Fundamentals of a Spiritual Education
Developing Refined Bodies
During the last hundred years the progress of mankind has tremendously accelerated, more than during the previous thousand years. This transformation has seized the entire planet and all areas of life. It is based on the presence of the Aquarian energy, which helps us to overcome the heaviness of matter and the sluggishness of human life. The human beings born during the last decades have more refined, more electric bodies than in the past. The perception of many children is superior to that of the adults; their sensations are better and quicker.
The greatest service we can do for humanity and the planet is to prepare good, harmonious instruments for the incoming souls, through which they can express themselves. The bodies are the vehicles of the soul, the house in which it lives. If the house is not well built, this is unsatisfactory and uncomfortable for the soul. What happens if we move into a house without ventilation, whose door is locked from the outside, so that we cannot leave it anymore? Many people are stuck in their bodies like in a concrete block and can hardly move. Others are caught up in their emotions or thoughts; they cannot free themselves to readjust all. The strongest emotion is the sexual passion. We do continuously damage to our bodies with wrong food, desires and thoughts.
Working against the Trend
A good house for the soul is built through a good character. For this right motives are the best way. The children should learn how to desire, how to think, what to aspire. We have first to acquire and practise this knowledge ourselves, and only then pass it on to our children; mere talking does not inspire. But even in families trying to impart right values conflicts arise, for the children meet something else in school or with colleagues. We work against the tide of today’s society, where the wave of wrong diet, alcohol, drugs, sex, indiscreet media, destructive music etc. is very strong. The long term effects are devastating and slowly undermine the foundation of nations. Individual persons are helpless against this. Parents, teachers and men and women of good will must come together to express right values collectively, for example by drawing up curricula on human values and bring them into the classes. You cannot expect anything from official quarters; it has to come from the people. The work of reorientation and reorganisation of society requests commitment and great work of thinking.
From childhood on you should not only teach how to go into the world, but from the 7th year on also how to get back. The child should learn techniques like mantras and meditations, in order to develop a good balance between the subjective and the objective existence. Otherwise it runs the risk to become irresponsible towards eating, drinking and relations and eventually even get addicted to drugs. One suggestion is to withdraw the consciousness to the mental plane and to sound forth gently the sacred word OM three times, while sending forth breath as “clarifying and expurgating” force, sweeping away the undesired thought forms.
The preparation of education starts already before the child is born: When a woman and a man meet and want to have children, they should make sure that they are capable of looking after them in the right way. If there is a sound economic basis and if their attitudes are compatible, the worst of the work of house building is already done. Even while the child is still in the womb we can teach him the variety of human life by emphasizing spirit as much as matter. Instinctively it will learn to include all and deal with all in a sensible and reasonable way. Through the work of Nature and the placement of the planets at the time of birth we get information about the nature and the soul of the child, if we look at the spiritual aspect of the birth sign and work with it.
The First 21 Years
The first 7 years are under Aries, the sign of new beginning, where the body is prepared for an appropriate use. For the child it is a period of observing, it learns through imitation and assimilates all which goes on in his parent’s house. Therefore the parents should only do constructive things, so that the child can imitate them. They should offer him a good environment regarding sound, music, colour, eating habits and the daily rhythm.
The years from 7 to 14 are under the sign of Taurus. Here the children should learn the right use of speech and of their 5 senses - hearing, seeing, eating, touch and smell. Now with simple words a spiritual education can begin. The child should learn what is underlying our life, how man, nature and cosmos are built up. During this period there is the polarisation of sexes: The child develops into a man or a woman, and the spark of sexuality awakens.
The third cycle from 14 to 21 is under Gemini and is devoted to the development of the mind. Discrimination should be cultivated, in order to be able to distinguish between right and wrong and not to deviate on the path of the soul. When after 14 years the child enters the emotional field, it is like a hurricane. The parents have to explain to him how he can get through this storm of sexuality without being touched by it inwardly. If sexuality is acted out too much already in puberty, this has consequences for the body and can harm it. If this energy is not acted out, the ability to reach the intuitive plane is much greater. Singing of mantras helps to raise sexual energies and transform them into creative impulses. Between the age of 10 and 14 it is necessary to explain to the child the functioning of the centres in the body and how they can be influenced, so that he knows the consequences of his actions and can act accordingly. This is also called the science of antahkarana. Rhythm in daily life and responsible use of speech stabilise and purify the emotional body. Meditation / prayers are excellent means to support this. Besides a healthy diet and right breathing the child should learn to keep the body fit and supple. Regular yoga asanas help keeping the joints in smooth functioning and the spine in elasticity, for a better reception and transmission of life force. The morning is the best time for asanas. The time of dawn contains many life-giving energies.
If a child has learned all this until the age of 14, he has gathered enough to be able to meet the objective world. Otherwise he will become too extroverted, forget the state of self-consciousness and give preference to eating, money and material things. If a man has got the knowledge of the subjective world and the purpose of objective experience already in his childhood, he can work out a good balance between the subjective and objective existence and finally live in the harmony of the one existence.
Sources used: K.P. Kumar: Mithila. The New Age School Syllabus / seminar notes. The World Teacher Trust / Dhanishta, Visakhapatnam, India.