Beginnings

Pathfinders’ Commune was inspired by the Love1A Class by Leo Buscaglia, an Italian-American teacher  who wrote the bestselling Love: What Life Is All About. He taught Love classes during the 1980s after he learned that one of his bright students commited suicide. It was the turning point for Buscaglia to question how school systems have missed Love as the most important education for students. His efforts became well-known, along with his books. Buscaglia’s humor, simplicity and sensitivity on the most misunderstood  concept changed my  perception of Love.

I was also inspired by 2  ancient masters whose words below have immortalized the summary of their  teachings:

“Hatred never cease through hatreds in this world. Through Love alone they cease. This is the eternal law.”

–The Buddha (Dhammapada verse 5 )

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

–Jesus Christ (John 13: 34-35)

They are both prime forces of my personal shifting to a new consciousness. These teachings opened my heart and mind to embrace Love as an experiential wisdom without boundaries and labels of different kinds of religious traditions and philosophical arguments. I have seen how Love works the moment we intend it in our thoughts and feelings, which both translate Love into physical and material reality of varied circumstances and situations.

This was further reinforced by Gerald Jampolsky‘s Love Is Letting Go of Fear. His book taught me one primal principle of the truth of Love: never judge. Love is all about letting go of all judgment based on fear, hatred and all sorts of mental and emotional burdens. The principle is a great challenge, and this is why I began to see the possibility of bringing the basics of Love to those who seek for learning them.

So I finally decided to invite my former students into a small group discussion, much similar to my language teaching sessions. On November 15, 2008, at the park-like grounds of a famous university in Laguna, Philippines, I began discussing them the insights of Erich Fromm, the famous psychoanalyst who wrote a book entitled The Art of Loving. Fromm had wonderfully shared the problems associated with Love and how to become aware of them and reverse them.

Buscaglia, Jampolsky and Fromm were my  early heroes who helped me define what Love is and how it can be experienced. Buddha and Christ, as well as all the ancient teachers, continue to inspire me to work on Pathfinders’ Commune. They all  have radical points to learn Love not as a socially acceptable norm nor a religious and philosophical proposition, but an inherent profound wisdom within each of us that shapes our lives.