Lhomon Education (LME) is a grassroots initiative fostering the development of innovative curricula designed specifically for Bhutanese students. The basis of the LME initiative is an alternative model of teacher training and curriculum development that integrates principles of Gross National Happiness (GNH) in the truest sense of the term.
Lhomon Education (LME) organized an online talk with Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho on 21st June 2020, coinciding with the end of the Festival of Vaishakha (Saga Dawa Duchen) and the solar eclipse. The talk was organized as a follow-up of the winter mindfulness retreat that happened in December 2019 at Chokyi Gyatso Institute, Dewathang.
The objective of the talk was to remind the participants of the importance of mindfulness practice during this COVID situation and to encourage them to practice it consistently. It was also to celebrate the Vaishakha month and the birth anniversary of our root guru, Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche.
Khenpo talked about mindfulness practices within the frame of view, meditation, and action. He emphasized the importance of understanding the view as a basic foundation for the practice to develop genuine wisdom and insight.
The Khenpo reminded us about the seven body postures, steps to develop concentration and to apply vigilance and awareness in the practice.
Khenpo said one of the obstacles to practice is laziness (lack of interest); therefore it is important for beginners to put effort and be determined in the practice. Khenpo advised the participants to keep the practice short and consistent.
As a part of the Q&A session, one of the participants, who have practised for the last six months, said she feels discouraged to continue with no improvement in her practice. To this, Khenpo advised her to continue her practice with no expectation. He also said that, if you KNOW that your practice is not going well, it means your practice is happening. So, he encouraged her to put effort without thinking about goals. The past retreat participants including teachers, monks, and youth from different schools attended the talk through the Zoom application.
The LME is encouraged to organize such online sessions using technology and social media platform. It gave us new ideas and experience as we explore different modes of educating people, particularly during this pandemic situation. This experience will be useful in the post-pandemic as well.
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.
Besides, LME teachers were successful in organizing their daily meetings using Zoom to discuss classes, work on lesson plans, organize professional development, reflection, and other LME activities. We are still in the process of exploring and using it. Flipgrid is another social learning platform that LME is using it. It allows teachers to create assignments to facilitate video discussion. Each assignment is like a message board where teachers can pose questions and their students can post video responses that appear in the display. Initially, we have been using the application to share a short reflection for the teachers; however, we extended its use to students to do 1 minute 30 seconds reading on a daily basis. Now, we have more than 40 students and 5 teachers who read every day using the application and share them on the display. It has several advantages of using it, first, the teacher can use the recorded video to help students improve reading, and second, it helps both students and teachers see improvement over time, third there is flexi-time to upload the video, next it is easy to use and facilitate interactive doable activity.
It has been a good learning experience for us to reconsider and recognize the importance of how we can make use of social media in education. We are excited and looking forward to the post-pandemic. Definitely, we see a lot of potential in this approach to education.
The COVID-19 virus, as it spreads across the globe, was an unexpected obstacle and disruption to many people and their work. For Lhomon Education (LME), we stopped our classes and teaching sessions as we came to know about few cases for Bhutanese travelling from abroad. Thereafter, Chokyi Gyatso Institute (where we teach), closed its gate for outside visitors and restricted its monks from leaving the campus. This necessary precautionary measure interrupted our normal classes and forced us to explore alternative means to organize classes and to engage our teachers and students.
So, we took this lockdown as an opportunity to work out our plan B to maneuver the current challenges. This is how we started to explore and use social media platforms. First, we used the Zoom application (teleconferencing software) to organize meetings with fellow teachers as an experiment. Then, gradually we used it to organize the classes with the students. The Zoom video conferencing provides a user-friendly interface with easy to use, high-quality HD video and audio, and collaboration facilities such as text chat and screen sharing. We were able to use these facilities to make interactive classes by sharing short videos, presentation slides, storyboards, images, texts, and audio. In the process of organizing several classes, we also learned how to conduct online classes interactively with slide shows, projecting photos, short videos, engaging in discussion, and keeping the session short.
Besides, we have used Messenger (Messaging app), Google Drive, email, WeChat, and Google classroom to communicate daily, exchange documents, and carry on the lesson plan. We will keep on using these applications and look for other platforms.
