LEARNING SILENCE

or

SPONTANEOUS MEDITATION in LEARNING SILENCE

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CONTENTS:

A LIVING STORY.................................................................................................. 3

I SEE YOU, CAN I KNOW YOU? Coloring Book............................................... 20

LEARNING SILENCE or SPONTANEOUS MEDITATION IN LEARNING SILENCE / instructions/.......................................................................................... 41

This Publication contains a story about fourth year students, a coloring book and instructions

to Learning Silence and Spontaneous Meditation.

All characters in this story are fictional

Author: Marta Gerhátová

Illustrator: Žofia Bacskádiová

Translation: Janka Križanová, Peter Kohút

Language editor: Belinda Iró

Grafical editor: Norbert Baumann

Dunajská Streda 2014, Slovakia

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A LIVING STORY I. FOURTH YEAR STUDENTS “I promised to tell you a story about children that are just like you.” These kids were a little bit special. Just like the times they lived in. Each one of them was different, all together they existed next to each other, yet they were as far away as the sea is from its shore. Big differences could be found amongst them. From within the group of boys, there were many differing opinions; all sticking out at crooked angles and resulting in qua-rrels, fights, anger and malice. As for the girls; one could see appearing slowly some kind of “attempt for survival” as they existed in this class full of strange atmospheres. They held on tight, till the last bell, calling the end of the day. In short; fourth year students in a small school. Just like four legs on one chair, we all felt the need for an equilibrium. Me, them, and the world. “I am your new substitute teacher and I will be teaching you until the end of this school year. My name is Barbora.” I introduced myself strong and sure just like the patron saint of miners. Without waiting for feedback or reactions, I went through the breakdown of the learning cur-riculum until the end of May, with them. For June I planned to do summing up and revision of the year’s material. I would have continued with the systematic distribution of tasks and activ-ities, if it wasn’t for the laugh and comments of three experts at the back. “Experts” in ex-pressing their own opinions. One of them, Michael, got up from his chair and with a bottle still in his mouth, he walked past me as if I wasn’t there. He was crunching paper cuttings in his hands whilst marching directly towards the bin by the door, across the entire classroom, despite all the looks from his classmates and my previous cautionary talk. I stood speechless, watching his nonchalant movements and as soon as he noticed the tidal wave of attention on him, he started his own show on a classroom catwalk in front of the blackboard. He was laughing out loud when; as a result of his uncoordinated movements; in attempting to take his seat again, the chair fell on the ground and him with it. Of course, this was accompanied by roaring laughter from everyone in the classroom. “This will result in a notice...” I announced. “But Miss, who will get the notice? The chair or Michael? Dear Mrs. Chair, your daughter, little chair, fell upside down during the lecture and...” came a wise crack as Stano took sides with Michael. Then ensued a lot of laughter, shocked expressions on girls’ faces here and there and my pale look from a poisoned attention... for a little longer I watched all of this with open eyes. Then shortly before my heart closed, I closed my eyes. Inside myself I wrote an open letter about the situation to their parents, teachers and friends of the school. All in all, I tried to keep my balance. Soon, I continued talking and commanded with a ridiculously loud voice: “All of you, sit down on the carpet, in a circle. NOW!” A wave of excitement drowned the laughter and mockery, what will happen now? It swept everyone away to the carpet at the back of the classroom. I sat down next to them. “I am going to tell you a story” I announced. “What kind of a story?” resounded from a number of directions. “I am not going to tell you anything, unless there is complete silence!” I left behind me, the systematic lecturing full of goals and information and set off deep into a mine shaft searching for a piece of solid ground under foot, that all of us could share.

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“First of all, let’s sit with crossed legs, without touching anyone, without touching the wall, with your back straight, place your hands on the ground, NOW!” Half of the class succeeded in doing so, the other half - boys, waited for the second round, when I had to give them per-sonal attention and eventually almost everyone was seated “You, you will sit here! And you here! I am in charge of this class! You are in my classroom, I am responsible for this class and you will be accountable to me, the director and your parents. You represent them and us, your behavior must correspond....” for some time I was speaking in this manner. Then I changed the tone of my speech, slowed down and started with the story. “The story I am about to tell you is living. It is a real story. It is a story about children. About special children.” I was slowing down and dragged out the letters within the words..” These kids had abilities they didn’t know about.” I continued. “I cannot tell you the story until we get to the first level of the story together... Inhale, exhale... once again, yeees... with each ex-piration, let’s exhale all impatience and restlessness... yeees, once again... and now let’s put our right hand on the top of the head, with a stretched opened palm and keep our left hand on our lap open palm facing upwards... yeees..., to reach the first level of the story, we have to ask inside: MY GOODNESS, MY MOTHERLY GOODNESS, PLEASE AWAKEN IN ME AND PLEASE GIVE ME MY SELF AWARENESS; TRUE KNOWLEDGE ABOUT MY SELF... let’s ask this three times... yeees.... and now let’s massage the head by starting to move the hand to the right, moving it in a circle... let’s say inside – PLEASE GIVE ME MY SELF-AWARENESS... yeees... and now let’s slowly raise the hand above the head – sloooowly. Yeees – and NOW SILENCE – for one minute!!! We will remain quiet with our eyes closed, just observing the space above the head... we observe it with our hand... we ob-serve... let’s bring the hand down and stay in silence one more minute... yeees... this is the space that we can get to know. Get to know it, know that it exists. NOW! ... Can you feel it?” .... I remained in silence because there was silence. The children with their hands above their heads were looking for something new. There were no questions. “Soooo... very good” – I said serenely. You must reach this level if you want to find out more about this real living story.” Their eyes looked at me with surprise; equating the silence just experienced until someone said: “And what kind of story about children is this? What happened next? Tell us please?” I answered with a question. “What did you feel when you got closer to the silence above your head?” “I felt warm above my head.” “I felt pressure” “I felt a flow of air” “I felt cool” “I didn’t feel anything” “I was thinking” “I felt like there is a stone above my head” “I felt warm” they kept talking before they could forget what it was they felt. “And what about those kids?”, came another wave of questions. “The story about the children will continue tomorrow.” “But that’s not fair! Tell us what happened next!” “I cannot; you must first establish yourself at the first level; the first level of the story, that is excretion: emptying.” “Excretion?” laughter and grins enveloped the question. “Yes! You must exclude everything that disturbs you, that troubles you, that takes your atten-tion away from self-awareness... We will continue next time! Now, return to your desks, we will finish the story once we establish the first level.” Accompanied by a whisper from a couple of boys, everyone took their seats, took out their pens and transcribed a couple of sen-tences that I had written on the blackboard. Whilst I sat at my desk and watched the children from the height of my heaven., I put my bare feet on the ground, both hands open, and as if wrote an open letter to the Universe about it all - NOW!

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We returned to Learning Silence at every possible occasion, not systematically, but deep into the mine shaft of inner self, through the heart. We talked about the pelvic plexus, about meta-bolism that goes on in cells. That waste products are passed out from the body through the urine, that kidneys are dark-red colored filters of all the blood that they purify. That urine consists of water, salts and a special ingredient: urea that is created in the liver. That a healthy adult person secretes during his life approximately 41,000 liters of urine and our digestive system is 9 meters long. It is the mother Earth that purifies us, nourishes us and feeds us and our behavior is reflected in the attention on natural things. We learned that our behavior can be seen from the depths of this Earth and that there is something here that constantly monitors, supports and corrects us. We could see that this life is a school in which we are both students and teachers at the same time. I continued with the themes offered by the kids or from the situations which arose. They themselves posed questions as well as solutions, they enjoyed helping others, or being con-fronted. It was dynamic and living. In short, the goal was clear: to find in them the desire for self-knowledge and to work for the good of their inner self . MOTHERLY ENERGY INSIDE ME, PLEASE GIVE ME WISDOM AND TRUTH

II. LAND ON THE HORIZON “Now, everyone get up from your seats, I am going to change where you sit.” With this an-nouncement, I had started an attack on silence. “Why?” “Hey!” “Finally!” “Nooo!” “I want to sit with Kate!” “And I want to sit in front!” “Can I sit at the back?” “I want to sit with Aleeesh!” “Miss, may I sit with Oliver?” There was no end to their requirements. I mounted all my antennae and sensors, switched on lights and reflectors, and set off in search of tranquil shores for this restless, overflowing sea of fourth years. I must admit, this move paid off. I seated all uneasy boys directly in front of me, right into the spotlight, in front of the classroom, at the head of the adventurous expedition of fourth years. Amongst them I interweaved the best of female students that got the royal per-mission and right to positively influence our knights and gentlemen directly and first hand, whenever they see fit. If only you could have seen the girls’ condescending, yet nurturing ap-

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proach; difficult to describe; responsibility in action. I changed their seating order each time they disturbed, sometimes more than once a day, until they established a better attention and concentration. And to make it a little harder for them, I connected all three rows – and thus created four long desks behind which they sat closely next to each other, one next to another, a pupil next to another pupil; just like a chain with an anchor, which I could throw overboard and knew it will fall to the bottom of the ocean and dock there. After these changes, it wasn’t so easy any longer to put their feet on the desk, or to not tidy up their lunch, to take too much space whilst writing, disturb when reading, or belch during counting. The anchor had reached the bottom. “Miss, can I tell you a joke?” “First finish writing the answers in the exercise book.” I urged. “I have finished already.” “The others are still writing. When the last one finishes and you all have put away all your things nicely in your schoolbags, you can tell the joke.” “But that will be after the bell rings.” “It’s up to you.” I resigned. “Ok, everyone, hurry up with the writing, understood? We will be telling jokes.” As fast as a lightening strikes, all copybooks were closed and put away. The schoolbags cracked under a siege of pencil cases. “Miss, it is red and it is round. What is it? Do you give in?” Stanko’s eyes glittered. “Of course it’s an apple. And it is red, round and it starts with a letter ‘U’. What is it? Do you give in?” Glittered all eyes in the classroom. “Unbelievable; apple again!” We laughed and it was time to show them some juggling with oranges. TOMORROW. TODAY. “Where is your attention?” I raised my voice at Martin, who mocked Gabriel. Whilst reading the book “The Jungle Book” by Rudyard Kipling, Gabriel stammered, stum-bled, made up his own words and frowned at the world; because, he had to be seen in this way. He wasn’t doing very well. I stopped him and asked to keep pointing his finger at what was being read because he would continue in a short while again. Then I read a chunk of text myself, just to trigger their attention, captivate and immerse them into the story. When we could feel the smell of the Indian Jungle under our noses, he resumed reading and then anoth-er student and then me again for a short while, then again another troublesome one .... It worked. In this way, we managed to have read many books within a couple of months, we learned to keep the attention a little bit longer on something that they were interested in and they started to like. Gabriel’s reading skills improved and with each completed book he felt some regret that the collective journey through the pages was once more over. In Gabriel was the soul of an adventurer. “Where is your attention? What are you doing? What is your attention on? Can you see your-self?” Some of the most common questions used, when trying to save concentration; as it swirls around the classroom. We all sat down in a circle for a lesson of silence. “Miss, I was sad when my mum was upset and then my parents had an argument” announced a child’s voice, so vulnerable in that moment, but she wasn’t alone. Instantly, many an ear tuned in the reception on their internal transmitters. I pointed out that many parents do not always know how to handle such situations. “It is good for you to anchor yourself in such moments – simply by sitting down on the ground, placing your hands on the carpet and releasing the sorrows to the Mother Earth. Ask this element for help. We’ve tried this, you know how to do it. Now I’ll show you how to re-lax the left side of our bodies, which can become sad, tearful, or lazy. All right? Keep your left hand with the palm facing upward on your lap and place your right hand on the ground with the palm facing downward... MOTHER EARTH, PLEASE, PURIFY THE LEFT

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SIDE OF MY BODY AND REMOVE ALL MY BAD HABITS AND BAD MEMORIES. Reflect on this until you slowly calm down and begin to relax... One minute of silence please.... yeees, very good. If the sun shines on your palm, you can ask for the cleansing also from the light. If you want to relieve the right side of your body, you must ask the air element for the clean-sing: AIR, I GIVE YOU ALL MY WORRIES, ANGER AND PROBLEMS TO BE SOLVED. I DO NOT DO ANYTHING ANY MORE – ALL IS DONE BY MOTHERLY ENERGY IN THE ELEMENTS. Do this with your right hand on the lap and with your left hand raised up with an open palm facing behind you... inhale, exhale... silence please... very good. Observe the space above your head... . You can do this each time you need to calm down quickly.” “Miss, I was trying Learning Silence in my room and then my dog, Benny came and he wanted to play but I kept training and tried to remain quiet. And I managed to do so for a long time. It was quite fun to watch the dog. And to watch myself. But then I had to go to wash him because he knocked down a compote jar and had pieces of fur covered with sticky fruit juice.” “Hmm, nice. You have a new experience. Yes and cleansing is necessary. If you yourself were to put your feet into water or were to drink clean water with a request for cleansing; it would happen. Water is a strong element, it is contained everywhere in us and around us and it cleanses and washes us out. Ether on the other hand allows for the transmission of informa-tion across distances. We can use it to help us keep our communication clean. Just by looking above us into the sky, see how much space is there. Even without using the elements It is enough to liberate yourself by forgiving; forgiving all your thoughts and the peace and help can be delivered.” Our feet felt numb from too much sitting on the ground, so we sat on the chairs again. Nicely next to each other, somehow lighter and at the same time deeper. “It is clear and sharp and it starts with the letter ‘A’, what is it?” I started the riddle this time. “Apple” echoed from the classroom. “No – Attention. Be careful so it doesn’t roll away!”

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III. THE FIRE OF CREATIVITY Deep in the mine a light lit up. It was needed to get to know TAO, a bit of aesthetics and ob-servation. We could start digging. What we found were semiprecious stones, minerals, coal, silver and also gold. Missing were only pushcarts to load the goods into. We finished math's exercises. I told them their homework and they wrote it into their exercise books. I often still needed to check that it had been written down. We were left with some time for cleansing our minds, I let the children go and rest on the carpet for a while. “Since you are sitting on the ground with a straight backs...” I sat down next to them and they also sat up, “we will do a bit of massage. Let’s start with the head, using your fingertips start massaging the area above the forehead, then slowly move around the crown of the head, then behind the ears and neck. Let’s repeat this a second time and a third time; excellent. Let’s place our right hand on the top of our head again, this time we’ll request: MOTHERLY ENERGY, PLEASE MAKE MY SELF-AWARENESS MORE FIRM. Slowly, let’s raise the right hand high above the head... and watch this space... take the hand down and stay without any thoughts for as long as you can... if a thought comes, let’s just forgive it. Inside, we can thank for finding this peace. NOW let’s place the right hand on the lower part of the abdomen, on the left hand side of your body and ask: PLEASE GIVE ME THE PURE KNOWLEDGE, THE TRUTH.. one minute of silence. Now swap the hands – with your left hand on the lower part of the abdomen, on the right hand side of your body, ask: MOTHER-LY ENERGY, PLEASE TAKE AWAY ALL MY THOUGHTS... one minute of silence please. Let’s move the hand to the lower part of the abdomen in the middle ... PLEASE GIVE ME PURE CREATIVITY... let’s forgive all the incoming thoughts... and stay in cur-ing serenity of silence... excellent... you can give yourself a bandhan!” “What should we give ourselves?” Spoke a sweet, gentle, weak but freshly rested voice of a child. “Ah... I forgot to tell you about a bandhan... it is a cape that when worn, nothing can make you unhappy and nobody can fool you. It is a protection for your energy system. It is a living cape!” I said and triumphantly tucked up my sleeves. “Here, let’s do it together: BANDHAN: With your left hand – the supporting hand – raise your motherly energy – your goodness – from below, from the spot on which you sit on the ground, up along the spine. Continue up the centre of your body. The right hand; the hand of action, encircles this energy at each energy centre/plexus. We have seven of those. Up above the head we tie a knot with this energy and we repeat the whole thing again three times. With complete attention inside. Then around the body, with the right hand, evenly from the left side up around the head and down the right side and then BACK, (like a rainbow). By gathering the layers of energy – vibrations – evenly, we create a protective coat around the body. Seven times... It is good to keep this space pure.” Now the well known question echoed again. “When will you continue with that living story about children?” “Yeah, when will you tell us the story?” I wasn’t able to come up with any answer, there was no thought. Nothing... Just a SILENCE.... And they want from me a story that is happening right now. I just sat there quietly until the bell rang. The children went to eat their lunch. I stayed sitting there... for a bit longer... The bell rang again announcing the beginning of Nature class. I continued on from the last time. In a body of an adult human being, there are approximately 206 bones that support it. The skeleton protects the inside organs from injuries, it forms a sort of a cover. We have a

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number of these covers, subtle ones – invisible - as well. The spine consists of 24 vertebrae that are placed one on top of the other. The spine forms an axis for the organism, through which passes a spinal cord. Muscles are attached to the vertebrae; they also form a cover. We are full of many working organs, some of which are sensory, all are made from gross and sub-tle elements, so that we can understand and know ourselves completely. All together, it makes more sense... .” I inhaled deeply “and, tomorrow, bring with you, your tooth brush and tooth paste!” For a moment, the space was engulfed by a zen-like silence. “What? I beg your pardon, what should we bring?” Twins Petra and Pavla raised their eye-brows with a surprise. “Bring your tooth brush and tooth paste.” I repeated the sentence with a calm smile. Stano was on the attack: “We should bring our toothpaste and toothbrush. And don’t forget to bring also your teeth! Because we do not bring our teeth with us most of the time.” Followed a huge laugh. “Shall I bring my grandma’s dentures?” he continued. With this I had to stop them mid-sentence and explain that we do not need to look at the remains of food on each other’s teeth. That our teeth are also part of ourselves and it is necessary to keep this space clean... that thinking and feeling go hand in hand... that beautiful qualities and capabilities that we have will not shine if we won’t take care of them. After this we routinely brushed our teeth at the sink in the classroom, in groups, each day after lunch. They were amazing. First it was four of them playing together in the school playground: Ga-briel, Stano, Oliver and Martin. They began to invent a game with levels. At the beginning they argued and debated, each one of them wanted to be the leader, no-one wanted to carry out tasks, everyone wanted to manage and none wanted to enjoy the whole process. Taking on the MATERNAL role model, I had to intervene and assure them of their qualities. “The best ones need to be at the begging as well as at the end; the best of all must go there, equally gifted.” Gabriel and Stano automatically distributed their scope in a majestic grandeur accord-ing to their own excellence. The seam of fire that stood between them was extinguished. Then the fire of creativity started to blaze. “We have to pass through several levels of difficulty.” Gabriel began to construct the game “We will run from the bushes and the space between the school and the caretaker’s garage will be the section with crocodiles. There we must jump from small islands onto the backs of crocodiles and then fast back onto the little islands.” The instructions were clear. With Gabriel in the lead and the equally capable Stano at the back, gradually, other children were joining in the game. I have never seen such a compact class before. All the girls left their catwalk strolls and nest of robins forgotten somewhere in the bushes and worked through the level game together with the boys. Martin also joined – the best football player in class, Michael: a promising botanist, Kristian: a sought after artist, Ondre: an aviator, Teo: player of handball and a skilled mechanic, Ales and Richard ....... eve-ryone from the class joined in. Prompt and accommodating solutions were given to any disa-greements or problems. They played out different situations and created new worlds and le-vels. A section of the fence made of a concrete base and a metal frame above, turned into tree-tops that they had to traverse. At the same time, the whole group was being attacked by herds of monkeys and Gabriel pioneered the route, sought and cast out the best trails through the jungle. Stano at the tail of the expedition protected the girls from the attacks by herds of mon-keys. The children in the middle of the venture kept overtaking each other, they passed each other cargo, and helped one another scramble back and forth. When they successfully com-pleted this level, they raised the level of difficulty and had to ‘sail’ through the entire football pitch in groups on wooden logs that the sea washed up ashore. The next level represented crossing grassed area full of snakes and lizards. It was a beautiful game. They kept at it one

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whole season. They played for hours, with a variety of alterations, they were rested and hap-py. I wished I could play with them. Their imagination, understanding and love running free. In those times it was me who played Learning Silence. In reality it was a meditation.

IV. UNDERCURRENTS AND WAVES ON THE SURFACE “Miss, my Daddy and I, bought a fish for our aquarium, yesterday in town. A piranha. The little creature made a whole in the plastic bag and the water started to leak from the bag onto the back seat of our car.” “Really? The piranha bit through the plastic bag?” I asked Richard first incredulously-serious and then with laughter in my heart. “Yeeees! Seriously!” continued Richard convincingly. “The poor little creature. I then slipped it into a plastic lunch box; poor little one; it wallowed in a bit of water and breathed loudly, opening its muzzle. Poor little creature. Then we were stopped by the police but when we showed them our dying fish, they let us go.” By then we all grinned happily at Richard. He has a good heart and was so simple. With his best friend Ales; they were mischievous. We could hear the undercurrents of his pure soul in the waves of his story about his desires for saving the life of an aquarium fish. We all sat down on the carpet forming a circle. They talked about aquariums, about fish in the sea, and about attention, that was sharp and getting sharper... about the mind that was developing, getting subtler and subtler... until the today’s level of humanity. That hand in hand with the development of life in the sea and then on the earth, our mind and life were also being developed and so too were human beings. Apart from the inner organs, man has in the body also subtle centers: invisible wheels of energy or chakras, which store beautiful qualities That each energy center controls corres-ponding organs and has respective qualities. We found coral, amethyst, emerald, ruby, sap-phire, diamond. We found gemstones and also pushcarts on which to load this freight. “With the right hand under the left ribcage and with the left hand on our lap we can ask: MOTHERLY ENERGY PLEASE MAKE ME A CONTENT AND GENEROUS PER-SON. ENLIGHTEN IN ME THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE... let the desire and vibrations work on this place... very good... and now let’s swap our hands: The left hand goes under the right ribcage, the right hand stays palm facing upward on our lap. Let’s pray: MY INNER MOTHERLY ENERGY, PLEASE STRENGTHEN MY ATTENTION. MAKE

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ME A DIGNIFIED HUMAN BEING... we forgive our thoughts and remained in the silence of our own satisfaction... let’s slowly move the left hand on to the belly button... one minute of silence please.” We all took our seats by the desks to eat our break. Christian looked at me from under one eyebrow and with a foxy smile of a soul mate, spat out a question: “Miss, look what I have.” He carefully raised the lid of his lunch box and with a raised eyebrow he pointed at a sand-wich that was in there. Raising the eyebrows in response, I sized up the sandwich as some-thing fantastically sacredly prepared. I unpacked my sandwich with grated carrot, Ales un-packed his sandwich, Nicol hers, Teo his, Hanka hers.... and Richard his chocolate – big as two school kids' livers together with two school kids' gall bladders. Quietly I watched what would happen. When the big foil was open and the chocolate laid there in its full glory, his eyes sparkled and his taste buds started to rattle. Richard chipped away a bar of chocolate and quickly put it in his mouth. Once, twice, third time, blissfully and complacently reaching for more... I couldn’t withstand it any longer. “Richard, are you eating your break? “Yeaah!” Sounded his answer. “And what are you eating?” He immediately started to lift the foil with his fingers trying to cover the chocolate with it “I got it from my mom! So what? I can eat whatever I want!” Alesh and Oliver came running together. With a question in their eyes, and the sentence on their lips: I would like some too... It was decided. The digestive system consists of oral cavity, pharynx, esophagus, stomach, intestines, liver, gall bladder and pancreas. Before the food gets digested, it remains in the digestive tract for 12 to 48 hours. The duration of digestion and also the quality of health depends on what we eat. The liver is the organ that burns and eliminates all the poisons in the body. And if we overdo it with too much chocolate, fats, sausages, eggs, cream cheese or spices... the work of this chemical factory is doubled, tripled... it is unable to process it in time... an excess heat is created as a result of which it is unable to process the psychological and emotional poisons... and an imbalance is in the world. The undercurrents flow and turn out waves of nervousness, anger and malice. Sooo. In the liver there is the home of our attention. You can choose! Im-balance and anger or concentration and joy! “Ok, so I’ll share the chocolate.” Giving pieces of the cacao mass to Oliver and Alesh. In an instant a few more boys leaped towards Richard reaching out for chocolate. After the last piece was gone, we agreed that they will bring healthier food for their break; fruits, vegeta-bles... and I would have a chat about it with their moms at a parents’ meeting. Over and out!

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V. MOTHER’S DAY We were all sitting on the chairs at our desks, barefoot, with our right hand on the heart and left hand on the lap. “MY OWN GOOD, I AM THE PURE SPIRIT, PURE LOVE, PURE MERCY, PLEASE MAKE ME COURAGEOUS, STRENGTHEN IN ME THE RE-SPONSIBILITY FOR GETTING TO KNOW MY SELF. ... Let’s breathe slowly... now put your right hand on top of the head and repeat the request... let’s massage our scalp turning it clockwise (when we look from above)... and let’s slowly raise the hand above the head... remaining with complete attention in the state without thoughts... let’s put our hands down... one minute of silence please...” “What did you feel?” Christian: “I felt some air in the middle above the head.” Gabriel: “An airy link.”, Kate: “As if my hand was placed on the air...”, Stano: “...some sort of airy tube...”, Peter: “... as if there was a stone.”, Oliver: “... as if above me was an air cur-rent.”, Sona: “I rested nicely.” I left them doing nothing for a bit longer and then we continued with classroom time . The human heart makes, during one day and night, approximately 12,000 beats. It is a special, hollow muscle that continuously contracts and relaxes without any conscious effort. It is the home of our spirit which sets in motion the whole autonomous nervous system. Deoxygenated blood comes to the right side of the heart – as if to the seat of father – from where it travels to the lungs for oxygen . Oxygenated blood returns to the left side of the heart – as if to the seat of mother – and distributes oxygen, vitamins and nutrients via a mother’s blood circuit to the organs and tissues. Interesting, isn’t it? And worth respecting! To show our love the right way, we’ll rehearse a play for Mother’s day. Would you like to?” I asked. “Yes!” “Yees” “Noooo” “Yes” “Oh, I don’t know!” “Yes... .” “Well, we can talk about it later. Now open your exercise books and let’s write something.” I announced, the next activity. “Miss, I will not write into my exercise book during classroom time any more! That’s over!” announced Alesh. He laid down his hands on his laps, stretched his legs under the desk and rested his body provocatively on the arm of his chair. “Sorry, that was my mistake, open your pupil’s book. Everyone. You’ll write there an invita-tion for your parents to come for parents’ meeting.” This, also Alesh wrote. Many parents were curious, impatient, expectant but also kind. Mr. Moment stated in front of everyone that: “finally, someone’s working with the kids; and gets results. When I come here, it is quiet, my child at home looks forward to going to school, often we prepare for classes together and I can see that Sonya is enjoying it; a long awaited change.” Our tall and slim school deputy director also heard this as she was sitting there. She smiled, winked at me and I could continue. I talked about catching up with missed lessons due to repeated substituting of the previous teacher. I talked about grades, about children’s behaviour, about lessons in si-lence that help them as well as myself, about the many books we had read, about interactive games and relationships, about chocolate and theatre. I talked; as if with kids, about beauty and goodness in them, about stories that we had experienced together. It was so real that many parents remained in the classroom even after the end of parents’ meeting, they wanted more of that moment, of that atmosphere, of information, of love. Such a small, silent Christmas. NOW.

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VI. HOW TO GET OUT OF THE MAZE? Kate scuttled towards me; “May I tell you a joke?”. “You may.” “A teacher gets to heaven and the saint asks her: “What is it?” The teacher answers: “Shouldn’t it be who is it?”!” Laughing together, we gathered by the door and I escorted the children to the computer room in the school basement. One student was missing. I left them with a responsible teacher and went to look for the stray lamb. Back in the classroom a furious Michael lay curled up on the carpet, tearfully holding his wrist, as if in the last throes of a battle with adversity... .” I watched him for a while and then approached him, stood him up and moved his attention elsewhere. “Help me with the books.” I asked him directly and headed for the shelf with the books, as if to not pay him attention. “It should not be like this here. Who did this?” I repeated the ques-tion. I dragged the magnet of attention towards the spilled water, near the books. “Michael, quickly bring me the towel that is by the sink, before everything gets soaked and destroyed here, please... hurry up!” I encouraged him with my voice. He hesitated a little and then brought the towel and returned to the sink to wash his face and the hand. I was wiping the shelf, listening to the splashing of water with one ear and with another ear to the loud inhales and exhales that indicated the completion of a battle for his life. After a while he approached me and raised his hand with resignation. He showed me his wrist. “Miss, please put a tissue here and I’ll tape it on.” I put the tissue on the wrist of his scratched hand and attached it with a plaster saying: “This is destruction. You can be very constructive. You can do many interesting things. Why don’t you grow in it?” “Because my parents want a divorce, we might move away from here, I have a grade four from everything and no one wants to play with me. Everyone mocks me... .” “You can be better than that. Find what is constructive!” I grabbed his hand, turned it and pointed with my finger at the scratched wrist: “This is destruction.” I remained silent for a while. “And it is on your left wrist – that indi-cates feelings of failure. You can be pure goodness. You’ve experienced that!” A direct look showed brown eyes, fair skin and brown hair, with a child’s soul and unsure relationships. Together, we slowly left for the computer room. Quietly he listened to the lecture. I sat behind

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him and let everything die away... . What was left was the silence between us, like between a word and the full stop at the end of a sentence. YESTERDAY. The ear is an organ of hearing and balance. Sound waves come to the membrane of the ear-drum. The eardrum starts to oscillate and transfers the vibrations to three small bones: mal-leus, incus and stapes, located in the middle ear. The auditory nerve transmits impulses from the inner ear to the brain. Also in the ear there is a maze, an organ of balance that tells us about the position of the head. TODAY Michael came with these words: “Miss, look, I have another sample for the herbarium.” Behind transparent covers lived their herbary . It was a dried collection; artichokes, a vanilla pod, a cocoa leaf etc each stuck on paper and with a short precise description and some small drawings. The principal collector, botanist and explorer of Amazonian forests was Michael: 10 years old with disheveled hair. “So? How is it going?” I asked. “Well” he did not really want to talk about it “we will not sell the house. I can show you my room. Look, here is the desk, computer, here are my DVDs, books about primeval forests, on the bed is my dog and cat, there is mom’s study room...” he was showing me photos on his phone. And my dad enrolled me for horse riding lessons, I already had the first one.” “Excel-lent!” I added with one breath. A human being has two lungs. Left and right. These two parts of lung are not equally sized, the right side is bigger. In the lungs, tracheae branch into bronchi and bronchioles, and end up in alveoli. The tissue reminds us of a sponge. Thanks to this the lungs are capable of reducing and enlarging their capacity. “Standing up with legs slightly apart we hold our hands together behind our backs, raise them slightly, straighten up, take a deep breath in, hold your breath. Count to 12.” I was speaking calmly placidly to these sixteen fourth year students. “Exhale after the count of twelve and then repeat this deep breathing exercise 3-4 more times. If you can, keep your attention lightly above the head.” “NOW place your right hand on the left hand side of your throat, head turned slightly to the right... and desire... MOTHERLY ENERGY, I AM NOT GUILTY, I AM MY PURE SELF, NOT THE PAST, FEELINGS AND THOUGHTS... I AM NOT GUILTY... one minute of silence please.”

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VII. BROTHER AND SISTER Blond haired Emma delivered news: “Did you know that a crow was pecking pieces of meat out of our dog Jimmy’s bone from lunch? She was not at all afraid of him. It stayed there for sooo long pecking...” She was interrupted by Hanna: “Well, your Jimmy is already a ‘retired soldier’ and is blind on one eye. My Mum on the oth-er hand bought us a little puppy terrier. It is so sweet.” Emma didn’t let go: “Now you have to train him well so he listens to orders! You must be very strict with him!” Hanna added with uncertainty: “Sometimes I am also angry at him!” “Well, you have to train dogs within one year” continued Michael. “Our cat Julian is so well trained that if some food is outside of his bowl, he won’t eat it, he snubs at it.” We all laughed and I entered the discussion. “And how about the horses? Do you train them?” “Ehm, my horse already dragged me around. I slipped and hung by one leg upside down, he dragged me for quite a while.” “What?” Some of us marveled at this and laughed. “You should have selected “end of game” and pressed STOP!” laughed Oliver. “Hmmm, that’s easy to say.” resonated Michael’s answer, as they succeeded in equating reali-ty with the virtual world. “Miss, did you know that the T-shirt I am wearing right now, and also this skirt have adult sizes already???” whispered Petra with a mysterious smile “I got them from my sister!” As if a small apple was telling to a big apple tree in an enormous apple orchard its new story about ripening. “Miss, I have to tell you something.” Stano started mystically. He leaned over my desk. “I found out that Veronika is into me. Should I tell her I know about it?” I leaned towards Stano and slowly his brown face and his smile chilled. “Do-not-dare!” Sounded my answer. Surprised, his look slowly went pale. “Would you like to know what I found out?” I gave an open ended question. “Whaaat???” Again the question open ended. Stano held his breath. “That Alexandra, Diana, Martina and also third grader Victoria like you as well.” A big stone fell from his self-confidence down to the ground with a bang. Stano could safely breath in. “I know. And that’s the problem. What should I do?” “You have two options. If you told even one of them,” I continued, “the other four will be jealous and you’ll split my team – such an amazing team.” A long pause and an acknowledgement showed by Stano’s head nodding, all added to the se-riousness of the situation. “Or the second option is: you will become like a brother to each one of them. ‘BRO’, brother, older brother and gentleman. And they will all love you!” I triumphantly offered the solution. “And my class will remain intact.” As if I made a tactful decision. Stano left with a slow, ref-lective walk towards his desk. During the last class of the day, he was still serious and pen-sive. Two days later he came back to me with a solution. “Miss, I think you were right, the second option will be better. Please don’t tell anyone. I have made my decision.” He went away and was no longer serious. Instead, he had both an esteem and humility. He was shy a little and bubbled with laughter.

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The brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system that is the governing centre of our body. In the brain, there are located, centers that govern our speech, touching, seeing, smel-ling, hearing and movement of the body, behavior and emotions. In the spinal cord, there are many nervous cells that transmit and receive impulses from the whole body to the brain and the other way round. If we were to measure the whole length of nerves, it would be about 75 kilometers. Afterwards, sitting again on the carpet forming a circle, we talked about the recent reactions to certain situations in the classroom, then we gave ourselves a bandhan and placed our right hands on the forehead and asked for forgiveness of our thoughts, whether stupid, funny, good or bad. I FORGIVE EVERYONE AND I FORGIVE MYSELF... slowly inhale and ex-hale... let’s put the right hand on the top of the head... yeees... and ask for forgiveness... please forgive me as I forgive others... raise the hand slowly... bring it down onto the lap and remain within your silence... if any thoughts come, forgive them... one minute of silence please. NOW.

VIII. EVERYONE ON THE SCENE PLEASE! The whole play was to have been about mother, motherly energy, about presenting the posi-tion of “mother” in history, about correction and nourishment. For our Mums. We chose An-cient Greek Myths & Legends by Eduard Petishka – we went through the whole book in pre-vious classes – and selected three stories out of it. We altered the stories and put together a play based on these. All the children from the class participated in the play; all were gods and goddesses, demigods, the whole family of creation; as if a part and parcel of God’s will... as if a new dimension of CONSCIOUSNESS and PERCEPTION, and not only a visual under-standing! Light reflected from any object we see, breaks on the cornea, passes through the pupil and then gets focused by the lens. The retina contains millions of light and color sensitive cells and after the impact of light on the retina, an inverted image of the object appears. The sensi-tive retina cells transform the image into nervous impulses that are transferred via the optical nerve to the brain. In the optical centre these impulses are processed and a person senses the image in its normal position. “I called my dad but he did not answer the phone.” With fear in her eyes Sonya reported. “I have to call my mom now to call my dad saying not to call me. Because if he calls me during

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the play, that will be so embarrassing!” Sonja was on the edge of tears due to nervousness about performing, the possibility of making mistakes and the feeling that her parents might not make it to the performance... it was overwhelming. “That would be probably embarrassing, if the phone rings whilst you are on stage, playing Pallas Athena. Daddy calls, daddy calls, daddy calls... Just switch off the phone, will you!” rebuked Paula. She rolled her eyes, extended both her hands with palms facing upwards and gesticulating thus, Paula cautioned Sonya with care and a mother’s love. “After all, you are playing Athena who jumped out of Zeus’s head and gave him the knowledge. You are impor-tant! Right now you are the most important. Like mother’s care and love. Everything revolves around you.”. Teo played Zeus – lord of heaven and earth. (Indra in Indian mythology) Hera was played by Simona. Aphrodite: the goddess of beauty and love, was played by Paula. Apolo: the keeper of the order, light and poetry, (just like Ram in Indian mythology), was played by Ondre. Hermes: the messenger of gods, was Christian. Aiolos: the ruler of wind was Oliver. Hestia: the goddess of home, fireplace and fire, was Peta. Earth goddess: Demeter: was played by Hanna. Prometheus: Oliver. Pandora: Katya. Europe: Emma. Poseidon: the ruler of oceans was played by Martin. In short, everyone was on the scene and everything revolved around Pallas Athena. Athena, played by Sonya represented evolution, strength and protection. Around this motherly energy that creates and sustains, all of them were standing on the stage as if in a question of whether the planet Earth can carry all seven milliard of people in the world. For three acts, they acted and were amazing. Vibrations were falling on all the drums deep inside of us and sent out sounds of joy to the whole body and the whole cosmos. One could feel reality. A field trip to a lake by the village had the aroma of grains. The green shrubs and vegetation near to the water lured the children to play and their games, which were in full swing now. Groups of girls scattered somewhere towards a haystack; others were cleaning the river bank from rubbish and some others were sitting on blankets in the shade and contentedly munching their snacks. From the boys however, there was a suspicious silence. Only the rustling of reeds gave away their secret reconnaissance, their escapes and captures or their spying posts. After a while the whole group of boys brought Michael, Oliver and Daniel into captivity. “Miss, this is really serious!” Gabo spoke first, this indignant voice assembled all as if an au-dience. Girls came running first, then the gym teacher and other teachers. We all stood there in a circle subltly creating “hyper dimensional fields of carbon”. “We hid behind the shrubs spying on the three boys and then we saw that Daniel and Michael were killing a frog. Oliver was with them too. They were throwing stones at it. Alesh was also standing there but joined us after he spotted us. I sneaked closer but they already noticed Alesh. So... we managed to scare away the frogs and make the boys captive.” Immediately after the end of Gabo’s accusation, Michael defended himself with a confession. “I confess, I got persuaded to kill frogs.” With his head hanging low he promised not to do it again. Likewise Daniel and Oliver promised. We sat down with the children in the shade by the lake, that rippled with a motionless sereni-ty. We were all contemplating the moments we had spent together when someone said sud-denly: “When will you finish telling us that story, Miss? You promised.” I slowly inhaled and then exhaled. “That story died away already. You are that story!” One could hear the squeaking of opening doors to those mines – deep inside their hearts. “I told you” I continued in a low voice “that I’ll continue the story when you establish yourselves at the first level. The first part of the sto-ry just finished. I have watched anger, guilt, deceit and also ridicule leaving you all. I have seen how you want to become better.”

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“You said that those children had special abilities” Michael said reproachingly as he sat down next to me. “Abilities? Now you are like this lake. You can become like the ocean. You’ll wash yourself, replenish yourself and fill with living water everyone who will need it. IT IS A LIVING STORY ABOUT YOU. Respect yourself. With your heart.” We sat without movement for a while longer and watched the serene lake of unending truth inside of us. Speechless, we only managed to talk the talk of love. We remained sitting by the lake side filled with inner peace... we stayed for a bit longer... just a bit longer. “Now the fourth graders will show you how they practice Learning Silence.” I explained to a group of children in the after school lecture on drugs. The fourth graders formed a line in front of the blackboard and demonstrated how to release an overloaded sympathetic nervous system. “The parasympathetic nervous system which is governed by our spirit, is awakened with one simple question.” I announced. “Open your left hand out with palm facing upwards, as if you were asking for something. Place your right hand on the crown of the head. Massage the scalp turning it clockwise from above and deep from your soul ask: MOTHERLY ENERGY, PLEASE, GIVE ME MY SELF-REALISATION!... repeat it inside a few more times... slowly raise your right hand high up above your head... put the hand down open on the lap and remain silent without any thoughts please... NOW.

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I SEE YOU, CAN I KNOW YOU.

/colouring book for school children/

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With right hand on your head

and left hand open palm up

on your lap we whole

heartedly wish: Motherly

energy please give me self-

knowledge.

Slowly raise your right hand

above your head. Notice and

feel this space on the palms

and overhead.

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Matka Zem odovzdávam ti všetky problémy. Upevni vo

mne múdrosť prosím.

Rozviň vo mne silu nevinnosti, cností a

radosť.

Unravel in me the powers of

innocence, virtue and joy

Mother Earth I offer to you

all problems. Strenghten in

me wisdom, please.

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It is clear and sharp and it

starts with the letter ‘A’,

what is it?

/noitnetta/

To guide our own Motherly

energy to its highest state in

our full awareness =

meditation brings peace,

healing, strength and joy. We

want to have, or we want to

be? That is the question!

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Bandhan: High above the

head carefully, tie up tightly

the pure desire. Once, twice,

three times.

Bandhan: Like a rainbow we

make seven arches around

our body.

Bandhan: Raise the motherly ener-

gy, three times with your left hand

from the lower part of your belly

upwards following the route of the

spine. Turn your right hand around

this as it passes each energy cen-

tre/plexus.

