Mind Your Mindfulness
Ngawang Chejay, III EP B
What
is mindfulness?
Mindfulness
is about thinking things through and being in the present moment. So many
of us are projecting into the future or thinking about the past that we have no
time for the present.
How
is mindfulness beneficial?
According
to Professor Jane Carpenter from the Naropa
University
Mindfulness
benefits to pay attention, but is not the same as concentration. It is a
quality, which human beings already have, but they have usually not been
advised that they have it, that it is valuable, or that it can be cultivated.
Mindfulness is the awareness that is not thinking (but that which is aware of
thinking, as well as aware of each of the other ways we experience the sensory
world, i.e., seeing, hearing, and tasting, smelling, feeling through the body).
Mindfulness is non-judgmental and open-hearted (friendly and inviting of whatever
arises in awareness). It is cultivated by paying attention on purpose, deeply,
and without judgment to whatever arises in the present moment, either inside or
outside of us. Mindfulness meditation practices seek to develop this quality of
clear, present moment awareness in a systematic way so that the practitioner
may enjoy these benefits. Being more aware in each moment of life has benefits
both to a person doing specific spiritual practice, and also to the same person
in everyday life.
The objective of the Mind and Mindfulness Meditation at
the college of education in Paro is to contribute to the development of models
of the mind that originate from the bridging of the scientific knowledge and
research with the phenomenological and psychological knowledge derived from the
contemplative traditions. The multi-faced aspects of insight meditation and its
effects on the mind are studied through the integration of different
disciplines. Mindfulness techniques such as meditation and body scanning helped
to reduce depressive symptoms, improved social functioning, increased attention
to the positive facts about life, and decreased the focus on harmful,
depressive thoughts. The final aim is that of a scientifically validated model
of the mind that is able to incorporate the full-spectrum of potentialities and
defects present in humans.
Take a
mindfulness test.
Pick a situation or circumstance and see if you can devote the entire time to
being in the present moment. Once your thoughts move to the past or future,
mindfully bring yourself back to the present. You will see how much
discipline is needed to do this task. This is a test that everyone should
take. This test has no boundaries, limitations, or educational
requirements. Anyone can take this test.
Media: a curse or a blessing?
People all around the world would have been idle and dull if
there aren’t any media facilities. As the standard of living in this world is
rising, people find themselves investing in high speed internet connections,
thus increasing their exposure to media as the World Wide Web. Media has both
the good and adverse effect as it has a very big influence in our lives and
functions as a tool for establishing and marinating prevailing believes. The
media is a tool for communication and the one in charge of the media has
control of what they want the audience to believe. Television, radio,
magazines, advertisements, etc all persuade us to believe their version of
reality. Thus, the main function of the media is to inform the people in every
nook and corner of the world.
When it comes to media there are some people who believe
that media should be given the full right to the information and still there
are some who believe they should be restricted from the information. Bit of the
too first statement is more appropriate as it is through media; people keep
themselves informed about the world around them. For an instance if media is
restricted from the information that is of dire importance to the people, it
will be the loss on the poor soul, as they will be deprived of the news unless
they visit the place of incidence.
Media has the power to influence the whole community. People
now are much more expose to the world. Their living styles are standardized and
their house managements are not a piece of mess anymore but a piece of hygienic
paradise. What mist have influence it? It is through the media, although it can
have negative influence as we can see our youth carried away by the western
culture which is threat to the unique culture of ours. However the positive
influences are a heap of gold over adverse influence because the thinking power
of our youth and the creativity are advanced. The reasons they give are more
sensible than people used to give then and it has all resulted from the media.
So is media no a blessing?
Since the invention of media facilities people around the
globe has been benefiting, as they need not have to travel the world to collect
the news. Think back of the time when people has to go on foot to deliver the
message where there is every chance that people might have been misinformed.
But today with the advancement of the peop0le have all their luxury to sit back
on their cozy cushion and they are informed of all the things under the sun.
They are not confined within the tiny communities now as in the years then.
