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Teaching Hinduism with the Theatre of Learning

Active, experiential approaches to teaching RE

By Sue Phillips, winner of the Shap Award 2004 ” for making an outstandingcontribution to the teaching of world religions”

Adapted and updated from the resource file originally published by SfE in2005 and edited by W. Owen Cole.

Copyright Sue Phillips 2015

Theatreoflearning.org

theatreoflearning@hotmail.co.uk

facebook support group. Theatre of Learning; Experiential RE

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Contents:

Introduction to the new revised and updated edition. Twenty years on - what have I learned and How has Theatre of Learning changed? How does it help learning in themodern classroom?

1:Introduction How this resource file helps the non specialist, Newly Qualified Teacher or

trainee . How it helps the specialist teacher How to use the resource file.

Using the written tasks in the resource file.

Using levels and assessment techniques .

How and why experiential learning works.

The techniques of the Theatre of learning.

2:A personal overview of the history of religion – a guide for the non specialist and trainee teacher. The purpose of the overview and how it will help you The meaning of the word religion and how it helps us to understand the

purpose of RE

Theories about the beginning of Religion and how it helps us understand spirituality today

Animism

Cave paintings and Hunting Magic

Fertility

Polytheism

Hinduism

Images in Hinduism, Buddhism. Islam .Sikhism .The Hindu Renaissance

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Lesson Recipes :Hinduism 3:The Atman: Page 36Why start here?Linking with Science and ReligionThe purpose of the lessonThe concepts of Brahman and Atman

Hitting the spiritual target with the Atman

Creating a concrete platform from which to teach abstract concepts

Creating the set

Lesson recipe for teaching the Atman

Atman visualisation

Scriptural quotations

Questions to ask the pupils about the quotations

The story of Svetakatu

Vocabulary /flashcards

Cloze procedure/ writing frame

Levelled essay

Examples of pupils work writing about the Atman

4: God in Image: Page 53.

Why it helps to teach about images after Brahman/ AtmanThe aim of teaching about the Hindu idea of god in images

The purpose of the activities that break up the lesson

Lesson recipe

Using Ganesha as an example of an image used in worship

Hitting the spiritual target with a religion neutral exercise to parallel the Hindu use of images in worship

Vocabulary /flashcards

Cloze procedure/ writing frame

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Levelled essay

5:The Hindu Trinity – Coping with change:Page 61

The purpose of teaching about the Hindu TrinityThe importance of Shiva as an image to teach us all about coping with change

Lesson recipe with activities to reinforce learning and hot the spiritual targetVocabulary / flash cards

Cloze procedure / writing frame

Levelled essay

6:The Stories of Rama and Krishna: Page 65.when to use the stories of Rama and Krishna

The story of Rama

The story of Krishna

Vocabulary /flash cardsWriting frame including research on Divali

7: Reincarnation. Page 71.

The purpose of teaching reincarnation and how it builds on what has gone before. The concepts of Samsara. Karma, Moksha and NirvanaA simple description of the concept of reincarnation for the least able

A more sophisticated explanation of the concept for the more able Lesson recipe

Three Stories to aid understanding - The Parade of Ants, The Waters of Existence,

Narada

Vocabulary/flash cards Levelled essay / creative writing

8 :Creating a temple and re enacting Puja. Page 85

Understanding the symbolism of the temple in HinduismHow to build a temple in the classroom or a simple shrine if you are in a non specialist room

Lesson recipe

Vocabulary /flash cardsCloze procedure / writing frame

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Levelled essay.

9:Re enacting a Hindu wedding. Page 92.

The purpose of re enactmentLesson recipe

“Sermon” to read at the wedding

Vocabulary / flash cards

Cloze procedure /writing frame up to level eight

This book was originally part of a resource file that also contained Buddhism, Islamand Sikhism. They have been separated in the adaptation into e books. The introduction to the revised and original editions have been included in each file so if you already one of these files go straight to the lesson recipes!

Introduction to the revised edition.

This book is based on the drafts of the resource files submitted to SfE( now Tribal) and published between 2003 and 2007. The drafts have not been professionally edited for publication as those were, so I apologise for any typosthat remain.

I have revised and updated each of them to reflect that the pattern and style of classroom work has moved on considerably.

In the beginning

I began to change my approach gradually, working in a multisensory, active and experiential way in a process of experimentation from about 1996, responding, as many of you know, to an awful set of examination results. These were the product, the class told me, of being so bored that they could not be bothered to revise. “This is nothing to do with us or anything that we know!” young Lizzie famously responded, banging her fist on the desk. I was very fortunate that I began this process before the more formulaic prescriptionof today’s classroom but having said that I wish I knew then, what you know now about embedding learning.

In the early days, working with my former PGCE student and subsequent inspirational colleague, Julie Woodward, I in a sense threw everything out and

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started again – the furniture, the books ,the worksheets, in my attempt to findother routes to the transmission of information that pupils had to know but did not want to.

The first re enactments

I remember the first time we held a Hindu wedding with our disaffected and challenging year nine classes. We put them both, all sixty of them, in my huge classroom, which had been turned into a temple .We had a washing line acrossthe room which we draped with sheets. We put boys on one side girls on the other. We got the bride and groom dressed, we got as many girls into saris as we could, gave out tambourines and played Bhajans on the CD player while we re enacted what happened, with me in role as “priest”, explaining what was happening and why. We finished with sharing ginger cake. It was chaotic noisy and full of excitement as we got ready, then silent as the bride entered. We had never done anything like this before. Big dead periods in the lesson, where learning was not happening, because we were getting dressed and organising the practicalities.

The pupils had not been prepared so that they could learn as much as possible from that re enactment and there was no plenary. What was that ? It was an experiment. The children knew that and were keen for us to continue.

The following week we put each class in separate classrooms round the school with desks, pens and paper and asked them to describe what happened.

There was to be no recap and no help. The results were astonishing. They got to work with a will and remembered lots. It was a mixed ability class and everyone wrote. There were accounts of what Julie and I did and said, It was allthere, relevant or not ! . They remembered it a week later in considerable detail because they saw it and experienced it in a multi sensory way – what had they understood ? very little!!! but we were off! .We had engagement – that was so wonderful in itself ! challenging behaviour and negative reactions to RE reduced considerably . When levels and the literacy strategy appeared we embraced them as useful tools but there is now so very much more you can get out of lessons like these!

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This old photograph below from May 2000 is from the very early days, possibly not the first one but soon after, as we began to bring what was working so well at GCSE down into key stage three,

“Experiential learning is not for me, it is too pink and fluffy”

I can see why some people might think this, sometimes trainees will come at the end of a day with me and confess that is what they thought before they took part and saw for themselves how it can be used for learning - or not !

Special circles

I will never forget the first time I tried a special circle in a GCSE class, where the topic - The Torah, was introduced and brought alive by the pupils’ sharing of their most precious object in the circle and how they felt about them . RE came alive for them, they bonded as a group, sharing their stories as

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we held special circles throughout the two year course. In this way we related their own special books, places, journeys and people to the Holy Books, places of worship, pilgrimage, and founders from ways of life and world views that were so very different from their own . They became relevant to their own lives because of the bridge to understanding built through empathy, through looking at the feelings, that believers might have about things whichare of great importance and significance to them but mean nothing to those outside - the children in my classroom.

I discovered something very interesting about this simple but highly effective introduction to a topic after I retired. As many of you know I offer day coursesand residential events which enable us to look at traditions in depth .on these I discovered what happened when I tried them with teachers.

I sometimes described special circles, but did not actually hold them with teachers as they did not seem necessary. The description was I thought self evident. What I had not realised was that the experience was so key. Of coursethis aspect is difficult to describe so actually taking part is important in assessing its effectiveness. Finally in a residential in 2014, with more time at my disposal I did hold one.

I invited each person in advance to bring a special photograph to share in the circle. We were using it as way into icons and images. We had time to listen to each other and also I wanted to help them bond as they were spending 24 hours together. I was worried that they might feel this was a waste of time - hardly needing a demonstration, or appropriate in today’s classroom where every moment has to be about learning. I was worried that I would think that too when we tried it!

I was very surprised by how much they were looking forward to it and how significant they found the experience of sharing, how much thought they hadput into what they would bring and how much it meant to them to be able to share it and experience the response.

A number of teachers and trainees come regularly to the courses, so realisingthat experiencing the special circle was a powerful tool for them to become aware of important it is how to build their groups and nurture relationships as

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well as begin to make RE relevant to the lives of the children, I did others. They were particularly useful in introducing new members to the group .

I was struck by how often “Special book” led them to reflect on and share memories from long ago that influenced how they became RE Teachers. They looked forward to them and incorporated them into their teaching.

One trainee described her sixth form group as being shy and reluctant to discuss on front of one another. She somehow managed to create a special circle as an introduction to Freud. That evening she had a phone call from a student’s mother thanking her for enabling her son to express his feelings to the group with which he now felt much more comfortable . The dynamics of the group changed. Discussions ensued!

What I hoped is that teachers would see is how important a special circle is in facilitating learning.

What I would argue is that the time spent on listening to class members experiences ie not learning specific testable information about the Torah , images etc (although it is very important that links are made at the beginning and the end) will make the following hours on the specific subject material much richer and more meaningful. The course as a whole will be more productive. .

If this were a PowerPoint and I could represent it visually I would put up a list of lesson topics from a GCSE syllabus . I would represent them in a colour, say blue, and I would invite you to imagine the depth of colour, according to how engaging, meaningful accessible and relevant you thought each of them were.

Think of your reaction when you first see an examination spec. Some topics areimmediately engaging and would be deep blue. Some would be paler. I hear trainees everywhere despairing about how interesting university is and then they get into school and feel they are having to drill the children in things they do not want to know.

My argument is that special circles and other experiential injections enable the colour to become richer for all of them. It is precisely where you colour

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them lightly that you need the experience to enable the richness of colour/ meaning to emerge. That was my challenge, that was what set me off on the journey. You will see this particularly in lessons across the resources on the Sermon on the Mount, the Reformation, Church leaders, Halakah and Haggadah, the work of charities, ideas about God.

These techniques, as facilitators to learning in a broader sense, should not be under rated. I talk constantly of education being a holistic process, working best when emotion and imagination are used as well as reason. but they should also be used sparingly .The atmosphere created by them and the response of needy children enjoying being appreciated, valued and listened to as individuals rather than feeling like learning machines ( and the response of teachers feeling like factory foremen) is seductive . Never forget their purpose, however for learning and academic progress. To return to our colour image. A small amount of time - say fifteen

o teach your new found subject knowledge in an interesting and meaningful way.

This is it ! minutes spent on a religion neutral exercise paralleling the ritual or ceremony you wish to teach can turn several hours of future lessons a deeper colour.

So …. At the end of a lesson like that would it have made the evidence of progress clearer? I doubt you could even begin to measure it, but what it did do was utterly transform the lessons that followed, especially when we went on to build a synagogue in the classroom, turning an old cupboard into an Ark and we re-enacted Orthodox and Reform Synagogue services , explored the role of women and re enacted rites of passage.

I remember during our staffing crisis in 2001 – a national issue. I taught all the RE classes in the school on a three week rotation commuting between two sites with my boxes of artefacts. On one occasion I put sixty children into my room where we re enacted a Jewish wedding. The children were stunned by the Huppah decorated with scarlet and gold ribbons and Ivy , the music, the atmosphere.

For six months I taught an experiential lesson every three weeks to year sevenand eight children I hardly had time to meet so that the supply teachers that followed could base their work on ( in those circumstances ) the inescapable

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worksheets that followed and I could somehow hold on to the value of RE in the minds of the children .

It was some years later that I discovered that even then it had an impact as pupils opted later for GCSE, based on the memory of those lessons.

One described how our Passover meal in a crumbling hut on one of those hectic commutes when she was in year eight had kindled her desire to teach and to teach RE. She referred to it often when we finally met in my A level classfor which she gained an A . She went on to gain a first class degree in Religion at Bristol and has become an outstanding teacher of RE.

What was happening then in those early days was engagement, it was absolutely transformational and happened overnight. These challenging disaffected children in a school placed in special measures in 2003 when the REdepartment was given outstanding for behaviour and relationships,( but coming after our year of chaos and no teachers, inadequate for achievement!)

Looking back I could have mined those experiences so much more in terms of critical thinking and embedding the learning. Had I known then what you knowtoday.

