2nd term starts

Having renewed my energy with the holiday and the retreat, I was back to scripture classes today.

During the retreat I asked Bhante to make a CD for kids with a guided Metta meditation. I hope he does it. Meanwhile I thought I could use the one he made for adults.
This morning I sat with his CD and realized that it was not going to work out for the little ones.
I'm happy I took that decision.

With the little ones we read the story of Sigala. One of the kids, of Sri Lankan background already new it. The story is about a boy (Sigala) who the Buddha finds throwing seeds in the four directions. When the Buddha asks him why he is doing it, he says its because his father asked him to before dying. The Buddha then explains him the meaning, basically that it is a symbol of sending loving kindness to all sentient beings.

Sometimes you’ll hear Buddhists refer to all ‘sentient beings’ in their blessings and prayers. This is a way to say ‘everyone in the whole wide world who can sense and feel’, including all creatures from the tiniest little bug to the biggest whale, all humans and animals and insects and even the beings we can’t see, like happy spirits waiting to be reborn. When you say a blessing for all sentient beings you’re making sure not to leave anyone out!

I went on to read a definition of sentient beings that my wife had written and a blessing:

May all sentient beings be well and happy,
May all sentient beings be free from suffering,
May they live in equanimity, free of prejudice, craving and anger.
May they never be separated from the happiness that is free from suffering.

I asked to repeat after me, and emphasized the first two.

We the older group we did the metta guided meditation. It was excellent. All the kids sat for the first 10 minutes of session (15 minutes long). They were mostly quiet, and they were still for most of the time. I was very grateful.

Last term I told the principal about the problems with discipline and she suggested I get some extra help from the council. With so mny students in one group is not easy to do it alone. When I told her today that the kids had been pretty good, she was happy and said '"we all have a bad day"

I gave a CD to the two that seemed more concentrated. I asked them to share it and use it at home... lets see if it works.

back from retreat

I finished my 5th (or 6th?) long retreat. Most of them have been under the guidance of Bhante Ven. Mahinda at the Aloka Meditation Centre.
In these retreats we get a lot of freedom. There is only 2 'mandatory' chanting and 1 dhamma talk.

For me every retreat is different. New challenges come in, and vanish...

Some things stay the same, and these are the things I tell people who ask. For example, the schedule:

5:00 am. Bells - Wake up call.
5:30 Chanting
7:15 Breakfast
11:00 Lunch
3:00 Tea (unless you are doing the 8 precepts, so like the monks you do not it after 12:00 noon)
5:00 Dinner (idem)
6:00 Chanting
8:00 Dhamma talk
10:30 lights off.

The whole week we maintained 'noble silence', that although is difficult for some people is the best way to keep everybody focused on their own mediation practice (The practice we follow is the development of Samadhi). The people of this group were great. Some with a lot of experience. The residents who coordinate the retreat were also great.

I decided to create a new label in the blog 'development'. For the sake of my Dhamma teaching the retreat could be considered 'professional development', although I'm not a 'pro' so I will just call this development.

week 6 - missed it

I was not able to teach on the last week of the term. My son had cried all night and I was exhausted with too much work. I realized that it would have been a bad idea to try teach at school. Even then I felt a bit of shame...

On the same day I had to teach at University. I was so tired that I started my lecture (I have about 50 students) and after the 3rd slide one of the students raises his hand and says 'sir, you forgot to turn on the data projector', I had been looking at my slides on my computer screen but students were looking at a blank projection....

Tomorrow I'm going on a 1 week retreat. My wife has been very kind in letting me go. I know that is not going to be easy for her to cope by herself with her work and the baby.
I'm very much looking forward for the retreat. I hope it will give me the energy and wisdom to be a better teacher, both at school and with my son.

Yesterday we sat with him and my wife. It was very nice. He played quietly for a while, and when we chanted he listened quietly. Then fall asleep with his bottle of milk. My son is one year old.