Academic literature on the topic 'Jiddu Krishnamurti'

The study shows the penetration of the Theosophical movement into Austro-Hungarian territory, highlighting this process in the Czech lands from the end of the 19th century. It also examines the development of the Theosophical movement in the territory of Czechoslovakia during the interwar period, and analyses the conflict that occurred in the Theosophical circles as the result of accepting or rejecting the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, recognised as the manifestation of Majtreja, but also as the expected Messiah. The analysis also considers the activities of the Star Order in the East, which was founded for the purpose of spreading the teachings of Krishnamurti.

En el presente trabajo se proponen una serie de consideraciones sobre educación a partir de las ideas planteadas en la obra El arte de vivir (Life Ahead: On Learning and the Search of Meaning en su edición original en inglés) del pensador indio Jiddu Krishnamurti. Para ello se establecerá, por una parte, una síntesis conceptual de las ideas del autor en relación a los problemas sociales con los que se enfrenta la educación actualmente y, por otra, se reflexionará sobre el posible lugar que estas ocupan dentro de un marco histórico general del pensamiento educativo.

"Sem resumo feito pelo autor" - Apresentar um trabalho sobre Krishnamurti é participar o interesse suscitado pela leitura da sua obra e dar conta do consequente esforço investigativo. Ora o que começou por interessar foi a relação entre o discurso pedagógico e o destino particular do autor, tão evidente era a construção da identidade pessoal através do discurso aplicado circunstancialmente. A verdade é que o tema da escuta depressa se impôs, quer por viabilizar uma crítica ao logocêntrismo dominante, quer por conduzir à autenticidade relacional, de extrema tolerância quanto à diversidade e de vigilante sentido de liberdade. A leitura da obra foi duplamente interessante: veio chamar a atenção para a importância que, no domínio da formação humana, representa rever as interpretações estabelecidas e renovar as questões; veio deixar o exemplo de como cada ser humano pode, em concreto, viver intensa e solidariamente o seu tempo. Com a investigação procurou-se alcançar três objectivos: o primeiro foi tornar visível a grande vitalidade interpelativa da obra; o segundo foi compreender a peculiar abordagem da educação realizada por Krishnamurti que, sem ceder à tentação do discurso abstracto, se manteve fiel à radicalidade e universalidade do exercício interrogativo; o terceiro, mais delimitado, foi mostrar como a actividade educativa representa, simultaneamente, uma crítica à autocracia mental, uma ruptura permanente com o já-dado e uma opção pela liberdade, sendo a escuta a atitude diferencial que sinaliza o aprender rigoroso, a comunicação desobstaculizada e a relação criativa. A obra krishnamurtiana tem qualidade hermenêutica suficiente para representar uma reflexão universal sobre o sentido da educação e exprimir, a seu modo, questões de grande pertinência, mas a sua produção oral suscita algumas dificuldades. São muitas e pertinentes as questões educativas provocadas por Krishnamurti. Muitas, não como enunciações avulsas e quantificáveis, não, ainda, como consequência da distensão temporal da sua actividade pedagógica, mas como expressão duma visão global da educação entretecida na compreensão do sentido da vida. Pertinentes, porque assumem a crise da educação, alargando-a à crise do homem e do mundo. As questões distinguem-se porque dispensam o discurso absoluto sem prejuízo da intensidade interpelativa e a maior parte reconhecem-se imediatamente, quer por persistirem na história do pensamento educativo, quer por revelarem aspectos constitutivos da problemática contemporânea. Outras, porém, requerem que se apure o sentido da sua emergência na obra, como é o caso da escuta e art of listening'), condição imprescindível da comunicação autêntica e do aprender livre e verdadeiro. Ora, quando se procura encontrar a razão que dinamiza eticamente tais questões ou a sua justificação radical na ordem da existência, e para isso temos de as integrar na obra, deparamo-nos com dificuldades em localizar o campo de tratamento próprio pois, devido à natureza oral da obra e ao tipo de investigação efectuada (in actu), não existe um corpo sistematizado de clara subordinação temática. Quer dizer, as questões e a investigação por elas desencadeada formam pequenas peças discursivas, cheias de interrupções, de desvios e de aporias, que quase sempre inviabilizam a recuperação do tema central. Da adição de tais pequenas peças resulta a obra e deste difícil comportamento discursivo procede a peculiaridade da sua

