PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY

by

Anne Dhir

A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto

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Doctor of Philosophy 2008 Anne Dhir Department of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning University of Toronto

Abstract

"Life presents us with but one book to write, the story of our existence." White, 1999, p. 67

This is a qualitative study that explores the theoretical and practical foundation of

an education that is grounded in the perennial understanding. The timeless and boundless

perennial understanding, commonly known as 'the perennial philosophy' has been a part

of the wisdom traditions for centuries. This philosophy can significantly contribute

towards deeper and meaningful lives if brought into the educational milieu.

This study is, therefore, an attempt to contribute to developing theories about

holistic education, which has perennial philosophy as its philosophical underpinning, and

to a growing but still partial understanding of the scope of the perennial philosophy

within the educational environment. The study is carried out by examining how such a

pedagogy would operate and what the pedagogical consequences for those involved and

for society at large would be. In this work I will refer to such an education as 'perennial pedagogy'.

ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

A heartfelt and deep gratitude to Dr. Jack Miller who supervised this work.

Along with him, I would like to thank the two members of the thesis committee who

crossed my path as a

blessing,

Dr. Solveiga Miezitis and Dr. Mary Beattie.

Each of them guided and inspired me deeply in their own gentle way.

This work would not have materialized if it were not for these three great yet

humble souls.

I would also like to extend my ernest appreciation to Susan Allen who graciously offered

her editorial contribution.

in I dedicate this work to all beings.

IV CONTENTS

ABSTRACT II

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS III

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 The Study 5 Chapters to Follow 9 Significance of this Work 10 Origin of Interest 13 Encountering a Saintly Figure 17 Conclusion 21

CHAPTER 2: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY 22 The Origin of The Perennial Philosophy 23 Demystifying Mysticism 25 Spirituality/Religion: An exploration 28 The Importance of The Perennial Philosophy Today 35 Conclusion 39

CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTIONS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY 40 The Metaphysical Approach: Aldous Huxley 40 The Transpersonal Approach: Ken Wilber 43 The Wholeness Approach: Anna Lemkow 48 The Transcendental Approach: Ralph Waldo Emerson 51 The Transrational Approach: Jorge Ferrer 54 The Spiritual Approach: Roger Walsh 56 The Personal Approach to Perennial Understanding 60 A Critique of The Perennial Philosophy 64 Conclusion 70

CHAPTER 4: EMBODIMENTS OF THE PERENNIAL EXPRESSION 71 Mahatma Gandhi 71 Mother Teresa 78 The Dalai Lama 82 Conclusion 88

CHAPTER 5: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSPOSHY IN EDUCATION 89 The Current State of Education 89 Holistic Education 98 Inspirational Holistic Educators 102

V Maria Montessori 102 Jiddu Krishnamurti 105 Parker Palmer 109 Conclusion Ill

CHAPTER 6: PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY 113 The Inception of Perennial Pedagogy 113 The Integration of Perennial Inquiry and Pedagogy: A Literary Review 114 The Characteristics of Perennial Pedagogy 118 Innate Spiritual Realization in Pedagogy 118 Mutual Development in Perennial Pedagogy 122 A Reconceptualization of Pedagogy 127 Life Pedagogy 129 Glimpses of Perennial Pedagogy 135 Conclusion 140

CHAPTER 7: PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY IN PRACTICE 142 Contemplative Pedagogy 145 Storytelling 146 Metaphors 146 Journal writing 147 Listening 148 Questioning 148 Dialogue 149 Arts 150 Nature 151 Visualization 153 Seeing self in others 154 Meditational Pedagogy 155 Exploring Meditation 156 Benefits of Meditation 161 Implementation of Meditation 164 Pauses or Stilling 166 Counting Meditation 167 Concentration Meditation 169 Last Call Meditation 170 Body Scan Meditation 171 Eating Meditation 172 Walking Meditation 172 Loving-Kindness Meditation 173 Deep Meditative Awareness 174 Some noteworthy points of clarification regarding meditation 174 Mindfulness 177 Mindfulness meditation for all day 182 Silence 185 Conclusion 187

VI CHAPTER 8: TRANSIMMANENCE OF PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY 188 Humility 189 Compassion 194 Humor 203 An Awakening World 206 Global Transformation 207 Living it 209 Eternal Now 212 Conclusion 222

CONCLUSION 223

BIBLIOGRAPHY 230

GLOSSARY 263

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vm CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

"If we were lucky enough, we would find the right question, rather than the right answer." Macy & Rothberg, 1994, p. 25

This chapter introduces this study in terms of its conceptual framework, importance, and how it emerged as a result of my grandfather's inspiration of many years. My grandfather's embodied teachings of the perennial philosophy, even though he did not refer to it as such, transformed my whole being, which in turn, opened a venue for exploring my understanding within an academic setting.

Ponderings like "Who am I" and "Why am I here" have stirred the human psyche since the dawn of human existence. In such a universe of uncertainties, ambiguities and complexities, one travels a path 'to understand'. On this path, one first becomes aware of the very existence of these complexities, and then perhaps tries to understand the origin and underlying processes of these complexities. Here it is important to note the difference between just knowing and understanding. " Zeno Vendler (1984) contrasts knowing and understanding. "To understand," he posits, "it may not be enough to know"

(p. 204, cited in Wolcott, 1990, p. 147). Understanding may be considered a humble attempt at grasping matters in comparison to claiming to know matters. Sam Crowell

(2003) notes, "Understand is such a humble word. Under - Stand, standing under something" (Crowell & Reid, 2003).

I am one such traveler, who has, like many others, deeply embraced the passion to humbly understand the mysteries of existence. It is this passion 'to understand' which is the driving force behind my in depth research inquiry and its validation. Hirsch (1976) supports, "The process of understanding is itself a process of validation" (p. 33).

l 2

Popkewitz (1990) adds that the debates about discovery versus verification often obscure

more than they clarify matters (cited in Paul & Marfo, 2001, p. 528).

Understanding the phenomenon of existence may perhaps be the key of being.

We all journey through life trying to find our way. Sometimes it seems that all we do is coast along. Sometimes we feel the struggle of wondering which way to go. But whatever the nature of our wandering, this journey is ultimately a human struggle that has been present since the dawn of our history. Even if we are raised in a particular tradition, at some point it is likely that we will question its substance and application to our life. This process can't be done by anyone else. We stand alone as we measure the course of our lives (Sam Crowell cited in Miller & Nakagawa, 2002, p. 13).

There is, however, an ancient collective stream of thought that encompasses the

essential core of the world spiritual wisdoms that addresses questions of existence. Here, it is imperative to explain my interpretation of the terms 'religion' and 'spirituality'.

When the teachings of spiritually awakened beings become institutionalized, they usually become the core teachings of 'religion'. Spong (2005) calls religion "a security symbol".

"The spirituality that emerges spontaneously at a certain stage of experiential self- exploration should not be confused with the mainstream religions and their beliefs, doctrines, dogmas, and rituals" (Grof, 1988, p. 269).

In other words, sacredness in its theoretical form is religion, and in its experiential form, is spirituality. Roger Walsh (1999) confirms:

The word religion has many meanings; in particular it implies a concern with the sacred and supreme values of life. The term spirituality, on the other hand, refers to direct experience of the sacred. Spiritual practices are those that help us experience the sacred - that which is most central and essential to our lives - for ourselves (p. 3).

Spirituality is our core innate true nature.

We are not human beings learning to be spiritual - we are spiritual beings learning to be human Pierre Teilhard de Chardin It is this spiritual aspect expressed by spiritually awakened beings that ignites this work.

I will further discuss the relationship of spirituality and religion in Chapter Two. 3

Over a period of time, scholars have come to call the stream of thought that encompasses the world spiritual wisdoms as "perennial". It is called 'perennial' because the understandings surpass time and region. It is important to note here that the conception of perennial thought precedes the inception of its terminology, as many spiritual writings addressed the big questions about existence long before the term

'perennial' was used. This is akin to saying human beings existed long before the term

'Homo sapiens' was employed. This timeless, boundless, ageless teaching of world mysticism, called 'The Perennial Philosophy', is the transcendental yet immanent learning that goes beyond the self to find the Self. It is a philosophy that transcends region and religion and can offer depth and richness to humankind. However, many have not been exposed to this philosophy. It continues to remain on the margins of educational thinking.

In my view, the single largest source that is capable of nurturing grounds for deeper and enriched lives is school-based education. Yet, schooling offers very little to address existential questions. In my thirty-three years of formal school education, for instance, only during my graduate years at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto (OISE/UT), did I meet a handful of professors that engaged themselves and others in the contemplation and understanding of such big questions.

Otherwise, most of my spiritual learning came from outside a school setting. Schools may perhaps resist existential questions, however, because of the nature of perennial thoughts, if incorporated into school curriculum, they may deeply empower and enrich many lives. How can perennial thoughts become integrated into the school curriculum and system as a whole? This issue is the central research question of this inquiry. 4

Chapter 2 and 3 will discuss the perennial philosophy in detail. For now, it is important to note that in this work, I am more interested in what the 'perennial philosophy' refers to, rather than a detailed analysis of the term itself. Further, the 'teaching' of the perennial understanding of oneness, transcendence and immanence is what I refer to as

'Perennial Pedagogy' in this work. The proposition is that there should not be a

separation between school-based education and existential understanding. The institution of education does not need to be separated from life itself. Therefore, I propose that perennial pedagogy is not only the learning of, but also the living of life's understanding.

It is an education of and for life. In the past decade or so, aspects of the perennial philosophy are gradually becoming explicit in an emerging holistic educational movement. I draw on the writings and work done in this movement as a catalyst to enhance my understanding in this investigation. More specifically, this is a conceptual study that explores the theoretical and practical premise of an education that is grounded in the perennial understanding. This study attempts to contribute to a growing but still partial understanding of the scope of the perennial philosophy within the educational environment by examining how such a pedagogy would operate and what the pedagogical consequences for those involved and society at large would be. 5

The Study

" The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes. " Marcel Proust

This study is an effort to ground the core of the timeless existential path into everyday being. Please note I use the term 'effort' as, "Neither the indeterminate nature

of Spirit nor the dynamic quality of spiritual unfolding can be fully captured by any

conceptual framework" (Ferrer, 2002, p. 187). Ron Miller (2003) further notes that language will describe spirituality, but it is fragmented.

Be this as it may, it is certain that none of the great systems of ancient thought, nor even vernacular literatures, have always found the ordinary work-a-day language of the world adequate to express transcendental doctrines (Evans-Wentz, 1960, p. 4).

For instance, "The Void cannot even be strictly called Nirvana, for this is a term relative to the world, and the Void is beyond all relations" (Sir John Woodroffe cited in Evans-

Wentz, 1960, foreword, p. xxii). However,

Beneath the tomes of literature, the variety of techniques, and the differing spiritual vocabularies we sense the central mystery that lies at the heart of every spiritual tradition. It is the mystery of revelation, of the timeless and limitless. It is the knowing of the unknowable, the mystery of the divine, liberation, and a sacred oneness. It is impossible to portray this great mystery adequately in words - at times it is simply called 'enlightenment.' In the Tao Te Ching it is said, 'Going back to the origin is called peace (Feldman, 2001, p. 226).

From a practical perspective, Beattie (2004) notes, "language is all we have got".

Therefore, even though this study points to something that is larger than life, a theoretical attempt is made to capture the core essence via writing. For "To write is to measure the depth of things, as well to come to a sense of one's own depth... writing abstracts our experience of the world, yet it also concretizes our understanding of the world" (Van

Manen, 1989, p. 238 - 240). Huxley (1945) puts it brilliantly:

Words are not facts, and still less are they the primordial Fact. If we take them too seriously, we shall lose our way in a forest of entangling briars. But if, on the contrary, we don't take them 6

seriously enough, we shall remain unaware that there is a way to lose on a goal to be reached. If the Enlightened did not preach, there would be no deliverance for anyone (p. 128).

Therefore, I attempt to write this work extremely responsibly, and yet at the same time, openly, for I see this as an extremely privileged opportunity.

The theoretical perspectives in which this work is primarily grounded are the perennial writings and the holistic educational literature. Both of these areas are deeply integrated as the perennial philosophy "provides the philosophic underpinnings of the holistic curriculum" (Miller, 1996, p. 12). Therefore, understanding the interpretations of the perennial work forms the bedrock of this study. An in-depth examination can be accomplished through an interpretive study aimed at capturing such understandings.

Given the nature of the issue, a hermeneutical interpretation is a justified approach to this inquiry as it embraces diverse perspectives of thinkers over time and regions:

"[hjermeneutics is the study of understanding, especially the task of understanding texts"

(Palmer, 1969, p. 8). Further, hermeneutic research is "where investigators...take account of the meaning and preunderstandings..." (Phillips, 1992, p. 19). Slattery (1995) reminds us that we engage in hermeneutics on a constant basis - we are always interpreting our experiences and interactions with the world. Slattery further grounds the importance of hermeneutics in education, "...understanding, awareness, emancipation, demystification, and transformation will all become possible, thus forming the basis of hermeneutic interpretation in curriculum studies" (p. 118). Hermeneutics, in my view, has always been a part of curriculum, i.e. not labeled as such, but actively used. It may, perhaps, have been overlooked at times, for something has always been interpreted, the understanding of which only needs an opening. 7

My method of investigation is interpretation in the form of a hermeneutical circle.

I see it as a circle because it is not a search for something novel and different; it is just looking with fresh open eyes (a metaphorical representation of awakening perception).

For, "originality has nothing to do with priority. An image is like a musical key; just because someone used G-minor before doesn't make Mozart a copycat" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 30). A circle also symbolizes oneness; it encompasses all and is a center without a beginning or an end. It is flow and wholeness. Opposite sides of the circle can be considered polar opposites but when seen as a whole, they are only seemingly different along a continuum of oneness. This is akin to the varied interpretations. They may be seemingly different perspectives, but when perceived as a whole, they are just two sides of sameness. The wholeness aspect of the circle is also relevant to my approach as I aspire to immerse my whole being into this work. As many qualitative researchers explain," To do high-caliber interpretive work requires the total person rather than simply the skilled execution of research methods" (Gallagher, 1996, p. 119 cited in

Miller, Nelson & Moore, 1998, p. 406 - 407).

I call the format of this work 'Narration of interpretive realizations' (Mr). More specifically, it is an academic narrative that interprets realizations of one's and / or others' journey(s). Mr also means 'neither' in the Sanskrit language. This word is symbolic of my presented thematic undertaking: all yet none, many yet one, interplay of one and many, a postmodern understanding. Atkinson (2000a) describes postmodern as:

"a release from certainties" characterized by resistance towards certainty and resolution; rejection of fixed notions of reality, knowledge, or method; acceptance of complexity, of lack of clarity, and of multiplicity; and refusal to accept boundaries or hierarchies in ways of thinking (Marsh & Willis, 2003, p. 132). 8

The thematic tapestry of this work further amalgamates dimensions of epistemology: ontology in the theoretical aspect of this work and phenomenology in the practical aspect of this study. The epistemological dimension deals with the nature of knowledge and the relationship between the knower and the known; the ontological dimension deals with the question of what is knowable, or the nature of reality (Paul & Marfo, 2001, p. 541-542); and, phenomenology deals with the experience itself (Marsh & Willis, 2003, p. 126).

Willis (1979) uses the term phenomenology to refer to the lived quality of the interior experience. Van Manen (1990) sees phenomenology as "the science of examples" (p.

121).

The key research questions that this work focuses on are the fundamental questions of why, what, and how in terms of The Perennial Philosophy and Perennial

Pedagogy respectively.

Theoretical aspect of the thesis:

What is the significance of the perennial philosophy?

What are the essential elements of the perennial philosophy?

What are the societal implications of the perennial philosophy?

Practical aspect of the thesis:

What significance does the perennial understanding hold for pedagogy as a means to reclaim its spirituality?

What is the essential element and nature of a 'perennial pedagogy'?

What are the societal implications of a 'perennial pedagogy'? 9

The diagram below attempts to simplify the above-mentioned aspects:

THEORETICAL ASPECT PRACTICAL ASPECT Perennial philosophy Perennial Pedagogy

- SIGNIFICANCE ~

~ ELEMENT / NATURE

-IMPLICATIONS-

Chapters to Follow

At the outset, Chapter One will start with a brief introduction to my personal arrival to the inquiry in question. It is then pertinent to introduce the reader to the significance of the perennial philosophy, which will be the focus of Chapter Two. In

Chapter Three, I will elaborate on the nature and essential elements of the perennial philosophy. It will be based on an analysis of interpretations of various thinkers who have contributed to perennial philosophical thought, followed by an attempt at a personal approach to understanding the perennial philosophy. Chapter Four looks closely at three living testimonies of the perennial aspect: Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa and the Dalai

Lama. The subsequent chapters plunge into the practical aspect of the perennial philosophy in terms of where it finds its practical voice through holistic education.

Chapter Five examines the significance of the perennial understanding in education. In this chapter, the current state of education is briefly discussed and the nature of the emerging holistic educational movement is glanced at. The work of three influential holistic educators who have embraced aspects of the perennial philosophy are described: 10

Jiddu Krishnamurti, Maria Montessori and Parker Palmer (who have also deeply inspired my understanding of the holistic discourse). In Chapter Six, I will introduce the reader to the nature and elements of a 'perennial pedagogy' and elaborate on its underlying ideology. The role of the educator will also be discussed in terms of how he or she engages in inner work and how this enables students to do their own inner work. Here I am not proposing any drastic changes in education. I am just proposing an inclusion of perennial understandings in the educational context, allowing for the re-integration of spirituality in education. Chapter Seven will examine how a perennial pedagogy would operate within a classroom setting and what the pedagogical consequences for those involved would be. The discussion will include the importance of engaging in contemplative and meditative practices. Chapter Eight will look at the global implications of a perennial pedagogy that entail qualities of transcendence and immanence such as compassion, humility, and humor resulting in a potential awakening in the world. Lastly, the conclusion will summarize this work.

Significance of this Work

"And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye." Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This work is an attempt to contribute to a body of wisdom that is emerging on the periphery of education. The perspective offered in this study will build on the current body of knowledge of holistic education and human growth at large. In other words, this work is an attempt to build on a rare, yet potentially vital body of wisdom that shows a promise in the area of a truly enlightening pedagogy. This study is further dedicated to 11

understanding ways of enriching the school experience, which in turn reflects society, as

the students of today make the society of tomorrow.

No work in this area is really original, as the ancient mystics have addressed these

issues time and again over the centuries. This work is just another look.

Student: Master, why do you keep saying the same thing over and over? Master: The students are not getting it. (Anonymous) By presenting it again and again in different ways, the hope is that perhaps one particular

way may resonate with more people. For "what matters in our work is that it should

make a positive difference in people's lives - our own and those of others" (Beattie,

2002).

The journey of existential realization seems complicated enough, for me to go

ahead and complicate it any further. The inspirational words of Satish Kumar (2000)

guide my writing process. He posits, "Any fool can make things complicated. It requires your genius to make things small, simple and beautiful. Slow down and trust. When you trust, things happen" (p. 2). Complication is synonymous to the itinerant mind; simplicity, on the other hand comes with mindfulness. Henepola Gunaratana (1991), a spiritual teacher for several decades, further confirms, "In my experience I have found that the most effective way to express something in order to make others understand is to use the simplest language. I have also learned from teaching that the more rigid the language the less effective it is. People do not respond to very stern and rigid language especially when we try to teach something which normally people don't engage in during daily life" (Preface).

Further, the intention of this work is not to prove anything. It is an attempt to understand. I do not claim to know anything; I only claim to be a traveler on the path of 12 understanding the ever so seemingly daunting mystery of realizing the phenomena of existence. It is one's own experience that will validate the words that follow in this work, as my experience continues to do for me.

In essence, this is an inquiry into:

The path that many before have stumbled and walked; Searched the sought that was never lost. Some though found what they never lost; Some even attempted to talk about what they found along the path. I am also a traveler who is walking and adding to that talk about the mysterious yet simply eternal now path. 13

Origin of Interest

" The work of a lifetime is to discover who we are." Diamond, 1999, p. 17

The introduction of Roger Walsh's (1999) book Essential Spirituality describes how he got into spirituality as a result of one day seeing within him a whole new untouched and unexplored world after being a life long devout devotee of science. He was a skeptic of spirituality. His writing brought tears to my eyes, as his discovery is relevant to my life as well. There was a time when even though I was the one making my life, I thought I was not in control of it. I was not even aware of the constant creator of my world - the mind that was projecting outward. I thought it was the other way around that the outside world was pouring into me. A series of transformative episodes then changed my life's narrative and an entirely unexplored terrain surfaced.

Here, I would like to take a brief glance at how this interest originated for me.

The interest in the topic originated long before I got the opportunity to explore it in an academic setting. This opportunity to express renders itself a venue for further transformation.

I got exposed to the concept of perennial philosophy through my grandfather's work long before I became aware of the term "The Perennial Philosophy". It all started when I read my grandfather's spiritual writings some years ago. The material was mind- boggling and hard to comprehend as it defied my known reality. My entire belief system started to disintegrate. The notes talked about self-realization, the nature of the mind, desires, suffering, illusions, equanimity of mind, oneness of all that there is, compassion, humility, understanding, awareness and many other things that guides one to awakening.

I had never been exposed to anything like this in my entire life. I started to find answers 14 to my questions in life via these words. I started to contemplate and meditate. I was a transformed being. I started to see others, the entire universe and myself in a very different light. Therefore, the seeds of my spiritual journey were planted with the introduction to my grandfather's teachings. The interesting thing is that I had the opportunity to be in his presence towards the latter part of his life and also had his notes for many years but I didn't even read them. I guess the teacher only comes when the student is ready. Any earlier and I would have not been ready.

After the completion of my undergraduate studies in psychology, I decided to continue my education in an area that would continue my spiritual understanding. Since psychology and spirituality are deeply connected, I looked into meditation psychology.

However, to my dismay, there were only institutions in the U.S. that offered such programs. I could not uproot everything and leave. So, I decided to pursue my spirituality on the side, and continue my learning in an area that would be a great match to my professional life. At this point, I sought admission to the Ontario Institute for

Studies in Education (OISE) in the Adult Education Department under the subcategory of workplace, learning and change. I started my graduate studies in 2000. Little did I know what was in store for me at OISE. When I started enrolling in courses, call it 'power of flow' or 'synchronicity'; I was overwhelmed by the spiritual connection discussed in the courses. Each course came to my life as a part of my spiritual journey. I saw each professor as my spiritual teacher and each reading as a spiritual text. I started to get validations of what my grandfather taught as well as validation of my spiritual experiences. In particular, I became familiar with the term 'the perennial philosophy' through the work of Dr. Jack Miller who offers graduate courses in Spirituality / Soul in 15

Education at OISE/UT. To me, the concept was very close at heart as my grandfather's writings alluded to this concept, without naming the term as such. It was at that point I realized the extent of the perennial philosophy. For the first time in my life, I realized that this thought has been expressed by many voices over time and region. I realized many spiritual thinkers have attempted to present perennial thoughts in diverse ways.

Different thinkers were using different terms to express similar ideas. This ignited inspiration for me to study the topic of perennial philosophy in depth and understand its possible implications for humankind. Initially, I came to OISE for an education. Now, it had become my spiritual space where I was reading spiritual texts, contemplating, meditating and experiencing spirituality in every shape, way and form. The seeds of spirituality that were sown by my grandfather's teachings got nurtured during my graduate studies. The theoretical conception of the perennial philosophy made more and more sense as my understanding developed via contemplation and meditation. The mergence of theory and practice was crucial for me to gain a deeper understanding and will be shown in this work.

During the same time period, I started to facilitate meditation classes, where I would share spiritual writings and conduct meditation sessions. Even though I was facilitating these classes, I was learning tremendously. Sharing this wisdom in itself has taught me a lot about myself. It has been a two-way learning process. For instance, sharing the concept of mindfulness (non-judgmental watchfulness) with others helped me experience mindfulness for myself as well. In other words, talking about mindfulness time and again compelled and reminded me to practice it myself. I would feel, "How can 16

I talk about something that I don't always practice myself?" With better understanding,

my meditations became much richer and the path clearer.

The quintessential thing that I have realized over the years via spiritual teachers,

readings and meditations is that one needs to embrace awareness. Flow is always

present; one only needs to be aware of it. In addition, it is important to sustain the

awareness that every state of mind, absolutely everything in the world, is impermanent.

Everything that the mind thinks and does is an illusion. 'Listening' to all there is in the

moment without judgment, attachment, expectation and anticipation.

When one is aware, one is attuned to everything within and without. I am aware

of my breath much more then I used to be. I am aware of my thoughts more now. I am becoming aware of the times when I am not mindful. Instead of reacting to things right

away, I am starting to respond to them calmly. I am becoming aware of my inner

feelings. For instance, I am extremely aware when I have feelings of irritation, anger etc.

starting to emerge in me. The awareness then manages to take hold of the situation and mindfulness prevails - at least at times! I am becoming aware of "I". I am starting my days in meditative quietness and peace. That feeling is being penetrated gradually through the day. I am starting to enjoy the feeling of not needing to defend and enhance but 'just being'. I am finding myself in a joyful state more often. I catch myself smiling more often.

I have also realized that one does not require the extreme path. The middle path is the way. One can live in society and still experience awakening. Charlene Belitz &

Meg Lundstrom (1998) reassure, " We all have it within ourselves to move into meaning, lightness, and serenity. We don't have to be yogis chanting mantras in icy Himalayan 17

caves to live in this state of inner peace" (xiv). They further say in concluding their book

The Power of Flow, " For even as a drop of rain cannot separate itself from the ocean into

which it has fallen, so can you not separate yourself from flow. You are flow" (p. 251).

This brings me to the next section, where I briefly introduce a saintly figure whose life is

a living testimony of the above-mentioned state.

Encountering a Saintly Figure

I owe my life's greatest and most valuable learning to a saintly figure named

Bhagat Ram Chadha, who coincidently also happens to be my maternal grandfather. His presence and his articles on self-realization1 are the greatest inspirers of my life. The teachings of my grandfather are not just a part of me; they form my very existence. They are so integral to my life that I cannot separate my being from the learning that I embody.

Throughout his life, he meditated regularly from age four to one hundred and twenty (approximately, since he did not know when he was born). It all started when his parents died of a deadly epidemic. My grandfather, whose country of origin is unknown to me, became an orphan at the age of four. For food offerings, he would go to the nearby church, temple, monastery and mosque. By loitering around these sacred places everyday, he started to learn about the philosophies that were being taught there. The nearby graveyard was his playground, where the bones and ashes were his toys. As a young man, he had a keen interest in learning. Scholarships assisted him with his education.

1 He used to write all his insights on any piece of paper he could find in his house. One of his colleagues put some of the writings together in the form of unpublished articles. 18

After schooling, he went off in search of truth and he lived in the jungles for many years. He would even go for days without breathing in a state of deep meditative

Samadhi. Tired with his search, he came back to society at the age of forty-five. He got married and had ten children, three of whom died. He worked, raised a family and continued his spiritual practices. Many people around him realized that he was not an ordinary being just by the way he carried himself. A few people he knew started to meet him frequently and discuss spirituality with him. Over the years, the number of people grew for his Satsungs (spiritual talks), which involved open dialogue and meditative exercises. He would write his realizations, sometimes even in the middle of the night.

When once asked, he mentioned he didn't feel the need to sleep and that he had not slept for many years.

He concluded that one does not have to go anywhere to become self-realized. It is all within you; the only thing you need to do is realize it. Self-realization, according to him, is the easiest task in the universe but because of ignorance, we are not aware of its simplicity. As he puts it, "He, for whom I looked blindly in all directions, he was hidden in my own eyes, I knew not" (Journal entry). He further notes, the entire universe is nothing but the mind's idea so whom shall one blame or criticize. The universe is a false hallucination of the deceptive mind. There is nothing like the mind that one can know of, the greatest force. Our mind is capable of creating and destroying this universe in a single moment. The universe is in the mind, just like a tree is in the seed. The mind is a wonderful potent force through, which universal play is running on. It is the unifying link between all the higher conscious regions. Mind in action is universe; mind in silence is divinity. When mind stops fluctuating divinity reveals itself. When it stops totally, 19

there is eternal absolute consciousness and infinite bliss. He reiterated that oneness is

manifested by one's mind as multiplicity, to let the play of illusion (Maya) run on.

He wrote down all his insights on heaps of paper. He implored that he spent

almost all his life trying to realize himself. He would often say that nobody really

explained to him how he could know himself. Therefore, he did not want others to take

the long path. He wanted others to know the short cut to self-realization. He did not

want name and fame, therefore he never published the enormous volumes of his work.

He spoke about his insights to whoever asked and showed a deep interest. I learned

about his early life experiences through my mother, his second child.

He states in his writing, "You can only experience self-realization, you cannot

describe it. There are no words that can describe what it is to be self-realized. Only a

self-realized soul will know". It is just like, "Everybody experiences sleep but nobody

has so far been able to express it except peace all around" (Journal entry). Similarly, the

peacefulness experienced by a spiritually awaken being is indescribable. When one

'claims' that one is self-realized, one is actually not, since a claim involves pride and by

definition, self-realization involves utmost humility. His qualities like blissfulness,

equanimity of mind, fathomless tranquility, self-awareness, purity, humility, humor, compassion and wisdom are inspirational.

I had the privileged opportunity to immerse in this saintly figure's world of wisdom. His work will be integrated in this study. Please note that this is only an attempt, as words might not be able to do justice to his priceless wealth of wisdom. I have extracted from volumes of personal journals that he wrote, and tape and video recordings that others recorded while he spoke after engaging in Samadhi. Please note 20 the reference to his work reflects his own personal spiritual experience, it is his perspective, which may not coincide with another's viewpoint and therefore, it needs to be read with an open-mind. The words could be mind-boggling; they could challenge one's existing belief system. After conducting an in-depth literature review, my grandfather's writing could be considered a synopsis of ancient perennial expression. 21

Conclusion

This chapter attempted to outline an in-depth qualitative research study that explores the scope of the perennial philosophy within the context of the educational movement and beyond. The claims fall within the boundaries of the holistic education and perennial philosophy literature. Further, this chapter was an attempt to articulate the method of inquiry and the hermeneutical interpretation of the chosen fields that will provide conceptualization and evidential claims to this work. It explored the significance of pursuing this study and its contribution to the knowledge of the field of study, educational practice, and in turn, society at large. Further, my personal story was briefly highlighted. This work is an episode in a continuing series of understandings that is offered in the form of an academic piece of work. As such, it provides a testimonial integration of academia and spirituality. This work is the result of following my passion within the academic realm, thereby redefining what it means to be an academic. This work-in-progress is a plateau of where I am at this moment in my understanding.

The chapter concluded with an introduction to the transformative teachings of the saintly figure, Bhagat Ram Chadha. Some of his teachings include perennial oneness and the realization of one who is spiritually awake. This saintly figure's work gained further validation for me as I got exposed to other perennial thinkers. The next two chapters will look at the perennial philosophy in depth. CHAPTER 2: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

"...the understanding of life confronts us. " Dilthey,1960,p.89

In this chapter, I will present a brief history of the origin of the term 'the perennial philosophy' and examine the importance of this philosophy to human understanding by drawing on previous and current literature in the field.

In the attempt to simplify matters, human beings created categories for absolutely everything, including the division of divinity. The end-result, ironically, was not simplification but further complication. Gebser (1949) brilliantly remarks in reference to the creation of categories and the impact they have on our state of consciousness, "We have created them but are unable to control them" (p. 290). In this web of categories, the concept of wholeness got lost. "The guiding root metaphor here is the popular Sufi story of the several blind men touching different parts of the same elephant, each insisting that their description accurately depicts the whole" (Ferrer, 2002, p. 79). This fragmented way of living has resulted in negative emotions towards one another, such as hatred, anger and jealousy, which are apparent in acts of violence and war.

Mystics and spiritual thinkers, however, have expressed the wholeness and oneness of the universe in different forms throughout history. The perennial philosophy is one among many interpreted theoretical expressions of the mystic world. Other terms associated with this idea are: theosophy, esoteric philosophy, integral philosophy, and the primordial tradition.

22 23

The Origin of The Perennial Philosophy

"Thou (the human being) art that which is not. I am that lam." St. Catherine of Siena cited in Huxley, 1970, p. 163

The perennial philosophy addresses the paradox of existence; a question under

inquiry since the dawn of human existence. The perennial philosophy offers direction to the confused traveler on the path of understanding as it transcends cultural and religious boundaries. Spiritual beings throughout time and region have contributed to perennial thought thereby giving it a universal and transcendent flavor. The central tenet of the perennial philosophy is the interpenetration of all that there is. "The perennial philosophy holds that all life is connected in an interdependent universe. Stated differently, we experience relatedness through a fundamental ground of being" (Miller,

1996, p. 12). This unity of phenomenon is realized by understanding, as the ancient

Indian Vedas proclaim: Eko Deva Sarvabute (one without a second present everywhere).

The underlying notion of the perennial philosophy has had its roots even before the term, "the perennial philosophy" was formally coined. This is one of the oldest streams of thought found in world mysticism. More than twenty-five centuries have passed since the perennial philosophy was first committed to writing, and in the course of those centuries, it has found expression time and again in various forms. "Pythagoras,

Heraclitus, Parmenides, and Empedocles.. .these four semilegendary.. .Pre-Socratics are the elements, the roots, the rhizomata of the Philosophia Perennis, that organic body of thought which never really had any beginning but to which, in the Western world, Plato was the first to give a full and distinctive articulation" (Olney, 1980, p. 24-25). Aspects of this idea are also found in Vedic and Hebrew writings, in the Tao Te Ching, in the 24

Gospel, in Buddhist scriptures, in Plotinus and the Areopagite, among the Persian Sufis

and the Christian mystics of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance - the perennial

philosophy has spoken almost all the languages (Huxley, 1972). Cicero, for example,

speaking about the existence of the soul after death, mentions that, "these things are the

sanction of universal religion" (Yonge, 1904, xii -xiv). It was the seventeenth century

German philosopher Leibniz, however, who popularized the Latin phrase philosophia perennis. He used it to describe what was needed to complete his study, which was to be

an eclectic analysis of all philosophies, ancient and modern. Ammonius Saccas, founder

of the eclectic theosophical school of Alexandria in the 3rd century A.D. and inspirer of

the Plotinus and the Neoplatonic movement, pursued a similar aim, with the goal of

reconciling differing religious philosophies. Leibniz, however, mentions that he found it

in the writings of a 16th-century theologian, Agostino Steuco, who coined this term to

refer to the philosophia priscorium of Marsilio Ficino, a unifying philosophical system

based on a synthesis of Platonic principles and Christian doctrines (Schmitt, 1966).

Steuco described the perennial philosophy as the originally revealed absolute truth made

available to man before his fall, completely forgotten in that lapse, and only gradually regained in fragmentary form in the subsequent history of human thought (Wiener, 1973).

Prior to Steuco there is, to my understanding, no mention of the term philosophia perennis, although similar phrases expressing essentially the same idea are to be found in earlier spiritual writings. The most notable of these is the perennial wisdom of divinity

"theosophiaperennis" in Latin texts.

The neo-platonists, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas passed down the idea into the Middle Ages (Reinhardt, 1944, p. 17). Influential figures who contributed to the 25 popularity of perennialist ideas in the decades to follow include Madame Blavatsky,

Meister Ekhart, Jacob Boehme, Alan Watts, Richard Burke, Ralph Waldo Emerson,

Frobel, James Moffet, Aostre Johnson, Thomas Armstrong, Alice Bailey, Gurdjieff,

Ouspensky, J. G. Bennet, William James, Swami Vivekananda, Hudson Smith, E. F.

Schumacher, Meher Baba, Thomas Merton, Joseph Campbell and Ken Wilber, to name a few. The perennial philosophy has made its impression on the literary realm in the past half century with the popularized work of Aldous Huxley (1945,1957,1970). He compiled an anthology of the world's mystic traditions which describes many features common to this "philosophy of philosophies" called the perennial philosophy. In his preface, he defines it as follows:

Philosophia Perennis.. .the metaphysic that recognizes a divine Reality substantial to the world of things and lives and minds; the psychology that finds in the soul something similar to, or even identical with, divine Reality; the ethic that places man's final end in the knowledge of the immanent and transcendent Ground of all being - the thing is immemorial and universal. Rudiments of the perennial philosophy may be found among the traditionary lore of primitive peoples in every region of the world, and in its fully developed forms it has a place in every one of the higher religions (Huxley, 1945, p. vii).

The next chapter will further tap into the views of various perennial thinkers that approach this philosophy in their own diverse ways. For now, it is imperative to address what is at the heart of the perennial philosophy - mysticism.

Demystifying Mysticism

"The really important division in the world of spirituality is not the line that separates the individual mainstream religions from each other, but the one that separates all of them from their mystical branches. " Grof, 1988, p. 270

Mystical realization is at the core of the perennial philosophy. It is not solely for the bearer of religious statures as the Buddha himself was not a Buddhist and Christ 26 himself was not a Christian. It is the birth right of all living beings, for mysticism transcends boundaries of all nature. The word 'mystic' that has been associated with the path of understanding existence has its origin in the Greek term 'mystery'. A mystic was one who had been initiated into the mysteries, through which he had gained an esoteric wisdom of divine matters. His object was to break through the world of history and time into that of eternity and timelessness. The method was through initiation ceremonies vividly described by the Latin writer, Apuleius (1904) in The Golden Ass. Through the mysteries, the initiated entered into something holy and numinous that was unspeakable.

The word 'mystery' mysterion comes from the Greek verb muo. The term 'mysticism' stems from the Greek musteion and mistikos, which mean "to close," and more specifically, "to close the eyes and/ or the mouth" (Armstrong, 1993; Bouyer, 1980).

Over the course of time the word 'mysticism', however, denoted an expanded meaning. In that syncretism of Greek and Oriental philosophy which occurred in the centuries immediately preceding the birth of Christ, known as Neoplatonism, it came to mean a particular approach to the whole mystery of reality, in which the intellectual, and more especially the intuitive faculties, came into play. As a result of the fusion of

Christian and Neoplatonist ideas in the early centuries of the Christian era, a system of so-called mystical theology came into existence, which was one of the main foundations of Christian mysticism.

However, there is universality to mysticism. There is a deeper and insightful consciousness. In that state, one apprehends an immanence of the temporal in the eternal and the eternal in the temporal. There is a direct experience of the presence of divinity.

Classic definitions of mysticism explain mystical understanding in terms of an 27 identification with, or direct experience of, the ultimate Ground of Being, which is variously described as God, the Transcendent, the Absolute, the Noumenal, Ultimate

Reality, the Real (Carmody & Carmody, 1996; Hick, 1992; Huxley, 1945; Schuon, 1984,

Underbill, 1955). William James (1958) adds, one of the main marks of "mystical" experience is "ineffability". It is not that form disappears, but rather they lose their limiting aspect, so that each is seen to contain, in some way, all forms. For William

Blake, this meant:

To see a World in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a wild flower Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour.

Or consider this haiku: "One speck of dust contains the whole earth; when one flower opens, the whole world comes into being" (James, 1958, p. 292). Nishitani (1982) writes, "Even the very tiniest thing, to the extent that it "is," displays in its act of being the whole web of circuminsessional interpenetration that links all things together" (p.

150). "This, too, is the profound co-implication of all beings that is part of ecological mindfulness - that each being is implicated in the whole of things and, if we are able to experience it.. .from each being a deep relatedness to all beings can be understood, can be felt, can be adored, can be praised in prayerful grace, a giving thanks (Snyder, 1980, p.

175-185). There is a lovely intermingling of thinking and thanksgiving (Heidegger,

1968).

One can say like St. Paul, in the poem written by F. Myers,

Whoso has felt the spirit of the Highest Cannot confound nor doubt.. .nor deny. Yea with one voice, O world, though thou deniest, Stand thou on that side, for on this am I (cited in Happold, 1970). 28

To an inheritor of centuries of conditioned thoughts, this may seem unknown and incomprehensible. For what we know, or think we know, is dependent on what we are able to know with our very limited range of perception. When this limited range of perception is expanded, the whole horizon of one's being transforms and one realizes one's unrealized being. Mystery in this new state is demystified.

Just as the paths to awakening are many and varied, so too are the accounts of what it means to awaken. As we delve into the rich spiritual literature that is the legacy of the realized, it is as if we are listening to the different instruments that make up an orchestra. All of them have their unique, wondrous sound, yet they meet in playing the same symphony. Spiritual pilgrims throughout time speak of 'waking up from a dream,' communion with the divine, discovering their true nature, or being absorbed into the wonder of oneness. The language of the mystics reflects the cultural and religious flavor of their life. Christian mystics described being filled with the Holy Spirit; Hindus speaks of the discovery of their 'true self.' In the Zen tradition students are encouraged to discover the 'face they wore before they were born'; and in other Buddhist traditions the spiritual journey is described as a path to 'Nirvana.' Mystics do not argue with one another. Beneath the multiplicity of descriptions, spiritual journeys share a celebration of wisdom, freedom, and a profound understanding of the sacred (Feldman, 2001, p. 208, 210).

Spirituality/Religion: An exploration

"There is only one religion, though there are a hundred versions of it." George Bernard Shaw

"River flows through many countries but it's still the same river. " Mulvaney, Nov. 22, 2003

"The fault lies not with the noble religions of humankind but with humankind's abuse of them." Lemkow, 1990, p. 25

"I am not a Muslim, Hindu or Christian. I have seen the two worlds as one and that one called two. No first, last, outer, inner only that breath breathing human being. " Rumi

The dialogue between spirituality and religion was touched upon in the introduction. Here I would like to revisit the topic, as it is relevant to the presented work.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama (1988) notes,

If we view the world's religions from the widest possible viewpoint, and examine their ultimate goal, we find that all of the major world religions.. .are directed to the achievement of permanent human happiness. They are all directed toward that goal.. .To this end, the different world's 29

religions teach different doctrines which help transform the person. In this regard, all religions are the same, there is no conflict (p. 12).

Further, depending on the particular geographical area, various lingual terms are

given to the same realization: Shankara's Advaita Vedanta's Atman-Brahman realization

(Brahmajnana) or Moksha, Vedantic and Theravada Buddhist philosophy's Nirvana,

Mahayana Buddhism's emptiness (sunyata), Zen's satori, (Kaivalyam) isolation in

Samkhya-Yoga, wu in Taoism, Kabbalahism's Ain Soph, unio mystica, theoria, devekut, the list goes on. Grof (1998) explains the diversity of spiritual ultimates: God, Brahman, sunyata, the Void, the Tao, Pure Consciousness, etc., as different ways to experience the same supreme cosmic principle (p. 26). Within a specific religion, there are further distinguishing terms to identify the same awareness depending on the particular group of individuals who form an even further divided sect. For instance,

There are alternative understandings and awarenesses of emptiness even among the various Buddhist schools: From the Ther&vadin pugdala-sunyata (emptiness of the person; existence of the aggregates) to the Mahayana dharma-sunyata (emptiness of the person and the aggregates) and the Madhyamika sunyata-sunyata (emptiness of emptiness). And from Dogen's Buddha-Nature = Impermanence to Nagarjuna's sunyata = pratitya-samutpada or to Yogachara's, Dzog-chen's, and Hua-Yen's more essentialist understandings in terms of Pure Mind, Luminous Presence, or Buddhahood (Tathagatagarbha) (Ferrer, 2002, p. 148).

