Fiona Clarke

How do you meditate with your children?

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How do you meditate with your children?

Some children are very curious when they see their parents meditating and are eager to have a go, they happily join their parents in meditation - sitting on their lap, or pulling up a cushion beside them. Other children are reluctant to do anything that involves sitting still and being silent, even for a moment - they can’t see how that could possibly be interesting or enjoyable. And then there are some children (such as my own!) who love questioning almost everything their parents do.

In our eagerness to share meditation with our children, we can over-complicate it, and bombard them with too many words and ideas. I have even become uptight and annoyed when trying to persuade my children to meditate - not surprisingly, this approach didn’t work!

I realize now that it’s great if children can first have a taste of what meditation feels like, rather than too many instructions. Sogyal Rinpoche’s teaching, Hang Loose (see below) creates the feeling of meditation - children love the advice to ‘just hang loose’.



I love this teaching too, it is wonderfully atmospheric and works very well with all age groups. Children often say they feel happy, relaxed, calm and peaceful after watching the teaching.
“it felt like I was in a different world, where all the people meditate” – Poppy, 8.

In the teaching, Sogyal Rinpoche says “when I meditate ... I do nothing’. Max,10, asked a great question -
“but how can we do nothing, aren’t we always doing something?”

What do you think?

I would love to hear how the teaching feels to you, and how you meditate with your children.

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Comments   

 
0 # Wim Marseille 2012-06-20 20:39
Thanks Fiona, for posting this great teaching. I do recognize your point that children want to be 'good' in meditation. Their efforts easily become too tense. Then this advice to just do nothing is so helpful. The crux of cause is the way you say it. And Rinpoche here makes us so receptive for his being. Doing nothing and let the atmosphere of Rinpoche enter. For children this is an evocative teaching that works very well.
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0 # Darius almost 5 2012-06-22 09:23
I like how Rinpoche talks. It makes me feel like being silent and still, and meditating.
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0 # Jane 2012-06-22 09:25
Thanks for this post Fiona - it was great to show the teaching to Darius and remind him about "sitting with the Buddhas" which, much to my surprise and delight, he learnt to do at the Myall Lakes retreat.
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0 # Joseph wright 2012-07-12 05:23
Thank's for the article it very helpful specially for parents who are meditating. Also it also good for children to participate meditating.
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0 # Marjorie 2013-03-07 07:58
I guide my children in meditation. I talk them through breathing gently then grounding into the earth blending their breath with the earth. Feeling the earths breath as their own, finding themselves back in their heart as a bright light that radiates all around them sometimes expanding the light to include their surroundings environment trees animals loved ones those who have passed and then sometimes including the whole world and beyond. We have several versions of this. We call it "ground and center" and can even do it in an instant when we ( they ) need to.
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