Dharma Rain - Dharma School Manual
Dharma
School Manual
History and Development
Guiding Philosophy for Our Children’s Dharma Programs
We do not have a mandate to take the children of Buddhist parents and make
them into Buddhists. Clearly, in this culture, we are not destined or required
to accept the religious orientation of our own parents; most of the adults
in our sangha have converted from other faith traditions. However, by providing
good foundations we are providing support for whatever the children may build
for themselves in the future, so we give them the best that we have. We can
hope for these children that they grow up “straight and tall” in
mind and body, that they are capable of clear, healthy choices and that they
are well grounded in basics. We can hope for ourselves that these children
respect our orientation and practice even if they choose another path. Nothing
can guarantee the outcome we want in this, any more than in any other aspect
of life, but it seems that a good religious education program can encourage
these outcomes. However good the ideas of a lesson or a whole program, to
be truly good effective and helpful it must be delivered with a light hand.
Remembering that we do not have a specific outcome in mind helps us to keep
that touch light.
Because we are not trying to educate the kids into becoming Buddhist, we
are free to balance “teaching” Buddhism with finding creative
ways to fully engage the kids. At the same time, we (the dharma school teachers
and administrators) are unabashedly Buddhist, and the kids get exposed to
countless aspects of Buddhism and Zen. Some of these aspects are explicit,
like the content of our songs, the meditation during every dharma school,
the kid-friendly versions of Buddhist ceremonies we hold regularly (see Kid-friendly
Ceremonies), and the content of some of the teaching in class. Most
of these “Buddhist” aspects are much more subtle and pervasive,
however, and we find these to be the most important: an atmosphere of respect
and care for all beings and things; an openness to spiritual devotion and
concern; a support for deep questioning; a value for calm, equanimity and
silence; a conviction that each person has buddha-nature and is fundamentally
good; a dedication to acting responsibly, compassionately and morally; an
acceptance of difficulty and struggle as being an essential part of a rich
path; an honesty and humility about our own mistakes, and a realistic but
strong optimism about the world.
We have no catechism or final test of Buddhist knowledge. Though many of
our
kids come to emphatically consider themselves Buddhist — even to the extent
that they are willing to identify themselves as such at school and in other non-Buddhist
contexts — it is usually primarily about group identification; the kids
are rarely able to verbalize what it means to be Buddhist. However, we regard
this as being entirely appropriate for their ages and developmental stages. In
addition, we have every confidence that the kids have absorbed much more than
they suspect. Graduates of our dharma school program who are now adults have
said that in the midst of busy college or work lives they think of Zen Centers
as islands of sanity and quiet, suggesting that their dharma school experience
was a unique and special
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