Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

consciousness-based education and govermentcentered on delving deeply into the analysis of these self-interactingdynamics of consciousness.The Self-Interacting Dynamics of ConsciousnessWhen one gains the capability, through practice of the TranscendentalMeditation technique, of remaining awake while becoming perfectlysettled and still, one gains the ability to experience a completelysimple, unified, undifferentiated, self-referral state of pure consciousness,which is called Saṁhitā in the Vedic literature, in which knower,known, and process of knowing are one and the same. Consciousness issimply awake to itself, knowing its own nature as simple, unified pureconsciousness. Yet in knowing itself, the state of pure consciousnesscreates an intellectually conceived distinction between itself as knower,itself as known, and itself as process of knowing. In Vedic literature,this is reflected in the distinction between Ṛishi (knower), Devatā (processof knowing), and Chhandas (object of knowledge). According toMaharishi, from the various interactions and transformations of thesethree intellectually conceived values in the unified state of pure consciousness,all diverse forms of knowledge, all diverse laws of nature,and ultimately all diversity in material nature itself sequentially emerge.The conscious mind, awake at this totally settled and still level ofawareness, can witness the mechanics by which this diversificationof the many out of the unity of pure consciousness takes place. Themechanics of Ṛishi, Devatā, and Chhandas transforming themselvesinto Saṁhitā, Saṁhitā transforming itself into Ṛishi, Devatā, andChhandas, and Ṛishi, Devatā, and Chhandas transforming themselvesinto each other are the mechanics by which the unity of pure consciousnessgives rise to the diversity of natural law. These mechanics areexpressed in the sequential unfoldment of Vedic literature. These arethe self-interacting dynamics of consciousness knowing itself, which,Maharishi asserts, sequentially give rise to all diversity in nature.Maharishi (1986) describes this self-referral state of consciousness asthe basis of all creative processes in nature:This self-referral state of consciousness is that one element in natureon the ground of which the infinite variety of creation is continuouslyemerging, growing, and dissolving. The whole field of change emergesfrom this field of non-change, from this self-referral, immortal state of578