Christian Meditation

GUEST BLOG BY THERESA ZIEBELL, CHRISTIAN MEDITATOR, OTTAWA

In 2005, with the support of their bishop, Rev. Michael E. Putney and Fr. Laurence Freeman, OSB, spiritual successor of John Main and Director of the World Community for Christian Meditation (WCCM), Dr. Cathy Day and Ernie Christie from the Catholic Diocese of Townsville in Australia began the world's-first small pilot project to teach meditation to five- to 17-year olds in the classroom. The results showed that children are not only capable of meditation, but that they actually enjoyed it and, as Mirka knows, they even request it.

The following is from the website, cominghome.org.au, created by Townsville for the WCCM:

"Meditation helps people pay attention and concentrate. In this regard, meditation has been particularly effective in helping children with learning and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders. Such were the findings of the private Chelsea School in Silver Spring, Maryland. After meditating twice a day, the fifth-to-twelfth-graders had a greater ability to pay attention and learn. Similar results were found in recent meditation studies in two primary schools in England. After meditation, the children in the studies showed an increased ability to concentrate and listen, greater self-discipline regarding physical movement (stillness) and emotional outbursts, and increased ability to handle distractions." (Pastoral Care, March 2001:31-35)

More recently, Shirley Lancaster heard Dr. Day and Ernie Christie speak on the benefits to children's well-being at Regent's College, London. Afterwards,she wrote: "Children need more meditation and less stimulation...."Teachers reported improved behaviour in difficult children. Yet no one suggested it was a 'cure-all' practice. ...The health benefits of meditation are well documented: it can relieve stress, lower blood pressure, and alleviate depression. Psychiatrist Jonathan Champion said research showed most mental health problems have begun by the age of 14. Giving children periods of quietness and reflection to promote wellbeing could save money on healthcare later."

Recently, at a retreat given by Fr. Laurence in Ottawa, I heard him say that often children request meditation after playtime because the experience of being with other children is emotionally intense for them. I'm not surprised at this. Sometimes, recess is when bullying happens without appropriate intervention from playground supervisors, so children must handle negative emotions back in the classroom.

About two or three years ago, over 100 Catholic Primary schools and other faith schools began practising or were in the process of adopting Christian Meditation as part of their school curriculum. This pilot scheme is now being extended to all areas of the UK and is gaining rapid popularity for its ability to deliver a valuable life skill to the children - to be still and silent in an otherwise chaotic and noisy world.

Another aspect to consider is one from Nicholas Carr, author of The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains. He writes: "Bombarded with impulses, we're turning scatterbrained" for the The Wall Street Journal. He talks about shallow thinking and the effect on our intellectual lives could be 'deadly'. He states that: "Unlike the screen, the page promotes contemplativeness. ... The innate bias of the human brain, after all, is to be distracted.  ... We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind."

Curiously, Fr Laurence himself was reluctant and had his own doubts about teaching meditation to children.  In 1977, he lived in the small Benedictine community dedicated to both the practice and the teaching of Christian meditation begun by John Main at the invitation of the Archdiocese of Montreal. Here's what he tells us in the book, Coming home: A guide to teaching Christian Meditation to Children by Ernie Christie, Deputy Director, Townsville Catholic Education Office (p. 5/6)

"Soon after we had started our monastic life in Montreal, a young couple approached us asking if we would give some religious instruction to their two boys aged 6 and 7. We declined, apologising that we were too busy. But the mother persevered, and John Main eventually conceded and asked if I would like to take them on a Saturday morning. I said I would prefer not to but ended up obeying. As things turned out it became a wonderful and refreshing part of my week and of my life. It was also our first community experience of sharing John Cassian's tradition of the Desert monks with children. (There were children in the monastic Desert according to the sources but we know little of how they lived there.)

Week by week, I and sometimes Fr John would spend a couple of hours with the children, teaching Gospel stories and ending the morning with a short period of meditation, maybe five or ten minutes in stillness and silence, saying the mantra interiorly. The original two boys, Julian and Dominic Schofield, liked these Saturday mornings and brought their friends along so that as the years passed the group grew. At first I was perplexed by the children's lack of comment or question. At the regular meditation groups meeting at the monastery, there were nearly always questions. I wondered if the children just enjoyed the visit to the monastery and endured the meditation. Were they actually engaged in the 'work' during our five or ten minutes of time of silence? Two incidents proved to me that they were. Firstly, when I asked the older children to introduce newcomers to the how-to of meditation, it was obvious from the clarity and precision of their teaching that they had got it. Then on one or two occasions after meditation there was a rare passing comment. Once, after meditation a child said 'phew, that was hard'. On another occasion a child said casually and appreciatively 'that was nice'. Maybe the whole of Christian mystical theology could be summed up in those two remarks."

