Meet John Greisen

We recently connected with John Greisen and have shared our conversation below.

Hi John, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?

In 2017 through my work in state government I was selected for an intensive leadership development program. It was a 9 month program intended to develop the leaders of the future from a pool of existing managers. I had largely applied because I knew I needed more on my resume if I were to keep advancing at my agency. I also knew I would need more tools available to me as the problems I faced grew larger and more complex.

For years I had prided myself on being a problem-solver. This self-identification as someone who reacts to problems had put me in position to be the ‘hero’ and ‘save the day’ countless times. I was skilled in breaking down the issues and finding amicable resolutions, my verbal judo was well practiced and my email responses were well reasoned and researched. I thought I was ready for anything someone could drop on my desk.

This was a challenging program with a large course-load of reading, speakers, activities as well as journaling and reflection. Participation included both large and small group activities and this was all done while still being responsible for our regular work roles. As the months progressed these activities began to reveal more and more of my personal blind-spots and exposed my willful ignorance. Accepting this new information was simultaneously an enlightening and humbling experience.

As the books and exercises in the program opened my mind I began to wonder for the first time ‘what would I be if I were a creator and not just a reactor?’ What if my life wasn’t driven by external forces, but rather by internal ones? What would I be doing then? Would I still be skilled and appreciated if I gave up my title and role and salary? I had always liked my job and I liked my coworkers well enough, but I began to hate the idea that my life was being defined by these problems, even as their solver. So, after weeks of heart-wrenching reflection and contemplation I concluded that I’d rather be a teacher than a manager.

I left the state agency I had identified with for 25 years. I gave up both the benefits and the boredom. I was giving up being an expert to be a beginner again. I had to give up being a big fish in a small pond to swim free in the ocean for the first time in 25 years, This wasn’t easy to do.

My first experience teaching was as a driver education instructor at the Catholic girls school in my city. I had received my instructor certificate after taking classes on weekends for several months before I left my job. Those first few weeks of classroom teaching were a disaster. Technology and some classroom management issues were nerve racking. I was so accustomed to being the ‘pro’ that to become a rookie again, and just suck at my job was super humbling. Overall those girls were great and very kind to me as we learned together, but they did constantly make fun of my mistakes and awkwardness. Through this experience I learned having that high school girls teasing you part-time is a great way to build humility and a thicker skin. Over time I developed as a teacher and worked at other schools as well. From the posh private schools to our local Job Corps I worked with teens from all over my city. I grew to love the back and forth in the classroom with these young minds as much as I loved aiding their transformation into maturity by becoming safe and effective drivers while in the car.

One day my 16 year old nephew approached me about becoming his mentor in his own development program he was selected for. I’d been enjoying the development of the driver-ed students so much I jumped at the opportunity to help my own nephew. His was a very rigorous program that would require a tremendous amount of personal effort. My role would mostly consist of monthly check-ins and activity reports. However, I wanted to do more than just check boxes, I wanted to really help him.

I began to think about all the things I’d learned the last few years. All of the models and concepts from the leadership program and learning to teach driver ed. There were so many things I learned about life in my forties that I wish I’d understood in my twenties! How different my life might have been.

I had saved the course curriculum, books and the activities from all my classes. I’d also since collected countless articles and read a dozen more books on education, leadership, and personal development. I had a wealth of knowledge, if only I could somehow convey all of this knowledge to my nephew. What and advantage! He wouldn’t waste his time in the hollow pursuits and fog of ambiguity so much of modern life appears to be. He’d could have the clarity of wisdom beyond his years. Of course, I knew I couldn’t just hand a now 17 year old a stack of books and models and say ‘learn this’.

My new career allowed far more time for personal projects and I decided I would use some of this time to make a PowerPoint presentation for my nephew that would try and encompass the most essential points of what I had learned so far. Something very-high level, and broad-stroked, wisdom that would be both universally applicable and flexible enough to grow with his progressive understanding of both the contents and the changing facts of his life. If I could create a tool like this for my nephew and it was effective for him I could share it with the other young people in my life and help them too. I started assembling the finest wisdom my understanding could muster into a series of PowerPoint presentations. I had imagined I could knock out this course in a few sessions. A year into development I started to wonder if something like this could actually be assembled.

Once the pandemic I was laid-off from driver-ed and had even more time to work on this project. The presentation became four volumes each about 100 slides, the entirety of which I entitled ‘The HumanLife Handbook.’ Volume 1: Human Journey, Volume 2: Human mind, Volume 3: Human body, Volume 4: Human World. The set was intended to be a sort of Boy Scout Handbook for the human experience. These slides included facts, quotes, and imagery that covered a vast spectrum of human experience. The intention was to communicate the most essential concepts, just the essential concepts. I included links to the supporting articles and videos for further exploration. The articles were from science, philosophy, pop culture, sports and history. My qualifier for inclusion: I believed these things to be true, to the best of my knowledge. I worked to ensure none of the ideas in the handbook contradicted each other. I wanted to present the ‘Truth.’ I was nearly ready to share my conclusions with my nephew when I found another blind spot.

What was I to say to my nephew about spirituality? about human origins? about human purpose? about where this all came from? I hadn’t been to any church service in 30 years and I don’t think he had ever been, I couldn’t just say ‘have faith. Do I tell him there’s just this and the void? In the end it’s all meaningless? It seemed to me that any explanation of the human experience that didn’t answer the fundamental questions of human existence was going to be insufficient. How different would life be if I could provide young people the true answer to these questions? Unfortunately, I didn’t know the truth or really have a religious belief, I hadn’t thought about it much. This was another humbling moment, as I realized my only answers to life’s biggest questions were mostly ‘I don’t know.’

