ABSTRACT
Across these pages and representations of what may seem to be vastlydifferent histories and philosophies of education and enlightenment is acommon historical impulse to develop and build institutions motivated by the desire for liberation and for the love of learning. In the West, this impulse pre-dated the Enlightenment, emerging most cogently in pre-Enlighten- ment ideas of the liberal arts or liberalis education rooted in classical Greek and Stoic idea(l)s (Nussbaum, 1997). In Asia, the notion of education as a path to enlightenment and liberation pervades Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism. For Vajrayana Buddhists, interest and primordial desire are paths to enlightenment, not what obscure it. As manifestations of Buddha Nature, they are trustworthy intuitions capable of guiding learning, as in Joseph Campbell’s famous edict, “Follow your bliss.” Confucius (1979), too, describes his path from learning to liberation as culminating in a mature and fully developed ability to follow his “heart’s desire:”
At fifteen I set my heart on learning; at thirty I took my stand; at forty I came to be free from doubts; at fifty I understood the Decree of Heaven; at sixty my ear was attuned; at seventy I followed my heart’s desire without overstepping the line. (Book II, 4, p. 3)