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2005.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The following mini-thesis, Things Fall Apart, Power and Krishnamurti, is concerned with the nature by which power is possibly viewed, maintained and transferred by the characters of Chinua Achebe' s novel, Things Fall Apart. The intent of this analysis is to incorporate traditional literary approaches to issues of power in the novel via polarised conceptions, such as east versus west, black versus white or indigenous culture and traditions versus Christianity. Yet simultaneously, by incorporating the unique world-view of Krishnamurti, power, as possibly represented in Things Fall Apart, will be scrutinised as a selfperpetuating entity which chooses its own agents for its manifestation, outside and not necessarily as results of constructions of race, religion or economical design. Specifically, I am interested in Achebe's fictional construction of the indigenous- African maintenance of power and authority within the novel; before and after the arrival of the European colonialists. Did all African villagers, as represented in the fictitious Umuofia, accept the powers-that-be with non-critical minds, or, was power and authority embedded in the processes whereby the Umuofians became accustomed and socially conditioned by the cultural constructs of their particular society? Personally, I do not perceive either of these approaches to be sufficient in the process of holistically comprehending African adaptation to and adoption of 'western' modes of culture. Instead, I believe that though the encroachment of European mercantilism and Christianity upon the African mental and physical landscape was undeniably brutal, this very brutality was in and of itself not variant, compared to psychological and physical maintenance of power in the indigenous realm. This is a primary area of concern of this thesis. I perceive that the African elite, like the European missionaries, used religion and perceptions of tradition and identity to hold on to their elitist and prestigious positions in the indigenous social network. Secondly, this thesis is critical ofthe perception that the dominant emergence of western spiritual and political constructs, over indigenous structures, is a direct result of the acquiescence or absolute physical and mental defeat of African people. Rather, I perceive that African people - in the processes of becoming aware of a new way of life and in making conscious decisions to incorporate this new world-view into their own life-scheme - altered the manipulation and maintenance of power and authority in indigenous society, within the context of Things Fall Apart. In effect, the transfer of political power in Things Fall Apart is not simply a matter of the destruction of African culture by the Europeans. Instead, it is a result of Africans becoming aware of a new way of life, and adopting aspects of this lifestyle in the place of their traditional norms. Krishnamurti's ideas will be incorporated into the above analysis to present a particular world-view that deliberately strives to counteract the human tendency to cling to philosophies, political persuasions, theories or religious fervor. I have included Krishnamurti in the examination of the tension and psychological conversion of African people (as represented in Things Fall Apart) due to moments when they themselves, in the process of introspection, sought to let go of ancient customs and explore the new and foreign, as represented by Christianity. It is my position that in the moments when indigenous authority was questioned by the masses, so began a multifold process: this included the reconstruction of the African self and the readjustment of power relations within the African collective. Krishnamurti posed the following question: When you are told what to do, what to think, to obey, to follow, do you know what it does to you? Your mind becomes dull, it loses its initiative, its quickness. This external, outward imposition of discipline makes the mind stupid, it makes you conform, it makes you imitate (1974:29). I am aware that by juxtaposing the above idea next to African culture might appear blasphemous in the 'new' South Africa, given the great effort to revive 'African' culture. I do not object to this revival and consciousness of tradition and heritage. Yet, I strongly agree with Krishnamurti that the maintenance of power by a select group of elite Africans in the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial dispensations is a result of the conformity and acceptance of the masses of African people of the social, spiritual and economic constructions of the elite. The very patterns whereby Africans think was, through centuries, developed by a select group of individuals, as reflected in Things Fall Apart. Culture and tradition have acted as standards whereby individuals measure the worth of their individuality. Hence, Krishnamurti views the struggle of freedom; the struggle of individuals to shake of cultural or traditional constraints, as crucial to the full development of the human self. "Freedom," he says, "liberty, the independence to express what one thinks, to do what one wants to do, is one of the most important things in life. To be really free ... within oneself, is one of the most difficult and dangerous things" (1974:30. As this thesis progresses, we will probe Krishnamurti's claim that the individual attempt to be free, as possibly represented in Achebe's Things Fall Apart, may be both difficult and dangerous.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die volgende mini thesis, "Things Fall Apart, Power and Krishnamurti" is besorg op die manier hoe mag anskou, behou en oorgedra work binne karakters van Chinua Achebe se novel, "Things Fall Apart". Die doel van hierdie analise is om bewus te raak van die tradisionele liturere benadering tot konsepte soos mag gesien vanuit ft polografiese oogpunt, soos bv. oos teenoor wes, swart teenoor wit of inheemse kuluur en tradisie teenoor Christenskap. Inteendeel, deur die unieke sienswyse van Krishnmurti in te sluit, sal mag soos vervat in "Things Fall Apart", in totaliteit gekritiseer word deur sy eie manifesteringe en nie noodwendig vanuit ft oogpunt van ras, geloof of ekonomie nie. Ek is spesifiek geinteriseerd in Achebe se fiktioneie konstruksie van die Inheemse Afrikaanse behouing van magsbeheer in hierdie novel. Beide voor en nadat Europese kolonisme hier gearriveer het, het Afrikaner inwoners, soos voorgehou in die fiktiese "Umofia" magsbeheer in hulle gedagtes aanvaar? Of was magsbeheer onvoorwaardelik in hulle ingeplant deur die sosiale en kulturele aspekte van hul spesifieke gemeenskap. My persoonlike sienswyse is dat hierdie banadering ft oordeelkundige benadering is om gevolglik die Afrikaner aanvaring en uitoefening van westerse kulturele modes te verstaan. Inteendeel argumenteer ek dat die indringing van Europese merkantalisme en Christendom bo-op die Afrikaner geestelike en natuurkundige landskappe onerkenbaar geweldadig was en dat hierdie geweldadigheid in en vanself nie veranderlik was nie, invergelyking met die sielkundige en fisiese behouing van mag soos voorbehou in die Inheemse koningkryk. Die elite wie die opperpriester van prekoloniale Afrikaner gemeenskap saamgestel het, wie aangedring het op ft vorm van getrouheid tot kulturele en politieke konstruksies soos deur hulle bepaal, het ook die psige krag van die plaaslike dorpsbewoners misbruik. Dit is my primere punt van fokus in hierdie thesis. My argument is dat die Afrikaanse elite, soos Europese sendelinge, geloof en persepsies van tradisie en identitiet gebruik het om vas te kleef aan hul eie elite en invloedryke posisies binne die Inheemse en sosiale netwerk. Tweedens, hierdie thesis is krities van die persepsie dat die verskyning van Westerse spiruturele en politieke konstruksies oor inheemse strukture, ft direkte gevolg was van die instemming tot absolute psise en geestelike omverwerping van Afrikaner mense. Ek sal beweer dat Afrikaner mense, in die proses van gewoont raak aan ft nuwe lewenstyl, doelbewuste keuses gemaak het om hierdie nuwe wereld sienswyse in hul eie lewenstyl te inkorpireer. In hierdie proses is die magsbeheer soos voorbehou in die Inheemse gemeenskap gemanupileer binne die konteks van "Things Fall Apart". Gevolglik, die direkte oordrag van politieke mag in "Things Fall Apart" was nie net eenvoudig ft vernietiging van Afrikaner kultuur deur Europese nie. Inteendeel, dit was ft direkte gevolg van Afrikaners wat bewus geraak het van ft nuwe lewenstyl, en in die proses het Afrikaners hierdie lewesstyl as hul eie aanvaar. Krishnamurti se sienswyse sal geinkorpireer word in die boostaande analise wie se wereldwye sienswyse doelbewus stry teen die mens se geneighheid om aan te kleef aan filosofiese en politieke oortuigende gedagtes van theorie en geestelike opgewondenheid. Ek het spesifiek Krishnamurti se sienswyse ingekorpireer om die konflik en filosofiese veranderinge in Afrikaner mense te ondersoek (soos voorbehou in "Things Fall Apart") as gevolg van oomblikke waarin die Afrikaners hulself introspeksie doen en in dié proses, van hul eie eeue oue tradisies en gewoontes afstand gedoen het om die nuwe forum soos voorbehou deur Christenskap aan te kleef. Dit is my sienswyse dat gedurende hierdie tydperk magsbeheer bevraagteken was deur die magdom van mense. Dis hoe die rekonstruksie van die Afrikaner "Ek" en die herskedulering van magsbeheer verhoudinge binne die Afrikaner kollektief plaasgevind het. Krishnamurti stel die volgende vraag: Wanneer ft mens gesê word wat om te doen, wat om te dink, wat om te gehoorsaam, wat om te volg, weet jy wat dit aan n mens doen? Nmens se brein raak traag en die brein verloor sy inisiatief en sy fluksheid. Die uitwendige, die buitewerking van discipline maak jou brein dom, dit laat jou naaboots. (1974:29). Ek is bewus dat deur bogenoemde idea en Afrikaner kultuur naas mekaar te stel mag as godslasterend voorkom binne die konteks van die "nuwe" Suid Afrika, gegewe die groot inspanning om "Afrikaner" kultuur te hernu. Ek maak nie beswaar teen die heruwing en bewussyn van tradisie en erfenis nie. Ek stem saam met Krishnamurti dat deur die beheer van mag van fi selektiewe groep van elite Afrikaners in die prekoloniale, koloniale en post-koloniale dipensasies te gee, is as gevolg van die aanmeerning en aanvaarding deur die magdom van die Afrikaner gemeenskappe van sosiale, spirituele en ekonomiese konstruksies soos dié van dié elite. Die denks wyse waarlangs Afrikaners dink, was vir eeue lank, uitgebrei deur fi selektiewe groep mense, soos voorgehou in "Things Fall Apart". Kultuur en tradisie het fi standard geword waarby fi mens hom kan mee verlyk om sy waarde as individu te kan bepaal. Om hierdie rede, sien Krishnamurti die geveg vir vryheid as die geveg vir individue om kulturele en tradisionele beperkige af te skud en dis inderdaad belangrik vir die uitbreiding van die mens se eie identiteit. "Vryheid", sê hy, "liberalisme, die onafhanklikheid om uit te spreek wat fi mens dink, te doen wat fi mens wil doen, is een van dié mees belangrikste dinge in die lewe. Om innerlik vry te wees ... is een van die moeilikste en gevaarlikste dinge in die lewe" (1974:30). Soos hierdie thesis voortgaan, sal ek Krishnamurti se beweering dat die individu se poging om vry te wees, soos moontlik voorgestel in Achebe se " Things Fall Apart" dalk beide moeilik en gevaarlik mag wees.

