Learning to function from the level of pure consciousness, the artist can nourish both himself and the environment.

The holistic education of artists through Maharishi Vedic Science
by Matthew Beaufort, Anna J. Bonshek, Lee C. Fergusson
Maharishi University of Management Press, USA
1 April 2008

Maharishi Vedic Science reconciles the opposing worldviews of Modernism and Postmodernism in art theory, supporting difference and relative meaning on the basis of knowledge and experience of the Self.
This approach naturally unfolds the inner genius of every art student, allowing the student to access infinite creativity and realize his or her personal and professional goals.

Learning to function from the level of pure consciousness, the artist can become a universal human being whose thoughts, speech, and actions are fully in accord with Natural Law and are therefore always
nourishing to the actor and the environment.

The following are excerpts from 'The Holistic Education of Artists through Maharishi Vedic Science: Unfolding the Infinite Reservoir of Creativity in Individual Awareness', by Matthew Beaufort, Anna J. Bonshek, and Lee C. Fergusson, from The Journal of Modern Science and
Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.

‘Throughout time, artists and teachers of art have sought to unlock the full creative potential of the human mind. Despite this worthwhile endeavor, there have apparently
been no systematic, verifiable, or reliable means through which this goal could be realized. Indeed, art and art practice have been generally understood to be mystifying, unscientific, random, and subject to the vagaries of the human condition.

‘Maharishi Mahesh Yogi teaches that only through an educational approach based on the systematic development and application of pure consciousness—the unmanifest field of infinite creativity experienced as the simplest form of human awareness—might the long-
sought goals of artists and educators be achieved. Such an approach teaches the student to access the inner creativity and intelligence of Nature, or Natural Law— that level of infinite creativity which governs all of life. This is the focus of educating artists in the light of Maharishi Vedic Science.

‘The Consciousness-Based approach to educating artists integrates into a traditional university art curriculum the principles of Maharishi Vedic Science and specific tech-nologies to develop consciousness—including Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and Transcendental Meditation Sidhi programme. This integrated approach holistically develops the art student, producing quantifiable results which are satisfying for students, teachers, and society as a whole.

‘While there have been innumerable theories and movements of art which have informed the education of artists, the Modern and Postmodern approaches have impacted education in important ways during the last 40 years. The American critic Thomas McEvilley (1992, p. 137) describes a Modern cultural period as characterized by mutually supportive notions of history and selfhood. These include: history is linear and progressive; innovation and change are valued over tradition; validated by the progressive force of history, “the self inflates”; self-expression and originality are revered; the self is viewed as heroic.

‘Conversely, Postmodernism denotes that moment when the Modernist faith in history declines and the self deflates: the self has no “anointed mission”; the self is mediated rather than a representation of heroic genius; attempts are made to reconnect with previous traditions; and there is an acknowledgment and appreciation of cultural difference and relative expression.

‘Modernism and Postmodernism can thus be said to provide opposing and contradictory conceptions of the self. In contrast to contemporary theory, with its irreconcilable opposites and lack of methods for developing the self, Maharishi Vedic Science provides intellectual understanding and practical methods to experience the full range of the self.

'This comprehensive science and technology of consciousness provides a reliable means through which opposites can be reconciled, and through which life can be lived in accord with Natural Law, thereby supporting both individual and cultural differences simultaneously from their foundation: the unmanifest source of pure consciousness.

‘Maharishi’s understanding of consciousness is fundamentally different from prevailing views in modern psychology, philosophy, and the arts. These views tend to focus on the stream of consciousness, or on broad patterns of thought as they are influenced by political, social, and gender values. Maharishi, in contrast, brings to light a fundamental aspect of consciousness that lies beyond thought and beyond cultural perspectives.

Maharishi Vedic Science, rooted in the ancient tradition of Vedic knowledge, explains that beyond the relative, changing levels of consciousness lies a transcendental,
unchanging level of consciousness. Furthermore, Maharishi teaches that this Transcendental Consciousness can be directly experienced by anyone.

Maharishi has observed that for knowledge to be complete and fulfiling, the knower of knowledge, the Self, must be known:

“If we look into the process of gaining knowledge we find that there are two sides to knowledge: the object of knowledge, that which we seek to know, and the subject of knowledge, the knower. What the present system of education provides is knowledge of the object; what it misses is knowledge of the subject, knowledge of the knower in the knower’s infinite capacity. When the knower is ignorant about the Self, the whole structure of knowledge is as if baseless” (Maharishi University of Management Bulletin, 1996, p. 7).

‘Some art educators point out the importance of educating the knower—the artist—for example, culturing the art student’s sensibility, intellectual skills, intuition, and critical judgement; but most do not provide effective methods to develop these faculties (Fergusson, 1991). All of these subjective faculties are developed by enlivening the different levels of the mind during the Transcendental Meditation technique, and experiencing pure consciousness, the source of thought.

At Maharishi University of Management, art students are well educated in the materials, content, and processes of art, but an even greater emphasis is placed on the full development of the knower—the consciousness of the artist—as the basis for artistic activity.

The ability to manifest the unmanifest in art occurs when the student is established in Transcendental Consciousness, in the state known as Cosmic Consciousness, where the experience of the Self or pure consciousness is permanently maintained amidst dynamic activity. While Maharishi describes seven states of consciousness, he indicates that the artist should be established, at the very least, in the fifth state of Cosmic Consciousness in order to be truly successful.

The goal of art education, therefore, is to promote in the student growth to higher states of consciousness. As Maharishi (1973) points out, “in Cosmic Consciousness, the artist not only gains the ability of simultaneously maintaining broad comprehension along with sharp focus but also the ability to express, through his imagination and feeling, the unexpressed level of Being in such a way as to make it concrete.”

Copyright © 1997 Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science

Global Good News invites you to read the full version of this paper: ‘The Holistic Education of Artists through Maharishi Vedic Science: Unfolding the Infinite Reservoir of Creativity in Individual Awareness’, by Matthew Beaufort, Anna J. Bonshek, and Lee C. Fergusson, from The Journal of Modern Science and Vedic Science, Volume 7, Number 1 (1997), The Silver Jubilee Issue, Maharishi University of Management, USA.

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