Teaching

We felt something very special as soon as we entered the school yard. Within a short time, we noticed that the school environment was not only organized with normal classrooms and school facilities, but also with different religious monuments and symbols. The students’ happy faces and warm student-teacher relationships made a sweet impression. Being at Alice Project was happiness at first sight. We felt so peaceful to be there. During our few short days there, we learned how to practice a lot of admirable things in the right way,  especially those related to education.

Truthfully, our meeting with Valentino, one of the founders of Universal Education was too precious. His kind contributions of valuable knowledge related to both education systems and teaching methods helped us become aware of many important practices for teaching strategy. We realized that teaching or explanation with action, drawing, and moral stories make it easier and more interesting for students to learn, despite the language barrier. Learning is never boring at Alice Project. At the same time, it is clear that learning and understanding through texts is not comparable with knowing through experience and realization.

Prayer

It notifies us that personal experience is extremely important in education. It gives us self-confidence. We become more conscious that not only human beings are seeking and wanting peace and happiness; every living including animals love to stay in peace and seek for peace and happiness. However, it was difficult to understand some of the key words and concepts used in some explanations. If key words and key concepts could be clarified, the learning process would be a lot easier and more efficient for the students.
            We admire and are inspired by many things at Alice Project.
First, the inclusion of different religious monuments in the school compound and classrooms reveal the respect that the school has for both the individual faiths and their universal implications. Recognition to the diversity in unity is vividly shown in this religiously inclusive school. This also helps students of different religions to have a well-rounded understanding of different religions and encourages good relationships across religious boundaries. We are extremely grateful to Valentino for learning about his education philosophies, such as utmost meta/loving-kindness with no discrimination, secure feelings, and self-confidence, and acceptance of all children, regardless of their different social, cultural, or religious backgrounds.  .
Undoubtedly, the teaching method and school arrangement of Universal Education System, based on Dharma and unity, are crucial resources for building happy and active school environments all across the globe. The teaching methods, based on compassion and loving-kindness, create happy educational environments. In addition, teaching mindfulness and spiritual development improve students’ concentration, contentment, and selflessness. This also helps students practice controlling their mind and emotions, which is the key to a happy livelihood. The Universal Education method, therefore, should be spread to other schools, even though it would face time consuming challenges. We have learned that schools should be places for nurturing students to become peaceful citizens and contributors to a happy society. 
There are several lessons we learned at Alice Project that we hope to employ in our school’s program. Some practices we would like bring to our schools are the development of students’ spirituality and mindfulness and the habit of starting each day and all classes with short meditations. We would also like to share Universal Education’s system of valuing the inclusion of different religions and prioritizing teacher-student relationships.
Alice Project stresses the need to keep student in touch with external and inner Nature (1)
 Alice Project works to develop warm relationships between all members of the school community, including teachers, students, and parents. Parent meetings are used to raise awareness about the school’s philosophies and to bring the rules of the school into the home. We would like to use this idea in our school as well.
Indeed, we are so glad to have had a chance to study at Alice Project, the place that we so admire. Although we do not speak the same languages, we feel that our mindset of loving-kindness towards the children and all other living things are the same. Therefore, we feel that we will always be together in the heart even though we may stay in far place on the map. 

(1) During the teachings, external Nature was compared with inner Nature, the Nature of mind. Be in touch with Nature, means that we have to discover what we are, to know how the external and mental phenomena exist, beyond our conceptual (conventional or pragmatic) mind. We proposed the example of a tree. How the Primary school teacher does explain what a tree is? The teacher makes a drawing of the tree on the blackboard and writes the first division: roots, trunk, leaves… This is the first division of a tree that the students must learn and believe. This is the beginning of a knowledge that is useful for communication, but is totally wrong. This knowledge does not bring the student close to Nature, but, on the opposite, brings them very far from the … nature of the tree (what actually a tree is). Helping the students to be in touch with Nature means that the teachers should help them to re-learn, establishing a different cognitive approach with the tree. The tree was divided into three, hundredths, thousandths parts by the scientists, the botanists, on the basis of their own thoughts, but it was an arbitrary operation. They thought something about the tree and then they projected their mental lucubration on the tree itself as if it were something objective, something that the tree has, but it was not discovered yet. Actually, the tree is not divided into any part. The tree is a unit, in the sense that is not composed by parts as we think. The parts exist but only as mental construction, for pragmatic purpose. If we want to help our students to have a correct approach to the tree (Nature), then we have to make them to understand the difference between “map and territory”. The map is not the territory. The sum of roots, trunk and leaves does not form a tree. The tree is not its parts labeled by the botanists. If we search, we will never find the roots, the trunk or the leaves. Our mind could be compared to a tree.

by

Daniela Dalal

Sarnath & Bodhgaya, January – February 2010

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Contents

• What is «Alice Project»?
• Educational principles in Alice Project schools
• Teaching languages
• Spiritual Life at Alice Project School
• Buddhist masters who have visited the Alice Project
• School in Sarnath
• The Alice Project School in Bodhgaya and in other places

What is «Alice Project»?

«Alice Project» is an Educational method which combines the traditional school curriculum with spirituality. The “brains” behind the «Alice Project» are Valentino Giacomin and Luigina de Biasi, former school teachers from Italy, who bought a piece of land in Sarnath, India in 1994 and built a school where now about 800 children from kindergarten to class XII and Degree College are studying.

Dalai Lama & Valentino

In 1980 His Holiness the Dalai Lama encouraged Valentino (after a divination was done) to leave his job as a journalist and to dedicate his life to Education in India. His Holiness accepted to be the Patron of the Institution in 2008. Valentino has received several awards for his teaching method.

Alice Project Girl

Alice Boy

The Alice Project School in Sarnath has 600 students including around 40 residential students.

The students are very happy with smiling faces, very caring to each other and guests, always ready to help.

They respect their teachers and any guests visiting the school a lot. The residential students, besides their school duties, have rotas for cooking, cleaning, washing …

Many of the ex-students love to come back to the school and work for the Alice Project.

Students

They either work as teachers or assist the director with computer skills, organizational skills.

Boys

The school offers guest rooms for visitors and offers support for them to organize their stay.

Educational principles in A.P. schools

• •Start of the day with guided meditation and prayers

Each morning all students and their teachers gather together in the school compound to start the day with guided meditation, prayers and songs.

Alice Project students practising meditation during the morning assembly

• •Ritual of checking thoughts and feelings

After the meditation children are  asked to describe what their thoughts and feelings  were like during the meditation. Through this children learn  to become aware of their thoughts and feelings and to express them – in front of their fellow students.

One student describing his thoughts he had during the meditation

Ritual of checking feelings in the classroom

When students  enter the classroom they have three choices. There are  three bowls filled with beads of different colours: white beads for positive feelings, black beads for negative feelings and yellow beads for a neutral state of mind.

Each student chooses a bead and puts it in a fourth bowl.

In this way the teacher can easily see the « temperature of emotions » in his  class and act accordingly.

During a class, from time to time  the teacher checks in how students are feeling. Especially when a child is not  well or is not able to  concentrate so well, the teacher addresses this child personally.

Students chosing different beads to express their feelings

• •Meditation  and concentration

exercises in the class room

Each class  begins and ends with at least 5 minutes of guided meditation.

It is amazing to see that even five year old children sit silently, their eyes closed and then share what they experience during the meditation.

Midway through the class the teachers include guided exercises which train concentration, visualization and memory.

• •Investigation of feelings and thoughts

The investigation of feelings and thoughts  happens in dialogue with the children starting from the kindergarden onwards.

The investigation is done in the class room as well as in  more informal encounters with the children, e.g. during breaks. This method  helps the students to realize that things are not as solid as they presumed.

Yog

“Before having a feeling, there is a thought, and this thought causes the emotional reaction” says Valentino.

To investigate this interrelationship between thoughts and emotions, the following questions are asked to the students:

« How is your anger? »

« What size is it? »

« Which colour does it have? »

« From where did it come? »

This inquiry process aims to the cognitive reframing of student’s perceptions of themselves and the external world.

Moral stories

In conjunction with the regular curriculum moral stories are integrated in the classes to develop values and understanding, e.g. the  book « Ranjeet and his stories » which is a text book written by Valentino for Junior High school Students to learn English and moral values.

 

An atmopshere of love and kindness

Between teachers and students there is a lot of love, friendship  and kindness. The students don’t show any  fighting or any other aggressive behaviour.

It is amazing to see how kind, loving and caring all the students are.

Teaching languages

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Image Chart

Example: English course in class 7 (age of students: 15 years old)
Textbook and DVD
The teacher  uses  the textbook Magic English which has been written according to the DVD  « Magic English » by Walt Disney.

Charts
In the class room the new vocabulary, together with drawings, are put on charts.  The charts remain always at the same spot which helps children to visualize the chart in their mind; they do not really memorize it.
Many of these charts are made by the children themselves. That is why they love looking at the charts!

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Exercises used to teach English
•Spelling words in both directions
•Visualization exercises:
for example: Close your eyes, visualize the word « birthday », can you see it? How many letters does it have?
Or: Sit still, close your eyes. How many words  do you have in your mind? Remember 2 or 3 or more words, then write them down.

•Academic Achievements
In the past years 98% of the students passed class 10 – 12 class state exams.

Spiritual Life at Alice Project School

Students and teachers performing a Hindu puja

Alice Project Schools are inter – religious schools.

In each class room pictures and symbols of Christianity, Muslim, Buddhism and Hinduism are displayed.

Board

A Buddhist stupa, a Christian altar and a Hindu shrine encircle the school compound.

The students are mainly Hindu and Buddhist Chakma children.

The Tara Temple in Alice Project School, Sarnath
The school is very blessed by a huge Tara temple which was inaugurated by His Holiness the Karmapa in January 2008.
The temple is dedicated to World Peace and the long life of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

Three Tibetan nuns live next to the temple for a few months each year to do Tara practice.  During the months of absence of the nuns, a Tara mantra recitaton rota is held by the students of the school. 

Daily spiritual practice for the students

The about 40 resident children (who are both Hindu and Buddhist children) meet  each morning from 6 am to 6.45  am in the  Tara temple for meditation and Tara practice which is guided by one of their teachers.

The students conclude their morning practice by chanting « Om Mani Padme Hung » while circumambulating the Tara temple. After this they circumambulate the main stupa while reciting the mantra of  Manjushri « Om a ra pa tsa na di di di di… ».

Each evening at 6.30 pm the residential students gather in front of the  Hindu temple of the school and do a traditional « Hindu Puja » with chanting and drumming ….Here as well,  all children – Hindu as well as Buddhist  join in together for the practice. 

Buddhist masters who have visited the Alice Project School in Sarnath 

His Holiness the Dalai Lama has visited the school in Sarnath already two times. In 2006, His Holiness the Dalai Lama remarked: « In this school we are meeting young  students who have the light of self – confidence and assurance in their eyes. I am really very happy to see this. »

His Holiness The Dalai Lama meeting students at Sarnath in 2006

Lama Zopa Rinpoche blessing the Tara statues. Together with Lama Yeshe he inspired the Alice Project.

 His Holiness Karmapa visited the school in Sarnath already four  times. He inaugurated the Tara temple in 2008.

Left: His Holiness Karmapa planting seeds at Alice Project School, Sarnath, Right: His Holiness Karmapa with Alice project students

“I want to visit this school, whenever I come to Sarnath. I ‘m so happy here, as it reminds me of my childhood.

Below: Valentino, the director of Alice Project School welcomes Mingyur

Mingyur Rinpoche guiding a meditation in the Tara temple

 Mingyur Rinpoche’s speech to Alice Project students and teachers  

After his teaching, Mingyur Rinpoche gave a speech outside in the school courtyard to all students and teachers.
“I am very happy about the Alice Project school and India needs students who are educated in a way like this.
The more I  learn about this project,  the more happy I am with Alice project.
I can see that both  teachers and students are all very good.
To know yourself and to be free  this is very important.
This school and curriculum really explore really your own potential .
Everybody has love and compassion.
To succeed in your spiritual life and your mundane life, for this you need to explore your inner goodness.
And you cannot learn about your inner qualities by only learning about computers…Psychology and ethics are really important and will help you in future . Through this you can become a very powerful person.
You will really benefit  and your life will become happy, successful and meaningful.”

Mingyur Rinpoche and Valentino after the speech of Mingyur Rinpoche to Alice Project students

Finally, the students sang the peace song « Hevenu Shalom Alechem » in many  different languages including Italian and Chinese…
After that, Mingyur Rinpoche gave the « lung » for the short  Tara mantra to all the students. 

In June 2003 , Mingyur Rinpoche established a school at Tergar Monastery in Bodhgaya. Alice Project teachers teach his monks at Tergar Monastery and have introduced the Alice Project methods successfully.
Recently, Mingyur Rinpoche has asked for more Alice Project teachers to come to Tergar Monastery and teach his monks.

Mingyur Rinpoche with students at Alice Project school Sarnath

The school building , Alice Project School in Bodhgaya

The Alice Project School in Bodhgaya
The school is situated 5 km from Bodhgaya and is at present a  residential  hostel for 22 buddhist Chakma students of class 9.

Chakmas Boys

The  school is managed by Valentino and Publio, a volunteer from Brazil,  and four  Christian Indian sisters!
The school will be reopened for a larger number of students (especially for the Indian children from surrounding villages) soon.

Each morning and evening the students gather together to do meditation practice as well as chanting  Buddhist mantras, prayers in Pali as well as a few Hindu prayers.

A third branch of Alice Project School

A third branch of Alice Project School has opened in July 2009 in Bodhisatta, a village in Arunachal Pradesh. This branch  is dedicated for  Chakma children.
The patrons of this branch are Sogyal Rinpoche and Rigpa. For more detailed information of this branch, please refer to recent Newsletter of the school in Arunachal Pradesh.

The Alice Project in Bhutan?

The Prime Minister of Bhutan recently appreciated  the Alice Project very much. He even would like to  implement the Alice

 Project in Bhutan in future.
In an invitation letter to Valentino and Luigina for the Conference on  « Educating for Gross National Happiness », the Prime Minister of Bhutan writes:

“I am pleased to invite you to visit Bhutan to advise us  how we can create a national education system that truly reflects the principles of our unique philosophy of Gross National Happiness.

HE Honourable Prime Minister of Bhutan Lyonchhen Jigmi Y. Thinley with Luigina de Biasi

Indeed, our goal is not merely to teach about Gross National Happiness, but to ensure that Gross National Happiness values and understanding infuse and permeate the curriculum at all levels.
I think this is the most suitable way for young Bhutanese to grow up as responsible citizens, caring for others , and with a deep and genuine commitment to environmental conservation of their  ancient culture.”

After the conference, 29 December 2009, the Prime Minister of

Bhutan wrote:

“In particular, I want to thank you Valentino, and the Alice Project for demonstrating in practice the qualities and methods that we now want to implement here on a national scale.”

Rajbali Tiwari Ji

  Dear children and teacher I am very fortunate that Mr. Valentino has given a chance to me to meet with you; because I like the children the most. Because they are the power store of the life. Before I spoke in Hindi. But somethings in English. Thousand years before Indian ancestors declared Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam. The whole, world the whole humanity belongs to one family. There is no difference between a man and a woman because they (all) reside in every ones heart. There are our honorable Buddhist monks. I am very glad to see them. There is no difference between Buddhism and Sanatan Hindu dharma. Because lord Buddha is our ‘avtar. i.e.  Incarnation of God. No difference between reverd Dalai Lama and our religious it Gurus. It has been so many times expressed that Buddhism is part and parcel of Sanatan Hindu dharma. There is no difference at all. So there is no gap, they are reverd like our Gurus.

Dear children I am affiliated to universal intuition of education. I’ve been never forgotten this institution because whatever our ancestors have declared it, that the universal is of one family. This institution is practically doing the same. Every where I’ve declared where ever in Lucknow or Delhi or anywhere in Varanasi that there is an institution universal education that is doing practically the proclamation of our ancestors in practice to serve the humanity.

There is a place Chicago in America where world religious conference had been organized. Talking about lord Buddha, Swami Vivekanand said that we asked for techniques from our western fellows and India will provide them spirituality by which they will acquire a happy and peace full life otherwise there is no difference between a man and  an animal. Really he is an animal. The animal man  who eats, drinks and sleeps in the same way as the animal eat, drink and sleep. They have no object to think, no aim to this life. To be a human, there must be spirituality; materialistic things can’t give you happiness and peace. This is the truth. Children, today I will tell you something about Ashtawakra, the great self realized spirituality giant of India. So I will tell you something about him. Generally children or elderly people complain that they are poor so that they cannot get education, they cannot do anything in the world. They complain about their poverty. There are some people who say that they are disable, they have weak body so that neither they can get education nor can do anything. Here two kinds of thinking is done by people i.e. poverty and physical disability. This why I want to tell you about Ashtawakra. How many boys are here who have heard about Ashtawakra? Oh! So many of you. Very good. This is all due to Mr. Valentino. I am very glad. who will tell me the meaning of Ashtawakra?

So it seems to me that you know the story. So I must tell you about the story or not? If you want, I will tell you the story otherwise I will tell you something else. So curved feet, bent hand, curved neck, curved cervical region from three points; totally curved body from 8 points and very poor boy. That boy becomes the greatest, renowned, self realized and good knower. It is not a surprise which inspired everyone i.e. the story of Ashtawakra. Don’t complain about poverty and disability. Your goal should be clear and your soul should be tough and solid like iron, then nothing is impossible in this world for any one.

I was born in a very distant village. The most backward village, but now I am here. I was very poor, but afterward I am here. Because there is a motivation which makes a man great. Take motivation that you will move forward crossing the obstacle of each difficulty, nobody can stop your way (progress), this is the secret of life. There was a Muni named Kadod. His wife was Sujata. She was very religious. She was wise. When Ashtwakra was in the womb of her mother, one day his father was reciting veda. A voice came from the womb of her mother and said that father you were doing veda path but your pronunciation is wrong. You think what would be the condition of the father. He was a veda scholar. Suddenly he was very much moved. He felt a great rage and said if he were so much curbed and bent in the womb of his mother, then he would not allow to survive anyone when he would born and come on the earth. So he might curb from eight points i.e. bent. In the mean time when the delivery time was near, Sujata told Kahod Muni, that they were poor, live in the Ashram and expenses is increased during delivery period. You will also feel that at the time of infant coming, the expense is increased or not. So she became worried that expenditure would increase and how it will be accommodated. Then Kahod Sage said that he would take part in the debate in the court of king Janak and bring some money from there. Sujata forbade him to go there because there was a Bandi Pandit in the court of the king Janak who was very cunning. Defeating anyone, he makes them prisoner, put in to jail, so you don’t go there. But he had to go. Going there, he challenged for debate. The king organized the court debate was done but he was defeated. So he was made prisoner. In the mean time after some time Ashtawakra was born. His grandfather-in-law forbade his mother to discuss anything about Kahod. So Sujata never say anything about it to Ashtawakra. When Ashtawakra was of 12 years of age, then he insisted to know about his father. And he began hunger strike. Just like today. Hunger strike was done that time also. It is an old Sanatan  (Continuous) process. Gods also used to do hunger strike. Indra always used to weep (Complain). He was very wicked. He was the king of the all the gods but he was very wicked. He always used to do policy game. So she told him at the age of 12 years. She told him everything. Then Ashtawakra became quiet. But he was versed (equipped) in veda, vedanga, Shastra in just few days. Nobody could face him. How did it possible? In a very short time. It is said about Jagat Guru Shankaracharya that at little age of 16, he did all his doings and took Samadhi in Himalaya at the age of 32 years. So Ashtawakra was like that. It is a matter of surprise that a man who was curbed from 8 points and at the age of 14-15, became master of all intelligence of the world, self knower, god knower. Actually it is not a wonder what is the secret of it. Coming from school when you sit to read and your teacher is giving lecture in the class and you are thinking about your home. It is not run in your mind? That time you think about the game you will play. And some naughty boy think that to whom they will do mischief today. All these are running in the mind so you are not under-standing anything, many times you have to repeat it. But children, the secret is only one. Concentrating your all attention, if you accumulate it like tortoise, not any other place but put your all attention in study, then such an energy will reproduce that you will learn the thing in a moments which you cannot learn in years. This is the secret. This is the main mantra (Cause). So the life of Ashtawakra is praiseworthy from each angle. Specially for children. So concentrating their attention, great Mahatma, self knower, god knower and even being a man, becoming as a form of incarnation, they devoted to good. Lord Rama, Krishna and Buddha got birth like you as a child, experienced every kind of pleasure and sorrow, but through their deep concentration and attention, they became world personality. They became god. So first education that we get form the life history of Ashtawakra is to do practice, whenever you sit for study, you mind that your attention did not deviate and be still at your study, if deviate then abuse your attention and say strictly not to disturb you, I will not listen anything, let me study, it’s not my business. So he (Ashtawakra) became great in a very little age. In that period of time no one was good knower and self knower like Ashtawakra. Now you are surprised that a person whose body is curved from 8 points became so. After that Ashtawakra started for the court. He was moving in the court of king Janak like animal. Everything was curved. He cannot move straight. So when anyone laughed at him, he cursed him: be a snake, you will be curved. He cursed many: you are laughing, “You are laughing at me.” Accidently riding on his chariot King Janak started January for knowing about pleasure and sorrow of his subject. While wandering suddenly they were confronted .Seeing the Astawakra King Janak stopped his chariot and began to see him surprisingly that he is curved from 8 points. But there was a light like God at his face. What is this? He could not understand anything. The dialogue between Astawakra and King Janak  is very important. The King Janak was also very wise .He was called ‘Videha’ that means a wise person who has no feeling of his body. Just then he realized the God.Such is said by our Yogis. Then Astawakra realized. Seeing him, surprised Astawakra challenged “O Janak!” Janak was a king. “O Janak, you called yourself ‘VIDEH’ consider yourself self knower. Your vision is only made of skin. You have not self or inner knowledge. Tell me, if temple is curved, then sky will also be curved? Sky is omnipresent. It has no relationship with the temple. In the same way, if body is curved, then soul will also be curved because soul; a Param soul (God) is subtle, very subtle. It has no relationship with the body. So your vision is only made of skin. A boy who can challenge like this has taken birth.” Great wise king Janak immediately got down of his chariot and understood that he was a great wise man. He prostrate and took him to the royal court with great respect. Then court was organized and debate began. Bandi Pandit could not answer any question of Ashtawakra and ran away from there. People began to praise Ashtawakra. Then Bandi Pandit was captivated. Then king worshiped him ceremonially, he did everything for him, his father and many other prisoners were released. He see off his father with a lot of wealth, but he did not allow Ashtawakra to go. As conversation took place between Krishna and Arjun in Mahabharata period and after that Bhagwat Geeta came into existence which can be read into whole gathering and everyone pronunciate its name with great respect, in the same way king Janak asked question about wisdom, Vairagya and Nirvana and how it can be achieved.

On that subject question-answer and debate was continued for months. The dialogue between Raja Janak and Ashtawakra is called Ashtawakra Geeta and is famous even today. Many people are dozing sleep, many people are getting bore, if they got only 5%, then surely they will get benefit. You can see through your experience. Even you know the story of Ashtawakra, get I told you about you it. Now there is no need to go in its deep explanation. If you are wise, you can read it also as you read Bhagawat Geeta. If you want to ask something, you can ask. Mind it, neither I am a Pandit nor a scholar. Generally I have also some experience like you. So, if you have any question in your mind, you can put it to me. 

Second Visit

Walking with Founder of Alice Project

 My hand is jerking, my head is jerking too. But it is my hobby and almighty god gave me such strength that I can confront with Himalaya too. I was in jail for 21 months there my body was jammed. When I was released from jail, many doctors did great efforts; my hands were so that nobody could do anything, Medical science became fail. Then I requested to leave me on the mercy of god. I will cure myself through exercises of yoga otherwise I might be on bed. Medical science became fail. You will wonder about the name ‘yoga’ i.e. union of soul and god. The name of yoga is so because it join you with god, made a union, so its name is yoga (union). Children you are very lucky because you are student of Universal Education School. I my view, the director of this institution Mr. Valentino is a saint. The chief aim of this life it is to improve these poor boys up to the height of sky. Make them a whole human being through their integrated development by giving them education. Man takes birth, that time he is also a two legd animal. I will tell you later at this topic. He thinks to make them a whole man and world-class man through providing them education and through their all round development. It can be done only by a saint. And it is a matter of happiness that I have a good connection with your teacher for many years. I am well aquanted with this school, its condition and its direction. I wonder that in today’s problematic atmosphere your guru loves and show affection to you so much. It is utmost goal of his life to make you a whole human being and make your all round development through education. It is a matter of wonder. I used to go in many school and colleges but nowhere I see this kind of atmosphere. Whatever I see that sitting on the chair in the class, teacher chew betel, smoke Bidi and Cigarette, releases smoke. But children are not less naughty. I have seen with my own eyes that when teacher began to chew betel, began to release smoke of Bidi and Cigarette, then some naughty boys putting their both legs on table began to chew betel and to smoke cigarette. Sir, discipline is deteriorating, there is no matter of any kind of discipline. Students beat their teachers badly. The relationship between teacher and taught has finished. It is bad luck of this country. There is too much noise about education, but the real education which can build the life of students, is not given. And the condition of governmental school is more worse. We will get discipline from where. The result is that country is indulging totally in corruption. It is very difficult to say who is honest, who is patriot, who is social worker, it is really very difficult. The whole world is indulged in corruption because teachers are dutiless, there is no aim of life there is no any building activity, they are providing only bookish knowledge so that educated people are doing more suicide. Big scientists are doing suicide. The poor who are illiterate is doing suicide because they have no knowledge about life. This body and life is what? He is not told about it. Secular education is being provided in many schools, Colleges and Universities of India. Then I said that man is also a two legged animal. Animal and birds collect their food, feed themselves and then sleep. Only this is the aim of their life. Half build man also behaves like an animal. What so ever he became a great scientist, a great his to rain, a great writer but animal instinct shower upon him because he is not a perfect man. He became scientist and professor on the basis of bookish knowledge. He has no perfect knowledge of life. The spirituality which is most important for life is not adopted into his body. He is only an animal whether he is a great scientist or a great writer. He will surely fall, he will be surely corrupt. He will suicide because he thinks that this is his body. While it is true that his body is not his own, it has no relation with him, it is the gift of god. And your motive should be that god has provided me this body like chariot for a while to complete my life journey and to remember the god. When a scientist is spiritualistic, then he will never think about suicide because it is the greatest sin to kill the body provided by god. This body is not his own. It means there is animal instinct inside him. He has no. knowledge of life. This why I say that you are very lucky, it seems that you student of U.E.S. or also very lucky.

 Then I remember my childhood. There is a village Kathiranwa , 20 Km away in west from here. 70 years ago sitting on the mat, I did my study in primary school. How much those teachers loved? How much they have the feeling to provide best education to their students and to get them good division. But now nobody of them is alive. I am also 82 years old. Then how can teacher of primary and middle school will survive now. Even my very few companions are alive. But even today when I remember them, my heart is full of feelings. How should the relationship between teacher and taught be, I am seeing here.

Addressing the Students

 In ancient times residing in the ashram of guru, the students used to get knowledge. And mother guru worried about them. It was an atmosphere. So that India is still in existence even the most corrupt people of today are here. It is only due to sacrifices and tapasya of our ancestors and due to blessing of god and also due to social workers like Valentino. It is a truth. You always remember this. The relationship between teacher and taught gives a great pleasure. Really you get a great pleasure. Guru is not less than God because he makes us well cultured through education. Mother, father and guru are like god. They are similar to god.

 
Second thing I realized that you know everything even you are very small children but you still know about spirituality. I wonder that you are so small but slowly- slowly due to teaching of your guru’s and their labour you have known. So much things that great scholars also don’t know. At this point I will illustrate a true story. In my neighborhood their lived a renound professor of B.H.U. and vice-chancellor of Himachal Pradesh, Shimla, University. He has expired near about one year ago. He has written hundreds of books. He has great respect among the scholars. Generally I had a discussion with him. He was member of ‘progressive writer association.’ It means people of India are non-progressive such writers association which expresses the Indian culture in India in a deformed way. Because they get feeding from foreigners like china and Russia. He was a great scholar and writer of hundreds of books, got retirement. His one son is professor in Kashi Vidhyapeeth, another one is a journalist. One day sending his son to me, he called me. I went to him and asked what had happened what happened in real life, you will get a good lesson from it. I went and there was book all around there in the almirahs. Laying on a bed, he was screaming with pain. I asked him what had happened. You are screaming with pain. The world is admiring you, you are so great scholar and you are screaming like that. I asked him that is the problem. He said “Tiwari ji, I have no problem. I have no any physical suffering.” I asked him what was the problem now. He said, “I am feeling disturbance. There is a great agitation in my mind. I am feeling disturbance.” I asked him “to buy peace and pleasure by those books. Buy peace and pleasure from ‘progressive writers association’ and you have a lot of wealth also. You were vice chancellor, professor and owner of a lot of wealth. Inspite of all these things you are worried, sorrowful, why?” He said, “Tiwari ji, don’t make joke, I am dying.” I asked him what could I do for him. He asked me about any remedy. I told that you would not understand the remedy because you are progressive writer. He was very sad. I told him that he would not understand my suggestion. You call you sons to you your nervousness is your own. At the time of death you are thinking what have you done in your life. It is true or not? He said that I was saying true. I told him that he condemned everyone, passed comments and wrote commentaries throughout his life. Commentary on Mahabharata, on sages. You wrote about sages that their luminosity is due to milk of cow. You commented that sages gave respect to milk of cow so they have luminosity. He wrote like that. I told him that he wrote commentary throughout his life. What have you done more? He said to me, “Tiwari ji, don’t say anything, only you sit near me.” I said that I would not sit and if I sit there, his fault can affect me too.
As there are many types of ornaments of gold, different types of toys, pots and picture of clay but elementarily what are they? Fundamentally what are they? They all are clay and gold. There are only transformation, in the same way man is transformation of different types of form and shapes like the pots and toys of clay, like ornaments of gold, but elementarily he is one. There is the same soul is all living and the same soul is individual. It is said soul is the living beings but actually it is god or Parmatma. So, every individual is incarnation and representative of Parmatma. Our sages who have experienced the soul, said themselves ‘Aham Bramhashmi’ i.e. I am the god. This is the Indian culture, this is spirituality.

