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#3749 - Fri
The Nonduality Highlights - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NDhighlights
Although it could be said that the "people's nonduality" that has arisen since 1998 has emancipated the word and teaching of nonduality from ashrams and academia, they continue to be places where nonduality is expressed and developed.
I just came across a dissertation published in 2002 on nonduality and pedagogy and it fits in with the ongoing expansion of the teaching of nonduality in evidence today. What follows is the abstract of a PhD dissertation that you can read online via the link given.
Title: Meditations on/in non/dualistic pedagogy
Author: Pryer, Alison Catherine
Degree Doctor of Philosophy - PhD Program Curriculum Studies
Copyright Date: 2002
Abstract: This dissertation is a collection of essays that meditate upon the concept of non/dual pedagogy. The text is an expression of my longing to speak beyond the limitations of dualistic pedagogy, in its diverse forms and locations, and to actively seek out those non/dualistic pedagogical traits that for so long have been split off, denigrated and dismissed within dualistic educational systems. Dualistic pedagogies devalue the body, the spirit, the emotional, the passionate, the subjective, the intuitive, the non-rational, the chaotic, and the sacred. My purpose is to go some way to revealing the richness, vivacity and complexity of non/dualistic pedagogical experience. As the dualistic organization o f pedagogical cultures leads to the experience of disembodiment, and reinforces other inequalities such as sexism and racism, this study may be considered both an ethical and political undertaking. Paradoxically, the very word "non/dual" infers dualism in its structure. Thus, I dwell in the hyphenated space between "non" and "dual," a space of great possibility. This liminal space touches upon areas that mainstream curriculum theorists consider somewhat impure, taboo even - including, the erotics of teaching and learning, and the interrelationships between pedagogy, violence and desire. This text contains spaces of struggle and resistance as well as spaces of contemplation and meditation. Although I do explore non/dualistic pedagogy in formal educational institutions, including schools, and teacher education and graduate programs, I have chosen to make forays into other less examined pedagogical sites, meditating on the pedagogy of Zen arts; the public pedagogy of popular culture; and, the pedagogy of family. I also muse upon the practice o f ritual; the powerful effect of place on the embodied self; physical and metaphorical notions of "voice," lived fictions of identity and dis/placement; and, the interplay between embodiment and dis/embodiment as a legacy of childhood sexual abuse. I suggest that non/dualistic knowledge, arising out of specific locations, contexts, and circumstances is dynamic, generative and unpredictable, and refuses the convenience of objectification and the order of stable systems of categorization. Thus, a non/dualistic relationship to knowledge is characterized by uncertainty and contingency, and is necessarily cultivated through a vitally creative approach.
Read the entire dissertation here: a lot of interesting stuff in it:
http://circle.ubc.ca/bitstream/handle/2429/14883/ubc_2003-792463.pdf?sequence=1
In the Nonduality Blog at http://nonduality.org
Dave Trindle responds to the interview with James Swartz posted in issue #3748: http://nonduality.com/hl3748.htm
Dave Trindle Says:
December 18, 2009 at 8:05 pm
I enjoyed the historical backdrop of traditional advaita and the confidence with which it is all provided. However, James is quite disrespectful of the neo-advaita aspect. How could such emnity reside in pure awareness? I do not know or care if I am “enlightened” if that word even has a stable meaning. But I do know there is no SEPARATE, INDEPENDENT, SELF here exercising free will. And the dropping off of that socially constructed belief has been quite a load off. It is not faith. I see it directly every day. There is no longer any need for outside authority. I guess I am “neo”, since I have not studied the traditional scriptures much. It is direct experience right here. I put this forward out of curiosity. How do you express such animosity/disrespect for neos based on the belief neos are saying “self does not exist.” This is just a conceptual statement that, of course, is untrue, as all concepts are untrue. How can that be the crucial determining factor to write-off the “snake oil salesman?” It just doesn’t make sense. And it contradicts my direct seeing.
ps it’s ok to give my email. I’m happy to discuss this stuff with anyone. It’s quite fun and I seem to be drawn to it…I am not selling anything in the spiritual marketplace.