SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING THROUGH THE EYES OF A BUDDHIST MEDITATOR: (NON)CONTROL, (NON)BECOMING, AND (NON)JUDGEMENT By Cuong Huy Nguyen A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Curriculum, Instruction, and Teacher Education—Doctor of Philosophy 2017 ABSTRACT SELF-DIRECTED LEARNING THROUGH THE EYES OF A BUDDHIST MEDITATOR: (NON)CONTROL, (NON)BECOMING, AND (NON)JUDGEMENT By Cuong Huy Nguyen By using the meditative inquiry approach, I compare and contrast the philosophy underlying Buddhist meditation, based on my personal experiences with and scholarship on the mindfulness practice, with self-directed learning within the tradition of progressive education, based on the case study of the Jefferson County Open School, a progressive school in Lakewood (CO, USA). I found that Buddhist meditation and self-directed learning have a lot in common. In particular, they both emphasize (non)control, (non)becoming, and (non)judgement. As a meditative inquiry, this study has brought about a lot of profound inner transformation in terms of both spirituality and philosophy of education, which are explicitly presented in this dissertation. ii Copyright by CUONG HUY NGUYEN 2017 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS It takes a village to raise a child. It also takes a village to write a dissertation. I would like to express my gratitude to my committee members, especially my academic advisor Lynn Fendler, for their encouragement and support. I also owe much to my colleagues Scott Jarvie, Abraham Ceballos, and Simon Ceder for reading my manuscript and giving constructive feedback. My thanks also go to all the students, teachers, administrators, and staff at the Jefferson County Open School (JCOS) in Lakewood (CO, USA), who welcomed me to their campus multiple times for my research purposes. In particular, this dissertation would be impossible without the insightful conversations with and feedback from Dr. Phu Nguyen (MSU professor emeritus), Arnie Langberg (former principal of JCOS), Rick Posner (educator/author at JCOS), and Scott Bain (current principal of JCOS). iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1 Two Paths ................................................................................................................... 6 Narrative 1 The Spiritual Path .............................................................................................. 6 Initial Encounter with Mindfulness ....................................................................................... 6 Ups and Downs with Mindfulness ....................................................................................... 12 From Mindfulness Practice to Spiritual Liberation .............................................................. 14 Narrative 2 My Educational Path ....................................................................................... 18 1988 ....................................................................................................................................... 18 1992 ....................................................................................................................................... 19 1994 ....................................................................................................................................... 20 1999 ....................................................................................................................................... 22 Summer 1998 ........................................................................................................................ 23 March 1999 ........................................................................................................................... 27 2002 ....................................................................................................................................... 28 2012 ....................................................................................................................................... 28 2015 ....................................................................................................................................... 31 Chapter 2 Thích Nhất Hạnh and Thích Viên Minh ........................................................... 35 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 35 Thích Nhất Hạnh ................................................................................................................... 38 Here and Now........................................................................................................................ 40 A “Businessless Person” ....................................................................................................... 46 Mindful Breaths and Mindful Footsteps ............................................................................... 50 The Five Mindfulness Trainings ........................................................................................... 52 Thích Viên Minh ................................................................................................................... 54 Non-self and Non-control ..................................................................................................... 55 Learning from Personal Experiences ..................................................................................... 62 Non-becoming ....................................................................................................................... 64 Differences between Thích Nhất Hạnh and Thích Viên Minh ................................... 69 Chapter 3 Meditative Inquiry ................................................................................................. 73 Introduction ............................................................................................................................ 73 Meditative Inquiry ................................................................................................................ 76 Mindfulness Practice and Meditative Inquiry ................................................................ 89 Meditative Inquiry in Contrast with Modernist and Postmodernist Inquiry ........... 91 Significance of Meditative Inquiry ................................................................................... 97 v Significance of Meditative Inquiry in Education ......................................................... 100 Meditative Inquiry in the Classroom .............................................................................. 101 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 103 Chapter 4 The Jefferson County Open School: A Case Study of Self-Directed Learning .................................................................................................................................... 105 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 105 Self-directed Learning ........................................................................................................ 109 The Jefferson County Open School (JCOS) ................................................................... 115 The Walkabout Curriculum ................................................................................................ 120 Advisory System as a Cornerstone ..................................................................................... 125 Traveling as Another Cornerstone ...................................................................................... 128 The Culture of Common Sense ............................................................................................ 131 Self-directed Learning at JCOS ........................................................................................... 137 Discussion ............................................................................................................................. 139 Three paradoxes ................................................................................................................... 139 Challenges facing self-directed learning and JCOS ............................................................ 144 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 147 Chapter 5 A Dialogue between a Buddhist Meditator and a Progressive Educator .. 148 Introduction .......................................................................................................................... 148 The dialogue ......................................................................................................................... 151 After the Dialogue: Three Major Commonalities ......................................................... 186 Individuality ........................................................................................................................ 186 Transformation, Letting Go and Freedom/Liberation ......................................................... 192 Fearlessness ......................................................................................................................... 195 Non-judgment, Non-becoming,