My mantra everywhere I go now is that

Experiential learning is the gateway, not the destination.

It is the route to better memory, understanding and evaluation and therefore to a better written outcome.

However, it is what you do after the experience that matters.

It is a learning journey that six years into retirement I am still on . It is why Theatre of Learning is still relevant because the experiential injections used at the right time in your scheme of work enable progress to a considerable degree but ….. if you do not exploit that experience through probing and questioning and capture that thinking on paper and then re visit and reflect on that learning, continuing to build understanding and make links throughout their time with you then you will have had an experience but it will not be learning and it will not be RE.

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These lessons then, began to emerge, before the advent of the smart board, PowerPoint and the first two before even the literacy strategy. The three part lesson was in its infancy, lessons were far more teacher led and less interactive .Learning was not pupil led to any great degree. Today, there is nowa greater emphasis on questioning, checking learning, peer assessment and showing evidence of progress. I have borne these things in mind as I have updated the work.

I have retained the level descriptors I used then in order to be able to communicate meaningfully. You will of course be able to adapt the literacy work to the needs of your own school.

What I think the literacy work does, as it stands, is give you an idea about the level of differentiated questions you can set, moving through description, which has to exist in even the most complex academic text,there have to be facts in any piece of critical thinking , right through to demanding topics, perhaps more commonly found at A level. I set this for year nine. “Brahman, Atman are they the same or different?”.

Reference to scripture needs is made, as it does in this essay. I cannot emphasise how important I think this is.

Enable your pupils to encounter the scriptures of the tradition you are discovering – go beyond description of what people in a tradition do in all its diversity and get back to the scripture itself . Get them comfortable with the principles of authority and interpretation. Then you will have equipped them with the skills to make sense of all this diversity and be able to see extremism for what it is and you will be eroding he roots of prejudice and enabling the young people you meet to see the incredible complexity of modern life and the challenges of living together.

If through our exam syllabuses we perpetuate the acquisition of information we fail to use the opportunity they present to also develop positive attitudes to themselves and others. Using experiential techniques in short, sharp burstsas injections of spirituality, emotional intelligence, empathy and gateways to understanding the complexity and diversity of religion enables us to combine both challenge and personal growth .For me education is about people making, producing good Citizens and if they choose to be parents . Rather

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than having to make a choice between good examination results and personal growth , these techniques enable you to do both and I would argue that your results will improve because of both the motivation – which should never be underestimated - many of you know how profoundly helpful I think Maslow is - and the deeper understanding it generates. If they don’t want to learn – believe me they wont ! and no amount of telling them it is important will work, enabling them to discover it through experience will .

1:Introduction Adapted From the original publication

How this book helps the non specialist, trainee or NQTIf you are a non specialist, or a trainee or coming to a particular tradition for the first time you will find this file very helpful because it is written especially with you in mind. I am a specialist, but I graduated a long time ago, when the teaching of world religions was in its infancy. I came to these traditions quite fresh and like many teachers, began with a simple class text book from which to gain an over view and tolearn basic facts. I was able to fit this new knowledge into a framework for studying religion that I already had. Nonetheless, it was sometimes hard to get a sense of the tradition as a whole and certainly of its spirituality. Information on its own does not do that .I hope that this resource file does.

I have assumed no previous knowledge in any part of the book. I have concentrated on helping you get a sense of what the tradition is about rather than providing you with lots of information that you will find in any textbook so in that sense it is not comprehensive. I have written the resource that I would have liked to have thirty years ago when I started teaching and knew absolutely nothing of whatis in these pages.

The fact that I had an overview of the history of religions was a great help and it enabled me to put the development of each tradition into context. This file will give you that .

It was a still a struggle, though, to develop lessons which were more than just the relaying of information. The lesson recipes here will enable you to do that, either followed as they are set out here, or better still, adapted to your own teaching style and circumstances.

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It would be helpful if you are able to read the first resource file Making RE make sense .There you will be able to read about how to teach using the techniques of theTheatre of learning. You will also be able to see photographs in full colour of the setsI create in my classroom in order to teach these lessons. You may not have a specialist room and you may also have to teach from a variety of rooms used by others. These lesson recipes will show you how to create a multi sensory lesson outof a box, while on the move.

If you are a non specialist you may not have time to do very much back ground reading and you need something brief and clear to give you an overview of what the traditions are about. What you also need is something to give you ideas about t

Using the lessons in this resource to support the literacy strategySince I began this project sixteen years ago the literacy strategy has come on board and evolved considerably . Distinctive features of this are the three part lesson and the importance of hitting as many different teaching and learning styles in a lesson as we can . Now we add to this by making sure that we can showprogress, that pupils know where they are in their learning and what they need to do to get better . These lessons aim to do that .

Not only are the lessons multi sensory and experiential, they reinforce learning in many different ways. The ideal model to help a mixed ability class full of individuals is to create a learning experience with a starter and a plenary in which the meat of the lesson states the aim and delivers the material to be learned in a variety of ways.

The purpose of a starter is to engage pupils from the moment they enter the room . Without one, there is a dead period while the pupils drift in .The lesson cannot begin until everyone has arrived, equipment is distributed and the register taken.

My lessons often had no starter – because they had no dead beginning. In a full on experiential lesson, pupils enter an atmosphere created by music and a set . They, and I, are in role from the beginning. In a lesson where that is not the case, they might find a cloze procedure from the previous lesson on the board and will jot down the gaps in the back of their books.( I have retained this out of date technique , rather than simply deleting them because they are used not just for filling in gaps but as scaffolds for thought . They are also useful for revision ..) They may have some fresh vocabulary to write down or be tested on vocabulary

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already learned. There may be some sentence stems to complete. They may have a matching exercise set out on their chairs, a column of words or pictures that needs to be matched to the correct word phrase or picture on the opposite side. They take a moment to do, but reinforce what is being learned in the active lessons. Iquickly learned the error of posing a philosophical question as a starter – the lesson never began!

I do not always state the aim of the lesson – if it is a puzzle for the pupils to solve,then stating the purpose would make it impossible to fulfil that purpose ! Do not be afraid to break the rules, as long as you have stated in your lesson plan why you are deviating from the three part lesson, then you will not have a problem. It shows that you thought about it, rather than just left it out.

Lesson planning is vital. After more than thirty years of teaching full time my planning is more and more complex. The process of planning is how you work out what you are going to teach and why and how you are going to get there. As a Professional Tutor and Advanced skills teacher, involved in coaching and mentoring,and now supporting teachers through my PGCE presentations and e mail support I know that many teachers do not know why they teach the lessons that they do. They do it because the topic is on the syllabus. No wonder the lesson is dull. This filetells you why a topic is important, how it helps the pupils learn , how it leads on from the previous topic and how it will build a foundation for the next topic.

The introduction to each lesson also tells you how the lesson will develop the pupil’s own spirituality.

Using the lessons in this file to develop emotional literacy The work that is emerging now on emotional literacy or emotional intelligence is important .The importance of educating young people in a holistic way is being recognised as significant factor in enabling them to learn. People are on the whole more comfortable with talking about emotion rather than spirituality, with its association with religious belief. The lessons in this resource address the pupils’ spirituality and in so doing emotional intelligence is developed and emotional literacy is used.

Work on developing emotionally literate schools has shown that the poor behaviour of children in school can arise simply from being bored and lack of variety and

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activity. Our children are used to absorbing information at fantastic speeds as any music video, TV advertisement or play station game will show you. Sitting behind a desk taking in information that appears to have no relevance to their lives, especially if it is copied, or paraphrased from some other source, is mind numbing for many. Learning for many children is a deadly chore, which the well behaved tolerate and accept as a necessary path to a successful future.

How the lessons in this file will help new teachers understand the learning process

We can learn an awful lot about how children like to learn by listening to them. As you will know if you read the beginning of my journey in the first chapter of Making RE Make Sense . I learned the hard way, from a group of GCSE pupils where over half refused to take exam because they were so bored. It took me a long time to find a way forward . These resource files are the result of that journey, the last two reflect further progress since the first.

These files will also help you to unpack the learning process. Not only will they provide you with the subject knowledge and the reason why a topic is being taught in a particular way, it will also tell you how a particular activity, done in that way at that point in the lesson will help the children learn. If you are a trainee or a non specialist ,a good textbook will give you the what of whatyou need to teach. This file will also give you the how and the why .

Plenaries are vital: I have always done them .I called them a de brief . This is the only way to be sure that everyone has learned. A skilful well planned de brief or plenary will ensure that everyone takes part with games like true/ false .Stand up if you think….. all stand sit down if you think…. Plenaries can reinforce literacy, giving everyone the opportunity to read something and perhaps answer a question about it . Using flash cards at the end is helpful. Always read the word you are holding up aloud so that every child knows what it is and then ask some questions about the word . Plan to ask some questions at different levels . Write them on coloured cards and give each child a chance to pick a level. Preserve self esteem bysaying that you will try asking a question above their target level

If you plan the way you deliver these lessons, literacy will never be a barrier to learning and the lessons themselves will enable and motivate every pupil to write more successfully than from a lesson delivered from a worksheet or textbook alone.

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Assessment for learning All the way through various activities are assessing and reinforcing the learning and telling you how and why they work

I hope that if you are a specialist that you will bear with me in this and turn instead to the lesson recipes themselves for ideas and inspiration to deliver the subject knowledge you know so well, in a fresh and meaningful way to make RE make sense and develop the spirituality of your pupils. I hope also that you will find the vocabulary and differentiated levelled written tasks save you a lot of work. They are all tried and tested and what I use with my own pupils. Examples of some of their work can be found at the end of some of the chapters.

I teach in a large comprehensive school in southern England with a considerable number of challenging pupils who may also struggle with literacy and with managing their emotions and behaviour. These lessons and the tasks which follow have been honed with their input and experience.

If you have trainees and non specialists in the department I hope that these files will help you with your training and mentoring of them, save you time am set them off preparing, interesting, engaging and effective lessons from the word go.

How to use the resource fileIt is very important that you use this book with whatever textbook you normally use. These lesson recipes describe a process not content. I will ensure you have all the subject knowledge you need to be able to deliver an interesting and affecting lesson but when your pupils tackle the written work that follows they will need to read and research the content more fully using books and the internet.

The written work is designed to give you a basic framework which you can adapt toyour own lessons. Each lesson or topic is followed by a vocabulary list from which you can make flash cards. (Making RE Make sense gives you ideas for a variety ofways you can use these). There is a cloze procedure /writing frame enabling your pupils to wrote from level four to level six. Your very least able pupils may only manage to complete the blank spaces in the cloze passages. Each one has opportunities built into it where pupils can write in their own words up to level six. Some cloze passage/ writing frames offer the opportunity to build in research and write up to level eight.

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Some tasks invite pupils to write a story using their imagination. The structure provided with the story guides them to fulfil the learning objectives and write up to level eight. Examples of the outcome from these tasks are included at the end of some chapters so that you can see what the lessons and the structured tasks inspireand enable pupils to do in my school, where 40% of the pupils have special needs and a significant number have challenging behaviour.

Most chapters also have a levelled essay enabling pupils to write up to level seven or eight. Having this framework here to adapt should save you a lot of time. Allyou have to do is to adapt the wording to fit the requirements of your own particular syllabus.

All the tasks are designed to fit a simple level description to enable both your pupils and yourself to carry in them in your head so that they are a working classroom tool. Here it is.

Level descriptors Level three:Facts Level four : Why,because Level five: the effect of religion on a person, family or community Level six: The variety of religious belief within a tradition. Level seven: Critical analysis Level Eight : Historical development and comparison between traditions.

In order to get the best possible written work from pupils every one should know their target level based on their prior ability scores. This may be SATs scores from key stage two or three and or cognitive ability tests which may be used in your school. Your school may also provide you with a prediction of what level a pupil should reach at the end of the key stage. This will fall somewhere between the median (average ) level which the pupil should achieve and the upper quartile ie what the top 25% of pupils with that particular prior ability score might achieve.

This is a brilliant assessment tool. It will help your teaching and learning become much more focussed and it will enable to challenge your pupils - and therefore be more interesting for you both. This is how it works :

Assessment for learning summary Give each pupil a predicted level for them to aim for Explain what kind of thinking and writing is required for each level

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Have them write their predicted level and a simple level descriptor in their exercise book (I record it all in the front cover so that they and I can see progressat a glance)

Make sure that the tasks you set match the level descriptors and that pupils can move through them from facts to understanding to the ability to evaluate, critically assess and compare and contrast the traditions.

