Article - Childhood and Meditation - Final - 09 Sep 2010

Meditation for Childhood

'Child is the Father of the Man' - experiences gained and attitudes developed during this childhood of your life, will shape your future behavior and path. Childhood is the most wonderful and precious stage of a human's life. It lays the foundation of your future. Hence it is this period of your life which requires proper guidance and mentoring in order to make sure that a human being who is complete in respect of every aspect of life is in the making. Today's so called modern world has not left out even a child like you from the impact of competition. Intentionally or not, the parents today push you to the race, while you are very young. This, in most cases, begins from admitting you to a popular school. As a kid, you are pressurized by the parents and relatives to get highest marks in examinations, to be the first in games, other competitions, etc. Elders also make the mistake of comparing yourself with other children and criticize you for under performance. In addition, there may be other pressures that you face, which elders do not understand. So its a lot of pressure to a kid like you which in turn affects your performance. If you are addicted to watching cartoons or playing computer games, the issue is grave. This excessive pressure, if not managed properly, might take you nowhere but towards stress and anxiety, as a resut being adamant, inflexible, unresponsive and finally leading to an unsatisfied childhood. However, as Buddhists, we are so fortunate to be guided by the precious Dhamma which gives us the solutions to every obstacle in life. Meditation is one of the ways that will help you to train and build capacity of mind to be strong to face challenges. Meditation is the practicing of your mind to concentrate on any one of the objects that the Buddha has taught. When properly practiced, meditation is a valuable tool for you to use as you mature, better preparing you to meet the stresses and challenges of adulthood. The Buddha has taught that all our thoughts, actions and words, whether wholesome or unwholesome, are preceded by and created in the mind (manopubbangama Dhamma - manosettha manomaya). Accordingly, if we can get our mind purified, all our thoughts, actions and words would be wholesome. All the wholesome acts that one does would result in more contentment and success in this and future lives. Practicing meditation continuously, as taught in Dhamma, would help you to purify your mind. Once a Brahman called Sangarawa came to the Buddha and asked why he cannot memorize what he learns and sought advice on how to improve his memory. There, the Buddha taught about the five hindrances (pancha nivarana) that affect one's concentration and as a result in inability to memorize what is heard or read. The five hindrances are: kamachchanda (sense desire for: pleasures arising from seeing, hearing, smell, taste and contact); viyapada (hatred, anger and ill will); thinamiddha (drowsiness); uddachcha-kukkuchcha (restlessness and worry); and vichikichcha (doubtness). Now, if you can look at

your own experiences, you wouldn't have remembered anything that you learned while you were: dreaming about a new computer game, a cartoon, a tasty food (a pizza or a sweet), etc. - kamachchanda; angry with a friend, brother or a sister - viyapada; sleepy - thinamiddha; thinking of some money given by mother that you lost on your way to school or worrying over not being able to help a friend in-need uddachcha-kukkuchcha; or not sure about the teacher or the lesson taught - vichikichcha

By meditating what you actually attempt is to discipline the mind to be free from the five hindrances discussed above, which ultimately would improve your ability to concentrate. Higher concentration will result in a calm and pure mind with increased memory capacity and the capability to solve problems quickly. This will improve performances in your studies as well as in all other extra-curricular activities. This calm and pure mind further trained in meditation can then be used, to attain the foremost objective of a Buddhist i.e. to understand the reality of life (four noble truths). Also if you are a child who gets always blamed for lack of discipline, start meditating. Meditation will discipline your mind and as a result, you. You will be able to let go of your anger and worries more easily after practicing it. When you as a child start meditating, it will encourage your parents (if they don't at present) also to start the same. If all the family members engage in meditation, you will experience enhanced relationships, understanding among members and create a peaceful environment at home. Family stress will reduce. Even if you don't get any of the advantages discussed above (which is possible in a rare case) by practicing meditation, still you can be happy. Because each and every attempt you make will bring you merits, which would in turn help you to have contentment in life. In fact, the Buddha has taught that few minutes of meditation would collect you more merits than offering alms to the Buddha himself. There are several simple types of meditation which you as a little one can start practicing regardless of your age, such as - Buddhanussati (thinking of the supreme qualities of the Buddha), Meththa (spreading of loving kindness) and anapanasathi (observing the breath). All the types of meditation, except the anapanasathi, can be practiced at any time of the day, at any place and in any position, be it the home, the school or even on the way. But to begin with you can start practicing meditation for five minutes in the morning and evening after regular Buddha Vandana at home, under the guidance of parents or as instructed
by Venerable Theros at child meditation programs conducted at a Mahamevnawa Asapuwa. Once you start to gain results, you will be inclined to practice more. Considering all the advantages discussed above, isn't it advisable for you to give it a try daily at least a few minutes, rather than watching TV or playing computer games whenever you are free? -------end------(Mohan Senaratne)

Article - Childhood and Meditation - Final - 09 Sep 2010

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Meditation for Childhood

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