- Holistic
Education and Vipassana
- Prof. P.L.
Dhar
Education,
said Albert Einstein, is that which remains when everything that
is learnt in school is
forgotten. If we evaluate modem education by this definition, its
chief outcomes can
easily be identified as aggressive competition, pride and envy. At
its best, the modem
educational system imparts some professional knowledge and skills,
but it lacks any
cultivation of heart. The result is only to make the students
conceited materialists.
Consequently, at an age when children should be dreaming of
beauty, greatness and
perfection, they now dream about sensory titillation and wealth,
and spend time worrying
about how to cam money [1]. No wonder that our society today is
being devoured by the twin
devils of acquisitiveness and unabashed consumerism, with the
resultant serious social
problems of corruption, strife and violence; and ecological
problems such as environmental
pollution and the rapid depletion of resources which threaten the
very survival of
humankind on this planet. Thinkers and philosophers of all hues
[14], whether in India or
abroad, agree that a complete revamping of the educational system
is a prerequisite for
the solution to these serious maladies besieging mankind. For,
unless human beings become
harmonized within themselves, through a fundamental change in
their animal instincts-which
should be the most important purpose of education-all changes in
their outer circumstances
will ultimately be overwhelmed by their instinctual, animal
brutality.
A Vision
of Holistic Education
Education should be concerned with
the totality of life
and not with immediate responses to immediate challenges [1].
Broadly speaking, four
different but inter-related aspects of human life can generally be
recognized: viz., the
physical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual. Holistic
education should cultivate all
these aspects in full measure. For example, physical education
should include not only the
performance of physical exercises to keep the body fit, but also
the training to use the
senses and physical framework wisely.
Similarly, emotional education
should emphasize the type
of training of mind that develops the positive human emotions of
universal love,
compassion, forbearance, humility, equanimity, etc., and
eradicates the baser instincts
such as greed, envy, pride, aggressiveness, etc. In this way, one
can establish a healthy
relationship with society.
Intellectual education should
require not only the
development of the ability to think, but also the ability to act
independently, rationally
and logically on the basis of a deep understanding of the various
phenomena of nature.
Finally, spiritual education
should cultivate a refinement
of the mind, to manifest that elusive "fourth dimension" of the
human
personality from which springs forth an intuitive understanding of
the very purpose of our
existence, and a clarity of what ought to be done to achieve it.
It is quite clear that
the modern educational system completely sidesteps the emotional
and spiritual aspects of
the human personality, and caters only to physical and
intellectual growth-and this, too,
only in a superficial manner. It is not as if the educationists
and education planners
have not been aware of this deficiency, for as early as 1966, the
Kothari Commission
recognized the need for inculcating social, moral and spiritual
values through education
[5]. But the way to achieve this in a composite society like
India, where the notions of
caste, creed and religion are very strongly entrenched, has defied
a universally
acceptable solution. There have, of course, been many attempts to
impart moral education
indirectly through various means such as prayers, discussions and
contemplation sessions,
etc. Even direct attempts have been made through meditation
methods, lectures and
discourses in various institutions such as Christian missionary
schools; Islamic schools;
Anglo-vedic schools; schools associated with the Ramakrishna
Mission; ISKCON; Maharishi
Mahesh Yogi centres; the Krishnamurti Foundation; and the Saibaba
Trust, etc. However,
these approaches have not been able to gain wide acceptance.
There exists in India and many
other countries today, a
scientific method of control and purification of mind which, if
properly integrated with
the educational process, has the potential of becoming a
universally acceptable technique
for nourishing the emotional and spiritual dimensions of human
personality. This
technique, an ancient science of mind and matter, is called Vipassana
meditation.
Following is a brief description of the technique and how it can
be integrated into modern
education.
Vipassana
Meditation
Viewed from the perspective of
holistic education, Vipassana
meditation can be described as a technique of purifying the mind
of its baser instincts so
that one begins to manifest the truly human qualities of universal
goodwill, kindness,-
sympathy, tolerance, humility, equanimity, etc., and
simultaneously gains an insight into
the true nature and purpose of human existence. This is achieved
in a very scientific
manner through a systematic cultivation of Right Mindfulness
coupled with non-reactivity;
that is to say, development of the habit of paying penetrating
attention to whatever is
happening in our total organism-the body with its five senses and
the mind which operates
in and through it-without any admixture of subjective judgments or
reactions. The quality
which purifies the mind at the deepest level is the mental factor
of objectivity, or
equanimity, which develops from the constant, thorough
understanding of the impermanence
of all components of the mind-body phenomenon (ref. [8], p.258).