Now, and this is very important, plan your plenary/ debrief to ask the pupils questions at all these levels. This will ensure that every child is stretched.

My colleague, Julie Woodward has a brilliant game for this. Its called the true/ false game. It is very simple and not original so you may already know it. It is fast fun and is an excellent tool to help you asses the learning of each child in the room at the end of a lesson or at the beginning of the next.

True/False Game Give every child two pieces of card of different colours. One colour represents

true, the other false. Read out a series of statements which you have prepared in advance to check

the learning of the lesson you have just taught . Make sure you have questions there which reflect all the levels. Each pupil needs to hold up the correct card. It means that everyone is involved

and everyone is thinking - but here is the cunning bit ! Many statements are ambiguous, build these in and children become very

excited, perhaps holding up both cards , now you can pounce ! The child with great pleasure will explain why the answer is not clear cut and everyone will listen, intrigued.

Here is a simple example .“The Jewish ritual bath is called a mezuzah”. Everyoneenthusiastically holds up their false card, a few waverers have now learned something and are paying attention .

You can now ask what the correct word is . A Mikveh Now you can ask when and how it is used as you rapidly go over its use by men

and women, its use at Yom Kippur and before burial. You can cover a vast amount of information in a few moments.

You can then return to the Mezuzah. What actually is that ? Having covered a lot of facts and vocabulary very rapidly, you can quickly ask some more probing questions at level six . How the Mezuzah or mikveh affect a Jewish person.

You can possibly seek comparisons with other traditions the class has studied, working orally at level eight .

To be able to tell a child who is just about at level five they have just answered a level eight question will have them glowing with pleasure.

Your mixed ability class will be revising and learning and a highly effective fast and furious pace .

My two non readers in my GCSE class are both whizzes at true/ false. – and why do these two know it all in the first place ? - because they have watched it all re enacted and taken part in experiential exercises. This was perfectly illustrated whenwe were filmed recently by the Culham institute for a DVD on different teaching methods in RE. One of them came up after we had re enacted a part of the

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experiential lesson on Yom Kippur to tell me that I had missed out the part where I took off my gold ring and removed my shoes to show that we do not wear gold or leather on Yom Kippur. I was thrilled . This delightful pupil (who truants or is badly behaved in some other lessons ) will find it very difficult to read the GCSE paper on the day of the examination but she has a store of knowledge and feels happy and confident in the lessons as a result.

Why active, experiential multi sensory learning works.

What the experiential lessons will do is enable our pupils to make sense of what they read and to empathise with the believer .

What they are studying will be so much more meaningful for them because of what they have experienced in class. They will be more motivated to tackle their written tasks when they are doing so after a meaningful, affecting lesson.

Having a lesson about A Hindu Temple, looking at stunning pictures on the overhead, and hearing about meditation and puja (worship)is great but how much more interesting is it to have that lesson after having created a temple in the classroom, experienced meditation, re enacted puja and discussed in a plenary how it made the class feel and how it might make Hindus feel?

Pupils with literacy difficulties already have a head start because they can remember and understand what happened and may be able to talk about Hindu worship at level six or above even if they cannot write it.

What the lessons recipes do, above all, is offer you a teaching method to help your pupils make these traditions make sense . They are designed to help every child become aware of and develop its own spirituality. This is important in its own right but what is also vital, if they are to take part in meaningful RE is to be able to empathise with believers. It is only through this empathy that they can really evaluate and respond thoughtfully to examination questions such as “It is a waste oftime to dress up for prayer, discuss, giving more than one point of view.”

Before I began to teach experientially I would give the children the answers. I would have to tell them what to say, especially as the majority of them did feel it was silly to dress up to prayer. From the outside it must seem so. The children had no sense of how the process of donning tallit and tefillin in the Jewish tradition, for example,

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affected a Jewish person. I hoped that the notes I put up on the board to explain whyit was important would convince them. It did not .The experience remained outside and alien to them, “nothing to do with us and anything that we know “ which as some of you may know is the comment from a year eleven pupil which started me onthis journey. Teaching experientially transformed their understanding and led to whatI regard as by far the most important reason for teaching and learning about RE, something that goes beyond the importance of academic knowledge, that is, real respect for people whose beliefs and way of life are different from ones own.

Experiential learning is an antidote to racismThis empathetic understanding is something more than toleration, something deeper.An empathetic understanding of the essential spirituality in all traditions equips us to deal with the religious extremism which so often hits the public eye and can lead young people and adults to see religion only as something harmful and divisive, against the common good.

The human being who begins each day in prayer or meditation, who develops a deep calm and sense of compassion, who leaves that time of quiet spiritual nurture and goes about his or her daily business better able to behave with loving kindness, generosity and without judgement toward their fellow beings will never hit the headlines. Their spirituality is private, personal, silent and possibly beyond words.

As our children experience, through regular religion neutral exercises, this well spring of spiritual nurture in each of the traditions their growing understanding and empathy means that when they encounter extremism, terror and violence they are able to see it as that, and not what a religious tradition is essentially about.

They allow themselves to become aware of their own prejudice and fear of what is different and that they don’t understand and to set it aside in favour of seeing what links us all, believer and non believer alike. What they see when they work experientially and affectively in RE is the point of religion. They see its value to believers and to society and therefore to themselves. I spent the first fifteen years of my career battling with “I don’t believe in this rubbish, so why do I have to learn about it , It’s boring!” I cannot remember the last time I heard a comment like that. Experiential RE has transformed the quality of my own life, motivated and engaged my pupils and has done the same for many of the teachers who are using these methods. One of the many unforeseen benefits of teaching this way has been is that it has awakened and developed my own spiritual awareness and many teachers tell me that it has affected theirs.

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Pupils who have taken part in regular experiential lessons and allowed themselves to be affected are far less likely to throw stones through the window of a shop ownedby an Asian family. What was “nothing to do with us or anything that we know” has turned from lessons about other people and what other people do to an understanding of the universal spirituality which is part of being human.

They involve using the techniques of the Theatre of learning. Detailed chapters on how to use these can be found in Making RE Make Sense. These techniques are

Working in circles These are built using trust building exercises and teaching the children to use

Listening skills.

Teaching in a multi sensory environment in which literacy is never the starting point. These lessons provide the stimulation understanding and motivation to enable pupils to write at the highest levels of the national curriculum.

Religion neutral exercises, which parallel the aspect of the tradition you are helping the children to understand.

Participatory symbols, which are actions which help us to understand something which we might not otherwise have done . They help children to understand that ritual and liturgy are very powerful because they enable the believers who take part in them to feel changed.

These are all combined in re enactment and in creating a concrete platform from which to teach abstract concepts

Planning every lesson to hit the spiritual target developing spiritual awareness in pupils and teacher, enabling both to recognise the universal spirituality in all religious traditions and make RE make sense.

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2:A personal overview of the history of Religious ideas - a guide for the non specialist and trainee teacher. First, a word of apology; This is a personal overview .This is the skeleton on which Ihang my subject knowledge. It helps me to make sense of where the traditions fit in . It helps me to make connections between ideas and to see where religious ideasand cultures influence each other. It is an interpretation based on the connections I see and is therefore a huge oversimplification that would make academic toes curl.

Since this overview goes back to the beginning of human evolution then it is necessarily based largely on speculation about artefacts left behind and discovered often by chance by ancient people, who were not yet writing . Because they did not write, not a word of what I am about to suggest, regarding the ancient world is therefore true.

This overview with all its personal interpretations grew as a result of the questions I asked when I left University and began to teach. It also arose from the questions that my pupils asked. ”Where did religion come from, Miss , did Jesus start it off ?” or “Who made God ?” I remember the first time a year seven pupil asked me that . I hadn’t a clue how to answer it. I was panic stricken and rushed into the staff room at break to ask Christian colleagues what they would say. Everyone was stumped. I knew that I had to offer these young people answers ,or rather, offer a response that would be helpful.

I remember a friend who taught undergraduates saying to me in 1980 “You can’t teach about myth to children. It is an academic minefield “and my reply “Yes, and the minefield starts on page one of the Bible. I have to !, however much I oversimplify the issue”.

The important thing, though is to recognise that what we are doing is an oversimplification and that it is a great deal more helpful than sitting in a quagmire of academic debate and sinking in it. What follows, therefore, is a branch to haul you out of the quagmire and a raft laid across the top to help you navigate your way forward.

It follows a particular strand to help you make sense of the traditions described in

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this book. It goes from theories about the origin of religion and spirituality and followstheir development through what was happening in India

Not a lot of attention is paid, today, to the origin of religion, more on how it is practised in communities but I think that exploring its possible origins does two very important things, first , It helps us make RE make sense by setting the study of religion into context and secondly it reminds us that the six traditions are actually quite modern in human being’s relationship to religion and that by the time the human race comes to an end or evolves into another kind of life form, whatever our future holds, that they may well be seen as temporary stages in our relationship with spirituality .

The oldest of them (Hinduism and Judaism) are roughly between five to three thousand years old. The most modern (Islam and Sikhism) are around 1,500 and five hundred years old. When we remember that human evolution now dates as far back as six million years and the first possible evidence of religious belief dates back to 40,000 BCE we begin to put the study of the six traditions into context . When did humans begin to believe in God ? (whatever we mean by that ) How did they come to develop this belief ? What did they believe and do for the thousands and thousands of years before what we recognise as the religious traditions present today, began to emerge.?

This realisation allows us to step back and recognise the universal spirituality that underpins them all. When we start to become aware of, and focus our attention on that, we are able to plan religion neutral exercises that develop that awareness in ourpupils, whatever relationship they have with religion. In the case of my largely secular pupils , that means, none. We are able to ask ,as we approach a new topic ,”now what is it about the spirituality behind this belief or ritual or ceremony that applies to us all, whatever tradition we are associated with or whatever time period we live in ?”

What does the word religion mean?Religion comes from a word whose root means, among other things, to connect . I think it is fundamentally about connecting with our inner selves, our emotions, our family and our community and thus with society at a large. This is important if we want to help our young people to feel empathy with, and care about, people who are suffering in any part of the world.

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I think the reality of the universal spirituality and what I believe is the natural instinct to create special stories that help us make sense of our personal and community journeys and to use ritual and ceremony to mark important stages of our life is borne out in the success of The Island .

The Island is a concept building story described in Making RE Make Sense , now used by hundreds of schools to introduce their pupils to the main ingredients of RE. rites of passage , festivals, holy books, moral laws, pilgrimage and religious sects .

In the story the pupils find themselves shipwrecked on an island that does not exist .trapped forever, they have to deal with a variety of situations presented to them by the teacher, in role, as the leader of the community.

Each class, faced with the birth of the first child on the island, instinctively creates a rite of passage. After thirty years on the island when the first ones on the island begin to die, the community decides to write the story of the old life and the shipwreck down in order to preserve the traditions. They carve it on a rock where it will last forever.

The children become involved, quite naturally, in the questions about interpreting these stories and ensuring they are passed down without corruption. They discuss whether the shipwreck was an accident or designed for a purpose..

They discuss whether it really happened or was a myth .

Artefacts from the decaying ship are preserved in a special place.500 years later the various communities that have spread across the Island are recognised by the children to have different ways of interpreting the moral code and the story of the shipwreck. Each community still visits the special place and the rock where the story is carved for posterity.

The story ends with the Island community preparing to celebrate 500 years on the Island. The young people argue about whether they want to wear the ball gowns and dinner suits worn by the first ones when the ship ran aground and read from the story in a language they no longer understand.

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The point about this story is that class after class react in an individual, but similar way, to each situation as it arises, creating rites of passage, holy books, special places and places of pilgrimage. God has never appeared in their stories, but as the story is debriefed, pupils recognise that they instinctively decide to react to events in this way, just as the human race did before them.

Ever afterwards, as they study the explicit rituals and ceremonies of each tradition, these practices no longer seem strange. They are no stranger than the things they, themselves, chose to do. That they are full of symbolic meaning is now obvious to the pupils, as were their own creations, like the necklace of eighty seeds given by one group of pupils to the first baby born on the island. There was one seed for every person on the ship. The circle represented the community and the connection of the old life with the new. The seeds represented the new life that was growing on the island.

The Beginning of ReligionThis has to be, of course, unknown because there was no writing. Theories about the origin of religion are associated with Neanderthal man who lived around 40,000 BCE. That is the time when the first possible evidence of belief is found.

Neanderthal man is a step back from modern humans, not quite fully evolved. Because they appear to have lived in communities, hunted together and used fire it is assumed that they had language.

The possible evidence we are talking about is this .It appears that they buried their dead. This strikes me as absolutely remarkable because considering the precarious existence they lived in which meat was a crucial part of their diet and gained only by a life threatening hunt, why did they not eat the meat that the dead provided ? The other thing that strikes me as remarkable is that they buried their dead in pebble lined graves and usually in a tightly curled up position. They were sometimes sprinkled with red powder. Occasionally they were buried with artefacts. Why I think it is remarkable is that they buried their dead in a house they created, however simple, unlike their own, which would be a cave that came ready made. Time, energy, meat and artefacts were wasted and furthermore the bodies were tightly curled not laid straight as is the case in many cultures.

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Showing children the pictures of these burials and setting it up as a puzzle to solve has them instantly engaged. Lesson recipes on teaching early religion can be found in Teaching Abstract Concepts .

Ultimately we cannot be sure why this was done but it seems to indicate that in Neanderthal humans believed in an after life and that the bodies were placed in a foetal position, sometimes with powder for blood ready to be re born. No matter how many times I tell this story it never loses its power to fill me with amazement with all its implications for how early belief in something beyond the limitations of the body emerged.

Now I am going to describe the rest as though it happened in order because it makes it easier to understand, it is unlikely to have happened like that, there will have been overlap. Human development is not that straightforward.

What I have described is what I like to describe as the first stage of religious belief, for neatness sake. The first stage of religious belief then is that we continue liveafter the death of the body. There seems to be some recognition that perhaps we have a spirit that does not die the death of the body.

AnimismWhat next ? I think it is the belief that everything around had a spirit. We call this animism from anima, it also gives us the word mana from which we get mania and manic.

The problem with presenting this developmentally is that it looks as though we go from one stage to another, getting ever more sophisticated. Not only is animism aliveand well today in religion but it is also there in modern religion .I think looking at earlyreligion helps us recognise it in ourselves. We are instinctively animistic. This will make more sense as we move towards modern times and I can make that link clearer.

The evidence for this in a world of non writing is cave painting. We can only guess what cave paintings mean, if anything, but if we examine a number of them we find themes emerge. They are always of animals and hunting. Now if they are diaries of daily life, messages or decoration, then they would have greater variety, furthermore they are often in caves where no one lived or which are dark and could

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have only been lit by torches. Other paintings do not show the animals head and or show the feet covered by hand prints.

To cut a long story short (you can read the lesson recipe for this in Teaching Abstract Concepts ) scholars surmise that early humans believed that the animals around them had spirits which they could control .They believed that by acting out the hunt in the large caves and dressing in the skins of the animals they wished to capture that they could bring the spirits of the animals under their control , perhaps they thought in a way that they could take on the characteristics of the animals. Perhaps the hand prints were saying” I want this, this is mine”. It all has to be so much speculation, but the point is that it seems to have been an instinctive reaction on the part of early humans the world over, to create what we call hunting magic. These first ceremonies and rituals were presided over by the shamans, the precursors of the priests, the go between god and man.

We see this instinctive reaction to the world of the spirits later in the Graeco Roman and Egyptian Mystery religions and dare I say it, it is there today in the Eucharist . This is not to denigrate the Eucharist at all but to recognise it as part of the human longing to be one with god and of the vital ability of ritual and liturgy to nourish the spirit, to enable us to express the inexpressible and to connect in the latter case withthe “other”.

The third stage of religion in my artificially created evolution of ideas is fertility.

FertilityWhat we have been describing is centred around human survival, the necessity for meat. The desire to conquer the fear and danger and over ride the sheer luck involved in getting it

Around 10,000 BCE life changed. This again would have been very gradual, but put simply, humans learned to grow crops and to keep animals in pens and breed them. They became farmers. This meant they no longer had to live a nomadic existence and were to stay in one place . This caused a massive leap in human development. It caused this leap because humans were then able to develop technologically. They began to make themselves homes and of course with experience they became moreand more complex and effective. Other tools began to develop rapidly now that people were settled and did not have to focus on hunting constantly to stay alive, weapons, boats, wheels. With a community settled in one place it was inevitable that

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individuals would exhibit a special interest or ability in certain skills and so specialist craftsmen grew up. Human development from then on was rapid.

How does this affect religion ? The focus of worship changed from the spirits of the animals to that of the sky and the earth. What made the crops grow? The sky who began to be personified as a father sending the rain, like male seed, to the womb of the earth mother in which the crops grew.

Polytheism

We see fertility cults the world over. Later the spirits of the earth and sky were personified in families that reflected the families on earth. This is polytheism,the belief in many gods. The polytheistic period is dominated by the personification of abstract concepts like love, beauty, war and wisdom and seems to be a movement forward from animism and fertility alone

Here we come to an area of knowledge that most of us have already encountered but perhaps did not know how it fitted into the scheme of things, that is the gods andgoddesses of Greece and Rome, the Norse gods, the gods and goddesses of ancient Egypt , sometimes combining the animistic elements of earlier pagan times in their animal heads with human personification, shown in the human body.

Here we can fit in the various forms of African religion, the Native American Indian and the Aborigines which span animism, fertility and polytheism. Trying to draw a clear distinction between animism fertility and polytheism is not easy. As long as youand your pupils have got the gist of what was happening in the first 38,000 years or so that we know about then all is well .

Now we come to the six traditions. There will be a more detailed introduction to each of the ones treated in this book at the beginning of each section so this is just a very brief thumbnail sketch – blink and you will miss it!

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Hinduism Hinduism is the oldest of the six traditions and to express its origins simply it does

not a have a founder. It seems to have grown out of animism, elements of which are still there along with polytheism and the most sophisticated abstractmonotheistic notion of Brahman/Atman the universal life force or energy in all living things. It is difficult to pin point a time when each of these stages emerged, but generally Hinduism is thought by some scholars to have arisen out of the Indus valley civilisation around 2,500 BCE.

Hold on to the thought that all over the world different cultures had polytheistic fertility cults. Whether their similarities were because they blended as a result of the intermingling of cultures ,or whether they are similar because they arise out of the same instinctive response to nature and the need to survive, ishard to say .

Let me give you an example; Most people are familiar with Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love, Venus is her Roman name. In the Babylonian culture she is Ishtar . In the Canaanite, Astarte. In ancient Britain, Oestre from which we getour word oestrogen and Easter.

Does Hinduism arise out of the polytheistic fertility cult of the Indus valley ? There are similarities with modern Hinduism, ritual bathing, the importance of the symbol of fire and the worship of Shiva who is thought by some to be represented on the so called Proto Shiva seal. Or was Hinduism, as we knowit, brought by the Aryan invasion in 1,500 BCE, which may have brought with it myths and ideas that originated in Mesopotamia? Perhaps it is a combination of both.

The point is that Hinduism seems to have evolved naturally into its present day form without a significant reforming figure taking it into a dramatically different direction.

It is hard also to pinpoint when monotheism emerged but it is very important to convey to our pupils, the monotheism in Hinduism with which they can identify. This is what lies behind the image worship that appears on the surface.

Images in HinduismHindus worship hundreds of images who are aspects of the one great god Brahman,the universal life force. Three chief gods, a kind of trinity or trimurti represent the cycle of creation, preservation and destruction .They are the creator god Brahman who has four heads showing he thinks on all things, Vishnu the preserver, he is represented as blue in colour like the sky representing infinity and Shiva, the god of destruction who represents the constant cycle of change in the universe (detailed lessons recipes on God in Hinduism appear later in the file.)The many gods have

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consorts, female aspects. The unity of male and female are necects of what they have to teach us symbolically. such as Ganesha, the elephant headed god, who is the son of Shiva and his consort Parvati has a mount who is a rat. As you will see in the lesson recipe on Ganesha, the symbols associated with his image are about conquering greed .The rat represents greedy humans hoarding everything they can get like the rat hoarding grain. I hope you are beginning to get a sense of the Hindu idea of god which encompasses every aspect of religion that we have explored so far, animism, fertility polytheism and monotheism. This is all because of its very greatage.

As Hinduism developed so did the priesthood. They became concerned with ritual worship. These rituals became so elaborate that only they could perform them on behalf of the people. It was in this way that became powerful because they were the guardians of salvation. Image worship became the dominant form of religious practice in this period. Concerns were expressed by some that spirituality was beingrepressed.

A number of scriptures had emerged by this time (about 200 CE ) The Ramayana inwhich we find stories of Rama and Krishna is very significant. These are believed to be the incarnations of The god Vishnu who is believed to have come to earth ten times to rescue it in times of evil. The tenth incarnation is still to come. Stories of Rama and Krishna are very important in popular Hinduism. Their stories appear in this file. Divali is an important festival which celebrates the triumphal ending to the story of Rama.

The Bhagavad Gita ( 120BCE) is a short, readable and very important Hindu scripture. It is an account of a conversation between a warrior and Krishna on the nature of the spiritual life . if you read nothing else, have a look at chapter two which encapsulates Hindu ideas about life death and rebirth in a way that pupils can relate to. There are also Upanishads (600 –300BCE) which contain beautiful monotheistic poems. These are worth dipping into and you will see quotations from them in textbooks.

Buddhism For those who expressed concern that aspects of the emerging tradition which we now know as Hinduism was overly concerned with ritual rather than the spirit, it was ripe for reform. It came in the shape of Siddartha Gautama, the Buddha. He was born at a time when monotheistic and non theistic ideas were developing. .Jainism a

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non theistic tradition emerged at this time and this was also the time of the Upanishads,

In 583 BCE this Hindu prince was born into great luxury. Legends says that he grewup away from any kind of suffering, unaware of how most of us live. One fateful day he left the confines of the palace and saw a beggar, a sick man and a dead man. Shocked to the core at the true nature of human existence he left the palace that night and wandered for five years seeking the answer to the problem of suffering . One night the answer came to him deep in meditation and he became known as the enlightened one, the Buddha. He spent the next 40 years wandering through India preaching about the answer he had found to the problem of suffering.

In a nutshell, he realised that suffering is a fact of life that cannot be escaped. Suffering is caused by desire, greed and selfishness and that the way to conquer thissuffering is by eliminating desire. The distinctive feature of early Buddhism was that the Buddha said that belief in god was not helpful. Although in some forms of Buddhism, Buddha himself is worshipped as god.

Hinduism is all embracing and tolerant. It has no problem with the idea of the spirit of god incarnating itself on earth as an avatar .In Hindu tradition god appears on the earth in human form to help humanity, whenever it is especially under threat from evil forces, usually incarnated as demons. The most famous are the incarnations of Vishnu. In Hindu thought Buddha became one of the avatars of Vishnu. Like Christianity, Buddhism really took root in cultures away from the land of its birth, where its philosophy was compatible with the needs of the people. Tibet, Sri Lanka , Thailand ,China and Japan. Like most traditions it formed two great sects Theravada, its original form and Mahayana, where Buddha may be worshipped .

IslamThe next reforming movement in India was the gradual invasion by the Moslems from around 1,000 CE onwards . The overriding characteristic of Islam is submissionto the one God, Allah. It means The God. Islam had begun in Arabia in 622 CE. At the age of 40 a man called Mohammad would go frequently to a cave in the mountain side near his home to be alone and meditate. Over a period of 23 years he received a number of revelations from the angel Gabriel. These were written down and collected together to form the Qur’an, the holy book of the Moslems.

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Mohammad was concerned to convey to his animistic and polytheistic people the absolute oneness of god. He went to Mecca where there stood an ancient building called the Kaaba. It was full of idols. In its side was a stone believed to have been placed there by Abraham, founder of the Jewish people through his son, Isaac and Arab people through his son, Ishmael. Mohammad ordered the idols to be cleared away and the Kaaba. now empty of images, and imageless itself became a focal for Moslems and a place of pilgrimage. It represents the heart of Islam and all Moslems pray towards Mecca wherever they are in the world They try to go on pilgrimage (Hajj) there at least once in their life time.

The Moslem place of worship is the Mosque , the place of prostration . Mosques are free of all images in stone wood metal or drawing and so in consequence the most wonderful geometric designs emerged as decoration for these beautiful buildings.The Arabic script that forms the Qur’an also adorns the Mosques of the world turned, into an art form in itself.

