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“It is said that the teacher’s presence in the classroom is the unwritten curriculum. The transformation of our schools and our society begins with the transformation of ourselves through the practice of cultivating mindful awareness.” – Adele Caemmerer, from Thich Nhat Hanh’s mindfulness retreat for educators in India, 2008

Page 76 reprinted from Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children (2011) by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California for participants of Omega Institute’s Mindfulness in Education Conference, August 12-14, 2011. Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children was edited by Sr. Jewel and illustrated by Wietske Vriezen. More mindfulness activities for children from the Plum Village community can be found at: www.plantingseedsbook.org.

MEENA SRINIVASAN, MA, NBCT www.mindfulnessineducation.com (Contact at www.meenasrinivasan.com) 1

http://www.meenasrinivasan.com/

http://www.plantingseedsbook.org/

Pebble Meditation is a popular practice in the Plum Village community. It was developed several years ago at a Thich Nhat Hanh retreat for children in California and is now practiced in classrooms and at Thich Nhat Hanh’s practice centers around the world. Some reflections from sharing the practice with students from the “A Year of Mindfulness in the Classroom” blog can be found at: http://mindfulteacher.posterous.com/tag/pebblemeditation

Plum Village Pebble Meditation Practice Sheet

Finish each sentence and/or draw a picture

Flower Fresh

I feel fresh, energetic, joyful and playful when:

Mountain Solid

I feel solid, strong and confident when:

Still Water Reflecting

I feel calm, still, quiet and focused when:

Space Free

I feel free, light and relaxed when:



http://mindfulteacher.posterous.com/tag/pebblemeditation

Guided Meditation Cards from Sr. Jewel’s Plum Village Mindful Kids Blog www.mindfulkids.wordpress.com



http://www.mindfulkids.wordpress.com/





Breathing In, Breathing Out is the song that accompanies the Pebble Meditation practice and it is available on the CD that comes with Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children.

More Resources

Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Global Community (www.plantingseedsbook.org) was recently published by Parallax Press and is available at the Omega Store. You can also easily order the book from Parallax (www.parallax.org) or Amazon. This book is an excellent resource for anyone interested in sharing mindfulness with children and the activities included in the book can be adapted for any age.

The Plum Village Community is also offering a course in applied ethics to educators who wish to cultivate peace and wellbeing in their own lives while contributing to a more compassionate classroom and school environment. The essence of the course in applied ethics is mindfulness, the energy of being aware of and awake to what is happening inside and around us in the present moment. The methods offered in this applied ethics course help us to understand our own bodies, minds, feelings and perceptions, so we can help others to do the same. For more information please contact: [email protected]

“A Year of Mindfulness in the Classroom” www.mindfulnessineducation.com is a blog grounded in the Plum Village tradition that documents bringing mindfulness to children and teachers in a variety of settings in India. The blog is filled with resources, articles and personal reflections highlighting:

Mindfulness in the Slum

Mindfulness in Education in India

Educator Sangha

Mindfulness in the Class and/at School

Mindfulness LessonsMEENA SRINIVASAN, MA, NBCT www.mindfulnessineducation.com (Contact at www.meenasrinivasan.com)

“You cannot transmit wisdom and insight to another person.

The seed is already there. A good teacher touches the seed,

allowing it to wake up, to sprout, and to grow.”

– Thich Nhat Hanh

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http://www.mindfulnessineducation.com/

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.plantingseedsbook.org/

Current trends in mindfulness research: Backing up the practice with science

By Meena Srinivasan and Radhika Bapat

While in India, Thich Nhat Hanh offered many teachings on mindfulness that especially touched the lives of thousands of teachers. Teachers are a vital link in creating "the change we wish to see in the world" and fundamentally embody this Gandhian vision. Thich Nhat Hanh emphasized this point, when he joined the thousands that walked from Parliament to India Gate on the anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday (2008). Together, we walked in silence trying to cultivate peacefulness within so that we can be peaceful in the world. Afterward, many teachers felt compelled to share this experience with their students.

