I could not believe the peace and love that radiated from the face of my Freshman English professor. His name was Hobart Mitchell. I was 18 years old. Up until that time my passion in life was baseball and soccer. The only reason I was in Junior College was a soccer scholarship. My interior life consisted of batting averages, baseballs, and the Boston Red Sox. In that one face my life turned a corner.
Mr. Mitchell offered to teach meditation to any student interested. A small handful of us met on Thursday nights in his office. It was there that my quest for the meaning of life began. The following year I transferred to the University of Rhode Island and continued my search, majoring in Philosophy. Unfortunately I graduated not much farther along the road. That, however, did not put an end to my need to find answers to my questions of what life is really all about.
Entering the job market, getting married, and having children, took my mind off the quest, but by the time I hit 40 the problem was staring me right in the face again. Money and all the pleasures of life did not leave me satisfied. I knew that all of this was just a way of minimizing the pain of not knowing what the hell I was on this planet for.
And then things started happening again. My now ex-wife gave me Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love. That introduced me to A Course in Miracles. For the first time since meeting Hobart Mitchell I was back on a path that was leading me to where I wanted to go.
I spent 8 years meditating on the course and at the end of that time was led to enroll in the Holistic Counseling program at Salve Regina University. I had no interest in becoming a therapist, but felt in my heart this was what I was supposed to do. It was in the first semester that I was introduced to the works of Ken Wilber. Dr. Jack Childs taught a class on holistic perspectives and his assigned reading included A Brief History of Everything by Wilber. Something clicked and I knew I would find more answers, so I read all 20 of Wilber's books...three times! (over the course of 4 years)
The program at Salve taught me about holistic and Wilber taught me about integral. Together many of my life-long questions began to be answered. Of course, now I have new ones. However, the result is that my life is meaningful now. I feel full of peace and a sense that my life has a purpose. And probably most of all I feel satisfied, knowing I am where I am supposed to be. It is my hope that in sharing my experiences and learning of holistic and integral others may find some of that also.
Mr. Mitchell offered to teach meditation to any student interested. A small handful of us met on Thursday nights in his office. It was there that my quest for the meaning of life began. The following year I transferred to the University of Rhode Island and continued my search, majoring in Philosophy. Unfortunately I graduated not much farther along the road. That, however, did not put an end to my need to find answers to my questions of what life is really all about.
Entering the job market, getting married, and having children, took my mind off the quest, but by the time I hit 40 the problem was staring me right in the face again. Money and all the pleasures of life did not leave me satisfied. I knew that all of this was just a way of minimizing the pain of not knowing what the hell I was on this planet for.
And then things started happening again. My now ex-wife gave me Marianne Williamson's book A Return to Love. That introduced me to A Course in Miracles. For the first time since meeting Hobart Mitchell I was back on a path that was leading me to where I wanted to go.
I spent 8 years meditating on the course and at the end of that time was led to enroll in the Holistic Counseling program at Salve Regina University. I had no interest in becoming a therapist, but felt in my heart this was what I was supposed to do. It was in the first semester that I was introduced to the works of Ken Wilber. Dr. Jack Childs taught a class on holistic perspectives and his assigned reading included A Brief History of Everything by Wilber. Something clicked and I knew I would find more answers, so I read all 20 of Wilber's books...three times! (over the course of 4 years)
The program at Salve taught me about holistic and Wilber taught me about integral. Together many of my life-long questions began to be answered. Of course, now I have new ones. However, the result is that my life is meaningful now. I feel full of peace and a sense that my life has a purpose. And probably most of all I feel satisfied, knowing I am where I am supposed to be. It is my hope that in sharing my experiences and learning of holistic and integral others may find some of that also.
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