The Cunning Wolf: Keeping Promises to Yourself and Others

Recently we've been forming our class lessons and discussions around Demi's book Buddha Stories.

In today's story a cunning wolf decides to make pious promises when it seems convenient.  We learn that it's much easier to make a promise than to keep one.

I asked my youngest students to tell me what they knew about wolves.  It's helpful for the children to understand that wolves eat only meat and are very smart about catching their prey.  We looked at some pictures of wolves.

Before the story I asked, "Have you ever made a promise to yourself or to someone else that was very hard to keep?  This is a story about a wolf who had trouble keeping a promise."

To be sure the little ones followed the plot I asked the following questions:

• Why wasn't the wolf able to get food?
• What did he decide to do when he couldn't reach any prey?
• What happened when he saw the goat?
• Was he able to catch the goat?
• The wolf decided that since the goat got away, he had kept his promise after all.  Did he really?
• What did the Buddha tell him?

With each lesson based on a Jataka Tale, I try to remind my students that the Buddha's concern was to end suffering.  I used some examples from a child's life to encourage them to consider how this particular story can help us prevent suffering for both ourselves and others.

Example 1: You promise your mom or dad that you will clean your room.  Then you push all your toys under bed and shove all your dirty clothes in the closet.  Have you kept your promise?

Example 2:  You say to yourself, "I'm going to be generous and share my toys when my friend visits."  You only offer them the things you least enjoy playing with.  Have you kept your promise to yourself? 

Then I asked:

• How does breaking a promise hurt ourselves? (We feel bad, frustrated, disappointed, ashamed.  We lose other's trust...)
• How does breaking a promise hurt others?  (They feel disappointed, angry, no longer trust us...)
• How do we feel about ourselves when we keep our promises? (good, proud, happy, trusted...)
• How do others feel when we keep our promises? (Happy, relieved, proud)
• Is it good to make lots and lots of promises? 
• What can we do instead of making promises to keep ourselves more honest and dependable?  (We can say I'll try. We can save promises for the most important commitments.)

The younger children colored in a picture I made with a coloring page and a simple quote.  You can download a copy of it here.  We laminated the pictures and threaded them with yarn to make little bookmarks to take home.  If you don't have a laminator, just paste the picture on colored paper or cardstock. 

I used this lesson with my older children too.  Rather than read from the book, I combined the text of the story, along with an article from Psychology Today about keeping promises.  We read it aloud.  You can print out the story and article together here.

Afterwards I asked the following questions to create a discussion:

• What distracted the wolf from his promise?
• What could he have done differently when he saw the goat?
• Do you think that deciding that he kept his promise will help him in the future?
• Was it realistic of him to make such a promise?  
• Did he make his promise for the right reason?  
• What can we learn from this story about making promises in our own lives?

My older students never like to be left out of a craft or project opportunity.  I encouraged them to make their own bookmarks using this template.  The Psychology Today article recommended three questions to consider before making a promise:

1. What's my motivation?
2. Is this realistic?
3. Is this crucial? 

Their bookmarks included these questions along with the quote, "It's easier to make a promise than to keep it."  

I love the empowerment this lesson gives us.  There are tools here for building trust, confidence, and honesty with ourselves and others.  What a gift for our children and everyone they encounter.

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem!

The Beautiful Parrots: Riches & Fame Come and Go Like the Wind

This lesson was shared with both my elementary and middle school students.

Buddha Stories by Demi beautifully illustrates 11 Jataka Tales. Most local libraries have a copy to lend.  It can also be purchased from bookstores in the US.  I chose this week's story from it's pages.

In this Jataka Tale, two lovely parrots are treasured as the king's favorite pets, at least until an entertaining little monkey arrives.  Suddenly the parrots are forgotten in the shadow of the new pet's funny faces.  An important lesson is learned about how quickly circumstances in our lives change and how difficult these changes become when we are too attached to things staying the same.

Before the tale I asked the children, "Have you ever felt replaced?  Maybe by a friend or sibling...Maybe you were the best at a sport and then someone joined the team who was even better than you... At school?  This is the story of two parrots who experienced the same feeling."

After the story I asked the younger children the following questions:

This is a lesson about expecting things to change.  We suffer less when we remember that things always change. 

