Faculty of Humanities Science and Mathematics Education Centre Rising Waves, Breathless Wind Lacan, Zen and Adolescence: Illuminating Śūnyatā in the Dualism of Education Nicholas Mark Eaves This thesis is presented for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy of Curtin University May 2018 Declaration To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made. This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university. The author would like to acknowledge the contribution of an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship in supporting this research. Human Ethics The research presented and reported in this thesis was conducted in accordance with the National Health and Medical Research Council National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007) – updated March 2014. The proposed research study received human research ethics approval from the Curtin University Human Research Ethics Committee (EC00262), Approval Number #SMEC-48-13 i Table of Contents Prologue.............................................................................................1 Hermeneutic themes and questions………………………………………………..6 Practising Receptance…………………………………………………..…............14 Hermeneutic layering……………………………………………………..……….18 Hermeneutic questioning…………………………………………………………..23 Rising Waves, Breathless Wind……………………………………………..........26 Chapter 1 The Truth of Us……………………………………………………………...28 Lacan and Zen………………………………………………………………...........34 Desire……………………………………………………………………….............39 Language as construction………………………………………………..…………42 Self-making………………………………………………………………..…..........45 Haiku………………………………………………………………………..............54 The ideal……………………………………………………………………………..55 Chapter 2 Śūnyatā within Us…………………………………………………………..61 The Mirror………………………………………………………………………….62 The Other……………………………………………………………...……………67 Two types of Other…………………………………………………………………71 Kenshō……………………………………………………………………………...82 Affirmation………………………………………………………………..………..84 ii Kōan Tradition……………………………………………………………………..87 Śūnyatā……………………………………………………………………………..92 Chapter 3 Reflections of Us…………………………………………………………….95 Separateness……………………………………………………….……………....97 Different reflection………………………………………………………………..102 Language as the Mirror…………………………………………………………..107 Symbolic Register…………………………………………………………...……109 Narrative………………………………………………………………..…………112 If we cannot see the moon………………………………………………..………117 Of your words I am……………………………………………….………………121 Chapter 4 The moon our clear mind…………………………………………..……..124 The Real…………………………………………………………………………...126 Authenticity…………………………………………………………………….…132 Radical Isolation…………………………………………………………….……141 Stillness…………………………………………………………………………….146 The moon still waits………………………………………………………………148 Singularity……………………………………………………………..………….151 Chapter 5 Spacing between Us…………………………………………….………….154 iii Language as Radical Isolation………………………………….……..…………156 Words within and without……………………………………………………….159 The Radical Courage of Openness……………………………………...……….165 I and Thou………………………………………………………………………...167 Standing outside looking in………………………………………………………169 Yūgen………………………………………………………………………..…….171 Actus exercitus and actus signatus……………………………………….………….173 Ding an sich……………………………………………………………….……….176 Practising Receptance…………………………………………………………….179 Chapter 6 In Reverence of Us………………………………….……………………..185 Transcending self………………………………………………………..………..191 Letting go………………………………………………………………………….194 ‘No-self’ as wholeness……………………………………………………..……..202 Śūnyatā Transcending Fear………..…………………………………………….208 Reverence…………………………………………………………………………211 Chapter 7 The Profound Beauty of Us…….………………………………………..214 Reflection…………………………………………………………………..……..215 Language and desire………………………………………………………….…..218 The Locus of us……………………………………………………………..…….219 The Empty Self……………………………………………………………………221 Attachment…………………………………………………………………..……224 iv Mu-shin…………………………………………………………………………….227 Utopian Thoughts……………………………………………………………...…233 Epilogue…………………………………………………………………………………235 References……………………………………………………………………………….244 v Prologue I find myself impelled to explore the recurrence of that which might be seen as the indifference towards the authenticity of others and self in education. I seek clarification in the relationships between teacher and student through exploring the inner relationship we formulate with our selves. In my inquiry, I remain open to self-reflection and self-questioning on a deeply phenomenological and meditative level as I question and seek what is Real. I subscribe to the Zen concept of seeing one’s nature (chien-hsing in Chinese; kensh in Japanese) or seeing True-nature (Kraft, 1992, p. 89) as I contemplate the authenticity in truth of the other, founded