Alice Bailey - From Intellect to Intuition - II - The Purpose of Education







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From Intellect to Intuition - Chapter Two - The Purpose of Education





From being something imposed from without, the new educational
process wells up from within, and becomes that self-imposed mental discipline, which we
cover by those much misunderstood words - concentration, meditation, and contemplation.
From being a process of memory training, and the development of a quick handling of the
response apparatus which puts us in touch with the external world, the educational
technique becomes a system of mind-control, leading eventually to an inner awareness of a
new state of being. It produces at length a rapid reaction and responsiveness to a world,
intangible and unseen, and to a new series of instinctual recognitions which have their
seat in a subtler response apparatus. The soul type imposes itself upon the [40] human
type, as the human has done upon the animal, and just as the human type is the product of
mass training and instinct and has been tremendously unfolded by our modern educational
systems, so the soul type is the product of a new method of mental training, imposed on
the individual by his soul, and called forth by the urgency of the quest and by the act of
his will. This soul is always latent in the human form, but is drawn into demonstrated
activity through the practice of meditation.These two methods of rounding out the human
being and raising him to a mass standard, and of producing the emergence of the new type,
the soul, constitute the main distinction between the western and eastern educational
methods.
The contrast between the two ways of development is most instructive. In the East we
have the careful culture of the individual, with the masses left practically without any
education. In the West we have mass education, but the individual is left, speaking
generally, without any specific culturing. These two great and divergent systems have each
produced a civilization, expressing its peculiar genius and manifestations, but also its
marked defects. The premises upon which the systems are based are widely divergent, and it
would be worth our while to consider them, for in understanding them and in the eventual
union of the two it is possible that the way out may be found for the new race in the New
Age.
First: In the eastern system, it is assumed that [41] within every human form dwells an
entity, a being, called the self or soul. Second: This self utilizes the form of the human
being as its instrument or means of expression, and through the sum total of the mental
and emotional states will eventually manifest itself, utilizing the physical body as its
functioning mechanism on the physical plane. Finally, the control of these means of
expression is brought about under the Law of Rebirth. Through the evolutionary process
(carried forward through many lives in a physical body) the self gradually builds a fit
instrument through which to manifest, and learns to master it. Thus the self or soul
becomes truly creative and self-conscious in the highest sense and active in its
environment, manifesting its true nature perfectly. Eventually it gains complete
liberation from form, from the thralldom of the desire nature, and the domination of the
intellect. This final emancipation, and consequent transfer of the center of consciousness
from the human to the spiritual kingdom, is hastened and nurtured by a specialized
education, called the meditation process, which is superimposed upon a mind widely and
wisely cultured.
The result
of this intensive and individual training has been spectacular in the extreme. The eastern
method is the only one which has produced the Founders of all the world religions, for all
are Asiatic in origin. It is responsible for the appearance of those inspired Scriptures
of the world which have moulded the thoughts of men, and for the coming [42] forth of all
the world Saviors - the Buddha, Zoroaster, Shri Krishna, the Christ, and others. Thus the
East has manifested forth, as the result of its particular technique, all the Great
Individuals, who have sounded the note for their particular age, given the needed teaching
for the unfoldment in the minds of men of the God-Idea, and so led humanity forward along
the path of spiritual perception. The exoteric result of their lives is to be seen in the
great organized religions.
In the
training of the highly developed individuals, however, the masses throughout Asia have
been neglected, and the system, consequently, (from the angle of racial development),
leaves much to be desired. The defects of the system are the development of visionary and
impractical tendencies. The mystic is frequently unable to cope with his environment, and
where the emphasis is laid entirely upon the subjective side of life, the physical welfare
of the individual and the race is neglected and overlooked. The masses are left to
struggle in the mire of ignorance, disease and dirt, and, hence, we have the deplorable
conditions found throughout the Orient, alongside the highest spiritual illumination of
the favored few.





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