Submitted by Edileide Reis (leyde-landy@hotmail.com) on 2013-04-25T14:06:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivana Carneiro.pdf: 1420208 bytes, checksum: f61fd88fe1a564247a2f69af49a61587 (MD5)
Approved for entry into archive by Maria Auxiliadora Lopes(silopes@ufba.br) on 2013-05-17T12:59:21Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivana Carneiro.pdf: 1420208 bytes, checksum: f61fd88fe1a564247a2f69af49a61587 (MD5)
Made available in DSpace on 2013-05-17T12:59:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivana Carneiro.pdf: 1420208 bytes, checksum: f61fd88fe1a564247a2f69af49a61587 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009
O texto remete-se à discussão acerca do sentido e significado da educação convencional contraposto à concepção krishnamurtiana de Educação Correta que, neste contexto, analisamos sob a perspectiva da Educação Integral, a qual propõe pensar o ente humano como totalidade, isto é, pathos, ratio, psyche, libertas e as possibilidades daí engendráveis. Propõe-se, deste modo, refletir sobre a educação para que esta possa continuamente repensar-se, reestruturar-se e dialogar com suas carências e necessidades, constituindo-se em um elo de ligação entre a existência e a construção do sujeito enquanto ente humano integral que carece de (trans)formação do seu ser além de informações técnicas profissionais. Utilizamos como pano de fundo as perspectivas propostas pela pós-modernidade, considerando as influências que tal contexto ocasiona para a formação do indivíduo enquanto ente relacional com a existência,com a alteridade e, em especial, consigo mesmo, com seus conflitos, desejos e humanidades.
Salvador

Ce travail rapproche les œuvres de J. -P. Sartre et de J. Krishnamurti. Désigné comme le futur messie par la société théosophique, celui-ci refuse ce rôle et met la libération inconditionnelle des hommes au cœur de ses préoccupations. Voici donc deux philosophies de la liberté et de l'existence. S'accordant pour déclarer que "dieu est mort", elles soulignent la perversion des morales traditionnelles et refusent le secours de toute religion. Quelle morale alors envisager, dans le contexte d'urgence d'un XXème siècle chaotique ? Dans les deux cas, l'homme est seul - ainsi débarrassé des scories du passé, des mensonges et de l'aliénation. Mais chez Sartre, le repli sur la sphère humaine rend difficile la fondation de la morale et la libération du conflit et de la violence. Chez Krishnamurti, l'homme seul s'ouvre à l' "autre", l'"altérite radicale", dans une liberté venant avec la fin de l'ego, lorsque la pensée prend conscience de ses propres limites. Apres un intéressant négativisme, Sartre valorise une action acharnée et une volonté de positif source d'échecs. Krishnamurti, barrant les voies traditionnelles, prône le rejet du faux et une attitude de non-agir psychologique susceptible de désamorcer les conduites conditionnées. Sa sensibilité à ce qui est éveillé alors une intelligence qui est amour et permet l'action juste. Dans cette perspective, Krisnamurti encourage une éducation différente visant le libre épanouissement d'individus sans peur
This study compares the works ofJ. -P. Sartre and J. Krishnamurti. Designated as the future messiah by the theosophical society, he refused this role and made of man's unconditional freedom his main concern. Thus, here are two philosophies focused on freedom and existence. Agreeing with the affirmation that "god is dead", they emphasize the perversion of traditional morals and refuse the help of any religion. So, which morality can be proposed, in this context of urgency characteristic of the chaotic XXth century ? In both cases, man is alone - alleviated from the burden of the past, of falsehood and alienation. But Sartre, who considers only the human sphere, has a difficulty to find a ground for his ethics, and cannot get rid of conflict and violence. According to Krishnamurti, the situation of aloneness leads to the "other" (or "otherness"), when thought becomes aware of its own limitations. After an interesting period of negation, Sartre chooses restless action and pursues positivity - a source of failure. Krishnamurti, rejecting the traditional ways, insists on an attitude based on negation and psychological nonaction, which can stop conditioned behaviors. Then, sensitivity to what is awakes an intelligence that is love and leads to right action. In this aim, Krishnamurti supports a different kind of education that encourages the free flowering of individuals without fear

