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by Dr Susan Dillbeck
President of the International Foundation of Consciousness-Based Education for Mothers in Every Generation
29 January 2008
Address to an international
European Conference of Educators
I am very happy to be with you this evening.
I would like you to imagine all the six-year-old children all over the world ready to go to their first day of school, where they will be for the next 10 to 20 years of their lives. They stand at the front door of their home, holding mother’s hand.
Each of these little children has a brain with the potential to grasp the functioning of the entire universe as the functioning of their own Being, with the organizing power to achieve any goal, and live a happy, problem-free life, in which every decision is right, and their very existence uplifts the whole society.
Where should we turn for our model of education to draw out these beautiful hidden values?
Clearly we shouldn’t look to the prevailing educational systems, because they consistently fail to unfold the latent creative potential of their students. These systems are so lacking in knowledge that so-called educated people make as many mistakes in life and have as many problems as uneducated people. In light of what is possible for human development, the distinction between the poorest rural school and the most expensive prestigious college is like the distance between the bottom rung and the top rung of a stepladder with reference to the distance to the moon.
Where do we look for our perfect educational model?
His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has brought to light in his complete science of consciousness that the proper model for education, the model for drawing out the full value of human life, is the functioning of the universe.
What is the character of the functioning of the universe?
It functions in silence, in silence; it manages everything in the universe from its silent basis. And within that vast unbounded silence reverberates all the Laws of Nature that guide the orderly evolution of the whole universe and everything in it, including every cell, every point of human physiology and consciousness. The brain of every six-year old mirrors the structure of the universe; it has the silent value of its own nature co-existing with the dynamic value of its own nature. This field alone is the field of all possibilities.
We want this silent functioning of Total Natural Law—at once unifying and diversifying—to be awakened in all students, so that their lives always are spontaneously in harmony with the evolutionary direction of Natural Law governing the universe with perfect order and without a problem. This is our model; we need to provide the means by which the student comes to experience his own nature of silence and dynamism—pure wakefulness —on the surface of his life.
Fortunately for the world, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi has given profound knowledge and precise guidelines for an educational system that day by day, month by month, enlivens the silence and total dynamism of Total Natural Law that is innate in every student.
This educational system—Consciousness-Based Education, Total-Knowledge based education, involves 4 components. I’ll list these four components, and then elaborate on them briefly. All of you are familiar with the system, but I am just reminding you, because our mission from Maharishi is to create these Consciousness-Based schools, colleges, and universities.
1. The first component is the technology of consciousness for directly experiencing the unbounded field of nature’s silence and dynamism, the field of Total Natural Law and for enlivening this field in collective consciousness.
2. The second component of Consciousness-Based Education is the study and understanding of this field of Total Natural Law—its source, range, application, and goal.
3. The third component of Consciousness-Based education is teaching techniques that integrate the dynamism of all the different subject of study with their source in the silent Self of the student.
4. And the fourth component of Consciousness-Based Education is a stress free, healthy routine and atmosphere that help the students stabilize unbounded silence in the dynamism of daily life.
Each of these components awaken the silent functioning of natural law within human physiology, the field which alone contains the total potential of dynamism.
I’ll elaborate on these four components of Consciousness-Based Education briefly.
1. The first component is the technology of consciousness Maharishi's Transcendental Meditation and its advanced techniques, including Transcendental Meditation Sidhi Programme with Yogic Flying, gives the student the direct experience of the field of silent unity containing the potential of all diversity, the field of Transcendental Consciousness, the fourth major state of consciousness. Transcendental Consciousness is vitally important for the development of the brain.
Only the experience of Transcendental Consciousness enlivens total brain functioning, as shown by scientific research on global EEG coherence. Higher levels of EEG coherence are correlated with higher intelligence, higher creativity, greater neurological efficiency, greater learning ability, higher academic performance, higher moral reasoning, and greater emotional stability.
