On Japanese zen : insights for music education

Abstract

While the philosophy of music education has increasingly drawn on Asian sources (e.g., Fung, 1994; Tan, 2014), this trend remains largely Sino-centric. Accordingly, there is a need to explore philosophical traditions beyond Chinese construal, such as Japanese philosophy. The purpose of this thesis is to propose a philosophy of music education inspired by Japanese Zen. The research questions are: (1) What are the key philosophies of Zen? (2) What are some insights that Zen can offer music education? To answer my research questions, I draw on a quartet of Zen philosophical ideas, namely, mu (無), mujo (無常), mushin (無心), and muga (無我), as philosophical resources for this paper. I then present Zen-inspired insights for music education, namely, stillness, space, embracing a beginner’s mind, non-judgement, acceptance, and non-attachment.