Study programme
Study Slowly.
Understand Deeply.
The study programme explores the Ageless Wisdom through sustained enquiry into awakening consciousness, soul and the practical expression of spiritual understanding.
Themes and questions are approached progressively, allowing time between gatherings for study, contemplation, meditation and observation in everyday life.
Read. Reflect. Meditate. Observe. Apply. Return.
The Soul… The Quality of Life
The Soul... The Quality of Life is the name given to the Society's principal programme of study.
The programme takes its name from The Soul: The Quality of Life, a compilation from the writings of Alice Bailey. The book is recommended as an optional companion text, but the programme itself does not follow a single book or fixed syllabus.
The enquiry begins with fundamental questions concerning the human being.
What is consciousness? What do we mean by soul? What is the relationship between soul and personality? Is the human being limited to physical form, or does consciousness express through subtler dimensions of experience? What might spiritual development actually involve?
From these foundations, the field gradually widens into the constitution of the human being, meditation, karma and rebirth, states and planes of consciousness, the evolution of consciousness, esoteric cosmology, discipleship, initiation and the wider patterns within which human life may be understood.
As understanding develops, further areas of enquiry may naturally emerge, including esoteric psychology, the Seven Rays, intuition and the deeper relationship between mind, soul and spiritual purpose.
These subjects are not presented as doctrines to be accepted.
They are offered as fields of enquiry... to be studied, contemplated, tested and related to experience.
Concepts encountered in one context may later return from another perspective. An idea concerning consciousness may illuminate meditation. A teaching concerning the human constitution may later deepen the understanding of psychology, relationship or service. In this way, the work develops organically while maintaining a deliberate underlying rhythm.
No previous knowledge of esotericism, Buddhism, yoga or the writings of Alice Bailey is required.
How the Programme Works
Each period of study centres upon a particular theme, principle or question.
Participants receive selected readings and contemplative material to work with between gatherings. These may include passages for study, questions for reflection and seed thoughts designed to carry an idea more deeply into meditation.
Meditation forms an important part of the work. The approach draws principally upon Raja Yoga and the broader tradition of esoteric meditation, with methods introduced gradually as understanding and experience develop.
Participants are also encouraged to observe how the principles being studied express themselves through everyday life... through thought, emotion, relationship, choice and service.
At each gathering, the group returns to the material through discussion and shared enquiry.
There is no expectation that everyone arrives at the same interpretation. Different experiences and perspectives can reveal different aspects of the same principle. Over time, individual reflection may therefore contribute to something larger: a developing capacity for group thought and group enquiry.
The aim is not simply to know more.
It is to develop the capacity to see more clearly, think more widely, live more consciously and serve more intelligently.