Your child probably can’t sing Christmas carols at school this time of year, but you will find wide acceptance of Buddhism in classroom exercises, taught as “mindful meditation.” In the western way of thinking, if you’re not “doing” --reading scripture, praying, singing, volunteering--then you’re not technically practicing a religion. But in the eastern way, it’s the technique, not the teaching or the doing, that matters. You can "believe" anything you want. That’s because the godhead is inside, not outside, the body in that faith tradition. Therefore, lots of schools close their doors to our traditional religious practices--prayer, religious symbols in the classrooms, daily Bible readings, Bible stories of heroes, teaching creation, and songs--while welcoming warmly religions from other cultures with wide open arms if they can masquerade as something "healthy" like meditation, thought control for a good purpose, anxiety and stress control, and drug and alcohol reduction tools. It's ignorance of religious thought and teaching on the part of your school board and administration that allows this.
If you are a Christian, "man up" and object to your child being taught that god is within. That's a religion. It's not our religion, it's not our culture, and what's sauce for the Christian is sauce for the Buddhist, Hindu and Humanist. Don't let the word "meditation" fool you. In the Christian and Jewish traditions, that is mediation on God's word. It is content, not a blank mind stilled to allow anything in with the power of suggestion from the teacher or guru.
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7 comments:
I'm ready for a little separationof church and state with Obama trying to rush the Senate bill so they can go home for Christmas. What's the big deal? God won't care, and the people don't want it.
I used to go to a church that taught me about a little god. then I found out that there is a BIG God. I'm free at last, thank you Real Jesus. Thank u. It's not about words, it's about your heart. Jesus was never accepted by his own when he lived because he didn't fit in with the right rules and words. He simply lived and loved with all his heart. He didn't care at all if you called it meditation, prayer, quiet time, or kicking back. It wasn't about words. God is above our little words. He is the GREAT IAM
You're right except about one thing. God does care deeply about words, especially his word.
It's true about Westerners preconceived notions. A lot of people in the West are very busy so when they see someone sat there still it unnerves them.
One of the advantages of the days when school children read their Bibles (in my classrooms we each had a little Gideon Bible in our desks) and stopped activity for prayer, is it both quieted them and had content. No one (or few, since I can't know the end result) was converted as I recall. No one was harmed. That plan or fear was in the head of the adults.
Norma, I read the article you listed
How to do Mindfulness Meditation, from Shambhala Sun and I didn't see any mention of "God within".
School is a stressful place and these are stressful times. I have gotten great benefit from meditation and possibly the greatest benefit is that I keep and open mind to what going on right in front of me. What happened 200 years ago is relevant but relating with "right now" is key. If you have an issue with Christianity not being practiced in schools then work with that and don't blame meditation class or computer class or anti-drug pep rallies.
Mindful Meditation is a religion; computer classes, last I checked, are not.
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