An education committed to 'negative capability' and comfort with uncertainty can be informed by combining ideas from Levinas and Theravada Buddhism. The article first explores Buddhist concepts of impermanence, suffering, and non-self (anicca, dukkha, and anatta) and vipassana meditation's emphasis on openness to transient experience and self. It then connects these with Levinas's ethics of alterity. Together, they provide conditions for developing an ethical sensibility attuned to encounters with the world. The article reflects on how this sensibility can re-inform educational practices, which inherently involve change and uncertainty.
Radical personal and systemic social transformation is needed to address global violence, inequality, moral confusion, and environmental destruction. Recent educational discourse has embraced intersubjectivity and contemplative education initiatives in North American schools and universities. This article argues that these turns would benefit from openness to the ontologies, epistemologies, and ethics of the wisdom traditions from which many contemplative practices originate. It discusses intercultural philosophy of education and introduces Eastern philosophical ideas, particularly the Shambhala Buddhist notion of nondual ground and wisdom of basic goodness. Awareness of basic goodness and its holistic expression in ground, path, and fruition can open vital questions about intersubjectivity, challenge current engagements with contemplative practices, and provide insights for transformational education in neoliberal times. The article concludes with a deepened understanding of intercultural philosophy of education.