Spiritual realizations, however, bring forth transcendence of these terms. As a student of the renowned Buddhist monk Ajahn Chah, Ajahn Brahm (2005a) notes, it is not Hinyana or Mahayana, it is Ha Ha yana! After his forty year groundbreaking research into deeper states of consciousness, Grof (1998) also notes that the psyche of each of us is ultimately identical with all of cosmic existence, this conclusion being in agreement with the idea of divine found in the great traditions of the world (p. 3). ".. .all boundaries in the material world are illusionary and the entire universe as we know it, in both its spatial and temporal aspects, is a unified web of events in consciousness" (p. 85). 30

"Nobody is denying that a Buddhist will interpret the luminosity as the

Sambhogakaya, the Christian will interpret it perhaps as an angel or Christ himself, a

Jungian will interpret it perhaps as an archetypal emergence, and so on" (Wilber, 1995a, p. 621). According to Abhishiktananda, the Christian mystic, for instance, after establishing an advaita experience of non-duality, recovers his own individuality in relation to his personal Lord and the world (Comans, 1998, p. 114). A fully awaken one, however, irrespective of his or her physical location "[sees] beyond the veil of multiplicity... that unity which is the origin of all sacred forms" (Nasr, 1996, p. 18), D. T.

Suzuki's popular account of satori as a direct nondual experience is such, "the Zen term satori mean[ing] (literally, to understand) or kensho (to see one's original nature)" (Sharf,

1995, p. 245), (avidya) an undifferentiated consciousness (Woods, 1966, p. 341).

St. John of the Cross, portrays yet another beautiful communion of the expression 'soul' and 'God'. "When God grants this supernatural favor to the soul, so great a union is caused that all the things of both God and the soul become one in participant transformation, and the soul appears to be God more than a soul. Indeed, it is God by participation" (cited in Rodriguez, 1979, p. 117-118).

The ancient Hindu scriptures also articulate that the term Brahman is a non- dualistic expression of all that there is:

In Brahman there is no part. It is for the sake of easy comprehension that parts have been imagined in It.. .But do not, on that account, think that Brahman is a distinct and separate substance from ihejivas (individuals) and the universe.. .The Advaitist says that the universe consists only of name and form. It endures only so long as there are name and form. When, through meditation and other practices, name and form are dissolved, then only the transcendent Brahman remains. Then the separate reality of the jivas and the universe is felt no longer. Then it is realized that that One is the.. .pure Essence.. .Brahman. The real nature of they'z'va is Brahman. This is the substance of pure Advaita. The Vedas, the Vedanta, and all other scriptures only explain this idea in different ways (Swami Vivekananda cited in Chetananda, 1990, p. 248). 31

It is the same theosophia or divine wisdom that was universally given forth by every sage, the 'same exhaustless, secret, eternal doctrine' that the Hindu documented mythological character Krishna had eons ago imparted to Vivasvat (the Sun), and which he then communicated to Arjuna, his 'devotee and friend' (W. Q. Judge, 1969,4:1-3).

This spiritual wholeness is not just a theoretical expression. One experiences this state in moments of just being while meditating, for instance, when one does not feel their physicality even though the awareness of its existence is there and one does not feel attached to anything, even though the awareness of the surroundings is there. In that moment, everything dissolves into oneness, all physical identities and boundaries seem to evaporate into the silence of one's being. In that state, one transcends the intricate ballet between the individual and the universal, which Evelyn Underhill calls "unitive experience" or Thich Nhat Hanh refers to as "inter-being" and John Miller (2005), refers to as "dance of one and many".

For even though the whole appears in the parts and the parts appear in the whole, one cannot be stuck in just either side for one who sees only the parts or only the whole without acknowledging the other, is seeing only one side of the two sided coin. "Cause and effect, means and ends, seed and fruit, cannot be severed; for the effect already blooms in the cause, the end preexists in the means, the fruit in the seed."

("Compensation," Essays: First Series cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 189). William Johnston

(1970) notes his experience while participating in a Zen-Christian dialogue held in Kyoto in 1968. He was overcome with joy seeing the integration of the core values that the individuals involved held irrespective of their religious backgrounds. The significance of deep meditation, humility, spirit of gratitude and peace were topics where all had one 32

heart and soul. He writes, "Indeed it was amazing that such diverse philosophies should

produce such similar experiences" (preface, p. xiii). Merton (1968) explains that the

Christian 'vision of God' and the Buddhist 'enlightenment' could be perhaps considered

the same. ".. .the two have this psychic "limitlessness" in common. And they tend to

describe it in much the same language. It is now "emptiness," now "dark night," now

"perfect freedom," now "no-mind," now "poverty" (p. 8).

Helen Blavatsky (1999) in The Secret Doctrine I, wrote that the teachings,

however fragmentary and incomplete, contained in these volumes, belong neither to the

Hindu, the Zoroastrian, the Chaldean, nor the Egyptian religion; neither to Buddhism,

Islam, Judaism nor Christianity exclusively. The Secret Doctrine is the essence of all

these. Sprung from it in their origins, the various religious schemes are now made to

merge back into their original element, out of which every mystery and dogma has

grown, developed, and become materialized (p. viii). Referring to a historical event

allegorized in the Garden of Eden story, in the myth of the Promethean fire, and also in

the Hindu story of the descent of manasaputras (sons of mind), Blavatsky describes how

divine beings shared their deep-seated message, in the attempt of which their oral

message was many a times misinterpreted. An attempt however is being made at restoring their time-honored wisdom in pockets throughout the world in the form of translations, editions and recensions (Thackara, 1984).

A very crucial point to keep in mind when we discuss spirituality is that the

original spiritual being(s), whose teachings got converted into 'isms' after their physical passing, cannot be held accountable for the end product. It is not the predicament of the

Buddha or Jesus, that many of their contemporaries and descendents did not comprehend 33 their core message. This statement is illustrated in a Hollywood based motion picture

Kpax where an outer planetary visitor comments on his human encounter. He states that

Christ and the Buddha had a different vision and that hardly anybody really understood them. Tolstoy remarks "... Christ cannot be held responsible for the...tradition that has been interwoven with his teaching and presented as Christianity..." (cited in Maude,

1961, p. 131). In referring to Kierkegaard, "He did not doubt the divine grace but felt that his church had betrayed Christ by not sufficiently insisting on his authority and the fundamental offence...what Kierkegaard often called the absurdity-of Christian teaching"

(cited in Kaufmann, 1962, p. 12). This is not uncommon for religions. "All religions have come into existence because people want something elaborate and attractive and puzzling. Each religion is complex, and each sect in each religion has its adherents and antagonists" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 147). However, in transcending, for instance,

.. .you will findtha t every religious movement in the world today is concerned with the being of Christ. The being of Christ can be found, as I once experienced, in a purely Jewish environment, or in any genuinely religious environment. He can be found, whatever name people give Him, even if they do not name Him at all. The being of whom I am trying to speak is not limited to any particular faith; indeed, the faith that names Him may sometimes be His greatest obstacle, because of the hardening that takes place in every religious body (Rev. Adam Bittleston, 1984, p. 105 - 106).

For "[o]nce the sectarian passages are left out, we can recognize that Jesus speaks in harmony with the supreme teachings of all the great religions: the Upanishads, the Tao

Te Ching, the Buddhist sutras, the Zen and Sufi and Hasidic Masters. I don't mean that all these teachings say exactly the same thing. There are many different resonances, emphases, skillful means. But when words arise from the deepest kind of spiritual experience.. .they transcend religious boundaries, and can speak to all people, male and female, bond and free, Greek and Jew" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 9). For "[w]hen we sink to the bottom of our lostness, we can begin to find ourselves" (p. 38). Enlightened beings 34

therefore are constrained neither by their physicality, nor their historical and cultural

juxtaposition. The difference between religion and spirituality therefore lies in one's

perception. Ferrer (2002) succinctly puts it, "Depending on the lens we use to look at the

religious traditions, we can find either striking parallels or drastic differences among their

spiritual path and goals..." (p. 98).

In essence, "Genuine religion is universal, all-inclusive, and all-encompassing. It

has to transcend specific culture-bound archetypal images and focus on the ultimate

source of all forms" (Grof, 1998, p. 24) even though divinity is expressed as Godhood or

Pneuma in Christian mysticism, Brahman in Hinduism, Dharmakaya in Mahayana

Buddhism, the Tao in Taoism, Allah in Sufism, and kether in kabbalah. It is the state of

consciousness where "... the individual comes to feel, beyond any shadow of a doubt,

that he is fundamentally one with the entire universe, with all worlds, high or low, sacred

or profane. His sense of identity expands far beyond the narrow confines of his mind and

body and embraces the entire cosmos. For just this reason, R. M. Bucke referred to this

state of awareness as 'cosmic consciousness.' The Muslim calls it the 'Supreme

Identity,' supreme because it is an identity with the All... [Wilber refers to it as] 'unity

consciousness' - a loving embrace with the universe as a whole." There is much

evidence that this type of experience or knowledge is central to every major religion -

Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism - so that we can justifiably speak of the 'transcendent unity of religions..." (Wilber, 1979, p. 3).

.. .the transcendental essence of the great religions - has as its core the notion of advaita or advaya -'non duality,' which means that reality is neither one nor many, neither permanent nor dynamic, neither separate nor unified, neither pluralistic nor holistic. It is entirely and radically above and prior to any form of conceptual elaboration. It is strictly unqualifiable. If it is to be discussed at all, then, as Stace so carefully pointed out, it must involve paradoxical statements. So, it is true that reality is one, but equally true that it is many; it is transcendent, but also immanent; it is prior to this world, but it is not other to this world-and so on. Sri Ramana Maharshi had a perfect 35

summary of the paradox of the ultimate: 'The world is illusionary; Brahman [or God or Tao or Allah] alone is real; Brahman [or God or Tao or Allah] is the world (Wilber, 1983, p.156).

This understanding can have a vital impact on society, which brings us to the next

section.

The Importance of The Perennial Philosophy Today

"After all an unexamined life is a life not worth living." Socrates

"I, like others, had been brainwashed since infancy, by parents, schools, church... " Mary Caroline Richards, 1973, p. 162

"The unbearable hedonistic delirium of unsated desire in the mass production of consumption as dissatisfaction...The inverted scream in the unrelenting inauthentication of Being...The eye which sees only as directed and assumes sight... The search for joy in the emptiness of consumer pleasure...The disembodied melody which reaches out into the lonely night of technological seduction...Rage turned into a scientific pattern of repressed anger...Loneliness in the dread of being eternally lost... The search for the self which negates the self in which the search never-the-less continues... The jubilant dance of deception. " Arnold Itwaru, 2000, Negative Ecstasy, Cover page

The perennial philosophy can be quintessential to humankind as it may hold the key to the understanding of existence. At least once in life one ponders their existence

and it's meaning in terms of what was before and what will be after. Depending on one's yearning, one is lead in varied directions. Some seek refuge in particular religious institutions in trying to answer their questions, while others play the game of life in different ways. Some raise a family as their purpose, others climb the ladder of recognition and others walk the wild side of society. In Hermann Hesse's (1990) novel

Steppenwolf, Hesse describes his profound search for peace of mind and his conflict between the needs of the flesh and the search for the superman or God within himself.

The perennial philosophy addresses the big questions of existence without being threatening or disrespectful to any of the world religions or ways of life. It touches the common humanity expressed in the form of universal spirituality. In other words, the 36 perennial philosophy is not about proving, it is about embracing the whole. It is not confined to any one particular religion; it embraces, and at the same time transcends all religions, as spirituality knows no bounds.

In addition, humanity continues to witness growing fragmentation of the social fabric with a lost sense of oneness, which makes perennial aspects even more valuable today. The awareness of fragmentation calls for its transcendence. Through perennial understanding, one sees the interpenetration of the whole of existence. This is extremely vital as inner negativity, hostility, anger, jealousy as a result of disconnection with the rest of humankind gets projected in the form of war, killing, violence, broken homes, communal riots, and on a personal level, in the form of mental stress and physical illnesses. The paradox is that there appears to be a real world 'out there', with tangible proof, so how can one possibly be convinced that what their senses perceive is an illusion, and that there is only "one without a second" as the perennial philosophy suggests. One bases one's reality on worldly appearance but does not investigate the source from where all this is coming from. One keeps oneself so occupied with self- created distractions that one does not get the chance to realize interconnectedness.

Further, it is a common condition to be unsatisfied. One goes through their whole life searching for that 'one happiness', that 'one happiness' that will last. Some researchers confirm, "that it would be better to adopt a Zen approach and try to transcend happiness, rather than try to pursue it" (Nelson, 2006, p. 29). One might even say "I love life, I want to come back here into this world again and again" to which one may wonder that if one loves the material existence so much then why is it that one yearns a peace- seeking getaway from it every single day in the form of sleep. For that person, sleep 37 could be considered equivalent to enlightenment at that instance of sleep. When one is sleeping, one is completely detached from each and everything, identity, wealth, every relationship including one's own physical body. Any of these preoccupations can disrupt one's peaceful sleep. For by definition, a peaceful sleep is when nothing of the world bothers one while sleeping. The universal desire for that peaceful sleep is perhaps an inclination that one is seeking a peacefully enlightened state of being.

A person who is completely brainwashed in society will fight all the way to defend him or herself. To remain within the boundary of brainwashing they will completely deny that they have been brainwashed. Unless they open up a little to see another perspective, they will live and die in their current state. Plato's (2003) allegory of the cave explains one's programming in his classic book, The Republic. There is a cave with an opening. One is tied away from the mouth of the cave and is conditioned to believe the illusionary shadows portrayed on the cave wall as the only reality. One cannot turn towards the lit mouth of the cave from where the images are being generated.

Those who escape the cave do not want to go back and live in ignorance and if one goes back to the cave to tell the ignorant of the true reality, that (s)he will be ridiculed and not believed. In other words, the beings in the cave are happily clinging on to their conditioned illusions. The irony is that the beings that are facing the illusionary shadows have the ability within them to turn towards light, but they are bound by their inherent conditioning. John Vernon (1979) notes the conditioned relationship between "I" and language, " .. .1 didn't exist before I had language; that is, the "I" didn't exist, the self, consciousness, my little pocket of identity" (p. 15). Further, he describes in reference to words, "But we are helpless caught in a great swell, a tidal wave, a torrent of words. Yet 38

we know that this torrent is our own making too" (p. 24). Vernon explains the human

dilemma. He notes, " This is because we have become "subjects" and pass through

things in isolation.. .there is an inner life and an outer life, but no connection between

them... We are both divorced from our bodies and driven too deeply into them.

Exploitation and compassion exist side by side, often in the same person, at the same

time" (p. 33 - 36).

One is however capable of opening to know otherwise, which shows one's

potential to be what they 'may be'. When I use the words 'may be' I am not stating it in

terms of a desire to be; it is a state beyond desires.

Because of our experimental willingness to investigate all states of consciousness, we are lead into the philosophia perennis, because it is not really a philosophy based upon speculation, but an experience based upon one of our levels of consciousness, namely, that of Mind (Wilber, 1982, p. 27).

Further, the perennial philosophy can be extremely relevant to society in the form

of education because of its non-threatening quality. It has the potential to enrich and

deepen the teaching and learning experience for students and educators alike by bringing

aspects of compassion, wholeness, humility, and understanding of the big questions of

existence in a safe, comfortable and non-dogmatic environment. Educators can draw on historical figures that embody the perennial philosophy that can act as role models.

Aspects of the perennial philosophy, like meditation and mindfulness, can also be helpful in terms of well-being and improved academic performance.

In essence, this all-encompassing timeless, ageless philosophy may surely be of consequence for those seeking stability today. The perennial philosophy offers a way to quench our ever thirsty souls in a time when the bookstores are bulging with self-help advice from metaphysicians, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social activists etc. 39

This universally time-tested approach by countless mystics nurtures the travelers new to the path of understanding life. These travelers that may include professionally and knowledgeably mature people who are not perhaps spiritually developed.

Whether we yearn for a new birth or for a brief respite from our workaday world, let us follow for a moment the path laid out by these Perennial Philosophers, these vessels of receptivity who no longer saw "through a glass darkly," but through panes made clear by innocence, and became filled with powers, knowing and joys from something beyond ordinary consciousness and their previous conditioning; for here is direct evidence that all humanity has unrealized capacities for self-transcendence and that the limits of consciousness are not fixed(Maste r Monty, 1992).

The perennial philosophy takes one to the deepest core of being where an untapped and uncharted landscape of understanding awaits. This understanding, in turn, can positively impact society at large.

Conclusion

This chapter looked at the perennial philosophy in depth with regards to its origin and significance. An attempt was made to demystify mysticism, which is at the core of the perennial philosophy. The interpenetration of spirituality and religion also was briefly outlined. The next chapter dives into the varied conceptions offered by perennial thinkers for a further understanding of the central tenets of the perennial philosophy. CHAPTER 3: CONCEPTIONS OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY

"... the state of being grasped by the God beyond God, is not a state which appears beside other states of the mind. It never is something separated and definite, an event which could be isolated and described. It is always a movement in, with, and under other states of mind. It is the situation on the boundary of man's possibilities... It is not a place where one can live, it is without the safety of words and concepts, it is without a name, a church, a cult, a theology. But it is moving in the depth of all of them. It is the power of being, in which they participate and of which they are fragmentary expressions." Paul Tillich

The perennial philosophy has been defined and researched by many diverse scholars. This chapter focuses on some of these major approaches: metaphysical, transpersonal, wholeness, transrational, transcendental and spiritual. Followed by these approaches is a personal approach to the perennial understanding. The chapter concludes with a critical analysis of the perennial philosophy.

The Metaphysical Approach: Aldous Huxley

The Merriam Webster dictionary defines metaphysics as the study of what is outside objective experience, relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses. Aldous Huxley (1894 - 1963) in his celebrated book The

Perennial Philosophy, attempts to capture such an overview of the mystical world by amalgamating and presenting a plethora of literary extracts from the sacred traditions.

Some of the common aspects among the traditions that he details in his work are understanding, awakening, non-attachment, compassion, goodness, silence and positive action.

The core of the perennial philosophy, according to Huxley, can be narrowed down to three grounds:

40 41

1. This phenomenal world of matter and individual consciousness is only a partial

reality and is the manifestation of a Divine Ground in which all realities have their

being. In Mahayana Buddhism, the Divine Ground is called Mind or the Pure

Light of the Void. For many Christian mystics, including Eckhart and

Ruysbroeck, there is an Abyss of Godhead underlying the Trinity. Similarly, in

Hinduism, the Divine Ground is Brahman, and Brahman underlies Brahma,

Vishnu and Shiva (the trinity symbolizing the beginning, sustenance, destruction).

Sufi texts conceive al haqq, the Real, as being the Divine Ground or Unity of

Allah, underlying the active and personal aspects of the Godhead (Aldous Huxley,

2002).

2. The nature of man is seemingly dual. There is an ego that one is chiefly

conscious of and which is essentially regarded as true self; and an unrealized, not-

self: a divine essence. It is possible for one to identify with this dormant not-self,

the divine ground by direct experience, a state that is deeper than discursive

reasoning. This premise is found in all the world religions. According to the

Buddha, a seeker who is content merely to know about the Ultimate, theoretically,

is compared to a herdsman of others' cows. For Mohammed, the seeker who has

not realized what (s) he has learned about the spiritual path is just an ass bearing a

load of books. Christian, Hindu, Taoist teachers wrote no less insistently about

the pretensions of mere theoretical learning. According to the Anglican Prayer

Book, one's eternal life, now and hereafter stands in the knowledge of God, and

this knowledge is not discursive, but of the heart, a super-rational intuition, direct,

synthetic and timeless (Huxley, 2002). However, "it is important to realize the 42

diversity of methods used to come in contact with the unity and not assign priority

to any one method or practice" (Ferrer, 2002 cited in Miller, 2006, p. 19).

3. It is the ultimate end of one's earthly existence to discover and identify with one's

divine self, the unitive knowledge of the Divine Ground, to find out who and what

one really is. When pursued, one eventually sees all phenomena as it really is,

and not as it appears to be. One enters into a state of being which has been given

different terms such as liberation, salvation, eternal life, enlightenment, etc. In

that state of being, the knower/known, seeker/sought, self/other, one/many duality

dissipates leading to an all-abiding compassionate presence. In it is the

realization of one in all and all in one, one's own suchness is then visualized as

God (Huxley, 1962).

Huxley (1945) views the Sanskrit phrase from the ancient Upanishads 'tat tvam asi'

'That Art Thou' as central to the perennial philosophy. This phrase signifies the realization of oneness of the divine self and all existence. St. Catherine of Genoa is quoted saying, "My Me is God, nor do I recognize any other Me except my God

Himself (Huxley, 1945, p. 11). Bayazid of Bistun notes, "I went from God to God, until they cried from me in me, "O Thou I!" (p. 12). Ruysbroeck posits, ".. .we can speak no more.. .of any creature, but only of one Being...there were we all one before our creation, for this is our super-essence" (p. 31).

When one looks closely at the interpreted scriptures of the world's great traditions, one sees the reoccurrence of the essential 'perennial' themes. The most primary one is that there is a center of one's being that one can realize. Bishop John

Shelby Spong (2005) demonstrates the perennial theme brilliantly in Christ's teachings. 43

Divinity, he says, is within life. God is in human life, not between two people but within them. True Christianity moves from the tribal to the universal. Spong points out that this message of Christ's teaching is often misinterpreted. The awareness of divinity within is further revealed in the New Testament: King James Version as "know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit lives in you."

Pope John Paul II posited, during his visit to Toronto, Ontario, that Jesus lives in each one of our hearts (July 25, 2002). The New Testament notes, "I pray that they may all be one.. .May they be in us, just as you are in me and I am in you" (John 17:21-23).

"Be still and recognize that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). "Commune with your own heart.. .and be still" (Psalm 4:4). The element of 'beingness' is found common in God and all, according to St. Thomas who notes, (Exodus 3:13-14) "when the Lord told

Moses to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked Him, "If they should say to me,

'What is his name?' What shall I say to them?' And the Lord answered him: "Thus shalt thou say to them, 'He who Is,' hath sent me to you" (Klauder, 1994, p. 271). St. Bernard further posits, "Nothing is more appropriate to the eternity which God is. If you call God good, or great, or blessed or wise, or anything else of this sort, it is included in these words, namely, He is" (Huxley, 1945, p. 24).

The Transpersonal Approach: Ken Wilber

"it is not that an individual is first an ego and then may become a Buddha - it is that he was first Buddha and then became an ego." Ken Wilber, The Atman Project Ken Wilber (1949 - present) views the perennial philosophy as a transpersonal dialogue. "Transpersonal theory is concerned with the study of the transpersonal and spiritual dimensions of human nature and existence. Etymologically, the term 44

transpersonal means beyond or through (trans-) the personal, and is generally used in the

transpersonal literature to reflect concerns, motivations, experiences, developmental

stages.. .modes of being, and other phenomena that include but transcend the sphere of

the individual personality, self, or ego.. .The ultimate aim of the transpersonal vision is to

bring forth a transpersonal world" (Ferrer, 2002, p. 5, 7). After examining more than two

hundred definitions of transpersonal psychology, Lajoie and Shapiro (1992) conclude that

this area "is concerned with the study of humanity's highest potential, and with the

recognition, understanding, and realization of unitive, spiritual, and transcendent states of

consciousness" (p. 91). ".. .transpersonal phenomena can be more adequately understood

as multilocal participatory events (i.e., emergences of transpersonal being that can occur

not only in the locus of an individual, but also in a relationship, a community, a collective

identity, or a place)" (Ferrer, 2002, p. 116).

Ken Wilber is one of the foremost transpersonal thinkers of contemporary times.

Wilber describes the essence of his 'perennial' thought, which he terms as psychologia perennis as understanding that one's "...'innermost' consciousness is identical to the

absolute and ultimate reality of the universe" (Wilber, 1993, p. 22). Wilber (1983) notes

that the knowing of the absolute does not involve any magnificent experience but rather

the transcendence of the subject/object, experiencer/experienced mode, 'the death of the

watcher principle' as he calls it. In that state the Self no longer contemplates divinity, it becomes divinity. In his work, Wilber uses the ancient Greek idea of the Kosmos, which he defines as including the cosmos (physiosphere), the bios (biosphere), the psyche

(Teilhard de Chardin's 'noosphere') and theos (theosphere). He also builds on Arthur

Koestler's idea of the holon, which is both a whole and a part, depending on the level of 45 analysis. Thus the heart is a whole, but also a part of the body. Wilber developed theories that attempt to explain the perennial paradox of one and many for which he has not been spared of criticism.

He also introduced the idea of a four quadrant analysis, which refers to the interior-individual, the exterior-individual (i.e. the individual as subject and object, or the aspects of depth and surface), the interiorcollective (cultural) and the exteriorcollective

(social). Wilber uses his quadrant scheme to show the emphasis that is often placed by theorists on one quadrant, whilst ignoring the integration of all quadrants as consciousness. According to Wilber (2006), consciousness extends throughout all quadrants.

The methodologies that purport to give us a 'theory of consciousness,' but which investigate only one quadrant (not to mention only one level in one quadrant) are clearly not giving us an adequate account of consciousness at all. Rather, an 'all-quadrant, all-level' approach holds the only chance of an authentic and integral theory of consciousness, if such indeed exists (Wilber, 1997a, p. 91).

He further postulates two kinds of thinkers, the Ascenders and the Descenders.

The ascenders as the term suggests move from the concept of many to one, towards wisdom and transcendence. Yet many of these kinds of thinkers fail to see that the world of phenomenon is itself an expression of the spirit. The descenders, on the other hand, move from one to many, focusing on immanence that encompasses compassion for all beings. The categorical collapse of the Kosmos, the exterior and the interior dimensions, the integration of these two polarities is crucial. Such an integration is evident in Plato and Plotinus's work. Wholeness of this nature is liberating and akin to Huxley's view on perennialism. When a person rediscovers that his deepest Nature is one with the All, he is relieved of the burdens of time, of anxiety, of worry; he is released from the chains of alienation and separate self-existence. Seeing that self and other are one, he is released 46

from the fear of life; seeing that being and non-being are one, he is delivered from the

fear of death (Wilber, Up from Eden cited in White, 1995).

The integrating aspect of Wilber's work is also derived from the ancient non- dualistic perennial teachings, which expresses human nature to be identical with the One- in-All in the now. Wilber states that spirit knows itself objectively as nature; knows itself subjectively as mind; and knows itself absolutely as Spirit - the one Source. This is a process where one moves from pre-personal to personal to transpersonal (Lorimer, 1996), thus being in a state of ever present no-boundary awareness (Wilber, 1981, p. 55).

Like Huxley, Wilber (1995,1997) has brilliantly incorporated in his work, a vast collection of excerpts and ideas of the great mystics of spiritual traditions. For instance, he writes about the thought that the more one searches for the absolute, the more one moves away from the absolute (the transpersonal absolute being not quantifiable yet filling of everywhere).

.. .real self within is actually the real world without, and vice versa. The subject and the object, the inside and outside, are and always have been one. There is no primary boundary. The world is my body, and what I am looking out of is what I am looking at. Because the real self resides neither within nor without, because the subject and object are actually not-two, the mystic can speak of reality in many different but only apparently contradictory ways. He can say that in all reality there are no objects whatsoever. Or, he might state that reality contains no subjects at all. Or he can deny the existence of both subject and object. Or he may speak of an Absolute Subjectivity which transcends yet includes both the relative subject and the relative object. All of these are simply various ways of saying that the inside world and the outside world are just two different names for the single, ever-present state of no boundary awareness (Wilber, 1981, p. 58).

Wilber (1982) further resonates with the mystics of the world that suggest that one's everyday and ordinary conscious, whether they are working, crying, laughing, or intensely suffering is the Tao or Brahman or Buddha or Godhead and that nature is seen in every person, place or thing. The no-level of mind is not a level set apart from other levels, for that would mean the mind is limited. "Mind is rather the all-inclusive yet dimensionless reality of which each level represents an illusionary deviation.. .Brahman 47 is not a particular experience, level of consciousness or state of soul-rather it is precisely whatever level you happen to have now..." (p. 298). This mind being everywhere cannot be however found, "for that would imply a movement from a place where Mind is absent to a place where it is present-but there is no place where it is absent. Mind, being everywhere present, abides in no particular place where we can finally grab it. The no- level of Mind, therefore, we can never attain. But then, neither can we escape it. If Mind or Tao or Godhead is the state that we are ardently searching, and yet outside Mind there is absolutely nowhere to go, it follows that we are already there! That we are already one with the Godhead, that what we are Now is Mind" (Wilber, 1982, p. 299-300). You are already enlightened. Realize it (Wilber, 1995a).

To support Wilber's claims, I use Stephen Mitchell (1991) who offers a remarkable interpretation of Jesus' perennial teaching in his book called The Gospel

According to Jesus. In it, he notes that like all the great spiritual teachers, Jesus taught one essential thing and that is presence. "Ultimate reality, the luminous, compassionate intelligence of the universe, is not somewhere else, in some heaven light-years away. It didn't manifest itself any more fully to Abraham or Moses than to us, nor will it be any more present to some Messiah at the far end of time. It is always right here, right now.

That is what the Bible means when it says that God's true name is I am" (p. 10). For

"God is to be found not in the should be, but in the is" (p. 27). The holy spirit is our undivided deepest selves, sin against the holy spirit is alienating that self, who we really are (Mitchell, 1991). The Christian trappist, Thomas Merton (1968) confirms,

.. .there is something in the soul so closely akin to God that is already one with him and need never be united to him.. .Yet we must immediately add that it is only in this highest unity that we finally discover the dignity and importance even of our "earthly self which does not exist apart from it, but in it and by it. The tragedy is that our consciousness is totally alienated from this 48

inmost ground of our identity. And in Christian mystical tradition, this inner split and alienation is the real meaning of "original sin" (p. 11-12).

In terms of the creation story in the bible, "We are the offspring of God and thus the actual bearers of Divine Breath or Spirit" (Harpur, 1998, p. 87).

As embodiment of the perennial philosophy and akin to the Buddha, Jesus' portrait emerges in the Gospels as a being that has transcended desires, doctrines and all the mental baggage. "Because he has let go of the merely personal, he is no one, he is everyone.. Jesus, like the Buddha, was a man who had awakened from all dreams"

(Mitchell, 1991, p. 11, 13). "Jesus said: I am the light which is over everything. I am the

All; from me the All has gone forth, and to me the All has returned. Split wood: I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there" (Sohl and Carr, 1970, p. 72). "We should understand that the T of these passages is not the personal T, but the great, transpersonal T of the Atman, the T of Buddha-consciousness" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 70).

"[Jesus] was pure light, pure life, cause and effect working in perfect concert. 'The

Father and I are one.' He had given up all ideas of T and 'mine' (Ramana Maharshi cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 294). The Hindu expression of divinity resonates a similar tone, "No one belongs to me; I belong to no one. There is no T or 'mine'; all is blissful aloneness" (Excerpt from Mahabharata cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 195).

The Wholeness Approach: Anna Lemkow

Anna Freifeld Lemkow (1917 - present) approaches the perennial philosophy from the standpoint of wholeness similar to Huxley and Wilber. She views its principle theme as:

.. .the oneness and unity of all life; the all-pervasiveness of ultimate Reality or the Absolute; the multi-dimensionality or hierarchical character of existence... the Absolute transcends all apparent 49

separateness; it is indescribable, ineffable and unknowable. Though it lies beyond all thought, it is not remote, but resides within the human heart, "closer than hands and feet." Thus Non-Being is the source of all being (Lemkow, 1990, p. 23-24).

Unlike Huxley, Lemkow however, elaborates on the often misunderstood

perennial term 'absolute' or 'nondualistic'. She clarifies that the idea embraces not only

synthesis but multiplicity and diversity as well. Absolute, in that sense, is not

quantifiable in terms of one universal truth, rather, it is the interpenetration of the

infinitesimal and infinite, the universal and the particular. For instance, as the particular

identifies with other beings, Lemkow (1990) notes, "the greater will be my personal

fulfillment and self-realization. And I identify with others because we share something - that which is universal in us. Perennial philosophy holds that one feels unity with others when one feels harmonious within oneself, and vice versa" (p. 31). Lemkow views the whole of evolution as a unified sacred process, which is akin to Wilber's (1981a) idea that "evolution is holistic" (p. 304-305). Lemkow (1990) takes a step further to ground this approach of wholeness in scientific understandings that uncover the infinitesimal particles and human beings all capable of intercommunicating, not only locally, but also, instantaneously, beyond space and time. Lemkow extends this wholeness that pervades existence as "the key to self and world understanding" (p. 38).

According to her, "perennial philosophy leaves no room for religious or ideological dogmatism" (p. 28). It is an "an open ended wisdom whose meaning is expanding during the course of time, and which in fact requires continuing reformulation in terms consonant with the growth of knowledge" (p. 130). Lemkow's perennial understanding involves the interconnection of science, spirituality and society.

As I see it, we, the human denizens of our planet, are involved in a whole concatenation of mutually-reinforcing developments, with far-reaching implications for all life on earth as well as for human consciousness... This globality illustrates remarkably a fundamental proposition of the 50

perennial philosophy, namely, that the different dimensions of existence, including the spiritual and moral, the mental, emotional and physical, are inextricably and dynamically interrelated. As yet the interdependencies seem to exacerbate discord, competitiveness and conflict among the groups and nations concerned more often than not. Nevertheless this ubiquitous condition is perceptibly influencing the thinking and behavior of nations in a positive way as well, if only out of sheer self-interest. The different nations and peoples are increasingly compelled and motivated to support the entire collectivity. In the longer run, unless we annihilate ourselves, the imperatives in our sharing one small planet will serve powerfully, especially in combination with certain other profound trends, to promote and foster a tolerant, broader, more inclusive perspective - eventually a planetary consciousness (1990, preface, xiii - xiv).

For Lemkow (2000), the manifested universe is wholeness, life within life,

interpenetration and reflective of myriad lives even though each life is specific and

unique. She insists that wholeness is viewed neither as a dogma nor an ideology but a

living, dynamic, all-pervasive principle. In other words, creeds and ideologies can be

controversial, while a living principle cannot be; wholeness could not raise objections or

offend anyone - either believers or nonbelievers, scientists or mystics, philosophers or

artists. In addition, this principle process is profoundly based on scientific, psychological, moral, philosophical, aesthetic, and spiritual grounds.

In addition, she notes, "Perennial philosophy (like depth and transpersonal psychology) recognizes that thought power is possessed by all. And it is probably the most potent power we have, for it is able to change the course of history and the lives of individuals" (p. 288). This understanding can have striking implications for humanity, for it is this thought power that divides or brings together divinity and individuality.

Meister Eckhart affirms, "[t]o get at the core of God at his greatest, one must first get into the core of himself at his least, for no one can know God who has not first known himself.. .If it is true that God became man, it is also true that man became God.. .and so.. .you haven't got to borrow from God, for he is your own and therefore, whatever you get, you get from yourself (Sohl and Carr, 1970, p. 90 - 91). This wholeness is echoed 51 in the Hindu's Bhagavad Gita as "The supreme reality exists within himself (6:5).

"Supreme bliss comes to the seeker whose mind is completely tranquil and whose passions are quieted, who is free from stain and who has become one with God" (6:27).

"He who, having been established in oneness, worships me dwelling in all beings - that

Yogi, in whatever way he leads his life, lives in Me" (6:31). A mental transformation that reveals the true self is evident, according to the New Testament the path opens when one puts off the old self with its habits and puts on the new Self (Col 3:9). St. John of the

Cross posits, "The soul that is attached to anything, however much good there may be in it, will not arrive at the liberty of divine union.. .held by the bonds of human affections, however slight they may be, cannot, while they last, make its way to God" (Huxley,

1945, p. 105). The Bhagavad Gita notes that for one who has conquered oneself, that self s own Self is a friend (6:6). Therefore, the sword of wisdom eliminates doubt about the Self. For I am the Self, seated in the hearts of all creatures. The Hindu chant the

Siddha Mantra reiterates, Om Namah Shivaya, which means, T honor the inner Self.

The main teaching of the ancient Indian Yoga Vasistha confirms, "that everything is consciousness, including the material world, and that the world is as you see it.. .the world is nothing but the play of Consciousness" (Paramahamsa Swami Muktananada, forward, v, cited in Venkatesananda, 1984).

The Transcendental Approach: Ralph Waldo Emerson

"/ believe in the omni-presence; that is; that the all is in each particle; that entire Nature reappears in every leaf and moss. I believe in Eternity - that is that I can find Greece and Palestine and Italy and England and the Islands - the genius and creativity of each and all eras in my own mind." Ralph Waldo Emerson 52

In response to a higher personal calling, and in order to transcend the confines of

institutionalized forms of religion, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) adopted

transcendentalism. As the term suggests, transcendentalism addressed perennial

questions of existence. According to biographer, Robert Richardson (1995), Emerson postulated eight propositions that underlay his transcendental approach to the perennial philosophy (p. 255).

Proposition One: "There is one mind common to all individual humans."

Underneath the social differences, all humans have the potentiality for self-discovery.

Emerson refers to 'Over-Soul', which represents wholeness of all. The universe and the multiple individual beings within it are the temporary externalized expression of this

soul. Within us is this soul of the whole, the wise silent witness, the Eternal One. It is this soul that circumscribes all things. The notion of 'transcendentalism' is derived from this oneness that transcends and infuses all the parts. The individual whether conscious of it or not, is one with this transcendence. Emerson's idea of transcendentalism emerged from the ancient Greek 'philosophy of idealism'.

Proposition Two: "There is a relation between mankind and nature so that whatever is in matter is in mind."

As stated in proposition two, there is no separation between matter and mind.

"The sailor and the ship and the sea are of one stuff." (Emerson cited in Richardson,

1995, p. 408). Emerson further beautifully posits,

.. .the heart in thee is the heart of all; not a valve, not a wall, not an intersection is there anywhere in nature, but one blood rolls uninterruptedly, an endless circulation through all.. .as the water of the globe is all one sea, and, truly seen, its tide is one (cited in Atkinson, 2000, p. 249).

Proposition Three: "It is a necessity of human nature that it should express itself outwardly and embody its thought. " 53

For one is what one's inner nature and thoughts are. Those thoughts in turn are the ideas

of the Universal Mind expressing itself.

Proposition Four: "It is the constant endeavor of the mind to idealize the actual, to accommodate the shows of things to the desires of the mind."

The mind strives to make the external world conform to its inner mental ideals. Further,

the whole being present in the parts, desires to express itself via its manifestation, akin to

the knowledge of the whole body being present and active in each microscopic cell.

Proposition Five: "It is the constant tendency of the mind to unify all it beholds, or to reduce the remotest facts to a single point."

The mind is endlessly striving to unify fragments. Einstein is a good example for

instance, who tried to bring all the theories of physics together into one unified field

theory. One yearns for wholeness, as that is one's original state of being. Emerson

points out that beingness is passing as appearance and unity as variety (Atkinson, 2000,

p. 293).

Proposition Six: There is a parallel tendency/corresponding unity in nature, which makes this [unification] just, as in the composition of a compound shell or leaf or animal from few elements.

Combining this with proposition four and five, nature is a reflection of the inner unrealized state of being. Therefore, what is witnessed in nature is the yearning of the

inner self. The display of simplicity and unity in nature parallels the inner yearning.

.. .nature is always self-similar. In the plant, the eye or germinative point opens to a leaf, with a power of transforming the leaf into radicle, stamen, pistil, petal, bract, sepal, or seed. The whole art of the plant is still to repeat leaf on leaf without end (Emerson cited in Richardson, 1995, p. 415-16).

Proposition Seven: There is the tendency to "separateparticulars " and magnify them, from which come "all false views and particular sects."

Ironically, while one yearns to connect with wholeness or Over-Soul, one is at the same time seeking for separation and fragmentation. In the attempt to tear the part from the 54

whole and to make that torn off part into the whole, there is a continual struggle between

the self and self, self and other. It is this inner conflict that leads to false views of self

and others. Emerson notes, "The blindness of the intellect begins when it would be

something of itself. The weakness of the will begins when the individual would be

something of himself' (cited in Atkinson, 2000, p. 238).

Proposition Eight: The remedy for all abuses, all error in thought or practice, is the conviction that underneath all appearances and causing all appearances are certain eternal laws which we call the Nature of Things.

Emerson's final proposition provides a solution to the inner conflict that takes us back to proposition one, as T. S. Elliot would say, to the place we began and to know it yet again

for the first time, the realization of the Universal Mind out of which all the parts emerge.

Emerson once again eloquently puts it,

We are a stream whose source is hidden. Always our being is descending into us from we know not whence.. .1 am constrained every moment to acknowledge a higher origin for events than the will I call mine.. .From within or from behind, a light shines through us upon things and makes us aware.. .the light is all.. .When it breathes through the intellect, it is genius; when it breathes through the will, it is virtue; when it flows through the affections, it is love.. .Every moment when the individual feels invaded by it, is memorable. The soul's health consists in the fullness of its reception (cited in Atkinson, 2000, p. 236).

Emerson's approach to the perennial philosophy may be considered akin to the Vedic teachings of Non-duality oxAdvaita.

The Transrational Approach: Jorge Ferrer

Jorge Ferrer's (2002,2007) approach to the perennial philosophy is an amalgamation of transrational, transpersonal and transcendental understandings. He offers rational explanations to transcending rationality. He suggests, ".. .expand our 55

consciousness and enter the space of transrational modes of being and cognition" (2002,

p. 189).

Further, in the attempt, he clarifies the different fundamental religious

perspectives:

Dogmatic exclusivism: my religion is the only true one, the rest must be false.

Hierarchical inclusivism: my religion is the most accurate or complete, the rest must be

lower or partial and Ecumenical pluralism: there may be differences between our

religions, but all must ultimately lead to the same end (2002, p. 165).

Ferrer believes that once religious traditions rationally withdraw from thinking of

themselves as superior or closer to the so-called perceived 'truth', individuals can

encounter each other in the spirit of open and non-threatening dialogue and communal

transformation. "In this light, the threatening snake we saw in the basement can now be

recognized as a peaceful and connecting rope" (2002, p. 166). Ferrer echoes Huxley,

Wilber, Lemkow and Emerson in saying that in spite of the few visible differences, the

essential core of all world religions is wholeness (Vroom, 1989, Ingram, 1997, Ferrer,

2002), humility, compassion, wisdom, awareness of one's divinity.

...it is possible to identify certain elements common to most contemplative traditions (some form of attentional training, certain ethical guidelines, and intentional moving away from self- centeredness, a sense of the sacred, etc.).. .the common ocean to which most spiritual traditions lead is.. .the Ocean of Emancipation, a radical shift in perspective that involves the deconstruction of the Cartesian ego, the eradication of self-imposed suffering, and the rise of selfless perception, cognition, and action (Ferrer, 2002, p. 111, 149).

Ferrer, however, coined the term "relaxed universalism" to explain the dance of

singularity and plurality that Huxley, Lemkow, Wilber and Emerson attempted to present.

Ferrer (2002) calls the approach 'relaxed' with a 'participatory vision', where plurality is

invited and ".. .subject and object, knowing and being, epistemology and ontology, are brought together in the very act of participatory knowing" (p. 122). 56

Akin to the above thinkers, Ferrer (2002) also focuses on the practical

implications of the perennial philosophy for society. ".. .it has often been stressed in the

religious literature, the goal of the spiritual quest is not to have spiritual experiences, but to stabilize spiritual consciousness, live a spiritual life, and transform the world

accordingly" (p. 37). He notes "many transpersonalists, as well as some naturally gifted

individuals who, even operating in the context of the experiential vision, are sharply

aware of these issues and clearly are involved in genuine processes of spiritual transformation: moving away from spiritual narcissism and integrating spiritual insights into their everyday lives towards the emancipation of self, community, and world" (p.

38). He therefore views the importance of grounding the perennial philosophy and its validity in "its emancipatory and transformative power for self, relationships, and world"

(p. 65).

