EDUCATION

The aim of education is to experience total knowledge. Total knowledge arises from the unity of the knower knowing the known. Unless education imparts the knowledge of the knower, the correct process of knowing, the relationship between the knower and the known, and the principles that unify all three, education has failed to attain its goal.

Education begins and is based on the knowers knowing themselves at the deepest level of their being. First, the knower comes to full Self knowledge. This means that the knower must become aware of their fundamental nature. The fundamental nature of every knower is found at the level of Being, at the level of the unbounded field of pure consciousness which is their home of origin. We are all individuations of that unbounded field that is the Self of everyone. Every knower is that Self. Unbounded consciousness is the Self of everyone. As the knower advances in Self knowledge, the knower easily and naturally expands their capacity for engaging in the process of knowing. Self knowledge unlocks the full potential of the knower so that they are best able to engage in the process of knowing to its fullest extent.

Effective education imparts Self knowledge not just at the level of the mind or the intellect, but at the level of being. Then Self knowledge is lived as a reality, not as a concept. Therefore effective education is based on developing an individual's consciousness to the state in which this Self knowledge is a living reality. The process of knowing will then involve the knower as a participant in the educational experience not simply being present as a passive recipient of various facts and concepts.

Education that only concerns the known, the objects of knowledge, is fragmented education. Traditional education has collected knowledge about certain sets of the objects of knowledge, various disciplines and subjects. But all these fields of knowledge have a common source in the unified field. Each separate discipline is connected to the other in terms of its relationship to that unified field of common origin. Every field of knowledge is simply a particular manifestation of the unified field from which it springs. Each field of individual knowledge exists as expressions of certain principles that reside in the underlying unified field. The teaching of every separate discipline needs to consider the relationships between all these separate fields in terms of the underlying unifying principles.

Every knower needs to be allowed to seek the individual knowledge that is of greatest importance to that knower. Every knower should participate fully in the process of knowing. Education means that each knower is an active participant not merely a passive recipient.

Of utmost importance is a framework of spiritual values within which all subjects should be taught. These values include: unity and love, compassion, forgiveness, gratitude, joy, peace, respect, acceptance, and blessing.

Total knowledge requires an educational system that develops the consciousness, sensitivity, and learning capacity of the knower. Total knowledge requires a process of knowing that unifies each separate field of knowledge while developing expanded consciousness in the knower. The result is that every aspect of knower, knowing, and known is appreciated as a unified whole at the level of Being from which all spiritual values, thoughts, and actions arise. When that appreciation is a living reality within each knower, the knower then not just knows total knowledge, but is total knowledge. Then education has reached its goal. Then education has imparted total knowledge and achieved its purpose.

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