Abstract

This essay proposes a pedagogical ethic of love based on the four brahma-viharas -- also called the divine abodes-- of Theravada Buddhism. Witnessing, Kelly Oliver’s theory of mutual subjectivity, finds practical expression in the brahma-viharas, a comprehensive way to train the mind and heart to sustain an ethic of love in all of our relationships. Together, witnessing and the brahma-viharas offer an approach whereby we may choose to love students and to cultivate more open, responsive and egalitarian relations with them, in spite of academic asymmetries of power. In perplexing or vexing interactions with students, I draw strength from three of the four divine abodes: metta (lovingkindness), karuna (compassion), and upekkha (equanimity). Consistently applying the contemplative practices associated with these states begins to disentangle the threads of complicated social relations.

Highlights

  • This essay proposes a pedagogical ethic of love based on the four brahma-viharas— called the divine abodes—of Theravada Buddhism

  • “Let me say, with the risk of appearing ridiculous, that the true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love”: these are the words of Che Guevara, quoted by Paulo Freire in a footnote to Pedagogy of the Oppressed (1974, p. 78)

  • My desire to articulate a pedagogical ethic of love has found an experiential home in my practice of the four brahmaviharas – called the divine abodes – of Theravada Buddhism

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Summary

Mary Jo Hinsdale

Contemplative Practice, Education, and Socio-Political Transformation (Part One) Volume 20, Number 2, 2012 URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1071829ar DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1071829ar See table of contents Publisher(s) Canadian Philosophy of Education Society ISSN 0838-4517 (print) 1916-0348 (digital) Explore this journal Cite this article Hinsdale, M. (2012). Choosing to Love. Paideusis, 20(2), 36–45. https://doi.org/10.7202/1071829ar

Article abstract
MARY JO HINSDALE
Introduction
Inclining the Mind Toward Love
Toward a Relational Pedagogy of Love
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