Restoring the Human Connection in Education Synopsis

Volume V, Issue 4

Seeking to Build A Community of Life Through Humanistic Education

Fall Online Forum V: Restoring the Human Connection in Education Synopsis

Forum V was the best forum we have ever had. A discussion burst into the many facets of dialogue -- what is it, methods, Eastern and Western, Buddhist concepts. There were subsequent wonderful transformations of understanding both mutual and individual and a collaboration of what we need to do on the task of helping Sensei develop Buddhist humanism. Essentially, we can use the same principle of polishing ourselves and helping others in value-creating education while at the same time helping to create the dialogical civilization Sensei envisions.

Perhaps stimulated by understanding this vision of a 'dialogical civilization' --fostering mutual understanding through dialogue and enabling the human dignity of all to shine, we asked ourselves a lot of questions, recognizing that teaching dialogue in such a world as ours is not easy. We looked at debate vs dialogue, the art of dialogue and recognized how hard it is for us to shed bad habits, let alone our students! We discussed what is dialogue and looked at our own quality of dialogue, how others perceive dialogue, methods of dialogue/dialogue skill development, Buddhism and dialogue skills, different concepts of dialogue in the West and the East, and we coined a new phrase: “value-creating dialogue,”

We shared from our personal experiences ways we have restored the human connection in ourselves. One teacher, reported her experience at a unique college community that teaches holistic science and deep ecology where she learned to listen to trees. “We, a group of educators from around the world, walked for hours through a wild forest and were encouraged to let the trees, moss and rocks touch us (yes, they touched us). We came out weeping, because we had experienced a profound dialogue with the forest and sadness about the troubling state our Planet is in at the moment (the most knowledgeable scientists are now saying climate change is irreversible). “This reconnect to the world certainly is an example of a connection being restored. She continued, “Because of this recent experience I have realized that the most important thing to teach young people is how to reconnect with nature and how to develop gratefulness and to be happy. Becoming a responsible citizen will follow automatically.”

Another, in Israel, finds ideas on mutual interdependence, and teaching people to develop solidarity with the human race, a very helpful starting point in his Earth Charter meetings. Since there is no SGI organization in Israel, they find these activities a way to reach people's hearts. In the last few months, he has been privileged to learn a little about the traditions of dialogue in both the Jewish and Muslim faiths.

Sometimes dialogue is not the answer in such matters as nuclear disarmament. We should follow Sensei's guidance and use the analysis by the philosopher French André Comte-Spomville about the four domains, and focus our attention on the second domain, legal-political. Awareness campaigns are very important, but not enough. We need to raise human beings who will create good laws and protect these laws. This we must do to eliminate nuclear weapons. So we need to help improve the quality of the people quality in these professions. Personal human revolution (which includes, today, the ability to have deep dialogue) is required to have the caliber of people who can write the correct laws. “Without the qualitative elevation of individual human beings, neither social transformation nor the creation of a more positive society is possible. While this may seem obvious, reliance on organizations and the submersion of the individual into the group is a failing all too common in human history.”

To do this we discussed raising capable people. The SGI can certainly make a contribution as an NGO through lobbying and we as members can support that. However as educators we need to support children in discovering the sanctity of life and to develop an awe and appreciation for life as well. Through Soka Education we can achieve the 'qualitative elevation of individual human beings' that Sensei is talking about. Rousseau was a big proponent of this kind of teaching as Sensei has mentioned so often.

Our teacher's intent matters. This intent to awaken the full potential of the human beings under your care is a matter which has tremendous power. You don't have to teach disarmament or awareness of nature (your passion is your passion after all) to be effective in helping the world become a safer and more interconnected place. We need to increase the power of that intent -- both in terms of life condition and in terms of faith - that our intent matters. One educator from Nigeria reminded us that the effects of being sincere are wonderful. To be well connected to others is to sincerely care for them from the depths of our lives.

We had a third week where we broke out into academic, teaching and community education sections and the dialogue continued. Again it was a milestone on how great dialogue can be. We started off asking this point from the Peace Proposal: "We need a fundamental reconfiguration of our world view if we are to move away from nuclear proliferation and toward disarmament. The crucial element is to ensure that we are rooted firmly in a consciousness of the unity of the human family. When our thinking is reconfigured around a sense of human solidarity, even the most implacable difficulties will not cause us to condone the use of force. Without this kind of shift, it will be difficult to extract ourselves from the quagmire logic of deterrence, which is rooted in mistrust, suspicion and fear."

In the academic section we talked about interconnectedness especially between teacher and student and that education today forbids this very thing. Compassion is vital to overcome this atmosphere and compassionate intent is the way we can influence our environment. Implementing the principle of the oneness of life and its environment, we can, like Nichiren in “On Establishing the Correct Teaching,” influence this toxic environment in education and restore our connection with life in our community.

We understood the power of stories that connect with the local culture and native soil; of the link between “restore” and “myo.” We discussed what we meant by “mind.” What is it? As we teach how do we reach it? What is the link between mind and nature, do we define mind as psyche or spirit. We discussed mind meaning life, mind meaning “kanjin” (observing one's mind), and the definition of ichinen sanzen as life force. We also discussed the relationship between the three realms and the ten worlds, ten factors – self, society, environment and the Greek ideas of Mind being holistic.

