by Tim Ray

All human beings are essentially seeking the same things—happiness, health, harmony, peace, love, in other words, “the Good”. And we seek this Good in many ways, most often in various outer conditions and circumstances. For example in our relationships, careers, possessions, and in other material things. But although these outer conditions and circumstances may give us glimpses of the Good that we seek, none of them can really satisfy us in the long run. Why? Because all of these conditions, circumstances and things—whether a relationship, a job, or possessions—are only temporary. And if we are completely honest with ourselves, none of us only wants or can be satisfied with temporary glimpses of the Good. If we are honest, we know that it’s not enough to experience love for just a few days or to be happy and harmonious just once in a while. No, we want to experience love all the time, we want to be happy and harmonious all the time! In other words, we want to experience the Good that we seek all the time, here and now. Forever. Permanently.

Man’s eternal quest

So our search continues, until sooner or later we begin to realize that the Permanent Good we all seek cannot be found in outer conditions or circumstances. It can only be found within—by understanding our true nature. And by understanding the Nature of Reality and the principles or laws that govern our existence. As we go deeper in our search to understand the Nature of Reality and the pathway to happiness, love and harmony, we realize that we are not the only ones who have struggled with these big issues and asked ourselves big questions like “Who am I?” “What is the meaning of life?” and “How do I experience the Good that I seek?” These fundamental questions have occupied men and women in all ages and in all cultures since the beginning of time.

We also discover that not only have many before us asked these same questions, we discover that many have also received answers to these questions and have mapped out their realizations concerning the True Nature of Reality and the pathway out of pain and suffering to happiness. The realizations of these fully conscious men and women have been the seeds of the many traditional spiritual pathways that we see around us today, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism and New Thought.

Spirituality in the 21st century

So now you may be asking what then—according to these fully conscious men and women—is the Nature of Reality? What are the spiritual principles of life? And how can we use them practically in our everyday lives to experience the Permanent Good that we seek?

One of the challenges of studying and practicing the traditional spiritual pathways such as the teachings of the Christ or the teachings of the Buddha in our modern society is that these spiritual scriptures and teachings were taught and written down thousands of years ago in other cultures and in other languages. And often the basic principles and teaching were covered or hidden behind symbols and in parables and metaphors that people today find difficult to decipher and understand. Another problem is that over the centuries, the spiritual principles and practices of the Great Masters like Jesus and Buddha have been heavily veiled or covered by the external dogmas and rituals of organized religion. So for most of us, it can take a great deal of work to uncover, decipher and penetrate through the thick outer shell of dogma and arrive at the core which is the unchanging spiritual principles that form the basis of all spiritual traditions.

New ways of presenting old teachings

Understanding, translating and presenting these spiritual principles and their practical application in a simple, easy-to-understand way for people living today in the 21st century is one of the things my fellow author Barbara Berger and I are passionate about. All our books are attempts to translate and present the eternal spiritual principles and laws in modern language and in clear, easy-to-understand and practical ways. For example, my novels Starbrow and Starwarrior are both an attempt to present spiritual principles in the form of adventure stories. And Barbara, whose books have now been translated into more than 20 languages, has reached a very wide audience with her user-friendly, spiritual, self-empowerment books such as Fast Food for the Soul and not least her latest book The Spiritual Pathway – A Guide to the Joys of Awakening and Soul Evolution.

Lecture series in Spiritual Principles and the Science of Mind

In recent years, the interest in our books has been so great that we have become increasingly aware of the need to present these spiritual principles and their practical application in a clear and systemized way for modern people. So to meet this demand, Barbara and I started The New School of Spiritual Science in the fall of 2003 here in Copenhagen, Denmark. The heart of The New School of Spiritual Science is our 4-week lecture series called “An Introduction to Spiritual Principles and the Science of Mind”, which we offer several times a year in Copenhagen, Denmark and in Malmö, Sweden. During these four evenings, we attempt to systematically present and explain (as best we can!) the spiritual principles that underlie all the world’s great spiritual traditions. And last but not least, we discuss in detail with the groups how we can practically apply and use these principles in our daily lives. (When we travel to other countries, we usually compress the 4-week lecture series into one or two-day workshops).

Principle and practice

Like any other traditional spiritual teaching, our lecture series consists of two parts—principle and practice—because both elements are equally important if we want to experience the Permanent Good that we seek. We cannot use and practice spiritual principles in our lives if we do not first have a clear understanding of what spiritual principles are. And conversely, knowledge of spiritual principles without their practical application in our daily lives is worthless. So both components are absolutely essential.

During the 4-week series, we use the first two evenings to go through spiritual principles and the laws of consciousness. Then during the last two evenings, we look at the practical application of these principles. First we examine how we can use these principles to improve our lives on a personal level. Then we look at how we can use these principles to improve life for all beings on Planet Earth.

Barbara and I have also tried to design this lecture series and our workshops so that they are “experiential”. In other words, besides attempting to pass on a lot of information, we also meditate and do various exercises with the groups because we want everyone to be able to experience for themselves the powerful effect of these principles on our consciousness and on our lives.

A daily program

To become a fully conscious human being and practice spiritual principles on a daily basis requires practice, discipline and persistence. Something that we all know can be very challenging in our busy lives with work, family and all our other activities. Over the years, Barbara and I have found that designing a daily spiritual program for ourselves can be a great help, especially when it comes to remaining clear and focused in very busy or stressful situations. So at the end of our lecture series, we give suggestions as to how to design a daily spiritual program for different people with different lifestyles.