EDUCATION, CONTEMPLATION, INITIATION: PRELIMINARY NOTES ON CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT Perspectives from Zen Buddhism and Cross-cultural Anthropology Joan Halifax, Ph.D. Upaya Zen Center Santa Fe, NM Introducing contemplative and transformational strategies into education require sensitivity to the following factors, among others: Culture (value system, world view), societal values, values in the family, psyche, learning orientation and capacity, relational capacity, valuation of the inner life, valuation of natural world, arts and imagination, physical capacities, age and developmental stage Values template: “Paramita” values regarding education and maturation: Value of:

Generosity: selflessness, kindness, giving no fear Patience: down regulation Moral responsibility: mindfulness trainings, consequentiality Whole-heartedness: non-separateness and energetic determination, committed engagement Concentrated attention: stability, vividity, sustainability Wisdom: inclusiveness, insight, openness, vastness

Other “meta” dimensions:

Value of: Inner life Maturation process and character development

Meaningfulness Inspiration Investigation, interest, curiosity Depth, mindfulness, slowness, inclusiveness Embodiment

Arts: creativity and imagination Natural world Relatedness Role of suffering and transformation of suffering Truth of impermanence

Issues related to the self and non-inherency of the self, i.e. interconnectedness Recognition of basic goodness

Understanding roles of robustness and emergence Multiple Intelligences: (Howard Gardner): Not to assume that we all learn or see the world in the same way:

Valuing diversity and differences The relevance of assisting a student in balancing out traits, i.e., strengthening skill areas that might be neglected, as they are non-dominant Linguistic intelligence:

Spoken and written” prose, poetry, ability to learn languages, memory and expression through language, logical thinking

Logical-mathematical intelligence: Capacity to analyze, pattern recognition, deductive capacity

Musical intelligence: Ability to recognize and reproduce tone, pitch, cadence, and rhythm

Bodily/Kinesthetic intelligence: Knowing through the body

Spatial intelligence: Capacity to recognize and use open and focused space, panoramic intelligence, seeing details

Interpersonal intelligence: Empathic capacities, values relationship, communicational capacities, social intelligence

Intrapsychic intelligence: Knowing oneself (emotional intelligence), insight, valuing intuition, valuing solitude, self confidence, self regulation

Aesthetic intelligence:

Imagination, visualization, intuitive processing, sensitivity to sense fields Naturalist intelligence:

Capacity to learn from the natural world, indigenous world perspective, valuation of natural world as a source of wisdom

Moral intelligence: Valuing the sanctity of life, compassion, altruism

BRAIDED LEARNING PATHS: Paths of Discovery 1 Three-fold Learning Path: Integrated approach where domains power each other:

Value and practice of precepts Value and practice of concentration Value and practice (investigation) of insight into reality 2 Sense Fields Learning Path: Explores through the five senses and mental experience how the mind operates and how this influences behavior. One can practice through the medium of each sense field: Eye: Visual learning:

Outer: Learning through visual observation Inner: Learning through observing visual phenomena internally, discernment: attachment, aversion, appreciation Creative/contemplative mode: Visual art, visualization, gazing, visual focusing, imagining, visionary states

Ear: Auditory learning Outer: learning through hearing

Inner: learning through listening Learning through:

focused and open field listening hearing one’s internal dialog

Learning not to attach to what one hears Recognizing and ending undermutter Value of silence and ending internal dialog Learning through observing auditory phenomena internally, discernment: attachment, aversion, appreciation

Creative/contemplative mode: silence, music, poetry, mantra, natural world sounds, inner hearing, inner listening

Nose: Olfactory learning Outer: learning through olfaction

Inner: learning through animal sensing Seeing how olfaction shapes attitudes, responses, reactions Recognizing attachment, aversion, appreciation

Learning through sensing olfactory phenomena internally; discernment: attachment, aversion, appreciation

Creative/contemplative mode: incense, cooking, food, essential oils, natural world