The Spiritual Approach: Roger Walsh

Similar to the perennial thinkers mentioned here, Roger Walsh (1999) believes that the terms used "differ from one tradition to another, but their central message is the same" (p. 9). He too, attempts to incorporate the essential teachings of the world wisdoms in his work. Walsh echoes Huxley particularly in the propositions that underlie the perennial philosophy:

1. There are two realms of reality.

2. Human beings partake of both realms.

3. Human beings can recognize their divine spark and the sacred ground that is

the source. 57

4. Realizing our spiritual nature is the summum bonum: the highest goal and

greatest good of human existence (Walsh, 1999).

The world scriptures are filled with metaphorical examples that attempt to explain

wholeness by means of dual terminology, such as 'God' and 'Human'. Lao-tzu talks

about the God beyond God while explaining the vision of wholeness, the current that

flows through all things. The Buddha talks about surpassing Mara to reveal the original

compassionate all encompassing mind. Similarly, Jesus talks metaphorically about the kingdom of God. Mitchell (1991) goes through elaborate detail to bring across what

Jesus intended to say when he spoke about the kingdom of God. Mitchell interprets that

Jesus was referring to a state of being, a way of unshakable living among joys and

sorrows. This state of being is not something alien. One doesn't need to receive it as it is already there. Many lose it at times but it doesn't disappear for good, it is always there to be reclaimed. To reclaim this great freedom, Jesus points out what is needed is a continual surrender to the moment and not living in the past or future and allowing one's heart to become pure and non-judgmental. It is this experience that Jesus calls 'entering the kingdom of God', just as the Buddha would consider it 'enlightenment'.

And someone asked [Jesus], 'When will the kingdom of God come?' And he said, "The kingdom of God will not come if you watch for it. Nor will anyone be able to say, 'It is here' or 'It is there.' For the kingdom of God is within you (Mitchell, 1991, p. 104).

The kingdom of God could be likened to yeast that one took and mixed with dough, until all of it was leavened (Mitchell, 1991). Now if one can realize that the kingdom of God is already here and can be found within, one may begin to make heaven on earth, for

".. .he will find that he has been inside the kingdom of God all along" (p. 249). Mitchell summarizes the metaphor brilliantly, 58

...a condition of the heart - not something that comes 'above the earth' or 'after death'...The kingdom of God isn't something that one waits for; it has no yesterday and no tomorrow, it doesn't come in 'a thousand years'- it is an experience that takes place inside the heart; it is everywhere, it is nowhere (p. 291-292).

Jesus lived the "unity of God and man as his 'good news'...and not as a special

privilege!" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 272). The integration of divinity and individuality is

further witnessed as,

.. .the sins I commit against others ultimately derive from the sin I commit against myself: I think myself down into a petty, unworthy, miserable creature and lose sight of my original magnificence. As for a sin against God, there is no such thing. Do the clouds sin against the sunlight? (p. 75).

Emerson points out, "Christ preaches the greatness of Man, but we hear only the

greatness of Christ" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 284). Henry David Thoreau writes, "We

check and repress the divinity that stirs within us, to fall down and worship the divinity

that is dead without us" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 286). There is nothing one needs to

do to deserve it, all one needs to do is return. Leo Tolstoy summarizes that Jesus'

essential teaching is not about how the world was created or will be destroyed, it is about how to live the life one has in this moment. We are advised to treat others as we wish them to treat us (Mitchell, 1991). In other words, we should see ourselves in others and thereby seeing the wholeness of all things akin to the vision of Buddha, Lao Tzu and all spiritual masters. "See yourself in others. Then whom can you hurt? What harm can you do?" (Dhammapada, 129-130). All the great religious traditions, have suggested the perennial message of 'the one compassionate presence as the only reality' (Mitchell,

1991).

Other interpreted perennial scriptural fragments may be added, however, in agreement with Walsh (1999). Different types of scriptures are not so different when properly understood. An enlightened being, irrespective of regional location, is akin to 59

any other enlightened being. Gandhi brilliantly sums it up: "The forms are many, but the

informing spirit is one.. .the final goal of all religions is to realize this essential oneness"

(cited in Rripalani, 1980, p. 63). "When we are ready to receive it, it is there. And the

more we live in its presence, the more effortlessly it flows through us, until we find that

we no longer need external rules or Bibles or Messiahs" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 15).

Roger Walsh (1999) takes a step further by explicitly outlining spiritual

experiential and practical exercises that one can bring into one's daily life to encompass perennial understandings. He narrows down the many spiritual practices to "seven that

are common to authentic religions and that we can therefore call perennial practices" (p.

9).

The seven perennial practices are:

1. Transform your motivation: reduce craving and find your soul's desire.

2. Cultivate emotional wisdom: heal your heart and learn to love.

3. Live ethically: feel good by doing good.

4. Concentrate and calm your mind.

5. Awaken your spiritual vision: see clearly and recognize the sacred in all things.

6. Cultivate spiritual intelligence: develop wisdom and understand life.

7. Express spirit in action: embrace generosity and the joy of service (p. 14).

Throughout his exploration with the seven practices, Walsh encourages learning and living the practices, rather than just believing in them. He urges us to consider the practices with an open mind and willingness to experiment. Educators as well as students can incorporate perennialism into the classroom setting offering growth and depth to their paths via these practices. 60

The Personal Approach to Perennial Understanding

"Infinity is our Home. We are just sojourning awhile in the caravanserai of the body- Arise from dreams of limiting mortal boundaries to the realization of the vastness of the immortal soul within you." Paramahansa Yogananda

"In the face of reality's illumination there is neither self nor other, No duality, no division-void of identity and yet neither void Nor not void, there's no perceiver at all." Saint Milarepa cited in Schmidt, 2002

"The inside world is the macrocosm and the outside world is the microcosm." Sufi saying

"It is not so much that you are within the cosmos as that the cosmos is within you." Meher Baba, Life at its Best

"Buddha is mind, mind is Buddha." Choline, 2003, p. 68

Drawing from the various approaches to the perennial philosophy, I view a threefold model of overlapping states of being as personifying the underlying elements of perennial understanding.

State of Understanding State of Realization State of Transimmanence

State of Understanding: One begins to understand the workings of the mental phenomenon, the resultant manifestation in the form of the world where oneness gets portrayed as multiplicity in accordance with Ken Wilber, Anna Lemkow and Ralph 61

Emerson. In my view, this is a vital threshold on the path of existential understanding.

This chapter reflects this state.

State of Realization: One further realizes and experiences deeper insights via inner work

in accordance with Roger Walsh. I will discuss this further in chapter seven where

understanding meets practice.

State of Transimmanence: A term coined here to represent transcendence of all duality

between mind/universe, inner/outer, self/other, singular/multiple etcetera, while living in

the physical realm and emanating infinite compassion, humility, awareness and

realization in accordance with Aldous Huxley and Roger Walsh. Chapter eight will be

devoted to this state of existence.

With regards to the state of understanding, I concur with Huxley (1962) when he

says, "Nobody needs to go anywhere else. We are all, if we only knew it, already there.

If I only knew who in fact I am, I should cease to behave as what I think I am; and if I

stopped behaving as what I think I am, I should know who I am.. .Liberation, the ending

of sorrow, ceasing to be what you ignorantly think you are and becoming what you are in

fact" (p. 38,169). ".. .the thing known is in the knower according to the mode of the

knower" (Huxley, 1970,146).

How do you get there? You don't get there. There comes to you.

Or rather there is really here (Huxley, 1962, p. 88).

Albertus Magnus notes, "To mount to God is to enter into oneself. For he who mounts

and enters and goes above and beyond himself, he truly mounts up to God. The mind must then raise itself above itself and say, He who above all I need is above all I know" 62

(cited in Huxley, 1970, p. 111). Joseph Pearce (1993) adds, "The triune brain displays

our universe, created within, projected without, and we enter into that creation, identify

with it, lose ourselves to it.. .While the silent point of origin we seek, the Spanda and our

Self silently witnessing it all, lies, of course, only within" (p. 51). In a chapter by

Michael Talbot (1992) 'Pribram Encounters Bohm' in his book titled The Holographic

Universe, Talbot talks about David Bohm as one, "who claims that the entire universe is

a hologram confirming Karl Pribram's doubt of what the mystics had been saying for

centuries, reality is maya, an illusion, and what was out there was really a vast, resonating

symphony of wave forms, a frequency domain that was transformed into the world as we

know it only after it enters our senses" (p. 31). Based on the Buddhist text,

Dhammapada as well, our life is the creation of our mind. Many other writers share this

idea (Brown, 1999; Gunaratana, 1991; Hanh, 1976,1991; Larkin, 1997; Miller, 1994,

2000; Rajapakse, 1997; Seinfeld, 2005; Snelling, 1998; Wimala, 1997). Gunaratana

(1991) confirms," Open your eyes and the world pours in, blink and it is gone" (p. 10).

This concept is similar to Hegelian philosophy. According to Hegel, everything is permanently changing and being suspended. "Mind from mind is not divided" (Huxley,

1962, p. 116). "We are both the mind and the observer of the mind" (Hanh, 1976, p. 40).

"One of the greatest insights that has come out of modern physics is that of the unity between the observer and the observed: the person conducting the experiment - the

observing consciousness - cannot be separated from the observed phenomena, and a different way of looking causes the observed phenomena to behave differently" (Tolle,

1997, p. 167). Hanh (1987) further proposes,

When they get deeply into the world of subatomic particle, they see their mind in it. An electron is first of all your concept of the electron. The object of your study is no longer separated from your mind. Your mind is very much in it. Modern physicists think that the word observer is no 63

longer valid, because an observer is distinct from the object he observes. They have discovered that if you retain that kind of distinction, you cannot go very far in subatomic nuclear science. So they proposed the word participant. You are not an observer, you are a participant (p. 38).

Fred Alan Wolf (1995) confirms succinctly, "There is "I" present in all the

universe.. ."I" am the whole universe, if I choose to evolve enough to see it" (p. 174).

... there is the question of a central perception of unsurpassed singularity. This strange perception is called Satori, and may be translated as 'Enlightenment' (C.G. Jung, forward, p. 9 cited in Suzuki, 1974).

Richard Kearney (1988) is therefore wise in saying, ".. .we find ourselves accordingly in

a hermeneutic circle where the term we are seeking to define can only be defined by means of the search itself (p. 17). The "farther and more deeply we penetrate into matter... the more we are confounded by the interdependence of its parts" (de Chardin,

1965, p. 43 - 44). Hanh (1976) notes, "See that both your life and death are manifested at the same time: this is because that is, this could not have been if that were not. See that the existence of your life and death depend on each other: one is the foundation of the other. See that you are at the same time your life and your death; that the two are not enemies but two aspects of the same reality" (p. 91). Kornfield (2000) adds, ".. .The whole of the world and Nirvana as an inseparable unity are one's own mind" (p. 84).

Fred Alan Wolf suggests in his book Star Wave, an elimination of boundaries. At the same time he reassures that by doing that there will not be anarchy, but synchronicity will be the guide.

Of this light, which our Judeo-Christian-Islamic culture calls God and Buddhists call Mind, the ninth century Zen master Huang-po said: This pure Mind, which is the source of all things, shines for ever with the radiance of its own perfection. But most people are not aware of it, and think that Mind is just the faculty that sees, hears, feels, and knows. Blinded by their own sight, hearing, feeling, and knowing, they don't perceive the radiance of the source. If they could eliminate all conceptual thinking, this source would appear, like the sun rising through the empty sky and illuminating the whole universe (Mitchell, 1991, p. 117). 64

"Amit Goswami, in The Self-Aware Universe, says that consciousness creates events by collapsing the wave function. Other physicists such as Zukav, Capra, and Wolf have hinted at the same" (Mindell, 2000, p. 175). Miller (2000) cites a Buddhist phrase,

The thought manifests as the word, The word manifests as the deed, The deed develops into habit, And the habit hardens into character. So watch the thought, And its ways with care... (p. 6). David Bohm (1996) describes,

"Proprioception" is a technical term - you could also say "self-perception of thought," "self- awareness of thought," or "thought is aware of itself in action." Whatever terms we use, I am saying: thought should be able to perceive its own movement, be aware of its own movement. In the process of thought there should be the awareness of that movement, of the intention to think, and of the result which that thinking produces. By being more attentive, we can be aware of how thought produces a result outside ourselves. And then maybe we could also be attentive to the results it produces within ourselves. Perhaps we could even be immediately aware of how it affects perception (p. 79).

In my view, in essence, the key is to experience the original nature of equanimity and encompasses humility and compassion. I resonate with perennial thinkers like

Aldous Huxley, Anna Lemkow, Ken Wilber, and Roger Walsh in their perspective on the perennial philosophy.

A Critique of The Perennial Philosophy

"Where there is an open mind, there will always be a frontier." Charles F. Kettering

"A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject." Sir Winston Churchill

"The old conception, replaced by a later choice, is a way of seeing and then seeing again. " Hellman, 1976, p. 3

"All theories are probable truths till another disputes it." Punnadhammo, Dec. 7, 2005

"Don't be afraid of opposition. Remember a kite rises against - not with - the wind." Hamilton Mabie 65

"We see things not as they are but as we are." Kafka

Like any other theoretical proposition, the perennial philosophy has not escaped the eyes of the critics (Newell, 1981). "The mystical literature is so vast, rich, and diverse that one can probably find disconfirmation for any generalized statement about mysticism" (Ferrer, 2002, p. 130). 'Perennial' meaning that which has stood time and region, has time and again, been confronted by critics. These criticisms have existed perhaps either because of a lack of understanding or because the critics were caught in the semantical misinterpretation of what the term linguistically meant rather than what it spiritually represented. For instance, some critics consider the proposed meaning of perennial to be the 'absolute truth' (Ferrer, 2002; Miller, 2007).

The darkness of mere knowledge can suck one into itself and leave one confused.

The realization that everything is a perception can pull one out. Kasulis (1988) quotes

Kukai, the founder of Shingon Buddhism, "the world is a manifestation of the cosmic

Buddha that, depending on the state of mind of the viewer, actually takes form not only as different world views, but also as different worlds" (p. 269). For instance, one can view a particular category as absolute then place another category on the other end of the continuum and another at the midpoint. In this case, the whole continuum is one's perception, which includes the absolute, the midpoint and the other extreme opposite.

The concept of truth is just like that, another perception. My understanding of perennial thought is derived essentially from the interpreted writings and talks of spiritually enlightened beings. Most of them are not in accordance with the concept of an absolute truth, so their teachings definitely cannot reflect that unless misunderstood by the reader. 66

According to these sages, there is no absolute truth for truth is just a perception. All intellectual schemas that claim to theorize the whole of reality are still just views. They are the perceptions of the declaimers. In an interpretation of the Buddha's discourse called Brahmajala Sutra by Maurice Walshe (1995), the Buddha identifies sixty-two common views as to the absolute reality. The sutra has emphasized that the Buddha rejected them on only one single premise, that they are just views. As for absolute truth, one creates one's own truth thereby making truth a relative term as depicted in the

Brahmajala Sutra. The Buddha gives a magnificent analogy to explain his position for his own teaching called the 'Four Noble Truths'. The four noble truths, the Buddha suggests, are like a boat. He used the boat to cross the river. Now that he has crossed the river, he has no use for the boat so he left the boat by the shore, so that others can make use of the boat to cross the river. In other words, he used the four noble truths to cross the river to enlightenment, now that he has crossed it, he has discarded those truths and left them for others if they may feel the need to use them. Stephen Mitchell (1991) offers another variation, "A man walking along a highroad sees a great river, its near bank dangerous and frightening, its far bank safe. He collects sticks and foliage, makes a raft, paddles across the river, and reaches the other shore. Now suppose that, after he reaches the other shore, he takes the raft and puts it on his head and walks with it on his head wherever he goes. Would he be using the raft in an appropriate way? No, a reasonable man will realize that the raft has been very useful to him in crossing the river and arriving safely on the other shore, but once he has arrived, it is proper to leave the raft behind and walk on without it. This is using the raft appropriately. In the same way, all truths should be used to cross over; they should not be held on to once you have arrived. You 67

should let go of even the most profound insight or the most wholesome teaching..." (p.

135-136).

But what makes these 'experts' preach their opinion and call it truth?" asked the inquirer. "Is it an inheritance of humankind to do this, or is it merely something they gain satisfaction from? Apart from consciousness, answered the Buddha, "no absolute truths exist. False reasoning declares one view to be true and another view wrong. It is delight in their dearly held opinions that makes them assert that anyone who disagrees is bound to come to a bad end. But no true seeker becomes embroiled in all this. Pass by peacefully and go a stainless way, free from theories, lusts and dogmas. Majjhima Nikaya cited in Bodhi, 1995.

Aldous Huxley (1945) cites a Zen master, who stated that one should not strive to

seek after the truth, one should only cease to cherish opinions. Huxley further notes that

opinions are things, which we make to understand, formulate, and argue about. In the

words of St. John of the Cross, to rest in the consideration of objects perceptible to the

sense or comprehended by the understanding, is to be content with what is less than

divinity. Wisdom of divinity is possible only to those who have ceased to cherish

opinions.

Further, perennial thoughts find their transcendental quality from the

transcendental writings of spiritually awakened beings. Just as spiritually awakened beings transcend all categories; their teachings portray transcendence too. So, how could

a study of wholeness have divisions of its own? Herman Hesse (1971) notes, "When the

illustrious Buddha taught about the world, he had to divide it into Samsara and Nirvana,

into illusion and truth, into suffering and salvation. One cannot do otherwise, there is no other method for those who teach.. .Samsara and Nirvana are only words..." (p. 143,

146). The perennial philosophy, therefore, is transcendence and immanence and beyond both.

.. .the One in plurality, the Emptiness that is all the Suchness totally present in every appearance, at every point and instant.. .Dualism.. .without it there can hardly be good literature. With it, there most certainly can be no good life (Huxley, 1962, p. 166). 68

Ferrer's (2002) "relaxed universalism" is an approach of a more relaxed form of

the perennial philosophy that encompasses the dance of singularity and plurality. It

cannot be denied as the dance of singularity and plurality is witnessed on a daily basis.

When the sensory dance of singular and plural is transcended, there remains no factor of

absolute and non-absolute. For something to be absolute, there must be a comparable

non-absolute state. White (1995) succinctly posits, "The single One opposes the plural

Many, while the Nondual embraces them both" (p. 200).

On a mundane daily basis, one relies on senses to make one's reality and the

senses see multiplicity, therefore, perennial thoughts of non-duality, are hard to

comprehend. When one dives beneath the surface of physical appearance and

contemplates the source of multiplicity, one witnesses the primary source. Spiritually

awakened beings share their experiential truths in the sense that they come up with

similar realizations, thereby giving them a flavor of universal truth. In the end, however,

it does not matter if it is called one or many or any as it is a transcendence of them all.

"The absolute, as St. Bonaventure puts it, "is a sphere, whose center is everywhere and

whose circumference, nowhere," so that, in the words of Plotinus, "while it is nowhere, nowhere is it not" (White, 1995, p. 200).

The perennial philosophy, nevertheless, is set down at a given time by a certain writer, using a certain language, which automatically imposes a certain sociological,

cultural and personal bias. It is only in the act of contemplation and reflection, when the words are transcended, that the pure essence of the perennial philosophy can actually be known and experienced. The records left by ones who have realized its core make it profusely explicit that all of them, whether Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, Hebrew, Taoist, 69

or Muslim, were attempting to describe the same essentially indescribable core (Huxley,

2002).

Categorization, hence, is not only blurred but also transcended. This, however,

requires a collapsing of distinctive forms of symbolic meaning as one is burdened by

meaning (Lozowski, 2002) and needs to understand the world differently from how one

did before (Silvers, 2002). One has personalized one's belief systems to the point that

when one is faced by a situation where the beliefs are challenged, one faces cognitive

dissonance. Below is an illustration to demonstrate this case,

Nan-in, a Japanese master, received a university professor who came to inquire about Zen. Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor's cup full, and then kept on pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. "It is over-full. No more will go in!" "Like this cup," Nan-in said, "you are full of your own opinions and speculations. How can I show you Zen unless you first empty your cup? (Sohl and Carr, 1970, p. 52).

".. .a liberation from corresponding limiting perspectives and understandings" is what is

needed (Ferrer, 2002, p. 144). In addition, one must neither believe nor discard anything, just because another person, or description of persons, have discarded or believed it

(Thomas Jefferson cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 279). For, "... unless one judgment can be

said or shown to be more 'valid' than another, then all judgments must be 'equal' or

'equally valid" (Smith, 1988, p. 98).

Latin poet and philosopher Boethius writes,

This dischord in the pact of things, This endless war 'twixt truth and truth, That singly held, yet give the lie To him who seeks to hold them both (Happold, 1970).

One lives in a matrix of multiple truths and realities, therefore, the 'discord in the pact of

things,' to cling to one particular 'truth', means to deny another. Yet it is possible that a

mystic glimpses a synthesis of all multiplicities. Resistance does not mean walls and 70 fences, non-resistance does not mean open space, if one can understand that mind and matter are fundamentally the same (Tsu-hsin cited in Cleary, 1999).

"Great Teacher," said Upashiva, "when one is free from attachment and craving, when everything is let go and one depends on emptiness, will one be permanently in that state? When you are free from craving for sense pleasures and when you are aware of emptiness, you are free in a supreme way and that will not change. It is like a flame struck by a gust of wind. In a flash the flame has gone out. Similarly, the person is suddenly free and no more words can be said. When all the ways of being a self are let go and when all phenomena are seen to be empty, then all the ways of describing this have also vanished. Nipata Sutta, www.dailyom.com

Conclusion

This chapter overviewed various perennial approaches of scholars from a metaphysical, transpersonal, wholeness, transrational, transcendental and spiritual perspective. The underlying essence of all these thought streams is the oneness of all that there is beyond the perceived multiple sensorial experiences, beyond the perceived difference between transcendence and immanence. This was followed by a personal approach to perennial understanding. The first of the threefold tier of the overlapping states of being underlying the perennial understanding was addressed, The State of

Understanding. Richards (1962) notes, "To understand what something is, we have to observe it very carefully..." (p. 106). Richards reiterates 'listening' to self. This chapter focused on just that as it was dedicated to understanding the working of the Self and its unfathomable potential. Further, the chapter emphasized the interpenetration of and the oneness of all that there is or Chandogya Upanishad's phrase 'one without a second'.

The chapter concluded with a closer look at the perennial philosophy and its perceived limitations. CHAPTER 4: EMBODIMENTS OF THE PERENNIAL EXPRESSION

The perennial philosophy is just a theoretical proposition until it is lived. I dedicate this chapter to three beings that have been living testimonies of many aspects of the perennial philosophy in recent years. The three beings are Mahatma Gandhi, Mother

Teresa and the current Dalai Lama.

Mahatma Gandhi

"One's everyday life was never capable of being separated from his spiritual being." Gandhi cited in Tendulkar, 1960, p. 350

"By spiritual training I mean education of the heart." Gandhi cited in Prabhu, 1958, p. 21

"Be the change you want to see in the world." Gandhi

"My life is my message." Gandhi

Mohandas Karanchand Gandhi (1869-1948) was born October 2nd, 1869 in

Porbandar, a coastal city in Kathiawad (now a part of the Gujarat State) in India to a middle class Bania family, Mohandas was the youngest child. He was exposed to various religious beliefs from a very young age as the Gandhi family had Jaini, Parsi and Muslim friends. Monks used to visit them regularly. He considered himself to be an average student. He was very shy growing up. Gandhi traveled to England in 1888 to study and he became a Barrister in 1891. Gandhi's three years stay in England was a period of exploration. Before that, he knew little of the world outside India. Now he was exposed to the fast-changing world and to several radical movements like socialism. He started taking part in social work. Many of his revolutionary ideas germinated during this period. Gandhi also started studying the various world scriptures in depth. He studied

71 72

the Bhagavat Gita, the Bible, Edwin Arnold's The Light of Asia, Blavatsky's Key to

Theosophy, the writings of Ruskin, Tolstoy, Thoreau, and Mazzini. The Jain scriptures,

the Biblical New Testament, and the writings of Tolstoy, were the three main sources of

Gandhi's non-violence convictions. He has stated his credo thus: "I believe the Bible, the

Koran, and the Zend-Avesta to be as divinely inspired as the Vedas" (Gandhi cited in

Yogananda, 1998, p. 509). Gandhi urged people all his life "to dispense with all

distinction between Hindus, Muslims, and Christians" (Gandhi cited in Chadha, 1997, p.

57). "If the Vedas were the inspired word of God, why not also the Bible and the

Koran?" (p. 59). Gandhi's view was inspired by his mother, Putaliba who "was a

follower of the syncretic Pranami sect, which was founded in the early eighteenth century

by Prannath, who preached that the Puranas, the Koran and the Bible represented merely

alternative paths to the One God. No images were allowed in his temples, merely

scriptures of different religions" (Hardiman, 2003, p. 157).

In 1893, Gandhi sailed for South Africa in regards to a legal case. There he found

the harsh racial discrimination Indians were facing. He was traveling in first class, when

the railway officials asked him to leave the first class compartment. Gandhi refused,

whereupon he was thrown out along with his luggage on a platform of a station. Gandhi

spent that severely cold night shivering and thinking. This incident transformed Gandhi.

He made up his mind to stay in South Africa and fight the racial discrimination. This was

a historic decision. Soon after, Gandhi called a meeting of the local Indians. He learnt

about their ill treatment. He made his first public speech and suggested the formation of

an association. Gandhi's first major revolution had started. In 1904, Gandhi started the journal 'Indian Opinion.' From this point on, Gandhi spent the rest of his living years 73

addressing peace meetings, petitioning, and campaigning for the rights of the common

people. He would walk great distances to nurse the tortured victims of oppression. He

was also jailed many times for the sake of his social cause. Gandhi's compassion

extended to forgive those who intended to harm him too.

Twenty miles away from Johannesburg, Gandhi established Tolstoy Farm where

his fellow Satyagrahis would lead a simple life. Living truthfully means Satyagraha.

The literal translation from Sanskrit is "holding to truth". Eleven vows were observed by

the Satyagrahis in a spirit of humility: "Nonviolence; truth; non-stealing; celibacy; non-

possession; body labor; control of the palate; fearlessness; equal respect for all religions;

swadeshi (use of home manufacturers); freedom from untouchability" (Yogananda, 1998,

p. 498). The community was named after Leo Tolstoy to pay respect to the great writer

whose book The Kingdom of God is Within You had greatly influenced Gandhi and made

him a firm believer of non-violence. Drinking, smoking and eating meat were prohibited

at the establishment. Gandhi and his colleagues learnt shoemaking, weaving, etc. A

school was also established. Gandhi himself undertook the responsibility of educating

the children. By 1914, Gandhi had raised the awareness of most of the oppressed Indians

in South Africa. Eventually, Indian demands were accepted. The non-violent fight was

over. Gandhi now could return to India where an even more enormous cause awaited

him: the independence of India. It was South Africa that prepared Gandhi. He had gone

there as a young and shy man, but returned as an extraordinary leader who was capable of

moving masses to an unprecedented extent for a socially just cause. Gandhi returned to

India in 1915. He was welcomed and honored as a hero. He spent a year touring the country in third class railway compartments and saw the unjust conditions of the country 74

under the British rule. He started getting involved in the social and political life of the

country. Gandhi's social work included high attention paid to constructive work like

sanitation, education and primary healthcare. He founded the Satyagraha Ashram. All

his protests in India too, were carried out strictly in accordance with the principles of

Satyagraha. Gandhi (1927) also wrote his autobiography that he entitled, The Story of

My Experiments with Truth. The piece was marked with utter humility and truthfulness.

Truth, for Gandhi, was a highly regarded spiritual principle and he humbly attempted to

apply it to everyday life. Gandhi therefore called his life experiments 'Experiments with

Truth' or 'Experiments in the Science of Satyagraha.' Gandhi writes:

Wherever there are wars, wherever we are confronted with an opponent, conquer by love. I have found that the certain law of love has answered in my own life as the law of destruction has never done.. .Every problem would lend itself to solution if we determined to make the law of truth and non-violence the law of life... one should be prepared, like Jesus, to shed his own, not others', blood. Eventually there will be less blood spilt in the world.. .1 call myself a nationalist, but my nationalism is as broad as the universe. It includes in its sweep all the nations of the earth (cited in Yogananda, 1998, p. 511-13).

Most Satyagrahas or nonviolent mass civil disobedience campaigns organized by

Gandhi involved fasts, prayers and peaceful protests. Gandhi's main concern was to remove the fear and promote awareness of human rights among the masses. As the atrocities of the British empire increased, the peaceful protests increased. The masses were awakening. Gandhi announced the inauguration of the Non-violent Non-Co­ operation Movement on August 1st, 1920. The program consisted of surrendering titles and honors given by the British Government; boycotting of law-courts, educational institutions, councils, functions, elections, foreign cloth; picketing of liquor shops and; refusing to get recruited in the army. Gandhi laid stress on the country being self- sufficient, for which purpose about twenty lakh charkhas (spinning wheels) began to be plied in the country. Charkha became the symbol of freedom. Gandhi also promoted 75

equal rights for the untouchables, a term that was used to represent the so-called low

caste people in India. The Congress was completely reorganized and a new constitution

drafted by Gandhi was adopted to make it a mass organization and a useful tool for the

struggle. The year 1921 was when Indian Nationalism arose, Gandhi became a Mahatma,

the most loved and revered figure in the country. Masses looked to him as a saint, as a

divine incarnation who had come to free them from slavery and poverty. The British

Government started repression. Arrests were made. Shootings took place in many

places. Disturbances broke out all over the country. People showed great unity,

determination and courage. By the end of 1921, the number of prisoners had risen to

30,000. Processions and meetings were being broken up. Gandhi was arrested and

sentenced to a six-year imprisonment in Yeravda jail near Pune. Gandhi was freed from jail in 1924 on grounds of health. The country was witnessing a wave of communal riots

for which Gandhi fasted for 21 days.

Gandhi wrote to the British Viceroy listing eleven demands, which according to him formed the substance of self-government. They were rejected. Gandhi then decided to start Civil Disobedience by breaking the Salt Law. Salt, a basic daily consumption for the poorest of the poor, was heavily taxed. He started his epic Dandi March on March

12, 1930 from Ahmedabad. Gandhi reached Dandi on April 6 and broke the Salt law

symbolically by picking up a pinch of salt. It was a signal for the nation. The

government intensified the repression. Most of the important leaders, including Gandhi, were arrested, but the agitation grew in strength. People bravely faced police brutalities and even gun firing in many places. A wave of strikes swept the country. The 76 government started negotiations. Eventually, India gained independence in 1947. Lord

Mountbatten described Gandhi's role as a one-man peace army.

Fifty years of public service, in prison and out, wrestling daily with practical details and harsh realities in the political world, have only increased his balance, open-mindedness, sanity, and humorous appreciation of the quaint human spectacle (Yogananda, 1998, p. 501).

India gained independence but with a price: the partition of India and Pakistan.

The partition caused major turbulence and unrest among people. Gandhi fasted for communal amity, which resulted in the Government of India honoring its obligation of giving fifty crores to Pakistan. This angered some of the Indians. Gandhi was in New

Delhi at that time and held evening prayer meetings regularly. Once a bomb was thrown during his prayer meeting but Gandhi still did not permit security checks. On the 30th of

January 1948, about five hundred people had gathered for a prayer meeting when Gandhi was assassinated. Gandhi's last words were ''Hey Ram\ Mahatma Gandhi had become a martyr for communal unity. One of the last notes left behind by Gandhi in 1948, expressing his deepest social thought:

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? In other words, will it lead to swaraj [freedom] for the hungry and spiritually starving millions? Then you will find your doubts and your self melt away (cited in Pyarelal, 1958, p. 65).

Gandhi was considered a sage by millions. Indians call him the 'Father of the

Nation'. Even so, he never considered himself to be any more than an average person.

He led a practical life that embraced compassion, humility and simplicity. For him, understanding meant action. He did not hesitate in taking risks and confessing mistakes.

No opposition could discourage him. He identified himself with the poorest of the poor, and he dressed and lived like them. He saw divinity in all people. For him, all were 77

sparks of the divine light. For Gandhi, soul-force was the source of the greatest power.

He strove to awaken the soul-force within himself and within his fellow beings. This tiny

and fragile man could move and empower the masses because of his conviction to such beliefs. Yogananda (1998) writes:

The tiny 100-pound saint radiated with physical, mental, and spiritual health. His soft brown eyes shone with intelligence, sincerity, and discrimination; this statesman has matched wits and emerged the victor in a thousand legal, social, and political battles. No other leader in the world has attained the secure niche in the hearts of his people that Gandhi occupies for India's unlettered millions. Their spontaneous tribute is his famous title - Mahatma, "great soul". For them alone Gandhi confines his attire to the widely cartooned loincloth, symbol of his oneness with the downtrodden masses who can afford no more (p. 497-98).

Gandhi found his strength in spirituality. He focused on silence as one aspect of his spiritual practice. "Years ago," he explained, "I started my weekly observance of a day of silence as a means for gaining time to look after my correspondence. But now those twenty-four hours have become a vital spiritual need. A periodical decree of silence is not a torture but a blessing" (cited in Yogananda, 1998, p. 501).

It is Gandhi's understanding of awakening that he attempted to lived by:

The world was interested in the fruits, not the root. For the tree itself, however, the chief concern should be not the fruit, but the root. It was in the depth of one's own being that the individual had to concentrate... the root was his chief concern" (Gandhi cited in Chatterjee, 1983, p. 172).

For Gandhi, transformation of the individual was deeply interconnected with the transformation of society. This included the preservation of nature, as he saw the unity of life as paramount. Gandhi believed that the earth has enough to satisfy everybody's need but not their greed. He had called for the replacement of greed with love. Gandhi was therefore both a saint and a social revolutionary.

I do not believe that an individual may gain spiritually and those around him suffer. I believe in advaita. I believe in the essential unity of man and for that matter of all that lives. Therefore I believe that if one man gains spiritually, the whole world gains with him and, if one man falls, the whole world falls to that extent (Gandhi cited in Chatterjee, 1983, p. 104). 78

To conclude, "Saints like Gandhi.. .have made not only tangible material

sacrifices, but also the more difficult renunciation of selfish motive and private goal,

merging their inmost being in the stream of humanity as a whole" (Yogananda, 1998, p.

504). Mahatma Gandhi's life, therefore, is a fine testimony of the perennial philosophy

in action.

Mother Teresa

"Go out into the world today and love the people you meet. Let your presence light new light in the hearts of people. " Mother Teresa, 2006a

"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin." Mother Teresa, 2006b

Mother Teresa (1910 - 1997) was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in Skopje,

Macedonia, on August 27, 1910. Her family was of Albanian descent. After Agnes'

father's death, Agnes' mother set up a small clothing business to support the family.

Agnes became a member at her local church called 'Sodality'. Her membership is what

sparked Agnes' interest in missionary work. The Sodality aided the poor and Agnes also

accompanied her mother to distribute food and money to the poor, some of whom were

temporarily sheltered in the Bojaxhiu home. Agnes took it upon herself after school each

day, to care for a destitute widow and her seven children (Egan, 1997, p. 28).

At the age of eighteen, Agnes left home to join 'the Sisters of Loreto', an Irish community of nuns with missions in India. Agnes changed her name to Teresa. This was to honor Saint Teresa of Lisieux. The name means 'little flower of Jesus' (Egan, 1997, p.

28). After a few months' training in Dublin, she went to India. On May 24,1931, she took her initial vows as a nun. She notes, "I was to leave and work with the poor, living 79 among them.. .1 knew where I belonged" (Egan, 1997, p. 30). She started teaching at St.

Mary's High School in Calcutta. The suffering and poverty she glimpsed outside the convent walls made a deep impression on her. In 1948, she received permission from her superiors to leave the convent school and devote herself to working among the poorest of the poor in the slums of Calcutta. Although she had no funds, she depended on divine providence and started an open air school for the children living in the slums. Soon she was joined by volunteer help which assisted in extending support to the needy. She notes:

Once a chairman of a multinational company came to see me, to offer me a property in Bombay, he first asked: 'Mother, how do you manage your budget?" I asked him who had sent him here. He replied: 'I felt an urge inside me.' I said: other people like you come to see me and say the same. It was clear God sent you, Mr. A, as He sends Mr. X, Mrs. Y, Miss. Z, and they provide the material means we need for our work. The grace of God is what moved you. You are my budget.. .1 accepted the property he gave and named it Asha Dan (Gift of Hope) (Mother Teresa, 2006b). On October 7,1950, Mother Teresa started her own order, 'The Missionaries of

Charity', whose primary task was to love and care for the neglected and dying individuals. Mother Teresa writes:

The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, uncared for and deserted by everybody. The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity, the terrible indifference toward one's neighbor who lives at the roadside, assaulted by exploitation, corruption, poverty and disease (McBrien, 2001, p. 364). In 1963, the contemplative branch of the sisters and the active branch of the brothers was founded. In 1965, the society became an international religious family by a decree of

Pope Paul VI. The Missionaries of Charity, throughout the world, started getting aid and assistance from co-workers, which became an official international association on March

29,1969. By the 1990s, there were over one million co-workers in more than 40 countries. Along with the co-workers, the lay Missionaries of Charity tried to follow

Mother Teresa's spirit and charity in their families. The Society of Missionaries has now 80 spread all over the world, to include the former Soviet Union and Eastern European countries. They provide care to the poorest of the poor in a number of countries in Asia,

Africa and Latin America. They undertake relief work in the wake of natural catastrophes such as floods, epidemics and famines. The order also has houses in North

America, Europe and Australia where they take care of the shut-ins, alcoholics, homeless, refugees and AIDS sufferers.

Mother Teresa's work has been recognized and acclaimed throughout the world.

She has received a number of awards and distinctions, including the Pope John XXIII

Peace Prize, in 1971, for her saintliness and her countless acts of kindness; and the Nehru

Prize in 1972 for her promotion of international peace and understanding. She also received the Balzan Prize, the Templeton and Magsaysay awards. In 1979, Mother

Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her extraordinary humanitarian work around the world (McBrien, 2001). Humbly as always, she accepted her award. When asked about her angelic characteristics and actions, Mother Teresa remarked, holiness is a necessity in life, and that it is not the luxury of a few, such as those who take the course of a religious life, but is "a simple duty of all. Holiness is for everyone" (Vardey, 1995, p. 51).

Mother Teresa is considered a saintly embodiment of compassion. Often referred to as the "Saint of the Gutters", she spent the majority of her life caring for the unfortunate in the slums of Calcutta (Gupte, 1997). Her compassion transcended all worldly cultural differences:

Everybody today seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater developments and greater riches and so on, so that children have very little time for their parents. Parents have very little time for each other, and in the home begins the disruption of peace of the world.. .If we really want to love we must learn how to forgive.. .There is only one God and He is God to all; therefore it is important that everyone is seen as equal before God. I've always said we should help a Hindu 81

become a better Hindu, a Muslim become a better Muslim, a Catholic become a better Catholic. We believe our work should be our example to people. We have among us 475 souls - 30 families are Catholics and the rest are all Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs - all different religions (Mother Teresa, 2006b).

Until the day of her death, Mother Teresa saw God in every human being

(Vardey, 1995, p. 17). Even though frail and weak, she always welcomed and helped

others. She aided those on the verge of death, even though she was on the brink of death herself. Mother Teresa died of heart failure on September 5, 1997 (Abrams, 1997;

Hinman, 1997). Mother Teresa inspired so many people, not because she preached powerful sermons, but because she demonstrated a way of using the power of love as a

force for healing and redemption.

If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other. Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier. We realize that what we are accomplishing is a drop in the ocean. But if this drop were not in the ocean, it would be missed. We can do no great things; only small things with great love (Mother Teresa, 2006a).

Mother Teresa gave thousands of people the opportunity to express their love for their fellow human beings (Sebba, 1997). Mother Teresa was a very unique person of enormous love, generosity, courage and determination.

It is not enough for us to say: "I love God," but I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don't love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I be willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is not true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me (Mother Teresa, 1994).

Gupte (1997) summarizes Mother Teresa's persona as "Powerful questions, articulated by a simple woman whose frail body packed more power than any other contemporary world figure. Like Gandhi, that power, of course, flowed from her spiritual wellspring. And like Gandhi, Mother Teresa was an unelected spokesman for the poor everywhere - not simply highlighting their despair but also underscoring their 82

hopes. One small woman, in a simple white cotton sari, didn't bother much with reports

and theories; instead, she simply went out into the world and changed the lives of

millions." Mother Teresa's compassion and way of being is a fine example of the

perennial philosophy at work.

The Dalai Lama

The 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso (1935 - present) was born Lhamo Thondup,

on July 6 , 1935 in a small village called Taktser in the province of Amdo in northeastern

Tibet to a farming family. He was recognized as the reincarnation of his predecessor, the

13th Dalai Lama, at the age of two in accordance with the Tibetan tradition. The Dalai

Lama's enthronement ceremony took place on February 22,1940 in Lhasa, the capital of

Tibet. He began his education at the age of six, and completed his Geshe Lharampa

degree, an equivalent of a Doctorate of Buddhist Philosophy, when he was 25. In 1950,

he was called upon to assume full political power as the head of the State and

Government after approximately 80,000 Peoples Liberation Army soldiers of China

invaded Tibet.

In 1954, he went to Beijing to talk peace with Chinese leaders. In 1956, while

visiting India to attend the 2500th Buddha Jayanti Anniversary, he had a series of

meetings with Prime Minister Nehru and Premier Chou about deteriorating conditions in

Tibet. His efforts to bring about a peaceful solution to Sino-Tibetan conflict were

thwarted by Bejing's policy in Eastern Tibet, which ignited a popular uprising and

resistance. This resistance movement spread to other parts of the country. On March 10,

1959 the capital of Tibet, Lhasa exploded with the largest demonstration in Tibetan history, calling on China to leave Tibet and reaffirming Tibet's independence. The 83

Tibetan National Uprising was crushed by the Chinese army. The devoted Tibetans saw the Dalai Lamas' life at risk and insisted on him leaving the country. He escaped to India where he was given political asylum. Approximately 80,000 Tibetan refugees followed him into exile. Today, there are more than 120,000 Tibetans in exile. Since 1960, the

Dalai Lama has resided in Dharamsala, India, known as "Little Lhasa," the seat of the

Tibetan Government-in-exile.

In exile, the Dalai Lama has not given up his role as a leader of peace. He appealed to the United Nations on the question of Tibet, resulting in three resolutions adopted by the General Assembly in 1959,1961, and 1965, calling on China to respect the human rights of Tibetans and their desire for self-determination. With the newly constituted Tibetan Government-in-exile, Dalai Lama saw that his immediate and urgent task was to save both the Tibetan exiles and their heritage alike. Tibetan refugees were rehabilitated in agricultural settlements. Economic development was promoted and the creation of a Tibetan educational system was established to raise refugee children with the knowledge of their language, history, religion and culture. The Tibetan Institute of

Performing Arts was established in 1959, while the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan

Studies became a university for Tibetans in India. Over 200 monasteries were re­ established to preserve the Tibetan Buddhist teachings, the essence of the Tibetan way of life.

In 1963, Dalai Lama promulgated a democratic constitution based on Buddhist principles and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a model for a future free

Tibet. He continued to emphasize the need to further democratize the Tibetan administration and publicly declared that once Tibet regained its independence, he would 84

not hold political office. In 1987, the Dalai Lama proposed a Five-Point Peace Plan as a

step toward resolving the future status of Tibet. He envisioned Tibet as a sanctuary; a

zone of peace in the heart of Asia, where all sentient beings can exist in harmony and the

delicate environment can be preserved. This plan called for an end to the massive

transfer of the Chinese into Tibet; restoration of fundamental human rights and

democratic freedoms; the abandonment of China's use of Tibet for nuclear weapons

production and the dumping of nuclear waste; as well as earnest negotiations on the

future of Tibet. In 1988, the Dalai Lama elaborated the Five-Point Peace Plan and

proposed the creation of a self-governing democratic Tibet in association with the

People's Republic of China. However, in 1991, the Tibetan Government-in-exile

declared the proposal invalid because of the closed and negative attitude of the Chinese

leadership towards the ideas expressed in the proposal. A month later, during an address

at Yale University in the United States, the Dalai Lama expressed his desire for a visit to

Tibet to personally assess the political situation. He wanted, however, to prevent any

violent breakouts and hoped the visit may be an opportunity to promote understanding

and create a basis for a negotiated solution.

