Education, or My Way of Schooling in the Seven Stages of Life An essay with commentary by Da Free John March 1, 1983 from Sunlight on the Water MASTER DA FREE JOHN: The essay I am about to read is called "Education, or My Way of Schooling in the Seven Stages of Life." Each of the seven stages represents a unique period of adaptation and transcendence, and each subsequent stage is built upon fulfillment of the process of adaptation and transcendence in all previous stages. Therefore, we must clearly understand what special education or schooling must be engaged in each stage. The remainder of the essay describes these requirements stage by stage. Before going on, however, I want to emphasize the statement, "each subsequent stage is built upon fulfillment of the process of adaptation and transcendence in all previous stages." If you do not fulfill a stage before proceeding to the next one, then there will be complications, and any attempt at future growth will in effect be retarded. This is true both in the first three stages, the adaptation to so-called ordinary life, and in the later stages, which principally pertain to spiritual life. The essay goes on to consider the first stage: Stage 1: This is the stage that basically occupies us from conception to seven years of age (or the beginning of true socialization and complex relatedness). It is the period in which we must adapt to our physical individuality and basic physical capacity. Thus, it is not only a period of physical adaptation, but of physical individuation. That is, we must gradually adapt to fully functional physical existence, but we must achieve physical individuation, or physical (and thus mental, emotional, psychic, and psychological) independence from the mother and all others. When this stage is complete, we will not exist in isolation but in a state of conscious relatedness to all others and the world of Nature. Thus, the fulfillment of the first stage of life is marked by the beginnings of the movement toward more complex socialization, cooperation with others, and sensitivity to the total world of Nature. The first stage of life is basically the period of physical adaptation to our functional existence, though other forms of adaptation begin to occur as physical adaptation matures. In addition to the obvious process of physical adaptation, what must also occur at this stage is physical individuation. This means that the child in the first stage of life must realize that he or she is an independent physical personality. In other words, he or she must break the dependency connection to the mother. This is a kind of unconscious connection to another being in which nurturing occurs. The individual must achieve physical independence and therefore mental and emotional independence from the mother. It is only on the basis of individuation from this one-on-one bond-or more to the point, this "two-who-are-one" bond-that the individual can move out socially, into the whole field of relationships. The first stage is complete when we can see the beginnings of a movement toward a more complex socialization with adults and peers, and toward cooperation with others and sensitivity to the total world of Nature. I should also indicate that the stages of life overlap one another. There are seven stages of life, but there is a period of time at the end of each of the first six stages wherein some characteristics and capabilities of the next stage begin to appear. Thus, toward the end of the first stage of life we should expect to see the signs of individuation, socialization, cooperation, sensitivity to Nature, and so forth. When these signs show themselves stably and significantly, then the schooling of the second stage of life becomes appropriate and inevitable. The essay goes on to talk about the second stage as follows: Stage 2: The second stage of life is the early stage (particularly occupying us during the second seven years of life) of adaptation to the etheric dimension of our manifest existence. The etheric dimension may be functionally described as the emotional-sexual dimension of our being, but it is in essence the dimension of energy, nerve-force, and direct feeling-sensitivity to the conditions of existence. Since the second stage is the primary stage of socialization, we can say that it is the basic stage of moral or right relational development. But the primary adaptation is to feeling, or sensitivity to the energy inherent in one's person, and which is in all others, and which pervades all of Nature. Thus, this stage is not merely the stage of conventional socialization, but it is the stage in which feeling sensitivity is developed relative to one's own etheric dimension (or energy field),' that of others, and that which is everywhere. When this feeling-sensitivity is exercised, one learns that one is more than merely physical, but one is also a field of energy that extends to others and communicates emotional, mental, psychic, and physical states to others as well as to the natural world. Therefore, one must learn to be responsible for one's emotional, mental, psychic, and physical state by participating in or surrendering 1. "The etheric dimension of force or manifest light pervades and surrounds our universe and every physical body. It is the field of energy, magnetism, and space in which the lower or grosser elements function. Thus, your 'etheric body' is the specific concentration of force associated with and surrounding-permeating your physical body. It serves as a conduit for the forces of universal light and energy to the physical body. "In practical terms of daily experience, the etheric aspect of the being is our emotional sexual, feeling nature. The etheric body functions through and corresponds to the nervous system. Functioning as a medium between the conscious mind and the physical being, it controls the distribution and use of energy and emotion. It is the dimension of vitality or life-force. We feel the etheric dimension of life not only as vital energy and power and magnetic-gravitational forces, but also as the endless play of emotional polarization, positive and negative, to others, objects, the world itself, everything that arises" (Da Free John, Conscious Exercise and the Transcendental Sun, pp. 27-28). openly into the domains of Life-Energy. By doing this, one's social development and one's involvement in the natural world will develop as a moral and feeling gesture, rather than an amoral (or self-possessed and other manipulative) form of conventional socialization and worldliness. The schooling of the second stage of life is not directly sexual. Genital sexuality and social patterns of a demonstratively sexual nature should be conserved, or by-passed through right understanding, until the third stage of life is complete-in order that we may first develop full human responsibility for what must become the yoga of sexual communion.' But the learning in the second stage of life should provide the living emotional base (and balance) for later sexual activity. The training in the second stage of life should involve exercises that develop sensitivity to the etheric or energy field of the body-mind. Practices such as the laying on of hands3 and general physical and emotional sensitivity to the livingness and feelings of others should be developed. This stage is complete when the individual has achieved a basic level of social individuation-so that he or she no longer requires the parent-child style of relationship, but can freely and rightly and responsibly associate with the larger world of adults and peers. Thus, a child's movement into the third stage of life should be formally acknowledged by the parents, who must then relinquish any residual interest in binding the child to the parent-child style of relationship. Instead, the child should move into the third stage of life as a socially individuated person, responsible to the larger 2. "Sexual communion" is the technical term used by Master Da Free John to describe the natural practice of human emotional and sexual intimacy between lovers wherein body, mind, self-sense, the loved one, and the sexual experience itself are surrendered in direct Communion with the All-Pervading Divine. For a detailed treatment of this aspect of spiritual practice, see Love of the Two-Armed Form, by Da Free John. 3. The laying on of hands, an aid to healing others through release of all conditions to the Divine and radiation of the Power of Life, is generally performed on an intimate's behalf, often while maintaining physical contact via the hands. See The Forting Gorilla Comes in Peace, by Da Free John, pp. 462-70, for a complete description. community of adults (including his or her parents) as a non-child, or a socially responsible young person. In that case, the third stage of life will not be characterized by adolescent ambivalence, cycling back and forth between the separate motives of dependence and independence, but it will be characterized by the steady growth of an individuated but relationally positive person. Just as the first stage of life has been fulfilled when the individual has realized a state of physical individuation and therefore has become capable of social existence and an expanded feeling association with Nature and in all relationships, the second stage of life is fulfilled when the individual has realized a state of social individuation. In other words, the individual is free, not merely of the unconscious bond to the mother, but free of the parent-child style of relationship altogether. He or she can function as a socially independent or free individual responsible to the adult community. He or she is not yet an adult, or a person who can go into the world and do what he or she wants, but rather he or she is a physically and socially individuated person who is responsible to and is to be guided by the adult community. The other important point I want to reiterate about the second stage of life relates to this matter of