Throughout the night he meditated until he became the 'Buddha' — the awakened one. What did he awaken from? What did the Buddha find that night and what does it have to do with education and philosophy of education?
What parallels do we find between the Buddha, Socrates and the cave allegory? It is important to begin by saying that the Buddha did not initiate Buddhism. After his enlightenment, he spent the rest of his life teaching, yet Buddhism took its more organized form only in the centuries that followed as the Buddha's teaching were written. This led to the development of different schools of thought to the point at which there is no one Buddhism but rather many different and diverse Buddhisms Gethin, In our analysis, we will focus on fundamental teachings that are usually accepted by all Buddhist schools of thought.
This dis-ease may be the equivalent of the prisoners' condition in Plato's cave proposing the need for education. This epistemological condition of ignorance, symbolized by the cave is, however, created by our own minds through uneducated perception Gethin, , p. Human dis-ease manifests in our being possessed by a constant dissatisfaction. We are beset by a restlessness of either wanting things that we do not have e.
Even when seemingly satisfied, undergirding satisfaction is the wish to prolong satisfaction hence 'satisfaction' itself holds the seed of dissatisfaction. Very much like the cave allegory, we confuse appearances with 'things as such'. Acting upon such false perception our morality becomes ignorance-laden. Two interesting aspects of avijja help further elaborate the second truth as well as point to parallels and distinctions between Plato and the Buddha: a The understanding of Ignorance.
The etymology of the term a-vijja reveals a parallel between Plato and the Buddha that runs as a thread through Buddhism, Yoga 3 The cause of dukkha is associated with ignorance avijja or with craving tanha. Both are possible entry points within the twelve-fold cycle of dependent origination Loy, Here we leaned toward the former given the clearer linkage to the cave allegory. Vijja connotes with knowledge but a-vijja is not lack of knowledge but rather its negation.
We are thus not speaking of ignorance as a lacking of knowledge but rather as holding views that are the opposite of right knowledge. This aligns clearly with Socrates's preference of unknowing aporia over the holding of wrong views.
The ideal of knowing in both cases then is the liberation from viewing appearances doxa as if they are real. The difference between Plato and the Buddha lies in the relationship between the 'two worlds'.
Whereas in Plato's allegory there is an emphasis on the 'world of appearances' against a 'world of forms' the flavor one gets within Buddhism, especially in its later Mahayana interpretations, is one that stresses the co-dependence of the knower and the known a theme that will be stressed in the section discussing Yoga. In a number of interpretations, these 'two worlds' co-exist Loy, They are seen as two as long as the uneducated mind engages with them Olendzki, , p. Hence the problem we have is that our uneducated mind engages with the appearances and creates the cave.
Liberation from 'the cave' is the liberation from the ignorance of our own mind. It is thus far less clear here whether objects have an ontological status without a mind that perceives them.
When the 'fire' of our cravings is extinguished, or perhaps seen as an impersonal constant flux that ceases to be that which guides our actions, the cave will cease to exist with it. Perhaps the most important thing to understand here is that the meaning of a realization of the nature of appearances as insubstantial is automatically a realization of the nature of the insubstantiality of the seer of appearances.
Enlightenment may thus be seen as the realization of the insubstantiality of knower and known, thus contrasting Plato's dualism with a non-dual epistemology.
Nibbana constitutes the ideal of 'the educated person' that is reflected in a mind that has recovered from the human dis-ease of ignorance. This would be the equivalent of the philosopher's escaping the cave and knowing the 'good'. This points to a clear affinity between the Buddha and Plato that both viewed knowledge and virtue as unified.
However, we believe that the Buddha would be more explicit in viewing knowledge as the means and virtue as its educational aim, given his anti-intellectualism manifested in a resistance to engage in metaphysical-philosophical discourse when it was not clearly linked to the liberation from suffering see Gombrich, This curriculum is the eightfold path that culminates in the unification of wisdom and compassion. It is also known as the 'middle path' for it stems from the Buddha's own experience from which he concluded that liberation will be achieved neither by extreme austerity nor by indulgence in sense pleasures Rahula, , p.
Importantly, the emphasis on the human condition as dependent on how we perceive from the mind in here , far more than on that which is perceived out there , proposes a substantial shift in our perspective about education.
Education becomes primarily an individual's commitment to the purification of his or her own mind. The metaphorical journey out of the cave is understood as a path of the purification of the mind and its recovery from an epistemological error. When the mind is transformed so that it awakens from the spell of avijja we are said to embody: Right Understanding, Right thought, Right speech, Right action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right mindfulness, and Right concentration.
