What a wonderful week we have had with our eight visitors from Plum Village: Brothers Phap Lai (Br. Ben), Troi Tuy Niem (Br. Recollection), Troi Bieu Hien (Br. Chad) and Troi Dai Dung (Br. Service), and Sisters Chao Nghiem (Sr. Jewel), Tu Nghiem (Sr. Four), An Nghiem (Sr. Peace) and Phu Nghiem (Sr. Grace).
The Brothers and Sisters have been spending time with the children, taking part in classroom activities and also joining them out in the playground, hula-hooping and skipping, which has been great fun. Mountain and Ocean classes have been reading a book, ‘Ang’s Anger’, and reflecting with the monastics on how to recognise anger and what to do when it arises. They have also created artwork on the topic. Earlier this week our friends joined Mountain class in the woods for Eco-Play and the children showed them their favourite trees and their ‘Bug Hotel’. Everyone sang songs around the fire and took part in creative play and story-telling…visiting Jupiter, Mars, an Aztec temple and an Egyptian tomb!
Sunflower and Dragonfly have been singing songs with our visitors and sharing ‘quiet time’, and today Sister Jewel taught Lotus class how to use calligraphy as a form of mindfulness practice; the children used pens and paint to represent three mantras, marking the paper in a flowing motion on the outbreath. (Examples of their work are available to view on our Facebook page).
Yesterday morning, the Brothers and Sisters visited the University of Brighton to talk with student teachers. During a mindfulness session the lights went out suddenly, as they were connected to a motion sensor and the stillness in the room turned them off!
Today we said goodbye to our friends with a special farewell puja. We presented them with a ‘gratitude quilt’ (a collection of paintings depicting people and things the children are grateful for) and a book of photos and poems about the visit. We are so very grateful for all that the Brothers and Sisters have shared with us this week and look forward to a further visit.
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This week’s ‘junior reporter’ is Jake from Lotus class: “I loved all the singing we did with the Brothers and Sisters, especially the ‘shooby dooby do’ song! I have felt quieter and calmer when they have been around and my favourite was Brother Service, I just really liked him. Today Sister Jewel showed us how to do calligraphy mantras; you breathe out as you draw your pen or paint brush across the paper. This morning was the solar eclipse – it didn’t go dark, but the sky went a bit of a yellow colour. I know all about what eclipses are, we had a puja about it this morning. Did you know that the moon moves three centimetres away from the earth every year? It would take a very long time for it to move a metre even.”
Photo: (from left) Brother Chad, Brother Service, Brother Recollection, Sister Four, Sister Peace, Brother Ben, Sister Jewel, Sister Grace.