An experiential understanding of mindfulness is important for bringing mindfulness practice into the classroom effectively. Providing the necessary rationale is also important. Students, parents, and the larger community need to know about the benefits associated with engaging in mindfulness practices — how it will benefit them and what research says about the effects of practice on brain function, cognition, emotion and behavior. In many educational settings, parents and administrators will only support initiatives that are research-based, and the science behind mindfulness is already strong and expanding daily.

The participants at the 2010 Brain Development and Learning: Making Sense of the Science conference met at the nexus of health, neuroscience and education1. Both of this chapter’s authors had the good fortune to attend the conference. As an educator/practitioner and clinical psychologist with a specialization in neuropsychology, we have drawn upon our experience and understanding in summarizing current research trends in mindfulness. Our purpose is to present these trends in an accessible fashion for educators, health practitioners, parents and anyone interested in sharing mindfulness with children. This summary synthesizes current trends in the neuroscience of mindfulness without summarizing specific details from studies. The reader is advised to explore the Mind and Life institute website (www.mindandlife.org) for a comprehensive detailed discourse on the topic. It should also be noted that the United States Department of Education has funded a 1.2 million dollar grant to further investigate effects reported in a recently published paper by Patricia Jennings, Ph.D. and Mark Greenberg Ph.D., outlining how mindfulness programs supporting teacher social-emotional competence enhance the learning environment.2

Fueling the growing interest in mindfulness and education is widespread interest in studying alterations in brain and immune functions as a consequence of mindfulness and meditation. During the past decade, the number of scientific controlled experiments in this field increased exponentially. Research funding from agencies such as the National Institute of Health are also gradually increasing.

Rigorous science is especially important as professionals and general public are bombarded with information on various approaches to health and wellness that claim to be beneficial. Research helps us separating the genuine approaches from those that only lay spurious claim to magical cures (somewhat like the advertisements on television that sell “Easy weight loss in 7 days”). Faith too has become a marketable tool, especially when people feel desperate for help.

Research also provides information to help people assess diverse genuine meditation practices and make educated choices about where to devote energy. Positive results from different approaches supports the view that no single approach is “the only” one that makes a difference. Individual preferences and situations, in this case, become important. Finally, sincere practitioners always warn against ‘blind faith.’ It is important to feel empowered while making any choice.

1 “An interdisciplinary conference devoted to making cutting-edge research in neuroscience, child psychology, and medicine understandable and applicable to those who work with children on a daily basis held in Vancouver from July 16-20, 2010.” Diamond, A. Dr. (n.d.) Third Biennial Conference on Brain Development and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/bdl.html 20 July 2010. 2 Saltzman, A. Dr. (n.d.). Teachers guide|The Buddha. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/teachers-guide/ 20 July 2010.



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Toward this goal, an interdisciplinary approach where science can meet faith and embrace the meticulous study of the mind is likely to open up many more exciting avenues of understanding of consciousness and health. The benefits of this path are infinite, both in the spiritual realm and modern medicine with the potential for catalyzing advances in healing as well as ‘preventive’ medicine.

Mindfulness and Illness/Psychopathology

To date, research supports the effectiveness of mindfulness in adults with varied health and psychological conditions such as chronic pain, stress, anxiety, psoriasis, eating disorders, fibromyalgia, substance abuse, cancer patients, preventing relapse in depression, etc (Baer 2003; Bishop 2002; Grossman et al. 2004; Ivanovski and Malhi 2007; Shigaki et al. 2006; Segal et al. 2002; Teasdale et al. 2000).

The majority of studies published in peer review journals document research designs involving a handful of widely-used approaches including: Mindfulness based stress reduction (MBSR), Mindfulness based cognitive therapy (MBCT), Acceptance and Commitment therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior therapy (DBT).

While reading literature on the above, you should look for a multisite ‘randomized controlled’ independent replication study in order to reliably see the relationship between two states in a causal manner. The ‘magnitude of effect’ of the various treatment modalities in comparison, is the next stage toward showing that a particular treatment is more effective than another. While reviewing literature it is important to look at these two aspects while not discounting the importance of qualitative and single case studies or narratives. Research progresses from one to many, and this is the natural evolutionary trajectory of any line of study.

