SOURCEBOOK

VOLUME 3
PART 1

Educating for Gross

National Happiness in
Bhutan

Draft
Compiled by GPI Atlantic
 Table of Contents

Background GNH Education workshop

materials 4

Introduction..25

Holistic education27

Education for Happiness and Human Development * Dr. Ron Miller

.. 28

Education and the Soul * Jack Miller

35

Mindfulness and Teacher Presence * Jack

Miller.. 47

Reclaiming our Creativities from a Ready-made world * Manish

Jain 56

Educating for Wisdom * Jack Miller .62

A Holistic View for Cultivating Spirituality in Education:

From Vedanta, Zen, and Taoist Perspectives * Yoshiharu
Nakagawa 73

Human-scale Education * Interview with Satish

Kumar 83

Why our children need nature play * Richard

Louv.. 88

Why we need Natural Teachers * Richard Louv

92

2
Aldous Huxley: A Quest for the Perennial Education * Yoshiharu
Nakagawa... ...99

Eastern Wisdom and Holistic Education:

Multidimensional Reality and the Way of Awareness * Yoshiharu
Nakagawa115

The Pursuit of Happiness and the Concept of the Slow School * Maurice
Holt129

A Systems Approach to Improving Education * Maurice

Holt. 135

Education for Wisdom and Happiness. A Proposal. * Valentino

Giacomin139

Henry Thoreaus Brooks & Ditches. Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott

on the Heart of Education * Kent Bicknell
158

Educating for Happiness:

Some practical Questions and Possible Answers * Dr. Ross
McDonald.166

The Ability to Attend to the Sensible and to the Intelligible * Shafik Nanji
and Lindsey Arnold 178

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Background GNH Education Workshop
Materials

1. Workshop Purpose, Rational, and Structure

2. Sample Vision and Goals
3. The overview document and participant bios
4. The letter of invitation to the Bhutanese workshop
participants
5. Official letter of invitation to international participants

1. Dec. 7-12 Workshop Purpose, Rationale, and

Structure

For GNH to survive and flourish as this Bhutans guiding development

philosophy in generations to come, it is absolutely essential that its
educational system be fully transformed to embody and reflect GNH values
and principles. Given the onslaught of consumerist and materialist
messages with which our children and youth are today bombarded as never
before, GNH values and principles must be rooted in their consciousness if,
as citizens and leaders of the future, todays youth are to guide this country
wisely to balance economic development with environmental conservation,
cultural dynamism, and good governance.

Our long-term goal, quite simply, is to ensure that Bhutanese youth grow up
to care deeply about nature and about others, to think and see reality
clearly and rationally, and to act wisely, and that they can be a beacon and
model of wellbeing, sanity, and balanced development in a troubled world
facing extraordinary environmental and social challenges.

It is no exaggeration to say that the initiative on which we are embarking is

unprecedented. While individual schools in different parts of the world have
attempted to transform their curricula along holistic lines, and to
incorporate deep critical thinking, indigenous knowledge, local wisdom,
contemplative education, sustainability education and eco-literacy into their
teaching, no country has ever attempted to do so on a national scale.

To that end, we are delighted and honoured that some of the worlds leading
international experts, scholars, authors, school founders and principals, and
other practitioners of these innovative educational approaches will join us
at the December 7-12 workshop in Thimphu. Please see the attached

4
overview for a list and short biographies of confirmed international
participants.

In addition to these participants, about 50 foreign observers from 14

countries, including potential funding agencies and donors, regional NGOs
from 7 Asian countries, scholars, media, and representatives of major
international educational institutions like the International Baccalaureate
program, will observe the workshop to listen and to learn.

Because of the vital long-term importance of this undertaking, the Prime

Minister, Education Minister, and other key cabinet ministers and elected
officials intend to participate fully in the December workshop along with the
GNH Commission, and leading Bhutanese educators, education officials,
curriculum design specialists, and the members of the Royal Education
Council. Please see the attached list of invited Bhutanese participants (25
plus Ministers) and observers (more than 50).

The reason we have to divide attendees into participants and observers is

that our intended December gathering is not going to be a conference with
presentations, but rather a workshop dialogue and conversation that will be
facilitated by a professional facilitator to move us from vision to time-
sensitive goals to a practical implementation plan that, in the long run, will
involve curriculum design, structural reform, preparation of new texts and
classroom materials, teacher training, and more. This workshop process will
require real communication between the international experts, scholars,
and practitioners, and our Bhutanese educators and officials.

For this dialogue to be effective and produce concrete results, we therefore

have to limit the full workshop participants to 50. We have no doubt that the
100 or more additional observers will also have a deep and meaningful
learning experience that they will be able to apply practically both within
Bhutan and abroad, and they will be given every opportunity to mix and
mingle with the participants, and to engage in their own discussions and
conversations during breakout group sessions.

Because we see the workshop as just a step in a multi-year process, this

year has already involved considerable in-depth research and preparation of
background materials in advance of the December workshop. By the time of
the workshop, we will have released six key volumes of background
documents that will be an invaluable source of information as we move
forward into the implementation phase. These include three sourcebooks of
materials, an extensive two-volume literature review, and the results of an
extensive survey of workshop participants on their vision and goals.

Following the workshop, a seventh volume will be releaseda summary of

workshop proceedings. These materials are being prepared in partnership

5
with GPI Atlantic, which has a long history of fruitful collaboration with the
Royal Kingdom of Bhutan, and which hosted the Second International
Conference on Gross National Happiness in Canada in 2005, attended by
450 delegates from 33 countries, including the present Prime Minister,
Education Minister, Health Minister and other leading officials from Bhutan.
In addition to this recent work, important preparatory work has also been
done by the Centre for Bhutan Studies, Royal Education Council, and others
in Bhutanall of which forms a strong basis from which we can move
forward in December.

In sum, we have done considerable background research and planning to

ensure that our December Educating for GNH workshop can effectively
launch a very far-reaching, comprehensive and systematic educational
transformation. It is no exaggeration to say that the future of our country
will depend on the success of this major effort.

6
2. Sample Vision and Goals:
(Reviewed and approved by Honourable Minister of
Education)

25-year vision: The principles and values of Gross National Happiness are
deeply embedded in the consciousness of Bhutanese youth. These youth will
see reality clearly, not be trapped by the lure of materialism, and will care
deeply for others and for the natural world.

10-year goal: Bhutan's entire educational system (from kindergarten

through tertiary levels) effectively transmits deep critical thinking and
reasoning, ecological literacy, the wisdom of the country's profound, ancient
culture, contemplative learning, a holistic understanding of the world, and
genuine care for nature and for others.

5-year goal: Bhutan's school system has excellent curricula, classroom

materials, and well-trained teachers in all the above areas.

3-year goal: Development of curricula and classroom materials in the

above areas is well advanced and is in partial use in 50% of Bhutan's
schools. 50% of Bhutan's teachers have received effective training in these
areas.

1-year goal: Multi-year funding from international development

agencies has been secured for project implementation, and pilot testing of
curricula, classroom materials, and teacher training has begun in three
example schools (urban and rural).

7
3. Overview and Participant Bios

Educating for Gross National Happiness in Bhutan

1. Background

Bhutan today stands at a remarkable crossroads in its history, where

decisions made today may well influence the future of the country for
generations to come. On the one hand, the countrys guiding philosophy
since 1972 has been the principle of Gross National Happiness (GNH)
which seeks to integrate sustainable and equitable economic development
with environmental conservation, good governance, and preservation and
promotion of the countrys ancient culture and profound traditions. On the
other hand, rapid modernization and the lure of consumerism may
accentuate materialist tendencies that could undermine the environmental,
social, and cultural pillars of GNH.

If successful in Bhutan, this unique development philosophy, which seeks to

join social, economic, and environmental objectives, could become a
powerful model for other countries, particularly in the rest of South Asia
and other parts of the developing world. It could also have important
lessons for industrialized countries that increasingly recognise the necessity
for economic advances to be more effectively integrated with environmental
conservation and social wellbeing.

In order to make GNH a living reality in Bhutan, the Prime Minister,

Lyonchen Jigmi Thinley, has identified two particular actions that he
believes are essential in order to guide and shape the countrys
development far into the future. Both are far-reaching, systemic, and
designed to ensure that GNH becomes embedded in the structure of the
countrys institutions and the consciousness of its people.

The first action is to bring GNH principles, approaches, and examples

into the countrys educational system and curricula at every level
from kindergarten and first grade through high school graduation and
into tertiary education.

The second action is to create an inspiring living model of GNH in

practice, located in the countrys spiritual heartland of Bumthang in
central Bhutana centre where sustainability practices are
demonstrated at every level and where civil servants, teachers,
students, and ordinary Bhutanese can come to take long and short
courses that renew their commitment to environmental protection,

8
cultural promotion, sustainable economic practices, and responsible
and accountable leadership.

9
2. A GNH Curriculum

This very brief concept paper focuses on the first of these two objectives
which involves not only construction of dedicated GNH educational
curricula at all levels, but permeating all subjects (like math, science,
language studies, and more) with a GNH view and approach.

What does this mean in practice? First, sustainability principles, values,

factual knowledge, and behaviour would not only be taught in dedicated
courses on environmental science, protection, and conservation, but they
would also serve as examples in mathematics exercises, grammar texts,
science experiments and more. Noted educators like David Orr have
critiqued conventional science texts for neglecting and underplaying human
dependence on the natural world, and in some cases implicitly promoting
environmentally destructive behaviours by implying the potential
dominance of man and technology over nature. A GNH curriculum would
correct that present imbalance by focussing more on the interdependent
nature of reality, including human interaction with natural forces.

Just as there is growing recognition of the importance of sustainability

education if human behaviours are to become more environmentally
responsible, a GNH curriculum would also promote and teach respect for
indigenous human cultures, languages, and knowledge. Already a few
inspired Bhutanese educators are taking students into the countrys old-
growth forests to show and teach youth about the medicinal value and uses
of local herbs and plantsthus not only teaching respect for the land and its
environment, but also transmitting profound and valuable indigenous
knowledge passed on for generations, and in danger of being lost if not
incorporated into formal educational curricula.

While the importance of these kinds of educational principles and

approaches is increasingly widely acknowledged, there is no sovereign
nation in the world aside from Bhutan that has officially adopted a holistic
approach to development that integrates economic, social, cultural, and
environmental objectives as its core philosophy and the foundation of its
policy planning. Bhutan is therefore uniquely placed globally to implement
an educational curriculum based on these principles at a systemic level that
permeates every educational structure and curriculum in the country. In
other countries, there are particular teachers and some alternative schools
that have adopted the approaches briefly described here. But Bhutans
systemic implementation of these principles at the national level could offer
much needed hope to a world that has become increasingly at odds with the
natural world and that has seen the rapid loss of both cultural and
environmental diversity (to its own peril).

10
It must be added here that preliminary discussions with Bhutanese leaders
and educators about this proposal have aroused enormous interest and
enthusiasm. Several proponents, including the countrys Education Minister
himself, have emphasized that genuine GNH curricula would go beyond
mere conceptual and intellectual learning but attempt more effectively to
integrate heart, mind, spirit, and behaviour (or action). In other words, such
curricula would incorporate learning that draws not only on reasoning alone
but also on experiential, artistic and feeling faculties, and that attempts to
translate knowledge into action. For example, some Bhutanese educators
and policy makers suggested that GNH curricula might also include
community service and voluntary action that nurtures compassion and care
for others.

3. Implementation

The first step in designing and implementing national GNH curricula is to

identify and assemble a top international team of respected educators with
experience in fields like ecological literacy, sustainability education,
contemplative education, indigenous knowledge, holistic and experiential
learning, and integration of community service in school curricula.

It must be emphasizedas noted by all to whom we spoke on this subject

that none of the intended educational reforms in Bhutan would compromise
academic rigour. On the contrary, reasoning and critical thinking would be
elevated as a top priority in genuine GNH curricula. To give just one
example, a key outcome of GNH curricula would be the training of students
who could effectively measure genuinely integrated progress statistically
an ability that requires a high degree of mathematical, statistical, and
scientific rigour and complex analysis. Therefore, the team of educational
experts to be assembled will include those with proven success in training
students in rigorous critical analysis.

As well, the team must include both leading Bhutanese educatorsto

ensure that the outcomes of the intended educational reforms are fully
relevant and applicable to Bhutan, and international educatorsto draw on
global knowledge and best practices, and to ensure that the results have
universal applicability and are useful to the wider world. Aside from
educators, the team should also include select Bhutanese policy planners
and international development experts based on Bhutan (especially from
UNDP and UNICEF) with an interest in the potential impact of education
and knowledge on socially and environmentally responsible development.
UNESCOs Southeast Asia representative has also been invited.

The assembly of such a team will require fundinginitially from smaller and
more flexible sources, and eventually from major international development

11
agencies and other sources like research institutes. The inclusion of
scholars and academics in this endeavour should also eventually provide
access to research funds available primarily to university-based
researchers.

Since this effort is motivated by the need and intention to implement GNH
and an integrated development philosophy in practice, curriculum design is
only the first stage. Full and proper implementation of the Bhutanese Prime
Ministers and Education Ministers shared goal here will require the actual
assembly of reading and other materials, writing of new school texts,
testing of the new curricula in schools, and a full-fledged teacher education
program aimed at teaching educators not only to transmit GNH-based
knowledge effectively to students, but to help facilitate the whole
development of the student and cultivate wisdom in society.

In sum, this is a hugely ambitious, multi-year project. But its rewards are
likely to be enormous and extraordinarily helpful to the world. Indeed, it
might be argued that not only Bhutan but the world at large needs to attain
this new knowledge and wisdom if it is to survive and if the rich natural and
cultural diversity of the planet is to be restored and maintained.

4. Phase One (2009-2010)

The Prime Minister has suggested that the best way to jump start this major
long-term project is to have a workshop in Bhutan this winter comprised of
a small number of select international experts in holistic education, whose
views, understanding, and practical experience match the GNH approach,
and Bhutanese educatorsboth education department officials and teacher
representatives. This workshop would establish a vision, goals, and timeline
for implementation, and generate the partnerships and organizational
structure needed for the project to succeed. As well, the Prime Minister and
Education Minister have expressed their intention to participate fully in the
workshop and it will attract media attention in order to generate the
discussion, enthusiasm, and public support required.

To get the ball rolling, GPI Atlantic researchers have been working
intensively since last winter to research the potential components of a GNH
curriculum, to investigate existing models, writing, and work in the fields of
holistic learning, sustainability education, indigenous knowledge, and
contemplative education, particularly as these have effectively been
combined with rigorous intellectual and critical pursuit.

GPI Atlantic researchers have also identified leading international educators

and practitioners whose knowledge and experience might be of particular
relevance and use to the Bhutanese in their effort. GPI Atlantic has been in

12
direct touch with many of these educators and brought their work to the
attention of the Bhutanese leaders.

As a result of this process, what promises to be a remarkable workshop,

titled Educating for Gross National Happiness, will take place in Thimphu,
Bhutan, for five days from December 7-12, 2009. A partial list of
confirmed international participants is attached here. Also attached is a
recent letter sent to these confirmed participants. Discussions are still
under way with several more potential participants. There will also be
observers from UNICEF, UNESCO, and other agencies.

Between now and December, GPI Atlantic intends to assemble materials for
a detailed sourcebook of background readings for Bhutanese educators and
officials. This will include articles written by workshop participants;
materials on existing models and best practices in holistic, sustainability,
and cultural responsive education; and background research on educational
approaches that are in line with Bhutans GNH development philosophy.

To date, five such approaches have been identifiedall of which will be well
represented by the workshop participants and in the sourcebook:
contemplative education
fostering critical thinking, reasoning, and analysis
sustainability education and ecological literacy
Indigenous knowledge, local wisdom, and culturally responsive
education
holistic education, which seeks to combine all the above.
Critical thinking and sharpening the intellect are seen to pervade and
constitute a sine qua non of all the other four areas rather than to be
represented separately.

The final stage of Phase One will occur after the workshopnamely in the
winter and spring of 2009-2010and is presently envisioned to include
preparation, printing, and distribution of workshop proceedings, meetings
with Bhutanese government officials and educators to assess workshop
outcomes and determine next steps, and preparation of a full-fledged
proposal to go to international donors and research institutes that might
fund the multi-year implementation of this intended education system
transformation.

It is expected that the Dec. 7-12 workshop will generate all that is needed
for a detailed proposalreplete with clear goals, timelines, partnerships, an
organizational structure, and an implementation planthat has the
potential to attract significant funding from international donors and
research institutes to realize this project over a period of years.

13
In sum, there are seen to be five stages in this Phase One development:

1. Research and development to identify the potential components of a

GNH curriculum, the kinds of knowledge that would be nurtured and
developed in such a curriculum, approaches to education that combine
mind, heart. spirit, and action, and the educators, experts, and writers
internationally who are on the leading edge of this work, and who have
experience in implementing these approaches. As well, this research and
development phase should identify potential markers or indicators of an
educated populace from a GNH perspective based on expected and
desired outcomes.

2. Assembly of background and source materials, including

preparation of workshop materials and sourcebooks for Bhutanese
educators and officials.

3. Preparatory meetings and briefings with and among Bhutanese

officials, educators, and curriculum designers in the months prior to the
workshop to ensure workshop preparedness and readiness, and
agreement on goals/desired outcomes.

4. Workshop organization, including travel and accommodation

arrangements for participants, long-distance phone calls, facilitation by
an expert facilitator, registration, publicity, delegate packages, agenda,
chairs and moderators, hosting, recording of proceedings, transcripts,
printing, and initial follow-up.

5. Post-workshop meetings to assess outcomes and next steps, and

particularly preparation (in the winter and spring of 2010) of a major
detailed funding proposal (based on workshop outcomes) for full
implementation of the Bhutan Governments intended transformation of
its educational system

14
5. Letter sent to confirmed workshop participants 17 July,
2009

I am very pleased to confirm that the dates of the workshop, Educating for
Gross National Happiness, will be 7-12 December, 2009, in Thimpu, Bhutan.
In the near future, you will be receiving an official letter of invitation from
the Prime Minister of Bhutan.

In the last 24 hours, both the Prime Minister and the countrys Education
Minister, in separate phone calls, have expressed great delight and
appreciation at your participation, and both intend to participate in the
workshop themselves as fully and wholeheartedly as possible. In fact, when
I asked him to address the gathering, the Prime Minister said he would
rather be there to listen and to learn, and that he wants to dispense with
ceremony so that the discussions can be as informal, practical, businesslike,
and action-oriented as possible. They will direct the members of Bhutans
Royal Education Council to participate as well as senior Bhutanese
educators, teacher representatives, education policy makers, and
curriculum designers and planners. The Prime Minister said this initiative is
without a doubt one of the most important and far-reaching things the
country is doing.

One of the major preparatory steps in the weeks and months ahead is the
assembly of a sourcebook of relevant reading materials, both for workshop
participants and other Bhutanese educators and officials. To that end, I
would like to ask you to send me key articles that you have written that you
consider most relevant to Bhutans intention to transform its educational
system. Please send these to me in WORD format to facilitate copying,
pasting, and combining the materials into a sourcebook. Please also send
me copies (or urls) of outstanding articles written by others that you would
highly recommend as most relevant to our shared purpose. These might
include descriptions of best practices that could serve as models for Bhutan.
We will seek the permission of these authors for inclusion of those materials
in the sourcebook as well.

The workshop will be expertly facilitated to move from enunciation of a

shared vision to concrete goals and timelines to creation of the partnerships
and organizational structures required to implement in practice this vision
of a national educational curriculum infused with the principles of Gross
National Happiness. As we get closer to the time, we will assist you with
travel details, bookings, and all other logistical and planning issues. Thank
you again so much for your participation in this extraordinary and ambitious
project, which could have a significant impact not only in Bhutan but far
beyond that countrys borders.

15
Sincerely,

Ronald Colman, Ph.D

Executive Director, GPI Atlantic

16
6. List of confirmed workshop participants with short bios

John P. Miller, Ph.D., is Professor in the Department of Curriculum,

Teaching, and Learning at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education
(OISE) at the University of Toronto and former Head of OISE's Centre for
Teacher Development. Professor Miller teaches courses in holistic education
and spirituality in education. He has also led workshops and given keynote
addresses on those topics at conferences around the world.

Prof. Miller has worked in the field of holistic education for over 30 years.
He is one of the most frequently cited educators in the holistic and
transformative learning field, is the former coordinator of the biannual
conferences on Holistic Learning, and is on the advisory board to the Whole
Child School. He is author of more than a dozen books and his writing has
been translated into eight languages.

Notable among his many books, chapters, and journal articles are The
Holistic Curriculum (2007), Educating for Wisdom and Compassion (2006),
Holistic Learning and Spirituality in Education: Breaking New Ground
(2005), Education and the Soul: Toward a Spiritual Curriculum (2000), The
Contemplative Practitioner (1994), Holistic Learning: The Teacher's Guide
to Integrated Studies (1990), The Compassionate Teacher (1981), and
Humanizing the Classroom (1976). For an abstract of The Holistic
Curriculum, see https://great-ideas.org/30-15.htm.

David W. Orr, Ph.D, is the Paul Sears Distinguished Professor of

Environmental Studies and Politics at Oberlin College in Ohio and a James
Marsh Professor at the University of Vermont. He is also currently a senior
member of the advisory committee of the U.S. Presidential Climate Action
Project (PCAP). He is best known for his pioneering work on environmental
literacy in education and his recent work in ecological design.

He is the author of six books: Down to the Wire: Confronting Climate

Collapse (Oxford University Press, 2009); Design on the Edge: The Making
of a High Performance Building (MIT Press, 2006); The Last Refuge:
Patriotism, Politics, and the Environment (Island Press, 2004); The Nature
of Design (Oxford, 2002); Earth in Mind (Island, 1994/2004); and Ecological
Literacy (SUNY, 1992), and is co-editor of The Global Predicament (North
Carolina, 1979) and The Campus and Environmental Responsibility (Jossey-
Bass, 1992). He has published 150 articles in scientific journals, social
science publications, and popular magazines.

For a sample of his writings on education, see What is education for? Six
myths about the foundations of modern education, and six new principles to
replace them: http://www.davidworr.com/files/What_is_Education_For.pdf;

17
and A Sense of Wonder:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/pdf/wonder.pdf

Vandana Shiva, Ph.D., is trained as a Physicist and later shifted to inter-

disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy, which
she carried out at the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of
Management in Bangalore, India. She is one of the worlds most renowned
environmentalistsidentified by Time magazine as an environmental hero
in 2003 and Asia Week has called her one of the five most powerful
communicators of Asia.

Vandana Shiva has pioneered the organic movement in India and

established Navdanya, the countrys biggest network of seed keepers and
organic producers. She has authored many books including Soil Not Oil,
Earth Democracy, Stolen Harvest, Staying Alive, Water Wars and Biopiracy.

Among her many awards are the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood
Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of UN and Earth
Day International Award. Lennon ONO grant for peace award by Yoko Ono
and Honourable Mayor of Reykjavik

Satish Kumar, Ph.D., is the current editor of Resurgence Magazine (an

international magazine promoting peace, non-violence, ecology,
sustainability, organic agriculture, appropriate technology and holistic
philosophy). He is also founder and Director of Programmes of the
Schumacher College (http://www.schumachercollege.org.uk/), an
international centre for ecological studies, and of The Small School (see
description below). Originally from India, Satish Kumar currently lives in
Devon, England.

Satish Kumar has authored numerous books including: The Buddha and the
Terrorist: The Story of Angulimala; Images of Earth & Spirit: A Resurgence
Art Anthology (editor); You Are Therefore I Am - A Declaration of
Dependence; Only Connect: Soil, Soul, Society; No Destination: an
autobiography; and Spiritual Compass: The Three Qualities of Life. See
Life is all about Learning available at:
http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/satishls3.htm

The Small School is not compulsory and there are no fees for attendance.
We did not want it to become like an elite school, which only the rich can
afford, nor did we want to suffer from government intrusion. Therefore, the
Small School operates with contributions and donations from the parents
and with grants from foundations, which ensures that it remains at a human
scale. Indeed, several more small schools have been founded in England,
France, and elsewhere, as part of the Movement for Education on a Human

18
Scale. They represent the ideal for real autonomy and local participation in
education.

Madhu Suri Prakash, Ph.D., is a professor of philosophy of education at

Pennsylvania State Universitys College of Education. She is the co-author
of Grassroots Postmodernism: Remaking the Soil of Cultures and Escaping
Education: Living as Learning at the Grassroots. Both books have been
inspired by the ideas of Ivan Illich. Her work on indigenous cultures,
grassroots movements, cultural diversity, and environmental education has
appeared in Education Theory, in American Journal of Education, and in
Encounters. She also teachers on moral education and ethics and ecological
literacy.

Madhu Suri Prakash is recipient of the Eisenhower Award for distinguished

teaching, and co-edited special issues of Encounters and Educational
Theory on Gandhi and on Ecology respectively.

Richard Brown is co-Chair, Department of Contemplative Education, at

Naropa University, and founded Naropas Contemplative Education
Department in 1990. The department adapts wisdom, compassion and
skillful means drawn from Buddhist and holistic education traditions to non-
sectarian teacher education. Its programs include a BA in Early Childhood
Education, a fifth-year state teacher licensure program and a low-residency
MA in Contemplative Education.

After teaching public elementary school, Richard taught for seven years
during the 1980s at the Vidya School, a Buddhist-inspired K-12 school in
Boulder, Colorado. Since then he has been involved in the formation of
several contemplative schools, has helped develop Buddhist rites of passage
programs, and has published a Buddhist view of child and adolescent
spiritual development.

Richard has mainly written on various areas of contemplative teacher

education including emotion, awareness and observation. See for example:
Taming Emotion:Tibetan Meditation in Teacher Education: available at:
http://www.naropa.edu/faculty/articles/taming_emotion_chap01.pdf

19
Gregory Cajete, Ph.D., a Tewa from Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexicois
an educator, artist, and educational consultant. He was the
founding Director of the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa
Fe, and currently is Director of Native American Studies and an
Associate Professor in the Division of Language, Literacy and Socio-
cultural Studies in the College of Education at the University of New
Mexico, Albuquerque.

Dr. Cajete has authored five books: Look to the Mountain: An

Ecology of Indigenous Education, (Kivaki Press, 1994) (https://great-
ideas.org/30-3.htm); Ignite the Sparkle: An Indigenous Science
Education Curriculum Model, (Kivaki Press, 1999); Spirit of the
Game: Indigenous Wellsprings (2004) , A Peoples Ecology:
Explorations in Sustainable Living, and Native Science: Natural
Laws of Interdependence (Clearlight Publishers, 1999 and 2000).

In Look to the Mountain: An Ecology of Indigenous Education, Dr.

Cajete argues that the purpose of education in tribal cultures is to
connect people to their heritage and to their distinct place on earth.
Cajete describes how this is achieved through mythopoetic rather
than reductionistic teaching methods, including storytelling, sacred
art, ritual, immersion in nature, and simply through the daily
involvement of young people in the life of the adult community.
Education is not seen as a technical process to be managed by
specialists but as a heroic journey, a challenging quest that each
individual undertakes with the support and guidance of the
community.

Dr. Cajete also designs culturally-responsive curricula geared to the special

needs and learning styles of Native American students. These curricula are
based upon Native American understanding of the nature of nature and
utilize this foundation to develop an understanding of the science and
artistic thought process as expressed in Indigenous perspectives of the
natural world.

Sanjit Bunker Roy is founder and Director of the Barefoot College, India,
whose mission is to alleviate the suffering of the rural poor and imbue them
with self-respect and dignity. Founded in 1972, the Barefoot College is the
only College in India built by and for the poor, and addresses issues of
health & sanitation, rural employment, sustainable energy, social
awareness, and the conservation of ecological systems in rural
communities. The college recently received the Tyler Prize for

20
Environmental Achievement and Mr Roy was awarded the St. Andrew's
Prize for the Environment.

Henry Rosemont, Jr., Ph.D., (Philosophy) was trained in analytic logic,

linguistics and critical thinking, which he combines in his teaching with an
understanding and appreciation of Asian philosophies and religions,
especially Confucianism, a field in which he is an internationally recognized
scholar and translator. He is the author of Rationality & Religious
Experience (2001) and two other books, and has edited and/or translated
ten others, including The Analects of Confucius (1999), Leibniz: Writings on
China (1994) and The Chinese Classic of Family Reverence (2009).

A close associate of Noam Chomsky (who recommended him for this

project), Dr. Rosemont is currently Visiting Professor of Religious Studies at
Brown University, Distinguished Professor of the Liberal Arts Emeritus at
St. Marys College of Maryland, and General Editor of the Dimensions of
Asian Spirituality series of the University of Hawaii Press. He holds awards
for teaching excellence from St. Marys College of Maryland and the School
of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, has lectured
at more than 100 universities worldwide, and is frequently interviewed on
radio, television, and in the print media.

Zenobia Barlow is co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for

Ecoliteracy and has led the Centers grant making, educational, and
publishing programs since its inception. One of the nations pioneers in
creating models of schooling for sustainability, Barlow has designed
strategies for applying ecological and indigenous understanding in K-12
education including the Food Systems Project, Rethinking School Lunch,
and Smart Nature. She co-edited Ecological Literacy: Educating our
Children for a Sustainable World, and Ecoliteracy: Mapping the Terrain.

Prior to working at the Center for Ecoliteracy, Barlow worked for the Office
of Child Development and the American Academy of Pediatrics. More
recently, she was the executive director of the Elmwood Institute, an
ecological think tank and international network of activists and scholars
founded by physicist, systems theorist, and author Fritjof Capra.

Thinking Outside the Classroom: an Interview with Zenobia Barlow, by

Derrick Jensen (excerpted from The Sun magazine, March 2002) is available
at:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/pdf/totc-color.pdf. For written
testimony of Zenobia Barlow before the Early Childhood, Elementary and
Secondary Education Subcommittee U.S. House of Representatives, April

21
25, 2008, see:
http://www.ecoliteracy.org/publications/pdf/Zenobia_Barlow_Testimony_Apri
l08.pdf

Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., is President of the Children & Nature Network and
has worked closely with Richard Louv to develop training and education for
emerging regional leaders in the children and nature movement. Cheryl is
currently the Assistant Deputy Chair of the Commission on Education and
Communication for the International Union for Conservation of Nature
(IUCN).

She served for nearly 20 years as national director of the two most widely
used environment education programs in North America, Project Learning
Tree and Project WILD, and has received many awards for her leadership.
She is an innovator, educator, sought-after speaker and author who, for the
past decade, also worked as an organizational executive with many of the
nations key chief executive officers.

Sulak Sivaraksa is a prominent and outspoken Thai intellectual and social

critic. He is also a teacher, scholar, publisher, activist, founder of many
organisations, and author of more than a hundred books and monographs in
both Thai and English. He is the founder and Director of the Spirit in
Education Movement (SEM) -- a nongovernmental organization promoting
alternative education for adults, organized under the Satheirakoses-
Nagapradipa Foundation.

Ajarn Sulak already has a close connection with Bhutan. In 2006 was invited
to deliver a speech for the Center for Bhutan Studies in Thimphu, Bhutan,
which in turn resulted in his agreement to host and co-organise the 3rd
International Conference on Gross National Happiness in Thailand in
November, 2007. He is among a handful of leaders world-wide working to
revive the socially engaged aspects of spirituality.

On the Spirit in Education Movement, see: http://www.sulak-

sivaraksa.org/en/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=151&Itemid=144
On Buddhism and Environmentalism, see: http://www.sulak-
sivaraksa.org/en/index.php?
option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=104

Yoshiharu Nakagawa, Ph.D., is one of the key thinkers in the field of

Holistic Education today. Yoshiharu Nakagawa is an educational philosopher
who recently completed several years of advanced study with holistic
education theorist John P. Miller at the University of Toronto. He is currently

22
Associate Professor, Department of Humanities, Graduate School of Science
for Human Sciences, at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, Japan, and a
scientific advisor to the Center for Spiritual Development in Childhood and
Adolescence (http://www.spiritualdevelopmentcenter.org/ )

Nakagawa is author of Education for Awakening. An Eastern Approach to

Holistic Education (http://www.great-ideas.org/awake.htm), in which he
explores the holistic philosophy underlying an "Eastern" view of the world,
which he finds primarily in Japanese Buddhism but also connects to diverse
Asian traditions from Sufi to Confucian teachings. These traditions, he says,
teach that reality is comprised of five dimensions: objective, social, cosmic,
infinite, and universal. Western-style reductionism is only concerned with
the first two of these, while Western holism addresses the third but does not
comprehend the infinite and universal realms to the depth that Eastern
philosophy, aided by meditative insight, has attained. Nakagawa explains
how an integrated (East and West) view of the world would contain
complementary philosophical insights and lead to a full development of the
human being.

In his writings on holistic educational theory, Nakagawa draws from a wide range of philosophers,
sages, and scientiststo explain his thinking, including important Japanese thinkers such as Kitaro
Nishida, Shinichi Hisamatsu and Toshihiko Izutsu who point to dimensions of existence outside rational,
objective definition. Building on his multi-dimensional view of the world, Nakagawa describes an
education that leads to genuine communion with the world.

Manish Jain has served for 11 years as Coordinator-Co-Founder of

Shikshantar: The Peoples Institute for Rethinking Education and
Development based in Udaipur, India and as Chief Editor of the journal,
Vimukt Shiksha (Liberating Education). He has helped catalyze the Udaipur
as a Learning City process to regenerate the learning ecosystem and
nurture sustainable living and swaraj. He also coordinates the Learning
Societies Translocal Network and the Swapathgami Network. He has edited
several books including: Reclaiming the Gift Culture, Paths of Unlearning,
Unfolding Learning Societies, Healing Ourselves from the Diploma Disease,
and Community Media.

Prior to this, Manish spent two years in France working as one of the
principal architects of the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization) Learning Without Frontiers global initiative.
While at UNESCO, he worked extensively on developing a conceptual
framework for moving from a paradigm of schooling to self-organizing
learning communities. Manish has also worked as an consultant in the areas
of educational planning, policy analysis, research, program design and
media/technology with UNICEF, USAID, UNDP, World Bank, World
Education, Academy for Educational Development, and Education
Development Center in Africa, Middle East and the former Soviet Union.

23
Shirley Blair has been Director of Shree Mangal Dvip school in
Kathmandu, Nepal, for more than 12 years. The school was founded by
Khenchen Thrangu Rinpoche in 1987 to preserve the culture, language and
the Buddhist way of life of the Himalayas, and to give Himalayan children
the tools to build a better future, so they can help their own people when
they grow up." It now has more than 600 children, mostly of Tibetan
refugee origin, who study in three languages (Nepali, Tibetan, and English).
While receiving a full modern education with emphasis on environmental
concerns, the students are also guided so they develop loving hearts, so
they can live compassionate lives. From the earliest ages we teach
students that they can help others. We teach them the importance of
developing Bodhicitta (altruism) and Bodhicitta action. For example, the
students have helped street kids and the elderly by providing them food and
clothing,"
The children spend 80 minutes a day in meditation and prayer and study
Buddhist teachings like Santidevas Way of the Boddhisattva, while the
older students sharpen their minds through the study of classical debate.
Visitors comment on the different feeling that pervades the school,
including the absence of aggression among the children and their
observation that the children are happy, open-hearted, generous and kind,
with a strong work ethic.

Sonam Wangchuk was born in Ladakh, and is a co-founder and director of

SECMOL, a pioneering NGO working on education reform and sustainable
development issues based in Ladakh, India. He is currently on an advisory
assignment in Nepal where he is building (for the Department/Ministry of
Education) prototypes of cost-effective earth built school buildings that
would be earthquake safe and climate responsive, i.e. Solar heated in the
mountains and naturally cooled in the hot plains.

Sonam Wangchuk is the recipient of many awards, including the CNN-IBN

India Real Heroes Award in 2008, The Man of the Year by Indias The Week
in 2001, for his efforts to reform the education system in Ladakh, and the
Green Teacher Award by Sanctuary Asia Magazine in 2005. He was chosen
as an Ashoka Fellow in 2005, and received the Governors Medal from the
Jammu and Kashmir State Government in 1996.

SECMOL (Students Educational & Cultural Movement of Ladakh) was

formed in1988 by a group of returning University students, disturbed by the
failure of Ladakhs education system, which had little cultural relevance to
the people of Ladakh. Languages, such as Urdu and English, were used in
books but were alien to Ladakhi speaking children. In addition, teachers
were untrained. As a result, the failure rate among students was very high

24
(95% failed 10th grade exams each year). It has since worked in
collaboration with the local government to rework textbooks, train teachers
and organize the communities to take ownership of and responsibility for
education.

Valentino Giacomin and Luigia de Biasi are founders of the Alice Project
schools located in Sarnath and Bodhgaya, India, The schools philosophy is
based on the understanding that our perception of the external world
originates in the mind. Most of the children in Sarnath and Bodhgaya are
Hindu with a few from the Islamic, Christian and Jain traditions. Children
are encouraged to know and understand their own traditions andthrough
these traditionsthe universal truths are conveyed.
The curriculum combines three fundamental disciplines: 1. The traditional
Indian Government syllabus subjects; 2. the ancient Indian disciplines of
yoga, meditation and ayurvedic medicine and massage; 3. the integrated
universal branches of learning, for example dance, Dharma, drama, art,
mythology, ecology, farming, social work, ethical teachings and philosophy.
Valentino Giacomin has written an inspiring series of text books, 'Philosophy
for Children', moral tales, and stories, which are used in the school.

Judith Simmer-Brown, Ph.D., has been Professor of Religious Studies at

Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado, since 1978. In that capacity she has
taught Bhutanese monks in her classes there, and been involved in
discussions on the applicability of the Naropa model to educational reform
in Bhutan, both for monastics and laity. She is co-editor of a forthcoming
book titled Meditation in the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for
Religious Studies (Religious Studies Series, State University of New York
Press, 2010), which contains a collection of articles on this subject.

Dr. Simmer-Brown has practiced Tibetan Buddhism for 38 years and is an

Acharya (senior dharma teacher) of the Shambhala Buddhist lineage of
Chogyam Trungpa, Rinpoche. She has also been involved in international
Buddhist-Christian dialogue for the past twenty-five years and has been an
active participant in the contemporary North American discussion
surrounding Buddhism in the West. She serves on the steering committee
of the American Academy of Religion's Buddhist Critical-Constructive
Reflection group. She lectures and writes on Tibetan Buddhism, American
Buddhism, women and Buddhism, inter-religious dialogue, and
contemplative education. Her publications include the book Dakini's Warm
Breath: The Feminine Principle in Tibetan Buddhism (Shambhala).

25
Sally Booth, Ph.D., is the Associate Director of the Research, Curriculum
and Professional Development at the Ross Institute in East Hampton and
New York City, NY. After many years of teaching Cultural Anthropology at
the college level, she moved to Ross School to write curriculum and teach
Cultural History at the high school and middle school levels. The Ross
School approaches the educational experience in an integrated,
multidisciplinary approach to global cultural history. The school stresses
project-based learning, and multiple intelligences approaches to a
curriculum framework based on holistic and integrated perspectives on
world cultural history. Since moving to the Ross Institute a year ago, Sally
has been instrumental in the adaptation of the Ross School pedagogy and
curriculum in public schools in Stockholm, Sweden and New York City. She
has organized professional development seminars for teachers from four
affiliated schools as well as course offerings for teachers from other schools.

Steve Mustain has been the Director of the Shambhala School in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada for 12 years. The pre-kindergarten to grade 12 school
was founded on the fundamental principle that each person possesses an
inherent basic goodness that can be cultivated and appreciated in the
proper environment. Taking its name from a mythological kingdom where
citizens experience life through kindness and respect, the school blends
academics with contemplative practises such as meditation, yoga and
bowing in the upper school, and a focus on the synchronization of body and
mind in the elementary grades.

The elementary curriculum has drawn inspiration from leading educators

and includes the integrated arts-based approach of Rudolph Steiner, skill
mastery techniques of traditional western education, and seasonal and
multicultural theme-based studies. Upper school students also participate in
talking circles, mens and womens circles, martial arts and nature
awareness activities along with a university preparatory academic program
and an enriched arts program.

Aostre Johnson, Ph.D., is a professor of Education at Saint Michael's College,

Colchester, Vermont. She has served many roles at the college including
Director of Graduate Education. She helped establish the school's
concentration in "Arts in Education." Currently she is coordinator of the
graduate concentration in curriculum and a lecture series on spirituality
and education. She teaches curriculum and pedagogy courses in both the
undergraduate and the graduate departments. She has published articles in
the areas of creativity, multiple intelligences and spirituality as they relate
to human development and education.
Aostre is a co-editor of Nurturing Child and Adolescent Spirituality:
Perspectives from the World's Religious Traditions (2006) and a

26
chapter, "Developing Contemplative Capacities in Childhood and
Adolescence: A Rationale and Overview: in de Souza, M.; Francis, L.J.;
O'Higgins-Norman, J.; Scott, D. (Eds.), International Handbook of Education
for Spirituality, Care and Wellbeing. New York: Springer (2009). She has
directed two university laboratory schools and has founded and directed
two holistic pre-school/elementary schools.

Prapapat Niyom has taught for more than twenty years at the Architecture
School at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand. In the last three
years she has worked as Deputy Governor of Bangkok (City Planning,
Building and Infrastructure, Community Development and Waste
Management). Prof. Niyom founded the Roong Aroon School in 1997 with
the support of the Roong Aroon School Foundation. Based on Buddhist
principles, the school applies a holistic approach to teaching and learning
from kindergarten to high school that enables the students to develop and
cultivate their deeper learning skills as well as compassion, awareness and
self reflection. To strengthen and broaden the concept of holistic education,
Roong Aroon School also offers special training programmes to teachers
and parents.

Benjalug Namfa is currently Director of Bureau of Academic Affairs and

Educational Standards in Thailand, developing national core curriculum for
Basic Education from Kindergarten to Grade 12. She has a PhD in
Curriculum, Teaching and Educational Policy from Michigan State
University. She has also worked as a consultant for NGOs and NPOs both
within Thailand and with international organizations such as Save the
Children Sweden and Thailand Environment Institute and Universities.

Art-ong Jumsai Na Ayudhya is the Chief Administrator of Sathya Sai

School in Thailand. He is also the Director of the Institute of Sathya Sai
Education. He has authored several books including a Handbook for
Teachers in Education in Human Values (1991); The Five Human Values and
Human Excellence (1997); and Integration of Human Values in Mathematics
and Sciences (1997).

27
 4. PARTICIPANT LETTER (TO 25 PARTICIPANTS + MINISTERS)
On letterhead of Honourable Minister of Education

30 October, 2009

Dear ____________,

On behalf of the Ministry of Education, Royal Government of Bhutan, I request you to

participate in a very important international workshop, to be held on December 7-12 in
Thimphu, on bringing GNH values and principles fully into all elements of our national
educational system.

You have been very carefully selected as one of only 25 key Bhutanese representatives to
engage in a week-long dialogue with 25 of the worlds top experts, scholars, authors, and
practitioners in five educational approaches that have been identified as highly consonant
with GNH principles. Please see the attached workshop overview and short biographies of
the international participants. We have selected you as a core participant because your
personal knowledge and experience are seen as seminal to the workshop success.

As you know, we have been trying for some time to bring GNH values and principles into
our educational system, and we have had some successes. We have also examined this
issue very carefully in our own studiesmost recently in work produced by the Royal
Education Council, the Centre for Bhutan Studies, the Ministry of Education, and others.
Now we want to build on our work and study to date to move forward in this vital area in a
more comprehensive and systematic way than ever before.

Hesitation is no longer an option. As you know, our young people and citizens in general are
subject to a bombardment of materialist and consumerist messages as never before.
Economic development is proceeding apace. But if we are to preserve our unique and
balanced GNH development philosophy, as enunciated by our beloved Fourth Druk Gyalpo,
and ensure that it is dynamically relevant in years to come, it is essential that GNH values
and principlesincluding deep and genuine care for nature and for others, the flourishing of
our profound and ancient culture, and the elements of good citizenship and governance
are deeply embedded in the consciousness of our youth. They, after all, are the citizens and
leaders of the future, and the countrys future rests in their hands.

As the attached overview makes clear, the issue here is not teaching about GNH, but rather
ensuring that the GNH view is meaningfully reflected in everything we dofrom classroom
structure and atmosphere, to teaching methods, curricula, classroom activities, teacher
training, and more.

To that end, the Dec. 7-12 gathering is not a conference with many different presentations
reflecting presenters own work. Rather it is a workshop dialogue that will be facilitated by a
highly trained professional facilitator, designed to move us from articulation of our shared
vision to time-sensitive goals (where well be in 3, 5, and 10 years), to practical
implementation. In the words of the Honourable Prime Minister, who initiated this workshop:

28
 My hope is that the discussions will be very practical, so that we know just how to
proceed, what our next steps will be, what partnerships and funding are needed, and
what a realistic timeline, plan, and structure for implementation will be.

Because the workshop is designed as a process, in which every step is crucial, it is

absolutely essential that you attend and participate fully in every session, and that you and
the 24 other selected participants clear your whole week from the evening of Dec. 7 through
the evening of Dec. 12 with no other scheduling conflicts. To the best of our ability, the
Honourable Prime Minister and three other Cabinet members including myself, will also
participate as fully as we can, since we regard this initiative as one of our countrys top
priorities in securing our desired future for the benefit of all Bhutanese.

We must acknowledge that what we are attempting here is unprecedented in the world.
While individual schools here and there have transformed their curricula along holistic lines,
no country has ever attempted to do so on a national scale. What we do here could
therefore be influential far beyond our borders.

Finally, for this workshop to succeed, some serious preparation over the next month will be
essential. Therefore I request you to attend some preparatory meetings hosted by our
workshop organizing committee and to undertake the preparatory tasks they set. As soon
as you receive this letter, please respond to Ms Khandu Om Dorji at khandu.om@gmail.com
or by calling 1711-0418, signifying your availability to represent your country on Dec. 7-12.

On behalf of the Royal Government of Bhutan, I thank you deeply for taking on this very
important responsibility that has the potential to bring great benefit to our people and to a
world yearning for peace and sanity.

Yours sincerely in the GNH spirit,

Lyonpo official stamp and signature

Core organizing committee:

Mr Tshewang Tandin, Director, School Education, Ministry of Education,
tshewangtandin@education.gov.bt; phone: 1760-1909
Ms Khandu Om Dorji, Senior Program Officer (Education), Social Sector Unit, Prime
Ministers Office, khandu.om@gmail.com; phone: 1711-0418
Dr. Ronald Colman, Executive Director, GPI Atlantic, colman@gpiatlantic.org; phone:
1797-7662
Official letter of invitation to international participants from
Honorable Prime Minister of Bhutan
(on Royal Government of Bhutan letterhead)

Dear _____________ , 17 August, 2009

29
I am pleased to invite you to visit Bhutan to advise us on how we can create
a national educational system that truly reflects the principles of our unique
developmental philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH). Indeed, our
goal is not merely to teach about GHN, but to ensure that GNH values and
understanding infuse and permeate the curriculum at all levels. I think this
is the most suitable way for young Bhutanese to grow up as responsible
citizens, caring for others, and with a deep and genuine commitment to
environmental conservation and to their ancient culture. Your profound
knowledge and vast experience in the field of education will be invaluable to
us in our endeavours to strive towards these goals.

To this end, I would like to invite you to spend a few days with us in
Thimphu from December 7-12 this year to help us clearly delineate our
vision and educational objectives and how we can achieve and implement
them. My hope is that our discussions will be very practical so that we know
just how to proceed, what our next steps will be, what partnerships and
funding are needed, and what a realistic timeline, plan, and structure for
implementation will be. I will ask the members of the Royal Education
Council to also participate in the workshop along with other top Bhutanese
educators, officials, and curriculum design specialists. The Education
Minister and I, along with other elected representatives also intend to
participate, with all of us listening attentively, asking questions, and
learning from you.

I firmly believe that the principles of GHN are not relevant to Bhutan alone,
but reflect universal aspirations to live in harmony with nature and with
each other. If we succeed in transforming our educational system in Bhutan
on a national scale towards these ends, it could have a very positive
influence far beyond our own borders in helping to create a better world. If
we dont start with the consciousness and minds of our children and youth, I
dont think that anything else we do can succeed. This is why I asked GPI
Atlantic to assemble some of the most knowledgeable and experienced
educators worldwide who have expertise to help us reach our shared
aspirations. We could not wish for a more stellar group. I am enormously
grateful that you will take the time from your very demanding schedules to
come to Bhutan to work with us.

I very much look forward to welcoming you personally in December.

With warmest appreciation and best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Jigmi Y. Thinley

30
Introduction

The Dalai Lama's message to future teachers

How to prepare our youth to lead compassionate
and ethical lives

By Pauline Thoret, Canadian Teachers' Federation

October 20, 2009

His presence is disarming, his smile is comforting, his laugh is contagious,

and his message is clear: compassion and ethics are at the root of
happiness, and happiness can be learned!! This brought a round of applause
from 500 teacher trainees who attended the Dalai Lama's morning
presentation at McGill University (Montreal, Quebec) on Oct. 3, 2009.

For the last 50 years, the Dalai Lama has spent time learning from world
audiences and sharing his global vision in return -- discussing issues of
great importance for all humankind, and the common good. In his message,
he emphasized compassion, ethics, and happiness as the necessary
elements that embody world peace, a reality that has eluded us to date.

He reminded us that we all have one thing in common -- we are all

reproduced biologically and through pure mother-child attachment at birth,
we encounter our first moments of inner happiness -- a happiness not
derived from external factors. Over the years, the manufactured values of
competition, power and self-centeredness trump that inner happiness. As a
result we redefine our perception of happiness to one that is tied to our
identity in relation to all things material -- a physical happiness.

He went on to define ethics as the conscious physical and emotional actions

of one being that bring long-term benefits to another. In this context, he
spoke of all mammals' survival being dependent on the actions of others,
and how the outdated concept of wars and its devastating impact on
humankind, with 200 million related deaths in this last century alone, are
not exercises in ethics. Since actions are conscious, and carry with them
positive or negative emotions, then positive emotive actions can be learned.
The Dalai Lama believes that we can develop compassion through training
and non-biased reasoning once we fully understand the depth or our
interdependency on one another.

He believes the successful universal promotion of "moral ethics" can only be

done through the education systems, which are a part of every community

31
in every country. Unfortunately, the education system has never paid
sufficient attention to moral ethics since the foundation for it is based on
market and economy. He espouses that "moral ethics" education and
training, based on compassion, should start at kindergarten and go on to
university. A program of this kind would overshadow the pervasive material
happiness so many of us seek and live daily, and return us to being
consciously aware of our humble selves, the impact of our actions on others,
and reopen the door to our inner happiness. An educational program of this
kind could change an entire generation into thinking "what can I do today
for my fellow human being?"

The Dalai Lama left us with parting words, both for teachers, and for
students:

"Teachers must maintain a sense of concern and caring for the student.
Some teachers express impatience and intolerance but deep down they
have altruistic qualities that's what makes a good teacher. In turn, students
must maintain a profound aspiration to continually learn about the world
around them and the world they live in.

"Learn to recognize and release your inner happiness. From there, ethics
will take a life of its own," he concluded.

The Dalai Lama's Oct. 3 video presentation can be viewed on

http://www.learnquebec.ca

Pauline Thoret is the Coordinator of the Green Street program of the

Canadian Teachers' Federation.

32
Holistic Education

33
Education for Happiness and Human
Development
By Dr. Ron Miller
The modern worldview is destructive because it alienates human experience
from the rhythms and processes of nature in order to assert control over the
earth for economic gain. The result is psychological, existential, and
spiritual emptiness and dissatisfaction. In a culture defined by consumerism
and the flickering images of mass media, human life loses its wholeness,
purpose, and intrinsic meaning. On a societal or national level, this drive for
economic superiority unleashes the monstrous violence of colonialism,
imperialism and resource wars.

Ultimately, the desire for control over nature is futile because the earths
resources are finite, and we cannot indefinitely consume them and convert
them into waste. We face a crisis now, in the opening decade of the twenty-
first century, because the most important resource enabling our drive for
dominationcheap energy derived from fossil fuelsis dangerously altering
the planets climate and, at the same time, beginning to run out. Industrial
culture and all that it impliesurbanization, mechanization, globalization
cannot be sustained. If we do not thoughtfully design and start to build a
new civilization better attuned to the patterns and limitations of nature,
then the old one will collapse into an ugly, destructive mess.

If this historical moment is indeed so critical, then no educational agenda is

fully responsive to the conditions of our time unless it radically questions
the foundational assumptions that produced, and continue to support, the
modern educational system. We need to envision an entirely new
educational culture that will replace an obsolete industrial-age system with
a pedagogy that embraces a holistic, postmodern worldview.

From the point of view of a holistic cosmology, the institution of mass

schooling represents an industrialized, mechanized, standardized pedagogy,
a technique for shaping a homogenized culture and compliant workforce
rather than an organic nurturing of the human spirit. The holistic tradition
of alternative/countercultural pedagogy seeks to replace a mechanistic and
technocratic system of schooling with approaches that are more organic
(attuned to the rhythms and processes of nature), personalist (respectful of
the uniqueness and inner depth of each individual), and authentically
democratic (responsive to local communities). Holistic education embraces
a cultural and educational agenda grounded in several essential principles:
1). A holistic or integral perspective
2). Respect for every person, including children (human rights)
3). Decentralization of authority (human scale democracy)

34
 4). Noninterference between political, economic, and cultural spheres
of society
5). Balance (openness rather than fixed ideology)

A holistic perspective. This alternative pedagogy is firmly rooted in a

coherent philosophical rationalea clearly articulated holistic worldview.
Over the past thirty years, a serious yet still largely obscure literature has
been emerging from various intellectual perspectives, including science,
philosophy, cultural history, and religious studies, that challenges the basic
epistemological assumptions of modernism, particularly its reductionism
and materialism. These thinkers assert that reality is more expansive and
dynamic, and human consciousness more nimble and subtle, than
technocratic culture allows. They propose that there is an organic
relationship between humans and the natural world, that we are intimately
involved in its rhythms and processes in ways we cannot recognize when we
analyze nature into discrete components and blind forces. Some deeper
dimension of existencephysicist David Bohm called it the implicate
ordergives structure, meaning, and perhaps even purpose to the
processes of nature. Biologists such as Francisco Varela and Humberto
Maturana describe the phenomenon of self-organization or self-emergence
in living organisms, evidence that nature does not work merely through
blind chance or purely physical cause and effect. Consciousness or
intelligence of some sort appears to play an active role in shaping the world,
and, according to holistic thinkers, we may gain access to this dimension of
reality through ways of knowing that modernism and its pedagogy have
abandoned, such as insight, intuition, imagination, and contemplative
practice.

This emerging worldview is concerned with connection and relationship,

with finding meaning through larger contexts. It recognizes that the
incessant evolution of the cosmos continually changes these contexts.
Meanings are not fixed; they are open-ended, dynamic, contingent.
Therefore all of life is engaged in an ongoing process of transformation. No
single way of knowing (or single vision, as the poet William Blake called
reductionistic science) can adequately encompass the dynamic complexity
of the world. In his recent book Malcolm Hollick (2006) explains that a
holistic science

welcomes and values perspectives and insights from all sources of

knowledge. . . . We begin to see that the marvelously diverse images
from science, the humanities and the arts, and from the religions and
cultures of the world are all partial representations of the true Reality.
We begin to see that each reflects a different fact of the wondrous,
jeweled whole (pp. 53, 57).

35
If this is how the world is constructed, if this is how reality actually works,
then an education adequate to our existence needs to respond with dynamic
open-endedness also; it needs to foster renewal and transformation, not
mindless obedience to fixed standards or ideas. The holistic worldview
challenges any educational approach that enshrines a selected body of
facts into a fixed curriculum. In an information-saturated culture, no such
curriculum can give students a complete picture of reality. Any educators
or technocrats list of what every third grader should know represents a
partial view of the world, based on one particular, necessarily biased and
limited, point of view. It utterly loses a vision of the wondrous, jeweled
whole. From a holistic perspective, the primary goal of education is not to
transmit portions of knowledge but to help students experience a sense of
wonder and passionate interest in the world, along with habits of open-
ended inquiry and critical reflection.

Respect for the person. By shifting the focus from the transmission of
culturally sanctioned knowledge to the self-organizing intelligence of every
learner, the new education holds deep respect and even reverence for the
human being. The individual is not defined primarily in terms of his or her
socially constructed roles as a citizen or worker, but as an end in oneself,
possessing inherent worth. Holistic pedagogy is concerned, as Scott Forbes
(2003) puts it, with ultimacythat is, the highest and noblest qualities of
our existence, such as our aspirations toward truth, goodness, wisdom,
compassion, and love. These ultimate expressions of our humanity are
inherent in our nature; they emanate from within the person, not from the
authority of society. As human beings, we carry the seeds of our highest
aspirations and potential evolution within our own hearts.