In the spirit of peace-making, the Dalai Lama has traveled to more than 62

countries, spanning 6 continents. He has met with presidents, prime ministers and

crowned rulers of major nations. He has held numerous dialogues with the heads of

different religions and many well-known scientists. He met with the late Pope Paul VI at

the Vatican in 1973. At a press conference in Rome in 1980, he outlined his hopes for a meeting with John Paul II, stating that peace in the soul and harmony among people is

interconnected; that, one is not possible without the other. For this reason, he looked 85 forward with faith and hope to his meeting with the Holy Father; to an exchange of ideas and feelings, and to his suggestions, so as to open the door to a progressive pacification between people. The Dalai Lama met Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in 1980, 1982,

1986, 1988 and 1990. In 1981, Dalai Lama talked with Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr.

Robert Runcie and with other leaders of the Anglican Church in London. He also met with leaders of the Roman Catholic and Jewish communities and spoke at an interfaith service held in his honor by the World Congress of Faiths.

Now, although I have found my own Buddhist religion helpful in generating love and compassion, I am convinced that these qualities can be developed by anyone, with or without religion. I further believe that all religions pursue the same goals: those of cultivating goodness and bringing happiness to all the human beings. Though the means might appear different, the ends are the same. With the ever-growing impact of science on our lives, religion and spirituality have a greater role to play in reminding us of our humanity. There is no contradiction between the two. Each gives us valuable insights into the other. Both science and the teachings of the Buddha tell us of the fundamental unity of all things (Dalai Lama, 1990, p. 270).

Since 1959, the Dalai Lama has received over 84 awards, honorary doctorates, prizes, etc., in recognition of his message of peace, non-violence, inter-religious understanding, universal responsibility and compassion. He has also authored more than

72 books. A number of western universities and institutions have conferred Peace

Awards and honorary Doctorate Degrees in recognition of his distinguished writings in

Buddhist philosophy, and for his leadership in the solution of international conflicts, human rights issues and global environmental problems. In presenting the Raoul

Wallenberg Congressional Human Rights Award in 1989, U.S. Congressman Tom

Lantos said, "His Holiness the Dalai Lama's courageous struggle has distinguished him as a leading proponent of human rights and world peace. His ongoing efforts to end the suffering of the Tibetan people through peaceful negotiations and reconciliation have required enormous courage and sacrifice" (Dalai Lama, 2006). In 1989, the Dalai Lama 86 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his non-violent struggle for the liberation of

Tibet. He has consistently advocated policies of non-violence, even in the face of

extreme aggression. He also became the first Nobel Laureate to be recognized for his

concern for global environmental problems. The Dalai Lama accepted the prize on the behalf of the oppressed everywhere and all those who struggle for freedom and work for world peace and the people of Tibet. In his remarks, he said, "The prize reaffirms our conviction that with truth, courage and determination as our weapons, Tibet will be liberated. Our struggle must remain non-violent and free of hatred" (Dalai Lama, 2006).

The Dalai Lama's (1962) belief in non-violence emerges from his spirituality:

.. .violent opposition was not only unpractical, it was also unethical. Non-violence was the only moral course. This was not only my own profound belief, it was also clearly in accordance with the teaching of Lord Buddha, and as the religious leader of Tibet I was bound to uphold it. We might be humiliated, and our most cherished inheritances might seem to be lost for a period, but if so, humility must be our portion. I was certain of that (p. 98).

Mahatma Gandhi's life pursuance of non-violence has further reaffirmed the Dalai

Lama's approach. When visiting Gandhi's place of cremation in New Delhi, the Dalai

Lama notes:

I felt I was in the presence of a noble soul - the soul of the man who in his life was perhaps the greatest of our age.. .a true believer in peace and harmony among all men.. .1 had and still have unshaken faith in the doctrine of nonviolence which he preached and practiced. Now I made up my mind more firmly to follow his lead whatever difficulties might confront me. I determined more strongly than ever that I could never associate myself with acts of violence (Dalai Lama, 1962, p. 146).

Further, the Dalai Lama's thoughts on compassion are inspirational:

In spite of the atrocious crimes which Chinese have committed in our country, I have absolutely no hatred in my heart of the Chinese people. I believe it is one of the curses and dangers of the present age to blame nations for the crimes of individuals... our duty to them, as to every being, is to help them to rise toward Nirvana, rather than let them sink to lower levels of rebirth. Chinese communism has lasted twelve years; but our faith has lasted 2,500 years.. .my faith is in the compassion of Lord Buddha (Dalai Lama, 1962, p. 233-34).

The Dalai Lama is indeed a true embodiment of humility, simplicity and compassion. Tibetans consider him to be a manifestation of the Buddha of Compassion 87 and the Saint of Tibet. Tibetans believe Bodhisattvas like him are enlightened beings that have postponed their own nirvana and chosen to take rebirth to serve humanity. The

Dalai Lama is referred to as Yeshe Norbu, "the Wishfulfilling Gem" or simply Kundun -

"The Presence". He, however, considers himself to be just a simple Buddhist monk - no more, nor less. He follows the life of a normal Buddhist monk. Living in a small cottage in Dharamsala, he rises at four to meditate, pursues an ongoing schedule of administrative meetings, private audiences and spiritual teachings. He concludes each day with further meditation. In explaining his source of inspiration, he often cites a favorite verse found in the writings of the renowned eighth century Buddhist saint,

Shantideva:

For as long as space endures And for as long as living beings remain, Until then may I too abide To dispel the misery of the world. (Dalai Lama, 2006a). This humble Buddhist monk genuinely personifies the perennial philosophy.

In essence, the three above - mentioned saintly figures embody the perennial non- dualistic approach of seeing one in all and all in one as described by Aldous Huxley and

Ken Wilber. The wholeness theory of Anna Lemkow and the transformative quality of the perennial philosophy, when practically applied, according to Jorge Ferrer, is reflected in Gandhi's, Mother Teresa's and the Dalai Lama's social action. Their compassion for humanity is evident in Ralph Emerson's Universal Mind. Last but not the least, they embody the seven perennial practices described by Roger Walsh in the previous chapter. 88

Conclusion

This chapter looked at the three life testimonies of Mahatma Gandhi, Mother

Teresa, and the Dalai Lama in connection to the perennial philosophy. All three have devoted their entire lives to making a difference in the lives of millions of people around them, including their own. A common attribute they all share is that societal recognition did not affect their humble, simple and compassionate way of being.

The next part of this work dives into the practical application of the perennial philosophy for society via the educational system. CHAPTER 5: THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PERENNIAL PHILOSPOSHY IN EDUCATION

"The greatest natural resource that any country can have is its children." Danny Kaye

"What is the ultimate teaching of Buddha? You won't understand it until you have it." Shih-t'ou cited in Aldous Huxley, 1945, p. 127

The following part focuses on the second overlapping state of being according to

the perennial model (that I developed in Chapter Three as "the state of realizing"). It is in

this state that the perennial theoretical propositions marry practice in the form of

education. Prior to a deeper look at the practical aspect, it is, however, imperative to highlight the current educational context and the contribution of influential educators to this context.

The Current State of Education

At the onset, I would like to situate my proposition by highlighting some of the

salient issues in the current state of education. The present school system reflects societal postmodernistic fragmentation. It seems that education's current visage primarily satisfies the appetite of entrepreneurs. There is a mass production of graduates who have been drilled with knowledge in the form of standardized testing and number crunching to compete for the job market to the point that the supply is greater than the demand. As a student today, one is socially programmed to see the sole purpose of education as a means to bringing in a higher paycheck.

Starting early in school, we are constantly bombarded with inducements and temptations to look outside our inner sources of insight, to what is superficial and false, grossly material and transitory.. .Instant access to all the world's products via 'e-commerce'- the latest manifestation of obsessive consumerism-disguises an epidemic of spiritual malnourishment in the modern world. If we were truly fulfilled, if we found our lives truly meaningful, why would we hunger for so many pathetically hollow substitutes?...Education in corporate culture fails to ask such questions

89 because it does not care about new life except to consider each child as a potential consumer or future employee (Miller, R., 2000, preface).

In his classic book, The Technological Society, Jacques Ellul (1964) states the following

about education, "What looks like the apex of humanism is in fact the pinnacle of human

submission: children are educated to become precisely what society expects of them" (p.

348). Marsh & Willis (2003) call it cultural reproduction, where the school's role is to

pass on to succeeding generations the present culture without changing it (p. 120).

Arnold Itwaru (2000) calls the education system an oppressive, repressive state

apparatus.

If one's life span were to be divided into three sections, we would see that many

spend one third of their lives preparing to make something of their lives with the help of the institution called school. Generation after generation, people go through a vigorous period of training for the purpose of developing their intellect. The fundamental hope is that this will make their lives more meaningful, comfortable and joyful. The following

one third, for many, is spent making a living. This takes the form of an engagement in

some form of activity that helps generate a means for sustenance. For some, this is basic

essentials, for others, it is varying degrees of luxury. The questions that address what is behind all this, in many cases, get left behind with those unanswered innocent questions that took precedence in childhood when nothing was taken for granted and everything was seen with a fresh eye of inquiry and curiosity. "Over the years, a practical and materialistic society can usurp the original mystery of childhood. We are sent to school early to 'grow up,' to 'be serious,' and if we don't let go of our childhood innocence, all too often the world tries to knock it out of us" (Kornfield, 2000, p. 9-10). The endless, hypnotic adult race barely leaves any time for unoccupied moments of pondering. The 91 big questions of life: "Who am I" and "What is existence", get slipped through the cracks of mass social programming in the form of education (Krishnamurti, 1953,1970; Merton,

1979; Miller, R., 2000). The last one-third of one's life in many cases continues the conundrum of perpetual searching. The result, is the deterioration of mental well-being, stress-related problems, burn out, and negative thoughts that turn into emotional chaos and outbreaks. Jaffe (1999) notes, "We are living in an era of unparalleled impoverishment and depreciation of the human soul" (p. 7).

The Dalai Lama (1999) states that the primary aim of life is happiness. He believes that one mistakenly assumes that certain activities will assist in achieving that goal but are mostly in vain. Education as is, he mentions, no doubt improves the standard of living. But despite all of society's material affluences and contentment, many human- made problems and a sense that something is lacking in life still exist. He uses an example to explain this further. In the 1960's, about a thousand Tibetans immigrated to

Switzerland. In the beginning, they saw the luxurious life as heavenly. As time passed however, they saw the shallowness of it all, wanting to return back home, saying that it was a good money-making place, but not a good place to die peacefully in. Materiality, therefore, may offer only so much for happiness. Thomas Merton (1979) writes:

.. .a mass production of uneducated graduates-people literally unfit for anything except to take part in an elaborate and completely artificial charade which they and their contemporaries have conspired to call 'life.' (p. 9-11). Such priorities work against originality (O'Sullivan, 2005) and caring relationships between teachers, students, and parents (Babiuk, 2005). Huxley (1957) adds, "... 20th- century educators have ceased to be concerned with questions of.. .meaning and (apart from mere vocational training) are interested solely in the dissemination of a rootless and irrelevant culture and the fostering of the solemn foolery of scholarship for scholarship's 92 sake" (p. 204). Although civilization is developing materialistically, the face of humanity still ponders the question: what really matters? (Dalai Lama, 2004). One ventures to gain knowledge in the educational system, but the most fundamental questions of existence are rarely touched upon in the school system.

Generally people are.. .educated in external knowledge. As far as ordinary education is concerned, people are involved with so many departments: politics, sociology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, engineering, etc. There are so many departments of knowledge all over the world and many huge universities, but there is, unfortunately, [rarely any] university or educational institution where the science of the spirit soul is instructed. Yet the soul is the most important part of the body; without the presence of the soul, the body has no value. Still people are placing great stress on the bodily necessities of life, not caring for the vital soul (Prabhupada, 1986, p. 450).

The highest and most fundamental form of learning is the path that leads one to awakening. If that is the most quintessential learning, and a school setting is the major source that offers learning, why is it rarely ever discussed in a school setting in current times? Having an education for awakening is not a New Age concept. It was the initial form of education. Looking back in time, an element of society embraced a formal approach of training towards a spiritual and eternal life (Marsh & Willis, 2003).

History has witnessed how such longing and inquiry had resulted in novices seeking guidance and answers from those who had traveled the path before them. With the passage of time, many novices and experts formed groups that prevailed in pockets all over the world throughout recorded and unrecorded history. The expert traveler would guide and share with the novice what (s)he had realized on the path of existence. More and more novices joined the inquiring path. These groups became formal training grounds for the path of awakening. Thus emerged the original form of schooling. Marsh

& Willis (2003) confirm spiritual realization as the sole purpose of the initial educational setup. In other words, education in its rudimentary stages, embraced aspects of perennial 93

thought. The early writings that depict the educational settings of Socrates and his pupils

reflect that premise in the west and the Gurukuls in the east. For instance, the aim of

education, according to the ancient Indian text the Upanishads, is as follows:

The highest aim of Upanisadic education was man making, character building and the realization of the Supreme Spirit. The ancient seers laid great emphasis on the spiritual enlightenment of the individual which consists in gaining a vision of the self (Sarmah, 1978, p. 274).

Interestingly, the ancient prefix 'Deu' is common for the word education and divinity.

Therefore, Deuk (Education), was perhaps for Deus (Divinity). Why then did the

education system get engaged in accumulating knowledge solely for the material world?

Marsh and Willis (2003) attempt to answer this:

The justification for all parts of the curriculum was that they were subjects that provided access to central and eternal truths...since this kind of education was directed more at eternal life then at life in this world, it seemed unsuited to the necessities of coping with the harsh conditions and material privations in the colonies. One result was the development of the widespread belief that the activities of schooling, directed at cultivating the mind and the soul, were separate from the practical activities of life outside of schools (p. 28).

The division between the divine and material life seems to have solidified further with the

passage of time. This is not to say that education to learn the essentials for living within

society is useless. As Miller (2006) confirms, in timeless learning, we are not rejecting

time-bound learning. The point here is that the quintessential learning is left out.

"Slattery urges us to consider T.S. Eliot's question to modernity: "Where is the

wisdom we have lost in knowledge?" (Kincheloe & Steinberg, 1995, p. x). One may

proudly claim to have accumulated knowledge, yet may not be able to answer the

question "Who am I"! The question is incredibly simple yet extremely profound.

Therefore, what good is any educational knowledge if one doesn't know who one is?

What good is it to know as an adult that one plus one is two mathematically, when one is unaware of the interpenetrating universe perceived as multidimensional? What good is it to know how many different races exist in the world, when one is unaware that at a DNA 94 level, they are 99.9% identical? (Krulwich, 2001). What good is it to know about all the different materials that exist, when one is unaware that subatomically, they are alike?

What good is it to know how many personalities there are among human beings, when one is unaware that the mind is the creator of our known realities? What good is it to define what education is, when one is unaware of holism? Thomas Merton adds, "What does it matter if we can travel to the moon if we cannot cross the abyss that separates us from ourselves? This is the most important of all journeys. Without it, all of the rest are useless" (cited in Feldman, 2001, p. 127).

Somewhere along the road, we threw away the sole purpose of education and gathered instead, fragmented pieces of information.

Among 'advanced' educationists there are many people who seem to think that all will be well, so long as adolescents are permitted to 'express themselves,' and small children are encouraged to be 'creative' in the art class. But alas, plasticine and self-expression will not solve the problems of education. Nor will technology and vocational guidance; nor the classics and the Hundred Best Books. The following criticisms of education are made more than two and a half centuries ago; but they are as relevant today as they were in the seventeenth century (Huxley, 1945, p. 109 - 110).

Thomas Traherne speaks of his own learning experience in school that was confined only to knowledge:

Nevertheless some things were defective.. .There was never a tutor that did professly teach Felicity.. .Nor did any of us study these things but as aliens, which we ought to have studied as our own enjoyments. We studied to inform our knowledge, but knew not for what end we studied. And for lack of aiming at a certain end, we erred in the manner.

Here Traherne's usage of the word 'felicity' is the unitive knowledge of divinity within and without (cited in Huxley, 1945, p. 109 - 110).

Huebner (1993) writes, ".. .the significance of the word "study" has been destroyed. Students study to do what someone else requires, not for their own transformation, a way of "working" on their own journey, or their own struggle with 95 spirit, the otherness beyond them. Just as therapy is work - hard work - but important for the loosening of old binds and discovering the new self; so too should education as study be seen as a form of that kind of work" (p. 8). Satish Kumar (2003b) brings up that formal education in the past hundred years has followed a utilitarian, materialistic and reductionist pattern. The main purpose of acquiring knowledge has been to acquire power, to control other people and subjugate nature. Now in the age of ecology, education must change. We need to pursue a holistic education to learn how to live in harmony with all people and with the natural world. Without such a transformation of the educational system, a sustainable future is inconceivable. Education should not only be for occupation but for emancipation. Education should not only be for jobs, but for self-discovery. The real purpose of education is self-realization.

The need is not to see moral and spiritual values as something outside the normal curriculum and school activity, but to probe deeper into the educational landscape to reveal how the spiritual and moral is being denied in everything (Huebner, 1993, p. 11).

For the role of education is not limited to the fulfillment of one's social needs; education must encompass the whole of one's existence: physical, social, psychological, emotional, and spiritual, thereby eliminating the limiting role given to education. As Ron Miller

(1990) puts it, an education 'that really matters' is needed. "One can say that people are generally seeking enlightenment through knowledge, without realizing that the latter has the possibility of creating "endarkenment". This can be dispelled only through insight, which is able to end the commitment to absolute necessity in all knowledge, including that knowledge which is involved in forming values. These will then be opened to fresh perception... education will have to take account of this whole question of insight"

(Bohm, 1984, p. 25). 96

The Dalai Lama (April, 25,2004) notes, some people have a lot of knowledge, but not much happiness. Education alone does not guarantee a happier life. As it stands, education is like an instrument; it can be used positively or destructively. There is, therefore, a plea for a deeper education, an education that goes beyond thinking only about preparing students for tests and graduation, to an education that addresses life in its entirety (Wilson, 2005; Slattery, 1995).

.. .there are those who marched up and down, banging the drums of their own ways. They demand respect from children, not happiness for them. Their culture is something to be conformed to, not to facilitate the fullness of life. These things are important to them, and they make a lot of noise about it. But the deeper rhythms of life are forever present, quietly getting on with the business of living and will continue to do so long after this or that way of molding young life has fallen by the wayside (Appleton, 2000, p. 261).

Crowell (2002) notes, "Both teaching and learning are part of our very humanity.

They must somehow address who we are, not just what we know" (p. 14). Educators like

Rudolf Steiner, Sri Aurobindo, Inayat Khan, and Maria Montessori note that humans are partially divine beings who are evolving toward greater divinity. They all describe the task of human beings as the attainment of divinity (Marshak, 1997, p. 9, 223). According to Huxley, the primary purpose of education is actualizing 'human potentialities'

(Huxley, 1962, p. 202). After realizing oneself, one realizes all there is to realize and know; one becomes an awakened being. When one knows oneself, one gets to know all, for we are all interconnected. If learning to realize oneself enables one to know others, I ponder, how can one help another if one does not understand him/herself at a deeper level? For instance, suppose one attains all the educational knowledge required to be a professional doctor or psychologist. If one never got to know oneself deeply, how can it be expected that they can know and understand another who requires their help?

Therefore, education perhaps needs to be steered back into the direction that leads one to wisdom and not only limited to acquiring knowledge. For ultimate knowledge 97 does not bring ultimate wisdom. Ultimate wisdom is not found in books, it resides in oneself (Chadha, 1984). A television documentary a while back, presented the story of a scholar who had degrees in philosophy, astronomy, psychology, etc. He once went to a week-long meditation retreat in West Virginia, U.S. He recounts that what he learned in that one week surpassed everything he had learnt in his entire life within formal schooling. Awakening is not something to be taught, it is one's own realization. The only thing another can offer is guidance. And that is where schools can come into the picture. Educational settings can facilitate the grounds for one to cultivate the habit of self-discovery and understanding. "It is past time for wholeness to be considered a basic

"subject" in education and everyday discourse...it would be simplistic to infer that education in the "subject" of wholeness can resolve every personal, social, and environmental issue; however, this is certainly a pivotal strategy toward personal and planetary well-being" (Gerber, 2001, p. 45). This approach will be further discussed in the next chapter. It suffices to say here that one's way of thinking needs to change for one to witness such transformation in the school system and such a transformation may perhaps gradually penetrate society at large (Lemkow, 1990). Schools reflect society, and they also change and shape society. School is like a river, both shaped by and shaping the banks (Diamond, 1999). Michael Fullan (2001) in The New Meaning of

Educational Change notes, successful reforms are partly a function of good ideas, and largely a function of the conditions under which the ideas flourish. Apart from this cooperative effort, structural innovation is doomed to failure.

The present is a period of transition between an old era painfully passing and a new era gradually dawning. While necessarily reflecting this condition of society, education must also, with united prudence and courage, take up its own particular responsibility in the field of spirituality leadership. True to its best traditions, education must tenaciously conserve the priceless, tested treasures in its own ancient storehouse; yet also foresee, with clear vision, the new spiritual needs 98

of the future and provide the food whereby the young generation may grow and flourish (Benchara Branford cited in Watts, F., 1920, p. v).

The irony is that one sometimes fails to remember the sacredness of education.

There is education for 'making a living' and there is 'education for living - living an awakening life'. A mergence of the two, whereby education can reclaim its lost spirituality, is the proposition here. Aspects of the perennial understanding may perhaps offer depth to the status quo of the educational system, traces of which are being witnessed in the growing holistic form of education.

Holistic Education

"There is no better way to study curriculum than to study ourselves." Connelly & Clandinin, 1988, p. 31

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one." Malcolm S. Forbes

"Holism is not just another philosophy among many... it is a metaphilosophy that can be used as a tool for discerning all philosophies, and everything else." Gerber, 2001, p. 44

The question of what education should entail has been debated since the origin of formal education. Holistic educators, in particular, have been addressing this issue for the past few decades (Eisler, 2005; Huebner, 1993; Miller, J., 1985, 1996, 2000,2000a,

2005, 2006; Miller, R., 1990, 1997; Moore, 2005; Palmer, 1993, 1998; Sloan, 1984,

2005) yet this concern continues to remain on the fringes of the educational system. The holistic perspective is rooted in the wholeness and interpenetration of all existence

(Beattie, 1995, 2001; Miller, J., 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2005; Miller, R, 1991, 1997;

Nakagawa, 2000; Palmer, 1993). John Miller (1993) posits, "Holistic education can be 99 traced back to the Greek statement 'know thyself.. .It also involves an inward journey to realize the Self (p. 22).

Plato and St. Augustine are among the earliest holistic educators documented in western culture. In contemporary times, the holistic movement includes the work of

Alfred Whitehead, David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake, Fritjof Capra, Carl Jung, E. F.

Schumacher, Gregory Bateson, Ervin Laszlo, Charlene Spretnak, Huston Smith, Willis

Harman, Anna Lemkow, Joseph Chilton Pearce, Thomas Merton, Charles Birch, John B.

Cobb, Theodore Roszak, Pestalozzi, Frobel, Rousseau, Ralph Emerson, Bronson Alcott,

Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, Elizabeth Peabody, Alice Bailey, Gurdjieff, Ouspensky, J. G.

Bennett, Maria Montessori, Rudolf Steiner, Parker Palmer, Parmahansa Yogananda,

Aldous Huxley, Vivekananda and Jiddu Krishnamurti.

As mentioned in the previous section, in the current state of affairs, children from a very tender age are programmed in the school system to think and act in a certain way.

Their mold of programming is hardened as time passes. To break that mold is very difficult as adults, so it is vital that the seeds of wholeness be nurtured from the beginning. A holistic environment can offer that. A holistic setting is based on the facilitation and nurturance of wholeness where the affective, cognitive, physical, psychological and spiritual domain is developed in its entirety for all involved: students, teachers, school administrators, other school support staff, parents and thereby extended to the rest of the community. John Miller (1996) offers his perspective on a holistic curriculum. He notes that a holistic curriculum encompasses learning experiences that invoke transformation of being rather than just the transmission and transaction of knowledge. Steiner also saw education as development, not the mere acquisition of 100 knowledge (cited in Wilson, 1985, p. 47). Ron Miller (1995) writes, "The art of holistic education involves responding authentically - that is, from wholeness and balance - to the children, to the subject matter, and to the social/cultural milieu of the living situation without having to follow a theory or method that rigidly dictates what one must or must not do.. .This is freedom in education" (p. 257). Contemplation, meditation, insight, authenticity, openness and compassion are some of the key constituents of this approach

(Brown, 2002).

These methods, such as contemplation and meditation, have been developed to help one to 'see'. Again, this seeing is usually a gradual awakening to the interconnectedness of things (Miller, 1996, p. 25).

Sloan (1984) presents an encompassing perspective of holistic education:

The process of education also assumes crucial importance, not as a matter of method and manipulation, but as an expression of authentic being... Once the primary importance of insight in all knowing is recognized, the way is opened for a reinstatement in the curriculum [which is] ...a beginning effort to chart the possibilities of a transformation in our ways of knowing and 'the innumerable implications' for our earth, our culture, our education (p. 4 - 7).

To summarize, Ramon Gallegos Nava (2001) offers a contrast between a mechanistic educator and a holistic educator (p. 155-156): 101

The Mission of the Holistic Educator Mechanistic Educator Holistic Educator Basic principle: 19 and 20 century Basic principle: 21st century wholeness fragmentation

Provides knowledge Creates learning contexts

Equates good education with readings Equates good education with inquiry

Works with the logic of teaching Works with the logic of educating

Educates for an industrial society Educates for a sustainable society

Promotes impersonal knowledge Promotes integral knowledge

Encourages logical-mathematical Encourages integral holistic intelligences intelligences

Encourages packages of knowledge Encourages flexibility, creativity, and change

Promotes competitive values Promotes human values

Intellectual involvement Full presence, full awareness

Fragments knowledge Integrates knowledge

Uses debate Uses holistic dialogue

Favors a uniform learning approach Favors multiple learning approaches

Inner life is separated from work Inner order is inspiration for work

Does not accept questions for which he Accepts questions for which he or she or she has no answer has no answer

Sees the student as a brain Sees the student as a human being

Guiding metaphor: the machine Guiding metaphor: the human being 102

Inspirational Holistic Educators

"Grown men may learn from very little children for the hearts of little children are pure, and therefore, the Great Spirit may show to them many things which older people miss." Black Elk

This section provides a closer look at the work of some of the influential holistic educators who approached the quintessence of education from the perspective of ancient spiritual educators. The term 'ancient spiritual educators' refers to educators that have contributed to and transformed the way of understanding and being and include Christ, the Buddha, Tao and many unnamed awakened sages. The generations of spiritual educators that followed based their work on these ancient spiritual masters. The following section focuses on three such educators: Maria Montessori, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Parker Palmer. My thoughts in this piece have been inspired deeply by their work.

Maria Montessori

"We must take into consideration that from birth the child has a power in him. We must not just see the child, but God in him. " Maria Montessori, 1935/1989, p. 98 Maria Montessori (1870 - 1952) resonated with the voices of holistic educators who pleaded for a deeper education where the spirit of all involved could be nurtured.

Maria envisioned a perennial approach to education, a 'Cosmic Curriculum', as she called it that would promote a 'children's home' where the 'whole' child is nurtured in relation to the rest of existence. She posits, "All things are part of the universe, and are connected with each other to form one whole unity" (Montessori, 1973). Her vision of education was to "help the young person feel a part of the wholeness of the universe, and learning will naturally be enchanted and inviting" (Miller, R., 2000a, p. 207). Frobel, her 103 inspiration, told a century ago "that the boy who has left the kindergarten for the school proper has passed 'from the domestic order of things to the higher cosmic order." The essential business of the school," he goes on, "is to give prominence to that ever-living unity that is in all things" (Frobel, 1887, p. 134-135).

Even though Montessori schools and materials are very commonly found, the profound spiritual aspects that Maria envisioned may not be. Maria considered the spiritual growth of the child to be much more essential than her intellectual tools and techniques (Fisher, 1912). She described a child's spirituality as innate and unconscious and, as a result, it is often ignored in the school system. The school system gives too much attention to the conscious aspects of a child, and not much at all to the unconscious.

Mario Montessori followed in his mother's footsteps and elaborated, "And yet, it is the unconscious which directs everything in the life of the child, from birth and even from before birth.. .Spirituality, being in essence, is not felt. A child feels physical and psychic hunger, but spiritual hunger in a child is not felt because it is unconscious, and therefore we give no importance to it.. .Spirituality cannot be taught. Spirituality is there, but to keep it, just as to keep the body, you must feed it from birth" (1984, p. 52-54). He further echoed:

.. .a child is not spiritually hungry because it is itself wholly spiritual; but he went on to say that we must not deprive children of the spiritual food they need. This apparent contradiction conceals a deep truth. In one sense, the child already has what he needs, because he brought it with him. In another sense, he is deprived of it because he has entered an earthly body and has become subject to the conditions of earthly life. This two-fold truth is the secret of understanding the child, and is also the secret of understanding ourselves, as human beings (cited in Bennett, 1984, p. 153). Maria Montessori felt that the purpose of education is not" to achieve social aims by imposing adult ideals on young people" (Miller, R., 2002, p. 229). The child's innate spirituality needs to foster without interventions and impositions of adults. The child in turn nurtures the adult's spirituality. Therefore, Montessori called this "spiritual embryo" humanity's "most precious treasure because "the child promises the redemption of humanity..." (Montessori, 1972, p. 36,104).

Therefore, Maria laid great importance on the educator's inner work. An educator, to make a difference in a child's life, must go through an inner transformation.

The teacher needs to respect and gain a deeper appreciation of the child and his/her needs. "The teacher must study how to purify one's heart and render it burning with charity towards the child. S(he) must "put on humility"; and, above all, learn how to serve. She must learn how to appreciate and gather in all those tiny and delicate manifestations of the opening life in the child's soul. Ability to do this can only be attained through a genuine inner effort towards self perfection.. .The first thing, then, the would-be teacher has to acquire is what one might call a "spiritual technique". And to attain it she will have to experience something akin to a religious conversion, for it will involve a "trans valuation of values" (Standing, 1998, p. 298).

Maria Montessori (1973) summed up her vision in To Educate the Human

Potential, "Let us give the child a vision of the whole Universe.. .The Universe is an imposing reality, and an answer to all questions. We sha}l walk together on this path of life.. .this idea helps the mind of the child to become fixed, to stop wandering in an aimless quest for knowledge. He is satisfied, having found the universal center of himself with all things" (p. 10). Maria extended this holistic 'mission' to the common improvement of the whole society (Montessori, 1989a). According to her, the whole society, irrespective of boundaries, is an 'organic unity' (Montessori, 1973). The unrest witnessed in the world is a reflection of the unrest within. "The real danger threatening humanity is the emptiness of men's souls; all the rest is merely a consequence of this 105

emptiness" (Montessori, 1972, p. 53). Maria Montessori's contribution towards holism is

still felt and growing through the thousands of schools based on her philosophy that have

emerged internationally. Jiddu Krishnamurti

"To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education."

Krishnamurti, 1953, p. 14

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986), who embraced perennial thoughts, formulated

a significant philosophy of education. He was one of the most powerful holistic

educators in articulating what education should really be about. Krishnamurti's passion

to improve the educational system started very early in life. The first book he wrote at

age seventeen, Education As Service, depicts his passionate voice, "Many of the

suggestions made in this little book come from my own memories of early school life.. .1 have myself experienced both the right way of teaching and the wrong way, and therefore

I want to help others towards the right way" (Krishnamurti, 1912). Therefore, he set out very early to free and liberate the education of humankind (Krishnamurti 1929).

He saw education as opening up the undiscovered terrain of spirituality within, rather than filling and drilling. Education, in his view, is a revolt against societal brainwashing to reach one's full potential. He strongly cautioned against the dangers of conditioning children. Merely to stuff the child with a lot of information, making them pass examinations, is the most unintelligent form of education (Krishnamurti, 1948).

Krishnamurti (1953, 1970) described education in its current role, as an aim to make one conform and fit into society. He felt, however, that it is not education, but merely a conditioning and conforming procedure (p. 22). He stated that modern education is 106 making us into thoughtless entities; it does very little towards helping us to find our individual vocation (Krishnamurti, 1964). He therefore called for "intelligent revolt" - an awareness that can break through social conditionings.

Krishnamurti (1970) addressed the real function of education as a means to help one understand completely and deeply so that "you are an individual without that arrogance of the self; but you have confidence because you are really innocent" (p. 95).

Education to him is also to help one from the beginning not to imitate anybody, but to be oneself all the time, understanding what one is, from moment to moment (Krishnamurti,

1964). He saw the marriage of the sacred and the secular, the mundane and the profound.

He felt that not only does one need to discover their sacredness, but also one needs to know their passions, and to do anything else would be a deprivation of the most terrible kind, especially if it involved an imposed societal success or other such cultural impositions. He felt that one's passion may not be in accord with parental and societal plans, but it initiates the purpose of one's existence, and thereby the purpose of education. He noted that to find one's passion is difficult and that is part of education

(Krishnamurti, 1974). He therefore, highly promoted the reliance on one's inner wisdom.

Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and not merely indulge in gratifying self- expression. . .The ignorant man is not the unlearned, but he who does not know himself and the learned man is stupid when he relies on books, on knowledge and on authority to give him understanding. Understanding comes only through self-knowledge, which is awareness of one's total psychological process. Thus education, in the true sense, is the understanding of oneself, for it is within each one of us that the whole of existence is gathered (Krishnamurti, 1953, p. 15 - 17).

The suggestion for inner exploration is extended to the educator as well. "By what right do we seek to mould according to a particular pattern, learnt from some book or determined by our own ambitions, hopes and fears?" (Krishnamurti, 1953, p. 23). The educators need to first understand their inner self instead of relying on external 107 ideologies, systems and beliefs, before they can provide the right environment for the students to develop this for themselves without imposing an ideal of what the educator thinks the student should be (Krishnamurti, 1953). For "to discuss what should be the right kind of education while we ourselves are conditioned is utterly futile"

(Krishnamurti, 1953, p. 27). Krishnamurti believed that the true educator does not belong to any organized religion and is free of beliefs and rituals (Krishnamurti, 1953).

Further, the role of the educator does not partake in the concept of 'doing is being' but

'being is doing' (Krishnamurti, 1956).

In reference to schools, Krishnamurti suggested that, "These places exist for the enlightenment of [humans]" (Krishnamurti, 1981), liberation being both the means and ends of education. Krishnamurti founded several schools, which he referred to as

'education centers' in India, England and America, which are based on such an educational perspective. "In these schools there are no fixed dogmas. Children are able to learn about the unity of life, about seeing things as they are, about integrity and wholeness" (Kumar, 2002, p. 94). They are all built in natural surroundings, as

Krishnamurti believed that one has a relationship with everything that lives and moves on the earth (Krishnamurti, 1987). He also insisted that the schools have special places for silence. He often spoke to the students of the importance of a quiet mind or silence so that they could observe their inner thoughts. Krishnamurti's educational aspiration is reflected as:

If the unity of life and the oneness of its purpose could be clearly taught to the young in schools, how much brighter would be our hopes for the future! (Krishnamurti, 1912, foreword).

He emphasized small-sized schools and classrooms for quality learning and a supportive environment for students and teachers. Miller (2006) highlights three schools based on Krishnamurti's educational philosophy: The Rajghat Besant School in Varanasi, India,

Brockwood Park School in London, England, and Oak Park School in California,

America. He notes all three schools are based on small class sizes and extracurricular activities besides the academic program. The aims of the Rajghat Besant School in

Varanasi, India include:

• To help cultivate all aspects of the child - physical, intellectual, emotional, and

aesthetic with a holistic development of all the faculties.

• To motivate children without punishment or reward and without encouraging

competition.

• Not to condition the mind of the child in any belief, whether religious, social, or

cultural.

• To encourage inquiry with an open mind, and a respect for dissent.

• To inculcate a love of Nature and a respect for all life (p. 120).

The goals of Brockwood Park School in London, England include:

• To educate the whole human being.

• To explore what freedom and responsibility are in relationship with others and in

modern society.

• To see the possibility of being free from self-centered action and inner conflict.

• To discover one's own talent and what right livelihood means.

• To learn the proper care, use, and exercise of the body.

• To appreciate the natural world, seeing our place in it and responsibility for it.

• To find the clarity that may come from having a sense of order and valuing

silence (p. 121). 109

Parker Palmer

"The more familiar we are with our inner terrain, the more surefooted our teaching - and living - becomes." Palmer, 1998, p. 5

Parker Palmer is another holistic educator whose work is highly inspirational. He draws his insights about what education should be about from actual experiences of his own teaching and that of other teachers. This aspect makes his work an important contribution to the current holistic movement. In his observations, Parker Palmer (1993) notes that in times when one is torn and distressed, not experiencing any form of achievement, one is forced to examine one's condition at a deeper level. The teachers that he meets feel that education is not working. Both the teachers and the students feel deprived of proper growth due to the competitive nature of the educational system. The system also has the tendency to look for superficial 'fixes' for complex human problems.

Further, there is, at times, resistance towards exploring one's inner spirit within the educational framework. Palmer calls the pain that permeates education 'the pain of disconnection' which can be extended to the society as a whole. Parker Palmer (1993) resonates with the voices of the mystics, that the world is the projection of one's self.

Violence, for instance, in the world, is considered an acting-out of the violence one finds within oneself, "an effort to get rid of our inner demons by projecting them 'out there'.. .the very systems of conditioning with which education is so preoccupied" (p.

12). Palmer (1993) notes that fortunately more and more educators for the above reasons are turning towards spiritual traditions for guidance and are in search of depth to their work and passion to teach. "Spiritual traditions offer hope that is hard to find elsewhere, for they are ultimately concerned with getting us reconnected. These traditions build on 110 the great truth that beneath the broken surface of our lives there remains - in the words of

Thomas Merton - 'a hidden wholeness'. The hope of every wisdom tradition is to recall us to that wholeness in the midst of our torn world, to reweave us into the community that is so threadbare today. That, I think, is why the spirituality of education is now being explored in so many 'unlikely' places" (preface, x).

Like Krishnamurti and Montessori, Palmer believes that education should be about exploration for all involved and not conforming. ".. .to a spirituality of 'sources' in education rather than one of 'ends'. A spirituality of ends wants to dictate the desirable outcomes of education in the life of the student". A spirituality of sources is "...about examining and clarifying the inner sources of teaching and learning" (preface, xi).

Further, Palmer (1993) feels that if the school system reflects on oneness and nature where interdependence is the way of being, education will become so meaningful. "In such an education, intellect and spirit would be one" (preface, xix). Such a perennial approach would result in "the reunification and reconstruction of broken selves and worlds" (p. 8). Palmer (1992) calls it living 'divided no more'. "... a way of knowing and educating that might heal rather than wound us and our world. But in my spiritual life I have learned that hope and grace do not come cheap. They require honest self- scrutiny first, and then confession, an offering up of our own inner darkness to the source of forgiveness and transformation" (Palmer, 1993, p. 2). To do that "...we must try to understand more about the knowledge we possess; for that knowledge also possesses us"

(Palmer, 1993, p. 6). Palmer believes that a spiritually authentic person approaches teaching with awe and wonder. Ill

Palmer (1998) summarizes that another theory, another book or another formula is

not what will transform education. What will transform education are educators who are

willing to seek a transformed way of being in the world.

In the midst of the familiar trappings of education-competition, intellectual combat, obsession with narrow range of facts, credits, and credentials-what we seek is a way of working illumined by spirit and infused with soul... this profound human transaction called teaching and learning-is not just about getting information or getting a job. Education is about healing and wholeness (p. 15- 18).

Palmer believes that it is imperative that educators who adopt such an approach, must begin by changing their outlook. Secondly, Palmer (1992) believes there is a need for

like-minded educators to collaborate and advance the change to a larger scale. This approach may feel overwhelming, however, Palmer assures with a quote by Margaret

Mead: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has" (p. 17).

.. .if you go deep, to the depths you go when you seek that which is sacred, you find the hidden wholeness. You find the community that a good teacher evokes and invites students into, that weaves and reweaves our lives, alone and together (Palmer, 1999, p. 27).

Conclusion

This chapter looked closely at the current state of the educational system and its potential deepening process. The emergence of holistic education, which is based on the perennial aspects of existential understanding, is a light that is assisting educators to reclaim spirituality in education. Further, the chapter elaborated on the thoughts of three influential holistic educators, Maria Montessori, Jiddu Krishnamurti and Parker Palmer, who have integrated perennialism and education. They all offer suggestions on how these two aspects can work together practically. All three conclude that an inner exploration of both the educator and the student is required for a drastic global scale 112 transformation to occur. Inspired by these thoughts, the next two chapters look at such a

"perennial pedagogy" (as I call it), in detail. CHAPTER 6: PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY

"The reconceptualization of curriculum and theology is a process of conscientizing and liberating; it is an autobiographical journey and a spiritual phronesis. " Slattery, 1992, p. 21

In this chapter, I present a pedagogical model that embraces the interpenetration of the ageless perennial understanding and holistic education. The perennial wisdoms offer a plethora of guidance with regards to traveling the existential path. When integrated with holistic education, the impact can be significant. The educational philosophy of ancient and contemporary perennial thinkers mentioned in this work, inspire the creation of a 'perennial pedagogy' framework here. Prior to elaborating on the nature of a perennial pedagogy however, the chapter starts with a brief glance at the emergence of this model as a topic of interest for me.

The Inception of Perennial Pedagogy

"In looking back at the educators that have influenced me it was not so much what or how they taught, but some aspect of their humanity that touched me." Miller, 1999a, p.10

In retrospect, throughout most of my educational career, I have been exposed to educational methods that involved theories, facts and figures. We, as students, were taught to only think. The intention of the educator was to 'use the brain' and hardly the

'soul'. By soul I mean the aspect of the self that is beyond the biochemical mental organism. Information was required to be memorized and tested upon completion of a particular learning period. The learning experience was a one-dimensional drilling of knowledge. Partial information would be retained. Learning was short-term. Yet, after attending the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto

113 114

(OISE/UT), my outlook towards learning changed drastically. I experienced multi­

dimensional learning through perennial inquiry and understanding. The educators

touched my soul deeply. Moore (1992, 1996) writes that learning through soul promotes

transformation of the heart, character and wisdom. The profundity of the experience

ignited my passion to get a rare glimpse of what a perennial pedagogy might look like.

The holistic educational movement, with its emergence in the latter half of the

twentieth century, embraces the perennial philosophy to a certain extent as shown in the

previous chapter. To my knowledge, however, research on perennial inquiry in the

educational system and its implications is minimal. Only a few educators, like Richard

Brown, Aldous Huxley, James Moffett, Aostre Johnson, Jiddu Krishnamurti, John Miller,

Thomas Moore, Maria Montessori, Thomas Armstrong, Huston Smith, Yoshiharu

Nakagawa, Parker Palmer, Rudolf Steiner and D.T. Suzuki have integrated aspects of this

philosophy in their work. There is, thus, a need to focus on what perennial inquiry can

offer to the educational system in light of current research. This section, therefore,

emerged from a noticeable deficiency of comprehensiveness in the literature concerning

this area.