I asked the children to offer examples of things that change.  They shared ideas about seasons, friendships, ages, jobs, homes... This lesson can open the door for young people to examine their thoughts and feelings about life events like the birth of a sibling, the loss of friendship, popularity, success and failures in sports and academics... Invite your students to visualize both the best and worst case scenarios in the things that matter most to them, making peace with both outcomes.  The ability to anticipate and accept change is a priceless tool.  Let's give it to our children as early as possible.

I found a cool parrot craft on Pinterest that I used with my younger students.

We added a quote from the story to our project.

We applied the words of the wise parrot to the folk song, Down By the Riverside:

Gain and loss and praise and blame

Pleasure, pain, dishonor, fame

Come and go like the spring.

                            (sing 2x's)

Why should a little parrot grieve?

                             ( 3x's)
Why should a little parrot sing?
                             ( 3x's)

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem!

Kassapa and the Fire Worshipers

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 4 and 7.  However, I plan to use this again with upper elementary students.  Some of my older kids have been asking for more lessons that include art and projects.

Kassapa was the chief of a group of Brahmin hermits who worshiped fire.  In a sacred room they kept a fire burning.  The room also housed a great serpent that was rumored to be a monstrous fire dragon.

The Buddha visited the hermits.  He told Kassapa that he would like to sleep in the room of the sacred fire.  This concerned Kassapa.  He was certain that the serpent would harm the Buddha.  That night the Buddha sat erect in perfect mindfulness.  The fire serpent tried to attack the Buddha.  It spewed it's poison all over, but the Buddha was protected by his special powers.  The serpent was consumed in it's fiery rage.

In the morning, Kassapa entered the fire room, expecting to find the Buddha consumed by the serpent.  He was amazed to find the Buddha alive and the serpent destroyed.  The Buddha said to Kassapa, "His fire has been conquered by my fire."  Kassapa realized that the Buddha was an extraordinary man.  He decided to shave his head, put on robes and follow the Buddha's teaching.

When the other fire worshipers learned that Kassapa had become a disciple of the Buddha, they too decided to become monks.  The Buddha gave a sermon to the men who had worshiped fire.  He said, "The three most powerful fires are greed, ingorance, and hatred.  One must put out these fires to end suffering."

Keep it simple.
I wanted the children to  remember what the Buddha said about the three fires.  Our lesson activities centered around this theme.

Use what you have.
This story is an exciting one for the children.  Rather than reading it from a book, I recommend using props.  Using felt or paper images of the characters and the snake, or dolls and a toy snake would be a nice way to keep their attention.  I'd love to give a few of my son's Lego action figures a bit of a "make-over" for this lesson next year.

Reflection
After the story I laid out a felt cloth and placed three felt images of fire on it.  These were made by cutting brown felt into 6 strips.  Then I cut red or orange felt into the shapes of three flames.  You could use construction paper instead.

The children were asked to recall the three greatest fires.  As they called them out I placed an index card with the word underneath one of the flames.  My stepson is great at making "burning letters".  He made the index cards with the words GREED, IGNORANCE, and HATRED in fancy, flaming letters.

Then I asked, "What did the Buddha say we must do to these fires to end our suffering?  Do we have to make the fires bigger?"  The children all knew that my suggestion was silly.  "You have to put it out!"   Our group was small enough, that we had time for each child to take a turn labeling the three flames and then putting out the fires, by removing the flames from the wood.

We talked about each word in simple terms.
Greed is wanting more and more.  It's wanting things so badly that you are angry when you can't get them.  It's wanting things so badly that you're willing to hurt yourself or others for it.  

Ignorance means to not know about something.  When the Buddha speaks of ignorance he is talking about not understanding the Dharma, his teachings.

Hatred is being so angry that you want to hurt others or yourself.

To help the children remember these three dangerous fires we also did a little pasting project.

They were each given a paper with the words Put out the fires of: at the top.
At the bottom of the paper were the words Anger, Greed, Ignorance. 

 Each child was also given 3 pre-cut paper flames and 6 pre-cut paper logs. 

  They pasted the logs and fire above each word.  The final product looked like this:

When I do this project with my older students I will make a few changes to the presentation.  First, we will read the story aloud together.  Second, instead of a felt board, the three fires will be introduced with three actual candles.  The children will have a chance to label and light the candle.  Other children will then use a snuffer to put out the flames.  Also, when it is time to create the art, I'll give them the paper and scissors and let them create their own interpretation of the fires however they like.

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem!

The Buddhist Flag

The children have been very interested in the colors coming from Buddha's aura upon his enlightenment.  They quickly connected these colors to those on the Buddhist flag.  I decided that this would be a good time to teach them a little more about the Buddhist flag.

Each of the colors represent a quality of the Buddha or the Buddha's teaching.

Blue: Compassion - having loving kindness for all living beings and wishing that no being should suffer
Yellow: The Middle Path - avoiding extremes
Red: Blessings - following the teachings of the Buddha bring good things to our lives
White: Purity - the teachings of the Buddha are clean, without any flaws
Orange: Wisdom - the teachings of the Buddha are wise 
Blend of all five colors: UNITY - the teachings of the Buddha are good for everyone, everywhere and unite us together


Keep it simple.
After we introduced the flag, its colors and their symbols, the children used crayons to color a picture of the Buddhist Flag.  They used small cards to make theirs, but you could also use a print out like the one here.
  
Use what you have.
I made a simple matching game for the kids with index cards and coiled pipe cleaners.  You could use painted rocks, legos, bean bags, anything really in the flag's colors.

For very young children (five or younger) I would recommend matching the colored coil to an index card with the word the color symbolizes written in the same color ink like this:

For our class, the children took turns matching a colored coil to an index card with the word the color symbolizes written in black or brown ink like this:

Then we made a game out of it.  We laid the index cards out in a row on the floor.  The children lined up for a relay race against the clock.  One at a time, the kids were handed a coil to take to the floor and match with the proper card.  We timed ourselves.  Then we tried to match them faster, and faster.  By the end of the game, all the kids had memorized each of the colors of the flag and the word it symbolized.

Reflection
The children were encouraged to think about what the flag represents whenever they see it.
Simple lessons seems to stick.

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem.

The Seven Weeks After Enlightenment

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of five and seven.

The book we used is not available online and I can't remember the title.  (Sorry.  It belonged to another Sunday School teacher.  I'll try to write it down next time.)  Buddhanet has a simple retelling of what happened.  Here is a synopsis of what occurred.  

Week 1: The Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree, meditating and enjoying the perfect peace and happiness of enlightenment.

Week 2: The Buddha stood and meditated with perfect, unblinking focus on the Bodhi tree with thankfulness for its shade and protection.

Week 3: The Buddha built a golden bridge in the air to walk across, proving to the devas that he was truly enlightened. 

Week 4: The Buddha built a jeweled throne. As he sat upon it, six rays of color radiated from him - blue, yellow, red, white, orange and a rainbow of all five colors.  

(We will devote the next lesson to these colors)

Week 5: The Buddha meditated under a banyan tree.  Evil Mara sent his three daughters to dance before him and destract him.  The Buddha remained undisturbed.

Week 6: The Buddha meditated under the mucalinda tree.  As it began to rain heavily, a serpent winded itself around him to protect him from the storm.  When the rain stopped, the snake turned into a young man who learned from the Buddha.

Week 7: The Buddha meditated under the rajayatana tree.  Two merchants approached him and offered him food.  This is the first food the Buddha had eaten since his enlightenment.  These merchants became the first lay followers of the Buddha.

Keep it simple.

This is a lot of information for young children.  Rather than expecting them to memorize what happened and when, I just wanted them to become familiar with the story.  First it was read.  Then it was retold by asking the children to fill in the blanks.  "On the first week, the Buddha sat under the....." (Bodhi tree) and did what?  (meditated)  

If time permits the children could also act this out while someone narrated the story.

Use what you have.

I have to admit, our project to reinforce the story this week was a bit of a failure.  My idea was to use clay.  After showing the children pictures of many different paintings, statues and sculptures of Mucalinda protecting the Buddha, I wanted to encourage them to sculpt an image to represent one of the seven weeks.  The children were very excited about the project and had some great ideas.

Unfortunately, the clay I brought was awful.  It was very hard and no amount of pounding and pushing seemed to soften it.  Some of it actually crumbled and fell apart.  They had more success with the soft play-doh I brought for two, tiny tots (3 and 4 years old) who sit in on the class occasionally.      

Lesson learned.  My advice is to always try use what you already have.  I didn't.  To save time, I bought very cheap clay from the dollar store.  It was useless.  Any nice, homemade play-doh would have worked better.  

Here are a few pics of the more successful attempts at working with awful clay.

Buddha meditating under the Bodhi tree
(This one melted my heart a bit)  

She's making the colorful rays that beamed from the Buddha.  

Buddha under the tree

The "golden bridge" (Picasso had a blue period too...)   

Rev. Sirithana tries to soften the clay for the children to no avail.  

Some of the kids gave up trying to sculpt the clay and chose to line up the Buddhist colors instead.  

Next time: The colors of the Buddhist flag and what they represent.  No cheap clay involved.  : )

May all be free from suffering by the power of the Triple Gem.  

The Enlightenment

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 5 and 8.  I read the story from pages 15-17 of Buddhism Key Stage 2.  You can download it for free by clicking here.


Keep it simple.
There were three main points I wanted the children to remember:
1. The middle path
2. The causes of suffering
3. All  beings can become enlightened


I took breaks in the story to discuss each point, asking questions like these:


The Middle Path
Could Gautama find the way of truth when he was super comfy and living in the palace?  (No.)
Could Gautama find the way of truth when he was torturing himself and weak with hunger?  (No.)
When did Gautama find the way of truth?  (When he meditated but had a little food too.  When he wasn't trying to be too comfortable or too uncomfortable.)  


The Cause of Suffering
What did Gautama realize were the causes of our suffering?  (Greed, selfishness, stupidity/ignorance)
What is greed?  Selfishness?  Ignorance?  (Accept any reasonable answers)
What will make people happy?  (Getting rid of greed, selfishness and ignorance) 


Buddha Potential
Who can become enlightened?  (All beings)
Can we become enlighetend? (Yes.)
Can the people we know become enlightened?  (Yes.)
YES!  Everyone has the potential to become a buddha!  Potential means it's possible, we have the ability. 




To celebrate the story of Gautama's enlightenment I wanted the children to make something special.
We made paper images of the Buddha under the Bodhi tree inspired by a project I found here.     
Use what you have.
Instead of paper towel rolls, we simply rolled and pasted brown construction paper into a cylinder.
I cut the brown paper and leaves out ahead of time.
I traced and copied a picture of the Buddha that I liked.  The kids colored and pasted it onto the bottom of the  paper tree.  You could also have the kids draw their own pictures or print out a picture or coloring page from the web.  (Just Google Buddha coloring pages and you'll find plenty of choices.)
The children then pasted leaves at the top of the tree.
We set them on a shelf to dry and stabilize before the children took them home.


This project was simple enough for the youngest children to do with very little help and nice enough that the oldest of the children still enjoyed making it.


Next week:  Buddha's meditation and Mucalinda's protection


May all be free from suffering by the power of the triple gem.  

Leaving the Palace

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 4 and 7.

This is the story of Siddhartha's decision to leave his family and his palace life to become a renunciate.
I have to admit, I had no inspirations for this lesson.  The story is an important one.  I just couldn't think of any special presentation or project for it.  I decided to simply retell the story and have the children create their own illustrations.

I read the story from Buddhism Key Stage II.  It can be downloaded for free here.

Keep it simple.
There were 3 main points I wanted the children to remember:
1.  Siddhartha left to find an end to Samsura.
2. Cutting his hair was a sign that he was giving up a worldly lifestyle.
3. When Siddhartha became a renunciate, he had a new name: Gautama

First the children were reminded of last week's lesson on Samsara.  It was important for the children to understand why Siddhartha left the palace.  It was not for selfish reasons.  He loved his wife and son, parents and friends.  In fact, it was his love for all living beings that inspired him to leave.  He HAD to search for an end to suffering.

Early in my discovery of Buddhism I didn't know that after his enlightenment, Buddha shared his teachings with his own family.  His wife, son and father all reached enlightenment as well.   I wanted the children to understand this from the beginning.  Siddhartha did not abandon his family.  All of their needs were met in the palace and at times they communicated through messengers while he was away.

Child's drawing of Siddhartha riding his horse, Kanthaka
away from his hometown of Kapilavatthu 

When Siddhartha cut his long hair, the remaining hair coiled up in tiny curls all around his head.  The text we used didn't mention that but I wanted the children to hear this.  More than once I have been asked by one of the the kids why our monks have no hair when the images of Buddha show him with tight curls.  That's the answer.  I hoped that adding another snippet (pun intended) to this part of the story would make the importance of Siddhartha's hair cutting stick in their memories more.

I made the children say Siddhartha's name several times, "Say it after me, Gautama."  In retrospect, I could have written his name out for them and instructed them to include the name Gautama on their pictures to help them remember this point.  Hopefully, they'll still remember his new name when I ask them next week.

She drew a picture of Gautama and his begging bowl.

Short lesson.  This actually worked out perfectly.  A late afternoon Puja had been planned at the Buddhist Center so we had to end our lessons early.  Anything special I could have planned would have been cancelled.  This experience was a good lesson for me about worrying unnecessarily.  

Samsara

Samsura is the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.
I asked the children, "What is a cycle?" 
They gave me lots of fun answers involving bikes and butterflies, seasons and food chains.

I made a circular motion with my hand whenever I used the word CYCLE.  "A cycle goes around and around and around."

Once they understood what a cycle was I explained Samsara.
"Samsara is the cycle of life, death, rebirth, life, death, rebirth over and over and over again.
Now, if all life has old age, sickness and death, that must mean that all life has suffering.
Right?
So as long as we are in the cycle of Samsara there is suffering."

I laid out fresh flowers, soil and seeds.
The children took turns labeling each symbol, touching the flowers, dirt and seeds.

Flowers: Life

Dirt: Death

Seeds: Rebirth

Reflection
The children regularly offer flowers to images of the Buddha.  It's a way to honor the Buddha.  We also use the flowers to meditate on impermanence and the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

We discussed how every living thing is caught in the cycle of Samsara, living, dying and becoming reborn.
While we haven't gotten to the story of the Siddhartha's enlightenment yet, I felt it was important to point to this event.  Without reference to the hope of enlightenment, this lesson is just too sad and burdensome for a child, in my opinion.

After our reflection they made a simple illustration of Samsara, using the flower's life cycle for symbols.

Keep it simple.
I wanted them to remember the word Samsara so I said it EVERY TIME I referred to the circle.

Life, Death, Rebirth.  That's what I wanted them to remember so that's all I put on the felt board.


Use what you have.
A little glue, construction paper and markers are needed.  I fetched old pizza saucers from the recycle bin.  (You know, those silver, cardboard thingies you can use to microwave them?)  The kids used them to trace a perfect circle.  A bowl or plate would work just as well.

I had old, silk flowers left over from craft projects, but stickers, pictures from magazines or greeting cards, or drawings could be used.



The earth I scooped from a pot on the front porch and brought in a ziploc bag.


The seeds came from the last of our zinnias which had dried out in the front yard, but you could easily harvest them from a plant nearby, something in the fridge or a leftover packet if you're a gardener.

The children now have a foundation laid.  When in our next lesson, Siddhartha leaves his palace in search of a way to end suffering they will understand more thoroughly what he's looking for.  When in upcoming lessons he reaches enlightenment, they will better appreciate that The Buddha has reached Nirvana and following his path can lead us to a freedom from the cycle of Samsara!  That's my hope, anyway.

May all be free from suffering with the power of the Triple Gem.

The Four Signs

The Four Signs

This lesson was shared with children from age 5 to 7.
We began by recalling the sadness Siddhartha had felt when he witnessed suffering by people and animals at The Plowing Ceremony.

Then the story of Four Signs was read.
The books I have listed in the resource section all have a simple retelling of this story for children.
You can also find it by clicking here.

As the story was read, children took turns laying out the following symbols:

The First Sign

The Second Sign

The Third Sign

The Fourth Sign

After reading the story, children were asked to try to remember one of the four signs.  They took turns matching labels to the correct felt symbol.

I like using felt boards with children in this age group.  Being able to place a felt piece on the board or label a felt piece is a big treat for the kids.  It encourages even the youngest in my group to stay focused on the story.

