Authentic Education—Inner and Outer Peace
Dr. Nina Meyerhof
The 21st century holds the greatest possibilities for an integrated peaceful and prosperous global community. Connected by telecommunications and a growing spirituality, humankind has a chance to actualize an evolutionary state of being. At the same time, never before has never the future been more challenged by worldwide terrorism, poverty, rapid climate change and inadequate education as well as health care and geopolitical unrest. The kind of world that the next generation will experience will depend upon the collective vision and intention of world leaders. As long as the global culture is grounded in fear, greed and scarcity, we will continue to waste our human and financial resources on war and destruction. As we shift towards love, compassion in education, we will deploy resources for the common good, lifting up all people to a life of hope and security.
Today, science and spirituality are coming to the same conclusion – that all people are intrinsically similar; the human genome project has proven that we are genetically 99.9 % alike with only 1 tenth of one percent that makes us different. Until we realize that “I am you and you are me”, only then will right action and thought be supported by the universal laws of nature. Until we can concentrate on what makes us the same instead of what makes us different, only then can we deal with the challenges ahead. It is imperative that we spend our time and resources on young people, supporting leadership and educational experiences that promote respectful communities, common ethics, sustainable practices, peace, and economic opportunities.
Education comes from the word educare…this means to draw forth or lead out. Education is a calling…a vocation of passion for individuals who care about our next generation and our collective future. Educators today are too often bogged down by the subjects they are teaching so that they often forget they are builders of this most important future. The young people are not only inheritors of our past but are also our initiators into the next phase of cultural evolution. They are the architects for the coming phases that include social, cultural and global development. They have the potential to move beyond imitating what has come before, but rather to imagine the scaffolding for structures that lead us into a better future.
If we are to change our behaviors to realize our samenesses and our connectivity, then our educational system must also alter. Our systems need to reflect this deepest understanding of what it means to be human and to live at a time when the essence of a global society is truly and interconnectedness of all intentions and deeds. The need for moral education and the rising potential of the empowered voice of individuals has been in a process of evolution. To take this deeper is to know that the next relevant educational model is to educate for tapping into higher consciousness and translating the experience into societal actions for external global harmony. We must lead with our hearts, use our minds to further our understandings of how our universe works, and then to learn how to behave as one family of humankind.
As students move inward to discover their true Authentic Self they can become the motivators that build a better future. The model of Reflect–Connect –Act is a training process that empowers and enriches students for realizing their inner potential as well as building educational institutions that better serve future generations. Downloading information and structured learning is no longer that relevant in this technological era. It is time to use the information era as a means for individuals to foster their personal growth and encourage the understanding that we live mentally, physically and emotionally connected, building a global arena that considers all peoples. It is imperative that we spend our time and resources on young people, supporting leadership and educational experiences that promote respectful communities, common ethics, sustainable practices, peace, and economic opportunities.
Education is the means for building a culture and giving opportunities for a new and better life for those who are to be our future generations. We have already learned that progress is not only what we invent and all the material successes we have, but also a state of Being that allows each and every one of us to feel safe, secure and happy within the constructs of living within a family, community, nation and the global society.
So how do we educate for this understanding of moving from the personal to the more spacious understanding of the whole? How do we as educators model what we ourselves are not capable of to date? Do we realize that each generation is more fully conscious and thus more capable to move into an abstract understanding of living from hunter-gatherer to transcendent being? It is our obligation to give the next generation an opportunity to evolve to the next level of consciousness. Each successive generation carries a greater potential to learn to live as a family of humankind. Many children carry the genetics for unravelling this mystery. As adults we must create safe spaces for this exploration and understanding and foster growth of the potential for universal harmony while living one’s full potential.
From a hunter-gatherer’s role to agriculture to the industrial era to technological knowhow, children are being born into a phase where there is the possibility to tap into the global brain and become part of the totality of life. The platform of new thinking today is that consciousness is always available and changing. In the newer understanding of science we learn an individual’s genetic endowment is always in a state of flux. Thus we learn that children can be influenced to alter their perceptions and their genetics as well as reveal new configurations of thinking using bilateral brain functioning. Children can be welcomed into our world as the hope of the future and the possibility of creating a sense of world unity through personal daily functions.