The visionary educator Maria Montessori saw each child as the builder of a
unique human personality, driven by a creative force from within to engage
the world inquisitively and purposefully. Each person possesses both the
capacity and the spiritual imperative to fashion a personality, an
individuality, that will experience and live in the world in ways that no other
does, and we require autonomy and security in order to fully achieve this
potential. Because this individuality begins in childhood, young people are
entitled to educational and existential freedom necessary for them to
accomplish their task of building a mature individual. They should not be
subjected to a mechanistic pedagogy that treats all fourth graders as a
homogenous mass, or to a standardized curriculum established and
enforced by distant, elite policymakers. The American philosopher Ralph
Waldo Emerson gave the most eloquent statement of this position in his
1863 essay on education.

I believe that our own experience instructs us that the secret of

Education

36
 lies in respecting the pupil. It is not for you to choose what he shall
know,
what he shall do. It is chosen and foreordained, and he only hold the
key
to his own secret. By your tampering and thwarting and too much
governing, he may be hindered from his end and kept out of his own.
Respect the child. Wait and see the new product of Nature. Nature
loves
analogies, but not repetitions (1965, p. 430).

A pedagogy that reflects a worldview more attuned to organic processes,

and less interested in controlling them, would wait and see the new
product of nature in the emerging life of every young person. Our entire
educational structure of approved curriculum and textbooks, hierarchical
management of school systems and buildings, tightly scheduled time
periods, clever instructional methods, testing and grading, would be seen as
tampering and thwarting and too much governing, and we would do away
with it.

Generations of holistic educators have confirmed that young people do not

need to be herded and controlled in order to learn, that they achieve
healthy, productive maturity by interacting freely, actively and purposefully
with their world, engaging their senses, feelings and desires as well as their
minds. Developmental psychologists and researchers in neuroscience have
provided a rich and complex picture of how children grow and learn, and we
now know, just as we know that the earth isnt flat, that the process of
human development is holistic, creative, and spontaneous. The mechanical
management of a childs learning may serve the ends of a societys
authorities, but it does not support the fullest, healthiest development of
that childs potential intelligence or character.

The principle of respect for the individual childs developmental process

places the notion of human rights at the center of holistic pedagogy. The
human being possesses inherent worth and dignity, a vital spiritual core
generated by God, nature, or the cosmosnot something contingently
granted by any faction of society. If democracy represents trust in each
persons ability and right to manage his or her own life, and if we were to
discover that in the proper settings young people, even at quite young ages,
exhibit this ability to a significant degree, then are children not entitled to
greater autonomy in the unfolding of their personalities?

Decentralization of authority. A commitment to personal rights and

autonomy raises the question of cultural and therefore educational
authority. The holistic perspective generally embraces a decentralist view of
power and authority, because living systems are too complex and dynamic
to be governed distantly, or from above. Authority should be close to people,

37
not held by distant, impersonal institutions or governing elites. Individuals,
including young people in their education, should be actively engaged in the
affairs of their communities, in the decisions that affect their surroundings
and their lives. Authority wielded for its own sake, to maintain order or
standards as these are defined by ruling elites, should not be trusted
because it is removed from the fluid existential realities of life.

Holistic education seeks an organic relationship between individual and

community, student and teacher, based on an understanding that the human
being possesses an intrinsic striving for growth and that our experiences
are therefore inherently meaningful. Authority, when it is abstract, distant,
overbearingas it surely is in most aspects of public school policy and
practicedoes not support organic growth but thwarts it.

Radical educators argue that the curriculum itself tends to become an agent
of impersonal authority. If education is to be an organic relationship
between the learner and the world, then curriculum must be allowed to
emerge through meaningful inquiry and interaction. Standards imposed by
policymakers reflect a judgment by certain elites that in a diverse and
dynamic society there is one set of information and skills that all students
need to learn. In the modern technocracy, most of us have come to accept
standardized curriculum and homogenized knowledge as a given, but from a
holistic perspective, this is a deviation from the ceaselessly self-renewing
democratic culture that Thomas Jefferson envisioned for America. In a 1789
letter to James Madison, Jefferson said that the question of whether one
generation of men has a right to bind another is a fundamental question
of government; he thought that no society can make a perpetual
constitution, or even a perpetual law, and then pronounced his famous
statement that the earth belongs always to the living generation. Holistic
educators consider young people to be a living generation, and their
insistence on students fully engaged participation in learning surely
reflects the spirit of Jeffersons dynamic, self-renewing democratic vision.

Noninterference between political, economic, and cultural spheres of

society.
In the early twentieth century, a remarkable Austrian philosopher named
Rudolf Steiner (the founder of Waldorf education, among other initiatives)
proposed a model of the threefold society that similarly divides its
functions and aims to limit the concentration of authority in any one
institution or sphere.

To summarize briefly, Steiner asserted that the three basic functions of

social life are the economic, political, and cultural. The economic sphere, he
said, is concerned with the production and distribution of commodities, or
more broadly with the relationship between human society and the material
world. The political sphere is the domain of justice and human rights, or the

38
proper relationships between people. The cultural sphere involves the
spontaneous creative activity of the human mind; the arts and sciences and
the practice of education (which he saw as an art) are expressions of this
free flow of spiritual energy. Economic activity, which involves differential
and fluctuating material values, should not influence political judgment,
which must be based on absolute equality of legal rights, and neither of
these modes of social endeavor should interfere with the creative freedom
of the artist, scholar or educator. As Steiner saw nearly a century ago, in
modern society economic enterprise has spilled over its proper boundaries,
and the result is that every aspect of our lives, including education, has
become a commoditysomething with a market value rather than intrinsic
value.

In other words, trying to apply economic or political criteria to creative or

intellectual expression can only reduce or distort it. Economic and political
endeavors use categories and criteria that are adequate and appropriate for
dealing with the material world and social relations, respectively, but they
cannot fathom the deeper, spontaneous sources of our ideas, or the
disinterested pursuit of truth or wisdom. This is why the principle of
academic freedom on university campuses has been held sacred, and it is
why education at all levels should be independent of the stateespecially
the corporate state that fuses economic and political authority.

The invasion of the educational process by economic forces is clearly

evident in the standards-and-testing movement. The corporate state
provides the funding for education, considering it an economic investment
and expecting a good return. Young people are considered to be intellectual
capital, their learning a product with a certain value to the economy.
Knowledge is packaged and delivered, increasingly through textbooks and
other materials produced by corporations with political connections.
Students and teachers are accountable to these investors, and must
demonstrate their success in mastering the authorized body of knowledge.
There is little recognition of the student as a unique individual, motivated
by a spiritual yearning to reach out to the world for purposeful
understanding. There is little recognition of teaching as an art form,
requiring a carefully honed sensitivity and thoughtful responsiveness,
because teachers increasingly become technicians tending to the authorized
lessons and administering the prescribed tests. In Steiners terms,
education has been uprooted from the cultural sphere, where it belongs,
and engulfed by the economic sphere, which turns it into a commodity, a
soulless object to be bought and sold.

Holistic education seeks to return teaching and learning to the sphere of

intellectual freedom and creativity. The educators, parents, and young
people who have left public schooling for independent alternative schools or
homeschooling are not simply out to privatize the educational system, for

39
this is still to treat learning as a commodity in the marketplace. Rather, they
are intuitively (or sometimes quite deliberately) responding to the
awareness that Steiner articulated a century ago, that genuine learning is
an organic, spontaneous, and deeply meaningful encounter between person
and world that requires autonomy from the political and economic forces
that have taken over public schooling.

Balance. Holistic pedagogy shares the view that John Dewey (1960)
expressed in his critique of the quest for certainty: human existence is
complex, fluid and contingent, and our experience can give us only partial
and tentative truths. It is natural to want certainty and security, which we
attempt to find through dogmatic belief and self-assured ideology, but this
expectation limits our ability to adapt intelligently to an ever-changing
world. An educational system rooted in a more holistic worldview would
recognize the endless diversity of students learning styles and
temperaments, personal goals and interests, as well as the diversity of their
multiple social/cultural identities. It would no longer be the purpose of
schooling to mold human energies into some model of intellectual and
cultural conformity, to find the one best curriculum, instructional method, or
school management scheme.

The underlying principle here is not simply diversity, though, but balance.
Recognizing that human existence contains endless possibilities does not
mean giving free rein to every impulse. Finding balance in education means
that freedom exists in relationship to structure, individual in relationship to
community, rational intellect in relationship to our complicated emotional
lives. This breakdown of either/or dualisms is just what Dewey insisted on
doing throughout his work. There is, he argued, a dynamic tension between
opposites, and it requires intelligent judgment to determine where, along
any continuum of choices, to find the most appropriate (reasonable,
pragmatic, and moral) response to a given situation.

An educational policy striving for balance would no longer be devoted so

exclusively to standards, accountability, and the authorized curriculum;
there would be room for individuality, local autonomy, and experimentation.
Above all, balance would mean that a public system of education does not,
and should not, represent a coercive monoculture sanctioned by the power
of the state; the system itself would seek balance by providing diverse
alternatives representing various philosophical and cultural possibilities.
Parents and communities could choose more rigorous academic
environments or more child-centered schools, spiritually-influenced or more
rationalist approaches to curriculum and teaching, programs that lean
toward social renewal and critical pedagogy or those that emphasize
respect for tradition. All these options would be available and supported by
society, giving parents and communities the responsibility to acknowledge

40
the tension between their competing claims and make intelligent, informed
decisions.

The principle of balance applies to education at the classroom level as well.

It enjoins the teacher to approach each learner with sensitivity and
flexibility, not with ideology and method. A school may have a specific
philosophical orientation but it does not need to be completely limited by
this perspective. Even a school or homeschooler committed to childrens
freedom will face situations where the healthiest and most authentic
response is to exercise the authority, expertise or wisdom that adults
possess; to refrain from expressing themselves in these moments is to turn
freedom into an obsessive ideology rather than a condition for growth.
Similarly, even the most imaginative and carefully conceived curriculum
(the Waldorf schools, for example) loses its magic when it is applied
indiscriminately to all learners in all situations at all times. Clearly, we will
need a new attitude toward teacher education; it would not be so focused
on methods, but would strive to cultivate personal qualities of self-
understanding, sensitivity, presence, and responsiveness.

Conclusion
The constellation of values, beliefs, and epistemological assumptions that
define a culture effectively determines what purposes schools will be called
upon to serve, and what will actually take place in the daily life of most
classrooms. When a culture is under stress, as ours is today, its dominant
elements become more determined, even desperate, to defend its continued
existence. Hence, we have seen ever tighter authoritarian control over
public schools since the cultural earthquakes of the 1960s.

The alternative ideas and practices of holistic education have remained on

the romantic fringes of modern culture. Significantly, they began to gain
more widespread recognition after the cultural upheavals of the 1960s, and
I believe they will become the mainstream of educational thought if and
when the emerging postmodern culture becomes established. A truly open,
flexible, democratic system for educating the young and promoting lifelong
learning throughout society will emerge as the culture of technocracy and
empire collapses and makes room for a more organic, local, human scale
and life-affirming culture. We are not there yet, but in many parts of the
world, thousands of NGOs, grassroots networks, and visionary individuals
are establishing promising new approaches in all fields of endeavor.
Wherever this transformational movement has addressed the challenges of
education, it has seized upon ideas and practices pioneered by the holistic
tradition, or introduced exciting new ones fully aligned with that tradition.
The days of standardized learning are as numbered as the days of cheap
fossil fuel.

41
References and Recommended Reading

Dewey, John (1960). The Quest for Certainty: A Study of the Relation of
Knowledge and Action. New York: Capricorn Books/Putnam.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo (1965). Education in Selected Writings of Ralph

Waldo Emerson. Edited by William H. Gilman. New York: New American
Library.

Eisler, Riane (2000). Tomorrows Children: Partnership Education for the

Twenty-First Century. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Forbes, Scott H. (2003). Holistic Education: An Analysis of its Ideas and

Nature. Brandon, VT: Foundation for Educational Renewal.

Hollick, Malcolm (2007). The Science of Oneness: A Worldview for the

Twenty-First Century. New York: O Books.

Korten, David (2006). The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth

Community. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler/Kumarian Press.

Miller, Ron (1997). What Are Schools For? Holistic Education in American
Culture (3rd Edition). Brandon, VT: Holistic Education Press.

Miller, Ron (2000). Holism and Meaning: Foundations for a Coherent

Holistic Theory in Caring for New Life: Essays on Holistic Education.
Brandon, VT: Foundation for Educational Renewal.

Miller, Ron (2002). Free Schools, Free People: Education and Democracy
After the 1960s. Albany: SUNY Press.

42
Education and the Soul By Jack Miller
The twentieth century has not been good for the soul. Through horrendous
wars, holocaust, violence, and environmental degradation, life itself seems
to have lost its vital essence. In particular, a mechanized approach to living
has contributed to the loss of soul. We have adopted a machine-like
approach to living and the "bottom line" dominates our lives. In education
we constantly hear the mantra of how education must make a nation, any
nation, globally competitive. Thus, the schools' main role is to produce
consumers and producers. We rarely hear from a government official that
education might help in the development of human beings and the human
spirit.

Our language is also filled with mechanistic metaphors. For example, in

Ontario a Royal Commission on Education released a major report in
January of 1995. At the end of report the Commission made its
recommendations and said the Province should focus on "four engines of
change." 1 The metaphor of engine again arises from our machine-like
approach to education. Our language betrays us.

Without soul our society seems to lack a basic vitality or energy. Except for
the energy in consuming and producing, the way many people feel is
summed up by a cover of Newsweek that showed a man's tired face with the
title: "Exhausted." People on the streets, subways, in the shopping malls
often look exhausted, disgruntled, or angry. As result, people seek
fulfillment in alcohol, drugs, work, and a variety of other addictions. The
pace of life itself is soulless. We all seem in a mad rush to acquire and
consume with little time for simple pleasures. We are not satisfied with just
feeling fresh air on our cheeks or watching children at play. We crave
possessions and entertainment and we seem never to get enough.

The machine has been a principal metaphor for the last 300 years. In 1747
the French philosopher Julien de La Mettrie declared, "Let us then conclude
boldly that man is a machine, and that the whole universe consists only of a
single substance [matter] subjected to different modifications" (cited in
Shlain, p. 85). Today efficiency and numbers rule. Business for years was
run by MBO (Management by Objectives) while educators developed
behavioral objectives. It is possible to view outcomes-based education as
another machine-like approach to education with the emphasis is on
production and results rather than the process of learning.

We are told now that we live in the information age where the computer is
the prototype for most activity. Computer based models are used to
construct and shape reality. Children seem to see the world only through
1
The four engines of change include 1) a new kind of school-community alliance, 2) early childhood education, 3)
teachers, and 4) information technology.

43
computer games, television and videos. In most rural cultures children and
adolescents developed a relationship to the natural world; for example, in
indigenous cultures the vision quest was based in nature. In the last
century Emerson complained at the beginning of his first book, Nature, that
humans had lost their original relationship to the universe. If this was true
in the nineteenth century I wonder what Emerson would say today when the
media and institutions determine our reality and industrialization seems
bent on destroying the natural world. ( Jones, 1966, p. 27) Clearly, when
we have lost our original relationship to the universe we have also lost soul.

In fact, we have tended to see the universe and the Earth as inanimate and
without purpose. Again, La Mettrie in the eighteenth century saw
everything, including the human being, as soulless:

The term "soul" is therefore an empty one, to which nobody

attaches any conception, and which an enlightened man should
employ solely to refer to those parts of our bodies which do the
thinking. Given only a source of motion, animated bodies will
possess all they require in order to move feel, think, repentin
brief, in order to behave, alike in the physical realm and in the
moral realm which depends on it. (Cited in Shlain, p. 84f.)

Matthew Fox (1994) has discussed some the essential elements of the
machine world view. For example, the Earth is seen as inert and events are
seen as determined. The universe itself is seen as a machine and all
experience is secularized; from this perspective we look to the Earth for
resources. Scientific materialism predominates with an emphasis on
objectivity, rationality and efficiency. Society reflects a bias toward a
masculine world view with hierarchical organizations. Fox concludes:
"Souls have shrunk terribly due to this machine cosmology" (p. 259).

Education has also adopted the machine metaphor. Schools can be likened
to factories. Like the assembly line, students sit in rows where they learn
how to conform to expectations set by business and government. The
product is success on a standardized test whose results are often compared
to other schools or even other countries. Results on these tests are
compared to economic data between these countries and various
attributions are made regarding how the education system relates to
economic productivity. Despite supposed reforms in education, students
often fill out worksheets and memorize textbooks. With the emphasis on
textbooks and tests there is little room for soul in our schools. Although
most subjects have a soulful quality, the arts, which in many ways are the
most conducive to the soul's development, are often made a marginal part
of the education program and are sometimes removed entirely from the
curriculum.

44
Education has often been made to conform to "scientific principles." In the
1920's, Franklin Bobbit thought that the "backward" institution of education
could be improved by employing the "scientific management" techniques
used in industry. Bobbitt (1912) argued that "Education is a shaping
process as much as the manufacture of steel rails" (p. 11). He compares the
process of teaching to making industrial products; therefore, in his opinion,
education must focus on creating a productthe student's mindwhich
should be shaped according to uniform standards. What was needed was to
develop and introduce appropriate standards. In fact, Bobbitt suggested
that business and industry set these standards for education. Tanner and
Tanner (1980) contend that "the trend of education catering to the demands
of business has been a continuing trend in American education" (p. 329).
An example of this phenomenon in recent times can be found in the 1960's,
when school systems turned to businesses to develop "performance
contracts" in order to improve pupil performance in the schools. Today
various school districts such as Hartford and Baltimore are turning their
schools over to private industry.

Other examples of mechanization of the curriculum include outcomes based

education which is currently in favor in North America. For example, in
Ontario the curriculum policy for Grades 1 to 9 entitled The Common
Curriculum is an outcomes based document. There are hundreds of
outcomes that teachers must achieve in four main areas -the arts, language,
mathematics, science and technology, and personal and social studies: Self
and society. I believe that outcomes-based education is based on a false
premise in that all students are expected to achieve all these outcomes.
Supposedly students can achieve the outcomes at the different rates and in
different ways but what about unexpected outcomes? Is human behavior
really so predictable as outcome based advocates argue? Some of the most
powerful moments in teaching and learning are the spontaneous moments
of insight which are beyond any system or set of specific expectations. In
short, in outcomes based education there is no balance between the
planned and the spontaneous. Spontaneity is essential the realization of
soul.

The accountability movement is another example of mechanization in the

curriculum. Teachers are expected to be constantly testing students so that
the public is satisfied with the what is going on the in the classrooms.
Unfortunately, the tests focus on a very limited portion of the curriculum
and ignore the important areas such as personal and social development.
These tests tend to stress information that will be soon be forgotten by the
student. The student begins to see school as a game where succeeding is
based on passing tests that seem to have no relevance to anything except
what we might call useless knowledge. When school is seen as a game,
there is no vitality. Classrooms become lifeless places where students focus

45
on achievement in a narrow and competitive manner. A curriculum of
meaningless tests is another example of education without soul.

The results of all this are summarized by Robert Sardello (1992):

Education instead has become an institution whose purpose in

the modern world is not to make culture, not to serve the living
cosmos, but to harness humankind to the dead forces of
materialism. Education as we know it, from preschool through
graduate school, damages the soul. (p. 50)

We can reclaim our souls. Instead of denying and oppressing the soul we
can learn to let the soul manifest itself in the world. Instead of confining
the soul we can learn to celebrate soul. By reclaiming soul we find that the
classroom, or any educational encounter, takes on a new vitality and
purpose. Students and teachers no longer go through the motions, but
instead feel alive and nourished in what they do. In a word, learning
becomes soulful.

The Nature of the Soul

Before discussing education and how it can be more soulful, I think it is

important to discuss the nacre of the soul.

1) Soul is not an entity or thing, but animating energy or process. Consider

Emerson's definition:

All goes to show that the soul in man is not an organ, but animates
and exercises all the organs; is not a function, like the power of
memory, of calculation, of comparison, but uses these as hands and
feet; is not a faculty, but a light; is not the intellect and the will, but
the master of the intellect and the will; is the background of our
being, in which they lie, an immensity not possessed and that
cannot be possessed. (p. 174)

As a source of energy we can sometimes feel the soul expand. A beautiful

piece of music can make our souls feel expansive; likewise, in a threatening
or fearful situation, we can feel our souls contract or shrink. A soulful
curriculum would provide a nourishing environment for the soul's expansion
and animation.

We can recognize soul in people when we see their eyes light up, when their
speech is animated, when their body moves with grace and energy. Sophia
Hawthorne saw this quality in Emerson as he walked the streets of Concord:

46
 It became one of my happiest experiences to pass Emerson upon
the street. . . . .I realized that he always had something to smile
FOR, if not to smile AT; and that a cheerful countenance is heroic.
By and by I learned that he always could find something to smile at
also ; for he tells us, 'The best of all jokes is the sympathetic
contemplation of things.' (Holmes, 1885, 1980, pp.238-9)

Soulful energy is not just energy, but loving energy. I will have more to say
about this shortly.

2) In the soul lie our deepest feelings and longings. When we realize these
longings and are able to manifest and work with them we begin to feel
deeply fulfilled. In part, we can see life's journey as an attempt to discover
and realize these deep longings. One of our deepest longings is to find
soulful work. Fox (1994) states:

Our souls, that is, our awareness and our passions, our ecstasies
and our pain are not tidy and small. We, like the rest of the
universe, are expanding and are great in size"magnanimous,"
Thomas Aquinas calls us, which means literally, "large souled."
There is great dignity to our being, great dignity to our work of
exploring that inner being and expressing it. (p.129)

I believe that much of career education is misguided as often career is

viewed as some sort of rational choice. Rationality is part of the process
but the soul gradually finds its way in the world and attunes itself to what it
feels its life work might be. This often happens through fits and starts as
the individual may not find his or her life fulfilling work until mid-life or
even later. Thomas Moore (1992) comments :

We like to think that we have chosen our work, but it could be

more accurate to say that our work has found us. Most people can
tell fate-filled stories of how they happen to be in their current
"occupation." These stories tell how the work came to occupy
them, to take residence. Work is a vocation: we are called to it. . . .
finding the right work is like discovering your own soul in the
world. (p. 272-3, 279)

3) The soul seeks love. With regard to love the soul seeks union with other
souls (e.g., soulmate). This can take the form of romantic love, love of kin,
universal love, or love of the divine.

Romantic love in our culture has been trivialized through soap operas and
Harelequin romances, or is the target of cynicism. Yet romantic love can
teach us a great deal. When we fall in love we see the angelic nature of the

47
beloved. Some say this is a romantic illusion, but perhaps we see the
others true nature, that is, the person's divinity. Through love the soul
touches the eternal, the divine. Through wisdom and lovingkindness we can
begin to see the angelic nature not only in our beloved but in all beings.
We attempt to connect to this inner core of goodness and decency in
others.

This is what Nelson Mandela recognized during his 27 years in prison.

Although his guards could often be cruel and unfeeling, suddenly he would
see an act of kindness that would reveal the more gentle side of the person.
Mandela (1994) comments:

I always knew that deep down in every human heart, there is

mercy and generosity. No one is born hating another person
because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion.
People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can
be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human
heart than its opposite. Even in the grimmest times in prison,
when my comrades and I were pushed to our limits, I would see a
glimmer of humanity in one of the guards, perhaps just for a
second, but it was enough to reassure me and keep me going.
Man's goodness is a flame that can be hidden but never
extinguished. (p. 542)

The loving soul attempts to express its joy through music and song.
Sardello (1992) comments:

Soul learning does not consist of the internalization of knowledge,

the determination of right meaning, the achievement of accuracy,
but is to be found in what sounds right. That the soul sings was
understood by the ancient psychology of the soul of the worldthe
singing of soul was known as the music of the spheres. (p. 63)

The world could use more singing souls. The loving/singing soul feels
attunement with the Tao, or the flow of the universe.

Love also motivates us to help the make the world a more beautiful place.
Theodore Roszak (1992) states that ecologists are motivated by love for the
planet and its beauty, rather than by guilt. Action motivated by guilt, no
matter how valid, can produce more guilt.

4) The soul dwells in paradox and does not approach life in a linear manner.
Although the soul seeks the light of love it also has its shadow side. We
know the phrase the "dark night of the soul" as the soul must deal with
loss, grief, and pain which are an inevitable part of life. If the soul tries to
ignore pain, such as the loss of a loved one, then important soul work is
being ignored. In North America we are not comfortable with pain and we

48
usually seek relief in alcohol, TV, movies, and even fundamentalism. Yet
the cost to our souls is enormous as the soul seeks to be in touch with the
basic realities of life which includes suffering and death as much as love
and joy.

Thus, we must give room for the way of the soul. By listening to the soul
we can be sensitive to its ways and needs. One way that we can listen to
the soul is through contemplation. Robert Sardello (1995) suggests that
soul logic "synthesizes rather than analyzes" (p. xx). According to Sardello,
unlike cognitive logic which seeks the right answer, soul logic seeks the
healthy answer which serves the whole being. Sardello states: "Illness
occurs when something partial is taken to be the whole" (p. xx).

Fragmented approaches to reasoning have been at the root of much of the

sickness and alienation in our culture. Because we have either refused or
been unable to see the interdependence of things, there has been social
alienation and environmental decay.

The soul can spend long periods incubating over a problem or conflict. On
the surface nothing appears to be happening in relation to the resolution of
the problem, but the soul often does not conform to our expectations of
time. It has its own timetable. Eventually, however, if allowed to work in its
own way, the soul will find a solution.

Contemplation and soulful knowing are characterized by non-duality. We

become that which we contemplate. Consider Emerson's view of
contemplation:

We live on different planes or platforms. There is an external life,

which is educated at school, taught to read, write, cipher and
trade; taught to grasp all the boy can get, urging him to put himself
forward, to make himself useful and agreeable in the world, to ride,
run, argue and contend, unfold his talents, shine, conquer and
possess.

But the inner life sits at home, and does not learn to do things nor
values these feats at all. 'Tis quiet, wise perception. It loves truth,
because it is itself real; it loves right, it knows nothing else; but it
makes no progress; was as wise in our first memory of it as now; is
just the same now in maturity and hereafter in age, as it was in
youth. We have grown to manhood and womanhood; we have
powers, connection, children, reputations, professions: this makes
no account of them all. It lives in the great present; it makes the
present great. This tranquil, well founded, wide-seeing soul is no
express-rider, no attorney, no magistrate: it lies in the sun and
broods on the world. (Cited in Geldard, p. 172)

49
Contemplation, which is the soul's main form of learning and knowing, is
hardly every encouraged in education. Instead we are taught to find the
right answer or develop the right argument. By ignoring or denying
contemplation the soul is also denied. The soul hides while our minds
analyze, memorize, and categorize.

Soulful Learning

I believe it is possible to have soulful learning in our schools. Education

then becomes vital and alive. Soulful learning involves both inner and outer
work. With regard to inner work I agree with Matthew Fox that "We need a
massive investment of talent and discipline in our inner lives" (p. 22).
Education has virtually ignored the inner life of students and teachers, but I
believe it is possible to develop a curriculum for the inner life which
includes guided imagery, meditation, dreamwork, and journal writing.
Second, the arts is essential to soulful learning as all the arts can provide
nourishment for the soul. Finally, studying the Earth in a way which
acknowledges its sacred qualities can also help the soul, particularly linking
the soul with the Earth soul, or Gaia.

A Curriculum for the Inner Life.

There are a number of ways to stimulate and nourish the inner life of the
student. I believe that with TV and videos there is little opportunity for
today's children to use their imaginations. When I was growing up I
listened to the radio and I remember going to my room and listening to it
sometimes with the lights turned out. As the story was told I would create
pictures in my own mind. Before the radio there was storytelling around
the hearth or campfire and the story would also call on our imaginations.
Today very little calls on our imagination. Instead, images from TV and
magazines have taken over our consciousness.

Guided imagery or visualization is one tool that can activate the inner life of
the student. Guided imagery is simply picturing an object or set of event's
in the mind's eye. I will describe a few ways that visualization can be used
in a soulful manner. One way is simply to have students close their eyes and
imagine a story as it is being read or told. This can be done in language
arts or even history as students can see themselves as a person in a certain
historical period or event. In science students can also visualize activities,
such as the water cycle, after they have studied the cycle. By visualizing
becoming the water and going through the evaporation and condensation
the students connects his or her inner life with abstract subject matter. One
of the most creative ways of using guided imagery is to have students
visualize a set of events (e.g., going underwater or into space) and then
have students write a story about what they saw. They can also draw a
picture. Many visualizations use symbols from nature such as the sun,

50
mountains, and water to help in the process of personal integration and
nourishing the soul.

Meditation is not used as frequently as visualization but I believe it can

have a role in the curriculum. The noted philosopher and novelist Iris
Murdoch (1992) wrote, "Teach meditation in schools" (p. 337) so that
students can learn to quiet their own minds. Gina Levete (1995),
associated with the Interlink Trust in England, has written a document
entitled "Presenting the case of meditation in primary and secondary
schools." By encouraging students to sit quietly they gain access to their
inner life and begin to see their own thoughts. Some forms of meditation,
such as the loving kindness meditation, encourage the development of
compassion for all beings on the planet. Meditation can nourish the
students' souls and their relationship with other forms of life.

Another tool which can be used is dreamwork. A graduate student

(Quattrocchi, 1995) has written a thesis on how she used dreamwork at the
secondary level. She had students keep journals about the dreams over the
course of a year. She found that by working with the dreams the student
gained nourishing insights. All the students who participated in her study
commented positively about the experience and some indicated that the
dreamwork had enhanced their creativity.

Another part of a curriculum for the inner life is keeping a journal. Journal
writing is already included in the curriculum of many schools, particularly
those approaching language instruction through whole language. Here I
am suggesting that students keep a private journal where they record their
deepest feelings and desires. Keeping a journal for a writing class is
usually some sort of reflective journal that contains ideas that can lead to
further writing or the completion of an essay. Alternatively, the student can
keep a "soul journal" where the student explores his or her deepest
feelings. Of course this journal is not for public viewing.

The Arts

The arts can provide extensive nourishment for the soul. One of the arts,
music, was at one time specifically designed for the soul's development.
Pythagoras believed that music could heal the soul and even align the soul
with the cosmos itself so that the soul was in harmony with the music of the
spheres. Plato continued this theme, as James (1993) summarizes:

Yet for the present purpose, the important point, setting aside all
ethical considerations, is that for Plato, and thus for the Western
intellectual tradition that was to follow, music was the key to the
human soul, the most potent instrument available to man for
enlightenment. (p.59)

51
Unfortunately, music and the other arts are relegated to the fringe of the
school curriculum. Unless there are specialists to teach the arts, the
regular classroom teacher avoids them. Here is where Waldorf education
has so much to offer the public school and particularly how we train
teachers. Waldorf teacher training is suffused with arts so that eventually
the new Waldorf teacher is not afraid to present his or her art on the
chalkboard. In most Waldorf classrooms the teacher has drawn some
beautiful picture that is related to the main theme being studied. More
importantly, the teacher brings an artistic sense to everything that he or she
does. M.C. Richards makes this point:

It is an intuitive seeing, which comes about as a result of exercising

and experiencing one's physical senses imaginatively,
wholeheartedly, and whole soulfully. This is why artistic practice is
so important in all learning and education. This is why neglect of
the artist in each person is so impoverishing to society. Without
this spiritual sense organ, this way of seeing the formative forces
at work in a physical process, we are blind and duped by
appearances. (p. 73)

Earth Connections

Another approach that could be helpful to the soul is to awaken our

connection to the Earth and its processes. Some forms of environmental
education can be helpful here, particularly those described in the Holistic
Education Review (1989, 1993). These programs do not just focus on
recycling cans and bottles, but bring the student to the outdoors where they
can become ecologically literate. They can learn to answer questions such
as :

1. What soil series are you standing on?

2. When was the last time a fire burned your area?

3. Name five native edible plants in your region and their

seasons of availability.

4. From what direction do winter storms generally come in

your region?

5. Where does your garbage go?

6. How long is the growing season where you live?

7. Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?

8. Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.

52
 9. What primary geological event or processes influenced the
land from where you live?

10. What species have become extinct in your area?

11. What are the major plant associations in your region?

(Co-Evolution Quarterly 32 (Winter 1981-2), p. 1.)

Another approach that is helpful is to read indigenous peoples' literature

about the Earth. A particularly good collection of such literature can be
found the book Earth Prayers. One example from the collection:

Grandfather,

Look at our brokenness.

We know that in all creation

Only the human family

Has strayed from the Sacred Way.

We know that we are the ones

Who are divided

And we are the ones

Who must come back together

To walk in the Sacred Way.

Grandfather,

Sacred One,

Teach us love, compassion, and honor

That we may heal the Earth

And heal each other

(p. 95)

Finally the students can study the The Universe Story ( Swimme and Berry,
1992) to gain a deep sense of awe and reverence for the universe itself. As
we awaken our relationship to the universe and the Earth the soul gains a
sense of wholeness and connectedness; it gains a sense of place.

53
The Soulful Teacher

Although I have mentioned certain subjects and approaches that help

nurture the soul, I believe that any subject can be taught soulfully. If the
teacher brings his or her own soul to the classroom then the subject being
taught takes on a vital energy. In the soulful teacher's class the students
can sense the teacher's commitment to learning.

Two qualities that the soulful teacher can usually bring to the classroom are
presence and caring. Presence arises from mindfulness where the teacher
is capable of listening deeply. In my own work at the Ontario Institute for
Studies in Education/UofT, I encourage teachers to bring mindfulness, or
moment-to-moment awareness, to the classroom and their interactions with
students. Below is a statement by one teacher who is able to bring this
awareness to the classrooms.

As a teacher, I have become more aware of my students and their

feelings in the class. Instead of rushing through the day's events I
take the time to enjoy our day's experiences and opportune
moments. The students have commented that I seem happier. I do
tend to laugh more and I think it is because I am more aware, alert
and "present," instead of thinking about what I still need to do.

(Miller, 1995, p.22)

Closely related to presence is caring. The caring teacher relates the subject
to the needs and interests of the students. Nel Noddings (1984) who has
written extensively about caring suggests that when this happens the
student "may respond by free, vigorous, and happy immersion in his own
projects " (p. 181). When the teacher demonstrates caring, community can
develop in the classroom. Marcia Umland, an elementary school teacher,
talks about how this can happen:

When I wanted to spend all that time with those little people in
class, I found that the intimacy I had shared with my peers in
college in the sixties was carried over into my classroom. I cared
about the students and couldn't stand to sit in the teachers' lounge
where they were gossiping about their students. . . .

I get exhausted, but not burned out. Sometimes I'm dropping my

dream for a day or two, but most days I'm on, and stunned by the
kids. Lately I've realized that in setting up in a classroom at last
I've given myself permission to form a society I'd like to live in.
(Macrorie, 1984, pp. 155-61)

I think it is important that teachers nurture their own souls through

meditation practice. Since 1988 I have made meditation a requirement in

54
the courses I teach at the graduate level. Most of my students are
experienced teachers. Over 600 students have been exposed to the practice
in the course and the vast majority find the practice an important, and often
vital, process in the nourishment of their own souls. Again I cite the
comments from one of these teachers:

My meditation practice this summer has reconnected me to the

importance of resting in "that place" so that my spirit can be
renourished to continue with hope and joy. Certainly, as teachers,
our students crave connection with the best of our spirits.
"Connectedness" is what they crave. Connectedness is what we all
crave, really! Through meditation, I have been able to reconnect
with the life within me. I know that continued practice will enable
me to replenish my soul so that what once was the "drain" of
teaching will become life-giving. (Miller, 1995, p. 22)

The time has come for soulful learning. We have had enough of machine-
like approaches to education which deaden the human spirit. The present
trends of outcomes based education and accountability drain the vitality
from our classrooms. The pressure for quantifying all learning without
concern for quality represses the student's soul. Instead, we can learn to
bring onto the Earth an education of deep joy where the soul once again
learns to sing. Soulful learning nurtures the inner life of the student and
connects it to the outer life and the environment. It acknowledges and
gives priority to the human spirit rather than the simply producing
individuals who can "compete in the global economy." Restoring the soul to
education is not a new vision. It is vision articulated by the Greeks and
various indigenous people for centuries. It is found in Taoism and the in the
teachings of Christ and the Buddha. Why should aspire to less than our
ancestors? Education has lost its way; we need to look to the soul to
recover and remember our "original relationship to the universe".

References

Bobbitt, F. (1912). Elimination of waste in education. The Elementary

School Teacher, 12, 269.

Co-Evolution Quarterly, 32 (Winter 1981-2).

Emerson, R.W. (1990). Ralph Waldo Emerson: Selected essays, lectures,

and poems. R.D. Richardson, Jr. (Ed.). New York: Bantam.

55
Fox, Matthew. (1994). The reinvention of work: A new vision of livelihood
for our time. San Francisco: Harper Collins.

Geldard, Richard (1993). The esoteric Emerson: The spiritual teachings of

Ralph Waldo Emerson. Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press.

Environmental education: A sense of wonder. Holistic Education Review.

(Fall, 1989). 2,3, pp. 32-62.

Ecology and education in a purposeful world. Holistic Education Review.

(Autumn, 1993). 6, 3, pp. 2-55.

Holmes, O.W. (1885, 1980). Ralph Waldo Emerson. Boston: Houghton

Mifflin.

James, Jamie. (1993). The music of the spheres: Music, science, and the
natural order of the universe. New York: Grove Press.

Jones, Howard Mumford (ed.) (1996) Emerson on Education. New York:

Teachers College Press.
Levete, Gina (1995). Presenting the case for meditation in primary and
secondary schools. London: Interlink Trust.

Macrorie, K. (1984). Twenty teachers. New York: Oxford University Press.

Mandela, Nelson (1994). Long walk to freedom. Boston: Little, Brown.

Miller, J.P. (Fall, 1995). Meditating teachers. Inquiring Mind. 12, 1. 19-22.

Moore, Thomas (1992). Care of the soul: A guide for cultivating depth and
sacredness in everyday life. New York: Walker & Co.

Murdoch, I. (1992). Metaphysics as a guide to morals. London: Chatto &

Windus.

Noddings, Nel. (1984). Caring: A feminine approach to ethics and moral

education. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.

Quattrochi, Marina (1995). Dreamwork in secondary schools: Its

educational value and personal significance. (Unpublished doctoral
dissertation). University of Toronto .

Report of the Royal Commission on Learning (1994). For the love of

learning. Toronto: Queen's Printer.

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Richards, M.V. (1980). Toward wholeness: Rudolf Steiner education in
America. Middletown, CN: Wesleyan University Press.

Roszak, Theodore (1992). The voice of the Earth. New York: Simon &
Schuster.

Sardello, Robert (1992). Facing the world with soul. Hudson, NY:
Lindisfarne Press.

Sardello, Robert (1995). Love and the soul: Creating a future for Earth.
New York: Harper Collins.

Shlain, Leonard (1991). Art & physics: Parallel visions in space, time and
light. New York: William Morrow.

Roberts, E. & Amidon, E. (1991). Earth prayers from around the world, 365
prayers, poems, and invocations for honoring the Earth. New York: Harper
Collins.

Smith, G.A. (Spring, 1995). The Petrolia School: Teaching and Learning in
Place. Holistic Education Review. 8(1), pp. 44-53.

Swimme, Brian & Berry, Thomas (1992). The universe story. San
Francisco: HarperCollins.

Tanner, D. & Tanner, L.N. (1980). Curriculum development: Theory into

practices. New York: Macmillan.

57
Mindfulness and Teacher Presence By Jack Miller

At the end of The Divine Comedy Dante reaches Saturn in Paradiso where
the contemplative souls reside. Saturn is the last and highest of the planets
at the end of Dantes long journey. Helen Luke in her wonderful book on
The Divine Comedy (1989) writes: Dante is the poet of contemplation, not
as opposed to action, the value of which he constantly asserts, but in the
sense of seeing, understanding, contemplating with insight, that which is
behind all action and gives it its only meaning. (p.167)

Contemplation is central to Dantes vision of human wholeness Yet we not

have taken this vision seriously in education as learning has been limited to
accumulation of knowledge and occasionally the development of critical
thinking skills. Contemplation has been associated with spiritual and
religious practices for centuries but has been ignored by educators.
Contemplation is defined here as beholding, often with a sense of awe and
wonder, where we become one with what we are seeing. For example,
Emerson noted that when the painter is painting the tree he or she becomes
the tree. In this paper I want to explore a particular form of contemplation
called mindfulness. Mindfulness is a form of contemplation that focuses on
being full present in the moment.

There are two basic approaches to mindfulness practice. One is a form of

meditation where we are present as much possible to what is happening in
the moment with regards to thoughts, feelings, sounds and body sensations.
Another form is applying attention to our everyday life and involves
bringing awareness to our daily activities.

Neither approach is easy. The rush and noise of our world makes it difficult
to be fully present. For example, we may try to relax by going for a walk;
but we often take our problems with us on the walk. We can take with us a
problem at work, or our concern over how to pay our bills and we may find
at the end of our walk we were so preoccupied that we lost our basic
awareness of where we were and what we were doing. We didnt really feel
the air on our face, or look at the trees, or feel the warmth of the sun.

Another word for mindfulness is wholeheartedness. When you do something

you enter into it completely. The whole experience of preparing a meal,
eating and doing the dishes can be done mindfully. For example, as you cut
the celery for the salad, you are not preoccupied with thoughts but are just
present to the celery. As you eat the meal, you can also focus our attention
on the eating, chewing and swallowing.. Finally, when doing the dishes
focus on the task. You feel the water as it cascades over your hands and the

58
dishes. Instead of being present it is easy to be on automatic pilot where
you are not present in the moment.

Mindfulness as taught by Thich Nhat Hanh ( 1976) and others comes from
the Buddhist tradition. Here is one exercise recommended by Hanh.

A slow motion bath

Allow yourself 30 to 45 minutes to take a bath. Dont
hurry for even one second. From the moment you
prepare the bath water to the moment you put on clean
clothes, let every motion be light and slow. Be attentive
of every movement. Place your attention to every part
of your body, without discrimination or fear. Be mindful
of each stream of water on your body. By the time
youve finished, your mind should feel as peaceful and
light as your body. Follow your breath. Think of
yourself as being in a clean and fragrant lotus pond in
the summer. (p.86-7)

However we can find similar mindfulness exercises from other spiritual

traditions. Consider what the Christian Monks of New Skete (1999) say

The way we work can change our state of mind. If we clean house
conscientiously, even lovingly, our spiritual intentions become
evident and are reinforced, and anxieties and petty concerns are put
in perspective. . . .Dont fight the task; just carefully and calmly do
good work, simply because the house needs to be clean. When your
attention strays, focus again on the task at hand, for the quality of
your work is also slipping. This exercise results in the satisfaction of
having an orderly and clean house, and though you may be tired, you
might even feel psychologically refreshed. In the very doing of this,
you will experience how even this facet of life is worthy of respect.
When you apply this to whatever you life asks of you, your attitude
toward everything is transformed.
(pp.274-5)

Mindfulness and contemplation are different from reflection (Schon, 1983)

They do not ask the teacher to reflect on something but simply be with the
object. Teaching can move back and forth between mindfulness and
reflection. Reflection allows us to step back to analyze what we have been
doing; mindfulness and contemplation just let us be in the present moment.
One way of looking at teaching is the movement back and forth between
mindfulness and reflection. Both are essential to good teaching.

Why Contemplation and Mindfulness in the Curriculum?

59
One important reason for including contemplative practices such as
mindfulness in teacher education is that it can be a form of self-learning. For
example, mindfulness meditation is based on the notion that we can learn and
grow by simply watching our own experience. As we notice our own thoughts
and agendas, we can gain deeper insight into ourselves and the nature of
experience. In this context mindfulness is a form of inquiry. In contrast, the
model for much of learning at the university level is that the professor and
the text are the authority and the student must learn from these authorities.
Mindfulness meditation provides one alternative to this model and instead
recognizes that we can learn from ourselves and our own experience.

Another reason for engaging in contemplation is that it allows teachers to

deal with the stresses in their lives. Research indicates that meditation is
an effective tool in enhancing physical and mental well being (Murphy and
Donovan, 1997; Walsh, 1999) and given the pressures that teachers face
today this aspect of meditation should not be overlooked. The majority of
students in my classes have seen the positive effects of contemplative
practice in simply being able to address stressful events that come up in
their lives. Teachers in my classes comment how they are less reactive to
difficult classroom situations. . One teacher stated: I interact with others
more calmly, more gently, more compassionately. She works with kids that
have behavioral difficulties who are often angry and she said: I feel a
patience with them and tenderness towards them. . . . The kid is being rude-
driving me crazy. Instead, I see the kid is hurting and I care for him
differently. I think I see the student as myself.

Mindfulness can be important to how we approach teaching. If teaching is

ego-based it can become a frustrating series of mini-battles with students.
The classroom becomes focused around the issue of control. If we teach
from a different place (e.g., the Self or soul), teaching becomes a fulfilling
and enriching experience. Robert Griffin (1977) summarizes this very well:

You do not feel set off against them [the students] or

competitive with them. You see yourself in students and
them in you. You move easily, are more relaxed, and seem
less threatening to students. You are less compulsive, less
rigid in your thoughts and actions. You are not so tense.
You do not seem to be in a grim win-or-lose contest when
teaching (p. 79).

When we teach mostly from our egos, our work can become tense and
frustrating; conversely when we teach with soul our work can become more
an act of joy and delight. Teaching from this deeper place , we experience
connections with our students and our colleagues.

60
My final argument for including contemplation and mindfulness in the
curriculum is that they offer an opportunity to make our education truly
holistic. By holistic I am referring to educating the whole person and not
just the intellect. Although we give lip service to educating the whole
human being; in fact, much of our education system is limited to head
learning. One could argue that even this form of learning is very limited
and in many cases our elementary schools focus only on the development of
a few basic skills and factual recall. This approach to learning is driven
primarily by an economic agenda. We hear the mantra constantly that
students need to be trained so that they can compete and participate in the
global economy. This narrow vision of education has played a role in the
corporate corruption that we see today. With the emphasis on individual
achievement and test scores our system is basically one of student
competition. Our students today are rarely given the larger vision of what
it means to be human being inhabiting the earth and the cosmos.

This was not always the case. Pierre Hadot, the French philosopher,
makes the case that ancient philosophy was not just an intellectual exercise
but was primarily a contemplative practice. Hadot (2002) states: To live in
a philosophical way meant, above all, to turn toward intellectual and
spiritual life, carrying out a conversion which involved the whole soul-
which is to say the whole of moral life. (p.65) Philosophy then could be
called an education of the soul. Hadot describes various spiritual exercises
that Greek philosophers pursued in their work; they practiced various
forms of contemplation such as being fully present in the moment. For
example, the Greek poet and philosopher, Horace wrote: Let the soul be
happy in the present, and refuse to worry about what will come later. . . .
Think about arranging the present as best you can, with serene mind. All
else is carried away as by a river. (Cited in Hadot, p. 196)

Being in the present requires constant attention. This constant awareness

was particularly stressed by the Stoics. Hadot notes:

For them, philosophy was a unique act which had to be practiced at

each instant, with constantly renewed attention (proshoke) to oneself
and to the present moment. . . Thanks to this attention, the
philosopher is always perfectly aware not only what he is doing, but
also of what he is thinking (this is the task of lived logic) and of what
he is-in other words, of his place within the cosmos. (p. 138)

Hadot also makes the connection of Greek philosophy to ancient Asian

philosophy. He cites his colleague Solere who writes that the ancients
were perhaps closer to the Orient than we are (cited in Hadot, p. 279)

I believe that the Greek academy and the ancient Buddhist University of
Nalanda can help us find a new vision of the modern university. Nalanda

61
was founded in the 5th century BC in what is now northern India. At one
point there were 10000 students and 1500 professors there. At Nalanda
meditation was practiced along with scholarship as the university contained
both libraries and meditation halls. I had the opportunity to visit the ruins
of Nalanda in 1993 and you can still see the outline of these halls and the
libraries.

Mindfulness in Medicine and Sports

Mindfulness has reached the mainstream. A recent issue of Newsweek

(September 27, 2004) reported on several studies particularly in health
related studies. A pilot study done at Indiana State University found the
mindfulness helped obese women reduce eating binges from four times
week to one and a half. A psychiatry professor at the U of Toronto found
that mindfulness practice was helpful in dealing with depression as 66%
of the those who learned mindfulness remained stable compared with
34% in the control group. Jon Kabat-Zinn (1990) has been a leader in the
research on mindfulness at the University of Massachusetts. For years
he has worked with patients who had the reach the end of line with
regard to how conventional medicine could help them deal with problems
such as chronic pain. Using mindfulness practices he found that it led to
significant improvement in dealing with these difficulties.

Another interesting example of the use of mindfulness in the sports

arena has been the work of Phil Jackson former coach of the Chicago
Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers. In his book Sacred Hoops Jackson (1995)
writes:

When players practice what is known as mindfulness-simply

paying to whats happening-not only do they play better and win
more, they also become more attuned with each other. And the
joy they experience working in harmony is a powerful
motivating force that comes from deep within, not from some
frenzied coach pacing along the sidelines, shouting obscenities
in the air. (p.5-6)

Jackson also found that when he used mindfulness to listen to his players
he was able to connect with them. He would try to listen without
judgment or what he called an impartial, open awareness(p.67) By
simply being present in this way he felt he got better results than
shouting at them or imposing his own agenda. Jackson led his teams to
8 NBA championships in a highly competitive environment.

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So there is some empirical evidence about the effects of mindfulness
practice in different areas of life. Now I would like to turn to education,
my own field.

Mindfulness in My Teaching

I have been working with contemplative practices in my classes since 1988.

My work is with graduate students in education taking courses in holistic
education. It is beyond the scope of this paper to outline in detail a
conception of holistic education. I would just note that holistic education is
rooted in the ancient vision of wholeness and moving toward an education
that both recognizes and facilitates interconnectedness. (Miller, 1996/2001).
I introduce students to mindfulness in both sitting practice and daily activity.
With regard to sitting meditation I introduce students to seven different types
of meditation and give them the choice of which one they pursue during the
course. Students are encouraged to let go of the calculating mind and open to
the listening mind that tends to be characterized by a relaxed alertness.

To date over 1300 students have been introduced to meditation practice in

these courses. Only two students in 16 years have asked not to do the
assignment. So far there has not been one student who has reported an
overall negative experience with the practice during the course. Most of the
students are women (80%) in their late 20s 30s or 40s. While most of the
students come from Ontario, there have also been students from Brazil,
China, Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Japan, Kenya, Korea and
Malta.

Students are asked to meditate each day for six weeks. In the beginning
they meditate for about 10 to 15 minutes a day and by the end of the six
weeks they are encouraged to meditate 20-30 minutes. Students are
required to keep a journal which focuses on how the process of meditation
is going (e.g. how the concentration and focus are going, how the body is
feeling, etc.). The journals also focus on how meditation has affected them.
Some of themes have included
1) Giving themselves permission to be alone and enjoy their own company;
2) Increased listening capacities;
3) Feeling increased energy;
4) Being less reactive to situations and generally experiencing greater calm
and clarity.

My colleague, Ayako Nozawa and I have conducted a qualitative study on

students who continued with the meditation after the class. (Miller and
Nozawa, 2002; Miller and Nozawa, 2005). Here I want to focus specifically
on mindfulness.

63
 Several students in my class have found mindfulness a powerful
practice. One student made it the main practice in her home life. She
began the practice because her husband commented once that it must be
painful to listen to him. She resolved to listen completely to her husband
and children when they spoke to her. In referring to listening to her
children she wrote: each time that I stopped what I was doing to listen
to them, they seemed surprised, and then delighted, that I had time for
them. After week or so she noticed that the noise level in our house
had diminished considerably. . . .I felt a calmness in our home that had
not been there before. She also attempted to be non-judgmental when
people spoke to her. She quickly noticed that she often entered to
conversations with expectations of what people were going to say.
Letting go of these expectations and assumptions also had very positive
impact on her relationships with her husband and children.

Another student spoke about awe she felt when she contemplated on
her children:

the impact on me is very powerful. I remember one day that I just

watched my kids. I watched them sleeping, I observed them, for so
long. I looked at their eyes, nose, hairthey look like angels.
Sometimes I just sit down outside and look at the skiesI remember
that everything is grace.

She describes that her change comes from inside and how mindfulness has
affected her.

I hear sounds that I never heard. I hear the animals, I listen to

everything that is there, that I never paid attention to before. I touch
and feelI know that Im living and I dont have a word to express
what this means to me really.
(Miller, 2005)

Mindfulness practice also affected how my students approached their

teaching. Another teacher describes how she integrated mindfulness
into her teaching day.
I began each day marveling at the miracle of life, of falling
asleep and awakening to a wondrous world. With this thought,
I began my morning rituals. Thinking of my daily routines as
rituals actually helped me in attaining a more aware state as I
washed my face, took my shower, ate my breakfast and walked
(or drove) to work. Upon entering the school, I decided to go to
my classroom first. I had previously been going into the office
to sign in and say good morning, etc. but this took away form
the oneness that I needed in my mindfulness training. I
ritualized all my tasks-walking up the stairs, putting the key

64
into the classroom door, hanging up my coat etc. It was
actually amazing how being mindful of these simple tasks
allowed me to begin my day in a calm clear and less cluttered
way. How many times had I come into this room, dumped my
coat, hat and mitts on my chair, ran to the photocopy room and
back, spent another half hour looking for the photocopying I
had laid down somewhere, not to mention the frantic search for
mitts when it was time go out on duty? Instead, I began to
become aware of my mornings in the classroom and in turn they
became calm and focussed.

My most favorite part of this pre-school ritual is writing the

schedule on the board. My team teacher had tried to talk me
out of this June (she writes the daily schedule for each day on
the sheets of chart paper and laminates them). At the time, I
explained to her that writing of the schedule on the board had
many different purposes for me. The most important one was
that it allowed me to center myself in the classroom. I look
back now on how intuitive I had been and I am amazed. Being
mindful of this particular ritual has made me fully aware of the
here during the hectic day. I stand at the front of the room
and feel the smooth texture of the chalk in my hands. I think
about where I am and I observe my surroundings-the plants, the
books, the desks, the childrens slippers-I am, for the second
time that day, amazed at the miracle of life.

The days begins, I stand outside the classroom fully aware of

each individual as they enter the room. I interact with them, I
say hello, it feels good. This is new, until now, I had never made
it to the door when the children entered-I was always too busy!
I try to maintain this sense of awareness-aware of my feelings
(physical and emotional) and my reactions to the things that are
happening now. Of course, the craziness of the classroom day
begins and it becomes more and more difficult to maintain this
awareness as the day wears on. However, now instead of
working through recess, I take the time to visit with colleagues
in the staff room. When I can, I take a walk down to the beach
at lunch and look out across the lake, mindful of the beauty of
the world around me. When the day ends, I recapture this
mindful state and full participate in the end-of-day ritual with
my students. After the children have left, I sweep the floor,
being mindful of my movements and the sound of the broom. I
often begin by thinking that I am sweeping the days events
away and that I am focusing on the now-the actual act of
sweeping. The pleasure of being here, and being able to fully
participate reminds me again of the miracle of life.

65
 (Miller, in press)

Each teacher can integrate mindfulness into their teaching and daily life in
their own way. There certainly is not one model for all teachers.

Presence

Teaching in my view involves three basic factors. First is the theory or

assumptions underlying our approach. The underlying assumptions and
theories have been referred to as orientations. (Eisner and Vallance, 1974;
Miller, 1983) Second are the teaching strategies and practices that we
employ in the classroom. The final factor is the presence of the teacher. It
is this last factor which is often so critical. In fact, if we recall the teachers
that have had an impact on us it is often not the material that they taught
that we remember but that presence which somehow touched us.

The Zen Roshi, Shunryu Suzuki, tells a wonderful story about the presence
of a teacher. (Chadwick, 1999) He was head of a temple in Japan and was
looking for a kindergarten teacher for the temple school. He repeatedly
tried to convince a woman to take the job but she refused. Finally he said to
her You dont have to do anything, just stand there. When he said that,
she accepted the position. He was convinced that her presence alone would
make a difference in the lives of the children. Of course, she did not just
stand in the classroom but Suzuki-roshi identified this important element in
teaching.

Emerson in talking to teachers emphasized the importance of presence in

teaching:

By your own act you teacher the beholder how to do the practicable.
According to the depth from which you draw your life, such is the
depth not only of your strenuous effort, but of your manners and
presence. The beautiful nature of the world has here blended your
happiness with your power ... Consent yourself to be an organ of your
highest thought, and lo! suddenly you put all men in your debt, and
are the fountain of an energy that goes pulsing on with waves of
benefit to the borders of society, to the circumference of things.
(Jones, p. 227)

One teacher in my class in her journal caught how mindfulness enhanced

her presence.

