Obaitori

Stories on Sunday ~ Treasure under the Pillow

Many traditions use stories to teach great spiritual truths. Here, on Sundays, some of these stories will be re-told. They can be understood by adults & children. Where possible I will suggest a children's picture book that teaches the same or similar story.

(Dazla on his journey to Gangotri -  the origin of the river Ganga and seat of the goddess Ganga,the daughter of heaven, Gangotri is one of the four sites in the Char Dham pilgrimage circuit. Himalayas, India).

"The stranger was happy that he had won the confidence of the wealthy pilgrim, who was travelling alone and carrying thousands of rupees. The stranger felt sure that one day he would be able to steal the money.

Every morning the pilgrim would count the money in the stranger's presence. All day long it would be in his pocket. He had no box to lock it up in. Yet, when at night the stranger searched for it, he could not find it. This went on night after night. The stranger searched for the money everywhere, in the pilgrim's belongings, underneath his pillow and bed, but could not find it. Yet, sure enough, the next morning it would be there in the pilgrim's hands.

This mysterious game went on for over a week. The stranger was frightened. He thought that the pilgrim might be a magician or a yogi with powers. So he confessed his evil intentions and asked the pilgrim, "Where did you keep the money during the night? How did I miss it in my search?"

The pilgrim laughed heartily and said, "My friend, I know your intentions. Therefore, I kept the money underneath your pillow at night. You never looked for it there!"

The stranger is the wayward mind full of desires. The pilgrim is God. The treasure is the bliss of the Atman (the greater self). The wicked mind wants happiness and seeks for it in sensual objects. It is not found there. Finally it abandons its evil intentions and approaches God in a spirit of surrender. God reveals that the happiness was within the Self all the time in, and not outside."

~ by Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

The story book that teaches this concept to children is Herbert & Harry (in the United States also known as Hidden Treasure). A story written by the famous & profound Australian author, Pamela Allen.

Herbert and Harry are brothers who enjoy being together until they discover a treasure chest while fishing. The ensuing rift over ownership of this treasure chest leaves Harry swimming for shore and Herbert escaping with the treasure. Herbert's concern over his external treasure that Harry or someone else will find it turns the find into a lifelong burden as he searches for an impenetrable hideout so he can sleep without worry. His is a life of constant vigilance, while Harry, who "had no treasure," is surrounded by plump grandchildren, has his treasure in his heart and is "always able to sleep soundly."

 

A Prayer for Mothers

We  pray

For new mothers, coming to terms with new responsibility;

For expectant mothers, wondering and waiting;

For those who are tired, stressed or depressed;

For those who struggle to balance the tasks of work and family;

For those who are unable to feed their children due to poverty;

For those whose children have physical, mental or emotional disabilities;

For those who have children they do not want;

For those who raise children on their own;

For those who have lost a child;

For those who care for the children of others;

For those whose children have left home;

And for those whose desire to be a mother has not been fulfilled.

Bless all mothers, that their love may be deep and tender,

And that they may lead their children to know and do what is good,

Living not for themselves alone, but for God and for others.

Hear our prayer.

If I don't say this prayer everyday I at least think about it once or twice. This prayer is powerful & all encompassing just like Mother Mary & Kuan Yin (the Bodhisattva of Compassion, the Buddha of Women & Children, the protector). It startles me & comforts me feel knowing that every living entity on this planet has a mother, including plants. This awareness, understanding & compassionate way can be clearly explained to children using this meditation.

Ignorance

Last night I watched a dvd on the Great Irish Famine. The story made me sob. I cried for my ancestors, their pain & unbelievable suffering. I went to bed with a dreadful headache & I felt  so sad. I felt bad too because I was totally ignorant. I really had no idea about this part of history. It was just over 250 years ago. I knew about a potato famine, I thought they only had potatoes to eat. So many people died from hunger, cruelty, exposure to the elements & injustice from the English government.

Often I wake rather grumpy. This morning I awoke to my senses, gave thanks & remembered the beautiful, stoic Irish. A roof over my head,  a healthy mind & body, food in the cupboard, two healthy children, a supportive husband, a guru.  I also have a government where I can say that the prime minister is a dickhead & not get locked up in prison for it. I know that all this too can change but for today I'm grateful.

Mandarin Meditation ~ a meditation for children & adults

                                                                        ~ The Mandarin Blossom

"One day, I offered a number of children a basket filled with mandarins. The basket was passed around & each child took one mandarin & put it in their palm. We each looked at our mandarin & the children where invited to meditate on its origins. They saw not only the mandarin but also its mother the mandarin tree. With some guidance they began to visualise the blossoms in the sunshine & in the rain. Then they saw petals falling down & the tiny green fruit appear. The sunshine & the rain continued & the tiny mandarin grew. Now someone has picked it & the mandarin is here. After seeing this, each child was invited to peel the mandarin slowly, noticing the mist & the fragrance of the mandarin, the tiny segments that make-up the whole piece of fruit. Then bringing it up to the mouth & having a mindful bite, in full awareness of the texture & taste of the fruit & the juice coming out. We ate slowly like that."

"If I offer you a freshly picked mandarin to enjoy, I think the degree to which you enjoy it will depend on your mindfulness. If you are free from worries & anxiety, you will enjoy it more. If you are possessed by anger or fear, the mandarin may not be very real to you."

"Each time you look at a mandarin, you can see deeply into it. When you peel it & smell it, it’s wonderful. You can take your time eating a mandarin & be very happy."

Children & adults love this meditation. It can be done in any season with any piece of fruit or vegetable. To see the look of awe & wonder upon the meditators faces when it dawns that the fruit too has a mother, is magical & enchanting.

From - Thich Nhat Hahn. Peace Is Every Step; The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life.

The Early Childhood of Saints

The early childhood of saints, sages, rishis & seers has always fascinated me. I love hearing & reading about these stories. Often even the slightest glimpse of spirit early on in the child's life is all it takes to encourage the soul to take flight. I can't remember which self-realised saint it was but her parents were atheists, & tucked away, hidden in her bottom drawer, this young girl had a picture of Jesus & the Virgin Mary. These powerful images lit her spirit into the Divine Life.

With exceptions, I have noticed though that the Catholic Saints were described as angels & the Hindis nothing less than 'ratbags.' Krishna was apparently a nightmare. Jesus, 'no crying he made.' But are these memories, anecdotes & stories accurate? I know for myself that I remember only the good times & mother's bias - well, you know.

(Yashoda chasing her baby - Krishna. It is said in the Bhagavad-Gita that "Whatever one does for Krishna–at any time, at any place, under any circumstance–is to one’s eternal benefit." So in otherwords our children, in any belief system, give us the opportunity to practice!)

I think that all children are much more connected to God & their past-life because they are chronologically closer to it. I've also heard that children under 5 are much more likely to be in tune with their intuition, angels, faeries & the like. It would make sense too that over the age of five children are less likely to remember because people suggest it out of them. For example, the grandfather has died, the grandchild is told this & immediately asks, "When is he coming back?" Often the answer repeatedly told is, "He is not coming back. He is dead. He is in heaven now." In a Buddhist family however, the answer might be, "His soul will be in the bardo for 49 days. We need to think positively about him. He will come back again as a child, a baby."

How do we develop a child's intuition & spirit & what can we do to keep this connection to God close? (a little about that is addressed here).

For me, there are two crucial elements of developing intuition. Firstly listening to the child & secondly, honouring what the child says as truth.

Asking questions reveals insight into the child's mind. I asked Indira, aged three & a half, at the time "What is God?" She replied, "God is singing." The quote from Swami Sivananda immediately came to mind, "Singing the names of God (kirtan) is the quickest, safest, cheapest, surest and best way to reach God." Seriously, I did not think she would have been even able to answer this question &let alone answer it so profoundly & simply.

