WORLDWIDE CENTER FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY®
@2018 University of Santa Monica
These Principles are truly the foundation of Soul-Centered Education. For more than 40 years, Drs. Ron and Mary Hulnick have shared these Principles to illuminate the nature of the Spiritual Reality within which we live. They serve to help us understand who we truly are, and to move us into the revelation of our spiritual nature.
If you’re a graduate of one of USM’s Programs, you’ve likely woven several of these Principles into your daily life. Let us know how they’ve served you, how they’re particularly useful during these times, and if you have one that you return to again and again or that surprises you in how it’s become a part of your Way of Being and Way of Life.
We’d love to hear from you! (The Principles are all listed below.)
Accepting personal responsibility for your Spiritual Curriculum is empowering and opens the door to Freedom.
“Accepting personal responsibility for your Spiritual Curriculum is empowering and opens the door to Freedom,” is especially resonant for me now as I am journeying through a significant period of transformation in my life. I’m in the midst of a major move across the country to join my family and care for loved ones in their later stages of life.
At the same time, I’m also in the midst of a career shift: refocusing my work to coach and catalyze creative potential in teams and organizations. It’s exhilarating (a mix of excitement and fear!)… and there are moments when I think, “I didn’t sign up for all of this!”
When this happens, and I center back into my heart, Principle #17 reminds me that, “Yes! I have signed up to be present with, and responsible for, my Spiritual Curriculum! And I have the tools (including my creativity) for meeting my Curriculum with joy, proactive accountability, and a spirit of gratitude.”
For me, as I venture forth into new adventures and leave past “knowns” behind, this kind of personal responsibility is a cornerstone of living into my Purpose.
There are no mistakes—only opportunities for
Learning, Healing, and Awakening unto Love.
Another way to say this is: “Everything is perfect.” This was a principle I absolutely rejected—until I had a realization that my definition of “perfect” might be narrow and limited.
In the past, I defined “perfect” as: safe; enjoyable; comfortable; pleasant. Therefore, anything I was experiencing that wasn’t any of these things had to be “wrong” or “bad.” It could not be exactly what I needed, from any perspective.
But once I shifted my definition to include “all the things that suck” (as I put it at the time), suddenly all the people and experiences of my life began to fall into order. They made sense.
From a spiritual perspective, if I came here to learn courage, I would be presented with opportunities that required it. If I came to learn unconditional loving, it might make sense to be surrounded by critical, conditional people with whom unconditional loving would feel challenging, or impossible even. It wasn’t about getting them to change, but for me to drop all my own judgments and criteria I was using that kept me from loving unconditionally.
A tremendous healing came about for me when I realized that my mother’s pattern of withholding love was an opportunity to learn that the source of my experience of love was within myself. Her Soul was helping me to realize that I already had everything I needed. And when this insight occurred in class during one of the relationship trios, I felt my mother’s Soul jump for joy with: “Oh, he gets it!” All my judgments and resentments disappeared, and I was in gratitude for her Soul’s offer to help me learn this.
Were those experiences fun or comfortable or pleasant growing up? No. But were they perfect? Absolutely!
Everyone has the potential, resources, and destiny to graduate.
There is no failure—only repeated opportunity.
This principle reminds me that from the moment I was born, I had everything I needed to live a fulfilling life. Every experience is an opportunity to consciously awaken—to know myself as Loving. When I find myself in a negative situation that seems all too familiar, it can be a reminder to look for those areas where I may have a misperception or misinterpretation of the situation. That “I’ve been here before” feeling is a great reminder to pause, take a step back, and look at the situation as an opportunity to resolve an issue for the last time. I’ve noticed that if I try to “skip” this one, the next time around can be more intense. I’ve learned to use the opportunity, rather than attempting to avoid it.</p?
Principle 25 has been a game-changer in my life, and it comes up all the time. I like to take it in its two parts—First “How you relate to the issue is the issue.”
This part directly relates to the lens through which we see the world based on our own paradigms, our personal history, and our interpretations of the events of our lives.
As I started to realize through this that every issue really is neutral, my ability to reside in my higher self and have altitude over the situation allowed me to do the deeper inquiry about where my perspective is coming from. That’s where the goldmine is. And then I ask myself if my interpretation is even true.
The second part—How I relate to myself as I go through the issue—provides a beautiful opportunity for healing. In 2016 I thought I had healed certain issues and would become disappointed when upsets continued to arise. I realized I was falling into a trap and that’s when the biggest shift occurred—I became able to drop in and have so much compassion for every part of myself, even the parts I “should” have healed by now. ”All of me is welcome“ is a refrain for me when I feel something come up. In this, I can let go of any shame, misbeliefs, and parts that have been hiding. When I’m able to welcome those parts, too, something miraculous happens and true transformation occurs. And I can just keep loving on it all… What a gift!!!
As I am now in my 90th year, I participated in USM at its inception and continued in service to it for many years of its growth. As I have had the good fortune to experience and use all of the 33 Principles at one time or another in an “on-growing” awareness, it is the first three Principles (see above) at this time that are impacting the quality of my life.
My intention for the past few years is to become Living Love and live my life inwardly and outwardly in the essence of loving. It is not always easy, but I find myself growing in the ability to maintain as I have acquired a very large toolbox that I use when needed. I am eternally grateful for USM
What a welcomed opportunity it is to reflect on Spiritual Curriculum as described in the 13th Principle of Spiritual Psychology. I remember, years ago, the following words were spoken through me while talking with another USM student. At the time, I thought these words were meant for her, but it became abundantly clear that they were also meant for me. I needed to hear them just as much (if not more) than she did. Here they are… “Nothing falls outside of the Sacred.”
The 13th Principle of Spiritual Psychology states:
“Your Spiritual Curriculum consists of unresolved issues as well as opportunities for Service, sharing your gifts, and living into your Heartfelt dreams.”
It’s all Spiritual Curriculum. It all serves Spiritual Purpose. Every part and particle of our existence, spanning from our upsets to our heartfelt dreams, is customized for our highest growth and learning. All of our experiences fall within the realm of the Sacred.
But why? Why is this Earth School and our individual curriculum so Sacred?
Ron & Mary answer that question so beautifully and so precisely with these words, “The essence of Soul-Centered living is Awakening into the Awareness of who we truly are and living our lives from within that Awakened state.” That’s the point and purpose of all that happens here. That’s what this Sacred Earth School was designed to facilitate. It’s also the essence of Soul-Centered mastery, the embodiment of the highest of human competencies… to know ourselves as the Presence of Love and to live through and from that Sacred state.
“I loved this invitation to review the Principles… I felt nourished simply in the re-reading of them! Thank you.
For me, hands-down, my go-to as a way of being is the remembrance and reverent acknowledgement that ‘God is everything in existence both seen and unseen.’
The following poem came forward when I attuned to that Principle and the current Covid-related state of affairs:
God is this virus.
God is the reaction.
God is the helping hand, God is the knowing nod.
God is the chaos, God is the topsy turvy
God is the peace, God is the solution.
God is your perspective, God is mine.
God is the strife of unreconciled differences
God is the balm, God is the path forward
God is the container for all
God is the action within
God is everything in existence, both seen and unseen.”
WORLDWIDE CENTER FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF SPIRITUAL PSYCHOLOGY®
@2018 University of Santa Monica