Tongue: Gustatory learning Outer: learning to savor Inner: savoring, one taste

Learning through sensing gustatory phenomena internally, discernment: attachment, aversion, appreciation Creative/contemplative mode: cooking, food taste; one taste; eating meditation, sustainability of life, transforming habitual behaviors related to the gustatory

Body: Embodied learning Outer: Training in posture, embodied arts

Inner: Learning through the body: Posture conditioning the mind Learning through coordination, balance, volume, flexibility, uprightness, body memory, appreciation of the body Sensitivity to bodily states: sensing the movement of the various bodily systems: circulatory, digestive, lymphatic, muscular, nervous, etc, Sensing the organs Quality of the nervous system: calm, torpid, aroused, excited

Infra-communicational behavior: relational sensitivity, i.e., ability to recognize subtle physical aspects of interpersonal communication Creative/contemplative mode:

Contemplation of the body’s impermanence Stillness, posture, dance, body art, yoga, so-called martial arts, mudra, debate, embodied learning, illness

Mind: Mental Learning: Attention:

Focused, open; high resolution, stability, enduring/sustaining

Conative: Awareness and cultivation of altruistic motivation

Training in realizing experience of primary consciousness: Direct perception of phenomena

Awareness of secondary consciousness: Noticing phenomena. Recognize. when phenomena named Capacity to categorize Capacity to pattern Non-identification with phenomena

Borrowed consciousness: Recognizing borrowed consciousness

Learning to work with imagination Learning to not identify with content of borrowed consciousness Letting go of constructed phenomena

Learning to recognize manifold mental processes (51 neutral, constructive and destructive processes of the mind) Cultivation of Emotional intelligence

Recognition of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral states of mind Development of prosocial states of mind Altruism, etc

Brahmaviharas: lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity

Regulation of emotions: Elicitation Sustaining

Flourishing Down-regulation Liberation of emotional phenomena Cultivation of intuitive capacities Cultivation of insight Cultivation of embodied learning/cognition: debate, arts

Cultivation of aesthetic intelligence: Flourishing of aesthetic capacities through all art forms

Cultivation of moral intelligence: Altruism, compassion, mindfulness, consequentiality

Cultivation of “emptiness”, boundlessness, inclusiveness, ease, wisdom beyond wisdom, tolerance for the inconceivable, “beginner’s mind”, “before-thinking mind, “not-knowing”, inclusiveness, ease

3 Five Streams (Skandha) Learning Path: Path to unpack the sense of self: learning to recognize that these five features are free of inherency, are contingent, and co-arise; seeing each feature as impermanent; noticing attachment to each aggregate and with the loosening of attachment, freeing oneself from self-identification. The “five streams” are used as a base of meditation, i.e. using each one as a medium of investigation:

Form: the body and sense gates: exploration of the solidification of ignorance through the investigation if one is this body and the sense of self Feelings: exploration of pleasant, unpleasant, neutral responses to phenomena: i.e. exploring reaction, categorization, preference, rooted in the sense of an inherent self Perceptions of an object through the sense gates, including the mind, and discovering co-arising

Inclinations: tendencies, mental habits; dissolving the preferential mind Consciousness: ability to discern; foundation supporting all experience through the sense fields and mental experience

4 Embodied Learning Path:

Physical practices, connected to: Cognitive: debate, linguistic arts Contemplative: Stillness, posture, mudra, contemplative walking, aikido, martial arts Nurturant: Yoga, play, sports Aesthetic: Dance Initiatic: Fasting

5 Relational Learning Path: Relationship-centered education Recognizing interconnectedness, interdependence, interpenetration

Value of family, community, friendship Student/teacher relationship Discipleship Dynamics of transference, counter-transference, devotion Mutuality

Modeling: learning by example Emotional and social intelligence

Intersubjectivity, per Varela and Bitbol Human responsibility:

Precepts, principles, promises Right communication 6 Social Learning Path: Value of relationship, family, community, friendship, natural world Development of compassion, altruism, kindness, etc Personal and social wellbeing Preceptual learning: Motivation Sanctity of life Social intelligence Right communication