etheric sensitivity. The second stage of life, apart from the process of socialization, is the school in which we develop our feeling-sensitivity. In other words, we develop the capacity of the etheric being, or the being who is not just a physical personality, but who is a force that is manifested as a field of energy in contact with the energies of Nature and the Universal Energy Field in which Nature is arising. In order to allow this whole process of feeling-sensitivity to mature, the individual must discover that he or she is just such an etheric or energy-based personality. When we see a baby, it is obvious to us that it is a physically independent personality, but the baby is not consciously aware of precisely what this physical individuation is about and how he or she is different from the mother and others. This sense of physical individuation develops through a learning process that occurs during infancy and in the early years of childhood. This learning process eventually results in a clear sense of individuation, physical capacity, and a sense of relatedness to others, including the parents, other adults, and the world in general. It is not immediately obvious to an infant that it is a physical individual or separate physical personality. Likewise, it is not readily obvious to young people, or even to many adults who have never really undergone the true learning of the second stage of life, that they are manifested as an energy field. This must be learned through self-observation and self-exercise. Thus, our initial guidance of a young child-and some of this training can begin even in the first stage of life-must include helping the child to become aware of his own energy field. The process whereby we achieve sensitivity to this energy field is through the primary sense of touch, or through feeling contact. The other senses may play a part in this sensitivity to or observation of the energy field, but the primary organ of self-knowing in terms of the energy field or etheric body is our feeling capacity. And our feeling capacity is an extension of the sense of touch. There are various ways in which we can become aware of this energy field. One way is to have children frequently use Eeman screens .4 I must emphasize at this point that the education of children as well as adults in every stage of life is not a one-shot matter. It is not a matter of listening to a lecture or of reading a book, and then having that be the end of it. The study of even the basic points of this Teaching must be entered into again and again and again, throughout one's life. One must also enter into exercises or forms of activity that relate to the kinds of learning specific to each stage of life. Thus, the individual in the second stage of life must repeatedly consider this matter of the energy field, or the feeling being. We contact or sense it as energy, but it is manifested through the vehicle of our feeling and emotion. Therefore, individuals in the second stage of life should repeatedly perform exercises in which they can become sensitive to this field. Using Eeman screens is one effective exercise. Another good method is the exercise that is commonly used to train people in the laying on of hands. This is a practice that children can easily do: Place your hands, open-palmed, directly facing one another. Move the hands 4. Eeman screens, simple metal screens about ten by fifteen inches in size with metal handles, are used to realign and energize the etheric circuitry (or natural energy field) of the body. See The Eating Gorilla Comes in Peace, pp. 412-14, for a more detailed explanation of their use. back and forth, bringing the palms closer and closer together, but without letting them touch each other. Eventually it feels as if some kind of fluid is being pushed out from underneath your hands, almost as if you were moving them back and forth in water. As you move your hands closer and closer together, this fluid sensation increases and a tingling feeling appears. When this occurs, rotate each hand in a circle, with palms still facing one another. You will feel little filaments of energy coming from each hand being broken or moved around. Children should be asked to do this exercise playfully, and also to play with Eeman screens. In both cases, they should report their sensations and feelings. These and other techniques that you may creatively invent should be used to develop sensitivity to the energy field. Apart from the growing sensitivity to the energy field, we want children to develop feeling-sensitivity itself. In other words, we want children to cultivate the capacity to use the etheric dimension of the being in their contact with everything in the natural world. Using touch and all the other senses, they should develop a feeling sensitivity to the energy and the emotional state of others and to the energies in Nature. Children should also be taught to use all their senses in the physical observation of the material world and other beings. In other words, they should have a feeling-based and not merely a materially based relationship to Nature. However, they must be brought to exercise this feeling dimension on the basis of self-knowledge, having observed their own energy field. Through the learning process of the second stage of life, including the development of social adaptation and sensitivity to Nature, children should come to realize that their emotional state is registered in their energy field, and that their emotional state communicates itself to others not only through their actions and speech, but also directly, via the interaction of this energy field with the energy field of others. They must learn that one need not even be in proximity to someone to experience the effects of their energy field. The energy field registers states of mind, body, and emotion, as well as psychic states of all kinds, and we involuntarily communicate these states to others. Thus, we affect others and even the natural world via this energy field. Because this direct communication of our state to others has moral and spiritual implications, we must become responsible for our energy state-responsible, therefore, for our emotional state. We must keep our energy field in balance by transcending reactive emotions, and we must maintain a state of physical well-being and mental openness, receptivity, and clarity. We must maintain a free psychic state. In doing this, we not only change our outward behavior, but we also affect our energy field and therefore our energetic transmission to others. Thus, in the second stage of life, we learn about this energy field that is the dimension of the personality next in subtlety after the gross physical dimension. The child learns how to be responsible for it, how to communicate through it, and how to be sensitive and helpful to others in these terms. Thus, the child learns how to do massage and laying on of hands, and how to have an altogether healing, enlivening, and quickening effect on others. This kind of learning involves both moral and spiritual training. Thus, moral and spiritual training should be a continuous part of the daily education of children in the second stage of life and even of those transitioning to this stage. The object is not to merely socialize children in conventional terms, but rather to bring them to the capability to be socialized rationally or in truly human and spiritual terms. Therefore, they should learn how this etheric dimension works and how to use it rightly in all relations from a spiritual and a truly moral point of view. Let us move on to the third stage: Stage 3: The third stage of life involves forms of adaptation that should basically occupy us during the third seven years of life. It is the period of adaptation to the lower astral dimension of the manifest personality. Thus, it involves development of the will, the thinking mind, and the mind of the psyche. The individual should already have developed as a physical, feeling, and moral character, fully in touch with the Living Force of existence. Thus, in the third stage, this personality must develop the will to rightly and fruitfully use the Life-Force in the context of psyche, mind, body, and relations with others in the natural world. This stage clearly involves development of mental faculties in the form of reasoning power and the capacity to observe and understand self, others, and the world. It also involves extensive learning in the form of conventional subject matter as well as in the form of a fairly detailed study of the Teaching, the disciplines, and the practices of our Way.   Taking into consideration the level of sophistication of teenagers, "a fairly detailed study of the Teaching" means a basic study of the Teaching and the disciplines. This would entail the study of our practice of diet, exercise, general health principles, service, social life, and those disciplines of meditation that are appropriate at this stage and age. It also includes the study of various other technicalities and the philosophical bases of the conception of the processes of conductivity5 (or how to be associated with the Life-Current) and real meditation, the structure of the world, and so forth-all from a spiritual point of view. These subjects would be on the curriculum for formal, regular, and continuous study by third stagers, along with the conventional subject matters that must be part of everyone's schooling. Apart from this, the individual should develop sensitivity to the deeper psyche, or the spontaneous processes of mind that are deeper than ordinary thinking and the social personality. Thus, appropriate meditative exercises of a devotional type should develop in this stage, and the exercise of imagination should, even as earlier in life, be emphasized and rewarded. In addition, the individual should be taught to be sensitive to dreams, even to keep a regular diary that describes nightly dreams and experiences in meditation. And the contents of dreams and meditative experiences should be frequently discussed with adult counselors. In this manner, the individual will develop an 5. "Conductivity" is, in general, the capacity of the body-mind to conduct, or be surrendered into, the All-Pervading Life-Current. Such conductivity or surrender is realized through love, or radiant whole-body feeling to Infinity, and such love involves coordinated engagement of body, breath, and attention in alignment with the Universal Current of Life-Energy. 6. Real meditation, or what Master Da calls the "conscious process," is the senior practice and responsibility of practitioners in each stage of the Way. Founded upon true "hearing" of the Teaching, or release of self into the Transcendental Condition of Divine Ignorance, it is the discipline of conscious surrender of attention in the Divine or Transcendental Being. awareness and a free acceptance of his or her psychic self, with all of its expansive contents, including the archetypes, subtle or astral phenomena, and possibly even out-of-body experiences, extrasensory perception, premonitory phenomena, and so forth. The third stage of life is complete when the individual is fully responsible for adult life-not merely in the conventional social sense, or merely because of chronological age, but in the sense that he or she is fully prepared (physically, emotionally, etherically, psychically, mentally, and with a free or intelligent will) to enter into the social, personal, and spiritual responsibilities of true Manhood.   As I have indicated, the individual in the first stage of life is primarily dealing with physical adaptation, or realizing a state of physical individuation and the capacity for social life. In other words, the physical base has primary importance in the first stage. In the second stage of life, physical adaptation of course continues, but the primary base associated with the learning process is the etheric body, the next dimension of our manifest existence. Then, in the third stage of life, the next subtler level of our manifest existence, the lower astral or mental-psychic dimension, is the primary base of education, though obviously the physical and etheric dimensions still remain part of education. Every subsequent stage builds upon the preceding developments. And each stage is associated with a unique new form of study and a new kind of growth. As was the case in the preceding two stages, in the third stage of life, when the lower astral dimension is to be located and brought into operation, it is not necessarily self-evident or clear to the individual that this next subtler dimension exists. Hopefully, however, the individual brought up in the context of this Way and in our culture will not have received the usual cues given in the world today which suppress our awareness of the etheric and lower astral aspects of our personality, or at least such cues will not have been effective. Prior to the third stage, the individual will have had a continuous life of familiarity with his or her psychic life, without suppressing or discounting dreams or subtle phenomena. However, it is in the third stage in particular that adaptation to the lower astral dimension occurs. Just as in the previous two stages, what must occur first is education that will familiarize the individual with this lower astral dimension. Various kinds of meditative play will already have occurred in the first and second stages of life-the instructions in What to Remember to Be Happy would be part of the meditative education of children from infancy-but in the third stage, the individual should begin to adopt some of the devotional and meditative practices that are taken on by adults in The Free Communion Church.' Initially they would practice the Easy Prayer of Surrender.' Eventually (probably in the late teens), the practice of the Prayer of Remembrances and the Prayer of Changes10 may be taken up if a youngster exhibits the appropriate signs. Presumably, these signs will be exhibited as an individual comes of age and thus theoretically approaches the fourth stage of life. To become familiar with this lower astral dimension, a person in the third stage of life should begin to employ these devotional and meditative practices and also begin to pay special attention to dreams. We can playfully ask children about dreams at an earlier age, but in this stage children should take a rather systematic approach to noticing their dreams. Therefore, I recommend keeping a dream diary. Ideally, dreams should be recorded in the diary each day, shortly after 7. The Free Communion Church is one of four divisions of The Johannine Daist Communion, the spiritual fellowship of practitioners of the Way Taught by Master Da Free John (see p. 126). The Free Communion Church is the educational and cultural organization for maturing practitioners. 8. The Easy Prayer of Surrender is the initial devotional exercise practiced by beginners in the Way of Radical Understanding. Its practice consists of vocal or silent mental invocation of and affirmation of one's surrender to the Radiant Transcendental Being, combined with bodily relaxation into and reception of the Spirit-Current of the Divine. 9. The Prayer of Remembrance is the whole-bodily exercise of invoking and surrendering body and mind into the Divine by means of the Name "Da," which denotes the "Giver" or the Divine Being in its personal aspect. For Master Da's instructions on this practice, see his Bodily Worship of the Living God, pp. 141ff. 10. In the practice of the Prayer of Changes, one first exhales and releases all negative or limited conditions of body, mind, and experience, then inhales, receives, and affirms the most positive desired changes in body, mind, and experience while abiding in the disposition of intuitive Communion and tacit identification with the Divine Self, and then changes his or her action in life accordingly. See Bodily Worship of the Living God, by Da Free John, pp. 92ff. waking, when dreams are still fresh and vivid. In other words, children in this stage would develop the habit of being aware of their dreams and remembering them, instead of pressing them out of consciousness into the unconscious when they awaken. Dreams, as well as meditative experiences and any experiences of a subtle, psychic kind, should regularly be discussed with adult counselors. The dream diaries can then also be made available to the counselors, or the children can write periodic summaries of their diaries and submit these prior to counseling. There can also be gatherings in which many children get together with their counselors and discuss their experiences openly. In the conventional world, the psyche and these lower astral experiences tend to be delegitimized, just as the energy or etheric dimension of the human personality tends to be delegitimized. Actually, most people today do not even know that these two dimensions exist, or they doubt their verity, even though they have experiences which indicate the existence of these dimensions. People are conventionally encouraged, even engineered, to presume only a materially based view of reality, and therefore they tend to discount such phenomena and the organs or functional aspects of the being with which these phenomena are associated. Consequently, most people tend never to learn how to function in terms of the etheric and lower astral dimensions of the personality. However, children should be able to enjoy free, open contact with these dimensions, so that they can rightly use this equipment as part of their ordinary humanity. These dimensions should not be suppressed, nor should they be the subject of demonic fascination. Rather, they should be made a matter of responsibility. This means that children must become familiar with the etheric and lower astral dimensions, and we must not fail to help them learn how to relate to them rightly. All kinds of contents of the lower psyche will be communicated by young people in their diaries and discussions. Many of their dreams will represent ordinary life-stresses, and these should be discussed, and help should be extended to those who obviously have problems. But apart from these ordinary dreams, there are other kinds of significant dreams, such as archetypal dreams and astral experiences (astral dreaming, astral travel, and so forth). Young people may also have out-of-body experiences, various kinds of extrasensory perception, premonitory dreams, or premonitions in the waking state. These represent a real dimension of our personality which we must permit to become active. So, we must notice this subtle, psychic component of the lower astral dimension and become responsible for it. This is the first aspect of learning in the third stage of life. The whole life of the thinking mind is another component of the lower astral dimension of our being. Individuals in the third stage of life should therefore develop their capacity to reason, to observe and understand. Naturally, they should study in a much more sophisticated fashion than in the previous stages, and cover a wide variety of subjects of a conventional nature as well as material relating to this Way of life. The third aspect of the lower astral personality is the will. The will is not merely some sort of hard-edged, effortful intention, but rather it should be free intention, based on the openness of the personality. The will is a guide to the Life-Force, and it should gently direct the functions of the lower personality (the lower astral, etheric, and physical dimensions of the being). It embraces what we call psyche, mind, emotion, body, and their whole interplay. The will is the connection between all of those functions and is the medium whereby the Living Force of existence is given form. Therefore, by understanding ourselves in physical, etheric, and astral terms, the will is able to release energy into the whole domain of psyche, mind, emotion, body, and relationships. This kind of learning, or capacity, is the secret of the fulfillment of the third stage of life and of the early career of a human being. The ability of the open, free personality to direct the lower personality by means of the will (or free intention) is basically what makes us human beings. Thus, at the end of the third stage of life, the young adult should be fully responsible for bringing the Living Force of existence into the domain of the lower personality and its relationships. The individual should be a balanced, socially positive, and spiritually awakened character-a benign personality capable of assuming responsibility in the context of relationships. Such a person should know how to maintain health and how to live a wholesome life. He should also understand a wide variety of things about life, and should have a basic grasp of the spiritual Teaching. The third stage of life, then, is the summary or the crown of the early life of the individual who has achieved competence and responsibility for everything that we ordinarily call human. The later stages of life lead us into what is beyond the human, what transcends human life and life in Nature. They transform human existence into something more, or more highly evolved than the human. The third stage of life is the stage in which, based on true learning, our Manhood (and this applies to both men and women) is established, and we go on from there to live as true human beings. But we also go on from there to develop our spiritual life, to go beyond human limitations as well as to magnify our human capabilities through the intrusion of the Living Spirit into life. Now we come to the next stage: Stage 4: The fourth stage of life, like all the stages that follow, is best conceived without reference to specific chronological age-except that it may generally be said to begin at approximately the age of twenty-one years, or perhaps slightly earlier. It is the stage in which all of the characteristic activities of adulthood begin with full responsibility, but the primary significance of the fourth stage of life, like all stages that follow, is spiritual rather than social or merely functional. The fourth stage of life is the true beginning of the exercise of self-transcendence. In the fourth stage of life the individual must command all the mechanisms to which he or she has adapted in the first three stages of life. This command should take the form of voluntary alignment and surrender of the physical, etheric, and lower astral dimensions of the manifest personality to the Self-Radiant Transcendental or Divine Condition of Being. This takes the form of an exercise (founded on self-understanding and the life-practice of selfeconomizing functional and relational disciplines) in which the central or feeling-dimension of the manifest being is made the base for the surrender and transcendence of the physical, etheric, emotional, psychic, and mental personality in the Life-Current, Love-Bliss, and Consciousness of Transcendental Being. The practice of the fourth stage of life in our Way develops either via the Way of Faith, the Way of Insight, or the first stage of the Perfect Practice," until energy and attention begin to relax from the bondage of the lower personality and more mature spiritual evidence begins to appear. My discussion of the fourth and following stages will not be as extensive as my discussion of the earlier stages, because so much of our literature is already devoted to the fourth stage and beyond." However, I would like to briefly point out the significance of the fourth stage. The fourth stage of life is demonstrated traditionally in various kinds of cultural efforts, based on different philosophies. In our Way of life, however, we do not merely practice in the context of the fourth stage of life, but we transcend the dualism that typically characterizes the fourth stage of life in that very process. It is the stage of the true beginning of self-transcendence as a fully responsible exercise in which the lower astral, etheric, and physical dimensions of the personality are surrendered into the Transcendental Condition. The vehicle or base on which this is done is the feeling being. Through the feeling dimension of being, and on the basis of self-understanding, the lower personality is commanded or willed to surrender into the Transcendental Condition. 11. The Way of Faith is the approach to self-transcending practice recommended to the person who is naturally inclined to a devotional disposition or attitude of feeling-surrender. The Way of Insight is specifically intended for the practitioner who is especially gifted with the capacity to mature by applying his natural discriminative intelligence in the observation, understanding, and transcendence of the self-contraction. The Perfect Practice is the epitome of the Way of Radical Understanding or Divine Ignorance. It is the foundation of the Way, though few individuals are mature enough to engage it directly, without having to move through the preparatory stages. The Perfect Practice consists of three phases. In the first phase the discipline is to identify with consciousness in daily life and meditation, until the body-mind accepts the discipline of equanimity. Attention is thus freed for the second phase wherein attention (or self-consciousness itself) is yielded into the Source Condition from which it is always arising. This practice gradually becomes profound Identification with Being or Consciousness Itself. The third phase of the Perfect Practice begins when this Identification becomes complete and the individual simply Abides as Transcendental Divine Consciousness, recognizing all phenomena. For a complete description of the Perfect Practice, see The Liberator (Eleutherios), by Da Free John. 12. See "The Books of Master Da Free John" at the back of this volume. This brings us to: Stage 5: The fifth stage of life follows naturally from the fourth. The same practices that finally developed in the fourth stage are continued, but the experiential evidence that develops in this stage goes beyond the phenomena of the lower coil into the domain of the upper Coil, 13 or the domain of cosmic or transpersonal existence. Thus, phenomena associated with higher meditation appear, including higher astral signs, such as experiences of higher subtle worlds, views of the Cosmic Mandala,14 and even nirvikalpa samadhi.15 The sixth stage may begin when all of this has been observed and really transcended to the degree that energy and attention are no longer bound to seeking via either the lower or the upper coil of the manifest self. This readiness is shown by the signs of true spiritual maturity, including stable equanimity and the tendency of the Life Current to magnify Itself in the right side of the heart.16 The natural evidence that the fourth stage of life is complete, apart from all the other basic qualifications that pertain to the fourth stage 13. The "lower coil" refers to the gross physical dimension of the body-mind or the complex of functions below the heart, epitomized at the navel. The "upper coil" is the range of higher human functions above the heart, including the subtler dimensions of the psyche. 14. The Cosmic Mandala is a visionary manifestation of the Universal Energy of the Cosmos. It appears as concentric circles of light progressing from red on the perimeter through golden yellow, silvery-white, dark blue or black, and brilliant blue to the Ultimate White Brightness in the center of the Mandala. In the seventh stage of life, the Conscious being stands beyond the whole cosmic configuration and the mechanics of Nature which it represents. For a full discussion of the Cosmic Mandala, see Easy Death, by Da Free John, especially part 4, "Transcending the Cosmic Mandala," pp. 223-88. 15. The Sanskrit term "nirvikalpa samadhi" means literally "formless ecstasy." This elevated mystical experience is aspired to by many traditional yogis. In Master Da Free John's view, however, this state is simply the crowning achievement of yogic practice corresponding to the fifth stage of life. It represents a merely temporary absorption of attention in the Transcendental Consciousness, whereas in the seventh stage of life there is perpetual recognition of all phenomena as non-binding modifications of Radiant Transcendental Being. 16. Master Da Free John has described the area of the heart on the right side of the chest as the center, or root, of the Transcendental Consciousness or Self in the body-mind. This area corresponds to the sinoatrial node (or pacemaker) in the right atrium. For a detailed description of this psycho-physical center and its relationship to Enlightenment, see The Enlightenment of the Whole Body, chapter 7. and all previous stages, is that relaxation of energy and attention from bondage to the lower personality has begun to take place. Then the more mature spiritual evidence of the fifth stage begins to appear. In other words, at some point there will be the natural appearance of upper coil experiences, particularly of that aspect of the upper coil which represents the higher astral dimension of existence. The fourth stage of life is a transitional stage that is basically about developing this capacity for self-transcendence. On the one hand, the fifth stage, like the first three stages, is a matter of adaptation to a particular functional level of our existence. On the other hand, it is a matter of transcendence of this specific level of existence as well. That dimension of existence to which we adapt and which we transcend in the fifth stage is the higher astral dimension, the higher aspects of the upper coil of the being. The higher astral dimension of our personality reaches beyond personal aspects of the human being (which include the lower astral, etheric, and physical dimensions) into that dimension or domain that we might call transpersonal or cosmic. These signs or experiences of the fifth stage of life naturally and gradually emerge as the fourth stage matures, and through