Here is
an essay that I wrote five years ago (in haste) to gather information in support of introducing contemplative (or un-contemplative) practices in institutions of higher education such as IITs. Please forgive all the errors
and blunders! Thanks!
A
Case for Incorporating Contemplative Practices within Higher Education in
Indian Institutes of Technology
And,
so goes on an Indian folktale: Six wise men, blind of eyes, were busy studying
an elephant. The first one happened to lay its hands over the broad side of the
elephant, and remarked with certainty that the elephant was nothing but a wall.
The second wise man caught elephant’s trunk and debated that elephant was
indeed like a tree branch. The third held its tusks and was sure that elephant
was a spear. The fourth wise man touched elephant’s legs and argued that
elephant was in fact a pillar. The fifth wise man, having touched the elephant’s
ear was certain that elephant was big hand fan. And, the sixth wise man, when
he caught the elephant’s tail, knew for sure that elephant was like nothing
else but a rope. And, they argued for each of them was right and yet all of
them were wrong.
Limits
of Specialization: Just like the blind men were limited in their ability to
receive information, we are limited in amount of the information that we can
receive by the limits of our human perception, imagination, assumptions, and
technological reach. Each system of philosophy and practice has the ability to
sense a fraction of truth (touch a part of elephant). The same ideology extends
to the realm of an individual human, wherein these blind men can represent
different aspects of our being. Our social structure encourages specialization
of one particular skillset and it is often okay to ignore other aspects of
being the individual human. For example, an engineer is encouraged to be expert
in her particular field (focus on truth of one blind man) and it is okay for
her to ignore other aspects of her being that might include her contemplative
and loving nature (the truth of other blind men) (Palmer 2007). Feldenkrais
points out the danger of such a specialization when he writes, “Specialisation
in a limited range of acts for long periods is the most difficult adjustment
for a man to make... For he puts on them an extreme demand by excluding all
functioning in favor of a particular act.” (Feldenkrais 1949)
In
addition to putting extreme demand on one particular aspect of our being,
specialization also endangers the very existence and health of our other
aspects of being, which in turn have the potential to affect the health and
wellness of our whole being, ( wherein the blind men continue arguing and do not
realize that all of them are right together.) This is in the long run proves to
be pernicious to the health and efficiency of human society (as described later
in this essay under heading ‘Need for Incorporating Contemplative Practices’)
Our
highly specialized education system and industrial setup is visavis its
daughter called fragmentation. Fragmenting our ideologies and products of
ideologies through names challenges collective wisdom and intelligence.
Describing this concept of fragmentation and its danger is Conklin remarks,
“The concept of fragmentation provides a name and an image for a phenomenon
that pulls apart something which is potentially whole. Fragmentation suggests a
condition in which
the
people involved see themselves as more separate than united, and in which
information and knowledge are chaotic and scattered.” (Conklin 2006)
This
is exactly what the elephant story is trying to inform that none of the wise
men are right by themselves and in believing otherwise they are all wrong. Together
when they share information as undivided self, they are wise and have a better
grasp of the elephant. Incorporating the practice of recognizing ourselves as
whole, one undivided self can be a very useful practice for betterment of our
civilization on this planet.
A
Case for Incorporating Contemplative Practices in Higher Education
The
Thinking Human: Our name Homosapiens, the thinking human, highlights
our putatively unique ability to form thoughts and engage in contemplation.
However, in our industrialized economy and society it is very easy for us Homosapiens
to stay trapped inside the box, where we mechanically perform duties, meet
expectations, and process information, because of both convenience and
momentum. Our popular modern arts (for example, movies in Matrix triology,
books like The Third eye) have also reflected on the nonthinking popular state
of living in a trance, where Homosapiens have been projected as to be
living in trancekind of halfasleep state, enslaved by their projected needs
and conditioned desires and behaviour. The state of not being aware and
thoughtful of our actions and their effect, has had undesirable repercussions
in our society that manifests itself in forms of massviolence, corruption, and
greed. The prospect of losing touch with the contemplative nature of
Homosapiens is backed by research that does indicate that the contemplative
state of awareness is a natural state of human consciousness. Jennings 2008,
notes that children often naturally achieve the contemplative state naturally
and further suggests that contemplative state of awareness is actually a
natural state for humans to be in. We are defined as the ‘thinking human’ and
being thoughtful, and present is our natural state of existence, in which lies the
potential of attaining the state of flow as described by Csikszentmihalyi
(Miller and Nozawa 2005).
Contemplation
as defined in Modern Era: Contemplation is defined in myriad of forms that often
boil down to the basic definition of contemplation as being present in the
moment, with the object of concentration, and being nonjudgemental. John P.
Miller and Ayako Nozawa, (Miller et al 2005) described the contemplative
state as “beholding , often with a sense of awe and wonder, where we become one
with what we are seeing”. The intention of most contemplative practices is
often to promote presence, mindfulness, reconnect with loving and kindness, enhance
concentration, wellness, and productivity (Jennings et al. 2008). Thomas Merton
in 1972 noted on contemplation to be “the highest expression of man’s
intellectual and spiritual life.” (Miller et al. 2005) Roeser and Peck
describe the power of contemplative practices in educational setting as being
“a set of pedagogical practices that have as their aim personal and social
transformation through the cultivation of conscious and wilful awareness.”
(Jennings 2008)
Need
for Incorporating Contemplative Practices:
1. Need
to incorporate ethics and diversity: Incorporating contemplative practices in
our lifestyle has the potential to provide us the space to learn from within,
inquire about our true nature, and from that inquiry base our actions. Such
informed and mindful action has the potential to transform personal and social
fabric. The instances of grave public and corporate corruption (Miller and
Ayako Nozawa 2005), ethical lapses when dealing with masses, increased rates of
depression, anxiety and lifestyle diseases (KiecoltGlaser et al. 2010,
Caldwell et al. 2013), together suggest that there exists the need for
allowing humans to develop and be in the state of contemplative awareness.
Instances
of grave ethical tragedies like Bhopal gas tragedy, political corruption,
permitting toxic contaminants like Lead, Chromium in public drinking water
supply, failure or negligence on behalf of public agencies to ensure health for
citizens and environment bring forth the question if our society has failed to train
and nurture human beings like whole human beings instead of living bodies that
are capable of information processing.
Humankind
is extremely diverse and bears various social, economic, racial, demographic,
cultural identity markers that are often subject to discrimination. Given that
our economy is a global economy and moreover the fact that we as humans have
innate dignity and the birthright of being respected, it is necessary to
practice inclusion. Contemplative practices can help individuals move beyond
the narrow confines of rigid domestic walls and boxes. In asking the question,
“How can we reconnect with our own humanity in the midst of a rapidly evolving
technological society?” Dr. Douglas K. Lindner has also affirmed the need of
reconnecting to our own humanity amidst the turbulent world that we live in
(Lindner 2013). Incorporating contemplative practices in various fields of our
society has the promise to allow mindful decisions and mutual respect.
2. Need
of Transformative Inventions and Ideas: Humanity is now familiar with the class
of problems called as ‘the wicked problems’ and even the awareness of the
existence of no perceptible solution for those problems requires immense level
of understanding and awareness (Conklin 2006). In fact, it is argued that mere
recognition of the existence of these problems is very challenging. The onus is
on us to find solutions to these wicked problems, whose mere understanding of
the depth and intensity demands extreme level of awareness and intelligence. Conklin
further explains how the two factors that clearly make wicked problems wicked
(and not tame) is social complexity and the fragmentation in our thinking
selves (Conklin 2006). He further clarifies how our tendency to use the usual
tools of thoughts and methods to combat these problems actually causes pain
when dealing with these wicked problems.
These
wicked problems require unfragmented thinking on the individual level,
community level and global level. The first step to such unfragmented thinking
and being starts at individual level. Contemplative practices are a great tool
to enquire within self and find the undivided self and come up with better
understanding and hopefully even solutions for these ‘wicked problems’ and they
can serve our need to come up with transformative discoveries, inventions, and
practices.
Some
currently recognized examples of these wicked problems include climate change,
epidemics, pandemics, security, justice and energy. An example where
humanity’s fragmented and assumptive thinking impeded our understanding of
nature is, in our understanding of the nature of time. The rarely questioned
concept of time for centuries held modern science incapable of explaining some
observations of natural phenomenon. It was only when Einstein questioned our
rarely challenged assumptions of time and therefore came up with the new theory
of relativity could we understand what we were already seeing. Transformative
solutions and theories are not held back by unquestioned assumptions and fragments
and in them lies the hope of solving some of our greatest problems.
Contemplative
Practices have been touted as a tool to enhance the frequency and length of the
state of being in ‘flow’, while also promoting positive experiences of awe and
wonder (Jennings 2008). This in turn also enhances the creativity. When
combined with the unfragmented, unassuming mind, creativity flows out naturally
and finds new perspectives and solutions.
