An introductory overview to
the implementation of a program of contemplation in schools
that gives credibility to the 5th strand.
“If not within, then without.”
“Stillness and meditation are food and solace for the soul of every student.”
Clearly, however, every student will not need the same ‘diet’ of techniques in order to flourish, so I begin by dividing a lot of what I have done in schools under the broad banner of the ‘Stillness’ strand (over the last 15 years) into three categories for discussion – and they are arranged in what I believe to be an order of difficulty to learn and to facilitate – both as the three activities (Breathing and Movement exercises; Visualisation exercises and Meditation exercises) - and also as specific topics within each activity.
1. Breathing and Movement exercises – simple nexus between breathing and heart rate disclosed – sitting still in the company of others without interacting – movement reflects thoughts (move calmly to quieten the mind.) - square breathing and peak breathing (see ‘Stillness #4’) – walking meditation.
The Found Treasure of Time.
With more awareness we may discover that small gaps in our ‘daily round’ can be places of silence.
These are the ‘found’ times – or rather the moments in which WE ourselves are found.
Mostly they come while we are waiting: In the classroom, in the kitchen; on the telephone or in the ‘checkout line’.
In just those moments we have an opportunity to turn our attention to our physical being, to the rhythm of our breath to the texture and feel of things around us.
By noticing particulars we can also begin to notice the space in which they are held….. the vastness that perhaps holds everything – the great lap of silence. These waiting moments in our daily round can turn out to be treasures. We can allow them to support us instead of distracting us or blocking us. Here in each day is actually a wealth of time we can take advantage of. They are breath breaks. If we learn to rest and renew within them, our lives will go from disconnection and fracture – to breathtaking presence.
Gunilla Norris – “Inviting Silence – how to find inner stillness and calm.”
2. Visualisation exercises – eyes shutting practice (see ‘Stillness #6) – internal world – teacher driven set of graded exercises in an important order – relaxing, cleansing and integrating. Start with candle exercise that goes to the exterior and interior worlds being parallel – thence to set of steps and the garden with worry tree; then creek followed by waterfall and finally ‘Home on the Hill’.
Relaxing: “When we fall, let us fall inwards. Let us fall freely and completely:
that we might find within our depth and humility:
the solid earth from which we may rise up
and love ourselves,
and others
again.”
Cleansing: The product of this fracture and fragmentation can be living such that you become constantly critical of yourself and spend most of your time being critical of what you do. It takes time to change yourself – so words such as “Yet” (i.e. “I’m not good@ this activity….Yet”) can give you some space to keep trying to get things/issues into a positive frame. So in the silence that follows perhaps you might like to take a silent inventory of your ‘self talk’ – and if that turns out to be a fairly negative list……….remember the ‘Yet’ word.
Integrating: Sophisticated Visualisation Technique
When you enter the ‘house’ – you are basically entering a threshold between the conscious and the subconscious. While there on this occasion, it would be good if you could try to rid yourself of a prejudice you hold. As you sit on the seat (beside the bin) to consider what prejudices you might hold, be prepared to accept that some prejudices will be near the surface of your thinking and come to you quickly, while others may take a while to come up……so don’t necessarily see this as a ‘one off’ process.
In essence then, just follow the same method you take when attempting to rid yourself of your worries; i.e. conceptualising your prejudices into an object, and putting it in the bin…
See yourself at the top of a well-known staircase – it can be your staircase at home, the front-steps, or any staircase you know the number of steps on.
Look at down at your feet and see the shoes you are actually wearing as we do this exercise…
Start stepping down the stairs…. First step…. Second step…. Third step…at the bottom of the stairs is a corridor…
It could be the corridor leading the Masterman room, the corridor through Sheaffe and Burgmann, or any corridor you can think of… Walk to through the corridor, and open the door at the end…
Step into the garden at the end…. It’s a beautiful day… the sun is shining, the birds are singing and all the flowers are in full bloom… Look at the path you are standing on… they could be white pebbles, cobblestones or gravel…
The path flows directly away from you, and on the left there is a stream, with a seat near its bank… but continue walking and we come to a fork – the left goes onto a waterfall we we have explored earlier – but for now take the right path and follow it all the way to the house on the hill…
Some people have a maze leading to the house; others have hedges along the path side…
Take the steps up to the front of the house…. The front of the house may be different from the inside. Open the door and walk through the central corridor of the house… There are more doors branching off to each side, but these can be explored another time…
At the end of the corridor, open the door on the left and walk inside. On one side of the room is a mirror… look at yourself in the mirror… You might not be able to see all of your body – there might be dark patches, or just blank parts of your body…
Near the mirror is a bin, and a seat next to it… Sit on the seat and wait… think about your prejudices… Some things you can “sit with” – and not make a decision about them quickly… OTHERS you can fix your mental line of approach almost too quickly. It is THESE issues you might need to address…
Form a prejudice you hold (and want to get rid of) into a conceptual object – perhaps a steel sphere with water running down it’s sides, showing that this prejudice is very hard to grip, to hold and be rid of… it is just lurking there, waiting for you to drop your guard…
Wait there a minute and let other prejudices come to you… as soon as you bin one, another may well take it’s place….or perhaps others will appear in time…
When you’re ready, close the lid of the bin and watch it ratchet up the wall and disappear…
Now after you have rid yourself of something(s), get off the seat and go over to the mirror once more….and look at yourself in the mirror…do you see any change…??