As a teacher, I have become more aware of my students and their

feelings in the class. Instead of rushing through the day's events I
take the time to enjoy our day's experiences and opportune
moments. The students have commented that I seem happier. I do

66
 tend to laugh more and I think it is because I am more aware, alert
and "present," instead of thinking about what I still need to do.
(Miller, 1995, p.22)

Teacher presence is something that is often ignored in the education of

teachers despite its importance. It is rarely addressed in pre-service or in-
service education. I would argue in conclusion that mindfulness practice is
simple yet powerful way that teachers can enhance their presence. By
bringing complete attention to their work teachers can be more effective.
Empowerment is word often heard and perhaps it is overused but I
believe mindfulness practice is one method that is truly empowering.

References:

Emerson, R. W. (1966) Emerson on education. New York: Teachers

College Press.

Chadwick, D. (1999) Crooked cucumber: The life and zen teachings of

Shrunryu Suzuki. New York: Broadway books.

Eisner, E. and Vallance , E (eds.) (1974) Conflicting conceptions of

curriculum.
Berkeley, CA: McCutchan.

Griffin, R. (1977, February) Discipline: Whats it taking out of you?

Learning, pp. 77-80.

Hadot, P. (2002) What is ancient philosophy? Cambridge, Mass: Harvard

University Press

Hanh, T. N. (1976) The miracle of mindfulness! A manual on meditation.

Boston: Beacon Press.

Jackson, P. and H. Delehanty (1995) Sacred hoops: Spiritual lessons of a

hardwood warrior. New York: Hyperion.

Kalb, C. (2004) Buddha lessons: A technique calledmindfulness teaches

how to step back from pain and the worries of life. Newsweek Sept 27,
48-51

Luke, H. (1989) Dark wood to white rose: Journey and transformation in

Dantes Divine Comedy. New York: Parabola.

Miller, J. (1983) The educational spectrum: Orientations to curriculum.

New York: Longman

67
Miller, J. (1995) Meditating teachers Inquiring Mind. 12:19-22

Miller, J. (1996, 2001) The holistic curriculum. Toronto: OISE Press.

Miller, J. (2000) Education and the soul: Toward a spiritual curriculum.

Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Miller, J. (in press) Educating for wisdom and compassion: Creating

conditions for timeless learning. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.

Miller, J. and Nozawa, A. (2002) Meditating Teachers: A qualitative study.

The journal of in-service education. 28:179-192

Miller, J. and Nozawa, A. (2005) Contemplation and Teaching Encounter:

Education for meaning and social justice. Spring.

Monks of New Skete (1999) In the Spirit of Happiness. Boston: Little

Brown.

Murphy, M. & Donovan, S. (1997) The physical and psychological effects of

meditation. Sausalito, Calif.: Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Schon, D (1983) The reflective practitioner: How professional think in

action. New York: Basic

Walsh, R. (1999) Asian contemplative disciplines: Common practices,

clinical applications and research findings. Journal of transpersonal
psychology. 31:83-108

Jack Miller has been working in the area of holistic education for over 30
years and is a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at
the U. of Toronto. He is author /editor of more than a dozen books including
The Holistic Curriculum, The Contemplative Practitioner, and the
forthcoming Educating for Wisdom, Compassion and Joy: Creating
Conditions for Timeless Learning.

68
RECLAIMING OUR CREATIVITIES FROM A READY
MADE WORLD By Manish Jain

The artist is not a special kind of man but every man is a special
kind of artist. Ananda Coomaraswamy, 1956

As we clear away all the celebratory hype of the 21 st century, and sit down
to figure out what it all means to be Here, we find ourselves in a very
peculiar and paralyzing world. The processes of mass industrialization,
technologicalization, and consumerization, while making life more efficient
and easier (at least for some), have colonized our spirits and made us
psychologically impotent. Today, Big Brother, Big Market and Big Religion
supply us with ready-made clothes, ready-made food, ready-made homes,
ready-made jobs, ready-made entertainment, ready-made transportation,
ready-made spirituality, ready-made medicines, ready-made education, etc.
Soon, with the latest developments in genetic testing, we will have ready-
made human-toys. There are ready-made solutions for practically all aspects
of our lives. Even our problems and needs are pre-packaged, marketed
and sold to us. We are so overwhelmed with these glamorous and
superfluous needs that we have started to forget our real needs (and the
needs of those around us). Our role is only to mindlessly consume these
ready-made commodities and be consumed by them.

Some may ask whats wrong with this kind of Progress. Two points for
deeper reflection immediately come to mind. First, we must try to
understand what is required to feed and sustain this ready-made world
who wins and who loses, and what is destroyed in the process? And second,
we must peel away the skin of the proverbial Progress Onion to see what
this ready-made lifestyle is doing to us as human beings. Seriously exploring
both of these interconnected questions requires that we be willing to break
away from the compartmentalized, linear and short-term rational
frameworks that dominate most of our modern decision-making processes
and Development efforts.

For this ready-made world to flourish today, we have to rationalize away, in

the name of Progress, all of the massive levels of violence against and
exploitation of Nature, cultures/languages, and human relationships that
have taken place throughout the world in the last 300 years. We have to
turn off our consciences and pretend that selfishness, greed, domination,
corruption and a survival of the fittest mentality are the predominant
characteristics of human nature. We have to keep convincing ourselves that
having increased purchasing power (albeit with cancerous self-discontent)
is a higher form of human existence that someday will trickle-down to

69
everyone through the Global Marketplace, Western-style Democracy, and
the Scientific Establishment. Lastly, we have to discourage everyone else
around us (particularly our youth) from believing that there are other
options available. This is the only and best way -- to resist it, to even
question its totalitarian stranglehold over us, is to risk be labeled anti-
modern, impractical, anti-national, irrational, etc.

In India today, it is very difficult for us to comprehend the kinds of damage

that these various forms of self-deceit have done to our whole beings; our
intrinsic motivations to struggle and search for our own truths, justices and
meanings; and our abilities to be part of and contribute to the beautiful
unfolding of the universe. What is even more troublesome is that in the age
of time-saving devices, we have no time to reflect deeply or dialogue on who
we are and where we are going, individually and collectively. As Eduardo
Galleano (1997) describes, "The car, the television set, the video, the
personal computer, the portable telephone and other pass-cards to
happiness, which were developed to 'save time' or to 'pass the time', have
actually taken time over."

Is there a way out of this? John Guare (in Zohar, 2000) suggests one
possible path, To face ourselves. Thats the hard thing. The imagination [is]
Gods gift to make the act of self-examination bearable. [It] teaches us our
limits and how to grow beyond our limits... Expanding our spaces and
capacities for creativity is essential to liberating ourselves from this ready-
made world. Creativity enhances our ability to find meaning and love in our
everyday experiences (and prevents us from becoming bored of ourselves).
It gives us the strength to challenge injustices and exploitative
relationships. It helps us to build valuable linkages to our wisdom
frameworks while keeping our parampara vibrant and flowing. Creativity
generates new liberating avenues of power from which we can create new
options, make ethical choices and take dynamic actions.

Unfortunately, by either killing-off or commercializing many of our natural

spaces for genuine questioning, experimentation, and struggle, the ready-
made world prevents us from engaging in activities which serve to replenish
our creative energies.[1] Furthermore, because of the total-izing influence
of the ready-made world, we are taught to wait for some one to hand us
some bite-size pakoras of creativity on a silver platter. Today, these usually
take the form of formal creativity courses and creativity kits. However,
reclaiming and regenerating our creativities is not just about playing
various mind games marketed by creativity gurus like Edward DeBono. At a
certain point, these all become meaningless gimmicks, which tend to serve
only narrow selfish interests while expanding the control of the ready-made
world. What is required instead is a critical look at certain myths that drain
our creative energies and a deeper understanding of how these are
manifested in our institutional and personal spaces.

70
BREAKING DOWN THE MYTHS
Several myths exist today which prevent us from reclaiming our creativity:

MYTH #1: One must be super-gifted or a genius in order to be

creative. Many people falsely believe that creativity is a gift from God.
Repeated citations of individuals such as Michaelangelo, Rabindranath
Tagore and Albert Einstein have helped to fuel this. This myth has led to a
tiny percentage of people being supported in their creative quests, while
the vast majority are told that they are not and can not be creative.
Underlying this myth are archaic notions of the human brain that view
intelligence as genetically predetermined and stagnant and condemn it to
narrow quantitative measurements such as I.Q. New research[2], however,
indicates that we all possess a dynamic range of multiple intelligences by
which we make sense of the world and that these intelligences can increase
throughout our lives.

MYTH #2: Creativity only occurs in the fine arts such as music,
painting, dance. The Industrial Age has artificially separated work and
leisure. All work activities, whether in the job or the home or in school, are
supposed to be tedious, routinized, painful activities. Activities that are
creative, inspiring, and fun are relegated to the domain of leisure. This myth
has meant that many people have stopped trying to be creative in their daily
activities and interactions. However, Devi Prasad (1998) notes that
traditional India did not compartmentalize art and life. Playful expressions
of creative living were closely integrated into and emerged from the
peoples daily work i.e., performing household chores, farming, hunting,
cooking, weaving, taking care of the animals, housebuilding, celebrating
festivals, praying, etc. For creativity to be meaningful, it must be re-
integrated into all aspects of our life.

MYTH #3: Creative living is something that only the idle rich can
afford to indulge in. Because of the previous myth, creativity has become
associated with the elite category of high culture. This has created a
misperception in the public eye that creativity is non-practical, frivolous and
expensive pursuit. It has also led to the devaluation of very organic
expressions of creativity by non-elite groups. We must understand certain
elite groups have tried to manipulate the idea of creativity to legitimize
their power and privilege, and also to deny the masses from articulating
their creativity energies so that they could not resist or challenge the status
quo. The ability to develop and articulate ones creative energies is not
dependent on ones economic class or caste background. There is no
hierarchy of creativity between high culture and popular culture. Also, as
discussed above, real creativity is not only practical, it is essential to our
being human.

71
MYTH #4: Ones creativity is measured by the products they
produce and the more creative are those who are able to sell their
products for greater profit. This myth places a mistaken emphasis on the
output that emerges from the creative process rather than on the lifestyle
process itself. Success, which is often based on luck and ones position of
privilege, is given more importance than effort. This myth discourages
people from taking risks and from collaborating with others due to fear of
failure. It also creates deforming and distorting dependencies between our
creativity and the vagaries of the Market Economy. We must understand
that creativity is not about our output but rather about our lifestyle our
ways of exploring new places, people and ideas; of understanding ourselves
and developing our infinite talents; of nurturing our sensitivity to others and
Nature.

These four myths are perpetuated in both our institutional spaces as well as
our understandings of our Self. Challenging these myths requires that we
dismantle dehumanizing institutions, regenerate nurturing institutions and
personally engage in processes of unlearning and relearning.

REVISITING OUR INSTITUTIONS

The Industrial Age has witnessed the overwhelming growth of institutions
which are based on the logic of objectivity, standardization, efficiency and
profit. These modern institutions range from factories to governments to
armies to schools to large corporate media. In their worldview,
technological ingenuity and innovation are projected as the highest form of
human achievement the ends by which to evaluate a civilization. Nature is
seen as a resource to be violently manipulated and exploited. These
institutions do not trust the judgement of human beings and seek to put in
place rational and unemotional systems of management and planning that
will do all of our thinking for us. They call for us to enter into a state of
technological somnabulism in which we must put our absolute faith in
Science and Technology to govern and protect us.[3] The inherent form of
these institutions serves to undermine our creativities by: enforcing rigid
routines and procedures; demanding quick production of results and
providing little room to make mistakes; making people compete against
each other by using extrinsic forms of motivation (rewards and
punishments); and, labelling, sorting and ranking of human beings.[4]

Factory-schooling is one of the clearest examples of these kinds of

dehumanizing institutions. Most schooled graduates have gone through
schools learning only about competition, rules, and control. They have
never been given the opportunity to think about their own potentials for
self-learning, much less to think about new kinds of educational, political,
economic, social structures and relationships. They are told over and over
again that they must passively fit into the ready-made System. Though
factory-schooling has played a major role in repressing our individual and

72
collective creativities, it remains unquestioned in our society and is
projected as a seemingly innocuous fundamental human right. The global
media, such as the television and newspapers, has also emerged as a major
force which stunts our creative growth. The media turns us into voyeurs
who prefer to watch others live life. Neil Postman (1993) describes further
that, We are driven to fill our lives with the quest to access information.
For what purpose, or with what limitations, it is not for us to ask; and we
are not accustomed to asking, since the problem is unprecedented. Rote
memorization for exams, the courses on G.K. in schools, and the emergence
of TV shows such as Kaun Banega Crorepati? powerfully illustrate how info-
glut monopolizes our attention while distracting us from constructive
processes of meaningful self-reflection.

Beyond challenging these dehumanizing institutions, we must regenerate

learning communities of reflective-action that have a different logic and
form. Such learning communities must be seen as socio-spiritual spaces in
the sense that they nurture and connect each human beings innate yet
diverse searches for truth and meaning. To do so, they must provide us with
continuous opportunities for raising and exploring foundational questions
around our notions of Progress, Knowledge, Freedom, Equality and Justice.
They must be integrally connected with the Web of Life. These spaces must
also:
- respect the diversity of each human beings, particularly their
different ways of learning and growing;
- understand the right scale of all activities, with an aesthetic
preference simplicity;
- encourage people to take risks and experiment;
- nurture intrinsic forms of motivation;
- facilitate collaboration and sharing within a generative
framework of (infinite) power;
- emphasize the principles of self-discipline, trust and love.

Such learning communities have traditionally grown around work that

features the use of the hands and the heart, community media, local
knowledge and wisdom frameworks, oral and visual traditions of literacy,
and various familial bonds. However, without the time, processes of
meaningful questioning, and resources to provide them nourishment, these
reflective spaces are either stagnating or disappearing. The ready-made
world has made very few attempts to generate new learning communities
based on the above principles. Unfortunately, when individuals have tried in
the past, most have not been able to shed their ready-made worldviews.

RE-ESTABLISHING OUR AGENCY: UNLEARNING AND RELEARNING

Reclaiming creativity and regenerating various learning communities is not

73
the exclusive responsibility of professional artists, industrial psychologists,
art teachers, ministers of culture, etc. Each of us must actively participate
in creating not just observing or passively fitting into these learning
communities. We risk falling into another trap of the ready-made world if we
expect others to create these learning communities for us.

Taking control over our processes of unlearning and re-learning away from
factory-schooling and the global media and re-establishing our faith in
processes of self-learning is one essential step in this larger process. In
terms of our unlearning, we will have to understand that many of the
obstacles to creativity can be found within us. Such obstacles include: fear
of criticism, lack of confidence, competitiveness, high stress, and big egos.
Other obstacles stem from our schooled inability to tolerate ambiguity and
our manufactured confusion between happiness and material acquisitions.
Our creativities also are burdened by certain labels that we attach to
ourselves and others. These identity labels most often based on
professions, caste, gender, class, schooling level, etc. create artificial
barriers which limit our exploration and growth. We become afraid to
interact with certain people because of whom we think they are (or we think
we are). Unlearning will involve confronting these obstacles and barriers,
and trying to liberate ourselves from them. Unlearning is essential if we
wish to regain our faith in the goodness of others and in the belief that
many new options are available.

In terms of re-learning, we must try to understand our own individual

learning styles, pace (learning things faster is not always better for our
creativity), multiple intelligences, emotional states, experiences, etc. We
must re-learn to see power outside the institutions of the State and the
Market. This calls for us to be able recognize creative spaces and
opportunities that are in front of our eyes but we have never appreciated
before Simultaneously, we must understand how our creativity can be
enhanced by engaging in collaboration and sharing with others. We also
must re-learn how to see life holistically and relationally. Most importantly,
we must re-learn how to connect knowledge and technology with wisdom
and ethics. This will provide us with the humility to know our limits and
with the common sense to understand that we should not do all things just
because we can (i.e., not all creative scientific and commercial initiatives
should be pursued). Re-learning is essential to fuel us with the inspiration to
start dreaming our own dreams again (and not someone elses ready-made
dreams) and with the self-confidence to put them into action.

Here, one may raise the ever-troubling chicken and the egg dilemma. In
other words, which must come first the processes of regenerating learning
communities or individual self-regeneration? Without regenerating learning
communities how can we support individual self-regeneration? And without
individual self-regeneration how can we support the process of regenerating

74
learning communities? Addressing this dilemma requires that we reject the
institutional schizophrenia, alienation and hypocrisy created by so-called
modern institutions[5], and stop seeing the learning communities and
individuals as separate domains. We must see ourselves as part of these
learning communities and they part of us. Through such a relationship,
there will be a dialectic process of mutual regeneration between the
learning communities and us.

Facing this dilemma will also demand that we make conscious choices to try
to dis-engage from the techno-economic System, or what I term as the
dictatorship of convenience. This will give the time and space to listen
again. To do this, involves trying to do things without money/Market
Economy and without the interference of the State. These activities should
not be reduced to superficial rituals but rather be taken in the spirit of
pursuing a path of meaningful struggle (and constructive confrontation).
Implicitly, this means that we must learn how to use our hands (and feet)
again. In this context, I am reminded of a recent episode with one of my
colleagues in Shikshantar. He was to take a gift for a celebration and
wanted to buy it from a gift shop. I suggested that rather than buying a gift,
he should try to make something with his own hands. He was reluctant to
do so because of the imperfections of his own product. Learning to
appreciate the beauty of our own imperfections while avoiding ready-made
checklists which tell us how to live our lives represent the basic challenge
to reclaiming our creativity.

REFERENCES
Galleano, E. To Be Like Them in M. Rahnema. 1997. The Post-
Development Reader. London: Zed Books.

Postman, N. 1993. Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf.

Prasad, D. 1998. Art: The Basis of Education. Delhi: National Book Trust.

Zohar, D. and I. Marshall. 2000. Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence.

New York: Bloomsbury.

Mr. Manish Jain currently serves as Coordinator of Shikshantar: The

Peoples' Institute for Rethinking Education and Development
<www.swaraj.org/shikshantar> based in Udaipur, India.

75
[1] I am reminded here of friends who tell me that they need a vacation
after their ready-made vacations because they are so drained and exhausted
from them.
[2] Interested readers can take a look at the work of researchers such as
Howard Gardner, David Perkins, Robert Sternberg, and Geoffrey and Renata
Caine.
[3] These days, for example, we are told to believe that the Internet and
dot.coms will cure all of our problems, and that India is strong because we
have nuclear weapons.
[4] For more on this, readers may wish to take a look at the works of Alfie
Kohn.
[5] Here, I am reminded of several conversations that I have had with our
Indian bureaucrats and police-officers as well as stories that I have heard
about the Nazis in Germany. Both morally disagreed with many of the
decisions of their leaders but followed them nonetheless because they had
to do their jobs.

76
Educating for Wisdom By Jack Miller
The focus of most schools and universities is on the development of
marketable skills. Departments and Ministries of Education support this
focus by stating that these skills are needed if citizens are to compete in the
global marketplace. We have heard this mantra since the early 80s with
documents as a Nation at Risk which eventually led to programs such as No
Child Left Behind with its emphasis on standardized testing. Has this
emphasis achieved its goals? In some cases test scores have gone up but
has this focus made the world a better place to live in? In the fall of 2008
the world experienced a financial meltdown that began in the United States
where investment banks and the banking system in general were engaged
in high risk investment strategies. Many of the individuals running these
institutions were educated in the best universities in the U.S. Clearly there
was little wisdom in their decisions that led to the financial mess. We also
live in a world where each day there is more evidence of climate change
that could very soon make much of the world uninhabitable. Yet
governments and world leaders refuse to seriously address the problem.

It is time that schools and universities focus on the development of wisdom

if humanity is to survive. Matthew Fox quotes a Native American elder who
said: Only a madman thinks with his head. Fox (2006) goes on to write:
I might add, only a made civilization thinks with its heador educates
people to think their heads. A healthy individual and a healthy educational
system learn to think with hear as well as with head. Such a civilization
thinks wisely. (p.102) Our education system needs to focus on the
development of wisdom or what the ancients called the thinking heart
(Miller, 2008).

Wisdom

What is wisdom? It is not the collection of information but a deeper

knowing that is characterized by insight, humility, and love.
Insight. Wisdom involves seeing into the nature of things. Both science
and religion have helped us in this quest. Science and particularly ecology
has shown us the interdependence and interconnectedness of nature. Yet
various religions have also shared this insight at a more personal level. In
Christianity there is the proverb as a man thinketh so he or she is
clarifying the effect that our thoughts have on our life.. In Buddhism there
is the following statement:

The thought manifests as the word,

The word manifests as the deed,
The deed develops into habit,

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 And the habit hardens into character.
So watch the thought
And its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of respect for all beings.
(Source unknown cited in Miller, 2007. p. 191)

Seeing how our thoughts impact ourselves and others is an insight that can
eventually change our behavior so that we live more wisely.

Another insight into the nature of things is that universe is constantly

changing and evolving. We see this in our own lives as we go through
infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age and we witness it in
nature with the change of the seasons. In Buddhism this is the principle of
impermanence as things are constantly in a state of flux. Because of this
fact different religions encourage us not to grasp but let go. Hinduism
encourages non-attachment to the results of our work. Hinduism is not the
only faith to advocate non-attachment. St. John of the Cross wrote: The
soul that is attached to anything , however much good there may be in it,
will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.(cited in Huxley, p.105)
Chuang Tzu, the Taoist master, stated: And so it is with man. If he could
only pass empty through life, who would be able to injure him?(Huxley,
p.106) Finally there is a Sufi Aphorism which says: When the heart weeps
for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what is has found. ( Huxley p.106)

As we see how we are interconnected and how we are part of a dynamic

process of change, we lose the sense of self-importance that our egos crave.
Instead we can see our place in the cosmos.

Humility. Seeing our place in nature is a humbling process. By humbling I

do not mean demeaning, in fact, it can lead to sense that each of us has a
unique role to fill in the universe. Yet this sense should not lead us to
egoism but an awareness that we part of a whole. The Tao Te Ching
constantly reinforces this message and suggests that the best leaders are
the ones who in their wisdom bring out the best in people and do not feel
the need to control others.. One quotation for the Tao Te Ching states
Know your position and understand the Mother (#59) (Kaufman, 1998.
p.122)

Emerson (1990) comments on how humans separate themselves from

nature:

These roses under my window make no reference to former roses

or to better ones; they are for what they are; they exist with God
to-day. There is not time to them. There is simply the rose; it is
perfect in every moment of its existence. Before a leaf-bud has

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 burst, its whole life acts; in the full-blown flower there is no
more; in the leafless root there is no less. Its nature is satisfied
and it satisfies nature in all moments alike. But man postpones
or remembers; he does not live in the present, but with reverted
eye laments the past, or, heedless of the riches that surround
him, stand on tiptoe to foresee the future. He cannot be happy
and strong until he too lives with nature in the present, above
time. (169)

As a result of having not seen ourselves as part of nature, we have inflicted

environmental damage on the planet. Rather than humility there has been
an arrogance that has led to the subjugation of indigenous peoples,
needless wars (e.g Vietnam and Iraq) and poverty. Through wisdom and
seeing our place in the cosmos we could begin heal the planet.

Nature helps us see our place in the universe and to also embrace the
mystery at the heart of the cosmos. Confronting this mystery leads to sense
of not-knowing and humility. Zen and Taoism emphasize this element. For
example, Ray Grigg (1994) cites the following Zen saying The most
dangerous thing in the world is to think you understand something.(p. 247)
He then follows with a quotation from Taoism Knowing is the way of
fools.(p.247) Both these quotations point to how experience cannot be
explained away. Grigg argues that this wisdom leads to a perpetual
preparedness where the person approaches each situation with a readiness
and openness. He states: Each individual person becomes the balanced
and shapeless center of the universe, dancing alone with the unpredictable
order that swirls everywhere. (p.247)

Susan Murphy (2006), a Zen teacher writes of not knowing our own
goodness:

The Tao Te Ching speaks of the people of old (or people closer to
our own original simplicity) as being good without knowing that they
were good, and being just without knowing that they were just. When
we stop supposing that this or that and freely become what we
actually are, we leave generous room for the other to be free to be
exactly what they are. What a gift! (p.161)

Love
A commitment to spiritual life necessarily means we embrace the
eternal principle that love is all, everything, our true destiny. Despite
overwhelming pressure to conform to the culture of lovelessness, we
still seek to know love. That seeking is itself a manifestation of divine
spirit. (bell hooks, 2000, p. 78)

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Like hooks, King and Gandhi believed that love was at the centre of the
cosmos and underlies all that we strive for . Wisdom acknowledges this
and nourishes all forms of love.

I find hooks arguments particularly compelling because she suggests that

those who fight for social justice and equity often ignore the importance of
love in their struggles. She sees love as the primary way we end
domination and oppression. (p.76) Through love we see how as human
beings we all want happiness and well being. Of course, the shape of this
happiness can differ in various contexts but still we share this desire to be
happy and not suffer.

Gandhi and King would let not themselves hate their opponents but instead
saw them through the eye of compassion. Mandela also had this quality.
When he was in prison, he would look for small acts of kindness from the
guards and this awareness kept him going for the 27 years he was in
prison. When he was heading up the commission for reconciliation, he
made sure that wardens from his prison were included.

When love disappears then we see the other as object and no longer as a
human being. Unfortunately much political discourse today in the United
States is characterized by name calling and lack of mutual respect. Paul
Krugman (2009) calls this behavior The Big Hate.

Love, or compassion, is also missing in our education. How often do we

hear education officials or academics speak of love? Dzogchen Ponlop
Rinpoche (1999) states

that the development of compassion is what is most missing from

schools today. Perhaps it is that our teachers are not compassionate,
or maybe it is the students who are not compassionate. But it is clear-
something is wrong. We are not learning properly. I feel that we are
not learning properly because we are not open to each other.
Compassion, however, is what opens the heart. (p. 59)

I turn now to how we can develop wisdom-based learning in our schools.

Wisdom based learning

If insight is one of the key aspects of wisdom, then how can we foster this in
our schools? I have argued in other contexts that the curriculum should
focus primarily on relationships and connections so that the student can
become aware of the interdependence of life (Miller, 2007). Unfortunately
the school curriculum tends to be fragmented as we break information
down into courses, units, and lessons with little emphasis on how

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knowledge is connected. Instead, the curriculum should be developed
around several key connections and I have identified six. They include:

-Subject connections
-Earth connections
-Community connections
-Thinking connections
-Body mind connections
-Soul connections.

The first three tend to be more external while the last three or more
internal to the individual. Let me describe each of the six and give an
example of how each connection might be manifested in the classroom.

Subject Connections. There are different ways of making these

connections. One way is called multidisciplinary. Here the curriculum
retains separate subjects, but establishes linkages between the separate
subjects. For example, the history teacher might reference the literature
and art of a specific historical period and explore how the art was
representative of that period. Another approach is interdisciplinary level
as two or three subjects are integrated around a theme or problem. For
example, in examining the problem of city traffic and other problems of
urban planning, subjects such as economics, political science, design
technology and mathematics can be brought together and integrated. A
third approach is transdisciplinary where several subjects are integrated
around a broad theme. Issues such as poverty and violence in society lend
themselves to this broadly integrative approach. James Beane(1997) is an
advocate of this approach and describes how teachers can implement it in
his book Curriculum Integration. In all the these approaches knowledge is
not kept within a particular subject but linked to other subjects and themes.
An outcome for students is that they see relationships and how these
relationships can impact their life and society at large.

Earth Connections. Here students see their relationship to the earth and
its processes. They can start by reading indigenous peoples literature from
the around the world. I particularly like a book entitled Touch the Earth
(McLuhan, 1972). For example, below are the words of Walking Buffalo, a
Stoney Indian:

Hills are always more beautiful than stone buildings, you know.
Living in a city is an artificial existence. Lots of people hardly
ever feel real soil under their feet, see plants grow except in
flower pots, or get far enough beyond the street light to catch
the enchantment of a night sky studded with stars. When people
live far from scenes of the Great Spirit's making, it's easy for
them to forget his laws.

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 We saw the great Spirit's work in almost everything: sun, moon,
trees, wind, and mountains. Sometimes we approached him
through these things. Was that so bad? I think we have a true
belief in the supreme being, a stronger faith than that of most
whites who have called us pagans.... Indians living close to
nature and nature's ruler are not living in darkness.

Did you know that trees talk? Well they do. They talk to each
other, and they'll talk to you if you listen. Trouble is, white
people don't listen. They never learned to listen to the Indians
so I don't suppose they'll listen to other voices in nature. But I
have learned a lot from trees: sometimes about the weather,
sometimes about animals, sometimes about the Great Spirit. (p.
23)

Even more important is to have direct experiences with the earth. Schools
are using gardens for this purpose. Kiefer and Kemple (1998) in their book,
Digging Deeper, describe how youth gardens can be integrated with schools
and communities. They identify their vision at the beginning of the book:

Growing gardens with children is a living testament to how to restore

our ancient ties to the natural rhythms of the earth itself. It is in the
learning of this lesson-flower by flower, child by child. season by
season-that we will be able to reclaim the heritage that is rightfully
ours: as the caretakers of a natural paradise where all species thrive.
(p.xiii)

Kiefer and Kemple argue that growing a garden has several benefits for
children:
seeing the results of growing food with their own hands;
working in harmony with the forces of nature;
learning basic academic skills in science, math, language, and social
studies;
learning to work cooperatively with others.

The book is part of the Garden in Every School Campaign that began in
1995 and has spread throughout North America. The process does not just
involve schools and children but includes elders to share their experience,
stories and practical wisdom; local historians, naturalist, farmers, artisans
and other professionals willing to contribute their expertise(p.xiv) as well
parents and families.

Community Connections. Children need to develop connections to each

other, to adults, to the community at large and the global community.

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Ideally the classroom should be community where students feel safe and
loved. The teacher sets this tone of trust and acceptance through their care
and authenticity. Strategies as cooperative learning (Johnson & Johnson,
1994 )and Tribes (Gibbs, 1987 ) can also help in this process.

King developed his vision of the Beloved Community for society and I
believe this vision can also be applied to the school. King (1968) believed
that We are tied together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an
inescapable network of mutuality. (p.168) Students need to see how their
well being is connected to the well being of others in the school. This vision
runs counter to the one that is fostered by the current emphasis on testing
and competition. This kind of mutuality can be developed through school
wide projects. The film Paper Clips shows how a school came together
through a project that collected a paper clip for each person who died in the
holocaust.

As the children mature they can also see how they are part of wider
community that extends to the entire planet. Awareness that we are not
separate from people suffering on other continents should gradually emerge
as the students sense of interconnectedness grows and expands.

Thinking Connections. In her book Jill Bolte Taylor (2009), a brain scientist,
describes her stroke experience and how it made her aware of the
importance of right brained thinking. Her stroke affected her left brain
which is the seat of logical thought and language. She refers to this brain
chatter or that calculating intelligence that knows when you have to do
your laundry. (p.31) It is also home of our ego center. The right
hemisphere sees things in relationship and in the large context of the
whole.

our right mind perceives each of us as equal members of the human

family. It identifies our similarities and recognizes our relationship
with this marvelous planet, which sustains our life. It perceives the
big picture, how everything is related, and how we all join together to
make up the whole. Our ability to be empathic, to walk in the shoes of
another and feel their feelings is a product of our right frontal cortex.
(p.30)

Taylor also suggests that it is the place where we experience inner peace.
For a time her life was dominated by the right brain and here she
experienced moments of deep peace and feeling of being connected to the
cosmos. Before the stroke, like most people living in the industrialized
world, Taylor was caught up in do-do-doing lots of stuff at a very fast
pace. (p. 70) This stressful existence also led to frustration and anger.
Her stroke allowed her to experience a different world. She writes In

83
absence of my left hemispheres negative judgment, I perceived myself as
perfect, whole, and beautiful just the way I was. (p. 74)

Through rehabilitation therapy Taylor has recovered the use of her left
brain but she has learned to use both sides of the brain to live more fully
and realize a deeper happiness. Now when she begins to feel stress she
shifts right and thus slows down and now listens to her body and trusts
her instincts. She breathes deeply and repeats to herself In this moment I
reclaim my JOY, or In this moment I am perfect, whole, and beautiful, or I
am an innocent and peaceful child of the universe, I shift back into the
consciousness of right mind. (p. 178)

Our students need to use both the right and left brain. They need to able to
think clearly and analyze information but they also need to see relationships
and feel the kind of peace that Taylor and all of us can experience. I believe
that the use of imagery and metaphor in the classroom can stimulate the
right side of the brain while various approaches to critical thinking can
support the left side. (Miller, 2007)

The work of Howard Gardner (1983) provides a broader conception of

human intelligence than has been used within most educational settings.
His intelligences theory provides a framework for exploring various modes
of thinking. The eight intelligences include: linguistic (language
development, abstract reasoning, use of symbols), logical/mathematical
(scientific thinking, use of abstract symbols, and recognizing patterns),
visual/spatial (visual arts, architecture, imagery, visual discrimination),
bodily/kinesthetic (sports activities, body movement and expression, dance),
musical (perceiving and interpreting sound), interpersonal (working
cooperatively with others, feeling empathy for others, responding to the
needs of others), intrapersonal (awareness of internal states, intuition, and
reflection) and natural (awareness of the environment). Since the
development of his work there have been many applications of this model to
education. For example, the Pittsburgh Public Schools and the Educational
Testing Service have collaborated with Gardner on a project called Arts
PROPEL. This project has focused on assessment so as to move beyond
what Gardner refers to as "the often wooden standardized instruments"
(1983, p. 238) that have been used so inappropriately in the arts. The
project has also involved the development of a curriculum in the arts
(Gardner, 1991).

David Lazear (1991a, 1991b) has also applied Gardner's work to an

educational setting. Lazear has developed a number of classroom activities
that teachers can use to develop the various intelligences.

Body-Mind Connections. We have lost touch with our bodies. The evidence
that supports this view is the data on the high percentage of people that

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are overweight in North
America(http://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL0778048620070
807). These data include young people as well. This problem is in part due
to a tendency to live in our heads with little connection to body and soul.
Abrams (1996) points to Descartes work as contributing to our alienation
from the body. He believes this has lead to our disconnection from the
environment instead of recognizing that the body and the earth are
intimately connected. Indigenous people have made this connection.
Abrams describes how the native peoples of Australia would walk the
routes of their ancestors and in this process the body and the land would
become one. Abrams states: he virtually becomes the journeying Ancestor,
and thus the storied earth is born afresh (p.170)

Annie Klein (1997) in her discussion of womens embodiment argues to feel

we are located in and even confined to our bodies, yet at the same time
alienated from them, is ingrained in modern identity and the individualism
that is part and parcel of it. (p.144)

Some teachers are addressing this problem by introducing yoga into the
classroom. Yoga and other body disciplines such as Qi Gong and Tai Chi
focus on mindful movement so that we begin to listen to our bodies. One
teacher, Ana Neves, describes how she has yoga with her elementary
school students in her thesis. She provided yoga classes twice week as part
of the daily physical activity program required by the Ontario Ministry of
Education. She taught the students how to be mindful of their movements
as the did the various poses. Students were also taught awareness of their
breathing as they practiced the yoga. Ana writes: Similarly yoga practice
requires the practitioner to develop increased self-awareness and
concentration. One must focus ones attention on the breath, survey the
mind and body and make adjustments as necessary so that the pose is most
effective. She noticed that yoga helped improved their hand-eye
coordination and concentration as well as becoming more relaxed. I have
had other teachers report similar results. (Miller, 2007, p. 122)

Soul Connections. Emerson wrote that Education is the drawing out of the
soul yet the term soul is rarely heard in educational discourse. Soul is
defined here as a vital and mysterious energy that gives meaning and
purpose to ones life. In my book Education and the Soul (2000) I have
described my understanding of soul an how it can nurtured in students, our
schools, and ourselves.

Awareness of the soul in education means that we are sensitive to the inner
life of the student and attempt to nourish this life in various ways. I have
called for a curriculum for the inner life which can include journal writing
where students explore their thoughts and feelings, writing their own
autobiography, visualization, dream work, and meditation.

85
Another valuable approach to soul connections is what Maria Montessori
called cosmic education. Montessoris son, Mario. (1992) describes cosmic
education when he writes: Cosmic education seeks to offer the young, at
the appropriate sensitive period, the stimulation and help they need to
develop their minds, their vision, and their creative power, whatever the
level or range of their personal contributions may be.(p.101) Her son wrote
that the child needs to have a prior interest in the whole so he or she can
make sense of individual facts. This can be done in part by introducing
students to ecological principles that focus on the interdependence of living
and non-living things. Mario Montessori gives the example of students
studying the life cycle of salmon and its relationship with the environment.

Aline Wolf (2004) has recently written about Montessoris vision of cosmic
education. She argues that

Essentially Montessoris cosmic education gives the child first an all-

encompassing sense of the universe with its billions of galaxies.
Then it focuses on our galaxy, the Milky Way, our solar system, planet
Earth and its geological history, the first specimens of life, all species
of plants and animals and finally human beings. Inherent in the
whole study is the interconnectedness of all creation, the oneness of
things. (p.6)

Wolf also makes reference to the work of Brian Swimme and the Universe
story.
Cosmic education helps the children place themselves within the total
framework of the universe. The image of the universe presented by
Montessori and Swimme is one of order and purpose. Since human beings
are part of the universe, it gives us a common reference point beyond the
boundaries created by nations and religions. Wolf also points out the cosmic
education can help children develop a sense of reverence for life and care
for the earth. Seeing miracle of life on life on earth within the vastness of
the universe can help students appreciate more deeply life and the earth
itself. Cosmic education can also give students a deep sense of gratitude as
well.

As examples, when we see a beautiful valley nestled in the mountains, we

can reflect on the fact that it was formed by water that labored thousands of
years to wear down the mountainous terrain, when we enter a car or train,
we can look back and feel grateful to the first human being who constructed
a wheel. Awareness of the long-term cosmic pattern, of which we are only
an infinitesimal part, calls us to a deep humility and reverence for all the
labors of nature and the work of human beings that preceded us. (Wolf,
p.16)

86
Wolf suggests that cosmic education can give children a sense of meaning
and purpose in their lives. Montessori felt that within the person lay a
spiritual embryo which needs to be respected and nourished so that
students can eventually find their purpose on earth.

Wise Teachers.

To foster wisdom in students we need wise teachers. To foster their own

insight, love and humility, teachers need to be engaged to practices that
nurture these qualities. One of these practices is meditation. In the past
twenty years I have introduced meditation practices to over 2000 teachers
taking graduate courses at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education.
Students are introduced to six different types of meditation which include:
meditation on the breath, counting the breath, lovingkindness (sending
thoughts of well being to self and others), mantra (meditation on sound or
phrase), movement (e.g. walking), visualization, and contemplation on
poetry or sacred texts. Some students work out their own forms and
integrate meditation with their own spiritual and religious practice.
Although sitting meditation is encouraged, some students do movement
meditation. For example, one student swam every day as he approached
swimming with mindful awareness. Whatever form students choose,
meditation can be seen as letting go of the calculating mind and opening to
the listening mind that tends to be characterized by a relaxed alertness.

Most of the students are women (80%) in their late 20s 30s or 40s. While
most of the students come from Ontario, there have also been students from
Brazil, China, India Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Japan, Kenya,
Korea, Malta, Malaysia and Somalia. Most of the students are teachers
taking graduate courses in education. In the last few years, however, I have
also been introducing meditation to students in teacher education programs
for individuals seeking certification as teachers. These students are mostly
in their mid to late twenties.

Students are asked to meditate each day for six weeks. In the beginning
they meditate for about 10 to 15 minutes a day and by the end of the six
weeks they are encouraged to meditate 20-30 minutes. Students are
required to keep a journal which focuses on how the process of meditation
is going (e.g. how the concentration and focus are going, how the body is
feeling, etc.). The journals also focus on how meditation has affected them.
Some of themes have included
Giving themselves permission to be alone and enjoy their own company;
Increased listening capacities;
Feeling increased energy;
Being less reactive to situations and generally experiencing greater
calm and clarity.

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At the end of the process they write a reflective summary of the experience.
Below is an excerpt from one of these summaries.

I find it difficult to express how the meditation experience has been

for me, . . .I find it difficult to use language to describe whats
happened to over the course of the last few weeks. . . .What amazed
me the most was how concentrating intensely on loving kindness and
its implications for myself, my friends, my family my neighbors, my
teachers, my colleagues, my acquaintances, the people who pass me
on the street, the people who upset me, the people who participate
and perpetuate structures that I oppose-that projecting
lovingkindness to them resulted in a tangible concrete shift in my
relationships-without my necessarily knowing, or intending it. We
always think we have to do something in order to effect change,
without realizing that we are acting, we are effecting change by
attuning to our self, to our capacity for compassion and understanding
and reflection. Mindfulness practice, similarly, I do believe effects
change. For me at least it enables me to pause a moment before I
react, before I blindly go about responding or acknowledging as I
walk through my daily experiences without every really needing to be
there. I felt the effects-I felt a shift-I felt I most when it would
suddenly occur to me that Im feeling good as a result of relating to
people-and I dont mean my friends and family. I felt it most when I
related to strangers, when I looked at them and saw them for the first
time, when I thought about them as co-creators, as parts of myself. . .
What I mean is that. . . it is a matter of my not seeing a distinction
between myself and them.

Another teachers description of how the practices impacted her teaching

shows her wisdom.
However, my thinking is expanding somewhat to stretch into a new sense
of what it means to know someone, student or colleague, in a way that
facilitates true and effective learning and growth. To teach from an
intuitive source is to submit myself to an ocean of largeness of possibility
that roars and flows with its own greatness and power quite outside the
realm of my orchestration and planning and timing. It is to let go of the
illusion of my own control and expertness, recognizing instead that to
limit my students to the meager feelings of my ego is to miss the
hugeness and importance of authentic educative growth. I am reminded
here of my earlier teaching days, furiously pouring over the little section
on China in the Social Studies binder, pathetically planning what glorious
reams of knowledge I might impart, only to realize with horror that two-
thirds of my class were born there. Who do I think I am? Teaching from
the ego is ultimately a crash-course in humiliation. It is only when I

88
 submit to the truth of my smallness as one who is learning and struggling
along a humble growth road with these brothers and sisters who are my
students that I come closest to teaching in truth.

...so crucial and authentic was the experience of teaching through

living with my students, that I have since found myself questioning the
validity of some of my former practice. I am beginning to see my students
and myself as ultimately one growing, changing organism continuing to
become. I am only beginning this journey; there is so much that is new
and unknown to me about the scope and breadth of holistic teaching and
living. I only know that it is becoming my passion and perhaps my life-
work to teach and to live from the fireside, to be quiet and listen and
see what we hear.

This teacher shows insight, humility and love in this passage. For example,
she realizes that many of her students probably have more knowledge of
China than she does since they were born there. She has the insight that
she cannot control the educational experiences of her students. Finally,
she feels love for her students as she sees my students and myself as
ultimately one growing, changing organism continuing to become. I am
convinced that wisdom can come from teachers working on themselves
through various mind and body practices. These practices allow the teacher
to move from just teaching from their head to teaching with their whole
being. From this wholeness wisdom can arise in our schools and
classrooms.

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Miller, J. (2007) The holistic curriclum. Toronto: U of Toronto Press.

Miller, J. (2008) The Thinking Heart in Issues in Education: Integrating

Theory and Practice, Chau Meng Huat and Trevor Kerry (eds.)
London: Continuum pp. 62-76

McLuhan, T.C. (1972). Touch the Earth: A self-portrait of Indian existence.

New York: Pocket Books .

Montessori, Mario (1992) Education for Human Development:

Understanding Montessori. Oxford, UK: Clio

Murphy, S. (2006) Upside down zen: Finding the marvelous in the

ordinary. Boston: Wisdom publications.

Ponlop Rinpoche, D. (1999) Buddhist education: The path of wisdom and

knowledge.
in The heart of learning, Glazer, S. (ed.) New York: Putnam.

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Taylor, J. B. (2009) My stroke of insight: A brain scientists personal
journey. New York: Plume.

Wolf, A. (2004) Maria Montessori cosmic education as a non-sectarian

framework for nurturing childrens spirituality. Pacific Grove, CA:
ChildSpirit Conference, October 7-10

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A Holistic View for Cultivating Spirituality in
Education: From Vedanta, Zen, and Taoist
Perspectives By Yoshiharu Nakagawa
Abstract
Through examining examples from Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism, this
paper intends to explore ideas of spirituality and their implications for
education. Especially, this paper refers to ideas of Advaita Vedanta in
Hinduism, Chan/Zen Buddhism, and the Taoist teachings of Lao-tzu. Among
these perspectives ideas of multidimensionality of reality and human
existence are prevalent. On the surface dimension, aspects of individual
personality (body, emotions, and mind) develop through transformative
phases to their maturation. However, on the deepest level, there exists an
essential dimension often named Atman, the Buddha nature, or Tao. This
understanding of human existence makes significant suggestions
concerning spirituality. And these perspectives describe ways of education
that intend to awaken us to this essential nature of our being and thus
recover the wholeness of multidimensional reality. Given this view, an
education with a holistic and integral orientation could structure its design
around this multidimensionality in order to help evolve the realization of the
innermost essence as well as the development of individual personality.

Background: An Eastern Approach to Holistic Education

The major fields of my study include holistic education, transpersonal

psychology, spirituality, and Eastern Philosophies. Holistic education
started in the 80s in North America, and I came to know it in the early 90s
in Japan. From 1996 to 2000 I studied holistic education at OISE (Ontario
Institute for Studies in Education) at the University of Toronto, Canada. In
1997 the Japan Holistic Education Society was organized. Now it has almost
300 members and annually publishes a book and a journal focusing on
topics in Holistic Education. I am currently the secretary of this society as
well as the vice-president of the Japanese Association for Transpersonal
Psychology and Psychiatry.

In Japan, discussions about spirituality are slowly growing in recent years.

However, in the field of education these discussions still remain
underdeveloped. I published a book focusing on this issue, which is one of
the few publications written in Japanese and has so far been ignored by
educational circles. I feel it difficult to raise interest in spirituality in
education among educators in Japan. Generally, schools in Japan seem to
be less interested in spirituality and religious education.

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I dont see that Japan is a religious country. It is true that traditional
religions such as Shinto, Confucianism, Taoism (Daoism), and Buddhism
have merged with each other and are embedded in the culture. And people
follow religious customs, but strangely enough many Japanese tend to
regard themselves as non-believers and are skeptical about religious or
spiritual matters. Religious education was excluded from public education
after the war. Private schools, many of which are founded by Buddhist and
Christian sects, have some programs of religious education, but they seem
not to confront spiritual concerns of students and deal mostly with
intellectual aspects (history and doctrines) of religion.

When I was a graduate student at OISE, I came to realize that ideas within
Eastern philosophies could contribute to our understandings of human
nature and holistic education. I completed my thesis entitled Eastern
Philosophy and Holistic Education under the supervision of Professor John
Miller. This work was later published as Education for Awakening: An
Eastern Approach to Holistic Education (Holistic Education Press, 2000).

Though I am not a specialist of any particular Eastern philosophy or

religion, in these years I have become more convinced that there are ideas
coming out of Eastern philosophies which could contribute to the
discussions of spirituality in education (Nakagawa, 2006, 2008). Diverse
ideas of Eastern philosophy have already been introduced to educational
theories and practices in the West (Miller, 2006, Miller & Nakagawa, 2003).
And creative developments of Eastern ideas are found in a large numbers of
publications in Western languages.

Five Dimensions of Reality

My approach to Eastern philosophy has been strongly informed by the

thinking of Toshihiko Izutsu (1983, 1985, 1989), a remarkable scholar of
Islamic and Eastern philosophies. He attempted to meet the challenges of
the present situation by creating a future-oriented Oriental philosophy
(Oriental in his usage) as a postmodern philosophy. As a main lecturer he
regularly delivered his ideas at the Eranos conferences (2008a, 2008b).

Izutsu (1983) applied a methodological operation named synchronical

structuralization to Eastern philosophies. This operation has two phases:
The first is to de-and re-construct different worldviews of Eastern
philosophies to identify common strands. This hermeneutical speculation is
intended to sort out fundamental structures of Eastern ways of thinking.
The second phase is subjectification or internalization of those
fundamental structures. This involves the spiritual cultivation of ones own
depth-consciousness to directly know what reality is, as described in
philosophical concepts.

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Following his method, I have examined Eastern worldviews that illustrate
deeper realities than our ordinary perception grasps. And by introducing
these views to the discussions of education, I have attempted to enlarge
educational worldviews. This presentation will discuss some of the ideas I
have developed through my work. As resources for this presentation I refer
to Lao-tzu (Tao Te Ching translated by Izutsu), Advaita Vedanta from Indian
thought, and Chan/Zen Buddhism among others.

As Izutsu emphasized, one remarkable feature of Eastern philosophy is a

view of multistratified structure of reality. He found that many Eastern
worldviews are identical in describing reality in forms of
multidimensionality. Multiple dimensions usually cover from the surface
level of separate things through intermediate realms to the metaphysical
and ontological depths.

Izutsu (1983/1984), in his Sufism and Taoism, describes a multistratified

structure in Lao-tzus Tao Te Ching (p. 481). Lao-tzus structure includes:
(1) Mystery of Mysteries, (2) Non-Being (Nothing, or Nameless), (3) One, (4)
Being (Heaven and Earth), and (5) the ten thousand things. For example,
Lao-tzu (2001) says, The Nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth
(chap. 1, p. 28); The ten thousand things under heaven are born out of
Being. Being is born out of Non-Being (chap. 40, p. 104).

I have combined these multidimensional views of reality with ideas of

holistic education and outlined five dimensions of reality as a foundation
for holistic education (Nakagawa, 2000). They include:

Objective reality: the surface reality of separate things;

Social reality: the semantic articulation of objective things;
Cosmic reality: the deeper interconnection in nature and the universe;
Infinite reality: the metaphysical and ontological depths;
Universal reality: the integrated whole of all dimensions.

Objective Reality and Social Reality

Objective reality is the phenomenal world of separate things arising in our

ordinary perception where the mode of distinction or differentiation is
predominant. We are completely identified with this level in our everyday
living. However, objective reality is given to us through the constructive
function of the mind that articulates what is given into separate things.
Objective reality has its own semantic foundation, which is called social
reality in this scheme. It is the dimension of social interrelation that
articulates the phenomenal distinctions (meanings) of things through
communicative action.

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Concerning this aspect, Lao-tzu (2001) says, The Named is the mother of
ten thousand things (chap. 1, p. 28). Likewise, ancient Eastern thinkers
recognized the minds function to give rise to distinctions between things,
but at same time they underlined that it is the primary cause of our delusive
perception, false attachments, and sufferings.

The Awakening of Faith in the Mahayana (Hakeda, 1967), a treatise on

Mahayana philosophy attributed to Asvaghosha, claims that the appearance
of things arises from the deluded mind: Since all things are, without
exception, developed from the mind and produced under the condition of
deluded thoughts, all differentiations are no other than the differentiations
of ones mind itself (p. 48). This text refers to two types of Mind: Mind in
terms of the Absolute on the deepest level of nirvana and Mind in terms of
phenomena on the phenomenal level of samsara, or transitory existence of
birth and death.

That which is called the essential nature of the Mind is unborn and
is imperishable. It is only through illusions that all things come to be
differentiated. If one is freed from illusions, then to him there will be
no appearances (lakshana) of objects [regarded as absolutely
independent existences]. (pp. 32-33)

In a similar way, Advaita Vedanta holds that ignorance (avidya) produces

phenomenal differences of things. Ignorance here means the
superimposition by the mind, a function which takes partial identities and
qualities as the whole of existence. Superimposition is the function that
articulates primordial unity into diverse things. Therefore, the phenomenal
world of separate things is called an illusion (maya). Sankara (1979/1992),
the greatest saint and thinker of Advaita Vedanta, said, This whole
[universe] is qualification, like a beautiful ornament, which is superimposed
[upon Atman] through nescience (p. 116).

We project meanings onto things and take the objective reality thus created
as the only reality that exists. But the true nature of reality is disclosed only
when the minds function and the surface reality are suspended. On the
surface level we are also articulated into a fragmentary existence or a
separate ego. To be freed from this fragmentation in order to recollect the
wholeness of our being, we need to liberate ourselves from the dominance
of the mind. For this purpose spiritual traditions in the East developed
various ways of contemplation and meditation.

Cosmic Reality

Beneath the social reality comes cosmic reality which is an encompassing

dimension of nature and the universe. This is the realm of interconnection

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in which everything is dynamically connected to everything else. Realizing
this dimension, we find ourselves in direct communion with nature and the
universe. This is also the realm of the soul, for the soul inwardly
experiences the deeper interconnection of things.

Infinite Reality

However, cosmic reality is not the ultimate depth of reality. Further there
exists infinite depth of reality. Izutsu calls this dimension the absolutely
unarticulated or the zero point of consciousness and Being. Here I also
follow Huston Smith (1976) who regards this reality as Spirit and equates
Spirit with the Infinite.

With regard to Advaita Vedanta and Chan, Smith (1976) remarks, Spirit is
the Atman that is Brahman, the aspect of man that is the Buddha-nature.
It is the true man in Lin Chi the Chan masters assertion that beyond the
mass of reddish flesh is the true man who has no title, (p. 87).

Unlearning or Dis-identification

Regarding the absolutely unarticulated, Lao-tzu (2001) says, The Way

[Tao, Dao] in its eternal reality is nameless (chap. 32, p. 88). Of this
nameless Way, it is also said, There is Something imperceivable but real,
born before heaven and earth. Silent and void, it stands alone, never
changing (chap. 25, p. 73). And with regards to returning back to this Way,
Lao-tzu suggests an important idea for education, which is concerned with
unlearning. Unlearning includes the process of dis-identification with
what was learned and also leads to the state of non-action. Lao-tzu says:

If one pursues learning, (knowledge) increases day by day.

If one pursues the Way, (knowledge) decreases day by day.
Decreasing, and ever more decreasing, one finally reaches the state of
non-action.
Once one has reached the state of non-action, nothing is left undone.
(chap. 48, p. 117)

Pure Consciousness and Witness

Advaita Vedanta maintains that Atman is Brahman. Both of them are
unborn, deathless, all-pervading, and all-embracing. And the nature of
Atman and Brahman is pure consciousness (or pure awareness). Shankara
(1947/1975) remarks:

The Atman is pure consciousness, clearly manifest as underlying the states

of waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep. It is inwardly experienced as

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unbroken consciousness, the consciousness that I am I. It is the unchanging
witness that experiences the ego, the intellect and the rest, with their
various forms and changes. (p. 68)

The Atman is the witness, infinite consciousness, revealer of all things but
distinct from all, no matter whether they be gross or subtle. It is the eternal
reality, omnipresent, all-pervading, the subtlest of all subtleties. It has
neither inside nor outside. It is the real I, hidden in the shrine of the heart.
(p. 69)

Likewise, the Astavakra Gita (Mukerjee, 1971/1997), an Advaitic classic,

repeatedly makes this point: You are neither earth nor water nor fire nor
wind nor sky. For the sake of freedom know the Self as the embodiment of
pure consciousness and the witness of all these (p. 31); I am only pure
consciousness. It is only through ignorance that external qualities are
attributed (to the Self) (p. 47).

Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1973/1982), a modern Advaitic mystic known for

his book I Am That, mentions three levels involving surface consciousness,
intermediate witness, and primordial awareness:

You are always the Supreme which appears at a given point of time and
space as the witness, a bridge between the pure awareness of the
Supreme and the manifold consciousness of the person. (p. 64)

Maharaj suggests here an important point. The practice of enhancing

witness could bring us to the pure awareness of the Supreme. The act of
witnessing would eventually lead us to the point where the witnessing self is
dissolved into the boundless ocean of pure awareness.

This awareness is called turiya (the fourth state of consciousness). Sri

Ramana Maharshi (2004), another modern Advaitic mystic, comments on
this: Turiya means that which is the forth. The experiencers (jivas) of the
three states of waking, dreaming and deep sleep, known as visva, taijasa
and prajna, who wander successively in these three states, are not the Self
[Atman] (p. 71). The Self witnesses these three states and so it is called the
forth.

Education of Awareness

I have often argued for the practice of awareness (witness) in education as

well as in spiritual cultivation (Nakagawa, 2008, 2009), and in my
discussions I have included the Buddhas teachings of mindfulness (sati),
Aldous Huxleys ideas of the nonverbal humanities, and Krishnamurtis
teachings of awareness, for, I think, the practice of awareness is a basic way

97
of unlearning conditioned patterns in actions and a basic way for revealing
direct experiences. And most importantly awareness is an essential path to
a spiritual realization or enlightenment.

