The field of education is very wide in all aspects. However, I would like to touch on within the subject of education not only our present mundane education but also the aim of Buddhist education in our country. My paper based is on my view of education in a general way as well as concept notes of some worldwide scholars. Our present generations are generating its own ideas about living and life, education and learning, in order to build a bright future. But, in the present day, most young students are attracted to education in order to obtain more money and power for themselves. I accept it is true that money is for material prosperity or progress (i.e. for living), but true education, love etc., are for spiritual prosperities or progress, (i.e., life). In other words, money is to make a good living but not a good life.
With regard to true education, to be an absolute winner or victor, we have to be practical and methodical in our approach in a better way. Life and living of human beings are two different things. Life is to excel or to be superior that can be possible when we love our life, not living. In fact, our life is a long journey like the ocean. The transformation or change of a child into an adult over the years cannot be explained in words. We can say that “Life is not only to be lived but also to be enjoyed, to be shared with others and to be satisfied.” That is why we need to learn the heart of living and leading a positive life, which is a part of true education.
My thoughts are not toward a traditional viewpoint, but more of a pragmatic view. We all are probably familiar with our present education. Our present educational system mostly impact on the bookish knowledge to the young generation students which are confined to make just their living only. But to make a real life we need to learn the processes of our own free thinking, feeling and action according to our self-knowing. We should increase our intelligence, knowledge and wisdom properly. Self-confidence, self-observation and self-knowing should be born and enabled in our mind. In our country, true education is indispensable for the young generation students to learn certain things which education does not teach them in school for building a bright future. Mere acquiring knowledge from textbooks is not real learning. It is not enough education for the future generation of students. We also need to learn how to think, feel and act – all independently and freely, so as to increase our true wisdom, intelligence, learning and education. Intelligence is born of observation and self-knowing. We should know the realities of human life and be able to face the complex challenges of life. For the students, the instrument of knowledge can enable them to gain mastery over the technical skills in the field of their studies that leads to outside the classroom.
In fact, if we become a man of mature mind, we understand the people who are living on the earth, so that we know the realities of a human life and are able to face the unforeseen challenges, in order to make a bright future. There should be no fear to our learning, because the human mind is very necessary to be fresh, young and active. Learning comes when our mind is fresh and it does not say ‘I know.’ We cannot learn if we are merely following the books of knowledge. We can only learn when we do not know. Mark Twain has said, “Education consists mainly in what we have unlearned.” “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows,” says Epictetus. Learning is an interesting thing that is endless. We primarily need to develop our learning tendency in our heart and mind. Only then can we learn about ourselves, enhance our wisdom and intelligence and make a complete personality. We cannot solve every problem with a mere acquisition of knowledge but only through true learning and education. Most of the great scholars precisely point out that true education comes in widely and goes far beyond the classroom. A great scholar also has said, ‘an educated man has the ability to make a reasoned guess on the basis of insufficient information.’ True education means: experience, self-confidence, understanding, courage and independent thinking, feeling and action. These are the qualities which turns classroom knowledge into wisdom and intelligence. A person having a true learning and education makes a bright future, (i.e., a happy and peaceful life). The true education can serve as a roadmap for young students in building their bright future.
“What is education? A parcel of books? Not at all, but intercourse with the world, with men and with affairs,” says Eumund Burke. R.N. Tagore also says that the great tasks of education is not merely to collect facts but to know man and to make oneself to man. Raddharaman Agarwal also mentions that the modern philosophers and educators regard education as of prime significance, which is central to the transformation of the human mind and the creation of one universal culture and religion. Such a fundamental transformation can only take place when the child, while being trained in various skills and disciplines, is also taught the processes of his or her own thinking, feeling and action – all independently. But at the present our system of education in our country is such that in school the mind is crammed with bookish knowledge and facts before it knows how to think. Truly, if we knew how to think and how to control our mind we would be masters of both the internal and external worlds. Our mind is leading to the world. “Cittena nīyate loko” the Buddha says.
There is a growing realization at the present day that our education has become soulless in our country. When moral values degenerate, corruption sets in. An education that does not inculcate basic values in us is worse than illiteracy. In fact, education is to be seen as an investment it makes for the future of our human society. School is the right forum where the young students should be taught the fundamental principles of co-existence. An academic inspector in Britain’s public schools, Ms. Anita Compton, during the her visit to India in February 2003, has said, an adult in the 21st Century will be called upon to have diverse skills, adaptability, understanding of the diverse religion and culture and others. Truly, no matter what the religion or what the language, it is the religion of love or language of love (educational love) that must bind humanity. Due to a total lack of consistency between human beings and society, our present education has widened the gap between rich and poor. Scholars say that increasing poverty, hunger and violence are forcing man inevitably to face the realities of the human situation. Hence, at a time like this, a new approach to education is truly necessary for our future generations, especially in our country.
This approach to true education is very interesting for us. Shri Aurovindo (Mahrishi) has said ‘an education that confines itself to impart knowledge is no education.’ According to him, it is obvious that true education is not only learning from books and memorizing facts just to pass examinations, take a degree, get a job and settle down, but it is also learning to be able to listen to the birds, to understand the world, to look at the sky, to see the beauty of a tree and to feel directly in touch with them from different points of view in a positive way. We certainly agree with his statement. Besides, we should be able to understand the people who are living on the earth, so that we come to know the realities of human life. Our human society has become immoral because most of us want to earn or get money, position, prestige and power at the cost of moral values. So, we lose the sense of beauty of the world.
Nowadays, we are living in the era of globalization. We have to learn differently in order to create for ourselves a complete personality. In the present day, we have numerous opportunities, probabilities or expectations to create true education, for the usage of mankind. We should cultivate and begin to think, to observe, to learn true education, not only from books, but also learn for ourselves by watching and listening to everything that is happening around us in the world. We should remember that there is a great deal to learn about ourselves. It is an endless job, to learn about ourselves, which an education outside the classroom is as said earlier above. Actually we need to freely develop this tendency for learning.
With this true tendency of studying ourselves, we can get wisdom, intelligence and true education. Unfortunately general education does not consist of any such kind of systems that develop this tendency to learn about ourselves. In schools, teachers keep our minds engaged in acquiring only book knowledge with the intent that we obtain good ranks on the examinations. A good rank in exams can help us make a good living but not a good life. Actually our present education imparts the only book knowledge, used by students to memorize and use to pass exams only. As you all know this knowledge is good for making a living but not a life. With regard to life, our Rector Prof Dr Venerable Nandamalābhivaṃsa says, “Regret not the past, past never comes back (past has gone), long not for the future, future is not sure, In present, take value of the life with great knowledge and effort with doing what should be done.” And also H.W. Longfellow describes life as, “Life is real! Life is earnest! And the grave is not its goal.”
As mentioned earlier, learning outside the classroom enables a student to enhance his or her intelligence, wisdom and true education by listening, seeing and observing the beauty of nature on the earth. Storing of knowledge learned in the classroom is not true intelligence, but learning outside the classroom about ourselves is true intelligence and we have the further capacity to increase it. Leo Tolstoy said, “All we can know is that we know nothing.” It means that only when we feel that we know nothing then can we begin to learn. Study of personality development for every student is very significant and important, which is not included in our present educational system especially in our country. Personality development is a dynamic force that determines one’s success or failure in life. Generally speaking, it may include internal and external qualities of a person consisting of physical and mental traits. External qualities (like style, communication, looks, dressing, etc) make a pleasing personality which is necessary for making a good living but the development of internal qualities such as compassion, love, sympathy equanimity integrity, honesty character, self-confidence, self-respect, self-observation, self-knowing and others, make our personality ‘dynamic’ so called the positive or complete personality. But our present education does not teach students how to face the realities of life in order to live happily and peacefully in the world. And also I think that our present education has failed to inculcate in the hearts of students the feeling of patriotism and the sense of national pride, which in fact, our ancient culture tell us is the primary responsibility of the country towards the nation, society, family and oneself. It is the moral duty of educators to pour in the drops of national feeling in every student’s or child’s heart at the school-level.
Our present education is, no doubt, producing good technicians, scientists, teachers, and other specialists but without giving a long vision to meeting the complex challenge of life in the future. In the present world, the threat of war, nuclear bombs, terrorism, and the many tensions and conflicts have brought a developing new crisis. They are happening in the world due to a lack of moral duty of the educators. The vital aim of education is the inculcation of right values which is totally missing in our educational system – a system with no moral values. An education without moral science is deficient throughout the world.
Our present education should teach students and children about the religion of love, compassion and other good mental qualities. If this teaching is given at the school level, children or students would learn the virtues of tolerance and make a peaceful society. To sum up, the children or students in our country need the true education which means their mind not only is capable of being excellent in their subjects such as mathematics, science or commerce and others, but also they can never be drawn into the stream of society. Students must learn not only the acquisition of knowledge from books, but learn about themselves by watching and listening to everything that is happening around them in the world, thereby enhancing their intelligence, wisdom, and having a long vision. As such, through the learning tendency, they will bring about a change in themselves, in order to become a different human being - one that is, who cares and loves people. Then and only then will our future generations enjoy a true happy education and a peaceful life without any fear. Thus, the real purpose of our education will be true and served.
