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Buddhism and the Western Child Jeff Wilson ABSTRACT Present-day Western education systems can be described as forms of disciplinary rationality; they employ punitive strategies to condition children. They aim to prepare the child for the corporate marketplace by rationalising behaviour and constructing a defensive social ego. In contrast to this model, Buddhist epistemology implies that education should be an emancipatory and transformative process. This is clear from a study of the Kūṭadanta sutta, and of Nagārjuna’s Jewel Garland of Royal Counsels. The Kūtadanta sutta argues that social disorder should not be contested by means of “executions and imprisonment, or by confiscations, threats and banishments”, but by the distribution of grain, capital and decent wages. It is the Buddhist way, in other words, to offer people the chance to transform themselves into useful citizens by means of self-discipline rather than through the threats and fear tactics of externally imposed discipline. Chilean neuroscientist Humberto Maturana offers a detailed description of how the non-violent transformative process of social education can operate. He uses the Spanish term convivencia to demonstrate how children can learn through their everyday interactions with wise adults. The child ‘dances’ with others in a mutually supportive process of interactions, learning through a creative process of mutual respect rather than by means of a unilateral exercise of authoritarianism. As Robert Thurman points out, Nagārjuna’s educational utopia does not seek to merely service society by producing “drone-professionals” but provides gateways to the liberated mind where duties and doctrines can be refined and transcended. The ordinary becomes transcendent when mindfulness and emptiness work together to produce a “deglamorized awareness” that neutralises the culturally-assigned meanings and values that distance people from direct experience of reality. French philosopher Michel Foucault adds that any punitive force applied to the regimentation of children often provokes an equal and opposite counterforce: “tyranny confronts rebellion; each calls forth the other”. When young people rebel against authority it is because of a subconscious need to preserve self-respect in the face of an apparent lack of respect on the part of the parent or teacher. Buddhism avoids this confrontation by insisting on the exercising of mutual respect and compassion for others. CURRICULUM VITAE Dr Jeff Wilson Research Consultant: PRESENT POSITION: Research Consultant for the Dhammakaya International Society of Australia (DISA). Duties include the tutoring of Post-graduates and acting as Associate Supervisor to the graduate research students involved in the Dhammakaya Manifesto Project in the Department of Studies in Religion at The University of Sydney. Research Consultant and advisor to the 60th Dhammachai Education Foundation. Duties include the editing of publications and advising Venerable Sudam Sudhammo on academic matters. Consultant to independent researchers, such as Myungoh Sunim, a Son (Zen} nun from Korea who was awarded a Master of Philosophy degree by The University of Sydney for her dissertation on the Chinese version of the Discourse on Mindfullness. ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS: 2004: Ph.D. in the School of Humanities, Media and Cultural Studies, Southern Cross University. Thesis topic: The Relevance of Buddhism to Child-Development Theory. This was a multi-disciplinary project, involving competence in the fields of Reigious and Cultural Studies, Psychology and Philosophy as well as in the Pali language. The main intention behind this study was to examine certain psychological and philosophical notions characteristic of Buddhist practice and to demonstrate their relevance to present-day Western cultural practices, particularly in the fields of education and child-development. 1998: B.A. with First Class Honours in the School of Humanities, Media and Asian Studies, SCU. Thesis topic: Foucault, Buddhism and the Circular Process of Life. This study involved intensive research across the disciplines of Studies in Religion, Cognitive Science and the Philosophy of Michel Foucault. It also involved reading Foucault and other French ‘post-structuralist’ writers in their original language. COURSES COMPLETED IN PURSUANCE OF THIS DEGREE INCLUDE: Issues and Themes in Contemporary Writing, Contemporary Australian Indigenous Societies, Australia/ Asia, as well as courses in Epistemology, History of Ideas and Criminology. FIELD WORK (STUDIES IN RELIGION): 2006: Meditation retreat at Suan Phet Kaew, Northern Thailand; 2006: Conference/ Meditation retreat with the International Samadhi Forum at Panawat, Northern Thailand; 2004/2005: Meditation retreats at the Berrilee Temple of Dhammakay International Society of Australia; 1999/2000: Burmese Vipassana Meditation with Blue Mountains Insight Meditation Institute (Mahasi Sayadaw), NSW; 1980s/1990s: Tai Chi (15 yrs consistent practice, beginning with intensive course in Cambridge, U.K. under Tai Chi master, Devadasi). OTHER ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE 1998: Worked as Research and Administrative Assistant to Associate Professor Greta Bird at the Law and Justice Centre, SCU. The project involved editing and research work for a DEETYA publication which examined the relevance of Asian and Australian Indigenous cultural issues to the field of legal studies. PUBLICATIONS: In 2001 I published a refereed article in the Southern Cross Law Review (Vol 5, October 2001, pp. 221-227) called The Notion of the ‘Dangerous Individual’ in Bob Carr’s Get-Tough Politics. |
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