Khenpo Sonam Phuntsho presided over the 6th Winter Mindfulness Retreat at Chokyi Gyatso Institute, Dewathang for Bhutanese teachers, youth, and others in December 2019. Here is a short video instruction on shamata meditation that Khenpo gave to the participants of the retreat.
The winter mindfulness Retreat is a special opportunity for all of us to explore and understand our own Minds. It offers a space of simplicity and clarity, rarely experienced in our ordinary lives. Our goal is simply to give everyone a chance to experiment and explore the inner working of minds so that we may benefit ourselves, our students, community members, and others through our examples.
Samtse 2020 was a gathering of Bhutanese artists, writers, actors, singers, poets, filmmakers, explorers, musicians, painters, dancers, and creators, all coming together to celebrate our expressions and our reflections. This was coming together to celebrate Bhutanese creativity and spirituality. It was all about reintroducing and reviving the connection between the creators and storytellers of today with the spiritual wisdom tradition of the past. It was a great opportunity for Lhomon Education (LME) to be a part of this program in understanding how education should unfold and accommodate these creativities into the curriculum and its activity.
Mr Dawa represented LME at the workshop which was a joint initiative between The Samtse (Khey-chi Khey-chi) and the Royal University of Bhutan. The inaugural workshop was scheduled at theSamtse College of Education (SCOE), from the 7th of March to the 10th of March, 2020. The workshop saw leading Bhutanese and foreign figures from the fields of art, writing, filmmaking and other spheres of creativity, together with the future teachers of Bhutan who is present students of SCOE.
The four-day workshop was to provide an opportunity for attendees to exchange views, experiences and ideas in ways that can encourage and foster creativity and
spirituality in their lives and their respective fields of interest. Through interactive sessions, film screenings, creative performances and discussions, the workshop was to reintroduce and revive the ancient connections between the storytellers and the future teachers of Bhutan on the one hand and the wisdom traditions of our rich spiritual heritage on the other.
The workshop was also to bridge and connect leading Bhutanese artists and creators with acclaimed international artists, especially artists who have been true in keeping the element of ‘spirituality as their primary inspiration for creativity. Through such interactions, the organizers seek to empower and inspire our own homegrown talents and creators to take the initiative to create authentic Bhutanese stories on their own unique canvases.
Following the inaugural workshop, the Samtse in collaboration with the Royal University of Bhutan will create a calendar of activities to work towards establishing Samtse as a centre for contemplation and art to nurture and promote spirituality and creativity with a focus on our youth.
A Birdhouse project is a mini project initiated by Lhomon Education students. In this short video, you will be able to see the process of work involved in it. The project is carried out with an aspiration to benefit birds and other beings in and around Chokyi Gyatso Institute. The materials used for the construction of the birdhouses are done consciously. Thus, the use of plastics, rubbers, and paints are discouraged.
Tara Nidi, a teacher with Lhomon Education took part in Place-Based Education Training of Trainer (ToT) at Samdrup Jongkhar from 6th to 10th of January 2020 offered by the Royal Education Council (REC).
PBE is one of the best practices LME has adopted since its inception, It is organized in such a way that it cuts across subject matters, bringing together many aspects of subject matters into a meaningful association that focus on broad areas of studies.
Thus, it was a good opportunity for LME to take part in Place-Based Education Training of Trainer to enhance understanding of our existing practices, learn how PBE happens in mainstream education, and adopt new ideas and method in our curriculum.
As a follow-up action from Education Meeting with Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche at Bartsam, Tashigang dated March 24th-26th 2019, Rinpoche in specific instructed the education team to visit the Potoen Lobdra / school in Dharamsala. Later the visit was scheduled into an action plan during the Professional Development meeting held from 6th–8th October 2019 at Chokyi Gyatso Institute (CGI) with CGI representatives, Royal Education Council (REC) facilitators, and SJI/LME team to commence Rinpoche’s education vision.
Two LME teachers along with a group of teachers from CGI went on to study tour to visit Mewoen Tsuglag Petoen School in Dharamsala and Kanishka school of Dzongsar Khyentse Chokyi Lodro Institute, Chauntra in India. The visit’s goal is to provide the rigorous need for professional development training, specifically for CGI teachers and LME in general, to observe, learn, explore and experience some of the best education practices existing in Samdhong Rinpoche’s innovative school. The visit was also to enhance team-building between CGI and LME teachers, make CGI teachers take a leadership role in organizing such programs.
