The Sacred to the Secular: Mindfulness and Meditation as Instructional Methods in Academia

• In Event: Meditation and mindfulness for effective teaching/learning & wellbeing in adult and higher education settings

Proposal

The purpose of this paper is to explore the move from the sacred to the secular of incorporating mindfulness and meditation practices as instructional methods in secular university settings. First it presents a cultural and historical overview of the sacred origins of mindfulness and meditation practices and the transition to secularized aims for these practices. Second, it discusses examples of how these practices have been integrated in in higher education. Third, connections and suggestions for adult and higher education educators in using these practices as instructional methods are shared.
Born in India, though having spent most of my life in the United States, I have been raised with Hindu philosophy, religion, and cultural traditions. My religious background and cultural rootedness as well as my understanding of the science of meditation and its positive effects on wellbeing cause me to want to explore the relationship and even the tension between the sacred and the secular in current approaches using mindfulness and mediation practices. Because there exists dichotomy between Eastern and Western approaches on the purposes of both mindfulness and meditation. I am concerned when I hear the terms mindfulness and meditation being used loosely in American culture and of the tendency to ignore the spiritually and culturally embedded roots of the practices. Theravada Buddhist monks, Thich Nhât Hanh (2007) and the Dalai Lama (2005), who deeply practice Buddhist meditation, acknowledge that well-being in fact is a by-product of meditation. My concern is that, given the current mindfulness fervor in Western popular culture, these centuries-old practices are sometimes being reduced to mostly therapeutic tools for wellbeing, consequently, more deep meaning and much learning from it may be missed, particularly in the teaching and learning dimensions.
This paper presents some live experiences and examples from interviews to illustrates that general themes of utilizing these practices were mainly as therapeutic tools for well-being, which invites us to critically reflect and discourse that although many mindfulness and meditation practices now popular in the West are rooted in Eastern philosophies and spiritual traditions, these sacred roots tend not to be discussed to any great degree in secular settings. Therefore, this paper argues the need to go beyond the use of mindfulness and meditation as therapeutic tools and discovering what more we can learn from this Eastern way of life as educators. In particular, this paper focuses the practices to adult education, using mindfulness based activity and meditation as instructional approaches for dialogue, critical reflection, and experiential learning leading transformation, and considering how to use mindfulness and meditation practices for unpacking biases and establishing authentic relationships.
As a conclusion, this paper challenges educational practitioners to acquire more information about the cultural and spiritual roots of these practices especially when they are used as instructional methods. As human wisdom, traditions from the East may offer alternatives for teaching in the West. Inquiring into this topic can further illustrate the importance of international and comparative education as our society continues to evolve globally.

Author

• Kalpana Gupta,, Colorado State University