Vernon Howard
American Teacher and Author
| Date of Birth | : | 16 Mar, 1918 |
| Date of Death | : | 23 Aug, 1992 |
| Place of Birth | : | Massachusetts, United States |
| Profession | : | Teacher, Author |
| Nationality | : | American |
Vernon Linwood Howard was an American spiritual teacher, author, and philosopher.
Career as Writer and Teacher
Howard was born near Haverhill, Massachusetts, and began his writing career in the 1940s as an author of humor and children's books. He began speaking on the principles of personal development in the late 1950s while living in southern California. In the 1960s, he began writing books that focused on spiritual and psychological growth. These writings emphasized the importance and practice of self-awareness. By the early 1970s, he had moved to Boulder City, Nevada, and had begun teaching spiritual development classes after being contacted by numerous individuals interested in his writings.
Philosophy and Teachings
Howard drew from what he perceived as being a "common thread" among several different philosophical and spiritual traditions for his insights and teachings. These included: Christian and Eastern mysticism, Gurdjieffian Fourth Way teachings, the Gospels of the New Testament, Jungian psychology, J. Krishnamurti and American Transcendentalism. He taught that there is a way out of suffering, and advocated self-honesty, persistence, the study and application of spiritual principles, and a sincere desire for inner change, according to Psycho-Pictography (page 34). He explained that a new and higher inner life is found through releasing the negative conditioned ego, which he described as the "false self". He asserted that this new life can only be found through awareness, and that the human ego is a barrier to this awareness. Thus, he taught that inner liberation is a ridding process, and that the false self is a fictitious collection of self-images or pictures about who we think we are (Psycho-Pictography, page 33).
Legacy
In 1979, Howard founded the non-profit learning center New Life Foundation, where he continued to teach until his death in 1992. The foundation, now located in Pine, Arizona, continues Howard's legacy via personal classes held by some of the students who studied with Howard, as well as the marketing of his writings and recorded talks.
After Howard's death, several non-profit Foundations were established as a result of his many years of teaching. Mark L Butler, who studied with Howard from 1972 until 1992, established the Eagle Literary Foundation in Eagle, Idaho, in 1994. Guy Finley, who studied with him from 1978 until 1992, established the Life of Learning Foundation in Merlin, Oregon, in 1993. Both Butler and Finley are authors and teachers continuing with the spiritual principles learned from Howard's work. Tom Russell also studied twelve years with Vernon Howard and founded the nonprofit SuperWisdom Foundation to bring these principles to the internet through free weekly podcasts. An "Archive of Work by Vernon Howard" has also been made available for viewing online from the estate of one of Vernon Howard’s long time students and New Life Foundation Board member until the time of Vernon’s death, Concetta (Connie) M. Butler.
Quotes
Total 25 Quotes
Be teachable. That is the whole secret.
To change what you get you must change who you are.
You must dare to disassociate yourself from those who would delay your journey... Leave, depart, if not physically, then mentally. Go your own way, quietly, undramatically, and venture toward Trueness at last.
Run forward when possible, walk ahead when you can, stagger onward when you must, but never cease your forward movement.
Happiness is not the acquisition of anything; it's the understanding of something.
Whenever encountering a troublesome person, do not identify him as being cruel or stupid or rude or anything else like that. Instead, see him as a frightened person.
The answers come when you are quietly willing to be without them.
The only way to do something truly important every day is to seek to understand yourself every day.
The need to impress others causes half the world's woes.
The genuinely spiritual person is one who has lost all desire to be anyone but exactly who he is, without labels and without apologies. He is what he is and that's all there's is to it. Such a man is undivided, uncomplicated and contented.
