Excerpt:

 As we start this lesson course, let us describe our intention, or focus. The first thing that we are aiming at is self-development. No one can be of any service or any good to himself or anyone else unless he has self-development. Now you may think you are well-developed, but I am talking about development in a particular way. The particular way is higher, keener understanding and insight into the fundamentals of existence. The more we can develop that understanding the more meaningful becomes our own life to our respective selves and the greater service we can render to others.

 

 To accomplish that, we must understand the whole overall cosmic process, because we are entering what is called the Einsteinian age, the atomic age, or the new age. It is particularly characterized by synthesis. In earlier times when man set out to understand any given thing, he reduced it and reduced it down to a microscopic speck and analyzed that speck to find out the constituents thereof. In other words, in the old cycle, sometimes referred to as the Aristotelian age, analysis was the method used as a means of understanding. The new cycle upon which we have now entered will be characterized by a synthetical approach in order to understand the microscopic speck. That is, we have to proceed from a wide synthesis, from the whole to the particular, in order to understand that particular.

 

 In the old cycle, for instance, a medical practitioner would try to analyze a problem and get it down to just what was ailing the heart or the lungs or the liver. Now, to understand even a corpuscle in the bloodstream you have to understand the whole organism and how every part has a bearing and an influence on every other minute part. We must understand the whole in order to understand the particular. That is the synthetical method of approach.

 

So to understand the self and to work with the self-development program we are going to emphasize, you have to have an understanding of the whole cosmic process, because each one of us, essentially, intrinsically is integrated in that cosmic process. Everything and every part of the world has an influence upon you and me—what's going on has a very strong bearing upon us even down to whether or not we are going to exist on this planet. So this cannot be overemphasized. In every respect, we have to understand the whole in order to understand the part.

 

 

 In the old cycle teachings, we approached everything from a level of objective identification. That means we thought this world existed, had meaning and purpose according to the way we registered it with our physical senses. For example, we saw what we called an object, any ‘thing’ to which we could point. It looked solid, or soft, beautiful or ugly, and we thought that this world was just as we observed it through the physical sense faculties. But now, in the new cycle, we find that is the most deceptive basis possible. We cannot depend or trust that premise for one moment because it is false to facts. We now know that every apparent object is a dynamic powerhouse of light converted into energy. Therefore we have to abandon the objective basis of approach. Please remember that this teaching is not metaphysical. There must be an objective physical basis before you can have any meta-, under, back of, other than physical. As understanding grows in this system of thought, you will begin to observe, mentally understand and eventually see this world as a dynamic process, not as a static thing, object, or creation. There is no creation anywhere. This world is a creative process. Once this is understood, one becomes qualified to participate in the new cycle, the new age. The younger generations coming on must be prepared to participate in this new cycle, in this new age, because they will have far greater parts to play than those of us who are making the transition from the old cycle to the new.

 

 

 This is the purpose of this work in self-development: to understand the whole, overall cosmic process, preparation for service, even though that service narrows down to guiding our children and preparing them to participate in this great new cycle. It is a non-Aristotelian doctrine or teaching, and it is non-metaphysical. There is no occultism or mysticism. That all belongs to the past. It does not belong to the future.