 
So at last I told him to recite ‘ohm’, ’ohm’, ’ohm’———. He asked what would happen with this. I told him that it is the chief name of Parmatma. And in marriages at your home Pandit Ji recited letter ohm before recitation of every shloka. Did he do or not? He replied in affirmation. I told him that it had been in practice for thousands of years. ‘ohm’ is the chief name of Parmatma. The name of Rama came into practice very late.

There was one Acharya named Ramanand. He made Kabir his disciple i.e. main disciple. He had many disciples. Throughout India, the Brahmins greatly protested that Pandit ji made an out caste his disciple. But Acharya Ramanand said that spirituality has not entered in their life and body. You they are pretender. Kabir was his main disciple. When he i.e. kabir got realization, then he told his guru to pay him Guru Dakshina . Then Acharya said that it would be his ‘Guru Dakshina ‘if he would raise the wave of the name of Lord Rama throughout India. Then Pandit Ramanand and Kabir had raised the wave of the name of Lord Rama. It is the story of 700 years ago. And you have also heard the name of Guru Nanak. He also raised the wave of the name of lord Rama. Then author of ‘Rama Charit Manas’ Goswami Tulsidas brought the name of lord Rama at every house hold. But ‘ohm’ is in practice even today. When I told him, then he replied that he doesn’t understand the ‘ohm’. I advised him to recite Ram, Ram, Ram, ——– he was your in ancestor. He is also my ancestor. He said, “oh, the son of Dasharatha. I wrote a commentary on him. I don’t believe in god. Where is god? God does not do anything for anyone” I said, “You love your younger son because he cares to you more and elder son does not sit near you. You have two sons, then why you love only one.” He replied that he cares him, he worries about him.

I said that god maintains equanimity; he does the welfare of everyone with equanimity; but who are his devotee, who remembers him, then god takes the responsibility of his whole life. It is reality that you will not understand. Then he asked,” Tiwari ji, you always says about god…….. God but in reality where he is? I told him that I was explaining to him like a primary students that where god is. I am your teacher so I am explaining you in simple language. I will see whether you understand or not and I will not go without making you understand. I asked him to tell me thinking seriously that there is any rule and order in this universe or not. He spoke suddenly, it was truth so spoke about it that order and rule looks in the universe. Then I put forward one thing also and said that sun is so far from the earth that everything will burn if it comes a little near to earth everything will burn and if it turns a little in another side then everything will freeze into ice, you accept in or not. He replied in affirmation. I asked him who is maintaining the sun at that place. Who is dictating? The sun, Beta, you don’t go either forward or backward where there is rule and order, then there must be a regulator and authority or not, tell me.

He replied in affirmation, any order or rule will not run smoothly without any regulator or authority. I further said if it is, then authority who is governing, visible to you or not. It is a power. It is magnetic power which has, held the whole universe with its attraction. Tell me about the support by which the earth is fixed in its position. The sun which is bigger than earth about 13 lakh times is fixed in its position at the support of what. It is the power, magic and miracle of whom? So there is a power. The human beings of the world have given it different names as per their liking. He has numerous names. There is no limit of his names. In India people call him god, call him Par Brahma Parmatma, call him god, Allah. Call him with different names. But all are taking the name of only power. He is god (Parmatma).

Now there is the question of reverence and belief. If is no reverence, there will be no belief. So it is a truth. Nobody can deny it, even scientist too can’t. Now scientist also began to say that awareness in universe is working. The awareness is that power, Parmatma, God, and Allah. Actually he is governing. Through their research our sages said that his name is ‘ohm’ the name ‘ohm’ is Scientific. The listeners listen it. You will know that this universe is going away continuously at a great speed. Scientists and many sages told it infinite, there is neither any begining nor end of it. Where is it going away, where is it getting extension, nobody knows about it. We are so small like an ant that we don’t know the earth is moving at a great speed. We don’t know about it. As put an ant on a moving ball, it will not know that the ball is also moving, in the same way we don’t know that earth is moving. In the same way the universe is moving at a great speed. The sound produced through its movement is ‘Ohm’. The yogis, sages   and spiritualists listen it. It is not imaginary but scientific. Not only has this but your each breath produced the sound ‘Ohm’. This why we call the breath ‘God’ and meditation is done through inhaling and exhaling, we feel the realization of god. So this breathing also pronounces the sound ‘ohm’.  And the yogis who do meditation and said to concentrate your attention at your breath, at sounds, making your mind is like a witness and try to listen what it says, then it doesn’t  say anything except ‘ohm’……..’Ohm’.

                                    He asked whether he should say,’ohm’…..’Ohm’ or ‘Ram’…….’Ram’. I advised him to recite as per his interest.  You can take the name of any tree and consider it as Parmatma. There should be reverence and belief. This spirituality is very strange. You keep a stone and consider it as Parmatma. Put your reverence and belief in it. God (Parmatma) will appear in it, he is in each and every particle; he is in animals, trees and birds. Wherever he is not? And actually in this universe, you here about ‘Virat Purus’ (super human) in Mahabharat. Lord Krishna showed his broad appearance to Arjuna, actually the visible world of Parmatma i.e. universe is the broader appearance of Parmatma (God) because he is in each and every particle. This why Jagat Guru Shankaracharya has said clearly that this world is a reality for you until you don’t realize the soul, the Parmatma and you should consider it reality and truth. It is not an imagination, a dream. But you will see nothing if you get the realization of Atma-Parmatma which are actually one. You will see the light of Parmatma everywhere, therefore ‘Brahma Satya Jagat Mithya’ i.e. God is truth and everything is wrong.

Such is said, so this is the height of spirituality. So a man cannot be perfect without spirituality. He is a two legged animal, spirituality is not very difficult. The meaning of spirituality is to try and to know your fundamental form. Now I will ask myself who am I? What is my fundamental form? Am I body? Am I hand? Am I mind? Am I leg? Then you will notice that you are not all those. What I am and realizing to which this body becomes dead, becomes dead body and your close relatives also say to remove the dead body otherwise it will produce bad smell. Suppose that it is nothing, it is inert matter, it is soil. Movement in this body seems due to existence of soil otherwise body is inert. It is soil.

                                                                  “ Chhiti Jal Pawak Gagan Sameera
                                                                    Panchrachit yah Adham Sharira.”

(This means body is made of soil, water, fire, sky and air.)

This is inert, soil, As people don’t keep dirty soil in their houses, in the same way they will not keep dead body in their houses. The body will be very loving, it will be your father, your very loving son, your daughter. But it became dead body when awareness came out of it and then you remove it, burn it, burry it. Concider only this as the world .Consider main purpose of your life what you are? Why you came in this world’?

There is shortage of time but one thing more that you should know:

Thinks continually about it. Study as much as, study science, History, Geography and study all other subjects. Do everything what is needed to make yourself capable in this world. But your life will become perfect only then when you understand yourself. Only then you will get pleasure, joy and peace. what I am? I am pure awareness, form of light, divine soul and undestroyable part of Parmatma. Only soul is undestroyable. Neither I am the body nor this body is mine. Parmatma (God) has provided me this body for the time being not permanently to complete my life span (Journey) and to remember the creator. This is the essence of life. This is the essence of whole life. Rest are the same as Jagat Guru Shankarachraya has said that Veda, Shashtra. Puran and millions of books that are written on religious topics are very dense forest. The poor one who search way in them, confuse his way. He wanders for many lives. So there is no need to wander. Take hold of Parmatama directly. Do your study as much as, do your work honestly, serve your Guru, serve your Parents and you will reach at peak of progress. Is your wish only this?

Discussion with students

Question:- Guruji you spoke about reality, so please clarify this reality?

Answer:-  You and I sit here together, appearing to each other, this is reality. Reality means which is present. This sun, moon, stars, flowers, trees, plants and birds, they all are reality. Rest you think are dream. Parmatma is present in each and every particle, Parmatma is form of light. Soul and Parmatma are one; soul is also form of light. Today scientists also say that matter can be change in energy and energy can be change in matter. So there is no difference between both, a stone is seen and there is one breath. Exchange is done between both of them. Matter into energy and energy into matter. So when there is realization, when realization is in inner side, then incarnation is not outside but it is inside, them 
Man can realize, he can began to know .Then that time your vision, your thinking, your mind, your intelligence becomes suddenly full of light and you look every where only light. This why it is said that “BrahamaSatya Jagat Mithya”.only God is true, the world is wrong .That time looks only the light of Parmatma .The same light is seen in the form of matter due to illusion  to which we say “Aham”or Ego. There are two great powers of Paramatma. Illusion and ignorance cover it. We ourselves are not seeing ourselves and our forms because we have to cut a slight illusion .There are Ravana, Kumbhkarna, Kansa, Duryodhana inside us and Krishna, Rama, Sages, great beings, Divine Gurus are also in side us. You feel a great joy and pleasure if you realize it. There will be concentration in side you. The matter you cannot learn in a month will be learnt in a short time.  Because your mind becomes concentrate. This is said the reality.

Group

Terzani aveva un profondo sentimento nei confronti dei giovani. Aveva dedicato Lettere contro la guerra a suo nipote, perché da grande scegliesse la pace. Nel pellegrinaggio che seguì, volle parlare soprattutto nelle scuole, nelle università perché vol­eva togliere ai ragazzi quel senso di frustrazione, di impotenza che hanno di fronte al mondo moderno, così complicato, così difficile, da sembrare il mondo “degli altri”. Negli ultimi mesi di vita, chiamò suo figlio Folco perché quello che era il suo libro-testamento (La Fine è il mio inizio) co­municasse ai giovani, facesse capire loro che è possibile trasformare la vita, reinventare il futuro, imboccare una via di evoluzione più spirituale, più umana, più pacifica.

Più che quella di un normale giornalista, la sua vita era stata quella di un esploratore, a cui le strade e le rivoluzioni dell’Asia avevano inseg­nato molte cose. Attraverso un inesorabile percorso di apertura men­tale, aveva compreso che l’unica rivoluzione che serve è quella all’interno dell’animo umano. Sulla scia di Gandhi, di Buddha, dei più grandi saggi di tutti i tempi e di tutti i luoghi, aveva capito che la felicità non risiede nel mondo fuori, nella materia, nei fattori economici, ma è una dimensione della nostro cuore e della nostra mente. “Quella mente, finora impiegata prevalentemente a conoscere ed im­possessarsi del mondo esterno, come se quello fosse la sola fonte della nostre sfuggente felicità, andrebbe

rivolta – diceva – verso il mondo interno, alla conoscenza di sé” . 

Children

Come ha dimostrato nell’ultimo periodo della sua vita, Terzani non era lontano dal credere all’idea della continuità della coscienza che non muore …… con il corpo.

Dove potrà essere la sua coscienza ora? Probabilmente fusa con la Saggez­za Cosmica, ma a noi piace immaginare il Tiziano Terzani che non e’ morto, seduto tra i piccoli allievi della scuola di Alice, per continuare il suo per­corso di autorealizzazione, sorridendo nella scuola che avrebbe voluto per tutti i bambini del mondo.

Meditation

Come Alice di Lewis Carol, la scuola di Alice aiuta i bambini non solo a conoscere il mondo esterno ma anche a scoprire le meraviglie e la magica realtà del mondo interiore.

L’insegnamento delle materie curriculari è infatti integrato con una più vasta consapevolezza dell’attività della propria mente. Attraverso pratiche di medi­tazione, di yoga, di tecniche di visualizzazione e il recupero di un’amplissima tradizione di racconti a sfondo etico, la scuola di Alice conduce gli studenti a riscoprire in se stessi il meraviglioso mondo interiore dove si generano tanto l’invidia e l’orgoglio quanto le qualità della saggezza e dell’equanimità. 

Valentino and Luizina

Fin dai primi anni di apprendimento scolastico – anni decisivi per la strutturazione di un corretto modo di percepire la realtà dei fenomeni esterni e del proprio mondo interiore – la pedagogia di Alice conduce i ragazzi a sviluppare in se stessi le doti della se­renità e della pace. Affondando le proprie radi­ci in tutte le tradizioni spirituali dell’umanità – dal buddismo, all’induismo, al cristianesimo – la Scuola dell’Educazione Universale vuole riportare il cuore dei ragazzi a percepire l’essenziale l’unità e l’interconnessione di tutte le cose, compresi loro stessi.

Questa nuova – eppure antica – visione del mondo è forse il solo, vero antidoto per salvare la terra dalla crisi ambientale, esistenziale ed economica che ci sta attanagliando e di cui i giovani sono le prime vittime. Il fondatore, Valentino Giacomin, con un passato di maestro elementare e – come Terzani – di giornalista, aveva afferrato, già 30 anni fa, nel ricco e sviluppato Veneto, la crisi delle giovani generazioni e ha dedicato la sua vita a dare corpo a questo progetto educativo che da oltre 15 anni ha sede in India. Le scuole di Sarnath e di Bodhgaya contano oltre 1000 studenti dalle materne al liceo, oltre 35 insegnati formati alla filosofia di Alice e godono del patrocinio di S.S il Dalai Lama.

Insieme alla Cofondatrice Luigina de Blasi hanno fatto parte del prestigioso Congresso Internazionale “Educare per la Felicità Nazionale Complessiva”, organizzato in Bhutan, che rappresenta un nuovo, rivoluzionario parametro per il progresso e lo sviluppo dell’umanità futura.

Childrens

Referenti per l’Italia del Progetto Alice:

-Ass. di Volontariato “Progetto Alice onlus” (Treviso) ITALIA Banca Popolare Etica -Treviso, Branch IBAN: IT43 I 05018 12000 000000116204 BIC / SWIFT: CRTIT2T84A Ref: Ms.Luigina De Biasi – e-mail: luiginadebiasi@libero.it

- “Progetto Alice Universal Education School onlus” (Friuli) Italia, Banca Popolare di Vicenza – Cividale del Friuli (UD) – branch IBAN: IT41 N 05728 63740 731570528546 BIC/SWIFT: BPVIIT22731 Ref: Ms. Agata Montevecchi – mail: aghifly@libero.it

 
- gloria.germani@alice.it
 
- luciana usellini (cherab50@gmail.com)

Ciao Odorico.
                      Grazie per la tua generosita’. Ripareremo il tetto e i bambini torneranno a fare yoga e recitare mantra, sperando nella clemenza del prossimo ciclone. I danni avrebbero potuto essere molto piu’ seri, vista la potenza del vento. L’insegnante di yoga ha invitato gli studenti a recitare mantra e preghiere per tutta la durata del ciclone. Credo che le preghiere abbiano pacificato il dio della pioggia e del vento che ha risparmiato altre strutture fragili della scuola e, soprattutto, non ha ferito alcun studente.
I bambini delle elementari erano nelle aule piu’ a rschio (con tetto di paglia). Se un albero fosse caduto su un’aula, chissa’ che cosa sarebbe accaduto.
Insomma, la nostra buona stella continua a proteggerci.
Ho letto il tuo blog. Lo usero’ per i prossimi corsi di aggiornamento, ammesso che le suore siano ancora presenti.
Grazie per l’invito a visitare la famiglia del tuo amico. Me l’avevi gia’ fatto questo invito, quando mi trovavo in uno stato psicologico non molto, come dire?, equilibrato. Terro’ presente anche questa “via di fuga” dal quotidiano e dai problemi…
Grazie e un abbraccio
Valentino

Ps. Se hai tempo, dai un’occhiata ai contenuti del blog nelle nostre pagine web e anche a quelli del nuovo progetto  bodhgayanews.org Ti segnalo, in particolare, una notizia e un commento, che ti invio…

 The Times of India

Hopes float on ’school on boat’

Binay Singh, TNN, Apr 21, 2010, 05.08am IST
VARANASI: Here comes a floating school for the children of the boatmen. In a novel gesture, a local social organisation and some enterprising people have launched two ’schools on boats’ for providing informal education to the children of the economically backward community who could not enroll in schools. In the first step, 62 boys and girls are being provided informal education on two boats at the Rajghat.
These children row the boats amid chants, but their chants have a unique connotation. Their every movement is filled with a purpose. For them, it is a way to education. “Humko angrezi ka A B C D yaad ho gaya hai (I have learnt alphabets),” says Gunja, a 12-year-old girl from the boatmen community. Govind (17), who has never been to school, is also busy learning English so that he can interact with foreign tourists.
 
“In Varanasi, the Ganga River is a way of life, especially for the thousands of boatmen and their families who depend on the river for sustenance. Through this initiative, we are trying to develop an interest in learning in these children as well as their parents, who consider sending their wards to school a waste of time,” a volunteer of the Vishal Bharat Sansthan (VBS), the social organization spearheading the campaign, told TOI.
The ‘classes’ are held on two medium-sized boats. The children assemble at the ghat at 4.30pm, even before the arrival of their teachers. They then take their seats on the two boats and the class begins with a prayer. Govind and his brother Abhishek (eldest of the lot) take the charge of rowing the boats. The class continues till 6.30pm. Schooling on floating boats is also a fun activity for these children, who are skilled in swimming.
It is only the eldest boys among them who row the boats during the two-hour floating classes in the afternoon. A boatman, Gurucharan Sahani, has voluntarily provided two boats for the purpose. The teachers come from Banaras Hindu University (BHU), government offices and those from VBS provide their services free of cost.

Comment

Interview with a Bodhgaya tourist.

By Sanje Kumar

Georje is a friend of the Bodhgaya people. He is a retired journalist and teacher. He uses to visit the holy city every year. “For twenty five years I’ve come to Bodhgaya to pray at the Holy Stupa and interact with local people. I like to talk with teachers, social workers, educationists, and religious people in order to discuss the way to improve the quality of life of the common men and women. It seems that the benefits of tourism are not reaching the villages surrounding Bodhgaya, but end up in the pockets of a few businessmen and religious merchants. In fact, every year I witness a degeneration of the physical and social environment. In spite all the money that is spent on literacy, Education by the Government and the NGO, it seems that we are far from reaching positive results.’

“Let’s talk about Education. Did you read the news related to the so called Varanasi boat-schools? What do you think?”

“No, let me read the news…”

We show the article of Times of India.

Georje laughs heartily.

“This is nothing new. In all the world the schools became a show, a circus where everybody make experiments, tries funny methods… then they write a book and they have the arrogance to claim exceptional results. The field of education is full of sycophants and self-proclaimed gurus who claim to have found the solution to the problems of the Universe. I remember an American research made by a famous psychologist in a Junior and Senior High School. The famous psychologist (‘Emotional Intelligence’, now is the common way to talk about it!) received huge amounts of money for a practical experiment against teasing and bullying among the students. He brought his assistants, professors, peons and whatever he could, included cameramen and journalists, inside the school. He worked for months with the students to prove that his method was working. And, of course, it worked! How can the students not to change their habitual behavior in front of an army of strangers who are monitoring them and filming them? The students gave the expected answers to the researchers. They stopped teasing and bullying, according to the… script. The researchers shouted “Eureka! our method is working” and they left the school happy and satisfied, ready to write one or more books about their findings and success. The sponsors were satisfied too. Can you see the naivety of all this? Of course the thieves will stop stealing if they are surrounded by police! If you know that a famous psychologist is making a research about your bad behavior, don’t you try to show your better face and hide your shadow, at least till the experiment is finish? Who likes to be described as violent? Who likes that his/her school is painted in a negative way?  Recently, in the newspaper there was an article of the sexual perversion of the founder of the Legion of Christ, Fr. Marcial Maciel, who abused several young seminarists. He abused the children for decades, in spite two commissions of inquiring promoted by the Vatican against the priest. When the victims were asked by the commission about the sexual violence, the boys vehemently denied it.

Why? They justified their behavior in this way, “We felt that our Religious Order was under attack and we felt proud to defend it!”

This to prove my point related to experiment, researches and new methods. I want to say that we must be very careful before claiming victory in the field of education.

I have knowledge of parents who were proud with teachers and neighbors because they were convinced that their two children were absolutely exceptional and positive. The hidden thought behind their enthusiasm was, “My children are good because they have wonderful parents who gave them extraordinary education!”

But those parents claimed victory too soon. In fact, to their horror, they discovered that their adorable children were both involved in trafficking drugs!

The whole Universe collapsed burying them under shame.

But it was their mistake. We cannot claim success too early. The field of education is minefield. When you are sure that you’ve reached your target, suddenly something happens that makes you postpone the… celebrations.

It will take decades to test an Educational method and its vision. It is ridiculous to write books to teach parents what and how to do, only on the basis of few years of research and experiments.  But the so called academic scholars and professors are in a hurry. If they do not write their “scientific” papers, how on earth they can proceed in their career? If they do not “prove” that they have invented something new, different, how can they be famous, being invited for lectures, conferences, and interviews to make their living? We could say that for the most part these new revolutionary methods are flops. I repeat, if you are a serious researcher in the field of education you will not claim any final result till you are hundred per cent sure that your method:

Works in short term

Works in medium term

Works in the long term (30,50 years after the results are still there)

It can be repeated in other places

It can be repeated in the conditions of normal life.

What do you mean, “It can be repeated in the conditions of normal life?” 

at the two pictures: where do the students have the highest chances to succeed?

I will answer with an example. Five years ago I was invited to visit a kindergarten in California. I was told that it was a pilot school where the kids were learning wisdom and kindness. I went there. It was an amazing place surrounded by secular trees, in the middle of the forest, in one of the most expensive places in the State. There were about 20 children attended by 5/6 teachers, plus other members of the staff. The school was five stars standard. The lady principal was enthusiastic of the results. According to her the children were successfully learning kindness while following the standard curriculum. “I will spread our method all over the world!” said the principal, convinced that she discovered the method for eternal happiness. I thought about Indian kindergarten where 50 or 60 children are packed in one room, without any comfort and didactic material, with only one teacher. I imagine the principal teaching how to be kind and compassionate to village children who did not have biscuits, chocolate, porridge, jam, milk for breakfast, and do not have even the pencil to write… This is what I mean that a method, to be successful, must be repeated in the conditions of normal life. If the principal can have the same results in a normal Indian kindergarten, in the summer season, where there is no electricity, water, toilettes… then she can claim success. Otherwise she is only cheating herself and the people. 

Did you meet the principal again?

No, but I know that she fulfilled her dream to spread … happiness around the world. In fact, she became an International teachers’ trainer!

See, there is no difference between the news of “Boat schools” and the VIP kindergarten. Both are … Maya. Illusion. Let me call them with this Indian well known word. We could call “folk schools” or “folk education”. Just funny experiments for the press…Like the School-boat. Can you imagine 60 children on the boats trying to write and read? Two hours up and down on the polluted Ganga to learn English because they need to communicate with the tourists! Those children do not need learn English from BHU professor, because they already speak fluent English. They have learned it, not floating on the Ganga, but talking with the tourists and interacting with them. They have learned practically, not in an extremely artificial and humorous way, up and down on the Ganga’s waves. It is true, they do not know how to write English, but they will never learn it sitting on the boat! To learn how to write and read English and Hindi they need an appropriate place, with appropriate didactic material and trained teachers. Only a serious, formal school can offer all this. Those children have the right to receive this serious and professional education. Otherwise we are again spoiling them, like many NGOs are doing in Bodhgaya.

Can you elaborate the last statement?

Look how some local NGO are trying to get funds from foreigners. They paint Indian children as beggars and the local Governmental Institutions as inefficient, unable to give a good education useful to succeed in their life. On the name of good education, those NGOs ask for money and support from foreigners. Very few foreigner sponsors, actually, take the time to check the titles and professionalism of the so called social workers who “Want to improve the quality of education for the poor children of Bodhgaya”. How do they will do this? Do they have the qualification to do this? Which kind of methodology will they apply to recuperate the poor children and increase their Intelligence Quotient to make them able to compete with the rich children? If they do not have a proper building, trained teachers, audio-video material, science laboratory… how can they have a chance to escape poverty and illiteracy, as they claim in their booklets? See here an example taken from the internet. A local NGO is asking for money in this way. They show the photo of two poor girls and they write literally:

“These two girls represent the many other girls and boys in Bihar who want to go to school but can not. To enable a child of the poorest castes to attend school and learn to read and write requires funds. (…. Name of the NGO) serve children of families who cannot afford to pay the school fees. By becoming a school sponsor, you will enable young girls and boys get an education that will give them a chance to escape poverty and illiteracy for a happier and more productive life.” 

Left side: Indian Vip (Very important person) English Medium School. Left side: Nip (Not important person) students. How can the NGO give to Nip children a “change to escape poverty and illiteracy” if they do not have proper building, trained teachers, didactic material?

The Government is spending a huge amount of money for the education of girls. Everything is free for them. They even have free lunch, uniform, bicycle, and pocket money. What the NGO writes is a pure lie to extort money to the foreigners who are also indirectly responsible for the corruption and degeneration of ethics and values of Bodhgaya society.

What do you suggest?

I do not have the wisdom to find solutions to the problems of the modern society. India has the resources to invent a new model of education. Maybe, the Government should put more energy to train the teachers of its schools, because they are receiving a huge amount of money. The western sponsors should be more careful with their donations. Often they end up sponsoring corruption and dishonesty on the skin of the poor children who are used as tools to get money and economical profit. Just check how the river of money coming from sponsors is used in Bodhgaya. Only a small amount is used for charity. What is the final result of this river of money arriving to the Bodhgaya NGO? We can still see poverty and pollution everywhere. Still the poor children remain poor and cannot compete with the rich children. Very few succeed to find a better life, as all the NGO promise in their advertisements. I would say to anyone who has the good heart to help the poor of Bodhgaya: “Do not act out of your emotions. Use your rational mind to understand the situation and discern between honest and dishonest people. If you are unable to do this, do not act; do not be kind and compassionate without wisdom! The beggars in Bodhgaya are increasing because of your …good heart.”

Caro Valentino,

sono Odorico.

Ti ringrazio della considerazione in cui tieni il mio blog, se intendi usarlo per i corsi di aggiornamento delle suore che  operano nella tua scuola.

Lunedì 10 maggio 2010 

sapienza cristiana, sapienza orientale

Sapienza cristiana e sapienza indiana in questo s’incontrano: la spiritualità è unione e comunione-yoga- con la Via, la Verità, la Vita: la conoscenza ne è una partecipazione integrale, già in questa vita.
La via, la verità, la vita è in noi stessi la nostra intimità più propria, l’autentico sé o atman, e al contempo in sé ci comprende , quale Logos, Verbo, Dharma,- in un rapporto di immanenza reciproca tra un’infinità interiore e un’ infinità esteriore- “il castello” di Teresa d’Avila e della Chandogya,- che manifestano il Brahman – Dio Padre- che è trascendente- l’agricoltore della Vite di cui in Cristo siamo i tralci eppure “tutto in tutti( Paolo, Corinzi)
“Conosciti in me, conoscimi in te”, Tat tvam asi ” Questo sei tu”.
Tale via, verità e vita, è in noi stessi una consapevolezza originaria, alla cui rivelazione profonda dobbiamo risvegliarci, di cui, in una sequela ,occorre aumentare in noi la presenza mentale illuminante- lo Spirito quale “interior magister”. Tale sequela è uno svuotamento del nostro Ego nei suoi attaccamenti, una rinuncia a ogni ” possesso geloso”,( Filippesi), il cui esito è il conseguimento della pace della equidistanza interiore- in cui si decanta la singolarità del nome divino di cui siamo espressione, che è il volto che ci fa assumere la vocazione della nostra capacità di amare a Sua immagine e somiglianza
” Se qualcuno vuol venire dietro a me, rinneghi se stesso, prenda la sua croce ogni giorno e mi segua. Chi vorrà salvare la propria vita la perderà, ma chi perderà la propria vita per me, la salverà”( Luca, 9, 23-24)
In tal senso la kenosi è la verità intradivina che si rivela nelle sapienze orientali.
Ma non resta, forse, quale differenza cristiana,- è la domanda residua- che cosa significhi il dimorare in Dio, in quanto dimorare nel suo amore? Da esso inabitati, per farci come Egli amore, dal momento che siamo comandati ad amarci l’un l’altro come egli ci ha amato, e ci ama,fino alla fine ( Giovanni, 13.34, 15.12, 13.1)- “anzi alla morte di croce”- per amore gratuito del nostro nemico?
O in Prajapati, nella Yagina, non c’è la stessa estasi d’amore dell’Agnello sgozzato fin dalla fondazione del mondo?

Pubblicato da odorico a 09.17 0 commenti

Io  credo di potere esservi fecondo in quanto posso situarmi ove s’incontrano realmente cristianesimo e sapienza indiana , in ragione di un ascolto reale della reale Parola dei testi del cristianesimo messa a confronto almeno con le vulgate più attendibili di buddismo e  induismo,

Cerco di evitare di abbracciare l’induismo o il buddismo in ragione di una recezione e di un rifiuto di versioni del Cristianesimo che non sono all altezza della verità della Parola che vi è incarnata, come tanti induisti o buddisti occidentali, pur di grande altezza di ingegno  quali Achaan Sumedo , o di  permanere nella ritrosia di farmi anche buddista o hindu, per gli  accreditamenti più fantasmatici. della loro sapienza. Per  farmi intendere meglio prima che  cali per me il silenzio definitivo,, secondo me non è incompatibile essere di duplice e triplice fede , perchè Cristo, il Verbo,  non si è manifestato solo incarnandosi in Gesù,

Se è vero,- Giovanni, lettera prima, cui farò costante riferimento, che “Chi confessa che Gesù è il figlio di Dio/ Dio dimora in lui e lui in Dio,” secondo la rivelazione e l’umanizzazione del Logos in Gesù di Nazaret, – accettando che lo spirito abita la carne e che anima la polvere sino a farle risorgere a vita eterna,-,  è altresì vero che è comunque in Dio, – mediante un Cristo sconosciuto a chi crede alla sua manifestazione in Gesù o a chi è uomo terrestre, e non d’altri mondi,-, chinque ama l un l’altro di amore vero- di gratuita donazione reciproca disinteressata- e pratica la giustizia, poichè

” chiunque pratica la giustizia è nato da Dio”,

” e chiunque ama è stato generato da Dio e conosce Dio”.

Ubi charitas est vera, Deus ibi est.

In tal senso le beatitudini cristiane e l ottuplice sentiero buddista o le varie marg e yoga hindu  possono adempiersi nella stessa pienezza di vita non mondana, se non si incorre nei reciproci travisamenti – i principali dei quali  mi sembrano che siano, rispetto al buddismo, la credenza che assicuri già in questa vita la beatitudine del risveglio perchè assicurerebbe nel samadhi uno stato permanente di non sofferenza indifferente e irresponsabile, la quieta vuota di un adualismo perpetuo, rispetto al cristianesimo, invece, la credenza che la vita buona sia una vita di  obbedienza  legalistica a dei comandamenti impostici, in ragione dell’attesa interessata di un frutto salvifico, o per timore di un castigo, mentre vi si  insegna,  piuttosto, che non vale a essere in Dio il timor di Dio ” perchè chi teme non è giunto a pienezza d’amore” e la vera obbedienza può avvenire  solo per amore, se si acquisisce lo stesso “sentire” che fu  in Gesù Cristo- Lettera ai Filippesi-, amandoci l un l’altro come egli ci ha amato dello stesso Amore che il Padre aveva per lui, in lui facendoci dono di se stesso.

 Questo volevo scriverti, fintanto che trovo parole. e gioia nella sofferenza più  dolorosa per la sorte del mio amico indiano.

Oggi era sconvolto perchè è stato derubato delle 2.000 rupie che gli occorrevano per i vestiti nuovi dei suoi bambini , nella concomitanza di un marriage party e della puja  rituale.

Nemmeno il mio invio riparatore di un importo minimo di  euro è bastato a  calmargli la mente.

Che cosa ho da darti in cambio, si doleva, se non i miei principi?

Puoi darmi di essermi amico, gli ho ribadito..

Che tu sai, per me è infinitamente (tanto) di più di ciò che per lui vale il mio contante. 

  Caro Valentino, in oltre se  la notizia e il commento cui ti riferivi  sono i testi concernenti la ” floating school”, condivido tutto il sarcasmo dell’ opinionista, e il suo appello a una carità ragionevole e saggia, di meno la sua confidenza indiana nella  virtuosità  intrinseca e nella necessità imprescindibile di apparati tecnologici. educativi

I miei studenti, ad esempio, se una volta che è stata a loro concessa viene tolta la multimedialità,  per ragioni indipendenti dalla volontà del loro insegnante,  gli si rivoltano contro ancora più aggressivamente, senza alcuna grata memoria,  appena si torna a libro e gessetto.

Caro Valentino,  tutto quello che in precedenza ho scritto è vero, infatti, se si tiene ben presente ciò che scrisse il grande teologo ortodosso Pavel Florenskij: ” Si, la vita è fatta in modo che si può dare qualcosa al mondo solo pagandone poi il fio con sofferenze e persecuzioni. E più il dono è disinteressato, più crudeli sono le persecuzioni, e dure le sofferenze”.

Love

Odorico

slides tesi laurea

TESI Universal Education Alice Project

TESI corretta Alice Project

Logo

Awakening Special Universal Education Society
Alice Project School, Sarnath, UP 221007, India Phone 09973918773 mail v_giacomin@hotmail.com  www.aliceproject.org

 Synopsis of the Alice Project

Students

By

Valentino Giacomin

Theam Covered

 Cognitive reframing/ reconstruction

Overview

Using a series of stories, techniques, meditation and yoga we want to stimulate the transpersonal intelligence of the students. This is to help them to cope with the traumatic experience of the global warming, the crisis of society and the present educational system, which affect their lives and their psyche. The alarming increase of violence in our society and at schools – teasing, bulling, and physical harassment – is the symptom of a serious deep social and psychological disease that we have to recognize first, and then try to cure. How to help the students who are carrying in their mind psychological scars caused by traumatic events (violence in their family, disturbing experiences, abuse victims, bullysm, natural disaster, loss of relatives…)?

The Alice Project View
By using metaphors to depict the stressful experiences of the students, we incorporate the wisdom of major religions followed by our students (Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam) and their ethics based on wisdom (seeing the mental and physical phenomena from a different perspective, a higher point of view) and the power of positive thinking that generates positive emotions such as love and positive response to others’ negative behavior (forgiveness). With scientific research (scientific account of perception) and psychological techniques we intend to realize a cognitive reframing of the traumatic experiences of the students. For example: the difference between a hero and a traitor depends on the point of view. If we change the point of view, a hero can turn into a villain and a villain into a hero.  So the students are encouraged not look for a villain or a hero, an enemy or friend outside of themselves. “By watching your mind, you will find the whole universe!” This is our ecological paradigm. Once the students shift the focus of their attention (mindfulness) from the external phenomena to their inner world (internal phenomena such as thoughts, feeling, emotions, images) we invite them to watch the “inner show” without judgment. The target of this meditation is to help the students to understand the inner dualism inside their mind: I and other thoughts. (See below) 

Meeting National Standards

This special program was developed in accord with the Indian National scheme, which promotes culture and values in education.

The Scheme of Assistance to the Agencies for Strengthening Culture and Values in Education started in 1988-89.
The Scheme has two aims:
a.        Strengthening cultural and value education inputs in the school and non-formal education system.
b.       Strengthening the in-service training of art, craft, of music and dance teachers.

Teaching According to the Alice Project Methodology

Curriculum Rationale

We do not directly focus students’ attention on any particular incident or fact, but we promote reflective processing with the final target of changing the perspective, the point of view. [Reference: V. Giacomin, Il Maestro di Alice, Ed. Publiprint, Trento, 1988, Follette,V., Ruzek,J, Abueg, F. Cognitive-behavioral therapies for trauma. Guilford Press: 1988. Beck, A.T. (1976). Cognitive therapy and emotional disorders New York: International University Press. Pynoos, R. & Eth, S. (1985). Witnessing Violence: The child interview, Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry. 25, 306-319. ]

The students are encouraged develop their own point of view by reasoning, discussion, practical experiences, meditation, drawing, songs, theater, scientific experiments and religious myths. They are encouraged to shift their minds from an old scientific western paradigm based on dualistic vision of the reality to a new paradigm based on a holistic and unitary perception of themselves and the world. This way of thinking is for instance common to Christianity, Sufism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. (5) The consequence is a new relationship with nature and society (ecology of mind, or deep ecology).  

Assumption

The assumption of the Alice Project methodology is that suffering is caused by a wrong perception of the reality. If we want to end suffering we have to consider the chain of cognition:

Thought – images – ideas – emotions – physical reaction – language (speaking) – motivation – decision – re-action – result of action for oneself – result of action for others.

 
From a wrong or inadequate thought, come wrong ideas, painful physical reactions, harsh words, wrong motivation, wrong decisions, wrong reactions, wrong actions, and negative results for oneself and others.

According to Alice Project intuition and experience and cognitive therapy, it seems that all kinds of suffering are based on irrational or inadequate thoughts. We infer that also the pain caused by anger, hate and desire of revenge in our students is not only the direct result of an incident, but mainly the result of a wrong pattern of thinking. The students’ memories are filled with poisonous thoughts. Whenever those vicious thoughts arise, the cognitive chain becomes pathological. At the end, the result is pathological: suffering.

 
It is important to help the students to understand that even psychological suffering is caused by a wrong perception of inner reality. In other words, we suffer because we are ignorant. We do not know how inner phenomena exist.

Philosophical Remedy

Cognitive behavior therapy (Albert Ellis, Aaron T. Beck) suggests recognizing distorted thinking and learning and suggest substituting it with more realistic ideas. The invalid, depressive thoughts are rejected and replaced by more accurate ones.

Alice Project approach develops this further: Valentino Giacomin, the founder of the project, writes in the Synopsis of Alice Project (Alice Project, 2005, Introduction):

“To heal the wounds of traumatized children we should not only work on a specific incident and the resulting invalid thoughts, but we should help the children to recognize the real root of all suffering. The traumatic experience of the killing and the resulting suffering is only a secondary cause of suffering. In other words, it is itself the result of a pre-existing negative cognitive chain of thoughts.

Victims and perpetrators are both results of a pathological cognitive chain, deriving from an invalid thought, and an inaccurate way of thinking. The Bible calls it “original sin” or the beginning of the valley of sorrow (6).

What is the mythological (symbolic) beginning of this hell on earth? We can find it in the creation myths of almost all religions: dualistic thought (the tree of good and bad in the Eden). The dualistic vision of the world is the cause of the “original sin” or ignorance: perceiving the world as separate and independent from God (according to Hinduism), from ourselves, perceiving ourselves as separate and independent from others, while we are not. We need to shift from the old dualistic paradigm (mechanical vision) to a new one, which states that we are interdependent: we are one, the Whole, the Totality. If we do not realize this and perceive ourselves within the limited boundary of our ego-mind, identifying ourselves with the thought of an “I”, it would be as if the ocean identified itself with a small wave. From this wrong vision comes what we call the existential suffering. This is the suffering which precedes all other sufferings, included the pains of our students and their parents.”

1.      Scientific approach

 
By using a scientific explanation we help the students to understand that their perception of the world is usually inadequate.  The two fundamental mistakes are:
 a.      We perceive what is not due to the inaccuracy of knowledge built though our senses.
 b.      We perceive the phenomena as existing in a wrong place (out there). (See Dzog Chen, Mahamudra teachings)
   

 The Scientific Account of Perception

“The objects reflect the light from the sun in all directions. Some of this light from a particular, unique point on the object will fall all over the corneas of the eyes and the combined cornea/lens system of the eyes will divert the light to two points, one on each retina. The pattern of points of light on each retina forms an image. The overall effect is to encode position data on a stream of photons and to transfer this encoding onto a pattern on the retina. The patterns on the retina are the only optical images found perception, prior to the retinas light is arranged as a fog of photons going in all directions.

The resolved data from the retina is sent to the brain though the optic nerve in the visual cortex where some areas have relatively more specialized functions (modeling of the motion, adding color…). The resulting single image that the subjects report as their experience is called a ‘percept’.” 

 
So, What we actually see is not an external object, but its reflex, an image built by our brain.  What we perceive is only the final result of the brain activity. We could say that the brain perceives itself! (Indirect Realism opposed to Direct Realism- John Locke, E. Kant).

     The original sin of perception and the target of the course

If the students do not recognize the difference between ‘percept’ and external phenomena, they will make the mistake of believing that their thoughts and mental images are the material reality (naïve realism). This is, of course, a wrong thought. The wrong thought will be the origin of the invalid chain of cognition, simply known as ignorance.  How can we get rid of this original sin? 

2.      Long-term objectives of cognitive reframing

At the end of the course, the students should recognize the inadequacy of their old way of thinking. By discovering that the external world is absolutely empty of their mental images and thoughts they can develop new perspectives. In other words, they cannot find the content of the mind (ideas, concepts, thoughts) outside the mind itself, i.e. in the external world.  Usually, we do not know this, because we do neither know how the mind is working nor the mechanism of projection. All our knowledge is based on this wrong perception of the world, unknowing that the perceived world we see is merely a mental creation. During the course, we will help the students to reframe their knowledge, after “demolishing” the old wrong view that believes in the existence of an independent world “out there”.

Finally the students are trained to watch themselves, their thoughts, emotions, and see the world from a different perspective: from within.

 
The students are encouraged to understand that the dualistic vision of the external word which is the cause of ecological disaster is transferred into our mind (I and my emotions; I and the thought of others). As we separate in the external word the sun from the moon, the Earth from other planets, one continent from other continents, in the same way we separate the inner phenomena. We separate the I-thought from other thoughts. We think that the I is something which exists apart from other functions of the mind. We try to help the students to discover the consequences of this way of thinking. Is there in our mind an independent thought called I? If we believe there is such an independent thought, then what is the result? We do not need to study many books to answer to this question. We have just to look at our mind, right now. Are we happy? Is our mind relaxed? Is there always peace? Can we control our mind or our mind, our thoughts our emotions are carrying us where they want, without any power from our side? Is there happiness in our mind or we feel confused, worried, anxious and unsatisfied? Why are we suffering from inner conflicts, negative emotions like jealousy, anger, pride, attachment? If this is the result of our way of thinking about our I, then we have to think that, may be, something is wrong there.

What is wrong? May be we do not have a right understanding about what is going on in our mind, about the nature of our I-thought. In other words, we are victim of our ignorance, our wrong views. As we mentioned before, from wrong views wrong emotions come and, finally, wrong actions.   Who is looking at the thought?  Is the I looking at the thought? (“ I look at!”). If it is the I, then what is this I?  What is made of? From where does it come? Why is it so important? Is the I a thought or something different? If it is a thought, then what is a thought? Is the I real? If so, this mean that our thoughts are real. What is the difference between the I-thought and the thoughts of others? If they are both thoughts, why do we think one is more important then other? If both are a product of the mind.

3.      Curriculum and general objectives

3.1     Helping the students to heal their destructive emotions developing an Intrapersonal Intelligence (7) and reframing (cognitive restructuring) the vision (Newton vision) of themselves and the world, through a dialectic process of thesis, antithesis and synthesis, based on a new western scientific paradigm (concept of Unity) and holistic vision of oriental religions.

a)      I think I am this. (thesis – position – affirmation)
b)      I am not what I think I am. (antithesis – opposition – negation)
c)      My identity is beyond thoughts. (synthesis – reconciliation – reaffirmation – transcendence) 

3.2     To present the value of incorporating the parents and adults into the student’s support system

 4. Didactic program – First year course

Theoretical, anthropological and philosophical approach, following the traditional culture of Indian students (8) Specific objectives – step-by-step – topics of the course  

I. Didactic Unit

Outside and inside – thoughts and emotions
 a) Outside: Analysis external reality
-         Is our ‘outside’ and ‘inside’ separate or united?
-         What elements are outside? (Trees, houses, sky, clouds…)   
-         What is our body doing at this moment? (Are we sitting? are we writing?) 
-         What are we doing? (We are looking, we are listening, and we are   touching)
b) Analysis Sensation and Perceptions 
-         Sight- hearing- taste- smell- touch
-         Inside: Thoughts
-         What lies inside us? (Heart, lungs,…)
          Following our breath, we go ‘inside’.
-         What do we find?
      The ‘house’ of thoughts, emotions, memories…
          Fast thoughts, obsessive thoughts, pleasant thoughts, thoughts that hurt us,
      pleasant emotions, unpleasant emotions… -         Where do they come from?
-         Where do they end?
-         What are they made of?
-         What do we do when we don’t like them?
-         And when we like them?
-         If we observe our thoughts without judging them, we realize they originate through perceptions, and are generally followed by an emotion. Thoughts and emotions are energy. Our mind is like a lake: only when it is free from thoughts and emotions, the ‘water’ is still, and we are able to perceive elements –and phenomena- as they really are. However, when we throw a stone –thought or emotion- into the lake, or when the wind blows on the surface, the ‘water’ is agitated. The images of elements and phenomena it reflects are then confused and no longer clear. 
-         Still lake = silence of the mind. 
-         Our human mind can also be compared to a mirror: when it is clean, we can see the image it reflects clearly. Our mind is, however, generally like a dirty mirror: if we want to see the images it reflects, we need to clean it. We need to purify our mind from its filters. 

II. Didactic Unit

a)      Mind and body theories
b)      The functions of mind: (Hindu psychology)
-         Thinking
-         Knowing
-         Feeling
-         Planning
-         Volition
c)      Six Power of Mind ( Hindu psychology)
-    Vedana Sakti (power of perception or knowing though the senses: sense knowledge)
-         Smarana Sakti (power of memory; it grasps, it holds, it retains)
-         Bhavana Sakti (power of imagination)
-         Manisha Sakti  (power of judgment, ascertainment, logical reasoning, comparing,
      contrasting, drawing inferences, discussion, conclusion)
-         Ichha Sakti and Sanklpa Sakti (power of will or volition)
-         Dharana Sakti (power to hold)         
d)      The mental process of thinking which allows beings to model the world
-       Abstract thinking
-         Critical thinking
-         Lateral thinking
-         Memory
-         Picture thinking
-         Sushupti Avastha (deep sleep- non dualistic-bliss)

III. Didactic Unit Inside – Emotions

-         What are the most common emotions? (Joy, happiness, fear, anger, jealousy, sadness)
-         Can we recognize them?
-         How do we express them?
-         What are our emotional reactions? (We can try to follow the inverse path)
-         What can we do of our emotions? (We can talk about them, draw them, color them,
      and dramatize them)
-         When we are aware, are we able to see them as they originate?
-        If we are aware, we observe them without judging.

IV. Didactic Unit

 Know yourself. Who am I? 
-          Emotions, as well as thoughts, are part of us, but we are not our emotions and our thoughts.  -         What happens if we refuse our thoughts and emotions? How do we feel?

V. Didactic Unit

Awareness 
-         What does awareness mean?
-         Awareness means living here, now.  Generally, we either live projected in the future,
      or we are trapped in the memory of what’s past.
      Awareness is an important seed to cultivate in our mind’s garden.
-         Are we aware –for instance- when we are eating or when we are walking?
-         We could choose some moments of our day to practice our awareness and observe:
       What are we doing? What are we thinking about? How are we feeling?
-         Are we aware that we exist in relation with the ‘Whole’?

VI. Didactic Unit

Interdependence and relationships 
-        How can we demonstrate that we exist in relation with the ‘Whole’?
-         Are we separated from other elements?
-         What links us? (Air, light, etc.)
-         Where does ‘my’ air start and where does ‘yours’ end?
      Is the air we breathe separate from the air the trees in the garden breathe?
-         Where is the border of our body? Can we find it? Could we live zipped in a plastic bag?
      How big would that need to be?
-         Are the borders between countries ‘real’? Can we actually find them physically?
-         Where do they come from then? Can they be removed?
-         What do borders and separations lead to?
-         Let’s look at –for example- a map of Africa: countries are shaped like geometrical figures.
      Sometimes we raise ‘walls’ between others and ourselves and we fail to communicate with
       them. What happens then? It leads only to suffering and problems.
-         If we only exist in relation with the ‘Whole’, what happens when we negate a part of it, such
      as obsessive thoughts and unpleasant emotions?
-         Can we be at peace with ourselves, if we attack a part of us?
-         How can we reach that peace then?
 

VII. Didactic Unit

Active Listening (Gordon)
-         Firstly, we should listen to ourselves, and observe without judging.
       Only after we can accept what is happening within us.
-         ‘Distancing’ process = we set a distance between ourselves and our thoughts or emotions.
      We are not ‘inside’ them, but we observe them from ‘outside’. 
-         The universe is one and indivisible. We are all linked to other elements as in a long chain.
-         If a part is sick, the entire body suffers. We take care of the sick part and don’t remove it!
-         How can we repair the chain, if it breaks?
       If we kill an animal we should at least try to save another one.
-         We are not separate islands, but we depend upon all other elements.
-         Look at a tree. What does it need to survive?
-         Story of a chapatti or of a glass of milk
-         If we understand the interdependence between all elements,
      we don’t pollute the environment, but we respect it – as we are part of it.
-         Education to ecology
-         Every one of our actions leads to a result.

5. Didactic program – Second year course

I. Didactic Unit Cause and effect

  -        If we plant carrots in our field, we will get carrots, not potatoes!
-         A small seed can be the beginning of a very big plant.
-         A small cause can have a great effect.
-         A small action can cause a big result. A tiny match can set on fire a centuries-old forest.
-         Causes can be visible or hidden.
 -   The result can be immediate, in the short term, or in the long term. 
-         Not only actions, but even thoughts are like rocks thrown into space that will –eventually-
      return to the person that threw them. (Einstein)
-         Thoughts, words and actions are like boomerangs that always come back.
-         It is important to observe our motivation for undertaking a certain actions.

 II. Didactic Unit Motivation

-        Motivation gives a ‘charge’ to the action we are about to undertake.
-        Different motivations lead to different ‘levels’ of an action.
Example: when we decide to rescue a person who is in danger, we may do so because of different motivations: because of fear of accusations or fear of others’ opinions, because of a desire for fame, because the person in danger is a human being just like us)

III. Didactic Unit Subjectivity of perception and becoming  

-         Are others really as we perceive them?
-         Are our perceptions right?
-         We do no perceive the subtle change in phenomena.
-         We cannot see grass or plants growing.
-         We cannot see people getting old. People do not become old suddenly.
-         Everything changes. Nothing stands still.
-         If we do not realize this, then attachment, desire and anger will result. 
Story of Master Lin and the train
The passengers do not develop attachment to the coach where they stay on their trip as they know that everything is impermanent and changing. For now this is my seat, but only for a short time. It would be silly if I developed attachment to it and I suffered when Ieaving!
Eraclites : “You cannot bathe twice in the same river!”
-         What do we put between others and us? Many filters
-         What could act as a filter?
      Emotions, the education we received, religion, tradition, expectations, projections,…

IV. Didactic Unit Relativity of time and space.

 
-         The time of a child and the time of an adult
-         Time and sickness
-         Time and pleasant situations
-         Experience beyond time (ecstasies, concentration, absorption, etc.)
V. Didactic Unit Where do phenomena exist? Where are the qualities?
-         Where do phenomena exist?
-         Outside or inside us?
-         What happens when we look at someone?
-         How do we perceive him or her?
-         United to or separated from us?
-         Are our perceptions the same as others?
 -         Let’s take –for instance- a lemon ice cream. Why everybody doesn’t like it?
-         Where is the ‘goodness’ of ice cream?
-         Where do different tastes come from?
-         Let’s look at a friend. We will all see him in different ways:
      One fact but different opinions. Where do they come from?
-         When we form opinions, it’s as if we were putting on labels.
      Where do these labels come from?
-         Can we change them?
-         What happens if we identify with them?
-         Where should we work if we want to change our friend, outside or inside us?
An ancient Indian saying asks “If you are to walk on a road full of stones, would it be easier to cover it with a carpet, or to wear sandals?”
VI. Didactic Unit Different states of consciousness
 Instinctive – reasoning – intuitive – non dualistic (blissful state sat-chit-ananda)
-   The three Avasthas (state of mind according to Yoga)
       Jagrat Avastha (waking state),  Svapna Avastha (dreaming state)
-  The cause of mental suffering: Avidya (ignorance-wrong perception of the world)
-         Thoughts are movements of the mind  (Vritti: waves of thoughts)
-         Thoughts like a mind’s wave
-         The principal wave: the I-thought
-         Ignorance: identification with the I-thought (I believe to be is a thought!)
-  The cause of happiness: Absence of Ignorance Vidya (wisdom;
    Vritti – the wave thought – is absorbed into the Nature of the Mind: Brahman – Laya)
-      I am not my thoughts
-      Knowledge of self
-   The psychodynamic laws (Assagioli –  psycosinthesis) (9)
-   Thought and picture of the world (Bohm – Philosophy of perception)
-    “The world is the projection of the mind” (Giacomin – I the  Creator)
-      From polluted mind (thoughts) comes a polluted world.
-      If we “control” our thoughts, we can “control” the world.
Didactic program – Techniques
Yoga
-   Antar Mouna, Chidakasha, Trataka Meditation

Meditation of the five letters: fivefold Buddhist teachings
     Vision is mind
     Mind is empty
    Emptiness is Clear Light
    ClearLight is Unity
    Unity is Bliss
 Walking Meditation
 Transforming negative thoughts, emotions and energies into positive (through Breathing meditation – Ton Len).
 Techniques for attention, memory and concentration
 Visualization
 Art therapy
 Kaleidoscopes (to help the students appreciate how everyday objects are refracted and changed through the lens. Our agitated mind (thought and emotions) is similar to a kaleidoscope which the perception of our inner and external world).
 Songs
 Stories, fables, cartoons-books of Alice Project (see Appendix)
 Discussion (hermeneutic method)
 Awareness
 Silence

7. One-day lesson
-       If possible, start with a spiritual song or Saint Francis prayer.
-      Motivation: Start analyzing your motivation: why am I here?
      What do I want to achieve? Why?
-      If necessary, apply the “Out of the door technique” (9) (See Appendix)
-     One minute concentration (Trataka meditation)
-      Five minutes Antar Mouna meditation
-      Story related to the topic the teacher want to explain.
-     Discussion about the story using the hermeneutic method (Socrates)
-     One minute silence
-        Feed back: What did you remember? What will you keep with you today?
-         Promise: “Today I will…”
-     Dedication of the good energy for the happiness of the entire universe.
“Since we are interdependent and related each other, my happiness will be others’ happiness. The sorrow of others will be my sorrow. May I work always for the happiness of the entire Universe!  May I be an instrument of peace and love!”
8. Evaluation
-  Preliminary assessment of the personality, memory, moral values, socialization of the students (before starting the program) by the clinical psychologist of the school, Prof. Dr Sharma
- Day by day assessment through interaction with the students (conversation, discussion, questions and answers)
-  Psychological evaluation at the end of the course 

Final Notes

Note (1)  What is the Alice Project?
Final report of the Garrison Institute, after a conference on Contemplative Meditation, New York, 5/6 April 2005
  “Unlike the religious identification of parochial schools, Buddhist and Hindu practices inform educational pedagogy in a variety of non-sectarian schools.  For example, the Alice Project in India is an educational research program that addresses the widespread obstacle of students’ lack of attention and concentration in the classroom.  Twenty years ago, Co-directors Valentino Giacomin and Luigina De Biasi worked with the Tibetan and Hindu philosophy of mindfulness to develop a non-sectarian methodology based on the concept of Unity – unity of the internal world (mind and its relation to body) and external world (scholastics). The Alice Project recognizes that learning is not readily attainable or sustainable if a child’s mind is not present.  Therefore, the project integrates a special program curriculum, including extensive written materials, into the government mandated academic curriculum.  Within this special program, attention training is understood as cultivating not only awareness of mind and focused attention but emotional intelligence as well.  Commenting on his understanding of emotional intelligence, Giacomin recognizes that “emotions are the result of thoughts, and our target is to go back to the source of the thoughts themselves and analyze their nature, not their content. Alice Project teachers model the use of meditation, guided visualizations, self-inquiry, discussion, breath and yoga practices, moral stories, and various mental and physical exercises to help students develop knowledge, wisdom and deeper concentration — all of which help bridge the dualism between the inner world and academic experience.  Through the Alice Project, teachers and students awaken to the nature of mind and perceptions. This awakening plays an essential role in developing sustainable education and a culture of peace since a peaceful mind with wisdom will naturally foster tolerance of diversity and inspire universal responsibility for community as well as the environment. In Giacomin’s words, “Self-knowledge and awareness are a prerequisite for mental equilibrium and happiness.  Only from this basis can compassion and wisdom rise”

Note (2)