Now, Fr. Laurence feels we should help the young to meditate because children are the best candidates for it because they have less conditioning and problems that may prevent others from relaxing. Children can go "into" meditation quickly for this reason.

In Christian Meditation, the mantra suggested for the children is the Aramaic word 'Maranatha'. The recommended length of time for meditation is one minute per year of age. Hence a 5-yr-old does it for 5 minutes and so on. (When adults begin meditating, the same mantra is suggested but they begin at 20 minutes and work up to  a maximum of 30 twice a day.)

I'd like to introduce this excerpt from the Foreword of the book, "Born contemplative: Introducing children to Christian Meditation." The author, Madeleine Simon (1912-2003) was 80 years old when she wrote it. She was a Religious of the Society of the Sacred Heart (RSCJ).  It was first published in 1993.
 
"The pressures on children by our education and marketing industries are escalating. Evidence grows daily of the effects of these pressures on their mental health and well-being. In reaction to this, many schools have begun to introduce meditation into the classroom from a secular tradition. In fact this means from religious traditions (Hinduism in the case of Transcendental Meditation and Buddhism in the case of Mindfulness Training) adapted for a secular culture. This is a positive and hopeful development. However, the question remains: Why not also be open to explore and restore the link between classroom meditation and the holistic spiritual wisdom from which it derives?
 "It is certainly possible to meditate simply for the measurable benefits at the psychological and physical levels. This simply illustrates the universality and simplicity of meditation which is found at the heart of all the great religious traditions. This is excellent as far as it goes. But the danger of a reductionist approach to meditation might also threaten the full development of its potential over the lifetime of a child who learns it early in their development but does not acquire sustainable means of keeping the practice going. Research is underway, in which our community is participating, to see whether a sense of tradition and a personal support system within it do not, in fact, maximse the value of those simple, non-conceptual, image-free periods of 'time to be' that children almost universally respond to, often practise on their own outside the classroom, and ask for again and again.
 "Meditation can be taught in a 'secular' context without linking it to a religious belief system. But it can also be taught as part of a religious formation and education syllabus. Wisely handled these apparently opposed approaches can even be combined in a contemporary pluralist society and in classrooms where children of mixed faith traditions or none can meditate together and benefit personally and collectively. 
 "We need to reflect on what 'secular' means. It does not mean anti- or non-religious but expresses a wide range of cultural and intellectual adjustments to our way of living and thinking.
 "The imminent collapse of religious belief that was predicted a generation ago has clearly not happened. But religion is in big trouble. Never before has the contemplative tradition been needed to re-invigorate and re-position religion across the global board. Christians need to consider whether their religion is primarily about control and enforcement or encourageing human flourishing and the fullness of life which Jesus gave as the reason for his existence. He pointed to children - for whom we have responsibility in every area of life - as our teachers. We need to recover the way of seeing and being that comes naturally to them but which usually lies dormant in the adult state.
"Teaching meditation in the classroom and at home helps us both to care for the child and to learn to reactivate our own spiritual lives. Children have the right to be introduced to a way of being in which they experience no threat, no competition, no exploitation, no distraction. This is the gift of meditation they receive so immediately and naturally when it is offered. If we underestimate their capacity for contemplation, we fail them."

In my opinion, in 2014, despite many attempts by schools, organizations, and government to introduce programs to relieve pressures on children, pressures have not been reduced; in fact, they may have actually increased. Support for this statement comes from school board surveys, such as the one from the Toronto District School Board where a Grade 7-12 survey revealed widespread anxiety, stress and loneliness. In 2012, a staff survey conducted in Lambton Kent Board discovered that 90% of staff are concerned about student mental health, and about 95% agree there is a connection between a student's mental health and their ability to learn.

Madeleine Simon expresses the idea of children of mixed faith traditions or none being able to meditate together. This definitely is something to think about.

Through the efforts of Paul Tratnyek and others, I find it satisfying to know that currently elementary students in three different schools of Ontario's Brant-Haldimand-Norfolk Separate School Board are meditating in their classrooms. Seven teachers are in regular contact, via Skype, with mentors in Townsville, Australia. Let's watch and see if more Roman Catholic boards in this province put Christian Meditation into their religious education.

Much can be accomplished in the classroom in a shorter time when children are attentive and an effective teaching methodology is used. I can't think of a better gift for our children today and for  future generations. A number of Youtube talks on Christian Meditation for Children by Dr. Cathy Day and Ernie Christie can be found on YouTube, for anyone interested.

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