Lhomon Education students, teachers, and CGI lopons went for a nature walk on Sunday down to Deuri River. The Deuri River is a beautiful river system flowing down the base of Dewathang. It is the most visited place for the residents of Dewathang for recreation, picnicking, and swimming purposes. It has great biodiversity with tall trees, herbs, wild fruits, and plants. There are different species of birds and animals such as hornbills, squirrel, butterfly, deer, and even elephant. Although we have not seen elephants, the presence is clear with the poops along the river. Thus, the Deuri river system provides a great avenue for learning and enjoying nature.
The program is organized to provide an opportunity for students to experience nature and learn from its immediate environment. It was also to encourage sustainable mindful actions and to recognize nature as a learning laboratory in achieving greater goals of environmental conservation and inculcating stewardship towards nature.
It was a fun day. We walked a steep hike down the mountain through the jungle. The footpath was still covered in morning dews, and it was clear that nobody walked before us. In excitement, we walked as fast as we could. There were several occasions we glided and hit our butts on the ground. Nonetheless, it was a very exciting moment. It was a relaxing moment to hear and see the gentle flow of the Deuri River. To our surprise, there was a big change in its landscape from the summer eroding. It was a perfect reminder of impermanence.
At the base, along the river bed, we have gathered and started reciting prayers and do smoke offering puja. We did meditation, listened to Lopon Tshering’s talk about nature, cooked our own food, picked garbage, went for bird watching, and played in the river. In particular, our young monks enjoyed playing in the river. For many of them, it was their first time experiencing a river. The program was an opportunity for both teachers and students to follow up on many of the lessons we had learned in the class such as how nature and beings are interdependent, how bird watching can be contemplation, the use of binoculars, and identifying many plants.
We had a fun time swimming and playing in the river, which was one of our goals. It was a great feeling to watch smiles and laughter among the students as they splash water to each other. It was a playful moment that gave us a sense of satisfaction and happiness.
There were three simple observations made on the day that was awe-inspiring for teachers. First, almost all the students did not use single plastic-wrapped food (junk food) including a water bottle, except for one student of 70 plus, who bought a bottle of Mango juice. Second, one of our students saw an earthworm crawling on the footpath, immediately he picked it with a stick and displaced it from the footpath. He protected the earthworm from stepping on to it by other people walking behind him. The third observation, there were several gravels arranged in lines on a motor road. On close examination we found hundreds of tiny ants moving up and down on the road. Later, we learned that those students who walked in the front had arranged those gravels to signal us about the presence of ants with a motive to protect them from stepping on them. These are the manifestation of the student’s compassion and kindness. Thus, these observations taught us the importance of creating an avenue for the development and practice of kindness and a compassionate mind through such field trips.
Few students saw hornbills and other birds. Few students said that they were happy because they were able to do smoke offering puja, meditation practice, and karma yoga practice. From the reflection session with students, I learned that most of the students enjoyed water play and swim with their friends. Another thing they really liked was their food (almost all the food we cooked was organic) which was cooked by themselves. Many of them expressed that they were happy because they picked some garbage along the river and on their way back home.
However, some students shared that it was very tiring to walk up the hill after a playful day. Few students admitted that the tiring climb was in fact heavy exercise for them. Later that evening I went around the hostel and saw almost all the students were in deep sleep. They had a good early rest.
Since education is all about brainwashing all we tried to do was to brainwash our students with humility and good intention in the context of the Natural ecosystem/Nature field trip. Our role in this program was to create opportunities for students to see the interdependent reality of coexistence between humans, animals, the natural world and the river system. Most importantly, it was to make them see the connection between their internal world (the mind) and the external world (the environment). Besides, it was to create a connection between classroom learning and outside learning opportunity.
In essence, it was to create a conducive social environment that will foster teaching and learning that is fun, joyful, interactive, interdependent, cooperative, experiential, contextual, contemplative, comfortable, useful, and valuable in shaping an individual into a decent human being.