The Integration of Perennial Inquiry and Pedagogy: A Literary Review

This section highlights the literature that integrates perennial inquiry and pedagogy. One form of perennial inquiry in pedagogy that is articulated in the literary realm is soulful learning. The perspective, in the words of Robert Sardello (1992) of

Facing the World with Soul, deepens our understanding of the meaning of soulful learning. Learning is not simply a preparation for life. It is life; the experience of living. 115

Alan Thomas (1991) succinctly puts it, " Learning means human beings facing themselves" (p. 183). Coming to know oneself in the world, and how one makes sense of the other within this world, are critical aspects of learning. Dirkx and Deems (1996) remind us that learning is understood as a process that takes place within the dynamic and paradoxical relationship of self and other. Further, Sardello (1992) tells us that learning which connects us to both the internal journey of the soul, and the external endeavor of creating a holistic culture, is the primary task of education. He states, " True learning sets one free because it sets the world free, acknowledges the world's own voice, allows it to speak, making incessant change" (p. 59). Jane Vella (2000) argues, "When the internal journey of the soul and the external journey of life are disconnected, the internal journey is in danger of being little more than navel gazing, and the external path can be groundless and unfocused" (p. 9). When one engages in awareness, these paths however could be intrinsically connected. The contemplative Thomas Merton describes the coming together of these paths as communion:

A communion of persons implies interiority and depth. It involves the whole being of each person - the mind, the heart, the feelings, the deepest aspiration of the spirit itself. Such union... presupposes individual differences - it safeguards the autonomy and character of each as an inviolate and solitary person.. .Communion means mutual understanding, mutual acceptance, not only in exterior acts to be carried out, but in regard to the inviolate interiority and subjectivity of those who commune with one another (Del Prete, 1990, p. 141).

Perennial inquiry representing the interior, and pedagogy representing the exterior, can embody Merton's concept of communion. Transforming pedagogy in this way is not an easy task; it requires a great deal of vulnerability, a humble attitude, equanimity of mind and courage. Vella (2000) states, "Every educational event is movement toward a metanoia, the passage of spirit from alienation into a deeper awareness of oneself' (p.

10). Lady Diana Whitmore (2000) confirms, ".. .without the spiritual there could be no true healing and no true education. Soul has to be brought back into education - into 116 learning communities" (p. 1). John Miller (1994,1999,2000,2005,2006) emphasizes the importance of soul within the educational framework.

Lady Diana Whitmore (2000) posits, " it is being increasingly realized that we can extrapolate from what we know about the individual to the collective. So if it is recognized that each one of us is a higher spiritual being, embodying truth, goodness, wisdom and power, with a personality and a shadow side, then perhaps education and learning communities also embody these elements - maybe education also has a shadow and a soul wound. The soul itself cannot be wounded - it is timeless, and eternal, and pure being-ness. But our connection to the soul can be wounded. This wounding can be found in ourselves, in education, and in those we educate" (p. 1). She further implores,

"Perhaps we should see education as a spiritual path. It has all the same elements of facing failure and making mistakes and the possibilities of reframing these as stepping- stones and 'treasures' both for teachers and students alike" (p. 2). Yet, she, reminds all,

"there is no chart on the wall that says that the ideal education or student should be like this or like that, and that we have no need of our 'big sticks' of judgmental-ness, and can allow the OK-ness of simply being" (p. 2). Whitmore concludes by noting, "The ultimate gift that we can give each other is the recognition of each other's soul - to see the soul in ourself, to see the soul in each other, to see the soul in those we educate, to see the soul in education. And there are several aspects to the soul that need to be seen, mirrored and recognized in us. First the individual, unique identity that is splendidly us and different from everyone else. But this can also be seen in groups, universality and the planet as well" (p. 2). 117

Miller (2000) sums the interconnection of perennial understanding and pedagogy eloquently in his book Education and Soul, " We can reclaim our souls.. .by reclaiming soul, we find that the classroom, or any educational encounter, takes on a new vitality and purpose. Students and teachers... feel alive and nourished in what they do" (p. 4).

Thomas Moore (1992) succinctly adds, "It isn't about curing, fixing, changing, adjusting, or making healthy, and it isn't about some idea of perfection or even improvement. It doesn't look to the future for an ideal, trouble-free existence. Rather, it remains patiently in the present, close to life as it presents itself day by day, and yet at the same time mindful of region and spirituality" (p. xv). In the same token, Satish Kumar (2000) notes, "You don't have to have grandiose plans. Go small; go local (p. 2). The inspirational theme of the International Educational Conference at Findhorn Foundation

(2000) integrates perennial inquiry and pedagogy superbly:

Let SOUL be the living vibrant consciousness prodding and guiding us to choose Goodness, Beauty and Truth, May EDUCATION be a process of unfoldment, revealing our unique talents and inter- connectiveness in ways that contribute to a future worth living, May SPIRIT be the fiery spark that ignites, May LEARNING be fuelled by the inexhaustible source of all wisdom The words of wisdom are out there; it is up to individuals to inculcate that wisdom into their lives and make a difference for themselves and others. I see a ray of light, a light that can illuminate all beings as beautiful creations entitled to and having potential to awakening. A tremendous amount of hope fills me, a hope to see such learning actually happening all around the world, a learning that, according to Maslow's

(1970,1970a, 1971) hierarchy of needs, can guide individuals to attain the level of self- actualization or self-realization. This brings me to the next section where the characteristics of perennial pedagogy are discussed. 118

The Characteristics of Perennial Pedagogy

"The kind of world we want will determine how we should be educating ourselves and our children." Gerber, 2001, p. 44

This section explores, as I view, the characteristics of a perennial pedagogy. The thoughts are grounded in pertinent literary references.

• Innate spiritual realization in pedagogy

• Mutual development in perennial pedagogy

• A reconceptualization of pedagogy

• Life pedagogy

Innate Spiritual Realization in Pedagogy

"We know more than we can tell." Polanyi, 1967

"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of afire." W.B. Yeats

"Something in the child already knows all of this, just waiting to be heard." Michael Mead

"Treat a child as though he already is the person he's capable of becoming." Haim Ginott

An important characteristic of perennial pedagogy is that humans are innately spiritual beings that only need an environment for proper nurturance. Tobin Hart (2003) illustrates examples of this in his book, The Secret Spiritual World of Children. Quite a few holistic educators support this statement, as well as those who were depicted in the previous chapter. James (1922) wrote, " the philosophy which is so important in each of us, is not a technical matter; it is our more or less dumb sense of what life honestly and deeply means. It is only partly got from books; it is our individual way of just seeing and 119 feeling the total push and pressure of the cosmos" (p. 4). Given the proper environment, one naturally gravitates towards one's essence. "And thus attention is recalled to one of the most ancient, and certainly one of the most potent, of ways of talking about education

- the way expressed in the belief in the soul's attraction towards eternal truth..." (Judges,

1957, p. 14). Answers to the big questions may be challenging at times but the important component is self-exploration. "The individual must think for himself, and find truth for himself; if he seemed to be coming to error or delusion rather than to truth, he must simply be inspired to question more persistently and more profoundly. There [is] no other way by which man could educate himself, at that point"... education.. .becomes the activity of a whole lifetime. It is almost identified with that good life itself for whose sake it exists" (Charles Morris, 1957, p. 33-34). Such an inquiry will lead one by interest rather than being driven by fear (Judges, 1957). The authentic and natural spiritual self is revealed by an authentic education. ".. .the purpose of education is to show a person how to define himself authentically and spontaneously in relation to his world - not to impose a prefabricated definition of the world, still less an arbitrary definition of the individual himself.. .The function of a university is, then, first of all to help the student to discover himself: to recognize himself, and to identify who it is that chooses" (Merton, 1979, p. 3-

4). For a learner is "a maker of his or her own meanings" (Beattie, 1995, p. 27).

Richards (1962) puts it," It was a long time before I felt reborn within myself the intuitions natural to childhood.. .It takes awhile to recover those faculties we had as children to see into the heart.. .from the child's capacity to imagine grows as well the adult's capacity for compassion." A child, "identifies with his surroundings, and they live within him unconsciously; it is perhaps for this reason that the small child has been characterized as naturally religious" (p. 111). Marshak (2003) notes, "Soul is the child's inner teacher." He explains, "Each child and youth is an organismic whole who contains within herself her own innate wisdom and motive force, her own inner teacher, to guide and power her unfoldment. This wisdom and motive force direct the child to unfold in a direction and at a pace that are appropriate for her development, if she is not coerced or compelled from them by adults.. .In particular, helping the child's and youth's spiritual being to unfold, so that it can manifest as her inner teacher and express its innate wisdom for guiding her growth; helping the child and youth to follow the calling for her inner teacher within her spiritual being..." (Marshak, 1997, p. 10,19). Appleton (2000) adds,

"If.. .spirituality referred to the living principle within nature, then children could only ever be regarded as spiritual creatures, for in children we encounter our nature at its most alive and spontaneous...the cathedrals, churches, mosques, and temples of religion fade into insignificance beneath the stars and among the mountains, forests, rivers, and oceans of nature. Here in the wider stream of life the child is already perfect. Only in the minds of men and women who have denied nature within themselves does the child need to be improved" (p. 185-186).

Bob Samples (1976) notes that even though high school students who dropout may not have academic knowledge, they have what he calls, 'a PhD in street smarts'.

Skemp (1989) explains that learning with understanding as opposed to rote learning, is like having a mental map of a neighborhood we know. In this neighborhood we can get from one place to another with ease. To be able to get to a place that is off our map, we must be able to connect that place to the roads we already know. We are more likely to find our way to it, if it is near the neighborhood we already know, than further away. 121

This implies that learning must start at the learner's current level of understanding, and build from there at their own pace. The educator can give directions on how to get to the unknown location, so the student can get there without enlarging their own conceptual map, but that constitutes rote learning. Skemp (1989) adds, if we do not teach with understanding that is rooted innately, we are teaching our students to be stupid. You will make him stupid if you are always giving him directions, always saying come here, go there, stop, do this, don't do that. If your head always guides his hands, his own mind will become useless (Rousseau, 1762).

Heidegger explainspaideia, which is translated roughly as 'education'. He notes,

"according to Plato's essential definition paideia means.. .that which leads to turning the whole [person] around in [their] nature or essence. Paideia is therefore essentially a transition.. .from apaideusia [opposite of paideia] into paideia. At the same time Plato cautiously wants to show that the essence of paideia is not in pouring mere knowledge to the contrary, where there is pure education the soul itself is seized and transformed as a whole, while at the same time man is transplanted to the region of his essence and oriented to it" (cited in Gross, 1968, p. 279 - 283). Plato's doctrine of Anamnesis

(Unforgetting) directs to learning that is actually a process of reminiscence, remembering or rediscovering primordial knowledge imbedded in the soul. The innate and implicate human spirituality therefore becomes explicate. This is based on the perennial idea that the whole universe resides within one; it is up to the individual to explore.

In essence, education should be about opening and realizing what one already is.

Understanding the self to understand the other and then transcending what differentiates self and the other, takes us to the next characteristic of perennial pedagogy. 122

Mutual Development in Perennial Pedagogy

"Development consists of reclaiming voice and remodeling perspective."

Diamond, 1999, p. 214

When one questions one's ultimate aim in life, one's whole known existence becomes vulnerable. This is where perennial pedagogy can play a significant role. It can nurture an environment where one can share the path of understanding and question existence with others. Holistic interaction of one's whole being with another traveler's whole being can enrich the journey for both. The process of awakening is contagious.

All can be inspired by the silent presence of an awakening being, be it a spiritual master or a school teacher.

"We can learn to nurture and educate our children in a way that differs profoundly from the norms of 'modern' culture. And as we help our children to unfold into a more complete wholeness, we will also encourage our own mental, emotional, and spiritual growth as adults. Indeed, the more we unfold as whole beings, the more nurturance and aid we can give to our children" (Marshak, 1997, p. 2). Both the educator and the student are on a journey of self-exploration, therefore, the souls of both need to be appreciated and valued so that they can impact each other. Stephen Mitchell's (1991) approach is appropriate in this context. He notes that a teacher does not teach; instead,

(s)he awakens in the student what the student already knows. "Any good teacher simply points out the correct way of life to his students. He shows them how to cut off greed, hatred, and delusion at the source, and thus helps to free them, in body, speech, and mind, of any acts that arise from greed, hatred, or delusion. That is all..." (Mitchell, 1991, p.

194). Rudolf Steiner understood that the task of the teacher is to "persuade children that 123 they want to be educated" (Wilson, 1985, p. 152). This involves levels of consciousness.

Teachers initiate the process by having an understanding of their own level that involves a "shift in self-perception" (Diamond & Mullen, 1999, p. 72) and "a vision of wholeness"

(Murray, 1955, p. 31). "You have to make your own way in the classroom. You have to find yourself. You have to develop your own style, your own techniques. You have to tell the truth or you'll be found out" (McCourt, 2005, p. 113).

Marilyn Ferguson writes, "The open teacher establishes rapport and resonance, sensing unspoken needs, conflicts, hopes, and fears. Respecting the learner's autonomy, the teacher spends more time helping articulate the urgent questions than demanding the right answers" (cited in Nava, 2001, p. 147). In addition,".. .it is futile to hope that teachers can be aware of the spiritual in education unless they maintain some form of spiritual discipline" (Huebner, 1993, p. 11).

Through practicing meditation myself I knew first hand the benefits it provided. For a short time before the busy day began, I regularly took time to center myself and stop the rush of thoughts through my head, to find a place of stillness and peace inside me. As a result I found I could work more effectively. It also enabled me to put anxieties into perspective and to remind me of the positive aspects about myself and my world. It was these things I wanted the children I worked with to discover for themselves.. .Some were skeptical about how it would work but were happy for me to teach their children and were pleased with the improvements in behaviour and the standard of work their children were producing as a result.. .Meditation does not have to be complicated or detract from the rest of the day, indeed I believe that it can enhance the time spent in school. It is precious time well spent (Dye, 2001, p. 111,114 -115).

By starting with themselves, teachers realize their own way of being which assists them in the experiences of the real world of teacher development, which in turn, enriches the development of the students. Jackson (1992) describes teacher development as that of

"wonder" and "altered sensibility" (p. 66). Lepage (1987) cautions though, "Educators, through their methods and their content, can either open wide the doors to this wonder or narrow the doorways to offer only a partial view which they can then control" (p. 180).

Frank McCourt (2005) in his teaching memoir notes, "Being domineering and harsh in words can be detrimental for learning for children (p. 50). That's what they get from parents and the schools in general" (p. 68). The attitude being ".. .with kids, keep 'em busy or they might start thinking" (p. 242).

I wanted to be a good teacher. I wanted the approval that would come when I sent my students home stuffed with spelling and vocabulary and all that would lead to a better life but, mea culpa, I didn't know how (p. 74).

Grumet (1976) posits, "...educators' development can be promoted as a shifting and transforming of self through.. .reflexive inquiry. This is the (auto)biographical work of

'reflective self-representations reflected upon" (p. 80). It is a pedagogy that is wisdom- in-practice more than just knowledge-in-practice. Teachers as ".. .interpreters that seek to understand lived experience and the self in relation to others..." (Kincheloe & Steinberg,

1995, p. xi-xii). For "there is an important relationship between personal growth and the understanding and public discourse about that understanding.. .often ignored in our teaching practice" (Mills, 1959). Joe Kincheloe (1993) presents a vision for teacher training and classroom practice called 'post-formal thinking'. The most important aspect of such thinking involves nurturance of one's own wisdom and then the other's where:

The post-formal teacher helps students to reinterpret their own lives and uncover new talents as a result of their encounter with schooling.. .Post-formal thinking.. .also promotes metaanalysis.. .thinking about thinking.. .to transcend modern convention by exposing its ironic contradictions (p. 147).

It is an understanding of facts as parts of a larger process of connecting the holographic mind to holographic reality (Slattery, 1995, p. 26). One teaches who or what one is, and that changes as one comes to know one's self better, for curriculum is a way of being and discovering. In the traditional form of education, teachers can be viewed as providers of automated products. The perennial form of pedagogy presents the teacher as a co-creator of meaning. When automation turns into authentication, the essential question then 125

becomes: "What do we make of the world? What do we make of ourselves? (Pinar et al.,

1995, p. 858). The educator and the learner address these existential questions mutually.

Therefore, the focus then becomes, "development rather than delivery" (Thomas &

Montomery, 1998, p. 378).

In perennial pedagogy, one also questions taken-for-granted assumptions, and

sees their own teaching through other's eyes. For teaching is not a one-way process.

Thiessen (1998) states, producing reflective practitioners is part of the agenda of teacher

education.

I don't know everything, I need to learn too. I need to learn too. I expect to embark on a great journey with my students-a journey that has its ups and downs, a journey that allows real people to share real experiences, a journey of the heart that allows teacher and children to love each other, and to laugh through it all. I don't have to be a perfect teacher in one day-or even in one year. I do need to keep adding and changing and reflecting. When I get to the real world of teaching, I expect to continue to ask myself: 'Am I reflecting on reaching my goals? Am I including children in my reflection? (Thomas & Montomery, 1998, p. 378).

Deep reflections such as these can lead to valuable learning outcomes for teachers

as well as students. They are a questioning of why one does what one does. For what is

realized as a result of inner reflection, is at least equally as valuable as reflection itself.

Such reflection, however, needs to be combined with practice. " Soren Kierkegaard was

noted as saying, 'The irony of life is that it is lived forward but understood backward.'

The danger for reflection is that if practice is limited to understanding it backwards, then

forward practice may remain uninformed. If learning through practice matters, then reflection on practice is crucial, and teaching].. .is the obvious place for it to be initiated

and nurtured" (Loughran, 2002, p. 42). Mezirow (1997) states, "Self-reflection can lead to significant personal transformation" (p. 7). Reflection brings gentleness, caring, understanding, nurturing, listening, honoring voices, positive personal relationships, and

open-mindedness. Eisner (2001) points out, ".. .the vision we help them form of their 126 own possibilities are among the most important things we teach.. .what a teacher contributes to his or her students' lives exceeds the scope of art, even when the arts are conceptualized in their widest form.. .a teacher affects eternity.. .what teachers can give students at a human and deeply personal level. Such contributions may never show up on the SATs..." (p. 10).

In essence, it is about bringing forth, unfolding and appreciating, rather than stuffing into an empty vessel. The path of existential understanding can become less daunting when one is guided on the path. Teachers first engage themselves in the journey of self-discovery. They can then help their stumbling students to find their own path.

Teachers do not make a path for the students but just light the path so they can see their own without falling into the dark. Further, they can draw on the teachings of those who have understood the path of awakening. Such an environment can foster perennial understanding for all involved.

A postmodern transformative pedagogy is most clearly seen as the engagement of this journey by students and teachers who are confident that the consummation of education is liberation and synthesis (Slattery, 1995, p. 224).

Huxley (1992) sums it brilliantly:

Education...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 (p. 101). 127

A Reconceptualization of Pedagogy

"That which we are, we shall teach." Ralph Waldo Emerson

A continual pedagogical reconceptualization based on practical understandings is crucial in perennial pedagogy. For instance, one of the leading contemporary curriculum scholars, William Pinar (1988) notes a reconceptualization of the field of curriculum in the past two decades. "From a field concerned with the development and management of curriculum, it has evolved into a fieldmor e concerned with scholarly understanding of several dimensions of curriculum" (p. v). Slattery (1995) builds on this thought, ".. .the reconceptualized curriculum field provides the necessary grounding for reflection, renewal, and innovation to move beyond both progressive and conservative curriculum development models of the past..." (p. 10). The term 'reconceptualists' was coined by

Macdonald (1971) for curriculum theorizers who addressed existing conceptual schema and provided new ways of viewing and exploring the broadest scope of curriculum.

Some of the reconceptualized forms involve evaluation that includes expressive, imaginative, and metaphorical forms (Miller, 2006, Eisner, 1985, 1985a, 1991) rather than objective methods only. There is a supervision of instruction that is theatrical, image constructive (Edward Pajak, 1989), shared and empowering (Carl Glickman,

1992). Inquiry is grounded in interpretations (Haggerson & Bowman, 1992) rather than bureaucratic, inspectional and clinical modes. It is a less deterministic policy-making system (Elmore & Sykes, 1992) with an appreciation of interconnection among school, individual experience, and public life (Page, 1990). It is not exclusively a rational process of intervention and analyzable negotiation that guides the educational practice 128

(Wise, 1979). Curriculum theory thereby becomes a process of richness, recursion and relations (William Doll, 1993) rather than concrete elements of a program of instruction

(Tyler, 1949). ".. .in this way, the traditional dichotomy of theory-practice disappears since all now become practitioners who theorize about their teaching - learning experiences" (Marsh & Willis, 2003, p. 100). This promotes an interdisciplinary curriculum design (Sizer, 1984) that opens up possibilities that enable deep learning rather than just a management of expected outcomes (Carson, 1987) where "emphasis falls on the ongoing process, not on any particular result" (Marsh & Willis, 2003, p. 100).

Further, Macdonald (1981) proposes a transcendental ideology of education under which curriculum decisions are made. The ideology centers on the question of how each person's full potential can be realized. Slattery (1989) notes, "an awareness of and sensitivity towards many environments - physical, psychological, social, and spiritual - are integral parts of postmodern proposals which inform.. .curriculum" (p. 156). Slattery

(1995) further adds, "Aesthetics, the fine arts, and qualitative inquiry are integral to the creation of landscapes of learning and synthetical moments of self-understanding for curriculum development in the postmodern era. In fact, aesthetic phenomena may ultimately be the only justification for our curriculum theorizing, even for our very existence" (p. 225). Friedrich Nietzche (1968) expounds in The Birth of Tragedy, "We have our highest dignity in our significance as works of art - for it is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified" (p. 52).

Slattery (1995) summarizes reconceptualized curriculum as 'proleptic' where

"The past and the future are comprehensible only in the context of the present" (p. 264).

He notes such an educational vision is evident in Gadamer's "fusion of horizons", 129

Dewey's "social consequences of value", Greene's "landscapes of learning", Freire's

"praxis", Pinar's "currere", Padgham's "becoming", Macdonald's "hermeneutic circle",

W. Doll's "transformative recursion", Griffin's "sacred interconnections", Bergson's

"duration", Nietzsche's "eternal return", and M. A. Doll's "dancing circle" (p. 266).

Life Pedagogy

"Teaching is fundamentally a mode of being." TetsuoAoki, 1986, p. 8

"Spiritual education is not about creating some kind of educational nirvana. It is about waking up to the sacredness of everyday learning." Brown, 1999, p. 73

"Learning comes when there is relevance and resonance."

Hart, 2003a

Another fundamental feature of perennial pedagogy is attentiveness to autobiographical and phenomenological experience. William Pinar and Madeleine

Grumet (1976) focus on internal experiences not only external objectives. Curriculum started to be understood as an (auto)biographical text with the formulation of the concept of currere in the 1970's (Pinar, 1974; Pinar & Grumet, 1976 and Pinar, 1994). Currere is the Latin infinitive of "curriculum," meaning 'to run the course' (Pinar et. al., 1995).

William Pinar adopted the idea, "for Pinar the course of individual experience is the curriculum" (Marsh & Willis, 2003, p. 137). Slattery (1995) calls it "an inward journey"

(p. 56). Further, ".. .currere seeks to understand the contribution academic studies makes to one's understanding of his or her life" (Pinar, et al., 1995, p. 520). Thus currere refers to an existential experience within the framework of the educational institution. The method of currere unveils life experience, allowing a deepening of understanding and subsequent action (Pinar & Grumet, 1976, p. vii). In other words, it is a " self-inquiry into the world of our experience.. .wherein knowledge of the world is yielded through knowledge of the self (Diamond, 1999, p. 230). Perennial pedagogy adopts this approach. It therefore addresses life in its entirety. All life matters are subjects of dialogue in such an environment. Slattery (1995) notes, curriculum should be all the experiences that learners have in the course of living (p. 10). ".. .school is life and as such should not be conducted as a sterile preparation for living in the real world someday" (Bird, 1993, p. 140). Previously a Zen master, David-Marr Reid notes that,

"Learning not be separated by the life" (Crowell & Reid, 2003). Satish Kumar (2003b) adds, "living and learning are not compartmentalized, they are on a continuum".

Mann (2001a) explains, "Many children are disenchanted by schools because they have come to see themselves as incapable of handling academic work and feel that the curriculum is not relevant to life outside school" (p. 39). This attitude leads to stagnant learning. In Frank McCourt's (2005) experience, "A good teacher relates the material to real life" (p. 50). When any class discussion is situated around real life situations, it becomes more meaningful. McCourt, in his approach, used down-to-earth teaching methods, for instance, using the students' excuse notes as an idea for the students to build on creative and imaginative writing skills. Sawada (1989) points out a Japanese form of education:

In shibui education.. .knowledge would constitute the everyday epistemology of the everyday experiences of the everyday student who does not leave life behind when entering school (p. 9).

Pedagogy becomes, an ongoing process of making meaning in lives and conveying meaning to others. This process centers on personal perception and choice. In it, the curriculum is considered a medium through which individuals learn how to deepen their own perceptions, refine their own meanings, and make increasingly wise choices 131

about how to portray meanings (Eisner, 1992). This results in a transformative pedagogy

that can enable human freedom (Grumet, 1981; Miller, 1992; Pinar, 1980).

Macdonald (1981) and Pinar (1980) express curriculum as a liberating journey.

"Those who understand curriculum as theological text understand education as wedded to

the most profound issues of the human heart and soul.. .yearnings for union with the

source of life.. .seeks to uncover layers of mystical experience, insight and harmony with

creation" (Pinar, et. al., 1995, p. 659). Curriculum as theological text, invites all to

explore "divine reality, cosmic meaning, and enchanted nature" (Griffin, 1989, p. xiii).

Marshak (1997) adds, ".. .the education of the soul.. .involves the person's knowing of

the divine immanent within..." (p. 111). The "wholeness" of this view contradicts the

modern experience of fragmentation and isolation and suggests a new theological

perspective from which to explore curriculum (Pinar, et. al., 1995, p. 660). Curriculum at

this stage becomes a life conversation. Mortimer Adler (1982), a traditionalist writes,

"Our concern with education must go beyond schooling.. .Education is a lifelong process

of which schooling is only a small part" (p. 9-11). This lifelong process reconnects

"students and teachers, space and time, meaning and context, the knower and the known,

humanities and sciences, and especially past, present, and future" (Slattery, 1995, p. 261).

In such an environment, one gains a "heartfelt connection to what one writes and reads

and does" (Booth, 2003).

Just like the changeable nature of a kaleidoscope, life pedagogy seeks to reveal

what Slattery (1995) calls a ".. .vast, interrelated web of ideas, texts, personalities...stories...the spiritual, aesthetic, historical, sociopolitical, ethical, racial,

gendered, and cultural dimensions of the human community" (p. 244, 249). It is a 132 curriculum that is synonymous with divergence and wholeness. It is both linear and circular, aesthetical and synthetical, here and now, and proleptic. Miller (2006) refers to it as 'timeless learning'. Timeless learning, according to him, becomes apparent for the one who lives in the present rather than in time. It is this presence that Maxine Greene, in the video "Exclusion and Awakenings: The Life of Maxine Greene" eloquently states as,

"...is to search meaning...[and experience] wide-awakenness". Maxine Greene's (1978) usage of the term "wide-awakenness" is inspired by poet Henry David Thoreau.

"Thoreau talks about how few people are awake enough for.. .divine life" (p. 162).

Further, in the moment, inquiry in pedagogy has the potential to create what Greene calls a "different kind of breathing".

Life pedagogy borrows David Ray Griffen's et. al (1993) constructive postmodern model of integration, Henry Giroux's (1991) 'border-crossing' with his employment of the term 'post-structuralism', Chet Bowers' (1993) 'interconnectedness across boundaries', Donald Oliver and Kathleen Gershman's (1989) vision of postmodern curriculum as ontological knowing, and Bernard and Slattery's (1992)

'quantum curriculum' that uncovers the layers of meaning of phenomena that could enrich one's life and pedagogy. Life pedagogy thereby offers transcendence and immanence at the same time as reflected by Thomas Merton (1979):

Thus, the fruit of education, whether in the university (as for Eckhart) or in the monastery (as for Ruysbroeck) was the activation of that inmost center...that 'apex' or 'spark' which is a freedom beyond freedom, an identity beyond essence, a self beyond all ego, a being beyond the created realm, and a consciousness that transcends all division, all separation.. .This realization at the apex is a coincidence of all opposites.. .being and unbeing, life and death, self and nonself, man and God. The 'spark' is not so much a stable entity which one finds but an event, an explosion which happens as all opposites clash within oneself. Then it is seen that the ego is not. It vanishes in its non-seeing when the flash of the spark alone is. When all things are reduced to the spark, who sees it? Who knows it? If you say 'God', you are destroyed; and if you say no one, you will plunge into hell; and if you say I, you prove you are not even in the ballgame. The purpose of all learning is to dispose man for this kind of event. The purpose of various disciplines is to provide ways or paths which lead to this capacity for ignition (p. 9-11). 133

In essence, life pedagogy paradoxically takes one beyond the self, while linking one more deeply with the self. It is discovered that there is no right or wrong way to play in life, just continual exploration, everyone being both a teacher and a learner during the play of life. It involves building on each other's discoveries. This meditative state allows for the inner world to surface from the unconscious into awareness. With such deeper understanding, comes greater compassion and transformative action.

In accordance to the above-mentioned characteristics, perennial pedagogy may offer proper nourishment that can perhaps reduce the deterioration of mental well-being, promote happier and peaceful lives. Mystics have been expressing for centuries that the understanding of the path of existence leads to blissfulness. And if the desire for happiness is universal, the school system perhaps should make an effort to address this universal longing. Schooling may not only teach one what is needed to get a job in society; it may embrace existence in its entirety. A job then may not be seen as a job at all, it may be seen as a humble form of service to humanity with compassion flowing through and through.

The path of awakening thereby needs education as a form of guidance along the path, and education needs to embrace the path of awakening to make a true holistic world. When both mutually co-exist, there may arrive a moment when the duality between the two ceases to exist. I believe, education may then reclaim itself as perennial pedagogy: "the lifespot of teaching and learning and transmission and transformation" (Jardine, 2000, p. 229).

What is education, anyway? What are we doing in this school? You can say you're trying to graduate so that you can go to college and prepare for a career. But, fellow students, it's more than that.. .from FEAR to FREEDOM (McCourt, 2005, p. 253). 134

A perennial pedagogy can allow space for not only experiences of oneness, infinite compassion, humility, fathomless peace and joy that go beyond textual and scriptural understanding but it can allow for deep insights. For "The ultimate teaching is beyond words. So what good will it do you to get close to the Buddha's words?" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 135).

"... the mystical moment can in fact not be articulated in terms of categories of what we commonly know and express as experience" (Carlson, 1999, p. 256-257) because "at the very heart of mystical experience there can lie a certain 'nonexperience,' a certain 'impossibility' of experience for the subject of experience" (p. 262). Another aspect to note is that such experiences are not confined to stages. "It is not absolutely necessary to pass all the stages; the Buddha never explained things in this way. The later teachers systematized things in the form of stages. A meditator does not try to pass these stages one by one in sequence" (Vajragnana, 1997, p. 184). Feldman (2001) beautifully summarizes, ".. .experiences in themselves are not so significant in the journey to enlightenment. We may attempt to grasp hold of experiences and try to add them to our

'spiritual portfolios.' However, we soon realize they are just passing states that do little to change our lives in themselves. What are truly significant, we come to understand, are the insights that we can garner through the experiences. These insights fundamentally transform us and our understanding of existence" (p. 206). An authentic perennial pedagogy offers such insights. Scott Forbes (2003) describes the scope of holistic education, which can be applied to a perennial pedagogy. He notes:

Holistic education is a true alternative to mainstream education with a carefully thought out philosophical foundation. With innumerable schools and programs claiming to be holistic now existing, it is certainly time that holistic education became clearly recognized for what it is attempting and why it is attempting it. With such clarity the various kinds of holistic schools 135

might better reflect and refine what they are doing, and non-holistic schools might benefit from the years of effort and insights of holistic education (p. 282).

Charles Suhor (1998) sums it eloquently, "Spirituality grows in classrooms when teachers see themselves as agents of joy and conduits for transcendence, rather than merely as licensed trainers or promoters of measurable growth. Surely the latter roles are important, but they are not why we educate. Many of the most worthwhile things in our lives are implicit in the curriculum, waiting for us to bring their real presence to our students" (p. 16).

Glimpses of Perennial Pedagogy

"As we open to and nourish the spiritual world of children, we contribute to and join with the wave of evolution and of Spirit itself " Hart, 2003, p. 279

A few educational institutions that encompass aspects of a perennial pedagogy have been mentioned earlier in this work. There are traces of such pedagogical settings in pockets throughout the globe, in particular, in East and South East Asia, Europe, North and Central America, with many more emerging. Students' existential ponderings initiated in these institutions can have a gradual yet exponential effect on the direction of the school system, as the current students will become tomorrow's educators.

Below are some examples within the following categories:

• Post-Secondary School-Based Education

• Secondary School-Based Education

• Elementary School-Based Education 136

Post-Secondary School-Based Education

Sam Crowell's & David Reid-Marr's (2005) experiences teaching the Masters in

Integrative Studies at California State University, San Bernardino, as well as art classes at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, respectively, bring perennial understanding into teaching and learning. They note, "For us teaching is a sacred vocation - a vocation that is constantly presenting new opportunities to deepen our understanding of what it means to be truly human. It is a vocation that requires love and service and often includes frustration and doubt, because of this it opens gateways to the exploration of our inner life. This exploration is profound and meaningful when it becomes manifested in the world. It is teaching from the inside out" (p. 1). They further note that such a teaching involves a shift in perception of what it means to be a teacher, connecting them to the interplay of learning and unlearning, reflection, inner work, discovery, humility, honesty where the lives of all involved is enriched. For instance, questions like: "Why are we teaching this "stuff?" How does knowing the "stuff help our students develop into better human beings?" (p. 6-7) are addressed. Crowell & Reid further point out,

"Teaching from the inside out also requires us to "follow" our students. There is a

Chinese proverb that states that great leaders do not lead from the front, rather they follow from behind. The proverb goes on to explain that true leadership empowers others to feel that they have done the "thing," the "task," themselves. This proverb points out the significance of leading in an almost invisible and intangible way" (p. 10).

Dr. Ming Fang He (2006), Associate Professor, at the Georgia Southern

University is another person that offers aspects of perennial pedagogy in action. She states "education is a lifelong journey. It simply cannot be measured by multiple-choice 137

questions". She further believes that "teaching occurs in every moment of life. Learning

occurs inside and outside the classrooms, in solitude and collaboration, in success and

disappointment. She perceives education as a journey of exploration directly connected

to students' personal and professional concerns and interests" (p. 1). In her daily

teaching practice, she encourages students to think and reflect beyond boundaries, upon

their experiences. Their reflections thus enhance their understandings of themselves and

society. She uses a combination of set standards and open space for exploration.

Secondary School-Based Education

A female student at the Insight Meditation Society notes, "When I'm at school

I'm like, 'What's the point of this?' I don't want to just get an engineering degree, get a job, have kids and die, and I feel like a lot of people are living on that level"

(Bombardieri, 2000, p. 1). Aldous Huxley (1962) demonstrated his perennial approach

towards education through his novel Island a few decades ago. He writes, "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 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).

Edward Clark (2002) implemented what he calls an integrated curriculum at

Thompson Middle School, IL with positive results. Based on his experience during the

program, he wrote a book titled Designing and Implementing an Integrated Curriculum:

A Learner-Centered Approach. This book offers practical educational suggestions with

regards to developing a curriculum that is meaningful, what he calls "questions worth 138 arguing about". His book is now being used as a class text in teacher-trainer courses.

Based on the program's implementation, Clark compiled four cardinal principles for a deeper education. He believes that the philosophy and theories upon which today's educational practices are based need to be updated. The primary change necessary for success is a shift in what Clark calls 'mindset'. This mindset involves a shift in focus from outcome to process, from individuals to partnerships, from competition to cooperation. Proper staff development based on in-class experiences is the second crucial principle. Clark notes that the growth of the teacher is a pre-requisite for the growth of the student. One's learning is internalized when both the teacher and the student engage in what he calls 'participative dialogue' that involves the heart and the head of both. This form of dialogue lies at the heart of not only meaningful learning but all relationships. The third aspect is innovative programs requiring an enthusiastic, supportive learning community with all of the teachers, parents and the broader community involved. Remer (1996) confirms, "Schools need to attach themselves to the community assets for practical purposes because the in-school programs are often inadequate and incomplete and the realities of the community can teach that which the isolated school cannot" (xiii). Clark further notes that learning is as natural as breathing.

A child innately desires to learn new things. Given a proper environment and encouragement, learning becomes deeper. Carl Glickman (1998) in Renewing America's

Schools, points out that teachers are conditioned to conform rather than to be involved as initiators of change. This approach needs alteration. That brings us to Clark's fourth principle. It is based on the premise that with understanding, teachers can become reformers and the principal, a role model. The Garrison Institute in Upstate New York, founded in 2002, also explores "the

intersection of contemplative and spiritual experience with engaged action in the world."

One of its initiatives is called "Awareness and Concentration for Learning", and over the next three years, it will "promote the research and implementation of contemplation- based interventions in the American public school setting" (Boyce, 2007, p. 3). The core belief of the Garrison Institute is three-fold: that interdependence is the nature of the universe; that authentic contemplative practice generates deep insight into interdependence and awakens unselfish compassion for others; and that the combination of contemplative insight and compassion represents the purest and surest force for positive social change.

Elementary School-Based Education

The ChildSpirit Institute in Georgia is a fine example of pedagogy with aspects of perennialism. The Institute's motto reads, "seeks to foster that within us which wonders, creates, strives for unity, hungers for meaning and value, and which knows directly. The spiritual life of children has been a secret world that deserves to remain sacred, but it is a world that can benefit from thoughtful dialogue and fresh understanding. As we enter this mystery of spirit we see the light of the child reflecting the light within all of us.

ChildSpirit is dedicated to honoring that inner light and nourishing love and wisdom in our world" (Brochure).

The Bellwether School in Burlington, Vermont also aims "to support children in developing a caring and fulfilling relationship to the world around them. We aim to nourish the healthy development of each child's distinctive abilities and personal identity within a safe, nurturing, encouraging, collaborative community of teachers, parents and

children" (Rocha, 2003, p. 141).

Closer to home, is the Discovery Private School in Toronto, Ontario. The

founder, Marisa Ferrera (2007) states, "At Discovery Private School our mission is to

bring out the best in children by identifying their unique learning styles and by creating a

customized curriculum that allows them to advance at their own pace in a safe, joyful and

loving environment." She further adds that the school was "conceived as a result of my belief that when children are accepted, honoured and loved for who they are, their natural

curiosity and enthusiasm for learning will continue to grow throughout their lives" (p. 1).

Conclusion

This chapter presented 'Perennial Pedagogy', a proposed pedagogical model that integrates perennial understandings. Various aspects of this model were discussed including: grounds for the realization of one's innate spirituality, mutual development of educators and students, and an ongoing understanding of meaningful expressions of curriculum and its relevance to the whole of existence.

One can go on proposing how matters should be and should not be, but it is worthless if it is not grounded in practice. A hypothesis may be considered futile if it cannot be applied to life. There is a difference between talking about the walk and actually walking the talk. Perennial philosophy seems profound as a theory but does it bear to practicality? The life force of perennial understanding is the practical experience 141 of it. Therefore, examples of perennial pedagogy in action have been mentioned in this chapter. The next chapter looks at the elements of practice in detail. CHAPTER 7: PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY IN PRACTICE

"...perhaps nine times out often these opportunities to balance the external and inner world only occur by chance; often we stumble upon them late in life. How much easier adult life might be if these openings were apart of a rounded education." Levete, 2001, p. 6

"While many programmes are available to adults who seek to integrate their mental, physical and spiritual natures through groups, teachers, books etc... it didn 't make sense to me that children spend the first twenty years of their lives learning ineffective ways to deal with life, and spend the next twenty years trying to unlearn them if they ever do." Rozen,1994,p.l-2

In this chapter, I focus on how perennial understanding can be brought to the classroom. I will explore various experiential activities that can promote mental and physical enrichment for those involved in the educational milieu and at large. The two key approaches proposed are contemplative pedagogy and meditational pedagogy, both of which can incorporate hands-on exercises and can be used in the classroom by teachers and students. The approaches are interconnected even though they are discussed under separate sub-headings.

Tobin Hart (2003b) points out:

Contemporary schools emphasize both rational and sensory knowing. The rational involves calculation, explanation, and analysis; the sensory lives off observation and measurement. Together these form the rational-empirical approach that has set the standard for knowledge across most disciplines. However, another way of knowing - contemplation - has been recognized across time, culture, and disciplines as essential to the pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, yet remains absent from today's curriculum and pedagogy. Contemplative knowing is the missing link, one that impacts student performance, character, and depth of understanding...The contemplative mind is opened and activated through a wide range of approaches - from pondering to poetry to meditation - that are designed to quiet and shift the habitual chatter of the mind in order to cultivate a capacity for deepened awareness, concentration and insight (p. 2).

In addition, students respond to pressures by going through several overwhelming emotions during their youth, such as: anxiety, low self-esteem, rejection, withdrawal, depression, jealousy, peer pressure, guilt etc. Educators, at the same time, may experience stress and burn out. These emotional disturbances can be addressed by means

142 143 of calming exercises that include contemplation and meditation. Miller (1994) notes,

"Our life today tends to be hurried and task-oriented.. .With so much to do, simply sitting still seems counter to the whole direction of modern life. Yet despite this apparent incongruity, many people who undertake some form of contemplative practice find that their lives become less fragmented. Many who have practiced meditation also comment that it makes them feel less isolated and more connected to the social and organic environment around them. Thus, what seems so alien to modern life may be profoundly healing. As life speeds up, we feel the need to slow down.. .turn inward" (p. 1). Gene

Levete (2001c) notes that in England, "Different approaches such as yoga, stilling, guided imagery, meditation and circle time are introduced in state schools, particularly at the primary level, to help students relax, quieten, learn to listen, express and handle their emotions.. .to recognize their inner strength, and their ability to help themselves" (p. 27).

She further notes, "A number of projects such as the Manchester-based 'Values and

Visions', and the 'Hope Project' in the West Midlands, whose origins stem from the

Quaker movement, have worked with teachers introducing them to methods which encourage stillness" (Levete, 2001c, p. 30). One British national health therapist, who introduced meditation to a group of hyperactive children between the ages of eight and eleven, spoke of the potential of meditation as 'profoundly important' (Levete, 2001b, p.

13). Meditation and yoga are being explored as a way of helping people who have behavioral or emotional difficulties. "The Home Office supports the work of The Prison

Phoenix Trust in introducing yoga and meditation to inmates, and occasionally young offenders. The director of this organization has the interesting background of being both a Catholic nun and Zen Buddhist teacher" (Levete, 2001c, p. 29). Another study reports students' reduction in test anxiety and gam in field independence as a result of meditation

(Linden, 1973). The few minutes of stillness and silence are generally reported as having positive effects on the students to the point they voluntarily choose to attend the sessions.

When students were "asked how they felt about meditation their enthusiasm was directed to the fact it helped them to feel 'peaceful' and was a useful practice to turn to it if things were difficult, 'like when you get angry', as one boy said. When asked if meditation practice was ever helpful outside school when things went wrong, the response was lively. Almost all said 'yes' and supported this with a personal story" (Levete, 2001c, p.

31). Mann (2001) states, "teaching children to 'wake up' to every moment could have revolutionary repercussions for the quality of their engagement in learning" (p. 37). She further implores:

The main areas where meditation can be seen as beneficial in education were explored, namely: stress management; achieving a relaxed yet alert mental state; training attention and concentration and being in the present moment. There would seem to be a good case for exploring these attributes of mind in education where these psychological states would appear to be at a premium. It is strange how little attention education pays to the state of mind and the psychological functioning of the learner. Giving children the tools to be in the optimal state for learning would seem to be a good idea. As we have seen the words 'pay attention' are a phrase that is reiterated to children in school perhaps more regularly than any other. Meditation is first and foremost a technique to cultivate attention. For something that is so obviously deemed important for learning as well as for life, it is surprising that the art of paying attention is a subject that never appears on the curriculum (p. 37).

