Mapping Currere During a Zen Journey

• In Event: Thinking Pedagogies in China: Experiments, Constraints, and New Directions Prompted by Chinese Philosophy

Abstract

Background: The history of Zen can be tracked from the first centuries A.D. when Indian Buddhism was transferred to China – the fusion of Indian Buddhism and Chinese Taoism led to the product of Chinese Zen which then spread to Japan and some other Asian countries (Dumoulin, 1979; Durckheim, 1987; Watts, 1957).
Aim. William Pinar’s shift from understanding curriculum as fixed to studying its flowing dynamics in unique ways has raised the question whether the Zen journey can serve as one of the possible paths on the living map of curriculum. This paper answers that question.
Perspective and Methods: Compared with the notion of curriculum as a static running track, William Pinar understands curriculum in its Latin root of ‘currere’1 – ‘the infinitive, verb, active form of curriculum’ (Doll, 2005). In Madeleine Grumet’s words, currere ‘seeks to know the experience of the running of one particular runner, on one particular track, on one particular day, in one particular wind’ (quoted in Doll, 2005, p. 67).
The journey of Zen on the living map of curriculum is a journey of enlightenment without any preset aim or end. The story of Siddhartha told by Hermann Hesse (1951) is such an awakening journey. As Siddhartha says ‘I am not going anywhere. I am only on the way.’ (p. 93), he is not aware of what may happen in his future life while calmly welcoming and experiencing the following unknown journey – he is always on the way. Siddhartha has no slightest idea of the so-called end or objective of his journey because he knows ‘When someone is seeking, it happens quite easily that he only sees the thing that he is seeking; that he is unable to find anything, unable to absorb anything, because he has a goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: to have a goal; but finding means: to be free, to be receptive, to have no goal’ (p, 140). What will we lose when we are too occupied with the predetermined goals from the very beginning of our journey? Is our curriculum a fixed secure running track on which everything during the process is merely an obstacle for us to pass through as quickly as possible for the final end, or rather a dynamic currere in which we can take our time to enjoy the beauty of scenery alongside our way? What do we want to have in our today’s education, an efficient seeker in a constantly accelerating automobile on the highway, or a free finder by foot in the journey for awakening? Can the seeker really learn? I ask Siddhartha this question, but he smiles and turns back to me and then goes on his journey. I close my eyes and listen attentively to the silence: ‘No one can be spared of one’s own journey. You too. Take your journey and then you would know.’ Thanks for his prayer and bliss, and now I am on my way.

Author

• Jie Yu, Rollins College