To meditate is to stay a child forever, but with method.
A popular song in Italy in 2006, Povia’s “Quando i bambini fanno oh” (when the children go ‘oh!’ ) indicates as “oh” the little expression of amazement (or, more appropriately, awe) uttered by children, the profound wow of a human cub that looks at the world for the first time: Oh!
when the children go oh!
how wonderful, how wonderful!
Let us examine this oh for a minute. It implies a disposition of unlimited creative energy. The world is being inscribed for the very first time in the eyes of the infant, and that tiny conscience says: oh. And that oh, how precious is it, what is it? It’s something that gets lost as we grow into adults. Growing up, one loses that capability for wonderment, for feeling enchanted, in other words, the ability “to go oh!”.
The reason is clear: as we grow up, we begin breathing with the mind instead of the heart. But going back to that openness, to the joy of that oh, is still possible even as grown-ups. In fact, the “oh”, seen as energy of relation between the I –without ego– and the universe writing itself, is the same energy sought after by meditation. And that simple noise, “oh”, can easily turn into “aum”. In the name of the conservation of energy. From oh to aum.
A very healthy energy by now acknowledged by pretty much everyone: the aum is the fundamental ingredient to live a healthier and peaceful life.
But what if kids were taught how not to detach themselves from that happy dimension?
Meditation projects at school
The world is slowly realizing this wonderful pedagogic possibility, and already in many British schools, kids can engage in the aptly named “subject” called mindfulness. Just like one hour of mathematics or gym class, but instead it’s meditation.
However, from the start it appeared that simple meditation was at least able to reduce bullying and stress, while making children smile more.
The alphabet of this subject has few tools, all human; like breathing. Tools that it’s better not to lose along the way, as it’s then much harder to re-learn how to breathe after you’ve grown up, find that spontaneity again, that communion with the universe, so precious on an energetic level.
In the U.S., figureheads like famous director and spiritualist David Lynch have set up scholarships to teach children transcendental meditation.
Putting your brain on hold once in a while –since childhood– is good for you, it oxygenates and recharges it, making it breathe! Every academic research on the advantages the hippocampus draws from such practices are scientific proof of something man has known all along, on a deeper level.
Andrew Kelly and the Boston Buddha
On just about how the introduction of meditation in schools can prove to be positive, there’s a testimony from Andrew Kelly, founder of the “mindfulness” program called Boston Buddha for pupils of the Boston, MA Milton school, for second-grade children onwards.
The magic moment where they understand mindfulness is when they can catch themselves not paying attention. That’s their chance to control their impulsivity. It helps them stop themselves from doing things like jumping on the couch or whacking their younger brother
Photo by Jyotirmoy Gupta on Unsplash