Levete (2001c) therefore concludes, for extensive use of this practice, "it needs the interest and involvement of teachers and others established within the field of education, and social and pastoral care. Without this the picture will remain fragmented, and will continue only to benefit a few students who have the opportunity to be introduced to meditation and assess the results themselves" (Levete, 2001c, p. 31 - 32). 145

Contemplative Pedagogy

The term 'Contemplative Pedagogy' is borrowed fromth e teachings of the

Tibetan Buddhist teacher, Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche who referred to it as

'Contemplative Education'. Among others, the Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado is a fine example of contemplative education. The university offers this program as a degree for teachers and students. It incorporates various forms of meditation and contemplation. Contemplative pedagogy is referred to here as: full engagement of the educator as well as the student in the present moment task that may open grounds for

'aha' experiences. "The fully alive, fully awake teacher becomes, in this context, not so much a distiller of external information, but rather, an amplifier for the inner voice of the higher self (Nolan, 2001, p. 96). If the subject at hand, for instance, is to understand how the natural process of recycling works, one can visualize becoming the elements of nature and feel the oneness with nature. It is a much deeper understanding than just reading about the process of natural recycling. Learning of this kind is 'felt-knowledge rather than knowledge' (Booth, 2003). It involves 'time to take time to understand', a deep contemplation of phenomenon. Another instance may be, where students are asked to devote a short time period in constant watchfulness and contemplation of everything that happens during that time. This may open a venue to gain insight into existence and its accompanying phenomenon. Such a school setting can enable a safe and non- threatening environment where the educators as well as the students together experience contemplative opening, which in turn may inspire them to apply it further in their lives outside the school, for a deeper and richer existence. Inspired by some of the educators at OISE/UT that enriched my learning experience, I have further highlighted some activities

that can foster contemplation:

Storytelling

Storytelling is a natural yet powerful form of learning, as one's life itself, is a

story. Presenting deep messages about existence in the form of a story extends how one

responds to life and deepens thought about the human condition (Diamond, 1999, p. 16).

A phenomenal example of this is Who Ordered this Truckload of Dung: Inspiring Stories for Welcoming Life's Difficulties by Ajahn Brahm (2005), which consists of one hundred

and eight short stories that are extremely engaging, humorous and insightful. Another

approach is asking students "to disclose their stories or narratives within the group"

(Erricker, 2001, p. 47).

Metaphors

Metaphorical interpretation is another form of deepening understanding in

contemplative pedagogy. Roger Walsh (1999) notes, " Metaphors are figures of speech

in which we describe one thing - usually something subtle or difficult to grasp - in terms

of something else more concrete and comprehensible. Spiritual experiences and

transformations, by their very nature, are often subtle and indefinable, and metaphorical

descriptions therefore abound" (p. 22). This method has been used by the world

traditions since time immemorial. Many scriptures use this form to bring across an

abstract idea. For instance, earlier in this work, Mitchell (1991) mentions how the

concept of 'kingdom of heaven' is a way to explain the inner state of awakening.

Diamond (1999) notes, "Through metaphor, we link previously separated selves and 147 understandings" (p. 256). He adds, "Our meanings need to emerge gradually.

Metaphoric.. .methods of inquiry assist in this development" (p. 266). Depiction of metaphors through the usage of a poem is another form of the soul's expression. T. S.

Eliot calls a metaphoric poem a raid on the inarticulate.

Journal writing

"Personal disconnection - diverting outside. People are fearful to go in. Become an inner explorer. Awareness is the vehicle for entering into your inner life. Only you can be the explorer." Hunt, 2001

Journal writing is very beneficial in terms of seeing one's growth and development. I have been exposed to this form at OISE/UT by quite a few professors with lasting and enriching benefits. Examples of this include: journal writing after daily meditation sessions, weekly journal writing about a spiritual practice (Miller, 2006), an aspired quality (Hunt, 1999) or a wellness activity (Miezitis, 1999) taken up for the term of a university course. The pre and post results are usually quite meaningful. The

Hollywood movie "Freedom Writers" is based on a true story that involved a school teacher named Erin Gruwell (2006). She taught at Woodrow Wilson High School in

Long Beach, California and promoted journal writing to her students. Remarkable life changing episodes followed in the lives of those involved. The students even dubbed themselves the "Freedom Writers" - in homage to the Civil Rights activists the "Freedom

Riders" - and published a book. Currently led by Erin Gruwell, the main initiative of the

Freedom Writers Foundation, is to provide teachers with innovative teaching methods through workshops held at the Freedom Writers Institute. The goal of the Freedom 148

Writers Institute is to prepare teachers to use the Freedom Writers Method in order to

improve academic performance and to empower their students.

Such writing can be extremely meaningful for educators as well: ".. .writing

about writing by different aspects of self is not to be dismissed. Only teacher educator-

researchers can change teacher education, and only then by first understanding

themselves and their practice" (Diamond, 1999, p. 206).

Listening

'Listening' attentively, not just hearing sounds is a powerful tool in contemplative pedagogy. Listening can open the pathway to the higher Self. For example, when attempting to listen to a student or a teacher, one needs to make space within. If we have our own mental stuff taking over, we may perhaps hear what the student or teacher is saying, but may not really 'listen'. Students and teachers alike are receptive to the presence of a person, who is not only physically there, but also mentally present. One can find their inspiration in such beings. Huston Smith (1991) notes, "...we must listen to understand, but we must also listen to put into play the compassion that the wisdom traditions all enjoin, for it is impossible to love another without hearing that other" (p.

390).

Questioning

Frank McCourt (2005) notes, "You have a right to think for yourselves.. .You don't have to swallow everything I tell you. Or what anyone tells you. You can ask questions" (p. 119). This can be considered one of the most essential aspects of contemplative pedagogy. Questioning is more essential than actually knowing the 149 answers. Krishnamurti (1953) believes questioning to be one of the sole purposes of education. Inquiry and questioning, rather than blind faith in an authority, enlarges one's scope of wisdom. Hart (2005) adds, kids experience wonder before we inculturate them.. .we need to hold space for questions.

History has witnessed great thinkers that enriched and enhanced their path of understanding and awakening via questioning. Jesus and the Buddha, among the greatest teachers known to humankind, both brought forth the most important aspect of education

- to question one's beliefs, one's perceptions, and one's senses. It is, however, important to point out the difference between questioning and doubting. Questioning is not the same as doubting. One questions to understand, which differs from doubting, for instance, one's potentiality. Huxley (1945) notes, ".. .the use and purpose of reason is to create the internal and external conditions favorable to its own transfiguration by and into spirit. It is the lamp by which it finds the way to go beyond itself (p. 141-142). Huxley

(1962), through his novel, Island, portrays a school where children would be discouraged

"from taking words too seriously, teaching them to analyze whatever they hear or read - this is an integral part of the school curriculum" (p. 147).

Dialogue

A dialogue in a non-threatening contemplative environment is extremely insightful. It opens one up to differing yet profound views. Ferrer (2002) notes, "The practice of authentic dialogue requires not only the willingness and ability to actively listen to and understand others, but also the openness to be challenged and transformed by their viewpoints" (p. 175). Stagnation of views occurs, he notes, when:

one believes to be in possession of the Truth", at which point, "dialogue with people maintaining conflicting viewpoints cannot but become an uninteresting and sterile monologue. At worst, the 150

conflicting viewpoints are regarded as less evolved, incoherent, or simply false". One appears "not to be able to listen to what other people are saying, because all new or conflicting information is screened, processed, or assimilated in terms of his or her own framework. Therefore, a genuine or symmetrical encounter with the other in which opposing viewpoints are regarded as real options is rendered unlikely (p. 175-176).

However, when one's burden of assumptions, judgments and personalized viewpoints are dropped, a dialogue is initiated that enables growth of all involved. Ferrer (2002) assures, ".. .the possible self-contradictory nature of [any vision] only emerges when it is judged by standards appropriate only in an absolutist domain of discourse.. .once we drop... assumptions, the threatening paradox vanishes and the possible self-contradiction becomes self-exemplification" (p. 180). Schools based on the perennial thoughts of

Krishnamurti, Vivekananda, Yogananda and Tagore lay great emphasis on listening, questioning and open dialogue.

Arts "An artist isn 't a special kind of person, but each person is a special kind of artist." Ananda Coomaraswamy

The soul can respond to heartfelt stimuli in the form of an inspirational voice, an instrument, a piece of art or the sound of silence during meditation. The awareness of that quality of the soul offers an opening to moments of awe, wonder, bliss and awakening. In a contemplative school setting, students are 'encouraged' not 'coerced' to engage in an art form of their own calling. As a medical student, Carl Hammerschlag recalls meeting Santiago Rosetta, a Pueblo priest and clan chief in the Santa Fe Indian

Hospital. Hammerschlag writes, "Santiago tried to teach me if you are going to dance, you have to move. You can't watch the dance; you can't listen to it or look at it. You have to do it to know it. He told me that he could teach me his steps, but I would have to hear my own music" (Hammerschlag, 1988, p. 10). Another example is drama with its 151

accompanying characterizations. This form of art offers insights into the characters one

plays in the perceived world. It can be an exploration of the different hats one wears in

relationships. For example, one can play the role of a child, sibling, spouse, parent,

friend, employer all at the same time and get completely engrossed in one particular role

and loose the grander picture. Drama makes one aware of one's roles and their constant

nature of flux. Painting is yet another form of engaged, in the moment, presence. The

Waldorf Schools, based on Rudolf Steiner's holistic philosophy of education, emphasize

the arts in their curriculum.

Nature "It is not that we are here and the environment is out there, we are that." David Suzuki

"Natural life is the nourishing soil of the soul." C. G. Jung

Contemplating nature is another vital element of contemplative pedagogy.

Experiencing nature closely can be very refreshing, rejuvenating and enlightening.

Experiences such as: feeling the awe and wonder of mountains, forests, water bodies and valleys and seeing the impermanence of seasons with the growth and falling of leaves can be renewing and awe-inspiring. Since one's constitution is made of the elements of nature, awareness of nature brings one closer to awareness of Self. Levete (2001a)

suggests, "young people can be helped to understand and accept their interdependent

connection with the rest of animate and inanimate life" (p. 10). Activities like meditative nature walks and mindful gardening incorporated into the school curriculum, can offer grounds for such realization to occur. Nature can also enhance creativity. History shows many human inventions that have been inspired by nature. Carl Gustav Jung (1962) noted that mind, nature and humanity are part of a seamless continuum. This interconnection is evident in many of his writings. From childhood he had an extremely close affinity with nature as documented in his autobiography. In his work, Jung used the word 'individuation' which he referred to as

'an at-one-ment' with the inner self and humanity as both are interconnected. This connection however, may or may not be known to one, as Jung pointed out that there is a lost connection between urban life and nature. He believed the price paid for development has unfortunately been the repression of nature. Because nature was being seen more and more as merely the external physical world, Jung pleaded to people in the modern era to retreat to nature to find their natural selves again. This approach is akin to the perennial understandings of Native people, who hold a high regard for nature in their spiritual teachings.

In his essay "Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung", Jung (1928) further outlined how a discourse with the deep unconscious could contribute to a new paradigm, or Weltanschauung. By approaching the spirit of nature or 'original mind' in a conscious way, Jung believed that one would know it for the first time. In doing so, the mind at first may feel inner conflict, but by holding onto such consciousness, a new synthesis can emerge between the life lived and the one forgotten. Jung (1968) assured, "...the coincidence of idea and reality in the form of a special psychic state, a state of grace, should not be deemed impossible, even if the subject cannot bring it about by an act of will" (p. 34). In the attempt to restore this innate connection with the collective unconscious, Jung advocated spending more time in natural surroundings with minimal usage of supposedly time-saving devices, such as radio, television, newspaper which 153 paradoxically, instead of saving time, simply fill time. Oliver, Canniff & Korhonen

(2002) note, "Better to experience brief moments of becoming one with nature... one with the silence of the All..." (p. 325). Hocking, Haskell & Linds (2001) remind us that, "our capacities to know and be are possible because of the air we breathe and the trees that solicit our wonder" (p. 312).

Visualization

Creating mental images is humankind's key attribute. From the early years, one creates constant mental images of past incidences and future prospects. This characteristic can be put to positive or negative use. Some of the positive applications in any setting can be concentration, memory, listening skills, healing of physical pain, generating compassion towards another being, gaining inspiration, overcoming a stressful situation calmly and self-empowerment.

The part that visualization and guided imagery play in the process of self-awareness is far- reaching and profound, for these processes create the bridges towards that greater self-awareness. As individuals develop their imagination and ability to visualize, they realize the power of these faculties to connect to peace, beauty and strength in their hearts and minds (Grace, 2001, p. 117).

Cancer patients have applied this powerful tool with outstanding results in their recovery process. Examples are documented at the Wellspring Center in Toronto, Ontario.

Visualization can be done in silence, or in a group with guidance (which is generally referred as guided imagery). Miller (2001) and Hunt (2001) at OISE/ UT offer this form of exercise in their graduate courses. Grace (2001) notes, "Teaching methods in science, for example, will be greatly facilitated with the use of guided imagery and visualization since the ability to think creatively and deal in abstractions is essential to scientific thinking. Without this capacity the student may retain information but have little or no 154

real understanding of it. Likewise in maths, number concepts need to be grasped as well

as the ability to count objects" (p. 119). Grace (2001) further documents the effects of

guided imaginary on students:

I was greatly encouraged when questioning one of the classes I had introduced these practices to, for years previously, whilst they were in year one. The majority of the class remembered the sessions in great detail and which of the guided journeys they had enjoyed most. Fifty percent of the group said they still use the techniques they were taught when they feel the need, such as at home before sleeping, prior to a school test, or a performance in a school play (p. 126).

Seeing self in others

Another powerful exercise that can be part of contemplative pedagogy is seeing

self in others. Students are generally advised not to hurt each other and to be kind to each

other. However, based on personal experience, students are rarely exposed to the

statement 'see self in others'. When asked to try it in an exercise during a conference workshop, some students and teachers expressed that was the hardest yet most rewarding task they had ever done (Dhir, 2005). In seeing self in others, one enters 'otherness' transcending the borders between self and other. This is akin to the notion of Indra's Net:

"A network of jewels that not only reflected the images in every other jewel, but also the multiple images in the others" (Cayley, 2001, p. 17). This approach can open a venue for compassion, humility and wisdom. Diamond & Mullen (1999) confirm, ".. .synergy among people can enable border-crossing, even within ourselves and among our multiple selves" (p. 176).

In essence, Karen Carlton and Richard Graves (1991) brilliantly express:

In reading stories and poems aloud, in journal writing, poetic writing, meditation, recording dreams, listening to music, and contemplating art, we are able to listen to the soul, to create, and thus see through differences to discover the unity that is always beneath oppositions. We are able to hear where words come from and to heal the divisions within ourselves that cause us to project our own weaknesses on the world. For listening to the soul leads us to listen to the world. It enables us to feel reverence for all things, to know our interrelatedness with all of nature. Thus we experience wonder and humility before we master intellectual concepts, allowing material knowledge to stand on the solid foundation of spiritual understandings. We love the world best 155

when we realize the presence of a transcendent reality that is, nonetheless, that which is nearest of all, immanent in the world and in human life itself (p. 264-265).

Richard Brown (2002) adds,

On the path of contemplative teaching we develop clarity and respect for what is happening in the moment, even when it is painful. Awareness through meditation not only leads to self-knowledge and acceptance, but also the integration of emotional energies into learning relationships. When we are open to the changing emotional energies of our students that usually produces an opening or directness on their part. In these moments there can be real connection, communication and discovery. When we honestly and compassionately manifest who we are, without attachment, we can experience ourselves and our students as ordinary and sacred. Such a genuine meeting of hearts and minds naturally gives rise to effective teaching and learning. This is education without aggression-education not based upon fear, rigidity or control, but upon uncovering, exploring and creating a sacred world (p. 11).

Contemplative pedagogy can lead to what is beautifully illustrated in an interpreted extract of a Buddhist Sutra 'Prajnaparamita':

When the perfect wisdom is first seen, a new perception comes into being that does not depend on any structure. The great quest of the seeker now blossoms as various vast and mysterious doors swing open at the mere touch of the new perception. There is the door that opens to a vista of the essenceless essence, that which is the real nature of the manifested world. There is the door of liberation from a merely partial perception or muddled perspective of this real nature. And there is the door that opens directly into the authentic realization of this true nature. There is the wonderful door that opens into an intensity of sights and sounds, color and beauty. And there is the door of balance and ease through which one looks in awe at all the limitless structures of the world as one looks at the star-studded night sky. And there is the door to the exquisite happiness that would never want to own any worldly treasures or to possess even that same happiness. Finally, there is the door of total awakening itself (Bancroft, 2001).

Meditational Pedagogy

"Brain and consciousness become pure. It is exactly like muddy water left to stand in a glass. Little by little, the sediment sinks to the bottom and the water becomes pure." Taisen Deshimaru, Origin - Surangama Sutra

"[Meditation is] the development of awareness, using concentration as a tool." Ven. Henepola Gunaratana Mahathera

"[In meditation] one is one's present self, what one was, and what one will be, all at once." Peter Matthiessen

"[In meditation] when thine eye is single thy whole body also is full of light." Jesus of Nazareth

"Invite the mind, sit it beside you and talk to it." Thich Nhat Hanh 156

"[Meditation is] a way of practice that can open us to see clearly our bodies, our hearts, our minds, and the world around us and develop a wise and compassionate way to relate to and understand them all." Joseph Goldstein and Jack Kornfield

In addition to evoking presence in contemplative pedagogy, understanding and becoming aware of the inner self are part of meditational pedagogy. The pages that follow explore meditation and its underlying processes prior to exploring its implications in detail in a school setting.

Exploring Meditation

Meditation is connected to contemplation. Mystics and awakened beings have been practicing different forms of meditation long before recorded history. Roger Walsh

(1999) notes, "Meditation is a worldwide practice that has an honored place in the history and heart of all the great traditions" (p. 155). Meditation is often thought of as an Eastern phenomenon at the heart of Hindu and Buddhist traditions as well as Sikhism, Taoism,

Judaism and the Sufi sects of Islam. What is not so well-known, is that meditational practices have also long been part of Western spiritual life, stemming from the fourth- century Christian Hesychastic practices of the Desert Fathers in Egypt (Goleman, 1988, p. 55). 'Desert Father' is a term given to early Christian monks living in the Egyptian

Desert following a life of solitary prayer. Such a state of being may be traced back to

Jesus of Nazareth who practiced some form of meditation. For instance, when Jesus said

'go into your inner room', " this should also be taken metaphorically, go into yourself, into the quietest place in your heart. Inside that inner room you will find..." (Mitchell,

1991, p. 175). Meister Eckhart explains, "A man has many skins in himself, covering the depths of his heart. Man knows so many things; he does not know himself. Why, thirty 157 or forty skins or hides, just like an ox's or a bear's so thick and hard, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there" (cited in Huxley, 1970, p. 162).

More recently, the foundation of Christian meditation has been inspired by the work of

John Main (1926-82), a Benedictine monk and teacher, who in 1975, rediscovered a simple tradition of silent contemplative prayer in the manner of the ancient Desert

Fathers.

In defining meditation, Miller (2006) notes, ".. .meditation can be seen as letting go of the calculating mind and opening to the listening mind which tends to be characterized by a relaxed alertness" (p. 144). With such equanimity of mind, one can watch the impermanent phenomenon pass by without getting affected by it. The question remains: how would one develop such equanimity? According to Gunaratana (1991), meditation teaches us how to scrutinize our own perceptual process with greater precision. We learn to watch the arising of thought and perception with a feeling of serene detachment. We learn to view our own reactions to stimuli with calm and clarity.

We begin to see ourselves reacting without getting caught up in the reactions themselves.

We learn to respond, rather then react impulsively. The obsessive nature of thought slowly dies. Borrowed from the Zen saying, we continue to carry water and chop wood but we don't go through hell over either one. This escape from the obsessive nature of thought produces a complete paradigm shift, a total change in perception. It brings with it bliss of emancipation from obsessions. Buddhist and Taoist texts call it 'Seeing things as they really are'.

You can't make radical changes in the pattern of your life until you begin to see yourself exactly as you are now. As soon as you do that, changes flow naturally. You don't have to force or struggle or obey rules dictated to you by some authority. You just change. It is automatic. But arriving at the initial insight is quite a task. You've got to see who you are and how you are, without illusion, judgment or resistance of any kind. And you've got to see all of that clearly and as a unit, a single 158

gestalt of interrelationship. It sounds complex, but it often occurs in a single instant. Mental culture through meditation is without rival in helping you achieve this sort of understanding and serene happiness (Gunaratana, 1991, p. 13-14).

In other words, meditation is basically an exercise, which when practiced, opens one gradually. The desire to defend and enhance one's self begins to break loose. The drop of water in the ocean now wants to give up its sole identity. Exploding the illusion of that one concept changes one's whole universe. Gunaratana (1991) alerts not to expect to do this overnight, however. One spends years building one's concept, reinforcing it with every thought, word, and deed. It is not going to evaporate instantly. But it will pass if given enough attention and patience. Meditation is a process by which it is dissolved. Little by little, we chip away at it just by watching it. When unnecessary thinking suddenly stops for an instant, one sees the vastness of the mind's original light, the purity of its original state with no thing in it at all. This is called awakening. Han- shan notes that there is nothing to be awakened or cultivated other than this mind (cited in

Cleary, 1999). Khema (1987) puts it 'being no one, going nowhere'. Chadha (1984) notes, mind free of thought is awareness. Resting in awareness is not mind thinking.

Awareness leads the mind to effortless poise. One comes to realize that one is but a witness, such a one, established in the 'I am witness consciousness', is the liberated wise one. He further notes, there is such a stage as thinking without space and knowing without an object. At this stage, one realizes one's Self is ever the same beyond time and space, consciously aware of awareness and one is absolutely and eternally blissful. This state is also traditionally described as "pure" consciousness in that it is said to be experienced as a purely content-free, silent state of awareness (Dillbeck, 1983; Maharishi

Mahesh Yogi, 1969). Miller (2001) cautions, it is not a zoned-out state; having the awareness is key. Wilber (1986) alerts us of "pseudo-nirvana" (the mistaking of subtle or archetypal forms, illuminations, raptures, ecstasies, insights, or absorptions for final liberation) (p. 123). Bhante Saranapala, a practicing Buddhist Monk in Mississauga,

Ontario, further warns that one must not equate meditation to self-hypnotism. Rather, in this state, knower, known, and process of knowing, are said to converge in one unified field of consciousness (Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 1986). It is simply silently watching awareness itself; being aware of'awareness' and 'unawareness'. Many spiritual philosophers express the importance of being such a witness. Gunaratana (1991) reiterates that one must be a silent witness. Chopra (1990) succinctly puts it, "We should be a non-judgmental witness of ourselves - Just to be". " In Chinese, the Taoist principle would be Wei Wu Wei - 'Do Without Doing.' From Wei Wu Wei comes Tzu Jan, 'Self

So'. That means that things happen by themselves, spontaneously" (Hoff, 1982, p. 70).

With silent awareness, one becomes blissful in nothingness.

Thirty spokes unite in one hub; it is precisely where there is nothing, that we find the usefulness of the wheel. We fire clay and make vessels; it is precisely where there's no substance, that we find the usefulness of clay pots. We chisel out doors and windows; it is precisely in these empty spaces, that we find the usefulness of the room. Therefore, we regard having something as beneficial; But having nothing as useful (Henricks, 1993, Chapter 11, p. 65).

One experiences 'everything' in 'nothingness'. Lao-Tzu (one of the most prominent mystics and philosophers of the oriental world), brilliantly puts it, "As the soft yield of water cleaves obstinate stone, so to yield, I have learned, is to come back again. But this unworded lesson, this easy example is lost upon men" (Bynner, 1972, Chapter 43, p. 73).

Henricks (1993) provides us with another interpretation of Lao-Tzu's above words:

The softest, most pliable thing in the world runs roughshod over the firmest thing in the world. That which has no substance gets into that which has no spaces or cracks. I therefore know that there is benefit of taking no action. The wordless teaching, the benefit of taking no action - Few in the world can realize this! (Chapter 43, p. 13).

Confucius adds, 'To find the Tao, there is nowhere you need to search. If it is not inside you, it is not the Tao" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 189). For that which one searches, with open physical eyes, is found with eyes closed. "David Hume was the most radical of the enlightenment empiricists, and his work is still a reference point for empirical thinking.

Hume argued that the contents of consciousness are perceptions, and he divides perceptions into impressions and ideas. Impressions are our immediate sensations and emotions, while ideas are copies or images of impressions. Hume claims that all ideas are derived from impressions; if one cannot link an idea with an original impression then the idea is meaningless" (Miller, 1996, p. 13). This can be applied to meditation, if one stops making connections for a little while, one may experience a glimpse of bliss. Once that is experienced, gradually the need to hold on loosens, and that is when one sees that bliss is not in attachments but in letting go of them.

We experience focus on a daily basis, listening to one particular person in a crowd full of people, spotting a loved one among many people. In meditation, one's own mind becomes the focal object of attention. It does not involve trying to control the mind, just watching it non-judgmentally. In the beginning, one notices that there is a lot more noise inside than there is outside. The philosophy of psychosynthesis developed by Assagioli

(1981) is in accordance to this claim: "The Universe within is as big as the Universe outside" (Mulvaney, 2003). This is a milestone in awareness. "The knower who advances most rapidly toward the heart of truth is one who not only asks "What is out there?" in each encounter with the world, but one who also asks "What does this encounter reveal about me?" (Palmer, 1983, p. 60). When one notices as a moment emerges, it disappears. The gap between the emergence and the disappearance is so minuscule that it feels as though it emerges and disappears simultaneously. For instance, in watching this moment, it disappears as it emerges. 'Aha' moments creep their way 161 into one's life when "one works from within" (Pinar, 1972, p. 331). In this manner,

Levete (2001) believes, "From this position there can be a space for peace, wonder and awe" (p. 7).

In essence, borrowed from Zen meditation, ".. .meditation is a process of unification in which the whole personality is harmonized in a oneness which reaches its climax with a complete absence of subject-object consciousness in Satori" (Johnston,

1970, p. 4). Valavi (2001) adds, "meditation is a way that brings every part of our day, all our experience and all the dimensions of our being, into harmony. It is the way beyond the personal divisiveness and anxiety from which we suffer as a result of our.. .separation from the Spirit" (p. 129). Meditation is "a way of learning to become awake, fully alive and yet still" (p. 133).

Benefits of Meditation

To ground the effects of meditation, volumes of literature include medical studies that describe the psychological, physiological and social benefits of meditation practice.

Bhikkhu Punnadhammo (2004) notes its gradual appearance into the mainstream culture.

Scientific and health researchers, sociologists, educators, corporations and prison reformers are investigating its effects and incorporating it into their programs. John

Kabat-Zinn's Stress Reduction Clinic based at the University of Massachusetts Medical

Center, Carrington's Clinically Standardized Meditation (1977), Benson's Method (1975) are good examples of institutions engaged in such research and programming.

Researchers consider meditation to be a 'unique physiological state' where the body enters a profound state of relaxation such as is experienced during the deepest stages of sleep, while being at the same time alert and wakeful (Carrington, 1977, p. 55). 162

The body is known to heal itself in the fourth stage of sleep, commonly referred to as deep sleep or alpha state. Meditation enables one to reach the alpha state, which could account for physical healing (Foster, 1998). Bay (1992) adds, fifteen minutes of alpha state can account for a state of mind that is equivalent to a four to eight hour rested sleep session.

In a meditative state one also sees there is 'pain' instead of 'I have pain'. That helps one to disassociate with pain, thereby reducing its impact. In another instance, when one thinks of something unpleasant, one's heartbeat changes from low to high.

One's state of mind effects the physiological process of flight or fight. One changes the rate of one's heartbeat, thereby mentally regulating one's physiology. Meditation can therefore calm the physical effects of a stressor. The mental labeling of an experience can change the effects on one physically, thereby causing a chain reaction of wellness or illness respectively. Lozowski (2002a) notes, "Physiological response to anxiety is the same as the response to excitement - the only difference is how we label it." Besides physical healing, emotional healing can occur by observing one's own self non- judgmentally.

Proven research studies show that meditation can help relieve pain, anxiety and stress-related illnesses (Eppley & et. al., 1989; Mills & Farrow, 1981). Experienced meditators, for instance, exhibit blood pressure, heart rate, brain wave and metabolism levels like those of deeply relaxed people (Alexander & et. al., 1987; Holmes, 1984;

Blackwell & et. al., 1975; Benson & Wallace, 1972). In addition, meditation can strengthen the immune system and produce a host of other medically valuable physiological changes (Browne & et. al., 1989) including lowering blood pressure and 163 cholesterol levels (Murphy & Donovan, 1997). In reference to research conducted at

Harvard Medical School, Bay (1992) reports that regular sessions of a simple meditation technique decreased the body's response to norepinephrine, a hormone released in reaction to stress. Although the endocrine system continued to emit the hormones, they did not seem to have their usual effects. Benson, one of the researchers, points out that ordinarily, norepinephrine stimulates the cardiovascular system, but regular relaxation training resulted in less blood pressure increase due to norepinephrine than is usually seen. Relaxation, Benson says, seems to mimic the action of the beta-blocking drugs used to control blood pressure.

In asthmatics, meditation training has been found to widen restricted respiratory passages (Wilson & et. al., 1975). In some diabetics, meditation can reduce the need for insulin (Jevning & et. al., 1987). It may also help ward off disease by making people less susceptible to viruses (Cooper & Aygen, 1978) and in treating psychiatric problems such as ADD and bi-polar disorder (Punnadhammo, 2004). Meditation has been shown to be effective in preventing and treating drug abuse, substance misuse, and smoking as well

(Alexander & et. al, 1994; Bleick, 1994; Ellis, 1994; Orme-Johnson, 1994; Royer, 1994;

Taub & et. al., 1994; Walton & et. al., 1994; Gelderloos & et. al., 1991; Aron & Aron,

1983; Shafii & et. al, 1974, 1974a; Benson & Wallace, 1972a). Meditation is being used clinically for a much larger range of medical problems than the research so far has been able to assess. These include the management of the side effects of such medical procedures as kidney dialysis and cancer chemotherapy, gastrointestinal problems like irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, emphysema and skin disorders (Bay, 1992). Further support is provided by a study conducted by Alexander & et. al. (1989). In the study, 73 164 residents of homes for the elderly were randomly assigned either to daily meditation or to no treatment. After 3 years, one-fourth of the non-meditators had died, while all the meditators were still alive.

Implementation of Meditation

Studies have found that meditation can increase levels of creativity, calmness, academic success and interpersonal relationships (Alexander & et al, 1991), which can be positively applied to any situation, including a school setting. Gunaratana (1991) notes that one believes knowledge makes a person civilized. Civilization, however, polishes the person superficially. Throw a stone into a stream. The running water would smooth the surface, but the inner part would remain unchanged. Take the same stone and place it in intense fire and the whole stone would change inside and outside. It all melts.

Civilization changes one on the outside. Meditation softens one within, through and through. Mitchell (1991) adds, "And just as the plant ripens by itself, so the awareness, if we provide it with the proper nourishment, ripens into gratitude, compassion, and transparency" (p. 139). Meditational pedagogy offers grounds for such transformation to occur. It involves the practice of meditation in a non-dogmatic and open environment.

Some school authorities may experience resistance when introducing meditation into the classroom. To overcome that Gina Levete (1995) notes that the practice of meditation can be brought into school settings by not affiliating it to any particular religious tradition. Taking meditation out of any specific context simply is an exercise that engages one to look within, search within, find within and experience within

(Chadha, 1984). It is a process of getting to know one's Self thoroughly, thereby promoting "attentive awareness in daily life" (Levete, 2001, p. 6). Henricks (1993), 165 while interpreting Lao-Tzu, notes the characteristics of a sage who sees things as they

are, not superficially, without delusions and judgments, "To know you don't know is best. Not to know you don't know is a flaw. Therefore, the sage's not being flawed,

stems from his recognizing a flaw as a flaw. Therefore he is flawless" (Henricks, 1993,

Chapter 71, p. 44). This process of knowing can be extended to educators and students.

Further, Bill Pinar's synthetical moments "when self-understanding results from the synergistic unification of intellect, body, spirit, and cosmos" (Kincheloe, 1995, p. xii) can be attributes of a meditational pedagogical setting.

The complexities and alienation, which result from maintaining a separate inner life, can be very stressful and compromise the quality of education for everyone.. .Meditation is a method of effectively integrating our inner experience into teaching...(Brown, 2002, p. 5).

In addition, "No educationalist would deny that concentration is a central prerequisite for optimum efficient and effective learning. Children in school are constantly exhorted to 'pay attention' and to 'concentrate' on the task in hand, without ever being specifically taught how to do it" (Mann, 2001, p. 36). The practice of meditation can therefore be brought forth in a pedagogical setting for purposes of openness, concentration, awareness, mental growth and effective learning.

During meditation, researchers of Transcendental Meditation have referred to the occurrence of 'hypersynchrony' of the brain waves, where the density of alpha brain waves (peaceful and rhythmic) increase in both hemispheres of the brain. This usually only happens when one is asleep. During meditation, synchrony between the two hemispheres means that the brain retains clarity and alertness without going to sleep. The most important fact is not that there is one specific brain wave or pattern of waves, but the 'unusual evenness and rhythmicity of whichever waves is occurring' which produced the tendency of all the areas to 'harmonize and pulsate together'. Much has been talked in recent years, about left and right brained thinking styles, and it is now acknowledged that the highest achievements of science and art have required a synthesis of the functioning of both sides of the brain. Meditation therefore can produce a relaxed yet alert functioning of the brain which is the state required for optimum, effective learning (Mann, 2001, p. 35 - 36).

Meditational pedagogy can include starting the class with a minute of silence, engaging in activities like mindful eating, movement meditation like Tai Chi, Qi Chong, 166

yoga, martial arts and swimming. If the term 'meditation' is resisted, terms like 'stilling',

'pauses', 'quiet time', 'just one minute' can be used. Below are some common forms of

meditation that I have been exposed to by various spiritual teachers and in my personal

experience. These can be brought into a school setting that can benefit educators as well

as students to provide a deeper and enriched learning experience. Perennial pedagogy

and its experiential practices can have positive implications for society at large. For

instance, in a study conducted on adolescent sex offenders, a male teen is cited, "I can replace unwanted thoughts much more easily now. I try not to control my feelings, just

feel them. Otherwise, they can get stuffed and come out some other way, as abuse"

(Derezotes, 2000).

Pauses or Stilling

"An attractive approach already introduced in some schools is 'pauses'. This simple idea can have a positive effect developing the sense of calm. It can also be an effective way of preparing very young students for meditation at a later time. At the end of each teaching session/activity before students move to the next class/activity the teacher rings a small bell (not essential), which indicates a few seconds of complete physical stillness and silence. It is important not to instruct the student how to use the pause other than a few moments of physical stillness and silence. Introducing pauses requires no alteration to a busy schedule. Its effect can be remarkable, instilling a sense of place on solid ground" (Levete, 200 Id, p. 69-70). Another term used for such an activity is 'stilling'.

'I think the stilling has had a great effect on our class. After stilling we are more relaxed and ready to work.' 'Stilling is good because it lets me focus and think about things that I would never have time for.' "These comments, both written by boys, are typical of the reactions of members of 167

their mixed ability tenth-year class when asked to evaluate the weekly stilling exercises in their RE course (Beesley, 2001, p. 71).

Beesley further notes how stilling exercises like these can be applied across the curriculum. For example, a science teacher can enrich the students' understanding of photosynthesis by inviting them to imagine to be still like a plant and draw life-giving energy from the sun through their hands to every part of their body as plants do with their leaves (p. 73-74). These exercises can be beneficial in subjects like mathematics, physical education, drama, art etc.

For younger children, below is a very simple and common form of meditation that

I incorporate with elements of teachings from various spiritual teachers including

Venerable Philip Starkman, Venerable Saranapala, and Pamela Dhillion:

Counting Meditation

• Take a comfortable position; neither too comfortable (where one might fall

asleep), nor uncomfortable (where the bodily discomfort can interfere with the

concentration).

• Sit cross-legged (if one is comfortable with this posture), or simply in a chair

with hands cupped and resting on the lap. These are common positions used

by meditators.

• Keep the back straight for alertness if possible.

• Breathe normally and close the eyes.

• With awareness, note the in-breath and out-breath as they pass through the tip

of the nostrils, as a security guard watches people entering and leaving a

building through the main door. Do not try to change or alter the breath by making it short or long; just observe it in its natural form.

Counting the breath could help the beginning meditator to better stay focused on the breath. There are many ways of counting, but for younger children the following is suggested: o Count the first breath as "one, one". That is, "one" at in-breathing, "one"

at out-breathing. o Count the second breath as "two, two". o The third breath as "three, three" and so on up to "ten, ten". o Do not count beyond "ten, ten" as the attention then tends to get diverted

to numbers rather than the breath; instead, start all over again at "one,

one".

Each time the mind is distracted by a thought, simply acknowledge that (with no aversion or craving) and gently come back to the anchor, the breath at the tip of the nostrils. Do this with patience however many times necessary.

Practice for two minutes the first day and very gradually increase the duration.

The increase in duration is determined by one's own estimation of how comfortable one feels with the progress.

Using an alarm clock is not advised. Upon termination of one's session, take

1-2 minutes before getting up to re-orient with surroundings.

Meditation practice is best prior to meals, so that digestion does not interfere.

It is ideal to practice before breakfast and dinner. If meditation must follow meals, allowing two hours for digestion (Rajapakse, 1997). 169

The meditation below could be appropriate for older children.

Concentration Meditation

"I do not require of you to form great and serious considerations in your thinking, I require of you only to look." St. Theresa ofAvila

Gunaratana (1991) notes that mindful concentration is the essence of meditation. To experience one's inner being one must be able to focus attention on the subtle movements of the mind. Concentration is a skill that can be learned with practice. One's mind is prone to distractions. In a world of activity, this is useful, because it keeps one alert to the next thing happening. This keeps one moving and adapting. One's wandering mind is alert to danger so one is kept safe. One is alert to opportunity, so one can get what one needs for survival. The amateur mind moves from object to object, event to event, sensation to sensation and thought to thought. As thoughts arise, they form sequences. A thought may lead to another thought that might create a sensation in one's body as a response to the thought. One may respond to the sensation in action or another thought.

One finds the mind constantly moving. The movement in its complexity, can be turbulent, confusing, and largely beyond one's awareness. It is natural for one's mind to attach to the attractive, but this tendency also traps one. One's attachments lead to suffering, since what one clings to, one inevitably loses. When one practices meditation, one becomes more aware of one's attachments and more able to loosen one's clinging.

One becomes more capable of directing the flow of thoughts, and one learns that the true nature of mind lies beyond the flickering of thoughts and sensations.

A very simple exercise for improving concentration and calming the flickering mind is to focus, for instance on a candle flame. In his book, Journey of Awakening: A 170

Meditator's Guidebook, Ram Dass (1978) offers the instruction of placing a candle in

front of you a foot or so away to then focus on the flame. As you look at the flame,

countless thoughts will float by as well as sounds, feelings in your body, and so forth. In

each case you notice the thought, let it go, and merely come back to an awareness of the

candle flame. By gently but firmly trying to keep your attention focused on the candle

flame, you begin to see your thoughts and senses grabbing your awareness. You become

aware of the process of attachment.

This exercise is useful in realizing that everything, including the candle, is

impermanent. The candle is a useful object to concentrate upon, because it naturally

draws one's attention, but one can practice this type of concentration meditation by

focusing on any object that will stay within one's visual field. For younger children, a

button-size dot on the wall at eye level may serve the same purpose.

Last Call Meditation

"Sooner or later we have to learn to let go and allow the changing mystery of life to move through us without our fearing it, without holding or grasping." Jack Kornfield

In a newspaper interview in the April 21, 2001, The Oregonian, Ken McLeod, an

American teacher of Tibetan Buddhism and author of the book, Wake Up your Life:

Discovering the Buddhist Path of Attention, suggests a simple meditation to help us

further awaken an understanding of impermanence. He tells his students, "For the next

half hour, imagine that every breath you take is your last". Another version could

perhaps be imagining that every breath is 'the first'. This is a profound meditation.

Breathing and staying in the moment offers significant insights. Since it may be hard to 171 accommodate a half hour in a school setting, this form of meditation can always be adjusted based on available time.

Body Scan Meditation

• Lying down or sitting in a chair, begin by bringing attention to the breath that is

occurring very naturally in the body. Notice the movement of the breath either at

the opening of the nostrils, or in the movement of the rib cage, or at the belly.

• Once the mind has begun to settle, begin the practice of the body scan by shifting

the awareness of the breath into the background while remaining securely

connected to it.

• Now slowly begin to move awareness through the body, starting at the top of the

head and moving down to the feet. Notice the subtle sensations in each part of the

body.

• If there happens to be a strong emotion in the mind during any particular practice

session, try being curious about the sensations that accompany that emotion. In

which part of the body is the emotion strongest? Observing closely to pinpoint the

feeling. What happens to it? Does it change in intensity? Does it stay the same?

Keep watching quietly while staying anchored to the breath. When it has receded

into the background, move on.

• Once you've scanned the whole body, return to the breath, resting in the

experience of quietness, clarity and relaxation.

• This meditation can be simplified when using it with younger children. For

instance, one can eliminate the step of staying with a disturbing emotion for long.

It is important not to scare a child while looking within, as this may cripple a 172

child's inner curiosity. Looking within should be encouraged gradually with

younger children.

Eating Meditation

When eating, slow down. Notice the breath. Notice the texture and color of the food.

Notice the subtleties of taste and smell. Eating quietly assists in this exercise. Notice

thoughts and patterns of reactivity that may be associated with eating. Watch what

happens to the eating pattern when one becomes anxious. What happens if one begins to

follow the breath while eating anxiously? Be aware of how one expresses the energies of

the mind and body. Eating can be a valuable teacher about one's state of mind. Don't judge, just watch and continue to let go. Stay open and grounded to the breath as one

develops some staying power to watch oneself in process. Interestingly, when eating mindfully, one feels the hunger satisfied sooner than if one was to eat anxiously.

Walking Meditation

"When we walk like (we are running), we print anxiety and sorrow on the earth. We have to walk in a way that we only print peace and serenity on the earth... Be aware of the contact between your feet and the earth. Walk as if you are kissing the earth with your feet." Thich Nhat Hanh

"My mind can go in a thousand directions. Now I walk in peace. Each step creates a warm breeze. With each step, a lotus blooms." Andrew Weiss, 2004

This meditation is a modified version of the Buddhist walking meditation. There are three stages in walking. For each step one takes, the foot is lifted from the ground

(beginning); it is momentarily above the ground (existence) and is placed on the ground

(ending). Likewise one's breathing also has three stages: inhaling (beginning), a momentary pause (existence) and exhaling (ending). Walking meditation can involve letting the breath direct one's grounded walking at a very peaceful pace with the three stages of breath coinciding with the three stages of the steps.

1. Inhale and lift one of your feet from the ground simultaneously.

2. Momentary pause in breathing and stepping.

3. Exhale and place the foot on the ground simultaneously.

When the mind wanders, stop moving. Stand still, close the eyes, and re-focus with the breath. When attention is calm again, begin to move. This practice can help one remember each time one is walking during the day, one has yet another opportunity to be mindful - a time to practice awareness and presence. Levete (2001) illustrates the benefits of walking meditation mentioned by students of a well-known co-educational boarding school in Hampshire. She notes that they found the practice of walking meditation particularly helpful because it was 'freeing'. Some said they often did it when getting from one classroom to another because it 'helps you not to feel so rushed'.

Loving-Kindness Meditation

A class can start with a meditation that involves generating compassionate thoughts. This meditation can assist in calming mental negativity. I experienced the positive change in the class environment in one of my courses at OISE/UT offered by John Miller (2001).

He starts all his classes with this Buddhist originated meditation (Metta) that I recollect as:

May I be well, happy and peaceful;

May my family be well, happy and peaceful;

May my friends be well, happy and peaceful;

May my teachers be well, happy and peaceful; May anybody who has hurt me by thoughts, words or deeds be well, happy and

peaceful;

May all beings everywhere be well, happy and peaceful.

Deep Meditative Awareness

In addition to meditating in the classroom, gradually students and teachers can adopt the practice of meditation at home where more time can be devoted to the practice. With practice, the meditator is able to see every phenomenon as it is without judgment, biases and criticism - they become a silent witness. Hindus refer to this form as Samadhi or non-dual deep meditative awareness.

Some noteworthy points of clarification regarding meditation

• In the beginning, one may feel that there are too many thoughts that it is hard

to meditate and therefore may be tempted to give up the practice of

meditation. It is crucial to remember that all those thoughts are not suddenly

arising during meditation, they have always been there, it is just that one has

started to notice them for the first time. This is actually the first milestone on

the path of meditation (Gunaratana, 1991).

• All the thoughts that distract one during meditation are either of the past or of

the future. Being mindful of the present moment can assist in not thinking of

the moment that passed by, or the moment that is about to come.

• When a thought enters one's mind, one does not need to fight it or try to

suppress it. One can just acknowledge its presence and treat it like a passing

cloud and let it go, not hold on to it. As Shunryu Suzuki notes, welcome the

thoughts in but do not serve them tea (Miller, 2001). 175

• The principle that meditation capitalizes on is the scientific fact that the mind

cannot think of two things at the same time (that is during the same 'thought

moment'). So when one induces the mind to think of a neutral object such as

the breath, during that single moment, it cannot think of other things, which

agitate it. The net effect is calming of the mind (Rajapakse, 1997).

• It is crucial to remember that one always has a choice of what one wants to

think.

• One may feel sleep that relaxes, so why bother meditating. Sleep relaxes the

body, but may not relax the mind.

• Techniques and objects of focus available for meditation are many. There are

forty different forms of meditation identified (Mahathera, 1962). The breath

is one of the most popular objects of meditation. The main advantage in using

the breath is its natural availability twenty-four hours a day for one's whole

lifetime, so one does not have to depend on external objects for focus. In

addition, it may be easier to use breathing for younger children. Eli Bay, the

founder of The Relaxation Response Institute in Toronto notes that most

adults use is only the top two thirds of their lungs when breathing, children on

the other hand breathe right down to the bottom of their lungs, which creates a

more relaxed breathing.

• Since meditation is an art in 'going with the flow', one must not expect

anything from the practice. The only rule for successful meditation is: start

and continue. If one looks for results and does not find it, one may get restless and defeat the purpose of the exercise. One should not look for tranquility. It

will come to one when least anticipated (Rajapakse, 1997).

• A calm mind leads to a calming of many bodily activities and one's entire life

rhythm, contributing to better overall wellness, performance and outlook

towards life. Meditation is the practice; calmness and blissfulness are the

unexpected results.

• There is an important difference between mindfulness and concentration.

Concentration is focus; mindfulness on the other hand is awareness.

Concentration by itself cannot lead to an awakened life; awareness needs to

accompany concentration (Gunaratana, 1991).

• The initial part of any significant change is allowing the body and mind to get

used to a new habit. The mind may be used to running amok all this time and

one is trying to teach it to stay still and focus on just one thing. It is like

learning to drive a standard car after being used to driving an automatic

(Rajapakse, 1997).

• Starting small is the key. Start with only this moment. One should not be

concerned as to the number of minutes one has been able to maintain a calm

mind. Each single calm mind moment is a moment of peace for the mind

(Rajapakse, 1997).

• If one meditates and reduces one's obsessive thinking one may uncover more

of one's Self. But if one starts to feel proud of one's accomplishments as a

result of meditation, one may have not really accomplished anything at all. 177

• One should not compare one's performance with that of others. There is no

competition or comparison in meditation. Krishnamurti (1973) notes, "The

silence of the meditative mind is not within the borders of recognition, for this

silence has no frontier. There is only silence - in which the space of division

ceases" (p. 19 - 20).

• It is not essential to quiet down everything around us to experience inner

quietness. "We do not have to stop the world to be still within ourselves"

(Feldman,2001,p.246).

In essence, Krishnamurti (1973) notes, "Meditation and education can be understood as two terms foreign to each other, practices carried out in different worlds, or

intimately connected such that the terms are almost interchangeable". If we read the

following quotation and then replace the term 'meditation' with 'education', it may present both in a new light. "What is important in meditation is the quality of mind and heart.. .meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. If there is no meditation, then you're like a blind man in a world of great beauty, light and colour"

(Krishnamurti, 1973, p. 14). Similarly, the following observation by the French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss, may make one wonder why meditation in education has been ignored for so long.

.. .what have I learned from the masters I have listened to, the philosophers I have read, the societies I have investigated, and that very science in which the West take such pride? Simply a fragmentary lesson or two which, if laid end to end, would add up to the meditations of the Sage at the foot of his tree (Carrithers, 1983, p. 1-2).

Mindfulness

"Luminous is this mind, brightly shining, but it is colored by the attachments that visit it. This unlearned people do not really understand, and so do not cultivate the mind. Luminous is this mind, brightly shining, and it is free of the attachments that visit it. 178

This the noble follower of the way really understands; so for them there is cultivation of the mind." Anguttara Nikaya

"For fast-acting relief try slowing down." Lily Tomlin

"You don 'tget ulcers from what you eat. You get them from what's eating you."

Vicki Baum

The term 'mindfulness' is extremely closely linked to meditation. "Mindfulness is well described by what it is not: mindlessness" (Belitz & Lundstrom, 1998, p. 174).

Wilber (1982), in Spectrum of Consciousness, describes mindfulness as 'Pre-Thinking'

(p. 334). Venerable Henepola Gunaratana (1991) describes mindfulness as pre-symbolic.

It is not shackled to logic, he notes, nevertheless, mindfulness can be experienced rather easily and it can be described, as long as one keeps in mind that the words are only fingers pointing at the moon. They are not the thing itself. The actual experience lies beyond words and symbols. He further explains that when one first becomes aware of something, there is a fleeting instant of pure awareness just before one conceptualizes the thing, before one identifies it. That is a stage of mindfulness. Ordinarily, this stage is very short. It is that flashing split second just before one focuses one's eyes on a thing.

Just before one objectifies it, one clamps down on it mentally and segregates it from the rest of existence. Mindfulness takes place just before one starts thinking about the object

- before that little churning inside one's skull happens, 'Oh, it's a human being.' That flowing, soft-focused moment of pure awareness is mindfulness. In that brief flashing mind-moment, one experiences a thing as an 'un-thing'. One experiences a softly flowing moment of pure experience that is interlocked with the rest of reality, not separate from it. Mindfulness is very much like what one sees with one's peripheral vision as opposed to the hard focus of normal or central vision. Yet this moment of soft, unfocused, awareness contains a very deep sort of knowing that is lost as soon as one focuses one's mind and objectifies the object into a thing. In the process of ordinary perception, the mindfulness step is so transitory that it seems to be unobservable. One has developed the habit of squandering one's attention on all the remaining steps, focusing on the perception, cognizing the perception, labeling it, and most of all, getting involved in a chain reaction of symbolic thought processes. That original moment of mindfulness just gets lost in the shuffle. Mindfulness involves ".. .observing the observer-self (Diamond & Mullen, 1999, p. 215).

Gunaratana (1991) further describes eight characteristics of mindfulness:

1. Mindfulness is non-judgmental observation. 2. Mindfulness is an impartial watchfulness. 3. Mindfulness is non-conceptual awareness or 'bare attention'. 4. Mindfulness is present-time awareness. 5. Mindfulness is non-egoistic alertness. 6. Mindfulness is goal-less awareness. 7. Mindfulness is awareness of change. 8. Mindfulness is participatory observation.

"When the Buddha was asked, "Sir, what do you and your monks practice?" he replied, "We sit, we walk and we eat." The questioner continued, "But sir, everyone sits, walks, and eats", and the Buddha told him, "When we sit, we know we are sitting. When we walk, we know we are walking, when we eat, we know we are eating" (Hanh, 1995a, p. 14).

Miller (1994,1999,2000,2006) suggests that mindfulness can be practiced at all times, not only during meditation. One should be paying bare attention to occurrences all time, day in, day out, whether formally sitting in meditation or not. Miller (1994) posits,

" Mindfulness is meditation applied to everyday life and involves bringing awareness to 180 acts that we do each day" (p. 62). The freshness of mind and awareness that arises during sitting practice can be brought into every aspect of our lives.

One's habit of getting stuck in thoughts of the past or of the future is years old, and that habit tries to hang on in the most tenacious manner. One way out is to be equally persistent in the cultivation of mindfulness, which initially may seem to need effort, but gradually becomes effortless. Miller (1999) confirms that initially, mindfulness can require effort as our mind can be filled with thoughts that keep us from being present in the moment. After some practice, mindfulness can become effortless.

Snelling (1998) beautifully puts it, "Mindfulness has been likened to the sun that sheds light where there is darkness and whose warming rays foster life and growth" (p. 67).

Ordinary mind loves to cling onto concepts, ideas, plans, worries, fears and fantasies.

When mindful, one doesn't play that game. It is really very simple. One acknowledges a thought and lets go of it. Belitz & Lundstrom (1998) put it as, "When something noteworthy does pass by the window of your mind, ponder it briefly and objectively, then let it go" (p. 113). David Hunt (1999) in his article "Letting Go" posits, "By letting go you gain more control" (p. 45). Initially one continually has to remind oneself to let go as one attempts to grasp the objects. Gradually in moments of mindfulness, one is able to de-personalize oneself from everything around while expounding infinite compassion.

Miller (2000) in his book Education and the Soul notes,

We go from one task to another doing the tasks in a routine way or with our consciousness distracted in different directions. For example, we often eat mindlessly as we are watching television or reading the newspaper. We can drive our cars with our minds on everything except the road (p. 132).

Most of us stumble repeatedly. Despite honest effort, for instance, I let my mindfulness slip and find myself stuck in some unaware state. It is mindfulness that notices that 181

change. And it is mindfulness that reminds me to apply the energy required to pull myself out of the situation. These slips happen over and over, but their frequency may

decrease with practice.

Further, mindfulness makes possible the growth of wisdom and compassion. As

Wimala (1997) posits, "Mindfulness can uncover and reawaken unused resources within us" (p. 82), thus offering enormous potentiality in pedagogical settings. In accordance,

Tolle (1997) notes, "It could be taught to a child, and hopefully one day it will be one of the first things children learn in school. Once you have understood the basic principle of being present as the watcher of what happens inside you - and you "understand" it by experiencing it - you have at your disposal the most potent transformational tool" (p. 34).

Herron (2003) adds, "Learning and awareness are the same." In his book, Beginning with

Ourselves, Hunt (1987), examines extensively how self-awareness can be beneficial for all, in every aspect of life. He notes further in his book, The Renewal of Personal Energy

(1992), "To begin with ourselves is to stop and reflect, to enter into our inner life."

The awareness of being mindless is the first milestone even though mindfulness is a process and it does not take place in steps. It is a holistic process that occurs as a unit: I notice my own lack of mindfulness; and that noticing itself is a result of mindfulness. It all takes place in a flash. This does not mean, however, as Gunaratana (1991) confirms, that one can instantly attain self-realization as a result of one's first moment of mindfulness. Learning to integrate this material into one's conscious life is another process. They are joyous processes, he notes however, and they are well worth the effort.

Jagad Guru, the founder of the Canadian School of Meditation2 posits, " A lotus rises

2 Canadian School of Meditation is a non-profitable Toronto based institute where free meditation classes are held. The quote was borrowed from the institute's brochure titled 'Meditation'. 182 above the water untouched by its impurities. Similarly, through mindfulness, a person can live in this world untouched by its anxieties." Kuriyama's (1992) article gives a classic illustration of how one can enable the mind to cultivate a sage-like personal life:

The shadow (alter ego) asks can the ordinary man hope for sagehood? Gempaku denies any radical divide separating sages and ordinary humans, and appeals to the vision of self-cultivation suggested by a passage in the Confucian classic, The Great Learning (Daxue): What is meant by saying that the cultivation of the personal life depends on the rectification of the mind is that when one is affected by wrath to any extent, his mind will not be correct. When he is affected by fear to any extent, his mind will not be correct. When he is affected by fondness to any extent, his mind will not be correct. When the mind is not present, we look but do not see, listen but do not hear, and eat but do not know the taste of food. This is what is meant by saying that the cultivation of the personal life depends on the rectification of the mind (p. 39 - 40).

Thich Nhat Hanh (1976, 1991) has written insightful books on mindfulness that include exercises for being mindful. For instance, one can practice mindfulness while having a conversation with a student, while writing an examination, cleaning the home, washing dishes, eating etc. Below, are mindfulness exercises that an educator can incorporate in a pedagogical setting:

Mindfulness meditation for all day

• One can start small by choosing a particular daily activity and doing it mindfully

like brushing one's teeth for a few minutes or listening to a teacher. Pay attention

to the thoughts that enter the mind when doing the task at hand. See if the

thoughts can be let go of to just focus on the work itself.

• Practice coming back to the present moment. For instance, when lost in thoughts

about the future, or stuck in the replaying of old scripts or tapes from the past, one

can practice catching oneself more and more.

• Encourage students to remember that in the present moment, one has the potential

to harness the energy of one's mind and body to respond adaptively to the 183

challenges of one's life. When lost in old imaginings or anxious anticipations,

one's perception is clouded and energy is scattered.

• John Kabat-Zinn (1994) suggests, ".. .view the process of thinking itself as a

waterfall, a continual cascading of thought. In cultivating mindfulness, we are

going beyond or behind our thinking, much the way you might find a

vantagepoint in a cave or depression in a rock behind a waterfall. We still see and

hear the water, but we are out of the torrent" (p. 94 - 95).

• With practice, one can try cultivating mindfulness throughout the school day,

making one's practice a seamless one. This means that one keeps one's

awareness alert and present while one sits, bends, stands, walks and moves

through the day. Students are inspired by the presence of a mindful person.

• Treat each day as a learning day; learn to become aware of the rise and fall of

emotions and the impermanent state of each emotion like hatred, anger, jealousy,

attachment, greed, desire etc. It is a humbling process. It is a process of

unconditioning the conditioned self for the teacher and student alike.

• There is a Zen saying: Before enlightenment chop wood carry water, after

enlightenment, chop wood carry water. In other words, practice mindfulness

during work, for it does little good to attain clarity of mind on one's meditation

cushion if one loses it as soon as one becomes active. Miller (2000) notes, when

we open awareness to the tasks in our lives they become lighter. When we are

able to be in the moment, we no longer feel compelled to watch the clock.

Whatever one's work might be, bring all of oneself to it. When one is fully

present, one may find that one's labor is no longer a burden. Settings where both 184 the teacher and the student are mindful may have enormous implications for themselves and others around them. Wood is chopped. Water is carried. Life happens. 185

Silence

"Better than if there were thousands of meaningless words is one meaningful word that on hearing brings peace." Dhammapada, 8, translated by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

"Religion is what the individual does with his own solitariness." Whitehead, 1926, p. 26

"Our actions and behavior speak louder than a thousand words." Feldman,2001,p. 168

"Brevity is the soul of wit." Unknown

"Silence is the mother of deep understanding." Feldman, 2001, p. 182

"Talk as though you are being charged for each word."

Unknown

In my view, meditation, mindfulness and silence go hand in hand. They cannot be separated as individual practices. They are intertwined; one loses its meaning without the other. For instance, when observing silence or meditating, mindfulness plays a crucial role. Mindfulness can be experienced in many forms, yet meditation and silence are the two crucial ones. Meditation is most fruitful when one is silent internally.

Silence is meditative. Silence is not just about being quiet. Silence entails silencing one's mind as well. It is in silence one experiences insights; it is in silence one ponders the meaning of life and this world; it is in silence one realizes oneself. Belitz &

Lundstrom (1998) eloquently put it, " Silence is far more than absence of sound. It is also the absence of activity, stimulation and thought. It is being attuned with your depths" (p. 154). Chadha (1984) notes, silence to know silence is self-realization silently.

By looking and searching within one's own self silently, one gets answers silently. It is also "Within that silence we glimpse an experience of oneness and communion in which all divisions fall away.. .In the silence of our heart we may see the scattered leaves of all 186

the universe bound by love" (Feldman, 2001, p. 10, 14). Chuang-tzu, a Chinese Taoist

master of the fourth century taught that "the sage is not quiet because quietness is said to

be good. He is quiet because the multitude of things cannot disturb his quietude"

(Feldman, 2001, p. 32). "... Jungian psychologist, Arnold Mindell (1992), sees silenced

perspectives as the site of generative energy" (S. M. Miller, M. W. Nelson, & M. T.

Moore, 1998, p. 408). ".. .the Tao master and martial artist Chang San-feng said 600

years ago: 'Forget about words and your energy won't scatter' " (Reid, 1995, p. 193).

Henricks (1993) adds "Not to speak yet skillfully respond" (Chapter 73, p. 46).

Silence may lead to disturbing places within. However, Feldman (2001) assures,

"Thirsting for greater ease and silence in our lives and hearts, we travel to distant corners

of the world, believing that silence may be a geographical place, rather than a dimension

of consciousness... Silence appears as dangerous territory only so long as it remains a

stranger to us. It appears threatening only from a distance. We fear it only as long as we

fear knowing ourselves" (p. 34, 55).

We learn to bring the strength of silence to the most chaotic moments in our lives and discover a new way of being in their presence. When we no longer feel compelled to push hurt away, we can use it to develop a deeper sensitivity and compassion. When we no longer reject disappointment, we understand what it has to teach us about forgiveness and tolerance. When we no longer hide from change, we liberate ourselves to live fully (Feldman, 2001, p. 159).

At the same time, however, it is important to note that "It is sound that teaches us the

nature of silence" (Feldman, 2001, p. 43) for one wouldn't know what silence is without

experiencing sound.

Applying silence to a pedagogical setting, like starting the class with a minute of

group silence, is a powerful tool. Miller (2006) describes the experience of a math teacher in a large inner-city public high school, in a midwestern city. The teacher started every class with a sixty second silent time. Initially, it showed no impact on the students, but over time, by doing the daily practice, students started to ask for the one-minute silence, they started to take turns in conducting it, started requesting the silent minute to be extended. The power of silence is further brilliantly portrayed:

A contemporary mystic has spoken of what he remembers as the best day in his life, when, inexplicably, he simply stopped thinking. 'Walking in the garden words suddenly failed me. All the mental chatter and imagination for no apparent reason died down. Past and future dropped away and suddenly I was embraced in something I can only call 'silence.' It was as if I had been born anew in that moment, with no name, no history, and no future. The sound of the bird was heard in my heart, the warmth of the sun touched my skeleton. It was as if all ideas of'inner' and 'outer' were suddenly absurd. All I sensed was a vast emptiness that had room for everything. I felt like I had lost myself but gained eternity (Feldman, 2001, p. 230-231).

I borrow Erricker's (2001a) view to summarize meditational pedagogy:

If we really want to take the spiritual seriously in education it is a matter of doing it, not talking about it or learning what others have said about it. This involves a radical change to what we call pedagogy. There is no learning about and learning from; there is no teaching, only inquiry; there is no knowledge, only reflection on practice. There is no instruction, only doing; no answers, only awareness. This means, of course, that your students are likely to raise important and critical questions about what we call education. These will not be new questions for them, it will just be the case that for the first time, in a serious sense, they will have the opportunity and permission to inquire into them within their 'education'. Out of this grow the seeds of spiritual awareness or, to put it differently, their recognition that their life does not have to be just the result of a particular social and educational conditioning (p. 60).

Conclusion This chapter looked at various experiential approaches of a perennial pedagogy that can enrich the learning and teaching experience for all involved. Various forms of contemplative practices, meditations, mindfulness exercises and the impact of silent moments were described. In the last chapter, the epitomized state of a perennial pedagogy, the state of transimmanence, is proposed. CHAPTER 8: TRANSIMMANENCE OF PERENNIAL PEDAGOGY

"Extend holism to the universe, not limit it to the classroom." Satish Kumar, 2003a

"Realization should not be a hobby only but a necessity for peace of this planet." Unknown

In my view, a perennial pedagogy encompasses intelligence and beyond; it is not restricted to one's institutional schooling but to one's entire existence.

When you have arrived at the point where you can say your intelligence can go no further, just there it touches the Beyond. This experience does not form an obstacle to the intelligence, it is a contact. The mind of man.. .arrives at this contact, the contact of the created intelligence with the Uncreated (Maria Montessori cited in Standing, 1998, p. 344).

Such a pedagogy can lead the way to a transimmanence of the ancient and contemporary, mundane and mystical, human and cosmic. The term 'transimmanence' as I mentioned in chapter four, refers to a state of being where transcendence and immanence co-exist simultaneously. Lemkow (1990) describes immanence as the flip side of transcendence.

Transcendence and immanence can therefore be considered cyclical. A transformation of this nature "is not just individual or inner change; rather.. .there is no self-contained

'inner' as opposed to a separate 'outer,' no 'individual' separate from a physical and social context" (Streng, 1993, p. 122). "In the words of Plotinus, there is no thus or not- thus. In the words of Eriugena, the transcendent is nothing, i.e., no-thing, beyond all entity and quiddity" (Sells, 1994, p. 11-12). Transimmanence of a perennial pedagogy, I believe, embraces humility, compassion, humor and an awakening life that not only informs, but also transforms. This final chapter looks at these qualities in detail.

188 189

Humility

"Realize spiritually, that One Life pervades everything...everything is Spirit - in essence, though hidden in manifestation. If you had the perception, you would see God in everything... " Paramahansa Yogananda

"Where ever you turn, there is the face of God." Qu 'ran

"By forgetting yourself you find your Self." Mother Teresa

Humility is a quality that results from perennial understanding. Ferrer (2002) notes, ".. .what is overcome in the spiritual path is not our personal identity, but our exclusive and restrictive self-identification with the construct of a separate self (p. 215).

Evans (1993) adds, "... spirituality consists primarily of the basic transformative process in which we uncover and let go of our narcissism so as to surrender into the Mystery out of which everything continually arises" (p. 4). Evans explains that world mystics tend to agree that any authentic spiritual transformation "involves a shedding of narcissism, self- centeredness, self-separation, self-preoccupation, and so on" (p. 158).

There is no question that educators at times may feel emotional frustration but

".. .even the purest of teachers will face bitter criticism from those who feel threatened by him. The temptation (in the early, unripe stages) is to take the criticism personally, to get caught in the substance of the accusation, rather than seeing it as the voice of the accuser's pain. But once a teacher has surrendered all ideas of himself, he has nothing left to defend, and he can react with absolute non-resistance" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 192). A soul without the desire to defend and enhance has nothing to prove - no desire to get, to give and to become (Chadha, 1984). Such an educator can deeply touch the souls of students. Henricks (2000) interprets Lao-Tzu, "Real words are not vain, vain words not 190 real; and since those who argue prove nothing, a sensible man does not argue. A sensible man is wiser than he knows, while a fool knows more than is wise. Therefore a sensible man does not devise resources.. .the more he yields to others, the more they yield to him.

The way of life cleaves without cutting others" (p. 109). Lao-Tzu's lesson can be embraced by school authorities and in turn offer inspiration to students. Henricks (1993) adds, "Being largely the way of a simpleton is what makes it worthwhile. If it were not the way of a simpleton, it would long ago have been worthless. The possessions of a simpleton, the three I choose and cherish: To care, to be fair, to be humble. When a man cares he is unafraid, when he is fair he leaves enough for others, when he is humble he can grow" (p. 96). Applying this to a pedagogical setting, a humble educator grows with his or her students, takes action and makes a difference in the lives of the students. S(he) is humble without possession, accomplishes tasks without dwelling on them, is worthy but has no desire to display his/her worthiness. Humility of this kind can become an asset to humanity at large.

Contentment accompanies humility. One hopes for nothing, wants nothing, yet has everything and has "no self for selfishness to stick to" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 160).

Bynner (1972) posits, " Owning is the entanglement, wanting is the bewilderment, taking is the presentiment: Only he who contains content remains content" (p. 74). Henricks

(1993) adds:

Of crimes - none is greater than having things that one desires; Of disasters — none is greater than not knowing when one has enough; Of defects - none brings more sorrow than the desire to attain. Therefore, the contentment one has when he knows that he has enough, is abiding contentment indeed (p. 16).

Henricks (2000) further observes, "The Sage desires not to desire. He holds on to nothing, and as a result he loses nothing" (Chapter 64, part 2, p. 120). David Hunt (1999) 191

presented earlier that the more one lets go, the more control one will have. One needs to

let go before one can open up to what one may be (Ferrucci, 1982). George Bernard

Shaw notes, "the more he threw away, the more he had" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 292).

Doing everything possible and then letting go is a powerful dynamic that has been scientifically validated in laboratory experiments at Stanford Research Institute. A researcher tried to move a free-hanging weighted magnet by his will alone focusing all his attention on it for twenty or thirty minutes, doing everything he knew to do, nothing happened. But at the moment when, totally exhausted, he said to himself, "I give up", the magnet moved dramatically. The researcher found that when he intensely focused on establishing a connectedness and then totally surrendered, the magnet would sometimes move at a force a thousand times stronger than the earth's magnetic field (Belitz & Lundstrom, 1998, p. 181).

To let go is not to deny but to accept, to let go is to fear less and love more.

Letting go is essentially openness of heart. It is an attitude, not an action. As Mitchell

(1991) notes, "Attitude precedes action and generates it" (p. 56). "We ask Jesus, how should we live? He says, Love God, love your neighbor. We ask, What is that like? He

says, Let go. Letting go of an offense means letting go of the self that is offended" (p.

54). However, in observing Jesus' message further, Mitchell points out the paradox, "If you have to let go, then there was something to hold on to. Where there is no offense to begin with, there is nothing to forgive. It is more accurate to say that inside the kingdom of God there is only acceptance" (p. 55). A brilliant analogy to explain further is, "The oak that resists the storm is broken. The willow, in contrast, bends and gives way. It survives and springs back into its former self when danger is past" (Diamond, 1999, p.

213). Deepak Chopra (1998) states, " Each of us inhabits a reality lying beyond all change. Deep inside us, unknown to the five senses is an innermost core of being, a field of non-change that creates personality, ego, and body. This being is our essential state - it is who we really are" (p. 7). Anne Mulvaney (1999) adds in reference to teaching,

"The presence of "I" and "Self include the one who is aware and the one who has the power to choose. This "I" is ever changing with new impacts, insights, and "incites" to action. The Self is the changeless, loving, all wise part of each person, whose over­ arching presence is often unrealized or ignored, even though the Self is actually "the kingdom of God within," the Soul" (p. 42). These qualities embodied and expressed by an educator can have life-changing implications for students.

In explaining the point of view of two notable educators, Marshak (1997) writes,

"... both Aurobindo and Inayat Khan describe the ego as the false sense of self created in early childhood when the spiritual self identifies with the physical, life-force, and mental beings. The ego is illusory and distorted in relation to the spiritual being, yet it is a necessary step in the unfoldment of the person. The ego is required for survival until the spiritual being can unfold and establish itself within the consciousness" (p. 9). John

White (1995) advises us to get rid, "that is, of the egocentric consciousness which experiences life from a contracted, self-centered point of view rather than the free, unbound perspective of a sage who knows he or she is infinity operating through a finite form" (p. xii). Working with such a mentality can be the epitome of pedagogy.

Therefore, what is required is a balance that lies between narcissistic tendencies and self-agnosia. This state of mind can enliven the teaching and learning experience for all. Teaching from such a space, "dissolves all the boundaries and brings about a reunion with Absolute Consciousness" (Grof, 1998, p. 79). Satish Kumar (2003a) gives a brilliant example of the process of humility. He states that an acorn is initially nested in its shell, for it to become an oak tree, the acorn has to be buried in the soil, where it is absolutely dark and doubtful. It has to then give up its shell completely to get back into light and sprout into an oak tree. The transformation is in the giving up of the skin, in other words it gives up, as John Miller would say, its 'little self completely. 193

.. .self-centeredness can be variously overcome (e.g., through the compassion-raising insight into the interpretation of all phenomena in Mahayana Buddhism, the knowledge of Brahman in Advaita Vedanta, the continuous feeling of God's loving presence in Christianity, the cleaving to God in Judaism, or the commitment to visionary service and healing in many forms of shamanism), to name only a few possibilities. In all cases, however, we invariably witness a liberation from self-imposed suffering, an opening of the heart, and a commitment to a compassionate and selfless life (Ferrer, 2002, p. 145).

Taken from a personal perspective, experiencing humility in another means to go

beyond one's own ego. What one sees in others is a reflection of one's own inner

tendencies. One is a mirror unto others. Inner positivity and negativity is reflected

outside us. What is within is reflected in how one sees others. It is easy to see varying

traits in others, but it is much more difficult to see that those same traits are present

within oneself. Accepting that one is looking at their own traits when they see another

with those traits is a humbling experience. Such an attitude, when adopted in a school

environment, can be extremely powerful and enlightening.

There is an obvious, collective humility that permeates all the accounts of awakening. Enlightenment is not a personal possession or achievement. The boundaries of the personal have dissolved in the face of awakening. What is frequently recounted is the 'nothing special' nature of enlightenment. The Buddha recounted, 'I gained absolutely nothing from complete, unexcelled enlightenment. This is why it is complete, unexcelled enlightenment.' Awakening, it seems, does not make us 'holy,' 'perfect,' or 'saintly.' These are the goals of the unawakened, confined within the boundaries of a separate 'self.' Enlightenment, it seems, does not make us 'anyone' at all, and this is the essence of freedom. The saintly person clearly carries no notions of what it means to be 'good' or 'saintly.' The enlightened person sees nothing but the divine in the presence of all things. The truly compassionate person has no notion of 'saving' others. Yet an awakened life is naturally expressed in compassion, service, and joy (Feldman, 2001, p. 230).

This brings us to the next quality of a perennial pedagogy, compassion. 194

Compassion

"Man's goodness is aflame, it can diminish but never extinguish. " Nelson Mandella

"There is a sublime place inside us where love dwells." Swami Muktananda

"Ifyou do a favour for someone and expect a favour in return, it's a trade, not an act of kindness." Unknown

"Compassion is not pity. Compassion is not based on the compassion of others towards us. Compassion is unbiased, ordinary love is biased. " Dalai Lama, April 25, 2004, The Power of Compassion

"They say we need to practice lovingkindness, interestingly we were born with lovingkindness." Bhikkhu Kusuma, May 24, 2004

"Dame Julian of Norwich (c.!372-c.l418) was one of the earliest Christian women to write of their encounters with God. She writes about seeing her soul 'so large as it were an endless world... love that dissolved all separations. 'In love' she says, 'we have our beginning' and 'love is without beginning'." Feldman, 2001, p. 230-231

"Spirit is not in the I but between I and you, it is not like the blood that circulates you, but like the air in which you breathe." Buber, 1970, p. 89

It is the sense of separate self that prevents one from seeing the oneness of all that there is. Like a tiny water droplet in an enormous ocean, the droplet initially resists, trying to maintain its identity, not seeing the oneness of the ocean and itself but when it lets go, it becomes one with the entire ocean, it becomes the ocean. Similarly, one perceives a superficial separation from the rest of creation. Understanding, however involves that if everything is of divine ground as Huxley notes, and there is nothing other than that ground, one is also a part of that everything. One's entity is not excluded, there is then only oneness with entirety.

We who look at the whole and not just the part, know that we too are systems of interdependence, of feelings, perceptions, thoughts, and consciousness all interconnected. Investigating in this way, we come to realize that there is no me or mine in any one part, just as a sound does not belong to any one part of the lute (Samyutta Nikaya cited in Bodhi, 2000, v. 1, 2). 195

"With unwavering unanimity of knowing, the answer echoes down since

beginningless time, ever repeated, not only by.. .mystics, but by every saint, seer, and

religion, 'Surrender the Sense of a Separate Self!' " (Monty, 1992, p. 1). Surrender here

does not mean resignation; it is letting go of the little self and realizing the essenceless

essence in the eternal now (Tolle, 1997). It is letting go of the desire to defend and

enhance - the little self that is a result of memory solidified over time. "The Bodhisattva perceives that his existence in time is due to memory that has been accumulated since the beginningless past.. .those remembered habits formed.. .cause us to believe that multiplicity (separateness) is the sole reality and T, 'me', 'mine' represent the ultimate truth" (Monty, 1992). A spiritual teacher after thirty years in Buddhist training writes: "I knew once and for all that.. .any sense of self is an illusion. We are empty like a dream, a play of mind" (Kornfield, 2000, p. 85).

Separateness, when realized as unreal, offers an opening to a state of being as mystic Joel Goldsmith posits:

I am in union with the divine Intelligence of the past, the present and the future. No spiritual secret is hidden from me... There is this transcendental Being within me which I am and to which I have access forever. This means omnipresence now of what we call the past and what we call the future. I am living in the Omnipresence now. I am now in the Consciousness of all who have ever lived, are living now, and ever will live in the divine Consciousness, for we are one. That infinite divine Consciousness of God, the Consciousness of the past, and the present and the future, is my consciousness at this moment (Monty, 1992).

Huston Smith (1991) notes, "Buddhists bring their palms together to symbolize the overcoming of duality, and Advaitic Vedantins deny duality altogether" (p. 388). Hence,

"we have, as Goethe once suggested, a consciousness which is "world open", and we call that world without opposite, in which the world of dualism breaks down" (Gebser, 2002, p. 2). 196

Compassion evolves with the understanding of relatedness and oneness. Science offers genetic evidence for the claim of oneness. Robert Krulwich (2001) informs us of the genome project that studies genetic DNA coding, the biological essence of all beings in the world. The study observes the DNA sequence of all human beings as 99.9 percent identical. The 0.1 percent accounts for the difference in the external physicality. David

Suzuki further in a CBC telecast of "Nature of Things " observes the particles that comprise one's breath or argons are constantly interpenetrating throughout existence.

For instance, argons are interpenetrating from an ant in the Himalayas, to a human being in Africa, to a rabbit in North America, to a seashell in Europe. This interpenetration does not seem to respect human boundaries. Further, the ".. .no mere theory - the 1982

Aspect Experiment in France, demonstrated that two, once connected quantum particles separated by vast distances remained somehow connected. If one particle was changed, the other changed - instantly. Scientists don't know the mechanics of how this "faster- than-the-speed-of-light-travel" can happen" (Russ DiCarlo, 1997, forward, xiii).

Stanford Research Institute scientist, Russell Targ, says,

David Bohm, the distinguished American physicist, talked about quantum interconnectedness as a description of the universe in which we live. And it is this quantum interconnectedness, a kind of holographic picture of space-time, that allows the twin photons that are born together to remain in contact over distant separations, and also allows a psychic to make contact with a distant friend or a distant location. In consciousness there is no separation between us (cited in Suzuki, 2002, p. 8).

In addition, Suzuki notes, one perceives that one is separate from nature but one's constituent depends on it. One shelters, breathes and feeds off of nature. In other words, one's being depends completely on nature. It is like the drop in the ocean that may think it is separate from the ocean even though it is a part of the ocean. Hanh (1976) notes,

"To see one in all and all in one is to break through the great barrier which narrows one's perception of reality, a barrier which Buddhism calls the attachment to the false view of 197 self (p. 48). Paul Pearsall (1998) also emphasizes the oneness of humanity throughout his book, The Heart's Code.

According to Lee Kuhnle (1999), one's mind acts as a coordinator of all bodily senses and organs. For instance, the eye is only able to see patches of color or shapes. It can't identify them. Only the mind is able to do that. So, if it is one's mind that is creating one's world, one's world can be changed based on one's thinking. For example, negative thoughts can be transformed to positive ones. Chadha (1984) writes, "Change your mind's glasses and you will see everything clearly". There is nothing negative outside; it is all coming from the inside. Miller (1994) confirms, ".. .the outer world is a reflection of our inner world. In other words, if our consciousness is filled with greed and aversion, then the world will simply manifest these qualities.. .As we " clean up" our inner life, there is a greater chance the environment will also become cleaner" (p. 11).

Mitchell (1991) further notes, "We attract the same kind of energy that we send out. If we act compassionately toward others, we find that, lo and behold, others are compassionate toward us. If we are judgmental toward others, others are judgmental toward us" (p. 187). Chadha (1984) notes that developing the fundamental principles leading to contentment and a peaceful life, and not teasing or injuring the feeling of any living creature, can create the spirit of love and sympathy. Awareness of oneness of all animate and inanimate objects in the universe, can lead one to divinity. Others are dear on account of the existence of Self in them. Hanh (1976) adds, "See that your skeleton is not you. Your bodily form is not you. Be at one with life. Live eternally in the trees and grass, in other people, in the birds and other beasts, in the sky, in the ocean waves. Your 198 skeleton is only one part of you. You are present everywhere and in every moment" (p.

90).

Compassion embraces what one dislikes too. Lao-Tzu notes, a human knowing the way of life "repays resentment with kindness" (Henricks, 1993, p. 33). Jesus is quoted to have said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you..." (Mitchell, 1991, p. 69). Bynner

(1972) notes, "A sound man's heart is not shut within itself, but is open to other people's hearts: I find good people good, and I find bad people good if I am good enough; I trust men of their word, and I trust liars if I am true enough; I feel the heart-beats of others"

(Chapter 49, p.76). For "If hell means anything in reality, it is the world of torment that humans create for themselves and for one another out of their own greed, hatred, and ignorance. It is not a physical place; it is a psychological metaphor" (Mitchell, 1991, p.

68).

For if you love only those who love you, what credit is that to you.. .Be careful not to do your righteous acts in public, in order to be seen....When you give charity, don't blow a trumpet to announce it.. .And when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites, who love to stand and pray.. .in the streets corners, so that people will see them.. .The eye is the lamp of the body. So if your eye is clear, your whole body is luminous; but if your eye isn't clear, your whole body is dark. And if the light in you is darkness, how great that darkness is.. .Can a blind man lead a blind man? Won't they both fall into a ditch? (Mitchell, 1991, p. 108).

Compassion needs to begin with the Self. Feldman (2001) notes, "Being at one with the world starts with self-understanding" (p. 125). The Buddhist meditation, the

Metta Sutta, for instance, starts with the meditator first, forgiving oneself for any wrong one perceives one has done in thought, word or deed. ".. .the first step in becoming merciful is to treat yourself with mercy" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 173). If, for instance, one's foot is hurting inside, one does not disown it. One becomes more compassionate towards it and gives it more attention. Another being can be considered as part of one's own self too. When that being is hurting inside and perhaps expressing it as negative reaction such as anger or irritation, one must not disown that being, but show extra compassion. The results of this can be outstanding. Maharishi explains, ".. .A true renunciate actually merges in the world and expands his love to embrace the whole world..." (Mitchell,

1991, p. 47). The gospel according to Jesus assures "that the love we all long for in our innermost heart is already present, beyond longing.. .It is real. It is realer than the real, more intimate than anything we can see or touch, 'unreachable,' as the Upanishads say,

'yet nearer than breath, than heart beat.' The more deeply we receive it, the more real it becomes" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 10). The metaphysical realization best rendered as "thou art that" presupposes, as the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer wrote:

his identification with someone not himself, a penetration of the barrier between persons so that the other was no longer perceived as an indifferent stranger but as a person "in whom I suffer, inspite of the fact that his skin does not enfold my nerves." This fundamental insight, as Schopenhauer continued, reveals that "my own true inner being actually exists in every living creature... [and] is the ground of that compassion (Mitleid) upon which all true, that is to say, unselfish, virtue rests and whose expression is in every good deed (Kennedy, 2001, p. xii).

Such compassion applied to a pedagogical setting can have profound results.

When the educator embraces all things around, the students feel comfortable and inspired to generate compassion as well. Huxley (1962) illustrates how compassion can be brought into education in his novel Island, "Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very first that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the valley..." (p. 211).

He knoweth nothing as he ought to know, who thinks he knoweth anything without seeing its place and the manner how it relateth to God, angels and men, and to all the creatures in earth, heaven and hell, time and eternity (Thomas Traherne cited in Huxley, 1945, p. 109 - 110).

Compassion can thereby make any educational setting worthwhile, enriching and spiritually alive. Slattery (1995) emphasizes investigations of the self and the 200 conceptions of the self in relation to the other in education (p. 121). Stanley (1992) proposes a curriculum for Utopia where human suffering may inspire compassion for otherness so that "we try to extend our sense of 'we' to people whom we have previously thought of as 'they'" (p. 222). This understanding, for instance, can educate against racism and violence. Toni Morrison (1989) observes severe fragmentation of the self for the racist and the victim. Violence, anger, hatred arise when duality is viewed, when there is the artificial notion of T and 'Other'. Nonviolent behavior must often be shocking in order to shake up the violent opponent's seemingly so normal attitude, to make him feel that his apparently undebatable and spotless advantage in aggressive initiative is being taken away from him and that he is being forced to overdo his own action absurdly. For human violent almost never feels all that 'natural', even to the aggressor himself - neither the violence toward children nor that against loved persons nor even that evoked by declared enemies (Erickson, 1981, p. 357).

Aboth de Rabbi Nathan asks, "Who is the mightiest of the mighty? He who makes his enemy his friend" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 171). "The Buddha taught, 'Hatred will never be healed by hatred. Hatred will be healed by love alone" (Feldman, 2001, p. 176).

Seeing self in others may perhaps be the key. One, however, needs to be mindful and present in the moment. For it is when one is mindless that the self and the other appear.

Wisdom iprajna) is therefore inseparable from the development of compassion (karuna) according to Mahayana Buddhism (Williams, 1989). In Sufism also, we see that Ibn al-

'Arabi's path of knowledge is balanced by Rumi's love for the Divine (Chittick, 1983,

1989). "Wisdom and compassion are likened to the two wings of a bird. Profound wisdom finds its expression in deep compassion; without this expression it has little meaning" (Feldman, 2001, p. 238). In a school setting, conformity and obedience emerge from fear, whereas cooperation and growth emerge from wisdom, love and respect.

Compassion is therefore an essential element of a perennial pedagogy, which leads to awakening. Dogen's account of enlightenment is intimacy with all beings. Thich Nhat 201

Hanh's (1995) "inter-being" emphasizes the realm of the between and the community as the locus of spiritual realization. Saint-Exupery's belief is that "It is only when you see with the heart that you see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye" (Shuffrey,

1958, p. 2). Jesus is quoted as saying, "the more we become like God - generous, compassionate, impartial, serene.. .They are Jesus' signature.. .an old Chinese poet describes the lotus: How spotlessly it arises from its slimy bed! How modestly it rests on the surface of the clear pool! When we look with the eye of nonjudgment - that is, with the eye of love - our vision includes all of humanity" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 154). Thich

Nhat Hanh (1976) eloquently sums the power of compassion:

When your mind is liberated your heart floods with compassion: compassion for yourself, for having undergone countless sufferings because you were not yet able to relieve yourself of false views, hatred, ignorance, and anger; and compassion for others because they do not yet see and so are still imprisoned by false views, hatred, and ignorance and continue to create suffering for themselves and for others (p. 58).

