Although this book uses "the Law" as a metaphor, it has little to do with laws of State or the legal profession. The focus of this book is on the elusive topic of "wisdom." It is concerned with Natural Law - the innate rules which allow us to make sense of the Universe and our role in it. It is concerned with the Laws that can be used to realize full human potential and evolve - the Laws of Wisdom. To find these laws I look both to the world of Science and Religion. I do not look to the laws of state.
Although this book is not concerned with the normal stuff of lawyers - the imperfect laws created by judges and legislatures - the book does employ some of the methods lawyers have developed over the years to work with laws. Even though it is natural to extend the methods of one level of the Law to another, for many people there is a certain psychological resistance to doing so. This is because for most "spiritual-lawyer" is an oxymoron, an obvious contradiction in terms. That is why this preface with some personal background is necessary.
For me "spiritual-lawyer" is not an oxymoron, its a burning vision, a life's quest. Thanks primarily to my parents, I have always seen my life in a spiritual context. As a teenager in college at Vanderbilt University I came to see my life as a Path towards full awakening of human potential. This Path led me to Vienna, Austria in 1971. There I met my wife, Molly, who was a student from New York University on a similar Path, and Arnold Keyserling. He is a Professor of Spiritual Philosophy who became my primary teacher and mentor. With their help, my understanding deepened, and my dedication to wisdom and a Path of spiritual fulfilment intensified. Seven years later my Path led to a strange place where most wisdom seekers fear to tread - law school.
Law school seemed the right thing to do at the time. Molly, by then my wife of five years, agreed, even though we had no idea how my inner quest would, or could, blend with the Law or the legal profession. But we had trust in our inner voice. Somehow we had the courage to take the next step, even though we could not see where it would take us. The years passed, I graduated from law school and entered a law firm. We raised a family and I became a successful attorney, partner in the firm, experienced litigator and computer law specialist. Like most lives, it has been a difficult journey, fraught with many adventures, dangers, pitfalls and temptations. But through it all my pre-lawyer goals have remained. Molly and I still see our life as a spiritual Path. Now, after years of hard work to try and integrate my public life as a lawyer with my inner depths, we have begun to see the meaning of my way. A vision of unity has begun to appear - a positive vision of a new kind of lawyer. This book, and my other activities with Molly, Arnold Keyserling, and others in the School of Wisdom are the result.
The Law has been a large part of my life. So for me the Law, and the craft of the lawyer, is a natural metaphor to speak of my other great passion - the spiritual quest for realization. But I know this is quite a stretch for many. How can the Law and lawyers have anything to do with spirituality and human potential? It goes against the grain of a host of popular stereotypes. All too often people equate lawyers with greed, materialism, insensitivity, unscrupulous actions and devious thinking. The average person has limited exposure to the Law and lawyers. They know only the divorce lawyer who they learned to hate, the lawyers on television commercials, movies, or worst of all the demagogary of lawyers on celebrity criminal trials, like the infamous O.J. trial. As a result there is a natural prejudice and stereotype against the Law and lawyers which, based on my many years of experience as a lawyer, is way out of proportion to the reality.
The Law - in the universal sense in which it is used in this book - is simply too important to be left to lawyers. It is too profound to be ignored and stereotyped. We live in a world based on Law on all levels. On the level of society, history shows that rule by Law, even with all its imperfections, is still to be preferred to rule by men and women, or anarchy. Lawyer bashing may be fun, but in today's world we cannot afford this as a serious prejudice, any more than we can afford racial discrimination. We should instead start to imagine a positive role for lawyers as guardians of the Law, protectors of truth and justice. We all need to work together - lawyers and non-lawyers alike - to make this vision a reality. When you read this book, try to put aside the popular pre-conceptions and prejudices, and open yourself to a positive vision of Law and lawyers.
The craft of the Law is portrayed idealistically in this book so that it can serve as a metaphor. Obviously not all lawyers are spiritual, and the profession suffers from numerous pitfalls. Still, the legal profession can, on occasions at least, provide an honest forum for the search for truth and justice. Admittedly this is the side of the Law and the legal profession which is unseen to most, and only rarely portrayed by the media. From my experience, although there is no real life "Perry Mason" out there who wins every case, there are plenty of lawyers who are as honest, dedicated and excellent thinkers. There are even some who are developing their full potential as human beings in the context of the Law. They are using thinking to go beyond thinking and the ego, into their feelings, sensitivities, intuitions and higher Selves. Spiritual-lawyer is not always an oxymoron. It depends on the individual and the type of Law. In the context of the Laws of Wisdom, it is my hope that by the end of the book, you too will become a lawyer.
- LAWS OF WISDOM
- A Holistic Synthesis of Science and Religion.
- Copyright Prima Sounds Foundation 1994-2002
- ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
- Copies may be made and distributed
- without charge or changes to the text.
- www.PrimaSounds.com
- ISBN 1-883185-94-7
- Prima Sounds Foundation 1995-2002 Copyright
- "Think Universal, Act Global"
