Whole life education engages the whole student! Whole life education fosters a learning environment within which acquired intellectual knowledge, the knowledge of the mind, is balanced and synthesized with revealed inner life wisdom, the higher source of wisdom within.
Within each of us exist two primal energies that are beyond gender and sexual identity: the inner masculine and the inner feminine energies. Both the masculine and the feminine energies are part of all of us in varying degrees. We need to equally develop both for internal balance and creative expression. For instance, intuitive thoughts and inspiration, the feminine, need to be expressed and directed into action for manifestation, the masculine. Being predominately one or the other literally means expressing only part of our being, either our inner feminine that may be silent but is yearning to express itself in the world, or our inner masculine that may seek control, be single-minded, but lack inspiration and compassion.
Only in striving to achieve balance of both the masculine and feminine energies and be in tune with one another in education and everyday life, can we find not only more integrative whole life solutions to achieve our highest potential but also more joy in life.
Educators and students need to comprehend and acknowledge that both the masculine and the feminine energies are part of nature and in nature all is one and these two energies always work together. We are at one with nature and need to accept the duality of our innate nature, our true being, in which the masculine and the feminine energies work together and complement one another. Being open to the duality of our true being is essential for whole life education, as well as our individual and collective evolution. Both the masculine and the feminine energies are a dynamic force within each of us and within the universe and we need to acknowledge our oneness with this infinite wholeness and participate in the creative unfoldment for change.
However, should one experiences non-acceptance of such complementarity and the unfolding toward creative change by teachers or students? From my experience I can say that it is imperative to live, learn and participate by the example of one’s own balanced and harmonized intellectual knowledge and inner life wisdom, and in this way bring one’s own whole being into the realm of education. In time this balanced energy has the effect of reflecting into the energy field of the entire scholarly environment and positively affecting education generally.
Educators themselves need to nourish their own inner life and bring their own source of higher knowledge and wisdom into the classroom. Educators themselves need the engage their own inner balance of the masculine and feminine energies so that students can learn to be open and receptive to all knowledge and wisdom. Part of this learning process is developing and fostering an inner awareness that encourages creativity, imagination, and inspiration, a process that will bring forth and lead out the higher knowledge and wisdom within. In this way the feminine and masculine energies become balanced and are brought to equal strength.
Whole life education creates every opportunity to explore the source of higher knowledge and wisdom within ourselves. All educational studies may begin by teaching how to balance and harmonize inner life wisdom with intellectual knowledge and in this way become a learning environment of empowerment that launches the foundation for transformative learning and change. Every educational study can open new horizons to find its true meaning.