Their ears go beyond the hearing of birds chirping to hear the chaos of the
world; their eye is no more struck to greenery beauty of the environment but
sees the red bloodshed of the world. As the result they are made to realize the
peace. Had there been no media facilities people might not have even realized
it.
Media not only imparts news but also creates awareness in
the mind of the innocent. They make people aware of the natural hazards and how
to prevent it. For an instance during the solar eclipse time on June 22nd
2009 people were well informed about the dos and don’ts at the time of
incidence and almost all people contemplated it. It is also through media that
people are aware of so called ozone layer and how it is depreciating with the
cruel human activities.
Life without media is unimaginable. It creates awareness and
keeps us up to date with the things around us. It also enhances critical
thinking as what we do and act is not only our own ideologies but also the
knowledge we have gained from the media. So having media facilities means the
sustenance of the knowledge.
Chador Wangmo
EPB III yr
The Negative Effect of Television
Firstly the
television is an electronic communication medium that allows the transmission
of real-time visual images, and often sounds. Television plays a great role in
educating the child. They get exposed to different cultures and know the names
of the trees, animals, plants and many other geographical features from the
channels like national geography, history and discovery. People know and update
the current situations through the live broadcast from the news channels.
Television has
become a “member” of almost every important single family on our planet. And
not just an ordinary member, but a very important one, because the time spent
next to it exceeds the amount of time spent together with any other family
member. We do not have to apply with our little son/brother after a hard
working day. But for every coin there are two sides and every advantage has
disadvantage. So TV has positive effects as well as negative effects on people.
We can simply
turn the TV on and everything is done: kids are quite, our wife is not
complaining and we feel absolutely happy. It is so simple that it has become an
integral part of the culture of every family. It is the only time, when a
person can forget about all the family troubles and the failure of the day. The
sofa opposite the TV set has become the place of “reconciliation and spiritual
unity” of the family. it is senseless to deny the all –embracing negative
effect the existence of television has brought to our lives. But to make my
point of view ultimately convincing I will introduce to your attention certain
facts that people do not want to accept and often try to justify. The base of
the tomorrow’s society – are children today. And on the way they develop
depends on how the world is going to look like tomorrow.
As regards the
negative effects of television, the negative effects of television are well
known to every single parent, but are ignored by them in order to put the
responsibility for bringing up kids and showing them examples through
interaction on the shoulders of somebody else. Contemporary parents work a lot,
but when they come back home they are not eager to spend time with their child,
the consequences of this fact are the following: kids are given to themselves
and watch everything they want or TV plays a role of a babysitter. Therefore
children learn moral principles from the television, where
Statistics have
proved that the growth of time spent next to the TV-set scales up the
development of aggression. Many years before the examples come from
hit-thrillers and violent films where the personage imitated are cruel,
impartial and often purely negative personages.
Nowadays, as a
result of this phenomenon, children instead of playing leap-and-frog on the
open air pretend to be “terminators” and run around “killing” each other. The
fact of a ild’s identification with a “negative” destructive image has a vital
impact on the Development of his or her personality. Violence becomes an
ordinary way of interaction, alongside with anger.
All the listed
above may cause a trauma to a young consciousness and in combination, the
violence may produce an unbalanced and unhealthy conduct. We do not have to go
far away for examples when kids get guns and go to their schools shooting their
teachers and school mates. This becomes a call to get somebody’s attention to
them; the result of the TV violence and examples influences that overfills
their minds. Television has also a great influence on the self image of people
watching it. We see perfectly shaped bodies hundred of times per day. All the
man shown on the TV screen have big muscles and are handsome, and all the women
shown are very skinny and their faces and bodies look like a complete
perfection. This has caused numerous eating disorders, especially in the
teenage group. Such things as bulimia, anorexia and self-mutilation became a
well-spread phenomenon.
A person,
especially a child that spends a lot of time next to the TV-set has a very high
probability of damaging the eye mechanics and the ability to focus and pay
attention. Anther negative influence that is connected with the sight is the
spoiling of the hearing due to the shortage of auditory stimulation. Another
reaction of a child to the TV violence besides his aggression is fair. A child
or a person may become so much scared of what they had observed in the
television that it might cause depression and emotional misbalance.