Keep it simple.
For the youngest children, I avoid getting too fancy or having too many things on the felt board.
I ask myself, "What do I really want them to remember?"  In this lesson I wanted them to remember the 4 signs so those were the only symbols I laid out.  I didn't even include Buddha or Channa, his chariot driver, in the illustrations.


Use what you have.
I've got a lot of felt and it's cheap, but paper, cloth, clay, anything you have on hand can be used to make a simple visual aid.

Reflection
Looking at the first three signs, we discussed how sad Siddhartha was about the suffering of others.
We discussed that everyone gets sick, everyone grows older, and eventually, everyone dies.  That's a heavy theme for a young child.  Heck, that's a heavy theme for an adult.

After talking about all the things in nature that get sick, suffer and die, it was important to point out the fourth sign.  This is the child's hope!  Yes, the first three signs are sad, BUT the fourth sign brings happiness.  Choosing to become a renunciate was how Siddhartha eventually found enlightenment and a way for everyone to end this cycle of suffering!  Let this lesson end with that promise.

If there's time left, the children could take turns acting out the story.  My kids love performing and it's one more way to make the story stick in their memories.

Our classes always end with chanting in the Pali language led by one of the monks.

May all be free from suffering with the power of the Triple Gem.

The Swan

This lesson was shared with children ages 5 to 8.
The story can be found in the books listed in the reference section or by clicking HERE.

Before the story the children were asked to recall a time when they felt sad for a person or animal who was suffering.  I used a few images on a flannel board to keep their attention.  An illustrated book or pictures drawn on paper would work fine too.

Reflection
I placed the word Compassion on the flannel board above the story.
I asked, "What does it mean to have compassion?"
After some guesses I suggested, "Compassion is feeling sorry that someone is suffering and wanting them to not have to suffer."

Then I asked, "How did Siddhartha show compassion?"
(by feeling sad for the wounded swan and helping it)

"Why did the elders agree that the swan should be given to Siddhartha?"  
(because he tried to give the swan life, not take life from him)

"How can we show compassion?"
(Some good promptings:  at home, at school, to the sick, to the poor, to the sad, to animals...)

To conclude the lesson, the children used pictures of animals to decorate a paper with the words, "Be kind to all living beings."

As an alternative activity the children could make edible ornaments for wildlife.  Winter is the best season for this since birds and other neighborhood wildlife are more dependent on us for food.  There are some easy directions for making the ornaments here.

Keep it simple.
There were two key points I wanted the children to take away:
1. Even at a young age, Siddhartha felt compassion for living beings who were suffering.
2. Like Siddhartha, we should show kindness to all living beings.

Use what you have.
I cut out the pages of an old, outdated Animal Encyclopedia, but you could use old magazines, postcards, or encourage the children to draw pictures.  

If you are working with older children, I would recommend using the lesson on Devadatta and the Swan found in Margaret Lisa Buschmann's Book (See Resources Section).  Along with a deeper study of the story, she offers wonderful reflections on arguments and confrontation.

May all be free from suffering with the power of the Triple Gem.

Queen Mahamaya's Dream

The story can be found HERE.

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 5 and 12.  That's a diverse audience.  The challenge was to keep the lesson simple enough to hold the little one's attention without boring the older children to tears.

The solution:  A play.
This story lends itself well to a dramatization because there are lots of characters involved.  The older children were all assigned roles.  As the story was narrated, they acted out the story for the younger children.

They enjoyed this activity so much that we actually did the whole play four or five times, with children switching roles.  This helped embed the story in the little one's mind while keeping my older students completely engaged.

After the story, the youngest children drew pictures of their favorite part of the story.  As they colored, the older children were prompted to discuss questions from Margaret Lisa Buschmann's book (see Resource Section).

Keep it simple.
The play was last minute idea when I realized that I would be working with both older and younger children.  I didn't have any props or costumes.  They didn't seem to mind.

I also scratched a more involved art project I had planned for the little ones.  I keep lots of blank paper and crayons on hand for emergencies like this.  By giving the tots directions to just draw their favorite part of the story, I could devote my attention to the older kids for a deeper study and application of the story.