Children and Meditation
To a Californian living his first year in Kansas, the winter had seemed long and hard. The ice and snow was now melted, and on a warmish day in late February, I walked outside to find a place to meditate.
The playground of a school a few blocks away was empty and I found a comfortable sheltered spot next to a building. After meditating for some minutes, the wan sun that was shining in my face began to blink on and off. I opened my eyes in surprise to find that a young boy and his companion had crept up on me and he was waving his hand inches from my face in an effort, apparently, to tell if I was alive. They jumped back in fear when I greeted them.
“What are you doing?” the older boy, perhaps seven-years old, asked suspiciously.
“I’m meditating,” I replied.
“What’s that?” he asked.
“Oh, just going inside,” I said somewhat vaguely.
They looked at each other. “Can we do it?” one of them asked. At this question, a few thoughts ran through my mind. Here I was, a long-haired, adult stranger in a children’s playground in the city where I had once been stopped by the police for meditating, a city known for its religious conservatism. What should I do?
I couldn’t bring myself to say no, so I said, “Sure.”
They sat down in front of me. “What do we do?” they asked.
Again, I hesitated. I had visions of explaining my actions to a Bible-toting lynch mob. “Um, just close your eyes, go inside, and see what’s there.” Those instructions seemed safe enough, no mention of God, religion, yoga, mantra, or anything controversial.
We all closed our eyes and sat in silence. After a few minutes the younger boy, about five-years old, jumped up. “WOW!” he exclaimed. “I was way up high in the sky with Jesus and then the preacher man told me, ‘You can’t be up there! Get back here!’ So I had to come back. WOW!” He looked at me and his companion once more and then ran across the playground to the swing set. His friend looked at him and without a word jumped up to join him.
I finished my meditation and went home without incident. The experience impressed me for two reasons. Firstly, it impressed on me the fact that spirituality is a fundamental human characteristic, spontaneously present in children with minimal prompting.
Secondly, I realized that this inherent spirituality is sometimes suppressed, perhaps inadvertently, by the very religions that profess to promote it. This young boy, only five years of age, already understood that, according to his religion, God is far away (high in the sky) and he is not allowed to go there (“Get back here,” the preacher said).
Meditation can be used by people of any culture and religion to enhance their spiritual experience. Meditation is a practical process, simply a way to “close your eyes, go inside, and see what’s there.”