What is the purpose of contemplative practices in K-16 education within the current climate of neoliberal “reforms”? Is it to reach enlightenment and awakening about our selves/no selves, to radically challenge social dukkha, and to eliminate greed, ill will, and delusion for everyone? Or is it an accommodationist technology for teachers and students to improve attention, reduce stress, and gain personal success and productivity within a consumer, corporate society? Does mindfulness serve as a way to provide full and healthy development for all? Or does it function as a form of social control and adjustment to the status quo? Does contemplative education need to critically attend to, and engage within, actual social, political, moral, and cultural contexts? How do we forge a radical, integral, contemplative education that challenges the “pathology of normalcy” (Fromm) and does not succumb to technocracy, materialism, or spiritual bypassing?