3.
Healthier and Happier Existence: Contemplative practices can enhance the
wellness and effectiveness of the workforce and bring down the health care,
counselling costs in professional settings. Contemplative practices have shown
through research to reduce stress, inflammation, and reduce the severity of
lifestyle diseases (Caldwell 2013, Feldenkrais 1949, Sarath 2003). This can be
a huge relief for most economies to have their health care budget under control
through practices that require minimal investment (and have huge returns on
personal, and global level.) Investing in introducing contemplative practices
can lead to economically (and environmentally) more sustainable future and
present. From industrial perspective, the fastpaced lifestyle of industrial
employees can lead to poorer work efficiency and reduced productivity.
Industrial giants like Google have already embraced mindfulness into their
training to combat the harmful effects of highstress jobs on the productivity
(Kelly 2012). Contemplation can serve as means to allow for space that supports
consideration of balance, wellbeing, and ethical aspects and inclusion in
human interactions. Increased selfawareness and thereby a better understanding
of one’s traits, strengths, uniqueness and purpose, which can lead to increased
motivation and passion in life. Increase in motivation and wellness can
eventually enhance enhance creativity and help us device better solutions.
Contemplative
practices are also known to enhance efficiency when working in highstress
environment that requires multitasking and rapidtask switching (Levy 2012).
Subject of Dr. Levy’s study on mindfulness, meditation and multitasking have
reported serenity, purposefulness, and the feeling of being awake along with
being more efficient at their work. Such as task force has in itself
possibilities of successfully tackling the information overload of this age
that we live in.
Dr.
Levy’s practices and study in University of Washington have shown how useful
contemplative practices can be in this distractionprone world.
Contemplative
practices overtime bring in the practitioner loving and kindness for life in
all its forms. When one begins seeing the cosmos as being one, the importance
of entire life on earth becomes important. The focus shifts from ‘my survival’
and ‘my success’ to sustaining the entire life that includes various
lifeforms. Wellrounded and undivided selves of contemplative persons can then
deal with environmental problems with more consideration and hopefully find
ways for happier and healthier coexistence for all lifeforms on earth.
The
natural attributes of loving and kindness that contemplative practices bring
out in people can help them in becoming better and caring practitioners (Palmer
2007). Palmer describes the need for practitioners who are not divorced from
their human aspect (Palmer 2007) and contemplative practices are one of the
tools that can be used to help practitioners reconnect with their caring and
ethical self.
Techniques
of Contemplation: There are many secular contemplative techniques that have
been successfully put to mass practice. In fact, developed nations are
experiencing the trend of incorporating contemplative practices in their daily
life. Patricia A. Jennings reports (Jennings 2008) that contemplative practices
are increasingly becoming a central part of American lifestyle. She describes a
survey that showed that ~37% of the surveyed population practiced some form
contemplative practice at least once a week. Such mass adoption of
contemplative practices necessitates the techniques being secular and
nonsectarian.
Various
contemplative practices have been practised in our civilization that include
self talk, as encouraged by Pyrrho, silence as practised by Socrates (Miller et
al. 2005), meditation, which also forms central theme of many eastern
traditions, worship, practicing various forms of art and performing arts that
range from gardening, painting, dancing, to mathematics, and nature
appreciation that includes a host of outdoor activities like hiking, camping,
walking and running outdoors. The centre for Contemplative Mind in Society has
a tree of contemplation that suggests and includes various forms of
contemplative practices including physical activity and rituals.
Other
forms of contemplative practices include star and sky gazing. Of star gazing,
Marcus Aurelius wrote: “ To embrace the paths of the stars in our gaze, as if
they were carrying us along in their revolutions, and constantly to think of
the transformations of the elements into one another such representations
purify us of the stains of terrestrial life.” (Miller et al. 2005) Other
forms include selfinquiry and meditation on breath. Lovingkindness, moving
(walking, running, swimming) and relaxed alertness is the goal of any
contemplative practice. The key is ‘still mind, and moving body’ (Miller et
al. 2005). In yoga, there is a practice of inhabiting the body and letting
go the chattering mind as if they were clouds in the selfsky that come to pass
and do their job!
SelfInquiry
is another underlying theme of most contemplative practices. Few of the
intentions of practices these practices is to be original, relaxed and happier.
This often translates into innovation when we work from the understanding of
our authentic selves we are (Miller et al. 2005). Bringing in our
mindfulness practice to daily life and being more present in our waking moments
is the hallmark of the success of contemplative practices. Eventually, this can
lead to the ‘flow experience’ as described by Csikszentmihalyi.
