Friends, Fools, and Foes: Restorative Buddhist Paradox and Transformation
Jin Jr
Infusing Healing Energy into Education July 20, 2026 DOI: 10.1108/978-1-80686-083-820261008 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism |
| Key points | Argues that Buddhist paradoxical wisdom drawn from The Sixth Patriarch's Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra, read alongside Pinar's "currere" and Schwab's four commonplaces, can transform a complacent curriculum space into awakening awareness. The author proposes that deconstructing and interrelating the categories of friends, fools, and foes can reignite confidence and compassion in education, countering the dehumanizing effects of AI-driven technicalization. |
Abstract
Abstract: The intersection of mindfulness and mindlessness behooves the educational paradigm. With the development of artificial intelligence in education, intrapersonal and interpersonal engagements have a unique positioning that dehumanizes and technicalizes the curriculum milieu. Building on William Pinar’s currere, the paper engages Buddhist friends, fools, and foes in curriculum theorizing through The Sixth Patriarch’s Dharma Jewel Platform Sutra; acknowledged as one of the prajna (wisdom) texts in Buddhist traditions, the lively student-teacher characters, narratives, and encounters are a foundry of seminal educational gems to illuminate the dwindling wellness of humankind from within and without. Exercising Buddhist paradoxical listening, this paper deconstructs the norming of friends, fools, and foes; desensitizes friends, fools, and foes; converges friends-fools-foes; and interplays friends, fools, and foes. In this tetralemma web of interactions and interconnections, Schwab’s four commonplaces is brought to bear, transforming curriculum moribund to awakening currere awareness. The paradoxical wisdom of friends, fools, and foes, in teaching, learning, and scholarship, will be co-experienced through Buddhist paradoxical currere contemplations, healing the complacent and conceited curriculum space to reignite confidence and compassion for the educational community.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on buddhism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mental balance and well-being: Building bridges between Buddhism and Western psychology. | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist Modernism and the Rhetoric of Meditative Experience | 1995 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Buddhist and Psychological Perspectives on Emotions and Well-Being | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Too Early to Tell: The Potential Impact and Challenges—Ethical and Otherwise—Inherent in the Mainstreaming of Dharma in an Increasingly Dystopian World | 2017 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From self to nonself: The Nonself Theory | 2016 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |