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(Imtiyaz, 2011). I think Grand Master Wei Chueh understands this fundamental point,
which is why we endeavor at Putai, not for academic excellence on its own, but also for the
acquisition of knowledge that includes the dharma and social education. The weaving of
foreign languages and multicultural awareness into the curriculum helps to create a solid
foundation for the placement of Putai graduates upon the world stage. Have we not learned
from the past and even more recent history that the problem of entrenched prejudices is the
result of deep conditioning in mono-racial, mono-ethnic, and mono-cultural environments?
Such environments are changing worldwide, but globalization and modernity have not erased
cultural and religious differences, which is why education needs to focus, not only on the
issues of the nation state, but on global issues and intercultural understanding. If not, our
students will not comprehend how to interact with people who are not only linguistically
different from them, but ideologically different as well, which means – if you want to look
at it in purely economic terms – they won’t be capable of tolerating difference and that will
make them less competitive. I maintain that any school system that does not do something to
introduce youth to the wider world is not properly preparing its graduates for the realities that
await them, economically or socially, and so I am pleased to discover that Putai understands
this.

The second aspect of life at Putai that yields satisfaction for me is the fact that the
students here pause during their hectic pace to place emphasis upon inner peace, which is
another essential ingredient of education in today’s frenetically paced world. I am convinced
that meditation as a daily practice can help students (and certainly teachers too!) to enhance
academic and psycho-social strengths and improve coping abilities. There is an emerging
field of research in the area of peace education that indicates that the practice of meditation
in schools benefits the cognitive and behavioral needs of students (Wisner, Jones, & Gwin,
2010). This leads me to the acknowledgement that Putai students are some of the most
polite and engaging youth that I have met in my ten years of teaching anywhere on this
island. This point demands clarification. I am not saying that I believe every student at
Putai accepts the precepts of Buddhism or experiences something transformative during
their meditation sittings (wouldn’t it be naïve to assume so?); nor am I saying that there
are never discipline issues here (what school does not experience challenges in this area?)
but I can report without reservation that the students that I interact with display, time and
again, a good-natured and respectful stance towards authority that I have rarely encountered
in other school settings where meditation is not being taught. Is this mere coincidence? As
intimated from the beginning, this writing is not meant to be construed as an attempt to posit

Why Putai? 為何選擇普台? 9