Indian
Institutes of Technology (IITs): The Temples of Modern India, or are they?
The
concept of highly specialized technical education was encouraged in India in
1962 under then Prime Minister Nehru’s vision of producing technical leaders,
who will foster economic and technical growth in India and usher India into
modern age of science. The founders of this chain of highly specialized
technical colleges believed that the future of India is not in capital but in
technology. For many decades these colleges have indeed affected Indian
culture, its expectations from education, and has transformed the cultural
perception of engineers in India. Alumni of various IITs are currently serving
various organizations, leading entrepreneuring ventures, and even are busy
giving back to society through direct social work. However, there are trends
visible in the practice of the alumni of these institutions that hint at the
need of more wholesome education in IITs.
The
Practice of the Students and Alumni of IITs: It can be safely generalized that
the environment in most IITs is highpressure, do or die environment. Every
year many students actually opt the route of suiciding under pressure (Sanghi
2012) or taking the easy route of drugs and alcoholism (Aravindabhrathi 2012).
Two things
are notable here: a) Students who enter IITs are experts in basic science,
mathematics, and problem solving at age group of 1619. Most of them are so
because of the social, economical and peer pressure of getting into IITs and
not with the personal desire of being a technical expert and contributing to
Indian society. b) Becoming experts at such young age in most cases requires
them to solely focus on physics, chemistry and mathematics and absolutely
ignore other subjects and activities that are a distraction in their quest of
getting into IITs. Such students mostly are highly motivated, persevering, have
great examination temperament, but usually lack other aspects of being human.
In
college, students usually and often for the first time in their life pick up
hobbies of programming, arts, research, organization, gaming, sports,
socializing, and writing. IITs allow and direct these side activities but do
not actively encourage students participation in most of these activities. A
bird’s eye view of all IIT campuses reveal how technologically biased these
technical colleges are. For example, of 427 hectares of IIT Kanpur campus, less
than 1 hectare is dedicated to the only nonengineering department of
humanities and social sciences.
After
graduating from IITs, most alumni work in corporate jobs where their
specialized training does not appear to make their productivity better. A
fraction of alumni realize how skewed their education is and go into graduate
schools to learn management and research. Despite having been established as
the source of the outsourced technical brain, India is still to boast of a
recent technical breakthrough. Nehru dreamed that IITs would transform India
and be the temples of learning but they are only fulfilling the demand of
industry for fulfilling their specific needs of technical brains. This is
evident in the employment trend of IITs wherein they are employed as well paid
technical brains that require none to little innovation and leadership roles.
Some of the students still do develop these skills when they venture out and
turn to be outstanding managers, leaders, and creative thinkers in industry.
Again,
it must be noted that the observed behaviour and practice of most alumni are
only a symptom of the general education system in technical colleges like IITs
and not necessarily the cause.
Philosophy
and Practice of Education in IITs: Students get admitted into IITs after
clearing a fiercely competitive merit based exam. Government highly subsidizes
the education and provides merit cum means scholarship to students so as to
encourage economic inclusion. As mandated by various Government of India acts,
IITs also admit students that fail to clear the competitive exam through a
quota system to include students from traditionally discriminated parts of
society. These students too are usually experts in science and mathematics when
they enter IITs and if that is not the case, they spend a year getting trained
by professors of IITs in science and mathematics. By the time students are in
their freshmen year, they already are highly specialized in science and
mathematics and are ready to be grilled in field of engineering and heavily
teachercentered pedagogy. In this highly skewed environment students often get
specialized in their engineering fields and do not develop a more wholesome
personality that is unfragmented and the students in general are not ready to
witness and work on the wicked problems. This leads to the question if the IITs
are indeed serving as the temples of learning as Buddhist university of Nalanda
did in ancient India.
Case
for Incorporating Contemplative Practices in IIT education system:
The
industrial revolution mandated that our education produces outcomes (educated
commodities) that are most conducive for advent and advance of industrial
profits (Godin). Seth Godin further remarks that such an education is no longer
fulfilling the purpose and need of our society now and is in need of a more
wholesome education. This is especially true in the case of IITs and their
failure to play the intended role in development of very densely populated and
highly segmented developing region of Southeast Asia.