I find that Huxleys (1956, 1962) ideas on the non-verbal education are still
valuable for conceiving a spirituality education (Nakagawa, 2002). The
nonverbal humanities encompass trainings of awareness from Eastern
and Western origins such as the Alexander Technique, Gestalt Therapy, Zen,
yoga, Shivas Tantra, and others. Huxley was known for his commitment
with Vedanta.

Krishnamurti (1974), who was Huxleys close friend, regarded awareness

as the heart of education and meditation. On this point, he was similar to
Advaitic mystics such as Maharaj and Ramana Maharshi. We find in
Krishnamurtis approach to education one of the best ways that are
centered on the art of awareness.

Silence as Reality

It is also important to note that with awareness comes silence. Silence

means here a mode of existence arising in the no-mind state of awareness.
Krishnamurti (1970) often referred to silence: A meditative mind is silent;
it is the silence when thoughtwith its images, its words and perceptions
has entirely ceased. This meditative mind is the religious mind (pp. 114-
115). Ramana Maharshi (2004), who was called himself a sage of silence,
wrote: The Self is that where there is absolutely no I-thought. That is
called Silence (p. 42). Lao-tzu (2001) also values stillness in terms of
returning to the Root and watching:

Attaining to the utmost limit of emptiness, I firmly maintain myself in

stillness.
The ten thousand things all arise together. But as I watch them they
return again.
All things grow up exuberantly. But every one of them returns to the
Root.
The return to the Root is what is called stillness.
It means returning to Heavenly Command.
The return to Heavenly Command is what is called the Unchanging.
To know the Unchanging is what is called illumination. (chap. 16, pp. 54-
55)

Awakening to the Unborn Mind

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Chan/Zen is a way of awakening to the true nature of the self, which is
variously called original nature (Hui-neng), or the One Mind (Huang
Po), or the True Man (Lin-chi), or the Unborn (Bankei). These concepts
sound to me like pure consciousness.

Hui-neng (1998), the sixth patriarch of Chan, emphasized that our original
nature is inherently pure, and said, Buddhahood is actualized within
essential nature; do not seek it outside the body.[I]f your own nature is
awakened, you are a buddha (p. 28). Huang Po (1958) called the original
pure nature the One Mind. In Chinese, the word for Mind is hsin, which
implies pure consciousness. Huang Po said, All the Buddhas and all
sentient beings are nothing but the One Mind, beside which nothing exists.
This mind, which is without beginning, is unborn and indestructible (p. 29).
What is important is to just realize this Mind: Only awake to the One Mind,
and there is nothing whatsoever to be attained. This is the REAL Buddha
(p. 30). The One Mind is the pure Buddha-Source inherent in all men (p.
35). It is by preventing the rise of conceptual thought that you will realize
Bodhi; and, when you do, you will just be realizing the Buddha who has
always existed in your own Mind! (p. 38). Lin-chi (1993) used the term
True Man with no rank for describing a Buddha: Here in this lump of red
flesh there is a True Man with no rank. Constantly he goes in and out the
gates of your face. If there are any of you who dont know this for a fact,
then look! Look! (p. 13). The Japanese Zen Master Bankei (1984) termed
the Unborn (fujyo) to describe the Buddha Mind. He talked to a gathering
as follows:

Everyone here is a buddha. So listen carefully! What you all have from
your parents innately is the Unborn Buddha Mind alone. Theres nothing
else you have innately. This Buddha Mind you have from your parents
innately is truly unborn and marvelously illuminating. That which is
unborn is the Buddha Mind; the Buddha Mind is unborn and marvelously
illuminating, and, whats more, with this Unborn, everything is perfectly
managed. (p. 4)

Universal Reality

In realizing infinite reality, the whole world (objective, social, and cosmic
realities) will be transformed in a way that something infinite manifests
itself through the world. The infinite reality is now unified with the finite
world. This I call universal reality.

Shankara (1947/1975) says, This universe is an effect of Brahman. It can

never be anything else but Brahman. Apart from Brahman, it does not exist
(p. 70). This is called saguna Brahman. Advaita Vedanta refers to a paired
concept of nirguna Brahman and saguna Brahman. Nirguna Brahman

99
means the formless absolute beyond any qualification, and saguna
Brahman is the phenomenal manifestations of the absolute in the multitude
of beings.

Pure awareness becomes one with the entire world. Nisargadatta Maharaj
(1973/1982) speaks of this realization of pure awareness: I saw that in the
ocean of pure awareness, on the surface of the universal consciousness, the
numberless waves of the phenomenal worlds arise and subside
beginninglessly and endlessly. As consciousness, they are all me (p. 30).

In the same vein, Ken Wilber (1997) writes: When I rest in the pure and
simple Witness, I will even begin to notice that the Witness itself is not a
separate thing or entity, set apart from what is witnesses. All things arise
within the Witness, so much so that the Witness itself disappears into all
things (p. 292).

Non-dual Identity between Non-Being and Being

The Heart Sutra describes this universal reality in the famous lines: Form
is emptiness; emptiness is form. Nagarjuna (1995), the originator of the
Madhyamika philosophy in Mahayana Buddhism, says, There is not the
slightest difference/Between cyclic existence and nirvna. There is not the
slightest difference/Between nirvna and cyclic existence (p. 75). On Trust
in the Mind (Hsin-hsin-ming), by the third patriarch of Chan, Seng-tsan,
describes the non-dualistic nature of reality: Being--this is nonbeing,
nonbeing--this is being (Watson, 1993, p. 152). The Zen Master Dgens
(1985) famous words for the students of Zen read:

To study the buddha way is to study the self. To study the self is to
forget the self. To forget the self is to be actualized by myriad things.
When actualized by myriad things, your body and mind as well as the
bodies and minds of others drop away. No trace of realization remains,
and this no-trace continues endlessly. (p. 70)

Action in Non-Action

In universal reality each thing comes to appear not any more as a separate
fragmentary existence but as a holistic existence that integrates multiple
dimensions in itself. Also, an ordinary action becomes fully wondrous, for it
is rooted in and emerges from the depths of reality. Lin-chi (1993) talked to
his students about ordinariness:

Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the buddhas calls for no special
understandings. Just act ordinary, without trying to do anything

100
 particular. Move your bowels, piss, get dressed, eat your rice, and if
you get tired, then lie down. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will
know what I mean. (p. 31)

Lao-tzu (2001) notes, A man of superior virtue keeps to non-action, nor is

he ever conscious of doing something (chap. 38, p. 99). It is in non-action
that nothing is left undone. Likewise, Ramana Maharshi (2004) replied to a
question about how to attain inaction in the midst of everyday duties:

As the activities of the wise man exist only in the eyes of others and
not in his own, although he may be accomplishing immense tasks, he
really does nothing. Therefore his activities do not stand in the way of
inaction and peace of mind. For he knows the truth that all activities
take place in his mere presence and that he does nothing. Hence he
will remain as the silent witness of all the activities taking place. (p.
64)

Concluding Remarks

As we have seen, in Eastern philosophies there is a search for fulfillment in

this world by realizing the full dimensionality of reality. To realize this full
dimensionality there is a radical reconstruction through a radical
deconstruction. Through the process of this radical deconstruction the
boundless depths of reality and the immensity of reality are revealed and
embraced as a reconstruction of reality. In this way the Eastern approach
recollects the wholeness of a multidimensional reality.

We can now view human existence through an integration of multiple

dimensions. A human being is an integrated whole that involves them all.
Based on this understanding, it becomes clear that a child also is an
existence which embraces these dimensions. On this point there is no
difference between a child and an adult except for on the surface reality
where there is the development of individual personality in a child.

An ordinary view sees a child only as a developing being in his or her

physical, affective, and cognitive faculties. For the most part educational
efforts are focused on helping this development. However, it forms just the
surface dimension of a childs existence where aspects of individual
personality (body, emotions, and mind) develop through transformative
phases to their maturation.

In the multidimensional view, on the deepest level there exists always

already an infinite dimension of pure consciousness, the Buddha nature, or
the Way. And this dimension has nothing to do with development or

101
gradual growth, for it is unborn, beginningless, pure, ever-present, and
unchanging. I believe that the task of education as found here is to awaken
us to this essential nature of our being.

I have already given examples of Easterners who speak of education as of

this kind. Further examples can be found in the writings of Rabindranath
Tagore (Tagore & Elmhirst, 1961) and in the integral philosophy by Sri
Aurobindo (Aurobindo & the Mother, 1956), both of whom followed the idea
of Advaita Vedanta.

Education needs to enlarge itself. As well as helping in the development of

individual personality it should help evolve the realization of our innermost
essence. Eastern perspectives of a multidimensional reality and their
significant suggestions of unlearning (dis-identification), awareness
(mindfulness, witness), direct experience, and silence as essential methods
of attaining this wholeness are strong ways in which a spirituality education
can be attained.

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Shankara (1947/1975). Shankaras crest-jewel of discrimination: Viveka-
Chudamani (S. Prabhavananda & C. Isherwood Trans., 3rd Ed.).
Hollywood, CA: Vedanta Press.
Smith, H. (1976). Forgotten truth: The common vision of the worlds
religions. New York: Harper and Row.
Tagore, R., & Elmhirst, L. K. (1961). Rabindranath Tagore: Pioneer in
education. London: John Murray
Watson, B. (Trans.). (1993). On trust in the mind. In S. Bercholz and S. C.
Kohn (Eds.), Entering the Stream (pp. 147-152). Boston: Shambhala.
Wilber, K. (1997). The eye of spirit: An integral vision for a world gone
slightly mad. Boston: Shambhala.

This paper was presented at The Asia-Pacific Conference on Childrens

Spirituality (The Hong Kong Institute of Education) on 26 Feb. 2009.

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Human-scale Education Interview with Satish
Kumar
My experience is mainly in the Small School, which I started in 1982, and
the reason I started it was because of my son. He was coming to secondary
school age - he was ten and the prospect was that I would have to send
him to a state secondary school which was 15 miles away. That would have
meant a one-hour-plus journey every morning and a one-hour-plus journey
every evening back home -- two hours every day, a commuters life at the
age of eleven. So I said this not the kind of education I want my son to have.

Secondly, I lived in a rural community, and the school was in an urban

community. And I said, the reason I escaped from the urban community was
to live in the rural community. Now I am sending my child back to urban
culture, out of the community? This is not what I want.

The third thing was that once children get there, it is not only urban, it is a
very academic, very intellectual, very exam-oriented, very job-oriented,
market-oriented education they get, whereas I wanted education to be a
kind of discovery, a discovery of what is the particular, unique gift of this
particular child? So for all these reasons I thought that I would like to
educate my child, near, around, in the community where I lived.

I called a meeting in the village, and about 30 people came to my house and
we sat down and we talked about the state of education and the state of
school and the size of schools. The school to which my son would have gone
had 2,000 children and each class had about 30 children minimum! The
child is just a number there, and there was a lot of bullying, a lot of abuse, a
lot of smoking. The parents of nine children were courageous enough to
take the plunge and say that if a new school were started in the village, they
would send their child. So, nine children, I said, there we are, we can start a
school. At that time, there was a Methodist chapel for sale in the village. I
went along to the auction, and even though I had no money, I put my faith in
it, and I bid for it, and I got it for 20,000 it was not too expensive and
within the next six weeks I raised 20,000. This was in February 1982, and
in September 1982 we opened the school with nine children, the smallest
school in the UK. That was the beginning.

When we started the school, we asked ourselves What kind of school do we

want? And we thought, we will design our curriculum in three parts. One
third of our curriculum will be academic and intellectual, including science,
maths, English, French, all the things you need for your normal education.
One third will be more what I would call imaginative themes and subjects
such as arts, culture, music, painting. But one third will be more practical

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and ecological -- manual work, physical training, physical work, gardening,
cooking, woodwork, environmental education, going out in nature.

We said that there are three things that everybody needs that we would like
to teach about. One is food, but hardly any school teaches you how to grow
food, how to cook food, how to serve food, how to do the dishes. In my view,
a school that does not teach children how to do dishes is not a good school.
And so teachers and children together will turn a kitchen into a classroom --
the kitchen will be the classroom -- and the children can learn how to cook,
how to serve, how to do the dishes, with respect, with love, with care. And if
children can do dishes with love and care, they can look after trees with
love and care, they can look after animals with love and care, they can look
after their parents with love and care, they can treat their neighbours with
love and care. But if you expect children to respect your neighbourhood, but
not to respect your dishes, then thats not possible. So we said that every
child will learn about food.

Secondly, we need clothing. But no school teaches you how to mend clothes,
how to design clothes, how to spin, how to weave, how to sew. If buttons are
broken, one is more likely to hear a child say mum, mum, my button is
broken, please sew it? But why dont you sew it? So, we said, we will teach
children the practical skills of spinning, weaving, mending, designing,
making clothes. A number of our children have turned out to be great
dressmakers and designers.

The third thing we need is houses. Today, hardly any schools are teaching
children practically how to make a foundation, how to build a home, how to
make a roof, how to do plumbing, how to do electricity - how to do all these
things. And so now many of our children have learned that practical hands-
on work. Many of these ideas I learned from Mahatma Gandhi who started
the movement for basic education in India, where he introduced cleaning,
gardening and cooking as part of the curriculum. We wanted to implement
some of those ideas of Gandhi in the British context.

The other thing we said is that most of the schools in England are very
much classroom-based -- all their education is books, videos, computers,
everything in the classroom. We will not only learn about nature, well learn
from nature. Nature will be our teacher an even more important teacher
than the classroom teacher. So at least once a week, the outdoors can be
our classroom. The river will be our teacher, the woodland will be our
teacher, the birds will be our teacher, and well learn how nature does
things. Janine Benyus talks about biomimicry, but how can you do
biomimicry if you dont experience bio, how can you mimic, or copy, or learn
from nature, if you dont observe it? So the children will go out, at least one
day a week, and be free, take their picnic lunch, go out and learn from
nature. Those were some basic ideas that we implemented.

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And from nine children we grew to 15, to 20, to the maximum number we
can have, which is 40 because of limited buildings. And in the last 21 years,
about 300 children have gone through our school and we find them very
self-confident, with practical skills. For example, it is no sweat for my son to
cook a meal for 10 or 20 people, because he has learned it at the school; no
sweat for him to mind the house, tend the garden, or do the compost heap --
or do anything -- because he has learned it. Equipping children, not only
intellectually but also spiritually, physically, emotionally and practically, that
was our aim.

And the school, after 21 years, is going from strength to strength. We are
now finding lots of other people trying to start similar schools, and we have
something like six or seven other schools that are part of our human-scale
education movement. We have an umbrella organization for all those
schools. We hold alternative education fairs and annual conferences, we
have a newsletter, and we are now trying to persuade the government to
give grants and financial support to small schools, because one of the
problems with the starting of schools is that people dont have money.

So my more important concern is human scale. A school should be a

community itself, a community of children, parents and teachers. And they
all knowing each other, working together, developing ideas together, having
celebrations together, having events together. It should be a community and
not just a knowledge factory.

Q: Youve got years of experience to show that these kids can go onto
higher education and do well, so youve shown that even though you dont
accredit them the same way as a secondary school would, in England, these
kids emerge from your program are obviously capable.

A: Our children have no problem in getting into universities and passing

exams in university. My son went to university in London and did a degree
in communication studies, and then went sailing to South America. Because
of his Small School environmental education, he said I dont want to fly,
with global warming and climate change and greenhouse gases and all
those problems. So he went from England to Spain, and from Spain he got
a job on a yacht and sailed to the Caribbean, and then he hitchhiked all
around South America and Central America and then sailed back to North
America to New York and then he sailed back to Spain, back to England,
and then he decided to build a boat. And so he has built a boat. The Small
School has equipped him with that confidence.

My daughter went to the University of Durham in North England for a

degree in philosophy, and after finishing university she went to India. She
worked and saved money, and for 18 months she travelled in India,

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completely on her own a sort of self-sufficiency. Now shes in Spain and is
very keen on the Spanish language, so shes learning about Spanish culture
and teaching English and learning Spanish - she can translate Spanish
literature, poetry and philosophy. So my children are two examples of the
self-confidence that the Small School provided.

In the same way, many other children who went through the Small School
are doing the same thing. They are in organic farming, or woodland
management, or dress designing or working for NGOs [non-governmental
organizations] or working in third world countries for holistic and
sustainable development projects. There are lots of green jobs out there, so
they dont have to worry that If I go to small school and learn about the
environment, what am I going to do? You dont have to work for Coca-Cola
and McDonalds and Mitsubushi and big, big companies. You can work for
the United Nations, you can work for NGOs, you can create your own
development agency, you can create your own organization, you can create
your own business. This idea, the fear that many parents have, that if we
send them into environmental education or green education or alternative
education, what are they going to do in their life? is an unnecessary fear.
There are new job opportunities in the renewable energy field, in the
organic farming field, in ecological building and eco-design. There are many
many fields into which children can go. I think we need to overcome this
fear that if we send our children to green environmental sustainable
alternative education they are going to lose out. They are not! They will be
happier and more fulfilled.

Q: The importance of your efforts to gain public funding seems to me

twofold one, you gain more public legitimacy, but, more importantly, it
becomes possible that parents of kids who could not financially I presume
that parents are involved in some of the education at the school?

A: Yes.

Q: And do you hire staff?

A: Yes, yes. We have for about every eight children one full time teacher. So
when we have 40 children, we have five full time staff. In addition, we have
many experienced local people -- craftsmen, musicians, artists, writers,
poets, painters, gardeners whom we ask to come, some of them on a
volunteer basis, one day a week, half day a week, two hours a week, to do a
class. Many of them come as volunteers. If they cant afford to come as a
volunteer, then we pay them an hourly rate. We say, you just come and teach
for three hours a week, and well pay you for that.

We charge a small donation rather than fee, from parents. But we say to
parents, it is not compulsory -- if you cant afford it, you dont have to pay. If

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you are a farmer, and want to pay something in produce like bags of
potatoes or firewood, thats fine. If you have time, you can do some
volunteer work at the school, such as decorating the building or repairing
the roof or working in the garden, thats fine. Thats a fee. If you cant
afford to do either, then we raise funds from non-profit charitable
organizations, foundations. We organize dinner parties on Saturday
mornings, we serve dinner or lunches at public events like the Schumacher
(College) lectures 200 to 300 lunches we serve and we make some money.
So we raise money. At the moment, thats how we do it, until we get some
state funding. But even the state funding isnt necessarily for us. The state
funding we are trying to get is for the future, for more new Small Schools to
start. For 21 years we have run without state funding, so we can manage
confidently. But many people cant.

Q: Its very inspiring to hear that people dont need to be limited by lack of
funding. And, in fact, in the process of raising money, the kids are learning
how to put on a dinner for 200 people who attend the Schumacher lectures,
how to organize public events, and do the work that raises the money.

A: Yes, teachers, parents and children work together, and that for us is a
fundamental philosophy of participatory education. Education is not about
receiving information; education is about participating in the process of life.
That is education. Whereas, in our normal educational theory, pedagogical
theory, the attitude is that here is a child, with a kind of ignorance, who
doesnt know anything, and therefore with all these books, with all this
knowledge, we will put the information into the child. We say that is not the
right education. We say the child is like an acorn, very capable of becoming
a properly developed human being, as an acorn is capable of becoming an
oak tree. We dont have to teach an acorn how to become an oak tree. It
knows everything. In the same way a child knows how to be human being.
The only job for a teacher and parent is, like a forester, like a gardener, to
support, to encourage, to protect, to inspire, to provide. As with the acorn,
you provide water. You provide some shelter. You provide some support so
the wind doesnt blow away the little seedling -- in the same way, the school,
the community, the parents support. But you must find what is the unique
gift of this particular child. Help to develop that uniqueness, rather than
say, Oh, you are no good in this; therefore you are no good. The child is
good in something. Try to develop that. It is inside-out, rather than outside-
in education. Its educatus, to lead out whats inside, as the oak comes out
from the acorn. An oak is not put inside the acorn, but the oak is brought
out of the acorn, in the same way that a poet, a painter, a writer, musician, a
gardener, a farmer comes out of this child, not put inside the child. That is a
fundamental pedagogical sort of approach that we adopt. Spirituality,
intellect, art, culture, aesthetics - all form part of that holistic vision.

Q: And they are all elements that kids need to become human beings.

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A: I dont like the idea of environmental education, in the sense that you
teach only about the environment. I think you need to learn through nature,
more than about nature. And when you learn from nature, you can learn
anything. You can learn art, you can learn music... I mean, birds singing!
You can learn how to sing from the birds, and they dont go to any music
school. And you can learn painting, how bluebirds and ???? how do they
paint?.. and butterflies, how do the colours come? Georgia OKeefe paints
flowers..?? learning from nature. Our education is very much about
learning about nature, how we can manipulate nature, we can control
nature, we can take what is good for us. Our education is
anthropocentric??. Nature is out there for us.

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Why Our Children Need Nature Play
The challenge of nature-deficit disorder
By Richard Louv1
At dinner one evening, my younger son, Matthew, then ten, said quite
seriously, "Dad, how come it was more fun when you were a kid? Like many
parents, I do tend to romanticize my own childhood -- and children today do
have plenty of fun, of a different sort. But my son was serious; he felt he had
missed out on something important.

He was right. Many people my approximate age, baby boomers or older,

were inclined toward a kind of free, natural play. I knew my woods and my
fields; I knew every bend in the creek and dip in the beaten dirt paths. I
wandered those woods even in my dreams. Such experiences were as likely
to occur in the UK as in the U.S., though the settings differ -- a prairie
windbreak of trees in Kansas, a hedgerow on an English heath. Even in the
most urban areas, children experienced more freedom than now to
experience nearby nature in a park or vacant lot. In this era of kid pagers,
instant messaging and Nintendo, natural play seems to many like a quaint
artifact of a distant age.

Today's children are aware of the global threats to the environment, but
their physical contact, their intimacy with nature, is fading. A child today
can likely tell you about the Amazon rain forest, but not about the last time
he or she explored the woods in solitude, or lay in a field listening to the
wind and watching the clouds move.

I like to play indoors better 'cause that's where all the electrical outlets
are, one grade school student told me. Our increasingly high-tech
environment offers young people a new world of possibilities, but at what
price? It's pretty difficult to experience a sense of wonder while playing
Grand Theft Auto, a popular video game.

I began to understand this issue in the late 1980s, while researching

another book on childhood. I learned that many parents, educators, health
care professionals and conservationists were already uneasy about the
growing gap between children and nature.

"Times have changed," Tina Kafka told me. She is a teacher and mother of
three in San Diego. Even if kids have all the unstructured time in the
world, they're not outside playing. They're inside with their video games."
She wanted to nurture magic in her children's lives. I'm uncomfortable
with them lolling around watching TV, but to be honest, I also get tired of
feeling that I have to keep them entertained. She recognized that carefully
1
This article first appeared in the Sunday Times.

111
planned activities pale in comparison to more spontaneous experiences in
her children's long-term memories. Like many parents, she knew that
playing independently outdoors didn't come naturally to her kids, but she
lacked a language to describe the profound change she sensed.

In Last Child in the Woods, first published in 2005 and now updated for
publication this month in the United Kingdom, I suggested the phrase
nature-deficit disorder as a way to define a widespread problem. The
phrase is not an official medical diagnosis (perhaps it should be) but a
handy way to describe today's increasing human alienation from nature.

An expanding body of research in the UK, the United States, Scandinavia,

Australia and elsewhere suggests the extent of this trend, and the impact if
it continues.

A survey by BBC Wildlife Magazine, reported in 2008, found children in the

UK to be woefully inept at identifying common species; these children also
ranked playing in the countryside as their least popular way of spending
their spare time. The report led Sir David Attenborough to warn, Nobody is
going protect the natural world unless they understand it.

In March, the Report to Natural England on Childhood and Nature: A

Survey on Changing Relationships with Nature Across Generations
measured differences in nature contact between today's children in the UK
compared to contact their parents' generation had. Researchers discovered
that fewer than 10 percent of children played in natural places, such as
woodlands and heaths, compared to 40 percent of adults who did so when
they were young. The researchers also reported that three quarters of
adults claimed to have had a patch of nature near their homes when they
were children, and over half went there at least once or twice a week. The
survey found little difference in attitudes, based on whether adults and
children live in urban or rural communities.

Lest anyone consider the nature deficit only a Western phenomenon, an

article published this year in the American Journal of Play reported the
results of a survey of 2,400 mothers in 16 countries. The percentages of
mothers who said their children often explored nature were lowest in Brazil
(18 percent), Indonesia (7 percent), and China (5 percent).

Why is this happening? In my interviews with U.S. parents, they cited a

number of everyday reasons, including disappearing access to natural
areas, competition from television and computers, dangerous traffic, more
homework and other time pressures. Most of all, parents cite fear of
stranger-danger, as round-the-clock news coverage conditions them to
believe in an epidemic of child-snatchings. One father told me, I have a
rule. I want to know where my kid is 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I

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want to know where that kid is. Which house. Which square foot. Which
telephone number. That's just my way of dealing with it. Both of my kids
have heard my preaching that the world is full of crazy people. And it is.
Such comments are widespread, despite evidence that the real number of
kidnappings by strangers is small relative to the impression that the news
and entertainment media create.

These are no small barriers. I felt that fear, too, as a parent, so my boys did
not have the kind of free-range childhood that I had experienced. But when
Matthew made me aware of the nature gap in his life, I tripled my efforts to
get both my sons outside more. My wife and I encouraged them to build
forts in the canyon behind our house (within our eyesight) and we took them
hiking and fishing, and stood back to allow the boys to play as
independently as possible as long as they were relatively safe.

Though times have changed, we all have to do what we can, in new ways
and old, to give our children the gifts of nature.

Now heres the good news. Nature play can help kids be happier, healthier,
and smarter, says Cheryl Charles, president of the Children & Nature
Network and a U.S. pioneer in environmental education. While some
children do just fine without nature, a growing number of studies indicate
that experiences in nature can offer profound enrichment to young lives.

Environmental psychologists report that simply a room with a view of

nature can help protect children against stress, and that the protective
impact of nearby nature is strongest for the most vulnerable children,
namely those experiencing the highest levels of stressful life events. Mind
(National Association for Mental Health), a charity in England and Wales,
commissioned a recent study that compared the benefits of a 30-minute
walk in a country park with a walk in an indoor shopping centre on
individuals experiencing depression. It found that after the country walk, 71
of the participants reported lower levels of depression while only 45 per
cent experienced a decrease in depression after the walk in the shopping
centre.

Fascinating research at the Human-Environment Research Laboratory at

the University of Illinois has correlated direct exposure to nature can
relieve the symptoms of attention-deficit disorders. By comparison,
activities indoors, such as watching TV, or activities outdoors in paved, non-
green areas, leave these children functioning worse. Even without
knowledge of corroborating evidence, many parents notice significant
changes in their hyperactive child's behavior when they hike in mountains
or enjoy other nature-oriented outings.

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Studies also suggests that children's creativity, learning and test scores are
stimulated in schools with green play areas, or that emphasize experiential
learning. Scandinavian all-weather schools, that require students to spend
time outside every day, report fewer colds and flu than schools that keep the
kids indoors all day. And a U.S. study reported this year suggested that
greening a neighborhood may be an important step in reducing child
obesity, even in dense urban neighborhoods.

Why does nature appear to have such a powerful impact on human health
and well-being? One possibility is that when a child is in a natural setting,
he or she is likely to be using all the senses simultaneously. E.O. Wilson, the
Harvard University scientist and two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, goes
further; proposing his biophilia hypothesis, he defines biophilia as "the
urge to affiliate with other forms of life. He and his colleagues argue that
humans have an innate affinity for the natural world, probably a biologically
based need. The biophilia theory, though not universally embraced by
biologists, is supported by more than a decade of research. Simply put,
children need to go outside and get their hands wet and their feet muddy.

Of course, no one believes that nature experiences are a panacea for what
ails children. Life is not that simple. Also, much of the research currently
available is relatively new and describes correlations rather than causes
and effects. Much more longitudinal research needs to be done, but as
Howard Frumkin, who heads the National Center for Environmental Health
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the U.S.) says, yes we need
more research, "but we know enough to act."

Heres more good news. A movement to heal the broken bond between
children and nature is growing internationally. Many parents are beginning
to take action on their own. So are entire communites. More than 50
regional campaigns have sprung up in the United States and Canada over
the past three years. Major conservation groups are intensifying their
efforts to get kids outdoors. Last year, the U.S. House of Representatives
passed the No Child Left Inside Act, designed to help environmental
educators get kids outdoors. The new governor of Illinois, referencing
nature-deficit disorder, is arguing that every child in his state deserved
every chance to connect with nature. Beginning in November, the
internationally popular children's TV show, Sesame Street, will launch a
year of special programming to include nature. For the first time in four
decades, Sesame Street is redesigning its set, adding a garden and other
features of the natural world.

In the UK, a number of new or longstanding programs are setting a good

examples for fledgling U.S. efforts. The National Trust has launched the
Food Glorious Food campaign to encourage children to grow their own
vegetable gardens, and a new campaign called Wild Child will sponsor a

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series of outdoor events for children. The UK charity Mind now
recommends green exercise be considered a clinically valid treatment.
Nature's Capital, a 2008 report issued by The National Trust, calls for local
funding for green exercise and wellbeing prescriptions.

The UK's growing Green Gym movement brings families together to

exercise through nature restoration projects. It served as partial inspiration
for an initiative launched in the U.S. by the Children & Nature Network.

Last year, Chip and Ashley Donahue, parents of three children in Roanoke,
Va., decided to start getting their kids -- and themselves -- outside in nature
on weekends. One day, their five-year old son asked, Why are we the only
family having so much fun, So the Donahues created a free outdoor
adventure club for families in the Roanoke Valley. What began with one
family spread quickly. After word of mouth and two local newspaper
articles, membership grew to over 170 families. These families, two or more
at a time, agree to go on a hike or do some gardening together on Saturday
mornings; they've even done stream reclamation together.

What if tens of thousands of families were to create nature clubs or Green

Gyms?

With the help of government agencies, regional campaigns, the business

community, nature centers, educators, doctors and nurses, college students
and conservationists, they might accomplish what seems impossible today
the end of society's nature-deficit disorder.

A week ago my son Matthew, who asked such a pertinent question a decade
ago, graduated from college and left for his summer job as a fishing guide
on Kodiak Island in Alaska. He may have missed out on some of the
childhood nature adventures I enjoyed, but he's making up for lost time. It's
never too late to have fun outdoors.

Richard Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children
from Nature-Deficit Disorder, published in an updated UK edition this
month by Atlantic Books, from which some of this article was adapted. He is
also the chair of the Children & Nature Network
(www.childrenandnature.org).

Tips for parents from Last Child in the Woods

How do stressed-out parents get their kids outside, even in neighborhoods

without much green space? Here are a few suggestions adapted from the

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recently published UK edition of Last Child in the Woods. First, bear in
mind that nature is an antidote to stress, regardless of age; all the benefits
that come to a child are available to the adult who introduces that child to
nature.

Tell your children about the place where nature was special to you as
a child. Then help them find their own special place: the space under
a weeping willow tree, a stream with tadpoles nearbyeven the local
park. The BBCs Breathing Places campaign Web site encourages
people to search for green spaces near their homewhether a local
nature garden or a public park (www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces).
If you have a garden, a paddock or even just a patch of grass,
encourage your children to go camping at the weekends or during
school holidays. Buy them a tent or help them make a canvas tepee
and, if space permits, leave it up all summer.
Establish a green hour as part of the family routine. Even half an
hour will do. Dont see it as yet another chore to tick off the list, just
as an opportunity to playwhether its going outside to climb a tree
with your children or looking at flowers and insects in the garden with
them.
Go for a walk. With younger children, choose easier, shorter routes
and prepare to stop often. Or, if you have a small child or toddler, get
together with other parents and meet for weekly nature walks. The
Ramblers Association offers suggestions for walks around the
country, as well as details of regional walks planned specifically for
children (www.ramblers.org.uk).
Encourage your children to use all of their senses at the same time
to sit under a tree and consciously listen to every bird song or call
from insects; to be aware of what their body is touching, what they
can smell, what nature is telling them. In a recent experiment, college
students at the University of California, in Berkeley, went out into a
grassy field blindfolded and with sound-muffling headphones.
Surprisingly, most students could follow the twists and turns of a
thirty-foot-long trail of scent.
Plant a garden. If your children are small, choose seeds large enough
for them to handle and that mature quickly. If you live in a town and
dont have any outside space, try growing mustard and cressa
satisfying crop that springs up quickly. Growing herbs is easy. All you
need is a windowsill and a few plant pots. If you have a garden and
want to be more ambitious, try growing potatoes, courgettes (the
zucchinis, or vegetable marrows) and soft fruit. If you live in an urban
area, find out whether any allotments are available. A Saturday or
Sunday down at the allotment, with weeding to do (buy child-sized
tools), other people to talk to and plants to tend, could keep them
outside all day. In the summer, take a picnic and feast on your freshly

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 picked vegetables. If youre worried about the level of commitment,
perhaps share with another family. Search for allotments around the
UK on www.allotments-uk.com and read all about the joys of self-
sufficiency at www.allotment.org.uk.
Take your family on a Nature Staycation close to home
(www.naturerocks.org).
Band together with other families to create a Green Gym
(www2.btcv.org.uk/display/greengym) or a Family Nature Club
(www.childrenandnature.org/movement/natureclubs/).
Why We Need Natural Teachers By Richard
Louv

A few years ago, I was deeply moved by a photograph on the back page of
San Francisco magazine. In it, a small boys tracks led to a line in the wet
sand. Beyond the sand one could see a grey sky, a distant island or
peninsula, and a long, uniform wave in the beginning of collapse. The boy
had turned to face the photographer. His eyes were wide and his mouth
was open in the mid-exclamation of discovery. He was a picture of joy.

This powerful black and white image was accompanied by a short article
explaining that this child had a problem; he was hyperactive, could not
pay attention. Because he disrupted the other students, he had been
expelled from school. At first, his parents did not know what to do. But
they had been observant. They had already seen how nature calmed their
son and helped him focus. Over the next decade, they seized every
opportunity to introduce him to the natural world to great beaches,
forests, dunes and rivers and mountains of the West. The little boy turned
out fine. The photograph was taken in 1907. The boys name was Ansel
Adams.

I wondered: What if little Ansels parents had not given him the gift of
nature, would he have given us the gift his photography, the dome of
Yosemite and the moon rising over Hernandez, New Mexico, and all of his
iconic images that have helped shape the modern conservation ethic?

Many teachers around the country - I call them the natural teachers --
intuitively or experientially understand the role that nature experience
can play in the education and health of children. I meet them often.
Theyre in every school. One, two, a handful, sometimes more: Science
teachers, English teachers, and many others who are not formally
environmental educators, who insist on taking their students outside to
learn to write poetry in a natural setting, to learn about science or
history outdoors -- in a schoolyard garden, a park, a nearby woods, at a
beach as a learning environment, a place to find wholeness and health.

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They tell stories: about the ten-year-old classroom troublemaker who, like
so many others, becomes a leader outdoors whose demeanor changes
almost magically from agitated and disruptive to focused and respectful;
about a writer who blooms, or the young scientist who discovers in a field
what was hidden in a textbook.

Bringing children to the natural world or bringing nature to them is

not a panacea; nor is it, by any means, the only way for parents and
teachers to ignite curiosity and wonder, or to help children focus.
However, researchers are assembling a growing body of evidence that
strongly suggests the importance of nature experiences to childrens
health and their ability to learn.

Environmental educators and groups such as Project WILD, Project

Learning Tree, and proponents of natural schoolyard habitats have
worked for decades to introduce children to nature. Some educators have
placed an emphasis on classroom learning, others on getting students
outside. And efforts to engage students in and through the natural
environment have gone by many names: community-oriented schooling,
bioregional education, nature studies, experiential education and place-
based or environment-based education. But the basic goal is this: use the
surrounding community, including nature, as the preferred classroom.

When it comes to reading skills, the Holy Grail of education reform, says
researcher and educator David Sobel, author of Children and Nature:
Design Principles for Educators, place-based education should be
considered one of the knights in shining armor. Students in these
programs typically outperform their peers in traditional classrooms.
Sponsored by many state departments of education, a 1998 study
documented the enhanced school achievement of youth who experience
school curricula in which the environment is the principal organizer. More
recently, factoring out other variables, studies of students in California and
nationwide showed that schools that used outdoor classrooms and other
forms of nature-based experiential education were associated with
significant student gains in social studies, science, language arts, and math.
One recent study found that students in outdoor science programs improved
their science testing scores by 27 percent.

Unfortunately, the relationship between nature experience, learning and

health is a new frontier. Many of the available studies describe correlations
rather than causes and effects. Additional longitudinal research needs to be
done, but as Howard Frumkin, who heads the National Center for
Environmental Health/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry at
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says, "We know enough to
act." Frumkin views education and parenting in the broader context of

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community and environment, as do most educators. In this wider context,
the research is increasingly persuasive.

Some of the most intriguing studies are being done by the Human-
Environment Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois, where
researchers have discovered that children as young as five showed a
significant reduction in the symptoms of attention-deficit (hyperactivity)
disorder when they engaged with nature. Recent studies have also
suggested a connection between the decline in outdoor activities and the
dramatic rise in childhood Vitamin D deficiency and myopia.

In October 2008, Science Daily reported the first study to look at the effect
of neighborhood greenness on inner city children's weight over time.
Researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis, and the University of Washington
reported an association between higher neighborhood greenness and
slower increases in children's body mass over a two-year period, regardless
of residential density.

That last phrase is particularly important. It underscores use of urban

design to provide a greener, healthier environment, even in the densest of
neighborhoods. Surely such design can also improve childrens readiness to
learn, and their sense of wonder.

Unfortunately, too many school districts have contributed to a growing

gap between nature and children, contributing to what Ive called
nature-deficit disorder which is not a medical diagnosis, but a
description of the growing gap between human beings and nature, and
the implications for health and well-being.

In the 1970s, the physical and academic designs of too many school
districts turned inward, resulting in the building of windowless schools,
the banishment of live animals from classrooms, and even the elimination
of recess and field trips. Several forces have been at work: the new wave
of well-intentioned and under-funded education reform; and beyond the
schools -- poor urban design; disappearing open space; parental fear of
stranger danger, amplified news cycles and sensationalized entertainment
media; competition from computers and video games; the over-
structuring of childhood and the devaluing of natural play.

Today, kids are well aware of the global threats to the environment, but
their physical contact, their intimacy with nature on a day-to-day basis, is
fading.

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What can educators do to reverse this trend? Here are some suggestions
gleaned, in part, from the Field Guide section of the newest edition of
Last Child in the Woods:

-- Become a natural teacher. The first step: principals, school board

members, administrators and teachers can better inform themselves
about the cognitive and other health benefits of nature experience.
Abstracts and links to original research for over 100 studies on children
and nature can be found at the Children and Nature Network (C&NN)
Web site (http://www.childrenandnature.org/research/).

-- Network with other natural teachers. What teachers need to do is

network on these issues, get ideas from each other, gripe about what is
not working, and brainstorm solutions, says Tamra L. Willis, Ph.D.,
assistant professor in the Graduate Teacher Education Program at Mary
Baldwin College. There are so many good ideas out there for making it
work, and the best ideas come from the people who are doing it - -- not
those of us on the sideline. She adds, There are many challenges
related to taking kids outdoors, such as curriculum/standards integration,
discipline, materials management, safety, etc. By networking, teachers
could share ideas, support each other, and know they are not alone in
their efforts.

-- Teach other teachers. Many educators, especially new teachers, feel

inadequately trained to give their students an outdoors experience. More
support for existing teacher-training programs are needed, of course, but
in challenging economic times, other resources may be tapped. For
example, many wildlife refuges provide professional development
programs that have been correlated to public school curriculum
standards (see: www.fws.gov/refuges). Robert Batemen, the well known
Canadian wildlife artist whose Get-to-Know campaign strives to connect
kids to nature, suggests an informal teacher-to-teacher approach: Teacher
Nature Clubs, through which teachers experienced in nature could
organize half day hikes each month with other teachers, lending insight
and enthusiasm to those who are less experienced in the natural world.

-- Green the schoolyards. Tap the knowledge of such programs as Eco-

Schools in Europe (www.eco-schools.org), Evergreen in Canada
(http://www.evergreen.ca/en/), and the Natural Learning Initiative
(www.naturalearning.org) in the United States. A worldwide list of
schoolyard greening organizations, including ones in Canada, Norway,
Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States, can be found at
www.ecoschools.com. To get started, send for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service's Schoolyard Habitat Project Guide
(www.fws.gov/chesapeakebay/schoolyd.htm).

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-- Create nature preschools, where children begin their school years by
knowing the physical world firsthand. Encourage nature-based public,
charter, or independent K-12 schools that place community and nature
experience (not only environmental education) at the center of the
curriculum. Resources include Antioch's Center for Place-based
Education (www.anei.org/pages/89_cpbe.cfm).

-- Establish an eco club. One example: Crenshaw High School Eco Club
is among the most popular clubs in the predominately African-American
high school in Los Angeles. Students have received their introduction to
the natural environment through the club's weekend day hikes and
camping trips in nearby mountains, as well as through expeditions to
Yosemite and Yellowstone national parks. Community service projects
include coastal cleanups, nonnative invasive plant removal, and hiking
trail maintenance. Past members become mentors for current students.
Student grades have improved.

-- Bring nature to the classroom. Start a Salmon in the Classroom

project or a similar endeavor. In Washington State, participating students
in over six hundred schools receive five hundred hatchery eggs to care for
in each classroom. They learn about life histories and habitat
requirements and release the salmon as fry into the streams they have
studied (wdfw.wa.gov/outreach/education/salclass.htm).

-- Create nature-based community classrooms. Beyond the classroom

and school grounds, schools, businesses and outdoor organizations can
work together to introduce students to nature centers and parks, and
sponsor or promote overnight camping trips. School districts can follow
Norway's lead and establish farms and ranches as the new schoolyards,
and thereby create a new source of income to encourage a farming
culture. (Heres an added incentive: An outdoor classroom is much less
expensive than building a new brick-and-mortar wing.)

In Austin, last year, I was speaking with a middle school principal who
was sympathetic to the cause, but felt overwhelmed by all the demands
that he and his colleagues already face. Look, you want me to add this to
my plate when its already overflowing? he said. I cant do this without
outside help. He was right. Naturalizing education will be an enormous
task, and educators cant do it alone. Families and the whole community
must become involved.

We can all support legislation at the state and national levels that
advances environmental education in the classroom and outdoor
experiential learning. The No Child Left Inside Act of 2009, introduced in
the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate, would, in part, create an
environmental education grant program to the states for teacher

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development, and provide funding to help ensure that primary and
secondary school students are environmentally literate. Importantly, the
legislations focus is not only on classroom education, but also (less
specifically) on actually getting students outside and into nature.
Even more important is the emerging leave no child inside
movement. The Children & Nature Network, a nonprofit that advances
the movement, reports that some 60 regional campaigns have sprung up
in the United States and Canada over the past four years, as have a
number around the globe, which together comprise a growing
international network of thousands of individuals, families and
organizations. Regional campaigns include local, state and national park
and recreation agencies, educators, health care professionals,
conservationists, children, college students, government officials and
businesspeople. The movement appears to be transcending political and
religious divisions. That bodes well for schools; in a sense, the movement
could be creating a new constituency for education.

As a practical matter, parent-teacher groups can support schools and

educators financially and by presenting annual Natural Teacher awards to
educators that have engaged the natural world as an effective learning
environment. Parent-teacher groups, schools and educators can also
encourage parents to create family nature nights. For example, in Omaha,
Neb., a consortium formed to foster nature-based play is hosting five
Family Nature Nights at local elementary and middle schools; these will
offer at least hands-on, nature-based play activities for children and their
families.

Several months ago, I received an e-mail from Chip Donahue, a father of

three and a second-grade teacher in Roanoke, Va. He told me how he and
his wife, Ashley had felt challenged to enjoy more time in nature with
their kids. They began to spend most weekends on family hikes and other
outdoor adventures. One day, their five-year-old son asked, Why are we
the only family having this much fun? So the Donahues mapped out a
monthly outdoor adventure schedule for the coming year, and invited
their neighbors to join the first outing. Today, the Donahues have 352
families on their e-mail list. The member families agree to meet on
Saturdays or Sundays -- two, three, five families at a time -- at a park or
some other nature venue, where they experience the natural world (and
green exercise) together. A similar parent-organized group, the new
Inland Empire Kids Outdoors club, has signed up 227 families.

Family nature clubs provide a greater sense of safety; they can be created
in any neighborhood, whether inner city, suburban, or rural; they can
serve any kind of family; and theres no need to wait for funding. Families
can do this themselves and they can do it now. What if family nature clubs
and networks really caught on? What if they grew in number, just as book

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clubs have in recent decades? (The Children & Nature Network offers a
toolkit for jump-starting family nature clubs, downloadable free at
www.childrenandnature.org.)

As the Austin principal and I talked about these approaches, he became

increasingly excited, especially about family nature clubs. I could
encourage parents to create these groups, he said, and even help them
weave in some curriculum-based learning.

One benefit of nature experience has received scant attention, yet it is

one of the most stirring: family bonding. Research has not looked
specifically at a link between outdoor experience and quality of parent-
child attachment, and certainly parents can be sensitive and responsive to
their babies and young children indoors or out, says Martha Farrell
Erickson, Ph.D., a developmental psychologist. Erickson retired in 2008
from the University of Minnesota, where she was founding director of the
Children, Youth & Family Consortium. But, in many ways, the natural
world seems to invite and facilitate parent-child connection and sensitive
interactions.

What better way to escape the constant, interrupting beeping of modern

life, and actually have a chance to spend concentrated time with your
child, than with a walk in the woods? Some parents like some educators
may view nature time as one more task to add to their stress list. But,
Erickson asks, What if that one more ought to actually could help
parents achieve the important goal of increasing family time and building
closer, stronger connections with their children? And what if that one
more thing also could alleviate some of the stress both parents and kids
experience in their often-hurried lives? She points to the findings of Dr.
Frances Kuo and researchers at the University of Illinois: being in nature
or even just seeing nature through the window of ones urban apartment
building is associated with feeling less stressed, anxious and depressed.

Erickson advises, By following a prescription for more nature experience

together, families will discover a win/win situation in which both children
and adults benefit as individuals, even as they are strengthening those
important family bonds that all children (and adults) need. And theyll
also be strengthening our schools.

The broad movement to connect children to nature could, the evidence

suggests, send calmer, more curious, better-balanced children into the
classroom. And dont forget teachers: getting outside is also a stress-
reducer for them. Canadian researchers found that teachers expressed
renewed enthusiasm for teaching when they had time outdoors. In an era
of increased teacher burnout, the impact of green schools and outdoor
education on teachers should not be underestimated.

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Thinking about that old photo of the little boy on the beach, I wonder:
How many other little Ansels and Anselettes are out there now? What
gifts could they offer future generations, if we give them the gift of
nature?

Richard Louv is the author of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children
from Nature-Deficit Disorder, and the chairman of the Children & Nature
Network (www.childrenandnature.org). In 2008, he was awarded the
Audubon Medal. Past recipients have included Rachel Carson, E.O. Wilson
and Jimmy Carter.

A Sampling of Resources:

Green Teacher magazine, available in English, Spanish, and French

(www.greenteacher.com), and the Learning with Nature Idea Book,
published by the Arbor Day Foundation (www.arborday.org).

Nature Rocks, a Web site where parents and teachers can locate
nature opportunities in their own zip codes, and download a free guide to
creating Family Nature Staycations. (www.naturerocks.org)

The Nature-Deficit Disorder survey, for students and teachers.

Created by Dave Wood, an eighth-grade teacher at Sidwell Friends School
in Washington, D.C., for his students and for National Environmental
Education Week. (www.eeweek.org/resources/survey.htm)

Professional resource programs, among them Project Learning Tree

(www.plt.org) and Project WILD (www.projectwild.org), tie nature-
oriented concepts to all major school subjects, requirements, and skill
areas. The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation's
Classroom Earth (classroomearth.org) maintains a directory of
environmental education programs and resources for K-12 teachers,
parents, and students.

National Wildlife Refuges offer teacher training and other educational

opportunities: (www.fws.gov/refuges).

The Children and Nature Network. In addition to presenting current

research and news, C&NN also offers a wealth of information about ways to
bring the benefits of nature to our schools, families, and communities.
(www.childrenandnature.org) C&NN was founded by author Richard Louv,
internationally recognized educator Cheryl Charles, Ph.D., and others, to
build the movement to connect children to the natural world.

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Aldous Huxley: A Quest for the Perennial
Education2 By Yoshiharu Nakagawa

Education, insofar as it is not merely vocational, aims at reconciling the

individual with himself, with his fellows, with society as a whole, with the
nature of which he and his society are but a part, and with the immanent
and transcendent spirit within which nature has its being. (Aldous Huxley,
1992, p. 101)

Aldous Huxley is widely regarded as a great writer and thinker of the

twentieth century. However, it is less known that he made significant
contributions to the development of contemporary holistic education. He
pioneered and deliberated ideas of holistic education in his conception of
actualizing human potentialities through his extensive inquiries into
diverse fields of knowledge and practice.

Huxley also valued spirituality in education. He was a spiritual seeker who

explored various spiritual paths from both Eastern and Western traditions.
These explorations led him to his views of the perennial philosophy upon
which he built his work in holistic and spiritual education. In a sense, one
could call Huxleys approach to education perennial education.

Briefly reviewing Huxleys biography and ideas on education, this chapter

will examine his contribution to the development of spirituality in education.

The Life of Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 in England and spent his youth there.
Then, as a middle age man, he moved to the United States in 1937, and
settled in California and died there in 1963. Huxley came from a well-known
scholastic family. His grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was a prominent
evolutionist and educator who contributed to the development of science
education. His father, Leonard Huxley, was a Classics scholar, teacher,
biographer, and editor of Cornhill Magazine. His mother, Julia Frances
Arnold, the granddaughter of Dr. Thomas Arnold of Rugby and the niece of
Matthew Arnold, was also an educator who founded girls school, but who
died when Aldous Huxley was fourteen years old. His elder brother, Sir
Julian Huxley, was biologist and the first secretary of UNESCO.

Aldous Huxley attended Eaton, a prestigious public school of England,

and then Oxford. Although originally interested in medicine, at seventeen
2
In John Miller & Yoshiharu Nakagawa (Eds.), Nurturing Our Wholeness: Perspectives on Spirituality in
Education. Foundation for Educational Renewal, 2002, pp. 140-163

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years old he had trouble with his eyesight, causing near-blindness for
months, thereby forcing him to change his focus of study to literature.
During the course of his life he continued to be very conscious of his
physical health, which led to his involvement in psychophysical trainings
such as the Bates Method (see Huxley, 1943/1985) and the Alexander
Technique.

After a short period of teaching at Eaton, Huxley also began writing and
publishing novels, verse, stories, and essays, among other works. His early
novels, in his twenties and thirties, included Crome Yellow (1921), Point
Counter Point (1928), and Brave New World (1932), all of which
commanded wide spread acclaim.

Towards the end of his thirties, he began a new phase in his life. Huxley
traveled in Central America, started to learn the Alexander Technique and
the Bates Method, and committed to a peace movement. At forty-three, he
moved to the United States with his friend Gerald Heard and settled down
in southern California out of concern for his health. Huxleys important
works from this transitory period included a novel Eyeless in Gaza (1936)
and a collection of essays Ends and Means (1937).

In California, he initiated a life-long friendship with Jidu Krishnamurti, when

they met in 1938 (see Lutyens, 1983). Krishnamurti was also concerned
with education, and he began the Oak Grove School in 1975 at Ojai,
California, along with other schools. In many respects, Huxley and
Krishnamurtis ideas on education were closely related, especially regarding
the purpose of education and the emphasis upon the importance of
awareness.

In 1945, at the age of 51, Huxley published The Perennial Philosophy, a

classical study of mysticism. At 59, he pioneered the first mescalin
experiment with Dr. Osmond, and published the experience in The Doors of
Perception in 1954. In 1955 his first wife, Maria, died of cancer, and the
next year Huxley married Laura Archera, an Italian-born musician and
psychotherapist. During his last years, Laura contributed to his work
through her expertise in psychotherapy. Huxley published important
collections of essays Adonis and the Alphabet in 1956, and Brave New
World Revisited in 1958.

At the age of 62 Huxley delivered a series of lectures at the University of

California, Santa Barbara, which were later published as The Human
Situation (1977), edited by Piero Ferrucci, the nephew of Laura Huxley. In
his last years, despite a serious illness, Huxley traveled around the United
States among other places, giving lectures that dealt with topics on human
potentialities. These activities had a considerable influence upon the
emergence of so-called human potential movement. For instance, Walter

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Anderson (1983) reports that Michael Murphy and Richard Price asked
Huxley about their plan to start the Esalen Institute, a birthplace of this
movement (pp. 10-13). In 1961 a disastrous fire destroyed his library and all
of his works, except the manuscript of his last novel, which was published
the following year. This novel Island describes an ideal society in which
people are able to realize their potentialities to the full extent. It is
definitely Huxleys most comprehensive work referring to the essentials of
his philosophy. Reading this book still gives us inspirations and ideas for the
way we live. Fortunately, it has large sections on education.

In 1963 Aldous Huxley, a twentieth century mystic, died at the age of 69.
Throughout his life Huxley was a critical thinker, examining and identifying
the discoveries of humankind. Since his death diverse movements of
personal and cultural transformation have flourished, including humanistic
and transpersonal psychologies, deep ecology, holistic healing, and holistic
education. In this respect, many have actualized what Aldous Huxley
envisioned in his mind years before.

Actualizing Human Potentialities

Despite his great concern for education, unfortunately Huxley did not leave
us systematic descriptions on education in volumes, which seems to have
prevented us from knowing his educational ideas. This may be the cause
that, as far as I am aware, few educational programs have been established
based on his ideas. Therefore, it is our task to implement what he proposed
us to do through his works. To accomplish this, we have to reconstruct a
framework of his educational thought from various writings.

According to Huxley, the primary purpose of education is actualizing

human potentialities. Education is [f]or actualization, for being turned
into full-blown human beings (1962, p. 202). Huxleys comprehensive view
of education as a life-long process begins with proper nurturing and care of
infants. In terms of this topic he refers to the influence of conditioning and
family system. In the elementary stage of education, Huxley recommends
that children have nonverbal methods of education to cultivate ones
wholeness. He presents a unique curriculum, called nonverbal
humanities, that embraces diverse methods developed in psychology,
psychotherapy, body-mind trainings, and contemplative traditions.

Huxleys view of human potentialities includes a strong emphasis on

spirituality. The ultimate goal of actualization is attaining spiritual
enlightenment, primarily undertaken during adolescence and adulthood as
a part of higher education. He celebrates practicing rites of passage in
youth, so as to experience a glimpse of transcendence, and the art of
awareness and contemplation for adults. In addition to this, being a bridge-

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builder between different fields, Huxley associates contemplative traditions
with school curricula.

Beyond Brave New World

In one of his earlier works, an anti-utopian novel Brave New World, Huxley
(1932/1955) cautions us against the danger of conditioning and
manipulating young children from the outside with political intentions. This
novel describes a totalitarian society whose members are controlled by
psychological manipulation with scientific devices. He describes two
methods of education (see chapter 2); namely, neo-Pavlovian conditioning
and hypnopaedia. They are devices designed to condition children to a
given society on an unconscious level.

Neo-Pavlovian conditioning gives children negative stimuli to induce

particular responses against the positive. The Neo-Pavlovian Conditioning
Room contains flowers and books located in front of babies. During
conditioning sessions, as crawling babies reach for either the flowers or the
books, an explosive alarm goes off at the order of the rooms Director,
along with a simultaneous mild electric shock sent through the floor. The
Director says: Theyll grow up with what the psychologists used to call an
instinctive hatred of books and flowers. Reflexes unalterably conditioned.
Theyll be safe from books and botany all their lives (p. 29). This results in
the babies learning to shrink away from nature and thought in horror.

