Manipulation or fatherly love?

A few weeks ago I used another popular story out of Buddha's live: 'the four sights'.
The story starts when Prince Siddharta wants to see the world outside the Palace. Until marriage, he had been kept inside the Palace and not allowed to go out. In most books I have read, the interpretation is that the King wanted Siddharta to be the next King, and was afraid (based on something an Oracle had said) that Siddharta might want to be a Sage, a wandering wise man, so he kept him inside.
In fact, even while Siddharta was in the Palace, the King had given orders to anything that might cause a negative impression on him should be removed. If someone was injured or dying, he was not allowed in the princely quarters. Only people looking happy were allowed to wander around.

Despite all the entertainment the King organized within the walls of the Palace: music, banquets, teachers, etc. Siddharta wanted to see the outside world. So after getting married, the King had to agree. Of course, before doing he ordered the city to be cleaned, and the street where he would walk had to be 'cleansed' of any unsightly views.

For anyone who has walked in the north of India, it would be obvious that this is not possible. Poverty and disease are in every street, even nowadays.

The story goes on, so I told the kids how he went around and saw four things that changed his life (actually we managed to read 3, before the fourth the bell rang and they ran outside)

The first one was an old man, who could hardly walk. When Siddharta saw he him, he asked his companion what was wrong with him. 'He is old, we all get old'


The second one one was a sick man. When Siddharta saw he him, he asked his companion what was wrong with him. 'He is sick, we all get sick'

Then he sighted a body being carried by two men on a wooden frame. When Siddharta saw this, he asked his companion what was happening. 'The person is dead, we all die'. 'Even the King, even I will die?' asked Siddharta. 'yes, I believe so'.

Finally Siddharta sighted a man wearing robes, carrying a bowl.

I didn't get to this last point, so I will tell people what happens when I do.
Meanwhile, something really interesting happened when I was explaining these ones to the kids. I normally try to relate the story to things that happen nowadays, and most likely in their lives, but I was having trouble contextualising this one.

I explained (my view) that the father loved Siddharta, and the King was probably doing what was best for Siddharta, and for the Kingdom.

Sometimes parents do not want their kids to see things that might affect them negatively.

One of the kids said something that opened my eyes: 'oh like what happens when they don't want us to see a TV show.' Exactly' I replied, 'thank you, your example is great'.
So there it is, another example of how kids teach us about Buddhism.

The question about the King's real intentions may still be open. But the girls example puts puts the issues closer to our modern heart. When we censor content from the web or the TV we are trying to help our kids, we are probably trying to show them a safer world than it really is. Not that the TV shows like CSI describe an everyday reality, but we may be trying to filter some of the suffering. On the other hand, at the appropriate age they should be able to cope with the perversity (at least the one of the the TV channels), because they will have to live in a world with TVs.

Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness

For a long time I've had an interest in Neuroscience.
I recently found an article by Antoine Lutz and others that looks very promising, even just because Antoine was a PhD student of Francisco Varela.

Meditation and the Neuroscience of Consciousness. Antoine Lutz, John D. Dunne, Richard J. Davidson. In press in Cambridge Handbook of Consciousness edited by Zelazo P., Moscovitch M. and Thompson E.

The paper is a review of the current research around finding evidence of links between meditation and its neural impact. This paper is a review such research.
In the first section, the authors provide an operational definition of meditation, trying to narrow down the wide spread of meanings.

This narrower definition is important to study “the Intersection of Neuroscience and
Meditation", the second section of the paper. Here the authors discuss what ismotivating neuroscientists to examine meditation and its impact on the mind-body interaction. It also addresses the issue of appropriate methodologies, something that Varela explored in a lot of his work.

The last section Neuroelectric and Neuroimaging Correlates of Meditation,” reviews neuroelectric and neuroimaging research.

"Good lesson" I was told :-)

Today Kshanti was not able to come. Last week when this happened I was a bit overwhelmed with the kindy ones. They were above me, and the class was a complete waste of time.
This week, when Kshanti told me I dreaded what would happen.
Last minute chaos, both at home and office, prevented me from sitting, as I like to do on the days I teach.

Anyway, I told the scripture coordinator about my worries with the little ones and she asked the Kindergarten teacher to come and talk with me and two of the trouble kids. She did, and I think that helped quite a lot.

I also took two of my favourite Buddha statues and the bell. I used the bell to call for silence. They then looked at the Buddhas and we discussed the differences. One was a Korean Buddha and the other from India. When I mentioned that the long ears meant wisdom one of the girls said her name "Sonia" meant wisdom as well, so now we call her long years (everybody laughed a lot when I said that).