In Understanding Curriculum As Meditative Inquiry: A Study of the Ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti and James Macdonald, I study the relationship among consciousness, meditative inquiry, and curriculum. I argue that human consciousness, which is the basis of our thinking, feeling, and action, is common to all humanity and is in crisis. This crisis of consciousness—which is characterized by fear, conditioning, becoming, and fragmentation— affects and is deeply affected by the nature of contemporary educational institutions. Contemporary educational institutions create in children fear of authority, exams, and punishment. They also condition their minds with state-controlled and market-driven knowledge. In addition, modern educational institutions alienate children from their bodies, emotions, and spirits due to their overemphasis on cognitive learning. The crisis of consciousness is an existential problem and, therefore, in order to understand its depth and complexities we require an existential approach. Meditative inquiry, which is to be aware of the movement of consciousness without analysis or judgment, is an existential approach to understanding and transforming consciousness to create a peaceful world. On the one hand, meditative inquiry underscores the limitations of thinking and analysis and, on the other hand, it emphasizes meditative listening and observation. Because of the existential nature of our consciousness and the significance of meditative inquiry to comprehending the former, I propose viewing curriculum as a space for meditative inquiry. Curriculum as meditative inquiry is a transformative approach to educational experience that aspires to undermine and possibly dissolve the conflicted nature of our consciousness by cultivating a deeper sense of awareness. Specifically, curriculum as meditative inquiry emphasizes the arts of listening and seeing to have a deeper perception into one’s own consciousness and one’s relationships. It encourages the cultivation of the qualities of openness, aesthetics, and freedom in educational experience. Viewed from the perspective of meditative inquiry, education no more remains a problem of information transmission or means-end learning. On the contrary, it emerges as a space of freedom where the main focus is to learn about oneself and one’s relationships to people, nature, and ideas.