continued practice of the same self-transcending disciplines that are first cultivated in the fourth stage, we transcend our bondage to the possibilities represented by this cosmic or transpersonal aspect of the being. Even though we transcend the possibilities of the higher astral dimension, we still experience them in meditation and in other moments of waking, dreaming, and sleeping. These experiences may include all the phenomena of higher meditation I have mentioned in this essay-visions of higher subtle worlds, views of the Cosmic Mandala, unusual lights and sounds, and so forth. Even nirvikalpa samadhi may appear. However, the fifth stage of life has completed itself not when one or more of these experiences have occurred, but when the signs are present that the individual is no longer bound to the purposes of either the lower or upper coil, and that he is not seeking these phenomena for their own sake, but is rather in a state of natural equanimity in which energy and attention are free of the binding efforts associated with the lower and upper coils. In other words, nirvikalpa samadhi is not a necessary precondition for entrance into the sixth stage. Obviously, some forms of subtle phenomena will have occurred if real meditation is active, but the qualifications for the sixth stage of life are simply those just described as spiritual maturity in the fifth stage of life. Another sign that may also appear in the fulfillment phase of the fifth stage of life is evidence that the Life-Current is magnifying Itself in the right side of the heart, rather than in the brain core, or in the crown of the head, or in some other bodily center. Next I would like to characterize the sixth stage of life: Stage 6: In our Way, the sixth stage of life is encountered and transcended via the second stage of the Perfect Practice. I will not discuss this or the seventh stage at length here since it is all fully elaborated in the existing literature. Suffice it to say that this stage is complete when the Transcendental Self, the Root-Source of attention and all phenomenal conditions, is fully Realized and the "eyes open," or tacit recognition of self, others, and world is firm and true. Now we come to the ultimate stage: Stage 7: In this, the fully Enlightened stage of life, there is simply Self-Abiding recognition of phenomenal existence as a transparent, or merely apparent, unnecessary, and nonbinding modification of Self-Radiant Transcendental Being. This Process shows the evidence of Transfiguration, Transformation, and Indifference, until Perfect Translationl7 from conditional phenomenal existence and into the Transcendental Domain of Being. 17. "Transfiguration," "Transformation," and "Translation" are technical terms that describe the unfolding process of God-Realization in the seventh stage of life. Transfiguration is the pervasion of body and mind by Transcendental Radiance or Light. Bodily and mental Transformation involves the arising of supernormal signs or abilities, such as healing power, longevity, and psychic capabilities. Divine Translation is the ultimate evidence of God Realization, wherein the limited psycho-physical body, mind, and world are no longer noticed-not because the consciousness has withdrawn from all such phenomena, but because it has entered into such profound absorptive Realization of the Divine Condition that all phenomena are, as Master Da says, "Outshined" by that Light. That completes the essay. As you will appreciate, it is a summary of the education or the way of schooling associated with the seven stages of life in this Way. It pays particularly detailed attention to the first three or perhaps four stages of life, although there are some details specified for the fifth stage as well. Obviously then, this essay concentrates on the aspects of education in the earlier stages of life that make it possible for people to transition into the spiritual practice of life. The later stages are more elaborately described in our basic literature. Does anyone have any questions, or is there some aspect on which I should further elaborate? DEVOTEE: Could you say something more about assuming responsibility for one's sexuality in the third stage of life? MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Well, I mentioned in the description of the second stage of life that the schooling in that stage is not directly sexual, although it should provide the living emotional base for later sexual activity. I also stated that genital sexuality and social patterns of a demonstrably sexual nature should be conserved or by-passed through right understanding until the third stage of life is complete, so that we may first develop full human responsibility for what must become the yoga of sexual communion. Thus, individuals in the third stage of life should not have to deal with all the problems and concerns associated with an active sexual life. Among the things that third stagers should study, however, is the whole matter of sexuality and sexual reproduction. They should particularly study the practical matters associated with sex when they get a little older, but they do not have to be too far into their teens to begin some basic study of sexuality. In any case, from very early childhood, our children should be helped to understand their sexual interest. In this Way of life, sexuality is not taboo, and it is not to be suppressed. The message to be communicated to children or to young people is not that it is ideally better not to be sexual. Rather, what should be communicated to them is an understanding of sexuality that is spiritually based, and we want to help them to prepare for sexuality in that form. We want to guide them to rightly by-pass overt sexual activity until they are fully prepared for sexual practice in the form of a spiritual yoga. Sexual activity should begin after the third stage of life, and no earlier than the very late teen years, if it is to be founded on full maturity in the first three stages of life as they are described in the essay. When young people become sexually active, they must at first learn about and adapt to sex itself, but they should do this based on their fully developed character as someone who was properly guided through the first three stages of life. As fourth stagers, they should be helped within the context of our community to develop their sexual activity as the yoga of sexual communion, and not merely to indulge sex as a conventional means of relieving stress or merely as a reproductive act. What should be communicated to our children is how to be sexual, not how to avoid sexuality or suppress it, but they should also understand its proper development in the first three stages of life. In these first three stages, children will experience certain kinds of sexual feelings, and they will develop different kinds of sexual character-girls learn how to be girls, and boys how to be boys. There are also various kinds of play which are associated with sexual role modeling. Adults simply have to stay in real time with children and young people, and have a fully open, communicative relationship with them, so that when any evidence of sexual activity appears, one can be instructive in terms of their present moment of interest or involvement with it. For the first seven years of life, sexual activity is rarely a significant feature of children's lives. Parents should not slap their wrists or threaten and yell at them for sexual play and mutual exploration. They should perhaps find some artful way to divert them, as we do not want them to become obsessed with sexual play, but basically children should just be allowed to explore this matter, feel into it, and play with it. There is nothing very important about it, as they are not really in a position to understand much about sexuality in the first seven years, particularly the first four or five years. It is only after the age of five or six, when they start to develop perhaps a little more interest in it and move out socially more, that you can begin to discuss sexuality with them. Then you can introduce them to the whole matter of feeling-sensitivity, right social life, and the right enjoyment of life in general. Adults should help them to understand and not merely suppress their interest in sexuality. They should help them understand what it may have to do with reproduction, and what it may have to do with their life later on. Diverting them from any fascination with it in a very natural, artful way helps them to simply feel this energy whole bodily, and develop an expanded emotional and feeling life, an energetic life, without indulging this bodily based, self-based interest. Because if they indulge it, they will become Narcissistic and sexually retarded, and it will be very difficult for them to develop a yogic sexual life later on. Adults need to advance young people's understanding of sexuality, particularly as they enter their teens. As they enter their teens or pass into puberty, their sexual interest is likely to become intensified because of the hormonal changes that are occurring in the body. We need to assist them at that point by explaining to them that these hormonal changes are for the purpose of growth, preparing their bodies for adult life. Even though sexual feelings may be associated with the glandular stimulation accompanying this growth, they should not be indulged. Young people should simply understand what it is they are passing through and release their concentration on these feelings. They should open and devote themselves to the larger learning and discipline of the brahmacharyat8 stage of life. Thus, during the third stage of life, parents should help young people to by-pass overt sexual interest through reasonable, artful techniques. The point to be emphasized is that we should not suppress our children's sexual interest. No one should horrify or threaten them, or create sex-negative views in them. Rather, they should be educated to a sex-positive view