Mindfulness in Education: An Urgent Requisite For 21st Century Teaching & Learning

Educating For Sustainable Happiness
A 21st Century
Education Symposium

Mindfulness in Education
An Urgent Requisite
For 21st Century
Teaching and Learning

Yang Gyeltshen

Ashburnham, Massachusetts
August 9-12, 2012

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Educating For Sustainable Happiness: A 21st Century Education Symposium
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HAPPINESS COMES AND GOES
How do we make it sustainable?
Introduction

Living a happy and fulfilling life is everyone’s dream, but this quest for fulfilling life doesn’t come
without cost. As the competition for good life grows, resources shrink. The only life-giving planet
Mother Earth is being stressed and threatened every passing day. Therefore, we have to ask some
hard questions and be mindful of what our needs are and what our wants are. While the wants
can be infinite, needs could be few.

What is happiness and where does it come from anyway? While we cannot ignore some material
comfort, the old wisdom says – materialism is not the quest for happiness. If we analyze
properly, happiness has to do with one’s state of mind – how one perceives his or her idea of
fulfillment and contentment. Leading to these lines of thoughts are the following questions:

What is happiness and why does it matter? How is happiness realized and sustained? What is the
relationship of mindfulness to happiness? What are the threats to mindfulness? And what are
the pathways toward mindfulness and happiness?

This is not an in-depth research paper rather, the presenter brings in highlights for deeper
discussion on this theme - Educating for Sustainable Happiness.

What is happiness and why does it matter?

First and foremost, let us get the concept about happiness right. As His Holiness the Dalai Lama
has said, happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from one’s own actions. Happiness is
not a gift of the gods either. The British philosopher Bertrand Russell has said, rather, happiness
must be, for most men and woman, an achievement. That achievement doesn’t mean that
everything is perfect. It means to decide to look beyond the imperfections for peace of mind.
That peace of mind is not the absence of conflict from life, but the ability to cope with it. As such,
there is no “living happily ever after.” This does not happen outside of fairytales or movies.

For example, when single and unhappy, the myth says, one will get married, have children and live
happily ever after. But, according to Joseph Campbell (1994), an American mythologist, marriage
has nothing to do with being happy. Marriage is about relationship and not a simple love affair. It
is an ordeal – “the sacrifice of ego to a relationship in which two have become one” (Campbell,
1988, p. 7). In marriage, a young man and woman give up their individual freedom. From then
on, it is all about taking responsibility. If happiness has anything to do with marriage, then it has
to be with being transformed. Transformation takes place through being mindfulness and taking
on responsibilities with proper attitude. Transformation takes place through learning and coping
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Mindfulness in Education: An Urgent Requisite for 21st Century Teaching and Learning
Yang Gyeltshen August 9-12, 2012, Ashburnham, Massachusetts
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with situations diligently as and when they arise. Campbell (1994) believes the first part of our life
is to give us the experiences out of which we can draw our spiritual realizations (p. 13). This is
how we come to realize our success, a rapture of magnificent experiences, as Campbell puts it.
Happiness therefore can be associated with such magnificent experiences in our lives.

Among many other things in life, happiness is the most craved chi pursued by each and every
individual, therefore, happiness does matter. Happiness is the energy that inspires us and those
around us. Happiness is the life-force that keeps us moving. Happiness is health and happiness is
wealth. Without happiness, life will not sustain as it should. As the global challenges are growing
each passing day, the sustenance of the very life-force happiness is threatened.

How is happiness realized and sustained?

Just mentioned above, happiness is the most sought life-force pursued by each and every
individual. But the true sense of the term pursue is to chase, to hunt, or to follow, none of which
seems to be the right procedure. Seen in various greeting cards and quotable magnets is this
popular quote attributed to Henry David Thoreau, an American author, poet, and philosopher:
"Happiness is like a butterfly; the more you chase it, the more it will elude you, but if you turn
your attention to other things, it will come and sit softly on your shoulder.” As it is, happiness is a
difficult concept to define, let alone hunt for. It is a very subjective matter involving feelings and
emotions. Even if one is able to find happiness, it is hard to hold on to it. Hence, how will one
sustain happiness which is elusive and hard to find?

Happiness is felt or realized rather than found or caught hold of. This requires mental eyes much
more than physical eyes because one can see yet not see, for “[one] can only see clearly with the
heart. What matters is invisible to the eye” (Sfar, 2010). Such a thing as happiness lies in very
simple moments in simple things. People say, in old age, happiness is all about a gentle touch, an
unwavering smile, and some kind words. Some realize happiness in the rhythm of falling rain;
some realize happiness watching sunlight fall on morning dew; while some stand spellbound
listening to a distant cuckoo sing. The beauty, peace, tranquility, and harmony in such events are
imperceptible to a disturbed mind. A peaceful mind rejoices with what the surrounding nature
has to offer and when one’s heart sings with joy, happiness is felt everywhere. Therefore,
conscious efforts must be made to maintain necessary conditions for peace and harmony.
So long as one is at peace with oneself and others, happiness will prevail.

For the Bhutanese as a nation, our conscious effort for happiness is collective rather than
individual – hence Gross National Happiness (GNH). Happiness doesn’t exist by itself. It is
dependent on relationships and many other factors. For example, in a family, if the rest of the
members are suffering, how can a single person among the unhappy feel happy? Likewise, how
can a single household find peace if the rest of its neighborhood is quarrelsome? For a global

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peace all nations must support each other and coexist in a friendly manner. In Aristotle’s words,
“we are social animals,” we need each other for peaceful coexistence.

The necessary conditions Bhutan lays down for its people’s wellbeing and happiness are the four
pillars: a) Sustainable and equitable socio-economic development, b) Environmental preservation,
c) Promotion and preservation of culture, and d) Good governance. If a nation has serene
unspoiled natural surroundings to live in, where, the government is caring and affectionate with
sound economic prosperity, where people coexist harmoniously with vibrant social and cultural
traditions to celebrate, then, there is enough reason for people to be happy. However, even with
these conditions, if some individuals may not be happy, then there is not much what others can
do to make him or her happy, unless one learns to understand oneself and cultivate inner peace.
As mentioned earlier, one can only see clearly with the heart, what matters is invisible to the eye.

Relationship of mindfulness to happiness

Most respected Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh (2007), one of today’s strong advocates of
mindfulness defines mindfulness as the capacity to be present with one hundred percent of
oneself. He quotes Buddha who has said, “The past is already gone, the future is not yet here.
There’s only one moment for you to live, and that is the present moment” (p. 44), and if one
misses that, one misses one’s appointment with life. If one isn’t capable of being in the present
moment here and now, one will not be able to recognize oneself, one’s responsibility, one’s
happiness, or one’s suffering – as happiness, responsibility, and mindfulness are interconnected
(p. 53). Hanh says there is no enlightenment outside of daily life.

For example, Hanh (1987) insists, while washing the dishes one should be washing only the dishes.
While washing the dishes if one thinks of the cup of tea that awaits, and gets the dishes out of the
way hurriedly as if they were a nuisance, then he says, one is not “washing the dishes to wash the
dishes.” In such case, one is not capable of realizing the miracle of life happening at the sink
because that person was not fully present with the given task because of the thought of the cup of
tea. He explains: “If we can’t wash the dishes, the chances are we won’t be able to drink our tea
either. While drinking the cup of tea, we will only be thinking of other things, barely aware of the
cup in our hands. Thus we are sucked away into the future – and we are incapable of actually
living one minute of life” (p. 5).

On the other hand if we are mindful, Hanh (1987) believes, every step we take to walk on earth is
a miracle, not walking on water or in thin air, what people usually would consider a miracle. He
explains: “If we’re really engaged in mindfulness while walking along the path to the village, then
we will consider the act of each step we take as an infinite wonder, and a joy will open our hearts
like a flower, enabling us to enter the world of reality” (p. 12). This reality is what is missing in

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education according to Palmer (1993). In his words, “The most neglected reality in education is
the reality of the present moment, of what is happening here and now in the classroom itself”
(p. 88). Corresponding to Hanh’s belief, Albert Einstein has said, there are two ways to live our
life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle. How
one lives one’s life is a matter of perception – happy or otherwise.

Threats to mindfulness

Threats to mindfulness are poised by information overload through mass media. With the
extraordinary advancement in information technology, our children are living in the most
stimulating period in time, bombarded with information from every platform – from computers,
from videos and hundreds of television channels, from ever-present media advertisements, from
smart phones and iPhones, so on and so forth. From such overwhelming influx of information, will
children be able to sort the good and bad, right and wrong, moral and immoral, ethical and
unethical, important and not important, useful and not useful? With so much stimuli competing
for attention, will children be able to figure out which specific stimuli for which specific purpose?
These are crucial questions every parent and teacher must grapple with. Meanwhile, following
are reports of concern:

Tendency to multitask: Especially when multiple preoccupations enter emotionally troubling
zones, Goleman (2006) says it takes a toll on any conversation that goes beyond the routine. For
example, he cites an incident where a lady, whose sister had died recently, gets a sympathy call
from a male friend. Touched by his empathic words, the lady pours out all her sentiments of her
lost sister. As the talk continues, she hears the clicking of computer keys at the other end of the
line. She realizes her friend is answering his email, even as he talks to her in her hour of pain. As
his comments get increasingly hollow and off-point, she feels dejected and shattered, and wishes
he never called at all (105).

Multitasking, like texting while driving, has caused numerous accidents already, not to mention
that people texting while walking get knocked down almost every day. Here is a good example of
what happens when texting while walking, an incident in a mall that went viral on YouTube
recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vx2L9g0reNo This reminds us Hanh’s point about
doing one thing at a time. While many people say multitasking makes them more productive,
research shows otherwise says Richtel (2010) in The New York Times article – Attached to
Technology and Paying the Price. Instead, the report confirms, heavy multitaskers have more
trouble focusing and sorting out irrelevant information than non-multitaskers, causing them more
stress. Consequently, this seems to be the cause of fractured thinking and lack of focus which
researchers say persists, even after the multitasking ends. In other words, this is also our brain off
computers according to scientists.

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Downtime gets squeezed: Everyone needs reflection time, popularly known as downtime, once in
a while, a time of reduced activity to unwind, rewind, or to contemplate. Dr. Michael Rich of
Harvard Medical School states, “Downtime is to the brain what sleep is to the body.” In 2010, The
New York Times article mentioned above, Richtel wrote: “Recent imaging studies of people have
found that major cross sections of the brain become surprisingly active during downtime.”
Contrary to this finding where we should be increasing downtime, it only gets squeezed further,
filled with electronic sounds and noise, digitalized words and figures. According to Dr. Elias
Aboujaoude (2011), a psychiatrist at Stanford University, our e-personality cannot tolerate down
time as there is always a discovery to be made, some fun to be had. He believes, if we lose that
productive idleness, we lose the opportunity to assess ourselves and our place in the world. “And
without that ability to cogitate, ponder, and deliberate what is at stake, we automatically upgrade
to the newer and faster model, which, seemingly inevitably, will only add more pressure on our
time” (p. 269). Other brain research suggests the same, that periods of rest are critical in allowing
the brain to synthesize information, make connections between ideas and develop the sense of
self.

Empathy is getting scarce: Reported on Science Daily (May 29, 2010), researcher Sara Konrath at
the University of Michigan asserts that college kids today are about 40 percent lower in empathy
than their counterparts of 20 or 30 years ago, as measured by standard tests of personality traits.
This finding is from analyzed data on empathy among almost 14,000 college students over the last
30 years. The report says the biggest drop found is after the year 2000. Shouldn’t we be
concerned? Very much so!

Szalavitz and Perry (2010), in their book Born for Love, believe we need an empathy epidemic. To
them “empathy underlies virtually everything that makes society work – like trust, altruism,
collaboration, love, charity” and “failure to empathize is a key part of most social problems –
crime, violence, war, racism, child abuse, and inequity to name just a few” (4). Likewise, Dr. Keith
Ablow (2010), a psychiatry correspondent for Fox News Channel believes “empathy is one of the
most valuable psychological resources we have. It allows us to resonate with and respond to the
suffering of others.” Without empathy, humanity will fall apart. As I write this, a video of a 10-
minute vicious verbal attack on a 68-year-old grandmother serving as a bus monitor goes viral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8uRfuyUER4 The attackers are four seventh-grade boys
from Greece Central School District in upstate New York. The boys mock the grandmother on her
appearance, her age, her clothing, her family, to the extent of actually poking her at times. The
boys just went on whatever they could go after the poor old lady about. This kind of behavior
amongst same age groups is one thing; such a vicious attack on an elderly person, who was in fact
serving them, who should be admired and respected instead, is inconceivable. Just imagine a
future generation growing up with such attitude and behavior. Therefore, to teach the upcoming
generation the act of love, compassion, and thoughtfulness in whatever they do is of utmost

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importance. We are losing time. That is why mindfulness in education is not only important, but
also an urgent requisite for 21st century teaching and learning.

The paths forward

As this old saying goes – If there is a will there is a way. Finding the right path to walk and how to
align with that path should be our life’s goal. If we embrace the old wisdom, clear directions are
embedded in it. It all depends on how one walks the walk. Here is what Buddha spoke in the
Jetavana Grove: “Best among paths is the eightfold path. Best among truths are the truths in four
lines [Referring to the four noble truths]. Best of all Dharmas is freedom from desire. Best among
two-footed beings is the one with Vision” (Dharma Publishing Staff, 1985, p. 139). The last line
basically reminds us that humans without vision are no better than other beings. Clear vision is
fundamental for a civilized world. From where does this vision arise?

As explained in Buddha’s first sermon, mindfulness is one of the eight-fold paths responsible for
the enhancement of right wisdom for right conduct – a process of exercising clarity in what we do.
By the same token, mindfulness is one of the five paths the Ministry of Education in Bhutan
identified for educating for GNH. Bhutan is pitting its four pillars, nine domains, and seventy-two
indicators to balance its rich cultural values with the forces of modernization.

As Twenge and Campbell (2009) have observed, most corners of the world are exposed to
American ideals including celebrity, individual freedom, narcissism, and materialism. Whether
other societies will become infected with such ideals will depend largely on the natural antibodies
provided by one’s own culture (p. 261). In the case of Bhutan, the strong antibodies or antidotes
against those outside influences are Bhutanese traditional values such as Ley Jum Dre and Tha
Daam Tshig and etiquettes such as Driglam Namzhag. Ley Jum Dre guides one away from even
thinking bad of others, not to mention doing bad, the belief that, whatever bad one does to others
will eventually fall back to the one who commits it, and of course if one does good, good will be
the outcome. Similarly, Tha Daam Tshig reminds one of the sacred duty of honor and respect
obliged through one’s relation with others, may that be one’s friend, siblings, spouse, teachers, or
parents. Drig Lam Nam Zhag relates to ethical conduct such as loyalty, honesty, compassion,
humility, manners, and so on. Basic Drig Lam Nam Zhag practiced in everyday life is Za, Cha, Dro,
(how you eat, how you do things, how you walk) known as Za-Cha-Dro Sum, (Sum means three).
For example, in the presence of elders and guests, we are not supposed to make crunching noise
while eating and not stand up before the others are done. Likewise, one should not walk stiff and
upright but slightly bend in a gentle posture without tapping one’s feet on the floor. And if you
are closing the door, you are not supposed to bang it. Or, if you are pouring tea, make sure you
don’t overfill or spill. These are nothing but what Hanh would call mindfulness in what we do in
our daily conduct. These are the most basic, commonsense manners that evoke peace and
harmony within social groups.
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In our educational setting, this social and cultural etiquette and values are to be informed through
overall curriculum design – through various subjects, disciplines, and day-to-day activities.
One of the nine domains of GNH – Time Use for example, is an important component that
promotes happiness. Time use must not be just taught in the class rooms but engrained in our
daily lives, shown through action, displayed in our daily conduct. As the American writer and
family counselor Dorothy Law wrote, “Children learn what they live.” If children don’t get to see
and live what is talked about in the classroom, they will not learn.

Here is a good example of how to begin our day by Tai Situ Rinpoche, one of the foremost spiritual
leaders of the Kagyu Order of Buddhism: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NoJG4ojVBz0. If we
want such discipline to be built in our children, we must act it ourselves. Otherwise, as
Aboujaoude (2011) points out, “In our hyper connected, always [on] culture, true time off does
not exist in any practical sense anymore” (268).

Conclusion

As Turkle (2011) points out, today’s generation has no less need than those of previous
generations – may it be to learn empathic skills, to think about their values and identity, or to
manage and express feelings (172). In the process of coping with the changing face of time, they
have to be mindful not to lose track of old wisdom and values. If used mindfully, some of the old
wisdom is often found to be the best tools to tackle new situations. Just as the caterpillars fed on
nutritious plants transform to be magnificent butterflies, our youth guided through a blend of old
and new wisdom should be transformed to be better human beings.

Bhutan has embarked on its initiative to educate for GNH, and envisions a GNH graduate as
nothing less than transformative: A graduate who has transformed to be a genuine human being
– loving, caring, and considerate about others. One who is reflective, contemplative, and
ecologically literate with broader perspective of the natural world and its connectedness, and acts
accordingly for the benefit of all beings. Here is what Bhutan’s first prime minister has to say in
his own words: “I suppose the ultimate test is that a GNH-inspired education graduate will sleep
soundly and happily at the end of each day knowing that she or he has given all to their families,
to their communities, and to the world … In the end, a GNH-educated graduate will have no doubt
that his or her happiness derives from contributing to the happiness of others” (GNH workshop,
Paro, 2009).

Easier said than done, of course, this aspiration has to be translated into action. Likewise, each
nation who works on a similar model will have stories to tell. Those stories put together will give a
better perspective of our world. We will wait to hear those stories.

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Reference

Aboujaoude, E. (2011). Virtually you: The dangerous powers of the E-Personality. New York: W.
W. Norton & Company, Inc.

Ablow, K. (2010). The End of Empathy. fox news.com. Retrieved June 5, 2012 from
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,593832,00.html

Campbell, J. (1988). The power of myth. New York: Anchor Books, Doubleday.

Campbell, J. (1994). The way of the myth: Talking with Joseph Campbell. Boston: Shambhala
Publications, Inc.

Dharma Publishing Staff (1985). Dhammapada: Translation of dharma verses with the Tibetan
text. California: Dharma Publishing.

Goleman, D. (2006). Social intelligence: Beyond IQ, beyond emotional intelligence. New York:
Bantam Books.

Hanh, T. N. (1987). The miracle of mindfulness: An introduction to the Practice of meditation.
Boston: Beacon Press.

Hanh, T. N. (2007). The art of power. New York: Harper Collins, Inc.

Konrath, S. (2010). Today's college students are not as empathetic as college students of the
1980s and '90s, a University of Michigan study shows. Science Daily. Retrieved July 5, 2012
from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100528081434.htm

Palmer, P. J. (1993). To know as we are known: Education as a spiritual journey. San Franscisco:
Harper Collins Publishers.

Richtel, M. (2010). Attached to Technology and Paying a Price. The New York Times. Retrieved
July 7, 2012 from
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/07/technology/07brain.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

Sfar, J. (2010). The little prince: Adopted from the book by Antoine De Saint-Exupery. New York:
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.

Szalavitz, M. & Perry, B. D. (2010). Born for love: Why empathy is essential – and endangered.
New York: Harper Collins Publishers.

Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other.
New York: Basic Books.

Twenge, J. M. & Campbell, W. K. (2009). The Narcissism epidemic: Living in the age of entitlement.
New York: Free Press.
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