As mentioned earlier, our present education system is a hindrance to real learning. Students memorize lessons or use ‘pass books’ to get passing-marks. The exams, in that way are not a real test of one’s intelligence. A professor of Oxford University once said “The purpose of an examination is to find out what students know, not what they don’t know.” Therefore, books give us theoretical knowledge which should not be confined to just obtaining good marks only; it should be applied in practical life as well. So the real education lies in a learning tendency and the real learning begins outside the classroom. Hence, do not concentrate simply on the books, but cultivate the habit of learning tendency. Not only the government but also the private teachers and parents should try to create an atmosphere for the students to “enjoy good and true learning and education.”
A psychologist at the Harvard School of Education (U.S.A) feels that knowledge is not learnt or gleaned from the books which students read in class. Education outside the classroom is as important, since it teaches the students to experience life for themselves. It trains students to apply principles to a problem themselves. In this way, they succeed in life with their own efforts and knowledge. Collection of knowledge from the books is, therefore, not intelligence, but true learning tendency is true intelligence. Bertrand Russell has said that “we are born ignorant, not stupid. We are made stupid by education if not properly given and properly taken”. This statement clearly conveys that education alone cannot convert a person into a gentleman or good person. It is one’s upbringing and environment (in which he or she lives), which go a long way in molding one into a perfect gentleman. Students should increase their intelligence together with good morality by understanding what they learn. Joseph Whitney has said that “the intelligence is proved not by ease of learning but understanding what we learn” and also Thomas Wolfe says that “if a man has talent and cannot use it, he has failed. If he has talent and uses half of it, he has partly failed. If he has a talent and learns somehow to use the whole of it, he has gloriously succeeded, and won a satisfaction and a triumph few men ever knew.”
The Most Venerable western Theravada Buddhist scholar, Bhikkhu Bodhi (USA), has said - ideally, education is the principal tool of human growth, essential for transforming the unlettered child into a mature and responsible adult. Yet everywhere today, both in the developed world and the developing world, we can see that formal education is in serious trouble. Classroom instruction has become so rotilized and pat that children often consider school an exercise in patience rather than an adventure in learning. Even the brightest and most conscientious students easily become restless, and for many the only attractive escape routes lie along the dangerous roads of drugs, sexual experimentation, and outbursts of senseless violence. Teachers too find themselves in a dilemma, dissatisfied with the system which they serve but unable to see a meaningful alternative to it.
One major reason for this sad state of affairs is a loss of vision regarding the proper aims of education. The word "education" literally means "to bring forth," which indicates that the true task of this process is to draw forth from the mind its innate potential for understanding. The urge to learn, to know and comprehend is a basic human trait, as intrinsic to our minds as hunger and thirst are to our bodies. In today's turbulent world, however, this hunger to learn is often deformed by the same moral twists that afflict the wider society. Indeed, just as our appetite for wholesome food is exploited by the fast-food industry with tasty snacks devoid of nutritional value, so in our schools the minds of the young are deprived of the nutriment they need for healthy growth. In the name of education, students are passed through courses of standardized instruction intended to make them efficient servants of a demeaning social system. While such education may be necessary to guarantee societal stability, it does little to fulfill the higher end of learning, the illumination of the mind with the light of truth and goodness.
A major cause of our educational problems lies in the "commercialization" of education. Today, the industrial growth model of society demands that the educational system prepare students to become productive citizens in an economic order governed by the drive to maximize profits. Such a conception of the aim of education is quite different from that consistent with Buddhist principles. Practical efficiency certainly has its place in Buddhist education, for Buddhism propounds a middle path which recognizes that our loftiest spiritual aspirations depend on a healthy body and a materially secure society. But for Buddhism the practical side of education must be integrated; with other requirements designed to bring the potentialities of human nature to maturity in the way envisioned by the Buddha. Above all, an educational policy guided by Buddhist principles must aim to instill values as much as to impart information. It must be directed, not merely toward developing social and commercial skills, but toward nurturing in the students the seeds of spiritual nobility.
The prime responsibility for imparting the principles of the Dhamma to the students naturally falls upon the Dhamma schools or Buddhist educational Temples. Buddhist education in the Dhamma schools or Buddhist Temples should be concerned above all with the transformation of character. Since a person's character is molded by values, and values are conveyed by inspiring ideals, the first task to be faced by Buddhist educators is to determine the ideals of their educational system. If we turn to the Buddha's discourses in search of the ideals proper to a Buddhist life, we find five qualities that the Buddha often held up as the hallmarks of the model disciple, whether monk or layperson. These five qualities are faith or confidence (Saddhā), virtue (Sīla), generosity (Cāga), learning (Suta), and wisdom (Paññā). Of the five, two — faith and generosity — relates primarily to the heart: they are concerned with taming the emotional side of human nature. Two relate to the intellect: learning and wisdom. The second, virtue or morality, partakes of both sides of the personality, the first three precepts-abstinence from killing, stealing, and sexual abuse- govern the emotions; the precepts of abstinence from falsehood and intoxicants help to develop the clarity and honesty necessary for realization of truth. Thus Buddhist education aims at a parallel transformation or thinking of human character and intelligence, holding both in balance and ensuring that both are brought to fulfillment.
