A Simple Path for the little ones
Living in a Tibetan monastery was a surprise from many points of view.
As a Catholic child, I received from my family, and less from the school and the Church, a basic of what it is to be a Christian.
I thought that in a Monastic school, it would be even stronger religious teaching. It is not.
The children have a lot of hours of text memorization and no practical understanding of Buddhism, they don't even know what are basic things like the law of karma.
I suppose that this is due to several factors, one of them is that in the past the whole environment around the children was soaked in Dharma, and the basis was coming to them naturally. Then, in time, they would have gone to the Philosophical schools of High Buddhist studies and they would have learned everything.
But the world has changed since then. And now we need to find a way to bring the children on the Path in a nice, simple way.
Buddhism is highly philosophical, and I suppose that this has been the main problem. How can you explain impermanence, the interdependence of phenomena, and so on to a child? You cannot.
I looked around and the only text for children are the Jatakas and the life of Buddha.
So I decided to write a book for my children.
But when I opened the computer and started to think about what to write... I was stuck.
Then I had the idea to go and see if Buddha himself did something for kids. And there are the teachings he gave to his son when Rahula was 7 years old.
I started from there...and went on.
Now the book is in the hands of the Khenpo (abbot) of the Lowo college to be checked. A great Italian illustrator is making the illustrations, and, hopefully, in less than one year the booklet will be ready.
Full of teachings and magic stories!