We have much to learn about Islam but for now we need to think about its impact on India . On the surface it appeared that this intense, monotheistic worship of the one god was to meet the apparently polytheistic worship of Hinduism. Whatever a Hindus’ belief in god, images would play a prominent part in worship as symbols of the inexpressible god which is beyond form. There was much tension and bloodshed as the two cultures clashed and the Mughal empire was established. The most famous piece of architecture from that period is the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built by a broken hearted prince for his wife who died in 1631. There are many Moslems today in India and you will doubtless know that in 1947 that Pakistan was formed as a Moslem state.

SikhismIn the fifteenth century CE another important figure arose, born as a Hindu and influenced by Islam, his life and work led to the establishment of the most modern of the six traditions, Sikhism .The boy who was later to be known as Guru ( teacher , or leader into light ) Nanak 1469 -1539. Was deeply concerned about injustice. Even as a young boy. He was disturbed by the Caste system in Hinduism which had become a rigid hierarchical division. People were not able to move out of the caste in which they found themselves. To Guru Nanak this led to cruel inequalties.

As a young boy, he refused to take the sacred thread, a Hindu initiation ceremony which only the higher born castes took. This rejection was also a sign that he was also beginning to look inward, beyond outward, ritualistic forms of religion. What

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developed was an intense spirituality based on a deep personal relationship with godwhich he felt was beyond Hinduism and Islam. After a significant religious experience lasting several days, during which he disappeared, much to the consternation of his family, he re appeared saying “There is no Hindu. There is no Muslim.” He had a lifelong passion for equality and racial harmony. The Sikh scriptures, which were collected over time, include not only the sayings and hymns of Guru Nanak and others of the ten gurus who were the founders of Sikhism but also spiritual writing from Hindus and Muslims. Far from rejecting these two traditions he embraced their essential spirituality, incorporating the view of god that they shared .what he did not incorporate was the outward cultural forms such as the treatment of widows in Hinduism which he did not think expressed the essential oneness of humanity with god.

After a deep religious experience ,in early adulthood ,lasting several days,he set up his home as a centre where everyone was to be treated equally. It was characterisedby all visitors eating together which the caste system forbade.This became Langar ,a central aspect of Sikhism. Alongside this comes Sewar, service to others. Nanak rejected the ascetic ideal of Hinduism where men and women with draw from society to develop their inner relationship with god. Nanak emphasised the householder stage of life teaching that the expression of the oneness of humanity with God was best expressed in service to others, not withdrawal from them. The inspiration for this life of service and all embracing equality is Nam Samram, contemplation of the Name. Nanak ‘s experience taught him that humans are most moved by music and so the scriptures now known as the Guru Granth Sahib are sung in worship. Known as ragas they are sung by ragis, skilled musicians

The relationship of the gurus with Islam varied from the total support of emperor Akbar a tolerant and thoughtful Muslim ruler, in the time of the third guru, who sat onthe floor and shared langar with the community, before meeting with the guru, to outright repression and agression . During those periods Sikhs were forced to fight with weapons for their freedom.

Nine gurus followed Nanak .The tenth guru , Gobind Singh, living in a time of repression left two vital legacies which created the Sikhism which we recognise today. First he created the khalsa , the pure ones, the family or community of initiated Sikhs which led to the wearing of the5 K’s as important symbols .The turbanwas not one of these but many men adopted this as a way of keeping the uncut hair tidy. Today Sikh men and women may or may not wear uncut hair. From this time men were given the name Singh meaning lion, and women, Kaur, meaning princess as a way of stressing the equalitiy of all, beyond caste or family.

The remaining legacy he left the Sikh community was that he decreed that there were to be no more Gurus. The spiritual leader of the Sikhs was to be their holy

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book, the Adi Granth, henceforth known as the Guru Granth Sahib. Its very natureexpresses the spirituality of the Inward experience of the one God which is beyond image and ritual .This recognition of the essential oneness of humanity with God is the source of the gurus’ passion for equality, service and acceptance to be offered to all human beings encapsulated in the Granth.

The Hindu Renaissance We need to finish our Indian saga with a modern update. Around two hundred years after Guru Nanak, the British arrived to trade. The East India Company eventually became the ruling force in India, which became a British colony . By the end of the 19th century Victoria was its empress. British rule had enormous impact. The British needed a civil service to run the country for them and so they set up British schools .Indian nationals were taught English and Christianity. At the universities Indians discovered the ideas of the enlightenment about liberty and equality.

This extraordinary cultural mix in the universities with Indian academics being influenced by Christianity , European philosophy, and Islam led in the late eighteenth and nineteenth century to modern reform movements in India . Men like Ram Mohan Roy, Ramakrishna and Vivekananda were influenced not only by their own Hindu texts but also by the ideas of Islam and Christianity and so from thisperiod emerged a Hindu monotheism that was palatable to the West. The scriptures were translated and read eagerly by Western scholars who were able to appreciate the lofty spirituality of these apparently pagan idol worshippers for the firsttime.

It really was a time when East met West ,as in Europe the enlightenment of the 18 th century had opened up a world where it was possible to question everything, to be an atheist, to embrace scientific ideas. The impact of Darwin and Biblical criticism was being felt. In this climate of liberalism and intellectual freedom the study of worldreligions was born.

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3:The AtmanThis where I begin teaching Hinduism. It can stand alone but for us comes after a term of studying Science and Religion (see Teaching Abstract concepts) where children have been introduced to these fundamental concepts

All things are one Reality is an illusion Nothing is created or destroyed it only changes

We teach these concepts in a unit on Religion and Science because understanding them is crucial for students to be able to grasp intellectually the notion that since everything in the material world is made of atoms, and that atoms are mostly space and changing all the time, in a sense everything is one . Because everything around is in fact mostly space and only appears to be still and solid ,in a sense reality is an illusion( Maya) Since, as Einstein pointed out, you cannot ultimately destroy anything because it is in fact simply changed into something else.(Samsara )Then, as the Hindus have taught for thousands of years, nothing is created or destroyed it only changes.

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce the students to the Hindu concept of god inits pure lofty abstract monotheistic form. The pupils can relate to this, especially afterthe lessons on science and religion.

Hindus believe that god is beyond human understanding .God is neither male or femaleGod cannot be described .God is beyond words. Images are stepping stones to understanding to understanding the one great Being

This is the concept we are going to help the pupils understand here. In this view of God, God is called Brahman which means the universal life force or energy in the universe. It is part of everything that exists. It is the universal essence. This life force or energy when it is within living things is called the Atman. A level seven or eight question could invite pupils to say how they are similar or different they are . Pupils could do some extension reading and look at some scriptural quotations. Another interesting exercise would be to pick out some quotations and ask pupils whether

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they think they describe Brahman or Atman.(See work on unpacking the scriptures which follows the lesson recipe)

A simple way of helping pupils grasp the two concepts is to think of Atman as the inside bits the life force within (humans animals and plants) Brahman is everything else, the outside things.

I once asked my A level students if they could represent Brahman/Atman in a picture. I expected them to bring in a picture of a flower or something from nature ,instead, they produced complex drawings to express the subtlety, ambiguity and inexpressible nature of the concept.

Brahman/Atman is a concept that touches pupils. Many of them, as you know, struggle with the idea of a God out there, separate from human existence (transcendent) but the idea of God within , or (immanent) is something that makessense to them.

Starting with Atman sets the whole of the rest of the course on Hinduism in context. It enables them to see beyond the brightly coloured images, delightful, but to our Western eyes, possibly bizarre. It is vital that students see the Hindu images (murti) as symbols of the inexpressible if they are not to be left with the confusion and misconception that Hindus believe in many Gods and worship idols .When we begin here we parallel what was happening in the Hindu renaissance, mentioned earlier, when Western eyes were opened to the sophisticated philosophy of Hinduism and began to cease judging it from the outside as a backward, superstitious religion to be replaced with Christianity at every opportunity.

Hitting the spiritual target with the Atman Through the concept of the Atman we give the students something to reflect on about their own view of the world, we enable them to have respect for the life force and energy in al living things . It creates a bridge between their own view of the worldand that of the Hindu .

This is reinforced throughout the course as they see temple worship and puja in the home as participatory symbols, actions that enable believers to feel changed.

It works just as the religion neutral exercises on prayer and the Eucharist and Jewish Prayer exercises do. Teaching all these aspects of worship experientially

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means that pupils can do some serious evaluative work comparing and contrasting them.

Experiential work using meditation enables them to compare and evaluate silent reflection with the use of ritual liturgy and aids to prayer. Studying worship through religion neutral exercises and participatory symbols in a number of traditions reinforces their awareness of the universal spirituality that lies behind all the traditions. it enables pupils to go beyond the surface of the tradition, mere content, while also developing their own spirituality through the personal realisation they discover in each exercise. Teaching in this way promotes respect racial understanding and harmony.

Creating a concrete platform from which to teach an abstract concept.

The concrete platform we create for the students is to compare the Atman with water in all its forms snow, ice, steam mist ,rain the ocean. Like God water appears in many forms, if you did not know , you might not recognise that fog and ice are both water.

The pupils take part in a visualisation which helps them imagine water in all its forms

I also use two stories to illustrate this point taking the students a little deeper and introducing the Hindu scriptures. The stories are Svetakatu and the salt and Svetakatu and the seed, from the Upanishads. In these stories, which are most effective if you actually act them out, having a glass of water, a spoon and some saltand a piece of fruit to use as you tell the story, the children learn that the Atman is like the salt we put into the water and the life force in the seed that makes it grow –you cannot see it but you know it is there.

Creating the setThe students come into a darkened classroom lit only by spotlights, the room is filled with the sound of falling rain. All across the floor are white sheets representingsnow. In the middle of the sheets is a paddling pool filled with water .the bottom is sprinkled with glass beads which sparkle in the spotlights . Across the water float candles and fresh flower heads. I am fortunate enough to have a mist or sky fountain. Water vapour oozes mysteriously from it throughout the lesson. The pool is lit by battery spotlights set around it. Dotted around the set are photographs of water in all its forms taken from reference books in the library There are ice floes, frost patterns, cloud formations, icicles, snow scenes, seascapes and giant waves.

This is what you need Six white sheets from charity shops or

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White muslin which is very inexpensive and can be used for a variety of experiential lessons in various traditions

A paddling pool or a large bowl of water or several bowls of water scattered about Floating candles Flower heads or petals Glass beads for the bottom of the pool Fairy lights over the sheets would be effective Clip on spotlights Battery spotlights or bendy lamps near the pool Optional extra a sky fountain available from garden centres or shops selling

goods for ambience in the home. (they run on distilled water ) You may be able to find a reptifogger on Amazon .These are very inexpensive .

You just need to drop them into a bowl of water and plug them in. CD Player Matches CD of falling rain , thunder and lightning or running water ,streams or waterfalls. Pictures of water in all its forms.

Artefacts for the story of Svetakatu Glass, salt, water and teaspoon Apple, plate and knife

Creating a set to use while on the move Plastic box CD player and CD One white sheet or cloth or lace curtain. A bowl A large bottle of water Floating candles Matches Clip on spotlights if you have them Fairy lights as an optional extra Extension lead Photographs of water in all its forms Artefacts for the story of Svetakatu

This is what you do to create a simple set with pupils presentPupils come into a circle of chairs with the spot lit set laid outOr pupils create a circle of chairs and the set is created from the box of artefacts.To create an impact with a co operative class you may wish to ask them to go outside again while you put on the music, light the candles and dim the lights so that they can enter the atmosphere you wish to create. Fade the music and introduce the lesson

Lesson summary1. When everyone is settled , the music is faded. I ask the children to close their

eyes and watch the breath.

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2. Concentrate on your breath going in and out of the body. Drive other thoughtsaway.

3. When they are relaxed I ask them to picture water in their favourite form, a cool drink or a refreshing swim, a waterfall or surfing.

4. Ask them to come back into the classroom and ask them what the set is about5. They identify as many forms of water as they can.

