Opanayiko
Posted on28 Oct 2025
*Opanayiko* is a Pali word which defines a quality of the dharma. It describes the way the dharma invites us on a personal, inward journey, leading us towards freedom, ease, and contentment.
This idea reminds us that the teachings of the Buddha are meant to be applied directly in life, serving as a mirror and a method to turn the mind inward. Rather than offering answers to be memorized or accepted at face value, the dharma encourages a process of deep reflection, inner investigation, and direct experience.
Noticing this quality of *opanayiko* when putting the dharma into practice can help build confidence in its reliability and goodness. It brings an understanding that the path of practice is not primarily about external rituals, theoretical intellectual analysis, or blind belief. It is about cultivating awareness, insight, and transformation within one’s own heart and mind.
This approach is like experiential education, where the truth of the teachings becomes clear through lived experience, inviting one to turn inward, guiding us toward deeper clarity, compassion, and wisdom.
Contemplative Arts
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Contemplative arts are special ways of making art that help you pay attention to what you're doing with your whole body. When you practice contemplative arts, you use all five senses - touching, smelling, looking, listening, and sometimes tasting - to explore art materials before you create with them.
Using all your senses helps you discover new things about familiar materials. You might notice that clay feels cool and smooth, that crayons make different sounds when you press hard or soft, or that different papers have different textures. When you pay attention with your whole body, you can find new ways to use materials and make interesting discoveries.
Examples of contemplative arts include touching and arranging flowers, making patterns with natural objects like leaves and stones, slow painting where you notice how the brush feels in your hand, and clay work where you feel the material change as you shape it.
The most important thing about contemplative arts is moving slowly and paying attention to how things feel, sound, and look while you're making something. This helps you stay present and enjoy the process of creating.
*Lila* and *Mudita*
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Play is essential for children. When we play, we can be creative, have fun, and learn new things. *Lila* is a special word that means playing with joy and happiness. *Mudita* means feeling happy when our friends feel happy too. When we play without worrying about doing everything perfectly, we can have more fun and discover new things.
Playing helps us use our imagination and try new ideas. When we see our friends succeed or feel happy, we can feel happy too. This makes everyone feel good and helps us be better friends. Playing together and celebrating together help us learn how to care for each other. When we play, things change, and that's okay - sometimes we build something and then change it, and that can be part of the fun.
Contemplative Arts
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Contemplative arts are special ways of making art that help you pay attention to what you're doing with your whole body. When you practice contemplative arts, you use all five senses - touching, smelling, looking, listening, and sometimes tasting - to explore art materials before you create with them.
Using all your senses helps you discover new things about familiar materials. You might notice that clay feels cool and smooth, that crayons make different sounds when you press hard or soft, or that different papers have different textures. When you pay attention with your whole body, you can find new ways to use materials and make interesting discoveries.
Examples of contemplative arts include touching and arranging flowers, making patterns with natural objects like leaves and stones, slow painting where you notice how the brush feels in your hand, and clay work where you feel the material change as you shape it.
The most important thing about contemplative arts is moving slowly and paying attention to how things feel, sound, and look while you're making something. This helps you stay present and enjoy the process of creating.
*Lila* and *Mudita*
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Play is an important part of growing up and learning. *Lila* is a special word that means divine play - the idea that we can approach life with joy and fun. *Mudita* means feeling happy when good things happen to other people, like when your friend does well on a test or wins a game. When we play without worrying about being perfect, we can discover new things and have more fun.
Stories from different cultures show us examples of people who lived with joy and celebrated others' happiness. Some stories teach us about characters who learned to play freely and help others feel happy too. When we share stories about times we felt truly joyful or helped others celebrate, we learn that happiness grows when we share it with others. Stories show us that things change, and that can be part of the joy - each time we tell a story, it might be a little different, and that makes it special.
Contemplative Arts
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Contemplative arts are creative activities that combine making art with practicing mindfulness. They help people develop awareness and patience by using the creative process as a form of meditation. Instead of focusing only on making something beautiful, contemplative arts focus on paying attention to what happens while you're creating.
An important part of contemplative arts is learning to create without being attached to specific outcomes. This means starting art projects with curiosity rather than fixed plans about what you want to make. When you practice non-attachment during creative work, you might discover surprising and beautiful things that you wouldn't have found if you were trying to control the results.
Examples of contemplative arts include *ikebana* (Japanese flower arranging), calligraphy, mindful drawing, and meditative clay work. These practices developed in different cultures as ways to combine artistic skills with awareness training. People practice contemplative arts to develop patience, concentration, and acceptance while creating beautiful things.
The most important thing about contemplative arts is bringing full attention to the creative process - noticing how materials feel in your hands, paying attention to your breathing while you work, and being present with whatever happens, even if it's different from what you expected.
*Lila* and *Mudita*
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Play is essential for learning and growth at every age. *Lila* is a Sanskrit word meaning divine play —the understanding that life can be approached with joy, creativity, and spontaneity. *Mudita* means sympathetic joy, which is the practice of feeling genuinely happy when others succeed or experience good things. When we play without worrying about being perfect, we discover new possibilities and connect more authentically with others.
Different people express joy and playfulness in different ways - some through movement, others through music, art, building, or storytelling. Improvisation means creating something new in the moment without planning ahead, which helps us become more flexible and creative. True play happens when we are fully present and engaged, not thinking about what might happen next or how we appear to others. Understanding that things change helps us enjoy them more fully - when we know something is temporary, we can appreciate it even more.
Contemplative Arts
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Contemplative arts are creative practices that blend making things with paying attention to the present moment. They help people develop awareness and insight by using the creative process as a form of meditation. Unlike regular art that might focus on making something beautiful or expressing feelings, contemplative arts focus on what happens in your mind and body while you're creating.
Beginner's mind is an important aspect of contemplative arts practice. This means approaching creative activities with fresh curiosity and openness, even when working with familiar materials. Beginner's mind helps us notice assumptions we might have about our artistic abilities and allows us to discover new possibilities in our creative work.
Examples of contemplative arts include *ikebana* (Japanese flower arranging), *kyudo* (Japanese archery), calligraphy, and various forms of meditative movement. These practices developed in different cultures as ways to combine artistic skill with spiritual development. Many contemporary artists also practice contemplative arts through mindful drawing, pottery, photography, or other creative activities approached with full attention and intention.
The key to contemplative arts is bringing the same quality of awareness to creative activities that people bring to sitting meditation, paying attention to the present moment, noticing when the mind wanders, and gently returning focus to the immediate experience of creating.
*Lila* and *Mudita*
Posted on28 Oct 2025
Play is a natural way of learning and connecting with others. *Lila* is a Sanskrit word meaning divine play - the idea that creation and life can be approached with joy and spontaneity. *Mudita* means sympathetic joy, which is feeling happy when others succeed or experience good things. When we play without worrying about being perfect or winning, we can experience freedom and creativity.
True play happens when we are fully present and not thinking about what might happen next. Adults often forget how to play naturally because they worry too much about outcomes, but we can practice returning to this natural state. Improvisation means creating something new in the moment without planning ahead. This skill helps us respond to life with flexibility and openness rather than fear. Recognizing that things are impermanent can free us from attachment to outcomes, allowing us to enjoy the creative process itself.