Inner peace to outer peace is the correct relationship to the self and other. Peace is a rare state of non-violence and the mantra is total harmlessness. This is a truism reflected through thought, word and deed. Violence is a projection that resides in the mind, resulting from our many needs for self-protection. In this pursuit of peace we recognize a state of mindful nonviolence. Violence, living in the mind, is every mental separation and slicing of life into segments for our own personal ego gratification. It is the heart that knows no boundaries nor ego gratification and thus knows no violence and remains open to love. An open heart gives opportunity for harmony to exist.
Our goal is to experience unitive synergy: uniting as one and furthering the understanding of the collaborative group. Oneness of the authentic self within the self, co-aligned with oneness within all other selves. The heart is where this potential resides. PEACE is possible.
We know we are interdependent and interconnected but are looking for ways to know how to live this and what does this mean in our daily lives. We seek to lead with our hearts…and live love.
Children of the Earth is founded for this purpose of spreading peace. We serve young people to become spiritually conscious leaders, through personal educational processes for the purpose of social transformation and for the advancement of a peaceful and sustainable earth. We are determined to create an arena that serves to attract those who are inspired to serve the world through the discovery of their inner authentic soul self 's passion for living a life of meaning. They respond in actualizing their personal intention, becoming inspired to altruism, and weaving a web bridging all personal, cultural, national and religious divides. Children of the Earth’s goal is to contribute to the facilitation of a conscious movement towards inner peace, unitive thinking and evolving positive social change. We offer workshops based on our training model: Reflect-Connect –Act building this synergistic momentum. We are building an “inner revolution for our social evolution”.
As educators, we need to invite children and youth to envision a world they want. They must engage in a process of how to fully realize their inner potential and share this with the world. Furthermore they need to explore and imagine how we could co-exist as one humanity truly recognizing that humanity is interconnected and interdependent. If we are to educate our children for these deeper understandings of life, then we must prepare them for the understanding that all consciousness is always evolving and is more and more accessible.
We are also learning that one’s genetic makeup can be always changing, depending on one’s intent. We can increase our positive intention and change our genetic makeup. This improves our future with better mapping of possibilities. Education can serve by building genetically new pathways.
The process of educating to seek inner truths – who each student is individually and how one is connected as one humanity – is a process of self-reflection and inner valuing of an Authentic Self. This essence, an Authentic Self, that which each and every one of us contains, has a personal expression and something of value to offer the world. This spark is where interconnectedness and interdependence unite with the source of all. Within this spark is a sense of selfness that can only be described by the individual and known through self-exploration. This essence has no personal negative nor positive self- esteem but rather is fully evolved and has purpose. It is through the recognition of that life purpose that the student can fully reach his or her potential and be fully empowered to make a difference in the world. As one recognizes this true self, one begins to explore the relationship of self to others and the realization that each and every life has meaning and relevance and can impact the whole.
Thus schooling is no longer is seen as just a place of preparation for a professional future but schooling is also considered for the personal realization for the individual to become fully actualized and pursue a life of caring for all of life from one’s self to the greater whole.
Our world is changing and we see our global family as one. Looking at the world landscape it is obvious that we are amidst a grand revolution that is pushing us into a sea of new understanding. It is with this support of the inner self, leading to inner peace for self-actualization, that greater peace can be fostered for all.
Altering our educational philosophy for “Authentic Learning” becomes the source of teaching rather than the present day practice of schooling for information. Information can be acquired easily through many means. If educators would begin to realize that we are the fore-runners of building culture, then we would take this responsibility a little more to heart and work from the understanding of supporting the young person in his/her personal journey to becoming an authentic learner and a caring person.
The question then is – how are the principles and concept of a true essence of the individual becoming translated into the subject areas needed in schools? How do we as educators prepare our young people to use these principles: “respect for all life, reject violence, share with others, listen to understand, preserve the planet, and rediscover solidarity” as the overarching theme. We can begin to design curriculum for academic growth but within its content include principles for conscious life skills. These life skills are focused on participating in a global society as a positive member of our world community. We can educate and redesign our strategies for learning based on the study of the self from the life of the atom to progress in the outer world. This means studying from the inner Authentic Self to our place in the human family, our place in our community, our place in time, our place in the world and our place in our planetary universe. This curriculum includes all the expected academic basics but more importantly emphasizes the miracle of life, the importance of interdependence, and the recognition that consciousness exists and is what holds us together through what we call the web of life.
This is the potential of educational reform or the reformation of the “I” into the understanding of wholeness of the human family. It is through education that a future generation can bring forth a culture that recognizes our present ills and becomes fully self-realized as interconnected and interdependent, thus clearing the mind for inner and outer peace for one and for all.
As an educator, I define several modes or models for thinking about this potential. These modes or models are terms used to help categorize activities for use within the classroom setting and are included in the model for Authentic Learning. An important conceptual model is “inquiry learning” and/or “reflective learning” that emphasizes the truth and acceptance that we each have an inherent wisdom. This wisdom needs to be explored and supported. Teaching needs to focus on asking the right questions and offering the resources. Thus the teacher becomes a facilitator rather than the instructor. As a result, the reflective process for “altruistic learning” occurs, implying the necessity to serve another’s needs as equivalent to serving one’s own needs. Another aspect of Authentic Learning is “experiential learning” that allows the learner to experience learning on a deeper more intense manner, using experiences as a source for reflection and acquiring information. Examining the world and reaching personal and social conclusions leads to the needs for each individual to know and understand their relationship within the whole. Included in this thinking mode is ”systems learning” so that we educate for the understanding that all parts belong to a whole. Holistic thinking is a process that allows us to incorporate the self while learning that the whole is greater than all of its parts within a system. Another model for thinking and including in building true authentic learning style is “transpersonal learning”. This includes personal and interpersonal relationships as a means for learning abut the self in relationship to others for the building of a future culture. All these models working together educate the individual learner to invent ideas while serving the greater good.
Education for living consciously using life’s principles of justice, equity and goodness fosters a set of universal ethics. Ethics provide a standard for all humanity live successfully as one human family. Education offers this bridge from personal ethics to collective freedom. This freedom is expressed as harmony within the self and with others or known as where the heart and the mind unite bringing peace and deep understanding.
Such is the search for this authentic self, the universal human that lives as fulfilled and connected to source.
For educators interested in methods of discovery of the divine spark there are certain types of exercises that fulfill this possibility.
REFLECT is the journey we take to awaken the inner self. The path may include meditation, contemplation, and or prayer. As we become still, we hear the inner calling of our authentic self and experience personal purpose.
The inner quest for the authentic self
As you go more deeply into the self, you realize that you are not defined by your surroundings, parents, culture nor religion. Rather, inside you dwells a loving human being seeking full expression.
Questions
- Who am I really as my authentic self?
- What unique gifts do I bring to the world?
- How can I manifest my inner dreams for the world?
CONNECT bridges the gap between self and others, leading to unity. Through deep compassion and listening, conflict transcendence, and non-violent communication we learn that it is possible to live in harmony, weaving the interconnectedness of our family worldwide.
Deep compassion for others
You become conscious of how you can best express yourself in the world for the highest good. Transforming conflict, using language that recognizes the other, appreciating without judging, all these can occur when you no longer judge yourself. You begin to act as part of a whole. A sense of unity occurs that can be called love or spirituality in action.
Questions
- How do I find connectedness and build a purposeful unity?
- How do I hear the inner heart of another person?
- How do I handle conflict in my life?
ACT is taking the inspired will to serve others in the world through individual actions, local projects and global work. These acts are based on spiritual principles and ethics of Spiritual Activism.
Knowing what to do
The third step is based on awareness of a global community of young people who are waiting to connect with you. Together you are the new leaders of this evolving
Consciousness for social change. You share a growing awareness of how to live as stewards of all of life. From this consciousness, you develop new models of how to live in our world emerge ensuring a sustainable future for all of humanity.
Questions
- What does it mean to live as a Spiritual Activist?
- What actions can I take to promote conscious social change?
- What skills and abilities do I need to make a positive difference in the lives of others?
Our children’s future lies in our hands. The mind is a tool used for learning, but the wisdom of the heart is the driving guidance. As young people focus on inner reflection they are called forth to do acts of kindness in their lives and in the lives of others.
In conclusion, we live in a timely moment in the history of humanity. We educate to move beyond religious divides into the understanding that we are all spiritual beings. Our philosophical premise recognizes that all of life is sacred. Our goal is to live in unitive syncretic experiences of our deepest understanding that we are collective species who may use our consciousness to evolve systems that bring us into an interdependent, interconnected harmonious family of humankind, stewarding the needs of our earth.
Would you like to know more?
Check ou the Spiritual Activism Handbook: