DIY Meditation Sand Labyrinths

This is a sand labyrinth I've used as part of my personal practice for more than ten years.  Mindfully tracing the path in the sand with my fingers helps me to transition from a restless state to a place in my mind calm enough to meditate.  Whenever I bring this tool to my Meditation classes, the children respond in a similar way.  You can buy one here.

I wanted to find an affordable way to offer this tool to all of my students when they're at home.  So we made our own.  First we searched the internet for labyrinth patterns that we liked and printed them out.

I found these trays at a local craft store.  

The wood is impressionable enough that simply tracing over them in pencil will carve the pattern into the wood.

Next we carefully traced the pattern with a hot glue gun.   We laid about three layers of hot glue, giving time for each layer to dry before adding more to it.

After the glue had dried, and those little hot glue strands were pulled away, we were left with a pattern like this in each tray.   

Finally, the kids poured sand into their trays.

We took turns trying out each others meditation sand labyrinths.

While waiting for friends to finish their projects, one of my students created a walking labyrinth with random items he found in the classroom.

This led to an entire sequence of Mindfulness activities.  After tracing each sand tray, students mindfully walked through the mini-maze.

Then they'd trace a maze created on the chalkboard with an eraser and create a new maze for the child behind them. 

I love when activities like this magically flow from an orignial idea!

Try it with your kids and tell me how it works!

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

The Rumor: Getting Carried Away by Fear and Gossip

This lesson can be shared with very young children OR upper elementary/middle school students.  

I used the book The Rumor: A Jataka Tale from India by Jan Thornhill.  It's still in publication.  We checked it out of our local library.

There's lots of repetition and brightly colored illustrations which will instantly engage the very young child.  But don't let Jan Thornhill's beautiful and simple retelling of the story deceive you.  Here we have another Jataka Tale with an important lesson that can easily be overlooked as a story exclusively for little children.  

The heroin (or should we say hare-oin) of the story is a worrywort.  She allows her anxiety to take her away from reality without ever looking back.  Her fears quickly spread to other creatures until a stampede of thousands is running without anyone stopping to question her words.

In the end, it's a young and wise lion who settles things down by simply investigating what he hears.  

We took turns reading the story aloud before discussing the following questions:

What are some modern day examples of how we sometimes act like the hare?  

• We talked about rumors at school... making assumptions about people out of fear or ignorance... 
• The abuse of Muslims in Sri Lanka and Myanmar from Buddhists who have become so afraid of another religion overpowering theirs, that they voluntarily lay the teachings of the Buddha down to engage in acts of hate and violence... 
• We talked about Black Friday shoppers, so concerned about getting a bargain that they neglect manners and special time with their families....
• One kid was reminded of the people in New York freaking out when they tuned in late to the War of the World broadcast...

Why is it so dangerous to let our minds be consumed by fear?

• The kids mentioned that it can cause us to make assumptions that aren't true.  
• It can make us forget what's important.  
• It can make it hard for us to see reality.  
• It can endanger ourselves and others.

How can we turn off the anxious thoughts in our mind?

• We talked about meditation, especially focusing on our breath.  This brings us into the present moment rather than what might happen in the future.  Meditation helps us discipline our minds.
• I also reminded the kids about the Eight Fold Path that Buddha shared with us.  By staying on this path, we are less likely to let our imaginations and emotions carry us away.

In many Jataka Tales, the Buddha is one of the characters.  Who is the Buddha in this story?

How does he speak to them?  

How does this story mirror the Buddha's teachings for us?

• Of course, the Lion is the Buddha in this story.
• He calms the creatures, investigates, and brings them to reality.
• He corrects them kindly.  He is not harsh with the creatures.  His concern is their well-being and he speaks to them with compassion and understanding.
• The Buddha's teachings help us to see things as they really are.

It made me happy to hear one of my students mention that she is very fearful at night and planned to start trying to meditate before she goes to sleep from now on.

With younger children the message can be simplified to one thought:  Don't let your fears carry you away.  This story also lends itself well to a little play.  My youngest students love acting out stories.  Simple paper headbands with different animal ears are all that's needed.  Like all stories from the Buddha, as the children grow older this story will take on deeper meanings. 

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

Merit

With two years of stories from the life of Lord Buddha under their belts, I believe the children are ready to dive into the teachings of the Buddha and what it means to practice Theravada Buddhism.

For guidance I've chosen a booklet compiled by three authors titled Ten Ways to Make Merit.  You can find the booklet by clicking here.  The authors, Dr. Amerasekera, Dr. Wijesuriya, and Mahinda Wijesinghe wrote this booklet for adults, however it can easily be adapted for Middle School kids as well as very young children.

Over the next several weeks we will be discussing what merit is and different ways to obtain and share it.

I've asked for permission to share my adapted versions of this booklet from the authors.  If permitted, I'll share it here.  However, you could easily begin sharing this lesson without the adaptation by simply reading the booklet to yourself and then opening up a discussion with your youngest children.

Here's how I presented the lesson to my youngest children:

To understand the meaning of sensual pleasure we discussed the 5 senses.  Things that are sensual are experienced through these senses - our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and touch or the way things feel to our bodies.  Sensual pleasures are simply things we enjoy experiencing through our 5 senses.

The children were invited to share examples of sensual pleasures.  They talked about ice-cream and cookies, the softness of a stuffed animal, the fun of watching a cartoon or playing a video game, the smell of roses, the sound of rain...

Then using one of the the children's examples of sensual pleasure, we discussed how pleasures eventually end.  You have to turn off the tv to do your homework.  Once the cookies are eaten, they're gone.  It stops raining and so on.  I asked them to consider how they feel after the pleasure ends.  This helped us conclude that eventually sorrow, missing, and suffering replace our sensual pleasures.

Then I introduced the word MERIT. Merit is any action that improves the quality of our mind.  It makes our minds better.  It helps remove greediness, hatred, and misunderstandings.  It helps us live more peacefully with ourselves and with others.  Merit helps us do the things we want to do well and with greater success.

The most important thing I wanted the children to take away was this:  Merit cannot ever be taken away and it can be shared with everyone.  To help them appreciate this, we discussed the ways that doing something good gives us pleasure now and later.  After we do something that improves our mind, we can think about it forever afterward and share the good qualities that come from our actions with everyone.

To give them a visual image of this you can do the following:

• Bring out a treat to share.  You could use M&M's or cookies, something simple.  
• Show the children your pile of goodies and offer to share them.  
• Invite the children to count how many treats you have before you share.  
• As you pass out the treats, encourage them to keep track of how many treats you have left.
• By the end, there should be no treats left.

• Then give each child a tea light candle.  These can be safely used by even the youngest children if you place each candle in a clear, plastic cup and instruct them to look at it in front of them but not to touch the candle.  
• Present to them a tall, taper candle and light it.
• Now offer to share your light.
• As you pass the flame to each child's candle, ask them to observe how much fire is left on your taper.  

IT IS THE SAME WAY WITH MERIT!  You can share it with everyone you know without having less for yourself.

I think this is enough of a lesson for young children.  I explained that there are many ways to obtain merit that will help themselves and everyone with whom they choose to share their merit.  We'll discuss many of these different ways in the coming weeks.

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My older students took turns reading the Introduction aloud.Then I used these questions to create a discussion:

What is pleasure?

What does it mean when we read that sensual pleasures only bring happiness in the short term?

How do sensual pleasures eventually bring suffering?
What are some examples of ways that sensual pleasures can end or be taken away?

Why will neither indulgence nor abstinence of sensual pleasure bring true happiness?

What does merit do for the mind?

Now, you can't give candy and candles to the little ones without sharing a similar activity with their older siblings.  The activity used with the younger children can certainly be used with the older children as well.  Like many simple lessons, it will take on deeper meanings for the older students.

Next time we'll discuss the first of these ways of merit: Generosity

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

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.