Reflection of the week - Sunday 5th May 2024

-From Jataka Tales- 

1. Why do we read about the Jataka Tales?

2. Did the story connect with you today, and why? 

3. What learnings can we take from the story "The Guilty Dogs"?

4. Thinking calmly and not hastily

5. Being Humble

- From The Hidden Life Of Trees- 

1. What are Vaccums?

2. What can we learn from the "Carbon Dioxide Vaccums" chapter?

3. What do you think we can learn from Nature?

4. What is shared between the two stories today?

5. Find out what is peat

`These are some suggestions you can choose from. Looking forward to seeing your wonderful and thoughtful reflections! 

You can email your reflections to - 

nk@learningforward.org.in

Thanks to Rishona for this post.

My Good School – Summary

 Sunday - 5th May 2024

• 1 hour 42 minutes • 

0:00 Using Telegram for communication at a school.

8:59 Using Telegram for secure communication.

16:01 Joining a telegram group for a school.

25:58 Jatakas and their moral lessons.

31:22 King's order to kill dogs, Bodhisattva reveals the truth.

39:33 Justice, bias, and self-reflection.

46:26 Cultivating virtues for enlightenment and avoiding emotional decision-making.

52:41 Learning from pets and AI assistants.

1:02:10 Self-love and inner peace through acknowledging and addressing negative self-talk.

1:08:36 Self-love, healing, and understanding of human nature.

1:13:44 Forest carbon cycles and climate change.

1:20:53 Forest ecosystems, carbon sequestration, and climate change.

1:27:47 Rejuvenating and revitalising forests.

1:34:04 Trees, their growth, and impact on climate change.

The audio recording hosted on TELEGRAM #SundaySchool

Jataka Tales - Pranjal Yadav

Jatakas were the tales that were probably composed by ordinary people, and then written down and preserved by Buddhist monks. Jataka stories are mostly related to previous births of Gautama Buddha in both human and animal form.

Jataka tales are extremely popular stories of the former lives of the Buddha, which are preserved in all branches of Buddhism. Some Jataka tales are scattered in various sections of the Pali canon of Buddhist writings

-Pranjal Yadav 

 -Vlll 'A'

Sunbeam Hostels Lahartara

The Secret Behind Her Productivity - Shambhavi Nautiyal

Surabhi was a 14-year-old straight-A student who always tried to make the most out of her time. She didn’t make friends, or maybe it’s just that her friends didn’t stick with her. She had been moving through her day, keeping much to herself and studying as much as possible. Then, a new transfer student ‘Kavita’ entered her life.

She was smart, confident, uninhibited and open about her feelings. She always looked so happy and ‘perfect’ in Surabhi’s eyes. It made her wish that she could be like her. Then, one day, Kavita came up to her and said “Hi!” She complimented Surabhi’s hair and how pretty she looked, which made her drop a tear or two.

Kavita kept probing her until Surabhi confessed how her mother never let her sleep, how she could not study ‘enough’ and just couldn’t make time, and then Kavita told her how the same things happened to her, and so she tried a new timetable which helped her.

Kavita asked Surabhi how she felt then, but she said "Nothing can ever help me". Then Kavita suddenly got all serious and said “If you don’t let yourself be helped, you won’t be helped”. Surabhi ran to the girl’s restroom, looked in the mirror, and realised that she had been betraying herself by telling herself that she could never succeed and everyone else was ahead of her not making any mistakes.

She told this to Kavita, when she confirmed to her that everyone including herself always went through times when they simply couldn’t achieve their goals overnight and had to do the job bit by bit. Surabhi was hit by a wave of discernment, how she had been gatekeeping a lot from her friends without actually knowing. When she was with them not much came out of her mouth and she just tried pushing her fears and problems under the rug because why would she trouble them with her problems, wouldn’t that just make her ‘uninteresting’, ‘cry-baby’ or ‘too sensitive and uncool’.

Kavita told her that it’s always okay to feel your feelings and first sort her things out before approaching a friend. Surabhi felt renewed and comforted for the first time in weeks and just decided to be grateful.

------------------------------------------- The End ---------------------------------------------------------------------

Shambhavi Nautiyal 

Class- 10

Ahlcon Public School

All's Well That Ends Well - Shambhavi Nautiyal

I feel like I did connect with the story in some way as I could resonate with the goat when it felt happy for itself being freed and sorry for the person next in line for sinning. 

I too have been in a situation like that, where I did something wrong and realised it as soon as I had the asseveration of whoever I had wronged and just wished to be freed from that burden with the same thing happening to me. 

Soon the same scenario was created and I felt better that, at that time, I was on the right side but I felt bad seeing the other person going through the same thing I did years ago I tried convincing them at times and sometimes I did not. 

But regardless of the final story, it was all pre-destined, whether I was left disappointed, I enforced my boundaries and protected my energy or they listened to me and tried mending my ways, one thing holds absolute truth and It's that no one is indeed aggrieved. It is all fair, happening just the way it’s supposed to in line with those people’s past deeds.

IN THE END, ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL.

Shambhavi Nautiyal 

Class- 10

Ahlcon Public School

Never Stop Dreaming - Shambhavi Nautiyal

One should never stop dreaming because if you stop dreaming, you lose vision of your future and your life purpose. So, instead of waiting for some fairy to show up and tell us where to find our passion, we should create it ourselves. This means we should take on hobbies, find what resonates best with us, and make it our life purpose. 

We should keep doing it until we become the best at it and then find something new, which would probably be around the corner because the universe renders us the energy we send out. 

If we have a productive mindset and want to keep working to keep ourselves alive; it is the purpose the universe will fulfil because the universe is constantly hearing our thoughts. 

So, if we tell the universe we want to evolve and become a straight-A student, it is the kind of path the universe will weave for us. And, this is the basic manifestation that we do daily, sending out messages to the universe through our mind and receiving replies with the same level of energy in the form of our life events. 

That's why, we should surround ourselves with the best kind of people, content and music to have positive thoughts. I am currently healing from this, I have renounced friends, I used to meet daily, who didn’t match my vibration, but now, I need to stop bonding with the foundation of trauma and sadness. I want to stop relating to people based on sadness and make it the foundation of my relationship with them. 

So, maybe, now I will not make any such friends when I am depressed, and if I do, then, I shall try my best to avoid them, otherwise. If I have friendships like that, then, whenever I hang out with them, I will feel depressed because that may turn out to be their inherent disposition, or we might never be able to interact about the good things in our lives because we would be so occupied with trying to cook up a conversation based on our melancholia. 

This attracts a kind of reality even further in my life, feeds that scarcity mindset, and brings down even my positive vibration. However, I have also had many nice friends made on this basis, those who understand me, empathise with me and don’t judge. But I have also had negative experiences where the negative would just linger and not go away. It boils down to enforcing your boundaries. I can go around, sharing my grief, but then it makes me dependent on external validation. 

Shambhavi Nautiyal

Class 10

Ahlcon Public School