6. Tell them “If you did not already know you might not realise that scalding steam and freezing ice are in fact the same thing”

7. The children are invited to take part in a fantasy journey where they will encounter water in all its forms.(see visualisation overleaf)

8. Now it is time to relate the concept of water in all its forms to the aim of the lesson which is to understand the Hindu idea of God

9. “Hindus believe that God is the life force or energy in every living thing Like water in all its forms, unless you already knew, you might not recognise it .Do we recognise the universal life force in everyone and respect it ? What would it be like if we did . What would happen if we behaved as though we were all connected in some way ?” 10. We look at some scriptures together(see examples overleaf) 11.Class members take turns to read them and we unpack them together as a literacy exercise.12.All this is very hard to explain so we use the stories about Svetakatu to help us understand. (see stories overleaf ) As you tell each story do what Svetakatu does, collecting each item as the story is told, doing the fathers bidding. This will help the children remember and understand.13. How do Hindus become aware of this ? - through meditation14.Ask the class to close their eyes, relax, watch the breath, concentrating on the breath going in and out of the body .Ask them to become aware of their self within , an unchanging self that is the same self they were when they were little and the same self they will be when they are old.14.Read “This is my self within my heart” from page .(insert number ) 15. Bring them gently back in to the classroom for a de brief /plenary

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Atman visualisation - a fantasy journey through the seasons encountering water in all its forms – read it to the sound of rain or a waterfall.

Imagine yourself in a beautiful forest . It is springtime. It has been raining ,Sunlight is pouring through the trees and sparkling on the drops of rain still clinging to the branches. As you look around you can see drops full of light shimmering like diamonds. Slowly, one by one, the drops fall to the ground.

As you walk through the forest it becomes warmer and warmer. There is a crack of thunder overhead .You can feel the heat of the summer and your skin begins to prickle. You come to a pool in clearing and stop to swim in the cool waters.After the swim and a sleep in the warm sun you are awakened by a breeze. You sit up and the leaves blow past you – red, gold and brown. Autumn is coming .

You scramble to your feet, watching as the leaves turn beautiful colours before your very eyes and mist begins to rise from the pool.

You look down to find yourself wrapped in a warm coat with hat, gloves and sturdy boots. As you look ahead you can se the edge of the forest and across towards the rolling hills. It is snowing outside the forest.

As you walk towards the hills they become white with snow, but you are toasty warm.As you come out of the forest and gaze around you at the snowy landscape, you hear bells and the jingling of a harness; a sleigh comes racing across the snow driven by someone you love very much. It stops and you climb in and snuggle into the warm scarlet rug as you race off toward your home.

It is a large, elegant mansion with a sweeping drive. You race past the huge fountain, now all turned to ice. As the sleigh pulls up in front of the house, the butler opens the door and helps you inside where you are shown into a beautiful room overlooking the garden. You drink hot chocolate in front of a roaring log fire, gazing out at the tall, decorated fountain covered in icicles. The sun begins to melt the ice and you fall asleep, listening to the drip, drip, drip of the melting snow, dreaming of the hot summer to come and long lazy days by the sea.

What follows are some scriptural quotations to use as posters round the room or on a washing line in the lesson

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One divine being,Hidden in all Beings.

Watching over all works.Dwelling in all beings.

The witness.The perceiver.

The only one, free fromqualities.

He is the one ruler of themany,

Who seems to act, butreally does not act.

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He makes the one seedmanifold.

Questions to ask your pupils about one divine being, as a class or in pairs or groups. If this comes after the experiential multi sensory lesson and someonereads the text to ensure that it is accessible to all, this will enable all your pupils to work at level six and seven. They will be stimulated challenged and motivated to engage with the text.

Look at the first two lines :What does it mean?How does it describe both Brahman and Atman?Look at the second to the fourth lines :What do these lines mean?How do they express both Brahman and Atman?What does it mean when it saysHe is the one ruler of the many Who seems to act but really does not act ?What is the author saying about God when he says He makes the one seed manifold ?Link with science and religionHow does that fit in with what we know about matter?How does this fit in with what we know about scientific theories about the origin of the universe ?

Questions to ask the class about Atman means self (below)What do the first two lines mean?What do you think is meant by the realisation of the self?Explain what is meant by the middle verse.How is the author saying a persons attitude toward others and toward himself is affected by realising this ?How would looking at life in this way affect a persons happiness ? Would it make a person happier or less happy to look at life in this way ?The last verse is telling us what Hindus believe about the soul – can you work it out?Slain means killed : what do you think is meant by It is not slain when the body is killed. ? Link with science and religion Science teaches us that nothing is created or destroyed it only changes, how does that link with the last verse ?

Indwelling

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What warning is TE Brown giving in Indwelling ? what does this poem tell us about the spiritual goal of the Hindu ? If everyone followed this advice how would it affect the world ?

They may need to be reminded that Atman means self

The supreme has manifested itself inevery soul.

Man approaches his final end – therealisation of his self

When you perceive the selfIn all things

What sorrow, what trouble can there be tohim

Who once beheld unity

The knowing self is never born and doesnot die at any time…..it is unborn, eternal,abiding, primeval. It is not slain when the

body is slain

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Indwelling

If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,Like a shell dishabited,

Then might He find thee on the Oceanshelf

And say “This is not dead”,And fill thee with himself instead:

But thou art all replete with very THOUAnd has such shrewd activity,

That, when He comes, He says,”This isenough”

Unto itself -“Twere better let it be : It is sosmall and full, there is no room for me.

T.E. Brown

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The story of Svetakatu and the salt (adapted from the Upanishads) Once upon a time there was a little Indian boy who had been learning about god from his teacher in the village where he lived. He was called Svetakatu and he was eight years old. He wasn’t as old as you are, so he was really struggling to understand what his teacher had told him that day - that God was everywhere but unseen .

He arrived home deep in thought. His father was at work in his study. He glanced up at the boy standing in the hall way, staring at the floor, thinking. He took off his glasses and called his son to him. He asked him what was troubling him, the boy explained.

What do you think he said ?

Instead of answering his question, his father merely asked him to fetch a glass of water .Svetakatu, thinking his father must be thirsty, went to the kitchen, fetched the glass and returned .“Here it is, father”, he said, placing it on the desk.“Thank you” .said his father, not touching the glass .“Please will you bring me a dish of salt and a teaspoon?”puzzled, the boy went off to do as he was told. moments later, he returned. “Good!” said his father “Now, pour the salt into the glass and stir it well. What do you see?” “It is cloudy “.“Excellent ! Now put it on the window sill and run along, I have work to do”.He replaced his glasses and bent over his work.Svetakatu was taken aback .his father had ignored his question, but knowing that to interrupt his father was forbidden, he went away to play.

Next morning Svetakatu jumped down the stairs two at a time, his father called from his study “I hear you are awake, Svetakatu ! Come here ”The boy had forgotten all about his problem and bounced in to give his father a hug .“It is time to find the salt, Svetakatu, he said, pointing at the glass. Please bring me the salt you put in there yesterday “.Svetakatu took it and looked inside .“I can’t see it, father”, said the little boy, worried “Do you think, perhaps, it is not the same glass? Or perhaps the salt has disappeared ? “said his father, smiling.

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“Taste it . well ?”“It is salty”. “Now taste it from the other side of the glass”.“It is salty “.“Now, the middle.” “It is salty”. The boy’s father smiled at his puzzled son.

What do you think the father had taught the son?

“ You see, my boy, God is like the salt, you cannot see it, but you know it is there.” .

Svetakatu and the fruitLook out of the window what do you see ?Svetakatu looked out of the study window at the huge tree that shaded the garden.“The Banyan tree that your father planted when he built this house”, said Svetakatu“Bring me one of its fruits.” The boy ran to do his father bidding.“Now fetch me a plate and a knife”The boy ran off and quickly returned. “Cut the fruit open. What do you see ?”“The seed, father “.“Now, cut open the seed, what do you see ?”“Nothing, Father !” “Ah, but within this seed lies the life force which makes it grow, you cannot see it butyou know it is there .”

How had Svetakatus’ father answered his question ?

Use the text below on posters or PowerPoint to sum up the lesson

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“Bring me the fruit from from this Banyan tree”“Here it is, Father”

“Break it”“It is broken, Sir”

“Break one of the seeds, my son”“It is broken, Sir”

“What do you see in it ?”“Nothing at all, Sir”

Then his father spoke to him: ”My son, from the very essence in the seed which you cannot see comes in truth the vast (huge ) Banyan tree. Believe me, my son, an invisible and subtle essence is the spirit of the whole universe. That is reality. This is the Atman”

THOU ART THAT - TAT TVAM ASI

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This is myself within my heartSmaller than a grain of rice or a

barleycornOr a mustard seed

Or the kernel of a grain of millet .This is myself within my heart

Greater than this earthGreater than the atmosphereGreater than all these worlds

All works, all desires, all scents, alltastes belong to it:

It encompasses all this universe

Chandogya Upanishad. Book Three.Chapter 14: verses 4-5

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Written tasks on the Atman

Vocabulary /flashcards

Brahman The universal life force, or energy that pervades the universeThe pervader Another name for BrahmanAtman The unversal life force in all thingsTranscendent The idea of god as above and beyond the universeImmanent The idea of god within the inner self Svetakatu The boy in the story of the salt and the fruitUpanishads Hindu scriptures which describe Brahman /Atman

Cloze Procedure/Writing frame

This writing frame will give you level three (facts).If you add your own sentences and paragraphs using research from books and the internet you willbe able to write up to level four ( why and because ) and level five (the effects of religion on a person, family or community).if yo you can show how differentHindus believe and worship in different ways you will be writing up to level six.

When we came into the classroom we found a display which represented water in allits forms (describe the set in your own words) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………The display was helping us understand that Hindus believe that God is in everything.They call this universal life force Brahman or Atman.(to boost your level you could do some reading on the meaning of Brahamn/ Atman adding quotations from the book and quotations from scripture)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

During the lesson our teacher told us two stories to help us understand one was the story of Svetakatu and the salt

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(Re tell the story here in your own words. Explaining what the story means willgive you level four. How it affects Hindus level five

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………The other was the story of Svetakatu and the fruit(Re tell this story in your own words. Explaining what the story means will giveyou level four, how it affects Hindus level five ) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Levelled Essay

Use extension reading and information from the internet to help you .A really good essay will show evidence of research, ie information that you did not learn in class. Itwill include quotations from your wider reading and scriptural quotations. Please include a bibliography at the end, showing your sources

1.Describe Brahman (level three :facts )5 marks 2.Describe Atman (level three:facts)5 marks3.How does belief in Brahman/ Atman affect a Hindu ? ( level four ; why, because .level five :The effects of religion on a person, family or community . level six the variety of belief within a tradition ) 5 marks4.Are Brahman and Atman the same or different ? (level seven:Critical analysis) 5 marks

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4:God in Image If we teach this after the Atman, we will have no misconceptions to undo and pupils will immediately see beyond the outward appearance and symbolism of worship to the meaning behind. They will be able to link the Hindu use of images as aids to worship with the use of Icons and Images in Christianity (seeTeaching Christianity) They will be able to contrast this with the lack of images in Islam and consider the views of iconoclasts. Exploring these issues will enable your pupils to discuss and write from level six to level eight.

After the rich multi sensory lesson on the Atman which incorporates so many teaching and learning styles This is a comparatively didactic lesson . Three activities break up the lesson . They reinforce the subject knowledge you have justgiven the pupils ,check understanding, invite the pupils to think ,but most importantly to empathise with the believer inviting them to work out how worship of images affects Hindus at a deep spiritual level. In the Ganesha activity you can build in a kinaesthetic element by putting the situations on the board and asking pupils to formseparate groups to discuss how reflecting on Ganesha would help them . This activity might well work best in single sex groups. Boys, girls, men and women react differently to new situations. The feedback will enable them to learn from each other . This would be a good lesson to devise a true /false game for as a plenary because the Hindu belief and worship is full of ambiguities and paradoxes.

This is what you needPictures on power point, preferably in colour, of images on the side of a temple (Mandir)

It is most effective if you have a close up which amazes the pupils with its complexity and the number of images

Another one taken from further away, showing the number of images even more effectively

One of a temple or group of temples taken from afar to give a sense of their tremendous size.

An overhead of the statement about the many gods being stepping stones to understanding the one great being from the first page of the Atman lesson

Coloured photographs of some of the gods and goddesses and their mounts Ganesha, the elephant headed god, the remover of obstacles is especially

useful as this is the image we will look at closely as an example. Any images (murti) that you have in the department Set these out in a display over Indian fabric in the centre of the circle. Scented candle or joss stick CD of Indian music for atmosphere

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CD player Matches Overhead projector.

