Friday, February 29, 2008

Let's Rap

The Four Noble Truth was the syllabus for the first semester in Sunday Dhamma School (SDS). Our greatest challenge is to deliver the same information that many children have known in a different way. So, we used lots of stories and activities to bring out The Four Noble Truth.

One of the activities we did was to show the children two containers. One contained carrot slices and the other contained chocolates. First, I asked the children: “Who wants to eat carrots?” Only one or two raised their hands. Then I asked: “Who wants to eat chocolate?” Everybody raised their hands. Next, I asked them whether I could give the carrots to Aunty (my assistant) and everybody said yes and when I asked whether I could give the chocolates to Uncle (another assistant of mine), everybody shouted NO! Then came my question of why. “Why did you say yes happily when I wanted to give the carrots to Aunty and why did you shouted NO so loudly when I wanted to give the chocolates to Uncle?” I then asked them to write down their feelings for both cases.

I told them: “When you don’t like something and you lose that thing, you don’t feel anything but when you lose something that you like very much, you feel hurt, sad, unhappy and angry. When you are unhappy, you are suffering and you suffer because you are attached to it. Attach to something means you are glued to something. So, when you don’t get it, you feel unhappy. Buddha taught us a way to be happy and that is to walk the middle path. Not too much work and not to much play and everything we do, we should not be too extreme.”

There were other things being discussed (lesson plan discussed with other facilitators) but those were the usual stuffs and I won’t discuss it here.

To end the lesson, I taught them a rhyme so that if they failed to absorb what had been taught, they could still bring home this rhyme. To make it easier for them to remember, we actually rap (singing in a talking way) it.

It’s ok to have wants

But don’t attach to the wants

Your mind is powerful

You can control how you feel

You can control how you act

So choose to be happy

And stop being angry

So everybody let’s join in

Let’s walk the middle path

(**Thanks to Nancy for the idea on rap**)

I told them that they should try to practice it in their daily lives. I introduced this rhyme to my own children and when my children wanted something very badly and cried when I said no, I would bring out the rhyme. I could see some improvements. Hopefully, they can really learn to let go.

6 comments:

Suh Ching said...

Sadhu!x3
You interact with students very well, it must be happy hours to be in your class as you teach in creative ways.

JK said...

Suhching,

Thank you. We want to try our best to make learning dhamma fun for the children. If you have any idea, please feel free to give me suggestions.

FL Sam said...

It is good that children learn Dharma when there are young so that they start practice middle path.

Normally, adults turned to religion because they are faced with problems, stress which is the result of clinging on to attachments. :)

Suh Ching said...

Jo-N,had you heard of Dr. Phang Cheng Kar?He is a dharma speaker too.
He did share some slides & notes of dharma talks on his blog.

You can get it from http://pckar.blogspot.com/

JK said...

Sam,

Children are so lucky these days. You know, you are so right about adults turning to religion when they face problems.

Suhching,

Thanks for the link. It definitely is a form of help for me. Thanks again.

Unknown said...

You know, your blog has been a wonderful resources for me as i need to work alone now down under!!!!!Sadhux3 from the bottom of my heart!!!! This is certainly a great meritourious deed!

By the way, which song do you use for the rap song? I am not too musically incline lah!!!!!