A practice for LME

One unique LME quality that we believe sets us apart from conventional secular approaches to education is that to teach effectively, we believe our LME teachers should not only be well versed in western/modern educational processes but must also be familiar with basic eastern philosophies that have been central to Buddha’s wisdom traditions for thousands of years.

To provide this opportunity, LME often creates a platform to practice on several occasions. One such occasion was on 5th June 2020, where meditation, prayer, and smoke offering practices were carried with few people from the neighbourhood corresponding to the 15th day of the Festival of Vaishakha month.

The practice was organized near the Martang community, approximately 25 kilometres away from Dewathang. It has a huge open cave with space to practice. The cave has three tall statues built against the cave wall, including Guru Rinpoche in the centre. There were shrine and shelter attached to the cave to perform rituals and do practices. It was a serene and beautiful place to practice with its intact nature, tall trees, surrounding rocks, and chirping birds.

Along the road, as we traveled to the practice site, we fed homemade food to more than 15 hungry stray dogs. The dogs were loitering along the roads away from the settlement in search of food. For the last two months, all the schools and educational institutions remained closed in Bhutan because of the pandemic. Thus the stray dogs were going hungry with no reliable food source.

The practice was attended by a small group of people, including farmers, businessmen, students, teachers, and the LME team. There were few of them in the group who never tried meditation practice. So, it was a good opportunity for LME to talk about the importance of the mind, meditation, its practices, and the rich tradition we have in Buddhism. Thereafter, we did a short and repeated practice for quite some time. Later, a few participants shared their thoughts on the practice. Many said that it was difficult for them to concentrate and focus their mind on the object of meditation. A couple of them shared that, they feel strange and feel like laughing.

The meditation practice was followed by smoke offering practice and other prayer recitation. This small step for LME is an opportunity to bring together the cognitive, contemplative and meditative dimensions of learning that are a hallmark of LME to its teachers and also to expand our help to other people in the locality. We will keep on expanding this opportunity.