or a view that ultimately can become freely sexual, if they will choose it. They should be able to devote the first three stages of life to the development of the whole human personality on a spiritual base, and the by-passing of sexual indulgence is a form of learning that strengthens them, and permits the process of full human growth to 18. "Brahmachara" is a Sanskrit word meaning literally "conduct in consonance with Brahman or the Truth." In the Hindu spiritual traditions, it has widely been equated with the lifelong practice of intentional or motivated celibacy by spiritual aspirants. But this Sanskrit term originally referred to the student stage of life, generally conceived to occupy the first twenty-five years of life. During those years, the growing individual (or brahmacharin) was formally trained in the Way and Truth of existence. This period generally involved strict celibacy until marriage, or entrance into the householder's stage of life. Over time, the term "brahmacharya" has become synonymous with celibacy itself, even though the ancient practice of brahmacharya encompassed all of the common areas of life, including academic studies, music, art, diet, work, the Scriptures, and so forth. occur. It keeps them from becoming aberrated through sexual stimulation. Without the understanding of the first three stages of life, sexual self-indulgence is just as aberrating as sexual repression. Neither should rightly be part of the life of children and young people. You all know from having lived in a rather chaotic fashion, without a real program of cultural and human adaptation and growth, how you have suffered in your sexuality as a child, a teenager, and an adult. You know how much of an impediment this arbitrary and false sexual learning has been to your later life and to your spiritual life. The conception of sexual education that I am communicating to you should help people to avoid the difficulty of that dilemma. It is a simple matter of right learning and artful communication. If it is approached in this fashion, and all the kinds of learning I have described here are developed, then those who grow up in this community and come into their late teens and early twenties should be stable, balanced, and spiritually awake people, with full human capability, who can naturally practice sexual communion, as well as all the other forms of practice in this Way of life. In other words, they should not have to go through any neurotic sexual episodes. Obviously, the success of this approach depends on counseling, on good relations between children and adults, and it requires sensitivity on the part of the adults to the situation of our children and youngsters. They will have some difficulties, but the difficulties should not be taken seriously. Adults should simply provide them a way out of their difficulties, and this way is the positive spiritual and human process altogether. That is the secret. In every case, draw them into the spiritual process. Do not let them become involved in all kinds of deep, heavy, obsessive considerations of their sexual and other problems. All such problems arise only because children or young people have been diverted from the process of life, as it presents itself in terms of the first three stages. If they are led back into that process, any problem will naturally fall away, and a state of balance will be achieved. Thus, rather than keying in on problems, one should notice and discuss them, and draw their attention into the right process of living. Nothing is denied to teenagers by their not being sexually active. On the contrary, they will be greatly helped if they can retain the Living Force and avoid self-possessed involvement in sex until they have fully developed as human beings, with all the capabilities I have described here. Then they can choose to be sexually active and create whatever pattern they will, based on a balanced and strong life background. They will be able to practice sexuality freely rather than neurotically, as all of you did and are doing even now. Instead of moving into the process of sexual communion, all of you are spending years working out sex-based emotional neuroses! Where did you get all of those neuroses? You created them by one or another kind of failure in each of the first three stages of life. You are still childish, or rather, infantile; you have not fully individuated physically; you still tend to lapse into dependency modes in which you, in effect, want to meld with your mother again. You have great difficulty achieving a state of self-responsible, physical individuation and balance, because of some emotional impediment associated with your childhood or infancy. You suffer sexual aberrations, emotional problems, and reactive tendencies which dominate your lives. The primary reason for this, apart from all the kinds of negative adaptation and unfortunate life circumstances, is that you did not achieve a state of direct sensitivity to your etheric life, your energy life, and how that affects other people. You never developed a sense of yourself as being greater than the physical, and you never exercised yourself as energy, as a spirit. You never became responsible for the energy mechanism that is primarily an emotional mechanism. Thus, you tend to be reactive rather than clear, balanced, and free. The etheric dimension, you see, is controlled by emotion and sex. Sex is the physical expression or counterpart of emotion. To become obsessively self-involved with sex, therefore, is to collapse the etheric dimension of the personality, and to eliminate the emotional force and therefore the Life-Force from the sex act. Instead of being an emotionally free expression of the living being, the sex act becomes merely a means for discharging the body of its life-feeling. When there is a lot of Life-Energy in the body and you are emotionally or otherwise contracted, then you feel uptight. The body is like a circuit or a hose conducting the Life-Current. If you have a knot in it, you get uptight. The more water there is in the pipe or the more energy there is in the circuit, the more intense the pain. And you use sex to rid yourself of this pain. Instead of removing the contraction, you displace the energy, leaving the contraction in place. Thus, if you do not have the virtues of true growth in the third stage of life, you cannot practice right sex. It just cannot be done. This is the reason why merely functional sexual activity should not occur in the third stage of life. The virtues of celibacy in this stage should be rightly understood as not merely the prevention of sex, but as the releasing of all tension associated with sexual interest. This is done so that one can learn to live a spiritual or whole life, maintain a balance of energy and a free psyche, and develop the whole personality in spiritual terms in preparation for, among other things, right sexual activity. Thus, it is the fulfillment of the process of the third stage of life, based on the fulfillment of the processes in the second and first stages, that makes right sexual activity possible. Therefore, sexual activity is basically to be by-passed, although learned about and prepared for, until the fourth stage of life. To me, sexual sanity basically depends on the effective occurrence of this process. Are there any other questions? DEVOTEE: Master, I would like to know how to use the dreams of children in the second stage of life. I have noticed that the content of most of their dreams is more emotional than of the nature of the psychic or astral phenomena you just described. They want to relate their dreams and talk about them a lot, and I do not know how to consider their dreams with them most effectively. MASTER DA FREE JOHN: In all stages of life, including the first, children, and then later young people, should have an open, communicative counseling relationship with one or more adults. This should not merely be a formal, abstract relationship, but a friendship, a right relationship with one or more adults. We should be talking to children about their dreams and any other kinds of unusual experiences not only in the second stage but in the first and third stages as well. We should be rather imaginative in our discussions with them and artfully question them even from earliest life, not merely to find out whether or not they are having any unusual experiences, but also to let them know that it is alright to have such experiences. If they have such experiences, we should let them know that it is right and good to talk about them with adults with whom they are intimate. The question you are asking really relates not just to the second stage, but to the first and all other stages as well. As the first principle, one should have a good, communicative relationship that is not suppressive and that does not suggest to children that there are only certain kinds of experiences which are acceptable. You said, for instance, that second stagers tend primarily to communicate dreams with an emotional content, or a content perhaps suggesting emotional conflicts in daily life. The fact that they are having dreams only of this kind, or at least are only reporting dreams of this kind, could have much to do with what has been suggested to them throughout their lives. They may somehow have the impression that this is the only kind of dream they should have or talk about. Perhaps their learning altogether has not been rightly supervised, so that they have basically been led to become concentrated in emotionally aberrated, self-concerned states, and not to be more open and expansive in their expression. Adults should, of course, discuss dreams with children, no matter what their content. They should not sit and analyze them like a psychiatrist, but rather should simply get children to be communicative about their dreams, listen to what they tell us about their problems, and then deal with those problems in practical and appropriate ways. It is our responsibility