Get creative
or don't, but do something. You might want to start with the meditation thing. Everyone
needs to take a deep breath from time to time. I'd like to end with an interpretative
amalgamation of Peter's 3 foundational rules: Be good so you can feel good so you
can do good. That's life right there, folks.
-”DemonHide”
