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.

From Monday 2nd to Friday 13th of March the Dharma Primary School is running a Red Nose ‘Meditation Marathon’, organised by Ocean class teacher Ross!

Ross says: “In the school entrance hall you will find a huge paper measuring jug. We as a school need to fill this with meditation time. The jug is made of squared paper. We will fill a square for every minute you meditate at home. Meditate with a family member and double your time! You can do as much or as little meditating as you like. Below is a table to keep track of your progress. Bring this into school whenever you like and show a teacher. We will then add your meditation to the measuring jug.”

Now for the mathematics! If…

• Sunflower and Dragonfly meditate for 1 minute each day for 10 days…

• Mountain meditate for 5 minutes each day for 10 days…

• Ocean meditate for 10 minutes each day for 10 days…

• Lotus meditate for 15 minutes each day for 10 days…

• Staff meditate for 20 minutes each day for 10 days…

This will result in the school community meditating for 9,430 minutes. That’s nearly 158 hours or around 6 ½ days! Our target is to reach just over that with a minimum of 9,600 squares filled before Friday 13^th of March.

Please help us raise at least £100 or more for Comic Relief: Red Nose Day by making a donation in support of our ‘Meditation Marathon’. You can donate via:

• justgiving.com/dharmaprimary (and share our link with others online)

• You can donate via text. Text DHAR96 £1 to 70070

• the school office

We would appreciate it if you could send photos of you and your family meditating (maybe even wearing a red nose!) to Sally, our PR & Marketing Coordinator at [email protected] or via Twitter, @DharmaSchoolBN1. (Please note, by sending in a photo, you agree to us posting it on the school website and social media!)