ABOUT US
We are the most educated and affluent people in human history, the most
literate, the most technologically proficient. We can replace one person's heart with another's, we can
fly people to other planets, and we can send tiny cameras into people's organs to inspect them from
within. We are able, or will be able, to do almost anything in the physical world. However, at the same
time we find this world stressful and demanding. We find it difficult to manage our anger, fear or
depression. We are confused by the world within ourselves.
Our situation becomes intelligible if we recognize that we actually live in two different worlds
simultaneously. One is the outer world of people and objects and the other is the inner world of
thoughts and feelings. Each has its own laws and each has its own form of education. We have explored
the outer world in detail, however we have neglected the inner world. The inner world is our closest,
most intimate environment. The essential ingredients of our inner world are thoughts and feelings. Outer
world changes if, for example, we travel to New York, Paris or London. But, wherever we go, we take our
inner world with us.
Conventional or traditional education is our First Education or the “knowledge” tradition. The focus of
First Education is the outer world, on science and technology, facts, events and history. This type of
education embellishes us but may not transform us. We can acquire more and more information and still
have the emotional sulks and tantrums of a child. In our schools and institutions of higher learning,
one rarely hears anything about conquering depression, overcoming fear and anger and attaining happiness
and self-mastery.
The study of the inner world is our Second Education or the “wisdom” tradition. This Second Education
says that true happiness lies not in the outer world but within each of us. Not only that, it can be
realized. The process of awakening to Second Education is called inner work and it works on “being”.
Second Education does not give much information in the usual sense, but it empowers us. It turns a weak
person into a strong one, an unhappy person into a happy one, a confused person into a person of clarity
and wisdom. Only through work on our being can such alchemy take place. Understanding of mind, self
talk, meditation, Self-inquiry and removal of blocks are the bedrocks of such change. It's not that
Second Education should replace First Education, but that they are complementary aspects that together
are the foundation of a truly human life.
In fact, schools of Second Education already do exist. They are called ashrams and monasteries and even
'mystery schools'. In these schools, work on transformation of being goes on day by day, front and
centre. In India, this process is called sadhana, or inner transformation. These institutions, however,
are rare and relatively unavailable to the great mass of humanity.
In the second education system, you don't progress via degrees granted by universities, but by inner
landmarks known only to yourself, in which you grow in wisdom and joy. The Ph.D. in this inner education
is called by different names in different schools---Self-realization, enlightenment, Buddhahood, satori,
Samadhi, God-realization and so on.