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From the pelvic plexus (our

first nerve bundle) up to the

subtle centre above the head,

all should be kept clean.

Thoughtless awareness:

peace and quiet.

Bandhan: It activates the

protection of our inner subtle

system. We must respect his

path.

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Ask for self-control and

peace

The undercurrents flow and

turn out waves of.......

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Help me strengthen my re-

sponsibility, care, and confi-

dence

The liver clears all toxins

in the body. Physically,

mentally and emotionally.

Please give me pure atten-

tion.

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This is school! In it we

are students and teach-

ers at the same time.

I wish for internal inte-

gration and harmony

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By regularly repeating

the state of meditation

we strengthen our bal-

ance

Everything is a play

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How to get out of the maze?

Enter “exit game” and press

STOP. You are not guilty

Ear: sound waves hit the ear

drum and vibrate the three

small bones (malleus, incus

and stapes) The auditory

nerve carries impulses from

the inner ear to the brain

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Strengthen your peaceful

state without thoughts or

doubts.

Allow yourself to grow

beyond all your condition-

ings.

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Now you are playing Athena -

caring, protective and loving.

Millions of cells sensitive to

light say: Make me a caring

and manage things well.

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Motherly energy, thank you

for self-realisation.

1. Mooladhara chakra

2. Swadhistana chakra

3. Nabhi chakra

4. Anahata chakra

5. Visshudhi chakra

6. Agnya chakra

7. Sahasrara chakra

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SPONTANEOUS MEDITATION IN “LEARNING SILENCE”

instructions/notes

1. INTRODUCTION Learning Silence creates the atmosphere for Spontaneous Meditation. These instructions con-tain a description of, and preparation for the implementation of both. The health status of today’s population corresponds to the awareness of and adherence to moral and ethical principles within the society. This publication is dedicated to parents, teachers, children and students, of all ages. It will en-able you to use Spontaneous Meditation techniques in a playful manner in the management of stress, tension, moods and conflicts. Children and adults alike will gain mental clarity confi-dence and the ability to discriminate wright from wrong. The instructions are drafted for children and adults together. We believe that by using Spontaneous Meditation we can walk the path of patience, serenity and truth. 2. METHODOLOGY OF SPONTANEOUS MEDITATION AND LEARN-ING SILENCE

Spontaneous Meditation is achievable through mental silence – a state without thoughts that leads us to a spontaneous awareness of the self. Through activation of our own goodness – the maternal principle – we can achieve integration with our inner personality. The result is achievement of inner balance, a higher state of consciousness and inner joy. Learning Silence contains both the preparation and application phase of Spontaneous Medita-tion. It creates a suitable condition for the practising of spontaneous meditation, for applying the balance, the knowledge and for other aspects of interpersonal relationships. Timewise this Spontaneous Meditation technique is very flexible. It can be incorporated into any activity or subject, whenever it’s necessary to synchronize and focus the attention on the present moment. The speed and regularity of Learning Silence depends on the need of the class for clarification and strengthening of the experience of truth. Learning Silence can be applied in any subject or activity that induces reactions in interpersonal attitudes or mental conditions. We will describe both terms in parallel: Spontaneous Meditation and Learning Silence.

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For the first application of Spontaneous Meditation it’s beneficial to prepare the environment and properly and accurately inform the students about the upcoming activity. The preparation phase consists of the adequate motivation of students and an introduction of the underlying theme for Learning Silence. The procedure of Spontaneous Meditation is as follows: We sit comfortably and take off our shoes. Take a deep breath in, then slowly breath out and repeat several times. Placing our left hand, palm upwards on our left lap and our right hand is on our heart, we monitor our breathing. After a while, quietly inside we say a few positive statements or affirmations so as to activate the maternal energy. We move our right hand on top of the head where we again say a couple of positive affirmations. In a relaxed state we slowly raise our hand above our head and observe the sensation in all our fingers. We rein-force the mental silence and thoughtless awareness by a short meditation. Meditation means experiencing thoughtless awareness with full consciousness. The next stage of Learning Silence is the application stage. The now concentrated and fully relaxed child is able to understand its own personality, to work on self-development and per-form activities of daily life. Furthermore in applying Learning Silence the development of self-awareness through self massage, mental clearing, hygiene, vibrational and environmental perception, occurs. 3. PREPARATION FOR SPONTANEOUS MEDIATION DURING LEARNING SILENCE Definitions: spontaneous meditative state = mental silence = natural state of mind = were atten-tion passes from acting (having) to being. Conceptual map:

I am Past Present Future

Emotions Reality Rationality Wishes Growth Activity

Emotional Intelligence EQ Spiritual intelligence SQ Intellectual Intelligence IQ

Attachment Self-assessment Ignorance Pessimism Trust Optimism

Generalization: By means of Spontaneous Meditation one enters the space between thoughts; as a result of the awakening of the intrinsic maternal energy. Spontaneous Meditation effectively serves the human being in integration, evolution and as a healing instrument for stress and tension relief. Diagnostics: Diagnostics can be done in two different ways. Firstly, we determine the students’ knowledge of the chosen theme, through discussion, questions, observation of situations, moods, and be-

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haviour. Secondly, the inner diagnostics is performed within Spontaneous Meditation by abil-ity to perceive and distinguish vibrations – their consciousness of and growth in vibratory awareness. Teaching Spontaneous Meditation: In Learning Silence the natural insertion of Spontaneous Meditation into curricular demands is assumed and a time space for relaxation methods and mental cleansing is created. Learning Silence includes preparation and application: The preparation phase can be used for achieving calmness, quietness and reducing undesirable behaviour. For example: 5 minute self-massage, other physical exercises, reading of a short motivation story, or a guided conversation about…, these can be used depending on the need and appropriateness. The application phase is determined by shifting concentration into creativity. It encompasses focusing on the curricular demand or understanding and processing the obstacle in the way of that demand. The teacher will be working with their knowledge of physiology, ethics and environmental in-formation. The knowledge of human physiology enables naming of facts and phenomenon precisely. Enlightened principles of morality and ethics of humanism are easily accessible and clear due to Spontaneous Meditation. An individual is familiar with the basic human body ter-minology which allows him to explore new concepts and integrate more subtle elements. Spontaneous Meditation lies in awakening the person’s own residual maternal energy so that through mental silence this energy is given space for self-awareness and self-knowledge. By practising of Spontaneous Meditation and retaining a meditational approach, principles of mo-rality and truth are forged within the personality. The individual considers his stance and reac-tions clearly, and his joy and ability to perceive and understand grows. The Aim: The aim is to create the ability for self-control within the space of mental silence via a medita-tional attitude and self-assessment. Self-assessment does not mean comparing the individual with another individual, but assessing the individual’s own energy status in the central nervous system, their vibratory perception. The child is able to recognise negative behaviour and stress whether their own or others, and be free from it’s own reactions. Affective part: The individual will be able to distinguish (and name) negative behaviour from positive. Psycho-motive part: The individual can create a habit for using the meditational state when solving problems. Cognitive part: The individual can contribute to mental relaxation via focusing the attention on the self for a short period of time. In the context of educational methods it’s possible to apply the informational-receptive con-cept and experimental teaching concept. With informational-receptive methods we see the presentation of ready information. With the experimental methods one seeks solutions, moni-tors the results and confronts them in a group. We develop perception and alertness.

