Wisdom-based inner inquiry and practice-realization: towards intersubjective wellbeing in diverse intercultural settings of education and health

This inquiry-based study proposes an epistemic shift towards the practice-realization of wisdom in educational institutions in all arenas of human endeavour that have psychosocial-physical wellbeing as overarching aims. Key to this epistemic shift is, it is argued, recognition of ubiquitous human subjectivity and intersubjectivity. However, because the dominant knowledge paradigm as enacted in diverse educational and caregiving settings is scientific materialism, subjectivity of mental phenomena, being invisible and immeasurable to the physical instruments of measurement, is not recognized enough. As a result, it is argued, development of self-awareness and intersubjectivity are given little educational attention. This study makes a case that the lack of self-awareness cultivation leads to the construction of the limited and limiting ego-self. The resulting ego-self then finds partners in alienated and hence dysfunctional intersubjectivities, object-oriented relations, and twisted compensatory defence mechanisms that take on a newer spin in globalized postmodern settings. I present these settings as being marked by economic debt, multiple conflicting alternative truths and narratives, compromised attention, increasing siloes of identity-politics, consensus-seeking behaviours, pervasive uncertainty, and high incidence of less-than-optimal health and mental health outcomes. From the present study emerges a need for the reimagining of the structures of the psyche and self to review and revise self-world relations. To meet this need, an intercultural study is undertaken, whereby some of the common threads around self-inquiry from Hellenic, Heideggerian, and select modern western philosophy on intersubjectivity are briefly explored. Sustained attention is then turned toward transcendental perspectives from three ancient indigenous wisdom traditions: Advaita Vedanta, Mahayana Buddhism, and Sufism.The insights gathered from the above inquiries are integrated into an intentional wisdom framework that may be reinterpreted for contemporary cultures and put into practice in a variety of pedagogic and andragogic settings, including K-12 teaching and education of health practitioners. In this practice-realization of wisdom framework, a contemplative angle is strongly advocated for, with the focus on negotiation and practicality rather than on replacement and upheaval. Theoretical insights, lived experiences, and teaching practices ground this research in experiential realities, constraints, and possibilities. The overarching intention of this thesis is to provide hope and direction toward living with grace and healing our intersubjective ways by calling for a wisdom turn in education.