As you know, more than 600 scientific research studies, conducted at more than 250 universities and research institutes in 33 countries, verify the wide-ranging benefits of this technology for all aspects of life—mental development, health, development of personality, and the environment.
And when this technology of consciousness, particularly Yogic Flying is practiced in large groups the whole environment benefits, as we know from extensive scientific research. The effect is powerfully positive for the integrating national consciousness, leading to invincibility for the nation—when no negative influence from within or outside the country can take hold.
2. The second main component of Consciousness-Based Education is study of the field of pure silence with its inherent dynamism, the field of Transcendental Consciousness. The students study this field for one period per day through courses Maharishi has developed. In these course the students come to understand the nature of this field and its’ importance for their own growth to greatness.
One of these series of courses for primary through secondary levels is called the Science of Creative Intelligence. The students study laws of nature, called principles of creative intelligence, expressed in simple language, appropriate for the age level of the students. The students find these principles of creative intelligence all around them—in their own lives, in their family life, in nature, in their community, in their experiences of meditation, in the modern sciences—in all aspects of their lives.
For example, one of the principles is ‘Life is found in layers.’ The students find this principle everywhere around them. They see that their whole personality is structured in layers, the most subtle being the most powerful—senses, mind, their intellect, feelings, ego –with different knowledge gained at each level; and ultimately the layer of silent Being, which is the fountainhead of all the other levels of their personality. And they learn—and experience!—that the more silent dynamism of Being that is lively, the more subtle and powerful the ego, the intellect, the mind, and the senses.
Maharishi has described the benefits of the course of study in this way:
‘We help the students grow into catching the more fundamental values of life from where their whole life can be organized and made fulfilled.
‘Our teaching should aim at inculcating in the children the understanding that there is something deep within the surface of everything. This will make them grow in inquisitiveness and awareness of the most basic values of life, eventually leading them to the laws of nature in all the different fields of knowledge. They grow in awareness that the deeper the level of natural law from which they function, the greater the field of influence they command through their action.
‘The fulfilment of inquiry for the children is in knowing the reality that lies beyond the surface of their perception. With the growth of this knowledge their hearts never become cramped. They enjoy fulfilment and the growth of creativity.
3. The third component of Consciousness-Based Education, for integrating silence and dynamism in the awareness of the students is the special teaching techniques.
There are many wonderful techniques developed by Maharishi for Consciousness-Based Education. One of the most important is the use of wall charts—all the most important points for learning are on charts.
What kind of charts? Maharishi has designed several teaching charts, including the Unified Field Chart, the Course Overview Chart, and the Main Points Chart. They all have one thing in common: They connect the diversity of the discipline with the unbounded Self of the student – the dynamism with the silence.
The Unified Field Chart shows the discipline of study – mathematics, biology, music, etc., mapped out on one side of the chart from its diverse applied values at the top to its increasingly unifying general principles at the bottom, and the silent source of the discipline, the unified field of all the laws of nature. On the right side of the chart is a cone showing the practice of Transcendental Meditation coning down to that same unified field. At the end of class, using a pointer, the teacher for half a minute connects the lesson of the day with the whole discipline, and with the silent unbounded source of the discipline, the unified field, which has all the Laws of Nature lively within it.
And then the teacher points to the Transcendental Meditation cone, showing that the students directly experience the source of this discipline as their own Transcendental Consciousness, thereby enlivening the unified source of all disciplines with its infinite organizing power, in their own daily awareness.
On another chart, the Main Points Chart, which comes with a handout for each student, the students read the one central idea of the whole lesson in light of their own consciousness. And then the main points of the lesson that are contained in that one central idea — each in light of the student’s silent dynamic growth of their full potential.
For example, if the central idea of a lesson on poetry is that 'poetry uses symbolism to expand the understanding and touch the feelings of the reader.' The consciousness point could be: The repeated experience of Transcendental Consciousness expands our understanding until it is permanently established in unbounded awareness, from where we experience and share the most delicate and deep feelings of who we really are.
