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Mindfulness Training in Education for Teachers
Invocation and welcome
A Mangala Charanam by the monks’ Sangha in Tibetan and by the girl students in Sanskrit opened the deliberation. Shri Shantam Seth thanked the Tibetan Institute of Higher Studies—established in 1967 by Pandit Nehru and the Dalai Lama to restore India’s Nalanda tradition—for hosting Thich Nhat Hanh’s historic visit. An earlier four-day retreat at Doon School brought 550 teachers from Assam, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi for mind training in education. The Institute offers a four-year pre-university course, three-year undergraduate, two-year graduate and PhD research programs in Buddhism (Nalanda tradition), Tibetan medicine, astronomy, astrology, social sciences and computer science, with global collaborations.
Mind training in education
Heavy curricula burden both teachers and students who carry accumulated fear, anger, and suffering from home. Without understanding and transforming these roots of suffering, learning and teaching become ineffective. Thich Nhat Hanh recommends:
- Mindful consumption—avoid “toxins” of violence, fear, anger and despair in TV, news, magazines and conversation.
- Mindful breathing and walking—to generate “mindfulness” (smṛti) and “concentration” (samādhi), recognize and tenderly embrace one’s pain: “Breathing in, I am aware of my anger. Breathing out, I embrace it with tenderness.”
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Four exercises of mindful breathing:
• Mindfulness of breathing—awareness that you are breathing in/out
• Releasing tension—“Breathing in, I release the tension in my body” to reduce pain and strengthen healing
• Full-body scanning—from hair to toes, sending compassion to each part
• Total relaxation—15 minutes to relax body and emotions - Living happily in the present moment—recognize conditions of happiness now (functioning eyes, heart, etc.) rather than chasing future gains.
Cultivating mindfulness, concentration and insight (prajñā) transforms anger into compassion and prevents the making of “terrorists in the making.” Teachers need training in compassionate listening, loving speech and two-way communication—with patience to build trust—so they can help students handle painful emotions, restore harmony and make education truly effective.
Part of the following collection
Orientation: The Path of Awakening Journey