Contemplative Practices inTeacher Education

John P. Miller and Ayako Nozawa

Contemplation is a form ofself-learning that helpsstudents deal with the stressesof life and makes teaching ajoy and delight

This paper was first presented at seminar on religion and spiritualityat the Unversity of Miami in March 2004.

JOHN (JACK) MILI-EB has worked in the areaof hoHsttc education for thirty years. He is aprofessor at the Ontario Institute forTeacher Education at the University of To-ronto and is the author or editor of 14books, including Tlie Hottstic Currtcntumand Education and the Soul.

Contemplation is the highest expression ofman's intellectual and spiritual life. It is that lifeitself, fully active, fully aware that it is alive. It isspiritual wonder. It is spontaneous awe at thesacredness of life, of being. It is gratitude forlife, for awareness and for being.

—Thomas Merton, 1972

In this paper we will address the question of howcontemplation and other spiritual practices can beintegrated into higher education and teacher edu-

cation in a manner that is respectful of people's spiri-tual and religious beliefs. Contemplation is definedhere as "beholding, often with a sense of awe andwonder, where we become one with what we areseeing."

Why Contemplation and Spiritual PracticesIn the Curriculum?

Our main argument for including contemplationand spiritual practices in the curriculum is that theyoffer an opportunity to make our education truly ho-listic. Although we give lip service to educating thewhole human being, in fact much of our educationsystem is limited to head learning. One could arguethat even this form of learning is very limited and inmany cases our elementary schools focus only on theacquisition of a few basic skills and factual recall.This form of learning is driven by primarily an eco-nomic agenda. We constantly hear the mantra that

AYOKO NOZAWA, ED.D., is a recent graduateof the Ontario Institute ofStudies in Edu-cation at the University of Toronto. Her2004 doctoral thesis was on educators'experiences of contemplative practice.Dr. Nozawa is interested in whole persondevelopment in both individuals andsocial groups. She currently lives inDresden, Germany.

Volume 18, Number 1 (Spring 2005) 43

Students need to be trained so that they can competeand participate in the global economy. This narrowvision of education has played a role in the corporatecorruption that we see today. With the emphasis onindividual achievement and test scores our system isbasically one of student competition. Our studentstoday are rarely exposed to the larger vision of whatit means to be a human being inhabiting the earthand the cosmos.

This was not always the case. Pierre Hadot, theFrench philosopher, makes the case (2002, 65) that an-cient philosophy was not just an intellectual exercisebut was primarily a spiritual practice: "To live in aphilosophical way meant, above all, to tum toward in-tellectual and spiritual Life, carrying out a conversionwhich involved "the whole soul" — which is to say thewhole of moral life." Philosophy then could be calledan education of the soul. Hadot describes various spiri-tual exercises and forms of contemplation that Greekphilosophers pursued in their work. One form prac-ticed by Pyrrho involved self-talk; another was simplybeing silent, a form that Socrates practiced.

The stoics liked to practice an expansion of thesoul into the cosmos; they would contemplate on thestars. Marcus Aurelius (Hadot 2002, 204) wrote;

To embrace the paths of the stars in our gaze, asif they were carrying us along in their revolu-tions, and constantly to think of the transforma-tions of the elements into one another — suchrepresentations purify us of the stains of terres-trial life.

We believe that the Greek academy and the an-cient Buddhist University of Nalanda can help usfind a new vision of the modern university. Nalandawas founded in the 5th Century BC in what is nownorthern India and at one point it had 10,000 stu-dents and 1500 professors. At Nalanda meditationwas practiced along with scholarship as the univer-sity contained both libraries and meditation halls.The senior author had the opportunity to visit the ru-ins of Nalanda in 1993 and you can still see the out-line of these halls and the libraries.

Contemplation in Teaching

Since 1988 the first author has required students intwo of his graduate courses to meditate. These are

courses for experienced teachers in the area of holis-tic education. The courses are not required but elec-tives in the program. Tlie rationale for this process isbased on several principles in an attempt to moveaway from just "head" learning to reaching thewhole person.

One important reason for requiring meditation isthat it can be a form of self-learning. For example,vipassana meditation is based on the notion that wecan learn and grow by simply mindfully watchingour own experience. As we notice our own thoughtsand agendas, we can gain deeper insight into our-selves and the nature of experience. In this context,meditation is a form of inquiry. In contrast, themodel for much of learning at the university level isthat the professor and the text are the authority andthe shjdent must learn from these authorities. Medi-tation provides one alternative to this model and in-stead recognizes that we can leam from ourselvesand our own experience.

Another reason for engaging in contemplation isthat it allows students to deal with the stresses intheir lives. Research indicates that meditation is aneffective tool in enhancing physical and mental wellbeing (Benson 1976; Walsh 1999; Murphy and Dono-van 1997) and given the pressures that students facetoday this aspect of meditation should not be over-looked. The vast majority of students in classestaught by the senior author have seen the positive ef-fects of contemplative practice in simply being ableto address stressful events that come up in their lives.For example, consider the comments of a secondaryschool vice-principal who faced many stressfulevents during the day. He wrote in his joumal that asthe pressures of his job increase he finds the "need toengage in meditation more frequently."

Finally, from the perspective of teacher educa-tion, meditation is important to how we approachteaching. If teaching is ego-based it can become afrustrating series of mini-battles with students. Theclassroom becomes focused around the issue of con-trol. If we teach from our original self (e.g., our Bud-dha nature), teaching becomes a fulfilling and en-riching experience. Robert Griffin (1977, 79) sum-marizes this very well:

You do not feel set off against them [the stu-dents] or competitive with them. You see your-

44 ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice

self in students and them in you. You move eas-ily, are more relaxed, and seem less threateningto students. You are less compulsive, less rigidin your thoughts and actions. You are not sotense. You do not seem to be in a grim win-or-lose contest when teaching.

When we teach mostly from our egos, our work in-evitably becomes tense and frustrating; conversely,when we teach from the original Self our work canbecome an act of joy and delight. Teaching from thisdeeper place, we experience connections with ourstudents and our colleagues. The rationale for Self-based teaching has been explained in other contexts(Miller 1993; 1994; 1995).

Introducing Meditation to Teachers

Students are introduced to six different types ofmeditation which include meditation on the breath,lovingkindness (sending thoughts of peace andwellness to self and others), mantra, movement(e.g., walking), visualization, and contemplation onpoetry or sacred texts (Miller 1994; in press). Somestudents work out their own forms and integratemeditation within their own spiritual or religiouspractices. Although sitting meditation is encour-aged, some students do movement meditation. Forexample, one student swam every day from a medi-tative stance. Whatever form students choose, med-itation can be seen as letting go of the calculatingmind and opening to the listening mind that tendsto be characterized by a relaxed alertness. Once thestudents have settled on a method they are encour-aged to work up to about 30 minutes a day of medi-tation practice. As already mentioned, the seniorauthor also introduces students to the Buddhistlovingkindness meditation where thoughts of well-being are sent to oneself and others. Each class be-gins with this meditation and students are encour-aged to begin or end their own individual medita-tion with it. Finally, students are also introduced tomindfidness practice which is being present in themoment in daily life. This means focusing on whatwe are doing without falling into automatic pilotwhere we can function without awareness. Mind-fulness can lead to deep attention or whatCsikzentmihalyi (1990) calls the flow experience.

To date over 1200 students have been introducedto meditation practice in these courses. Only two stu-dents have asked not to do the assignment; one stu-dent had been sexually abused a year before and didnot feel comfortable with the practice. The other stu-dent was a Christian fundamentalist. Thus far, in in-formal feedback, a small fraction of the studentshave described initial ambivalence," but there hasnot been a student who has reported an overall nega-tive experience with the practice during the course.Most of the students are women (80%) in their 30s or40s. While most of the students come from Ontario,but there have also been students from Brazil, China,Indonesia, Iran, Italy, Jamaica, Lebanon, Japan,Kenya, Korea, and Malta. Students come from a vari-ety of religious backgrounds including Buddhist,Christian, Hindu, Judiasm, Muslim, and NativeAmerican. The majority, though, are Christian withCatholicism being the largest denomination.

Students are required to keep a journal which fo-cuses on how the process of meditation is going (e.g.,how the concentration and focus are going, how thebody is feeling, etc.). The journals also focus on howmeditation has affected them. Some of the themes(Miller and Nozawa 2002) included

• Giving themselves permission to be aloneand enjoy their own company

• Increased listening capacities

• Feeling increased energy

• Being less reactive to situations and generallyexperiencing greater calm and clarity.

A few years ago we completed a study that in-volved interviewing students who had continuedwith their meditation practice. The study focused onthe following questions.

• What is the nature of your meditation prac-tice? (e.g., type and frequency)

• Have you engaged in any meditation instruc-tion since the class?

• What have been the effects of your practiceon your personal and professional life?

• Have you experienced any difficulties orproblems with the practice?

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Letters were sent out to 182 former students ask-ing if they would be interested in participating in aninterview related to these questions. Because the re-search project involved a face-to-face interview, thestudy was limited to former students living in the To-ronto area. From this group 40 letters were retumedbecause the students had moved. In the end 21 for-mer students (17 women and 4 men) agreed to partic-ipate. Of the 21, eleven were teachers at the elemen-tary or secondary level, four were teaching at thepost-secondary level, four were administrators, andtwo were consultants.

The participants were interviewed by the secondauthor. The interview lasted between 30 and one and90 minutes. To supplement the information gatheredfrom the questions above, the following material wasalso collected: (a) meditation journals from thecourse, (b) summary reflections on the meditationsubmitted as part of the course, and (c) the inter-viewer's reflections on the interviews.

At the time of our study, only one of the 21 stu-dents had discontinued meditation practices. All theothers were continuing with it at least two years afterthey had taken the courses, and most of our samplewere still practicing meditation at least four yearslater. Sixty-two percent of the students reported thatmeditation helped them become more relaxed andcalm in their work and their personal life. Many ofthese teachers stated that they were less reactive totroublesome situations in the classroom (Miller andNozawa 2002). Although the study is in no way de-finitive because the sample was small and consistedof a self-selected group of voluntary participants, thefindings are congruent with the general research onmeditation cited earlier (Benson 1976; Walsh 1999).

We would like to now to present profiles of threeof these students and have chosen students whocome from different backgrounds in terms of cultureand religion to demonstrate how contemplation canbe introduced to people from various religious andspiritual backgrounds.

Sally

Now retired, Sally was a principal at a public ele-mentary school from K-6 for four years when shetook part in the study. A quarter of the school's popu-lation were special needs students. She felt that "the

job of the principal is to reflect and that principalshould be calm, as once she loses it, everybody elsehas permission to lose it."

She started meditating using a simple form ofbreathing in my class. She did it when she feltstressed. She said: "When I move into a meditativestate, I feel a little energy, or I feel something in mybrain that happens, in my body that happens. AndI'm there. And I'm aware of this shift." Three times aweek, she also was practicing Reiki, which is a formof meditation for her. She first learned it in order tohandle children who were out of control throughtouch.

She described herself as a very intense person andthe meditation helped soften the intensity. One per-son at another school said that she was lighter, andcalmer. She works toward that softer and calmer na-ture in her role and tries to see things in terms ofcommunity. She based much of her work as principalin a holistic perspective. Sally comments that "Theissues of connections, balance, and inclusion andvoice.... It's through those holistic education princi-ples that I see the school, and how 1 see the teachersand the children."

Tliere was a teacher on the staff who is Buddhistwho had a strong impact on Sally and the school. Hechairs the junior division meetings and serves teathere. There is emphasis on simply being present, animportant Buddhist practice, at these meetings.

It always starts with a calmness, there is noagenda.... It's just being there and being to-gether. It's not team-building, it's just kind ofbeing together, it doesn't have a name.... I thinkthe way that people treat each other is so impor-tant here. We adapt to change, and embracechange, we don't resist — we look for beingpresent to everything.

Sally does not believe in putting a label on herselfwhen it comes to her spiritual beliefs. She has hadmany different influences in her life. One book thathad an important impact on her life was Scott Peck'sThe Road Less Traveled. Some of the literature in lead-ership has also been important, particularly The Taoof Leadership and Daniel Goleman's Primal Leader-ship. Her husband has also been a significant influ-ence in her life.

46 ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice

She is convinced that that meditation is very im-portant for leaders. She realized how important it isfor people to see that leaders can cope with difficultsituations.

It takes long time for people to get calm, butthey won't get calm if the leader isn't calm.... Itmakes you more creative in your problem solv-ing; for example, out-of-box thinking. And itmakes you more equitable. You see the staff asreal individuals, real human beings.

She tries to get consensus with her staff rather thanlaying a decision on the group. "We just talk it outand see what they want to do.... We don't have tomake decision right away, and we let everybody beincluded...."

In her personal life she feels that the meditation al-lowed her to cope with very heavy demands of beinga mother of three, a wife, a graduate student, and aprincipal. It made a difference in softening her athome and in her personal life.

My husband said to me on Saturday, "You're re-ally anxious, you should meditate.... That'sprovided the balance for us in a relationship....We kind of sort stuff out in terms of problem-solving in a gentler way within.

She feels that finding time for meditation is achallenge. Going home in the car, she let meditationand a contemplative state of mind sift through whathappened in the day. She also listens to her favoriteBruce Springsteen CDs, such as "If I Should Fall Be-hind" or "Tougher Than the Rest/' which has idealsand values that she believes in. She uses them justlike a mantra.

I was crying ... if one of the teachers falls be-hind, let's walk in stride, it is hard to see yourfootsteps. And you walk through life, andsometimes life is hard. And so if I should fall be-hind, reach down, wait for me, and I'll wait foryou.... That gave me that image of people allmoving through life together, and if someonedrops back or gets lost, then people reach downto bring that person forward.

She is humbled when she sees how the music re-flects reality.

Diane

Diane is from Panama where she was raised as aCatholic, a religion that she still practices. Sheworked as a teacher for 11 years in her home countryand in Canada she taught Spanish for four years.Now as the general manager of a very big interna-tional company, she meets a lot of agents and brokersevery day and travels all over Canada and the USA.She is also completing her graduate degree in thefield of second language acquisition and teaching.

Before meditation was introduced in the course,she was a very busy woman, running from one placeto the other. She said that she never paid any atten-tion to anything more than fifteen minutes. Dianesays: "I even cry when I believe that I missed somuch of my kids' time when they were babies. Idon't really remember that well, because I was on themove all the time."

Since the class, she has been meditating every dayfor 25 to 30 minutes using visualization and breath-ing exercises, which she says made a tremendouschange in her life. She feels the need to be mindfuland to care about people, nature, and everythingaround her. She says that she now honors everythingthat gives her life and everything that lives. She saysshe learned to even appreciate the experience of howthe air moves her hair.

.. .the impact on me is very powerful. I remem-ber one day that I just watched my kids. Iwatched them sleeping, I observed them, for solong. 1 looked at their eyes, nose, hair...theylook like angels.... Sometimes I just sit downoutside and look at the skies ...[and] I remem-ber that everything is grace.

She describes her change as coming from the in-side and how mindfulness has affected her.

I hear sounds tiiat I never heard. I hear the ani-mals; I listen to everything that is there, that 1never paid attention to before. I touch andfeel.... I know that I'm living and 1 don't have aword to express what this means to me really.

When she sees people on the subway she does thelovingkindness meditation. She said: "When I seeeach person in the subway, I look at them and pray

Volume 18, Number 1 (Spring 2005) 47

for them. And I see a brother and a sister, and a fam-ily everywhere." . -

She talks about the change in her professional lifeas a teacher and a manager.

And in the classrooms ... I'm not there just togive a lesson. I'm there to give love, and to care.And I know that they see me, more than ateacher now. They have a mother, friend, some-one to trust them....

She mentions that how she listens to others haschanged.

I used to talk non-stop, not even listening to oth-ers I have learned to hear. I listen to my stu-dents. Now I know who has a grandfather hereand who doesn't.... But it's so important for menow to just sit down with my students.... What-ever they want to tell, if it makes them feel goodand relaxed.

She says that the transition from a hectic woman toa peaceful one was hard at the beginning yet, shekept the practice because she is convinced of its posi-tive benefit. She does not regret the change at all.

Nadia

Nadia comes from a Muslim country, Kuwait.When she was living in England during the Gulf Warin 1991 she volunteered to teach people in her ownKuwaiti community. She also taught family andfriends when they needed help. Since she came toCanada, she has taught ESL to people in her commu-nity. Now she is focusing on studying the piano andmusic theory.

She uses walking and breathing meditation, re-peats mantras, and tries to bring mindfulness intodaily life. Much of her practice focuses on mindful-ness and she has found it very helpful in practicingthe piano. Nadia comments:

The mindfulness really helps, because it is sim-ple and can be an integral part of whatever I'mdoing, even cooking. I do the cutting; I focus onthe smell of the vegetable. It brings me joy, evenwhen I wash the dishes; it makes me happierwhen I focus. I drift off, of course, but then Ibring myself back.

In her personal life, she points out that her familywas influenced by her meditation practices since sheand her husband learned mindfulness together. Shesaid, "My husband was enlightened by many of thethings I learned and passed on to him. He helps me alot in his own way.... We learned mindfulness to-gether. He easily incorporates it in his daily activity."

Her husband said that she is changing a lot fromwhat she used to be. She used to worry a lot and nowshe is trying to focus on the moment rather than be-ing absent-minded and anxious. When she wentback to Kuwait, a few of her family members notedthat she seemed more relaxed and happier.

It changed my life a lot in many ways from theinside. I know I'm less anxious and worried,and whenever I let my mind work in the futureor in the past, I get upset again and down, andthen I have to bring myself back. When I'mthinking of the past or the future ... I can simplybring myself to the present with a few breaths,breathing deeply, and then focusing on the mo-ment and just doing it without letting thoughtdistract me; that's very helpful for me.

Nadia is more mindful now, and she finds it easierto be present. She reminds herself whenever hermind drifts off to come back to the present. The moreshe becomes mindful, the easier it gets to includemindfulness in her daily activities. She thinks that itis our nature to be in the moment as young childrenare naturally mindful. As people get older, theychange because of many factors, such as trying tomeet the expectations of others.

She explains that an element of the practice is sim-plicity, which we cannot complicate by using a lot ofwords. The next comment describes that the impor-tant lesson is in the experience itself:

I don't need to even describe it, that's the goodpart. We understand it emd we do it. Quietingthe mind, actually, is very important. 1 don'tthink we have to, though. It's not, "have to," be-cause that's what brought me to trouble in thefirst place. If any thought comes in, you don'tforce it out, you let it smoothly go out. It's nothaving to or forcing something.

4S ENCOUNTER: Education for Meaning and Social Justice

What she says relates to accepting what seem to beobstacles. She talks about accepting herself:

It's OK.... That's one of the things I'm beginningto tell myself. It's a very powerful thing for me.When I make a mistake, I am very critical aboutmyself, and this is what I'm changing, and 1know it's in the process. I'm telling myself it isOK when I make mistakes.

She adds that allowing ourselves to be who weare car\ be difficult. "Sometimes we need permis-sion from others to allow ourselves to rest and bewho we are. This is very difficult." Meditationseems to help in the process of accepting our-selves.

Finally, Nadia comments on the relation betweenher faith and the mindfulness practice.

In Islam, there are many instructions that Mus-lims are encouraged to do. For example, whenwe want to enter a room, it's encouraged to en-ter with the right foot first, and say a kind ofshort prayer.... I believe that these little prayersand acts are a way to stay present, to be mindfulof what we're doing. So, I think that mindful-ness is an integral part of any religion.

For Nadia, then, meditation arid mindfulness sup-port religious practices.

Conclusion

This research describes one way teachers can gobeyond the narrow vision of the human being thatdominates today's educational rhetoric. As men-tioned earlier, the ancients in Greece and India hada broader vision of the academy; however, we needto find a holistic vision that is appropriate for ourtime and the pluralistic nature of the world com-munity. There are many ways that a broader andmore inclusive approach to learning can be re-stored to the academy and we have offered just onein this paper. We encourage professors and teach-ing assistants to explore other forms of contempla-tion and holistic learning. Our small sample find-ings and case studies indicate that contemplationand spiritual practices can be offered in a non-dog-matic way in public institutions and deepen the ed-ucational experience.

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