This is what you do 1. Class come in to music and sit in the circle round the display2. Fade the music and introduce the lesson3. Last lesson we learned about what Hindus believe about god This lesson we are

going to learn about how they worship 4. Worthship, which is what worship means is about giving value ,giving respect Does god need worship ? No, What is the purpose of worship ? Think of examples you have studied in

the different traditions and tell me how worship affects a person. How does it make them feel ?

5.How do you worship, value, respect, pay attention to, become aware of, the universal life force , do you think?Meditation is an important way . Remember how last lesson we finished with reflection on the self within. Would anyone like to say how it made them feel?6.Can you see this god,? can you touch it?, is it easy to imagine, picture or describe ?Because of this Hindus use images (murti) to help keep the messages of the scripture about the nature of god constantly in their mind and affecting them spiritually.7.Put up “stepping stone” overhead .How many Images do they worship? Let’s look at some imagesOverhead of temple sideOverhead of even more images Overhead of temple from a distance The temples are very high representing the mountains in which the gods were

thought to live in ancient times. They also represent the covering which shows respect like holding a sunshade

over a nobleman to keep him cool. Deep inside the temple like a womb is the image We will learn about temple worship in another lesson8.Later, we are going to think about how a Hindu uses images in their daily worship at home, but today we are going to look at some images and see what they mean.

Activity ; put the pupils in groups and pairs with envelopes containing a number of images. Ask them to see what they images have in common Ask them to create three questions to ask about them.

Use whatever examples you have to illustrate this part of the lesson.What do the images have in common ? The men have partners, wives or consorts. Male and female are two halves of a

whole .There must be both to represent the oneness of the universe. They are usually shown sitting on a lotus flower, a water lily.

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The water lily has a very long stem it goes from the roots deep in the mud at the bottom of the pool which represents the murky struggle of life on earth. The stemreaches up to the top of the clear pure water representing the soul reaching up toheaven to be free from the desires of the body.

Sometimes they are blue which represents infinity Sometimes they have many arms which shows how they are not limited by the

body as we humans are . They are usually holding all sorts of objects. These are symbols.Let us look at one in detail.

9.This is Ganesha, the remover of obstacles . He is a very popular deity in Hinduism. is He is especially given respect and reverence to at the beginning of things , journeys, new school years. Whenever a person making a new start.Reflecting on the meaning of Ganesha will give them courage comfort and inspiration for the venture remind them about what is really important in life Let us see how he does that His huge ears are a reminder to listen to the scriptures and conquer the

selfishness and greed which prevents us from seeing the Atman within His trunk helps him sift through life sorting out what is true and what is false He holds an axe to cut through selfishness His huge round belly represents all the experiences we have in life. It reminds us

that we must digest them and learn from them in order to grow He carries a bowl of rice which reminds us of the satisfaction we will feel by living

life with awareness of the Atman and conquering greed At his feet is a rat, which hoards more than he needs looking up to Ganesha like

the worshippers asking for guidance to be freed from this selfishness. We think that this will bring us happiness but it does not. We merely want more !

Activity : either use an picture or give the pupils a small annotated photograph of Ganesha. Ask them to discuss and feedback how reflecting on Ganesha would help a person who Was starting a new school Was starting a new school year in which they faced important exams Starting up a new business Getting married or entering a new important partnership, or relationship

that was very important to them.

Points can be collected in a thought shower with felt pensDraw the class back together for feedbackDraw the learning from the lesson together with a religion neutral exercise to parallel the affect of meditation and reflection on an image like Ganesha.

You can hit the spiritual target by inviting each pupil to take part in the following confidential activity. It is important that the exercise is voluntary. Pupils need to choose to think about sensitive issues. Any personal development work will only work if the person wishes to work on themselves.

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Put the following the questions on an overhead transparency .Ask pupils to write insilence to quiet ambient music . Moby would be suitable for this “Grace” or “god moving over the face of the water.”

Write on a piece of paper how the messages in the image of Ganesha speak to you .

Ears - Who do you need to listen to ?Trunk – Have you ever been taken in by someone or something that was not what it seemed? Belly - What experiences do you need to digest (cope with?) Axe - What do you need to be less selfish or greedy about How do you feel when you know you have been selfish or greedy? Rice - Can you think of a time when you behaved unselfishly, with kindness or generosity towards someone, a person or an animal. How did it make you feel?Rat – What things do you try to hoard, cling on to, try to get ?

At the bottom complete this sentence

Doing this has made me realise this about myself………….and so I am going to try to ………….

Fold the paper into four and put your name on the outside .When you have finished put it in an envelope to be opened at the end of the Hinduism course.

You could discuss with pupils where and when they would like to open these reflections. The simplest might be in class together ,after which they can be thrown away or kept .They might wish to have them posted home or sent in the register .discussing this will involve pupils in thinking seriously about their personal development.

A Religion Neutral Meditation

1. Close eyes and watch the breath. Notice how the breathing slows.

2. Think about something that annoyed you today or recently

3. Now imagine yourself one year from now .what will you be doing .Perhaps sitting in another lesson in another classroom. Think of all the things that will have happened to you by then.

4. How important will that annoyance be in one years time ?

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5. How important will it be in one week, or even tomorrow?

6. Picture it as shape . Watch it get smaller and smaller until it disappears. Let it go.

7. Despite all the pain and difficulties or worries you might have in your life right now, Think about something in your life, right now, to be grateful for .

8. Finally think of someone who loves you very much. Picture that person. Feel that persons love for you , think about the connection between you and how it makes you feel.

9. When you are ready come back into the classroom.

Debrief

What you thought about in that exercise is entirely confidential .I am going to ask some general questions to help you see the point of what we just did.

Who did think of something that annoyed them ?

Who actually felt annoyed all over again?

Who felt calmer when they thought about how important it would be in a years time ?

Who thought of something to be grateful for ?

Who was comforted by that ?

Who felt better when they thought about that, as well as someone who cared about them?

Can any body work out why we did that at the end of our lesson today - how does it link with what we have been learning about ?

It shows how mediating and reflecting on an image can raise our mood changethe way are feeling and help ourselves to feel better. When a Hindu does this on a daily basis it helps them to be much happier and secure human beings than if they did not.

A story to sum up the learning in the lesson

A little girl was sitting on her grandmother’s lap, sucking her thumb.Granny, how many gods are there ?There are as many gods as there are creatures, so there must be millions and millions How many are there really ?3,000Silly! - how many are there, really ?

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300, my childHow many are there, really, Granny ?30, little one .How many gods are there truly and truly ?3, my dear.How many are there , really ?One, my child, really

Vocabulary / flashcards Murti Image

Mandir Temple

Puja Worship offered to the image in the home or temple

Yoga From a word meaning yoke or union. Spiritual exercises in which mind and body are used to help the person experience oneness with Brahman/ Atman

Meditation Spiritual exercise in which a person aims to become aware of the Atman within and experience a sense of oneness with the universe

Incarnation To become flesh

The Incarnations of Vishnu Vishnu the preserver, is believed to have come to earth nine times, the tenth is yet to come

Avatar An incarnation of god on earth, some people believe Sai Baba a teacher in India alive today and Mahatma Gandhi a Hindu campaigner for human rights assassinated in 1948 to be incarnations of god on earth.

Rama An incarnation of Vishnu

Krishna An incarnation of Vishnu

Cloze procedure/ writing frameGod in imageIn our lessons we learned that that Hindus believe in one god called Brahman, which is the life force or energy in the universe. It is also called Atman which means the life force within all living things .

They believe that this god is beyond human understanding. He cannot be described in words. He cannot be drawn or represented in wood, metal or stone . God is

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neither male, female, animal or human. Because god is so difficult to understand ordescribe or Hindus worship hundreds of images called Mrti. They do this because Use your own words to explain this (level four :why, because )………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………We learned that the images are full of symbols.Complete the following sentences in your own words They are male and female because that represents ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………They are usually shown sitting on a lotus or water lily because ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………They sometimes have many limbs because………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………They hold symbolic objects ,for example ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………We looked in detail at Ganesha. He is the elephant headed god who is very popular in Hinduism. He is prayed to at the beginning of new ventures.His big ears remind us to ……………………………………………………………….His trunk reminds us to…………………………………………………………………..The axe he carries is to…………………………………………………………………His round belly tells us that ……………………………………………………………………………………………… The rat his feet represents……………………………………………………………….

worship means giving value or respect , worthship worship. Reflecting on images affects a Hindu in this way Answering this question well will give you level six. You could use your own experience of the religion neutral exercise to help you (level five , the affect of religion on a person, family or community. level six: the variety of belief within a tradition) ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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Levelled Essay

1.Describe how and why Hindus use images to help them understand Brahman/Atman (Level three :facts. Level four: why, because) 5 marks

2.Explore the meaning of the image of Ganesha (Level four ;why, because) 5 marks 3. Say how contemplating an image affects the life of a Hindu. (Level five: the affect of religion on a person, family or community. Level six: the variety of belief within a tradition ) 5 marks 4.”The use of images is wrong .It distracts a person from understanding the true nature of god which cannot be pictured “ (level seven: critical analysis)If you compare this with the use of images and aids to worship in other traditions you have studied you could reach level eight .Level eight : comparison with other traditions development of a tradition through history) 5 marks

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5: The Hindu Trinity - Coping with changeThe purpose of this lesson is to introduce pupils to the concept of life as a perpetual cycle of change. It enables them to understand the Hindu world view but also enables them to reflect on the significance of perpetual change in their own lives. It will serve a number of purposes. It builds on and uses the knowledge and understanding acquired so far.

It will provide subject knowledge about the Hindu trinity, Brahma – creation, Vishnu – love, preservation , (laying the foundation for learning about the incarnations of Vishnu and the stories of Rama and Krishna). Shiva - destruction, this image sums up, the perpetual cycle of death and rebirth of all things. It will lay the foundation for studying reincarnation and the law of Karma. It provides a link with science and religion through exploring the notion of nothing is created or destroyed it only changes It will hit the spiritual target by enabling pupils to reflect on change in their own lives It will provide a basis from which you could study the four stages of grief and look at bereavement with your pupils. (see Teaching Abstract concepts)

I find the symbolism of image of Shiva so powerful that I have a picture of him on myclassroom wall where I can see it. When the pressure is really on and I feel myself getting wound up I look at him and remember his message which is that all things must pass. I tell my pupils this and show them the image I keep in my classroom. It is not because I am a Hindu, I tell them, but because the spiritual message of this symbol reminds me of something important about living life skilfully and happily.

The written work that follows this lesson is brief as the academic concepts have been dealt with in God in image. I would set one piece of work after this lesson allowing pupils to respond to the learning in both.

This is what you need Pictures of Brahma Vishnu and Shiva in his form as Nataraja, Lord of the dance (See page ... Display to reflect the unending cycle of creation and destruction. We used a Christmas tree, a dead tree branch planted in a pot , a log , some

pines cones and some leaves set out in a circle. A3 posters set round the circle of plant life saying Nothing is created or

destroyed, it only changes. Paper for timeline activity CD player, Music , rain forest music would be appropriate.

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If you are on the move create a display with a plants, a small and a larger version, a tiny cup of soil and

a seed. (use rice !) Incorporate a wooden pencil and ask the pupils where the pencil came from - A tree, which came from a seed, which came from a tree, which came from a seed.

This is what you do1. Class come into music settle and fade the music 2. Introduce the lesson which is to look at three very important symbols in

Hinduism which help us cope with the impact of constant change in our lives3. Ask the class what they remember about the Hindu gods What do they remember about the images ? They are full of symbols How do you think they would show creation ?5.Put up overhead of Brahma - he has four heads to show he thinks on all things In his hands he holds a pen with which he wrote the scriptures What he represents is the beginning of all things Everything in the universe has a beginning Planets, stars, the universe itself People A book or film You, this lesson6.Put up overhead of Vishnu Vishnu is the preserver or god of love, He is thought to have come to earth nine times to help humans whenever they are in the grip of an evil demon. This is a way of depicting a period of great suffering, such as the holocaust.Two famous incarnations are Rama and Krishna. We will learn their stories later.Vishnu is always shown as blue to represent infinity, he is without beginning and endHe represents the state of existence that everything has for a while The middle of a lesson The life of the planet Your youth and early adult hood Reading a story, watching a film

If we have looked at creation and preservation what do you think comes next?Here is the most important image6.Put up Shiva Nataraja He is packed with symbolism which like Ganesha has things to remind us of Here in his hand is a drum. With this he beats the rhythm of time. The coming

into existence of all things, the years, days hours and minutes In the other hand he carries a flame , this represents the fact that everything that

comes into existence is destroyed, or rather changes into something else He is dancing in a circle of flames ,the scarf round his neck flying outwards to

suggest the speed of his movement.

