Impermanence

This video recording (1hr) is of Shugen Roshi's talk at the Middle Way School in January 2024. Shugen sat with students and parents to talk about impermanence, one of Middle Way Education’s core units of inquiry. He focussed on the importance of cultivating equanimity in the context of recognizing the impermanent, always-changing quality of all things. He also fielded questions from parents and students, who wanted to know things like “how did the Buddha have fun?”

Our emotions and feelings are like the weather, ever-changing and dependent on many causes and conditions. This unit plan includes a variety of guiding questions, unit objectives, activities and resources across all domains that teachers can use for working with students or developing their own lessons. It is adaptable for a range of ages and could be implemented as a week-long, month-long, or year-long exploration.

Middle Way Education organizes the academic year by 8 thematic units, drawn from traditional Buddhist practice and study that seem most fertile for student inquiry.

Use bubbles as a springboard for children to investigate the experience of viewing conditioned phenomena as both interdependent and impermanent using bubbles.

Summer reflects on how she speaks to her own children about karma and the six realms of existence.

Two beautiful timelapse videos, which are great for teaching children about change and impermanence.

Talking to children about change, impermanence, and death.

A sweet song and collaboration that engages students with music.

This sweet little book for ages 4-8, written by Ian Lendler and illustrated by Xanthe Bouma, recounts a story from the childhood of Siddhartha Gautama, here nicknamed Little Sid. One day, the young prince embarked on a journey from his castle in search of happiness and, along the way, he came to understand the fleeting nature of all things and the value of extending kindness and generosity toward others.

Here is a fun approach to Impermanence, one of the thoughts that turn the mind. Kids really get into this. Make a man out of natural materials and observe how it changes over time.

A unit plan for teaching children about the truth of impermanence.