The class went very well! yes, at the end one of the kids said 'thank you, it was a very nice lesson'. I was so happy.

The second group was also very good. I have a couple of new students (both girls) and they did very well. At the end another of the girls come and said thank you, although in a different way. She came and half bowed, I bowed to her and gave her Bhante's CD so she could practice at home. She looked very happy.

Positive discipline in the classroom

I started reading this book I got from the library.

Positive discipline in the classroom. by Jane Nelsen, Lynn Lott and H Stephen Glen. Prima Publishing 1997.

I just started it, but it looks very interesting. It emphasizes the need for techniques that develop Three empowering perceptions:

1. Perceptions of personal capabilities
2. Perceptions of significance in primary relationships
3. Perceptions of personal power of influence over life.
   

and 4 essential skills

1. Intrapersonal skills: understand personal emotions and use that understanding to develop self-discipline and self-control
2. Interpersonal skills: ability to work with others
3. Systemic skills: the ability to respond to the limits and consequences of everyday life
4. Judgement skills: the ability to develop wisdom and evaluate situations according to appropriate values

One of the activities I found interesting was 'Practice compliments and appreciations'. Students (and teachers) are not used to giving and receiving praise.

Some ideas from the book:

• Ask them to think of a time when someone said something that made them feel good about themselves.
• Ask them think (and share) something they would like to thank others for.
• Ask them to think of something they would like to be complimented on.
• If they are having trouble coming up with compliments, remind them how much easier it would be if they had been asked to criticise instead of giving compliments.
• If someone gives a criticism instead of a compliment ask him/her to try again (or ask other to do it)
• After the student got the idea, you can use an object passed around so the person holding it has to say a compliment, so all get a chance to do it.

Dalai Lama in Sydney

Yesterday we were very lucky to get the chance to listen to the Dalai Lama.
It was a rainy day, and we had volunteered to help collect donations. Apparently the renting of the Domain (a park next to the Sydney Botanical Gardens), furnishing it and providing security, costs about $800,000/day. The total cost of the tour was about $4M, and although the tour was not for profit, the organizers were running at a big loss.
Anyway, while the Dalai Lama spoke it hardly rained, and we enjoyed and learned from it.

The talk was about compassion and lasted about 45min. He described compassion from the Buddhist, the Theistic (focusing on Christian) and the common sense perspective. I would not try to explain here what he said, but I found interesting that he brought together the ideas of Interrelatedness (the Buddhist perspective), with God's love and our need to get closer to him by loving others (the theistic perspective) and the idea that good feelings bring good health and therefore our own happiness (common sense/ scientific)

After the talk he answered 4-5 questions, read to him by the host.
When asked 'What is the meaning of live' he said 'the most direct answer would be, I don't know' and then he went on explaining how it was difficult question and that the purpose of live is happiness.

Buddha: the horse wisperer

I am increasingly using the images of 'A pictorial Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha' (the author is written in Chinese characters) and shorter version in 'Buddhist studies for primary students' by Danuse Murty, Buddhist Council of New South Wales, 2003.

The original texts and illustrations are by Gunapayuta et.al, and are very popular, used in many Buddhist books. Similar books can be downloaded from BuddhaNet.

In recent weeks I have tried to take 2-3 'frames' of Buddha's life and make a little short story, trying to relate his life to things that children understand.

Th first is the popular story of the Horse taming contest.

When the Buddha was about to marry, the King organized a contest. In the horse riding activity the Buddha had his white horse Kanthaka, the fastest horse in town. All competitors said that with that horse he would always win, in fact anyone with that horse would win. The King then decided that instead of their horses, everyone should try to mount a fierce black horse that threw everyone in the ground. Prince Anirudha tried first, being one of the best riders in the country, he mounted the horse without effort, then he wiped it hard to force him to run around the yard. When he did this the horse went wild and threw him off to the ground. Helpers had to rush in to help and save the prince's life.

Next was Prince Siddharta. He approached the horse from the front, and instead of immediately jumping on it, he started petting him in the cheek, and then on the neck. He whispered some words with a soft voice. Before riding the horse he explained what he needed to do and asked the horse for permission.

Everybody was then surprised that the fierce black horse had calmed down, and let the Prince ride gently, moving forward and backwards in front of all the country's audience.

When I finished telling the story we discussed why asking for permission might have worked better. Do we behave better when we are asked nicely or when we are forced to do things?