In Buddhist terms, Plato's 'good' the sun , is expressed in the unification of wisdom panna and compassion karuna that can be seen both as expressions of the purification of the mind, and as the pedagogical means for realizing this aim. Wisdom and compassion that must reciprocally balance each other Rahula, , p. The path that leads from self-centeredness of a mind that confuses things 'as such' with things as the mind itself perceives, to a mind that dispels the 'self' around which it had centered, will be inclined to wise and compassionate action.
Such action would perhaps manifest in the return of the philosopher to the cave after enlightenment and transform this solitary act into a deeply ethical and socially-engaged endeavor. Such indeed, is at least the ethos of Mahayana Buddhism that posed the role model of the bodhisattva — one who engages in the Buddhist path, attains enlightenment and dedicates his or her life to the liberation of all sentient beings based on endless compassion. This socially-engaged ethos has become one of the central themes within contemporary Buddhism and within its educational interpretations Eppert et al, ; Hattam, Given the contemporary interest in mindfulness practice, we offer some reflections on the place of mindfulness within the Buddhist tradition and comment on the relation of these practices to philosophy of education.
As was noted earlier, Right mindfulness is the seventh constituent of an eightfold path that spans the full gamut of ethical living. Philosophers of education have been responding to this movement in diverse ways that position Buddhism at the center of contemporary debates.
We believe this field will continue to develop in the coming years. Essentially, like the cave allegory it provides us with a full worldview, along with a path toward an Absolute Truth, broadly understood here as an educational path. By pointing to the distinctions between these two 4 It is however important to note Whicher as a critic of such position.
The dualism of classical yoga lies between objective nature Prakriti , and subjectivity - the Seer or Self Purusha. It is comprised of basic elements known as the three gunas - tamas, rajas and sattva. The three are never in balance hence the phenomenal world is in constant flux in which things are tied in a chain of causality.
The Seer, however, is of an entirely different ilk. It is beyond Nature, which means it is unconditioned, eternal, and never changing. The most important thing to understand here is our own makings in this setting. A human being comprises of both Nature and the Seer. Thoughts, sensations, emotions, and feelings that are associated conventionally with the mind and the body, all belong to Nature. They are all objects that can be observed and essentially are no different from the desktop or the paper at which you are looking.
They are not our True identity that is, "…the transcendental Self, Spirit, or pure Awareness, as opposed to the finite personality. In fact, the aim of yoga is this very realization. The affinities however, are deeper for in both cases the educational path is grounded in the fact that wrong epistemology-ontology cannot but result in unethical action in the world. However, given the different views on the kind of dualism involved here, the error is conceptualized differently, and the 'educative' path differs.
According to yoga, the layperson travels in the world with the sense that he or she is seeing reality as such as the prisoners in the cave yet in effect he or she is looking through a Nature-mind through which all one can see is a Nature phenomenal reality.
The mind is trapped in a hall of mirrors that it takes to be Real. You then feel the insult and react, or feel the palpitation and rash resulting from that person's flattery, and you react to that. You would think of this as reality as such, yet classical yoga states that it is all simply a phenomenal world governed by causality and change — an endless drama of constant emotional turmoil with no way out.
The problem then, very much like in Buddhism, is human suffering and how it can be overcome. Overcoming suffering in yoga's case will result from disengaging from a false identification with Nature, and dwelling in the Seer.
This is the gateway to perceiving the Real, which is nothing like this drama that is created by the interplay of a mind that is part of the world of appearances. What we see here then is a clear affinity between Patanjali's yoga and the educative path of the cave allegory as we understand both to be concerned with a shift from identifying with the phenomenal, changing and tangible world to that of the eternal, unchanging and intangible world.
At least conceptually speaking the Real that Patanjali speaks of would seem to resemble the eternal and unchanging world of forms that are outside the Platonic cave. However, this is where the affinity ends as we show by examining the educational path of yoga. This can be clearly shown by turning to the yogasutra itself. Patanjali elaborates in sutras I. Patanjali lists it alongside: error, metaphor, deep sleep and memory. Our highest reasoning and logical argumentation — essentially the activity and results of philosophizing as we tend to understand it - are still considered by Classical yoga's ontology to be 'fluctuations of consciousness' that belong to Nature.
While yoga will clearly distinguish between 'higher' ideation that is the result of buddhi roughly equivalent to Plato's Reason and a lower mind manas based on which we engage with the world reflecting our desirous nature, both will remain Nature's manifestations Feuerstein, p.
As such, they are a hindrance to the realization that the yogi seeks. In other words, the escape from the Platonic cave, mythical as it already is, is nothing even remotely close to our highest imagination. The highest realization and ultimate goal of yoga is to stop all mental activity including the most philosophically-rigorous Raveh, , p.