An important prerequisite for the
systematic practice of Vipassana
is scrupulous observance of five basic moral precepts-viz.,
abstention from killing,
stealing, false speech, sexual misconduct, and intoxicants-since
any willful violation of
these precepts causes violent mental agitation which makes it
impossible to observe the
mind objectively. Of course, Vipassana practice also helps
one to gain the mental
strength needed to observe the moral precepts in day-to-day life.
While the complete
details of this systematic practice are best learnt in a
meditation camp under the careful
guidance of a teacher, some salient features of the technique and
its theoretical basis
are explained here.
The foundation stone in the
cultivation of Right
Mindfulness (or Awareness) consists of paying attention to the
body (ref. 8, pp. 2542591.
The practice of systematic self-observation begins by focussing
attention on the
respiration (ref. 9, p.5), the breath coming in and going out of
the body. This
practice-called Anapana-is an exercise in cultivation of,
right awareness, not
regulation or control of the breath (such as praa.naayaama or
other breathing
exercises). There is just a silent "bare observation" of the
natural flow of
respiration, with a firm and steady attention free from any
strain. One observes the
length of the breath, short or long. To aid the development of
concentration, the student
is advised to focus the attention on finer details, such as which
nostril the breath is
coming in and going out, or where the breath is touching in the
area around the nostrils.
The whole exercise is one of
observing the reality as it
is, without any preferences or reactions. It is quite natural that
in the beginning it
will not be possible to focus the attention continuously on the
breath, even for a minute
or two. The habitual tendency of the mind to wander away from the
assigned task comes to
the fore very quickly, allowing the student to experience for him
or herself the turbulent
nature of the mind. The student learns to observe this fact itself
dispassionately without
feeling dejected about the repeated "running away" of the mind-and
once again
focuses one's attention on the breath.
With the systematic practice of Anapana
for a few
days, the concentration increases, and a natural calming and
equalizing of the breath
takes place. As the breath is very intimately related to the mind,
this leads
simultaneously to a tranquilizing of the mind-in fact, of the
entire life-rhythm [61. The
mind also becomes sharp enough to observe subtler realities of the
body-mind complex,
e.g., the sensations occurring in the area around the nostrils
where attention is focused
during the practice of mindfulness of breathing.
This leads us to the next step in
the cultivation of Right
Mindfulness, viz., awareness of the bodily sensations (ref. 9,
p.21). The object of
meditation now is body sensation. Sensations occur on the body,
but they are felt by the
mind. When one is investigating the internal experience of one's
sensations, one is
actually observing the interaction of mind and matter (Vedanaa-samosara.naa
sabbe
dhamma: Everything that arises in the mind is accompanied by
sensation) (ref. 8, p.
253). Moreover, sensations (vedana) provide the crucial
link between the impact (phassa)
upon the six sense doors and the resultant reaction of craving
and aversion (ta"nhaa)
which is the root cause of all suffering [7; 8, p.2551. This
profound discovery is, in
fact, one of the most fundamental aspects of the teaching of the
master scientist of mind
and matter, Gotama Buddha.
The practice of Vipassana consists
of
"feeling" the sensations throughout the body without any reaction
or evaluation
whatsoever, thus developing equanimity at a very deep level. This
is of course more easily
said than done, because our subconscious mind, which is constantly
"feeling" the
body sensations, has the stubborn, recalcitrant habit of reacting
to these sensations in a
particular manner. It habitually reacts to pleasant sensations
with craving and to
unpleasant sensations with aversion, thus strengthening the mind's
conditioned tendency to
run after sensory pleasure and to run away from pain.
The exercise of awareness and
equanimity in the face of
the entire spectrum of sensations acts to gently break this habit
pattern. One repeatedly
observes the sensations as they actually are: constantly
changing-arising, staying for
some time, fading away, and giving rise to other sensations.
Through this repeated
practice, the habit of reaction is replaced by an experience of
the truth of anicca or
impermanence. The student is trained to focus one's attention on
the changeful nature of
the sensations, thereby gradually correcting the conditioned habit
of evaluating them as
pleasant or unpleasant. This scientific method of observing the
sensations as they really
are-without any evaluation based on past conditioning-is what is
described by the word vipassana.
Vipassana, a Pali word, literally means "to see things as they
really
are"-in their true nature, their true characteristic of
impermanence (anicca).
One can thus gradually train the
mind to observe the
bodily sensations in an objective manner-without any notion of
their being G4my
sensations"-in the same way as one would dispassionately observe
the waves arising
and disappearing in the sea. With the practice of this objective
observation, the attitude
of "enjoyership"-one of the chief manifestations of ego-is thus
enfeebled.
The attitude of remaining
equanimous towards all internal
phenomena arising from the interaction of mind and body is
simultaneously strengthened, as
the student repeatedly observes the fact of the evanescent nature (anicca)
of the
mind-body process.