Cette thèse s’est donné pour but d’examiner dans quelle mesure des formes de stabilisations spécifiques des psychoses peuvent s’appuyer sur certaines caractéristiques du désir maternel. Freud et Lacan ont convenu que, dans l’inconscient, le sexuel, pour les deux sexes, se fonde sur une méconnaissance du sexe féminin et n’est représenté que par une seule figure symbolique, le phallus. Par conséquent, la différence des sexes ne peut s’y inscrire comme telle ; c’est ce que Freud a nommé en 1923 le « primat du phallus ». La fonction paternelle ou fonction phallique, porteuse d’une entame du sujet et d’une limitation de sa jouissance par l’accès au langage organise les représentations inconscientes du sujet. Ces aspects théoriques de la psychanalyse s’organisent essentiellement autour du père et la mère ne semble y intervenir que par ses soins, dans le réel. Lacan a cependant mis en avant que la mère joue un rôle dans la transmission du phallus symbolique en désignant à son enfant le père comme porteur du phallus symbolique et comme objet orientant son désir. La psychose se caractérise par l’inopérance du signifiant du Nom-du-Père. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes questionné sur le rôle des signifiants maternels lorsque la transmission phallique a échoué. Nous nous sommes intéressé à deux sujets, auteurs contemporains connus : Krishnamurti, orateur philosophique indien et Ludwig Wittgenstein, philosophe analytique. Ces deux sujets étaient de structure psychotique. Krishnamurti décompensa une psychose de type schizophrénique. La psychose de Ludwig Wittgenstein resta compensée tout au long de son existence. Nous proposons ici une lecture des trajets de vie et des choix subjectifs de ces deux personnages selon un angle de vision qui donne à l’objet maternel un rôle prépondérant
The aim of this doctoral dissertation is to determine to what extent some forms of stabilization of psychotic symptomatology can be supported by some characteristics of maternal desire. Freud and Lacan agreed on the fact that in the unconscious and for both sexes, presentation of sexuality is based on the ignorance of the female sex; it is actually only represented by one symbolic figure: the phallus. Therefore, the difference between the two sexes is not presented - Freud coined this phenomenon “the phallus primacy” in 1923. The paternal function (or phallic function) which dents the subject and limits its jouissance through access to language, organizes the subject's unconscious presentations. These theoretical aspects of psychoanalysis fundamentally revolve around the father figure, whereas the mother only seems to be directly involved through her care. Lacan however underlined how important the mother's role is in passing on the symbolic value of the phallus: in front of her child, she refers to the father as the bearer of the symbolic phallus and as the object of her desire. Psychosis is characterized by the inoperativeness of the Nom-du-Père signifier. This study examines the role of the maternal signifiers when the phallic transmission has failed. Two subjects have come under scrutiny, both well-known contemporary authors: Krishnamurti, an Indian philosophical orator, and Ludwig Wittgenstein, an analytic philosopher. Both subjects had a psychotic structure. Krishnamurti decompensated a schizophrenic psychosis. Ludwig Wittgenstein's psychosis remained compensated during his entire life. This work intends to examine these two characters' life courses and subjective choices in a way that gives the maternal object a dominant importance

Cette recherche concerne la formulation d’une hypothèse de spiritualité laïque et l’analyse de sa retombé dans le champ de l’éducation. Son objectif est de vérifier si par le dépassement des spécificités liées aux religions et aux différents crédos, on peut valoriser dans une optique laïque, le potentiel humain et ses attitudes spirituelles. Dans une première partie on analyse le concept complexe de la spiritualité laïque, qui déborde dans plusieurs implications théoriques. L’attention particulière dédiée au philosophe Jiddu Krishnamurti, se justifie par sa révolution herméneutique entrainée par le bouleversement de toute méthode visant à saisir des vérités. La partie centrale décrit l’action pratique sur le terrain scolaire, notamment dans un institut professionnel de deuxième degré de la ville de Bologne. La problématique abordée concerne l’enseignement de la religion catholique dans l’école italienne et l’absence d’offres formatives alternatives à cet enseignement, malgré les écoles soient obligées par la loi, à les garantir. Par la méthode de la recherche-action on a impliqué les enseignants et les élèves de l’institut, au fin de comprendre si une éducation à la spiritualité laïque peut être conçue et comment pourrait-elle devenir une offre formative alternative à l’enseignement de la religion catholique dans l’école. La dernière partie plonge le regarde sur les sciences de l’éducation et sur les concepts de savoir et d’apprentissage. On analyse les approches éducatives, les méthodes et des dispositifs pédagogiques les plus proches à la conception et à la réalisation d’une éducation à la spiritualité laïque
This research concerns the formulation of a hypothesis of laic spirituality and its analysis involving the field of the education. Its aim is to verify if we can give value to human potential -- and its spiritual attitudes-- in a laic view, bypassing the specific connections to religions and/or different beliefs. In a first part we analyze the complex concept of the laic spirituality, which overflows in several theoretical implications. Great attention is paid to the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti, due to the hermeneutical revolution that he accomplishes through the revision of all the methods available to seize the truth. The central part describes the practical action research on the school, in particular in a vocational institute (part of the secondary school system) in the city of Bologna. The approached problem concerns the TCR (Teaching Catholic Religion) in the Italian school and the absence of alternative options to this subject, even if schools administrators are supposed, by law, to offer them. Through the method of the action-research we involved the teachers and the pupils of the school to understand if a laic spirituality education can be conceived and how it could become an alternative to a subject like TCR in the public secondary school. The last part dives into educational sciences and deals with the concepts of knowledge and learning. We analyze the educational approaches, the methods and the closest educational tools to the concept --and the actual practice-- of a laic spirituality teaching