Miller
and Nozawa 2005 report about the ancient buddhist university of Nalanda in
India that was first established in 5th century AD. Its remains suggest that
equal importance was given in imparting the manuscript knowledge, practice and
meditation. It integrated education and meditation in its curricula. There
still are remains of both enormously large libraries of manuscripts and
meditation halls (Miller et al. 2005). Historical remains and
archaeological surveys suggest the huge role that Nalanda university played in
domestic and international politics, economical policies, and cultural
transformations. Its decline also marked the political, economical, social, and
philosophical decline of Gupta empire in India. This reinforces the suspicion
that our societies are integrally affected by and affect our social
institutions, especially universities and colleges that are grooming grounds of
our youth, and further highlight the need and importance of transforming the
highly prized, ‘Institutes of National Importance’ IITs.
Potential
Advantages of Incorporating Contemplative Practices in IITs:
Whole
Learning Experience: (Miller et al. 2005) say that contemplative practices
help move the education system as it is established from solely being a “head
learning” to more rounded education. They highlight that our current education
system and definitely Indian education system today roots itself in
memorization and recall of information. (Miller et al. 2005) further
moan that today’s youth is rarely exposed to the bigger picture of living and
learning and seeing the entire cosmos as one. Through contemplative practices
the students and faculty member get an opportunity to learn from within and not
from an allknowing external source. This completely rearranges the notion that
teacher and the resources are the sole source of knowledge and gives the chance
for selfrespect and care to grow with the increasing recognition that self
itself is both the receiver and also the source of knowledge. Such a practice
truly flips the classroom by inviting the students to learn from within
themselves and not from external source or stimuli and gives them agency over
personal growth and development. Contemplative practices in education setting
bring in the selfinquiry into classroom and give agency to students on how
they can learn from their own experience (Miller et al. 2005).
Miller
and Ayako Nozawa describe (Miller et al. 2005) the philosophy of Vipasna
meditation that believes that there lies tremendous opportunity for learning,
discovery, and growth by simply watching one’s own mind and its experiences.
Our thoughts, feelings when observed mindfully provide insight into our own
self and help one realise one’s true nature, answering the pertinent question
of “Who am I?”
Need
for Team Players and Inclusion: Given the stark division of Indian society
into narrow and inhuman caste system, religious factions, communal parties,
economic gap and insensitivity, it is of utmost of importance that our temples
of learning foster students that model inclusion and are conscious of the
importance and beauty of diversity. Even within IITs there is unsaid
discrimination and division practiced in terms of casteism.
The
narrow performance based and focused learning environment in IITs promotes
competitivity (Miller and Ayako Nozawa 2005) over teamwork and inclusion. This
in turn discourages meeting the need for global and undivided leading groups
for solving the wicked problems.
IITs
are heavily subsidized by Indian government and it is also associated with
sense of pride by Indian education system. Given, the importance and the
resources that are directed by Indian government to IITs, it is the unsaid
expectation of service back to the region. However, what we observe mostly is
the desire of service to immediate individual self over the community and the
region (or the larger self.) This widely observed phenomenon highlights the
need to help shift the focus from performance based learning environment of
IITs to a more wholesome outlook.
Challenge
of Information Overload and Rapid Taskswitching in Educational and
Professional Setting: The advent of technology has brought out the issue of rapid
taskswitching on the discussion tables. It is a usual complaint in most
college classrooms that students are distracted and not present. Dr. David
Levy’s initiative in University of Washington with his ‘Information and
Contemplation’ course has pioneered on how contemplative practices can be used
to deal with information overload and multiple distractions better (Perry
2013). Dr. David’s research further showed how practices of mindfulness helped
subjects be more present and improved their efficiency at multitasking in
highstress environments (Levy et al. 2012).
There
are instances wherein provosts of esteemed international universities have
incorporated mindfulness practices in the working of different committees that
they head. Provost McNamee of Virginia Tech shared at a conference how taking
few minutes off between every crucial decision they make helps them make better
and more mindful decisions (McNamee 2013).
Healthier
Tomorrow: India is on verge of becoming the youngest country in the world.
Youth has huge energy and potential that can be channelled for various
purposes. This youth can make use of contemplative practices to lead a
healthier and fuller life. The youngest country will eventually become one of
the oldest country. It is in nation’s best interest to promote healthy and
ethical lifestyle in their youth. Colleges such as IITs are the meeting grounds
for our youth and for most of the students in IITs, it is often their first
opportunity to do something other than master physics, chemistry, and
mathematics. Feldenkrais (Feldenkrais 1949) emphasizes that mind and body are
one and interlinked and thereby affect each other. Recent research has shown
how relaxation techniques lower down the inflammation in body and eventually
lead to both the healthy mind and the healthy body. Better management of stress
and being present working in day to day life will lower down our future health
care costs, and improve the economy of the country on the virtue of a motivated
and happy workforce. Lesser stress and lower healthcare costs for universities
and other agencies will highly impact the finances of universities.