The other method, hypnopaedia, or sleep-teaching, is used as a tool of

moral education by imprinting suggestive words during sleep. It is a
refined system of conditioning; that is, wordless conditioning is crude and
wholesale; cannot bring home the finer distinctions, cannot inculcate the
more complex courses of behaviour. For that there must be words, but
words without reason. In brief, hypnopaedia (p. 33). The Director regards
hypnopaedia as [t]he greatest moralizing and socializing force of all time
(p. 33) and insists:

Till at last the childs mind is these suggestions, and the sum of the
suggestions is the childs mind. And not the childs mind only. The adults
mind tooall his life long. The mind that judges and desires and decides
made up of these suggestions. But all these suggestions are our
suggestions! (p. 34)

The grotesque picture described in Brave New World is not merely a

fictional view, but rather an exaggeration of our highly industrialized society
in which manipulation through conditioning by means of technology is quite
commonplace. In 1958, twenty-six years after Brave New World, having
witnessed real-world examples of conditioning, Huxley (1958/1965)
publishes Brave New World Revisited, in which he records the growth of

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mind-manipulation technology including propaganda, selling,
brainwashing, subconscious persuasion, and hypnopaedia. In a pessimistic
tone he writes, The prophecies made in 1931 are coming true much sooner
than I thought they would (p. 4). An excerpt shows his fear of Big
Government and Big Business:

In the world we live in vast impersonal forces are making for the
centralization of power and a regimented society. The genetic
standardization of individuals is still impossible; but Big Government and
Big Business already possess, or will very soon possess, all the techniques
for mind-manipulation described in Brave New World. Lacking the ability
to impose genetic uniformity upon embryos, the rulers of tomorrows over-
populated and over-organized world will try to impose social and cultural
uniformity upon adults and their children. To achieve this end, they will
(unless prevented) make use of all the mind-manipulating techniques at
their disposal and will not hesitate to reinforce these methods of non-
rational persuasion by economic coercion and threats of physical violence.
(1958/1965, p. 103)

This statement conveys Huxleys realist perspective of the dangers and

threats of our industrialized technological society. This realist attitude
continued to exist into his last novel, Island. Although this is a novel about a
utopian society, it does not offer only the optimistic view of the society, but
also considers the real dangers of industrialization.

In Brave New World Revisited, Huxley (1958/1965) promotes an education

for freedom to prevent social and cultural uniformity. He argues, If this
kind of tyranny is to be avoided, we must begin without delay to educate
ourselves and our children for freedom and self-government (pp. 103-104).
Education for freedom involves several practical methods of de-
conditioning.

For example, he refers to the art of dissociation as an antidote to

persuasion-by-association. The propagandist arbitrarily associates his
chosen product, candidate or cause with some idea, some image of a person
or thing which most people, in a given culture, unquestioningly regard as
good (p. 81). This type of conditioning associates one event with another,
more socially favorable event, to force its members to accept the former.
The art of dissociation is an attempt to dissociate associations of these
events. In Ends and Means Huxley (1937) says:
The art of dissociating ideas should have a place in every curriculum. Young
people must be trained to consider the problems of government,
international politics, religion and the like in isolation from the pleasant
images, with which a particular solution of these problems has been
associated, more or less deliberately, by those whose interest it is to make
the public think, feel and judge in a certain way. (pp. 217-218)

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In later years the art of de-conditioning plays an important role in his
approach to education. It forms a prerequisite condition to the education for
human potentialities by reducing and releasing undesirable and harmful
conditionings.

Our Ultimate Investment

Huxley holds the idea that two thirds of all sorrow and misery in human
life originates from the improper ways we live and we can avoid it by
creating proper systems, including education. The seeds of misery are
sowed in the early years of life, and this brings to light the importance of
preventive systems for childcare. For this purpose, Huxley proposes two
methods in Island.

One method is positive conditioning that gives infant positive experiences

necessary for him or her to live on earth with trust and love. An infant is an
absorbent being that needs positive experiences to have a foundation for
healthy development. Positive conditioning not only gives him or her a basic
trust in life, but also prevents traumatic experiences. However, if a child
does have these harmful experiences, positive conditioning allows the child
to heal them in their initial stages.

Unlike in Brave New World, in Island Huxley (1962) promotes the use of
Pavlov purely for a good purpose, namely, Pavlov for friendliness and
trust and compassion (p. 190). The formulation is this: Food plus caress
plus contact plus good equals love. And love equals pleasure, love equals
satisfaction (p. 190). Recognizing this methods origin in indigenous
childcare, Huxley describes it as follows:

This technique was one of their happiest discoveries. Stroke the baby
while youre feeding him; it doubles his pleasure. Then, while hes
sucking and being caressed, introduce him to the animal or person
you want him to love. Rub his body against theirs; let there be a warm
physical contact between child and love-object. At the same time
repeat some word like good. (p. 189)

The other method is to create an enlarged family system called MAC, or

Mutual Adoption Club. According to his definition:

Every MAC consists of anything from fifteen to twenty-five assorted

couples. Newly elected brides and bridegrooms, old timers with
growing children, grandparents and great-grandparentseverybody
in the club adopts everyone else. Besides our own blood relations, we
all have our quota of deputy mothers, deputy fathers, deputy aunts

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 and uncles, deputy brothers and sisters, deputy babies and toddlers
and teen-agers. (1962, p. 90)

Unlike ordinary, compulsory families, MAC is [n]ot exclusive and not

predestined, not compulsory. An inclusive, unpredestined and voluntary
family (p. 90). Under these circumstances, children have additional
parents, and the parents, additional children. This allows both to avoid
undesirable experiences and, at the same time, provides a nurturing and
healing environment. In Huxleys view, a large part of our behavioral
problems stem from the traditional family system.

In your predestined and exclusive families children, as you say, serve

a long prison term under a single set of parental jailers. These
parental jailers may, of course, be good, wise, and intelligent. In that
case the little prisoners will emerge more or less unscathed. But in
point of fact most of your parental jailers are not conspicuously good,
wise or intelligent. Theyre apt to be well-meaning but stupid, or not
well-meaning and frivolous, or else neurotic, or occasionally
downright malevolent, or frankly insane. (p. 92)

By restructuring the family system, Huxley believes one can avoid the
development of behavioral problems. If a child feels unhappy in his or her
first family, MAC permits other families to do the best for him or her,
meanwhile his or her parents seek therapy from other members of their
MAC (p. 93). A MAC is a caring community in which a child has interactions
with enough people to develop in a healthy way.

Here the children grow up in a world thats a working model of society at

large, a small-scale but accurate version of the environment in which
theyre going to have to live when theyre grown up. Holy, Healthy,
wholethey all come from the same root and carry different overtones of
the same meaning. Etymologically and in fact, our kind of family, the
inclusive and voluntary kind, is the genuine holy family. (p. 92)

Huxleys wife, Laura Huxley, has tried posthumously to implement his ideas
on childcare. To do so, she founded an organization in 1977 called Our
Ultimate Investment, dedicated to the nurturing of the possible human.
Laura Huxley (1993) says, The concept is that much of the predicament of
the human situation begins not only in infancy, not only before birth but
also in the physical, psychological, and spiritual preparation of the couple
before conception (p. 259). In other words,

the message of Our Ultimate Investment is that if we are loved

before the beginningif a human being is a loving thought in its
parents mind before conceptionif the focus of the couple is to
improve their physical and mental health and their relationship

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 before conceptionthe child will be a healthier, kinder, more
capable human being on all levels. Certainly the improvement on
physical and mental health would be enormous. (L. Huxley, 1994, p.
17)

Laura Huxley (1987/1992), with the help of Piero Ferrucci, gives us a

comprehensive view of childbirth from pre-natal to post-natal periods within
the following five stages: prelude to conception, conscious conception,
reverence for life (pregnancy), O nobly born (the moment of birth), meeting
the world (the first days and years). One of her attempts is to create an
educational program for young people, introducing the prelude to
conception phase. In this program, teens are invited to be with small
children so as to gain a hands-on perspective of what it means to have a
child.
Another program relating to the first days and years is project caressing
for both babies and older people. The purpose of this program is to satisfy
babies need to be touched and for lonely, older people to be able to fulfill
their own need to give themselves to others. Evidently Lauras projects owe
much to Huxleys ideas of positive conditioning and the MAC family
structure. In 1994 Aldous Huxleys centennial celebration took place in Los
Angeles, together with an international conference entitled Children: Our
Ultimate Investment, showing that his legacy is still growing.

The Nonverbal Humanities

Now let us take a look at Huxleys ideas of holistic curriculum in elementary

education. His ideas appear in Adonis and the Alphabet (with the very
important chapter The Education of an Amphibian), Island (chapter 13),
The Door of Perception, and The Human Situation, as well as articles
including Human Potentialities and Education on the Nonverbal Level,
among others.

Huxley calls his ideas of holistic curriculum the nonverbal humanities.

Unlike conventional humanities that have favored the training of verbal
faculties, the nonverbal humanities attempt to explore the nonverbal
aspects of human being. Huxley maintains that a human being is an
amphibian, which exists simultaneously in the world of words and symbols
and in the world of immediate experience. And he stresses the importance
of an attempt to make the best of both worlds:

Whether we like it or not, we are amphibians, living simultaneously in

the world of experience and the world of notions, in the world of
direct apprehension of Nature, God and ourselves, and the world of
abstract, verbalized knowledge about these primary facts. Our
business as human beings is to make the best of both these worlds.
(1956, pp. 14-15)

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Unfortunately, these two worlds are severely separated and imbalanced in
society today. Language is undoubtedly an essential element of being
human, thus Huxley (1956) defines humans as homo loquax (p. 10), or the
loquacious one. However, the acquirement of language has disturbed the
nonverbal world of immediate experience: Language, it is evident, has its
Greshams Law. Bad words tend to drive out good words, and words in
general, the good as well as the bad, tend to drive out immediate
experience and our memories of immediate experience(1956, p. 13).
Humans perceive things through the filter of language and live in a world of
meanings, which inevitably separates us from the world of immediate
experience.

Huxleys notion of language agrees with recent findings in various

disciplines regarding languagelinguistics, semantics, structuralism,
hermeneutics, and philosophy of language. These disciplines find that the
world we live in is not a natural, biological, objective world but is a symbolic
world constructed by language. Symbolic articulation of things through
language makes our world as it is. However, for Huxley this refers to the
verbal half of our amphibian nature. If we identified ourselves exclusively
with this half, we would be enclosed in the world of language. This is why
Huxley finds it necessary to limit the domination of language by cultivating
a sound skepticism toward language. Discouraging children from taking
words too seriously, teaching them to analyze whatever they hear or read
this is an integral part of the school curriculum (1962, p. 147).
On the basis of perennial philosophy, Huxley maintains that the world of
language is not the only reality but an intermediate layer of the total reality.
Thus we can explore realities deeper than the world of language through
proper methods. In The Door of Perception Huxley (1960) proposes:

We can never dispense with language and the other symbol systems;
for it is by means of them, and only by their means, that we have
raised ourselves above the brutes, to the level of human beings. But
we can easily become the victims as well as the beneficiaries of these
systems. We must learn how to handle words effectively; but at the
same time we must preserve and, if necessary, intensify our ability to
look at the world directly and not through that half-opaque medium of
concepts, which distorts every given fact into the all too familiar
likeness of some generic label or explanatory abstraction. (p. 59)

The central task of the nonverbal humanities is to raise our ability to look at
the world directly.

As a whole, education has made every effort to develop the verbal aspect of
human abilities, failing to embrace education on the nonverbal level. Every
child is educated in a particular language and (formulated in terms of that

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languages syntax and vocabulary) in a set of basic notions about the world,
himself and other people. In civilized societies of the Western type, this
verbal and notional education is systematic and intensive (1965, p. 35).
According to Huxley (1960), this holds true to every discipline: Literary or
scientific, liberal or specialist, all our education is predominantly verbal (p.
59).

To counter this imbalance, Huxley emphasizes the importance of training

students on the nonverbal level. What is needed, if more of the
potentialities of more people are to be actualized, is a training on the
nonverbal levels of our whole being as systematic as the training now given
to children and adults on the verbal level (1965, p. 37).

According to Huxley (1956), the possible methods of the nonverbal

humanities include: Training of the kinesthetic sense. Training of the
special senses. Training of memory. Training in control of the autonomic
nervous system. Training for spiritual insight (p. 19). Concretely Huxley
uses the Alexander Technique for kinesthetic training, the Bates Method for
visual training, the Jacobsons method of relaxation for training in the
control of ones autonomic nervous system, and the traditions of
contemplation for spiritual training. He also refers to training of perception
and awareness, such as Gestalt Therapy, the Vittozs Method, and Tantric
meditations (see Huxley, 1965, 1969). Furthermore, in Island he uses
techniques such as visualization and body movement for emotional
transformation. Using a wide variety of methods from many different fields
shows Huxleys intention to make the best of both worldsthe Oriental and
the European, the ancient and the modern (1962, p. 129).

The Alexander Technique

The Alexander Technique has a special place in Huxleys life as well as the
nonverbal humanities. His involvement in this method gave him a crucial
key with which to restructure education in both theory and practice. A study
by Frank Pierce Jones (1976/1979) reports that Huxley began practicing the
Alexander Technique in 1935 with founder Frederick Matthias Alexander
out of concern for his physical health. But soon he realized that it effected
on not only his physical, but also his mental condition. In his letter to
Hubert Benoit, he wrote as follows:

This, as I know by experience, is an exceedingly valuable technique

practising this awareness makes it possible for the physical organism
to function as it ought to function, thus improving the general state of
physical and mental health. (cited in L. Huxley, 1981/1987, p. vii)

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In Ends and Means, Huxley (1937) celebrated the Alexander Technique as a
form of body-mind education that helps with the spiritual realization of
non-attachment (pp. 219-224). Furthermore, in his novel Eyeless in Gaza
(1936), he described F. M. Alexander as Dr. Miller (e.g., Jones, 1976/1979,
1987). It is said that his enthusiasm in the participation of this technique
lasted until he died.

It is important to remember that F. M. Alexander designed this technique as

a way of re-education working directly on the body-mind when he
discovered it in the early years of the twentieth century. Alexander
regarded the method as a way for improving the use of the self, or of the
psychophysical organism as a whole. In Huxleys words, it is a technique
for the proper use of the self, a method for the creative conscious control of
the whole psychophysical organism (1978, p. 150). The Alexander
Technique re-educates the self in an attempt to regain its proper use.
According to Laura Huxley (1981/1987, p. vi), it is a method of
unlearning, for the misuse of the self is learned as a habitual pattern and
can be unlearned through a re-educational process. This method requires us
to raise the conscious control of our use, for the misuse is automated in
subconscious patterns of behavior. To re-educate the misuse of the self, it is
necessary to inhibit the misuse while simultaneously directing the
proper use in accordance with the primary control of the organism by the
teachers help.

The Alexander Technique gave Huxley a new perspective of education, an

education that takes place on the nonverbal level with a special emphasis
on raising consciousness to the daily use of body-mind. It is important to
note that Huxley discovered John Deweys involvement in this method.
Dewey had already practiced this method under Alexander since 1914 and
regarded it as an essential contribution to education in general. In an
Introduction to the work of Alexander, Dewey (1923/1985) recognized that
the method is not one of remedy; it is one of constructive education (p.
xxxiii). Dewey (1932/1984) later went as far to say, It [the technique of Mr.
Alexander] provides the conditions for the central direction of all special
educational processes. It bears the same relation to education that
education itself bears to all other human activities (p. xix). Huxley (1956)
comments on Deweys statements:

These are strong words; for Dewey was convinced that mans only
hope lies in education. But just as education is absolutely necessary to
the world at large, so Alexanders methods of training the psycho-
physical instrument are absolutely necessary to education. Schooling
without proper training of the psycho-physical instrument cannot, in
the very nature of things, do more than a limited amount of good and
may, in the process of doing that limited amount of good, do the child

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 a great deal of harm by systematically engraining his habits of
improper use. (p. 21)
Unfortunately, Deweys voice was ignored, even by progressive educators,
as Huxley (1956) puts it as follows:

It is a most curious fact that of the literally millions of educators who,

for two generations, have so constantly appealed to Deweys authority,
only an infinitesimal handful has ever bothered to look into the
method which Dewey himself regarded as absolutely fundamental to
any effective system of education. (p. 21)

It took almost half a century until this method became available in larger
circles. However, still today it is necessary for those who are working in
educational fields to pay more attention to the voices of Dewey and Huxley,
for current education is missing deep understanding of the body-mind
approaches like the Alexander Technique.

The Not-Selves

The non-verbal humanities encompass a wide range of methods including

therapeutic and psychological methods, body-mind approaches, and
spiritual disciplines. They are not, however, an arbitrary collection of
different methods but are arranged in association with the multidimensional
structure of the human being. Huxley conceives a theory of the human
being that involves not only the conscious self, or the verbal level, but also
unconscious, deeper layers of what he calls the not-selves. Every human
being is a conscious self; but, below the threshold of consciousness every
human being is also a not-selfor, more precisely, he is five or six merging
but clearly distinguishable not-selves (1956, pp. 16-17).

The not-selves exist in multiple dimensions from the surface to the deeper
levels. They are, (a) the personal not-self, or the subconscious,
comprised of habits, conditioned reflexes, repressed impulses, past
memories and other personal experiences; (b) the vegetative soul in
charge of the physiological functions of the body; (c) the not-self that
inhabits the world of insights and inspiration; (d) the not-self dwelling in the
symbolic realm of Jungian archetypes; (e) the mysterious not-self that has
visionary experience; (f) the universal Not-Self, or the ultimate reality
(1956, pp. 17-18).

These concepts of the not-selves are based on perennial philosophy as much

as modern psychology. They detail what Huxley (1946) calls autology in
The Perennial Philosophy. It means the science, not of the personal ego,
but of that eternal Self in the depth of particular, individualized selves, and
identical with, or at least akin to, the divine Ground (pp. 7-8). The practice
of the perennial philosophy is concerned with exploration into the not-selves

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by the way of psychological and spiritual disciplines with the ultimate aim of
identifying the universal Not-Self.

To know the ultimate Not-Self, which transcends the other not-selves

and the ego, but which is yet closer than breathing, nearer than hands
and feetthis is the consummation of human life, the end and
ultimate purpose of individual existence. (1956, p. 33)

Each method of the nonverbal humanities helps us explore the not-selves in

one way or another. The first problem one faces is that the conscious ego
and the subconscious layer of the personal not-self (inappropriate habits,
neurosis caused by repressed emotions, and other conditioned behaviors)
tend to obstruct the deeper not-selves.

Man is a self associated with not-selves. By developing bad habits,

the conscious ego and the personal sub-conscious interfere with the
normal functioning of the deeper not-selves, from which we receive
the animal grace of physical health and the spiritual grace of insight.
(1956, p. 23)

It often happens that the surface dimensions of the ego and the
subconscious repress the other deeper dimensions because of our exclusive
identification with them. It is necessary to work on the surface layers to
dissolve barriers the ego and the personal subconscious have created,
which is one of the essential functions of the nonverbal humanities:

That which must be relaxed is the ego and the personal subconscious,
that which must be active is the vegetative soul and the not-selves
which lie beyond it. The physiological and spiritual not-selves with
which we are associated cannot do their work effectively until the ego
and personal subconscious learn to let go. (1956, pp. 23-24)

The methods in the nonverbal humanities serve as an art of combining

relaxation with activity in which the ego and the personal subconscious are
relaxed and, at the same time, the vegetative soul and the deeper not-selves
are activated.

Island

Island has rich examples of the nonverbal humanities. Huxley (1962)

summarizes his ideas in the following:

What we give the children is simultaneously a training in perceiving

and imagining, a training in applied physiology and psychology, a
training in practical ethics and practical religion, a training in the

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 proper use of language, and a training in self-knowledge. In a word, a
training of the whole mind-body in all its aspects. (p. 208)

Three more methods are added to our discussion. To teach the differences
between the verbal and nonverbal dimensions, there is a method in Huxleys
curriculum, called Elementary Applied Philosophy, which teaches
differences between symbols and events (or what is going on in each
person) in experiential ways (1962, pp. 214-217). As Huxley (1977) puts it in
The Human Situation, any development of awareness must go hand in
hand with the development of our knowledge of language and concepts. If
we are going to be aware of our direct experience, we must also be aware of
the relationship between direct experience and the world of symbols and
language and concepts in which we live (p. 249). In this respect, he says,
twentieth-century developments in linguistics in general and in semantics
should find their way into education on every level (p. 249).

The novel describes that even in a class such as botany conceptual learning
is related to receptive perception in bridge-building lessons (pp. 217-221).
A flower is looked at not only in an analytical and scientific manner but also
in alert passiveness and receptivity without labeling or categorizing.

Everything from dissected frogs to the spiral nebulae, it all gets

looked at receptively as well as conceptually, as a fact of aesthetic or
spiritual experience as well as in terms of science or history or
economics. Training in receptivity is the complement and antidote to
training in analysis and symbol-manipulation. Both kinds of training
are absolutely indispensable. (p. 219)

In his article, Education on the Nonverbal Level, Huxley (1969) states,

Systematic training of perception should be an essential element in all
education (p. 156). He discerns two modes of perception, one as a highly
conceptualized, stereotyped, utilitarian, and even scientific mode and the
other as a receptive, more or less unconceptualized, aesthetic and
spiritual mode of perceiving (p. 156). He places his emphasis on the
latter, which he calls wise passiveness, borrowing Wordsworths concept
from his Expostulation and Reply and The Tables Turned. Wise passiveness
is a condition for creativity, spiritual insight, and happiness. Watching and
receiving in a state of perfect ease or wise passiveness is an art which can
be cultivated and should be taught on every educational level from the most
elementary to the most advanced (pp. 159-160).

The second method is expressive movement called Rakshasi Hornpipe,

which is a device for letting off those dangerous heads of steam raised by
anger and frustration (1962, p. 222). In a class of this expressive dance
movement, the teacher encourages the students to release their negative
emotions through furious movement with shouting. This is a method of

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emotional transformation like Reichian therapy such as Bioenergetics. As to
this method, Huxley accepts Laura Huxleys ideas on her approach to
psychotherapy. He writes the following in an Introduction to Lauras You
Are Not the Target:

I discovered that some of the clearest and most practical answers to

certain of my questions were being given by my wife in the Recipes
for Living and Loving. Some of her recipes (for example, those for
the Transformation of Energy) have found their way, almost
unmodified, into my phantasy. Others have been changed and
developed to suit the needs of my imaginary society and to fit into its
peculiar culture. (1963/1994, pp. xii-xiii)

The third method is training in imagination and visualization called

Elementary Practical Psychology. Huxley recognizes the importance of
visualization in healing and education. It is interesting to note how Huxley
came to know of Robert Assagiolis Psychosynthesis. Laura Huxley (1982)
writes that she met Assagioli in 1954 for the first time, and in 1963
Assagioli sent a letter to her in appreciation for her book. Then Aldous
Huxley sent him his Island with this inscription: To Robert Assagioli, in the
hope that he may find something to interest him in this utopian essay on
psychosynthesis (cited in L. Huxley, 1982, p. 12). After Huxleys death,
Lauras nephew, Piero Ferrucci, studied under and later collaborated with
Assagioli to then become a representative theorist of Psychosynthesis.

Rites of Passage

Huxley (1962) regards cultivating spirituality as a matter of higher

education: Individuals in their transcendent unity are the affair of higher
education. That begins in adolescence and is given concurrently with
advanced elementary education (p. 202). The main training in the higher
education is the art of awareness, which I will discuss later. Beside this
Huxley pays special attention to rites of passage for youth as an initiation
from childhood to adulthood. He is most likely influenced by traditions of
native cultures. For him, rites of passage are extraordinary moments in
which young people are invited to have a glimpse of transcendence.

Island describes a group of young peoples expedition into the mountains

(see chapter 10). Their journey has three stages, the yoga of danger, the
yoga of the summit, and the yoga of jungle. The yoga of danger is an
ordeal of climbing which gives them direct experience of life and death. An
ordeal that helps them to understand the world theyll have to live in, helps
them to realize the omnipresence of death, the essential precariousness of
all existence (p. 159). Faced with the real threat of death, they are able to
realize their full potentialities. In the second stage, or the yoga of summit,
after their climbing, the yoga of rest and letting go, the yoga of complete

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and total receptiveness (p. 165) takes place. Here they are open to
formless, wordless Not-Thought in the eternal moment. This story
describes that these young people are going to have a beautiful taste of
transcendental unity in the universe with the aid of the moksha-medicine,
a kind of psychedelic medicine. They then go down to the jungle, whose
danger gives them vivid experiences of a life that includes both beauty and
horror. At this third stage there is a reconciliation, or a fusion, in which
beauty is made one with horror.

The experience of rite of passage is important for us because the modern

world has almost completely lost them. Our society today gives rise to
difficult situations for young people to go through in their transformative
process. Rites of passage have long been devices to offer opportunities in
which everyone can transform his or her life during critical moments of
transition. It is interesting to note that some holistic educators have
recently begun to implement rites of passage into their practices (e.g.,
Kessler, 2000; Luvmour, 1993).

The Art of Awareness

To practice the art of awareness in every aspect of living forms the key
component of higher education for youths and adults. Huxley (1962) calls it
the yoga of everyday living:

Its through awareness, complete and constant awareness, that we

transform it [concrete materialism] into concrete spirituality. Be fully
aware of what youre doing, and work becomes the yoga of work, play
becomes the yoga of play, everyday living becomes the yoga of
everyday living. (p. 149)

Island involves scenes that a bird repeatedly calls attention to wake up

people for the importance of this practice. Awareness is meant to notice
that which is taking place in the present moment without any interventions
of the mind, such as interpretation, judgment, comparison, etc. Awareness
in this sense is alternately called attention, mindfulness, witness, or
observation in the contemplative disciplines. The practice of awareness is
a foundation of contemplation, especially in the traditions of Eastern
philosophy.

Island has philosophical fragments called Notes on Whats what in which

Huxley (1962) addresses essential parts of his philosophy. In terms of
awareness he states:

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 Good Being is in the knowledge of who in fact one is in relation to all
experiences; so be awareaware in every context, at all times and
whatever, creditable or discreditable, pleasant or unpleasant, you may
be doing or suffering. This is the only genuine yoga, the only spiritual
exercise worth practising. (p. 40)

These statements seem to reflect what Krishnamurti meant in his concept of

choiceless awareness. In his The First and Last Freedom, Krishnamurti
(1954/1975) said, To know ourselves means to know our relationship with
the world. What it [the understanding of relationship to the whole]
demands is awareness to meet life as a whole (p. 94). Huxley (1954/1975)
comments on choiceless awareness in his foreword to this book as follows:

Through this choiceless awareness, as it penetrates the successive

layers of the ego and its associated sub-conscious, will come love and
understanding, but of another order than that with which we are
ordinarily familiar. This choiceless awarenessat every moment and
in all the circumstances of lifeis the only effective meditation. (p. 17)

Generally speaking, the contemplative traditions expect that ceaseless

practice of awareness will bring about a radical transformation of
consciousness, leading to a great awakening or enlightenment. Huxley
(1962) holds this opinion: Everybodys jobenlightenment. Which means,
here and now, the preliminary job of practising all the yogas of increased
awareness (p. 236). In Notes on Whats what he says:

The more a man knows about himself in relation to every kind of

experience, the greater his chance of suddenly, one fine morning,
realizing who in fact he isor rather Who (capital W) in Fact (capital
F) he (between quotation marks) Is (capital I). (p. 40)

He describes the state of consciousness in enlightenment as follows:

Ultimately and essentially there was only a luminous bliss, only a
knowledge-less understanding, only union with unity in a limitless,
undifferentiated awareness (p. 263).

Furthermore, in accordance with the teachings of The Tibetan Book of the

Dead, Huxley (1962) introduces what he calls the yogas of living and
dying for dying people: Going on being awareits the whole art of dying
(p. 239).

We help them to go on practising the art of living even while theyre

dying. Knowing who in fact one is, being conscious of the universal
and impersonal life that lives itself through each of usthats the art
of living, and thats what one can help the dying to go on practising.
To the very end. Maybe beyond the end. (p. 239)

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In Island, an old woman in her dying phase is guided by an experienced
therapist into the world of clear light. This also happened for Aldous Huxley
himself, with the aid of his wife Laura (e.g., L. Huxley, 1968/1991, pp. 295-
308). She writes that Aldous died as he lived, doing his best to develop
fully in himself one of the essentials he recommended to others: Awareness
(p. 295). Interestingly, individuals like Ram Dass and Stephen Levine
developed Huxleys idea on dying in their social movement of conscious
dying.

The Bridge Builder

We have seen what areas Aldous Huxley explored into concerning holistic
and spiritual education. In terms of spirituality, it is true that he regards it
as an issue for higher education. However, it is more important to
acknowledge the connections he made between spiritual disciplines and
other methods of the nonverbal humanities. Every method of the nonverbal
humanities has a certain relevance to spiritual cultivation. This is what
distinguishes Huxleys contribution to our understanding of spirituality in
education.

For example, when speaking to visualization Huxley (1962) remarks:

What those children you saw here were being taught is a very simple
techniquea technique that well develop later on into a method of
liberation. Not complete liberation, of course. This technique wont
lead you to the discovery of your Buddha Nature: but it may help you
to prepare for that discoveryhelp you by liberating you from the
hauntings of your own painful memories, your remorses, your
causeless anxieties about the future. (p. 225)

Getting rid of negative conditioning through visualization can offer a

preparatory phase leading to spiritual cultivation.

Huxley also sees the Alexander Technique as an elementary practice for

contemplation, for it is the art of raising elementary awareness.
Education in elementary awareness will have to include techniques for
improving awareness of internal events and techniques for improving
awareness of external events as these are revealed by our organs of sense
(1969, p. 155). The Alexander Technique is a way with which to enhance
elementary awareness of ones kinesthetic sense. This is important because
[t]he kinesthetic sense is the main line of communication between the
conscious self and the personal subconscious on the one hand and the
vegetative soul on the other (1956, p. 19).

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It is through his association of this body-mind training with contemplation
that Huxley provides us with a comprehensive view of the education of
awareness from the elemental to the highest levels. Surprisingly, in his
article on the Alexander Technique, End-Gaining and Means-Whereby
(original work published in 1941), Huxley (1978) combines this technique
with the mystics technique of transcending personality in a progressive
awareness of ultimate reality (p. 150) and conceives a totally new type of
education.

Be that as it may, the fact remains that Alexanders technique for the
conscious mastery of the primary control is now available, and that it
can be combined in the most fruitful way with the technique of the
mystics for transcending personality through increasing awareness of
ultimate reality. It is now possible to conceive of a totally new type of
education affecting the entire range of human activity, from
physiological, through the intellectual, moral, and practical, to the
spiritualan education which, by teaching them the proper use of the
self, would preserve children and adults from most of the diseases and
evil habits that now afflict them; an education whose training in
inhibition and conscious control would provide men and women with
the psychophysical means for behaving rationally and morally; an
education which in its upper reaches, would make possible the
experience of ultimate reality. (1978, p. 152)

Huxley thus finds essential connections between psychophysical methods

and spiritual cultivation. It is his genius as the pontifex, or the bridge
builder, that provides such an integral vision of education.

References

Alexander, F. M. (1923/1985). Constructive conscious control of the

individual. Long Beach, CA: Centerline Press.
Alexander, F. M. (1932/1984). The use of the self. Long Beach, CA:
Centerline Press.
Anderson, W. T. (1983). The upstart spring: Esalen and the American
awakening. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Dewey, J. (1923/1985). Introduction. In F. M. Alexander, Constructive
conscious control of the individual (pp. xxi-xxxiii). Long Beach, CA:
Centerline Press.
Dewey, J. (1932/1984). Introduction. In F. M. Alexander, The use of the self
(pp. viii-xix). Long Beach, CA: Centerline Press.
Huxley, A. (1932/1955). Brave new world. Harmondsworth, England:
Penguin Books.
Huxley, A. (1937). Ends and means: An inquiry into the nature of ideals and
into the methods employed for their realization. London: Chatto and
Windus.

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Huxley, A. (1943/1985). The art of seeing. London: Triad Grafton.
Huxley, A. (1946). The perennial philosophy. London: Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1954/1975). Foreword. In J. Krishnamurti, The first and last
freedom. San Francisco: HarperCollins
Huxley, A. (1956). Adonis and the alphabet. London: Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1958/1965). Brave new world revisited. New York: Harper &
Row, Perennial Library.
Huxley, A. (1960). The doors of perception and Heaven and hell. London:
Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1962). Island. London: Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1963/1994). Introduction. In L. A. Huxley, You are not the target
(pp. xi-xiv). New York: Farrar, Straus and Company.
Huxley, A. (1965). Human potentialities. In R. E. Farson (Ed.), Science and
human affairs (pp. 32-44). Palo Alto, CA: Science and Behavior Books.
Huxley, A. (1969). Education on the nonverbal level. In H. Chiang & A. H.
Maslow (Eds.), The healthy personality: Readings (pp. 150-165). New
York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Huxley, A. (1977). The human situation: Lectures at Santa Barbara (P.
Ferrucci, Ed). London: Chatto & Windus.
Huxley, A. (1978). End-gaining and means-whereby. In W. Barlow (Ed.),
More talk of Alexander (pp. 149-153). London: Victor Gollacz.
Huxley, A. (1992). Huxley and God: Essays (J. H. Bridgeman, Ed.). San
Francisco: HarperCollins.
Huxley, L. A. (1963/1994). You are not the target. New York: Farrar, Straus
and Company.
Huxley, L. (1968/1991). This timeless moment: A personal view of Aldous
Huxley. San Francisco: Mercury House.
Huxley, L. (1981/1987). Foreword to new edition. In M. Gelb, Body learning:
An introduction to the Alexander Technique. London: Aurum Press.
Huxley, L. (1982). Foreword. In P. Ferrucci, What we may be: Techniques for
psychological and spiritual growth through psychosynthesis (pp. 11-
13). Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher.
Huxley, L. (1993). Bridging heaven and earth. In D. J. Brown & R. M. Novick
(Eds.), Mavericks of the mind: Conversations for the new millennium
(pp. 240-260). Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press.
Huxley, L. (1994). An interview with Laura Huxley. Island Views, 1 (3), 1, 14-
17.
Huxley, L., & Ferrucci, P. (1987/1992). The child of your dreams. Rochester,
VT: Destiny Books.
Jones, F. P. (1976/1979). Body awareness in action: A study of the
Alexander technique. New York: Schocken Books.
Jones, F. P. (1987). Aldous Huxley and F. Matthias Alexander. The Alexander
Review, 2 (2), 11-22.
Kessler, R. (2000). The soul of education: Helping students find connection,
compassion, and character at school. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.

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Krishnamurti, J. (1954/1975). The first and last freedom. San Francisco:
HarperCollins.
Lutyens, M. (1983). Krishnamurti: The years of fulfillment. New York: Avon
Books.
Luvmour, J. & S. (1993). Natural learning rhythms: Discovering how and
when your child learns. Berkeley, CA. Celestial Arts.
Nakagawa, Y. (2000). Education for awakening: An eastern approach to
holistic education. Brandon, VT: The Foundation for Educational
Renewal.

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Eastern Wisdom and Holistic Education:
Multidimensional Reality and the Way of
Awareness3 By Yoshiharu Nakagawa

When we approach traditions of Eastern thought, we can follow two

different directions. Each would equally contribute to reaching greater
understanding. One way involves examining each tradition and respecting
the uniqueness of different perspectives. The other way entails investigating
the basic structures underlying Hinduism, Buddhism, Sufism, Taoism, and
Confucianism, and uncovering remarkable resonances. This chapter follows
this second direction. I draw extensively on cross-cultural resources
including classical scriptures, texts, and the sayings of sages in the domain
of Eastern thought in order to show deep interconnections and reveal how
different traditions share a path of increasing awareness.

Another aim of this chapter is to provide a philosophical basis for holistic

education, which emerged in the late 1980s in North America and has
achieved global prominence as a significant outgrowth of Western
postmodernism (J. Miller, 1988/1996; R. Miller, 1990/1997). Holistic
education has been particularly active in bringing the teachings of spiritual
traditions into curriculum and pedagogy (Miller, 1994, 1999, 2006). Eastern
philosophies have been playing increasingly important roles in this
endeavor, and my own research has been directed toward elaborating the
possibilities involved in this East-West conversation (see Nakagawa, 2000;
Miller & Nakagawa, 2002). This chapter summarizes the basic points I have
developed and introduces some further thoughts on this undertaking.

Multidimensional Views of Reality

What strikes me as particularly fascinating about Eastern thought is the

multidimensional view of reality that it elucidates. As Toshihiko Izutsu, a
distinguished scholar of Eastern philosophies, stated in his Sufism and
Taoism (1983/1984), Existence or Reality as experienced on supra-
sensible levels reveals itself as of a multistratified structure. The Reality one
observes in this kind of metaphysical intuition is not of a unistratum
structure (p. 479). In general terms, this multidimensional reality
encompasses three phases: the surface dimension of separate things,
various intermediate dimensions, and the deepest dimensions of Brahman,
sunyata, and Tao.

3
In Claudia Eppert & Hongyu Wong (Eds.), Cross-Cultural Studies in Curriculum:
Eastern Thought, Educational Insights, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008, pp.
227-245.

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We can take Taoist scriptures as an example. Taoist philosophy regards Tao,
or wu (non-being), as the deepest reality, out of which all the other
dimensions of being emerge. In the Tao Te Ching, Lao-tzu (Izutsu, 2001)
says: The ten thousand things under heaven are born out of Being. Being is
born out of Non-Being (p. 104). Describing this in symbolic numbers, he
states: The Way begets one. One begets two. Two begets three. And three
begets the ten thousand things (p. 108). Another important Taoist
philosopher, Chuang Tzu (Watson 1968), remarks in a similar way: In the
Great Beginning, there was nonbeing; there was no being, no name. Out of
it arose One; there was One, but it had no form. Things got hold of it and
came to life, and it was called Virtue (p. 131).

Tao as non-being is the groundless and nameless depth. Izutsu

(1983/1984) regards it as the Absolute in its absoluteness, or Existence at
its ultimate stage, qua something unknown-unknowable, transcending all
qualifications, determinations, and relations (p. 486). Then, non-being
evolves into one. The one is located between non-being and being with a
chaotic potency toward being. Izutsu (1983/1984) states: The One is ... the
metaphysical Unity of all things, the primordial Unity in which all things lie
hidden in a state of chaos without being as yet actualized as the ten
thousand things (p. 400). Tao creates the universe by articulating the
primordial one into two, namely yin (the passive force) and yang (the
active force), and interactions between these two forces give rise to all
phenomenal things.

Likewise, according to Neo-Confucian metaphysics of the I Ching (Book of

Changes), wu-chi (the ultimate of non-being) is the deepest dimension of
reality, and tai chi (the great ultimate) is the primordial unity that
generates yin and yang (Chan, 1963, p. 463, see also Izutsu, 1980). These
views recognize the metaphysical source from which the universe emerges
and takes form, from the subtlest to the grossest levels. The Secret of the
Golden Flower (Cleary, 1991), a classic of Taoist meditation, clearly
describes the sequence of creation starting from the original spirit to the
universe as follows:

From the point of view of the universe, people are like mayflies; but
from the point of view of the Way, even the universe is as an
evanescent reflection. Only the true essence of the original spirit
transcends the primal organization and is above it.

Vitality and energy degenerate along with the universe, but the
original spirit is still there; this is the infinite. The production of the
universe all derives from this. If learners can just preserve the
original spirit, they live transcendentally outside of yin and yang. (p.
13)

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The following discussion outlines more fully a multidimensional structure of
reality found in Eastern thought. I am largely guided by Izutsus basic
framework presented variously throughout his later works (Izutsu, 1981a,
1981b, 1983, 1985), although the materials specifically referred to in this
chapter have been chosen from diverse sources.

1. The Phenomenal World of Things and Its Construction of the

Mind

The surface plane of reality is the phenomenal and empirical world in which
myriad things are perceived as objective, material, and separate
substances. This objective reality is often marked by such qualities as
diversification, differentiation, and fragmentation. Even though it looks
objective enough, it is a specific view of reality produced by what Izutsu
calls subjective fabrication or semantic articulation of the mind. This
function of the mind molds the immediate, inarticulate state of sensory
experience into an ordered world of things. Izutsu (1981a) describes: The
essential mechanism of the mind ... is such that it immediately transforms
this bewildering chaos of sense-data into an ordered world by producing
within itself sensory images having their structural basis in the semantic
evocations of words (p. 436). The mind articulates immediate chaos into a
meaningful world of things by forming sense-images in accordance with
the semantic configuration of language. Underlying the surface level of
myriad things is a semantic construction of reality. An object is given
meaning and identity by language.

It is very interesting to note that the function of the mind was fully
recognized by ancient Eastern philosophers. For Lao-Tzu, Tao is hidden and
nameless, but The Named is the mother of ten thousand things (Izutsu,
2001, p. 28). The Awakening of Faith (Hakeda, 1967), a Mahayana Buddhist
classic attributed to Asvaghosha, claimed that the appearance of different
things comes from the deluded mind, or conceptual thinking. This treatise
describes:

Since all things are, without exception, developed from the mind and
produced under the condition of deluded thoughts, all differentiations
are no other than the differentiations of ones mind itself. [Yet] the
mind cannot perceive the mind itself; the mind has no marks of its
own [that can be ascertained as a substantial entity as such]. It should
be understood that [the conception of] the entire world of objects can
be held only on the basis of mans deluded mind of ignorance. (p. 48)

Philosophers in the East recognized the constructive function of the mind to

give rise to apparent separation among things, but they also underlined that
it is simultaneously the primary cause of our delusive perception of reality,
for the true nature of reality is disclosed only when the function of the mind

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is suspended or ceases to be.

Sankara (Mayeda, 1979/1992), the greatest philosopher of Advaita Vedanta,

or the non-dualistic thought in the Vedanta school in India, saw that avidya
(ignorance or nescience) produces phenomenal differences: Nescience is
[defined as] the superimposition of the qualities of one [thing] upon
another (p. 235). That is to say, a non-Atman (non-Self) quality is
superimposed upon the true nature of Atman (Self). Superimposition is the
primary function of the mind (manas) to discriminate the one into the many.
Indeed, the phenomenal world is a fabrication of superimposition, and it is
in this sense that Advaita Vedanta regards this world as an illusion (maya).
Sankara said, This whole [universe] is qualification, like a beautiful
ornament, which is superimposed [upon Atman] through nescience.
Therefore, when Atman has been known, the whole [universe] becomes non-
existent (p. 116).

Eastern philosophers understood that difficulties and sufferings arise from

our exclusive identification with the delusive function of the mind and with
the apparent surface dimension of separate things thus produced.
Therefore, their essential teachings were centered upon liberating people
from the delusive perception created by the mind.

2. The Intermediate Realms of Imagination

Delving into deeper realms of reality, the world becomes more subtle, fluid,
and chaotic. To use James Hillmans (1975) conception, the intermediate
dimension is a vast imaginative world of the soul. Deep under sensory
images correlated to phenomenal things do exist the archetypal, mythic,
and symbolic images that produce imaginative pictures of reality; namely,
images of deities, spirits, celestial beings, metaphysical lands and realms.
Many Eastern traditions developed their own wondrous imaginative worlds:
the mythic world of Hinduism, the celestial worlds of religious Taoism, the
symbolism of the I Ching, the cosmic world of the Abhidharma Buddhism,
the cosmological worlds of buddhas and bodhisattvas in the celestial
buddha-fields described in Mahayana Buddhist scriptures, and the
mandalas of Tantric Buddhism.

Izutsu especially refers to mundus imaginalis (alam al-mithal), the world of

archetypal images, developed in Sufism. Henry Corbin (1984/1995), a
French philosopher of Islamic mysticism, elaborated this concept and
recognized threefold universes corresponding to threefold modes of
perception; namely, the physical sensory world, the suprasensory world
of the Soul, and the universe of pure archangelic Intelligences (p. 8). The
corresponding organs of perception are the senses, the imagination, and the
intellect. The mundus imaginalis is an intermediate world, a world as
ontologically real as the world of the senses and the world of the intellect

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(p. 9). About the intermediate status of images, one of the greatest Sufi
poets and masters, Jalaluddin Rumi (Thackston, 1994), remarked in his
discourse: In comparison with the world of concepts and sensibilities, the
world of mental images is broader because all concepts are born of mental
images; but the world of mental images is narrow in relation to the world
where mental images are given being (p. 203). In addition, regarding Ibn
Arabis notion of Creative Imagination, Corbin (1958/1969) describes that:

the world of Idea-Images, the world of apparitional forms and of

bodies in the subtile state (alam al-mithal) to which our imaginative
faculty specifically relates, is the intermediary between the world of
pure spiritual realities, the world of Mystery, and the visible, sensible
world. (p. 217)

The imaginative world is real in the sense of having its immaterial

materiality. Here the imagination is not attributed only to a human faculty
but has its own presence in reality. It is an ontological organ of the creative
manifestation of the divine, called theophany. Corbin (1958/1969) says:
As such, creation is an act of the divine imaginative power: this divine
creative imagination is essentially a theophanic Imagination (p. 182). The
creative imagination articulates the archetypal images of many sorts as self-
manifestations of the absolute mystery.

The archetypal images appearing in the imaginative world have, therefore,

their own meanings, even though they appear to be absurd fantasies to our
common-sense rational mind. Izutsu (1981a) states that:

the symbolic images which make their appearance in the mythopoetic

space of that psychic domain are extremely valuable in that the
figures of the things looming up through the mist of these images do
represent the primeval configurations of a reality which are
psychically far more real and more relevant to the fate and existence
of man than the sensory reality established at the surface level of
consciousness. (p. 443)

3. The Deepest Reality and the Twofold Movement of

Contemplation

Even the wondrous pictures of the archetypal images, however, are not the
deepest reality for Eastern thinkers, because reality is absolutely formless
and infinite on the ultimate plane. The ultimate dimension of reality is
diversely called nirguna Brahman (formless absolute) in Vedanta, nirvana
(extinction) in early Buddhism, sunyata (emptiness) and hsin (pure
consciousness) in Mahayana Buddhism, Tao and wu (non-being) in Taoism,
wu-chi (the ultimate principle of non-being) and li (principle) in Neo-
Confucianism, wu or mu (nothingness) in Chan/Zen Buddhism, and haqq

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(truth) in Sufism. Izutsu himself calls it the Zero Point of Consciousness
and Existence to mean the absolute unarticulated.

About these concepts it is not necessary to prove whether they all signify
the same single ultimate reality, for this kind of discussion might surely
bring us bewildering questions with no exit and oppositions with no
resolution. Rather, my argument agrees with Jorge Ferrers (2002)
recommendation of a more relaxed spiritual universalism that recognizes
that the various traditions lead to the enactment of different spiritual
ultimates and/or transconceptual disclosures of reality (p. 147, originally
italics). At this point, my emphasis is on the very simple fact that all those
concepts above mentioned are identical in trying to describe something
infinite beyond any qualifications. Following Huston Smiths (1976, pp. 54-
55) reference to the Infinite, this dimension may be called infinite
reality.

In the East, multidimensional ideas of reality have been inseparably united

with the practice of contemplation or meditation. Eastern traditions of
wisdom have developed a great variety of spiritual practices to attain
infinite reality by transforming our consciousness and existence. The full
realization of infinite reality is called samadhi (nondual ecstasy), moksha
(perfect liberation), turiya (the highest awareness), sambodhi (authentic
awakening), satori (enlightenment), fana (annihilation or passing-away),
rig.pa (the state of presence), and so forth. From the ancient times,
Easterners have taken such inner transformations for the ideal way of life.

However, a critical point is that many traditions do not regard just attaining
infinite reality as the final phase of contemplation. This accomplishment
actually covers only the first half of the way. If one sees infinite reality as
the final destination, he or she would fall into false attachment to it, which
would lead to serious dualism between realities. Contrary to much common
Western perception, Eastern thought does not represent infinite reality as a
transcendental realm clearly distinct from the ordinary world. This means
that a spiritual seeker has to disidentify with attachment of any kind, even
to infinite reality as such, in a ceaseless movement of disidentification.

The prajna-paramita (the perfection of wisdom) thought in Mahayana

Buddhism mostly discusses this issue. For example, the Diamond Sutra
(Price & Wong, 1990) says: A bodhisattva should develop a mind that
alights upon nothing whatsoever; and so should he establish it (p. 28).
There is no absolute abode where one can eternally dwell in even when he
or she is fully enlightened. This point was elaborated by the concept of
sunyata (emptiness). It is not meant, by sunyata, a transcendental realm
separated from the other dimensions of being but a dynamic ceaseless
movement to empty any representations including itself. If it were viewed as
a separate realm, it would have its own substance as opposed to the

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dimension of being. Therefore, as the modern Zen philosopher Keiji
Nishitani (1961/1982) remarks, Emptiness in the sense of sunyata is
emptiness only when it empties itself even of the standpoint that represents
it as some thing that is emptiness. It is, in its original Form, self-emptying
(p. 96).

In the ceaseless movement of self-emptying, any dualism between non-

being and being disappears, and sunyata becomes one with being. Nishitani
(1961/1982) continues to say, true emptiness is not to be posited as
something outside of and other than being. Rather, it is to be realized as
something united to and self-identical with being (pp. 96-97). Masao Abe
(1985) is clear on this point: True Emptiness and wondrous Being are
completely non-dualistic: absolute Mu [Nothingness] and ultimate Reality
are totally identical (p. 130).

Here, nirvana becomes one with samsara that originally means cyclic
existence through rebirths and, in the Mahayana context, this phenomenal
world of transition. Therefore, Nagarjuna (Garfield, 1995), the founder of
the Madhyamika school of Mahayana Buddhism, remarked: There is not
the slightest difference/ Between cyclic existence and nirvana (p. 75). In
one of the essential texts of Chan/Zen Buddhism, On Trust in the Mind,
Seng-tsan (Watson, 1993a), the third patriarch of Chan, or Chinese Zen,
described the non-dualistic nature of reality as follows: Being--this is
nonbeing, nonbeing--this is being. Any view at variance with this must not
be held! (p. 152).

To put this in a different way, there is a turning point of contemplation from

the seeking to the returning mode: once the seeker attains infinite reality,
he or she has to return immediately to all the other levels without any
attachment to it. The twofold movement of seeking and returning, which is
traditionally called ascent and descent, marks a dynamic character found
in many Eastern spiritual practices. Whereas the seeking path negates
anything, the phenomenal and the imaginative on all levels, through and
through to attain the infinite, the returning path reveals the positive and
creative activities of the infinite that engender all beings on the other levels.
Izutsu (1977/1982) comments on the Oriental Nothingness:

The Oriental Nothingness is not a purely negative ontological state of

there being nothing. On the contrary, it is a plenitude of Being. It is so
full that it cannot as such be identified as anything determined,
anything special. But it is, on the other hand, so full that it can
manifest itself as anything in the empirical dimension of our
experience, as a crystallization of the whole spiritual energy contained
therein. (p. 82)

In the returning mode, both phenomenal and imaginative beings reappear

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as the self-manifestations of infinite reality. Izutsu (1983/1984) states: In
the eye of those who have experienced this spiritual Awakening, all things,
each in its own form and on its own level, manifest the presence of
Something beyond (p. 481). In this resurrection the infinite permeates all
levels, tracing no division between them. Izutsu describes: The only
reality (in the true sense of the term) is the Absolute, revealing itself as it
really is in the sensible forms which are nothing but the loci of its self-
manifestation (p. 480). Here, each finite being of this world comes to
appear as an absolute wondrous being. Even a tiny thing of this world
reveals the infinite as it actually is. For instance, The Flower Ornament
Scripture (Cleary, 1984/1993), the principal sutra of Hua-yen Buddhism (see
also Izutsu, 1981b), conveys this phase in many beautiful descriptions, one
of which says as follows: In the atoms of all lands/ Are seen Buddhas
existing there (p. 215). By way of twofold contemplation of seeking and
returning, Eastern approach recovers the wholeness of multidimensional
reality as actualized in each existence.

4. Ordinary Life as the Ultimate Reality

Viewed from Eastern perspectives, it is this world disclosed in great

awakening or full enlightenment that is truly the ultimate reality. The
ultimate reality thus realized is called tathata (suchness) in Mahayana
Buddhism, baqa (abiding in God) in Sufism, and saguna Brahman in Advaita
Vedanta. D. T. Suzuki (Barrett, 1956/1996) writes on tathata:

Tathata is the viewing of things as they are: it is an affirmation

through and through. I see a tree, and I state that it is a tree; I hear a
bird sing and I say that a bird sings; a spade is a spade, and a
mountain is a mountain; the fowls of the air fly and the flowers of the
field bloom: these are statements of tathata. (p. 263)

As Suzuki describes here, tathata is absolute affirmation of things as they

are, but it is fundamentally different from the ordinary state of perception
that objectifies things. It is made possible in the returning phase of
contemplation, after one attains wisdom (prajna) of sunyata, or the true
empty nature of things.

Sufism maintains that fana (annihilation) leads to baqa by way of fana al-
fana. Like sunyata, fana finally annihilates the consciousness of fana as
such. R. A. Nicholson (1914/1989) remarks: The highest stage of fana is
reached when even the consciousness of having attained fana disappears.
This is what the Sufis call the passing-away of passing-away (fana al-fana).
The mystic is now rapt in contemplation of the divine essence (pp. 60-61).
In the state of baqa, one returns to this world and re-experiences it as the
sheer manifestation of the divine. Nicholson writes:

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 To abide in God (baqa) after having passed-away from selfhood (fana)
is the mark of the Perfect Man, who not only journeys to God, i.e.
passes from plurality to unity, but in and with God, i.e. continuing in
the unitive state, he returns with God to the phenomenal world from
which he set out, and manifests unity in plurality. (p. 163)

Whereas the seeking path of contemplation deconstructs all beings in order

to attain infinite reality, the returning path reconstructs them all as they
are. With regard to this point, Advaita Vedanta discerns the two faces of
Brahman: nirguna and saguna. While nirguna Brahman means infinite
reality transcending any qualifications, saguna Brahman means the aspect
of Brahman that has reappeared through human consciousness. According
to Eliot Deutsch (1969), Saguna Brahman--Brahman with qualities--is
Brahman as interpreted and affirmed by the mind from its necessarily
limited standpoint (p. 12). Saguna Brahman is the phenomenal appearance
of nirguna Brahman through human conditions. Brahman is now known in
the fullness of beings in the cosmos as saguna Brahman. S. Radhakrishnan
(1953/1994), a representative Indian philosopher, describes:

Brahman is not merely a featureless Absolute. It is all this world....

Brahman sustains the cosmos and is the self of each individual. Supra-
cosmic transcendence and cosmic universality are both real phases of
the one Supreme. In the former aspect the Spirit is in no way
dependent on the cosmic manifold; in the latter the Spirit functions as
the principle of the cosmic manifold. The supra-cosmic silence and the
cosmic integration are both real. The two, nirguna and saguna
Brahman, Absolute and God, are not different. (p. 64)

As these concepts clearly show, the Eastern approach to human life is not
nihilistic in the sense of just escaping from this world, but it is
fundamentally positive in that it promotes full engagement with everyday
life; it is a way to awaken us to the profound richness of our ordinary life
thus realized.

This is why Chan/Zen masters have always emphasized everydayness. Lin

Chi (Watson, 1993b), one of the greatest masters, talked to his students as
follows, for example:

Followers of the Way, the Dharma of the buddhas calls for no special
understandings. Just act ordinary, without trying to do anything
particular. Move your bowels, piss, get dressed, eat your rice, and if
you get tired, then lie down. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will
know what I mean. (p. 31)

Needless to say, everyday ordinariness such as this is realized as tathata in

ones enlightenment. This is related to a further remarkable quality of those

154
who have attained enlightenment, which is commonly described in the
scriptures of Eastern wisdom. Here are a few examples from different
traditions. The Bhagavad Gita (Radhakrishnan, 1948/1973), the most
beloved sacred scripture in India, celebrates a sage who has attained Atman
as follows: He whose mind is untroubled in the midst of sorrows and is free
from eager desire amid pleasures, he from whom passion, fear, and rage
have passed away, he is called a sage of settled intelligence (p. 123). One
of the most well-known Buddhist classics, the Dhammapada
(Radhakrishnan, 1950), says: Those whose minds are well grounded in the
(seven) elements of enlightenment, who without clinging to anything rejoice
in freedom from attachment, whose appetites have been conquered, who
are full of light, attain nirvana in this world (p. 87). And Chuang Tzu
(Watson, 1968) addresses the true man in the Taoist sense: The True
Man of ancient times knew nothing of loving life, knew nothing of hating
death. He emerged without delight; he went back in without a fuss. He
came briskly, he went briskly, and that was all (p. 78). These descriptions
eloquently refer to a total liberation from attachment of any kinds to the
positive as well as to the negative in everyday life. This quality comes from
selfless stillness opened up in ones enlightenment.

Furthermore, true compassion flows out through such liberated persons, for
compassion is essentially the self-manifestation of the infinite into this world
through their selfless activities to take care of things in wholehearted ways.
In the returning phase, it becomes possible for them to commit to actual
issues in everyday life more intensely without self-interested attachment
and with boundless compassion and creativity. Mahayana Buddhism
highlighted karuna, or compassion in this sense, and, in recent years,
engaged Buddhism has focused on critical and transformative orientations
in the social actions of compassion.