So again, I went back to being a beginner.

I had left the church as a teen both disillusioned and unbelieving. As a young adult I travelled to Asia and visited temples shrines and had learned a little about Buddhism, Hinduism and Taoism and some other eastern traditions. I really liked the level of conceptual thinking involved in these traditions and I found the cultures and people fascinating. Unfortunately, these religions seemed so closely tied to their peoples and cultures that it would be an appropriation to adopt them as my own. I could sense the truth in these ideas, but they seemed inaccessible to me without me pretending to be something that I’m not. Even so, I kept watching Joseph Campbell, and Ram-Dass, and Alan Watts on You tube, and kept meditating.

One day the You Tube algorithm sent me a different speaker, Jiddu Krishnamurti. There were a series of talks he gave in 1971 in NYC and as I watched these videos I was just stunned. The world he was describing was so unusual, so foreign a way of thinking about things, that I felt like a child. The blind spot of my understanding of our nature of being slowly began to fill, changing my perspective to see what was there the whole time. I suddenly realized how many of life’s problems are just a matter of improper perception. Now I could see only by observing the world without judgement could I see the truth and answers those looming questions.

I did a deep dive on Krishnamurti and found a fascinating story filled with incredible characters. He had come up through an organization called the Theosophical Society. Founded in 1875 in NYC, through the Theosophical Society America, and eventually the world, was the first introduction of those eastern concepts and traditions that I found so fascinating. The Society provided a place for exploration of spiritual, scientific, and philosophical ideas to enable the growth of it’s members. I had never heard of them or theosophy at all for that matter. I began to read more about theosophy and took several courses in the Theosophical Society in America’s online School of theosophy. Soon, all my reading was about theosophy and my You tube history was filled with Theosophical topics and speakers. I soon became a member.

In time through my theosophical studies, I was able to answer those big questions well enough for myself that I was confident to share them with my nephew as the Truth, to the best of my understanding, and to compete the handbook, for now.

As a member of the Theosophical Society I’ve made dozens of friends around the world, had fascinating conversations, and I’ve begun to see this shared experience on earth with wide open and loving eyes. I’ve learned to see the world with compassion and not judgment. I can feel the transformation within myself.

Of course, after all this I still find myself doing what I’ve always done, trying to solve problems, but now the problems I wrestle with are at the ones at the core of the human experience. This search for the answers to these fundamental questions is one that requires tremendous honesty, humility, curiosity and patience, but for those who endeavor to reconcile this truth there is peace. Aiding others to find that peace is a purpose I can be proud of.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

In the few years since I discovered theosophy I have: joined the Theosophical Society in America, become a board-member and coordinate speakers on any number of esoteric topics for my local Theosophical Society lodge in Portland Oregon. You can find our programs

@tsinportland on Youtube.

I also lead a discussion group for the Theosophical Society in America’s Virtual Study Center on Helena Petrovna Blavatsky’s ‘The Secret Doctrine’

https://www.theosophical.org/program/webinars/getting-acquainted-with-the-secret-doctrine-a-course-by-john-algeo

You can also find me on the unaffiliated Virtual Center for Theosophic Studies discord server. https://discord.gg/mHbNG8rB9t

My own creative work can be found through my social media channels @theosophy_Station on Instagram and my fledgling @theosophy_station on Youtube.

Through these outlets I’m able to live my true purpose, to be theosophical teacher and share this enlightened view of the world that I have found so beneficial. These channels let me explore both the theosophical concepts and their modern application.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

There are three pillars of the theosophical life:

Study: We must never cease learning. To stop learning in life is to give up in life. Everything is a lesson, it’s up to us to learn from it. When you feel like you know it all, it’s time to change it up, learn more.

Service: A life lived solely for oneself is a miserable, repugnant existence. Only by experiencing the joy of helping another can we reinforce the connection that exists with our fellow beings. Growing our connections with others, by giving service and showing gratitude in receiving service, is the only way we grow ourselves. It’s paradoxical that by giving of ourselves we become larger, while self-preservation only shrinks our being as our alienation grows.

Meditation: I know, it’s boring and you’re just sitting there, but taking this time to ‘be yourself’ will keep you grounded. Lost somewhere in the swirl of modern life is the real you. This real you is more subtle though, and easily frightened. Through meditation we can coax this true essence out from within us. In doing this we will no longer feel the currents of modern digital life sweeping us away at the same rate. We will have grounded ourselves in a truer reality.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

That first video I watched with Jiddu Krishnamurti was about ‘Separation. The idea that there is an all-pervading oneness to our world and that it’s only our human mind that divides this world through judgement. Every distinction, every qualifier, every identity and group and distinguisher separates and alienates that thing from the cohesive whole. We are alienating ourselves from every other being in the world through our intersectional identifiers and excusive communities. Theosophy teaches of a universal brotherhood for everyone, we need to move towards a world with fewer judgements, and less alienation, if we wish to be whole again.
In creating @theosophy_station I intended to show the power of this different way of thinking. This growth of my social media channels and my brotherhood with all those who earnestly endeavor to share in this ageless wisdom is truly intended as an act of service. These channels give me the opportunity to Share my own curiosity about theosophy and our world, and demonstrate how life can be vastly improved through the adoption of a more theosophic worldview.

I Intend to continue to ramp up my outreach efforts to raise visibility of this ageless wisdom above the fog of the modern malaise. Anyone searching to grow beyond the meager spiritual offerings in modern society should know that there is more out there, but it will take a change within yourself to find it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.theosophical.org/
• Instagram: theosophy_station
• Youtube: @theosophyStation