to draw them away from any concern with problems or aberrations and into the principles of real practice, into social relationship wherein these aberrations will be balanced out and released. This is always the essence of the right approach. In addition to discussing whatever dreams our children may want to relate to us, or tend to have, we should help them to have better and more interesting dreams. The book What to Remember to Be Happy is rather aphoristic and is intended to suggest something to children, but also something to the adults who are educating them. It suggests to the children that they are more than what they look like, and it also suggests a way of exploring the other dimensions of their existence. In other words, it suggests an approach to educating children that helps them to be sensitive to what they are that is more than their physical existence. Therefore, children can become more profoundly involved with the meditation exercises in What to Remember to Be Happy which will help to change the quality of their dreams and other experiences. So, in accordance with my instructions in What to Remember to Be Happy, children should spend a reasonable amount of time in meditation, and truly relax beforehand. They should sometimes meditate alone, not in the room with other children, and they should meditate more seriously. We should not suggest to children that there are only certain things that may occur during meditation, so that they just prattle back to us images that have been suggested to them. If this meditative exercise is ever going to show any evidence of higher psychic activity or be reflective of the deep psyche in the lower astral dimension, children must learn to relax deeply. Likewise, if dream phenomena are ever to have a higher quality, children must be able to rest deeply, and be free of stress and emotional conflict before going to bed. In other words, they must be in an essentially healthy state, sensitive to their feeling life and their connectedness to existence through the energy vehicle. This connection, you see, replaces the mother-child connection, and the mother-child connection is an unconscious one in which the child does not experience himself or herself separately, or as an individual separate from the mother. Spiritual Communion, Communion with the Living Force, is based on individuation, on your knowing that you are there participating in and surrendering into It. When children are instructed in the right practice of the exercises in What to Remember to Be Happy, the quality of their dreams will change and more unusual phenomena will occur in their meditation. For younger children in the first two stages of life, all this should be communicated as a kind of play, a free kind of Happy activity, but one that requires relaxation, and so forth. Therefore, among the things we want to help them realize is a way to be relaxed and balanced, and not just stressfully vital. If they are stressfully vital, they will tend to have emotional and social problems, be reactive, and have bad dreams and no meditation. The same is true of adults. You must be capable of relaxation and balance, contact with the Living Force and with the psyche, in order for meditation to be fruitful and significant. We should always expand, rather than limit, the possibilities of children. Sometimes, the questions they are asked seem to elicit only a reaction from them. In other words, their response tends to be limited, for whatever reason, by our suggestions or by their tendencies. Therefore, we should ask the questions differently, introduce the possibility of being more expanded and imaginative-but not merely imaginative, as we also do not want them to create meditative experiences and dreams. Rather, they should be free to allow the psyche to show its signs. One of the ways whereby we ourselves become free to do that is to expand our own capacity, and that means we must become a little more imaginative. Ask children different kinds of questions, ask yourself different kinds of questions, give yourself more possibilities! Do whatever you have to do to break out of your rigid program, and do everything you can to keep children from becoming rigidly programmed. If you have children that already show the signs of such programming, then you must help them break out of it, to become more at ease, more balanced, open, and sensitive. Clearly, one of the major aspects in the development of children is socialization. It tends to be the purpose of life in common society, whereas from our point of view, it is simply part of the evidence of rightly developing human life. Our children are taught how to cooperate, how to relate to one another in a feeling way, and so forth, but they must learn to do all of that on the basis of our practice. Therefore, in keeping with their age and level of sophistication, they should always be practicing some form of self-understanding and therefore self-release or self-transcendence. Even from a very early age, they should all be practicing some form of spiritual exercise, some way of getting in touch with energy and psyche and what is beyond self. I have communicated forms of spiritual exercise appropriate for every stage of life. What to Remember to Be Happy is a basic guide for the first two stages. Then, in the third stage, devotional and conductivity exercises and rudimentary meditation are introduced, first in the form of the Easy Prayer, and then later on, in the mid-teens or so, when the young person is prepared, in the form of the Prayer of Remembrance and the Prayer of Changes. If you consider all these elements of practice, you can see that each day in the life of a third stager would be very full, and that is as it should be. It would be a program of life that is very full and very interesting. It would include everything from meditation in the morning, keeping a diary, exercising, and group discussions, to all the different kinds of study, perhaps even computer learning, speed-reading, study of the Teaching, detailed study of all our disciplines, considerations about sexuality and the purposes of the brahmacharya stage, devotional gatherings, and sacramental occasions. There is no end to the possibilities. Each day's program should also include time for socializing. Serving together is, in fact, a form of socializing. Serving together should be fun, should have a human quality to it, and not just be a form of rote discipline that everyone resists. There should also be time for sports and play, but it should all be done in the context of real practice based on moment to moment self-understanding, self transcendence, and spiritual exercise. Participation in everything should be from that point of view. All these activities need to be rightly guided by adults, and young people should know they are not the equivalent of little adults. They are not children any more, but neither are they adults. They are individuated physical, emotional, and social personalities in the third stage of life. They should not live like the children of parents, but rather should live as third stage individuals responsible to the adult community that is there to maintain and counsel their daily culture of practice and to instruct them and help them pass through the period of learning that is specific to the third stage of life. Then, when they leave the brahmacharya school in their late teens or so, they would live in the larger community and assume not just the adult responsibilities of work and sex and so forth, but all the forms of our adult spiritual exercises. That is what we should be preparing them for, and not just keeping them in some kind of a "boarding school" until they come of legal age and can run out into the world and blow their minds. That whole urge, in fact, should be transcended in them if they really participate in the culture of this Way in the brahmacharya school. All of our life, then, is a school, with seven different stages. Whatever our age, we are always going to school, and there is a specific school for each age or time of life, depending on our previous preparation. The third stage of life is not the end of school. It is the end of one school and a passage to another. It is the time of preparation for living an adult life without having to be a lunatic, without having to be an ordinary, worldly person. Thus, having gone through that process, young people should value and appreciate all the things associated with a true spiritual community. Then they would not be thinking about leaving the community. Rather, they would have learned to value it because of its uniqueness in comparison with the rest of the world. They should be capable of functioning in the world while living in our community, but they should fully value what it means to be able to live in such a community and be free of the destiny of a merely aberrated life. Are there any other questions? DEVOTEE: I have been considering your description of the first stage of life, in which children develop awareness of their physical individuation. Could you elaborate on the art of developing that awareness without closing off their sensitivity to what they feel even as an infant, prior to becoming a physically individuated being? MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Well, there should not be any tendency to close them off from anything. It simply should be understood that a basic principle of the first stage of life is that a child becomes organized around a physically individuated existence. But you should not otherwise suppress anything psychically, mentally, or emotionally. Children in the first stage will not demonstrate much sophistication in these terms, but all of their emotional, mental, and psychic experience should simply be allowed to be whatever it is, and you should ask them about it or let them be communicative about it. Children, you see, are not merely physical individuals. They have all the other dimensions as well. It is just that as