Disidentification in the Art of Awareness

The truth of Eastern wisdom is not authorized without ones spiritual

cultivation and inner transformation, because it is essentially a practical
teaching to be explored by each. For example, Dogen (Tanahashi, 1985), the
distinguished Zen thinker of medieval Japan, valued zazen (sitting
meditation) as the true gate to the Buddhist teachings:

All buddha tathagatas, who directly transmit inconceivable dharma

and actualize supreme, perfect enlightenment, have a wondrous way,
unsurpassed and unconditioned. Only buddhas transmit it to buddhas
without veering off; self-fulfilling samadhi is its standard. Sitting
upright, practicing Zen, is the authentic gate to the unconfined realm
of this samadhi. (p. 143)

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In terms of multidimensional reality, the primary task of spiritual cultivation
is to help us do away with the surface level and explore the deeper levels of
reality. This is why Eastern teachers celebrate disidentification through and
through. Advaita Vedanta was very clear on this process. It developed the
method of negation called neti neti, or not-this, not-this. Sankara insisted
that vidya, or the true knowledge of Atman, removes avidya (nescience)
caused by superimposition. He used to ask his students: Who are you, my
dear? If they answered the question with reference to qualifications such
as social position, family class, bodily existence, and so on, he immediately
disclosed that those qualifications were not Atman. Any identification with
them must be negated: One attains [Atman] in some such way as I am not
this. I am not this (Mayeda, 1979/1992, p. 108).

Sri Ramana Maharshi, one of Indias greatest modern mystics,

recommended people to ask, Who am I? to see where the path of negation
would take. Sri Ramana (Osborne, 1959) says: Who Am I? I am not this
physical body, nor am I the five organs of sense perception; I am not the five
organs of external activity, nor am I the five vital forces, nor am I even the
thinking mind (pp. 39-40). Walking throughout the path of negation, that
which ultimately remains is what truly I am. Ramana Maharshi goes on to
say: Therefore, summarily rejecting all the above-mentioned physical
adjuncts and their functions, saying I am not this; no, nor am I this, nor
this--that which then remains separate and alone by itself, that pure
Awareness is what I am. This Awareness is by its very nature Sat-Chit-
Ananda (Existence-Consciousness-Bliss) (p. 40). This brief statement
clearly describes the seeking path of contemplation, and I will discuss more
about it in terms of awareness.

Among various significant paths of spiritual development, the art of

awareness is an essential method of disidentification that enhances the level
of awareness and eventually leads to a great awakening. In an excellent
guidebook of this method, Charles Tart (1994) states: I can summarize the
essence of the higher spiritual paths simply by saying, be openly aware of
everything, all the time (p. 25). The art of awareness is a simple method of
carefully noticing what is actually going on in present moment as it is
without any interference or distortion. Awareness in this sense is alternately
called attention, mindfulness, witness, observation, or presence in
many meditative traditions such as early Buddhism, Sufism, Zen, and
Dzogchen. And teachers like G. I. Gurdijeff, J. Krishnamurti, and Ram Dass
have always emphasized the central importance of awareness in our
spiritual development.

The ordinary state of our consciousness is almost always occupied with

predominant forces of the mind, body, and emotions. It is unconsciously and
automatically identified with physical, emotional, and/or mental responses.
Therefore, ordinary consciousness is often metaphorically called a

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dreaming process in sleep without awareness. This is why awakening
has a special meaning in this context. As Chuang Tzu (Watson, 1968) wrote,
Only after he wakes does he know it was a dream. And someday there will
be a great awakening when we know that this is all a great dream (p. 47).
The word awakening has been used as a common metaphor among
spiritual traditions to describe a radical transformation of consciousness. In
Buddhism, for instance, the buddha means the awakened one, and the
whole effort of Buddhist practice is dedicated to attain bodhi, or awakening.

The continual practice of awareness could eventually bring us to the point

where no identification remains and in this great awakening even the
observing self is finally dissolved into the boundless ocean of pure
awareness. As the Ashtavakra Gita (Byron, 1990), a classic belonging to the
lineage of Advaita Vedanta, repeatedly makes point, the true nature of
reality is pure awareness. Having realized this by himself, another
modern Indian mystic, Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1973/1982), says:
Awareness is primordial; it is the original state, beginningless, endless,
uncaused, unsupported, without parts, without change (p. 29). The art of
awareness can bring us to a realization that there is only the infinite reality
of pure awareness.

The Art of Awareness in Holistic Curriculum

The art of awareness contributes to educational practice in significant ways.

Here I would like to take first Aldous Huxleys idea of awareness, for he
presented a pioneering model of education using both Eastern and Western
methods of awareness. Huxley (1978), in his article on the Alexander
Technique (the original work appeared in The Saturday Review of
Literature, Oct. 25, 1941), combined this somatic method to highlight
conscious direction to the body with the mystics technique of transcending
personality in a progressive awareness of ultimate reality (p. 150),
conceiving a totally new type of education. The following statement is still
of great importance for the education of awareness:

Be that as it may, the fact remains that Alexanders technique for the
conscious mastery of the primary control is now available, and that it
can be combined in the most fruitful way with the technique of the
mystics for transcending personality through increasing awareness of
ultimate reality. It is now possible to conceive of a totally new type of
education affecting the entire range of human activity, from the
physiological, through the intellectual, moral, and practical, to the
spiritual--an education which, by teaching them the proper use of the
self, would preserve children and adults from most of the diseases and
evil habits that now afflict them; an education whose training in
inhibition and conscious control would provide men and women with

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 the psychophysical means for behaving rationally and morally; an
education which in its upper reaches, would make possible the
experience of ultimate reality. (p. 152)

Finding an essential connection between psychosomatic and spiritual

methods, Huxley presented a comprehensive model of the education of
awareness from the elemental to the highest levels. The somatic methods
such as the Alexander Technique and Sensory Awareness can cultivate what
Huxley (1969) calls elementary awareness. They are somatic meditation,
as it were, to increase elementary awareness by paying attention to
immediate experiences of the bodily movements and senses, serving as a
basis for further evolution of awareness.

Huxley (1956) also offered the idea of the nonverbal humanities (p. 19)
that include both psychosomatic and contemplative trainings from East and
West such as the Alexander Technique, Zen, and the approaches of Eckhart
and Krishnamurti (for a comprehensive account of his ideas on education,
see Nakagawa, 2002). He acknowledged the central importance of the art of
awareness not only in educational curriculum but also in everyday human
life. In his last novel entitled Island, Huxley (1962) called for the yoga of
everyday living: Be fully aware of what youre doing, and work becomes
the yoga of work, play becomes the yoga of play, everyday living becomes
the yoga of everyday living (p. 149). For him, awareness is the key to
enlightenment. He wrote in the same novel: Everybodys job--
enlightenment. Which means, here and now, the preliminary job of
practising all the yogas of increased awareness (p. 236).

Education with a spiritual orientation is defined as an attempt for

awakening or enlightenment through continual practice of enhancing
awareness. This definition virtually follows the traditional view of
contemplation that highlights the seeking path, and it is indeed an authentic
view of education resulting from Eastern perspectives on spiritual
cultivation.

However, I think that the art of awareness can provide another possibility of
education with regard to the returning path of contemplation, and this
aspect is far less emphasized in the education of awareness. As I discussed
before, everything resurges in the returning path as a creative
manifestation of infinite reality, and this happens in pure awareness that has
been cultivated in the seeking path. Nisargadatta Maharaj (1973/1982)
says, I saw that in the ocean of pure awareness the numberless waves of
the phenomenal worlds arise and subside beginninglessly and endlessly (p.
30). Here, the art of awareness is to witness, with compassionate eyes, what
comes up from the primordial process of life. When Namkhai Norbu (1989),
a Tibetan master of Dzogchen, refers to presense, it means this function
of awareness. Norbu remarks that:

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 the practice of Dzogchen means that one learns to relax whilst all the
time maintaining ones presence in whatever circumstances one finds
oneself in. Thus, in a state of total completeness, one remains relaxed
and present in relation to all the infinite manifestations of energy that
may arise. (p. 55)

In our everyday life, from the depth of life a subtle event always emerges,
caused contingently by inner and outer conditions, and unfolds itself into a
particular form of experience such as sensation, perception, movement,
imagination, feeling, emotion, or thinking. Here awareness attends to every
detail of the birth, growth, decay, and passing away of each particular
experience with no attachment.

The following is an instruction of meditation given by Krishnamurti (1974)

in his talk to students, which is also relevant to our discussion:

First of all, sit very quietly; do not force yourself to sit quietly, but sit
or lie down quietly without force of any kind. Do you understand?
Then watch your thinking. Watch what you are thinking about. You
find you are thinking about your shoes, your saris, what you are going
to say, the bird outside to which you listen; follow such thoughts and
enquire why each thought arises. Do not try to change your thinking.
See why certain thoughts arise in your mind so that you begin to
understand the meaning of every thought and every feeling without
any enforcement. And when a thought arises, do not condemn it, do
not say it is right, it is wrong, it is good, it is bad. Just watch it, so that
you begin to have a perception, a consciousness which is active in
seeing every kind of thought, every kind of feeling. (p. 59)

Admittedly, Krishnamurti talks about how meditation, or what he calls

choiceless awareness, works to go beyond thinking, and it is of primal
importance to see that the true nature of thought is empty and transient.
However, this saying simultaneously refers to how one observes a
generation of a thought in a very careful way. In the meditative state of
awareness, he or she is fully present to what spontaneously emerges from
the depth of life, then to the subsequent articulation of a form of thought,
and finally to its passing away. In this way, awareness can create a space for
allowing a thought to follow its course and fulfill its intrinsic meaning.

Likewise, something is always arising from the primordial depth of life and
evolves into a different form of experience such as sensation, movement,
imagination, feeling, emotion, intuition, or thinking. The art of awareness is
to witness in a choiceless and compassionate way how a subtle event
happens, and takes a definite form of experience, and then decays and
passes away, leaving no desire to preserve it. Whether one is enlightened or

159
not, or even though one is still in the initial stage of spiritual development,
the art of awareness in this returning mode of contemplation becomes
another significant task of spiritual practice, for the wholeness of life is
definitely composed of ceaseless flow of diverse experiences.

As we are always unconsciously caught by predominant habitual reactions

that are conditioned and automatically activated, we tend to ignore subtle
experiencing processes on the deeper levels of life and have only surface
experiences presupposed by our belief system. However, awareness inhibits
habitual reactions and attends to what is actually taking place in each
moment on the deeper levels, and it creates a space for a real experience to
evolve and fulfill its meaning. In doing so, it makes us possible to live our
everyday lives with the full richness of real experiences.

In this way, the choiceless, compassionate awareness becomes an essential

component of holistic curriculum that helps us actualize what is potent in
our deep experiencing processes. In educational settings the art of
awareness, in combination with those methods such as somatic techniques,
visualization, creative arts, poetry, creative writing, and other expressive
activities, helps students express their potentialities in sensing, moving,
feeling, imaging, and thinking.

Education must affirm the multiplicity of lived experiences, because every

real experience has some meaning to be fulfilled in our life. However,
diverse experiences that happen moment by moment tend to bring
fragmentation unless they are integrated. Awareness can lay a foundation
for the flow of multiple experiences; with the continuous presence of
awareness, even very different forms of experience flow one after another in
a streaming way. Herein lies what is really holistic. If holistic education
only artificially assembles different methods, it is not necessarily called
holistic but still remains fragmentary approach. The integrity of holistic
curriculum consists in the art of awareness that makes possible both the
multiplicity and the flow of real experiences.

To sum up, the art of awareness has a twofold function; it is an essential

path to go beyond any forms and to awaken to infinite reality, and it is also a
basis for realizing every kind of real experience. These two directions must
be unified; otherwise there would be two different dangers. In the first
place, we tend to disregard rich forms of experience when just seeking
something infinite and to fall into a false life-negating attitude. Spiritual
cultivation is not intended only to negate life but rather to realize the
infinite in the midst of everyday life. The other direction has another danger
that we may forget our potentiality of enlightenment to realize the infinite
nature of reality. This forgetfulness enforces us to identify with each finite
form of experience without insight into the fact that any form is essentially
impermanent and empty. In avoiding both dangers, the art of awareness

160
walks the middle way where two directions reflect each other and
eventually become one process in a non-dual manner.

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The Pursuit of Happiness and the Concept of
the Slow School By Maurice Holt

I have suggested elsewhere that if "preparing for success in the global

economy" - to use a phrase popular with policymakers in Anglophone
countries - is seen as the aim of schooling, the resulting curriculum is likely
to be driven by specified outcomes, evaluated by standardized tests used as
the chief basis of school accountability; and that this is analogous to the
way "fast food" is prepared from predetermined recipes, thus ensuring the
product is uniform and fit for purpose.(1)

In contrast, the "slow school" is driven not by specified ends but by learning
encounters that are shaped by both student and teacher and draw upon a
variety of experiences and materials. The "fast schoool" works backwards
from agreed ends, determining appropriate inputs and learning processes
that may also be governed by these ends - for example, in England scripted
lessons for mathematics and English were adopted by the incoming Labour
government in 1997 for all primary (elementary) schools. The ends
dominate the curriculum and process is subordinate to ends.

But as Joseph Schwab has pointed out, in an educational encounter the ends
and the means interact; and this is the case with the slow school, where
process is paramount - the teacher cannot predict how a lesson will end.(2)
Consider a math lesson to investigate probability: the students might work
in small groups, experimenting with random sampling and coin-tossing, or
the teacher might decide, on a dry morning, to send them into a
neighboring field each with a sheet of paper in which a large square hole
has been cut. The students float them at random, each time noting how
many daisies or buttercups lie within the frame. Back in the classroom, the
results are plotted and an unplanned but valuable discussion ensues on the
normal distribution. Or in a history lesson, a discussion erupts over the way
decisions were made in the Agora - the central meeting place in Athens
where the Ancient Greeks debated the political issues of the day. Rather
than write about it, the students are so interested that a topic for discussion
is chosen, the students form four groups, and each group goes to its corner
to argue positions and make recommendations. Then all come together to
see how differently each group went about its business, and discuss the
implications for policy making.

The metaphor of "slow" has a power of its own: it invites moral judgment.
Are we respecting tradition? Is this a "win-win," or will there be losers?
Does this strengthen the community we serve? And does it enhance what
Carlo Petrini, the founder of slow food, calls "quiet, material pleasure" -
does it make life more enjoyable, more rewarding?(3) Metaphors derive

164
their remarkable power from the way they move a problem into a different
context. The word means to transfer: I once read in Greek on the side of a
large furniture truck in the harbor of Rhodes, and was baffled for a moment
until I made the connection. By transferring an image from a familiar
setting to one less familiar, we make new connections and often find a new
narrative unfolding. In education, as Israel Scheffler notes, metaphors are
"of help in reflecting and organizing social thought and practice with
respect to schooling".(4)

Consider the case of slow food and the slow school. Michael Pollan, the
food writer, has observed how, during the 1980s, "food began disappearing
from the American supermarket, gradually to be replaced by 'nutrients,'
which are not the same thing." There was "a shift from eating foods to
eating nutrients," and advice on what to eat was specified not as real food
but in terms originated by scientists seeking to discover in particular foods
the source of some condition or remedy. The result is that "real food has
more trouble competing under the rules of nutritionism."(5) In education,
the rise of standardized testing has surprising similarities with the rise of
nutritionism. Bear in mind that the assumption behind judging a student's
achievement in math by means of a test is that the test in some way
embodies performance in the subject matter being tested. By stressing the
importance of tests in math and English, the implication is that other
subjects in the curriculum suffer from a lack of these key "nutrients," and
therefore get short shrift. In fact, history, geography and the arts all further
a student's grasp of English, but since these are not tested, they lack the
key "nutrient."

Marion Nestle's point is of particular relevance: nutrition science "takes the

nutrient out of the context of food, the food out of the context of diet and
the diet out of the context of lifestyle."(6) The same is true of the bogus
science of educational testing: by taking tests out of the context of subjects,
they take subjects out of the context of the curriculum and the curriculum
out of the context of the purpose of education. The crucial point was made
long ago by the poet, Matthew Arnold: there is no substitute for the object
in itself as it really is. Numbers and assessments are inadequate proxies
for the capacities of real people.

And so, in the slow school, what ought to be the purpose of education? We
have only to turn to slow food, slow cities, and other manifestations of this
metaphor to picture a world where moderation and balance bring pleasure,
where culture enlivens the spirit, where mutual respect ensures
contentment, and where work creates its own satisfactions: in short, a state
that approaches Jefferson's ideal of "life, liberty and the pursuit of
happiness." How do these desirable states measure up against some of the
aims schools often have? When I was running a high school in England, a
nearby school used as its motto the phrase, "learn and serve." Well yes,

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serving one's employers, one's family, indeed society at large is an aspect of
life, and for that matter can bring much satisfaction. But surely one learns
to do more than just serve? Is life not about personal realization as well as
service? The concept of human flourishing takes a much more spacious view
of human capacities. Now "learn and flourish," that's a whole different ball
game. Cognoscis vigisque is what my dictionary suggests. It makes a great
idea sound even better.

Aristotle identified eudaimonia or happiness as the highest human good.

Philosophers increaasingly accept that the notion of "human flourishing" is
a better translation of the original Greek. To flourish is to enjoy the
pleasures life can offer, in one's work, leisure, and family When we flourish,
we savor the satisfactions of personal fulfillment, of friendship, of making
good things happen: the analogy with the aim of slow food is very clear.
Doret de Ruyter suggests that the notion of flourishing "intimates that a
person is thriving, has a good life, or that life is good to her," while
happiness "has hedonistic overtones and often a too narrow focus on
particular feelings and states of a person. One can flourish in situations in
which the interest of someone else prevails over one's own."(7) And in any
case, our modern idea of happiness, as A. C. Grayling puts it, is somewhat
impoverished: "For Aristotle, happiness meant well-doing and well-being,
flourishing, satisfaction, and achievement. It was a very rich notion ... It's
the thing that happens while you're busy doing something else."(8) That
kind of happiness is not so much pursued as discovered, and so is
flourishing; it's less a state of mind, more a state of being, and we can
subsume all of Aristotle's concepts into the aim of human flourishing.

How can education promote human flourishing? It has an objective aspect,

which links it to those ethical goods, those aspects of knowledge and
understanding that we know from our cultural traditions are conducive to
flourishing; as James Tooley says, we learn about them through
"conversations between the generations of mankind." It also has a
subjective aspect, to do with the pleasures we experience from the
"personal and social roles that education can bring ... [to] the adult world of
family, life, work, politics, and personal and social responsibilities."(9) Doret
De Ruyter advances a theory that combines both aspects. The objective
goods conducive to someone flourishing might include "health and physical
pursuits, social relations, safety, intellectual development, creative
development, freedom, and material possessions ... flourishing presupposes
that people are able to live their life according to their own interpretation of
these goods." But flourishing is also "personal and diverse;" people, through
human flourishing, give meaning to these objective goods and in doing so
"give meaning or sense to their life." Indeed, "the notion of meaning is ... a
plausible interpretation of the requirement that a person acknowledges that
he or she flourishes."

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Generally, de Ruyter suggests that educators "should be confident and
modest: confident in their responsibility to educate children about the goods
that are important for their flourishing" and modest in indicating how
"people can pursue the goods and make them meaningful." This is not a
matter of transmitting knowledge; it requires "examples of diverse ways in
which these domains are interpreted by people as well as educators." Moral
education is a key element, and De Ruyter quotes Aristotle on the need for a
person to "deliberate finely about what is good and beneficial for himself,
not about some restricted area - such as what promotes health or strength -
but what promotes living well in general." Educators have a role in
cultivating the capacity to deliberate, to think and to reflect - to act as moral
agents. There is a need to encourage flexibility and openness so as to deal
with changing situations, and all these activities require a social
environment such that meaningful interpretations of the goods a student
needs can be developed. People flourish in different ways in particular
social contexts: a fashion model who believes she must starve herself in
order to flourish in her work would not be acting sensibly in most societies.
While an education along these lines will make it possible that students can
lead a flourishing life, "it does not guarantee their flourishing ... Parents and
teachers ... should do what they can to make it as likely as possible that
their children will flourish" and if their children are to flourish, they must
"allow their children to discover for themselves what will make their life as
flourishing."( 10)

This philosophical analysis of what human flourishing might imply for

education has implications for the school and its curriculum. The curriculum
equivalents of these philosophical proposals might be:

- Intellectual and creative development (humanities, performing and

creative arts, domestic arts, practical aspects of living, English, foreign
language, philosophy, science)

- Health and physical pursuits (physical education, field trips, expeditions)

- Flourishing as bringing meaning to life (links between school and its social
and work environment)

- Social relations (agreed codes of conduct, such as mutual politeness

between teachers and students, mutual respect for points of view, proper
behavior by players and spectators during games and sports)

- Modest conduct (Teachers use their authority with restraint)

- Conventional transmission of knowledge inadequate (learning proceeds by

example and discussion: no standardized tests)

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- Diverse ways of interpretation (variety of learning strategies required)

- Moral education (Is it caught or taught? Mainly caught from examples

given by teachers in relations with students, but can be taught through
discussion in humanities subjects. Also the need to promote personal
autonomy, and present moral dilemmas wherever possible)

- Deliberation (vital in moral education, for teachers in determining the

curriculum, and can be taught to students through project planning and
seminars)

- Flexibility (an aspect of deliberation; readiness to accept alternatives,

explore new possibilities)

- Openness (desirable to bring both students and parents in on how the

curriculum works and how the school is run)

- Social context (the atmosphere created by the school: not harsh and
joyless, but considerate, relaxed, and open-minded as agreed with students
and parents)

- Parents to help with flourishing (reasoned discussion, not incontestable

edicts)

- Parents to allow discovery (need to step back and give children room to
find themselves, rather than apply ex cathedra rules. Hence importance of
bringing parents on the inside of school decisions.)

Not everything on this list needs a place on the formal curriculum. Much of
it can be dealt with implicitly through the social and moral style of the
school itself, which derives in turn from the matters given prominence
through the school's aims and from the view of the world that the school
presents. Neil Postman argues that promoting students' engagement with a
school is not merely a matter of technical devices: if content is to be given
meaning, it needs to be seen as part of a narrative, because narratives "give
point to our labors, exalt our history, elucidate the present, and give
direction to our future." The purpose of a school's narrative "is to give
meaning to the world, not to describe it scientifically. The measure of a
narrative's 'truth' or 'falsity' is in its consequences: Does it provide people
with a sense of personal identity, a sense of a community life, a basis for
moral conduct, explanations of that which cannot be known?"(11)

How does human flourishing measure up against some of the aims schools
often have? When I was running a high school in England, a nearby school
had the motto, "learn and serve." Well yes, serving one's employers, one's
family, indeed society at large is an aspect of life, and for that matter can

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bring much satisfaction. But surely one learns to do more than just serve? Is
life not about personal realization as well as service? The concept of
flourishing takes a much more spacious view of human capacities. Now
"learn and flourish," that's a whole different ball game. Cognoscis vigisque
is what my dictionary suggests. It makes a great idea sound even better.

The five "common principles" guiding the Coalition of Essential Schools in

the US, an organization set up by Theodore Sizer over 20 years ago, come
out well in these terms. In summary, they are: personalized instruction;
small schools where teachers and students work in a climate of trust and
high expectations; multiple assessment based on authentic tasks;
democratic and equitable policies and practices; community partnerships.
(12) The list is perhaps not so far-reaching as those implicit in "flourishing,"
but one can see that a school subscribing to these principles could associate
them with a unifying narrative, and schools within the coalition are free to
make their own interpretations. Set alongside the Slow School and the aim
of Human Flourishing, much is common to both. Moreover, I suspect that
the intellectual "habits of mind" Sizer emphasizes - a concept advocated by
John Dewey - would emerge from the way the slow school fosters a sense of
inquiry and ways to make sense of observed patterns.

Students' minds develop in so many ways, and this is why the arts are so
important in education, as indeed they are in human flourishing. Schools
with intellectual excellence as a major aim might short-change the
performing arts and give very little scope for students to develop these
aspects of their character. An end-of-term play might be as far as anyone
could get to show their interest in the theater. Drama should be a vital
curriculum element: encouraging mime and self-expression is a valuable
way of allowing students to express themselves, understand their emotions,
and discover new forms of intellectual life. Students should be encouraged
to perform or create, and such events should be recognised in the school's
account of each student's achievements.

The great thing about human flourishing is that it rules in so many good
things, without ruling out activities that students might engage in but which
don't in themselves qualify as aims. "Preparation for the world of work" is a
soul-destroying aim on its own, but the slow school equips you to join the
world of work and to flourish in it - much more so than if that was all you
had to care about in school. And certainly the slow school curriculum
hinges on its ability to draw out students' individual gifts and do something
useful about the things they need help with. If one is looking for a model of
schooling likely to engender happiness as an adult state of mind, I can think
of no better place to begin.

REFERENCES

169
1. Holt, M. (2002), It's time to start the slow school movement, Phi Delta
Kappan, December.

2. (Schwab, J. (1978) The Practical: a language for curriculum, in Westbury,

I and Wilkof, N. (eds) Science, Curriculum, and Liberal Education. Chicago:
University of Chicago press.

3. Quoted in Auerbach, D. (1998) Carlo Petrini's digestive system,

Civilization, February.

4. Schefller, I. (1991) In Praise of the Cognitive Emotions. New York:

Routledge.

5. Pollan, M. (2007) Unhappy meals, New York Times, January 28.

6. Nestle, M. (2007) See ref. 5.

7. De Ruyter, D. (2004) Pottering in the garden: on human floursihing and

education, British Journal of Educational Studies, Vol. 52 No. 4

8. Grayling, A. C. (2005) Our idea of happiness is thin, Independent on

Sunday (UK), October 2, 2005.

9. Tooley, J. (2005) What is education for? The Times Educational

Supplement, January 28, 2005.

10. De Ruyter, op. cit.

11. Postman, N. (1995) The End of Education. New York: Knopf.

12. Sizer, T. (1984) Horace's Compromise: The dilemma of the American

High School. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

170
A Systems Approach to Improving Education
By Maurice Holt
In 1991, sitting in a Denver auditorium, I watched with growing disquiet a
presentation by the US Government of its latest education initiative: a
program called Education 2000, the result of a conference of
governors and business chiefs chaired by Bill Clinton and newly embraced
by President H. G. W. Bush. Speaker after speaker enthused about the
transformative power of the plan, which claimed that by using standardized
tests, states could meet specified targets for students' proficiency by the
year 2000. Then an authoritative face appeared on the screen, and I was
suddenly riveted: "It won't work. You can't do it that way. Tests and targets
won't improve anything." In a few crisp sentences, Dr W. Edwards Deming
had summarized my own disquiet and given me a task to address.

Next day, I rushed to the bookstore and spent the weekend reading Deming.
I wrote an article summarizing the implications of his ideas for education,
and when it appeared a few months later, General Motors invited me to
their next Deming seminar. Later, I attended meetings of the GM Deming
study group in Detroit and wrote a number of papers exploring the
connection between the concept of practical reasoning and Deming's ideas
on variation, system, and quality.

Eventually the year 2000 arrived, and none of the Education 2000 targets
had been met - not even remotely. Deming was vindicated, and much money
had been wasted. Back in England by now, I discovered that the 1997
Education White Paper rushed out by the new Labour government was a
rehash of the same sticks-and-carrots, command-and control dogma that
had informed Clinton's tenure as Education President. The same old
policies had crossed the pond, and were being rolled out with renewed
vigor: benchmarks, targets, performance-related pay for teachers, and
high-stakes national tests at specified ages and stages. The effects have
proved to be even more toxic in England than in the US, since an elaborate
testing program had already been put in place by previous right-wing
administrations, linked to a national curriculum. Government inspectors
now identify "failing schools" on dubious evidence, which are then "named
and shamed" in comparative tables ranking schools on performance in
crude high-stakes tests. The process of "driving up standards" has
succeeded only in driving fear into the entire system, demoralizing the
profesion and creating a grave shortage of teachers and principals.

Back in America, President George W. Bush responded to the failure of

America 2000 by specifying a second dose of the same medicine. The No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002 took the view that states could not be
trusted to improve their schools, and imposed standardized tests on all

171
states signing up to NCLB funding. Assessment factories now work flat-out
to meet the demand for tests, while schools struggle to make the results
look good. Teaching to the test is the order of the day, with special
emphasis on middle-ranking students: why waste resources on the less able
or the most able, when the just-below average can make all the difference to
the count?

But the shortcomings of the NCLB strategy are no longer in doubt, and in
the UK, Wales has dropped national testing and league tables; Scotland has
always pursued different policies. Only in England does the testing dogma
continue unabated despite public discontent with target-led programs and
research that shows how damaging are the results. Business leaders have
reported difficulties in recruiting graduates with the ability to express
themselves, argue a case and work in a team, while another report finds
that university entrants have such a poor grasp of mathematics and
language that first-year remedial courses are increasingly necessary to
overcome "test burn-out". A 2007 study has found that the intellectual
ability of 12-year-olds is two years behind that of similar children 30 years
ago. So much for "driving up standards".

This overview of the current scene is the necessary preliminary to a

fundamentally different approach. There are three main reasons why test-
based standards mean very little, and they all conform to Deming's analysis.
First, there is "no true value" for measuring anything, and certainly not an
attribute as complex as a student's educational understanding. If the tests
were taken on another day, the results would be different because of the
variation that affects all assessment of performance. Second, national high-
stakes tests are so expensive to devise and administer that they are
inevitably a matter of ticking boxes in multiple-choice tests - where, as a
rule, a wrong answer carries no penalty. The results will in some way
reflect the information that a student remembers, but "information is not
the same as knowledge." Attentive, well-nourished students will listen and
remember; and intelligent ones will make good guesses. Third, all that is
really going on here is that the student is giving back to the teacher "the
same marbles that the teacher gave out to the class." In a test-oriented
school, the encounter between teacher and student is aimed not at a
process of shared understanding but at an outcome of trivial importance
which is essentially a measure not of what the school has brought to the
student but what the student's home background and peer culture has
brought to the school. It is therefore no surprise that maps showing the
location of high-scoring schools simply show where the middle classes live.

When students, on the other hand, acquire in school a knowledge of the

culture they will inherit, and an understanding of what it is to collaborate,
to reflect, to defend a view, they come to know themselves and become
moral agents. And that is ultimately what human flourishing in a civilized

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society depends upon. A school that is not driven by the rhetoric of
standards will avoid making judgments and grading students; instead,
teachers will be concerned to foster understanding, and will use their own
informal devices to do so - ranging from questions to essays, from coaching
to discussing. Instead of standards, students will aim at graduation as
judged by student exhibitions of various kinds: from works of art to
artefacts, dossiers, studies, and oral presentations.

Such a school needs a broad curriculum that recognizes the importance of

the humanities and the contributions that all students can make, regardless
of background. It cannot be a selective school, for the difficulty of assessing
ability means that there is no defensible basis for selection. Selective
systems create social instability partly because they are unjust, but also
because unselected students reinforce a discontented subculture. Selection
is an expensive way of undermining the foundations of civil society. If we
are to take account of Deming's arguments concerning assessing and
grading, and have regard for the quality of life offered in a society, then
there is no alternative but to establish comprehensive schools that cover the
full range of ability. In general, such schools will serve a particular
community and the responsible authority will ensure that the quality of
education offered is independent of the schools location.

To residents of several European countries, these conclusions will be in no

way remarkable. Their education systems are designed to work like this.
But in Anglo-Saxon countries the idea lingers that inequality of provision is
a fact of life, and that providing grammar schools for smart students is vital
to competing in the global economy. But as Alison Wolf has shown, there is
no direct, simple connection between education standards and economic
growth. And, of course, the concept of economic growth demands scrutiny
in an age when sustainability is an issue.

Deming's ideas concerning systems and variation are particularly relevant

to the way learning is organized in the school. I note here that Deming's use
of the term "system" has no manipulative implications: to Deming, a system
is simply "a network of interdependent components that work together to
try to accomplish the aim of the system." The Church of Rome, with its
Vatican, cardinals, liturgy and cathedrals, constitutes a system. So does a
chain of supermarkets. A school that knows what it is doing is a system.
Note also that when we assess the performance of an individual
supermarket, it cannot be separated from that of the system as a whole.
And the performance of an individual student cannot be separated from that
of the school as a system.

For a school, the process is uniquely important and indeed defines its entire
function. To argue instead that the school is defined by some product or set
of outcomes will so distort the system that it becomes merely a behaviorist

173
operation for training students. Training is the acquisition of skills;
education is the development of mind. To attempt to work backwards from
defined information and skills, as standard-based education does, is a
travesty of what education is about.

The focus on process does not mean that there is no agreed subject matter
- that whatever students do can be deemed to be educative. Knowledge and
understanding are derived from inquiry into the established forms in which
they have come to be defined and through which students find themselves
as moral agents. Human flourishing depends upon an understanding of
what it is to be a person and a citizen, and requires initiation into accepted
forms of knowledge and reasoning. Such activities, however, need not be
organized as separate curriculum subjects, although they will be taught by
individuals who have themselves such specialist knowledge. It may well be
the case that by bringing cognate subjects into relation with each other,
these aims can best be pursued. For example, the concept of the transfer of
energy can be examined in physics, chemistry, and biology in a way that
unifies the concept while illustrating differences between these sciences. Or
the ideas and consequences of the industrial revolution in England can be
discussed with regard to their impact on history, geography, religion and
English literature. Organizing a school in this way brings immediate
benefit, simplifies scheduling, and uses teachers to great advantage. It also
offers the chance of greater continuity of theme and narrative as students
move through the school. The school has flow - it is a system tailored to
benefit everyone.

How can a process be devised that will deal with the variety inherent in a
system where students differ in their interests, their ways of learning, and
their capability? The ideal is to turn this variety into an advantage - a force
that can energize the process rather than an inconvenience that makes it
difficult to slot students into predetermined pathways. An example of how
this can be done comes from an unlikely source - the Toyota car production
system. Deming's work on process was refined by Taiichi Ohno, who
transformed the Toyota system in the 1950s by focusing on variety - on how
it could respond to customers' demands for specific colours, levels of trim,
additional features and so on. At this time, Toyota had only one expensive
hydraulic press for car body parts, while American factories had multiple
product lines and presses to cope with variation. The Toyota solution was to
shift responsibility for dealing with variety to the operators themselves.
Instead of rushing to repeat the same operation over and over in the
shortest time, the operator now determined the right action for each
individual car on the line. Managers no longer stayed in remote offices;
they were on the shop floor, studying what happened and working with
operators to refine both the process and the nature of the component.

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The Toyota assembly line is designed to reflect demand - if a defect is
noticed, however minor, the operator pulls a cord and the entire line stops
until it is fixed. In the same way, teachers have to design their activities to
reflect the demands of every individual student: it's about making
judgments, producing ideas, providing materials - keeping students and
groups of students engaged in the learning transaction, by writing,
discussing, recording, reading, or researching. The vital action is now
where it ought to be - not in some "management factory," cranking out
scripts and tests for teachers to follow and administer, but where the work
actually happens - in the classroom. Teachers lie at the heart of the process
and handle all the variety that comes their way. And the entire operation is
resourced so that necessary materials can be deployed using a range of
media. Certainly, both teachers and students will have access to computers,
chiefly for access to sources. There is no reason for each child to have their
own computer, nor for purchasing expensive interactive whiteboards: the
less technology that comes between teacher and student, the better. The
need is to enhance provision so that it is uniquely relevant to individual
students - and so money needs to go on providing space, a variety of
resources, and an agreeable learning environment. Carpet on the floor
beats whiteboards on the wall any day of the week.

There is still one issue left to discuss. It is not enough to devise a better
system than the standards-based model, and justify it by reasoned
argument. We have to counter conventional thinking, just as Toyota did. The
flaw in applying standards to schooling must be spelt out, and a better
metaphor must be offered. The flaw is evident from the fact that all
outcome-led systems are examples of "command-and-control." The
government wishes to judge schools by their output; so it must define
measures that control them. The result is a management factory inventing
and and grading standardized tests, and an expensive apparatus of testing,
reporting, inspection, and administration. At the end of the day the result is
disillusionment and demoralization.

The new metaphor must be rich enough in its implications to advance the
idea that education is about human flourishing - about schooling as a way of
nurturing the mind, of enriching experiences, of promoting social and moral
engagement. There is an implied analogy here with Dewey's concept of
growth, and also with nourishing the mind. Nourishing the body is equally
important, and serving junk food for school lunch is widely deprecated. It is
tempting to suggest that the standards-led school offers a junk experience
in the classroom - the curriculum experience of fast food. It follows that we
should embrace the curricular equivalent of slow food, on the idea of
shared pleasure in a social experience, using unadulterated ingredients to
construct an encounter that stimulates the mind as much as the palate.

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The slow school, then, is precisely the kind of process-based institution I
have described. The metaphor of "slow" has nothing to do with speed of
learning, no more than "cool jazz" has anything to do with temperature.
"Slow" refers to a certain way of viewing activities and making judgments; it
means savouring the pleasures of agreeable encounters, taking decisions
that are based not on prejudice or prescription but on what it is good to do.
The slow school has a future.

REFERENCES

Deming, W.E. (1993) The New Economics. Cambridge MA: M.I.T. Press.
Wolf, Alison (2002) Does Education Matter? London: Penguin.

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Education for Wisdom and Happiness. A
Proposal By Valentino Giacomin, Alice Project

Someone asked me:

If the Indian Government requested you to introduce a new educational

paradigm in governmental schools, what would you suggest?

1. Establishing a Model
I would advise the National Department of Education to check our work at the
Alice Project schools scientifically. This should encompass the method and
vision, as well as the academic and educational results. After understanding
the positive outcome of our educational approach both in theory and practice, I
would offer to cooperate with the concerned authorities and help them to
establish a system similar to the one we have developed.

2. Implementation - Long term proposal:

Establishing a Vocational Training School for Teachers

I would suggest starting a school for students who want to devote their life
to teaching. Next to the normal curriculum it would focus on vocational
training. This Vocational Training School for Teachers would offer future
primary school teachers a four year course starting after the Junior High
School (class VIII) finishing at class XII. Future junior and senior high
school teachers would continue the course after class XII finishing Degree
College with a degree in education.

It would be a job oriented school. Besides general knowledge and traditional

subjects (English, history, mathematics, science, biology, etc.) courses would be
taught in

a) Pedagogy
b) Special education for disadvantaged children
c) Educational psychology
d) Psychopathologies
e) Didactics (modern techniques to make teaching fun and interesting)
f) Philosophy: The four year course should be conceived to encourage
students to develop a different perspective of looking at the world.
The program should be adapted to the local context.
g) Comparative religions
h) Meditation techniques
i) Yoga

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Advantages of a school specialized in education

- The students will be highly motivated to study as the diploma will

qualify them to get good jobs either at governmental or private schools.
- The students can be trained according to the Alice Project principles
of the new educational paradigm. These are similar to those laid out in the
Bhutanese governments chart Educating for Gross National Happiness,
which also helps to build national pride.
- Only students with a correct attitude should be selected to study at
the Vocational Training School. Candidates should take a preliminary
attitudinal and personality test. This should be developed by local
psychologists in consultation with international specialists.
- From the Alice Project side, we could share the expertise of our
clinical psychologist in Varanasi or of an Italian psychotherapist, on
volunteer basis.
- International teachers, educationalists, scholars, and professors,
should be invited to help and offer their know-how to develop the
curriculum and implement it at this important school.
- In a second step the Vocational Training School for Teachers could be
developed into a National Center for Educational Research. In addition to
the normal curriculum it could then offer courses in counseling, short
psychotherapies based on transpersonal psychology, Ayurveda, Buddhist
psychology etc.

3. Implementation - Middle term proposal:

If the Indian Government asked for a middle term proposal to solve
the educational crisis of the present education system, what would
you suggest?

For a period of five years, the government could establish experimental classes
(or schools) on a primary school level. Under the strict control and supervision of
the authorities the methodology and vision of the Alice Project - or of similar
institutions with a successful academic and educational background - could be
used for this experiment.

Useful material could be generated from the accompanying research. It

could be tested with the students: folk and moral stories, new text books for
teaching English and the local or national language.

These pilot-research classes or schools could be a training field for the

students of the Vocational Training Schools for Teachers. They could start
their practical training under the supervision of trained teachers and

178
pedagogues.

In these schools the Alice Project didactic techniques for languages, math,
and history could be refined.

Dzog Chen meditation could also be tested.

International scholars and professors could offer to supervise the definition

of the final curriculum, the teachers training, and the annual analysis of the
educational and academic results, and suggest amendments.

Expected benefits

Significant differences are to be expected between the standard of the

experimental and the normal classes. The students should perform significantly
better than those of traditional schools in the state exams:

a) Better academic achievement

b) Better emotional intelligence
c) Better social intelligence
d) Better intra-psychic intelligence
e) Better moral behavior
See Synopsis of the Alice Project in the appendix.

4. Implementation - Short term proposal:

What would you suggest if the Indian Government asked for a short term
proposal?

Such a measure could be the establishment of a yearly, one month intensive

teachers training course before starting a new academic year.

The lessons should be both theoretical and practical:

Traditional subjects (English, mathematics, etc.) New methods

could be taught to the teachers in order to help their students to learn
subjects like English, Math, history, geography, etc. more efficiently. The
Alice Project students learn English faster than other students, and we use
the saved time for our educational program (meditation, vipassana, etc.).
Education (new paradigm teaching)The teachers should experience
the incredible benefits of introducing various types of meditation into their
classes. During the training they should practice what they will later offer
their students.

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5. Personal contribution of the Alice Project
What can the Alice Project offer to support these suggestions?

The Alice Project is ready to share its experience and know-how with
the teachers and the international scholars and trainers.
For an undetermined period of time the Alice Project volunteers can
help to implement a project to establish- long term objectives (Vocational
Training School for Teachers), - middle terms objectives (experimental
classes or schools), and - short term objectives (teachers training before
starting the new academic year).
We are happy to share all the didactic material we have produced and
are successfully using in our schools.
We can work together with local teachers, scholars and writers to
produce new material which would adapted to the specific local culture,
religion and traditions.
We are happy to encourage our students to visit the schools and
interact with local students, sharing experiences and helping junior
students to improve their academic performance.
We would happy to send some of our senior students, who training to
become teachers, to learn meditation techniques in monasteries or other
religious places in order to improve their emotional intelligence and intra-
psychic intelligence.
Reciprocally we would accept students from these experimental
venues for the same purpose.
We are ready to exchange teachers in order to encourage them to
experience different cultures and values at first hand.
We would be honored to invite local and national government officials
to the Alice Project School, Sarnath, UP.

Synopsis of the Alice Project

Theme covered
Cognitive reframing/ reconstruction

Overview
Using a series of stories, techniques, meditation and yoga we want to stimulate
the transpersonal intelligence of the students. This is to help them to cope with
the traumatic experience of the global warming, the crisis of society and the
present educational system, which affect their lives and their psyche. The
alarming increase of violence in our society and at schools - teasing, bulling, and
physical harassment - is the symptom of a serious deep social an psychological
disease that we have to recognize first, and then try to cure.

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The Alice Project View

By using metaphors to depict the stressful experiences of the students, we

incorporate the wisdom of major religions followed by our students (Buddhism,
Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam) and their ethics based on the power of
forgiveness. With scientific research (scientific account of perception) and
psychological techniques we realize a cognitive reframing of the traumatic
experiences. For example: the difference between a hero and a traitor depends on
the point of view. If we change the point of view, a hero can turn into a villain and
a villain into a hero. So the students are encouraged not look for a villain or a
hero, an enemy or friend outside of themselves. By watching your mind, you will
find the whole universe! This is our ecological paradigm.

Meeting National Standards

This special program was developed in accord with the Indian National scheme,
which promotes culture and values in education. The Scheme of Assistance to the
Agencies for Strengthening Culture and Values in Education started in 1988-
89. It has two aims:

a. Strengthening cultural and value education inputs in the school and non-
formal education system. b. Strengthening the in-service training of art, craft,
of music and dance teachers.

Teaching According to the Alice Project Methodology

Curriculum Rationale

We do not directly focus students attention on any particular incident or fact, but
we promote reflective processing with the final target of changing the
perspective, the point of view. [Reference: V. Giacomin, Il Maestro di Alice, Ed.
Publiprint, Trento, 1988, Follette,V., Ruzek,J, Abueg, F. Cognitive-behavioral
therapies for trauma. Guilford Press: 1988. Beck, A.T. (1976). Cognitive therapy
and emotional disorders New York: International University Press. Pynoos, R. &
Eth, S. (1985). Witnessing Violence: The child interview, Journal of the American
Academy of Child Psychiatry. 25, 306-319. ]

The students are encouraged develop their own point of view by reasoning,
discussion, practical experiences, contemplative meditation, drawing, songs,
theater, scientific experiments and religious myths. They are encouraged to shift

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 their minds from a old scientific western paradigm based on dualistic vision of the
reality to a new paradigm based on a holistic and unitary perception of
themselves and the world. This way of thinking is for instance common to
Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. (5) The consequence is a
new relationship with nature and society (ecology of mind, or deep ecology).

Assumption

The assumption of the Alice Project methodology is that suffering is caused by a

wrong perception of the reality. If we want to end suffering we have to consider
the chain of cognition:

Thought images - ideas emotions physical reaction language (speaking) -

motivation decision re-action result of action for oneself result of action for
others. From a wrong or inadequate thought, come wrong ideas, painful physical
reactions, harsh words, wrong motivation, wrong decisions, wrong reactions,
wrong actions, and negative results for oneself and others. According to Alice
Project intuition and experience and cognitive therapy, it seems that all kinds of
suffering are based on irrational or inadequate thoughts. We infer that also the
pain caused by anger, hate and desire of revenge in our students is not only the
direct result of an incident, but mainly the result of a wrong pattern of thinking.
The students memories are filled with poisonous thoughts. Whenever those
vicious thoughts arise, the cognitive chain becomes pathological. At the end, the
result is pathological: suffering.

Philosophical Remedy

Cognitive behavior therapy (Albert Ellis, Aaron T. Beck) recognizes distorted

thinking and learning and suggests substituting it with more realistic ideas. The
invalid, depressive thoughts are rejected and replaced by more accurate ones.
Alice Project approach develops this further: Valentino Giacomin, the founder of
the project, writes in the Synopsis of Alice Project (Alice Project, 2005,
Introduction): To heal the wounds of traumatized children we should not only
work on a specific incident and the resulting invalid thoughts, but we should help
the children to recognize the real root of all suffering. The traumatic experience
of the killing and the resulting suffering is only a secondary cause of suffering. In
other words, it is itself the result of a pre-existing negative cognitive chain of
thoughts. Victims and perpetrators are both results of a pathological cognitive
chain, deriving from an invalid thought, and an inaccurate way of thinking. The
Bible calls it original sin or the beginning of the valley of sorrow (6).

What is the mythological (symbolic) beginning of this hell on earth? We can find it
in the creation myths of almost all religions: dualistic thought (the tree of good
and bad in the Eden). The dualistic vision of the world is the cause of the original
sin or ignorance: perceiving the world as separate and independent from God

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 (according to Hinduism), from ourselves, perceiving ourselves as separate and
independent from others, while we are not. We need to shift from the old dualistic
paradigm (mechanical vision) to a new one, which states that we are
interdependent: we are one, the Whole, the Totality. If we do not realize this and
perceive ourselves within the limited boundary of our ego-mind, identifying
ourselves with the thought of an I, it would be as if the ocean identified itself
with a small wave. From this wrong vision comes what we call the existential
suffering. This is the suffering which precedes all other sufferings, included the
pains of our students and their parents.

1. Scientific approach

By using a scientific explanation we help the students to understand that their

perception of the world is usually inadequate. The two fundamental mistakes are:

a. We perceive what is not due to the inaccuracy of knowledge built

though our senses.

b. We perceive the phenomena as existing in a wrong place (out

there). (See Cittamatra Schools, Dzog Chen, Mahamudra teachings)

The Scientific Account of Perception

The objects reflect the light from the sun in all directions. Some of this light from
a particular, unique point on the object will fall all over the corneas of the eyes
and the combined cornea/lens system of the eyes will divert the light to two
points, one on each retina. The pattern of points of light on each retina forms an
image. The overall effect is to encode position data on a stream of photons and to
transfer this encoding onto a pattern on the retina. The patterns on the retina are
the only optical images found perception, prior to the retinas light is arranged as
a fog of photons going in all directions.

The resolved data from the retina is sent to the brain though the optic nerve in
the visual cortex where some areas have relatively more specialized functions
(modeling of the motion, adding color). The resulting single image that the
subjects report as their experience is called a percept. So, What we actually
see is not an external object, but its reflex, an image built by our brain.
What we perceive is only the final result of the brain activity. We could say that
the brain perceives itself! (Indirect Realism opposed to Direct Realism- John
Locke, E. Kant).

The original sin of perception ad the target of the course

If the students do not recognize the difference between percept and external

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phenomena, they will make the mistake of believing that their thoughts and
mental images are the material reality (nave realism). This is, of course, a wrong
thought. The wrong thought will be the origin of the invalid chain of cognition,
simply known as ignorance. How can we get rid of this original sin?

2. Long-term objectives of cognitive reframing

At the end of the course, the students should recognize the inadequacy of their
old way of thinking. By discovering that the external world is absolutely empty of
their mental images and thoughts they can develop new perspectives. In other
words, they cannot find the content of the mind (ideas, concepts, thoughts)
outside the mind itself, i.e. in the external world. Usually, we do not know this,
because we do neither know how the mind is working nor the mechanism of
projection. All our knowledge is based on this wrong perception of the world,
unknowing that the perceived world we see is merely a mental creation. During
the course, we will help the students to reframe their knowledge, after
demolishing the old wrong view that believes in the existence of an independent
world out there.

Finally the students are trained to watch themselves, their thoughts, emotions,
and see the world from a different perspective: from within.

3. Curriculum and general objectives

3.1 Helping the students to heal their destructive emotions developing an

Intrapersonal Intelligence (7) and reframing (cognitive restructuring) the
vision (Newton vision) of themselves and the world, through a dialectic process
of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, based on a new western scientific paradigm
(concept of Unity) and holistic vision of oriental religions. a) I think I am
this. (thesis position affirmation)b) I am not what I think I am. (antithesis
opposition negation)c) My identity is beyond thoughts. (synthesis
reconciliation reaffirmation transcendence)

3.2 To present the value of incorporating the parents and adults into the
students support system

4. Didactic program First year course

Theoretical, anthropological and philosophical approach, following the

traditional culture of Indian students (8) Specific objectives step-by-step
topics of the course.

[NOTE: DUE TO FORMATTING DIFFICULTIES IT WAS NOT POSSIBLE

TO INCLUDE THE DIDACTIC UNITS HERE. PLEASE REFER TO THE

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 ALICE PROJECT WEB SITE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
http://aliceproject.org/index.php ]

Final Notes

Note (1) What is the Alice Project? Final report of the Garrison Institute, after a
conference on Contemplative Meditation, New York, 5/6 April 2005:
Unlike the religious identification of parochial schools, Buddhist and Hindu
practices inform educational pedagogy in a variety of non-sectarian schools. For
example, the Alice Project in India is an educational research program that
addresses the widespread obstacle of students lack of attention and
concentration in the classroom. Twenty years ago, Co-directors Valentino
Giacomin and Luigina De Biasi worked with the Tibetan and Hindu philosophy of
mindfulness to develop a non-sectarian methodology based on the concept of
Unity - unity of the internal world (mind and its relation to body) and external
world (scholastics). The Alice Project recognizes that learning is not readily
attainable or sustainable if a childs mind is not present. Therefore, the project
integrates a special program curriculum, including extensive written materials,
into the government mandated academic curriculum. Within this special
program, attention training is understood as cultivating not only awareness of
mind and focused attention but emotional intelligence as well. Commenting on
his understanding of emotional intelligence, Giacomin recognizes that emotions
are the result of thoughts, and our target is to go back to the source of the
thoughts themselves and analyze their nature, not their content. Alice Project
teachers model the use of meditation, guided visualizations, self-inquiry,
discussion, breath and yoga practices, moral stories, and various mental and
physical exercises to help students develop knowledge, wisdom and deeper
concentration all of which help bridge the dualism between the inner world
and academic experience. Through the Alice Project, teachers and students
awaken to the nature of mind and perceptions. This awakening plays an essential
role in developing sustainable education and a culture of peace since a peaceful
mind with wisdom will naturally foster tolerance of diversity and inspire universal
responsibility for community as well as the environment. In Giacomins words,
Self-knowledge and awareness are a prerequisite for mental equilibrium and
happiness. Only from this basis can compassion and wisdom rise

Note (2) Recent school violence and its impact on children and adolescents has
prompted parents, teachers, social workers, counselors, administrators, and
policy makers to learn more about complicated grief and Post-Traumatic Stress
Syndrome (PTSD) in children and adolescents. It is now accepted that children
can, and do experience, all the reactions of PTSD following both violent and
nonviolent incidents (Pynoos & Nader, 1988; Dykman, McPhearson, & Ackerman,
et al., (1997). Although violence occupies the focus of concern today, it is
important that we do not minimize those exposed to traumatic events not of an
assaultive nature. Considerable research is available documenting the existence

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of PTSD following incidents such as industrial fires (March, Amaya-Jackson,
Costanzo, Terry, & The Hamlet Fire Consortium, 1993), road traffic accidents
(DiGallo, Barry, & Parry-Jones, 1997), environmental tragedies such as hurricanes
(Shaw, 1995), and chemically dependent adolescents (Deykin & Buka, 1997).
Schwarz and Kowalski (1991) discovered and later suggested that emotional
reactions during a disaster can link the event and formation of malignant
memories to PTSD. Children who are neither victims nor witnesses, but are
related to the victim as a family member, a peer, a friend going to the same
school, or who are living in the same community as the victim can, in fact, be
exposed to PTSD by this "relationship". Freud believed that trauma was not the
result of an incident itself but an interaction between an external event and an
individual's intra-psychic organizing tendencies (Piers, 1996). Schwarz &
Kowalski (1991), Shaw (1995), and others strongly suggest that "perceived"
relatedness and personal vulnerability could leave one exposed to PTSD. When
conducting a history, it is critical to consider that exposure as a surviving victim, a
witness, or as a non-witness related to a victim, demands that we conduct a
further assessment for PTSD because exposure alone can induce trauma.
(Quotation from : Intervention with Traumatized Children ,William Steele M.A.,
MSW Melvyn C. Raider, Ph.D., MSW, L.M.F.T. Skillman Center for Children
College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs Occasional Paper Series 2000
No. 1 August 2000)

Note (3) In these classes are 45 chakma students who came from Arunachal
Pradesh (North India). They are refugees, a persecuted religious minority from
Bangladesh. They are living and studying free of cost at the Alice Project
School. In this way, we want to avoid the risk of a division among the students
community (You are in the special program! You are following the special
class!). We want to make students and parent to understand that the project is
part of the Governmental curriculum and as so, it is implemented in all the junior
high schools lasses (from standard 6 to standard 10). We, also, want to convey to
the students a message of positive thinking about the whole project: You are
lucky since you are participating to this very exclusive and selective program
which is unique in Alice Project Schools. This is a program to develop the power
of mind and heart in order to become a real hero!

Note (4) Intrapersonal Intelligence (the knowledge of internal aspects of the self,
such as knowledge of feeling, the range of emotional response, thinking process,
self-reflection and sense of intuition about spiritual realities. This intelligence
allows us to be conscious of our consciousness; that is to step back from ourselves
and watch oursel;ves as an outside observer. It evolves our capacity to experience
wholeness and unity, to discern patterns of connection with a larger order of
things, to perceive higher state of consciousness.

Note (5) Encounter at the Edge of the New Paradigm A Dialogue with
E.F. Schumacher by Fritjof Capra After tea we moved to Schumacher's study to

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begin our discussion in earnest. I opened it by presenting the basic theme of my
new book [The Turning Point]. I began with the observation that our social
institutions are unable to solve the major problems of our time because they
adhere to the concepts of an outdated worldview, the mechanistic worldview of
seventeenth-century science. The natural sciences, as well as the humanities and
social sciences, have all modeled themselves after classical Newtonian physics,
and the limitations of the Newtonian worldview are now manifest in the multiple
aspects of global crisis. While the Newtonian model is still the dominant paradigm
in our academic institutions and in society at large, I continued, physicists have
gone far beyond it. I described the worldview I saw emerging from the new
physicsits emphasis on interconnectedness, relationship, dynamic patterns, and
continual change and transformationand I expressed my belief that the other
sciences would have to change their underlying philosophies accordingly in order
to be consistent with this new vision of reality. Such radical change, I maintained,
would also be the only way to really solve our urgent economic, social, and
environmental problems. (From Enlightenment Magazine, 11/1997)

Note (6) From the Genesis: To the woman he said: "I will intensify the pangs of
your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for
your husband, and he shall be your master." To the man he said: "Because you
listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat,
"Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of
your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of
the field. By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to
the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall
return."

Note (7) References books: Giacomin V. The Wise RabbitI and II, Ed. Alice
Project, 1997/1998. De Biasi L, Programma per Insegnanti, Ed. Onlus Progetto
Alice, 2001

Note (8) The thought produces ideas, images or mental pictures. Thoughts, ideas
and images will produce physical -conditions and external actions that correspond
to those thoughts, images and idea. Every idea is potentially an action. A
repetition of negative thoughts and ideas produces negative impact on the
physical body and disturbs that could wound the organic tissue (ulcer, other
diseases). The thought stimulates emotions and feeling. Thoughts are the creator
of physical and psychic states. They are the creator of inner and external acts,
because they can move the energy of feelings and organs. The association of
negative thoughts stimulates negative feelings and makes polluted the
consciousness. This is the cause of pathological states and weakness of
personality. On the contrary, a positive use of the thought and feeling produces a
purification of consciousness and makes the personality stronger. Not only the
thought mould the consciousness, but, also, the unconscious (Assagioli).

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Note (9) Out of the door technique. We use it before starting a workshop. At
the beginning, we ask all the participants to check their mind and see what is
there. What did you bring from your house, today? Is it something that you can
easily leave or is it something that is stuck to your mind? In this case, I propose
two solutions: you can write your problem and put the paper on a plate, or you
can share your problem with others. If the participants prefer to write about
their problems, you collect all the papers on a plate, then we make a small ritual.
Here are my problems with the problems of my classmates. Now we will burn
them! As you can see, the problems are transformed into fire. This symbolizes
that everything has the same nature. The nature of our thoughts, good or bad, is
like this fire: light, pure light. May all our thoughts become light for the world!

When all the papers are burnt, we bring the ashes out of the door. Now we bring
out of this room the last traces of our thoughts, so that we are completely free to
work here on peace and serenity!

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of

Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). (4th ed.). Washington, D.C. American Psychiatric
Association

Beck, A. T. (1976). Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. New York:
International University Press.

Eth, S. & Pynoos, R. (1985). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children.

Washington, D.C.: American Psychiatric Press, Inc.

Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York, Basic Books.

Johnson, K. (1993). School Crisis Management: A Hands-On Guide to Training

Crisis Response Teams. Alameda, CA: Hunter House, Inc.

Lyons, J. (1987). "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children and Adolescents: A

Review of the Literature." Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics , 8, 349-356.

Malchiodi, C. (1998). Understanding Children's Drawings. New York, Guilford

Publishing Company.

Mihaescu, G., & Baettig, D. (1996). "An Integrated Model of Posttraumatic Stress
Disorder." European Journal of Psychiatry, 10, 243-245

Peterson, S., & Straub, R. (1992). School Crisis Survival Guide. New York: The

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Center for Applied Research in Education

Piers, C. (1996). "A Return to the Source: Rereading Freud in the Midst of
Contemporary Trauma Theory." Psychotherapy, 33, 540-547

Pynoos, R. & Eth, S. (1986). "Witness to Violence: The Child Interview." Journal of
the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 25, 306-319

Pynoos, R., & Nader, K. (1988). "Psychological First Aid and Treatment Approach
to Children Exposed to Community Violence: Research Implications. " Journal of
Traumatic Stress, 1, 445-473

Riley, S. (1997). "Children's Art and Narratives: An Opportunity to Enhance

Therapy and a Supervisory Challenge." The Supervision Bulletin, 9, 2-3

Saigh, P. & Bremer, J.D. (Eds.) (1999). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. NY: Allyn &
Bacon

Terry, L. (I 985). "Children Traumatized in Small Groups." In S. Eth & R. Pynoos

(Eds.), Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Children (pp 45-70). Washington:
American Psychiatric Association

Udwin, 0. (1993). "Annotation: Children's Reactions to Traumatic Events." Journal

of Child Psychology & Psychiatry & Allied Disciplines, 34, 115-127

van der Kolk, B., McFarlane, A., & Weisaeth, L. (1996) (Eds.). Traumatic Stress:
The Effects Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. New York, The
Guilford Press

World Health Organization. (1992). The ICD-10 Classification of Mental and

Behavioral Disorders: Clinical Descriptions and Guidelines. Geneva

Yule, W. (1992)." Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Child Survivors of Shipping

Disasters: The Sinking of the "Jupiter". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 57,
200-205.

Books by Valentino Giacomin, Alice Project

1. Il Maestro di Alice, Valentino Giacomin Publiprint Ed. Trento, 1987.

(Italian)This is the first book written by the Author about Alice Project. It is
related to a ten years research in Italian Governmental Schools . There is a
report about the outcome of the research and a proposal for the teachers for a
new method of education based on a new scientific paradigm (holistic vision of
the world).

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2. Moral Stories, Valentino Giacomin, A.S.U.E. Society, November 1997.This is
the first book printed for Indian and foreigners Alice Project students. It is
practical manual for parents, students and educators who find the present
methods of education inadequate. The Author writes: I hope that in these pages
(the educators) may find a documentation to help their students start a journey
which will lead to uncovering of the Real Self. A journey which will help to link
with the past, modern sciences, psychology, anthropology, and which will bridge
the gap between East and West.

3. Wise Rabbit, Valentino Giacomin - F. Anthony Fernandez, A.S.U.E. Society

-1997.This is a fable for primary school children where all the basic concepts
related to Alice Project philosophy are present. The Guide is an animal, a Wise
Rabbit, who helps a young boy to find out his identity. The boy is a Prince by birth,
but he is living as a very poor peasant, since he does not know his Origin.

This book writes the Author wants to be a guide for the teachers and students
who want to know who they are. If we discover that we are lost, like the prince in
the story, we can do no more than to look for a compass to help us find our way.

There is an Italian and Spanish translation of this book, that is read in several
Italian classes as text book.

4. We, the Waves - Valentino Giacomin -Awakening Special Universal Education

Society, January 2001.

Writes Mark Singleton in the introduction: The following story condenses several
creation myths. Two legends in particular, the Indian myth of Purusha and the
Chinese myth of Phan-Khu. The story is an attempt to help the students at the
Alice Project in Sarnath (Varanasi) to cross the border of their small mind, in
order to discover the Ultimate Truth, Reality, the Self or Atman. IN the story this
is called the Infinite.

If we spend the whole life identified with the waves, we will end up like the
beggar who died before he could discover that the stone he spent his life sitting
on was actually a diamond! This version of the story is mainly for Indian students,
who believe in the law of karma and in the continuity of the stream of
consciousness after death (reincarnation).

5. I the Creator, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, March 2003., page. 104

The book analyzes the journey of an emotion: from its unconscious beginning till a
full explosion into the consciousness and the external world.

We react to our own creations and the world that we perceive is, actually, our own

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projection. This is the main topic of the book: As you are, so is the world
(Ramana Maharsi).

So, what is the conclusion of the book? We should go beyond everything is

appearing in our mind, recognizing it as minds play. Said the Master in the story:

You should recognize that thoughts arise from the clear nature of your mind and
naturally dissolve back into this clear nature, like waves into the vastness of the
ocean

6. Project Alice, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, July 2001, pagg.145.

This book explains the main concepts of Alice philosophy. We could summarize
them with the words of Lama Yeshe, a Tibetan Master (see the introduction):

If you have sharp intelligence it is not difficult to understand sunyata. You do not
have to learn tremendously complex philosophies or study volumes of texts under
many lamas. Of course, you can learn from teachers and books, but if you are
skilful, you can learn through a very simple method: do not believe what your
senses tell you.

It is not necessary to search far and wide from what stop you from seeing
sunyata. Simply realize that the way you perceive the sense world every day of
your life is completely wrong, that is the misconceived projection of your ego. The
moment you realize this, your deluded mind will disappear.

The book brings the students, step by step, to recognize how their mind is
working and projecting its content in the so called external reality.

7. Master Lin Valentino Giacomin - Stories of Alice Project, a School for

Universal Responsibility - A.S.U.E. Society, July 2001.This book follows Moral
Stories Vol. I and has the aim to help the teachers of Moral Science to inspire the
students to look for wisdom and live a moral a meaningful life, according to the
principles of dharma.

We read in the introduction:

Master Lin, the Wise Man, or Old Man of many Alice Project books, is an
enlightened Being who sees beyond ordinary reality and into the hearts and
minds of peole and animals. He helps the students to understand their own self-
deception and the motivation behind their actions. He helps them see that what
they think is real is only theprojection of their own mind, and that the world that
seems so solid is merely a mirage filtered through the screen of the I

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8. The Four Noble Truths, Valentino Giacomin -A.S.U.E. Society, August 2001.

This book tries to fill the gap between Hinduism and Buddhism, showing the
common philosophical background. This is a possible way to create harmony and
friendship among people in a multicultural and pluralistic society.

It is an attempt to to help the students and their parents to become familiar with
their cultural heritage and the universal meaning of symbols.

The Author quotes a statement from Tagores granddaughter:

You should not forget that Buddha had practiced Hindu meditation for a few
years as a preliminary step prior to Enlightenment. Finally, when He obtained the
highest of realizations, he thought that what he had understood was too difficult
to explain to the common people. Brahma, the King of Hindu Gods, read Buddhas
mind and humbly requested him to turn the wheel of dharma and help people to
be free from the suffering of this world. And this is what He did, starting at
Sarnath, where He delivered his first sermon to a group of parivrajikas or
panchavaggiya or Brahmins!

9. Moral Stories, Valentino Giacomin -A.S.U.E. Society, November 2001.

The book is a precious didactic instrument for Moral Sciences Teachers. The first
part, analyses the symbolic meaning of a story written by Brothers Grimm: Here
is a boy who does not care at all about property and the value of what he has. He
is always happy. He can find the positive aspect in all situations and he is ready to
accept the outcome of his actions (karma).

Then the books proposes two famous Indian stories: King Mahabali and Milking
the Ocean. What is their esoteric meaning? How to help the students to read
behind the exoteric meaning? The book offers an key of an interesting key of
interpretation.

Other stories have the following themes: Projection; ignorance/wisdom; love,

compassion and forgiveness; impermanence; emotions

10. Like a dream, Valentino Giacomin -Awakening Special Universal Education

Society, March 2002

This book wants to prove the rationality of what the western scholars called
Idealistic pantheism. As we can read in the introduction, the book argues against
Robert Hume, who wrote in his book The Thirteen Principal Upanishads:
Idealistic pantheism fails to explain why we all dream the same dream why the
detail of the sensible world is shared by everyone present. It cannot explain why

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we should start to dream the world at all, nor why there should be a we to dream.
The belief that reality is illusion is perhaps the greatest illusion of all. It leads to
indifference, inaction, insensitivity, world-blindness, death in life. Indeed in the
Upanishads all these are praised as the highest wisdom.

The book , using stories and cartoons, brings the readers to understand that
everything come from the mind and the mind is the creator of heaven and hell,
as well. The final target is not indifference, as the western writer believes, but
the opposite: compassion, love, cooperation, mental and social peace.

11. Welcome the strangers, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, May 2002

Following Indian non dualistic philosophical schools, this book aims to make the
students to understand the concept of Unity and interdependence. Who is the
stranger? The thesis of the book is simple: we are strangers to ourselves when we
do not recognize our shadow, our sub-personalities, our negative mind. If we do
not recognize our mental defects, we cannot accept them, we cannot integrate
them. We read in the introduction:

Unacknowledged or acknowledged, the shadow wil cause problems if we dont

deal wit it the shadow powe can become destructive and make our mind
neurotic. Wise Rabbit (the protagonists of many of our stories for children and
adults) explains that we must become one, integrating the stranger we encounter.

Welcome the strangers means making peace, first, within ourselves, then with all
the Universe, since We are the Universe!

12. Beyond the Memory, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, May 2002.

This book was inspired by the famous Indian philosopher J. Krishnamurti, who
always stressed the role of memory (thoughts) in our suffering. The book tries to
explain, in an easy way, with drawings and stories, the concept that the way you
perceive is what you are. So, the book warns the students about the distortions
caused by our ideas, pre-concepts, imagination, when we perceive something. Do
we perceiving the reality as it is, or are we just perceive the creation of our
memory? So, in the title there is the answer: unless we go beyond our memory we
cannot have mental peace and mutual understanding with other people.

Ranjeet, at the end of the story, asks his Master:If we perceive only message in
disguise, what is to be found behind the mask?

Master Lin replies: Behind the mask, beyond memory, you will find Infinite Love,
Compassion and Wisdom (Sat-Chit-Ananda)

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Behind the mask we will find the Present Moment!

13. Let go of your bag! Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, March 2003

The Wise Man protagonist of the story teaches on how to transform our
negative thoughts into toys for children after Zen and Tibetan Masters. We read
in the preface written by Professor. Carlos Benito de la Fuente: This unique
educational experience was carried out in India. Only in a Country where
democratic values are entrenched into everyday life is it possible to find the
freedom and philosophical support for our educational project based on
spirituality. For this reason we would like to conclude this preface with reference
to Rajneesh and his view of Indias culture and traditions and specifically, his
claim that India represents the source of all religions The mind of logic, the
Aristotelian mind, has its origins in Greece, while all manifestations of mysticism
can be said to come from India. In fact, humanity has only known two prototypical
minds: one is the scientific Greek mind and the other is the mystical mind
originating in India

The book tries to prove that not only India is the Mother of all mysticisms as
Rajneesh said but, also, there is nothing un-scientific about it, since intuitive,
spiritual mind is beyond rational mind.

14. Conquer anger with love, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, 2003,
page 322

Few years ago, an American newspaper wrote: Every day, in America, eight
blacks, three whites, three gays, three Jews one Latino become hate victims
What about our country? How is the trend? Are we going towards a more peaceful
society or are we following the western example?

It seems that the responsible of the schools are quite concerned about the
increasing aggressive behavior of the young generations. The students are
showing new psychological diseases (depression, narcissism, attention disorders,
eating disorders). What to do? First, we should recognize the causes. What is
anger? Where does it come from? How to deal with it? Repression or expression?
Neither repression nor expression is the answer of an Indian Master, Rajneesh.
The solution lies in state of mind which transcends both. This state is called:
awareness. This is complete book, divided into four parts: an exhaustive
introduction to Alice Project: the story on the shadow of our anger - the conflict
mind and its integration and appendix where there are: anger tests; conflict
meditation and problem-solving strategies; popular and unpopular remedies and
quotations; psychotherapy and anger; anger advice from Holy Beings; samples of
stories on anger.

15. Once there was an island a fable for those who believe it is possible to

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think through the heart, Valentino Giacomin - A.S.U.E. Society, 2003, pages 93.

In the fable there is a conflict between the materialistic society that is based on
division, separation and spiritual society, whose values are unity, interdependence
and a holistic approach to Nature. The Hero of the fable, after his journey within
his inner self, discovers a lost treasure, then he decided to return to his normal
life to help other people to reach the same awareness.

16. Blind Chick a color illustrated fable to introduce the students to the
concepts of the subjectivity of perceptions; defense mechanism of projection;
death; spiritual journey; value of compassion; transformation; unity; difference
between map (mental images) and the territory (external reality)

17. Ice-heart A new fable to explain the concept of unity and same taste
(Divine Origin of all phenomena.)

18.My village, My University - Moral stories based on a small book by the

Indian Saint Aghoreswara.

19. The Lost Son A story to inspire Bhutanese students to preserve and be
proud of their culture and traditions.

20. The Stories of Ranjeet Text book for Junior High school students to learn
English and moral values.

21. Guide book for kindergarten teachers

22. When the animals were going to schools- Stories for primary school
children to teach them moral values.

23/24. The sound of the heart. The sound of the mind.

25. Analogic English Part I - Part II New method to teach English using the
power of visualization.

26. Math is Light New method to teach math in primary schools.

27. Mathematics is fun New method to teach math.

In other languages:

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28. Io e le mie emozioni Vol. I and II

29. Il Peso dei pensieri 30. Come disegnare

Addendum
Vocational School for Teachers Training in Bhutan
By Valentino Giacomin, Alice Project, Sarnath, India

The proposal Education for Wisdom and Happiness was written for a
establishing a new educational paradigm in India. In Bhutan the situation is
different, as the government intends to utilize the traditional values for
future generations and sees the necessity to integrate them with modern
development.

In India the situation seems more aggressive, especially as Christians and

Muslims are involved in the erosion of the core religious identity of the
more than 80.5% Hindu population. In Bhutan the academic curriculum can
easily integrate Buddhist psychology and philosophy. However, in areas
where there are many Hindus, an inter-religious language, can be used, as
we do in India.

A further advantage is that the religious tradition is alive and strong in

Bhutan. The Western (modern) virus hasnt yet reached the villages. In
India the villages have already given up their traditional way of life to follow
the Western model, creating a real challenge for our educational proposal.

Bhutan has a comprehensive educational program (short, middle and long

term), which is similar to that of the Alice Project. By giving the priority to
the happiness of people it is both extraordinary and unique. It aims at
integrating the happiness of body and mind harmoniously. We understand it
as a dharma-happiness that is difficult for a Western mind to comprehend.
So the Alice Project has nothing to teach or add to the wisdom in
governmental programs; our contribution can be only related to the
implementation of the vision.

For the past 20 years, both in Italy and India, the Alice Project has been
focused on this. Our challenge was finding ways to utilize the treasures of
Indian wisdom that were removed from the governmental curriculum of the
traditional schools when the decision was taken to run them according to
the Western paradigm. This is a challenge both about the method and the
principles.

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In Bhutan, fortunately, the scenario is different. Here the question is about
the method:

How to communicate dharma to the new generations exposed to the

western temptations and seduction?
How to convince the young generations that the materialistic path
leads to unhappiness and despair?
How to compromise between science and religion?
How to integrate meditation into the westernized scholastic
curriculum?
How to help the students taste the sweetness of dharma,
realizing the incredible positive effects on their mind and body?
How to make positive experiences involving the emotional,
interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence?
How to encourage the young generation to be proud of living in
Bhutan, a country considered as the last Shangri-la?
How to make the students aware that they do not need to beg
anything from other countries? Studying in foreign countries is
enriching, but will not necessarily contribute to their happiness or
develop their mind and intelligence. Are Westerners happy with their
culture and knowledge? If not, what can they teach to Bhutanese
children? Westerners have developed logical and verbal intelligence,
but often lack spiritual, religious, ecological, intuitive, social, and
intra-psychic intelligence.
How to convince the Bhutanese students that there is no reason to
feel an inferiority complex, but contrarily, they are extremely lucky to
live in a country with a difference?
How to make the students aware that they can become competitive
in the field of education? For that they should develop their
transpersonal consciousness, which will give their mind extraordinary
power.
How to make them realize that Bhutan could export moral values,
mental happiness, positive models of living and counseling as an
alternative to the glittering material world of goods?
To realize all this we need a special education that unites the
knowledge of the West with the wisdom of Bhutans traditions and
culture. The Alice Project methodology is based on this unity and it
finds its form in the academic curriculum.

Our proposal for the Indian government can easily be transferred to Bhutan.
Of course, the references books, stories, and philosophy must be adapted to
the Bhutanese culture. The emphasis should on Buddhist psychology, taught
with Buddhist terminology. To preserve the purity of Buddhas and
Padmasambhavas teachings we suggest to introduce of Buddhist
meditation techniques (against Western proposals that suggest using

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contemplative meditation or similar).

We believe that the Mahamudra and Dzog Chen teachings can transform the
students mind within a short period of time. The aim should be to

Integrate these teachings with the traditional subjects, as we are

doing in our schools.
Stimulate and motivate the students to REALIZE the teachings and to
have EXPERIENCES using positive competition.
Make the students understand that instead of becoming a doctor,
engineer, etc., they could also become meditation-specialists. The
Westerns long for mental peace. Bhutanese students could earn their
living and respect working for mental peace.

Our personal contribution

Finally, in the part about personal involvement, we offered to cooperate with

the Indian authorities to realize a paradigm shift.

This is valid also for Bhutan. We could share experiences, books, teachers,
students, know-how, etc. On a personal level, Luigina de Biasi and Valentino
Giacomin are willing to come to Bhutan for an undetermined period of time
to support and help implementing the innovative program either in a short,
middle or long term version.

We would particularly like to help and cooperate with local teachers and
scholars to write new books (as we have and are doing in India) based on
the unique and wonderful culture of Bhutan.

First Steps

It is important to start the teachers' training and the experimental

classes as soon as possible, as it takes several years to prepare a good
teacher. We suggest the immediate implementation of the new
methodology for national happiness, wisdom and pride.
Bhutan is a country that, without any fault from its side, is exposed to
the catastrophic effects of global warming. The present political
action worldwide shows how dangerous it is to delay constructive
measures against global warming. The same applies to education: We
need to act immediately. And, as Buddhism teaches, this would also be
a contribution to the environment as everything external is a
projection and reflection of our inner environment. So: Change your
mind to change the world.Global warming is not a product of the
yogis, meditators or monks, but the consequence of the Western
"scientific and educational paradigm". This paradigm that was

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 exported to India, Nepal, Ladakh and many other Asian countries that
have now lost vital parts of their traditions.
Bhutanese students should be taught to be proud also for this reason:
they belong to a country that hasnt contributed to the ecological
disaster that is killing Mother Earth. This pride could also be
exported, besides the values and the principles behind their ecological
innocence.
Send your students to the Western countries to teach the "secret of
happiness" and not only to learn the western knowledge, games,
music. They should be trained to speak at conferences and workshops
on Bhutans wisdom, pride and happiness. In other words, we suggest
to invert the tendency and to encourage Westerners to seek
psychological and spiritual help from Bhutan. The Bhutanese schools
should open their forests and classes to foreigners for courses on
meditation, relaxation, or even purification for people with drinking
and drug problems.
Teach to your students to perceive the environment and the status
quo of their country from a different perspective, as something that
they choose, after deep thinking and investigation, and was not
imposed from outside:

o we choose peace against conflicts;

o we choose simplicity against the complexity of western artificial style
of life;
o we choose moderation against excess;
o we choose renunciation and contentment against attachment and
desire;
o we choose sharing against selfishness;
o we choose our traditional folks songs and games against foreign ones
and aggressive, expensive sports;
o we choose cooperation against competition;
o we choose a clean environment against pollution;
o we choose happiness against depression, stress, tension, frustration
and suffering;
o we choose wisdom against a knowledge that does not give everlasting
joy;
o we choose to be unique rather then being slave of fashion and social
pressure;
o we choose to be ourselves against alienation from our culture
and traditions.

Final advice
START NOW!

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Henry Thoreaus Brooks & Ditches. Thoreau,
Emerson, and Alcott on the Heart of Education By
Kent Bicknell
Imagine the reaction if developers in your area took all of the natural
streams and brooks, drained and dredged each one, and created ditches
designed for a specific purpose that someone, somewhere, had decided
would be for "the greater good." In a journal entry for October 1850,
American philosopher, naturalist, and mystic, Henry David Thoreau
recorded this thought about schooling in America: What does education
often do? It makes a straight-cut ditch of a free, meandering brook. When I
shared this nugget with organizational development expert Peter Senge, he
wryly noted, "Well, that just about says it all, doesn't it?"

How did Thoreau safeguard the meandering spirits in his care? How were
his friends and neighbors approaching education, particularly Bronson
Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Peabody, and the members of Brook
Farm, the 19th-century intentional community frequented by the
Transcendentalists? Where did their ideas come from, and, more
pertinently, do these century-and-a-half-old approaches have anything to
offer schools today?

Education was of great interest to Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, Peabody, and

other Transcendentalists. They were energized by the classic dynamic of
how to best integrate the individual and society, of how to create the ideal
grounds for both to grow while simultaneously honoring both. Although
there was much that the group did not agree on, at the heart of their
approach lay two key principles: (1) a deep respect for one's self and the
other; and (2) the adoption of core human values that led to efforts to build
communities and/or shape society with those values as guideposts. To
embrace these two required a perspective shift best achieved through
stepping outside of one's ordinary "self." As Emerson noted late in his life,
the entire era was a time when "the mind became aware of itself."4 From
Emerson's perspective, this was a necessity for a young republic built on
the premise that the people could govern themselves, for to govern oneself
one first had to know one's self.

In 1834, Bronson Alcott opened an experimental school designed to help

children know themselves. Alcott's Temple School was housed in the
Masonic Temple on Tremont Street in downtown Boston. At the outset, the
school was a radical departure from the typical New England educational
experience. Like his fellow Transcendentalists, Alcott believed in the innate
4
Ralph Waldo Emerson in "Historic Notes of Life and Letters in New England" his
hundredth lecture before the Concord Lyceum, in 1880. From The Transcendentalists: the
Classic Anthology, Perry Miller, Editor (1950, renewed 1978, MJF Books, New York), p. 494.

200
goodness of the child. He was fond of quoting Romantic poet William
Wordsworth's conviction that since we come into this world "trailing clouds
of glory" it is only natural that "heaven lies about us in our infancy."5 Alcott's
method of helping students recognize their own "goodness" relied on gentle
guidance in aesthetically pleasant surroundings and a praxis built on
conversations: questions and answers on a variety of topics (some of which
later were viewed as too adult for mid-19th-century children). Parley's
Magazine, a popular children's magazine of the day, offered young readers
and their parents a snapshot of the Temple School with its carpeted floors,
decorated walls, and comfortable chairs and sofas a welcome contrast to
the typically austere school of its day. "But what renders the school quite
different," the magazine editor writes, "is that the pupils are taught to think
and reason; and to talk about their thinking and feeling and reasoning.
There are some little boys and girls there, scarcely six years old, who know
how to think and reason about things as well as most men and women." Not
surprisingly, the editor also notes that most of the boys and girls "appear
very happy."6

Not only were Alcott's students taught to "think and reason" but they were
taught to talk about their own mental and emotional processes. This is
exactly the kind of self-reflective process that led Emerson to describe the
era as one of self-awareness.

Caught up in the success of an educational environment that allowed

children free rein to discuss a variety of topics, Alcott reasoned that the
general public would embrace his approach. He asked his assistant (and
classroom recorder) Elizabeth Peabody to prepare transcripts of the daily
conversations for publication, but she warned against it, suggesting that
Boston was not that enlightened yet. Alcott forged ahead. When the public
opened Alcott's Conversations on the Gospels and discovered comments
such as young Josiah Quincy's that children are born owing to people's
"naughtiness put together to make a body for the child..." roars of outrage
came from pulpit and press. Under societal pressure, parents removed their
children, and when Alcott admitted a black child, most of those who had
remained withdrew. Peabody was right. Boston, the Athens of America, was
not ready to support a progressive educational venture, so Alcott closed the
school. Thirty years later, after he had completed a successful stint as the
superintendent of schools in Concord, Massachusetts, Alcott felt some
vindication for his early vision when his star pupil from long ago, Josiah
Quincy, remarked that the Temple School had been "the best thing
attempted in modern times for a properly human culture."

5
William Wordsworth, "Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early
Childhood" (1807).
6
An excerpt from the much longer, "About Mr. Alcott's School," Parley's Magazine,
November 1839 issue (Part XXVIII), pp. 131132 (from the collection of the author).

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Without the benefit of the Harvard education acquired by his friends
Emerson and Thoreau, Bronson Alcott did much to create himself. After a
brief stint in a clock factory and an aborted effort to gain entrance to Yale,
he prepared for his career as an educator by taking to the road as a Yankee
peddler, making several trips up and down the coast. As a northerner in the
Deep South, Alcott was surprised when genteel homeowners opened their
sitting rooms and libraries to him. He was an avid reader, hungry for
knowledge. In his travels, he also connected with Quakers, whose simple
message of inner light every individual has a natural right to have a
personal relationship with the Divine resonated deeply.

It struck Alcott that children are born with that same inner light, not
steeped in the "total depravity" preached by Calvinists. Alcott observed that
children are playful by nature, having within themselves what they need to
learn and grow, and are not empty vessels into which knowledge must be
poured. If the child already has it within, the job of instructors is to
facilitate the unfolding. As Alcott's good friend and fellow educator William
Russell stated, a truly human education should be based on the "great"
principle that "every infant is already in possession of the faculties and
apparatus required for his instruction." Since the child "uses these to a
great extent himself" (by law of his constitution) the role of the teacher is
"chiefly to facilitate this process of education, and to accompany the child in
his progress, rather than to drive or even to lead him."7

While Bronson Alcott was open to influences, and well versed in the
educational system developed by Johann Pestalozzi (17461827), he mostly
relied on his own study of human nature and how to nurture it. This is
apparent in a review of Pestalozzi's method that Alcott wrote for the 1829
Journal of American Education. After identifying who might have influenced
Pestalozzi, Alcott noted that the Swiss educator may have come to these
things on his own: "Whether he caught the ancient modes from the study of
these great men's principles, or invented them anew, is not of so much
moment as the truths by which his principles are governed." This is a
perfect synopsis of Alcott himself. As a teenager and young man, he worked
hard at self-improvement and read widely, gravitating toward material that
connected with what he already perceived. His varied menu of Plato,
Rousseau, the Bhagavad Gita, Coleridge, and John Bunyan's Pilgrim's
Progress did not so much open up new vistas as reinforce his growing
commitment to the divine goodness within each child. His meeting with
Ralph Waldo Emerson only strengthened this vision.

In the latter half of the 1830s, Ralph Waldo Emerson provided a call to arms
for the young American psyche. Nature, a small volume published in 1836,
was a passionate invitation to the country to develop its own identity rather
7
From William Russell's review of "Essays on the Philosophy of Instruction..." in the 1829
American Journal of Education, p. 161.

202
than rely on Europe. Emerson asked his readers, "Why should we not also
enjoy an original relationship with the universe? Have our own poetry? Why
should we grope among the dry bones of the past? The sun shines today
also.... There are new lands, new men, new thoughts. Let us demand our
own works and laws and worship."8

Emerson followed Nature with the "The American Scholar," the Phi Beta
Kappa address given at Harvard on August 31, 1837 and printed for
distribution soon after. The charge to develop individual genius continued:
"Meek young men grow up in libraries, believing it is their duty to accept
the views which Cicero, which Locke, which Bacon have given, forgetful
that Cicero, Locke, and Bacon were only young men in libraries when they
wrote these books." Before long, the Phi Beta Kappa address was hailed as
America's "Intellectual Declaration of Independence," inspiring many
around him, including the extraordinary Peabody sisters of Salem,
Massachusetts: Elizabeth, Mary, and Sophia.

Elizabeth Peabody, the eldest sister, was instrumental in a number of

Transcendental undertakings, active in many reforms, and spearheaded the
kindergarten movement in the United States. Middle sister Mary wed
Horace Mann, the great advocate for public education and the first
president of Antioch College. Sophia, the youngest, was an accomplished
artist who married Nathaniel Hawthorne. Both Elizabeth and Sophia had
been teaching assistants with Bronson Alcott at the Temple School, and
both were close to Ralph Waldo Emerson.

One month before Sophia Peabody met her future husband, she devoured
Emerson's Phi Beta Kappa address, and was filled with enthusiasm for the
writer and his message. On October 1, 1837, she sat amidst the gravestones
directly outside her home at 53 Charter Street in Salem and composed a
lengthy letter to her brother George in New Orleans. Emerson, she wrote,
keeps waking us up; he is our elder brother in spirit who, sitting in the
"Tower of Thought," sees the vision of the new dawn with his "far reaching
eye." We, the "sluggards," fold our hands and want more sleep, but Emerson
"the Watchman" says, "No! No! The morning cometh."

What Emerson saw from the heights of his Tower was that every individual
has a divine spark within and that it is every person's birthright to connect
with the internal divine, without the need for a broker of any type. In the
words of the most recent Emerson biographers, "Emerson's belief was that
a god slumbers within the breast of every mechanic, farmer, engineer, poet,
teacher every human being. The process of awakening occurs first in
thought as the Self becomes conscious of its own thinking and then seeks
expression by shaping its surroundings according to its own thoughts."9 As
Emerson noted in a journal entry for April 7, 1840, "In all my lectures I have
8
Ralph Waldo Emerson in the Introduction to Nature (1836).

203
taught one doctrine, namely the infinitude of the private man."10 By which
he also means women.

The core principles of the "infinitude" of every person and of the "mind
becoming aware of itself" were implicit in Sophia Peabody's description of
the time her sister spent with both Emerson and the Unitarian minister,
Frederick Hedge. Again to her brother George, she wrote, "Elizabeth has
replenished her horn at the fountain of his [Emerson's] overflowing Dawn
You know her own is never empty. She has found out what she has herself,
rather than received anything new, I suspect. Her faith in herself is
freshened. I believe she never had such a splendid time in her life as she did
last summer, first with Mr. Hedge & then with Mr. Emerson. One re-
illumined her heart & the other her Reason. Long live both for making her

204
so happy. She says she is going to lead an Emersonian life this winter..."11

Sophia captured the essence of Transcendental educational praxis:

Elizabeth "has found out what she has herself, rather than received
anything new." A worldview that presumes the innate worth of each
individual is built upon the foundation that everyone comes into this world
with inherent value. An educational system in harmony with this worldview
would honor every student, understanding that in each child there is

205
something of equal value to what lies in the teacher.12

Henry Thoreau was one who embraced the notion that a school should be a
community of learners. After a brief teaching experience at age 20, Thoreau
wrote to a mentor, "We should seek to be fellow students with the pupil, and

206
should learn of, as well as with him, if we would be most helpful to him."13
Thoreau realized at an early age that individuals had access to different
types of knowledge from sources other than ratiocination, which meant that
"book-learnd" instructors were not the sole keepers of the flame. As an
adolescent, Thoreau had had a number of mystical experiences that were of
"indescribable, infinite, all-absorbing, divine, heavenly pleasure, a sense of
elevation and expansion," that left him "daily intoxicated... aloof from the

207
society of men."14 As he was transported outside of his normal
consciousness, he sought help understanding the nature of these ecstatic
times, but it was not until he discovered the sacred texts of the Asian

208
Wisdom tradition that he fully grasped what had happened.15 Thoreau
understood, as Emerson had emphasized, that revelation was not a closed
door, but open to all, including children. Access to this inner knowledge
could be gained through meditative practices such as those outlined in the
Bhagavad Gita, a favorite book of Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott. The
wisdom gained from this perspective put flesh on the spirits of the
Wordsworthian beings that came into this world "trailing clouds of glory."

It is not that Thoreau, Emerson, and Alcott were teaching children how to
access divine wisdom, but that they operated on the principle that each
child had a noble center that unfolded best through encouragement and
gentle guidance rather than through reconstruction. They recognized that
each child was a meandering brook, sacred and free by nature, rather than
a raw resource to be converted to a straight-cut ditch for societal ends. The
Transcendental commitment to "the mind becoming aware of itself," to a
classroom where children are taught to "talk about their thinking and
feeling and reasoning," was a commitment to the core principle of honoring
the essential value of the other as well as of your self (as that which is of
value in you is also within me). The best example of this principle in action
was the school at Brook Farm, the intentional community founded by the
Transcendentalists.

In 1841, the Unitarian minister George Ripley resigned from his church
and, with his wife Sophia and a small circle of friends, bought a farm in
West Roxbury, Massachusetts, to create a model society built on the premise
of equality for all. This most interesting experiment lasted until 1847, and
attracted almost all of the brilliant minds of the day. Emerson, Thoreau,
Alcott, Elizabeth Peabody, Nathaniel Hawthorne, and Margaret Fuller: all
came to visit if they did not actually join. It was a lively environment for
music, drama, the arts, philosophy, politics, and the spirit, as well as
farming and industry, and was a sincere effort to bridge social and economic

209
gaps.16

From the beginning, there were a number of good educators associated

with Brook Farm, and the school they established on the land was
successful financially as well as pedagogically. British social reformer

210
Charles Lane17 left a vivid account of the school at Brook Farm in the
January 1842 edition of the Transcendentalist magazine, The Dial, in which
he argues that the school "appears to present greater mental freedom than
most other institutions." He describes the instruction as more "heart-
rendered" and "heart-stirring," and concludes, "Brook Farm is a much
improved model for the oft-praised schools of New England. It is time that
the imitative and book-learned systems of the latter should be superseded
or liberalized by some plan, better calculated to excite originality of
thought, and the native energies of the mind.

A recent biographer of Brook Farm's co-founder, Sophia Ripley, provides

more details on the experiential nature of the school. "The lessons in
astronomy under the clear winter sky, the plays and masquerades in the
woods, the Dante class in which Charles Dana and Mrs. Ripley and others
read Dante in the original without an instructor, the trips into Boston to
hear concerts of music by Beethoven, the singing of Mozart masses, the
boat trips on the Charles River make Brook Farm sound like a school to
dream about. For any child accustomed to the usual school of the 19th

211
century it must have been a wonderful experience."18

This is not a description of a straight-cut ditch, but of a school that honors

the individual qualities of all members even as it celebrates practical and
cultural achievements.

Thoreau's statement about ditches and brooks really does "just about say it
all." The next time you are in front of a class, working hard to find and
honor what is unique in each student, imagine the lineup of New England
luminaries who are in your corner. Here are the Peabody sisters, the
Ripleys, Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and, perhaps a little off by
himself, Henry David Thoreau, all nodding and smiling in approval. Follow
the course of that winding stream and you and your class may help create,
in the words of Josiah Quincy, "the best thing attempted in modern times for
a properly human culture."

Kent Bicknell is founding principal of Sant Bani School (1973), a K-12 school
in Sanbornton, New Hampshire. His interest in Transcendentalism and the
spiritual teachings of Asia and the East has led him to build a diverse
collection of writings that range from Thoreau's own copy of A Manual of
Buddhism to Elvis Presley's annotated copy of Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet.

Appendix
Three Types of Spiritual Experiences at Play at the Sant Bani School
(www.santbani.org)

I. Opening the Door Experiences: a variety of structured and/or

spontaneous events that help us to step outside our self and glimpse
beyond everyday horizons.

II. All-Feeling Experiences: those situations and/or moments that allow us

to expand and feel we are part of the universe around us (aka cosmic
consciousness).

III. Unitive Experiences: the mystical union of the soul with the Divine.

Opportunities for Opening the Door are relatively common and occur in
many shapes and forms. Instances of Cosmic Consciousness or the All-
Feeling usually come unannounced. While less frequent than the first,
many people have experienced these at one time or another. The true
Unitive Experience occurs through living a disciplined inner and outer life
for many years, and is much more rare. While boundaries can appear fluid,
the three types are distinct, valid, and positive. To create a spiritually

212
sympathetic environment the Sant Bani School recognizes the worth of all
three types of experience. Each offers to enrich our worldview. And each
has its counterpart in what is happening at Sant Bani on a daily basis.
Without asking that individual students, parents, or faculty ascribe to (or
even accept) any specific spiritual perspective, the school celebrates those
who have embraced the spiritual in a variety of ways, recognizing that they
have ennobled themselves, others, and the very universe around them.

Details of the Three Types

I. Opening the Door experiences are naturally the most frequent. These
consist of events that open our minds and enable us to see beyond the
everyday horizon beyond what we have previously considered to be
normal. For many this is the beginning of a deeper relationship to life
the path onward and upward. As Emily Dickinson wrote in a letter to a
friend in 1881, Tropics and/Dairies and/Fairies!/Thank the/Arabian
Nights/Emily.

At Sant Bani we continually present new vistas at the same time that we
honor what the individual students bring. Every day there are opportunities
for Opening the Door kinds of experiences through playful learning and
activities to stretch body and mind through co-curricular and enlightened
academic offerings. We begin each day with an all-school gathering called
Morning Session (Kindergarten, First, and Second grades have their own)
that ends with a time for quiet reflection. Students and faculty are
encouraged to enjoy being together and yet alone within themselves.
Community members then spread out into various buildings to engage in a
vigorous academic program combined with inclusive opportunities for
service, drama, the arts, music, and athletics. While we take advantage of
the surrounding woods and fields as occasional classrooms, of greater
significance is the steady presence of the in-flux panorama of the sky,
clouds, hills, and distant mountains of New Hampshire, the Granite State.

II. All-Feeling (Cosmic Consciousness). Opening the Door experiences

can be the forerunners of what sages have called Cosmic Consciousness or
the All-Feeling: a state that brings an expansive sense of connecting with
the Oneness of the universe. Cosmic Consciousness comes when we flow
out and merge with the natural setting around us. Sitting on top of a
mountain, standing at the oceans shore, staring at the Milky Way, it
sometimes happens that our self seems to expand and embrace all (thus
Herman Melvilles term, the All-Feeling). As the 19th century American
Transcendentalist and early feminist Margaret Fuller wrote about Niagara
Falls in 1844, But what I liked best was to sit on Table Rock, close to the
great fall. There all power of observing details, all separate consciousness,
was quite lost.

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Sant Bani cannot guarantee that every (or even any) student will have the
kind of experience that astronaut Edgar Mitchell had when he looked at the
earth from thousands of miles in space and was overwhelmed by a feeling
of connectedness, as if all of the planets and all of the people of all time
were attached by some invisible web. But we can ensure that the
conditions are right for all students to be able to be in times and spaces
where experiences of the All Feeling might occur. At some level a
mountaintop or quiet reflection among trees will have a profound effect,
even if not exactly that of Cosmic Consciousness. Whether we are conscious
of it or not, something is happening to our psyches as we trek back and
forth, up and down, the well-worn dirt paths from building to building, from
track to field.

III. Unitive. The third type of spiritual experience is the Unitive. Known as
Nirvana or Samadhi in the Eastern Wisdom traditions, it is the mystical
union of the soul with the Divine through direct connection. The Unitive
Experience is a transcending of the self (or ego) achieved by a cutting off
from the external and going within to have contact with what the great
English scholar and writer Aldous Huxley terms the Divine Ground. The
Sant Bani School was built on a strong spiritual foundation envisioned by
someone who was well-versed in the Unitive Experience. Master Kirpal
Singh, the great Indian Teacher who was President of the World Fellowship
of Religions, was our founder. It should be noted that we do not attempt to
teach students how to achieve a Unitive Experience, as faculty members
are not qualified to do this. While we might teach exercises for stilling the
mind, we see that as qualitatively different from instructions intended to
take the soul on an inner journey. It is our role to reinforce that Unitive
states have been available throughout history and may still be experienced
today. The mystical union is real, accessible, and highly beneficial for the
world in general. It is enough that the school maintains an environment that
acknowledges and even honors the reality of the Unitive Experience
through regular recognition of experiences of the Divine Ground and the
Eternal Self in a multitude of ways.

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Educating for Happiness: Some practical
Questions and Possible Answers By Ross
McDonald
University of Auckland Business School, Auckland, New Zealand.

Abstract.

As Bhutan moves to further develop policies to enhance Gross National

Happiness increasing attention is being devoted to how education might
contribute to this important goal. The following paper outlines one possible
approach to educating for happiness that is based on a future-oriented
pedagogy used at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. Developed
over many years of experimental teaching, it offers one possible way by
which a more integrated, resilient and happy alignment of positive values
and contributory action might be facilitated in the classroom.

What does educating for happiness imply?

The most fundamental starting point in addressing this question is to be

clear on the terms we are using. This means that we need to have a very
precise understanding of what happiness actually is and then following from
that, how we might begin to design and execute strategies for enhancing it.
To take happiness first, I believe our understanding of what happiness is are
often quite superficial and uni-dimensional. For many, and particularly for
those imbued in a western secular mindset, happiness refers only to a
personal emotional state and there are several problems that follow from
this inadequate definition.

Most important is the tendency to contain visions of happiness within the

individual person and through this to fail to appreciate the inherently inter-
connected nature of wellbeing. If happiness is seen as a personal attribute
only then we immediately de-emphasise the reality of its
interconnectedness. In truth happiness depends on inter-connection and
any individual experience of it is impacted by our relationships to the social
and non-social worlds around us. This is an understanding that is inherent
in most non-western understandings as for example, in Hindu and Buddhist
systems of thought where the best route to happiness is via positive
engagement with others and ideally, through active contribution to others
wellbeing. This for instance is the basic framework that expresses itself in
the bhakti and karma yoga traditions of the Hindu system and in the
doctrines of the bodhisattva tradition in Mahayana Buddhism. It is a

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framework that has been under-emphasised in the more individualistic
conceptions of the modernist west but is slowly re-entering that
consciousness, not least through the scientific findings that happiness as an
individual outcome is served hugely by the quality of our relationships.

Yet I think that this inter-connected view of happiness is still inadequately

understood and it needs to be made explicit if we are to educate for genuine
happiness. To educate for happiness then is never to educate the individual
to further their own happiness in isolation from others as this is, in reality
impossible. It brings a much richer potential to bear on our efforts because
in linking individual with collective happiness we can work towards systems
of educating that not only intensify potential happiness for those exposed to
such an education but simultaneously work to enable these individuals to
act considerately and harmoniously with others so that a general happiness
is also achieved in the process. We need then to be fully mindful that
happiness is not about individuals but about the quality of relationships
individuals have with others.

Yet this takes us only partially towards an adequate understanding of what

an education in happiness involves as we may recognise the interconnected
nature of the phenomenon but still miss the deeper dynamics of happiness
as it develops within and between us. To see happiness as a merely
emotional state that is somehow separable from other aspects of being is
singularly naive. Happiness exists as a complex attainment that depends
utterly on the cultivation of a wide range of integrated capacities. It is then,
as often imagined symbolically somewhat akin to a jewel that has many
aspects. These include in simple terms insightfulness, wisdom, compassion,
appreciation and the ability to love. It is then a multi-faceted state of being
that cannot be viewed simply as an emotion. Properly understood it is the
final flowering of a mature integration of head, heart, soul and will. This
implies that an education in happiness must accordingly be a multi-
dimensional undertaking that engages and seeks to integrate a wide range
of capacities. Happiness then is a holistic ideal that requires more than
anything else a holistic approach to the person and their development.

This brings us to the meaning of education and this too needs to be properly
understood if we are to build on solid foundations. Education properly
defined refers to a bringing out from within and is therefore premised on a
particular understanding of human nature and how our potential can be
best facilitated. This meaning involves an inherent optimism as to the
hidden potential of development and implicitly assumes that much that we
think of as the best of our being exists in nascent form within the human
soul. The role of education is to clear the way for the unfolding of human
potential and to imagine means to nurture its expansion and expression. In
many ways this humane idealism has been squandered by the
authoritarianism of most mass educational processes as they are currently

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applied in the world. Most national systems now assume that education
involves not a bringing forth of potential but a forcing in of largely uni-
dimensional abstractions from without. As this shift has gradually become
normalised the role of the teacher has moved from collaborative facilitation
to forced manipulation of the learner. The result has been a separation of
head and heart and a basic dehumanisation of education whereby learners
are silenced, standardised, and disrespected as collaborators in an active
process of fulfilling personal development.

Such education is typically arranged in response to fit with the efficiency

demands of scale and the larger the institution, the greater the degree of
depersonalisation. This is of course the typical process of bureaucratisation
and it points to a real problem in mass education where scale works directly
against the intimacy that really is a requirement for effective education in
its traditional sense. In sum them, educating for happiness is all about
creating spaces within which fuller and more harmonious states of seeing,
being and inter-relating can be cultivated.

What does educating for happiness require in broad terms?

This brings us back to the fundamental need to create collaborative spaces

within which a genuine flourishing can be encouraged. The most basic
practical requirement is for teachers, or more properly facilitators, to be
accomplished in their own development. In many ways an adequate
education for happiness involves seeing beyond the limitations of egotism
and the conflicts this inevitably engenders both within and beyond the self.
If the facilitator has not managed to overcome the basic corruptions of self-
absorption and self-centredness then a genuinely collaborative and open
process will not be possible. The egocentric educator is always prone to
defensiveness, conflict, closed-mindedness and subtle violence in their
relationships with others tendencies that lead directly to dehumanisation
and not the opposite which a proper education in happiness would facilitate.
In many ways then, effective processes begin with the effective
development of the facilitator. To nurture the unfolding of a full humanity is
a fragile and delicate art that requires gentleness, respect and an attitude
of genuine service to others. If the educator is not highly developed in their
own being they will not be capable of dealing flexibly, openly and
compassionately with those who wish to learn and the end result will be a
miserable one or all concerned.

If we assume that the teacher has managed a certain degree of personal

development then the key to successful application is I believe the balance
that is achieved between structure and openness. As implied above, much of

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education -and this includes education in values, places too much emphasis
on abstract content that is often of little use to students in meeting the real
problems of living daily life in their communities and natural environments.
I have spent much time in committees discussing ways to improve education
and typically the conversation veers quickly towards discussing what
content needs to be delivered. Thus, changes to curricula, new materials,
additional topics and subjects are introduced but seldom is the actual
process of delivery given much attention. Now it is certainly the case that
good source materials are inordinately important but often the emphasis on
the pre-eminence of these reflects a deep assumption that understanding
lives in dead pages and not in the living minds of learners. I personally have
a great deal of faith in the potential of young people (and indeed people of
all ages) to reach critical understandings through dialogue and through
bringing to the surface implicit but often little articulated understandings
and insights. Content then, in the sense of others opinions should be used
sparingly as a means to prompt thinking and not to conclusively close it
down which is all too often the case. This becomes a particular problem as
we move towards the higher ends of the educational process where head-
only learning tends to predominate and as a result, learners increasingly
encouraged to memorise and accept the opinions of external experts and
to deny the relevance of their own inner judgement and wisdom.

In designing experiences that can genuinely facilitate human potential it is

essential that the learners understandings be the primary materials that we
work with. In the course on values and ethics that I teach, students are
regularly discouraged from going to the library and are encouraged instead
to learn from each other and from those around them through open
respectful dialogue and constant enquiry. The aim is to allow the person to
develop their own resilient understanding of the world and their
relationship to it. In order to do this, their own values, assumptions, insights
and biases have to be brought to the surface, articulated and tested in a
humane and non-judgmental atmosphere. When such spaces are created
people display remarkable wisdom as heartfelt opinions are shared,
challenged and built into robust insights. More formal materials from
experts can then be used constructively to further validate these self-
generated understandings or to explore other nuances of the issues under
mutual consideration. Education for happiness should then be driven
overwhelmingly by the concerns of the learners themselves in spaces that
encourage deep reflection and open collaboration. When this works, and I
rarely experience situations where it does not, the results are inspiring and
deeply humbling for any committed educator.

To make this practical though, we need to engage on a human scale where

open sharing is possible. It is often argued that the optimal size for group
interaction is around seven people and while this may be true, it is largely
impractical in all but the most luxurious learning situations. When such a

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scale is possible there is the opportunity for real intimacy and the unique
personalities of all can be specifically and deeply addressed. For most
educators though this will not commonly be the case but the benefits of very
small group situations can be compensated for by some of the larger
synergies that a more diverse range of perspectives can bring into being. In
many ways then there is a trade off between breadth and depth of
engagement that can remain in balance in groups of up to forty people.
Beyond this scale real educational potential suffers and it may well do so at
significantly smaller sizes as we descend the age continuum.

How could an education for happiness be designed?

Assuming that the pre-requisites for open discussion are in place

particularly a small group and an accomplished and sensitive teacher, the
issue that becomes key in organising for an effective education is how to
arrange the process of interaction and collaboration. In the area of holistic
education there is a wide variety of opinion on how much the learning
experience should be designed and this will vary according to the age group
involved and the particulars of the group itself. In my experience there
needs to be a balance struck between structure and openness that allows
for flexibility yet involves some degree of constructive direction in the
learning process itself. When the need for direction is taken into account
along with the overall goal of facilitating a multi-dimensional flourishing in
which head, heart and will are brought into alignment the issue of structure
really involves working on several levels simultaneously. One arrangement
that I have found to be inordinately practical is to structure the learning
process into three broad episodes which are the following.

First of all, it is important to recognise that effective learning in any area

has to be purposeful and as such I explicitly frame our initial deliberations
around the question of what kind of society we wish to come into being in
the near future. To focus deliberations we usually settle on the year 2020 as
an anchor point although this can be shifted according to the age and
particular concerns of the group involved. 2020 is useful for our purposes
though because it represents a point in time that is tangibly connected to
the present (being only 11 years away) but distant enough to imagine
significant change. We open discussions to trying to define what this world
will look like in concrete and tangible terms. In the second phase we then
move to discussions of how we feel about the chances of this world coming
into being by that date and how our personal actions in the present are
contributing to or detracting from this possibility. The final part of the
process involves us looking at how we can practically develop personal
strategies in our own lives that will help make this better world become a
living reality. In framing the learning experience in this way learners are
made conscious of a progression that is both logically and emotionally

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meaningful. Learning is given an explicit purpose of defining and
contributing to a better and happier world and a strong sense of
empowerment and integrative purpose comes to permeate the process.

As this sequential engagement is followed, learners simultaneously bring to

the process an increasing integration of intellectual, emotional and
motivational potentials that ends in a more harmonious alignment of head,
heart and will. Although these capacities are involved in all stages, the
structure is designed to bring to the fore each in turn by emphasising a
particular mode of responsiveness. In the first stage where a better world is
defined, the head is pre-eminent as learners think through the elements that
make upon a better society and logically argue these to find consensual
common ground. This part of the experience typically also involves detailed
deliberations as to the synergystic roles of different social institutions and
the relationship these have to making or corrupting valuable ends. The
second structural phase involves bringing the heart to the fore as we
explore our fears and hopes for this world, how better and worse worlds will
feel and the personal reactions we have when recognising our own
inadequacies in contributing to making these dreams realities. The final
stage aims to bring the will to the fore as we explore practical ways in
which we can overcome our own inconsistencies in order to actively work
towards bringing this idealised world closer. The end result is an integration
of understanding, feeling and determination that releases astonishing
energy in the classroom. The structure then is designed to make learning
sensible and orderly, to facilitate a multi-dimensional development and
ultimately to release a wiser, more considerate and more resilient
personhood capable of sustaining personal and collective happiness.

Within this thematic structure however, the process is completely open. It is

the learners themselves who define what a better world looks like and why.
It is they who determine the extent to which their own actions might be
falling short of their own ideals and it is they who identify the practical
strategies that they might personally undertake to contribute to a happier
world. This is then structuring without violence and without the impositions
that undermine personal growth. It is facilitation with a light touch that
aims to provide purpose and direction but only to the extent that this
facilitates focussed and meaningful sharing and unfolding. There would be
other ways that basic frameworks could be conceptualised and I have
experimented with many, but I have found this future-oriented one to be
particularly powerful in practice.

How might an education for happiness be structured?

It is useful to remember that happiness is an outcome that can only be

approached through the co-development of other aspects of being and

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through their successful integration. With that in mind we can look at each
of the stages in learning that have been outlined.

1) Finding common ground in positive visions of the tangible future.

It is very helpful to provide an explicit focus that frames and focuses

attention and if a future point of reference can be established then it
grounds discussion and allows us to work with specific outcomes in mind. I
begin all courses that I teach with a variety of exercises through which
learners get the chance to talk in small groups and through this to
consciously articulate their often only vaguely formed thoughts and feelings
in settings that are comfortable and amenable to open sharing. These
groups are changed in terms of membership so that participants are asked
to form new groups with people they have not yet spoken with in order that
a wide sharing of perspective is facilitated but also so that they can get to
interact with as many of the group as possible. This is very important in
creating an atmosphere where people feel that they or on familiar and
friendly terms. The ideal size for these small discussion groups, which is
where a huge part of the actual learning occurs, is around four people. A
working group of this size brings a variety of perspectives into play, allows
all to feel included, and avoids the tendency in larger groups for some to
withdraw into merely passive roles.

I find it very constructive to set discussion topics that ask learners to reach
consensus and this requires that they share, compare, test and finally agree
on the basic issues under discussion. Each discussion in a new group then
follows on from the conclusions reached in prior discussions bringing flow
to the process and a real sense that the opinions being expressed are being
valued. We typically begin our classes in values and ethics by trying to
identify what type of world we want to live in in the year 2020. It is a useful
place to begin because there is no right answer to the question and so
learners have to draw out their own personal values in order to build
perspective. Given the open-ended nature of the task, we narrow it down
such that groups are asked to reach consensus on a list of five or six basic
descriptors of this better world. The groups work to identify these and to
find common ground and then they take these ideas into new groups where
the exercise is repeated. This can be done more than twice if the groups are
still searching for agreement but generally I find that two iterations are
sufficient for learners to clearly develop a set of ideals upon which they
fundamentally agree.

In doing this work for many years and in several different cultures and
countries I find the results are typically very similar. Young people look to
their future and want it to be secure, non-violent, sustainable, just and
inclusive (generally meaning that no-one is deprived of the basics required
for a good life education, food, human rights etc). These are highly

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consistent emergent ideals and as we collate the various responses we
typically find ourselves on common ground, ground that has been created
openly and actively by the learners themselves. A period of consolidating
and testing these ideals follows whereby larger group discussions refine any
overlaps into a robust and committed set of practical end-states which we
can all agree as a group we would like to see obtain. The validity of these
can be made more resilient still by looking at the opposite states of a
worse as opposed to better world. In the end, having discovered a shared
set of meaningful ideals students feel a genuine sense of commonality and
purpose which is of great value in all that follows.

The direction of learning from here can take many directions as it is

responsive to the unique of the group but several possibilities can be of
particular value. The first is to note the cohering justifications that are
inherent in the collective view of the good society. Ultimately students will
readily agree that these end states are valuable because they will allow for
a genuine and widespread happiness to obtain and so the link to a happier
society can be made almost immediately. The second is to engage a series of
discussions that show that in order to reach this more just, sustainable and
happy society, a widespread moral maturity will be required if others
interests be they future generations, other living creatures or the
excluded and exploited are to be truly included. Through such
explorations the connections between happiness, harmony and ethical
maturity can be quickly and efficiently established.

It is also very useful to combine some reflective writing to consolidate and

deepen learning in this stage of the process. Students can be asked to
explain why certain virtues need to be spread more widely in society if the
outcomes we desire are to obtain and also to explore in writing what social
or institutional changes would be helpful in achieving genuine progress. The
first option, focussing on individual characteristics is useful because it links
individual level factors such as generosity, wisdom, compassion,
appreciation and courage to social outcomes such as justice, sustainability,
non-violence and inclusion. The second option is equally useful in
broadening thinking on how different social forces (such as government,
media and education)are inter-linked and must be coordinated if positive
change to a happier world is to become a reality. In exploring individual
values I often ask learners to again discuss the vital individual
characteristics (or virtues) in small groups and to again reach consensus on
a basic list which almost invariably comes to cohere around greater
consideration, the ability to exercise self-control and having a more
educated and informed understanding of the inter-connections between
personal action and the outcomes experienced by others. In discussions of
social/institutional changes learners commonly come to agree that more
informative and less sensationalist media would be useful along with
improved education in values and more vigilant government control of

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material economy and its wastage. To get the most out of this learning it is
useful to have learners first work towards consensus in dialogue and then to
consolidate these understandings through some personal writing during
which they are asked to reflect and more deeply explain their thinking. The
end result of these deliberations is a much more complex and integrated
understanding of how a happier and more decent world can be brought into
being, why it is important and what needs to be accomplished socially and
personally if these ideals are to become a living reality.

This part of the learning for a happier world is primarily abstract and as
such engages the head more than other realms but not purely so. To identify
the lineaments of a better world requires delving into personal values and
as such into a complex of feelings. It also begins to have students think
purposefully as they envision a future point of time and open up to how we
might shift to get there. From the outset then we are working on multiple
levels of the head, the heart and the will. Yet, the initial stage is primarily
intellectual and deliberately so as this is generally a safer realm for learners
to begin their engagement and importantly it also allows for a rigorous
clarity to established which is employed as a constant orienting structure
for the rest of the experience. The second phase of learning then builds
upon this mental clarity as we move to a greater opening up of personal
dynamics and the deeper emotions these entail.

2) Exploring personal values, deep emotions and common barriers to

engaging our ideals.

Once a shared vision of a happier future has emerged and some basic
connections to personal virtues and social process have been clarified a
useful progression can be made by entering into a period of deeper
reflection on our own personal relationship to these ideals. There are once
again a variety of ways that a sensitive educator can proceed and the
particulars are always determined by the needs of the group as a unique
collection of people. I have found that a particularly valuable way to deepen
understanding is to allow learners to engage in one or both of two broad
themes aimed at developing a deeper insight and connectedness.

The first of these, and the more challenging, involves asking learners to look
openly at the degree to which their own daily lives reflect the ideals and
values that have been explored in the first stage of the learning process. Are
we personally acting in accordance with the ideals we espouse or is there a
considerable gap between how we act in the present and how we know we
should act if a happier future is to obtain? There are many ways of asking
this specific question and the sensitivities of the group really have to be at
the forefront of creating constructive engagement. One way of engaging
reflection that I have used with older learners is to have us consider those
who are excluded from many of the benefits of an advantaged society and to

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ask how compassionate, inclusive and generous we are in our everyday
relationships with these constituencies. Thus, how much time or money do
we give as individuals to help those who are disadvantaged or excluded?

I find that at this stage, some supportive materials are useful either to give
a more felt insight into the sufferings experienced by those who are in
poverty or hunger, or who are lonely, hurt or ill. I have shown videos, given
short readings of had talks given to learners to make these connections
emotional ones as genuinely compassionate engagement stems from a
fundamentally emotional sense of connection. If I ask how much time or
money learners are giving to charity, how much effort they put into
voluntarily helping others or about the practical support they provide to
those actively attempting to make positive change, we typically find that
most are falling well short of what we mutually recognise we could or
should be doing. Very few people actually give money to others in need, or
visit those they know are lonely or ill or share their time in communal
efforts for the good. The main purpose in bringing these inconsistencies to
the surface however, is not to prompt bad feeling but to take a clear look at
the facts of discrepancy and to delve into the personal barriers that prevent
us from acting more in alignment with what we recognise as necessary if a
happier world is to be created.

This phase of opening up can be an emotionally-charged one as learners are

brought face to face with some of their own shortcomings. If asked for
example to rate themselves on self-created scales (say from 1 to 7) that
specify the extent to which they are living out the virtues they previously
identified as essential to happiness, most find themselves acting in ways
that are less than ideal. As they reach this insight learners often experience
strong emotional responses embarrassment, awkwardness, frustration,
disappointment and so forth and these need to be channelled towards
empowering and not disempowering outcomes. Perhaps the best and most
sensitive way of doing this is to focus discussion on identifying the barriers
that we all experience when trying to put our abstract values into practice.
When learners reflect in this mode they usually come to recognise a
common set of shared blockages that include selfishness, a sense of futility
(I cant make a difference), a diffusion of responsibility (its up to someone
else), social comparison (no-one else is helping so why should I?), peer
pressure (its uncool) and diffuse intentions to improve personal contribution
at some indeterminate point in the future. These are all common and very
human constraints and to see them operating in ourselves clears the way to
consciously challenging them in our own daily lives. The over-arching
purpose of entering into such reflection is to gain insight into the
discrepancies that we all carry between our abstract ideals and the way we
actually live our daily lives. It can be an uncomfortable learning but handled
with sensitivity it is tremendously powerful pointing the way to overcoming
the conflict between head and heart and bringing our whole being - our

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thoughts, speech and actions into a more constructive and happy alignment.
The critical emphasis however must always be on understanding and not
condemning.

A companion mode of engagement is to have learners discuss and write on

how they feel when they do act with head and heart in harmony. I regularly
use reflective writings and exercises which ask learners to go into the world
with the positive intention of acting generously and compassionately. There
are many ways of doing this but one of the most effective is to ask learners
to do a number of good and generous acts that help others and to write
about the experience. Learners can be asked to perform two good deeds
and to write about how they felt both during and after executing the helpful
actions. They can be asked to reflect on and to discuss what such
contributory actions did for the quality of the relationship (e.g. strengthen
or weaken it) or how the others responded - all with an aim of sensitising
them to the positivity of acting in harmony with ones ideals and so coming
to realise more fully how contributory actions really do boost the happiness
of self and others. When young people engage with these exercises the
insights they gain are primarily emotional and this can be made more
explicit by asking them to rate the extent to which these actions impacted
felt well-being on a numerical scale of say 1-7. Whatever the specifics,
building all such experiences around the opportunity to share and develop
collective understandings is paramount and small group discussions and
open sharing should be employed throughout.

If time permits, ideally an education for happiness can employ both

processes of developing insight into the nature of personal inconsistencies
and into realising the felt benefits of acting well. Both involve bringing
emotional responses and realities to the surface and explicitly linking these
to the conceptual understandings of what is needed of us all if a happier
world is to be built. The result when managed well is a strong momentum
towards a greater harmonisation of head and heart and the beginnings of a
spontaneous search on the part of learners for ways in which a greater
alignment can be pursued in their own lives. The pressing question most
have at the end of this phase is how they might personally act in order to
actively contribute to bringing a happier world into being. This leads
directly to the third and final stage of learning which brings into play the
will and how it might be employed to help us overcome our own personal
inconsistencies so that we may enjoy a more positive and purposeful
involvement with the world around us.

3) Designing practical pathways for personally enhancing the happiness

of self and others

By the conclusion of the first two phases of this holistic process learners
typically emerge with robust understandings of what a better and happier

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world will look like, what it requires both at the individual and collective
levels and of the extent to which being in alignment with these ideals
induces happiness and being out of alignment detracts from it. These
powerful insights are enormously helpful in allowing learners to realise
their place in an inter-connected and value-based web of relationships. But
important as these insights are, the process at this stage is incomplete as
for many, it will not be apparent how they might best respond to this
enhanced clarity. The final stage of educating for happiness builds upon
what has gone before to facilitate resilient plans for consistent action that
will in practice bring head, heart and will into a fuller synthesis.

The completion of the first two stages of learning leaves students

remarkably engaged and highly motivated to identify practical ways by
which they might find a happier alignment in their daily lives. The
dynamism this brings to the final stage of learning is remarkable and the
energy released in the classroom is very positive indeed. There are again
many ways in which the final integration of forward-looking will might be
engaged depending on the level of the learner and the specific goals
involved. In my work with young people in their late teenage years, I have
found that an active focus on their future personal plans is highly effective.
Over the years we have come to focus on how their ideals might be put into
action around the development of creative value-based contributions in the
area of organisational development this being a direct reflection of the
interests of the majority of the groups I work with. The principles though
can be adapted to any situation.

As learners come to realise shared goals and recognise how their own
actions towards this can lead to greater happiness for self and others they
begin a spontaneous search for the most practical means by which their
engagement might be made effective. In exploring a range of possibilities I
have found that the United Nations Earth Charter to be a very valuable
document to employ in this search as it articulates clearly and compellingly
the framework within which we all have to act if we are to secure a decent,
just, sustainable and happy future. The Earth Charter is a well-known and
much respected document that outlines a blueprint for genuine progress
and lays down a set of principles for responsible action. It is divided into
several components but broadly conceived it speaks to the need for all to
engage wisdom, compassion, self-restraint and generosity in our personal
and professional lives in order that a collective, inter-related thriving can be
secured.

This point in an education for future happiness opens up opportunities for

wider collaboration within a group as they seek to define for themselves
how they can contribute to a happier world without causing injustice,
ecological harm or suffering for any larger constituency. The documents
guidelines are explicit and demanding stating that given current global

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trends, any actions that exacerbate resource depletion, pollution,
exploitation, division or ignorance are ethically unacceptable for an
improving world. Learners in my classes are given this document to study in
detail and to discuss as to its relevance to the better worlds they have
previously identified. All groups in my experience find that the Earth
Charter represents an eloquent and defensible (if challenging) summary of
all of the major conclusions they have previously agreed upon, Having
affirmed the legitimacy of the document we then try to identify real
practical courses of action that will contribute positively to the world
around us without violating any of the principles of the charter. Learners
are accordingly challenged to develop practical plans for innovations,
services, goods, institutional changes or community development that will
help facilitate their vision of a better world while staying within the confines
of the Earth Charter. This is a challenging but highly meaningful task and in
my experience, young people engage with it with real energy and focus.

Given the challenging nature of the task, we typically form slightly larger
groups than the four person ones that are used in most of the previous
discussions. This is largely due to the fact that by this time participants are
typically more comfortable working in larger groups, that they are more
motivated to share and discern useful answers and that there is genuine
value in bringing as much perspective to bear on the ideas as possible. To
avoid the possible domination of discussion by a small minority the educator
can employ a variety of techniques to balance input such as having an
object to be passed around which allows only the holder to speak or any
other of a large number of such facilitation rules. I have in the past
experimented with having small groups develop plans for practical action as
teams but these are far less meaningful that encouraging individuals to
think up practical pathways that will allow them to shape their own
intentional contributions to best fit the specifics of their own lives, values
and planned futures.

This final stage of the learning process is where collaboration comes most
to the fore as learners become truly inspired by each others ideas and the
synergies of sharing have their most tangible pay-off. In the many times we
have explored options for future conduct the creativity and commitment of
students has been striking and it is often the case that learners organise for
many hours of mutual sharing outside of the classroom as they exhibit a
desire to deeply explore the question and seem highly motivated to identify
pathways that will allow them to genuinely contribute to building a better
world. It is also at this point that a tangible happiness begins to pervade our
deliberations as a hopeful positivity of purpose comes to dominate the
proceedings. To witness this is wonderful thing for any educator as you can
see people literally blossoming before your eyes. I have no doubt at all that
this is a function of mutual collaboration and of a fuller realisation of ones

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integrated potential to think, speak, act and feel in value-grounded ways of
being.

The final results are a host of positive plans that are capable of genuinely
adding to a spreading happiness, Given the previous exercises and
discussions, learners approach their future plans with an inherently
reflective and broad-minded intention that spontaneously thinks in inter-
connected and broadly considerate ways. I have seen a wide variety of plans
put into action ranging from providing healthy lunchboxes of organic food
to busy office workers, to educating consumers on the sustainability of what
they consume, to monitoring systems for businesses social responsibility. to
obtaining and using recycled woods for furniture production. Again all of
these interventions are developed by the learners themselves in an
environment structured to maximise collaboration and positive creativity.
There is literally no end to what can be developed under such forms of
holistic engagement and the happiness generated in the process is tangible,
infectious and profoundly practical.

The end result is I believe, a greatly enhanced and highly resilient

development that empowers learners to think, feel and act in happiness
generating ways. It is a fulfilling and holistic process of collaborative
learning that consciously aims at building a happier world and it has a
considerable potential for succeeding in its intention.

How applicable would an approach like this be to Bhutan?

I believe that this approach to integrative education has much to offer

Bhutan at the present time. The Fifth King and the current Prime Minister
have shown a remarkable commitment to both generating Gross National
Happiness and to adapting education in the kingdom to facilitate this
outcome. The above model has been successfully used in a wide variety of
contexts including in shorter iterations with Vietnamese, Indian, Samoan,
Scottish, American and Maori learners. It is not bounded by cultural
constraints as the specific content is always developed by learners
themselves. The broader facilitative process is designed to build on
universal human concerns about the future and about personal and
collective improvement.

The overall design has been developed with a particular age-group in mind,
that being those in their late teenage years or early twenties. As such it
could be easily applied in late high school, in the countrys colleges or in
classes at the Royal University. Its broad applicability comes from its ability
to connect where the learner is now with a future vision of a better world
and how that might be brought into being. Given that Bhutan has a very
explicit future vision of cultivating greater happiness, this collaborative,
integrative approach could contribute in constructive and eminently

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practical ways. The resource demands are low and the outcomes high in
quality. These include enhanced value-consistency, greater self-awareness, a
more integrative understanding and an increasingly resilient sense of
contributory purpose all of which are fundamental to achieving both
personal and collective happiness.

The thematic approach can be easily adapted for any mature group where
the creative integration of personal values, social goals and practical
planning is deemed desirable thus, government officials and graduating
students returning from overseas study might clearly qualify. However for
younger students the approach would need some modification. It would be
unreasonable for example to expect younger children to be able to think of
the complexities of social arrangements or to contemplate their own
inconsistencies. These are considerations appropriate to more mature
learners but still, the articulation of personal ideals for a better world and
reflecting on the benefits of acting considerately could be applied at any
level of the educational system. At younger levels the extent of action could
be curtailed to look more at community or village contributions but as I
have not worked formally with these age cohorts I can only speculate on
what would work best. With late high school students, college level learners
or for those in government service however, the above approach to
extending happiness could easily be applied in its existing form.

In its current application learners are involved for fairly long periods and
total contact is in the realm of 30 hours . This allows for a very deep
engagement and a prolonged development of shared ideas. It is though,
possible to shorten the experience and to facilitate significant learning in
much shorter time frames. This inevitably involves some compromising of
its potential but I have run versions of this facilitated learning over
weekends and in short one-off sessions where the emphasis is on the first
and third part of the process (identifying valuable outcomes and pathways
to those). These have been very well received and the more professional,
focussed and mature the group, the shorter and more direct the process can
be.

Perhaps the greatest applicability for Bhutan though relates to the

alignment of this holistic, collaborative and reflective approach with basic
Buddhism principles. Both seek to facilitate a fuller flowering of our
potential through realising inter-connection and the importance of bringing
all aspects of being into a contributory alignment. The dynamics of both aim
to open learners up to deep realisations about the miseries of egotism and
conflict and to open the way to a happier flourishing. None of the specific
content of what a better world would look like, what values could contribute
to that, or which courses of action would be most fruitful are pre-
determined but all emerge from the group dynamics themself. It is therefore

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a responsive and flexible model that can find easy harmony across cultural
boundaries and particularly with Buddhist sensitivities.

In my many trips to Bhutan I have been party to numerous discussions in

which genuine concerns have been voiced about how the country might lose
its cultural bearings as so many others have done. As all nations open up to
the influences of foreign commerce, media and politics there arise real fears
that the young in particular may lose their grounding and be tempted into a
destructive materialist modernity that rejects traditional values. The only
antidote to this is a resilience rooted in humane insight and a common
sense of positive purpose. Education has a major responsibility in
developing this resilience, both formally and informally and its structuring
is of critical importance. There is a real need now not only in Bhutan but
worldwide to shift education in a direction that makes it a force for our
collective development through facilitating the emergence of a generation
of thoughtful, appreciative and purposeful citizens. The practices outlined in
this writing have proven themselves to be effective in facilitating these
outcomes and as part of an integrated and balanced educational effort in
Bhutan they might harbour considerable potential to contribute to a fertile
and resilient Gross National Happiness.

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The Ability to Attend to the Sensible and to
the Intelligible: A GNH Educational Marker
Requisite for an Ethical Engagement with the
Other By Shafik Nanji and Lindsey Arnold
Foreword

The development of a curriculum that is consonant with the philosophy of

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is of great interest in Bhutan. Those who
work on the development of such a curriculum might find it valuable to
know beforehand what qualities a person who is educated through such a
curriculum will come to possess. In other words, what are the markers of
an individual educated through a GNH curriculum? Knowing what these
markers are will assist not only in deriving more specific learning outcomes,
but also in evaluating both the curriculum itself and how successfully it is
being implemented within particular regional contexts.

GNH may be looked at as a philosophy that is predicated on ethics and, in

particular, on the ethical engagement with the other. In this paper, ethics is
divided somewhat arbitrarily into an environmental ethic, a personal
ethic, and a social ethic; concomitantly, the other can be categorized as
an environmental other, a personal other, and a social other. Each of
the four pillars of GNH, namely sustainable development, environmental
protection, cultural preservation, and good governance, is inherently ethical
and involves the ethical engagement with one or more categories of other;
each can be understood in terms of this division of ethics or categorization
of the other.

Consider, for instance, environmental protection as a pillar of GNH.

Environmental protection implicates the ethical engagement with the
environmental other, which includes animals, plants, bodies of water, the
atmosphere, the land, and the earth itself. The possibility that non-human
and even non-living entities are others in the field of ethical engagement
may appear strange. Indeed, the expansion of the field of ethics to include
what is now the sine qua non other, another human being who stands
outside the narrow interests of ones own self and demands to be engaged
ethically, is a rather late development in the history of Western philosophy,
occurring in the second half of the twentieth century (see the works of
Emmanuel Levinas, as cited in Chanter, 1995). The further expansion of the
field of the ethics to include non-human and even non-living others occurs
even later, as in The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a
More-Than-Human World, the groundbreaking work of the environmentalist
and philosopher, David Abram (1997). Abram argues very convincingly that
the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty can be used as a basis for

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understanding the ethical engagement with the environmental other, which
is demonstrated by the traditional ways of life of indigenous peoples around
the world. This insight provides us with a strong source of inspiration, as
we construe the other broadly as any being that requires an ethical
engagement.

Through the presentation and analysis of numerous examples in this paper,

we endeavor to support our thesis: attending to the sensible realm while
suspending intelligible preconceptions and goals opens up the possibility of
an ethical engagement with the other. This thesis is elaborated in the
Introduction below. Because the ethical engagement with the other
environmental other, personal other, or social otheris necessary for GNH,
the ability to attend to the sensible realm while suspending intelligible
preconceptions and goals must be a marker of an individual educated
through a GNH curriculum. Hence, by advancing the thesis, we are
simultaneously elaborating on what we believe is an essential GNH
educational marker.
Note that this paper is based on a multimedia presentation that was
originally given by us on October 26, 1997 at Holistic Learning: Breaking
New GroundAn International Conference. In writing this paper, we have
endeavored to preserve the original style of the presentation, which we feel
renders the material highly accessible. Because the paper is not
multimedia, we have reproduced images and written descriptions of film
scenes that were used as examples in the original presentation and included
them in Appendices.

Introduction

Every morning I begin my day with a cup of masala tea. If youve ever tried
masala tea youll know that it is a rich, creamy, sweet concoction of tea,
spices, sugar and canned milk. But this morning, as I was considering how
I was going to begin this presentation, I wasnt attending to my tea and
drank in too much, too soon, burning the roof of my mouth. The only
response I had to my tea, therefore, was ouch, this tea is too hot.

The point of this story is to begin to illustrate the way in which we attend to
the intelligible and to the sensible in our everyday experiences. Our
experience of the world is a mixture of attention to the sensible or sensory
impressions (visual, auditory, olfactory, tactile, gustatory and kinaesthetic
imprints) and of attention to the intelligible or conceptual interpretations
we make of these impressions. So where was my attention this morning
while I was drinking my tea? I might have attended to the smell of the
spices, the creaminess of the milk, or the rich color of the tea, but didnt.
However, the burning sensation in my throat forced me to attend to the
temperature and, in intelligible terms, I rendered the tea simply and
exclusively too hot to drink. In this way, the intelligible experience

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became foregrounded against the background of possible sensory
engagements.

Although the distinction between foreground and background, being a

learned act of perception, does not come ready-made in our experience, the
distinction between foreground and background is necessary for the act of
perception itself (Gleitman, 1986, 182). Consider, now, the classic image of
faces and vase (see Figure 1 in Appendix A). A similar image was first used
by the psychologist Edgar Rubin (1915) to illustrate the flux between
foreground and background. In any given moment, it is possible to attend
to the faces in the foreground, in which case the vase recedes into the
background, or it is possible to attend to the vase in the foreground, in
which case the faces recede into the background. This example illustrates
how, although our engagement with the experiential realm is a mixture of
sensible and intelligible, at any given moment of perception our attention
foregrounds one or the other. Frequently, however, it is not so easy to will a
reversal of foreground and background. Consider, secondly, the line
drawing (see Figure 2 in Appendix A). In gazing at this mixture of black
and white, most of us find it quite difficult to perceive, even with a lot of
concentration, the white areas as foreground and the black areas as
background. Here, our attention to the black lines dominates over our
attention to the white spaces. Similarly, when attending to the mixture of
the sensible and the intelligible in our everyday experience, it is often quite
difficult to perceive the sensible as foreground and the intelligible as
background. That is, in our learned perception, the intelligible often
dominates over the sensible.

As an example of how we learn to foreground the intelligible over the

sensible, consider my interest in bird watching. Whenever a bird comes
within my field of vision, the possibilities for my sensible engagement with
the bird become delimited by the labels I begin to attach to it. Immediately,
the label bird functions to foreground my intelligible understanding of the
organism against the possibilities of other sensible engagements with it.
This is not to say that the label bird precludes all further sensible
interaction. For instance, I might notice that the bird is yellow with black
patches on its head and wings, is relatively small, and is singing a particular
song. In the teleological process of noting and labeling particular details of
the sensible experience, an intelligible interpretation is being imposed on it.
In fact, the discourse of bird watching was employed as soon as certain
details were foregrounded over others, and through this discourse, the bird
can be identified as an American Goldfinch. An extreme emphasis on
intelligible engagement might occur when a bird watcher attends more to
the ticking off of bird names on a list, than to the uniqueness of each
encounter with a bird. In this case, the sensible engagementthe bird
watchers attention to the birds shape and colorbecomes subordinate to
the intelligible goal of ticking. It is not that such a bird watcher doesnt

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have a sensible experience, but that the sensible becomes rarefied for a
certain aesthetic. In this presentation, the sensible will be referred to as
rarefied in the context of a certain aesthetic that involves subordinating the
sensible to an intelligible goal.

As Shafik and I will attempt to show through various examples, the

subordination of the sensible to an intelligible goal often precludes an
ethical engagement with the other. Yet, if one makes an effort to suspend
preconceived intelligibles and continues to attend to the uniqueness of each
sensible encounter, a range of intelligible interpretations becomes possible,
increasing the likelihood of finding a way to ethically engage the other. To
illustrate how attending to the sensible facilitates ethical engagement with
the other, we will present several scenarios through film and literary
sources. Each example will focus on different aspects of the interconnected
categories of environmental ethic, personal ethic, and social ethic. Finally,
we will offer examples of how the sensible can be strategically
foregrounded in order to facilitate a potential social subversion of
investments in preconceived intelligibles. To begin, then, Shafik will discuss
possibilities for an environmental ethic and a personal ethic.

Environmental Ethic

We are familiar with the notion of other as applied to another human

subjectivity, and we may be familiar with the concept of other as applied to
animals, but the idea of applying the concept of other to non-animal
subjects probably appears strange. Yet, there are cultures whose
relationship with the environment is such that the various facets of the
environment become subjects in the field of interaction, become others who
demand an ethical engagement.

In his book, The Spell of the Sensuous (1997), the anthropologist David
Abram describes how some of his intelligible preconceptions were
challenged. On a visit to the interior of Bali in Indonesia, he had the
opportunity to sojourn at the home of a Balian (or Shaman). The Balians
home consisted of several one room structures. Every morning, Abram
watched a woman carry several bowls of rice on a tray toward the perimeter
of the compound, and he noticed that she returned with the tray empty. He
asked her what the rice was for and she responded that she was feeding
the household spirits (11). Abram could not understand what the referent
of the term spirit might be, so he decided to investigate. At various
locations around the perimeter of the compound, he found the bowls empty,
so his curiosity was piqued. The next day, immediately after watching the
woman finish her task, he returned to these locations. At first, he noticed
that the grains of rice were jiggling. Then, he noticed that the grains of rice
were moving out of the bowl and away from the area. On closer look, he
saw that the rice was being carried away by ants. His first thought was

234
what a waste, but then he had another thought: What if the ants were
the very household spirits to whom the offerings were being made? (12).

In his book, Abram goes on to explain that the leaving of rice for the ants at
various spots on the perimeter of the compound was the practice of an
environmental ethic. The ants were an other with whom the Balinese had to
coexist and, as part of their ongoing negotiation of this coexistence, the
bowls of rice maintained a boundary between the living spaces of the
Balinese and the living spaces of the ants. The practices of the Balinese
form a stark contrast to the practices of those cultures that have based their
economies on the use of pesticides. Whereas the use of pesticides denies
as a practice, if not as an ideologythe right to existence of the other, the
ants, the offering of bowls of rice affirms the ecological value of the other,
the ants. Therefore, the offering of bowls of rice becomes an ethical
engagement with the other. Although Abram comes to a different
intelligible interpretation of the purpose of the offering than does the
woman, by suspending his preconceived notions about household spirits
and continuing his attention to the sensible, he is able to recognize the
ethical and ecological value of the womans actions.

Though we cannot be sure what led the Balinese to begin the practice of
feeding the household spirits, one possible explanation is that prior to this
practice, they noticed, through their attention to the sensible, a presence
within the compound. They rendered this presence intelligible through the
label household spirit, and this label facilitated further attention to the
sensible, allowing them to determine that the presence was hungry.
Implicit in the label household spirit is the absence of judgment about the
desirability of the other and the recognition of the other as being ethically
equal to the Self. For this reason, the sensible presence of the other is not
engaged solely in relation to the intelligible needs and goals of the Self, but
is recognized as having its own needs and goals. In this situation, the
conflict between the Self and other over needs and goals was resolved
through negotiation. Establishing the practice of feeding the household
spirits is, therefore, an acknowledgment of the others need to eat, and
does not merely serve the goal of the Self to preserve its own reserves. In
contrast, those who attend to the sensible with a preconceived intelligible
goal cannot attend to the needs of the other. Such a Self-centered goal
might lead to the labeling of the presence as ants, pests, or even
problem. Thus, the presence is deemed undesirable and not worthy of
ongoing sensible engagement, and the intelligible logistics of the Self-
imposed solution becomes foregrounded.

A similar scenario occurs in the film Where the Green Ants Dream (1985),
which presents the activities of a mining company so focused on the
intelligible logistics of how to continue their mining operation that they are

235
unable to engage the other ethically. The film begins with the protests of
the Australian aborigines, who try to dissuade the mining company from
encroaching upon sacred land, the dreaming land of the green ants. The
mining companys attention to the intelligible logistics of mining forecloses
their ability to attend to the sensible of the landincluding the very
presence of antsand to the sensible of the aboriginal practice of
dreaming. Because they cannot attend to the sensible, the
representatives from the mining company cannot understand why the
aborigines are protesting and, therefore, demand an explanation. The
Tribal Elder tells them: If youre going to mine this land, youre going to
destroy the land of green ants, and green ants will come out and destroy the
whole universe-world. Later, he says: If you destroy the sacred land
dreaming land for green ants, if you destroy the people, the green ants will
never come back again. Thus, in an attempt to render intelligible the
significance of green ant dreaming, the Tribal Elder expresses not only
concern for the well-being of green ants, but also concern for people and for
the continued existence of the world. This explanation does not convince
the mining company that the land must be preserved, and so, as you will see
from selected scenes from the film, an entomologist is consulted for another
intelligible explanation. Eventually, the impasse between the mining
company and the aborigines is addressed in the Australian high court,
which places its own intelligible demands on the aboriginal people.

[At this point in the presentation three scenes from Where the
Green Ants Dream are viewed. See Appendix B for a
description.]

In the scene where the entomologist is consulted, the goal of the geologist,
acting on behalf of the mining company, is to discover an explanation for the
aborigines behavior so that a solution can be formulated to what the
mining company has deemed to be a problem. Similarly, the entomologist
has his own ends, as for example when he manipulates the magnetic fields
for the furtherance of his own research. Because the viewer does not have
such intelligible ends, she or he is in the unique position of being able to
interpret the intelligible scientific explanation as confirming that the stance
of the aborigines toward the environment is an ethical one. That is, the
viewer is in a position to understand that there are environmental issues
beyond the profit motives of the mining company. In particular, a viewer
might come to the conclusion that the aborigines practice of dreaming
and their consequent regard for the land has ethical and ecological value
because it protects the green ants and their living space, and because it
prevents the destruction of trees and wooden structures that occurs when
the ants are disturbed and forced to migrate. Despite the viewers
privileged position, she or he is not in a position to traverse into the living
sensible space of the practice of dreaming as it is experienced by the
aborigines.

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The courtroom scenes of the film depict the difficulty of rendering the
sensible space of dreaming intelligible to the court. The court demands
that dreaming be explained through the courts own language games, and
in order to satisfy this demand, the aborigines present their sacred object to
the court. The courts sensible engagement with the sacred object is
limited by its preconceived notions of what is to be noticed and how it is to
be noticed. As a ritual object severed from the plenitude of the
environmental sensible, the object is entered as exhibit A and is described
as a wooden object, carved with markings. The markings indecipherable.
The significance of the markings not plain to the court. Through this
description, the court renders intelligible the sacred object without any
access whatsoever to the aborigines sensible experience of the relationship
between the ritual, the land and the ants. The aborigines sensible
experience of the ritualized relationship between the sacred object and the
environment becomes subordinate to the courts intelligible endsthat is,
the sensible becomes rarefied. At a pivotal moment, when the so-called
mute takes the stand uninvited, the court is confronted by its investment
in the rarefied sensible. Because he is the sole survivor of the genocide of
his tribe, there is no way to render his speech intelligible, and so the
sensible remains foregrounded despite the courts investments. Later in
this presentation, Lindsey will discuss how this foregrounded sensible
effects a subversion. For now, it is important to note that the courts
intelligible investments preclude an ethical engagement with the sensible
space of dreaming and with the sensible presence of the mute, resulting
in the final dismissal of the aborigines claims.

Personal Ethic

In contrast to the example of the so-called mute in the film Where the
Green Ants Dream, most often, when we engage the other, the intelligible
is readily accessible, and so the sensible recedes into the background.
Nevertheless, a deliberate effort can be made to suspend preconceived
intelligible interpretations so as to attend to the sensible in a way that
allows an ethical engagement with the other. The film Awakenings (1990)
depicts how one doctor, Malcolm Sayer, is able to suspend the dominant
clinical discourse wherein certain clients are diagnosed as unresponsive.
Whereas Dr. Sayers colleagues perceive no need to engage these clients in
any way other than maintaining their physical existence, Dr. Sayers
attention to the sensible experiences of the clientshis attention to their
subtle responses to various visual, auditory, tactile stimulienables him to
recognize them as being personal ethical others. As a result of this
recognition, the caregivers under Dr. Sayers supervision increase the
human contact and sensory stimulation given to the clients. The following
scenes from the film illustrate the way in which Dr. Sayers own

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preconceived intelligible notions are transformed through his continued
attention to the sensible.

[At this point in the presentation two scenes from the movie
Awakenings are viewed. See Appendix C for a description.]

In the first scene, Dr. Sayers attention to the sensible enables him to
recognize that Lucy has a will, and he makes the intelligible interpretation
that she has risen from her wheelchair and begun to walk because she
desires a drink of water. His attention to the sensible also enables him to
recognize that Lucys movement is thwarted by certain obstacles, and he
engages her ethically by removing these obstacles. However, his
preconceived intelligible interpretation of Lucys motivation prevents him
from recognizing what is the final obstacle to her movement. By
suspending his preconceived notions, Dr. Sayer continues to attend to the
sensible and opens up the possibility for alternative intelligible
interpretations. In the second scene, Dr. Sayers insight into what enables
Lucys movements leads him to the alternative intelligible interpretation
that the final obstacle is a sensory one, namely the sudden ending of the
checkered pattern on the floor. The difficulty of coming to this alternative
interpretation indicates that Dr. Sayers initial intelligible interpretation of
Lucys motivation for movementhis assumption that her motivation was
desire for a drinklimited his attention to the sensible facets of Lucys own
experience. In particular, it limited his ability to recognize that Lucys will
to move derives not from a specific desire, but from the sensory stimulation
of black, white, black, white, black, white. Through this recognition, Dr.
Sayer is further able to engage Lucy ethically by painting a continuation of
the floors checkered pattern.

Ive used the examples of Awakenings and Where the Green Ants Dream
to explore how attending to the sensible assists in ethically engaging the
personal other and the environmental other. Lindsey will now continue the
presentation by discussing examples of the social ethic and the sensible as
subversion.

Social Ethic

In the examples we have explored so far we have focused on aspects that

illustrate the environmental and the personal ethic; however, you have
probably noticed the potential to discuss them in terms of a social ethic.
This interconnection between the forms of ethics illustrates the
arbitrariness of categorization for the purpose of discussion. To highlight
the ethical engagement with the social other, we will show you scenes from
the film Ridicule (1996) that present the difficulty that one social group,
the French aristocracy of the 1700s, has in engaging another social group,
the peasants, as an ethical other. As you will see, this difficulty stems from

238
their investments in the aesthetic of a particular language game that
foregrounds the intelligible. The films main character, Ponceludon de
Malavoy, attempts to traverse between the social realms of the aristocracy
and the peasants. He wants to vie for King Louis XVIs attention on behalf
of the peasants who live on his land, so that the court can be made aware
that the peasants are being forced to work in mosquito infested swamps and
are dying of fever. In order to obtain an audience with the King, however,
de Malavoy must amuse the court through his skill in the language game of
wit. The following scenes illustrate the intelligible rules of wit. These
rules delimit what can be said, how it can be said, and who can say it;
because of these rules, the court is unable to attend to the sensible
experiences of the peasants who live and die on de Malavoys land.

[At this point in the presentation three scenes from the film Ridicule
are viewed. See Appendix D for a description.]

As these film clips illustrate, the aesthetic of the language game of wit
does depend on the sensible, since rhyme and rhythm are indispensable.
However, in this case the sensible is engaged not in its own right, but in the
service of the foregrounded intelligible meaning of the words in play. A
metaphor for this aesthetic is witnessed in earlier scenes where a contrast
can be made between the earth that de Malavoy brings into the court on his
boots and the rarefied earthtalcum powderthat perfumes the bodies and
faces of the aristocracy. Whereas the earth on de Malavoys boots
represents the foregrounded sensible that is experienced by the peasants,
the talcum powder represents a deliberate reification of the sensible for the
purpose of a certain aesthetic cultivated by the members of the court. Just
as the sensible aspects of the earth are rarefied in the service of a certain
visual or olfactory aesthetic, so too are the sensible aspects of the spoken
word rarefied in the service of a certain language aesthetic. In the
aesthetic of wit, the rhyme and rhythm of words in play are rarefied in the
service of the intelligible meaning. This emphasis on the intelligible makes
it impossible for the aristocracy to attend to the sensible experience of the
peasants, and so, impossible for them to acknowledge the peasants as an
ethical other. The aristocracys foreclosure on the ethical engagement with
the other is summed up in de Malavoys exclamation: Children will die
tomorrow because you ridicule me today!

The aristocracys foreclosure on the ethical engagement with the other is

further illustrated in a subplot that focuses on the courts treatment of a
young servant who is deaf and has been excluded from formal spoken
language. The aristocracys inability to attend to the sensible leads them to
erroneously conclude that the youth lacks intelligence. After the youth is
taught the newly developed sign language, he is able to translate his
sensible expressions into a formal language. Because the aristocracy can
now render the youths expressions intelligible, their judgments of his

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capabilities are somewhat amended. Although this shift in the courts
perception of the other is positive in that the courts treatment of the deaf
will change for the better, there has been no significant transformation of
the dominant paradigm. That is, the aristocracy fails to make a connection
between its own intelligible investments and its inability to attend to the
sensible expressions of the other. The introduction of a technique that
renders translatable the others sensible expressions into the courts
intelligible meanings only serves to confirm the courts investment in its
own modes of intelligibility. In other words, because the sensible language
of the deaf is forced to fit into the intelligible language of the court, and not
the other way around, the dominant paradigm fails to be subverted.

The ineffective subversion illustrated by the assimilation of the deaf in

Ridicule contrasts with the effective subversion illustrated by the
unassimilability of the mute in the film Where the Green Ants Dream.
Earlier in this presentation, we noted the confusion of the Australian high
court when the mutethe sole surviving member of his tribespeaks in a
language that no one can render intelligible. The mute resists
assimilation because there is no techniquesuch as sign languageto
translate the sensible aspects of his testimony and presence into the
language games of the court. His sensible presence remains foregrounded,
confusing the court and effecting a subversion precisely because the court
is invested in language games that prove inadequate to the task of
translation. As part of this subversion, the untranslatability of the
testimony draws attention to the genocide of his tribe and, consequently, his
sensible presence bears witness to the complicity of the Australian-English
court in that genocide.

As a final example of the way in which the foregrounded sensible can effect
a subversion, I want to introduce a novel by J. M. Coetzee entitled Foe
(1986). This novel is a post-colonial response to Daniel DeFoes Robinson
Crusoe, and enacts a possible scenario of how DeFoe (as Daniel Foe in the
novel) came to write the Crusoe story. The main character, Susan Barton, is
presented as having been a castaway on the same island where Robinson
Crusoe and Friday were shipwrecked. She approaches Daniel Foe with her
experience, wanting him to write, in the tradition of Western literature, a
narrative focusing on Friday. She perceives that Fridays inability to speak
a formal language is a radical silence that obstructs her goal of rendering
his story intelligible. Her investment in the intelligible meaning of words
limits her ability to attend to Fridays sensible expressions. Friday, as far as
she can determine, is silent, and she comes to this conclusion despite
witnessing Fridays varied sensible expressions, including his dancing and
flute playing. She cannot imagine engaging Fridays sensible expressions in
a way that does not translate them into her own intelligible realm. She
wants to find a technique whereby Fridays sensible expressions can be

240
rendered intelligible through the use of a formal language, so that his story
can be written in the narrative mode of Western literature.

As part of her search for a technique whereby Fridays sensible expressions

can be rendered intelligible, Susan attempts to teach Friday a formal
musical language. Initially, Fridays flute playing, his music, consists of the
same six notes played over and over again, an expression that seems
meaningless to Susan. In order to alter the way in which Friday expresses
himself, she attempts to engage him by first playing along with him, and
then by elaborating upon his pattern. Susan understands music as a formal
language that, like sign language, can be used to engage the other in
conversation (96-97). When Friday does not respond as she desires, instead
of attending to the significance of Fridays own mode of expression, she
concludes that Friday is insensible (98). Even if Susan were to discover a
technique for translating Fridays sensible expressions, she would succeed
only in assimilating Fridays sensible presence into the dominant paradigm
in the same way that sign language serves to assimilate the deafs sensible
presence into the dominant paradigm of the French court in the movie
Ridicule. Susans desire to find a technique for translating Fridays
sensible expressions reveals her investment in formulating an intelligible
narrative, and this investment makes it difficult for her to engage Fridays
sensible expressions as those of an ethical other.

Despite Susans inability to attend to Fridays sensible expressions, Fridays

dancing and fluting playingin as much as they resist translation into the
intelligible language game of narrativemaintain the sensible as
foreground. Like the so-called mute in Where the Green Ants Dream,
whose foregrounded sensible expressions expose the inadequacy of the
language games employed by the Australian-English high court, Fridays
foregrounded sensible expressions expose the inadequacy of the language
game of narrative in Western literature. In both cases, the subversion of
the dominant paradigm manifests as the confusion and frustration of those
who are highly invested in it. Those who are not so highly invested in the
dominant paradigm are perhaps in a better position to recognize an
alternative mode of engaging the other. Fridays sensible expressions are
subversive precisely because they cannot be assimilated into the dominant
paradigm and, as a result, they bear witness to the existence of a mode of
engaging the other that is different from that which has been instituted by
Western literature.

In the final pages of Coetzees novel, such an alternative to the Western

narrative mode is suggested. With a dramatic shift in voice from Susan to
an unknown narrator, the reader is drawn into the novel as a first person
witness to Fridays sensible presence. The reader is presented with more
than one final scenario, more than one intelligible rendering of Fridays
sensible presence, illustrating that it is the kind of attention to the sensible

241
and not the precise intelligible rendering that determines the ethical
engagement with the other. In each scenario, the reader is invited to
engage the other in a way that Susans narrative mode could not. By
suggesting an ethical alternative to the narrative mode, Coetzees response
to Defoes Robinson Crusoe suggests an ethical alternative not only to
Western literature but also to the discourses of colonialism and slavery. In
the final passage of Coetzees Foe, the unknown narratorin whose place
the reader might interpolate herself or himselfsays:
I come to Friday.
I tug his woolly hair, finger the chain about his throat.
Friday, I say, I try to say, what is this ship?
But this is not a place of words. Each syllable, as it comes
out, is caught and filled with water and diffused. This is a place
where bodies are their own signs. It is the home of Friday.
His mouth opens. From inside him comes a slow stream,
without breath, without interruption. It flows up through his
body and out upon me; it passes through the cabin, through the
wreck; washing the cliffs and shores of the island, it runs
northward and southward to the ends of the earth. Soft and
cold, dark and unending, it beats against my eyelids, against the
skin of my face. (157)

Conclusion

This presentation began by suggesting that while our everyday attention to

the other is a mixture of the sensible and the intelligible, through the
learned act of perception, the intelligible tends to be foregrounded while
the sensible tends to recede into the background. By considering an
environmental other, a personal other and a social other, this presentation
attempted to show that there are ethical consequences for privileging the
intelligible over the sensible. Our examples have illustrated how
preconceived intelligible notions or ends preclude continued attention to
the sensible expressions of the other, foreclosing ethical engagement.
Conversely, attending to the sensible by suspending preconceived
intelligible ends opens up the possibility for alternative intelligible
interpretations and, thereby, increases the likelihood of ethically engaging
the other.

The examples that have been considered are rich sources for the
exploration of the relationship between the intelligible, the sensible and the
ethical engagement with the other. Because the locations, settings,
characters, and plots of these examples may seem remote from our
everyday lives, some of you may have begun to reflect upon examples from
your own day-to-day experiences. As an exampleone that Im sure weve
all experiencedconsider the moments in conversation with another when
gestures contradict spoken words. Sometimes, the intelligible meaning of

242
the words convey anger or spite, but the expressions of the bodyif one is
attending to the sensiblecan be interpreted as hurt, sadness,
disappointment, but not anger. Attending, then, to the sensible can assist in
responding to the other with care and concern, as opposed to returning
anger or spite. By suspending our habitual intelligible interpretations and
by attending to the sensible, we come to find that our everyday interactions
afford many opportunities to formulate creative interpretations that
ethically engage the other.

Afterword

This paper provides numerous examples of how attending to the sensible

and suspending preconceived intelligible concepts or goals enables the
possibility of an ethical engagement with the other. These examples are
discussed within the arbitrary divisions of environmental ethic, personal
ethic, and social ethic; the other that needs to be engaged ethically could
be classified correspondingly as an environmental other, a personal
other, and a social other. For instance, green ants are an environmental
other for the Australian aborigines and the mining company in the film
Where the Green Ants Dream, Lucy (or, for that matter, anyone in the
hospital who is catatonic) is a personal other for Dr. Sayer and his skeptical
colleagues in the film Awakenings, and the peasants are a social other
for Ponceludon de Malavoy and the French aristocracy of the 1700s in the
film Ridicule.

Gross National Happiness (GNH) is a philosophy that is inherently ethical

i.e., founded on some combination of an environmental ethic, a personal
ethic, and a social ethicbecause each of its pillars, namely sustainable
development, environmental protection, cultural preservation, and good
governance, depends on an ethical engagement with the other:
environmental other, personal other, or social other. For instance, good
governance requires an ethical engagement with all of these categories of
other. In the discussion of the examples from the film Ridicule, it is the
ethical engagement with a social other that is most clearly linked with good
governance, as the aristocracy is presented with the opportunity to improve
its governance by ethically engaging the social other, the peasants who
work the fields for the benefit of the ruling class. On the other hand, the
discussion of the examples from the film Where the Green Ants Dream
can be extended to suggest a connection between good governance and the
ethical engagement with an environmental other. After all, it is the
government that passes the laws that are interpreted by the court, which
provides a forum for the ethical engagement with the environmental other,
i.e., the dreaming land of the green ants. Hence, governments have the
responsibility of passing laws that support environmental protection and,
thereby, ethically engaging the environmental other. Finally, the discussion
of the examples from the film Awakenings can be elaborated to draw a

243
link between good governance and the ethical engagement with a personal
other. Individuals who are institutionalized in various contexts have a
humanity that must be recognized not only by the individuals who work with
them, as in the case of Lucys humanity being recognized by Dr. Sayer, but
also by the larger legal frameworks that guide the policies and practices of
the institutions in which those very individuals find themselves.
Governments have the obligation to construct these legal frameworks in a
way that facilitates the ethical engagement with every personal other within
an institution.

In this paper, we have endeavored to demonstrate our thesis that attending

to the sensible realm while suspending preconceived intelligible notions or
ends opens up the possibility of an ethical engagement with the other.
Because the ethical engagement with the other environmental other,
personal other, or social otheris necessary for GNH, it follows that the
ability to attend to the sensible realm while suspending intelligible
preconceptions and goals must be a marker of an individual educated
through a GNH curriculum. Consequently, the promotion of our thesis is
also an elucidation of what we believe is an essential GNH educational
marker.

244
 Appendix A
Figure 1: Two faces or a vase.

Image painted by Emil (2005).

File downloaded from

<http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Facevase.png> on September 15,
2009. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons
Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License. In short: you are free to share and
make derivative works of the file under the conditions that you
appropriately attribute it, and that you distribute it only under a license
identical to this one. Official license.

Figure 2: A line drawing.

Image sketched by Lindsey Arnold (1997).

245
 Appendix B:
Description of selected scenes from the film Where the Green Ants Dream
In the first scene, a geologist (a representative of the mining
company) consults an entomologist in order to obtain information about the
significance, to the aborigines, of green ant dreaming. The entomologist
explains that the green ants align themselves north-south in locations where
there are unusual magnetic fields, but the reasons for this behavior have so
far eluded scientific explanation. He demonstrates the way in which he
manipulates the magnetic fields when studying the ants behavior, and
remarks that this manipulation, drives them crazy. He says that although
green ants look like ants, they belong to the cockroach family and behave
more like termites. He explains that the ants are capable of transforming
whole landscapes; that [t]hey feed on wood; they gobble up everything.
They can even chew through lead-enforced roofs to get through to the wood
underneath. When asked about the aborigines beliefs regarding green
ants, the entomologist says, [the aborigines] must have observed that our
tiny friends are like weather vanes before a storm, and explains that the
aborigines believe that the ants dream the dream-time of the origins of the
world.
In the second scene, a spokesperson for the aborigines stands before
the Australian high court holding an object draped in cloth. He explains
that he wants to show the court a sacred object so that the court can
understand what belongs to the land and to what the land belongs. After
viewing the object, the court reporter leans toward the judge, as if
consulting him privately, and asks how this object should be entered into
the court records. The judge dictates to the reporter: Wooden object,
carved with markings. The markings indecipherable. The significance of
the markings not plain to this court.
In the third scene, an aboriginal man nudges his way to the witness
stand and begins to speak. The judge responds by stating that this witness,
Mr. Mallela, was not called to the stand, and the judge asks if there is
anyone in the courtroom who can explain to this witness the due process of
the court. The spokesperson for the aborigines says that he does not speak
the witnesss language and therefore cannot explain. The judge states that
he is confused because Mr. Mallela was introduced to the court as being
mute, and he asks if anyone in the courtroom speaks Mr. Mallelas
language and can translate what it is that the he has said. The lawyer for
the aborigines explains that Mr. Mallela is the sacred custodian of his tribe.
He says that Mr. Mallelas people have all died; he is the sole survivor of his
tribe. Mr. Mallela was introduced to the court as mute because there is no
one left on this earth for him to speak with.
Appendix C:
Description of selected scenes from the film Awakenings
In the first scene, Dr. Sayer enters the wards common room and sees
one of his clients, Lucy, standing. He is surprised because Lucy had been
brought to his ward in a wheelchair and he believed that she was unable to

246
stand or walk. He sees that she is standing near a table, looking off in a
certain direction. He observes that the water fountain lies in that direction
and that there is a table between Lucy and the water fountain. Assuming
the table is blocking Lucys progress toward the fountain, he asks an
orderly to help him move the table. Subsequently, Lucy walks in the
direction in which the fountain lies. The camera focuses on the movements
of her feet across a black and white tiled floor. Lucy stops walking when
she reaches another client who is sitting in a wheelchair. Dr. Sayer moves
the other client out of Lucys way, and she continues forward. When Lucy
stops once more, Dr. Sayer is unable to identify what is hindering her
progress. He tugs at her arms and tells her that she is almost there (i.e.,
almost at the fountain), but Lucy does not take another step. The camera
focuses on their feet and shows the viewer that the black and white tiles on
the floor have ended and a plain white floor has begun. Dr. Sayer walks to
the water fountain, fills a cup and offers it to Lucy, but she does not
respond.
In the second scene, Dr. Sayer looks out of a window at a young girl
playing hopscotch on the sidewalk below. He gets an idea and rushes off to
the common room. A nurse assists Dr. Sayer in painting in a continuation of
the black and white pattern of the floor tiles. He explains to the nurse that
because Lucy stops walking at precisely this point on the floor where the
visual rhythm of the black and white pattern ends, he has come to the
conclusion that the final obstacle to Lucys progress might be sensory in
nature. Dr. Sayer tells the nurse he believes that filling in the floors
pattern will enable Lucy to continue her progress toward the fountain.
When Lucy is brought into the room, it is seen that she is indeed able to
walk, by following the black and white pattern on the floor, beyond the point
where she usually stops. In this way, she continues walking right past the
drinking fountain.
Appendix D:
Description of selected scenes from the film Ridicule
In the first scene, Ponceludon de Malavoy is seen having minor
success in matching wits with the Abbot de Vilecourt. Wit is shown to be
a form of verbal one-upmanship that diminishes the psychological or
physical livelihood of the other. When asked why he has left his country
home to attend court, de Malavoy mentions the plight of the peasants upon
whose behalf he seeks an audience with the King. The expression of
concern for the peasants is rejected as being too dismal a topic, and he
responds to this rejection with the statement: Peasants feed the
aristocracy as well as the mosquitoes.
In the second scene, de Malavoy is instructed in the rules of wit by
the Marquis de Bellegaurd, his friend and mentor. De Malavoy is told to be
witty, sharp and malicious, never to raise serious issues, never to speak in
puns (for puns are the death of wit), and never to laugh at his own jokes.
However, de Malavoy forgets his promise to keep quiet about the social
issues he hopes to bring to the Kings attention and when he is asked about

247
his country home, he begins to describe once more the plight of the
peasants. This time, he is abruptly cut off and receives a reproving glance
from his mentor, the Marquis.
In the third scene, de Malavoy attends a costume ball. His demise has
been plotted by certain members of the aristocracy who have found his
minor successes threatening and, while dancing, he is deliberately tripped
in order to be ignominiously driven out of the court. De Malavoy recognizes
that his humiliation will make it impossible for him to obtain the Kings
attention for the sake of the peasants. Consequently, de Malavoy declares
to the aristocrats attending the ball: Children will die tomorrow because
you ridicule me today

248
References
Abram, David. (1997). The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and
Language in a More-Than-Human-World. New York: Vintage
Books.
Arnold, Lindsey, and Shafik Nanji. (1997, October). Attending to the
Sensible and to the Intelligible: Toward an Ethical Engagement
with the Other. Multimedia presentation given at Holistic
Learning: Breaking New GroundAn International Conference.
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of
Toronto.
Awakenings [video]. (1990). Based on a book by Oliver Sacks. Penny
Marshall (Director). Columbia Pictures presents a
Lasker/Parkes Production.
Chanter, Tina. (1995). Levinas and the Question of the Other.
Ethics of Eros: Irigarays Rewriting of the Philosophers (pp.170-
224). New York: Routledge.
Coetzee, J. M. (1987). Foe. New York: Penguin Books.
Dember, William N. and Joel S. Warm. (1979). Psychology of
Perception.
Gleitman, Henry. (1986). Psychology. Second Edition. New York: W.
W. Norton.
Ridicule [video]. (1996). Gilles Legrand, Frederic Bullin, Philippe
Carcassone (Producers), & Patrice Leconte (Director). France:
Epiththe, Cina, 3 Cinma.

9
Ralph Waldo Emerson: the Infinitude of the Private Man (2008), Maurice York &
Rick Spaulding, p. iv.
10
The Journals of Ralph Waldo Emerson edited by Edward W. Emerson, Houghton
Mifflin, Boston, 1911, Vol. V, 18381841, pp. 380381, April 7, 1840.
11
Sophia Peabody to George Peabody, October 1, 1837. Unpublished letter in the
collection of the author.
12
Cf the statement of the Sant Bani School's founder, H.H. Kirpal Singh, "Each one
of us is unique in his own way. There is a divine purpose behind the life of everyone
who comes into the world; no one has been created for nothing. We have something
to learn from everyone. This is the mystery of humility."
13
Henry David Thoreau to Orestes Brownson, December 30, 1837.
14
Henry David Thoreau, Journal, July 16, 1851.
15
For example, the Sankhya Karika, which Thoreau read in the Harvard Library,
outlines the three ways of knowing: perception, inference, and revelation. See Sutra
VI, The Sankhya Karika or Memorial Verses on the Sankhya Philosophy by Iswara
Krishna, translated by Henry Thomas Colebrooke combined with The Bhashya or
Commentary of Guarapada, translated by Horace Hayman Wilson, London, 1837.
16
For excellent recent studies of Brook Farm, see Sterling Delano, Brook Farm: the
Dark Side of Utopia (2004); and Richard Francis, Transcendental Utopias:
Individual and Community at Brook Farm, Fruitlands, and Walden (1997).
17
Charles Lane was an austere social activist who accompanied Bronson Alcott back
from England and helped him found the short-lived (June 1843 to January 1844)
vegetarian community, Fruitlands, in Harvard, Massachusetts.
18
Henrietta Dana Raymond, Sophia Willard Dana Ripley: Co-founder of Brook Farm (1994), p. 39.
Rubin, Edgar. (1915). Synsoplevede Figurer: Studier i Psykologisk
Analyse. Frste Del. XII u. 228 S. Kbenhavn og Kristiania:
Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag.
Where the Green Ants Dream [video]. (1985). A coproduction of
Werner Herzog Filmproduktion and ZDF. Werner Herzog
(Director). Licki Stipetic (Producer).

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