Awakening Currere: Buddhist Parables Reconnect the Individual and the Social

• In Event: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in Education

Abstract

The limitations of institutionalized religion is evident, yet it has enriched lives of individuals and communities. In reconceptualizing currere, this paper uses the autobiographical methodology. The privilege of inner work is connected to the Buddhist notion of the awakened nature inherent in all beings—a source of wisdom. It is a moral journey as the student and teacher take charge, contemplate the chaotic inner and outer world, and witness the tensions between social and personal, through Buddhist parables and artistic reinterpretations. When the commonly disregarded subjectivities in religion and education are connected with objectivities of curriculum, the wise and the beautiful qualities that are currently lost in our scientific culture will enrich curriculum, teaching, and scholarship.

Author

• Lai Yin Leong, Dharma Realm Buddhist University