We looked at the Western idea of analysis as a path to understanding and discovery but which can blind a person to the three realms and the true reality of life. We also looked at how that happened – the double bind between the Western fear of the East yet parts of the West were actually created by many of the ideas of the East. Finally "Since human life encompasses biological, cognitive and social dimensions, human rights should be respected in all three of these dimensions," was a way to grasp the value of the Three Realms of ichinen sanzen and the role it can play in education.

We learned deeply about the importance of stories, learning from a Hawaiian participant about the way she uses stories to reconnect her people back to their culture. We could create stories to connect people to the global community. The Human Revolution and New Human Revolution are great eternal stories. We could broaden creating stories within the framework of this Buddhist humanism movement.

Teachers expressed the urgency of introducing teaching methods based on dialogue and interconnectedness which was made apparent by disasters such as 9/11 and the subsequent wars. The teaching of the future needs to be international and global in outlook, respecting each community as it is, and using dialogue skills to form relevant education programs for different areas and cultures. Teachers can be an important refuge from violence in the lives of young people and can show real care for young people and model compassion for other human beings in acts such as providing food for poorer children. Programs such as the SGI-USA Victory over Violence (VOV) initiative can help young people develop self awareness. Earth Charter and UNESCO, University of the United Nations were also places to go for learning about sustainability education. SEIN can provide a site with materials for global education for teachers in the future.

We spoke about the importance of the impact of Soka Education entering communities as is happening in Brazil and Hawaii; about VOV exercises where students become more aware of passive violence, how it fuels physical violence and ways they can take action to change this. The Mottos of VOV: value own life, respect all life, inspire hope and courage in others can be important part of value creating education.

We described the shock of violence of 9/11 from both sides – effect on U.S. and realization by others that Americans did not realize what everyone else knew – that people did not like the U.S. government and its policies. That the U.S. has shifted the world back to "hard power." Education is going in the wrong direction as Norman Cousins said: "The great failure of education. ….is that it has made people tribe-conscious rather than species-conscious." This life state is without control "World of Anger, self-perception of people in this life state of anger expands and swells until the ocean deeps would only lap their knees....It becomes a matter of no concern to harm or even kill others trivialized in this way." That is the internal result and the external result is: “It is this state of mind that would countenance the use of nuclear weapons; it can equally be seen in the psychology of those who would advocate the use of such hideously cruel weapons . . .People in such a state of life are blinded, not only to the horrific suffering their actions wreak but also to the value of human life."

These are all ways to reconfigure thinking toward a consciousness of the unity of the human family. Sensei says, "Dialogue is both an end and a means to human understanding. In dialogical communication we engage others as different but equal. We try to enter their world of meaning through an open-ended process of communication and exploration. In dialogue, we change through mutual appreciation, sympathy, and empathy. This is not the easiest method of human communication, but it is the most fruitful. That is why dialogue is the most meaningful path to negotiating a new global civilization based on the contributions of all past human civilizations."

We ended the forum on a deep discussion about our relationship to fundamental darkness, probably the crux of everything we had already discussed. One way fundamental darkness was defined was as being so close to us and such a part of us that we can not see it. We asked the reason why it is so difficult to have an open dialog sometimes, not just because we can't connect with the person but because we can't see that nature in ourselves. So we need others to recognize our own fundamental darkness. Sensei asks us to join together through dialogue, eliminate needless suffering, and create peace. In this way, he has challenged us to broaden and deepen our state of life. Perhaps part of the function of fundamental darkness is that winning over it makes us stronger and more understanding of what people suffer. Enlightenment means the power to see past present and future, of expedient means, of infinite wisdom, and to bring all humankind to enlightenment. We possess this inside our life but have not yet manifested it all. There are stages and gateways to this state of life that we don't understand but that a deep seeking spirit helps to discover them, and a deepening connection to the heart of Nichiren and Sensei, will get us there. Not all fundamental darknesses are the same because we come from different cultures. So we can aspire to the deep compassion of Nichiren and the three Soka Gakkai presidents who are able to reach so many people from so many cultures and eternally. The critical point is the depth of our faith.

Do we ever permanently overcome fundamental darkness? Fundamental darkness - greed, anger, and foolishness/stupidity are causes which are at the crux of nuclear weapons. We went back and forth on this using gosho quotes and guidance from Sensei and ultimately agreed that fundamental darkness remains latent but still there when we are fully awakened and enlightened.

Let's polish our lives and help others both within the SGI and in our professions. And when we meet again in the spring, let's have another wonderful discussion and report our findings of putting this into practice in daily life. Polishing ourselves and helping others – this paradigm – a Buddhist humanistic value creating paradigm. Teaching this paradigm is what will restore the human connection so desperately needed. Deepening our own seeking spirit and awakening a fresh determination to help others to do the same -- is the way to help create the dialogical civilization with Sensei.

The SOKA EDUCATORS INTERNATIONAL NETWORK is a volunteer project created to inspire educators who are implementing Soka Education in different ways. The Newsletter's new goal is to create a robust network of Soka Educators to support the growing development of humanistic education. To be added to the mailing list or removed from it, or to receive back issues, please contact Stephanie Tansey at tansey@usa.net.