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Vegetarian Cooking Class with Mothers from Parents Association With Ven Arya Maitri, Ven Dharmavimala and Ven Nyana
Prabhasa and friends at Tri Ratna School's Foundation
Committee

Our efforts to save the environment org/mindfulness-practice/the-5- a biscuit in a wrapper and say to
and spare the suffering of animals mindfulness-trainings/ them: “Open the biscuit wrapper,
may be small, but every little bit Children need to see mindfulness in look at the biscuit in front of you.
counts, and in the long run, will us first before they can learn from See the shape of the biscuit, then
add up to a lot. A single policy can us. The stillness, patience, sincerity, slowly put the biscuit into your
make a significant change happen. and love - they have to feel them mouth. Taste it, is it crispy? Do
It was not easy in the early days to when they are around us. you like the biscuit? As you eat the
convince parents of the importance biscuit, say thank you to the person
of such policies. Some complained Children love to play, have short who gave you the biscuit. When
and even refused to cooperate. attention spans, and sometimes you finish eating biscuit, share your
they don’t listen. We need to thoughts on this process.”
How do you teach mindfulness to discipline them. It is difficult to
children? make children sit still and be quiet What about challenges when

long enough to meditate. But teaching mindfulness to
Before we can teach mindfulness happily, there are other methods teenagers?
to children, we need to be mindful to hold their attention, such as
ourselves. “pebble” meditation. They are given Teens are full of energy, some love
5 pebbles, and asked to breathe outdoor activities, some prefer
Mindfulness needs training, in and breathe out very slowly, singing, shopping, or playing music;
it does not come naturally. At counting the pebbles from 1 to 5. while others may not even know
Plum Village, we practiced five Those who finish counting are given what they like.
mindfulness precepts. Ven. Thich the pebbles in a nice bag, which
Nhat Hanh re-phrased the five they can bring home to practice. Some teenagers have lots of
Buddhist Precepts (pañcasīla) to Games are used to stimulate their negative energy - they complain
make them universal, so that even awareness of their surroundings, incessantly, are never satisfied, and
non Buddhists can practice them and they are taught to enjoy their may even be overly demanding. It
in their daily lives. They are: 1. games, and to love their friends. is tiring to deal with them, and they
reverence for life; 2. true happiness; often wear their parents down.
3. true love; 4. loving speech and How can we make meditation fun
deep listening; and 5. nourishment for children? Based on my personal experience,
and healing. Details on the Five I found it exhausting and I needed
Mindfulness Precepts are available Eating meditation is appealing to help. If we ask the right people, it
as follows: https://plumvillage. our younger students. We give them will ease our burden. If parents