MEDITATION FOR CHILDREN.

Introduction.

   Why teach a child to meditate when it seems in the very nature of a child to run around, make a lot of noise and be playful?
   It seems that to look at this question we have to examine what our definition of meditation is and secondly what the motivation of the parent is for wanting a child to meditate.
   To most adults meditation is seen as sitting still in a lotus  position and being very quiet.  You meditate to help yourself to feel relaxed and to cope with stress.  You use your mind to  visualize a pleasant environment, or to try to create a more  positive self-image, or use  imagery to change some undesirable physical or environmental     situation.
   It is usually with these concepts in mind that adults feel that meditation would be good for their children to help them cope with school work, self confidence and mood swings.
   Another strong motivation is that the parents themselves have used some form of meditation and therefore wish their children to do the same because they enjoyed the experience and felt the benefits of being relaxed.
   Before examining these established forms of meditation against the approach used in this book I feel that we can all agree on one fundamental point which comes out of the question    WHY DO CHILDREN NEED TO MEDITATE?  They should not be stressed at such a young age.  Well, the fact is that most children today are suffering from stress.
   With the modern way of living, pollution and social problems our modern children are not coping well at all.  The number of health problems that children now suffer is increasing at an alarming rate.  Asthma, allergies, poor concentration and learning difficulties, stomach problems, headaches, and lowered immunity to infectious
 disease are all increasing.
   Any observant and caring parent is only too well aware of the stress that is on their children.
   It is these factors that are motivating parents and generating a need for children to be exposed to the true and appropriate field of meditation.
   What do we mean by true meditation and what is the appropriate approach for young children?
   The word meditation means to be mindful.  To be aware of what you are doing is a meditative quality of being.  The mind is quiet but alert and attentive.  For children this brings about some very important factors.  They are the basis of the approach in this book.  They must be made very clear right from the beginning so as not to mix them up with the current methods of showing children how to relax.
   Number one: YOU CANNOT MAKE A CHILD MEDITATE OR RELAX.  YOU CAN ONLY CREATE AN ENVIRONMENT WHERE THIS QUALITY OF BEING COMES ABOUT NATURALLY.  The environment creates a potential within which a child can come into contact with their own inner quietness.
   Number two:  NO VISUALISATION TECHNIQUES ARE USED OR INSTRUCTIONS GIVEN which tell a child what should happen or what they must do to get results.  To use visualization is to use the very tool that every adult spends the rest of their life trying to quieten.  That is their mind.  If your aim is to stimulate self esteem and imagination and make the body feel relaxed, then you should call what you are doing the stimulation of mental  exercises.  For that is what you are doing. That is not meditation.
   Children must come upon their own inner quietness by themselves.  You can only ask them to express their experience as to what  takes place for  them.  Not according to what is right or wrong with the adult’s framework.
   You must acknowledge the child as he/she is.  Everything that they say is right for them. Ideally we wish to join the child in the state as they are at any moment by bringing a quality of attentiveness to that meeting.  This is truly bringing a meditative quality to whatever is happening.
   The major difference between the current forms of relaxation and this approach is that when you use the mind to create a peaceful state, this feeling is usually temporary and dependent on the practice of a technique.  It is aimed to stimulate the imaginative qualities of the mind and therefore give control to one’s thoughts which make up our ego which in turn we use to control our environment.
   The non instructional approach allows a quality of peacefulness that exists within each child (or any other human being for that matter) to permeate their being.  This then brings about a quality of alertness and energy and a quality of mind that is open, clear and not confused by its own constant chatter.
   So let us look at how we can create an environment that is fun, has movement and ends in deep quietness.  All of which make up the very nature of a child.