The systematic practice of
mindfulness of sensations
integrates within itself other important aspects of the
cultivation of Right Mindfulness,
viz., the mindfulness of the state of mind and the contents of the
thought at any given
moment (ref. [91, p.25). As the alertness and objectiveness of the
meditator increase (by
the. continual practice of non-reactive observation of
sensations), he or she can quickly
become aware of the mental reactions which keep arising from time
to time. As an adjunct
to the main practice of mindfulness of body sensations, a student
practises from time to
time the bare registering of one's state of mind. One observes the
various mental states
without self-justification or self-condemnation. This practice
reveals the changing nature
of the mental states, and thereby strengthens the meditator's
conviction about the anicca
of all body-mind phenomena.
The most significant consequence
of Vipassana
practice is that it gives the mind a natural slant towards the
goal of full enlightenment,
the complete liberation from all bondages. Simultaneously, one
develops the steadfast
confidence that all hindrances on the Path can be overcome.
Role of Vipassana
in
Education
We can now understand how Vipassana
can fill that
vital gap in modern education-viz., the training of mind, leading
to a balanced,
harmonious and purposeful life. Vipassana meditation
imparts a way to observe all
the phenomena of this sensory world objectively and impersonally
under the penetrating
gaze of an equanimous mind. The multifold benefits which accrue
from this practice are
being discussed at length in this seminar and have formed the
basis for research conducted
by the Vipassana Research Institute (Igatpuri, India) in
many areas of human
activity. Here, only those aspects related to the field of
education are being discussed.
The attitude of "bare attention"
(bestowed by a
mind at once aware and non-reactive) slows down the transition
from thought to action,
allowing the practitioner more time-those crucial few moments
needed to come to a mature
decision. The tendency of the base, animal instincts to overpower
the faculty of human
reason can thus be effectively checked, leading to a gradual
reduction in negative traits
such as rashness, intolerance, intemperance and aggressive
behaviour which characterize
modem youth. This emotional education should naturally lead to a
marked improvement in the
student-teacher relationship, which has been constantly
deteriorating over the years due
to the corroding influence of a materialistic world view coupled
with the negative traits
mentioned above.
On the positive side, this
training of non-reactive
observation of facts, coupled with the insight of anicca
enhances one's ability to
face the vicissitudes of life squarely and equanimously without
taking recourse to such
escapist alternatives as smoking, alcohol and drugs, which have
become the bane of modern
society. This attitude of equanimity also reduces the obsessive
preoccupation with
indulgence in unending materialistic desires, thereby allowing
space for the manifestation
of the so-called "higher needs"-the self-actualization needs of
meaningfulness,
justice, truthfulness, service, love, compassion, etc., which
modem psychology recognizes
as essential components of basic human needs [10]. Recent research
has shown that people
able to manifest these "higher needs" are generally much more
creative and
innovative, because self-actualization needs provide "a more
durable fuel for
creativity" than the drive for sensual gratification [11].
The observation of mental contents
is also a powerful tool
of self-education because it reveals to the meditator a very clear
picture of his weak
points and strong points without doing damage to his self-esteem.
The habitual attitude of
hurriedly glossing over one's weaknesses, or blowing one's
strengths out of proportion, is
thus checked. One gradually gains the inner strength needed to
overcome one's weaknesses
without a need to exercise a violent exertion of will or forceful
repression, both of
which are harmful in the long run. This candid self-examination
promotes honesty towards
oneself, increases one's tolerance of others' faults, assists in
the development of
humility and compassion, and reduces vanity.
The attitude of Right Awareness
coupled with equanimity
closely corresponds to the disposition of the true scientist and
scholar, which is
characterized by clear definition of the subject, unprejudiced
receptivity for the facts,
exclusion of the subjective factor in judgment, and deferring
judgment until a careful
examination of the facts has been made (ref. [6], p.39). This
practice should therefore be
of great help in augmenting the scientific temper.
Vipassana meditation
reinforces the scientific
outlook in another much more direct way. Every meditator, after
some length of practice of
mindfulness of sensations, reaches a state where he experiences
the whole body as a mass
of vibrations. This experience is in line with the
quantum-relativistic description of
matter [12]. This direct experience provides much more clarity
about the nature of matter
than the scores of mathematical formulae produced by classroom
descriptions.
Another important benefit of the
systematic
practice-especially of mindfulness of breath, which is of crucial
significance in
education-is improvement in one's ability to concentrate on a
task. As explained earlier,
the essence of the practice is to train the mind to keep the
attention continuously on an
object (viz., the breath), and to minimize the drifting of the
mind into futile daydreams,
which are the chief obstacle to concentration. The training of
observing the mental states
also comes in handy. Once such daydreams have arisen (whether
during meditation or during
normal activity), if one briefly makes these daydreams themselves
an object of close
observation, their power of distraction is drastically curtailed
and they get quickly
dispersed. This results in a quick retrieval of concentration.