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Educational resources: Material resources are: classroom, Learning Silence methodology notes, PC, CD, DVD, basic things for personal hygiene and creative activities. Non-material resources: Know-how of Spontaneous Meditation, methodology of Spontaneous Meditation, teaching awareness and ability. 4. METHODICAL PROCEDURE Methodical procedure of self-realisation phase – meditation:

a) We sit down comfortably on a chair or the floor and put our hands down with palms facing towards the floor. We take a deep breath in and slowly out. We repeat this sev-eral times and begin to relax. We put our left hand on the left lap, palm facing upwards and put our right hand on our heart. We ask ourselves a question: ‘Can I feel my own inner goodness?’ (focusing our attention on the heart and breathing)

b) We move our right hand on the left lower abdomen and say: ‘Please show me the truth’ (with our attention on self-realisation, self-knowledge)

c) Our right hand is moved slightly upwards to the upper abdomen and we say: ‘I know self-control’ (attention on the spot beneath the right hand)

d) With the hand on our heart we repeat: ‘I am inner goodness’ (we focus our attention to our heart)

e) We place our right hand to the left side of the neck and say: ’I am not guilty’

f) With the right hand on our forehead we say: ‘I forgive everyone and myself’ (we focus

our attention to the spot beneath the hand, breath slowly, we forgive and let everything go away)

g) With the right hand on the back of the head we say: ‘Please forgive’

h) Putting the right palm pressed on top of our head we express our wish: ‘Please inner

motherly energy, give me self-realization, give me the knowledge about my self.’ (we can massage the scalp clockwise for a while)

i) We raise our right hand above the head and check. After a while we return our right

hand to the right lap, palm upwards and stay in mental silence – in a state without thoughts. We rest in silence and relax completely. If the thoughts keep coming we for-give them so that they don’t disturb us, and the non-verbal communication between our maternal energy and our consciousness can continue.

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5. FORMATIVE ASPECTS 1 Learning Silence is a follow-up to any previous education in the art of listening and imple-menting: conducting interviews, quizzes, dramatisation, observation, approach to others, physical exercises, appreciation, experimentation. It gives the educational possibility to spec-ify vibratory perception - feeling, perception and differentiation of vibrations - as the finest in-strument of diagnostics. 2 In order to ensure individual treatment; confidence and group communication is required. The teacher’s competence in empathy and compassion ensures a smooth transition from the stories of the Learning Silence to Spontaneous Meditation. Subsequently self-assessment is applied to the processes of self-knowledge, communication and creativity . 3 Regular recurrent Spontaneous Meditation and Learning Silence during the school year, for a few minutes by checking the inner space provides autonomy and self-education and creates a lifelong habit of self-knowledge. Daily repeating Learning Silence in appropriate activities and gradually in group work , will prevent the accumulation of stress and conflict and ensure a healthy environment. 4 To work with Spontaneous Meditation and Learning Silence it is necessary to adhere to the principles of freedom of choice and self-knowledge. The sharing of positive social relations and self-regulation combined with hygiene, good habits and adequate internal and external in-tegration can be achieved by understanding and respecting yourself and your perceptions. Such growth of an individual or group mirrors an adequate perception of reality. Assessment methods : Assessing individuals or groups involved in Spontaneous Meditation is on the one hand, an internal matter and on the other hand, an external matter. Informal assessment is based on the observing of day to day behaviour by the teacher, other teachers, parents, special education teachers etc. which is used for external evaluation. In the form of internal evaluation we monitor the practical ability for Spontaneous Meditation. The individual confronts the idea of their own perceptions through their central nervous system within a short time period. Even the evaluation of the whole group can be done by vibrational assessment. Watching the relative performance of students or groups takes place more or less continuously. It should be emphasised, however, that comparison does not take place in terms of competi-tiveness. The essential feature of the survey results is a formative assessment, where, thanks to feed-back, diagnosing errors or difficulties, seeing the condition of the child, we are able to detect and remove defects, highlight strengths and positive behaviour and perception. Thanks to this assessment both awareness and consciousness of integration occurs. Educational options : Spontaneous Meditation enables us to bring the attention of the child, or a whole group of chil-dren towards permanent ethical values through enjoyable pursuits. Attention is the key point of looking at oneself with optimism - a constructive understanding of your consciousness. Spontaneous Meditation takes the form of thoughtless awareness but within full consciousness.

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Education is a social phenomenon and in terms of philosophy has many dimensions: anthropo-logical, epistemological, ethical, axiological etc. The relating of theory and practice, in educa-tion allows us to quickly achieve and develop ethical values through spontaneous meditation. From the Latin, "educare" means to educate, cultivate or train someone in something. A teacher is taken into the realm of "self-awareness" where an individual is confronted with its own attitude to things or situations and gains distance from this disturbance. This area of edu-cation is supported by a very short Spontaneous Meditation of only 1-5 minutes. Family upbringing affects the child in the long term, directly and naturally. The rate, intensity and difficulty of any stimulants reflects in the child at different intensities. Group work with Learning Silence acts as a catalyst for ventilating of and reflecting on negative experiences and strengthening ethical values of humanism. All experiences, whether individual, family, group, or within the sphere of spontaneous medi-tation are subject to the free, autonomous decision-making process of the child . Emotional in-telligence naturally develops, which opens up a new state of mind. Thanks to Learning Silence we receive the skill to work with self-knowledge at our own optimum state of being. The meditative state is fully awake, distinctive and calming . Organization of lessons: Arrangement of the lesson depends on whether we are working with specific individuals, indi-vidual instruction, or with a group of students. Using project learning the students apply spon-taneous meditation in their free time at home and the feedback provided show peace and satis-faction, ability of manage stress, independence and creativity in the environment where they are. Timetable teaching units: Each Learning Silence class consists of a preparatory phase, spontaneous meditation and ap-plication phase. The preparatory phase incorporates a motivational part, a relaxing part, such as a relaxing physical exercise or self massage and the length of the preparatory phase depends on the atten-tion of the students. Spontaneous Meditation, takes some minutes, depending on the concentration and stamina of the students. The application phase allows for peace and concentration during activities. Despite preparation and application, the timetable needs to be adaptable to the needs of teach-ers and children so that can be counted about 3-10 minutes on the Learning Silence at any time. These minutes can be inserted into the lesson, in school activities before any activity where you need to be focused and creative.

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6. COMMENTS From the result of Spontaneous Meditation for adults and children around the world, we can mention the research of Dr. Umesh C. Rai , an internationally recognised physician from India, who presented a simple but scientifically proven meditation method known as Sahaja Yoga. Literary publication of interest: Silence your mind from Dr Ramesh Manocha, which includes new rational views on meditation.

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Prepared by: Žofia Bacskádiová, Marta Gerhártová

www.SahadzaJoga.sk www.JogaMeditacia.sk iro.silvester@gmail.com