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Repeated experience of pure consciousness develops a state of enlightenment in which the awareness is permanently open to the field of pure consciousness.

 

 

The significance of pure consciousness for education
by James D. Grant and Christopher H. Jones Maharishi University of Management Press, USA
5 March 2008

Maharishi’s three-part concept of knowledge

The following are excerpts from ‘The Significance of Pure Consciousness for Education’ by James D Grant and Christopher H Jones, from The Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA:

‘In America today, as in most countries around the world, there is widespread dissatisfaction with education due to perceived educational failures. In the best American schools, for example, attended by students with relative affluence, the overwhelming impression of the classroom is one of “affective neutrality”. In the more troubled schools in many countries . . . the learning environment is even more discouraging. Children’s concern is less whether they will make good grades than whether they can stay awake and whether they will make it home safely after school (Kozol, 1996).’ In addition, ‘comparatively low levels of human development indicate that the schools are not developing the primary resource of all nations—human potential.’

‘. . . A new educational paradigm, introduced by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi . . . provides a solution to these deficiencies, among others.

‘The problem with current education, from Maharishi’s perspective, is that it lacks a missing fundamental— intellectual understanding and experience of pure consciousness. Intellectual understanding and experience of pure consciousness are so fundamental that they transform all aspects of the field of education, including foundational concepts, educational practices, and outcomes of education.

‘Pure consciousness, as Maharishi defines it, is the basic quality of life, the unmanifest, unchanging basis of all subjective and objective existence.’ It is responsible both for ‘structuring subjective experience [and] upholding the objective world.’

‘Today this subjective experience has also been confirmed by the objective methodologies of modern science. The understanding that there is an unmanifest, unified basis for all creation is now supported by advances in quantum physics during the past 20 years.’

Significance of Pure Consciousness for Basic Educational Concepts

‘All theories of education, and consequently educational practice, are based either explicitly or implicitly on an understanding of fundamental concepts. One way of understanding these basic concepts is in terms of the three-part nature of knowledge. Maharishi has brought out that, in order for there to be any knowledge, there must be a knower, an object of knowledge, and a process of knowing connecting the two. If any of these is missing, there can be no knowledge.

All educational systems derive from an understanding of these three basic conceptions: the nature of the individual (knower), the nature of learning and development (process of knowing), and the nature of knowledge (the known). The major differences in educational theories throughout the ages can all be traced back to differences in perspective on these fundamental conceptions.

‘The knowledge of pure consciousness and how to experience it is significant for education because it leads to a deeper and more adequate understanding of these foundational educational conceptions. No understanding of knowledge, development, or of the individual can be adequate without an understanding of pure consciousness if pure consciousness is the ultimate reality that underlies them all.’

Knowledge (The Known)

‘Optimal [educational] practice must be based on a complete view of knowledge, and this only comes, as we will see, with an understanding of pure consciousness.

‘The knowledge of pure consciousness provided by Maharishi Vedic Science contributes two central ideas to our understanding of knowledge: first, that there is an absolute level of pure or total knowledge, and second, that knowledge, because of its basis in human consciousness, cannot be adequate without experience of this field.

‘[The] understanding that knowledge is structured in consciousness has profound implications for education. It means that consciousness must be fully developed in order to have complete knowledge. Because pure consciousness is the Self, it means that Self knowledge— complete knowledge of the knower—must be the basis for all other knowledge. Without this basis, Maharishi points out that knowledge is incomplete and, as a result, non-fulfilling.

Learning and Development (The Process of Knowing)

‘Our understanding of the mechanisms of development is enhanced by the understanding that experience of pure consciousness is itself a profound means to promote growth. Because pure consciousness is a field of infinite intelligence, creativity, power, and bliss and at the same time a field of perfect orderliness, this experience enlivens these qualities in our mind and body, thereby promoting growth.

‘Over 500 scientific studies have now documented that experience of pure consciousness gained during practice of the Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation promotes integration and efficiency of the entire nervous system, leading to improved mental abilities, health, and social behavior.

‘Repeated experience of pure consciousness develops a state of enlightenment in which the awareness is permanently open to the field of pure consciousness.

The Individual (The Knower)

‘Knowledge of pure consciousness contributes significantly to our understanding of human nature. Most fundamentally, we see that pure consciousness is the full potential of the knower, the Self. Without knowledge of pure consciousness, there can be no Self knowledge. In addition, we have seen that the true nature of human potential, the endpoint of human development, is enlightenment.

‘With the knowledge of pure consciousness provided by Maharishi Vedic Science, we can now recognize that enlightenment is the most important end for education. As Maharishi writes, “An individual whose consciousness is fully developed is an enlightened individual, and this full enlightenment, which develops the ability to achieve anything, would be the goal of education” (1994). Only with the understanding that enlightenment is the highest goal of education is it possible to structure a truly effective educational system capable of realizing the full potential of both individuals and the societies they compose.’

Global Good News invites you to read the full version of this paper: ‘The Significance of Pure Consciousness for Education’ by James D Grant and Christopher H Jones, from The Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.

© Copyright 2008 Global Good News®

 

   
"The potential of every student is infinite. The time of student life should serve to unfold that infinite potential so that every individual becomes a vibrant centre of Total Knowledge."—Maharishi

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