CHAPTER FOURTEEN:

TRANSDISCIPLINARY EDUCATION

AND

THE ART OF MULTI-DIMENSIONAL LIVING

EDWARD TARABILDA: There are three different meanings of "transdisciplinary education" as applied to The Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living:

. 1. The sixty-four principles of creative intelligence.

2. The eight paths to God.

3. The transcendence of all paths in non-dual awareness.

These three aspects of transdisciplinary education correspond to the three gunas -- rajas (creative principle), sattwa (preservative principle), and tamas (destructive principle). The rajasic principle creates the play-field of the universe and all its myriad components. The archetypes are the subtlest aspect of creation. When they are lively in our awareness, they point us to the Absolute and enliven it in our consciousness. All objects of awareness can point us to the Absolute, but not as directly and profoundly as the archetypes.

The sattwic principle organizes creativity into spiritual disciplines which harmonize and integrate the fundamental archetypes of creation. The tamasic principle is born when, through the clarity and illumination of sattwa, we realize the limitations of trying to approach what we already are! We let go of all that was most precious before. We leave the boat that carried us across the river of space-time-causality.

As we discussed earlier, the eight archetypal paths to God are different approaches to transcendence for different types of individuals. Just how the sixty-four principles of creative intelligence are also used for transcendence may be less obvious, because at first they seem to be theoretical principles, not techniques for personal experience. However, a deep consideration of any of these sixty-four principles, like deep contemplation of any aspect of divinity, is a powerful means of transcendence. And transcendence is the key to holistic knowledge, because all knowledge is structured in the transcendent.

CATHOLIC PRIEST: So, transcendence doesn't just mean rising above life; it also means becoming intimate with the spiritual principles which promote human evolution, what some people call the "devas".

EDWARD TARABILDA: Yes.

CATHOLIC PRIEST: Are you suggesting that the study of these archetypal principles of creative intelligence has the ability to trigger spiritual experience directly?

EDWARD TARABILDA: Indeed. I am the first to admit that people of different paths will approach these archetypal principles differently. However, this was, and to a certain extent still is, the genius of India -- everything is made sacred; everything is made into a God. Some teachers in the Vedic tradition speak of thirty-three fundamental gods, which we call fundamental principles. Properly understood from an astrological perspective, these are the nine planets, the twelve signs and the twelve houses. Other teachers include additional principles, giving sixty-four, seventy-six, seventy-eight, or eighty principles in total. These principles are all positive attributes of the one Supreme Being, not gods in competition with the one great God of the other major religions.

CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST: You keep saying that, but I suspect that you are creating false idols.

EDWARD TARABILDA: To say that people who worship Indra, the lord of Jupiter, are setting up a false idol is to misunderstand the nature of the ancient Mystery Traditions. In ancient times people had a very direct and personal relationship to nature, and each aspect of nature was seen in its subtlest form. All these forms were understood and felt to be aspects of the Divine, just as you have aspects to your personality and physical form. When you take special care of your arm you are not denying the rest of your body!

No deity is properly seen as higher than any other deity, because they are all aspects of one wholeness, and that wholeness can be seen and experienced in its personal, immanent aspects, or in its impersonal, transcendent aspects. Both are there.

CATHOLIC PRIEST: You are suggesting that when a person studies the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living, he is engaging in more than academic study. He or she is actually communing with the gods?

EDWARD TARABILDA: I am indeed suggesting that, but I am also cognizant of the fact that many people are so dull and insensitive that they will, at first, find it difficult to see and experience the relationship of these principles to spiritual growth. However, if they are patient with this study, it will create an opening to the deep recesses of their being.

QUANTUM PHYSICIST: I have already felt this taking place, just as I feel it when I focus on subtle principles of physics.

EDWARD TARABILDA: You are a lucky man.

ANTHROPOSOPHIST: I feel it as well.

EDWARD TARABILDA: I'm sure many of you do, and this is the ultimate benefit of the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living.

The great textbook of spiritual techniques, the "Vigyana Bhairava Tantra", gives 112 techniques of meditation, representing all 112 possible means of transcendence. The Art of Multi-Dimensional Living suggests that there are also 112 archetypal principles which collectively comprise the fundamental blueprint of life:

1. The first 80 principles comprise interdisciplinary education. These 80 are the 64 archetypes we have covered, plus 16 additional principles. We skipped the 16 as non-essential to our discussion. They are elaborations of the first 64. They are seen in the sixteen sub-charts of Vedic astrology and the "royal" cards of the Tarot.

2. The next 24 principles are the 24 archetypal disciplines of multi-disciplinary education.

3. The next 8 principles are the 8 fields of living.

The whole creation, subjective and objective, is contained in these 112 principles. They correspond to the 112 ways of transcending.

SCIENTIFIC MATERIALIST: Could the fact that your different principles sum to 112 be just a coincidence?

EDWARD TARABILDA: I'll leave that for all of you to decide for yourselves. Can you remove any of these 112 principles and still have a complete body of knowledge? I don't think so! But the Art of Multi-Dimensional Living does not depend on a perfect correspondence between the 112 processes of transcendence and the 112 principles of creation.

In our next and final dialogue I want each of you to critique the Astrology of the Eight Fields of Living as a new paradigm -- an integrated discipline for holistic living, multi-disciplinary education, interdisciplinary education and transdisciplinary education.