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Education in the New Age - Chapter I - Introductory Statements
V. Education has three major objectives, from the angle of human development: First, as has been grasped by many, it must make a man an intelligent citizen, a wise parent, and a controlled personality; it must enable him to play his part in the work of the world and fit him for living peaceably and helpfully and in harmony with his neighbors. Second, it must enable him to bridge the gap between the various aspects of his own mental nature, and herein lies the major emphasis of the instructions which I am now purposing to give you. In the esoteric philosophy we are taught, as well you know, that on the mental plane there are three aspects of the mind, or of that mental creature we call a man. These three aspects constitute the most important part of his nature: [5] His lower concrete mind, the reasoning principle. It is with this aspect of the man that our educational processes profess to deal. That Son of Mind, which we call the Ego or Soul. This is the intelligence principle, and is called by many names in the esoteric literature, such as the Solar Angel, the Agnishvattas, the Christ principle, etc. With this, religion in the past has professed to deal. The higher abstract mind, the custodian of ideas, and that which is the conveyor of illumination to the lower mind, once that lower mind is en rapport with the soul. With this world of ideas philosophy has professed to deal. We might call these three aspects: The receptive mind, the mind as dealt with by the psychologists. The individualized mind, the Son of Mind. The illuminating mind, the higher mind. Third, the gap between the lower mind and the soul has to be bridged, and curiously enough humanity has always realized this and has talked therefore in terms of "achieving unity" or "making the at-one-ment" or "attaining alignment." These are all attempts to express this intuitively realized truth. VI. Education also should concern itself during the new age with the bridging of this gap between the three aspects of the mind nature: between the soul and the lower mind, thus producing at-one-ment between soul and personality; between the lower mind, the soul and the higher mind. For this the race is now ready, and for the first time in the career of humanity the bridging work can go forward on a relatively large scale. On this I need not enlarge, for it concerns the technicalities of the Ancient Wisdom, on which I have given you much in my other books. [6] VII. Education is therefore the Science of the Antahkarana. This science and this term is the esoteric way of expressing the truth of this bridging necessity. The Antahkarana is the bridge the man builds - through meditation, understanding and the magical creative work of the soul - between the three aspects of his mind nature. Therefore the primary objectives of the coming education will be: To produce alignment between mind and brain through a correct understanding of the inner constitution of man, particularly of the etheric body and the force centers. To build or construct a bridge between the brain-mind-soul, thus producing an integrated personality which is a steady developing expression of the indwelling soul. To build the bridge between the lower mind, soul, higher mind, so that the illumination of the personality becomes possible. VIII. The true education is consequently the science of linking up the integral parts of man, and also of linking him up in turn with his immediate environment, and then with the greater whole in which he has to play his part. Each aspect, regarded as a lower aspect, can ever be simply the expression of the next higher. In this phrase I have expressed a fundamental truth which embodies not only the objective, but also indicates the problem before all interested in education. This problem is to gauge rightly the center or the focus of a man's attention and to note where the consciousness is primarily centered. Then he must be trained in such a way that a shift of that focus into a higher vehicle becomes possible. We can also express this idea in an equally true manner by saying that the vehicle which seems of paramount importance can become and should become of secondary importance as it becomes simply the instrument of that which is higher than itself. [7] If the astral (emotional) body is the center of the personality life, then the objective of the educational process imposed upon the subject will be to make the mind nature the dominating factor, and the astral body then becomes that which is impressed by, and is sensitive to, environing conditions, but is under the control of the mind. If the mind is the center of personality attention, then the soul activity must be brought into fuller expression; and so on and on the work proceeds, progress being made from point to point until the top of the ladder has been reached. It might be noted here that this entire exegesis of the mind and of the needed bridge building is but the practical demonstration of the truth of the occult aphorism that "before a man can tread the Path he must become that Path itself." The antahkarana. is the Path symbolically. This is one of the paradoxes of the esoteric science. Step by step and stage by stage, we construct that Path just as the spider spins its thread. It is that "way back" which we evolve out of ourselves; it is that Way which we also find and tread.
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