BASIC STRUCTURE AND CONCEPTS OF THE TETRADA INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE

The Tetrada Institute of the Universal Knowledge is a noncommercial, non-governmental higher-education institution.

The Institute provides tertiary post-university education for persons over 30 at the faculties of the Science of Religion and Social Service. The Faculty of Culturology provides first tertiary education for persons between 18 and 30 years of age on a post-time basis.

Education, offered by the Institute, implements a new concept of humanitarian, cultural, creative and spiritual mission of the Russian system of tertiary education.

Underlying the basic concept of education, provided by the Institute, is the universal principle of cognition of religious, philosophic and metaphysical doctrines of the world, based on Universal Truth, independent of faith, nation, race or social functions.

The purpose of education provided by the Institute is to form a humanitarian cast of Man in contemporary society by means of humanitarian and spiritual training, aimed at the cognition of the laws and principles of Universal Life and their implementation on the path of creative unfoldment and spiritual formation of human personality.

This purpose is achieved via new organizational forms of the Institute, crated on the basis of the Inter-regional Research Centre of Universal Spiritual Knowledge “Tetrada” and acting in close cooperation with it.

In addition to basic disciplines meeting the state-approved standards, the Institute develops its own programs, directions and disciplines, which are approved as examination papers and are then used in experimental training as optional subjects. For instance, at present the following disciplines have been introduced in addition to the basic curriculum at the Faculty of the Science of Religion: Spiritual Ethics of world religions; the theory and practice of Spiritual Rituals; fundamentals of the synthesis of arts; the principles and laws of the fundamentals of Universal Science; basics of esoteric knowledge, and other.

New disciplines, developed by specialists of the Institute, have been introduced at the Faculty of Social Service: Holy Books of world religions; secret teachings of world religions; fundamentals of theosophical knowledge; the theory and practice of physical health; fundamentals of work in the sphere of senses; the principles of work in the sphere of mind, etc. The following disciplines have been attested and are taught at the Faculty of Culturology, designed for the young: culture of the physical body; culture of senses; culture of mind; culture of family relations.

Departments where specialists in various sciences develop new methods of training are functioning at the Institute. At present the Institute has the following chairs: of Spiritual Ethics; Universal Science and Philosophy; Esoteric Knowledge; Esoteric Art; Spiritual Pedagogy; Spiritual Psychology; Physical and Sanative Practices, and other.

Original methods of training the mind based on psychic methods of the Yoga, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism, European psychology, gestalt-therapy, methods of meditation transmitted via H.P. Blavatsky, H.P. Roerich, A. Bailey, G. Gurdjieff, Sri Aurobindo and other masters of European and Oriental Universal Doctrine are developed and mastered in internal group classes of the students of the Institute.

In February 1997 the Institute started the Section of the Science of Universal Synthesis at the International Academy of Sciences of Nature and Society (IASNS). This section is functioning as a living practical link between specialists in various fields of traditional science and specialists in the sphere of Universal Science.

One of the essential elements of research carried out by the Institute are summer expeditions concluding each year of training at every faculty. Expeditions go to various regions of the country and the world to study monuments of history, culture and spiritual traditions, of ancient and contemporary religions.

During the past years the leadership of the Institute headed by Rector Lydia Valentinovna Peretrutova undertook spiritual and practical expeditions to India, Greece, Hungary, Mongolia and China. This year an expedition to Nepal and Tibet is planned.

Training by correspondence is practiced at the faculties of the science of religion and social work of the Institute. Branches of the Institute function in 16 cities of Russia and new independent states.

The Institute holds public educational lectures and a philosophical seminar; it runs studious of applied and folklore arts and provides practical training for schoolteachers, school children and students. The faculty of social work carries out a special program “Caritas” for the elderly, the disabled and orphanages.

The Institute runs the School of Spiritual and Ethical Aid training Men and Women of Goodwill who aspire for altruist service and moral aid for people who need psychological support in spiritual crisis.

The Institute incorporates also the Individual Training School, which works with grownup persons who are in search of a spiritual and ethical meaning of life but who cannot become students of the Institute.

The graduates of the Institute work in various spheres of humanitarian, philosophic and spiritual education in Moscow and various regions of the Russian Federation and new neighbouring states.

The Institute carries out the following activities in conformity with the legislation of the Russian Federation:

— training of specialists in the sphere of higher professional education: the science of religion, social work, and culturology;

— refresher courses for specialists in spiritual knowledge and work with consciousness;

— development and implementation of new methods of the organization of training and educational processes;

— creation of a network of branches of the Institute in Moscow and in the regions of the Russian Federation;

— extending spiritual and psychological aid to the population;

— consultations on problems of spiritual and physical education;

— organization of research and training expeditions around Russia and abroad;

— publishing and leasing films and video films propagandizing the Institute’s activities;

— organization of seminars, conferences and symposia for the purpose of exchanging and refreshing experience.

On the whole, all activities of the Institute of Universal Knowledge are aimed at the creation of the institution of spiritual tutorship, capable of extending help in the understanding of the principles and laws of the Universe in complicated contemporary political and social situation, as well as the purposes and tasks of Man’s existence in it. Spiritual tutors will work with the consciousness of people who thus become new and healthy cells of Russia's integral organism, changing and enhancing the standard of consciousness of the environment.

V.I.Vernadsky spoke of a new living substance of the planet and mankind, of the integral noosphere of its Spiritual Mind. It is now that time is approaching when each human being must become not simply a sensible being, but also be conscious of its unity with the Supreme Principle of the Soul and the Spirit of Planetary Life. Therefore the principles of the new science, art, philosophy, psychology, pedagogy and the projects of enhancement can and must become the basis for a new Spiritual ideology of Russia who is called upon to lead the Movement for the Planet’s Spiritual Evolution in the coming millennium.

Many years’ experience of work of the Institute has demonstrated the possibility of group and community work of people in spiritual unity of Souls along all these lines. Consequently, a certain model of a perfect form of a conscious spiritual group organism which is capable of growing, changing, perfecting itself and training has already been created and is undergoing practical approbation. The experience of this spiritual and social experiment of combining activities of a Spiritual School with those of an educational institution can be projected to any forms of work in public and state structures.

New Russia needs new ideas and methods of work providing a broad perspective for Earth’s remote future. Only such ideas are realistic today, because they open the Path to the Lofty Goal, which is worth living for.

L.V. Peretrutova
Rector of the Institute, Fellow of the IASNS