Selfless Creativity
Browse the Framework
Your Favorites ()

The Art of Play

  • 500Selfless Creativity
    Create art for intrinsic enjoyment rather than external validation, and analyze extrinsic motivations that can compromise authentic artistic expression.
  • 502Tanha: Sensory Enjoyment
    Implement mindful self-care practices that honor the body as a vehicle for awakening, and analyze how unrestrained sensory craving creates suffering.
  • 508Paramitas and Creativity
    Identify and define the six paramitas; analyze how diligence (virya), concentration (dhyana), and patience (ksanti) function as essential supports for artistic mastery; and evaluate personal creative practice by implementing sustained, mindful engagement with chosen artistic disciplines that cultivate both technical skill and awareness.
  • 511Lila and Mudita
    Define and analyze the concepts of lila (divine play) and mudita (sympathetic joy) in Buddhist philosophy; evaluate how cultivating spontaneity and celebrating others’ success supports spiritual development; and synthesize understanding by implementing creative practices that embody playful wisdom while maintaining awareness and compassion in artistic expression.
  • 515Anicca and Lila
    Create spontaneous, playful artistic expressions with awareness of impermanence, and analyze how non-agenda-driven creativity enhances present-moment awareness.
  • 599Opanayiko
    Analyze the difference between accepting teachings through belief, versus discovering truth through direct experience, then evaluate how applying a Buddhist concept in daily life—such as impermanence or compassion—can lead to personal insights. Compare direct experience with theoretical understanding of dharma teachings, and assess whether this experiential approach demonstrates the quality of opanayiko by genuinely leading toward inner clarity and transformation.
  • 504Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind
    Analyze the relationship between “beginner’s mind” and insight as taught in Zen Buddhism; evaluate how cultivating awe and wonder supports openness to learning; and find natural delight in everyday things. Maintain childlike wonder and curiosity.
  • 521Abhidharma: Sensory Awareness
    Identify the six sense faculties and twelve ayatanas and connect them to our experience of conditioned perception. Evaluate how habitual reactions to pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral sensations can limit our perceptions. Implement mindfulness practices utilizing awareness of sensory processes.
  • 523Five Wisdom Elements
    Implement practices that honor the five elements in daily life. Lead guided meditations that explore each element’s qualities and significance.
  • 501Confidence in the Buddha and Many Possibilities
    Analyze the Buddhist concept of saddha by tracing the three traditional steps of developing confidence (admiration, aspiration, realization), then evaluate how humble confidence differs from self-centered pride, and implement creative practices that demonstrate patient optimism while maintaining awareness of innate goodness despite setbacks.
Middle Way Education Curricular Framework ©️ 2025 by Michelle Macioce, Noa Jones, Mariana Restrepo, Carlo Carranza, Harry Einhorn, Connie Moffit is licensed under CC BY 4.0

Search Middleway Education

Generate Lesson Plan Data for AI

First click “Generate AI Lesson Planning Data” and then “Copy to Clipboard”.

For this process to actually work, you must go and paste the result into the AI tool of your choice yourself.

This seems to work quite well with Claude and ChatGPT.

After pasting what this pop-up puts in your clipboard, the AI tool (you’ve chosen) should prompt you for any additional information you may wish to include, and then create a rough draft lesson plan that you can customize and edit until it’s ready for teaching.

Disclaimer: Teach content that you are most familiar with from your own study and practice. Think through what elements will work for your students. AI makes many mistakes, so be very careful and conscientious using the results as a basis for creating your own thoughtful lessons. Approached with care and attention, this method of generating a lesson plan with AI may give you more time to focus on the most essential elements of instruction.

Prompt generated!  prompt