Education in the Age of Aquarius

Just as the life throbbing at the heart of a seed eventually breaks free from the form that imprisons it, so the life that sustains every form eventually breaks free, expressing itself more fully and vibrantly within the newly created manifestation. This is true of an atom, a plant, an organization, a political or social structure, a human being and, eventually, even a planet and a galaxy. All forms inevitably are an outgrowth of the ever evolving life that sustains them.

Those forms that can adapt and change to express the new life become revitalized and significantly transformed; those that can no longer contain the new life eventually disintegrate, thus creating the fodder or refuse from which the next more suitable form can be created. The phoenix arising from its ashes is often depicted as the symbol of this abiding and seemingly miraculous process. All life is continuously evolving; infinite are the possible forms of expression.

The tension between the form and the life that animates it is the fundamental polarity between Spirit and matter. In the human being the tension or polarity is expressed on the one hand by the personality² and on the other, by the indwelling divinity, the spark of consciousness also known as the Soul or the Transpersonal Self.

In the Republic, Plato wrote of how the preexisting Soul drinks from the stream of Lethe (forgetfulness) and descends into the world of change through the planetary spheres, forgetting its celestial origin. However, through adequate effort, it may recall its origin and regain its seat amongst the blessed.

Fortunately, many are today seeking to relate the outer world of daily living with the inner world of spiritual realities. Increasingly, the emphasis is laid upon consciousness and its progressive unfoldment, and not upon the form or the aggregate of forms which veil the consciousness.

In Thee is hidden the knowledge of the universe. In Thee is born the striving to behold the mysteries³.

Thus, the Agni Yoga Wisdom affirms as it encourages an exploration into the veiled inner world of the Spiritual.

Slowly it is being recognized that education in this evolving Age of Aquarius must meet the needs of the inner world of the human spirit. It must teach the value and holistic nature of the individual and his/her relationship to the whole of humanity and the whole of life. From a relatively external process of pouring in facts, education must increasingly become a process of evoking the deeper, generative possibilities that lie within the individual.

The true education of the future is the science of linking up the integral parts of the human being:

“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 centre 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. If, [for example,] the astral (emotional) body is the centre 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 centre 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.”⁴

¹ Initiation Human and Solar, Alice A. Bailey, Copyright © Renewed 1979 by Lucis Trust, pp. 7-8.
² It is here interesting to note that the word “personality” is derived from the Latin word, persona, which means, mask .
³ The Leaves of Morya’s Garden; The Call, par. 327, Agni Yoga Society, NY.
4 The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, in Education in the New Age by Alice A. Bailey, Copyright Renewed © 1982 by Lucis Trust, pp. 5-7.

Diamond Light
Newsletter of the Aquarian Age Community	2015 No. 1 Index \| Back Issues
Education in the Age of Aquarius The development of the human being is but the passing from one state of consciousness to another. It is a succession of expansions, a growth of that faculty of awareness that constitutes the predominant characteristic of the indwelling Thinker. It is the progressing from consciousness polarised in the personality, lower self, or body, to that polarised in the higher self, ego, or soul, thence to a polarisation in the Monad, or Spirit, till the consciousness eventually is Divine.¹
Just as the life throbbing at the heart of a seed eventually breaks free from the form that imprisons it, so the life that sustains every form eventually breaks free, expressing itself more fully and vibrantly within the newly created manifestation. This is true of an atom, a plant, an organization, a political or social structure, a human being and, eventually, even a planet and a galaxy. All forms inevitably are an outgrowth of the ever evolving life that sustains them. Those forms that can adapt and change to express the new life become revitalized and significantly transformed; those that can no longer contain the new life eventually disintegrate, thus creating the fodder or refuse from which the next more suitable form can be created. The phoenix arising from its ashes is often depicted as the symbol of this abiding and seemingly miraculous process. All life is continuously evolving; infinite are the possible forms of expression. The tension between the form and the life that animates it is the fundamental polarity between Spirit and matter. In the human being the tension or polarity is expressed on the one hand by the personality² and on the other, by the indwelling divinity, the spark of consciousness also known as the Soul or the Transpersonal Self. In the Republic, Plato wrote of how the preexisting Soul drinks from the stream of Lethe (forgetfulness) and descends into the world of change through the planetary spheres, forgetting its celestial origin. However, through adequate effort, it may recall its origin and regain its seat amongst the blessed. Fortunately, many are today seeking to relate the outer world of daily living with the inner world of spiritual realities. Increasingly, the emphasis is laid upon consciousness and its progressive unfoldment, and not upon the form or the aggregate of forms which veil the consciousness. In Thee is hidden the knowledge of the universe. In Thee is born the striving to behold the mysteries³. Thus, the Agni Yoga Wisdom affirms as it encourages an exploration into the veiled inner world of the Spiritual. Slowly it is being recognized that education in this evolving Age of Aquarius must meet the needs of the inner world of the human spirit. It must teach the value and holistic nature of the individual and his/her relationship to the whole of humanity and the whole of life. From a relatively external process of pouring in facts, education must increasingly become a process of evoking the deeper, generative possibilities that lie within the individual. The true education of the future is the science of linking up the integral parts of the human being: “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 centre 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. If, [for example,] the astral (emotional) body is the centre 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 centre 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.”⁴ ¹ Initiation Human and Solar, Alice A. Bailey, Copyright © Renewed 1979 by Lucis Trust, pp. 7-8. ² It is here interesting to note that the word “personality” is derived from the Latin word, persona, which means, mask . ³ The Leaves of Morya’s Garden; The Call, par. 327, Agni Yoga Society, NY. 4 The Tibetan Master, Djwhal Khul, in Education in the New Age by Alice A. Bailey, Copyright Renewed © 1982 by Lucis Trust, pp. 5-7.
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