
Prof Samdhong Rinponche
Tibetan Buddhist monk
All human beings are essentially social creatures and their survival, progress, well-being, and happiness are entirely dependent upon others. An individual human being, unlike other creatures, cannot thrive, unless the person is loved and cared for by parents and family members, especially the mother. Basic requirements for life such as water, food, clothing, and shelter cannot be produced and provided without collective efforts of many people. This is a clear fact and doesn’t need any arguments to establish it. To live together harmoniously, therefore, is a key to well-being and progress of the entire humanity. If we look back at the entire history of the human race, whatever progress and achievements we see at present are all due to cooperation and collective efforts. On the other hand, entire miseries of sentient beings are due to negative relationships and conflicts among the individuals, groups, communities, and nations. In particular, the present-day post-modern civilisation has created a mindset that considers the self to be more important than the others and individual rights to be more important than the collective rights. Thereby we have lost the culture of living together and caring for the well-being of every individual.
Among the ancient Indian traditions, the Buddhist concept of education is a threefold process, called Trishiksha in traditional language. This includes morality (Sheel), stability of mind (Samadhi), and awakening of wisdom (Pragya). The real aim of education is not a to impart knowledge from external information, but to stimulate and awaken the inner wisdom of an individual. For this, the individual must have a stable and unconditioned mind that can only be achieved with moral discipline and right livelihood.
For imparting this threefold education, the process too is threefold. First, to acquire the necessary knowledge through hearing and reading. This is called Shrutimaya gyan, a knowledge acquired from information. This is a borrowed and unprocessed knowledge. Thereafter, the learner shall have to analyse this knowledge through one’s own logic, reasoning, and analytical examination and ascertain the reality of things acquired from information. Thereafter, the logical conclusion and finding of the fact shall be put as an object of meditation and thereby one gets the direct perception of things that is an authentic understanding of the subject. Through this threefold process one achieves the threefold education as mentioned before. Missing out on any one point of the threefold education is not real education and lacking on any one point of the threefold process will fail to achieve the real education. For this kind of education, Jiddu Krishnamurti used to say, “[T]he purpose of education is to awaken the inner intelligence so that the person may flower in goodness”.
The majority of the ancient Indian traditions never consider the purpose of education is the livelihood of the individuals. The root cause of all human miseries is ignorance. Therefore, to dispel ignorance by wisdom is the only way to achieve human happiness and well-being. Thus, the awakening of wisdom is the sole purpose of education and this objective cannot be achieved by imparting mere information or acquiring some skills.
The fundamental challenges that face humanity in the twenty-first century are a degradation of ethics and morality, conflict and violence, disparity, degradation of environment and ecosystem threatening the survival of living beings on planet earth. The fact that modern science and technology as well as the socio-political economic system of the present day have failed to find any effective remedy to these challenges clearly indicates that the present education system is inadequate to educate the mind and heart of the coming generations.
I am delighted to find an intelligent young person, raised in the modern education system, who realised the necessity and importance of ‘learning to live together harmoniously’ in our present education system. This effort is very encouraging and offers a ray of hope to the coming generations. A system of imparting unprocessed information to the mind of a growing child does not help to awaken the inner wisdom of the young person. On the contrary, it becomes a kind of indoctrination for conditioning the young mind in such a manner that the person forgets the nature of interdependence, the basis of human relationship. As a result, conflict and structural violence are becoming ever more menacing in society.
The author of this book has thoroughly surveyed the inadequacies of the present education system, has proposed possible alternatives, and the different alternatives suggested by ancient traditions, as well as many great thinkers of the recent time. I am sure these will draw the attention of educationists, teachers, students, and parents and initiate a serious consider
ation and positive action for evolving an education system that can inculcate a compassionate heart in the coming generations. Only then can the total destruction of planet earth and all its living beings be averted. I appreciate the efforts of the author.
May all sentient beings be happy.