Education in the New Age - Hardcover

Alice A. Bailey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0853300054 ISBN 13: 9780853300052

Publisher: Lucis Publishing Company, 1954

Synopsis

Of the few specialised subjects included in these books by Alice Bailey and the Tibetan, education is of primary importance. Today we are losing the tendency to associate "education" only with the instruction of the young and with academic matters. Education is, or should be, a continuous process from birth to death concerned not so much with the acquisition or knowledge as with the expansion of consciousness. Knowledge of itself is a dead end, unless it is brought into functioning relationship with environment, social responsibilities, historical trends, human and world conditions and, above all, with the evolution of consciousness which brings the infinite vastness of an unknown universe within the range of the finite human mind.

To oversimplify, can we say that education is a continuous process of learning how to reconcile the human and the divine elements in the constitution of man, creating right relationship between God and man, spirit and matter, the whole and the part?

If this is education in the broader sense, it is more specific and more concentrated when considered in the light of child training. This book is so concentrated and specific. While presenting the need for wholeness--development of the whole person, spirit, soul and body as an integrated unity, and acceptance of the planetary whole as the area of personal experience and responsibility--the educational needs of the child today are set out in specific terms. Faults and inadequacies in the present educational systems existing in many parts of the world are enumerated, and methods for the future suggested.

Emphasis is placed on the need for education in world citizenship. Even before this book was first published this need had become startlingly apparent. It is also clear, however, that since children naturally tend to accept without question those of other nations, other races, colour, belief and social background, a world consciousness and inclusiveness must first be generated in those adults responsible for the education and the training of the young.

Therefore, this book includes a brief final chapter on "the science of the Antahkarana", that is, with the creative effort to bridge in consciousness between the lower analytical, knowledge-gathering mind, the soul, and the higher mind which is an aspect of the divine Self, the spiritual man. This is a scientific process which can be studied and practiced as a meditation technique, combined with the effort to apply spiritual principles to the daily life under any and all circumstances.

The building of the Antahkarana, literally a bridge between the subjective and objective worlds, creates a channel for the transmission of spiritual energies--light and love and power. These energies transform the daily life, irradiate the personality and infuse the mind with creative thought consistent with the needs of the emerging Plan at the dawning of a new age. So the enlightened adult can stimulate the soul of the child, enrich and enliven the mind, and provide right opportunities for full development of the spiritual potential.

About this title

About the Author

Alice A. Bailey, (1880-1949) From her conservative British background, Alice Bailey's life led her in many directions, but always in one direction--towards the time when through drastic personal experience of many kinds she had acquired a synthesis of outlook and understanding, and an absolute conviction that one divine life pervades and animates the one humanity; that the Plan for humanity requires the cooperation and service of trained and dedicated human beings intelligently informed about world affairs, in collaboration with those who form the spiritual Hierarchy, the inner government of the planet. Her life work became an integral part of this synthesis and this realization. Without in the least losing any of her very human qualities and involvement, her soul took up its commitment to her Master,and her personality provided full cooperation in the field of her accepted service. Basically her work developed as a duality--her discipleship service which included the establishment of an esoteric school; and her initially reluctant agreement to work with the Tibetan, Djwhal Khul, in the writing of a series of books presenting the next phase in the continuity of the Ageless Wisdom teaching for the present and the immediate future. An extract from the Tibetan teacher, written in 1934 briefly explains the intent of these teachings: "The books that I have written are sent out with no claim for their acceptance. They may, or may not, be correct, true and useful. It is for you to ascertain their truth by right practice and by the exercise of the intuition. Neither I nor A.A.B. is the least interested in having them acclaimed as inspired writing, or in having anyone speak of them (with bated breath) as being the work of one of the masters. If they present truth in such a way that it follows sequentially upon that already offered in the world teachings, if the information given raises the aspiration and the will-to-serve from the plane of the emotions to that of the mind (the plane whereon the Masters can be found) then they will have served their purpose. If the teaching conveyed calls forth a response from the illumined mind of the worker in the world, and brings a flashing forth of the intuition, then let that teaching be accepted. But not otherwise. If the statements meet with eventual corroboration, or are deemed true under the test of the Law of Correspondences, then that is well and good. But should this not be so, let not the student accept what is said."

Edition details

• Publisher: Lucis Publishing Company
• Publication date: 1954
• ISBN 10: 0853300054
• ISBN 13: 9780853300052
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 192