The goal of the envisaged spiritual education is a clear communication of the core spiritual principle that the universe is an indivisible whole thoroughly pervaded and intimately connected by its ground of being. The purpose of human life is to intimately learn this principle taking it deep into our consciousness in order to live our lives by it.
Towards this goal, we propose the following is a curriculum for a post secondary program in universal spirituality. The program is suitable for the students majoring in spiritual studies at our colleges and universities. The student will study the following spiritual areas and the requisites of disciplines such as humanities, social sciences, natural and life sciences considered necessary for their proper understanding.
Study Areas:
1. The Reality of Existence: This study area is related with an understanding of existence: the existence of all that there is in the universe. Where do we all come from? The ground of being of the universe is an underlying ultimate reality. By itself, it is unseen and totally unmanifest. This reality has nothing like it in the universe, it has no attributes, no qualities that any human language can express, it does nothing and it has no relation in the universe. It merely is and it causes us all to be; it is the ground of everything that exists. Without it, there cannot be anything because nothing can come out of nothing.The unseen underlying reality gradually manifests as successively concrete principles culminating into an individual being, animate or inanimate. Thus, the universe and all its beings are ultimately one. This understanding is fundamental to spiritual growth as we become what we think we are.
2. Meaning and Purpose: An understanding of our underlying reality and our relationship of oneness with it is meaningful to all thinking beings because it determines our relationship with all that exists in the universe. Our underlying reality is the glue that connects us all. Oneness through the shared reality may be meaningless for two rocks, but its perception becomes the meaning and purpose of all human lives. Strategies suitable for diverse people of different dispensations to pursue this purpose of life comprise this important area of spiritual study.
3. Contemplation Methods: The purpose of this area of study is enabling our individual insights about our underlying reality, our relationships with it, and with each other. Our insights comprise our learning. Education that leads to no applicable learning is pointless. The purpose of contemplative and meditative processes is learning with the conviction of deep insights in order for the learning to be useful especially in the face of inevitable conflicts of spiritual ways of life with the selfish ones. This study area comprises of the basic concepts and their visualization through practical experience. The practical component will form a common thread running through all the other ares of spiritual study.
4. Spiritual Ethics: This universe is an indivisible whole pervaded and intimately connected by its ground of being. Therefore, good is what makes for unity or oneness and evil is what makes for separateness or division. This ideal is all-inclusive and necessary for survival of the global village that the world has now become.ed
5. Spiritual Leaders and Literature: The purpose of this study is to learn from the peak spiritual experiences of prophets, sages and seers about ultimate reality and its oneness as reflected in the great scriptures and spiritual literature of the world.