Another set of charts are Summary Charts made by the students—to summarize the lesson of each class, the lessons of the entire day, the lessons of the entire week, and a creative production summarizing what they have learned during the month. In all of these summary charts the students relate the main ideas from the discipline of study to the development of their own consciousness, and show this connection visually through a graphic or illustration, or—at the end of the month— in a skit or song or poem or artistic expression performed for their parents and teachers. What a delight!
These charts are uniquely effective. The students flourish.
In Maharishi words: ‘We connect whatever we are teaching with the whole discipline and with the source of the discipline, the Self of the student. Through this approach the whole field of knowledge becomes intimate to the student's life; without this approach the life of the student remains untouched.’
In addition to the presentation of knowledge always with reference to the Self, the teaching techniques of Consciousness-Based education also include behaviour of the teacher toward the students, always loving, always appreciating, always guiding to higher levels of performance, always finding the good in what they do, and then suggesting the next step of improvement. In this atmosphere, the students make great leaps of progress and develop a sense of all possibilities in the growth of their cosmic potential.
One parent wrote: ‘The teachers are all wonderful, and seem to love my son as much as I do! He is treated with kindness and patience.’
A teacher in a Consciousness-Based school wrote: ‘Although the students come from diverse backgrounds, they develop one thing in common: greater self-awareness and the ability to think at a deeper level.’
And a student wrote: ‘I do more and more things that I never thought I could do. I feel comfortable because people are so accepting of who I am. If feel at home.’
So that is the third component of Consciousness-Based education, the teaching techniques, which connect the diversity of knowledge with its silent dynamic wholeness in the Self of the student.
4. The fourth main component of Consciousness-Based schools that enlivens silence and dynamism in the growth of the students’ enlightenment is the stress free, healthy routine of the class, the day, the week, the year.
Consciousness-Based schools emphasize a healthy environment and stress-free routine, which includes enough rest and no large homework assignments.
The students review what they have learned with their parents each evening when they return home. They don’t bring big heavy book bags and piles of homework. The students benefit from the review, the parents benefit by learning what the students are doing, and the family becomes more unified by being together.
The school buildings are constructed according to ancient architectural principles that bring an influence of vitality and clarity to the occupants. The meals are organic vegetarian. The atmosphere, due to the practice of Transcendental Meditation by everyone in the school, radiates peace, harmony, and alertness—an ideal atmosphere for learning and growth.
Maharishi has said: ‘We structure the steps that lead the students to higher and higher levels of knowledge and more complete realization of their own nature, which is unbounded in its capacity, infinite in its bliss.’
This is the educational system we want for each child.
Two days ago one of the teachers of Transcendental Meditation in the United States, in Detroit, Michigan, was meditating with an 11-year old boy who had recently learned the practice in a school that has been teaching Transcendental Meditation to its students for over 20 years. After meditation, when he opened his eyes, the boy said, ‘I would like to be a teacher of this. It makes me feel peaceful, and I want everyone to be peaceful too.’
This inner peace Maharishi has described as the balance and complete integration of silence and dynamism. We want this for everyone too—for every individual and for the collective consciousness of society, so that life is lived without problems—in harmony, orderliness, affluence, happiness.
We want to establish schools and universities to raise very student to the fullness of their own potential, and in the process of doing this, assure an increasingly integrated national consciousness through their group practice of Yogic Flying, leading to invincibility for our nations—when all good belongs to everyone and non-good to no one.
Maharishi has said, 'This is going to be our educational system in the world—in the universities, colleges, schools. The purpose is to give Total Knowledge, so that in every fragmentation of relative life, the Absolute prevails. Everyone will live life like the life of the ocean. The waves go from this end to that end, and silence is maintained at the base of each wave. Silence is maintained at the base of each action of everyone. And that is real human action; that is human thought; that is human understanding. For this effect, we are teaching the science and technology of living, the science and technology of thought, ultimately, the science and technology of Being.'
This will be the fulfilment of the highest aspirations of the wise for our beautiful world.
© Copyright 2008 Global Good News®
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