Close the door and walk out of the room, down the corridor… onto the veranda and look out across the view… see the path leading towards the garden… and the stream… and beyond that…
Then walk back down the path to the garden… walk through garden to the door and step through it, into the corridor again… then up the steps…
I’ll lead you up the last three steps…. Three ….two….one… and come back to the PAC at whatever time (IT ACTUALLY IS)…
3. Meditation exercises – sitting for 10 minutes - article “What meditation is not” juggling #1  – choosing a mantra for individual students - learning why the mantra works; walking meditation and other activities - sitting for 20 minutes.
What Meditation is Not.
– some ways to dispel common (Western?) misconceptions
about what to do when you try to begin to meditate.)
N.B. The first premise I start with around the lads is that I tell them I think a good deal of them are ALREADY meditating – going within with a certain wavelength as the guiding key - it’s just that their definition of meditation is too narrow and tied to one or two religious traditions – so this session aims at broadening the whole experience base as to what meditation might be.
Remember too that I said to you that the top 5 on this list were more common misconceptions for student aged people…the bottom five were much more aligned to adult misconceptions.
So meditation is not –
· Any particular (e.g. forced upright) posture; (Though sitting as opposed to lying down can be a good start)
· The domain of any particular religious tradition; (most religious traditions have their devotees of silence and the contemplative life.)
· Difficult to do; (have you really tried yet?)
· Stopping thinking; (you can’t)
· Done in Silence; (many students I know use music without lyrics)
· Lengthy; (One, effective, 20 minute session of ‘sitting’ is plenty each day)
· Esoteric; (the mantra can be a simple word or phrase you already know)
· Haphazard; (There is benefit in picking a regular time each day to practise)
· Always being awake; (there is a lot of grey area between sleep and wakefulness – have you spent much time there yet?)
· Always the same; (even over a couple of weeks the mantra or the feelings or the effects can change for a person
Adapted from years of helping people to relax more -
feel free to use this as a start with your students.
How a mantra ‘works’.
So how do you know when your type of mantras is ‘working’? Basically what you are trying to achieve is a deepening of your thoughts, and eventually to reach a state of sub-conscious/conscious union that helps you to relax deeply. It has been said that 20 minutes of excellent meditation equates to three hours of deep sleep…which is often more than a person gets in a night’s sleep.
So your mantra is working if you are feeling as though you are ‘dropping through levels of your thinking’ – for instance you go from surface thoughts about what happened 5 minutes ago to thinking about what happened yesterday that was ‘really unfair’ to another level where you remember a task that you have not done as yet….and so the process deepens. The most restful state is one where most thoughts disappear and you become aware of how unified everything is – you sense a greater unity in all things. It could be that you visualize yourself on the shore looking out to sea, or perhaps by some quiet river or babbling brook.
When you bring yourself back after 20 minutes (or if you have to interrupt the meditation for some reason like an emergency call) lift your eyes slowly and take some time (perhaps 10 seconds) to answer and begin action. Once you get used to it, meditation will take you deeply inside yourself, and rushing back out to help won’t do your state of mind any good (remember that is why you were meditating in the first place!!) and you won’t assist others as much as you could either if you are ‘caught between two states of mind’. I would hold that the ‘Western sub-conscious’ is already wary enough of the pace of your western lifestyle and conscious thinking, you do not need to reinforce the rush and anxiety by frantically leaving your relaxed state.
Different types of mantras
There are a range of different mantras that you can use, all based on the number of syllables that they possess. Hence they can range from single syllable mantras like Om , to much more complex 12 and 14 syllable ones.
One classic mantra from Tibetan Buddhism has 6 syllables – Om Mani Padme Hum – but specific choice for the individual is usually up to that persons’ preference as to which they will find useful. The key is to experiment a good deal and to find one that really ‘works’ for the individual. More of how a mantra ‘works’ at a later point in this paper.
So how to choose a mantra? In general, if you are a “fast living, go getter” sort of person, then a short number of syllables can often prove to be best – for instance the Hindu Transcendental meditation people use variants of ‘Shi Rim’ as a good mode. If you are, by nature, a more easy going person, then perhaps try a slightly longer, 4 syllable mantra such as some Christian Meditation people use – such as ‘Maranatha’
A suggested manner of implementation for ‘Stillness training’ during Years 7 – 10 might therefore look like the following -
Year 7 implementation – Breathing/Heart rate focus; then ‘Lowering eyes’ technique followed by visualisation of candle; thence worry tree; finally have some ‘quietude’ exercises where the students ‘just sit’ for 10 minutes (and perhaps listen to instrumental music)
Year 8 implementation – Square breathing and peak breathing; visualisation of waterfall and then back to bench by creek with worry tree on the far bank; juggling #1 for integration
Year 9 implementation – “What meditation is Not”; walking meditation; visualisation of creek– layers of thinking in creek; juggling #2; exam study on bench; a discussion of mantras
Year 10 implementation – visualisation of ‘Home’; and mantra meditation.
Jeff Knowles
Canberra Grammar School
November, 2008