in the emptiness of śūnyatā. Emptiness should not be misunderstood as nothingness, rather selflessness (Yoshiro, 1989, p. 39)—that is, I find myself oriented towards a philosophy that suggests individuals possess no independent or fixed nature. Our comprehension of emptiness assists us in understanding the illusory nature of self and the suffering wrought by our attachment to any idea of a permanent identity. Instead of permanence, I look to apprehend the locus of the other, and apprehend the other through a locus of being. I develop Practising Receptance, reflecting a topological situatedness of us, moving away from the possibility of modern subjectivity that places us in a realm of temporality, isolating us. 1 Practising Receptance allows a topology of the living subject to explore the element of our isolation and its effect on us entering into the sphere of an other. Hisamatsu Shin'ichi illuminates our isolation, In our aloneness, in isolation, we suffer the weight of the human condition which burdens us all ‘As I am-however I am-will not do. Now what do I do?’ (in Shore, 2002, p. 32). Topology in this thesis refers to the ways in which we consider ourselves and others reflected in a spatial relationship. It is a mathematical term referring to figures that retain their original properties regardless of their manipulations. The metaphor for us follows—we have an original ‘shape’, an unbreakable and formless authenticity, yet this is changed over time by language and others, stretched and diverted from our originality. For the reasons mentioned, topology and not topography is a better description of the process of us, a clearer explanation as to the locus of us, situated in a space at a specific time, disregarding any notions of a fixed location. To see an other within a topological paradigm assists us in answering the question of ‘where’ we are situated, rather than ‘who’ we are. The advent of a spatial dimension to us allows a fluidity of self, unencumbered by the potentially superficial explanation of who, which might be answered by a myriad of responses, none of which reflect our relationship to the other, and our inherent isolation from others. The where of us requires deep and fundamental reflection on our topology, requiring meaningful questioning as to how we are located. Practising Receptance is a Zen-like way of thinking, allowing us to act in Reverence with the other, helping us to locate the topology of the other, in a proximal and spatial relationship, to apprehend one’s profound beauty. Practising Receptance requires an association between self and other, to 2 ascertain the topology of that other. The topology of the other requires an interaction to ascertain the other’s locus, to enter into the sphere of that other and apprehend the profound beauty there is. I situate myself in a critical and fundamental reassessment of relationships between adolescent students and teacher. My ideas are based in a hermeneutics of Lacanian thought, Zen Buddhism and Practising Receptance as I attempt to demystify possible hidden truths in student narratives as situated texts. In exploration of thinking, my ideas are from a number of texts from Jacques Lacan including Ecrits (1966, 1977, 2002) and The Language of the Self. The Function of Language in Psychoanalysis (1968) translated by Anthony Wilden. I also look to the ideas of Dan McAdams in his Life Story Model of Identity (1985, 2001) in my inquiry, which may offer insights into our locus. I wonder if we find locus in the narrative story of ‘me’, the construal of our story through conscious adherence to a figurated self. In our attachment to a self, do we confine and define ourselves, and then become isolated by our definition? In our aloneness, in isolation, we suffer. The ideas of Lacan, French psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, are represented extensively in this thesis. Lacan appeals to me in his unique application and thought—a seemingly courageous and rebellious figure, with an almost impenetrable writing style. I am particularly drawn to his Mirror Phase (1936), where we gain an understanding of the apprehension, objectification and development of the self, through identification of an ‘imago’, or ideal image, linking the ‘I’ to socially elaborated situations (Lacan, 2002, p.7). 3 Our understanding of two different forms of other is a key concept in Lacanian psychoanalysis and a central understanding in this thesis. In my understanding, Other (capital O) refers to the original unknowable individual, originally the mother, in her radical unknowable difference to us, or Otherness, and also as authenticity in others (that is, Others). The mother encapsulates both Real and Symbolic