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!

Yasa's Parents & The Triple Gem

This lesson was shared with children between the ages of 5 and 8.

In the previous lesson, the children learned about Yasa, a wealthy young man who decided to follow the Buddha.  In this lesson the children learned about his father.

The following account is from Buddhism Key Stage II, page 35.  (You can download it here.) :

Yasa’s father had been searching for Yasa after he had

left home and entered the Sangha. Eventually, he came

upon the Buddha who explained Dharma to him. He

listened with growing enthusiasm and became the first lay

follower to take the Threefold Refuge in the Buddha, the

Dharma and the Sangha.

At the invitation of Yasa’s father, the Buddha and Yasa

went for a meal at his house. The Buddha talked about

Dharma after the meal and Yasa’s mother was also listening.

She was so impressed that she took the Threefold Refuge

and became the Buddha’s first woman lay follower.      

Keep it simple.

There were two main points I wanted the children to take away from this lesson:

1. Yasa's parents became the first lay followers of the Buddha.

2. As layfollowers, we take refuge in the Triple Gem.

I asked the children, "What is a gem?"  It was important for them to understand how precious a gem is.  We used examples of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, crystals...  I held up my ring.  "My husband gave this to me when he promised to marry me.  The stone is special because it is rare and beautiful and it has a special meaning for me.  It is a GEM."

In Buddhism, we have three special gems:  The Buddha, The Dharma (the Buddha's Teachings), and The Sangha (the monks and nuns who follow the Buddha in a special way).  We call these three the Triple Gem.

Reflection

I asked, "What does it mean to take refuge?"  They weren't sure.  "A refuge is a place you go to be safe.  If a tornado is coming, we are told to take refuge.  We have to find a safe place that will protect us.  When animals want to be safe from predators, they look for a good hiding spot.  This is their refuge."  In Buddhism we have special, safe, protective places to take refuge as well.  They are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.  So when we say that we are taking refuge in the Triple Gem this is what we mean.  When we have problems or worries or fears in our life, this is where we go for refuge.

Use what you have.

The children were encouraged to find symbols of the triple gem in our shrine room.  They enjoyed finding them.  Then I showed them this picture of the three jewels:

In front of them I colored each gem to represent the Buddha (blue), the Dharma (yellow), and the Sangha (red).  One of the kids noticed right away that the three jewels were placed in the shape of a bodhi leaf.  

Each of the children were given their own to color.

If time and resources permit, there are a lot of fun activities you could come up with for this symbol.  I considered having the children color foil with markers to make the gems shiny.  You could use glitter or sticker gems too.  Think about ways to make this a beautiful presentation.  Next year, I plan to do a lot more with this lesson, craftwise.

Any readers who'd like to share their pictures are welcomed!  I'd love to see and share your work here.

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

       

  

Yasa & The First 60 Monks

This lesson was shared with children ages 5-8.
You can find a simple retelling of the story here.

Yasa was the son of a rich merchant.  Like Siddhartha, Yasa had plenty of material possessions.  Also like Siddhartha, Yasa was not satisfied by his life of luxury.  He felt he was missing something more important.  When he heard the Buddha explain the Four Noble Truths, Yasa felt as if he were awakened from a dream.  He decided to stay with the Buddha and follow his teachings.  54 of Yasa's friends decided to follow the Buddha as well.

Now the Buddha's followers numbered 60.  The Buddha sent his followers out to share his teachings.  His followers returned with even more people who wished to follow the Buddha.

Reflection
This is a good lesson for emphasizing that material goods and an easy life won't ultimately bring you peace and eternal happiness.  Ask the children to tell you about things they have and enjoy.  You'll get fun answers about toy cars, video games, ice-cream, etc.  It is important that the children understand that it is not wrong to like and enjoy these things.  Then ask how these things might disappoint them someday.  Maybe the toy will break.  The game system won't play newer games.  Too many sweets can give you a tummy ache.  Reflecting back to the lesson on Samsura, we can remind the children that all things eventually die or go to ruin.  So while it is nice to enjoy them, we have to try to not be so attached to these things that we become angry and sad when they are gone.

Keep it simple.
My fellow Sunday School teacher read this story from a book in The Buddhist Series: Life of Buddha.  You can find more information about these books in the Resource Section or by clicking here.

Use what you have.
The children colored pictures of Yasa pictures of the Buddha commissioning his followers to spread his teachings.  You can find simple coloring pages for these stories on pages 43 and 44 of buddha.nets book here.

This lesson was kept short and simple.  We followed it with the story of Yasa's Father.

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

The First Sangha

Do you remember, that before the Buddha became enlightened he fasted and meditated with five friends?  Well after his enlightenment he returned to these men.  How do you think they reacted to his visit?  Do you think they were happy to see him?  


I read to the children an account of this story from the book titled Prince Siddhartha: The Story of the Buddha by Jonathan Landaw & Janet Brooke.  A simple retelling of the story can also be found here.

This story chronicles the beginning of the Sangha.   The Sangha is a group of monks or nuns.  They have dedicated their lives in a special way to following the teachings of the Buddha.  
The names of these first five monks are:

Kondanna
Vappa
Baddiya
Mahanama
Assaji
We wanted the children to become familiar with these five monks for future stories so we had them write the names on paper while we spoke the pronunciation over and over again.  I am very thankful to have a teacher with me who speaks Sinhalese.  I would be at a loss for knowing how to say these names without her.


The five monks were not thrilled to see the Buddha at first.  They thought he had given up his quest for enlightenment.  They planned to not even speak to him.  But as the Buddha came closer to them a radiant light shone around him and the monks completely forgot their plans to ignore him.   They were so impressed by his mere presence that they took his bowl, prepared a seat and washed his feet.  The Buddha told them to no longer call him Gautama.  From now on he was to be known as the Buddha.  The monks asked for forgiveness for thinking badly of him.  Then the Buddha began to teach them.  Once they understood his teachings they shaved their heads, put on robes and formed the Sangha.

Keep it Simple.
This was the Buddha's first teaching.  It is often referred to as The Turning of the Wheel of Truth or The Turning of the Wheel of Dharma.  There is A LOT of rich teaching in this first discourse, far too much to address individually in one lesson for children.  Rather than addressing the details of the Buddha's first discourse, we wanted to expose them to the basic story.  The points of this important discourse will be explained to the kids in smaller bites in lessons throughout the year.

Reflection
There were two main points we wanted the children to take away from this lesson.  First, in this first teaching, the Buddha explained that many problems come from wanting things in a selfish way.  We can become wiser and happier if we stop wanting things so badly that we become attached to them.  Second, there is a symbol we use for The Turning of the Wheel of Truth.  It usually looks like this:

Once the Buddha began teaching the Dharma, the wheel of truth was set in motion.

Use what you have.
The children were given a picture of the Wheel of Truth to color.  Some chose to color it gold.  Others colored it one or all of the colors of the Buddhist flag.
The older children will be learning more about the Buddha's first discourse and the meaning of the Wheel in weeks to come.

Next time:
Yasa, His Father, and the Triple Gem

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.