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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