Philosophical aspects of the Teaching of the Masters of Wisdom

Tatyana Mickushina is a Russian writer, thinker, public figure, and author of more than 70 books which have been translated into 19 languages all over the world. From 2005 to 2015, Tatyana Mickushina created an integral philosophical and ethical Teaching, totalling thousands of pages of text. The Teaching was written by inspiration from above with the help of a special meditation technique and consists of brief philosophical conversations written on behalf of the Great Sages and philosophers of the past. The Teaching is of significant scientific importance.

The research conducted by the author of this article is the first attempt to summarize the main provisions of the philosophical and ethical Teaching of Tatyana Mickushina and classify it in accordance with philosophical scientific concepts and terms.

The Teaching of Tatyana Mickushina gives an interpretation of the main philosophical issues, and is therefore essentially a philosophical Teaching. It examines the following issues: what is the physical world and is our physical world identical to the universe; the role of man in the world; the evolution of the universe and the evolution of man. The Teaching explores the value and ethical side of human life, assesses the modern socio-political system of states, and examines many other issues that are studied in philosophy.

The question may arise about the unscientific form of the origin of the Teaching, since it is not the fruit of rational reflections of the human mind, but is obtained as Higher Knowledge through a special method of meditation. One of the ideas of non-classical philosophy, which arose in the second half of the XIX century, is precisely that philosophical knowledge, spiritual and cultural activity in general should not be based solely on thinking, but also on the whole set of spiritual forces and abilities of a person: on his will, on faith, on the emotional side of human existence, on the subconscious, intuitive drives, etc.[1] Thus, the Teaching received by Tatyana Mickushina, as the Highest Knowledge, fits into the framework of non-classical philosophy, since knowledge here is based on special spiritual forces and abilities of a person besides thinking, which are still little studied by traditional science.

The Teaching incorporates many functions of philosophy, both ideological (humanistic, constructive-value, cultural-educational) and methodological.

The works of Tatyana Mickushina reflect the humanistic function of philosophy, continue to develop the ideas of humanist philosophers of the XIX - early XX centuries, whereby in particular the ideas of spiritual liberation of man, the revival of the spiritual principle which was spoken about by V.S. Solovyov and A. Schweitzer, appear in the works of Tatyana Mickushina as liberation from attachments to the material world and carnal desires and passions, which everyone can achieve first of all in their consciousness.

Another ideological function of philosophy is constructive-value, which consists in the development of ideas about values and about the social ideal. The works of Tatyana Mickushina assess the social reality of society at the beginning of the XXI century and criticize the values of the modern era of postmodernism, which led to moral degradation and decline in many spheres of life, both in the state and in society. As an alternative to the egoism and individualism of a postmodernist man, focusing on the outside, fashion, pleasure and entertainment, the Teaching of Tatyana Mickushina speaks about the need to take care of one's neighbor, love, mercy, compassion, and the search for an inner spiritual path. Work for the common good should replace work for career and personal success. Mass culture and mass media numb the consciousness of modern man, whereas the ideal should be to follow the Highest Moral Law and the resulting activity, focused on the common good of all citizens.

In the works of Tatyana Mickushina, reference is made to the need to prioritize universal values and virtues. Great importance is given to the practical observance of these virtues and their embodiment in the life of every person, which is the essence of the cultural and educational function of philosophy.

Another function of philosophy – heuristics – is to promote the growth of scientific knowledge, including the creation of prerequisites for scientific discoveries [2]. In the works of Tatyana Mickushina, ideas are given about many philosophical problems of world-building, human structure, and the evolution of the universe. These are about to be investigated by modern science and can become hypotheses for scientific research in various fields. One of the key concepts is the understanding that the physical world is not all there is and that there are more "subtle" spheres of being that cannot be recorded either by our senses or by many modern devices. Yet they are real. Note that these hypotheses are confirmed in modern science. In particular, linguistic wave genetics (research by scientist P.P. Garyaev) reports on the two–level structure of the genome - material and field, and the last is decisive.

The Teaching touches on such areas of knowledge of philosophy as ontology, epistemology, ethics, philosophical anthropology and others. One of the main works of Tatyana Mickushina is the book "The Teaching on Change of Consciousness.” The book reveals the following epistemological aspects: what is consciousness, the nature of the emergence of consciousness, how a person learns about this world, the development of consciousness as a factor in human evolution. From the point of view of ethics: the Teaching is based on knowledge of the Highest Moral Law, and the problem of Good and Evil is also deeply studied. From the point of view of philosophical anthropology: the works of Tatyana Mickushina give an understanding of what a person is, his role in this world, the structure of a person.