Only by the stopping of such internal motion can the unchanging Absolute truth be revealed, as the Seer is not moved by Nature. The state of such realization is kaivalya — 'aloneness' that Muller , p. See Patanjali What we see here is a complete mistrust of conceptualization and language. It is clear then that some other means must be proposed for our liberation. Indeed, the yogic postures with which many may be familiar emerge as one alternative vehicle for such a path.
Yet this familiar aspect of the yogic path is in fact, only one limb anga out of eight that constitute the yogic path ashtanga yoga that are elaborated in yogastura II. In a most paradoxical twist, at least traditionally, liberation awaits the yogi not by climbing outside the cave but rather by deliberately entering the Himalayan cave and working directly with the mind that again, like in Buddhism, seems to be responsible for the creation of the cave of misperception.
Nevertheless, contemporary yoga practice is a pervasive phenomenon and its growing applications in schools as well as the scientific research of this domain are becoming noticeable. It is specifically here, and perhaps in Daoism that appears next, that we find a fruitful direction for such engagement in exploring what has become the 'trademark' of contemporary yoga practice — postures and their educative role.
Unlike Buddhism and Yoga which allow for relatively systematic discussions and can to some extent be rendered in educational terms while also being read with and against the cave allegory, Daoism resists such systematization. Of all four traditions discussed here, it is perhaps the most distant from Plato's cave, and hence from the world of a 'Western' reader.
We will nevertheless attempt to provide some kind of a coherent picture, within a worldview that thrives on paradox. The Dao, way, or path, could be understood as a way out of the cave into the light of real understanding. The Daoist sage would then be the wise figure who assists the student in finding the way out the cave, of distinguishing truth from error, with truth being understood 9 Of the versus of Patanjali's yogasutra only two focus on this aspect. This is hence a development of later texts.
However, this dualistic interpretation which suggests a division between the real and the illusory or right and wrong paths is somewhat foreign to the Daoist way. This is partly because the Dao refers not just to the way or path but also to the ultimate source of all. It is the source of both the darkness and the light, the yin and yang as classical Chinese cosmology sees it. In a certain sense, Dao contains all, and departure from it is illusory.
The achievement of Dao is, paradoxically, through non-achievement or non- action, through simplicity, spontaneity and unity with the Dao. This unity resists ideas of becoming, growing, or developing, images that education often assumes. However, this might be a rather too philosophical interpretation to Daoism.
Some have argued that morality plays a more important role within Daoism than typical readings of the Daodejing would suggest Palmer , p. But on the whole, Daoism seems to be more concerned to deconstruct the idea of ethical systems implicit within philosophical paths and images of Platonic ascent. So, although Dao can be seen as playing a role similar to eudaimonia human flourishing in ancient Greek thinking Yu — as a regulative ideal — it can also be read as primarily descriptive, not requiring conformity to a particular path or set of virtues, indicating that the 10 The Feng and English translation is here used.
See Lao Tzu Particularly within the writings of Lao Tzu and Chuang Tzu, we find a non-dualist recognition that, just as water flows downwards, so all of nature, including human beings, follow the rhythms of the Dao. The idea that the ethical way is a natural expression of the Dao might seem to negate the need for becoming, or indeed for learning. In one sense, attending to the Dao is the principle mode of learning, even though sages can assist with the sensitivity and attention required for that learning.
Ignorance, from the Daoist perspective, is more of a resistance or insensitivity to the Dao. But in fact, Daoists engage in a more subversive and playful logic in order to break open common ideas about progress, development, knowledge and learning. Our expectations are challenged in order to reveal the rationalist framings that encumber human thought and action. Thus ideas of progress and advancement through learning or otherwise have always struck a discordant note within Daoism. As chapter 48 of the Daodejing, states, In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired.
In the pursuit of Tao, every day something is dropped. Less and less is done Until non-action is achieved. When nothing is done, nothing is left undone. The world is ruled by letting things take their course.
It cannot be ruled by interfering. Learning is not a process of accumulation because the Dao resists reification into representational or conceptual knowledge. The practice that Daoism advocates is known as wu-wei, non-action. This is not simply passivity, but rather letting Dao regulate activity.
Thus, the emptiness of wu-wei entails harmony with the Dao. This realization of learning seems to anticipate concerns about the dependencies and deficits implied in ideas about learning and teaching.
The acquisition of knowledge through a planned educational process is an impediment to the Dao and so the image of ascent out of the cave towards a particular conception of knowing could be misleading. Daoist knowledge zhi is more akin to mastering, a mastering that — in typical Daoist rhetoric — must be achieved without mastering. This means that the world is not an object to be mastered by a knowledgeable subject, but that mastery is achieved through letting the Dao into itself through non-action Moeller , Practising wu wei, the Daoist submits to the Dao, thereby achieving mastery without mastery.