Doctor of Philosophy
Leadbeater was a man who made the most startling claims for himself, and made them in a very matter-of-fact way.[4] He declared that he had penetrated the depths of the atom by his psychic powers, discovered the ultimate unit of matter whilst sitting in a park on the Finchley Road in London, and had psychically extracted individual atoms of various elements from the showcases in the Dresden Museum whilst he reclined several miles away. He also claimed to have sent sea spirits to dig out atoms of another element from the mines of Sabaranganuwa in Ceylon while he lay in his bed in Madras in India.[5] He claimed to have explored most of the planets in the Solar System, while his body remained on earth, and described their climates and inhabitants in some detail.[6] He claimed to be in regular communication with the Powers which govern the earth from the Inner Planes, the Masters or Mahatmas, the Supermen who constitute the Occult Hierachy of this planet. And, so he said, he conducted parties of pupils to the secret places in Tibet where these same Masters resided, while the bodies of both the pupils and their guide slept securely in their beds.[7](Excerpt from Introduction pp.3-4)

My thesis is a cultural history of New Age religion in Taiwan. I focus on C.C. Wang (1941-) and Terry Hu (1953-), the two earliest and most prolific sinophone proponents of a ‘Xinshidai [New Age]’. I consider their lives (as New Agers) and written works (as New Age figures), concentrating on the period to 2000. In this thesis I explore how Wang and Hu introduced New Age religion to Taiwan through analysis of their publicly available writings and translations. In chronologically examining their life experiences and the various ideologies that they gradually wove into their work, I demonstrate the agency of these two women as New Age innovators and show how they represented their own lives as evidence of the transformational efficacy of New Age religion for modern Taiwanese women. Raised in a family who escaped from China and then converted to Catholicism, Wang’s most important contributions are her translations of Jane Roberts’s Seth books (beginning in 1982). These continue to be popular with readers and have inspired a new generation of teachers and students. She also translated internationally popular texts such as Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet (1970) and Neale Donald Walsch’s Conversations with God (1998). Viewing this work alongside her efforts in beginning the Fine Press’ New Age Series (1989-) and establishing the Chinese New Age Society (1992), her publisher described her as “the mother of the New Age in Taiwan” (2012). Wang began developing expertise on American culture when raising a family there in the mid 1960s and again for much of the 1970s. She used these domestic experiences as the basis of her burgeoning literary career. An important part of Wang’s oeuvre are the monthly columns she published pseudonymously in The Woman and China Ladies between 1969 and 1981. In these columns Wang not only established herself as a trans-Pacific expert of everyday life techniques (especially regarding relationships and parenting), she also articulated the psychological unease that she would later seek to remedy through spiritual exploration and, ultimately, in translating New Age books. Her early work is notable for both illustrating a particular type of modernity available to young urban females and for establishing the nurturing and inquisitive spirituality she would later disseminate widely. Already interested in the type of ideas discussed in the New Age, it was only after a life-altering encounter with a Seth book in a California library in 1976 that Wang began exploring the New Age more deeply. She eventually discovered Shirley MacLaine’s Out on a Limb (and later wrote the preface to the 1986 Mandarin translation), which she described as inspiring and “a book of enlightenment.” Hu was born to a politician father who also escaped from China. She learnt English as a child and developed a fascination with American culture. After a short stint in New York’s bohemian Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, she soon became a film star in Taiwan. She featured in several dozen movies and was briefly married to the author Li Ao (b.1935). She retired from acting in 1988 and devoted her energy to translating New Age texts, especially the work of Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) who she depicted as a “New Age Buddhist.” Throughout her careers as an actor and author Hu appeared as an archetype of the global, modern and, ultimately, spiritually sophisticated woman. Hu’s individual identity was strongly grounded in the social context of Taiwan’s elite, and she increasingly blended martial law-era Chineseness and her celebrity status with American post-hippie spiritual trends. Her multifaceted and evolving identity augments dominant identity and gender discourses in Taiwan and binds her into the New Age’s transnational web of religious innovation and personal transformation.