Let's take a closer look at ontology. One of the central problems of ontology is the problem of distinguishing among the possible types of world existence and certain deep kinds of being, which cause the appearance of all other types of being, which in philosophy is associated with the justification of the category “substance." The opposition of spirit and matter as two different substances generates concepts, respectively, of an idealistic or materialistic type [3], which, in turn, have further gradations. The ideas laid down in the works of Tatyana Mikushina, on the one hand, are close to the ideas of objective idealism with a monistic understanding of the unity of the world, since the basis of the creative substance of the universe is a single God, representing the Divine energy that fills the entire universe: "... this whole world is only Divine Energy vibrating at different frequencies"[4]. Our physical world is the Divine energy with the lowest frequency level, but the universe is not limited only to the physical world, there are other more subtle worlds, not sensed by our senses, where the frequency of Divine energy is higher.

On the other hand, it can be said that the ideas of Tatyana Mickushina also reflect the essence of the opposite concept – subjective idealism, where the active principle of being is interpreted from individualistic positions (for example, in the bright representative of this trend, J. Berkeley, the human individual self actually turns into the only generative one, the substance of the universe) [5]. In the Teaching, such a role of the individual human Self, which underlies the world, consists of the formation of that part of the universe that belongs to the dense physical world. The physical world is only an illusion of human consciousness, because it does not exist outside the framework of human consciousness. When human consciousness changes and rises to the level of understanding of more subtle worlds, this dense physical world will disappear.

Thus, Tatyana Mickushina's ontological concept combines elements of two seemingly different directions: subjective and objective idealism. The key to combining these two positions into one holistic concept is that, on the one hand, man, like everything in this world, is part of God, therefore God through man is the basis of the physical world, where, on the other hand, the physical world is not the only one- there are more subtle worlds- at the basis of which God also appears, although no longer through human consciousness, but through a consciousness higher than human consciousness. The physical and subtle worlds have a single basis – Divine energy, which has a different frequency for different worlds, and the lowest frequency corresponds to the physical world.

The ideas contained in the works of Tatyana Mickushina are close to several ontological concepts of philosophers of the past, namely B. Spinoza and G. Leibniz. In Spinoza, a representative of pantheism, substance is the cause of itself and God is identified with substance. In the works of Tatyana Mickushina, God is also the One Cause, the Creator of all things, there is nothing in this world but God. His creation of the world is an endless act of self–development. The Teaching of Tatyana Mickushina also overcomes the difficulties faced by Spinoza's pantheism. In particular, it explains the nature of individuation and the desire for movement and discrimination in an inherently unified substance. The Teaching contains an original concept of God, who is in constant motion, development and self-knowledge, and in this endless process there is a process of individualization, differentiation of the essence of God into many spiritual beings who are simultaneously part of God and at the same time have individual traits and potential for self-development.

In some moments, the ideas of Tatyana Mickushina are also consonant with the concept of monadology of G. Leibniz. Leibniz's monads are clusters of "energy and force", and since the acting force presupposes the presence of will, they must have the rudiments of consciousness and personality, which resembles Tatyana Mickushina's idea that Divine energy is at the heart of everything. But monads, according to Leibniz, are closed, "have no windows", and therefore the influence of monads on each other is completely excluded – each of them is like an independent, separate universe. But in the Teaching of Tatyana Mickusha energy is one, it is part of the One God, "spreading" into many manifestations of the "monads" of this world.

Thus, the Teaching of Tatyana Mikushina is a major philosophical Teaching from the beginning of the XXI century. The Teaching reveals the key ideological and methodological functions of philosophy: humanistic, constructive-value, cultural-educational, heuristic. Having a special nature of its origin, received as higher knowledge, it fits into the framework of non-classical philosophy. The works of Tatyana Mickushina touches on many areas of knowledge of philosophy, including ontology (the doctrine of being), epistemology (the doctrine of cognition), ethics (the doctrine of morality), philosophical anthropology and others, it is close to the ideas of idealists and combines the concepts of both objective and subjective idealism.

The Teaching of Tatyana Mickushina is close to the ideas of humanist philosophers of the XIX – early XX centuries V.S. Solovyov, A. Schweitzer. In contrast to the ideas and values of the modern era of postmodernism, the Teaching calls for the return of society to moral values, the revival of such virtues as charity, compassion, work for the common good, caring for one's neighbor, etc. The works of Tatyana Mickushina are of interest to scientific research.

The article was prepared by Zhanna Novicheva.

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[1] Philosophy. Textbook for universities / Under the general editorship of V.V. Mironov. – M.: Norm, 2005. – 928 p.

[2] P.V. Alekseev, A.V. Panin Philosophy: Textbook. – 3rd ed., reprint. and additional. – M.: TK Velbi, Publishing house Prospect, 2003. – 608 p.

[3] Philosophy. Textbook for universities / Under the general editorship of V.V. Mironov. – M.: Norm, 2005. – 928 p.

[4] The Teaching on change of consciousness / Tatyana Mickushina. – Omsk: SiriuS Publishing House, LLC, 2015. – 320 p.

[5] Philosophy. Textbook for universities / Under the general editorship of V.V. Mironov. – M.: Norm, 2005. – 928 p.