Abstract
Western scholarship and culture usually ignore the contributions from other civilizations, in the field of education even more clearly than anywhere else. While the advocates of integral education, for instance, pay attention to the Western pedagogues only, there has been a profound educational philosophy in other contexts such as the Indian or the Buddhist. This paper tries to open the Western educational scenario to the Buddhist tradition in particular, outlining some achievements like the Buddhist university of Nalanda that can certainly inspire and enrich the educational world, in Asia or in the West. Hence, this introductory paper wishes to contribute to the needed intercultural dialogue in Western education and scholarship.
Highlights
Prince Siddhartha and the middle path While ruling his kingdom at the foot of the Himalaya, King Suddhodana was especially concerned about the education of his fair son, Prince Siddhartha, who very soon appeared to be a very special boy
Panikkar strove throughout his academic and intellectual career after intercultural and inter-religious dialogue, convinced that Western culture still carries along a deep silent inertia of cultural imperialism.[11]
In spite of some rhetoric and discourses, most of the general textbooks and syllabi are not intercultural yet, and we can realize that Indian or Buddhist education are usually absent from academic teaching and publication
Summary
Prince Siddhartha and the middle path While ruling his kingdom at the foot of the Himalaya, King Suddhodana was especially concerned about the education of his fair son, Prince Siddhartha, who very soon appeared to be a very special boy. Interesting from an educational point of view would be the Assalayana-Sutta (Majjhima-Nikaya),[6] where a young Brahmin, Assalayana, encounters Buddha to defend the cast system that the master has questioned. This beautiful dialogue constitutes a masterpiece of Socratic education. Before the metaphysical questions of the young Uttiya that seek for clear answers, doctrines and systems of beliefs, the master replies with silence –the silence of Buddha, which is the deepest pedagogy, an invitation to shift from doctrines to self-inquiry, from outer beliefs to the inner experience of oneself, and from alienation to freedom. To sum up, a genuine experiment of integral education in the transition from the Ancient world to the Middle Ages in the Indian subcontinent and within the spirit of Buddhist philosophy
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