(Indira aged 6 months playing kirtan ~ the Drunken Sufi)

Developing intuition can be done in a number of meaningful ways, a crystal clear diet, a quartz or rose quartz crystal near the head at night-time & pure water. Prayer is essential with the emphasis being on listening to the response with stillness, quiet, calm, joy. Intuition can also be developed in fun ways too; before answering the ringing telephone ask your child, "Who's on the phone?" Keep an eye out for children's literature. A beautifully subtle & sweet story is "Amy & Louis" (also known as Half A World Away) by the wonderful Libby Gleeson. It is a story about children listening to messages from afar in their dreams.

Create beautiful meditations for your child, record them as a podcast or simply  record on to a cassette. Often at the library, books are available on meditation for children.

"Meditation leads to knowledge of the self which brings about eternal peace. Regular meditation opens the avenues of intuitional knowledge and makes the mind calm and steady. Meditation develops strong and pure thoughts. Mental images are clear-cut and well defined. Good thoughts are well grounded. Through clarification of ideas, confusion vanishes, doubts are cleared. Nothing can disturb your mind. The whole system will be charged with spiritual vibrations. Meditation is a powerful tonic. The holy vibrations penetrate all the cells of the body and cure its diseases. The powerful soothing waves that rise during meditation exercise a benign influence over the mind and the nerves. If you can meditate for half an hour daily, you will be able to engage with peace and spiritual strength in the daily battle of life. As you have to move with different minds of peculiar natures in your daily life, get the strength and peace from meditation and you have no trouble and worry." Swami Sivananda Saraswati.

I like to read to my children about childhood saints. There are many wonderful books, stories & information to be found on this subject - more about that later. Around our home are lots of pictures of great masters as children & presently a beautiful picture on the fridge of Swami Nirananjan as a baby held by his guru, the realised master Swami Satyananda.

Connecting within, planting seeds & touching the divine

I love spontaneous moments. They happen when you need them the most. Our normal evening routine was giving us hives so we went for a drive. Ten minutes away to Copacabana Beach. It may well be confused with nirvana ...

Teaching about God, the Goddess or Divine Presence with children is best done simply. For our very young children their introduction to the natural world is a certain way to invoke this powerful presence.

Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder wrote ~

"If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the Christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructable that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom & disenchantments of later years, the strerile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.

There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb & flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night & spring after winter."

Schooling in nature means - looking, listening, touching, tasting & smelling. It also means doing nothing, just being, getting in touch & feeling into the present moment. Nature is all around , spiritual practice can be done daily- star gazing, cloud watching, breathing in & out.

The Opening of the Central Coast Montessori School

Like the beauty of a flower unfolding our school opened this week.

The beginning of this journey, for me, began almost a decade ago. Dimitri and I would passionately discuss education, life & spirit in the playground of the Inner City Montessori School. The idea, his idea, was to create a school on the Central Coast, NSW, Australia. There were many minds and hands that 'built' the beginnings of this school. We all wanted to create a beautiful place, a Casa dei Bambini, a children's house.

About three years ago the physical signs of the school started to appear. Two & a half semi-rural acres with a house at Wamberal, NSW, Australia.

                                                                                                                Indira aged 2

Dimitri soon began facilitating a prepatory programme. A space where young children & their families could be gently guided into the Montessori philosophy. Soon a happy, supportive & enthusiastic community emerged.

Two years later Dazla built the first 3-6 year old classrom, called FEILEACAN – butterfly in Gaelic.

 

And so this week, with the classroom ready, 30 eager children brought in their lunches, journals, indoor slippers & fruit to share, & we began - with hope.

Here are some photos.

Peace is every step.

Free Tibet!

The Dalai Lama is greeted by well wishers after arriving at the Park Hyatt Hotel on February 17, 2010 in Washington, DC. His Holiness the Dalai Lama met with U.S. President Barack Obama for the first time yesterday.

My prayer & hope from this meeting is that His Holiness together with Barack Obama will be able to highlight to the world the gross atrocities of the Chinese Government against the Tibetan people, their homeland & its animals. Bring about real changes to return Tibetan children & their families to their motherland, free all Tibetan political prisoners from Chinese prisons & alleviate the suffering & pain of thousands of women, children & their families. Lord, hear my prayer.

