Education in the Ocean of Consciousness

DUN dun DUN dun DUN dun…. I hear shark music!

Against the fierce light of the sun, a silhouette of a fin splits the water, slicing the undulating waves, circling me as I tread water offshore. No, it’s not a fin, it’s the silhouette of a backpack as a student climbs the stairs and gains the hallway, light rippling against the lockers from the south window.

DUN dun DUN dun DUN…. I hear school music! On Facebook, one of my students suggested we need a back-to-school two-week break. Several other students gave the idea a thumbs up.

One indication that teaching is my dharma, that activity which is most evolutionary for me and the environment, is that I still get excited about the first day of school. Sometimes I wake up the night before the first day of school, still excited and wide-eyed even after many years of teaching. And, no, that not hysterical, that’s excited.

“Well begun is half done” is the saying that summarizes the opening of school for me. Start off well—happy, productive, engaged, and organized.

This year at Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment, Fairfield, Iowa, that is the case. We have just finished a week of powerful teacher inservice, focusing on teaching methodology and school procedures. Members of the custodial have successfully completed maintenance and renovation projects on the school buildings. Today and tomorrow teachers will be in their rooms preparing for the first day of classes.

This weekend the staff participates in the Invincible America course for deep rest and the expansion of consciousness to prepare for the beginning of school: “Water the root to enjoy the fruit.” Practice the TM and TM-Sidhi programs to enliven the full value of our creative intelligence.

This is consciousness-based education at its finest: education that includes the fullness of life—all the details necessary to fill the students with knowledge, all the consciousness that is our birthright when we expand the container of knowledge.

Welcome to education in the Age of Enlightenment.

Copyright 2009 by Thomas L. Kepler, all rights reserved