The entire system of Buddhist education must be rooted in faith or confidence (saddhā) — faith in the Triple Gem, and above all in the Buddha as the Fully Enlightened One, the peerless teacher and supreme guide to right living and right understanding. Based on this faith, the students must be inspired to become accomplished in virtue (sīla) by following the moral guidelines mentioned or spelled out by the Five Precepts which are built on the vast conception of universal love and compassion for all living beings, on which the Buddha’s teaching, is based. They must come to know the precepts well, to understand the reasons for observing them, and to know how to apply them in the difficult circumstances of human life today. Most importantly, they should come to appreciate the positive virtues these precepts represent: kindness, honesty, purity, truthfulness, and mental sobriety. They must also acquire the spirit of generosity and self-sacrifice (cāga), so essential for overcoming selfishness, greed, and the narrow focus on self-advancement that dominates in present-day society. To strive to fulfill the ideal of generosity is to develop compassion and renunciation, qualities which sustained the Buddha throughout his entire career. It is to learn that cooperation is greater than competition, that self-sacrifice is more fulfilling than self-aggrandizement, and that our true welfare is to be achieved through harmony and good will rather than by exploiting and dominating others.
The fourth and fifth virtues work closely together. By learning (suta) what is meant is a wide knowledge of the Buddhist texts which is to be acquired by extensive reading and persistent study. But mere learning is not sufficient. Knowledge only fulfills its proper purpose when it serves as a springboard for wisdom (paññā), direct personal insight into the truth of the Dhamma. Of course, the higher wisdom that consummates the Noble Eightfold Path does not lie within the domain of the Dhamma School or Buddhist Educational Centre. This wisdom must be generated by methodical mental training in calm and insight (Samatha and Vipassanā): the two wings of Buddhist meditation. But Buddhist education can go far in laying the foundation for this wisdom by clarifying the principles that are to be penetrated by insight. In this task learning and wisdom are closely interwoven, the former providing a basis for the latter. Wisdom arises by systematically working the ideas and principles learned through study into the fabric of the mind, which requires deep reflection, intelligent discussion, and keen investigation.
Wisdom is the intellectual ability to reason, investigate and collect information and critique. It is the ability to design, estimate, construct and run the project, evaluate the results and make corrections when it is ineffective. It is very interesting and important to note that thoughts of selfless detachment, love and non-violence, are grouped on the side of wisdom. This clearly shows that true wisdom is endowed with these noble qualities, and that all thought of selfish desire, ill-will, hatred and violence are the result of lack of wisdom – in all spheres of life, whether individual, social or political. Right Understanding (Sammā diṭṭhi) is very important in the Buddhist education. It is the understanding of things as they are, and it is the Four Noble Truths that explain things as they really are. Right Understanding therefore is ultimately reduced to the Understanding of the Four Noble Truths. This understanding is the highest wisdom which sees the Ultimate Reality.
According to Buddhist education, there are three sorts of understanding: learning, acquiring or acquisition of knowledge by listening to something or somebody (Sutamayañāṇa), what we generally call understanding is knowledge, an accumulated memory, an intellectual grasping of a subject according to certain given data (Cintāmaya-ñāṇa) which is included in thoughts of ideas. This is called ‘knowing accordingly’ (Anubhodha). It is not very deep. Real deep understanding is called ‘penetration’ (Paṭivedha-ñāṇa), or insight knowledge (Bhāvanāmaya-ñāṇa), seeing a thing in its true nature, without name and label. This penetration is possible only when the mind is free from all impurities and is fully developed through meditation. That is why the Buddha says that Wisdom is the most excellent gem of the mankind in the world (Paññā narānaṃ ratanaṃ). Actually it is quality of mind. It is wisdom that the Buddha held up as the direct instrument of final liberation, as the key for opening the doors to the Deathless (Amata-dvāra), and also as the infallible guide to success in meeting life's mundane challenges. Thus wisdom is the crown and pinnacle of the entire system of Buddhist education, and all the preliminary steps in a Buddhist educational system should be geared toward the flowering of this supreme virtue. It is with this step that education reaches completion, that it becomes illumination in the truest and deepest sense, as exclaimed by the Buddha on the night of his Awakening: "There arose in me vision, knowledge, wisdom, understanding, and light."
Ashin Sutacaralankara
Nalanda University (India)
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