Tenzin Tsundue ~ the rebel warrior ~ is a Tibetan born man living in India. He is a writer-activist & wherever you see someone scaling a tall building to hang a Tibetan flag over it in protest - you can almost guarantee, that someone will be Tsundue.

A little bit about Tsundue from his facebook page;

I am proud that I am born into a Tibetan family. I cannot go to Tibet because Tibet is today under Chinese colonial occupation, but I belong to the rich Tibetan culture and heritage; I inherit such a legacy. But unless Tibet is independent our homeland may soon get consumed by the fast spreading epidemic of Sinocization which has changed Manchuria irrecoverably into a Chinese backyard.
I am a writer and activist based in Dharamsala, the capital of exile Tibetans I live out of my writing.

Below is one of Tenzin Tsundue's poems. His writings are published online. 

I'M TIRED

I am tired,
I am tired doing that 10th March ritual,
screaming from the hills of Dharamsala.

I am tired,
I am tired selling sweaters on the roadside,
40 years of sitting, waiting in dust and spit.

I am tired,
eating rice 'n' dal
and grazing cows in the jungles of Karnataka.

I am tired,
I am tired dragging my dhoti
in the dirt of Manju Tila.

I am tired,
I am tired fighting for the country
I have never seen. 

                                                        (Courtesy Aidan Loehr/American Alpine Institute).

Tenzin Tsundue has made a personal vow not to remove his red bandana until Chinese occupied Tibet is free. That day is almost here.

President Barack Obama meets with H.H 14th Dalai Lama (official White House photograph Pete Souza).

Healing Haiti Meditation

Beautiful People,

Let us gather as one, opening our compassionate hearts with healing loving energy for Haiti this Sunday the 21st, 11am at Yogaways Terrigal, NSW, Australia. One hour sharing Healing Mantra and Meditation. Any donations are welcomed and will go to a reliable Haiti charity. Please come and help shine healing vibrations and spread the word.

Peace and Love,

Amanda Richmond xoxo

Stitches for Tibet for Stitches of Tibet

 

Over the last year & a half some of the women from Obaitori & some other beautifully creative inspired genuis' have been coming to my home for a creative group we call Stitches for Tibet. We meet once a month to share creative vision, techniques, laughter, stories, chai & chocolate.

One beautiful woman brings a sketchpad, draws, listens carefully & offers ayurvedic advice, one brings oil & gives massages. One woman, has expanded the horizons of the group & taken us into the world of handmade markets where we make a lot of money to give away, she is pure genuis & oh, so very humble (you know who you are, thank you). Some women bring chocolates & red wine but everyone who comes brings, Love. We laugh (a lot), cry, share happy & sad stories, listen & talk, my goodness do we talk!

                                                     (MacMasters Beach Christmas Market December, 2010)

Here are some of the things we have made -

Exquisite Geisha cards.

Journals, earings & tiny rings.

Some items are also donated. We are blessed to have a student Tibetan doctor in our midst, thank you Helen.

Hanging out - some of the posse.

When we gather, a gold coin donation enables the group to sponsor a Tibetan woman to complete a tailoring apprenticeship under the programme of Stitches of Tibet, an initiative of the Tibetan Women's Association.

This programme offers Tibetan women living in exhile the goal to become self-reliant & have control over their own lives.

An apprenticeship of 12-18 months of tailoring, tuition for learning English & math, weekly health education workshops & a small stipend for expenses is offered to ten Tibetan women per year, eight of the positions being reserved for new arrivals from Tibet.

Traditional & modern handmade items are sold at the Stitches of Tibet shop in Dharamsala, India. Proceeds from sales are put back in to the programme for operating expenses & continuation of the programme.

A big thank you to all involved - & especially to all of those beautiful strong, courageous Tibetan women. This group is for you - our brave sisters.

Free Tibet!