Very close to his death, Krishnamurti made sure that ‘The Rishi Valley School’ starts with small schools in the surrounding remote villages. The so-called Satellite Schools exist now for more than 30 years and have inspired thousands of schools worldwide by their MultiGradeMultiLevel-Methodology. More than the methodology it seems to be the attitude of the teachers that bring children as well as themselves ‘in the driver’s seat’ and realize therefore schools that run without fear—an aim Krishnamurti always focussed on. The contribution briefly introduces the educational ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s philosophy and shows how they can be identified in the MultiGradeMultiLevel-Methodology and its ideas of teacher education.

This chapter is a study of the efforts of Rishi Valley Institute for Educational Resources (RIVER) to transform teacher education in India; it explores the aims, intents and structure of RIVER’s Teacher Enrichment Programme (RTEP). Through RTEP, RIVER seeks to supplement the implementation of the Diploma in Elementary Education (DElEd) programme in teacher education institutes across Andhra Pradesh. RTEP is grounded in the educational philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti and places immense faith in the compassionate role of the teacher; it may be read as RIVER’s application of Krishnamurti’s ideas to the contemporary context of Indian teacher education. In attempting to bring about teacher self-knowledge in its content and form, as well as openness in its method of dissemination, RTEP responds to the existing institutional challenges of teacher education in India. In doing so, this chapter argues, RTEP represents and reflects the tremendous power, foresight, and malleability of Krishnamurti’s philosophical thought.

Previously, scholars who have extensively researched inclusion have argued that some schools, under the shroud of being inclusive, are inherently and discreetly exclusionary. Following this, the chapter evaluates how inclusive education unfolds within the walls of the Valley school. It navigates through the waters of the student-teacher relationship at the school which is combined with Jiddu Krishnamurti’s philosophy in the setting of mixed-age classrooms that encourage dialogue and participation from all students. This chapter argues that inclusion in the junior-school takes place precisely because the school celebrates diversity of every child without holding a strict benchmark for an ideal student. The main focus here is to analyse the processes that successfully combine to enable inclusion as opposed to assimilation – a concept that has been recklessly assumed to be identical to inclusion. The chapter also engages with a pertinent question: is inclusion a possible future for all our schools?

For over fifty years, Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) spoke on a wide array of topics, but primarily directed his teachings at the problem of human suffering. He taught that all conflict is intrinsically tied to our psyches, which have been heavily conditioned by our upbringing. Aligned with other renowned Western and Eastern thinkers on the wisdom of self-discovery, Krishnamurti presents a distinctive vision for learning that encourages self-understanding through sensitive observation and choiceless awareness. He calls for a radical transformation of human consciousness, thereby enabling pliant minds to blossom. This flowering of intelligence, through a liberating insight into the mechanisms of conditioning, is at the heart of his educational philosophy. Institutions that embrace his approach must be vigilant not to succumb to the traditional modes of academic training and norms of success, lest they perpetuate the structures of fear, violence, and conformity that continue to stifle the creativity of human spirit.

In this chapter, an attempt has been made to reflect on some central questions of education, such as knowing, knowledge, knower, and the relationship between the educator and the educand. This attempt is rooted in the ideas of Jiddu Krishnamurti who not only lectured in many countries but also established schools to concretize his ideas and transformed the prevalent understanding of schooling. Thus, this attempt includes a discussion of some prominent ideas from the talks and lectures of Krishnamurti and a reflection on his idea of school as an institution and the process of schooling that can lead to a personal and social transformation. The chapter argues against any fixed ideas of schooling, teaching, and education in favour of a more relational and dialogical way of engagement between the educator and the educand. The importance and limits of methods, technic, and words in such a relational idea of education have also been reflected upon.

This chapter explores Harry Dean Stanton's music and philosophy of life, both very important in understanding him. Music had always been important, an inheritance from his family. His role as the guitar-playing Tramp in Cool Hand Luke (1967) introduced him to many moviegoers both as an actor and a musician. After decades on screen, he confessed to musician and close friend Jamie James that he had a dream of leading a band. He realized that dream in bands that performed everything from old standards to Mexican ballads at venues such as The Mint and The Troubadour. Sometimes both musician and philosopher were on stage, as when Harry Dean asked an incredulous James to stop playing and allow silence to work its magic. Harry Dean had early on rejected the Christian fundamentalism of rural Kentucky and turned toward the teachings of Zen Buddhism, ancient philosophers like Lao Tzu, and modern-day thinkers like Jiddu Krishnamurti, Alan Watts, and Eckhart Tolle. Alex Cox saw "utter mishmash" in Harry Dean's frequent philosophical musings, but others like Ed Begley Jr. said Harry Dean changed their lives by helping them focus more on the present than on the past or the future.