Such a compassionate educator can touch students' deepest core with long lasting imprints. On a personal note, the educators that continue to be cherished are the ones that have touched the soul deeply with elements of compassion, humility and wisdom. Laura, a healer, remarks about a great compassionate teacher, "I feel that Jesus touched people from a place of great presence and love. He was in contact with the essence of these sick people, and they recognized that. And if they were open to him, they could receive that love and use it to heal themselves" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 294). Feldman (2001) writes, "Compassion is a spiritual strength that changes the world within and around us"

(p. 171).

Miller (2006) describes, in Educating for Wisdom and Compassion, what educators can do to evoke compassion, humility and wisdom. 1. Work on Yourself: When teachers work on themselves to become more present,

mindful and caring, they connect more deeply to their students and create space

for students to perhaps share these qualities.

2. Be Fully Present: Being mentally present in the classroom can create a

psychologically safe atmosphere for students to share. It can also be profoundly

healing.

3. Recognize the Importance of the Nonverbal and Honor Silence: Honor being

comfortable with silence. Miller gives the instance of Quaker meetings where

silence is accepted and people speak only when they are moved to do so.

Bringing what the ancients called "the thinking heart" may be key.

4. Develop a Rhythm: Teachers can develop a rhythm where they are not stuck in

one teaching method. This includes: rhythm of silence and speech, from large

group to small, from transmission to transaction and transformation.

5. Integrate Timeless Learning with Other Forms of Learning: Timeless learning

offers an inclusive approach to teaching and learning that includes timebound

learning.

6. Balancing Spontaneity and Planning: Timeless learning involves a balance

between flexibility and structure.

7. Don't Forget the Body: Not forgetting one's body is important. Taking deep

breaths and grounding oneself is essential.

8. Live Your Own Truth: Living your own truth rather than seeking external

approval or recognition in teaching is the heart's reward. Living an undivided life

may make a difference in the students' lives. 203

9. Acknowledge the Mystery: The seeds of spirituality are innately present in

children. They just need an environment where the seeds can sprout and blossom.

10. Let Your Humanity Come Through: The bond between a student and a teacher

can strengthen when their humanity is seen. "Teachers who can take themselves

lightly can touch the angelic nature of their students" (Miller, 2006, p. 140).

Humor

"After spirituality comes humor." Unknown

"A warm smile is the universal language of kindness." William Arthur Ward

"Your joy lives within you. " Byrne, 2006

In transimmanence, a perennial pedagogy opens to aspects of humor. An embodied state of joy results from an understanding of existence, the play of life and smiling at the no sense. Ajahn Brahm (2005a), a traveling Buddhist monk, embodies humor to convey deep messages to his audience. He states that when one's mouth is open while laughing, a pill of wisdom can easily be thrown in. Likewise, an educator who brings laughter into the classroom, relaxes the atmosphere for him or herself as well as for the students with elements of wisdom. Humor offers a playfulness and joyful quality to learning, making learning more natural. A child who is naturally playful just needs the proper environment that can lay grounds for wisdom and understanding to develop.

Jesus' teaching points to the child's presence, trust, openness, love of play, and capacity for wonder.. .Philo, in agreeing with Jesus' insight, gives a slightly different perspective: The face of the wise man is not somber or austere, contracted by anxiety and sorrow, but precisely the opposite: radiant and serene, and filled with a vast delight, which often makes him the most playful of men, acting with the sense of humor that blends with his essential seriousness and dignity, just as in a well-tuned lyre all the notes blend into one harmonious sound. According to 204

our holy teacher Moses, the goal of wisdom is laughter and play - not the kind that one sees in little children who do not yet to have the faculty of reason, but the kind that is developed in those who have grown mature through both time and understanding. If someone has experienced the wisdom that can only be heard from oneself, learnt from oneself, and created from oneself, he does not merely participate in laughter: he becomes laughter it self (Mitchell, 1991, p. 231).

A magnificent example that bears to mind is his holiness the Dalai Lama. He has a child­

like demeanor that flows with laughter and joy combined with humility, compassion and

wisdom. Scientific proof shows, "Using new scanning techniques, neuroscientists have

discovered that certain areas of the brain light up constantly in Buddhists, which indicates

positive emotions and good mood, this happens at times even when they are not

meditating." Professor Owen Flanagan (2003) of Duke University in North Carolina in

the same article notes, "We can now hypothesize with some confidence that those

apparently happy, calm Buddhist souls one regularly comes across in places such as

Dharamsala, India, really are happy" (p. 1).

Laughter of wisdom includes laughing at one's own self, existence and death.

Alan Watts offers a comical yet profound perspective:

True humor is, indeed, laughter at one's Self- at the Divine Comedy, the fabulous deception, whereby one comes to imagine that a creature in existence is not also coexistence, that what man is is not also what everything is. All the time we "know it in our bones" but conscious attention, distracted by details and differences, cannot see the whole for the parts. The major trick in this deception is, of course, death. Consider death as the permanent end of consciousness, the point at which you and your knowledge of the universe simply cease, and where you become as if you had never existed at all. Consider it also on a much vaster scale - the death of the universe at the time when energy runs out, when, according to some cosmologists, the explosion which flung the galaxies into space fades out like a skyrocket. It will be as if it had never happened, which is, of course, the way things were before it did happen. Likewise, when you are dead, you will be as you were before you were conceived. So - there has been a flash, a flash of consciousness or a flash of galaxies. It happened. Even if there is no one left to remember (Alan Watts cited in Sohl and Carr, 1970, p. 64 - 65).

To summarize, Ramakrishna Paramahamsa notes, "One of the signs of God-realization is joy. There is absolutely no hesitancy in such a person, who is like an ocean in joyous

waves. But deep beneath the surface, there is profound silence and peace" (cited in

Hixon, 1992, p. 307). 205

Beyond perennial pedagogy, such a state of being can include all of humanity, which brings us to the last section: an awakening world. 206

An Awakening World

"This truth is to be lived, it is not to be merely pronounced with the mouth... " Hui Neng cited in Huxley, 1945, p. 139

"Life is a grindstone. Whether it grinds us down or polishes us up depends on you. " L. Thomas Holdcroft

"Process is nothing but our lives." Crowell & Reid, 2003

"lean show you the path, but you will have to experience it for yourself." Buddha

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Chinese proverb

"Only that day dawns to which we are awake. " Thoreau

This final section explores global implications of a perennial pedagogy with its impact on individuals, communities and the world at large. Maharshi Ramana (1974) notes, "As you wake, the world awakes for you" (p. 36). The transformation of humanity is an interdependent phenomenon. With perennial understanding, one not only finds one's place within creation but, more mysteriously, creation finds its place within one.

One of the most recent scientific disciplines, cognitive psychology, appears to confirm an insight made some twenty-five centuries ago in the early Buddhist scriptures and the

Chandogya Upanishad, "that which (within the heart) is smaller than a grain of rice or a grain of millet, smaller than the kernel of a grain of millet, is yet, greater than the earth, greater than the heavens" (Abhishiktananda, 1974, p. 12). Every child knows that one only needs to cup one's hand over the ear to hear the sea inside the seashell. Through perennial understanding one, as it were, wires up to the main power supply, and comes out awakened to oneself as a co-author of, and character in, the dynamic and ever- renewing story of creation. In 1929, with World War I still a vivid memory, C. H. Dodd 207

(1978), a Christian teacher remarked, "If we could all become artists over the whole of life, using our whole environment to express the highest spiritual relations within our reach, is it not possible that the influence of humanity upon the world might change its whole aspect?" (p. 33). Therefore, as Sloan (1993) points out, " ...we face the possibility, as well as the necessity, of recognizing and realizing our true being" (p. 242).

Global Transformation

"Through mindfulness we experience Interbeing which means everything is in everything else. The Heart Sutra gives us solid ground for making peace with ourselves, for transcending the fear of birth and death, the duality of this and that. In the light of emptiness, everything is everything else, we inter-are, everyone is responsible for everything that happens in life. When you produce peace and happiness in yourself, you begin to realize peace for the whole world. With the smile that you produce in yourself, with the conscious breathing you establish within yourself, you begin to work for peace in the world. To smile is not to smile only for yourself, the world will change because of your smile. When you practice sitting meditation, if you enjoy even one moment of your sitting, if you establish serenity and happiness inside yourself, you provide the world with a solid base of peace. If you do not give yourself peace, how can you share it with others? If you do not begin your peace work with yourself, where will you go to begin it? To sit, to smile, to look at things and really see them, these are the basis of peace work. " Thich Nhat Hanh

"How can we hope to help heal the planet unless we are willing to heal ourselves? " Miller, 2000, p. 138

Joseph Campbell (1986) succinctly ponders, "The old gods are dead or dying and people everywhere are searching, asking: What is the new mythology to be, the mythology of this unified earth as of one harmonious being?" (p. 17). A life filled with infinite compassion, humility, joy, wisdom, realization, and an eternal now existence can breathe life into all. For 'to inspire' means 'to breath life into'; an opening 'to make one's tacit knowledge explicit' (Beattie, 2003). Kasulis (1988) points out that Buddhist and Kabbalah traditions hold inner spiritual practices aimed at transforming one's self thereby transforming the world. Mitchell (1991) notes, the term 'peace' in Hebrew, is derived from a root that means 'wholeness.' In other words, when one is peaceful, one 208

may be considered whole within and this peace and wholeness may be experienced by the

outer whole as well. The Buddhist Diamond Sutra offers an illustration of this idea, "the

Bodhisattva who vows to save all beings is still under a fundamental delusion: Any

Bodhisattva who undertakes the practice of meditation should cherish one thought only:

'When I attain perfect wisdom, I will liberate all sentient beings in every realm of the universe, and allow them to pass into the eternal peace of Nirvana.' And yet, when vast,

uncountable, unthinkable myriads of beings have been liberated, truly no being has been

liberated. Why? Because no Bodhisattva who is a true Bodhisattva entertains such

concepts as 'self or 'others.' Thus there are no sentient beings to be liberated and no self

to attain perfect wisdom" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 74). Ramana Maharishi further illuminates

this point:

People often say that a liberated Master should go out and preach his message to the people. How can anyone be a Master, they argue, as long as there is misery by his side? This is true. But who is a liberated Master? Does he see misery beside him? They want to determine the state of a Master without realizing the state themselves. From the standpoint of the Master their contention amounts to this: A man dreams a dream in which he finds several people. On waking up, he asks, "Have the dream people also woken up? How ridiculous! In the same way, a good man says, 'It doesn't matter if I never get liberation. Or let me be the last man to get it so that I may help all others to be liberated before I am.' Wonderful. Imagine a dreamer saying, May all these dream people wake up before I do.' The dreamer is no more absurd than this amiable philosopher" (cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 74).

Global transformation therefore may be considered an extension of self transformation.

Joseph Cambell (1972) posits:

Each of us - whoever and wherever he may be - is then the center, and within him, whether he knows it or not, is that Mind at Large.. .It is - and will forever be, as long as our human race exists - the old, everlasting, perennial mythology, in its "subjective sense," poetically renewed in terms neither of a remembered past nor of a projected future, but of now: addressed, that is to say, not to the flattery of "peoples," but to the waking of individuals in the knowledge of themselves, not simply as egos fighting for place on the surface of this beautiful planet, but equally as centers of Mind at Large - each in his own way at one with all, and with no horizons (p. 266). 209

Living it

"How much of your life do you spend looking forward to being somewhere else? " Matthew Flickstein, Journey to the Center

"If there's any possibility for enlightenment, it's right now, not at some future time. Now is the time. " Chodron,1997,p.l43

"We are not trying to attain buddhahood we are trying to express it." Suzuki Roshi

"Ifyou find what you love doing, you won't work a day in your life." Socrates

"You cannot understand Nirvana until you can understand the Samsara." Bhante Sugnasiri, 2004

If a yogi in an isolated cave up in a mountain gets disturbed by the ups and downs

when exposed to society, (s)he has not gone far with their understanding. The world is

the real testing ground. Meditation in isolation may be a university setting of

understanding, but living the understanding is where the depth of practicality lies. The

paradox is the comprehension of the simplicity of awakening and the living of it. Life

therefore presents itself as a practice field to apply what has been comprehended.

We leave the marketplace only to return; we retreat from the haste and busyness of our world and return to find it unchanged. What does change is our way of seeing and being in the marketplace and busyness of our world. Every mystic emerging from the cloisters or descending from the mountaintop will be tested by their journey back into the world. Their return is not always greeted with applause; their understandings may meet indifference, and they find themselves faced with the challenge of embodying their wisdom. Spiritual journeys are radical and often countercultural (Feldman,2001,p.240). When a renowned Zen Master was asked the meaning and nature of existence, he replied

only: Walk on (Wilber, 1990). ".. .the extraordinary and the ordinary, the supernatural

and the mundane, are precisely one and the same. This is the tenth Zen ox-herding picture, which reads: 'The gate of his cottage is closed and even the wisest cannot find 210 him. He goes his own way, making no attempt to follow the steps of earlier sages.

Carrying a gourd, he strolls into the market; leaning on his staff, he returns home" (p. 99).

Awakening is therefore a pathless land as Krishnamurti states, a goalless path, according to Ferrer (2002). "If you run away from the Void, you can never be free from it; if you search for the Void, you can never reach it" (Niu-tou Fa-yung in Chung-yuan, 1969, p.

21). Johnston (1970) explains, "All thoughts, images, fears, feelings, anxieties, plans, ambitions, envies, whatever it may be - all are emptied out of the mind which is reduced to the state of a tabula rasa like a mirror from which every speck of dust has been removed. (When I say "emptied," I mean that one pays no attention to the stream of consciousness as it passes across the surface of the mind - one should not strive violently for emptiness, for this would be futile.).. .Zen begins with a spring-cleaning of the mind.

Cobwebs are brushed away; the mirror is cleansed; the void is created. Utter detachment from all things is demanded: Dogen insisted that even the desire of enlightenment - the culmination of the whole process - be annihilated; for one who is attached to satori has thought and desire, and these are obstacles. Enlightenment will come, not when one ardently desires it, but suddenly as the result of some trivial incident like the falling of a peach blossom" (p. 5). Therefore, awakening finds its place when one lives the perennial understanding. Meister Eckhart in the same context notes, "If it is the case that man is emptied of all things, creatures, himself and god, and if god could still find a place in him to act.. .this man is not poor with the most intimate poverty. For God does not intend that man should have a place reserved for him to work in since true poverty of spirit requires that man shall be emptied of God and all his works so that if God wants to act in the soul he himself must be the place in which he acts... (God takes then) responsibility for his 211

own action and (is) himself the scene of the action, for God is the one who acts within himself (cited in Blakney, 1941, p. 231). The Silesian mystic, Jacob Boehme, affords

another clue to this state of being. Stoudt (1968) records that when Boehme was twenty-

five, his eyes fell on a pewter dish whose dark surface reflected the sunlight. Like the

Hindu saint Ramakrishna, he went into ecstasy, and experienced the sensation that he was looking into the heart of nature. He went out into the fields, and felt as though he could see into the trees and grass, as if they were made of glass and lit from within. Steiner's account of 'spiritual vision', while more down-to-earth in tone, reveals that he is speaking about the same thing:

While in earthly life man develops from birth onward, he confronts the world with his power of cognition. First he gains insight into the physical sphere. However, this is but the outpost of knowledge. This insight does not yet reveal everything the world contains. The world has an inner living reality but man does not reach this living reality at first. He shuts himself off from it. He forms a picture of the world which lacks inner reality because his own inner reality has not yet faced the world. The world-picture he forms is, in fact, an illusion. As man perceives the world through his senses he sees an illusion. But when, from his own inner being, he adds sense-free thinking to sense perception, the illusion is permeated with reality; it ceases to be illusion. Then the human spirit experiences itself within man and meets the spirit in the world; the latter is no longer hidden from man behind the physical world; it weaves and moves within it (cited in Wilson, 1985, p. 85).

Steiner is asserting that once one has learned to create space for inner realization the world ceases to be an illusion and becomes a spiritual reality where the human spirit unites with the world spirit. This is a very powerful yet simple understanding to live by as illustrated below:

Daiju visited the master Baso in China. Baso asked: "What do you seek?" "Enlightenment," replied Daiju. "You have your own treasure house. Why do you search outside?" Baso asked. Daiju inquired: "Where is my treasure house?" Baso answered: "What you are asking is your treasure house." Daiju was enlightened! Ever after he urged his friends: "Open your own treasure house and use those treasures" (Sohl and Carr,1970, p. 51). 212

Eternal Now

"This is it." Alan Watts, 1973

"...Eternity is the Standing still of the Present Time... " Leviathan, IV, 46 cited in Borges, 1967, p. 138

"A young monk asked the Master: "How can I ever get emancipated? " The Master replied: "Who has ever put you in bondage? " Advaita Teachings, cited in Kornfield, 2000, p. 95

"How do I know the ways of all things in the beginning? By what is in me." Lao Tse

"If God has a presence, that means he can be experienced. He can be known. " Chopra, 2000, p. 3-4

"This union is within us of our naked nature and were this nature to be separated from God it would fall into nothingness." John Ruysbroeck

"For no one remains what (s)he was when (s)he recognizes him/herself " Thomas Mann

Living the perennial understanding opens space for eternal now existence. One

witnesses the now as perennial, timeless and eternal. To eliminate confusion, John White

(1995) gives a brilliant description of what awakening is not. He explains:

Perhaps it would help to be specific about what enlightenment is not. It is not an altered state of consciousness, whether induced through meditation, drugs, sex, or any other mind-altering psychotechnology. As one contributor to this anthology, transpersonal psychologist Ken Wilber, said in the (now-deleted) abstract of his essay, " The Ultimate State of Consciousness... is known not one among many but one without a second... [it] is not an altered state of consciousness, for there is no alternative to it". Neither is enlightenment a dazzling display of psychic phenomena or paranormal powers. Nor is it a vision that transports you to some celestial realm. It is not sitting immobile in trance while experiencing an inner world of fascinating colors and sounds or alternatively, a complete blankness of mind. Enlightenment can include all that but it also infinitely transcends all that. Anything less than ultimate is not the answer, and all phenomena are passing, non-ultimate (p. xii).

"It is enlightenment to know one's self (Blakney, 1983, p. 86). However, Gebser

(1949) cautions us for a better comprehension, "Our previous and strictly categorical mode of thinking must be complemented by and integrated with the addition of the 213

acategorical mode of realization" (p. 286). The classification of the term 'God', 'Self,

and 'Other' are all victims of semantics. Gebser adds, "...no systematization can do justice" (p. 311). However, "Clarity.. .is able to penetrate the whole where somnolent timelessness, somnial temporicity, and mental conceptuality all become diaphanous.

Anyone who perceives in this manner is free from time and can see through the whole in which he partakes, not as a part, but integrally" (p. 292). A transparent consciousness therefore taps divinity. Paramahansa Yogananda notes, be transparent like the gems for such clarity will reflect the divine mind. At that state of understanding, Mary Caroline

Richards (1962) notes, "Awareness and behavior fuse; inner and outer dissolve to transparency" (p. 108), " I see the world as a totality... Self then is both very big and very small. In each of us lives the history of man; in each, an awakening individual being" (p.

159 -160). Siler (1997) in his section, "In Becoming One" adds, "Paradoxically, the moment we see the integrated nature of nature, the mirror removes itself from our consciousness or mind's eye in this moment of synthesis" (p. 112). He notes, "Once you accept the world-view of reflectionism, where everything is connected, no aspect of reality is seen as being separate and unrelated. Neither the universals nor the particulars of matter And nonmatter, brain And mind - nor the languages we use to describe these things, science And art - are seen to be in conflict with one another. There is only confluence" (p. 114). Astronaut and Scientist Edgar Mitchell writes:

Just ten years ago we discovered a property of nature called the quantum hologram, which is non­ local. In other words, it's information properties aren't dependent on speed-of-light propagation or space and time. Very, very strange, but real. And this quantum hologram, we now understand, is associated with all physical matter. It is an emission of particles at the quantum level that carry information about every physical object, be it a body, a table, a cup, a camera, or whatever. This is a new discovery. It does two things. It was initially thought that quantum physics only pertained to subatomic matter; it didn't have much to do with our scale size. But it shows that it does. Quantum physics is about the dual nature of matter. It's a particle, has definite place in space and time, and it has attributes of a wave, which is non-local and goes out through the universe. We suddenly realize now that the quantum hologram is to macro-matter, us and our 214

nature, what the wave is to the subatomic particle. In other words, we are quantum objects too. We are here and now, right now, and live in this three-dimensional world, and we have a, call it, in the mystical tradition, a spiritual aspect or a wave aspect, that's non-local, that permeates the entire universe.. .And it starts to explain those things that we used to call numenous, spiritual, mind stuff, ESP, intuition, telepathy, etcetera (Suzuki, 2002, p. 12).

Hanh (1976) assures, "When reality is perceived in its nature of ultimate perfection, the

practitioner has reached a level of wisdom called non-discrimination mind - a wondrous

communion in which there is no longer any distinction made between subject and object.

This isn't some far-off, unattainable state. Any one of us - by persisting in practicing

even a little - can at least get a taste of it" (p. 57). Maharishi Ramana (2006) in his work,

Talks adds, the enquiry of 'Who am I?' means finding the source of T. From where

have we come and where are we to go? Who has come and who is to go, who is

questioning whom? When that is found, that which you seek is accomplished. Akin to

the above statement, Jan Chozen Bays (1997) ponders:

Sometimes I think our em-bodies are like clay shaped on a potter's wheel. Each body is different in form and function, just as pitcher is for pouring, pot for holding, lid for closing. There are man bodies, woman bodies, car, butterfly, radiator, and earthworm bodies. No matter how they are coated - pink slimy, shiny metal, skin, fur, feathers, bark, stone - all are of the same substance. In this universal potter's studio everything is made of clay: the floor, walls, potter's wheel. Nothing enters and nothing leaves. Being born, clay is formed. Living clay bodies chip and gradually or suddenly! Break down. Dying, they disintegrate into clay particles again, are gathered, kneaded, and made into new bodies. In the potter's studio are millions of vessel-bodies, continuously being formed, functioning according to their purpose, breaking down, being remade as something new. Nothing enters and nothing leaves. After hundreds of thousands of millions of years, every particle of clay has passed through every kind of vessel. Every body has particles that have "belonged" to every other body. The vessel-bodies are so tightly packed that there is no distance between them, one shape curving into the next, a valley in one is a hill in another. So close that molecules interpenetrate. What is the clay? Who is the potter? (p. 172).

The ancient Vedas convey a related message: pots, cups, saucers, etc. are all in essence nothing but the mud in which they have been shaped. So too, the entire world of phenomenal objects is nothing but oneness. Hanh (1976) adds, " Be mindful that you are in the universe and the universe is in you: if the universe is, you are; if you are, the universe is. There is no birth. There is no death. There is no coming. There is no going" (p. 90). Scientifically speaking, the law of conservation of energy sheds a similar 215 light, where energy is considered neither to be created nor to be destroyed, just changing in forms. Zen Master Huang Po further adds, "Nothing is born, nothing is destroyed.

Away with your dualism, your likes and dislikes. Every single thing is just one mind.

When you have perceived this you will have mounted the chariot of the Buddhas" (cited in Larkin, 1997, p. 192).

More properly speaking, you are within it. Enlightenment is simply waking up from the dream of conventional life generated by the ego-based sense of a separate self. And in the enlightened state, all apparently separate forms of life and conditions of existence are seen to be masks of God - things in which the divine source of all worlds and beings chooses to hide a part of itself. When you realize that, you see, as both ancient tradition and Meher Baba put it, that God is One without a second. Some religions say there are many gods, some say there is one god. The enlightened, however, know that in reality, there is only God, the great Being, the Ancient One, the Cosmic Person - and "thou art that" (White, 1995, p. 83).

Sant Shri Aasaramji Bapu's (2001) article puts it, " The spiritual journey seems tough. Yet, sage after sage has attained direct personal experience of God on a metaphysical level and has demonstrated the superiority of mind over body, of soul over mind" (p. 6). "One realizes the absolute, undivided Reality through knowledge of the

Self alone" (Rama, 1999). Bynner (1972) adds, "There is no need to run outside for better seeing, Nor to peer from a window. Rather abide. At the center of your being, for the more you leave it, the less you learn. Search your heart and see. If he is wise who takes each turn: The way to do is to be" (Chapter 47, p. 75). Wimala (1997) points out,

"The sacredness manifests itself as our inner, the divinity or potential for enlightenment.

It is ever present within each and every human being, although we may not be conscious of it" (p. 11). At the deepest level of one's being, is the pure, true Self that you are

(Davis, 1995). That Self is birthless, deathless, nameless, formless, timeless, spaceless and absolute bliss (Chadha, 1984). In accord, Albert Einstein's law of relativity denies the existence of time and space. Henricks (1993) adds, "The Tao is constantly nameless" (Chapter 32, p. 87). Many philosophers and writers have described the 216 awaken state of being as omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent as well. Yogananda

(1998) posits, "Man is essentially a soul, incorporeal and omnipresent" (p. 4). Bernard

Shaw (1903) in his novel, Man & Superman notes, "the ideal individual being omnipotent, omniscient, infallible, and withal completely, unilludedly self-conscious: in short, a god?" (Line 385). The Vedas proclaim that after the dawn of wisdom, just like the fire that burns the grass gets extinguished by itself; just as water that falls on a hot iron, destroys its heat and disappears itself, one realizes one's omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence.

All beings are by nature Buddha, as ice by nature is water. Apart from water there is no ice; apart from beings, there is no Buddha (Hakuin Zenji cited in Kornfield,

1993). Miller (1994) adds, "Enlightenment is not something that is separate or remote; rather, it is available to us in the here and now" (p. 89). Yet, the experience of awakening itself will always be left on the individual, firstly, since it is an indescribable experience.

In this context, Snelling (1987) writes, "we must remember that at its core lies a radical transformation of perception, indeed of being itself, that cannot be adequately grasped by the intellect or described in words. It is truly ineffable. Yet we might propose certain pointers, understanding that these can only be tentative and provisional until we can gain direct insight into these things for ourselves" (p. 27). Bynner (1972) adds:

Existence is beyond the power of words, to define: terms may be used but are none of them absolute. In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no words, Words came out of the womb of matter; And whether a man dispassionately sees to the core of life or passionately sees the surface, The core and the surface are essentially the same, Words making them seem different only to express appearance. If name be needed, wonder names them both: From wonder into wonder Existence opens (Chapter 1, p. 31).

Words, however insufficient, describe that at that stage, "No longer is there an ego to maintain the illusion of separate self-hood that parts one from All. No longer does time 217

split the present from eternity, nor does space part here from everywhere. At this level,

there is perfect Unity, known through an absolute "withinness" that paradoxically

encompasses the entire sweep of creation" (Nelson, 1994, p. 21). Secondly, it is crucial

to keep in mind that it is one's own awakening, nobody can give it to another. The other

can only guide and direct. As the Kalama Sutta notes below, don't just believe it;

experience it for your self:

Do not believe just because it is a tradition maintained by oral repetition. Do not believe just because it is an unbroken succession of practice. Do not believe merely because it is hearsay. Do not believe just because it is in the scriptures. Do not believe just because it fits with one's point of view. Do not believe just because it is correct on the ground of metaphysical theories. Do not believe just because it appeals to one's consideration. Do not believe just because it agrees with one's opinions and theories. Do not believe just because the speaker appears believable. Do not believe just because the speaker is our teacher. But after observation and analysis when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conductive to the good and benefit of one and all then accept it and live up to it. (Anguttara Nikaya Vol. 1, 188-193 P.T.S. Ed.)

Blind faith is therefore not the way, as Jesus also, when inviting his listeners to reflect on his teaching, would often say: "What do you think?" (Matthew 17:25; 18:12; 21:28;

22:42). The Buddha also has right understanding as the first on the list of the Noble

Eight-Fold Paths, perhaps, for a good reason.

Huxley (1970) notes, "We have been given free will, in order that we may will our self-will out of existence and so come to live continuously in a 'state of grace'" (p.

165). It is a ".. .middle way or entre-deux between the extremes of absolutism and nihilism" (Varela, Thompson, & Rosch, 1991, p. 238). Bache (2000) clarifies, "...the experience is not one of becoming something other than what we are, but rather of reaching into deeper levels of what we already are. We do not take on the species-mind, but rather we open to that part of our being where we already are the species-mind" (p. 218

81). Merton (1968) verifies, "As to the notion of the "Buddha mind" - it is not something esoteric to be laboriously acquired, something "not-there" which has to be put there by the assiduous mental and physical pummeling ofRoshis, Koans and all the rest. "The

Buddha is your everyday mind" " (p. 7). The Zen teacher, John Tarrant, comments,

"Ordinary mind is the Tao. If you turn toward it, you turn away from it" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 145). A human being is already whole and complete. One is only to be awakened, in order to experience the light of true being. One's own self, divine consciousness is ever awake during sleep, dream, waking and deep meditation (Chadha, 1984).

Spirituality and mystical suggest something rarefied, otherworldly.. .opposed to an ordinary material life which is simply practical and commonplace. The whole point...is to show the fallacy of this opposition, to show that the spiritual is not to be separated from the material, nor the wonderful from the ordinary. We need, above all, to disentangle ourselves from habits of speech and thought which set the two apart, making it impossible for us to see that this — the immediate, everyday, and present experience - is IT, the entire and ultimate point for the existence of a universe (Watts, 1960, p. 11).

Berenson (1949) illustrates, ".. .[I] felt suddenly immersed in Itness. I did not call it by that name. I had no need for words. It and I were one" (p. 18). Wilber( 1981) adds,

"... when we are no longer moving away from experience, experience no longer seems to move past us. To no longer resist the present is to see that there is nothing but the present

- no beginning, no end, nothing behind it, nothing in front of it. When the past of memory and the future of anticipation are both seen to be present facts, then the slats to this present collapse. The boundaries around this moment fall into this moment, and then there is nothing but this moment, with nowhere else to go" (p. 158 - 159). In that moment, "the ordinary solid boundaries between the subjective and objective domains of experience begin to blur" (Hollenback, 1996, p. 156). Maslow (1968, 1970) calls such a moment 'peak-experience'. According to Ferrer (2002), "During these moments, an individual could experience, among other phenomena, a sense of self-transcendence, wholeness, and undeserved grace; a resolution of the polarities of ordinary life; a variety

of creative and spiritual insights; a complete loss of anxiety and fear; and a compelling

certainty of the intrinsically benevolent nature of the world" (p. 19). Robert J. Hastings

(2006) in his parable, The Station, notes:

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream, it constantly out distances us.

For when one is awakened, one does not suddenly grow wings, all that changes is one's

perception of seeing things as they are. Zenkei Shibayama compares the Zen

consciousness to a mirror, "The mirror is thoroughly egoless.. .If a flower comes it

reflects a flower, if a bird comes it reflects a bird.. .Everything is revealed as it is. There

is no discriminating mind or self-consciousness on the part of the mirror. If something

comes, the mirror reflects; if it disappears the mirror just let's it disappear.. .no traces of

anything are left behind. Such non-attachment, the state of no mind, or the truly free

working of a mirror is compared here to the pure and lucid wisdom of the Buddha"

(Kudo, 1967, p. 28). Jorge Borges (1967) presents a breathtaking illustration of eternal

now living, where the sweep of existence becomes a part of one and one becomes the

whole. He observes, "If all the places on earth are in the Aleph, the Aleph must contain

all the illuminations, all the lights, all the sources of light... I arrive, now, at the ineffable

center of my story.. .How, then, transmit to others the infinite Aleph.. .The mystics, in

similar situations, are lavish with emblems: to signify divinity, a Persian speaks of a bird that in some way is all birds; Alanus de Insulis speaks of a sphere whose center is

everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere; Ezekiel, of an angel with four faces who looks simultaneously to the Orient and the Occident, to the North and the South.. .1

felt infinite veneration, infinite compassion" (p. 147 - 151). One may either see it as 220 different planes of existences or different planes of consciousness all coming together at the same time.

The Buddhist Sutra asserts, "Let your mind be in a state such as that of the illimitable void, but do not attach it to the idea of vacuity. Let it function freely.

Whether you are in activity or at rest, let your mind abide nowhere. Forget the discrimination between a sage and an ordinary man. Ignore the distinction of subject and object. Let the essence of mind and all phenomenal objects be in a state of thusness.

Then you will be in samadhi all the time" (Price & Mou-lam, trans., 1990, p. 43). The

Upanishads proclaim:

Self is everywhere, shining forth out of all beings, vaster than the vast, subtler than the most subtle, unreachable, yet nearer than breath, than heart beat. Eye cannot see it, ear cannot hear it nor tongue utter it; only in deep absorption can the mind, grow pure and silent, merge with the formless truth. He who finds it is free; he has found himself; he has solved the great riddle; his heart forever is at peace. Whole, he enters the Whole. His personal self returns to its radiant, intimate, deathless source. As rivers lose name and form when they disappear into the sea, the sage leaves behind all traces when he disappears into the light. Perceiving the truth, he becomes the truth; he passes beyond all suffering, beyond death; all the knots of his heart are loosened (Mitchell, 1993, p. 4).

Lao-tzu emphasizes, ".. .all words are just crude pointers. There was something formless and perfect before the universe was born. It is serene. Empty. Solitary. Unchanging.

Infinite. Eternally present. It is the mother of the universe. For lack of a better name, I call it the Tao" (Mitchell, 1991, p. 72). In the words of the Japanese Zen master Hakuin,

"Nirvana is right here, before our eyes; this very place is the Lotus Land; this very body, the Buddha" (p. 73). Friedrich Nietzsche (1920) calls attention to the 'good news', "The true life, the life eternal has been found - it is not merely promised, it is here, it is in you "

(p. 26). Mitchell (1991) however points out the human dilemma, "Not that the light isn't fully present, from the beginning; it's just that we can't yet allow it to shine through" (p.

141). Eighth-century Chinese Zen Master Hui-hai assures, "Don't search for the truth 221 with your intellect. Don't search at all. The nature of the mind is intrinsically pure" (p.

143). Ramana Maharshi brilliantly states, "There is no greater mystery than this, that we keep seeking reality though in fact we are reality. We think that there is something hiding reality and that this must be destroyed before reality is gained. How ridiculous?

A day will dawn when you will laugh at all your past efforts. That which will be on the day you laugh is also here and now" (p. 144). "If, therefore, we wait for the kingdom to come as something coming from outside, we shall be sadly mistaken" (Gandhi, 1970, p.

261). "Jesus said, 'What you are waiting for has already come, but you don't recognize it' (Thomas, 51 cited in Mitchell, 1991, p. 132). "Philo said, 'Today means the boundless and inexhaustible eternity. Periods of months and years and of time in general are ideas of men, who calculate by number; but the true name of eternity is Today" (p. 219).

Eternal now existence is not the cessation of feelings but the understanding of them. I borrow Feldman's (2001) approach to ground such a state of being, "Liberation, it seems, is not about improving ourselves or getting rid of anything, but is concerned with a deeper understanding of this very life" (p. 234). "As we step back a little from the intensity of our expectations and demands on life, we may be startled when told to discover that every moment in our life holds everything that is needed to discover deep peace and contentment" (p. 151). She goes on, "We do not need to search the corners of the earth or explore esoteric religions for the remarkable serenity and stillness that await our discovery in this very moment. Being still, being present, listening wholeheartedly, we discern the heart of serenity" (p. 181). 222

Conclusion

This chapter explored the transcendence and immanence of a perennial pedagogy.

The aspects discussed were embodiment of humility, compassion, and humor as a result of perennial understanding. Lastly, the possibility of global transformation and eternal now living as a result of perennial understanding was proposed. CONCLUSION

"Socrates had always taught that it is never possible at the beginning of an inquiry to know where we shall arrive at the end." Charles Morris, 1957, p. 32

"Inquiry is a way of going on." Diamond, 1999, p. 46 This dissertation is a humble attempt at understanding the scope of the perennial

philosophy and the implications it may have for pedagogical settings and beyond. To

reap an enriched and deeper life, it is imperative that one sows enriched seeds. The

perennial philosophy has the potential to impact humanity positively and it is imperative

that the seeds of this philosophy be sown in the educational system, as society reflects

education and vice versa. In other words, the perennial philosophy can come into

practical being with education embodying its aspects, thereby empowering and enriching

lives of educators, students and communities at large. Compartmentalized and

fragmented forms of education lack the grounds for existential understanding.

This work is an effort to build on the limited literature found on perennial understanding in education through the understanding of literary interpretations and personal experiences as my voice. The thinkers' voices speak for me in this work.

Palmer (1969) validated my approach, ".. .interpretation is simply the rendering explicit of understanding.. .Even in understanding, things in the world are seen as this or as that.

Interpretation renders explicit this word "as". Prior to every thematic statement lies the foundation of understanding" (p. 134). With regards to experience, Palmer adds, "To understand a work is to experience it.. .the richness of the experience of understanding a text and the richness of the text's experience are not to be mistranslated into the shallow categories of knowledge. And it suggests, in view of the limitations of conceptual

223 224 knowledge, a stance of dialectical openness to the text.. .For to experience is to understand not better but differently; experience does not tell one what he expected, but tends to transcend and negate expectations. A "deep" experience teaches us not to understand better what is already partially understood so much as that we were understanding wrongly" (p. 231-233). This work is an ongoing process of understanding.

Like trails cleared in a dense forest, spiritual pathways traveled by others can be more easily crossed, but this does not mean that we cannot open new trails and encounter new wonders (and new pitfalls) in the always inexhaustible Mystery of being (Ferrer, 2002, p. 151).

Considering what I will understand tomorrow may perhaps be different than what I understand today, this work is not conclusive. This is a work in progress, an unfolding path.

I do not claim.. .to be a master of any path. Nor do I claim that my path is right for anyone else. I only claim to be a traveler (Crowell in Miller & Nakagawa, 2002, p. 15).

As this process evolves further, the field of conceptualization may expand further. "As we journey not only our inquiry path but also along the wider research continuum, we can gain an historical perspective on epistemologies, including our own and those of the field" (Diamond, 2002, p. 3).

This thesis journey has not been just an academic journey. My reflections on this journey in many ways resonate with Beattie's (1995) reflections on her research process:

The process that began with the storying of my own narrative is one within which past experiences are brought forward to deal with the present, reconstructed in the light of the new context, and focused on the future, to which they bring new meanings and significance. Like the melody that is changed forever when it is heard as part of a larger work (Carr, 1986), my previous understandings of past experiences, now reconstructed, are changed forever (p. 10). The journey has also been an intense spiritual one for me. My grandfather, in my view, was an embodiment of perennial philosophy as well as a testimony of perennial pedagogy. His spiritual teaching involved open dialogue, inquiry, questioning and meditative exercises for engagement in existential understandings and realizations. He sowed the seeds for transformation of my whole being. OISE provided a venue where the seeds received nourishment via spiritual educators and writings and this process fed my existential curiosity. On this thesis journey, I got the opportunity to expand my horizon of understanding through indepth research of perennial thoughts and their significance to humankind. I embarked on this journey with an awareness of my grandfather's perennial teachings. The path has led me to an awareness of many other perennial thinkers, who in their own humble way have contributed tremendously towards existential understanding. The thesis journey, therefore, blossomed the seeds of transformation for me. I, now aspire to sow more seeds of the perennial understanding for future blossoming to occur through this writing and beyond. In particular, the intention of this study is to evoke questioning and inquiry for educators, students and society at large. For a constructive and transformative dialogue can effect significant growth of awareness and help develop a new social discourse for research in the field of education and beyond.

Our own spiritual pilgrimage will not be the replica of anyone else's journey. Yet we see our own story reflected in the story of every single person who has set out on a journey to find the depths of freedom and compassion (Feldman, 2001, p. 27).

Don Juan, a wise teacher in the Shamanic tradition "taught that to an ordinary person every event is seen as either a blessing or a curse, whereas to a warrior everything is a challenge and an invitation to new understanding" (Feldman, 2001, p. 159). There were many moments when I lost my 'self in doing this work. Ron Silvers (2002) tells us how one can produce an open text and leave it open by loosing the sense of self to give it a heightened experience - an epiphany. "In the "Library of Babylon", Borges depicts the universe as infinite and always starting over. No narrator can ever reach the Book of

Books.. .inquiry resembles an open-ended, intriguing puzzle rather than an 226

endpoint...like the world at large, experience and inquiry consist of elusive sets of

hieroglyphs" (Diamond, 1999, p. 45). However, "The most we can hope for is partial

knowledge of self and other" (p. 49). For, "The joy we experience as we write is the

reward we receive for our determination and commitment to the task of recording our

understanding of the subject" (Freire, 1996, p. 172).

Following is a synopsis of the undertaken work. Understanding the perennial

philosophy theoretically shaped the first few chapters. Practice in the form of perennial

pedagogy constituted the latter chapters. At the outset, I presented my arrival story to

this work (Chapter 1). The perennial philosophy resonated with and shaped my learning

experiences; therefore, I dived into exploring its origin and significance to humankind

(Chapter 2). I further elaborated on various scholarly perennial approaches followed by a personal exploration (Chapter 3). I described living testimonies of the perennial understanding to ground this philosophy (Chapter 4). The potential of the perennial philosophy within the context of education was explored by looking into the developing holistic education movement. In particular, views of three holistic educators that have inspired my thoughts were discussed (Chapter 5). Based on a personal assimilation of the perennial understanding and holistic education, I formulated an educational proposition, which I referred to as a perennial pedagogy. An attempt was made to elaborate on its possible characteristics and to ground its implementation by looking at glimpses of it in the existing educational milieu (Chapter 6). The proposed perennial pedagogy involves engagement in various exercises such as contemplation, meditation, mindfulness, and the practice of silence that can nourish educators as well as students. It is not being proposed that the educational system should provide enlightenment to its students but foster grounds for awareness and contemplation. Perennial pedagogy can offer teachers and students empowerment, enrichment and more meaningful lives. This can have a rippling effect extending to the school administrators, parents and communities at large (Chapter

7). The outcome of perennial realizations via such a pedagogy may lead to a life that transcends duality and embraces humility, compassion, and humor, in turn opening the doorway to an awakening world (Chapter 8). Excerpts from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets

Time present and time past Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past.

Time past and time future What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present.

Words move, music moves Only in time; but that which is only living Can only die. Words, after speech, reach Into the silence. Only by the form, the pattern, Can words or music reach The stillness

The only wisdom we can hope to acquire Is the wisdom of humility: humility is endless.

Music heard so deeply That it is not heard at all, but you are the music While the music lasts.

We shall not cease from exploration And the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started And know the place for the first time. 229

While Eeyore frets

..and Piglet hesitates

..and Rabbit calculates

..and Owl pontificates

+jj~Sf*mt»*'i<'<*i**> .Pooh just is. And thafs a clue to the secret wisdom of theTaoists.

Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh, 1982 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Aham: The desire to defend or enhance one's false identity.

Apaideusia: opposite ofpaideia (see below)

Asat: Non-being

Atma: Self

Avidya: an undifferentiated consciousness

Brahman: God, divinity, Supreme Spirit

Charkha: a spinning wheel

Currere: the latin infinitive of "curriculum," meaning, to run the course

Deuk: Education

Deus: Divinity

Eko Deva Sarvabute: one without a second present everywhere.

Gurukul: A spiritual teacher's residence that accommodates pupils for spiritual learning.

Jiva: Individual Soul

Karuna: Compassion

Maya: The impermanent illusionary 'reality' perceived by the external senses.

Mitleid: Compassion

Nir: Neither, Not

Nirvana: Self-Realization or God-Realization, liberation, salvation, fully realizing one's true self.

Paideia: Roughly translated as Education

Paramatma: God

Prajna: Wisdom

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Samadhi: Non-dual deep meditative awareness

Sat: Being

Satsang: Spiritual talks

Satyagrah: Nonviolent living tat tvam asi: That Art Thou

Vedas: The main scriptural texts of Ancient India. The Vedas are arguably the oldest surviving scriptures in the world.