How
to Incorporate Contemplative Practices and Higher Education in IITs: 1) An important step is to train faculty
members and staff in IITs in contemplative practices and its benefits for both
them, the students, and the society. Training teachers in contemplative
practices will eventually evolve the teachercentered pedagogy to learner
center as teachers become more aware of the effect they have in class and the
change that they command. In the ideal case the shift might occur leading
teachers from the usual tussle of whether to be be authoritarian or
authoritative, into being present in the classroom full of learners and a
guide. A scenario aptly described by Robert Griffin (Miller et al. 2005)
as “You do not feel set off against them [the students] or competitive with
them. You see yourself in students and them in you.” The first step is
certainly training teachers in the importance of incorporating contemplative
practices in all three (segmented) lives they live: the personal life, the
professional life, and the classroom life.
2) Transforming
Engineering Education: Ethics and inclusion can be incorporated in classrooms
by framing questions in a way that highlights how their every calculation and
policy affects million other people and lifeforms like them. The teachers
trained in mindfulness can emphasize throughout the class with examples,
problembased casestudies, and discussions on how engineers are more than
calculating and information processing alive machines. Following Dr. Levy’s
example that he set in University of Washington, students can be offered as
electives courses on contemplative practices in modern information rich society
(Perry M. 2013).
Another
method for transforming engineering education entirely is to embrace the novel
idea of introducing and incorporating mindfulness as a minor to be earned by
students. This idea proposed by Dr. Roop Mahajan (Mahajan 2013) completely
transforms the engineering education by laying out a program that still meets
the accreditation criteria and introduces mindfulness in form of subjects that
students can study and practice.
By
designing infrastructure inside the sprawling campuses of IITs that encourage
meditative and contemplative practices such as peace gardens, meditation rooms,
yoga centers can invite students into experiencing contemplative practices
naturally.
Concerns
Regarding Incorporation of Contemplative Practices in IITs: IITs are secular
institution that invite students, faculty, and staff from various backgrounds
and beliefs. It is of utmost importance that the contemplative practices are
introduced in secular and respectful manner. It is suggested that these
practices are integrated into higher education in a way that is respectful of
the ideologies and beliefs of all participants. Miller et al. 2005
actually describe a model of introducing contemplative practices in a way that
participants of different backgrounds and beliefs can accept, welcome and
eventually in course of their practice realize that mindfulness and
selfinquiry are integral part of most personal religions too! (Miller et
al. 2005)
Being
present with one’s own self, has the potential to bring out the traumatizing
experiences of self as it digs into increased selfawareness. It is imperative
to allow agency for everyone concerned to choose whether they are willing to
participate in such a practice or not. As an example, one in three women in
India has faced some sort of sexual abuse and members of other genders are no
exception to the experience of sexual abuse and the trauma that it often
leaves. Consideration for sexually abused, students with posttraumatic stress
disorder and other conditioning that makes these contemplative practices traumatic,
must be given. This practice must be encouraged and be available to students as
an option and never enforced.
Summary:
Contemplative
Practices if incorporated in the pedagogical practices at IITs have the
potential to transform the education quality and the quality of engineers that
IITs produce. They can help India produce technical experts with wholesome
personalities, who are mindful, ethically aware and ready to embrace leadership
roles. Our need of solving the wicked problems is getting more grave with
passing days. Aware engineers trained in mindfulness can welcome expertise from
other fields that are often ignored in technical colleges like IITs, such as
arts, sociology, psychology, and political sciences, to together find solutions
for the wicked problems that humanity faces today. Contemplative practices can be
secular and nonsectarian and promote peace and harmony in communities. Such
secular practices can serve as a boon for our deeply divided and sectarian
society. IIT graduates trained in mindfulness can better serve the nation and
humanity from the vantage point of ‘our good’ instead of ‘my good.’ There is
lot to gain from modest investments in incorporating contemplative practices in
our education system, without offending any participant. And, if we fail to do
so, India would continue to have their ‘Institutes of National Importance’ fail
consistently in serving the nation, the region, and the world that gives them
so much importance.
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J. (2006). Wicked Problems and Social Complexity. Dialogue Mapping: Building
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