After they’ ve read about the meditation, and we’ ve discussed it a bit, they try it. We use a YouTube video designed to guide university students through the Loving Kindness Meditation( click for video). This is an excellent video for teachers who may be new to meditation and lack confidence in leading students through it themselves. As students listen, they visualize the people they decided on and imagine their own loving kindness moving from their own hearts to these people.
Being Japanese, and growing up in a culture rich in Buddhist and Shinto influences, our students have at least heard of meditation, and many have a general idea of what it is. But most have never tried it. Trying it for the first time in an English class gives some students pause. However, after going through the handout and learning about some of the positive effects of meditation, and then practicing breathing, they seem generally willing to try. Practicing and memorizing the four sentences is language practice, which they value. Visualizing the four categories of people is straight forward, and the activity is unthreatening as it does not force students toward any overtly spiritual aspect of meditation.
Most college students are very busy with school, part-time jobs, social activities, and so on. So stopping and taking time to meditate in class can be a rewarding opportunity to release the stress they may be carrying. We have students write their reflections after each class and the comments on meditation are typically very positive, such as,“ Meditation made me really calm,”“ I would like to do meditation when I get a lot of stress,” and“ This topic was a little difficult, but I think meditation is very important.” We hope that introducing our students to a tool they can use to manage stress and enhance health and happiness is worthwhile whether they actually take it up as a habit in the future or not.