The attitude of impersonal
non-reactive observation is of
profound value in the ultimate deliverance of the mind from all
bondages, which is the
true purpose of spiritual education. To quote Venerable Nyanponika
Thera (ref. [6], p.43):
"The inner distance from things ... as obtained temporarily and
partially by bare
attention, shows us, by our own experience, the possibility of
winning perfect detachment
and the happiness resulting from it. It bestows upon us the
confidence that such temporary
setting aside may well become one day a complete stepping out of
this world of suffering.
It gives a kind of foretaste, or at least an idea, of the highest
liberty, the 'holiness
during lifetime' that has been alluded to by the words 'in the
world but not of the
world.' "
To achieve this objective, the
principal requirement is to
develop an insight into the basic characteristics of life.
Impermanence (anicca) is
the fundamental characteristic with which a Vipassana student
is continually
confronted. As this experience becomes ingrained, realization of
the other
characteristics-viz., of suffering (dukkha) and egolessness
(anattaa)-automatically
develops, leading one to a clear understanding of the purpose of
life and the way to
achieve it-the very acme of spiritual education.
Concluding
Remarks
It should be evident from the
preceding brief description
that Vipassana meditation is a purely scientific technique,
a universal culture of
mind, which does not subscribe to any sectarian beliefs, dogmas or
rituals. It should be
universally acceptable, therefore, as an integral part of
education. Its benefits have
been corroborated by thousands of practitioners-both young and old
belonging to diverse
castes, creeds, countries and religious beliefs. Vivekananda's
dream of evolving a
"man-making education" [2] could be fulfilled by the integration
of Vipassana
into modern education. It is high time that an action plan in the
field of education be
drawn, at least on an experimental scale, to scientifically
validate the efficacy of Vipassana
over an extended period. Some of the crucial issues which need to
be addressed include:
1. How to motivate the students,
teachers and management
of schools and colleges to introduce Anapana and Vipassana,
and reduce
resistance from unwilling students and teachers?
2. The extent of training needed
before authorizing
educational staff members to teach meditation in schools and
colleges.
3. The format and minimum duration
of in-house camps
organized to initiate young students to Anapana meditation,
keeping in view the
practical constraints (especially of overnight stay).
4. How to maintain continuity of
practice within the tight
schedule of schools and colleges?
5. Should there be a formal course
on meditation in the
curricula of schools and colleges?
6. How to assess the beneficial
influence of Vipassana
on teachers, students and the teaching-learning process?
7. How to integrate Vipassana
with the student
counselling services in the schools and colleges?
A properly thought out action plan
if sincerely
implemented should ultimately pave the way for the formation of
institutions, which can
impart truly holistic education. Such institutions would make a
crucial contribution to
developing wholesome individuals and a harmonious society.
Acknowledgement
Thanks are due to Dr. Kishore
Chandiramani for reading an
early draft of the paper and making valuable suggestions.
References
[1]. Krishnamurti on Education,
Krishnamurti
Foundation, 1992.
[2]. Swami Vivekananda on
Education, compiled by
T.S. Avinashilingam, Sri Ramakrishna Mission Vidyalaya,
Coimbatore, 1993.
[3]. "A New Education," All
India Magazine,
Sri Aurobindo Society, Oct. 1990; and On Education, All India
Magazine, Sri Aurobindo
Society, Nov. 1990.
[4]. P.L. Dhar and R.R. Gaur:
"Appropriate
Engineering Education," paper presented at National Workshop on
Technology
Assessment, a Futuristic Viewpoint, 1IT, Delhi, 1988.
[5]. Report of Education
Commission (1964-66):
Education and National Development, Ministry of Education, Govt.
of India, 1966.
[6]. Venerable Nyanaponika Thera.,
The Heart of
Buddhist Meditation, Rider, London 1962.
[7]. Amadeo Sole-Leris.,
Tranquillity and Insight,
Shambala, Boston 1986.
[8]. Sayagyi U Ba Khin Journal,
Vipassana Research
Institute, Igatpuri, India, 1991.
[9]. Mahaavatipa.t.thaana
Sutta"m, Vipassana
Research Publications, Igatpuri, India, 1993.
[10]. A. Maslow. Motivation and
Personality, New
York; Harper Press, 1954.
[11]. Pradeep N. Khandwala,
"Fourth Eye: Excellence
Through Creativity;" A.H. Wheeler an 0.1 Allahabad, 1984.
[12]. P.L. Dhar and R.R. Gaur., Science
and
Humanism-Towards a Unified World View, Common Wealth
Publishers, New Delhi, 1992.