CHICAGO
His Eminence professor Samdhong Rinpoche, Prime Minister of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile till 2011, gave an informal discourse on “Premodern versus modern Buddhist educational systems” hosted by the Buddhist Studies group of the University of Chicago at the UC Divinity School, April 24.
Well-known as administrator, statesman, Buddhism scholar, Rinpoche acted since 1971 as principal and director of Central University for Tibetan Studies, formerly Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies (CIHTS), in Sarnath (Varanasi), India. Close associate of the 14th Dalai Lama, Rinpoche was elected in 2001 as the first ‘Kalon Tripa’ (Prime Minister).
Dean Margaret Mitchell of the Divinity School warmly welcomed Rinpoche with a description of UC Buddhist Studies. UC professor Christian K. Wedemeyer, specialist of Buddhist Tantra, introduced Rinpoche’s personal history and academic achievements, especially in transforming CIHTS into India’s only full-fledged Tibetan Buddhist University. Its refugee diaspora scholarship has been giving back to the host Indian nation, e.g., by back-translating Tibetan translations of lost ancient Sanskrit originals.
Speaking from the heart, Rinpoche, the Gandhian, began by declaring that he remains still immersed in the seventh century and is oblivious to modernity, not so much a period as a distinct mindset. Education, likewise difficult to define, could pose questions to facilitate its engagement with tradition. He invoked Indian sociologist A.K. Saran’s characterization of modernity as “novelty, self-grounding and violence.” Incompatibility between tradition and contemporary science, theocracy versus secularism, authoritarianism versus democracy, are symptoms of this rift. Disqualifying himself as “not equipped to compare with modernity,” he also observed that the different religious traditions are incommensurable (in their founding presuppositions), making honest comparative study impossible. The traditional Buddhist education system has survived against all odds and has yet to adapt to modernity.
Traditional education was not geared toward assuring a livelihood. Government sponsors of his Sarnath institute always brought up employment opportunities, which Rinpoche insisted should not be the primary aim. He cautioned students at admission to limited seats that their livelihood was not assured, yet few were deterred. But surveys reported that 92 percent had found good jobs, the remaining 8 percent preferring not to work, e.g., pursuing their vocation by joining monasteries instead.
Focused on cultivating virtues such as ethical responsibility, compassion, etc. Buddhist education is a process of mental training and empowerment. Rather than merely transmitting information, so central to modern teaching that Rinpoche characterized as memorization rather than improving the quality of mind: “not self-knowledge but borrowed knowledge.” He invoked the Buddha’s admonishment not to believe in his authority but to examine a question before arriving at one’s own conclusions. Truth needs to be realized internally, progressing from conceiving to perceiving mind, from inference to direct experience. The object of education is to awaken the already existing inner intelligence, which is the seed of one’s Buddha nature.
Rinpoche rejected the assumption of evolutionary biology that human nature and its mental substratum is innately aggressive. The beginner’s fear of learning has to be dispelled and confidence instilled through judicious use of language, metaphor and symbolic devices. The teacher must be able to discern obstacles within the student and the best way to dispel them.
Invoking Western educationists such as John Dewey, Wedemeyer objected that it is rather traditional education that is seen as memorization, perfection belonging to the past rather than to the future. Rinpoche countered with the Buddha’s rejection of hearsay. With four major schools of philosophy and their sub-schools, there is no uniformity even in Tibet, for their analytical finding are not predetermined. Despite foundational Buddhist axioms, free thinking is very much recommended and each school is right in its own way.
An auditor’s question regarding intense and sustained pre-12th century polemics between traditional scholars, Hindu and Buddhist, led to discussion of Rinpoche’s contribution toward recent attempts to revive such exchanges.
Praising Gandhi’s book “Hind Swaraj” written more than 100 years ago, Rinpoche insisted on a holistic approach toward interdependence. Modernity amounts to a loss of balance, with body preferred over mind, self over other, rights over (universal) responsibilities and duties, competition over cooperation, greedy consumer over respectful traditional user of resources.
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