Television
prevents children from doing their homework and adults from completing their
work. Influencing in a very bad manner the school grades and work productivity.
It lowers the overage level of physical fitness of a person, breaking the
coordination.
Children being
attached to the TV-set loose the possibility to learn the world through real
nature, games, sports, etc. They do feel the world with all its colors and
peculiarities. They do not read and get acquainted with the unforgettable
characters of the book they are given to read. They do not learn the message
that a book carries inside.
All the negative
effects listed above concern grown-ups as well, but through the special
sensitivity of children towards the influence we need to show to the full the
destructive power of television. It has
turned our live into an addiction that suppresses the beauty of our real life
the violent substitution.
All in all, television
has both positive and negative effects but I can say that it has more negative
effects than positive. And without any doubt I can call it one of the worst
intentions of modern times.
Yeshey Norbu
3 III EPB
Achieving food security in times of crisis
The basic need for all of us, regardless of gender, color,
religion, places we come from or the language we speak, has to be food the fuel
that drives us to go on the path we choose to be on, every single day. Nature
might not have provided us with the fountain of immortality but it surely did
provide us with the fruits of sustenance. The meals we consume everyday
sustains us as living beings on earth. Therefore, we all value food and we
must.
Disasters that ravaged the lives of millions in Sichuan
Province in China and Myanmar recently raised questions on nations’
preparedness in tackling crisis international help may be on the way but the
question is, ‘how long can a country sustain the damages before timely
intervention?’ we do not know what the future may hold for us but we know for
sure that hard times will come our way, not a question of ‘if’ but the question
of when. Bhutan is a small
country lying in the earth quake prone zone and tremors are bound to occur any
time as we experienced in Bhutan
(eastern Bhutan
Over 69% of the Bhutanese population are engaged in
agriculture as it is stated in MoA website. This indicates that we have enough
people and area for producing crops to feed the country. With improved methods
in farming and new variety of crops available for the farmers, we can produce
enough to get us through troubled times. The introduction of hybrid seeds and
high yielding varieties are eventually aimed at increasing food production and
ensuring self sufficiency. The recent successful introduction of rice
cultivation in Bumthang will no doubt add to the overall food security. Farmers
are oriented into using the new resources and ideas. Improved and locally
suitable practices like the “integrated farming methods” help maintain the
farmers to not only increase and
diversify the produce but also ensure soil fertility.
Roads, the veins of successful civilization, are beginning
to connect every rural settlements of Bhutan Bhutan
The first step towards achieving food security has to be
awareness, for with words of calculation and concern would provide the wheels
to move the country and its people towards the safer zone in times of threat
from natural and unnatural crisis as nothing beats being prepared. The next
step is the government’s will and intention to strictly implement the policies
at the grass root level and reach out to
as many farmers as possible. One such bright idea Bhutan
The ‘alarm fencing’ in the south is another pertinent
initiative taken by MoA for the protection of crops from the wild animals in
rural areas. This is new and an improved way to keep wild boars and elephants
at bay. The milk processing unit at Rukubji has started to operate with the
supply of improved breeds of cattle, free improved pasture seed distribution
and subsidized fodder tools to boost up dairy production, processing and
marketing. Self sufficiency is important when going through hard times as
prepared response can outdo any level of level of crisis a country would face,
for what is the use of full rations in stores if the supplies there cannot be
maintained and distributed carefully.
Living on this planet and facing extremity of the disasters
occurring in it are just a part of the whole scheme of life. We can just be
prepared for that time to come and have ample fuel to sustain the engine that
runs the world, the people.
Pema Tendar
Bio& HPE, III
Eclecticism in Bhutanese education system
Conceiving education as an art of technocracy has made our
past and current education and its system so mechanical that neither
educationists nor learners in our country are able to outgrow. Today, at this
juncture, considering the fact that education is weighed in terms of morality
and money, the approach to impart education to our current and future
generations has become a tremendous challenge for some responsible and realized
educators.
Our education has been exposed to various experimentations;
many foreigners brought many philosophies to actually better our education
mechanism. But the question is, did it work in our Bhutanese education setting?