Neuroscience

The ‘Mind and Life institute’ began driving the increased public and professional interest in the effects of meditation on the brain in 1987. The Institute conducts frequent dialogues between western scientists and Buddhists, with the objective to “help the evolution of the mind sciences into a form of experiential neuroscience, bridging the gap between external and internal descriptions.”3 According to co-founder, Dr. Francisco J. Varela, such a unification of our understanding of the world — a new frame for a mind science — would be one of the major contributions of Buddhism to the modern world.

“Neuroplasticity” refers to the brain’s capacity to change, both in structure and function, as a result of life experience and volitional training. Much current research has focused on how the brain and behavior can change throughout the lifespan. The extent of this change varies but brain plasticity is known to be the highest during infancy and childhood. Despite what are known as ‘critical periods’ during an infant's development, neuroplasticity has astronomical implications for an individual throughout life. The brain’s capacity for change is both a reason for great optimism and a reminder of human responsibility.

“Epigenetics” and the alterations in gene expressions as a result of environmental influences is yet another fascinating area that is being studied alongside mindfulness. This field explores the effect of specific conditions and life experiences in the activation of genes. Data show that many factors can impact whether genetic predispositions manifest, reinforcing the statement that biology is not destiny.

Research in neuroplasticity and epigenetics typically involves cutting edge technology such as Functional Brain Imaging that include methods for interrogating brain function like magnetic resonance imaging and positron emission tomography. Machines that study brain electrical activity provide data on structural and

3 Varela, Dr. F. The Importance of the encounter with Buddhism for modern science. Retrieved from

http://www.mindandlife.org/encounter.html on July 20, 2010. MEENA SRINIVASAN, MA, NBCT www.mindfulnessineducation.com (Contact at www.meenasrinivasan.com) 8

http://www.mindandlife.org/encounter.html


functional brain resulting from mindfulness practice under controlled laboratory conditions.

Top-level scientists and researchers representing elite academic institutions such as University of Massachusetts Medical School, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Harvard, Stanford, and the University of California - Santa Barbara, are working with Buddhist practitioners to apply rigorous controls and understand the science behind meditation. Their work is forging new scientific frontiers and also increasing the general public’s understanding and exposure to the practical benefits of science and meditation.

Research in the field of neuroplasticity, includes focus on states of consciousness, attention and concentration, reasoning and analysis, memory, as well as perception and executive functioning. Executive functioning includes skills such as inhibitory control (including selective attention), working memory, and cognitive flexibility, which are vital for success in school and for many of our daily activities throughout our lifespan.

There is little existing research on infants and young children using neuroimaging techniques, however some progress is underway in this domain too. Additionally, very few studies have been done conducted on mindfulness-based approaches with pre-school children but more are likely in the future. There is great interest in exploring whether mindfulness affects the young brain in positive ways and if these effects are long-lasting starting from infancy. Another exciting area of research is the effect of mindfulness-based approaches during pregnancy on which studies are underway at the University of California, San Francisco.

Beyond research: Being the change

Although rigorous science is important, many people find their own experiential results of dedicated practice to be most convincing. For them, the deep sense of presence and resilience is far more powerful than measureable results of mindfulness. It is this “heartfulness”4 that teachers then transmit to their students. Thich Nhat Hanh inspires educators to move beyond merely teaching peace to actually “being peace.”

Students are reflections of their teachers, and as teachers, the most important teachings we offer transcend academic skills and the acquisition of knowledge. Before teaching content, we must create a learning environment conducive for education. This begins by cultivating an inner sense of boundless love, so that we can receive students with warmth and create a classroom filled with peace. Striving to embody the practice by “being the change” is what will ultimately transform education.

Seldon, a sixth grader writes, “When we water the good seeds of ourselves, we will be impacting others. They may want to water their good seeds too, and it could sort of be like a chain.” Making this first step of “watering good seeds” with sincerity is critical for making the world a better place through practice, education and science.

About the Authors

Meena Srinivasan, MA, (True Seal of Peace) is a dedicated student of Thich Nhat Hanh committed to bringing mindfulness into education and practices with the American Embassy School Educators Sangha in New Delhi, India. She has experience teaching grades 6-12 in humanities and special needs, and has taught at some of the world’s leading International and Independent Schools. Meena has contributed to United Nations publications on inclusive education, is a National Board Certified Teacher, holds a California Professional Clear Teaching Credential in the Social Sciences and is a certified yoga teacher. She received

4 The Sanskrit root, cit, refers to the mind, consciousness and heart and it is the author’s understanding that an experience of

mindfulness is one that occurs with a deep connection of heart.



her Masters Degree in Education from UC Berkeley’s Social, Cultural and Studies Program where she also studied Sanskrit, and holds a Bachelors degree in History and Political Science from Amherst College and the London School of Economics.

Radhika Bapat, MA, M.Phil, heads a Child Guidance Centre in one of the largest chains of hospitals ‘Sahyadri Hospitals’, in Maharashtra, Pune, India. Her areas of interest include Executive Functioning in children and Early Childhood Education. She also works extensively with children especially those with Autistic Spectrum Disorders and Attention Deficit Hyperkinetic Disorder. She received her Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) degree in Clinical Psychology from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and her Masters degree from Pune University. She dedicates her knowledge in developmental neuroscience to children by working with educators and schools and has a special interest in sharing this information with non-governmental organizations that serve children.

The authors would like to thank Deborah Schoberlein, author of Mindful Teaching and Teaching Mindfully: A Guide for Anyone Who Teaches Anything (Wisdom Publications, Somerville, MA 2009) for her input.

Works Cited

Baer, R. (2003). Mindfulness training as a clinical intervention: A conceptual and empirical review. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 10, 125–143.

Bishop, S. R. (2002). What do we really know about mindfulness-based stress reduction? Psychosomatic Medicine, 64, 71–84.

Burke, C. (2009). Mindfulness-based approaches with children and adolescents: preliminary review of current research in an emergent field. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19(2), Retrieved from https://springerlink.metapress.com/content/e1638088141n327m/resourcesecured/?target=fulltext.pdf&sid=o2b3mwr4gcvcgnf04ec5oovk&sh=www.springerlink.com

Diamond, A. Dr. (n.d.) Third Biennial Conference on Brain Development and Learning. Retrieved from http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/bdl.html 20 July 2010.

Grossman, P., Niemann, L., Schmidt, S., & Walach, H. (2004). Mindfulness-based stress reduction and health benefits: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 35–43.

Ivanovski, B., & Malhi, G. S. (2007). The psychological and neurophysiological concomitants of mindfulness forms of meditation. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 19, 76–91.

Jennings, P. “The Prosocial Classroom: Teacher Social and Emotional Competence in Relation to Student and Classroom Outcomes” Review of Educational Research (Spring 2009) Vol. 79, No. 1: 491–525.

Saltzman, A. Dr. (n.d.). Teachers guide|The Buddha. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/thebuddha/teachers-guide/ 20 July 2010.

Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to relapse prevention. New York: The Guildford Press.

Shigaki, C. L., Glass, B., & Schopp, L. H. (2006). Mindfulness-based stress reduction in medical settings. Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings, 13, 209–216.

Teasdale, J. D., Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., Ridgeway, V. A., Soulsby, J. M., & Lau, M. A. (2000). Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depressions by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 68, 615–623.

Varela, Dr. F. The Importance of the encounter with Buddhism for modern science. Retrieved from http://www.mindandlife.org/encounter.html 20 July 2010.


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http://www.interprofessional.ubc.ca/bdl.html

Pages 77-87 reprinted from Planting Seeds: Practicing Mindfulness with Children (2011) by Thich Nhat Hanh and the Plum Village Community with permission of Parallax Press, Berkeley, California. www.parallax.org for participants of the Omega Institute’s Mindfulness in Education Conference.























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pebblemeditation.files.wordpress.com… · Web view · 2011-07-26Mindful Teaching and ... (2002). What do we really know about mindfulness-based stress reduction ... & Malhi, G