Becoming less, Daoist learning is as much unlearning. Consequently, although it is possible not to be aligned with the flow of the Dao, ethical concepts such as failure, wrongdoing, or lack of resolution seem out of place.
No wonder, then, that Daoism, like Confucianism, is sometimes said to be quietist or fatalist in orientation. Learning to live with and as nature is, then, centrally Daoist, a learning to become nothing. But the non-dualist tension with dualism recurs since, in a sense, we can do no other than be who we are.
Human action, whether gentle or violent, rational or trans-rational expresses itself as part of the Dao. Conventional readings of the allegory presuppose the very idea of separation that Daoists would not recognize. By contrast, then, for Daoists the cave might be seen as a suitable dwelling place. This might accord well with other philosophies of education that resist a developmental or progressive view of childhood, as the preparation for adulthood, where childhood and adulthood are simply phases of a flow, rather than hierarchically organized.
Still, Daoism calls for a sensitivity to the world and the rhythms that guide it. Although Daoism tends to avoid extremism, legends of ingesting precious substances such as jade, cinnabar, and gold, in the pursuit of longevity might seem at odds with the naturalism of the Dao. Within the history of Daoism, the Daoist quest for immortality has sometimes been understood as a more literal pursuit than Buddhist liberation or Hindu Moksha, revealing the apparently inescapable need to define human existence in terms of a lack.
The Dao can be followed through meditative and physical practices, which are often intermixed. Space prevents fuller discussion here of that vital aspect of Eastern pedagogy, though drawing attention to the efforts of the Chinese Cultural Revolution to destroy that history by cutting that direct link to the lineages of great Daoist masters should encourage us to pay attention to the important recovery of Daoism and even more of Confucianism within China today.
Across the world, the Daoist traditions and pedagogies are conveyed through the practices of Tai Chi Chuan, Chi Gung and other related practices, many of which seem to fuse the development of wu wei with practices of longevity. Daoist ideas around cultivation of virtue should be given more attention by educationalists Culham It seems to be a natural aspect of human nature to take pleasure in the cultivation of the self by being respectful to others, particularly elders Confucius , This is one reason why Confucianism is often characterized as hierarchical and authoritarian, entailing the attenuation of critical thinking in favor of deference.
Education might then be less as an emergence from the cave than being contained by it, or even dragged into it. However, recent changes in Chinese social, cultural and economic circumstances suggest these characterizations to be at best outdated, though more likely neo-colonial impositions and misrepresentations.
Several scholars of Chinese thought and Confucianism have recently argued that these perceptions distort our understanding of both ancient and modern pedagogical approaches in China and that Confucian thought is not by any means antithetical to critical inquiry Tan ; Kim ; Starr It is no surprise, then, that scholars have found similarities between the political and social interests of philosophers such as Dewey and Plato to resonate with Confucian theory, encouraging a revision and revival of interest in it Sim ; Tan Both lived at similar times and despite neither writing anything down, they had enormous influence on Eastern and Western philosophical traditions respectively.
Understanding the need for rights to balance with social obligations is a common theme between Plato and Confucius Dionisio , For Confucius, it is for the purpose of service to the state, in harmony with the individual, that education primarily exists.
This order is expressed both through the harmony of the cosmos and those within it, again suggesting a correlation between the concerns of ancient Greek and Chinese philosophers Wolf In the Han Dynasty BCE to CE , five principles of virtue were established on the basis of Confucian thought which have been influential: humaneness or benevolence ren , righteousness or justice yi , wisdom or knowledge zhi , integrity or honesty Xin , and ceremony or proper rite li.
This list might not look so out of place in an Aristotelian context. But to regard rite as only a historical contingency would miss the deeper links between humanism, harmony, and hierarchy which define the core of Confucian thought Storr , 8.
There is ongoing debate about whether rite li stands in an instrumental relation to the core virtue of humaneness Ren Li , but even if Ren is the principle virtue, the order and respect of li is not incidental. Performance of rites with the appropriate level of respect is suggestive of a virtue in and of itself.
In relation to this propriety, traditional Chinese culture regards the elders, parents or rulers with particular deference, strikingly illustrated by the concept of teaching itself. Thus, Junzi requires a virtue that Western educational theorists tend to avoid: filial piety.
EMBED for wordpress. Want more? Advanced embedding details, examples, and help! Usage Public Domain Mark 1. The Background of Indian Thought 1. Pre-Vedic Elements in Indian Thought 2. The Vedas 3. The Upanisads 4. The Epics A. The Ramayana B.
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