The Quest for a New Kind of Education

When a divine spiritual illumination becomes manifest in the world of humanity, when divine instruction and guidance appear, then enlightenment follows, a new spirit is realized within, a new power descends, and a new life is given. It is like the birth from the animal kingdom into the kingdom of man.

(The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 305)

            In the quote above ‘Abdu’l-Baha presents the stages of the process by which human consciousness advances via divine direction, the drive propelling what he named “the evolution of spiritual man.”  I suggested in my last two posts that the leap of consciousness from the animal to the human world that ‘Abdu’l-Baha mentions above took place in a mythical “garden” called Eden with Adam naming all things—at least that is the Judeo-Christian telling of the event.  Today, we are back in Eden with another leap of consciousness to accomplish.  This time the leap is from the human to the divine, or, what Thomas Moore in his foreword to John Miller’s Education and the Soul calls, the “shift from mind to soul.” 

            That is, humanity has entered a spiritual Eden, or Eden transformed and spiritualized.  The new Adam, Baha’u’llah, provides the “spiritual illumination” or revelation, which starts our enlightenment, and generates a new spirit and power and life.  We have to make a similar move in education from human to divine.  But the human (i.e. intellectual) education model and its practitioners do not give way easily or happily, because the new reality cannot be seen clearly.  At best, it can be sensed and groped toward.  The mind receives intimations and shadowy outlines of new kinds of thoughts, without knowing their Source.  The new spirit is felt within; new powers are awakened, but lack certain direction.  But forms, which provide that direction, change only slowly.
            I am seeking in these posts to do three things.  First, to understand something of what the Jesuit priest and scientist Teilhard de Chardin called the “science of spiritual energy.” (Building the Earth: 58)  Secondly, I am seeking a spiritual perception of the universe: that is, to see spiritual things and things spiritually.  Thirdly, I want to contribute to the construction of a model of divine education.  I am not alone, of course.  Many are now and have been doing the same thing.  Educator Stanwood Cobb wrote that: “In addition to the material sciences, we shall need to teach the Sciences of Spirit.  What is this Science of Spirit?  That is for future man to ascertain and fervently apply to all life upon this planet.” (Thoughts:55)  The founder of Humanistic Psychology, Maslow, believed that educators: “will finally be forced to try to teach spirituality and transcendence.” (Religion, Values and Peak Experiences:35)

            We need to get beyond material or intellectual reality to the spirituality of things, to explicate the spiritual form of knowledge not its cultural or intellectual forms, to contribute to laying the foundations of a spiritual education, which is to educe and train powers of the spirit, not powers of the body or mind which we largely know how to do.  I have directly discussed some of this in previous posts, such as The Wonderful Heart and The Spiritual Intelligence, and the posts on faith, vision, creativity, and reflection. 

            Spirituality is the great new frontier of knowledge for modern man, the most anxious pursuit of the human spirit right now.  We have come to the end of the intellectualistic/materialistic paradigm of mind, but new horizons of knowledge open up when we discover our limitations.  There is no doubt that to accomplish these lofty goals students will need the benefit of exposure to humanity’s two great knowledge systems of science and religion working together to inform them of the spiritual.  Also, there is no doubt, in my mind, that art must move to center stage as the pedagogy of learning.  It may seem odd to say science is a way to study the spiritual, but as the materialist paradigm of reality falls into increasing disfavor it will be seen as such. In truth, science and religion are not really incompatible, but are, rather, complementary and mutually reinforcing structures of metaphor within a more inclusive perspective.  But a more inclusive perspective means introducing the mind to realities that our education, both scientific and religious, and society do not prepare us to perceive. 

            With evolutionary leaps of consciousness nothing essential is lost of previous contexts.  Gaining spiritual knowledge does not also mean that sensory and intellectual knowledges are lost or forgotten.  Indeed, we can expect their expansion and reinvigoration.  But neither the senses nor intellect can any longer be the leading characteristic of human knowledge and its relation with the creation.  Neither do we throw out material and human education; rather they are incorporated within divine education, for each has contributed to the evolution of spiritual man.  But there must also be a new kind of revolution.  I mean not only a revolution in the etymological sense of revolving back to the origin, which is spirit, to start again, but that this revolution is also a revolving forward by pivoting on a higher turn of the spiral. 

            Writing in revolutionary eighteenth-century America, Thomas Paine stated in his brilliant work, Six Crisis, regarding why American colonists had to find a new model of political governance: “When precedents fail we must return to first principles.”  The same is now true for education.  First principles are not abstract statements heavily draped in complex academic jargon.  Rather, they are simple statements, and it is their very simplicity that makes them profound.  Thus inventor and philosopher Buckminster Fuller remarked that any first principle that could not be understood by a six-year old wasn’t really much of a first principle. 

            Fuller's statement revolves us back to the center and origin of education, to those beatific little six-year old cherubs that show up for their first day of school, eager to learn everything they can about their world and themselves.  And what shall be given them?   If it is divine education built upon the principles of religion, then even before we begin, I suggest we recall the promise and the threat in two of Baha’u’llah’s statements.  First, His stinging indictment of current education: “Man is the supreme Talisman.  Lack of a proper education hath, however, deprived him of that which he doth inherently possess.”  This deprivation must end.  Second, His statement of those qualities that are needed to comprehend divine things: “The understanding of His words and the comprehension of the utterances of the Birds of Heaven are in no wise dependent upon human learning. They depend solely upon purity of heart, chastity of soul and freedom of spirit.” (The Kitab-i-Iqan: 211)  These qualities children bring to school, carrying them in their souls. 

            Next, I suggest that we remember Jesus words spoken two thousand years ago: "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.” (The Book of Matthew:18:3)  Divine education is not only about converting children into adults, but also about converting adults back into children.  They come ready for divine education.  They are the promise.  Is school and education ready for them?  Are we the real threat to their spiritual well-being?  Do we, wittingly or unwittingly, by active force or passive negligence, deprive them of their “purity of heart, chastity of soul and freedom of spirit”, making it harder for them to comprehend spirit?    

            Perhaps in many places, yes.  But the tide is changing.  First principles are taking strong root.  As I conceive them, I will discuss some of these next.