the stages of life progress, we learn to be responsible for those dimensions, whereas at an earlier stage, we are less responsible and perhaps to some degree less sensitive to those dimensions. DEVOTEE: Can a young child's inability to communicate about a particular dimension affect his or her awareness of it? MASTER DA FREE JOHN: Some children naturally have a kind of psychic life and a highly developed etheric life, and they will show you the evidence of that if you do not suppress it. Others simply do not have it. It may develop later on, but it is just not particularly evident at the time. However, the etheric and astral dimensions of the personality do exist for everyone, and young children in the first stage should of course be drawn into a feeling life and sensitivity to others. After the age of two or so, they should be allowed and encouraged to discuss dreams, play imaginative games, and playfully do the practices described in What to Remember to Be Happy. Whatever evidence there is of the development of their etheric and psychic life, they should be encouraged to communicate about it. If there is no evidence, they should not be made to feel that there is something wrong with them. It may develop later on as they begin to achieve a more conscious involvement with these dimensions. Most people may not have much significant experience of a higher or a lower astral kind, even of an etheric kind, until they are educated relative to those dimensions. People must be brought concretely into conjunction with these dimensions, and brought to observe them and participate in appropriate spiritual exercises to the point that energies begin to be released in these dimensions. Then the evidence of these dimensions, which was previously unconscious or never even developed as experience, will begin to appear. We want to make it possible for the living energy in individuals to be fully present in every dimension of their being and thus to ultimately permit them to transcend phenomenal entanglement. The problem with conventional learning is that the Life-Force tends to get limited primarily to the physical dimension and our emotional reaction to that, and our exercise of mind is merely the activity of thinking. We want to make it possible for people not only to use their energies in those terms, but to allow their energies to expand, to be fully present in the etheric dimension so that their aura is strong and full of life pleasure, and so that their psyche will flower. We want to help people to know about themselves beyond the stark waking personality and the social personality. We want them to know about themselves and fully, legitimately exist in terms that go beyond the social personality. Thus, people should have a full psychic existence, even though ultimately, psychic contents must be transcended or released into a pure radiance of the being. In the course of development, however, just as much energy should be going into the free psyche as into thinking, so that just as much energy is going into free feeling as is going into at least the potential for ordinary emotional activity. If that occurs, then the whole program of emotional reactivity will begin to break up, and the individual will become more and more characterized by free feeling rather than by negative, reactive emotions. We want the Life-Force to be fully available in the body-made available through a science of functional life which teaches the individual how to treat the body, how to exercise, eat, be sexual, and so on. His or her physical existence would be a Transfigured expression of the Living Reality and not just an aberrated, confined, Narcissistic existence limited primarily to the physical base, the thinking mind, and reactive emotion. Unfortunately, most people are just the physical body, reactive emotion, and the thinking mind. Very little else enters into the context of their existence. They do not know That which transcends self and Nature, That which is the true Divine. They do not even know the subtler aspects of their own phenomenal existence. They are not familiar with the etheric or astral dimensions or with the psyche. They are not alive in free terms. They are confined beings, self-possessed, Narcissistic egos, not in touch with their expanded or subtler self, and not in touch with That which transcends self and Nature. And that is why people are as they are, and the world is as it is. It is the way it is not because we are inherently bound or living in a hell, but because we are not Enlightened. And even that would not be an impediment if we had the service of Enlightened beings, and people lived in a culture of progressive training in true and higher human terms, and also in ultimate terms. Bereft of such service and culture, however, people are limited to the usual egoic and reactive life. And they are aberrated and un-Happy. Therefore, we must become educated in truly human terms. Even from conception there are responsibilities of mothers that directly affect every aspect of the child-physically, emotionally, mentally, psychically, and spiritually. Thus, we want to educate everyone from conception on to live in freedom, to live in Truth, and to adapt rightly, stage by stage, to every function of their being and to the Ultimate Condition. That is what this description is all about, then. It is an unconventional school of learning, but it is the right convention for learning. In other words, if we understand life and have truly observed it and entered into it and are living it in Truth, we know that this unconventional school of learning is the right process, and we know therefore how we should live with and educate children, young people, and everyone else. We already know what the result is when we do not do what we should do and when they do not do what they should do. It is the usual ego, the troubled person who causes unlimited problems for himself and others. As egos, we not only create problems for one another by what we are doing and communicating both verbally and emotionally in outward physical terms, but we also transmit it throughout the universe, like super-powered transmitter stations, particularly directing it to those individuals, groups, places, and processes on which our attention is fixed. We are always broadcasting our states to one another, and we even bring about changes in Nature through our individual and collective habits at the level of energy, in the subtler dimension of personality and in the psyche. Thus, if our individual lives and our relationships are meant to change and if human life is going to change altogether, we must become responsible for these habits. If we do not, then we will continue to physically act in ways by which we trouble and aberrate one another, and we will also directly broadcast our aberration to one another through the medium of our energy and psychic dimensions. All of us are continually receiving these aberrated messages, and if we are not responsible for ourselves, we are affected by them in various ways. We involuntarily move into states of contraction, reactivity, loss of well-being, mental obsession, and all the rest of it. Very often these actions have nothing whatever to do with anything that is going on directly in our lives. They simply come over us, because of the mechanical clicking of our reactive Narcissism and its automaticities, but also through the reception of tendencies in the field of energy. We receive these tendencies from people to whom we are related, and from all kinds of gross and subtle entities, both incarnate and discarnate. These other persons or entities may not have a particular intention relative to us, but they are in a certain state, and for some reason or other, we become subject to them, come into contact with them, experience their influence, and then we ourselves start undergoing changes. But, no matter what changes we tend to go through by these means, we must become responsible for them. This means we must be spiritually awake and practice self-understanding, self-transcendence, and spiritual exercise, and on that basis engage life. Then we will always be repairing and balancing out our auras and our psyches, no matter what effects are tending to impinge on us. We will not become the persona who is characterized by these reactions, by these signs. We should always be able to purify our state and rebalance ourselves, no matter what the circumstance. Among the things you must learn is how to identify what has to do with you and what has to do with someone else. You do not have to work out every apparent problem. A lot of the time you simply must realize that it is someone else's problem, someone else's state! You do not have to investigate it at all. All you have to do is take a couple of breaths and surrender. Let it go. There are also things that are part of your own mechanics and part of some of your relationships with which you need to deal. But this wisdom, this Teaching, and this process of life give you all the arms that a human being needs for dealing with this manifest condition of existence, for growing in the midst of it regardless of the circumstances, and for ultimately transcending it. It is up to you to practice or not, and you will tend not to practice if you are weak and unlearned. Therefore, you must learn and become strong first. Then, by practice, you will grow in wisdom and strength. That is what is said about Jesus, is it not? First he had to learn and become strong, and then he grew in Wisdom and stature. First understand yourself and become strong with the Living Presence, the Living Baptism. Then practice. And, if you practice that which you have learned or realized, and That which you have received or entered into, It will magnify Itself in your own person and in all your relationships.  Also see: Four Primary Principles of Conscious Childrearing The Seven States of Eternal Life (Enlightenment of the Whole Body)

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