Meditation
Easwaran recommended that children wait
until they’re 18 to start passage meditation – it takes a certain amount of
life experience to want to train the mind. For kids and teens under 18, there
are lots of creative ways to use passages, which convey the high ideals and
transformational power. Take Sri Sarada Devi’s “The Whole World is Your Own,” as one of
many possible examples for a non-sectarian setting:
I tell you one thing – If you want peace of mind, do not
find fault with others. Rather learn to see your own faults. Learn to make the
whole world your own. No one is a stranger, my child; this whole world is your
own.
In our setting, it works for us to use passages together at “circle time” or in moments of transition, such
as waiting at the door before going out for recess together. It’s rather
delightful – and common – to hear them quote passages like this one to one
another at other times in the day. But passages can also be read as
inspirational literature during quiet moments, such as relaxation or nap-time.
As they get to know me, I tell children
that I am a meditator, and about how I meditate, using this passage as an
example, something like: when I meditate, I sit like this (showing them my
straight posture), and I close my eyes like this (closing my eyes) and I say
these words slowly in my heart (and then I quiet down and silently repeat my
passage). The intention is only to show them that I meditate and to prepare
them – for if they do turn to meditation when older, they will have a tool that
they learned early on; it won’t seem foreign to or distant from them.
As a teacher, meditation is my anchor.
I’m on a very strict morning schedule – can’t be late for school – and I know that the source of my energy is derived from
giving my best in my meditation every morning and every evening. When I don’t
get enough sleep or have too many distractions in meditation, it affects my
state of mind all day long. If I am to be as patient as possible, I need to
“put my meditation first” – make sure I get
enough exercise, and sleep, as well as to refresh my passages regularly. Also,
Sri Easwaran reminds us time and again that we become what we meditate on, so,
in the effort to be of service to the children with whom I work, who are
extremely idealistic, it behooves me to try my very best to align myself – mind,
body and spirit – with my own highest ideals. Passage meditation is a tool to do
this consciously.
Repetition of
a Mantram
There is a lot of time to repeat the mantram while at school. For
instance, each day I get a 10 minute break before lunch. I use it for a fast
mantram walk. Inside the classroom, whenever I am near a child, I use it as
a “mantram reminder,” to repeat my mantram in my heart to share a sense of
peace with the being next to me. Really, whenever I am in the classroom, which
also requires that I use the mantram enough in my free time in order to desire
to draw on it at times of work. Once, a child was starting to rub against one
of my “sharp edges” of personality – in other words, I was losing my patience – and
I took a moment to say my mantram and wrote my mantram for this child on my
short break. Similarly, I write mantrams for the parents, in gratitude for also
rubbing down my sharp edges, and to wish them well in their own challenges at
home as they try to deepen their skills of being kind, patient, secure, and
loving.
Slowing Down
In our
classroom, Slowing Down fits into our curriculum under the basics of “grace and
courtesy.” We train our bodies in grace by moving slowly throughout the room,
and taking our time with our work – going through any job we take out from
beginning to end, taking care to understand what the job requires all the way
to putting it away nicely for the next person to use. Running is OK for
outside, but we never run in our classroom. As Gandhi put it and Sri Easwaran
systematized in our practice, “undue haste” is one of the ways that violence
expresses itself; to create a peaceful atmosphere, we slow down. And we explain
this to the children, and practice it ourselves as grown-ups.
Similarly, we
try to show children in our classroom that there is time for everything. This
is how they learn. Many children, for instance, cry about zipping up their
coats on their own because they are usually rushed at that time. At our school,
we have all of the time in the world to work on any job. We won’t hang up a
child’s coat for them, but we won’t judge them for taking a long time to do it.
We let them take their time, and gently explain again and again that all skills
are learned with patience and practice. How important it is to give children a
chance to practice – and how satisfied and proud of themselves they are when they
master some basic skill like coat zipping, buttoning or even tying their own
shoes!