Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and governmentmind. By this wisdom and this technique the individual is raised to ahigh level of consciousness where he gains eternal contentment withinhimself. He lives a life in fulfillment, useful to himself and society. Sucha life supports surrounding nature; all becomes harmonious, resultingin ideal relationships with others. (1967, pp. 49–50)This marvelously concentrated statement is worthy of detailed attention.Here, in a single paragraph, Maharishi provides the fundamentalsfor perfection of individual and collective life. We note that LordKrishna’s discourse provides “the wisdom of life.” The knowledge givenin the Bhagavad-Gītā, Maharishi explains, is complete knowledge,knowledge of the totality of life, manifest and unmanifest. “Wisdom”refers in this context to intellectual knowledge, to understanding thefundamental principles that govern life, both individual and collective,everywhere. Such understanding alone is not enough, however; it mustbe supplemented by “the technique of living”: the practical method ofmaking this knowledge a natural reality of daily life. This techniqueis Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation program. Maharishi (1967)explains:The technique may be defined as turning the attention inwards towardsthe subtler levels of a thought until the mind transcends the experience ofthe subtlest state of the thought and arrives at the source of thought. Thisexpands the conscious mind and at the same time brings it in contact withthe creative intelligence that gives rise to every thought. (p. 470)What is described here as “creative intelligence,” Maharishi (1967,1972) has explained, is the field of pure intelligence: pure consciousnessor transcendental consciousness, the total potential of natural law.More recently, in the context of his Vedic Science, Maharishi (1986a)has emphasized that at this level, awareness is open not to any objectsof perception, but only to itself.When consciousness is flowing out into the field of thoughts and activity,it identifies itself with many things, and this is how experience takesplace. Consciousness coming back onto itself gains an integrated state,because consciousness in itself is completely integrated. This is pureconsciousness, or transcendental consciousness. (p. 25)Maharishi has always emphasized the simplicity and naturalness ofthe Transcendental Meditation technique in systematically bringing130