Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

Harnessing the laws of nature—maximum success to governmentschools, while juvenile crime is rising—especially gang and school violenceusing guns (Puente, 1998).These problems are symptomatic of a deeper educational crisis. Educationis failing in the most basic sense: It does not deliver the fruitof knowledge—life in accord with natural law—which brings freedomfrom problems and the ability to fulfill one’s desires easily through theskillful application of natural law.The reasons for this fundamental failing were identified in Chapter II:1. The content of education is out-of-date. The most crucial, paradigmchangingknowledge of natural law is not taught.2. The intellectual approach to knowledge, by itself, is not fully satisfying.The absence of a holistic basis to knowledge can leave students witha growing sense of the unknown— especially at the most advancedlevels of education, where students are typically forced to learn moreand more about less and less (see Hagelin, 1998, Chapter II).3. Intellectual understanding of natural law is not enough to guaranteelife in accord with natural law. 54. Current educational methods do not develop even a fraction of a student’sfull mental potential. In light of the above, it is no surprisethat the drop-out rate is high, and that modern education is widelyperceived as unsatisfying and irrelevant to the life of the student.The SolutionThe most crucial solution to the current educational shortcomings is toincorporate new educational technologies that raise life spontaneouslyto be in accord with natural law, and that directly unfold the full creativityand intelligence of the student.We have previously seen that it is possible today to supplement andenrich the intellectual study of natural law with the direct experience ofnatural law in consciousness. Modern educational technologies, in particularthe Transcendental Meditation program, take maximum advantageof the rich inner laboratory of natural law that exists within the5This is because (a) since much of natural law remains unknown, what constitutes “action inaccord with natural law” is often not clear; (b) the scope of natural law is so unfathomablycomplex, that even armed with complete knowledge of the laws of nature, the full ramificationsof our actions are beyond calculation; (c) even in cases where the consequences of actions areclear, due to stress and other factors, such intellectual understanding is not enough to guaranteelife-supporting behavior.193