Meditation for Kids

Meditation is many things for many people… but the purpose of meditation is like the purpose of life. 

What is the purpose of life? 

Why do we do everything that we do? 

Why did you start reading this article?

We want to be happy… That’s why we do everything that we do. 

If anyone would have told you that by coming here today you will suffer, you wouldn’t have come, right? 

Every step, every action, every word, every breath is toward happiness. Sometimes we are willing to suffer on the way to some final goal… But that goal will always be something we think will make us happy. 

Anyone here wants to suffer? You can raise your hand and I can help you with that… No, we all want to be happy.

Here is a story that explains how meditation works:

A student approached his teacher and asked: “oh, my teacher, my master, please tell me what is your secret? How is it that you are always so happy, peaceful, relaxed, energetic, healthy… How do you do it?”

The teacher answered: “it’s very simple; when I walk I walk, when I eat I eat, when I talk to someone I talk to them, when I work I work, when I do yoga I do yoga… that’s all.”

The student said: “but I’m doing the same; when I walk I walk, when I eat I eat…”

The teacher replied: “that’s not accurate… when you walk, you think about your work. When you work, you think about your vacation. When you are on your vacation, you think about your home. When you are at home, you think about yoga. When you do yoga, you think of course about…food. Whatever you do you are not really there, your mind is somewhere else and that’s why you are missing out on life, that’s why this happiness slips away from you. Happiness is right here and now inside of you and outside of you and all over… you are just not here to experience it.”

Then the student understood the secret of being happy, which is nothing but being here and now. 

And if we’ll look at our own experiences of happiness we’ll see the same thing… Think about the happiest moments of your life, or any happy moment… What was the state of your mind at that time? 

At that time you were totally there. You didn’t think about other things, you didn’t want other things – You were totally there and then. You were happy.

But at other times, when our mind is all over, this happiness slips away… 

So the secret of happiness is simple – Just be here and now.

Meditation is many things, but first and foremost it is simply being present.  Thinking about what happened or what will happen is usually exhausting, but being in the present is not just energizing, it is also the essence of having fun and enjoying more everything that we do!  Real fun can happen in the present only.

Meditation is training the mind to be focused on the here and now. In order to have strong muscles, we have to use them again and again, and in the same way, to train the mind to be one-pointed we need to focus it again and again.

How much this skill of mindfully focusing on whatever you choose to can help you in every walk of life?

This kind of concentration training is not taught in schools, although it is the basis of successful studying and successful living.  Whatever work you do with a focused mind you do twice as fast and ten times better than if you would do it with a distracted mind… And you will also enjoy it more!

Are you ready to meditate?

Try this (good quality vegan) chocolate meditation:

• Whatever you do in this meditation DON’T SAY CHOCOLATE so that it stays completely about the experience rather than labelling or falling back to something we already know
• Close your eyes and don’t open them whatever happens
• Open your mouth just a bit
• We are going to put something in your mouth; don’t chew it… just let it melt
• Try to experience all the things about it that you might have missed before because your mind was somewhere else
• Feel the many tastes of it, the texture, the temperature, the softness and the hardness… smell it feel it…
• Don’t chew… breath… let it melt… as it melts, let your mind melt into it
• After a few minutes – you can start to chew and let the flavours and the sensations penetrate even deeper… swirl it around your mouth using your tongue and feel how different or the same it is all over your mouth…
• Now you can swallow… and stay in silence for another moment… enjoying the bliss… from within

Is it hard to meditate?  

Meditation should not be hard… it’s easy if you find YOUR meditation.