Listening Transparency Truthful and constructive communication

Fearlessness Conflict resolution Team and community building Social and environmental responsibility: consequentiality Systems perspective 7 Wisdom Learning Path: Five Buddha Families An integrated approach to domains of learning and action:

Wisdom/compassion training: Based in precepts, mind-training, and social and emotional intelligence; ability to investigate leading to insight Scholarly Training: Attentional training, meta cognition, deduction, learning/scholarly content Livelihood Training: Right action, right livelihood, interconnectedness, selflessness, social responsibility, altruism Service Training: Compassionate action: application of altruistic values Community building: Social intelligence, conflict resolution, listening, precepts, kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity

8 Path of Initiation: Rites of Passage: Natural World Rites of passage for maturation:

Three phases of rites of passage: Separation, transition, incorporation Ability to recognize phase shifts in maturational process Valuation of marking change Truth of impermanence, self-knowing; interconnectedness, selflessness

Marking change through ceremony, pilgrimage Natural world Silence Solitude Simplicity Resiliency Fearlessness Meaningfulness Interconnectedness

Appreciation of and learning from the natural world: appreciation of biological systems Social and environmental connectedness, appreciation, responsibility

9 Path of Learning through Service: Application of contemplative practices and values Bringing the paths to fruition in service to others. Service as path as practice: engaged practice: Experiential learning

Path of service Engagement in projects that engender wholesome mental qualities and serve others

Altruism, mindfulness, teamwork, joy, no attachment to outcome, etc

Learning from suffering Robustness Resilience Open to emergence Best practices Cultivating networks of practice and altruism Appreciation of differences

CONTEMPLATIVE APPROACHES: Contemplative approaches for young people: Using verses (gathas) to integrate mindfully into daily life Story telling, inducing concentrated listening, imagination, cohesion, meaningfulness Breathing meditation for focused attention

Learning to focus, to sustain attention on a single object, to “pause”, to reflect, to down-regulate, to increase refractory period, to observe physical and mental states

Learning the relevance of posture in terms of mental states Learning to observe quality of mind by observing breath

Meditation on cookie, raisin, tangerine, with subtle sensing and slow eating Using senses to regulate the mind instead of the mind driving the senses

Walking meditation, slow and normal pace: Learning embodiment, posture, synchronization, slowing down Martial arts:

For attention, importance of embodiment, grace, balance, strength Physical practices, including: yoga, stretching, dance, mudra, debate etc Metta practices Learning to develop prosocial states of mind Lovingkindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, equanimity Imaginal practices: Visualization practices, through guided meditations, story telling etc Attention practice with art: Cultivation of imagination using art as a medium for attention training Using art projects as a medium of compassion training and training for

teamwork Cultivation of inspiration

The natural world: Practicing in the natural world as a medium for the above Rites of passage and ceremony for transformational learning Precepts exploration in appropriate terms, i.e. “the golden rule, three and five mindfulness trainings, truth of consequentiality Contemplative approaches for adults: Setting the field for practice

Precepts Explore motivation

Explore embodiment Focused attention:

Breath meditation Meditation on emotion or bodily state(example: pain made of non pain elements, etc) Focus attention on feelings, perceptions of an external object, mental state Absorptions: Joy, Serenity, Concentration, Equanimity

Insight Practice: Noting impermanence Skandha meditation regarding the non-inherency of the self Minding the mind Development of the awareness of mental states, traits, processes, content

Brahmaviharas (Boundless Abodes): Practices for the cultivation of prosocial states of mind

Sending and Receiving (Tonglen), for compassion cultivation Embodiment practices:

Walking meditation Martial arts like chi gung or tai chi chuan Samu: work practice Dance, yoga, mudra, debate

Imaginal practice: Visualization Bearing witness practice to learn to presence the suffering of others Contemplation of one’s mortality: Exploration of impermanence Setting priorities Art Practice: Using visual, musical, linguistic, and embodied arts as a medium for all the above Natural world practice: Using the natural world as a medium for practice Open presence: Inclusivity, spaciousness, non-reactivity, ease, luminosity Discursive exploration of the dharma (©2007 by Joan Halifax. No part of this article may be reproduced or used in any form or means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner)