Abstract
This chapter seeks answers to the following questions: How might we further understand the concepts and process of consciousness transformation? What are the main barriers to be overcome in that process? What are the characteristics of various stages of progress? What disciplines and practices are necessary in various stages? What are the features of these disciplines and practices? How might we facilitate the transformation of consciousness in educational contexts? For this purpose, the main concepts and process of Buddhist spiritual practices of consciousness transformation are explored. These concepts and process include the two barriers to consciousness transformation, the transformation of consciousness into four transcendental wisdoms, the five-stage gradual path of consciousness transformation in Buddhism, the union of wisdom-side and method-side practices for consciousness transformation, and the approach of negation.
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Notes
- 1.
In this book, the terms “subject–object dichotomy,” “subject–object duality,” and “dualistic subject–object worldview” refer to the conception that posits the subject and object as absolute, essential, and mutual independent existence.
- 2.
The gradual and sudden paradigms in Buddhism have long been a source of debates in history (Faure, 1994, p. 41). In contrast to the five-stage gradual path in Yogacara , Zen Buddhism features the “sudden” teaching (Faure, 1994, p. 32). According to Lusthaus (2002), while in the Pali texts Buddha repeated that “awakening is consequent upon uncovering and removing the deep, underlying psycho-cognitive roots of avidya [ignorance or delusion]” (p. 108), some Theravadins argued that “if disentangling one’s karmic condition involved the gradual activity of discovering and overcoming, piece by piece, one’s karmic legacy, the task would be interminable, since each counter-karmic action is itself an action, and thus productive of further karma” (p. 108). The controversies of gradual vs. sudden and modificatory vs. disruptive re-emerged in China, Japan, and Tibet (Lusthaus, 2002, p. 108; Sopa, 2008, pp. 195–199). The main cause of the debate in 8th-century Tibet was that, while the whole doctrine of Zen Buddhism is much more profound than the mere “sudden” aspect of teaching, there developed an attractive Zen-like misconception that practicing the thought-free meditation alone is enough to attain enlightenment, and that all other practices, such as meritorious practices and rigorous analysis, etc., are not worth doing (Sopa, 2008, pp. 198–200). According to Sopa (2008), King Trisong Detsen saw the danger of this view and resorted to a debate held at Samye Monastery (p. 198); he subsequently decided to follow the Indian Madhyamaka (the Middle Way) system, which formed the basis of Yogacara and maintained that “the method to come to a direct realization of the truth is to first learn about it. Next one examines and analyzes what one has studied. Through inferential reasoning one gains an understanding that becomes more vivid through meditation” (p. 200).
In regards to debate referenced above, Faure (1994) indicated that “the protagonists of the debate were in fact speaking at cross-purposes” (p. 41), and emphasized that, as Paul Demieville once suggested, “the ‘sudden’ and ‘gradual’ were universal categories” (p. 32) and “this antinomy is not only a psychological and methodological order, it applies to two conceptions of truth itself and actually spreads to all planes of thought” (as cited in Faure, 1994, p. 32). Faure (1994) elucidated that “the philosophical framework of the controversy was provided by the Two Truths theory: sudden and gradual refer to whether awakening is regarded from the point of view of ultimate truth or of conventional truth” (pp. 32–33). Nevertheless, in practice, the positions of the protagonists were not so different: “both were ‘sudden’… and both were to some degree ‘gradual’” (Faure, 1994, p. 36). For example, while the founding patriarch of Japanese RinZai school Linji “himself came to Awakening in part by abandoning the modificatory model in favor of the disruptive model” (Lusthaus, 2002, p. 108), he also stressed that, “you must first fathom things yourself, purify yourself, polish yourself; then one day you will awaken” (Faure, 1994, p. 36). The significance of the need of both the gradual and sudden models (referring to conventional truth and ultimate truth respectively) was illustrated by Buddha in The Diamond Sutra by means of employing the metaphor of a raft; Buddha emphasized that his doctrine of the dharma, like a raft—“having fulfilled its function in bearing you to the other shore (Nirvana)—with its coincident qualities and ideas must inevitably be abandoned” (Gemmell, 1912, pp. 22–23, 97). This metaphor points to the concept of the Middle Way taught by Buddha and later restored by Nagarjuna. Rather than being a neutral or neutralized position, the Middle Way is achieved by simultaneously grasping the two truths and by the “refusal to reduce one level to the other or to reconcile them in a convenient hierarchy” (Faure, 1994, p. 37).
While the sudden and gradual paradigms are, in essence, not so different, and for the more advanced practitioners, the sudden teaching serves as a remedy for the overreliance upon gradual and analytical activities, given the fact that this five-stage gradual path includes both the worldly path (with an emphasis on the method-side practices contingent on the conventional truth) and the supramundane path (with an emphasis on the wisdom-side practices contingent on the ultimate truth), I consider this gradual path to be of profound significance for the revival of spirituality in educational context. The details of the educational significance of this gradual path are explored in Sect. 4.7.
- 3.
Given that the teachings of Buddha are so vast and diverse, “Tsongkhapa’s purpose in composing Lamrim Chenmo was to draw out the essence of all the Buddha’s teachings and arrange them in a practical manual” (Sopa, 2004, p. 2). Tsong-kha-pa (Tsongkhapa) had received much personal instruction and guidance from Manjusri bodhisattva in visionary experiences (Culter, 2000, p. 10; Thurman, 1984, pp. 4–5).
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Chu, E.L. (2019). The Concepts and Process of Consciousness Transformation. In: Exploring Curriculum as an Experience of Consciousness Transformation. Curriculum Studies Worldwide. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17701-0_4
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