Recent school violence and its impact on children and adolescents has prompted parents, teachers, social workers, counselors, administrators, and policy makers to learn more about complicated grief and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) in children and adolescents. It is now accepted that children can, and do experience, all the reactions of PTSD following both violent and nonviolent incidents (Pynoos & Nader, 1988; Dykman, McPhearson, & Ackerman, et al., (1997). Although violence occupies the focus of concern today, it is important that we do not minimize those exposed to traumatic events not of an assaultive nature. Considerable research is available documenting the existence of PTSD following incidents such as industrial fires (March, Amaya-Jackson, Costanzo, Terry, & The Hamlet Fire Consortium, 1993), road traffic accidents (DiGallo, Barry, & Parry-Jones, 1997), environmental tragedies such as hurricanes (Shaw, 1995), and chemically dependent adolescents (Deykin & Buka, 1997).  Schwarz and Kowalski (1991) discovered and later suggested that emotional reactions during a disaster can link the event and formation of malignant memories to PTSD. Children who are neither victims nor witnesses, but are related to the victim as a family member, a peer, a friend going to the same school, or who are living in the same community as the victim can, in fact, be exposed to PTSD by this “relationship”. Freud believed that trauma was not the result of an incident itself but an interaction between an external event and an individual’s intra-psychic organizing tendencies (Piers, 1996). Schwarz & Kowalski (1991), Shaw (1995), and others strongly suggest that “perceived” relatedness and personal vulnerability could leave one exposed to PTSD. When conducting a history, it is critical to consider that exposure as a surviving victim, a witness, or as a non-witness related to a victim, demands that we conduct a further assessment for PTSD because exposure alone can induce trauma.  (Quotation from :  Intervention with Traumatized Children ,William Steele M.A., MSW Melvyn C. Raider, Ph.D., MSW, L.M.F.T. Skillman Center for Children College of Urban, Labor and Metropolitan Affairs Occasional Paper Series 2000 No. 1 August 2000)
Note (3)
In these classes are 45 chakma students who came from Arunachal Pradesh  (North India). They are refugees, a persecuted religious minority from Bangladesh. They are living and studying – free of cost – at the Alice Project School. In this way, we want to avoid the risk of a division among the students’ community   (“You are in the special program!” “You are following the special class!”). We want to make students and parent to understand that the project is part of the Governmental curriculum and as so, it is implemented in all the junior high schools lasses  (from standard 6 to standard 10). We, also, want to convey to the students a message of positive thinking about the whole project: “You are lucky since you are participating to this very exclusive and selective program which is unique in Alice Project Schools. This is a program to develop the power of mind and heart in order to become a real hero!”
Note (4)
Intrapersonal Intelligence (the knowledge of internal aspects of the self, such as knowledge of feeling, the range of emotional response, thinking process, self-reflection and sense of intuition about spiritual realities. This intelligence allows us to be conscious of our consciousness; that is to step back from ourselves and watch oursel;ves as an outside observer. It evolves our capacity to experience wholeness and unity, to discern patterns of connection with a larger order of things, to perceive higher state of consciousness.
Note (5)
Encounter at the Edge of the New Paradigm A Dialogue with E.F. Schumacher by Fritjof Capra
“After tea we moved to Schumacher’s study to begin our discussion in earnest. I opened it by presenting the basic theme of my new book [The Turning Point]. I began with the observation that our social institutions are unable to solve the major problems of our time because they adhere to the concepts of an outdated worldview, the mechanistic worldview of seventeenth-century science. The natural sciences, as well as the humanities and social sciences, have all modeled themselves after classical Newtonian physics, and the limitations of the Newtonian worldview are now manifest in the multiple aspects of global crisis. While the Newtonian model is still the dominant paradigm in our academic institutions and in society at large, I continued, physicists have gone far beyond it. I described the worldview I saw emerging from the new physics—its emphasis on interconnectedness, relationship, dynamic patterns, and continual change and transformation—and I expressed my belief that the other sciences would have to change their underlying philosophies accordingly in order to be consistent with this new vision of reality. Such radical change, I maintained, would also be the only way to really solve our urgent economic, social, and environmental problems.”
(From Enlightenment Magazine, 11/1997)
Note (6)
From the Genesis:   To the woman he said: “I will intensify the pangs of your childbearing; in pain shall you bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall be your master.” To the man he said: “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat, “Cursed be the ground because of you! In toil shall you eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to you, as you eat of the plants of the field.
By the sweat of your face shall you get bread to eat, Until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dirt, and to dirt you shall return.”
Note  (7)
References books: Giacomin V. The Wise RabbitI and II, Ed. Alice Project, 1997/1998. De Biasi L, Programma per Insegnanti, Ed. Onlus Progetto Alice, 2001
Note (8)
      The thought produces ideas, images or mental pictures. Thoughts, ideas and images will produce physical -conditions and external actions that correspond to those thoughts, images and idea.
      Every idea is potentially an action
      A repetition of negative thoughts and ideas produces negative impact on the physical body and disturbs that could wound the organic tissue (ulcer, other diseases).
      The thought stimulates emotions and feeling.
      Thoughts are the creator of physical and psychic states. They are the creator of inner and external acts, because they can move the energy of feelings and organs.
      The association of negative thoughts stimulates negative feelings and makes polluted the consciousness. This is the cause of pathological states and weakness of personality. On the contrary, a positive use of the thought and feeling produces a purification of consciousness and makes the personality stronger.
      Not only the thought mould the consciousness, but, also, the unconscious (Assagioli).
Note (9)
 “Out of the door technique”.  We use it before starting a workshop. At the beginning, we ask all the participants to check their mind and see what is there. “What did you bring from your house, today?” “Is it something that you can easily leave or is it something that is stuck to your mind? In this case, I propose two solutions: you can write your problem and put the paper on a plate, or you can share your problem with others.” If the participants prefer to write about their problems, you collect all the papers on a plate, then we make a small ritual. “Here are my problems with the problems of my classmates. Now we will burn them! As you can see, the problems are transformed into fire. This symbolizes that everything has the same nature. The nature of our thoughts, good or bad, is like this fire: light, pure light. May all our thoughts become light for the world!”
When all the papers are burnt, we bring the ashes out of the door. “Now we bring out of this room the last traces of our thoughts, so that we are completely free to work here on peace and serenity!”

Socially Engaged Buddhism

at the Alice Project School

By

Andrew Pond Davis

Senior Thesis

Religious Studies – Standford University

May 2001

 Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgements

Chapter 1 : Socially Engaged Buddhism, an Introduction

Chapter 2 : The Universal Education Alice Project School, Tracing an Idea

Chapter 3 : Madhyamika Philosophy

Chapter 4 : Nagarjuna’s Presence : Madhyamika’s Influence on the Alice Project School.

Chapter 5 : Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland

Chapter 6 : The “Buddhism” of Socially Engaged Buddhism

I would first like to thank Professor Linda I-less, my thesis advisor in the Religious Studies Department. From this project’s conception in the spring of 2000 to its completion a year later, Linda advised, edited, and inspired every step of the way.

I would also like to thank Valentino Giacomin, Mark Singleton and all the faculty and staff of the Alice Project School. Without them this paper would not be. Beyond being excellent research subjects, every person at the School has inspired me to teach compassionately to the “whole” student.

Chapter I

Socially Engaged Buddhism, An Introduction

In the spring of 2000 I approached Professor Linda I less about writing a senior thesis on my two greatest academic interests, Buddhism and education. She pointed me to an article by Diana Winston on The Alice Project School, a school for Indian children grounded ill Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy in Sarnath, India. After reading the article I was inspired to travel to Sarnath and research how one man, Valentino Giacomin, was uniting Buddhist wisdom and education. This thesis is the product

that month long research visit.

The conclusions that I arrive at in this paper about the newly emerging field

socially engaged Buddhism are not the only products of that month long visit. While undoubtedly the nuances of engaged Buddhism will slip from my mind as I apply myself to new intellectual pursuits, I will always remember the smiles of each child inside the blue gates of the Alice Project School. As I leave Stanford arid head into the field of education, Valentino’s boundless compassion and desire for every students’ “success” will inspire mc to try that much harder to affect every student’s life.

One of the wisest distinctions offered in the Chuang Tzu is between “knowledge that” and “knowledge how.” On the surface this paper is a product of “knowledge that.” The reader will learn about the field of socially engaged Buddhism and the ways that one man is making his social engagement Buddhist and his Buddhism socially engaged. On a deeper level this paper is about “knowledge how”–how to apply yourself to the cessation of suffering in all its forms. If the reader can look beyond the “knowledge that” offered here into the “knowledge how,” then she gets a glimpse

the magic

the Alice Project School, a place that is changing lives daily.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents for their never-ending support of my education. Their willingness to allow me to travel on my own to a tiny village in India has yielded more than just this paper; it has produced one

the most powerful experiences of my life. Thank you for an education that, following its Latin roots, truly leads out.

In the 1960’s “engaged Buddhism” was a term that Thich Nhat Ilanh, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, used to describe a handful of Buddhist movements committed to social change. Since that time socially engaged Buddhism has grown exponentially-there lire now scores of movements both in Asia and the West. More recently, socially engaged Buddhism has also become a recognized field of intellectual discourse. While there

books published on engaged Buddhism in the 1970’s and 80’s, the vast majority of engaged Buddhist scholarship has appeared within the last five to ten years. The two authoritative volumes on engaged Buddhism edited by Christopher Queen of Harvard University reflect the entry of university scholars into the discussion. This intellectual enthusiasm of engaged Buddhism shows no sign of abating-in April 2000 the

held an online colloquium on the subject in which thirteen papers were published.

The task of definition is one of the greatest challenges that any scholar of “socially engaged Buddhism” must address. Christopher Queen, editor of the recent book

defines the term, most often credited to Thich Nhat Hanh, as “the application of the dharma, or Buddhist teachings, to the resolution of social problems” (Queen 2000, 1). Queen’s definition captures the most essential element of socially engaged Buddhism-encountering and addressing social problems. Some scholars. However, might argue that it fails to draw attention to a second distinguishing characteristic of socially engaged Buddhism: its non-renunciation. Thus Thomas Yarnall offers the following: “Inspired by Buddhist values they [engaged Buddhists] are united by a common drive to lessen the suffering or the world, in particular by ‘engaging’ (as opposed to renouncing) the various social, political, economic, etc. institutions, structures and systems of society” (2). This added element of engagement in contrast to renunciation is critical to any definition of engaged Buddhism, as it could easily be argued that all Buddhists have worked to lessen the suffering of the world, even though they have chosen to renounce conventional worldly activities and attachments.

Some scholars, however, argue against the category of “socially engaged Buddhism.” In a recent paper, Santikaro Bhikkhu, an American Buddhist practitioner and writer living in Thailand, cites Ken Jones’ summary of engaged Buddhism: “Engaged Buddhism has come to define itself as public engagement in caring and service, in social and environmental protest and analysis…” (Jones, I). Santikaro, pointing to Jones’ use of “itself” questions the existence of a movement that has the capability to define “itself”: “There are connections and overlaps, of course, but not enough for a coherent or unified movement. From the start, we fall into the trap of discussing something as ‘one’ when in fact it is many” (2). While scholars such as Queen and Yarnall debate the best definition of “socially engaged Buddhism,” Santikaro clearly warns against assuming a unified movement. The recent influence of deconstruction has made the process of definition increasingly problematic. Many scholars resist the definition of cultural concepts such as religion and race, aware of the intellectual and political dangers of what they often call “essentialism.” In the face of such resistance, one strategy for approaching the definition of any social concept is to examine the way in which people who call themselves “x” see themselves as “x.” Thus, to define socially engaged Buddhism in a manner that avoids the pitfalls of essentializing, this paper will examine how people who call themselves socially engaged Buddhists see themselves as such. A critical part of this self-definition and the focus of this paper is how they differentiate between being socially engaged activists and being socially engaged

Another way of phrasing this question is, “What is

Ariyaratne grounds Sarvodaya’s social engagement in Buddhism through an interpretation of both a Buddhist text and the Buddhist notion of merit-making, Sarvodaya’s “guidelines for social action” are derived from the

or

an ancient Buddhist text traditionally understood as a description of “enstatic states of mental tranquility reached by withdrawing from the world” (Bond, 126-7). While Sarvodaya’s application of such a text to social action constitutes a radical reinterpretation of the text, it is typical of 19

and 20

century Sri Lankan Buddhist reform and reflects the importance reformers such as Ariyaratne give to basing their action on the ancient Buddhist canon. “Shramadana,” or labor giving, the second half of Sarvodaya’s name, also plays on the traditional Theravada Buddhist notion of merit making. In Theravada Buddhism, a layperson can gain merit and a better rebirth by giving (dana) to the sangha, or community of monks. By coining the phrase “shramadana,” Ariyaratne transformed Buddhist merit making from giving to the sangha to giving to the people and provided a further catalyst for social action. Thus, through both the

and the Buddhist concept of merit making, Sarvodaya bases its social activism in traditional Buddhist notions and texts.

As the name “Order of Interbeing” suggests, Thich Nhat Hanh’s engaged Buddhism is based on the Buddhist concept pf interdependence (King, 406). Referring to the name of the Order, Nhat Hanh suggests that “when we realize our nature of

we will stop blaming and killing, because we know that we

(Nhat Hanh in Hunt-Perry and Fine, 53). The Buddhist philosophical concept of interdependence, clearly at the heart of Nhat Hanh’s activism, also promotes the Buddhist notion of non-dualism. Because all things are interdependent, all dualism, including that of subject and object, disappears. This non-dualism influences Nhat Hanh’s peacemaking process in which he deemphasizes the distinctions between wrong or right, victor or loser. This focus on non-dualism is expressed in his statement, “Dualistic ways only strengthen suffering” (Nhat Hanh in Hunt-Perry and Fine, 41). Beyond the Buddhist ideas of interdependence and non-dualism, Nhat Hanh further grounds his social activism in the Buddhist ideal of compassion, the core of the Bodhisattva ideal: “Love and understanding are our best ‘weapons’” (Hunt-Perry and Fine, 41).

Despite its distinctly American and non-sectarian approach, the BPF, like Sarvodaya and Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, uses canonical Buddhist texts to establish its !ink to Buddhism. Essays like Fred Eppsteiner’s

draw together texts from Theravada, Tibetan, Zen and Pure Land canons to provide a doctrinal basis for their work (Simmer-Brown, 74). The BPF also tries to ground its work in Buddhists concepts; for instance its magazine,

often refers to the Buddhist understanding of suffering, the first of the four noble truths. Other concepts such as interdependence and non-duality inform the actions of the BPF. Its five-point mission asks the BPF member “To make a clear public witness to Buddhist practice and interdependence as a way of peace and protection for all beings” and “To bring a Buddhist perspective of nonduality to contemporary social action and environmental movements” (Simmer-Brown, 78).  Sarvodaya, the Tiep Hien Order, and the BPF can clearly give reasons why their social engagement is Buddhist; each movement calls itself Buddhist because it depends on Buddhist ideals such as non-dualism to both guide and justify its particular activism. The above descriptions fail, however, to reveal exactly how a Buddhist concept is translated into social activism. In this paper I hope to go beyond broad claims of non­duality and interdependence to see not just

key Buddhist concepts are being used, but

such concepts become actualized in social service.

In order to shed light on how a socially engaged Buddhism movement is Buddhist, rather than surveying socially engaged Buddhism as a whole (a project that is impossible in a paper of this length), I will offer a case study of one socially engaged Buddhist movement, the Alice Project School in Sarnath, a village on the outskirts of Varanasi in North India. The Alice Project School is recognized by others, including H.H. Dalai Lama, as a socially engaged Buddhist undertaking, and it is associated with the Tibetan Buddhist teacher Lama Zopa. The school’s small size, only around 500 students, and management by one man, Valentino GiacOlnin2, make it suitable for a case study. The small size allowed me to see the inner workings of the project in practice, not just the mission statements and other tracts of social theory. Unlike the BPF, with projects all over the world and several levels of organization, the Alice Project School is very accessible. I was able to meet with Valentino, founder and director of the school, for several hours a day while also interviewing students and faculty both formally and informally. The fact that the school is relatively young (it was started in 1994) means that the ideas about Buddhism’s influence on social engagement are still forming and actively discussed-how to translate Buddhism into social action is

hot topic at the Alice Project School.

The detailed case study is presented in the next three chapters. Chapter 2 provides a description of the Alice Project School that demonstrates how the school is socially engaged and lays the groundwork for the more philosophical discussions that follow. Chapter 3 offers a distillation of the Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy that Valentino considers to be at the heart of the school. In Chapter 4 I show how Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy informs both the daily practices and overall mission of the school-why the Alice Project School views itself as Buddhist. following the field­ based study, Chapter 5 discusses how Nagarjuna, a major Buddhist philosopher, dated to about the 2

–3

centuries, has been interpreted as envisioning Buddhist social activism and lending textual and historical support to Valentino’s translation of Buddhism into social action. Finally, in Chapter 6 I offer a conclusion about the nature of Buddhist social engagement and the union of wisdom and compassion.

When Valentino returned to teaching in the late 1970’s he began to consider how to “use the wisdom of Buddhism that I had discovered in practical ways in an Italian school”

By uniting his love of Buddhist wisdom, his Christian heritage, and his profession of education, Valentino gave birth to the idea that would become the Alice Project School. One of Valentino’s teachers, Lama Yeshe, was also very interested in the project of joining Buddhist insight and education in a universal or ecumenical manner-a project Lama Yeshe called Universal Education.

He and Luigina practiced the Alice methodology in Italian 5chools for six years. In 1989 Valentino turned much of the teaching over to Luigina and gave conferences on the Alice

The first physical monument in Sarnath was a stupa that the great Buddhist ruler, Emperor Asoka, erected in 260 BCE (Singh, 236). Sarnath continued to thrive as a Buddhist pilgrimage site and cultural center known for its artwork in the Gupta period (4

-6

centuries BCE) until Buddhism was driven out of Northern India during the 11

and 12

centuries and most of the physical structures were destroyed (Singh, 236-237).

This transformation began when interest in Sarnath’s history was revived in the early 19

century with the discovery of the archeological remains of a stupa. Over 100 years of excavation by numerous parties culminated in the opening of an archeological museum in 1912. With the establishment of the museum and a growing tourist industry in India, in the 1950’s the government of Uttar Pradesh began to dedicate a large amount of money to the development of Sarnath as a tourist attraction (Jain, 8/30/00).

The people of the villages work in these shops, as guides, as sari makers (Sarnath and Varanasi are famous for their fine silk saris) or as masons and other professions that sustain the tourist infrastructure. Observing this large cultural and economic shift, Valentino writes in his book

about “a loss of identity and values related to religion and tradition, due to what here is called ‘westernization’: materialistic model of life” (13).

Valentino is also developing a program to work with young Tibetan Buddhist monks, supplementing their traditional monastic education finally, Valentino has submitted a grant proposal to the Indian government to establish an educational research institute at the school in order to bring in research scholars to test and document the Alice Project theories and methods.

The history of Madhyamika begins with the development of the Mahayana or “great vehicle” tradition between 150 BCE and 100 CEO. In his chapter on the rise of Mahayana, Peter Harvey claims that there were three main catalysts that contributed to its development and separation from the “Hinayana”: 1) The emergence of the ideal of the Bodhisattva path; 2) A new cosmology that incorporated a transcendent and glorified Buddha; and 3) new understanding of Abhidharma and the emptiness of phenomena (Harvey 89-90). Hinayana Buddhist soteriology included three goals of the Buddhist path: the sravaka arhant, the

Buddha, and the fully awakened Buddha.

While early Buddhists aimed at the level of the

the Mahayana accepted only the fully awakened Buddha as the goal of their practice.

According to Mahayana belief, one should sacrifice enlightenment in the present as a

and dedicate all one’s future lives to helping others and developing virtue in order that they become fully awakened Buddhas in the far future (Robinson and Johnson, 83-84). It is this eternal dedication to the salvation of all sentient beings and attainment of fully awakened Buddhahood, the Bodhisattva Path, that became a highlighted ideal in the Mahayana period and is the first major division between the Hinayana and Mahayana.

Like the Abhidharmist philosophers before him, Nagarjuna desired to prove that all matter and phenomena (the two will be used interchangeably) are void of a substantially existent nature. Nagarjuna does so through an argument of dependent arising. In Chapter 15 of the Madhyamika school’s foundational text, the

Nagarjuna offers a proof that all matter is void of independent existence.

Explaining Madhyamika philosophy in the introduction to the

Thurman emphasizes the term “relativity” in his translation of the same word that means dependent arising,

In his famous work “Wisdom,” Nagarjuna quotes such an objector: “If all this were void, then there would be no creation and no destruction…” and to this he replies, “If all this were

void, then there would be no creation and no destruction…” (in Thurman 1976,2). In this passage the term “void” means “void of a substantial independent existence.”

Nagarjuna’s response is that

things did have an independent nature then they would be eternal, immutable and therefore not subject to creation or destruction. However, because phenomena are subject to dependent arising, they arc created and are destroyed and hence function as we know them in the world of our perception.

Nagarjuna’s critics argued that if all phenomena were void of inherent existence, then the Four Noble Truths, the essence of the Buddha’s teaching, was also void—a clear undermining of the Buddha’s teaching. Nagarjuna’s reply in Chapter 24 of the

is that if phenomena were not void then suffering would be eternal and impossible to alleviate (Harvey, 100). Thus the goal of the Buddhist path, the cessation of suffering, depends upon the fact that phenomena such as suffering are void of inherent independent existence.

Language properly functions to describe the world

When we see an orange sitting on a table we call it “an orange” and tell our friend that it is a good source of vitamin C. Language lets us describe something that we recognize as an orange.

One important element of this explanation is that our perception of the world is incomplete. As I stressed above, language is properly used to name things in the world

Our perception, however, is limited. When we say “orange” we think not of all the infinite causes that provide its dependent arising, but only of a few characteristics that are apparent to us.

Though all matter is void, there are still people, there is still food to eat, and being hit by a train

actually kill us. For this reason conventional reality allows us to explain the way we act. Because I have a conventional sense of self and other, I can interact in the world and do not see everything as void of existence. In order to navigate the world, I name things and live according to conventional truth.

Describing the unenlightened human situation of living within conventional reality while seeking the ultimate reality, Robert Thurman writes, “We are left with the seemingly contradictory tasks of becoming conscious of its ultimacy on the one hand and, on the other hand, of devoting our energies to the improvement of the unavoidable relative situation as best we can” (1976,3). The Buddhist solution to this dual task is wisdom

and sell1ess or great compassion

Through wisdom we go beyond the experience of naming and beyond conventional experience, thus gaining “direct awareness of the ultimate reality of all things” (Thurman 1976,3). While we live in the world of conventional reality we are to live with a selfless great compassion.

Through this

we can allay the physical and mental suffering that pervade the conventional world. Thurman writes that

and

“are the essence of the Great Vehicle, and of the Middle Way,” and we will later see that they are inseparable, like two sides of the same coin, and also the essence of the Project Alice School (1976,3).

The Buddha and subsequent great teachers do not teach a single doctrine to all students but rather tailor their teaching to the level of understanding of their students. This ability to reach and challenge every student, no matter what their mental disposition is termed

or skillful means. While Madhyamika is a powerful and important philosophy, it is a difficult teaching. Robert Thurman summarizes the pedagogical paradox that Madhyamika presents: “It is clear that this subtle, profound, yet simple teaching can be inaccessible or even frightening to those either intellectually or emotionally unprepared, while the gem-like being properly prepared need only hear it and all mental blocks are instantly shattered” (1976,4).

Valentino, Luigina and two other young faculty members, Arun and Awanesh, following the Buddhist practice of

or skillful means, work the students through a slow progression from one  basic concept to the next.

One of the greatest challenges that Valentino faces is translating the concept of voidness into a lesson that a child can understand. How does one teach Robert Thurman’s definition

“all finite things are interdependent, relative, and mutually conditioned and… there is no possibility of any independent, self sufficient, permanent thing or entity,” to a 10 year old child (Thurman 1976, I)?

In his

Valentino uses a drawing of a tree to introduce the concept. Starting with a sketch of a tree, he asks students if it is a complete drawing of a living tree and makes them realize that the tree needs the earth.

Of course many dispute the validity of this metaphor-they say the “summit” is

the same in different religions.

Using the famous Buddhist metaphor of a finger pointing at the moon, the teaching pointing at the realization, he argues that religions too often argue over what the finger looks like: “for more than one thousand years we have been arguing over the shape and color of the finger.” The result of this is not only religious conflict but more importantly, “We have lost the beauty of the moon”

Valentino believes that because people are overly concerned with the form of teaching, they are unable to attain the realization of wisdom. The image of the finger and the moon allows a summary of Valentino’s claims to universalism. He believes that the moon, the wisdom, is the same in all religions because ultimately all distinctions and divisions disappear. The finger, the teaching, is beneficial in that it points the student to the wisdom: “I do not care what kind of finger is pointing, if it is black or white or Hindu or Muslim…”  

Valentino believes that problems arise when people argue over the finger, lose themselves in technical language trying to describe the finger, and hence forget to look at the moon. Ultimately the moon is the same; we follow any finger that points to it, and even the moon disappears in the moment of realization.

Seeking an education free of these corrupting forces, Valentino argues for a new definition of intelligence in which the

mind, in both external and internal aspects, is valued. Valentino’s assessment of modern education includes a critique of teaching methods. Though this springs largely from his experience with modern European styles of education, his critiques of educational philosophy and pedagogy are not unrelated.

As described in Chapter Two, many Indian teachers rely heavily on memorization and copying, which are seen as the best way for a student to learn the facts necessary for an “education.” At Valentino’s school, however, the

student is educated. Traditional subjects meet the needs for external education while the daily meditation and classes on Buddhist philosophy meet the need for inner development. The two aspects of education are united through the use of meditation in a math or Hindi classroom.

Memorization is only one!” (9/12/00). Valentino also criticized

) Tibetan government for being overly concerned with exam scores and the jobs that students take after schooling.

Madhyamika wisdom destroys all distinctions including that between self and other (8/25/00). With no delineation between self and other, an enlightened person treats others as she would treat herself-she treats others with

selfless or great compassion.

Valentino explained this relationship between compassion and social change using a metaphor of making roads safer to drive on. The best way to change the situation is to teach people how to drive well, rather than drive for them. While the goal is to teach people how to drive, the result will be safer travel. Likewise, instead of changing social conditions for people, Valentino strives to give people the tools of wisdom and compassion that will necessarily result in better material and social conditions

The Dalit movement, motivated by a desire for class power and recognition, uses Buddhist ideas to attain such political ends. Valentino vehemently argues that Ambedkarites, “do not understand the fundamental teaching of the Buddha, that

are the cause of samsara. It is not the BJP the Brahmin or some other political power” (9/12/00).

One of the most prominent non-Buddhist influences is J. Krishnamurti, an Indian spiritual guru of the 20

century. Though Krishnamurti was not Buddhist, Valentino claims, “Through him I understand many Buddhist teachings” (9/13/00). In our discussions Valentino regularly explained Buddhist concepts through Krishnamurti’s work. For example, in my very first interview with Valentino, he referred to Krishnamurti in his explanation of how compassion follows from wisdom (8/25/00).

While Valentino has successfully translated Buddhist philosophy into social action, many of his claims about Buddhist social activism may appear questionable on historical and. scholarly grounds.

Valentino has been a practicing Tibetan Buddhist for over 25 years, but he lacks scholarly training and thorough textual knowledge to support his radical ideas about education and social change. In this chapter I will provide scholarly support through an analysis of Nagarjuna’s  

and Robert Thurman’s article “Guidelines for Buddhist Social Activism Based on Nagarjuna’s

Thurman offers an excellent distillation of Nagarjuna’s lengthy

and a vision of how Nagarjuna’s plans for society could be realized in our modern world.

Thurman’s article, the subject of this chapter, is based on Nagarjuna’s

or

Scholars suggest that the text, a book of advice on living and ruling, was written for a King with whom Nagarjuna had a close relationship, in the late first to mid-second centuries C.E. (Hopkins, 22).

According to Jeffrey Hopkins the text is an integral part of Nagarjuna’s work, included in either his “Collections

Advice”

“Six Collections of Reasoning” (22). Though it is not nearly as well recognized as his

the

and Santideva’s

are considered the foundational texts describing the Bodhisattva way

life.

While some scholars have questioned the authenticity of the text, I will assume that the

is an authentic work of Nagarjuna, as Gregory Schopen does in hi_ “The Mahayana Through a Chinese Looking Glass,” published in 2000. Thurman summarizes Nagarjuna’s

in terms of four principles which Thuman relates to Buddhist social activism.

“Individualist transcendentalism,” the individual’s realization of non-grasping and selflessness, is obviously central to the

Thurman notes that two thirds of the text, “contain personal instructions on the core insight of individualism, namely subjective and objective sell1essness” (1983, 32).

Thurman concludes on this point: “In sum, the fact that the majority of the

is devoted to the transcendent selflessness, the door of the liberation and enlightenment of the individual, is clear evidence that the heart of Buddhist social activism is individualistic transcendentalism” (1983, 35).

Santideva, an important Madhyamika philosopher, wrote in his

“The suffering that I experience does not cause any harm to others. But that suffering (is mine) because of my conceiving of (myself as) “I” (in Thurman 1983, 24). Santideva tells us that suffering is not correlated with any objective fact, but is rather a product of our deluded reification and ego­ grasping. Thus, if a person is able to transcend this notion of the ego and the process of reification, she will no longer suffer-no matter what the circumstances. With such a conception of suffering, the cessation of suffering can only be achieved through a transformation of people’s minds.

For this reason, Thurman argues, “The root of good, of positive social action, is the individual’s realization of this subjective selflessness” (1983, 34). Because the individual is the focus of social change, “the necessities and will of the collective, the ‘business of society’

(Thurman 1983, 32).

Using the word “wisdom” where Thurman uses “transcendence,” Valentino aligns himself with Thurman and Nagarjuna: “the only tool that can change their [an oppressed person's] situation is wisdom. If you look inside you have the power to change yourself.” Thus, Nagarjuna’s

supports Valentino’s unconventional notion that social change is only achieved through individual change.

While personal transcendence is of the utmost importance in Nagarjuna’s social activism, he, like Valentino, does not forget about the needs of people in conventional reality. In verses 201-265 of the

Nagarjuna outlines an aggressive plan to meet the needs of everyone in society.

Summarizing Nagarjuna’s plans for social uplift, Thurman describes compassionate socialism as “generous compassion dedicated to providing everyone with everything they need

1983,38-39).

This statement underlines the

of Nagarjuna’s call for social equality—to allow individual self-cultivation and transcendence. Thus, social change, as we traditionally understand it (health care, economic equality, etc.), appears to be merely a tool that allows the fundamental personal change to occur.

Valentino opposes what he understands the primary goal of Dalit Buddhism to be, namely political change. For Valentino, and arguably Nagmjuna, the aim of any social or political change should be the advancement of every individual’s path towards enlightenment,

the new political system.

In the final section of his essay Thurman translates Nagarjuna’s

into a plan for social activism in the modern day. Throughout this section there are striking parallels between Thurman-cum-Nagarjuna’s social plans and the philosophy behind Valentino’s Alice Project School. This last section of Thurman’s article not only provides support for the notion of a Buddhist education as a whole but also for the notion that there can be a “universal” Buddhist teaching couched in ecumenical terms.

Nagarjuna recognized the importance of education and wrote explicitly about it in the

“Create foundations of doctrine, abodes/Of the Three Jewels-fraught with glory and fame/That lowly kings have not even/ Conceived in their minds” (Nagarjuna, 135) and “Hence while in good health create foundations of doctrine/Immediately with all your wealth, for you are living amidst the causes of death! Like a lamp standing in a breeze” (Nagarjuna, 136).

I hope that the previous three chapters have made clear that the Alice Project School is exactly that-a pedagogy that aims to teach in a “universal, total, unlimited” way to

students.

Thurman provides further evidence from Nagarjuna’s philosophy for his belief in the universal nature of a Buddhist education. Citing the Madhyamika opposition to division and reification Thurman argues, “Clearly Nagarjuna, who proclaims repeatedly that ‘belief-systems” ‘dogmatic views,’ ‘closed conviction,’ ‘fanatic ideologies,’ etc. are sicknesses to be cured by the medicine of

not a missionary for any particular ‘belief-system,’ even if it is labeled Buddhism” (1983,43).

Thurman opens his article on Nagarjuna’s social activism with a thorough presentation of Buddhist relative and absolute realities. In this section he explains how a person who has fully realized selflessness and has ceased all grasping, a person with “wisdom”, will necessarily be compassionate: “the ground, or even womb, of compassion is emptiness, defined as the absolute selflessness of personal subjects and impersonal object” (1983, 21). Having transcended any sense of self as distinct from other, the enlightened person is able to emphasize with the suffering of other sentient being, feeling then suffering as if ……were his own. Thurman and others stress the connection between wisdom and compassion is not arbitrary but rather ontological—wisdom and compassion necessarily become—or are—each other. Knowing the suffering of others, the liberated person is able to use

(skillful means) to alleviate their suffering by helping them to transcend.

Thurman’s writings and Valentino’s practice of social action are not in fact vulnerable to this critique, as they are proposing a non-dualistic union of form and emptiness, social change and personal realization. Finally, I will return to the original question of this paper- what is Buddhist about socially engaged Buddhism? I will suggest that it is this union of social change and personal realization aimed at the cessation of suffering that ground both Valentino’s and Thurman’s social engagement in Buddhism. While this essay has discussed how two socially engaged Buddhists—Valentino Giacomin and Robert Thurman—have defined the Buddhist nature of their social engagement ill these terms, I will propose that the union of wisdom and compassion is a starting point for further study and progress towards a broader definition of socially engaged Buddhism. Even if this formula does not prove to be a useful general definition of socially engaged Buddhism, Valentino’s Alice Project School is a potent example of

makes a social engagement Buddhist, and

Buddhism is translated into social activism. Ultimately, it is this latter issue, the

that every engaged Buddhist must encounter on a daily basis as they strive to make their social activism Buddhist and their Buddhism socially active.

In his interpretation of Nagarjuna’s

Thurman writes, “The root of good, of positive social action, is the individual’s realization of this subjective selflessness,” a clear statement about the importance of personal transcendence in the cessation of suffering (1983, 34). Thurman not only emphasizes personal transcendence, but puts it above the needs of society: because the individual is the focus of social change, “the necessities and will of the collective, the ‘business of society’ is not that important” (1983, 22).

Many people, however, object to such an emphasis on personal over social change. In his recent essay “Can Buddhism Save the World? A response to Nelson foster,” David Loy writes: “Traditionally Buddhism has emphasized our personal responsibility for our own

[suffering] and awakening,

Today it has been important for Buddhists to realize how conditioning by social structures also fosters widespread

(Loy, 3). Lay’s emphasis on

due to social structures gets to the heart of the objection to Valentino and Thurman’s traditional Buddhist stance on suffering.

Referring to Nagarjuna, Thurman places individual realization above the transformation of social structures: “The root of good, of positive social action, is the individual’s realization of this subjective selflessness” (1983, 34); “the necessities and will of the collective, the’ business of society,’ is

(Thurman 1983, 32). This seems to reflect a dualistic viewpoint in which the realization of ultimate reality is valued over the improvement of conventional reality. Likewise, Valentino seems to give personal liberation priority over social change.

In Chapter 4. I explained how for Madhyamika and other Mahayana philosophers this same union of form and emptiness is applied to wisdom and compassion. In our first conversation about the philosophy of the Alice Project School, Valentino stressed the point that wisdom and compassion are inextricably linked (8/25/00). The realization of interdependence achieved with wisdom breeds a great compassion

and likewise great compassion fosters wisdom. Aligning compassion, the ethic of conventional reality, with form, and wisdom, the realization of the ultimate reality, with emptiness, we could rewrite the Heart Sutra to say, “Compassion is wisdom, wisdom is compassion.” Neither Valentino nor Thurman, who writes that wisdom and compassion “are the essence of the Great Vehicle, and of the Middle Way,” would disagree with this alignment (Thurman 1976,3).

Thus, when Valentino and Thurman emphasize the importance of personal transcendence over social change this does

necessarily mean that they are opposing the importance of a simultaneous social change and uplift.

Any person who spends time at the Alice Project School would agree that Valentino is committed to social change while also providing the tools for personal realization to his students. The opening paragraph of Thurman’s article shows that he, like Valentino, recognizes the importance of both wisdom and compassion within social activism: “The primary Buddhist position on social action is one of total activism, an unswerving commitment to complete self-transformation and complete world-transformation.” He clearly understands the equality and non-dualism between social change and personal realization (1983, 19). In his “Introduction” to the

Thurman writes eloquently on the same point:

(Thurman 1976, 3)

In the above response we see a fuller picture how Valentino and Thurman ground their social engagement in Buddhism. Throughout chapters four and five we see that for Valentino and Thurman social engagement is Buddhist if it teaches Buddhist wisdom aimed at personal transcendence. The critique and subsequent response offered above reveals that this dedication to personal realization is a necessary condition for socially engaged Buddhism but not a sufficient condition for it meets only the criterion of “ultimate” reality. For a socially engaged movement to be Buddhist it must also strive to allay the suffering of conventional reality through social change. Thus for Valentino Giacomin and Robert Thurman we see that what makes a socially engaged movement Buddhist is its

of ending suffering

through the simultaneous and equal

of wisdom in the form of personal transcendence and compassion in the form of social change.

t that stage in my research I might have also objected to the claim that it is the motivation rather than the action that makes social activism Buddhist, citing the apparently limitless forms that such social activism could take including violent forms. While it is true that there are infinite ways to manifest wisdom and compassion in the struggle to end suffering, Buddhist movements that are inspired by a desire to end suffering through wisdom and compassion will necessarily avoid certain activities. Any movement that supports oppressive structures or violence to other humans or life-systems violates the notion of compassionate activism. Likewise, any movement that preaches a doctrine that keeps people from realizing the emptiness of self and the importance of non­-grasping conflicts with the call for a socially engaged Buddhism that ends suffering through the wisdom of emptiness realized in personal transcendence. Thus my fears of a Buddhist fundamentalism that supports violent means (a fear shared by Valentino) could not be realized within a socially engaged Buddhist movement committed to the cessation of suffering through wisdom and compassion.

Unable to locate the Buddhism of socially engaged Buddhism in the actions of such movements alone, I also considered the importance of Buddhist textual support for social work. Whether it is Sarvodaya’s use of the

or Fred Eppsteiner’s compilation of traditional Therevada, Tibetan, Zen and Pure Land texts to support the work of the BPF, it seemed that all socially engaged movements ground their social activism in some part of the Buddhist canon. Working from this textual standpoint, I began to judge negatively the work of Dr. Ambedkar and others who drastically alter Buddhist principles such’ as the Four Noble Truths to support their social work. Influenced by Valentino, I saw these people as straying from the “fundamentals” of Buddhism and therefore judged their work as non-Buddhist or a misconceived Buddhism. I would grant that Ambedkar is socially engaged but not that he is a socially engaged

Thurman’s article on Nagarjuna’s

shows how the social activism of Thurman and Valentino can be grounded in a Buddhist text. Despite this textual support, Thurman does not claim that such grounding is what makes the social activism Buddhist. Thurman concludes that the social activism described in his essay is Buddhist not because the text was written by Nagarjuna, but because it proposes activism that strives to end suffering through both wisdom and compassion.

Working from the headquarter of the Tibetan Government in Exile in Dharamsala, India, he, along with thousands of others, are working to restore the Tibetan people to their nation through non-violent means Beyond seeking such political change, the Dalai Lama is also concerned with changing the economic structures of the world including the Western obsession with endless economic growth (H.H. Dalai Lama, 10). Books such as his

in which he addresses the issues of economics, globalization, and sexism alongside meditation, death and miracles, reflect his ability to simultaneously address issues of personal transcendence and social change, wisdom and compassion, form and emptiness.

Even if this paper does not yield a widely accepted definition of socially engaged Buddhism, its description of how Valentino translates Buddhism into social engagement should prove useful to the field of socially engaged Buddhist discourse. While there are many books and essays describing various movements, they deal largely with

occurs in each movement. Few address how each socially engaged Buddhist translates Buddhism into social activism-how one takes the idea of non-dualism and puts it into practice. This process, the how, has been the focus of both the case study of the Alice Project School offered in Chapters 2 through 4 and the description of Thurman’s article in Chapter 5. While it is important to have a definition of socially engaged Buddhism, it is arguably more important to have models of this praxis, as every day social activists throughout the world are struggling with the issue of putting Buddhist theory into practice in their social activism. Thus, this paper contributes both the beginnings of a definition of socially engaged Buddhism and, more importantly, a model for making Buddhism socially engaged and social engagement Buddhist.

were Journal of Buddhist Ethics Engaged Buddhism in the West, Buddhists. Buddhist about an engaged Buddhist’s social engagement?”

“What is Buddhist about socially engaged Buddhism?”

This introduction will briefly survey why three socially engaged Buddhist movements consider themselves “Buddhist.” After describing each movement, I will show how they ground their social engagement in Buddhism. The Sarvodaya Shramadana movement, Thich Nhat Hanh’s Order of Interbeing, and the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, are three well-known programs that spring from different places and circumstances. Through these accounts I hope to “approach the well-rounded comprehension, richness, detail and diversity that we need in a full account of SEB” (Santikaro, 4-5). The fact that these three movements represent Sri Lankan Theravada, Vietnamese Mahayana, and American Buddhism underscores their diversity.

George Bond, a scholar of Sri Lankan Buddhism, has called the Sarvodaya Shramadana movement “one of the oldest and most celebrated Buddhist social liberation movements” (Bond, 2). A.T. Ariyaratne, then a teacher at Nalanda University in Colombo, Sri Lanka, started the movement in 1958 as a series of work camps in which students provided aid to rural villages (Bond, 134). The name “Sarvodaya”—literally meaning compassion for all—is borrowed from Gandhi who defined it as “a new, nonviolent, socio-economic order” (Bond, 123). With the hope of establishing this new “order,” Ariyaratne’s work camps, termed “Shramadanas” (donations of labor), began to do such work as planting gardens, building libraries, and teaching villagers about health care (Bond, 134-135). As his Sharmadanas attracted both students and adults throughout Sri Lanka, Ariyaratne continued to offer aid to more and more villages. Beyond the Shramadanas, Sarvodaya affected the lives of thousands of villagers through vocational training, and the establishment of community farms and preschools. In the 1970’s the movement increased from 400 villages 10 over 2,000 villages and peaked in 1985 serving 8,000, or nearly one third, of Sri Lanka’s villages (Bond, 136). Since the early 1980s Sarvodaya has gone beyond this village work and become a prominent force in the struggle for peace in war-torn Sri Lanka, Beyond the problems of civil war, Sarvodaya has also had to navigate many serious difficulties with the Sri Lankan government and control-hungry foreign donors (Bond, 138-141). Despite all these difficulties, AT. Ariyaralne and the Sarvodaya movement continue to bring social uplift to thousands of poor villagers throughout Sri Lanka.

Brahma Viharas’ Four Divine Abidings, ^ththBrahma Viharas Thich Nhat Hanh and his Order of Interbeing have been active since 1966. Nhat Hanh, born in 1926 in Vietnam, became a Zen Buddhist monk at the age of 16. After years of training and education he became a social activist during the Vietnam War. In 1966 he founded the Tiep Hien Order or the Order of Interbeing aimed at actualizing Buddhism by “studying, experimenting with, and applying Buddhism in modern life, with a special emphasis on the bodhisattva ideal” (Nhat Hanh in Hunt-Perry and Fine, 40). Nhat Hanh’s personal social engagement was initially focused on the Vietnam War; he traveled to the U.S. on several occasions going on speaking tours and meeting with such figures as Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara. Nhat Hanh had a major influence on Martin Luther King Jr. ’s decision to speak out against the war (Hunt-Perry and Fine, 42). Nhat Hanh also ran several socially engaged group projects. His School of Youth for Social Service, formed in the midst of the war, worked to “relieve the sufferings caused by the war and to extend their work to all Vietnamese people regardless of political orientation” (Hunt-Perry and Fine, 38). More recently Nhat Hanh has continued to speak out against war and violence, for example, making statements about the beating of Rodney King and the Persian Gulf War (Hunt-Perry and Fine, 47).

Nhat Hanh’ s Order of Interbeing has been involved in countless projects. From Sister Chan Khong’s early work with Vietnamese refugees to Nhat Hanh’s retreats for social activists and veterans of the Vietnam War, thousands of lives have been affected. Currently the Tiep Bien Order has large-scale projects all over the world. A French affiliate called Partage successfully lobbied the United Nations to make the year 2000 the “year of education for nonviolence,” while, Joan Halifax’s “Being with Dying” program works in the U.S with both patients, families and doctors to help them through the dying process (Hunt-Perry and Fine, 55-56). Finally, Nhat Hanh’s books and the Tiep Hien Order have been very successful at fostering communication and discussion among various social activists, both Buddhist and non-Buddhist, throughout the world.

interbeing, inter-are” The largest and oldest socially engaged Buddhist organization in America is the Buddhist Peace Fellowship (BPF), founded in 1978 as a chapter of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, an ecumenical religious organization dedicated to world peace. One of the founding members was Robert Aitken Roshi, a prominent American Zen teacher based in Hawaii. BPF is a network of Buddhists dedicated to fostering peace and social justice through Buddhist means. The BPF has grown tremendously from its original 33 members and now has branches in many places, with headquarters in Berkeley, California (Simmer-Brown, 73-78). Initially focused on “nuclear weapons and the massive buildup of the American military following the Vietnam War,” BPF is still involved with disarmament issues both within the US and abroad (working, for example, with organizations such as the Anti-Land Mines Campaign in the Unites States and Cambodia) (Simmer-Brown, 77). Currently its largest domestic project is an extensive prison program in which prisoners correspond with Buddhist teachers and practitioners and are provided with books to support their practice. In Asia, the BPF provides medical care to Burmese refugees, has distributed over $60,000 in low interest loans to Tibetan exiles, and meals for Tibetan children in refugee camps in India and Nepal (Simmer­ Brown, 84). In addition to their long-term connection- with Thich Nhat Hanh, BPF works regularly with other Asian Buddhist activists such as Thailand’s Sulak Sivaraksa who has written extensively on global interdependence (Simmer-Brown, 83). The BPF has also been one of the primary proponents of engaged Buddhist discourse in the United States as evidenced by the fact that many of the most recent articles that I am citing are published on their web page.

The Path of Compassion Turning Wheel, what how

A Case Study

the The “text” that this case study is based on is primarily my month-long visit to the Alice Project School in the summer of 2000. As suggested above, during this time I lived, researched and taught at the school. On an average day I would interview Valentino both formally and informally for up to three hours. The ability to have informal conversations with Valentino yielded great results. One of the best conversations I had with him was over pizza at a small restaurant in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges. I also interviewed other faculty members, volunteers, and students and observed classes for students of all ages on a regular basis. During the rest of the day I taught English grammar and comparative religion to the oldest students and had endless conversations with the entire school community. My day at the school would end with a thirty minute meditation session with the oldest students. In no time I was an accepted member of their community, leading songs for students during the daily assembly and participating in administrative tasks for the school. As I helped Valentino translate Buddhist “moral stories” from his native Italian into English, I too had to consider how social engagement can be Buddhist. Books and articles that Valentino has written about the school supplemented the material gathered in my interviews, observations, and experience.

Chapter 2

The Universal Education Alice Project School: Tracing an Idea

The Alice Project School seeks to unite Buddhist wisdom and education in an ecumenical style. In this introduction to the school I will trace this idea from its origin to its development and current manifestation in Sarnath, India. This description of one socially engaged Buddhist movement will afford a detailed analysis of what it can mean for a socially engaged movement to be Buddhist.

The Origin of the Idea

The history of the Alice Project School is inextricably linked to the life of Valentino Giacomin, co-founder and director of the Alice methodology. Valentino was born in 1944 and raised in Italy. After graduating from university with a degree in psychology, Valentino worked as a journalist and a teacher in government primary schools for ten years.

At the age of thirty he experience what he describes as a “mid-life crisis” in which he began “to think about life and its meaning” (8/30/00). At this point he became interested in yoga and other eastern traditions. Coincidentally through his interest in yoga he began to study Buddhism. Expecting a lecture on yoga, Valentino attended the teachings of the Mahayana Buddhist Lama Song Rinpoche.

During Song Rinpoche’s teaching on the hell realms and a subsequent conversation with a monk, Valentino was told to ignore the doctrine itself and to “look at the nature of your mind.” At this moment he recalls seeing “a light” and realizing that the concepts of “heaven and hell are creations of the mind” (8/30/00). Realizing the importance of understanding the mind turned Valentino’s interest toward the teachings of the Buddha and soon dedicated himself to a Buddhist practice. His commitment to Buddhism and desire to spread the dharma were further solidified when he founded a Buddhist center in Italy with two friends.

As in the case of many other Western Buddhists, Valentino’s commitment to Buddhism did not entail a rejection of his Christian heritage.

For several years he searched for ways to unify Christianity with the Buddhist teachings that intrigued him so much.

His unwillingness to renounce Christianity nearly drove him to give up Buddhism. During a conversation with Lama Zopa Rinpoche, Valentino asked whether he could think that Jesus Christ is a Buddha. Lama Zopa told him he could but that Christianity had lost a lot of the teachings on subjects such as emptiness.

This reply satisfied Valentino who told me that if Lama Zopa had said no, he would never be a Buddhist (8/30/00). Living as a self-proclaimed “Christian-Buddhist,” Valentino searched for universal wisdom between Buddhism and Christianity.

(8130100). With his partner Luigina DeBiasi, Valentino developed a curriculum that would embody both his and Lama Yeshe’s vision. While Lama Yeshe shared the initial vision of Universal Education, Valentino makes it clear that he and Luigina were the first “to practically join Buddhist wisdom with traditional curriculum” (8/30/00).

The Development

With the ambitious goal of uniting Buddhism wisdom with education in a traditionally Christian Italian school environment firmly in his mind, Valentino set out to make this idea a reality. The curriculum was first tested informally in two government schools in Treviso, Italy, for five years in the early 1980’s. When parents complained about the curriculum, Valentino followed the advice of a famous Tibetan teacher, Gomo Tulku, and gave up teaching Buddhist wisdom in the classroom.

This initial defeat did not stifle his project but rather forced him to appeal to the Italian Government’s law 219, which supports experimental education projects, for permission to teach in this innovative way. In 1986 he received permission to experiment with his curriculum in a classroom.

Methodology throughout Italy.

Following the Advice H.H. Dalai Lama, Valentino did not give up his efforts as an educator. After the program in Italy closed in 1991, Valentino spent three years further developing the curriculum and making it applicable to cultures other than his own. In 1993 Valentino and Luigina sought a’ place where they could not only teach according to the Alice method but also test it in a more scientific manner. Faced with high costs in Italy, Valentino considered both Brazil and India.

The final site, Sarnath, India, was chosen with the advice of yet another spiritual teacher. At the end of 1993 Valentino used his pension to purchase land in Sarnath and began building the Alice Project School.

The Current School

The Place The Alice Project School is located in Sarnath, India, a small town comprising five villages and around 8,000 people located 10 kilometers north of Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh. The center of the town is Deer Park, an archeological preserve where the Buddha gave his first teachings.

Because the Buddha met his first disciples in Deer Park and taught the four noble truths, it has been one of the four major Buddhist pilgrimage sites for over 2,000 years.3

^ththththDr. A.K. Jain, a prominent Sarnath resident and owner of two bookstores and a guesthouse in Sarnath, told me that, while 150 years ago Sarnath was an area dominated by agriculture, the town is now economically dependent on the tourist industry.

^thThis financial support included millions rupees to beautify Deer Park, the site or the Buddha’s first teaching. This revived interest in Sarnath, triggered by the government of UP, was shared by many Buddhist countries that began to set up monasteries and temples in Sarnath (Singh, 252-253).

Currently there are temples and monasteries erected by people from Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tibet, China, Japan, and Korea. Since the opening of the Tibetan Institute in 1967, a university dedicated to the preservation or Tibetan culture, there has been an even larger Buddhist presence in Sarnath. As Singh’s 1990 maps reveal, the modern landscape of Sarnath is covered with tourist attractions and the supporting infrastructure.

Sarnath residents have adapted to this shifting economy by trading the field for the tourist shop. 100 years ago a single man, the Zamindar, owned all the land in the area.

The land was tilled by villagers who worked under him. However, with India’s independence, the system was abandoned and the land was divided among the residents of the villages. For about fifty years agriculture, now decentralized, remained the primary industry.

The UP’s investment in Sarnath’s tourism, however, drove land prices up resulting in many people selling their land and setting up shops near the tourist sites. Currently agriculture is a very small element of the economy with small farms that feed the local villages (Jain, 8/30/00). The main industry is tourism with many shops, restaurants and guesthouses.

The Philosophy of Alice Project The Alice Project School has responded to the changes brought about by the tourist industry in three ways.

First, Valentino’s curriculum directly addresses the perceived loss of religious ideas and values through stories and religious texts rooted in the students’ Hindu traditions, as well as philosophical principles based on Buddhist Madhyamika4. Second, he addresses the issues of materialism through moral stories along with the school’s ethos, which promotes a notion of success that is not material but rather spiritual. Last, the influx of tourists has brought increased religious diversity in Sarnath.

While there are Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temple in Sarnath, tourists bring the beliefs of all the world’s religions. Valentino has seized this diversity as an opportunity to teach comparative religion.

All of the students I interviewed were very much aware of religious traditions other than their own and were skilled in pointing out the similarities between differing belief systems. While the tourist industry is rapidly changing the small town of Sarnath, the Project Alice School is making the students marc aware of their own culture’s stories and traditional values as well as those of other cultures.

The school is situated 300 meters off the main road to Sarnath on the border between the villages of Guroopur and Singhpour. A dirt path lined with simple one-story brick and earth houses leads to the school’s blue gates. Within the gates, salmon red buildings with bright blue interiors encircle a center courtyard.

The school’s bright colors, in contrast to the earth tones of the surrounding village, create a special atmosphere. While it initially appears out of place, experience at the school reveals how appropriate these vibrant colors are; for the students, Valentino’s school is a bright haven from the poverty and other difficulties of their villages.

There are now three buildings, and with the recent purchase of an adjacent plot of land there are plans for a fourth. Each or these two and three story buildings houses nine to thirteen classrooms that are set up in a traditional manner with students facing the teacher. There are also spaces for meditation and karate, guest rooms for visiting teachers, a library, and dormitories.

The roof of the largest building is utilized as the morning yoga studio. In a school with growing numbers and such a diverse curriculum, no space is wasted.

The academic buildings surround a brick courtyard that is the social center of the school. There, assemblies and singing take place and students relax and play during their free time. In the middle of this courtyard and at the center of the school is a twenty-foot­ high Buddhist stupa which covers almost one tenth of the ground. In front of the stupa are seven bowls that are filled every day with water as an offering to the Buddha.

Despite the stupa’s large size and white color it does not dominate the community space. It is surrounded by low trees that provide shade and relief from the often blistering heat. Mark Singleton, a visiting teacher, says of the stupa, “you would have to look to know that it was there” (8/25/00).

The stupa’s large and yet non-dominating presence is an appropriate symbol of Buddhism’s role at the Alice School.

Buddhism is fundamental to the Alice School, but it has a subtle presence. Buddhist inspired wisdom is offered to rather than forced upon the children.

The Students

Every morning at around 5:30, 300 students ages six to fifteen walk or peddle through the gates of the Alice Project School wearing dark blue shorts or skirts and sky­ blue shirts.

Most have traveled several kilometers from their homes in the villages by foot or bicycle. Though the school started with only 80 students in five classes, it has expanded in its seven-year history to over 300 students in classes one through eight. Each year a new class will be added until the school serves students in classes one through twelve. Approximately 30 new students are admitted each year with preference given to girls.

All the students live in what many would consider poverty-level conditions. Sarnath is a very disadvantaged part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, the second poorest state in India. While in Sarnath I visited two students’ homes.

Both were single-story earthen buildings with dirt floors; they had one main room and in one case a smaller adjoining room. In one home the young boys of the family slept on cots outside the house. Animals wander throughout the streets and human waste is a common sight under trees and on the side of the roads. It did not surprise me that the students spend over 12 hours a day at school.

Despite the shared level of poverty there is uncommon diversity among the students. With both boys and girls of all castes enrolled, the Alice Project stands out from other Indian schools. Beyond diversity there is equality.

Unlike many schools in India, there is no discrimination according to caste or sex. In my first student interview, a 14-year-old student who is a Brahmin pointed out that his friends are of all castes. His assertion “I do not care about caste,” is significant in a part of India where discrimination according to caste is still present (Shukla, 8/27/00).

In addition to caste equality, there is also gender equality at the Alice Project School. The 1996 Public Report on Basic Education (PROBE) in India revealed a vast discrepancy between the education of males and females. While on average boys receive 2.9 years of schooling, girls receive only 1.8 (PROBE, 9).

Even more telling is the fact that over 40% more women are illiterate than men (PROBE, 9). Valentino is very much aware of gender discrimination in traditional Indian schools and for this reason gives priority to girls who apply. In observations, both the boys and girls were treated equally, both participating in class and working on the board. These differences do not go unnoticed by the students.

When I asked two girls, ages 14 and 15, about the differences between the Alice Project School and other schools they had attended, they both commented that at most schools the boys segregated themselves from the girls.

One said, “Here we are like brother and sister” (Patel, 9/71.00). With caste and gender discrimination virtually non-existent, a space of open interaction is created, a space unique to this part of India.

One of the major problems with the current Indian school system, according to the PROBE report, is the cost of schooling a child. Though free education is a constitutional right in India, the average North Indian parent spends 366 rupees on fees, textbooks, uniforms and other expenses. For an agricultural family with two children this amounts to 30 to 40 days’ wages (Primary Education, 70).

These costs greatly affect the education of girls who, because they arc married away from the family, are not seen as worthy of the investment in education. Valentino directly counters these two problems by charging a minimal fee according to what each student can pay. He also provides a uniform, daily food, and basic healthcare to keep these hidden costs to a minimum. He is particularly sensitive to the status of women’s education and for this reason does not charge any fee to poor girls (8/29/00).

Because Valentino collects minimal fees, the school is largely dependent on outside funding. While Valentino and Luigina’s personal money primarily support the school, there are also several private donors including one large group from Belgium. Interestingly, this funding does not come from Buddhist groups but rather from Christian donors who believe in the universal nature of the Alice Project teaching.

The Faculty

Watching over and educating these 300 students are around 20 teachers and several foreign volunteers. The teachers, about fifteen men and five women, range in age from their mid twenties through their fifties.

All of the teachers have completed high school and some higher education. While several of the younger teachers have university degrees from self-study programs, one female teacher has completed her Ph.D. in sociology. The entire faculty either lives in the nearby villages or at the school. Beyond these full time faculty there are many foreign volunteers teaching at any given time.

When I was researching there were up to five other volunteers teaching English, comparative religion, a special class on the atomic bomb, kindergarten, yoga, and games. Most of these foreign teachers stay for at least one month and some for much longer. The volunteers quickly become attached to the school and the students, often making repeated visits. During my month at the school Mark Singleton, a teacher from England, was visiting the school for a second multi-month stay in which he both teaches and helps with administration.

Beyond their academic training all teachers receive extensive training in the mission and methodology of the school. In 1994 Valentino selected 50 teachers from the Sarnath and Varanasi area for six months of training. Every Sunday for eight hours, Valentino and Luigina taught the prospective teachers about the spiritual and philosophical goals of the school.

In these six months the faculty reviewed the basic philosophical and psychological underpinnings of the school including Madhyamika philosophy and meditation. While many teachers had heard of meditation, a practice at the heart of the Alice pedagogy, one young teacher guessed that 90% of those teachers had never practiced (Misra, 9/7/00).

A second important aspect of the training is an emphasis on innovative teaching methods.

The teachers were all educated in settings where copying and memorization were the method, and fear of physical punishment the motivation. The teachers I interviewed emphasized the violence in their childhood classrooms. The PROBE study suggests that this is still the norm, citing several students who “have been frightened away from the school by violent teachers” (Primary Education, 72). In their six months of training the teachers learned to replace memorization with creativity and the stick with love. One teacher said, “They [Valentino and Luigina] have ideas about Western schools and they know about Indian teaching. They explained that we have to teach not with force but with songs and games-to play with children and love children” (Misra, 9/7/00).

This development of classroom creativity was the hardest part of the training for Valentino and Luigina as the teachers had all been raised in classrooms where an essay was graded according to the number of lines it had rather than its creativity and content (Giacomin, 9/1/00).

After the six months of training, all the teachers wrote several essays about what they had learned. From these essays and the training time experiences Valentino and Luigina selected 25 teachers. Valentino is proud that after six years more than 80% of the original teachers are still working at the school (9/1/00).

These teachers continue to receive training in the Alice Methodology both formally and informally as they sit in on classes that Valentino or Luigina teach. Other teachers receive special training for particular subjects. Arun Shukla, a young faculty member who teaches. yoga, Sanskrit, Hindi, and English, has been sent to several vipassana meditation retreats and has done a four month yoga class (9/5/00). Clearly Valentino recognizes the importance of not only teaching students but teaching teachers.

Valentino spends the majority of the year watching over the faculty, students, and every other aspect of the school.

He is a teacher, administrator, healthcare provider, and father to all his students. Between classes and meetings Valentino spends countless hours developing the Alice Project curriculum and writing new books of moral stories. His year round dedication to the school and love of his students is the glue that binds the Alice Project School together.

While Valentino is clearly essential to the running of the school, he is training young faculty members to take over his role and carryon the Alice Project mission

The Curriculum

The academic program at the Alice Project has both traditional and non-traditional components. As a state-recognized school it is required to teach math, science, Hindi, English, social studies, and history. The primary medium of these classes is Hindi, though some upper level classes and all English classes are taught in English.

Even these “traditional” subjects are taught in a somewhat non-traditional way. In math classes, I observed a remarkable amount of student-teacher interaction. In a class for 13 to 15 year olds the teacher, Vinit Misra, explained the concept of a triangle’s three internal angles equaling 180 degrees and then had students at the board working out problems.

He welcomed questions and worked out answers on the board with student participation. In a math class for the youngest students another teacher used diagrams of mangoes being put into baskets to explain the concepts of subtraction and division.

Throughout both classes students expressed great interest in what they were learning. While the oldest students eagerly asked questions, the youngest would hold up their workbooks to show off their successful work. Thus the traditional curriculum is taught, devoid of the traditional pedagogical practices of memorization and punishment.

What makes the Alice Project curriculum so innovative and sets it apart from every other school is its incorporation of non-traditional studies. Each day students are taught yoga, meditation, karate, and flute.

The day begins at 6:00 with a half hour of “karma yoga.” During this practice that is framed in traditional Hindu religious notions of selfless action, students clean and prepare the school for the day. After this the student body is divided into three groups for an hour of yoga, meditation and prayer.

After the day’s classes all the students practice Vipassana meditation, a form of Buddhist insight meditation, for a half hour and then exercises of visualization.

Finally, there is another half hour of karma yoga in which all the classrooms are cleaned. In total the students spend three and a half hours engaged in these non-traditional subjects of meditation, yoga and prayer.

Non-traditional subjects are also taught in the classroom. Valentino, Luigina, and two of the younger teachers regularly give lessons in psychology, philosophy and religion. During these classes students are challenged to think about concepts such as perception, relativity, and self from a Buddhist inspired perspective.

Valentino has produced several books of “moral stories” that encourage discussion of subjects such as anger, friendship, and relationships and give the students examples of Buddhist responses to difficult situations (more on this in Chapter 4).

The traditional and non-traditional curricula are not completely separate. The most obvious manifestation of their union is the five-minute period of meditation that ends every class. During this time the teacher guides the students in some sort of focus or insight practice such as listening to the ring of a hell or simply observing the breath.

In the classes that I observed the teachers were very skilled at using meditation to steer the direction of a given class. During a math class for seven and eight-year-olds, the teacher calmed boisterous students by drawing a large dot on the board and having the students concentrate on that dot for two or three minutes. I was amazed at how this simple meditation drastically altered the atmosphere of the classroom.

The non-traditional curriculum is very well received by the students. Every student I interviewed spoke enthusiastically about the yoga and meditation practices. Beyond enthusiasm the students have a good grasp of the significance of these practices. When asked to define meditation one student wrote, “Meditation is to look with insight, to know our self, to know who I am. To be aware, to concentrate, to know mind, body, thoughts, emotions etc” (Kumar. 8/31/00). The students also realize the benefits of meditation and yoga. A 14-year-old boy who has been at the school since it was founded believes that yoga and meditation allow him to be “peaceful and healthy” and to “concentrate well” (Naress, 9/4/00).

Like many other students, this same boy felt that he is negatively affected when he does not practice: “On days I do not do yoga I feel very boring and painful in my body. Yoga gives me more energy” (Naress, 9/4/00). I attended a vipassana meditation class in which a student lead us through a half hour meditation with ease.

This experience solidified my belief that the students of the Alice Project School are not just hearing these non-traditional teachings, but absorbing them and living by them.

Other Programs

After tire school day another group of around 80 students who work during the day and are therefore unable to attend the day school come for three hours of class at night.

The students in this program have extremely busy lives, working around ten hours a day and then spending three hours at school. For these students, however, the time commitment is a small price to pay for the education that they would otherwise be without.

Valentino has also recently opened a new school outside of Bodh Gaya, India, the place of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

While intra-Buddhist politics have left the building mostly unused for the past year, when I was leaving in September, Valentino was preparing to send his first group of students to this new campus. He hopes to use the Bodh Gaya campus as a school for either street children of Varanasi or children who are currently in the harsh Indian prison system.

Valentino is also developing a program to work with young Tibetan Buddhist monks, supplementing their traditional monastic education finally, Valentino has submitted a grant proposal to the Indian government to establish an educational research institute at the school in order to bring in research scholars to test and document the Alice Project theories and methods.

The constant now of traffic in and out of Valentino’s office cum bedroom is the best evidence of the energy and time that he and others put into keeping the Alice Project School not only running but also expanding. From a local Tibetan doctor to a university psychology professor, scores of Indians and foreigners are dedicated to the success of Alice Project School.

Daily, both in the classroom and in development meetings, Valentino and others are uniting Buddhist ideals and education in ways that they envision as universal-continually transforming ideas and ideals into practical and effective realities.

Chapter 3

Madhyamika Philosophy

Though influenced by diverse sources, pedagogy of the Project Alice School claims to he grounded in Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy. While it is impossible in the span of this paper to fully elucidate Madhyamika philosophy, it is imperative to both locate Madhyamika in its historical context and to give a concise introduction to it. After briefly considering the development or the Mahayana and its philosophical sub-school Madhyamika, I will describe the philosophy in a negative mode, as a reaction against

Abhidharmic thought.

Next I will paint a broad four-stroke picture of the positive philosophical stances that Madhyamika philosophers such as Nagarjuna held : 1. All phenomena and matter are dependently arising and lack any independently existent matter. 2. The source or our misperception about existents is found in our misuse of language. 3. There are both the conventional reality of language and the ultimate reality of voidness.

4. All teaching happens according to skillful means. While such an introduction can hardly do justice to the brilliant and intriguing complexities of Madhyamika philosophy, these four broad principles give a general introduction to the philosophy and represent the working understanding of Madhyamika that I observed while teaching and researching at the Project Alice School.

The Historical and Cultural Background

pratyeka sravaka arhant, sravoka The second major historical influence on the development of the Mahayana was the encounter with other cultures’ theistic beliefs. From the cult of Vishnu to Hellenistic and Zoroastrian savior cults, Buddhists were exposed to many religions that held up a lively and glorified deity.

While it is unclear how exactly Buddhists picked up these cultic elements, the emergence of a transcendent Buddha and many other colorful and cuhic Buddhist deities reflects this cross cultural influence (Robinson and Johnson, 82­-83)

The final catalyst of the Mahayana’s rise and the focus of this introduction is the reaction against the Abhidharmic thought that had become a part of the established corpus of Buddhist teaching and became further entrenched with the establishment of written canons.

Many religious virtuosos and philosophers wrote new pseudepigraphic Sutras to counter the tenets of the Abhidharmic philosophy and the belief that the Abhidharma was the final teaching of the Buddha (Robinson and Johnson, 82). It is in this philosophical critique and debate that the new schools of Mahayana philosophy, including Madhyamika, developed.

Before I turn to the details of this philosophical development, it is important to note that the split between the Mahayana and Hinayana occurred over several hundred years and was not a sudden or violent schism.

Abhidharma and the Philosophical Context

As the Mahayana drew away from the Hinayana, specific schools such as Madhyamika developed their anti-Abhidharma views.

Abhidharma is defined by Robinson and Johnson as the “systematic analysis of component factors of experience, based on teachings in the Sutras, explaining physical and mental events without reference to an abiding self” (320). Wanting to destroy self-centered attachment, Abhidharmists faced the difficult task of describing how matter and phenomena exist in the world without being independently existent. They did so by positing the existence of basic building blocks, dharmas, that constitute each phenomenon.

There is no independently existent matter, a critical Buddhist belief, because all matter depends on the dynamic and constantly changing interactions of these dharmas. For a later comparison with Madhyamika philosophy, it is helpful to understand Abdhidharma in the language of physics: no matter exists in itself, but rather matter is an aggregate or product of particles and forces that are interacting and depending on one another.

The Mahayana critique of Abhidharmic thought centered on these elemental dharmas. Mahayana philosophers wanted to deny the existence of even these ‘Dharmac’ particles that compose matter.

Because Abhidharmists posited the existence of essential dharmic building blocks, Mahayana philosophers argued that there was still a subtle sense of self and independent existence.

According to the Mahayana, whether building blocks or not, Abhidharmic dharmas qualified as independently existing phenomena and therefore did not conform to the fundamental Buddhist teaching against independently existing matter.

This analytical breakdown, they also argued, promoted a subtle form of intellectual grasping because the philosopher believed that he “had ‘grasped’ the true nature of reality in a neat set of concepts” (Harvey, 96).

Therefore Abhidharmic “dharma-analysis, developed as a means to undercut self-centered attachment, was seen as having fallen short of its mark” (Harvey, 97).

Before moving to the positive philosophical system that anti-Abhidharmist Mahayana philosophers offered we must note that the Hinayana Abhidharmist positions described above are depicted as Mahayana philosophers envisioned them.

There was much debate between the two schools and by no means did the Mahayana completely undermine the positions held by the Hinayana. Rather, it is the case that the Mahayana, influenced by new cultural forces, offered a new set of philosophical tenets. To this day both Hinayana Abhidharma and Mahayana philosophy still thrive in different parts of the Buddhist world.

The Positive Philosophy: Nagarjuna’s Madhyamika

Accompanying and incorporated into the anti-Abhidharmic writings, new schools of Mahayana philosophy developed a positive philosophy to replace the Abhidharma. One of the most prominent of these schools was the Madhyamika school founded by the Indian monk and mystic, Nagarjuna, circa 150-250 CE (Harvey, 95). While Nagarjuna did not refer to himself as part of the Mahayana tradition, his students and followers including Aryadeva did so (Harvey, 96).

At the heart of Nagarjuna’s philosophy is a belief in the voidness or emptiness of all matter and all phenomena. This belief that is also at the heart of the Project Alice School’s pedagogy, and thus I will attempt to sketch the principal tenets of the Madhyamika in four broad strokes.

Each of these strokes will later be analyzed as a source of educational philosophy and innovative pedagogy at the Project Alice School.

The First Stroke: Dependent Arising and Matter as Voidness

Mula-madhyamika-karika (Verses on the Fundamentals of the Middle Way) Harvey summarizes Nagarjuna’s complicated philosophy into a three-step argument (97). The first step is a proof that phenomena lack their own nature.

Nagarjuna starts with the claim that all phenomena arise according to conditions that Abhidharmists, who understood all matter as conditioned by the dharmas, would agree with. It follows from this premise that what a phenomenon is depends on what conditions it—what an object appears to be is a product of the components that constitute it, an aggregate of interacting elements. From this Nagarjuna concludes that we have no own-nature. This first step of Nagarjuna’s reasoning closely follows that of the Abhidharmists.

Where Nagarjuna departs from his Abhidharmic predecessors is in the assertion that because nothing has its own-nature, there can be no other-nature. This second step of his logic is best understood as follows: there cannot be some phenomenon X that depends on some other phenomenon Y where Y has its own-nature. This is a logical argument because, according to the conclusion of the first step, Y cannot have its own­ nature.

This second step is Nagarjuna’s main attack on Abhidharmic philosophy. By denying other-nature he is denying the substantial existence of the dharmic building blocks at the heart of the Abhidharmic philosophy.

The third and final step in Nagarjuna’s proof is the claim that if matter cannot have its own-nature and there is no other-nature, then no matter can have an independent and substantially existent nature (Harvey, 97).

At the root of steps one and two, and thus also at the root of Nagarjuna’s conclusion, is the view that all phenomena depend 011 other phenomena for both their arising and existence. For this reason Nagarjuna’s argument is termed an argument of dependent arising.

Robert Thurman of Tel’s a second way to understand this first principle of Madhyamika thought.

Vimalakirti Sutra, pratityasamutpada.

He claims that the centrality of this term in Madhyamika philosophy “means that all finite things are interdependent, relative, and mutually conditioned and implies that there is no possibility of any independent, self-sufficient, permanent thing or entity” (Thurman 1976, 1).

The existence of the words on these pages depends on the ink, my thoughts, the reader’s eye and mind and hundreds of other causes that have brought the page to look as it does. Thunnan goes on to argue that this relativity and interdependence are fundamental to our perception of the world (1976,1-2). When one views an orange she enters into a relation with that orange. There is a dependence between the orange and the eyes that brings the orange into the existence that is perceived. Such an example makes it clear that dependent arising is at the root of our human understanding.

This relativity and the claim that there is no enduring entity quickly elicits objections of nihilism.

The Madhyamika response to this charge is that relativity and dependence do not rid us of existence but rather explain how matter and phenomena exist in the relative world of our perception (a distinction between the relative and ultimate world will be drawn in the third stroke).

not if This response and defense against nihilism is made even clearer in a second classic objection and response.
 
Mula-madhyamaka-karika Ultimately, while the teaching of dependent arising and the voidness of matter appear to be nihilistic, they accurately describe the world as we perceive it and as it is.

The Second Stroke:

Language as the Source of Our Mistaken Understanding

At the heart of the Buddha’s teaching is the assumption that we are all suffering and the source of our suffering is the grasping belief that phenomena, including the self, are independent and permanent entities. What is the source of this wrongful grasping?
 
Even though Nagarjuna proved that our understanding of the world is deluded, the vast majority of unenlightened beings continue to believe in such self-sufficient and independent entities.
 
Madhyamika philosophers were aware of this confusion and explained that it is linked to and perpetuated by our misuse of language.

as we perceive it. Above, however, we proved that according to Madhyamika philosophy there is not an independently existing orange. There is, rather, dependently arising and existing matter that we eat. Nagarjuna docs not deny that we should call that matter an orange and eat it, but he warns us that our use of language has the potential to delude us. This delusion occurs when we forget that a name is only a name and attribute independent reality to that which we name.

When we use the word “orange” or “self’ out of deluded habit we think not of the interdependent matter but rather posit an’ independently existent phenomena. It is this mistake, the confusion of name with reality, that is the source of human delusion.

as we perceive them. When we think of an orange we consider its color, shape, texture, smell, and maybe a few other components, but never its composite makeup, the water that fed the tree, the hand that picked the fruit and endless other factors which contributed to the dependent existence that we see before us.
 
Thus language confused as reality not only causes our delusion and subsequent suffering, but also blinds us to the total interdependent reality of all existence.

The Third Stroke: Ultimate and Conventional Reality

While Madhyamika philosophy does criticize such misuse of language, Nagarjuna believes that language has its place. The proper role for language is in describing the world as we know it, the world of conventional reality that we, as unenlightened beings, perceive. This reality or truth can be understood as the non-nihilistic reality.
 
will The world of conventional truth does not exist in an absolute sense but exists rather “only in a relative way, as a passing phenomenon” (Harvey, 98). The ultimate reality is completely devoid of name and grasping. This is the world in which all matter is recognized as being void of inherent existence, where matter truly is voidness.

Very little can be said about the ultimate reality as no word’s can describe it and it resists all attempts at reification, for once named it is no longer ultimate. Perhaps it is best to say that ultimate reality is the reality known in the experience of enlightenment.
 
The Madhyamika Buddhist teaching of two worlds or two truths appears dualistic, which is a problem for a philosophy that tries to destroy all dualism. This is resolved by the doctrine that both the ultimate and conventional reality exist in the same place at the same time in every moment. When one comes to realize this, she can experience both the ultimate and conventional reality simultaneously.

The Bodhisattva who has realized ultimate truth yet remains in the world of conventional truth in order to liberate sentient beings reveals that one can act in both the conventional and ultimate realities simultaneously.

The division of ultimate and conventional realities yields an important distinction in the Madhyamika and other Mahayana teachings of wisdom and compassion
.
(prajna) (mahakaruna). mahakaruna prajna mahakaruna

The Fourth Stroke:Teaching Ultimacy through Skillful Means

upaya Because Madhyamika is not suited to all students, the Buddha and other great teachers taught according to the level of their students’ understanding. It is here that Madhyamika recognized the importance of the Hinayana and Yogacara schools. The more limited goal of arhantship was prescribed for the student who could not comprehend the Bodhisattva ideal and sought liberation as escape from the relative world.

The Yogacara teaching, which posits the existence of pure mind, was taught to students who could not conceive of the emptiness of absolutely all things. These teachings, however, were not considered complete and were thought to bring a student only up to a certain level of understanding.

The belief that Hinayana and Yogacara are true, but non-comprehensive and lesser teachings is common among modern Madhyamika teachers.The doctrine of skillful means suggests more than just reaching out to all students. Upaya also suggests that all teachings are just that, a skillful means to drive the student to a new understanding. The arhant ideal is the means by which people begin to comprehend the Buddha’s teaching. Ultimately even Madhyamika is considered a means to an end, a provisional device. Upon realization of inexpressible truths, the teaching, that which catapults you towards those truths, loses its meaning and is no longer necessary. Thus, according to the Buddha’ s doctrine of upaya: 1. A true Buddhist teacher tailors his teaching to the level of understanding of his student, and 2.
 
A true Buddhist teaching is one that only temporarily aids you and prepares you to make the leap to the insight of inexpressible truths (Harvey, 100).

Chapter 4

Nagarjuna’s Presence:

Madhyamika’s Influence on the Alice Project School

Having given a description of the Alice Project School in Chapter 2 and laid the groundwork of Madhyamika philosophy in Chapter 3, this chapter will explore the main question of this paper: how does the Alice Project School  conceptualize the Buddhist nature of its social engagement?

By studying how Buddhist philosophy and social activism are united at the Alice Project School, we will see how Valentino grounds his social activism in the Madhyamika Buddhist thought that he claims is the primary influence on his educational project.

This chapter, besides examining how Buddhist philosophy influences the school, will describe how Buddhist ideals are translated into social theory and action. We will see that Madhyamika informs both theory and action through an analysis of the four most apparent ways that Madhyamika influences the school:

1. The overt Madhyamika curriculum
2. The claim that Madhyamika philosophy is a universal and ecumenical teaching
3. The interpretation of Madhyamika as supporting a critique of modern education
4. The Alice Project’s unique theory of social change.

In each of these sections I will explore those elements of Madhyamika that are at work, making reference to the four-part picture offered in the previous chapter, and explaining how the philosophy is manifested daily in the classroom.

The Curriculum

In the overt Madhyamika curriculum that Valentino and Luigina have developed, students are slowly introduced to Madhyamika teaching in the form of classroom exercises, stories, and informal interaction with Valentino; they are also given daily mediation time to internalize this wisdom.
 
upaya Rather than trace each step in this involved path I will highlight how dependent arising and the problem of language, two key Buddhist concepts, are taught to Alice Project students. Examples are taken from both classroom and informal interaction that I observed and from one of Valentino’s instruction manuals and they represent the three ways that he teaches: didactic teaching, stories, and informal interaction.

Throughout the Alice Project methodology there arc lessons to teach the concept of voidness and dependent arising.
of pratityasamutpada, The Philosophy of Alice Project, Then he asks what else the tree needs. Students reply that the tree needs air, the sun, soil and other elements. Valentino leads them to the realization that these cannot exist without the universe and everything it contains.

Thus the student begins to see that something that appears to be independently existent relies upon the entire universe (Giacomin 1997,31¬-34). The tree is clearly relative and all its components arc mutually conditioned. This simple lesson is taught to a class by drawing the tree on the board and guiding students through a series of questions.

 I watched Valentino teach several of these lessons and was impressed with his ability to get all the students involved with the thought experiment and to reach even those who seemed most confused.

Valentino also teaches about language and the mistaken understanding that results from our use of language. According to Madhyamika philosophy, language describes the world as we perceive it, not as it actually is.
 
Language is beneficial in that it allows us to communicate and exist in the conventional world. However, when we believe that the thing that we call an orange is an independently existent phenomenon, then we begin to be deluded.

In order to counter this delusion the Alice Project methodology must teach the students that names are just that, n_D1es and not realities-that when we call that thing on the table an orange and distinguish it from the apple we arc not drawing an ontological distinction but rather one of convenience suitable for the world we inhabit
.
Several times I watched Valentino explain this concept to his students in an informal setting.

One day a boy came into Valentino’s kitchen that serves as a living room and office for the volunteers, looking for a snack. As the boy ate some curd Valentino asked him what his name was and then asked the boy to point to where his name was. The boy looked shy so Valentino pressed on with yes and no questions. “Is your name in your foot?” “Is your name in your arm’?” “Where is your name?” The boy pointed to his chest. Valentino put his ear up against the boy’s chest and proclaimed “I do not hear your name!” The boy laughed. “So where is your name?”,6 One of the older students and a friend of the boy being questioned replied, “In his mind!” “Oh! So he does not really have a name that we can point to, it is just something we call him! It just helps us distinguish one person from another!” (9/l/00).

Throughout the day Valentino capitalizes upon these “teachable” moments, slowly imbuing his students with Madhyamika wisdom. Beyond such informal teaching Valentino also has lessons that help students understand that even the notion of “self’ or “I” is just a name that one gives to phenomena that truly are interdependent and void of independent existence. One of the best lessons directed at this point is the story of the ocean and the wave. This story is presented to the Alice Project students as follows:

The story focuses on the problems that stem from naming and language. When the wave questions what she is, she is forced to “discover a name which would distinguish her from all other forms around her” (Giacomin 1999, 68).

Naming and the implicit process of distinction force the wave to conclude, “I exist separately independent from the Ocean” (Giacomin 1999,69). This conclusion leads not only to conflict with the ocean and other waves, but also to a fear of death. Thus, in this story we see that the process of naming implicitly draws borders, fosters a belief in independent existence, and is the root of suffering.

The power of this story is that it points to the most problematic case of naming, the reification of the self. Because, like the wave, we name ourselves and distinguish ourselves from others, we suffer and fear death.

Through this simple story the students of the Alice Project are introduced in a comprehensible fashion to the complex Buddhist notion of reification and the subsequent problems of such naming and distinction.

Through stories, formal teaching, and informal interactions, the students of the Alice Project begin to view the world through a Buddhist-inspired lens.

When asked whether his students understand what they are taught Valentino told me that it is through informal dialogue that he ascertains the success of the teaching: “Laughing and conversation are very important because I can test [their understanding]. They have no fear because it is friendly” (Giacomin, 9/3/00).

From my interviews and informal interactions with students I can attest that the .students have a firm grasp on the language and concepts of interdependence, language, and thought awareness.
With such a handle on the terms and theories and daily meditation practice to bolster the philosophy, it is probable that the Madhyamika philosophy is affecting the students’ lives in some manner.

“Universal Education”: Madhyamika’s Ecumenicalism

The second way that Madhyamika influences Valentino’s social activism is reflected in his belief that Buddhist wisdom is beneficial for all people regardless of religious background—that Buddhist wisdom is “universal.”
 
Even when teaching Madhyamika concepts, Valentino rarely speaks in Buddhist terms. While stories like the ocean and the wave appear to make no specific religious reference, other stories are couched in the mythology and religious discourse of his students.
 
In a conversation on August 25, Valentino told me that he was considering teaching in New Mexico and wanted to know about Native American mythology. He stresses the importance of creating a “link to ancestors” and respecting his students’ culture.
 
This shift from one religious discourse to another, substituting one term of art for another, is not haphazard. Valentino argues that such shifts not only better engage students but are also warranted by the “universal” quality implicit in Madhyamika philosophy.
 
While the term “universal” has recently become suspect in academia, Valentino uses the term to suggest applicability to all people. Thus the “universal education school” is a school whose teaching is applicable to all people.
 
Perhaps the reader will find it helpful to read “universal” as “ecumenical.”

It could be argued that Valentino’s claims of universalism are a means of disguising Buddhist doctrine in the dogma of another religion.
 
He counters this argument with the claim that all religious traditions point to the same conclusions, the same wisdom that Madhyamika does: “If we go very deep, to the heart of religions, you can find this [Madhyamika] wisdom there” (9/5/00). Valentino used the image of a ladder to a summit to explain this: the realization of all religions, the summit, is the same, but the path that each religion offers to the believer, the ladder, is different.

not While Valentino does make strong ecumenical claims, he also suggests that not all ladders arc created equal. He describes the Madhyamika ladder as logical and easy to climb while claiming that “in other traditions we really have to make an effort” to arrive a realization of emptiness.

When asked about the path offered by Christianity, he criticized the tradition for having suppressed the mystical elements that meet the needs of “introverted” believers. He specifically objected to the decrees of Vatican II, which he said expunged the esoteric, thereby obfuscating the higher rungs of the Christian spiritual ladder.

Through his “universal” teaching Valentino hopes to help Christians discover the wisdom that is latent in their own tradition: “I am not saying that in the Church there is not wisdom. My goal is to help Christians to discover the wisdom they have” (9/5/00).

Valentino claims that universal wisdom manifests itself in all religions as selflessness and a meditative “silence of the mind” (Giacomin 1999, 79). He cites passages from the Bible in which Jesus tells his followers to “renounce the self and follow me,” and Hindu statements about the dissolving of ego grasping along with the Madhyamika philosophy of destroying the notion of self to support this claim.

According to Valentino, at the pinnacle of any religious experience are a destruction of any dualism or division and the resultant “silence” of the non-distinguishing and non-reifying mind. While Valentino’s claim to universality is not grounded in a rigorous study of comparative religion, it is supported by Madhyamika, specifically by its philosophy of language.

Inherent in the philosophy of the Madhyamika is the belief that its wisdom is universal. According to the teachings of dependent arising and voidness, there are no independently existing phenomena and hence there is no independently existing Madhyamika philosophy.

 Thus, ultimately any attempt to draw a boundary between Madhyamika wisdom and other religious wisdom would be self-contradictory.
At this point we can identify one of the most interesting aspects of Buddhism’s philosophy, its self-deconstruction.
When the Madhyamika philosophy is fully realized, then even the distinction of ‘Buddhism’ is lost, the religion destroys itself. This self-deconstruction of boundaries found in Buddhism, and particularly in Madhyamika, allows Valentino to ground his claims of universality in a religious philosophy that at its moment of realization sees everything in a universal, non-divided manner.

The introduction to Abhidharma and the philosophical context of Madhyamika in the previous chapter make it clear that, despite this inherent universalism, Madhyamika philosophers were very concerned with differentiating their philosophy from that of their Abhidharmic counterparts. Their apparently self-contradictory desire to hold Madhyamika teachings above other philosophies can be explained by the third point, the distinction between ultimate and conventional reality. The belief that ‘Madhyamika’ is a false distinction and that all wisdom is universal is true in ultimate reality.

However, in the conventional world that we inhabit, distinctions between Madhyamika and Yogacara or some other philosophical school help us to discern the most beneficial spiritual path. Nagarjuna would claim that while eventually “Madhyamika” disappears, for our life in conventional reality, for our spiritual path to a realization of ultimate reality, we need the teachings that it provides.

While the ‘names of conventional reality do help one to navigate the conventional world, they are also the source of our misunderstanding. As suggested in the second stroke of Madhyamika philosophy above, too often people forget that a name is just that, and they attribute independent reality to that which is named. Valentino perceives this problem of language as the heart of religious conflict and as the major roadblock to religious pluralism.
(9/5/00). (9/5/00)

 A Critique of Education

Beyond the overt curriculum and claims to universalism, Valentino interprets Madhyamika as providing the grounds for a critique of modem education and inspiration for the Alice Project School.
 
At the heart of Madhyamika wisdom, stemming from the doctrine of voidness and dependent arising is a destruction of all division and separation. Whether they are as apparently trivial as distinctions between an orange and an apple or as fundamental as a division between self and other, the act of drawing boundaries leads to conflict and suffering.
 
Quoting transpersonal psychologist Ken Wilbur, Valentino argues that education is a major contributor to this habit of division: “To receive an education is to learn where and how to draw boundaries and then what to do with the bounded aspects” (Giacomin 1997, 16).
 
When considering a typical school curriculum this statement rings true. One of the first lessons that students learn in an elementary science class is taxonomy, the process of categorizing organisms. Even in the humanities a student is trained to have a strong thesis statement which tells the reader that Shakespeare’s poetry is one thing and not another.
 
While classes at the Alice Project School are divided into subjects, a necessary part of an education in the conventional world, the philosophy and meditation teachings help the students to problematize such boundaries. Valentino argues that the greatest separation we create is between the inner and outer world:

 ”The first separation starts within ourselves, in our intelligence” (Giacomin 1997, 16). In conventional education the student is taught to value the world outside her. If she can distinguish between poetry and prose, if she can do long division, if she can write a strong paper, she is seen as a successful student. She is never asked to look inside her mind, to see how her mind works, to calm her mind or watch her thoughts. Because of this emphasis on the external and disregard of the internal, the student is left divided, her external knowledge valued and internal realization ignored.
 
Following the educational critiques of the Indian spiritual leader, J. Krisnamurti, Valentino posits that a student’s divided mind results in, “competition, ambition, conflicts, violence, fear, and comparison” (Giacomin 1997, 17).
 
whole whole Valentino’s criticism also reaches to the aims of education. When asked about the education of monks in Tibetan Buddhist monasteries, the home of Madhyamika philosophy for the last 1000 years, he quickly criticized their methods.

Drawing parallels between the educational methods of a typical Indian school and a monastery, he targeted the Tibetan heavy reliance on memorization, saying that young monks should “use all the faculties of the mind.

(some people fromWhen a Tibetan education inspector assessed the Alice Project School by a simple twenty-question test and showed overwhelming concern with the jobs that students received after graduation, Valentino concluded that “they are completely bound to this material way of thinking and are focused on results” (9/12/00).
 
This points to a greater problem that Valentino has with current education reforms.
 
He argues that if we judge a school by its test scores and the jobs its students get, then we are judging only the external part of a student, not the whole student.

According to Valentino, these tests and standards reflect an inherent bias that favors external education over a unified education in which external and internal knowledge are equally important.

This critical assessment of educational testing and standards points to a different notion of success held by Valentino and the Alice Project School.

In many conversations Valentino stressed that his definition of success does not revolve around the test scores or the jobs that his students take after graduation: “My target is to create free persons, not professionals.”

His desire to create a “high official of the mind” rather than a political “high official,” reflect this dedication to spiritual achievement rather than traditional manifestations of “success” (8/29/00).

After espousing the importance of mental training he assured me that “the students will get the high post [in society], but they will not strive for it,” suggesting that he believes that such inner “success” will produce worldly success as well (9/13/00).
 
Valentino is confident, however, that the successful Alice School student who achieves wealth and political power will not forget his upbringing and will repay and change society (8/25/00). This connection between inner wisdom and social change is the subject of the next section.
 
Before moving on it must be noted that Valentino’s critique of modern education, which he grounds in Buddhist philosophy, is also a source of inspiration for his school. Valentino does not just criticize education from a Buddhist perspective but also implements these Buddhist changes in his own school.

Where a traditional school separates the inner and outer worlds and values material success over personal realization, Valentino, through the use of meditation and the non-traditional curriculum, strives to foster a unified student and a notion of success that places little value on material wealth and test scores. Thus we see that Buddhist philosophy and the critique of modern education that are thought to spring from Madhyamika are the main inspirations for Valentino’s social engagement.

A Theory of Social Change

Finally, the Alice Project School’s social engagement is grounded in a particular theory of social change that develops from Madhyamika’s view of enlightenment and the unity of wisdom and compassion.
 
Central to Valentino’s plan for social action is the belief that giving students “wisdom”—a Madhyamika-inspired understanding of existence—is of the greatest importance. This emphasis on wisdom is reflected in various statements of educational goals: “to drive students beyond the dualistic mind” (9/12/00) or to create “non-self-centered people with an open mind both to themselves and others” (9/13/00).
 
Valentino’s emphasis m(inner more than outer success is further evidence that developing students’ “wisdom” is the primary goal of his teaching.

With “wisdom” or a change of mind, Valentino argues that one can change the world. In a conversation about Dalit Buddhists and Dr. Ambedkar, Valentino disapproved of Ambedkar’s stress on legal and political activism claiming that the “only tool that can change their oppressed peoples’ situation is wisdom. If you look inside, you have the power to change yourself” (9/12/00).

In that same conversation he stressed that when one gains wisdom the things that previously were oppressive or negative are no longer a problem.

It took me a long time to come to grips with what Valentino meant by changing the world by developing wisdom or changing one’s mind.

Studying Thomas Kasulis’ article “Nirvana” and several Mahayana descriptions of the world from an enlightened perspective helped me to understand Valentino’s point. Within the Mahayana, when one achieves enlightenment, they do not escape from the world as we know it but view it in a new way (Kasulis, 397).

For the student who has fully realized the Madhyamika “wisdom,” the categories and distinctions that characterize our understanding of the world disappear and one is able to exist in the world free from the suffering that is a product of our grasping. For this reason, that which was oppressive or negative is no longer given any label and is seen in a new non-judgmental perspective. This understanding is ret1ected in Buddhist texts in which the world that we live in is described as a jewel laden shining palace.

While wisdom allows a person to experience the world in this non-judgmental way, to experience ultimate reality, it also gives the enlightened person the tools to affect the conventional reality through the greatest compassion for all sentient beings. In our very first conversation about the philosophy of the Alice Project School, Valentino stressed that wisdom and compassion are inextricably linked.

mahakaruna, Thus, wisdom allows us to achieve the realization of the ultimate reality while reducing the mental and physical suffering that pervade the conventional world. These two elements, wisdom and compassion, should not be understood as cause and effect, but rather as two sides of the same coin, for it is impossible to develop wisdom without great compassion and vice versa.

This development of compassion that is inextricably linked to the development of wisdom is what makes Valentino so sure that, while social change is not the goal of the Alice Project education, it is the result.

As suggested above students who develop the Madhyamika wisdom will also necessarily develop a compassion that Valentino argues will make them socially responsible citizens (8/25/00). Though Valentino rarely talked about the social effects of his teaching, preferring to talk about the motivation and “wisdom” behind the teaching, on a few occasions he stated that the “result would be kindness and less competition” that would manifest in such ways as “respect for the environment” (9/13/00).
(9/12/00).

Thus far my description of Valentino’s social change theory sounds linear: develop wisdom and social change will follow. Political activists would argue vehemently against such a view claiming that any change in our world requires political and economic skillful means. Valentino, however, understands this: “If you know cases of injustice, as a human, you react. If a house is on fire put it out with water, not philosophy!” (9/13/00). Because the Alice Project School is located in a part of the world where conventional reality is filled with poverty, Valentino is developing social service projects alongside the teaching of wisdom.
 
Though his philosophy of social action emphasizes wisdom, hl: recognizes that “if you open your eyes you will see children starving and dying and you cannot turn your eyes away” (9/13/00). For the students he provides food, clothing, health care, and shelter if needed. He is also interested in opening a health clinic and other means of reaching the Sarnath community.

Even in these cases of material aid, Valentino stresses that proper social action should include wisdom: “only charity is nonsense!” (9/13/00). Clearly Valentino’s vision of a proper socially engaged movement is one that is motivated by wisdom, that teaches wisdom, and whose primary aim is wisdom. Valentino goes so far as to say that a social movement that does not have wisdom as its goal is harmful. Dr. Ambdekar’s Dalit Buddhism is a good example of one such movement.
 
we He fears that because the Dalits have political power rather than wisdom as their goal they will create a Buddhist fundamentalism where Buddhism provides the grounds for “fighting, the opposite of compassion” (9/12/00). While it is impossible to assess the legitimacy of the Dalit movement in this paper, Valentino’s strong reaction against what he sees as Dalit tactics further reveals his emphasis on Madhyamika wisdom at the heart of any social engagement.

Thus Madhyamika philosophy appears throughout the Alice Project School pedagogy and philosophy. While at times Madhyamika is clearly the explicit inspiration, most often the philosophy is intertwined with other ideals of education that are not exclusively Buddhist.

thHe also quotes Krishnamurti directly when providing his Buddhist critique of modern education. Tints we see that even when Valentino attempts to ground his social activism in sources other than’ Buddhism, he cannot help but to return to the Buddhist qualities of their teachings. Clearly, whether explicitly stated or not, Buddhism is at the heart of Valentino’s social activism, providing both the motivation for education and the subject of that education.

Chapter 5

Nagarjuna’s Jewel Garland

Jewel Garland of Royal Counsels Jewel Garland of Royal Counsels.”

Jewel Garland

While Thurman’s interpretation does go beyond  what is literally written in the text, the fact that he is both a well recognized Tibetan Buddhist scholar and student of Madhyamika philosophy, studying with such figures as H.H. Dalai Lama, lends substantial credibility to his extrapolation from Nagarjuna’s words to modern plans for social change.

The striking similarities between Thurman’s and Valentino’s independent constructions of a social activism theory from Madhyamika philosophy lend academic support not only to Valentino’s focus on education as the medium for social change, but also to two of his most contentious positions:

1. Social change is achieved through personal, transcendent change and
2.  Buddhist wisdom is universal in nature.

Finally, underlying Nagarjuna’s text is the assumption that wisdom and compassion arc incxtricably linked and that all positive social action is inspired and guided by wisdom.

Ratnavali Jewel Garland. of or Wisdom Verses, Ratnavali Guide to the Bodhisattva’s way of Life of Ratnavali Jewel Garland The first, “individualist transcendentalism,” emphasizes the importance of each person’s cultivating wisdom, dissolving the processes of grasping and reification, and ultimately transcending notions of “I” and “mine” (1983, 31-35)
.
The second principle is “self-restraint, unpacked as detachment and pacifism,” in which the enlightened person no longer seeks to fulfill his passions (1983,35-37).

Though Nagarjuna does address this principle, it is the least applicable to the Alice Project School and therefore I will not give it a thorough treatment in this chapter.

 ”Transformative universalism,” a dedication to “enlightenment-oriented” education for all people, is thc third principle of a Buddhist social activism (1983, 38). The final principle is a “compassionate socialism”-which Thurman suggests is perhaps the earliest description of the welfare state (1983, 37-38).

Jewel Garland. Furthermore, the format of the text as a whole and the prominent position given to individual transcendence highlights the importance of personal realization. The work opens not with instructions as to how the king should act, as we might expect in a text formatted as counsels for a king, but rather with a description of the path to transcendence (verses 25-147).- A major part of this path to transcendence is the destruction of egoistic grasping and the concept of ‘I’ introduced to the king in verses 28-30:

“I am,” and “It is mine,”
These are false as absolutes.
For neither stands existent
Under exact knowledge of reality.
The “I”-habit creates the heaps,
Which “I”-habit is false in fact.
I low can what grows from a false seed
Itself be truly existent?
Having seen the heaps as unreal,
The “I”-habit is abandoned.

“I”-habit abandoned, the heaps do not arise again (Thurman, 983,33). Thurman argues that Nagarjuna places such great emphasis on personal realization because he wants to cultivate a king who acts not according to rules, but rather is capable of enlightened decision-making: “A liberated and compassionate king will himself choose the right path of action and be more effective. than’ a merely obedient, unliberated king who must depend slavishly on Nagarjuna’s or someone else’s ideas” (1983,35).
 
As we will see -in Nagarjuna’s focus on education, this emphasis on personal liberation is indeed egalitarian and not restricted to the leaders of a society as it is with Plato’s philosopher-king.
 
Garland Implicit within the importance given to individual transcendence is a theory of both suffering and social change. At the heart of Madhyamika philosophy is the belief that suffering is a mental creation.
 
Guide to the Bodhisattva Way of Life, is just not that important” Valentino’s understanding of suffering and social change is similar to that of Nagarjuna as painted by Thurman. The goal of Valentino’s social engagement, to “drive students beyond the dualistic mind” (9/2/00), or to create “non-self-centered people with an open mind both to themselves and others” (9/13/00), is obviously congruent with Thurman’s understanding of Nagarjuna’s aim to achieve an “individual’s realization of this subjective selflessness” (1983,22).
Precious Garland While Valentino’s social change theory might appear ignorant of political and economic forces, Thurman explicitly acknowledges this unconventional approach: “Such advice flies in the face of all worldly political wisdom, ancient or modern, but it is at the heart of Buddhist politics and ethics” (1983, 31).8

Precious Garland, “Always care compassionately/ For the  sick, the unprotected, those stricken! With suffering, the lowly, and the poor/ And take special care to nourish them” (Nagarjuna, 126)—such verses make it clear that Nagarjuna is concerned with even the most powerless members of society. In order to facilitate such care Thurman notes that Nagmjuna prescribes “a socially-supported universal health care delivery system” in verse 240: “To dispel the sufferings of children, the elderly, and the sick, please fix farm revenues for doctors and barbers throughout the land” (Thurman 1983, 37-38).

Nagarjuna also advises economic policies that protect the small farmer and specific plans for the care of guests traveling through the kingdom (Thurman 1983, 38). Even more remarkable is the ecological implication in verse 250, which includes “dogs, ants, birds, and so forth” within the community that receives care (Nagarjuna, 250).

to satisfy their basic needs so that they may have leisure to consider their own higher needs and aims” (italics mine, purpose Though such comprehensive social plans are only a means to foster enlightenment, the attention Nagarjuna gives to them suggests that they should not be undervalued.
 
The Alice Project School is a great example of such a philosophy in practice. Beyond giving the students teachings that foster self-cultivation, Valentino meets his students’ basic needs in order that they can be dedicated to their studies.
 
Every day I and other teachers provided food and health care while students with need received clothing and shelter. Meeting material needs in order to support each student’s study and self-realization clearly applies the principle of compassionate socialism that Thurman attributes to Nagarjuna.
 
One might wonder how Valentino can be so supportive of the material uplift of poor people and still object to the work of Dr. Ambedkar and the Dalit Buddhists who have reinterpreted basic Buddhist principles to support their campaign for socio-political structural changes.
 
The source of Valentino’s opposition to Ambedkarites rests not in their provision of basic material needs; he recognizes that untouchables are treated very poorly in Indian society and material change needs to occur.
 
not If a Dalit Buddhist proposed political changes in order that each person would have a better opportunity to achieve enlightenment, Valentino would fully support such a campaign.9 Clearly, within both Nagarjuna’s and Valentino’s theories of social change, the only material aid that makes a difference is that which facilitates personal, transcendent change: “The foremost type of giving is, interestingly, not just giving of material needs, although that is a natural part of generosity. That of greatest value to beings is freedom and transcendence and enlightenment” (Thurman 1983,41) and Valentino’s “Students need wisdom. Only charity is nonsense!” (9/13/00).

Counsels Within a social activism theory that stresses transcendent change over material giving there is no better institution for activism than education. The students receive the skills they need to provide for their material needs while, more importantly, developing the spiritual skills to attain freedom, transcendence, and enlightenment.

Jewel Garland: Nagarjuna’s sense of urgency in the latter quotation reveals the importance of establishing a Buddhist inspired educational program. Like Valentino, who says, “My target is to create free persons, not professionals” (8/29/00), Thurman is interested in a system of education that leads students to enlightenment: “Therefore, the educational system of a society is not there to ’service’ the society, to produce its drone-’professionals,’ its worker, its servants.
 
The educational system is the individual’s doorway to liberation, to enlightenment” (Thurman 1983,41). Once again we note the remarkable parallels between Valentino’s educational aims and those of Nagarjuna as interpreted by Robert Thurman (1983, 41).
Finally, Thurman describes the education that Nagarjuna would offer as, “universal, total, unlimited education of all individuals” (1983,42).
 
all The close connection between Thurman’s vision of Nagmjuna’s education and the Alice Project School lends credibility to Valentino’s philosophy or education.
 
Beyond the support or his educational project as a whole, Thurman’s final section also gives further weight to one of Valentino’s most controversial claims, the universal nature of the Buddhist philosophy he teaches.

Thurman arrives at his claim of universal education in a brilliant analysis of the word “Dharma” in verse 310. Leaving Dharma untranslated the verse reads, “Create centers of Dharma.” Thurman argues that if Dharma is translated as Religion or Doctrine (following Hopkins) then the advice “would have a religious missionary flavor” or “dogmatic scholastic flavor” (1983,42). He then discusses eleven possible meanings of Dharma including “thing,” “Truth,” “practice,” or even “nirvana” concluding that the best possible translation is “Teachings” because the Dharma “teach[es] the Truth, path, and practice leading to Nirvana” (1983, 42-43).
 
Because Nagarjuna is calling for any education that leads its students to Nirvana, Thurman argues, “lie is not even talking about creating ‘Buddhist centers,’ ‘Buddhism’ understood in its usual sense as one of a number of world religions” (1983, 43). Thurman further resonates with Valentino saying, “It does not matter what symbols or ideologies provide the umbrella, as long as the function is liberation and enlightenment” (1983, 43).
 
emptiness, is The fact that Nagarjuna did not call himself a Mahayana Buddhist, avoiding any sort of categorization, is further evidence of how seriously he took his stance against “belief systems” (Harvey, 96). With such a strong position against dogma, Nagarjuna’s philosophy embodies the essence of universalism—any path that is able to lead its followers to transcendence and nirvana is a valid path. Not only does Thurman’s work on Nagarjuna’s educational plans lend support to Valentino’ s claims of universalism, but his comparison of Christianity and Buddhism also supports Valentino’s “nonacademic” comparisons of religious teachings: “Jesus Christ’s’ Love God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself,’ and Augustine’s “Love God and do what you will”— these two great ‘pivotal phrases’ are very much in the same vein, using of course the theistic term for emptiness” (Thurman 1983,50).
 
Having surveyed Thurman’s account of the four elements of Nagarjuna’s philosophy of social activism-individualist transcendentalism, compassionate socialism,  education, and universalism it is important to note one of the key philosophical concepts behind his program f()r social change, the perfect union of wisdom and compassion.

upaya It is also important to note that the compassion of a Buddha is unlike that of any unrealized person because it springs from the infinitely deep wealth of compassion, fully realized wisdom. Understood as such, wisdom or emptiness becomes both the motivation and the aim, the impetus and the goal of Buddhist social activism, a theme that will be explored in the next chapter.

Chapter 6

Buddhism Of Socially Engaged Buddhism

The previous tow chapters have shown how hath Valentino and Robert Thurman emphasize personal transcendence over “outer” or material change in their visions of socially engaged Buddhism. This concluding chapter will offer a critique of the apparent dualism ill this approach to social engagement; this critique is based on the Mahayana Heart Sutra’s famous maxim “form is emptiness, emptiness is form.” I will show, however, that

what how how, Questioning the Social Activism of Valentino and Thurman

Jewel Garland, As shown in the previous chapter, Valentino similarly argues for personal change over social change: “the only tool that can change their I an oppressed person’s] situation is wisdom. If you look inside you have the power to change yourself” (9/12/00).

dukkha dakkha” dukkha  Most social activists today would probably concur with Lay’s assertion that social constructions such as class, race, gender, and caste cause suffering and, to mitigate this suffering, we must change the structures.

One possible response from Valentino’s and Thurman’s camp is that Lay and other social activists are reading their own cultural understandings of liberation into Buddhism.
 
Though neither Valentino nor Thurman make this argument, Ken Jones in his “Emptiness and Form: Engaged Buddhism Struggles to Respond to Modernity,” argues that Buddhism is distorted to meet the needs of American activists’ modern assumptions.
 
Jones paints the culture of the Buddha as one “in which there could be virtually no expectation of change in the harsh conditions of life (even for the rich)” and therefore one demanding a form of “release” that does not depend on the alteration of these physical conditions (4). He goes on to claim, “Modernity totally reverses these assumptions.
 
For the young American radicals of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s who became interested in Buddhism, emancipatory modernity was simply the absolute taken-for-granted truth, to which Dharma had to be accommodated” (4), Jones suggests that the modern American activists, who would dispute the claims of Valentino and Thurman, have read their own cultural notion’s of freedom and emancipation into Buddhism.?
Jones goes so far as to say: “to imply that the above injunction ‘to save all sentient beings’] of the Buddha to his Sangha is a manifesto for social revolution, or even some kind of welfare agenda, is to wrench it from its soteriological context and secularize it” (4), Jones is not alone in this position.

Nelson Roster, all original BPF member, reflecting on the founding of the BPF, writes:

Naivete played a part in BPF’s creation, I now see, at least on my part, naivete about Buddhism itself and the bodhisattva way of saving beings..” As I reflect on the developments of the past twenty years, it seems to me that BPF and other Buddhist projects of a similar nature have suffered from a failure to resolve crucial differences between the world view implicit in Buddhism and the world view that we absorb unintentionally as children of this culture (Foster, 1).

Both Jones’ and Foster’s arguments could be enlisted in support of Valentino’s and Thurman’s vision of social activism.

Thurman and Valentino could also argue that their emphasis on personal transcendence rather than social transformation checks the excessively social-change¬ focused modern American social activism. Dr. Masao Abe, a Zen layman and scholar, hopes that an emphasis on personal change will balance out the American focus on social change.

Abe’s image of underground water destroying the roots of social evil rather than a constant pruning of the branches of such evil suggests that we need to transform the heart of suffering rather than resolve social issue after social issue. Referring to this image, he told Nelson Foster that he appreciates “the American form of social change,” but “I just hope that American Buddhists realize the importance of the work of underground water” (in Foster, 6-7).
 
While Valentino did stress the importance of personal transcendence during my visit, Mark Singleton, a long time volunteer at the school, told me that at other times Valentino has placed an emphasis on the social transformation necessary in India. This leads me to believe that Valentino emphasized personal transcendence in his conversations with me because he saw me as a young American social activist, likely to be skeptical about a theory that valorizes inner over outer transformation.
 
By stressing the inner aspect of social activism he, perhaps, hoped that we would med at a middle ground that united both personal and social transformation.

Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form

There remains more serious objection to the social activism theories of Valentino and Thurman, which is that they appear dualistic—a clear contradiction of the Mahayana teaching of non-dualism.

just not that important” Further, Thurman describes Nagarjuna’s “compassionate socialism” as “generous compassion dedicated to providing everyone with everything they need to satisfy their basic needs so that they may have leisure to consider their own higher needs and aims” (1983, 38-39).

Though Thurman acknowledges the importance of social uplift, this social change is merely a means to the individual’s realization. This linear cause and effect relationship, compassion causes wisdom, is another example or the dualism inherent in Thurman’s social activism theory.
 
The material aid given at the Alice Project School could be seen as an example of this dualism in practice. The students receive food, shelter and health care so that they can fully dedicate themselves to personal liberation. Stated as such, it seems that the heart of Buddhist social activism is dualistic, with the personal valued above the social.

In Chapter Three, I introduced the Buddhist notion of two worlds or two truths, the ultimate and the conventional. Despite an apparent dualism, the ultimate and conventional realities exist in the same place at the same time; they are two sides of the same coin, two views of the same world. The bodhisattva, who has realized the ultimate reality yet remains in the world of conventional reality in order to free all sentient beings, exemplifies how the two worlds can be navigated and are truly one. This doctrine is captured in the Heart Sutra’s words “Form is emptiness, emptiness is form,” in which form stands for the conventional reality and emptiness for the ultimate.

(mahakaruna) In the formulas “form and emptiness” and “wisdom and compassion,” neither element is deemed more important than the other. Such a distinction would create a dualism between two apparent entities that are inherently one. The connection between these elements is not causal but rather ontological. Emptiness does not cause form, nor does form cause emptiness. Likewise, wisdom does not cause compassion, nor does compassion cause wisdom. Such a linear causal relationship would also betray the inherent unity of form and emptiness, wisdom and compassion.

Having math: the transition from “form is emptiness, emptiness is form” to “compassion is wisdom, wisdom is compassion,” I would go one step further to suggest: “social change is personal transcendence, personal transcendence is social change.” Thurman and Valentino independently argue for the ontological and non-causal union of form and emptiness, wisdom and compassion. They also both call for social change and personal transcendence. They do not, however, treat the pairing of “social change and personal transcendence” in the same way that they do that of “form and emptiness,” or “wisdom and compassion.” While wisdom and compassion are deemed to be equal, with one not greater than the other, throughout this and the previous two chapters I have shown that Valentino and Thurman place a greater emphasis on personal transcendence than on social change. Similarly, the ontological relationship between the two is ignored as social change is-seen as causally connected to personal realization-social change seen either as a means of fostering inner transcendence or as a product thereof. Thus the alignment of three equal and onto logically connected pairs-form and emptiness, compassion and wisdom, social change and personal transcendence—yields a critique of the social activism theories presented in the previous chapters. Social change and personal realization are inextricably linked, equally valid places for work towards liberation, and should both be addressed simultaneously.

Other socially engaged Buddhist scholars share this belief in the union of social change and personal liberation. In his article “Emptiness and Form,” Ken Jones suggests that we need to find a “Middle Way between contemplation and activism” (5). Jones divides the positions we see above into two models. The first model emphasizes personal realization over social service and warns, in the great Tibetan yogin Milarepa’s words, against “setting out to serve others before one has oneself realized Truth in its fullness; to be so would be like the blind leading the blind.” Jones calls this the soteriological model (5).

The other camp, in which “Buddhism reduces to mindful social service and mindful radicalism—a spiritual lubricant for justice, freedom and welfare” he gives the moniker “social emancipation model” (5).

Faced with these two extremes, the emphasis sharply on personal transcendence in the one case and on social change on the other, Jones writes, “There is a middle way to be found in personal practice, whether contemplative or active. And there is also a middle way to be discerned in the appropriateness of our response to a range of different personal and social predicaments” (5).
The union of form and emptiness suggests that this “middle way” can be discovered, and that neither has to be compromised for the full realization of the other. We can find a middle way that allows both personal realization and social change.

A Response

Both Valentino and Thurman would strongly object to accusations of dualistic social engagement.
 
The problem with discussing any two concepts that are joined in the way that form and emptiness or wisdom and compassion are, is that in promoting one you appear to be demoting the other.

For example, if I were to tell you that the there is no independently existent self in the world (a statement about the ultimate reality), that would appear to contradict the conventional reality truth that we are all individuals living in this world. Within the confines of language, an inherently objectifying and dualistic medium, it is impossible to simultaneously do justice to both ultimate and conventional realities
.
not Valentino’s actions and Thurman’s other writings on Buddhist social activism reveal that they both believe in the equal importance of simultaneous social change and personal realization.
While Valentino continually told mc of the importance of spiritual transcendence, on occasion he stressed the importance of compassionate social change: “If you know cases of injustice, as a human, you react. If a house is on fire put it out with water, not philosophy!” (9/13/00).

Mark Singleton, a long time volunteer at the school and friend or Valentino suggested that Valentino’s emphasis on material change is not uncommon. Furthermore, the school’s very presence in Sarnath along with his daily actions reflects his commitment to social change. The Alice Project provides an outstanding education to the disadvantaged children from the villages around Sarnath.
 
This alone gives them the tools to create social change. His desire to work with children in Indian prisons also demonstrates his commitment to altering the social structures by representing and educating the unrepresented and uneducated. Furthermore, his dream of having an Alice Project School in every village across India, a place force of caste and sex discrimination, reveals a commitment to large-scale social change.
 
On the personal level, Valentino is constantly on the lookout for students who are unhappy or ill. He is always willing to help his students confront abuse and resolve financial and social problems.
 
Vimalakirti Sutra We are left with the seemingly contradictory tasks of becoming conscious of its [our reality's] ultimacy on the one hand and, on the other hand, of devoting our energies to the improvement of the unavoidable relative situation as best we can. For the successful accomplishment of this dual task we need, respectively, wisdom (prajna) and great compassion (mahakaruna), and these two functions are the essence of the Great Vehicle (Mahayana), and of the Middle WayHere we see no prioritization of personal transformation over social transformation or causal relationship between wisdom and compassion.
 
While Valentino and Thurman sometimes stress the importance of personal realization, they both acknowledge the equal importance of social change. They both realize that wisdom and compassion in the forms of personal transcendence and social change are needed to deal with the problems of ultimate and conventional realities. Thus, the point of the critique in this chapter is not to disprove their theories but to point the reader toward a more careful consideration of the Buddhist union of wisdom and compassion.

What Makes Socially Engaged Buddhism “Buddhist”?

aim (dukkha) means This answer is very different from what I initially expected in my research on socially engaged Buddhism. At the outset? I looked not at the motivation of each movement but at the projects they conducted in the world. When I read about the BPF teaching meditation to prisoners, or Thich Nhat Hanh leading meditation retreats for Vietnamese refugees, I was easily able to see what was Buddhist about their social engagement. In both cases the Dharma (Buddha’s teaching) was in the foreground, plainly visible to both the givers and receivers of such aid. However, in the planting of garden and building of preschools by the Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka, I had greater difficulty seeing the Buddhism in their actions-such work appears no different than that done by a non-Buddhist social activist group. Despite the lack of explicit Dharma in Sarvodaya’s work, Ariyaratne and the greater Buddhist community still consider it “engaged Buddhism”.

AFour Divine Abiding Buddhist.

Many heated conversations with my good friend and fellow student of socially engaged Buddhism, Ginger Hancock, made me question my adamant belief in such “fundamentals” of Buddhism. She argues that throughout Buddhism’s 2,500 years the teachings of the Buddha, the “fundamentals,” have been reinterpreted by countless people to support their own beliefs. Santikaro Bhikkhu supports Ginger’s position, arguing that the “orthodox” Buddhism that we rely on for socially engaged Buddhism’s legitimacy is the product of an elite group of Buddhists with their own agenda and does not consider the beliefs of the majority of Buddhist practitioners (5). He cites Buddhadasa Bhikkhu, one of the most inl1uential thinkers on engaged Buddhism saying, “Who cares’?” when asked about the scriptural basis for his claims (Santikaro, 5). For Buddhadasa, textual evidence is only necessary to convince “the conservative monks [who] had vested interests and emotional attachments to the orthodox line” (6). Finally, Santikaro argues that the obsession with textual authority, manifested in my own desire to judge engaged Buddhist movements according to their textual support, might be related to modern and Western approaches. (5).
 
Jewel Garland While occasionally – Valentino made reference to Buddhist texts, he never depended on them to support his belief that his social activism is Buddhist.

Like Thurman, for Valentino socially engaged Buddhism is not Buddhist because it follows the words of an ancient text but because it embodies the Buddhist philosophy of non-dualism and the cessation of suffering in both conventional and ultimate realities. It must be noted that this non-dependence on texts is not so clean cut, as it is almost impossible to talk about “Buddhist philosophy of non¬ dualism,” without reference to respected texts.

This paper demonstrates how Valentino Giacomin and, in the last two chapters, Robert Thurman, define socially engaged Buddhism as Buddhist. I would also suggest, in conclusion, that their understanding of Buddhist social activism-a “total” activism that strives to end suffering through both personal transcendence and social change—might be used as a model for further study of socially engaged Buddhism.

 Looking at two of the most prominent socially engaged Buddhists in the world, Thich Nhat Hanh and H.H. Dalai Lama, we see that their social engagement shares this dual dedication to wisdom and compassion. Thich Nhat Hanh’s protests against the Vietnam War, his aid to Vietnamese refugees, and many other activities reflect his dedication to social change. Concurrently he is involved with meditation retreats for people all over the world, helping Vietnamese refugees and war veterans alike achieve personal transcendence.

Though at times Nhat Hanh is more focused on one aspect or another, both social change and personal realization are always involved in his work and both are given equal importance.

H.H. Dalai Lama is another world-recognized figure whose life epitomizes the union of wisdom and compassion. Through his teachings and books on Buddhist wisdom, he is continually introducing people to both the basics of Tibetan Buddhism and esoteric points of the highest Tantras, helping people of all levels and all religions to achieve personal realization. Concurrently with this spiritual leadership, the Dalai Lama is the primary opponent of the Chinese occupancy of Tibet.

Imagine All the People, Though we cannot extrapolate from Thurman’s and Valentino’s understanding of their own engagement to a definition of a movement called “socially engaged Buddhism,” the above descriptions of Thich Nhat Hanh and H.H. Dalai Lama support the claim that socially engaged Buddhists work to end suffering through wisdom and compassion. With further study perhaps we will find that all people who call themselves socially engaged Buddhists are dedicated to the cessation of suffering through a simultaneous commitment to both personal transcendence and social change.

Destroyed Tree

This was a Neem tree at the side of the play ground. It was giving us shadow when we were tired after playing. When there was a programme in the school it was very helpful for the guests and also for the students offering its shadow.  It was not so old tree as other trees, but the cyclone took it off.

It was an unforgetable event which happened today 07 May 2010. The day started normaly but all of a sudden the sky was covered by the black clouds. It was examination time in our school. The school started at its normal time but during the meditation the weather changed completely;  it got darker and darker.

A strong wind blew up and the trees started moving. The Principal knew that something was going to be wrong so he completed the meditation quickly and he suggested all the students to go in their classrooms. As we entered the class rooms,  a strong cyclone blew up with a heavy rain. No one could understand what was happening. Because of the force of the the cyclone and the rain many trees have been uprooted  and and the new yoga room was badly damaged

We are sending some photos  to show the damage done by the cyclone  that killed 17 people in our State, Uttar Pradesh, and 18 in Bihar, the State where there is our second school.   

Second Destroyed Tree

 This is the second tree which was destroyed by the storm. Actually it was one of the oldest tree in the school but it also fell down. Not only the tree itself was uprooted but it  also has destroyed the branches of the other trees  which were on its way and the flower pots were scattered as you can see in the photo.  The old tree destroyed also the fence that was close to the tree.

Yoga Room

This is the new yoga room which was built just few months ago. The cyclone destroyed its roof made of iron sheets and the ceiling made of first quality “polistirolo” that was protecting the room from the unbearable heat of the summer season. The iron structure that was supporting the tin sheets was also damaged.The blankets and the carpets were wet because of the rain.  When the storm was over, we squeezed the blankets and put them under the sun. We collected the broken pieces of thermocol. Valentino said that we can use them for the new classroom we are going to build in the mango garden. We will put the thermocol inside the wall, to insulate it, in order to reduce the heat. (I will write a new letter about our mangoes garden)

Yoga Room Before

Yoga Room After

 

From Buthan to India: Searching for the Shangri la of the Mind

Nature

This is the second part of the story of Ranjeet, a boy born into the family of the King of Bhutan, but kidnapped at the age of three and later adopted by an extremely poor Indian couple from Bihar. The story narrates the struggles of a boy’s journey to return to his father’s kingdom and eventually become King (see the third book). It is a symbolic parallel of a journey through consciousness: from the lowest state of realization to the highest achievement of non-duality.

Book

Ranjeet was lucky enough to meet a Guru when he was still a child. The Guru was disguised as a blind white rabbit. The friendship between the boy and the rabbit lasted for several years, until the Guru decided to leave his disciple. The Guru left because he wanted Ranjeet to become independent and able to find his inner Guru. Even after the Guru left, Ranjeet never felt alone because he knew that he could always rely on his inner Guru, known as the Voice. In order to be able to listen to the Voice, it was necessary to stop the external noise of materialistic things and the internal noise caused by thoughts and emotions such as desire, attachment, hate, jealousy and pride. 

Quieting the mind was the greatest challenge. How does one make the mind silent? In other words, how does one control his/her mind? The first step is integration, followed by transcendence. Ranjeet was taught that first he must integrate his own thoughts into his mind, then his mind into the heart. Then, the integration between mind and body will follow. Once body and mind are integrated, without conflicts and opposition, the external environment can be integrated.  

This is the meaning of the logo of our school. Let me briefly explain it in this introduction, because I think it is very important to understand the significance of the logo in order to understand Ranjeet’s story. This logo represents the unity of mind and heart. The union of knowledge and kindness is the target of our education project. Knowledge must be transformed into wisdom and the energy of our emotions must be transformed into compassion and good hearts.

Remember our motto: “Be wise and kind!” The face of the child is turned towards the right. This means that we look at the future with hope and a positive mind. Only if we bring our good hearts and wisdom into the future can we have a chance to defeat unhappiness and despair. 

In Ranjeet’s story, he embarks on a journey beginning in his divided dualistic mind all the way to the “cave of his heart,” or rather, transcendence. He must travel beyond the polarities towards that treasure in the deepest part of his being. His Guru told him that, deep in his heart, there is the magic castle of love, harmony and peace. He discovered many important things during his journey to the peak experiences of his consciousness: the illusion of the external world, the role of his mind in creating his own experiences, the power of his thoughts, the destructive and constructive energy of the emotions, and the substantial non-difference among his thoughts and their illusory existence.

The most amazing discovery for Ranjeet when he understood that it was he that was projecting the so-called external reality that he lived in, and that he did this through the delusory appearance of his own thoughts. Ranjeet realized that the quality of the world depends on the quality of his mind. He now feels responsibility for his actions and for the sufferings in the world, which are caused by the slavery of ignorance.

Ignorance is the cause of caste division, as well. Ranjeet promised to break the caste-system in the society through the freedom of the mind. That’s why he started teaching at a very young age through the folk stories of his native country.  It was thanks to his friendship with his neighbor Suneeta and her parents and grandparents from Bhutan that he succeeded in keeping alive the link with the culture of his native country. He was fond of listening to the numerous folk stories told in her family. The teachings of his Guru and the wisdom of those popular stories helped him to face the struggles in his life and to find inner peace. Later, he would adapt the stories to the culture and tradition of the place where he was living and teaching.  In fact, this book is not only for Hindu or Bhutanese students. Instead, it is aimed to communicate wisdom and ethical and moral values to students of all cultures and religions. For this reason, the reader can find stories from different sources and traditions in this story.

Ranjeet was an exceptionally bright and intelligent boy and he could easily understand complicated philosophical concepts taught by his Guru. But he did not leave these concepts at merely the level of the mind. He always tried to integrate them with the heart in both his life and behavior. This story narrates his journey from the darkness of an ignorant and uncontrolled mind to the peak of transpersonal consciousness, beyond thoughts and suffering. We will leave him at the feet of his Guru who will help him to become King of the kingdom of his mind (the real Shanghri la) before going back to the wonderful land of the Thunder Dragon. This is an interactive book, where the author, during the narration, asks the readers to participate to the story, with comments and suggestion.

Some students of the Alice Project Theater Group (see photos) are playing the roles of the main characters of the story. Sometimes, the readers are requested to complete one tale which was purposely left unfinished.

The reader can also see him/herself inside the illustrations as substitute of the protagonist of the book.  In this way, we are trying to “bring the past into the present” giving the feeling to our students that, actually, it is they that are the real heroes of this story. 

Finally, we’d like to illustrate the conclusion of this introduction with a beautiful stamp from Buthan, titled “In Harmony with Nature”.  We chose it to represent the meaning of Alice Project and our educational research which is “Unity in Diversity”. The first unity, as we mentioned earlier, that we have to realize is with the internal reality, the inner environment, as Ranjeet understood. Then, when the harmony is in mind, naturally this harmony will spread outside: the body, the external environment, Nature, the society, the entire universe. This is the message of our story to the younger generations: if you want to save our seriously sick Earth that is on the brink of collapsing, first save and tame your mind and become Wise (symbolized by the old Sage on the right corner of the stamp) and compassionate. If you start with yourself, the rest will follow.

Note:-

If you are interested to buy the books, contact: valentino1@rediffmail.com – Universal Education School – Alice Project, Sarnath, Varanasi – U.P. India – Web. www.aliceproject.info – Ph.09973918773 –  Bank Address: Awakening Special Universal Education – Bank of India, branch Bodhgaya, Swift Code BKIDINBBCOS – Fcra: BKID0004479 – A.N. 447920100000010

ALICE PROJECT AND MAGAZINES – MANDALA October/November 2OO5

A Peaceful Wonderland of Learning Called Alice

by Darlene Lorrain

A little miracle in education is flourishing in poor villages in India. Alice Project, an experiment in ‘Universal Education’ is bringing unity of body, mind, and external world to students and teachers in Sarnath and Bodhgaya, India. By facilitating the discovery of the nature of mind, understanding the root of suffering, focusing on interdependence and cultivating happiness, Alice Project Schools are creating communities of peace and service. 

Girl

Above: Kindergarten child at Alice Project School, Bodhgaya.
Winter and summer uniforms are provided free to each child
by the school.

In rural India, where suffering is life’s journey, two veteran teachers from Italy embarked on an educational quest. Curious to see if the Alice Project methodology they developed in Italian public schools would also be effective in an entirely different cultural and socioeconomic setting, Valentino Giacomin and Luigina De Biasi started an educational service project in Sarnath, India. Now, eleven years later, Alice Project School celebrates the high school graduation of their first students, and a BA program in Education and Psychology is currently in the accreditation process. Since its introduction in Sarnath, Alice Project Schools and programs have taken root in rural Bodhgaya, Taiwan, and now Bogotá, Colombia. In India alone, Alice Project Schools offer accredited education to over 900 students from poor village families. The projects also include evening education for working children, a program for delinquent youth, adult education, a program for destitute women, and a touring theater group presenting psychosocial issues to surrounding communities. The Sarnath and Bodhgaya schools also have resident programs, housing students from troubled families or from areas of political strife such as Chakma youth from the Chittigong hill tribes.

Students

 Rural Bodhgaya. Older girls walk to school with their precious books wrapped in recycled plastic bags. Generally, girls drop out of school when they get older in order to tend to home chores and family. However, the drop-out rate at Alice Project Schools is much less than in any public school.

Alice Project methodology was birthed in the early ‘80s when Giacomin and De Biasi initially took up the challenge of addressing the widespread educational issue of students’ lack of attention, inability to concentrate, and aggressiveness that was a concern in Italy, just as it is currently in the US and other Western countries. Originally motivated and inspired by the teachings and inspired writings on Universal Education of Lama Thubten Yeshe and, more recently, Lama Zopa Rinpoche, they found guidance in the Buddhist philosophy of mindfulness, non-duality, and understanding of the root causes of suffering to begin their educational research experiment…

… Recognizing that learning is not readily attainable or sustainable if a child’s mind is not present, Alice Project integrated a “special program” curriculum into the government-mandated academic curriculum. Exercises in attentiveness, mindfulness, perception, and self-inquiry were presented, refined, and documented over a ten-year period, revealing students’ increased ability to concentrate and learn, associated with a decrease in aggressive behavior. An equally important finding was that all children, even kindergartners, were found to be not only capable but also eager to discover and share their awareness of thoughts, emotions, and life’s interdependence. Also, teachers and families found this new perspective compatible with their own religious traditions….

Special Program attention training is understood as cultivating the awareness of mind and perceptions and emotional intelligence as well. “Before having a feeling there is a thought, and this thought is what causes an emotional reaction,” says Giacomin. To investigate this interrelationship of thought and emotions, Giacomin questions his students: “How is your rage?  What size is it?  What color? From where did it come? What are your thoughts?” This inquiry process aims at the cognitive reframing of students’ perceptions of themselves and the external world. Says Giacomin, “This was Lama Yeshe’s vision: Reality changes, if you change your vision of reality. Knowing yourself – your psychology, your physical condition – this it universal education.”

My heightened curiosity about this radical methodology brought me to the Alice Project Schools in India. I was struck by a school culture that constantly and directly reminded me to amend to the nature of my mind and projections. My experience teaching in contemplative schools in Colorado was reflective, but not so direct and challenging to my own perspective. I experienced everyday Dharma practice that the Indian children happily practiced with me. The children and teachers were joyfully present and accepting of most any situation as workable and positive – quite a stark contrast to the reality of most US public schools.

Alice Project Schools begin each day with an all-school assembly gathered in the school compound. A Buddhist stupa, a Christian altar, and a Hindu shrine encircle the area. With stubs of pencils and worn blue uniforms, the children arrive barefoot through rice paddies eager to join the teachers for sitting, silent prayer, songs, and a dedication of gratitude to invite an open mind and the opportunity to learn. After assembly, the older children then head off to yoga class while the younger ones stay to listen to and discuss moral stories.

Each academic class begins and ends with attention exercises to bring awareness to the child’s state of being. It is a wonder to see the children, even five-year-olds, sitting silently, eyes closed, then calmly sharing their perceptions of their experience. The children gradually learn to see the basis of different perceptions other than their own and, in the process, gain tolerance and compassion for others with different motivations. Older children are guided into investigating the origin of their thoughts and perceptions at a deeper level.

Midway through class, the teacher will also present a concentration exercise often related to the subject at hand. It is not unusual to see fidgety unfocused students transform after such an exercise, completing challenging spelling lists and math problems with ease and efficiency. 

While Alice Project methodology appreciates the need for academic and scientific knowledge, it simultaneously fosters the discovery of our youth’s deeper questions. Inquiry about life and death, thoughts and feelings, perceptions and reality requires both time and attention to ponder and investigate with the students. Through teacher modeling and “special program’ curriculum (meditation, guided visualizations, self-inquiry discussion, breath and yoga practices, and moral stories)’ children develop familiarity and knowledge of their inner world and the ability to concentrate more deeply in their academic world’

Teaching academics alone is usually a reductionistic process of learning how to identify and separate the world around us into words and concepts in order to classify’ analyze, and evaluate. While this division may be part of the Iearning process, it does not reveal the whole truth.  Alice Project promotes what both Buddhism and physics agree on: There is no distinct division between the things we perceive around us, but rather energy and interconnectedness.  Our understanding of this is only limited by our perceptions.  Children have a deep and intuitive knowing that there is more to life than academic knowledge and will accordingly become disinterested and disengaged if they are not presented with a view of the world that is credible and integral to them.

Teachers are the key to successfully implementing any methodology, and their self-reflection, compassion’ and understanding of themselves and their perceptions is crucial to their teaching. Indian teachers speak of the honor to work in Alice Project Schools, how it supports their personal integrity and gives a higher purpose to their life and teaching.  Giacomin and De Biasi lead teacher trainings regularly in Italy, in Sarnath and Bodhgaya, and also in Taiwan, Bogota, Munich and California. To continue the research and development of the methodology, Giacomin regularly presents teachers with new ideas to explore and access.  He has written many texts and stories to guide teachers and children in this methodology.

This past year the West called out to learn more about Alice Project and its provocative methodology’.  The Garrison Institute, a visionary center examining the intersection between contemplative practices and engaged action in the world, requested Valentino’s participation in a contemplative education symposium, initiating his first US tour.  After New York, he presented his work at Naropa University in Colorado, Thubten  Norbu Ling Tibetan Buddhist Center in New Mexico, Tara Redwood School in California, and Centro Yamantaka in Bogota, Colombia. Like Alice’s journey “through the looking glass” the Alice Project methodology is filling an unmet need of educators in the West to look more deeply into the nature of mind and its essential role in the learning process.

At a time when children and families in Western culture are becoming more fearful of others perceived as ‘different’ and more protective and aggressive, there is a pressing need to responsibly address our thoughts and feelings and to question the truth of our perceptions. The mind holds the key for tolerance, compassion’ moral values, and inner harmony. Awakening each teacher and student to the nature of mind and perceptions plays an essential role in developing sustainable education and a culture of peace. A peaceful mind with wisdom will naturally foster tolerance of diversity and inspire universal responsibility for community as well as the environment.

This is the bright vision Alice Project brings into this world.

Ritten by: Darlene J. Lorrain, Adjunct faculty Early Childhood Education, Naropa University, Colorado; Master Teacher – Alaya Preschoo (both started by Chdgyam Trungpa Rinpoche).

Article Terra Nuova  -  March 2009 

Alice in the country of Gandhi

 Manuel Olivares

A pedagogical project conceived in Italy and developed in India to form a more conscientious youth with a planetary conscience.

Childrens

Alice Project, today fully operative in a couple of schools in Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh, owes its name to the famous book of Lewis Carrol and the “journey” of its young character in the domains of the subconscious mind.  This has undoubtedly represented an important component in the configuration of the pedagogical paradigm of 64 year old Valentino Giacomin.  He is a retired teacher and journalist with a strong humanistic and transpersonal background in psychology.  Albeit conceived in Italy, Alice Project is deeply rooted in the oriental culture too. In fact, it could be considered an excellent example of an “intercultural meeting”.

I met Valentino in one of his schools founded in Sarnath, a suburb of Varanasi, the capital of Shivait Hinduism, in Uttar Pradesh.  We agreed to an hour-long interview, but the typical oriental time dilation prevailed.

The significant problem of education

Valentino taught for many years in Treviso (Italy) and there he started to ponder over educational issues.  “At first -he says- I thought that today’s school problems could be essentially identified in the didactics.  But then I realized that the main issue was not there.  By reading school programs, it becomes evident the necessity to deeply educate the human being, the person, to educate to emotions.  The dramatic evidence is that, whereas there exists a didactic for, say, mathematics, what is missing is an education of the emotions, for instance.  If it is there, then there is no performance verification.  Our intuition made us work harder on this forgotten aspect of education, trying to keep in mind what kind of persons we wanted to form”.

The need to better educate supposes that we face the authentic nature of the individual, of we humans.

“From an educational stand point -Valentino continues- one needs to understand that there are aspects of it that go beyond the psychological dimension of the self.  While this conviction has always existed in the East, in the West it has been introduced by scholars such as Jung and transpersonal psychologists.  They came close to demonstrating the existence of the higher dimension of conscience: the so-called transpersonal conscience.  How? “Through pathologies”.

“Such scholars”, Valentino adds, “discovered typologies of anxieties which neither derive from our instinct nor, for instance, a lack of professional realization.  Rather, these kinds of disturbances affect “straight people”, emotionally and professionally successful people who, nonetheless, fall into depression.   What is then the origin of such phenomena?  The answer is that probably such pathologies arise from the highest levels of conscience that have not been properly nourished in particularly from the school.  My thought, shared by other teaching colleagues – in particular by Luigina De Biasi – is that by limiting education only to the “me” level it is, as if, upon climbing a mountain, we would stop half way through.  What is happening today in Western schools is the tendency to form strong individuals capable of fighting their way through society.  Convinced of having arrived to the summit, they confuse the bivouac with the top.  We believe that to reach the summit one needs a different kind of equipment.  It is also necessary to cultivate the highest levels of the conscience by using methods mainly of the Oriental tradition.  On these assumptions Alice Project commenced.”

Working on border lines 

The history of religion and different psychological avantgards teaches us that the levels of human conscience development are, potentially, infinite.  Nonetheless, there is a guideline to follow that we might summarize in expanding border lines.

An instinctive-like conscience has very narrow borders, within which primary needs are high-handedly central.  Such borders certainly broaden when you are talking about rational conscience, but particularly when one reaches a transpersonal or transegoic conscience where the more profound feelings of love and compassion lay.

“It is essential to cultivate this kind of conscience education” underlines Valentino “because only thanks to this panoramic view can you see the dying Gange and the disappearing Amazon forest, inasmuch as they are within your reference frame”.

Both in the East and the West philosophers, mystics and psychologists agree that an interesting tool to expand the limits of one’s conscience is the so-called “I-wetness”, i.e. being able to watch the mental show, refusing to identify with the thoughts.

This way it is possible to create what the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti used to call the “freedom corridor” between the “I” observing the mind, and the mind itself.

This is a wonderful definition” comments Valentino. “The broader the corridor, the lesser the mental suffering.  Psychologists also say: neurosis appears when this space shrinks.  When the I becomes one with its thought you are done for!  That is why we started to teach this to children.  We tell them: close your eyes, what do you see?  When they focus on a mental object we ask them to analyze it.  Children concentrate on their mental objects and it is amazing the attention they pay in observing the details.  We then teach them to name the mental phenomenon and the different emotions: jealousy, envy and love.  Naming your emotions means to recognize and not to identify with them, acquiring power over them.  However one must not stop just there, obviously.  You have to be able to further elaborate a coherent synthesis from that starting point.”

Alice in the land of Dharmic wheel

The first school of the Alice Project  saw the light in 1994 in Sarnath, where Buddha, newly enlightened in Bodhgaya, (today’s Biharheld), gave his first sermon to his disciples, thus beginning the “Dharma wheel”.  Today, the school has 750 students between the ages 5 and 15, 25 of which are permanent residents.

About seven years later, the second school, about nine kilometers from the Bodhgaya, became operative.  Both, with a total of more than a thousand students, have received the blessings of the Dalai Lama who, from the start, encouraged Valentino to pursue his inclinations as an “innovative pedagogue”.

Similar pilot projects are active today in Italy and Taiwan. They raise hopes that soon schools could be open there too.  “In our schools” explains Valentino “we are trying to reintroduce the value of the sacred, religious symbols and mythology in a transreligious perspective.  Despite the great majority of Hindu students, we also have some Muslims, Buddhists and Christian students.  We have verified that religious differences are completely reabsorbed in the universal language of symbols (where rationality divides, symbols unify) and silence: the silence of vipassana meditation, of the yogic Dyane, of concentration and visualization exercises, of the inner trips in which we try to accompany our students.  This is all part of our pedagogical program together with mathematics, of course, geography, chemistry and everything else included in the national programs of the country where we operate”.

In India, primary and secondary education is developed in 12 grades.  The Alice Project schools are, so far, legally recognized up until the eighth grade.  From grade nine to twelve, they are affiliated with another school.  The monthly cost is 70 Rupee, a bit more than a Euro and few cents.  Those families who cannot afford even this minimal amount, can pay 20 Rupee or, in desperate cases, nothing. 

“With the monthly rate we are able to barely cover the cost of cookies” comments an almost amused Valentino, who supports the project with his own pension and a generous German donor”

“Money from the sponsor arrives each year in March” he tells me at the end of the interview.  “I always wait for them in trepidation because without it, we wouldn’t know how to carry on.  But every year, punctual as always, the check arrives and the project can continue to survive.  We are doing all we can – with some success, I must say -not only to overcome difficulties, but also to develop Alice Project in India and, hopefully, in the world”

Article  – Colombia – 2005

Semana.com

Alicia en el país de las maravillas

Valentino Giacomin, italian psycopedagogist, creator in India of the ALICE PROJECT, teaches in Colombia a technique to develop the emotional intelligence in children and adolescents.  Silvia Camargo spoke with him. 

-What was what bothered you?  – He inquired. 

-That he told me stupid  answered Juan. 

-And what is stupid? 

-Is a word – responded Juan.. 

-And from where did that word come?  – Continued the teacher. 

- From the mouth of Pedro said Juan.

Just then, the student could visualize the scene and understand that it was not worthwhile to fight by that incident.  He imagined the words going back and entering again in the mouth of his schoolmate. 
“The word stupid is in the mind of Pedro.  It is alone a word in Pedros mind, so there is no reason why you should allow your mind to be affected! said the teacher.

This exercise between the teacher and his student is known as gymnastics of the mind and has been a fundamental part of a training to develop the emotional intelligence of the students at the school Centro Piloto Nueva Tibabuyes, located in the sector of Suba , North West of Bogot. 

Since last week, the school is organizing training for children and teachaers on how to educate the emotions.  The training is based on the Alice Project methodology, developed 20 years ago by the italian psycopedagogist Valentino Giacomin, in order to introduce in the classrooms the approaches of Daniel Goleman, the psychologist that popularized the term ‘emotional intelligence’.  Giacomin is now in Colombia , where he is sharing its experience with children from 10 to 17 years of age. The theme of the emotional intelligence has been applied in the work area , in politics, in businesses, “but not with students”, says Valentino.  The Alice Project, at present, handles three schools in India with more than 800 students. 

Its techniques are based on the intuition of Daniel Goleman. Nevertheless, Giacomin, as opposed to the american psychologist, has focused all the mental gymnastics to modify the ideas and not the emotions. ”Before feeling there is a thought, and this is what causes a reaction”, says Valentino.  “The emotional problems occur because we think in a wrong way. We have invalid thoughts.  Perhaps, if we change what we think that emotion will also be modified”. 

Though the teachers are in the classroom to transmit knowledge and not so much to resolve  psychological problems of the students, the training of the emotional intelligence of Giacomin permits the educators to be involved in the theme because finally the root of the emotion has to do with the cognitive capacity of the students, “and the professor can work in this rational aspect in spite of not being a psychologist”. 

The majority of exercises are aimed to give a new framework to the emotions.  This process is known as reframing and consists of reconstructing the erroneous perceptions to change the feeling.  The emotions disturb the students and interfere in their academic performance. Giacomin helps even very young children to handle their emotions through knowing them in all their variety and ex-pression: jealousy, rage, high-handedness, and sadness.  In his workshops, instead of scolding a boy for what he is feeling, he exhorts him to express his perception about that sensation. Then he questions them: How it is your rage? What size does it have? Which is its color? From where did it come? 
“When they speak of the anger or of any another sensation, they feel freed and that is a way to control their emotions”, affirms Giacomin.  

As well as the knowledge of external world means control and power over the environment; in the same way, to know our own emotions generates control and power on them. 
(The following sentence was edited by Giacomin in order to make the translation more clear)

The majority of educational systems at present classify the emotions in negative and positive ones, and the tendency is to repress the first at any cost. In the Giacomin system, the emotions are neither good nor bad.  The rage, the happiness or the love stem from the same mind and anything that produces the human brain should be considered like natural.  We want to avoid that the students have a wrong  feeling towards their own emotions. For instance, if we feel guilty of our hate it would be as if we put wood into the fire (adding a negative emotion to another negative emotion). 
“We do not want to repress our emotions nor the express them, but to give them space to know them!

Last week, during the break time, in his school, Pedro told Juan that he was a stupid boy. This made Juan very angry; so much that he wanted to hit Pedro. But before he moved a finger, his teacher intervened. He neither threw sermons nor he scolded.  Simply he approached Juan with a series of questions.