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FEATURE | EASTERN HORIZON 15

I have developed courses to encompass each of Development from Birth to Rebirth. This is a 10 week
these areas, which form the pillars of Abiding Heart full time course that similarly follows a daily rhythm
Education’s transformative experiential Buddhist of lectures, meditation, artistic exercises and personal
learning approach on which our teacher training courses development group work. This course progresses from
and Buddhist imbued curriculum rests. The curriculum exploring our own inner landscape to understanding
includes an array of subjects taught in kindergartens the nature of the human being and in particular the
and schools, from literacy and numeracy, to cultural developing child. It does so from multiple perspectives;
studies, sustainability and arts and crafts, all of which encompassing Buddhism, scientific theory and a holistic
are immersed directly and indirectly in the Buddhist philosophy of education. By the second semester of our
view and meditation, with the aim of nurturing the full-time two-year teacher training courses, our trainees
development of wisdom and compassion. Contemplative have acquired the knowledge and understanding
education, Buddhism, prayers and rituals, are integrated to enable them to explore Buddhist psychology,
into every lesson and throughout the daily, weekly and developmental science, psychology and neuroscience.
monthly rhythms of the school year. The curriculum is By the end of this course, our trainee teachers have an
rich, purposefully wholesome and true to my ideal of in-depth understanding of the developing child from
educating the head, heart and hand. birth to adulthood and how it relates to our teaching
methodology and content for each year group. However,
Abiding Heart Education’s comprehensive teacher our child development course does not stop at the end
training courses aim to have a global reach and of childhood, for it is anchored in Buddhist psychology
to work at the depth of things through the four and understands human development from the moment
foundational components. The first pillar of Abiding or bardo of death through the other stages of the bardos
Heart Education is Foundation Buddhist Studies and of death to conception and prenatal development.
the inner development of the trainee teacher. Trainee
teachers must first dedicate time to understanding, Understanding the importance of Aiding Heart
contemplating and meditating the Buddhist view. Education’s methodology is key to building children’s
This involves guidance and instruction on how to resilience and opening both heart and mind,
meditate. Although such insight and skills require many where attention is given to supporting children’s
years of practice, trainee teachers are grounded in a spiritual, physical, socio-emotional and cognitive
foundational understanding of the Buddhist view and development from birth to rebirth. This is the process
meditation. In our view, this is essential, as being a of transformative experiential learning and has
teacher is less about what we teach but who we are. been developed in collaboration with a global and
multidisciplinary team of experts. Dr Robert Roeser
The first pillar of Abiding Heart Education formed the (see below, second line second from left) has brought
Foundation Buddhist studies course - a 16 week full- incredible knowledge of developmental science
time course - a full semester! Experiential arts are also linked with Buddhist psychology. Dr David Vago has
part of this course to enrich the process of learning contributed an understanding from the perspective of
and to enable exploration of inner landscapes and neuroscience and how it relates to aspects such as the
reflection on how the Buddhist view and meditation aggregates. Dr Tawni Tidwell brings an understanding
can be applied in the journey of self-transformation. of child development from a Buddhist and Tibetan
The combination of daily philosophy classes together medicine worldview. Khenpo Sonam Tsewang and
with meditation and transformative and expressive arts, Mingyur Rinpoche explained Buddhist psychology
modelling, Himalayan arts and crafts and movement, and the nature of reality while I, (see below, first line
are a fantastic way of applying the Foundation Buddhist second from left) have woven Buddhist psychology,
studies into our lives. science and pedagogy together in relation to applying a
transformative experiential Buddhist pedagogy that is
The second pillar of Abiding Heart Education is Child Abiding Heart.