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One definition of “education” is the process of systematic instruction such as at a school. Another definition for education is “an enlightening experience”. Here, enlightening means to have or show a rational, modern, and well-informed outlook. Zen has a unique position on enlightening experience. The unique position of Zen is declared in four statements. The first is that there is something apart from the historical records and beyond words or letters. Current “education” is sequential, progressive and digital (Closed System). Learning is facilitated via computers and Artificial Intelligence: children are relating more words from machines than from their own mothers. Students mindlessly compute and comprehend with virtual assistants as “teachers”.
The second Zen statement is the direct transmission of the One Mind or heart-mind. There is intuitive knowledge (true Void) transmitted from Mind to Mind that is not graspable. This escapes conceptualization. The “knowledge” is prior to dualistic thinking, e.g., Delusion and Enlightenment or Good and Evil. Dualism is not-Zen. Enlightenment is interpersonal affair rather than something “achieved.” A teacher and a student or transmission of Mind to Mind.
The third Zen statement implies a seal or stamp that is imprinted on Mind. This transmission evades description: a wordless inscription. Tying this to education, when I was a 20-year-old undergraduate at University of Wisconsin-Madison, my literature Teaching Assistant (TA) told the students how the TA’s were walking out and going on strike due to the lack of wage parity between them and University of Minnesota. The University of Wisconsin-Madison caved to the TA’s demands. The TA’s act of subversion (passive withdrawal from the system) shattered my world views: at the time it was unknowable to me. Collective organization was not foreign, it was an unknown unknown; something I didn’t know I didn’t know. I was forever changed by the sudden perception that was not based on conceptual thinking. This actionistic form of education is intangible and lacks attribution. There are no tracks, yet a path is clearly laid.
Zen acknowledges Enlightenment as akin to an indelible mark that forever changes the person. A metaphysical tattoo for consciousness. You have it or you don’t, but Mind is still the same (ordinary). Thus, Enlightenment cannot be described with letters and words, and it stands outside of the scriptures. A teacher enlightens students by waking them up to what was previously unknowable.
The nature of “reality” is one’s own conscious awareness, which is no-thing. Self-nature is an Open System: trust, friendliness to Other, compassion, trial and error, steady-state of energy. The Zen Master Huang Po said, “I have NO THING to offer. I have never had anything to offer others. It is because you allow certain people to lead you astray that you are forever SEEKING intuition and SEARCHING for understanding. Isn’t this a case of disciples and teachers all falling into the same insoluble muddle?” We must think for ourselves as an Open System (detached from Ego).
In comparison, the boundaries of one’s Ego is a Closed System: our cultural conditioning, parental scripting, and childhood commitments. What I have been experiencing with the Mankato school district and the School Board members as well as administrators is a Closed System characterized by secrets, mistrust, surveillance, suppression, conformity, and authoritarianism. For example, my kindergartener handed out StayAtHomeDay magnets for April 20th and he (and I) were told, “this can’t happen,” i.e., a policy that bars distribution of materials that are a “disruption”. We pivoted to tear sheets (like those you would see on a community message board) with the website (www.StayAtHomeDay) listed in small print. We were told these could not be handed out in the school as well. This outside energy was not allowed “inside” the Closed System.
The media tells us mass shootings are a 2nd amendment issue: gun rights. But, we need to focus on the 1st amendment and 4th amendment. The responses to school violence are infringing upon freedom of self-expression and collective organization (1st amendment) as well as surveillance and rights around seizure of digital information (4th amendment).
Our children do not need more guns or safe rooms to “protect them”. The militarization of the schools transforms an Open System of enlightening relational processes to a Closed System of efficient functioning and conformity. As the physical structure and the restriction of information (in and out) become prison-like, the school manifests as totalizing supervision (Closed System).
Totalitarianism aims to restrict personal autonomy and discourage critical thinking (i.e., a form of self-hypnosis). We do not want our children to be monitored by Fusion Centers while being educated inside military bunkers. Fusion Centers utilize Intelligence Lead Policing (ILP). This predictive policing reminds me of the film “Minority Report” starring Tom Cruise. The Precrime unit arrests criminals prior to the crime taking place. Fusion-style policing will soon be AI bots scouring the data of our school children with algorithms that perceive everyone as a threat.
We cannot rid society of war making, e.g., mass shootings, imperialism. We must transform the destructive energy into love. How? Parents need to promote assertive forms of peace-making, de-escalating meditation practice, and social groups as well as group therapy to channel emotional energy into healing and compassion. Zen the f*#k out.
You can view and listen to a video of me and my wife speaking at a School Board meeting in the link below.
Link to School Board Meeting video (I begin at about 14 minutes into the meeting):
http://mankatoaps.swagit.com/play/04182023-637/#0
REFERENCE
Blofeld, J. (1958). The Zen teaching of Huang Po: On the transmission of Mind. Grove Press: New York.
Visit MankatoTherapist.com for more information and to contact Andrew Archer.