Still Gazing: The Evolution of Contemplative Pedagogy in Teaching Buddhism (A Follow Up to 2019's "Now I Can See the Moon")

In 2019 this author demonstrated a model of Buddhist pedagogy that dovetailed with the mainstream academic movement contemplative pedagogy, offering promise in expanding American educational pedagogies with ideas of new epistemologies, dynamics, and languaging around why, how, and whom we educate. In 2019, this author proposed a young Buddhist graduate school, Maitripa College, as a nexus of investigation for such application, and the teaching of Buddhist Studies in its traditional and applied forms as a basis of understanding whether and how such pedagogy is effective. Four years later, this paper will summarize a critical analysis of this application thus far: through student evaluations of Maitripa College students, interviews with key college founders and friends from both inside and outside of traditional academia, and artifacts of student work, this paper will ask, and answer, the question: is contemplative pedagogy an effective medium through which to teach Buddhism in higher education?