Are these philosophies only the answer to our situation? What if we work out
our own way through? Can’t eclecticism be the answer? Eclecticism is destined
to be in our education system. It’s a boon to better our teachers and learners
altogether; like the unique democratic form of government that we have today.
Eclecticism is the call, which we need to attend urgently.
Then, what is this so called eclecticism? The Wikipedia defines it as a
conceptual approach that does not hold rigidly to a single paradigm or set of
assumptions, but instead draws upon multiple theories, styles, or ideas to gain
complementary insights in to a subject, or applies different theories in
particular cases. So, how can Bhutanese educationists imbibe the method? Will
it work out? These are some of the questions that linger around.
Mind you, in order to apply an eclectic method, one has to
be well versed in all other methods and philosophies of education and then only
teachers can afford to be eclectic in teaching. This new phenomenon can be the
answer to our Bhutanese education service. Let us make teaching spontaneous and
lively with the adoption of eclecticism in teaching.
But owing to the skepticism of some of our policy makers and
educationists, we still exhibit teaching that is so rigid, technical and
boring; and it’s a pity to watch our teachers look like the trained robots. The
flexibility in their lesson plan is a ‘taboo’. And if you peep through their
lesson plans, it’s more of product oriented than processes. When the teacher
plans his/her lesson, it is done in such away that the responses and behaviors
of the students are predicted in advance, which is totally absurd. What if the
responses are not as expected? Then what does a teacher do? Most often, the
unpredictability of the immediate class situations too govern our teaching
process, which means the teacher has to take into account of their current mood
and then think of his/her approach to teaching with his learners. So, the
eclectic approach is in the forefront. When students are eclectic in nature, so
should the teaching method be.
Having an eclectic frame of curriculum do not guarantee that
every teacher will adopt it. The most heart breaking part is that some actually
use it without realizing. The term ‘eclectic’ is hardly heard in the teaching
arena, which clearly implies that it is discarded. If that is the attitude of
our educationists, then we fail to bring forth or local Socrates, Shakespeare,
Albert Einstein and many more genius.
Today, as time progresses, so does the people and their
needs. Bit of perennialism, bit of reconstructionism, bit of essentialism, and
a bit of progressivism are what we have to integrate to get eclecticism.
Likewise, all the teaching strategies and methods ought to be richly used so
that all the sections of learners are catered in one sitting.
Let us give a new face to our education service; and that
immediate initiative should come especially from the policy makers and the
educationists. Let s make our teaching more spontaneous rather than making it
more methodological
Sonam Gyeltshen
EH III, 2009
WRECKED
Thinley Wangmo, MPA III
There was a time when neither of
us would hold breathe in our absence. There was a time when neither of us would
spend the day without seeing each other. There was a time when neither of us
could sail without association. And there was also a time when love blossomed
in our hearts.
Now, gone are those days which
were the best days of my life. Honey, you could have dragged me out when my
eyes were drowning in the ocean of tears. You never cared. Out of frustrations
and grievances, I cursed god for all the mishaps that crept over my serene life
and made my gorgeous life a living hell.
At times, it pricked me with
question as to why was life was extremely unfair to me. Honey, why did you
abandon me? Why did you do that to me? Why? Was there something wrong in me? Am
I not so adorable in your eyes?
Honey, I cherish you for having
taught me how to live independently, having taught me for loving and
appreciating little things in life, having taught me to enjoy the beauties of
life, having taught me to dream enormous, and ultimately, having taught me to
erase you entirely from my life. You know what, that’s so kind of you for
having taught me the little aspects of life.
Now, I can’t dream of sailing with
you anymore because the ship I was sailing got wrecked in the stormy ocean of
tears.
The Death
Pema Tendar, III Biology / HPE
Death is often seen and heard, but its certainty is
uncertain. Life is mortal and death is inevitable. I consider death as an
unquestionable mystery of life. We can neither escape from it nor prevent it. But
we do have choices to have a peaceful death. There is no place on earth where
death cannot find us. Death will always be there waiting for us. We are all
scared of death and we live in the terror of it. That is because of our
instinctive desire to go on living. When we die we leave everything behind
including our body that we have nurtured so much.
Death is not an end of a life but the beginning of the next
life. Chuang Tzu, one of the greatest Buddhist Masters, said that the birth of
the man is the birth of his sorrows, the longer he lives the more stupid he
becomes. How very true!
We try to live as if there is no death. We desire to possess
many worldly things. We desire enormous wealth, beautiful wives and handsome
husbands and keep attaching to these surreal things. Actually, our lives are
monotonous, petty, repetitive, and are wasted in pursuit of trivial desires for
more comforts which gradually enslave us. Everybody is aware of ever changing
things on earth and that’s how life is. The changes are no more real than dreams.
This is not a theory but truth that we eventually come to realise.
The Buddha rightly said, “This existence of our life is as
transient as autumn cloud.
To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at
the movement of the dance.
Life is like a flash of lightening in the sky, always
rushing like a torrent down the steep mountain”. Therefore, when we have the
opportunity, it is essential that we make best use of it in order to be better
men and women in the next life.
“What you are now is
what you have been, what you will be is what you do now”, said Buddha. Guru
Rinpoche also said that “if you want to know your past life look into your
present conditions, if you want to know your future life look at your present
actions”. Therefore, try to avoid all the negative and violent actions and try
to practice some of the teachings of Buddha.
One must always bear in mind of the inevitable death and must
start preparing for it so that when it comes, we can face it without any fear.
Preparing for the death means to purify our negative actions.
Letter
of Gratitude
Kinga
Penjor, EPB III
Paro
14th
June, 2009
Noble
Teacher,
Today as I stand
proudly as a college student in one of the country’s premier institutes of
learning with independent thoughts to live by, perfect wings to flap, and
capacity to aspire, dream, love and tank purest wisdom, I think of the days,
the days of your hard work and sacrifices at the expense of laying concrete
foundation of what I am today. Your selfless service in bringing out best
person in me still rings in my ears, which in a way, reminds me to serve
humanity with unwavering faith and dedication. My conscience, my third eye,
keeps alerting me how poor I would be without your service delivered with
tender love and affection when I was just a shoot thrusting from the earth.
Without the
music of nursery rhymes, wonder of story books galore, fun of modelling clays,
cutting out shapes with scissors, etc once upon a time, I would not be in a position
to appreciate and rejoice the beauty of arts and literature, and marvels of
science and mathematics. Things would have remained as it is been— plain and
lifeless that I would not have journeyed beyond what is being literally
presented to me. You expanded the horizon of my thoughts. Now whenever spring
creeps in, my hope renews. I can celebrate the summer’s bloom and autumn’s
harvest. Cascading waterfall, creamy snows almost draping the inspiring
mountains and glistening dewdrops means more than that meets my sights. The
chirping of birds is soothing and whisper of pines refreshing. These are none
other than the manifestations of the beauty of your heart.
By the dint
of concrete foundation you laid for me, I can withstand the change and
challenges kissing my feet with indomitable confidence, perseverance and
determination. With purest wisdom you sowed in me, I can defy the gravity of
modern plague of human lust and selfishness. I can remain unmoved by the wind
of change.
The
influence you had in my life is immense and unfathomable. There is nothing more
precious than the touch you had in my life, nor is there any earthly thing that
can be weighted with it. It is worth all the riches and more precious than
rubies and diamonds. It is the light in times of darkness, comfort in times of
distress and direction in times of uncertainty. All in all, it is solution to
all the problems.
Thus I owe
you deeply, my teacher, the engineer of my dreams. I vow and thank you for
being my guiding star and my most influential person. Till eternity you will be
remembered as elixir of life and faith. I shall never forget you, my guru, not
even a moment.
Lastly but
immensely, once again, thank you. May you live long and continue to cascade the
juice of ambrosial wisdom from your rich heart for humanity’s cause. May your
soul, as always, dance to the tunes of spontaneous song of success and
jubilation.
With love
and gratitude too deep for articulation.
Your student
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