Consciousness-Based Education - Maharishi University of ...

The Influence of Natural Law tHeorybecome evolutionary, progressive, and harmonious. By taking recourseto the Constitution of the Universe—the total intelligence of NaturalLaw—through the collective practice of Transcendental Meditation,governments can fulfil the lofty principles set forth in their constitutionsand display the same efficiency and effectiveness with which NaturalLaw governs the universe. (Maharishi, 1999, p. 3)This ability to know natural law or the will of God by the self-refferalprocess was familiar to the founding fathers and expressed in aquote from Blackstone.The absolute rights of man considered as a free agent endowed withdiscernment to know good from evil, and with power of choosing thosemeasures which appear to him to him to be most desirable, are usuallysummed up in one general explanation and denominated the libertiesof mankind. This natural liberty consists properly in a power of actingas one thinks fit without any restraint or control unless by the law ofnature, being a right inherent in us by birth and one of the gifts of Godto man at his creation when he endowed him with the faculty of freewill. (Blackstone, 1771, Vol. I, pp. 108–109). . . For he has so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven thelaws of eternal justice with the happiness of each individual that (happiness)cannot be attained but by observing the former; and if the formerbe punctually obeyed it cannot but induce (happiness). (Blackstone, 1771,Vol I, p. 31)The Founding Fathers, recognizing this principal, guaranteed to allcitizens of the new country the right to follow God’s will in their ownway by adopting the first amendment to the constitution, which guaranteedFreedom of Religion. The separation of Church from State wasa radical idea at the time, but it was a natural progression in a countrycreated by the emigration of diverse cultures seeking the freedom toworship and live according to their own understanding of God’s will.Guaranteeing the freedom to know God’s will, or natural law,through introspection and religious beliefs was intended to lead to thehappiness of the individual and the society. Unfortunately, without away to directly access the unified field of natural law, itself, freedomof religion was not enough to guarantee that individuals and societywould truly find the happiness of living life in tune with natural law.91