Olivier.

May all beings be happy.

Gassho,

Wade

http://parentingsquad.com/simple-steps-to-teach-meditation-to-children

My older children are 26 and almost 24. I don’t know the exact year I ordered this tape for them, ‘Self Image for Children’. It was before the days of CD’s. I would guess maybe 20 years ago. I found the same thing on CD several years back for my 3rd child. I would play this for them
at night and they would fall asleep with it playing.
Bob Griswold is the speaker. He refers to himself as
Mr G. He then takes the child ‘on a magical adventure’.

Self Image for Children
http://www.efflearn.com/product_info.php/cPath/56/products_id/108

The info on the site says for children up to age 8. I know my own listened to it beyond the age of 8.
I had suggested the CD to a teller at my local bank.
We had struck up a conversation and she said that her 2 daughters were having difficulty due to a divorce that she and her husband were going through. She was amazed at the calming effect the CD had on her girls. The older of the 2 was over 10 and still benefited.

So much of a child’s world is out of their control.
Take a child learning how to write. Put a pencil in your non-dominate hand and try to write and you will feel their frustration. I do a breathing exercise with my children.
Not just at the moments of frustration, but many times
just stopping them to do this.
It’s best to have them sit still for just a quick minute.
I tell them to take a breath and relax. Take another breath and feel your shoulders drop down. I then say…..
“Ohhhhmmmm” putting my index fingers to my thumbs.
They also see me do this when I am having a moment where I need to re-group. One day a few weeks ago, my 11 year old was having a stress filled morning getting ready for school.
He could not find some paper or book. I stopped him, got his attention and did my fingers to my thumbs saying…
“Ohhhmmmm” He stopped, took a breath and calmed down to continue looking for the book.

Children need consistent repetition. This is something I have been doing with my son since he was quite young, but I am certain that any child could benefit from this.

If you would like to email me Jay, please do and
we can continue talking. AFMomDeb@aol.com

xo xo
Deb

For example – just yesterday, we started something called the “compassion notebook” in our family. Mom, Dad and both our lil kids got identical looking notebooks where at the end of the day, each of us will write about one thing we did that showed compassion and kindness (I had to set the rules that it cant be for the benefit of something for ourselves). If we find that we didnt do anything on any day, we will look back at the day and write about one thing that we ‘could have’ done (e.g “I saw that guy with a broken down vehicle on the side of the road, I should’ve stopped and asked if needed help”). Lets see how that goes…

I am trying to think of similar simple ideas for mindfulness – which can be trickier for little ones.

Jay

I happen to have a copy of Nishijima’s entire Shobogenzo collection, so no need for you to type it up. Thank you so much for the offer.

I’ll read, “sanjushichi-bon-bodai-bunpo” and get back to you about writing something on it.

take care,

Greg

What an interesting way of looking at life and mindfulness. In some ways I am new to this mindfulness thing but I also realize that I have always had it and never known it until recently. I remember as a teenager becoming aware of my thoughts in a way that seemed most amazing. Somewhere between 18 and 30 I lost it by becoming absorbed in material things. Then it came back like a flood in my 30s. I had and then I didn’t…so there you go…I am living proof that some people have it and some don’t. But isn’t the real truth that we are both?

I would love to hear more about the roots. Thanks for the post.

Thanks for the clarification on ‘bodiless’.

Sometimes belief is used as opposed to current reality. If belief is equate with knowing I have no problems.

Thanks,
Evan

http://www.urbandharma.org/udharma12/shobo.html

Gassho,

Wade

@James, Glad you enjoyed the simile, and thanks for the moving mindfulness through life, including shopping

@Evan, Dogen is amazing isn’t he. I have to thank Greg(http://uponthepath.wordpress.com) for first pointing him out to me a year or so ago. The way I read mindfulness without a body is when in meditation and the body is still, there is no sensation or feeling of the body. Thus there is mindfulness but there is no body as such. I’m not sure I understand you on ‘belief’ vs ‘perception’ please feel free to write more on this.

@Dennis, Thank you. I will write about some of the other roots soon.

@Joseph, It appears to be a very intense and emotional time in the US. I’m finding a lot of talk about it finding it’s way down here, I can only imagine what it must be like over there now. It’s great that you’ve been able to tap back into the underlying reality, the peace that is always again. Also thanks for linking to your blogs, I’ll be over there soon to surf about. Hope to see you back here again.

@Greg, Thanks, if you’d like to tackle a root yourself to guest post or cross post with me, I’d be happy to work through them with you….Just a thought. I know you like studying Dogen from time to time. Belief and Faith, synonymous….Hmmm…I guess it depends how you see the two words. Belief to me is the ‘stronger’ of the two, as in unflinching knowning-ness. Faith to me is a bit more open. Checking in the dictionary, faith does not rest on logic or proof, but is a synonym of belief. Belief is seen as truth. To answer your question, regardless of the word we use, yes, that’s what it means. Trusting in the Dharma. The Shobogenzo we bought from Shasta Abbey doesn’t contain this chapter. It comes from http://www.windbell.com/Shobo4.html, Nishijima and Cross’ translation. I have found a different copy of this chapter, sanjushichi-bon-bodai-bunpo, online. The translations’ a little weaker, but may give you the background you’re after. If it doesn’t let me know and I’ll type up this edition for you.

May all beings be happy.

Gassho,

Wade