Lila and Mudita
Expressing joy through diverse creative approaches
Teacher Experience
A contemplative invitation for educators to reflect on before teaching.How might you create conditions for your students to express spontaneous joy and playfulness? Are there ways you might let the students be the leaders of a structured playtime experiment? What kinds of situations, games, or periods of lightly structured freedom would they universally enjoy? Take notes over time on what seems to make each student smile, and see how you might create the causes of joy for each of them to arise more often during your time together.
Student Experience
A contemplative invitation for students to connect with this learning goal.Think of a time when you were playing or creating something and felt completely happy and free. Notice what made that experience special and how it felt different from times when you were worried about doing something perfectly. Reflect on how temporary creations can be especially joyful – like building a sandcastle or making snow angels.
Understanding
Students will understand...Understanding lila and mudita helps us approach life with greater joy, creativity, and connection to others. When we learn to play spontaneously and celebrate others’ happiness, we create positive experiences for ourselves and our communities.
Action
Students are able to...Express understanding of lila and mudita through diverse creative projects while practicing spontaneous joy; design activities that help others experience genuine celebration; and explore how different people naturally express and experience playfulness through multiple creative approaches.
Content Knowledge
Students will know...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.
Guiding Questions
Implementation Possibilities
Design creative projects that allow students to explore lila and mudita through their preferred learning styles – visual arts, music, movement, writing, or building activities. Create opportunities for students to teach playful activities to younger children, encouraging them to design experiences that cultivate spontaneous joy. Facilitate peer celebration projects where students create personalized ways to acknowledge others’ achievements and successes. Practice improvisation activities across multiple domains —storytelling, art-making, problem-solving— to build comfort with uncertainty and spontaneous creation. Establish classroom rituals that honor different ways people express joy and playfulness, recognizing diverse temperaments and cultural expressions. Encourage students to document and share examples of mudita from their daily lives, creating a classroom collection of celebration practices.
Assessment Ideas
Evaluate creative projects for evidence of spontaneous expression and joyful engagement rather than perfectionist outcomes. Assess students’ ability to design and facilitate playful activities that successfully engage others in experiencing joy. Use peer observation to document authentic celebration practices during group achievements and individual successes. Document students’ recognition of diverse expressions of playfulness through portfolio collections and reflective writing. Assess understanding through students’ ability to teach others about lila and mudita through their preferred creative medium.