Activity:

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This breaks up the lesson. Invites the pupils to think, has a small element of competition and the interactive feedback keeps them involved

Discuss with your neighbour The circle of flames represents the constant movement of the atoms, perpetually changing . Think of how you have changed during this lesson, howmany changes can you think of. Discuss with your neighbour for three minutes. Count how many changes you thought of.

Feedback:Find out who had the mostPut your hand up if you thought of these Hair and nails growing Digesting food Getting hungry Getting sick Getting better from an illness Losing cells Making cellsGrowing.Learning new things

By the end of the lesson you will have changed a lot. By the end of seven years you have changed completely, all new cells, but your basic physical individuality is there in your DNA and your fingerprints 7.What else can you see about this image ?He is standing on a demon (pupils usually think it is a baby!) The demon represents ignorance, not recognising this basic fact that all life is change

7.Shiva has something to tell us about change . He is holding one hand up as if to say do not be afraid , accept that this is the

way life is, do not cling to material things or feelings because everything passes with time.

This is a comfort because his message is when things are tough remember they are changing all the time. The bad will time pass because time does not stand still. Think how much you look forward to special events ,then they arrive, then they are over ,accept that and you will not be so sad when they are past.

Finally look at Shivas’ face What is his expression like ?He is completely calm and at peace in this whirl of change, he is not upset by either good things or bad. He knows all things will pass. Debrief/plenary Life is full of ups and downs - do people always deserve what happens to them? How do you think contemplating these images and the ideas they contain help a

person cope with the ups and downs of everyday life?

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Flashcards/ vocabulary

Brahma The creator, has four heads to show he thinks on all thingsVishnu The preserver,came to earth nine times to save it from evilShiva The destroyer, shows how all things must change Trimurti A single image combining the three godsPersonify To think of an idea or quality as a personIgnorance How Hindus describe wrong doing

Cloze procedure/writing frame

Hindus worship three important images. They are Brahma, the creator, He is the source of all things .He has four heads to show he thinks on all things. The next is Vishnu, the preserver. He has come to earth nine times, to free it from evil. The third is Shiva, the destroyer. Shiva is very important because he shows that everything good or bad must pass because all life is constant change. This is so important an idea that the three are sometimes portrayed together in a single image called the trimrtiDescribe the symbols of Shiva’s image (level three: facts)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Hindus do not have a concept of sin, in the same way that Christians do, they usuallysee wrong doing as ignorance. They often personify this as a demon.Explain this idea in your own words, give an examples to show you understand (level four: why, because)……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… How does the symbolism of the image of Shiva affect the way a person might see life. Illustrate your answer with an example (level five: the affect of belief upon a person, family or community. Level six: The variety of belief within a tradition )………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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6: The Stories of Rama and Krishna

Rama and Krishna are the most famous of the incarnations of Vishnu the preserver who comes to earth defeat evil . Periodically ,says the myth, the earth is in the grip ofa particularly evil demon and it takes divine power to defeat it.Rama and Krishna come to earth with their consorts Sita and Rhada

Here is the story of Rama. I have heard many different versions of the story and onlyone has given it a sad ending. I have given that version here. What I have also done is given it the happy ending that appears in the textbooks and connects it to the festival of Divali.The version that you tell will also depend on the age of your pupils.

This is a story about the triumph of good over evil. It is all about the qualities that a good Hindu should show, courage in the face of adversity, accepting that all things change. Behaving with integrity even when things go wrong. It is about loyalty, friendship and faithfulness.

The Story of Rama

The earth was on the grip of a horrible ten headed demon. Ravana was particularly evil, He was so horrible that he had ten heads, and a fondness for women. The godsdecided to set a trap for him in the form of the goddess Lakshmi. Incarnated as a human, no other woman could possible match her for beauty.

In order for the plan to work, the events of her life had to be arranged so that she should meet and marry her own dear husband, the Lord Vishnu, the preserver, only he was powerful enough to defeat the power of Ravana. In this story as Vishnu and Lakshmi descend to earth as Avatars to free the earth from Ravana’s evil grip, they endure great suffering and personal pain in order to fulfil their quest.

The story begins…Once upon a time a long, long time ago in India, a certain king had an especially beautiful daughter. He loved her very much and wanted to find her a husband whosecourage, bravery and strength would be a match for her great beauty and goodness.

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He announced a competition throughout the surrounding kingdoms, hoping to attract a prince suitable for his daughter’s hand in marriage.

Every nobleman’s son was invited to a festival where they were invited to bend a great bow. Not one succeeded . This was no ordinary bow .It belonged to the god Shiva. No ordinary mortal could possibly bend it, but it was no ordinary mortal destined to marry Sita, have you guessed who she was ? - the divine goddess , Lakshmi who had come to earth, to suffer as a human to save it from the evil demon.

What do you think happens next ? – After many princes had tried and failed and it seemed that the lovely Sita was to remain without a husband, one stepped forward . He stepped up to the bow and bent it in two, broken in to two halves he threw it on the ground and stepped up to take his prize while the crowd gasped in astonishment.

Rama and Sita were married and set off back to Ramas’ kingdom where they planned to live happily ever after.

Do you think that was going to happen? – no!

When they arrived Rama discovered that his stepmother had persuaded Rama’s father to give his throne not to Rama but to his young son recently born to his new wife.

Rama and Sita were banished from the kingdom. Rama’s devoted and loyal brother, Lashman, came with them.

Having no money or possessions, they went to live in the forest. They made themselves a hut and lived off whatever food they could find. The trap was laid ! Oneday Sita spotted a beautiful golden deer, she wanted it as a pet. Wanting to please his wife, Rama set off with his brother to capture it but before he left he drew a magic circle round the hut to keep her safe.

“Do not go outside this circle, whatever you do” Rama said what do you think is going to happen ?

The golden deer scampered faster and faster into the forest leading the two young men further and further away, before it finally disappeared – can you guess who it was ?

A moment later Sita looked up to see a holy man outside the hut .He stood just outside the magic circle. He asked her quietly and shyly for some food. Taking pity on the old man Sita stepped up to him to him with her gift.

Immediately, he revealed himself in his true form seeping the terrified Sita up into hischariot which rode through the sky at great speed off to his palace on the Island of Sri Lanka.

Now, Sita had made friends with the animals of the forest and all at once the king of the cranes , a beautiful white bird flew up to attack Ravana. He fell to the earth, dying

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. In desperation Sita threw her many bangles one by one on to the forest floor hopingthat Rama would be able to follow her trail.

When Rama and Lakshman returned to the hut and found her gone, they realised in a moment how they had been tricked. They ran through the forest and soon found the king of the cranes who whispered the single word Ravana before he died in Ramas’ arms.

The two men set off to find Hanuman the king of the monkeys. At once he agreed to provide an army to fight the demon.

Together they followed the trail of bracelets until they came to Ravana’s palace.

A great battle took place in which Ravana and all his demon soldiers were defeated and Sita was carried home in triumph.

That was not the end of the story, though. The divine pair had another test to face . Back in the forest people began to whisper to Rama that perhaps Sita had been unfaithful to him with Ravana. Eventually Rama confronted Sita with the problem. Heassured her that he believed her but, he said, she should prove her innocence publicly through ordeal by fire.

A huge fire was built and the day came. Everyone came to watch as the fire was lit. When the bonfire was blazing, twice the height of a man, Sita stepped forward into the flames. Horrified, the Fire god Agni drew the flames back into a circle so that thegoddess could step through, unharmed.

Overjoyed, Rama ran to meet his wife “I knew you were innocent!” He said.

But Sita looked at him, coldly.

“But you did not trust me” she said “and for that you have now truly lost me “With that she walked past her husband and into the forest where she was never seen again.

Soon afterwards Ramas’ father died . His young half brother refused to take the throne , placing Ramas’ sandals on the throne. Rama and Lakshman returned in triumph for Rama to take his rightful place as king .

But still the story is not quite ended….

For eighteen years Rama ruled wisely and there was peace in all the land. One day he was brought a magnificent horse. No matter how hard any one tried the horse could not be tamed. Rama declared a competition. The horse would be given to any young man who could tame it .

Messengers travelled far and wide announcing the date of the competition and manyyoung men arrived to try their hand at catching the beautiful wild horse.

Do you think any one did ?

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Finally at the end of the day two twin boys appeared. No one knew where they came from . The horse seeing them trotted obediently to them, they climbed on its back and grasping its mane they guided the horses back into the forest from whencethey came .

Have you guessed who they were ?

Rama was puzzled. He followed the young men on foot, deep into the forest. .Soon they led him to their mother - the princess Sita. These were Rama’s own sons, conceived just before Ravana stole Sita away.

Rama was overjoyed to find his wife again, but still she rejected him, asking mother earth to open up and take her back into the essence of the universe, Sita means furrow.

As Sita disappeared, ready to return to heaven as the goddess Lakshmi, so Rama walked into the sea to be reabsorbed into the universe also, returning to heaven to wait for the next time he would be needed to rescue the earth.

The Story of KrishnaOnce upon a time, a very long time ago in India, the great god Vishnu decided to come to earth in human form, as the prince Krishna, to rescue the planet from evil.

Krishna was going to be very vulnerable while he was a child, he might be discovered by the demons who ruled the earth and killed, so when the little baby wasborn, his father was warned that the child’s life was in danger.

He wrapped the baby warmly and took him secretly over the mountains to a small village where he swapped him for the newborn son of one of the village women.

Krishna grew up like any human child. However, the father’s plan was foiled . He was quickly discovered and before long a nurse appeared at the door of the house offering to feed the baby. His parents agreed. The baby knew immediately that she was not what she seemed and suckled her to death. At once she turned into her trueform, huge and hideous, but fortunately, very dead!

Worried that the child had been discovered, Krishna’s adoptive father moved the family and all their goods and animals to another village.

Krishna was very mischievous ! He grew up with his brothers and sisters getting into trouble along with them like any other child.

When Krishna was a teenager he found that the villagers were being poisoned by the water of the lake nearby. He dived to the bottom of the lake and found that it was ruled by an evil demon in the form of a many headed serpent. Krishna danced on its head and killed it. The villagers were now becoming aware that he was no ordinary being. Soon they were coming to him with their problems

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Krishna was also attracting attention from the old gods who were no longer as popular as Krishna was becoming . The storm god Indra became jealous of Krishna and threatened to destroy the village . The villagers came rushing to find Krishna, pointing to the terrible dark skies above. Krishna challenged Indra to a competition. He placed mount Govinda on his little finger and spun it .”Can you do that ?” he asked Indra. Indra could not. He acknowledged defeat and went away leaving the village in peace.

All the villagers came to worship Krishna. The girls of the village all fell in love with him. One day while they were bathing in the lake Krishna hid their saris in a tree andmade them come out of the water to fetch them. It is a symbol of hiding nothing from god. God knows what is truly in your heart.

One special village maiden, a goat girl called Radha, won his heart and they spent many happy hours together, she was Lakshmi, also incarnated as an ordinary human, their love serves as a picture of the perfect love between god and man.

This incarnation involved painful sacrifices, too. Their love could not last. Krishna was a prince, Rhada was a village maiden. Krishna was destined to fulfil his duty and marry a princess of noble birth.

The story of Krishna’s life on earth is an example of how men and women should behave, with love and duty. Krishna’s teaching about spiritual life is found in the Bhagavad Gita, or Song of God. We will use some quotations from it in our work on reincarnation

Vocabulary/ Flash cardsRama One of the incarnations of Vishnu came to earth to defeat Ravana Sita The goddess Lakshmi, came to earth with VishnuRavana Ten headed evil demon who stole SitaLakshman Rama’s loyal and faithful brotherHanuman The King of the monkeys who helped rescue Sita. Divali The festival of lights that recalls the story of Rama and Sita Krishna Very popular incarnation of Vishnu , hero of the Bhagavad GitaRadha The goddess Lakshmi who came to earth with Krishna Ramayana Epic poem containing the story of Rama and Sita

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Writing frame /research allowing pupils to write up to level eight

Rama, Sita and Divali

Hindus teach that Vishnu the preserver came to earth nine times to fight evil in the form of demons .This is called Incarnation which means to become flesh.

A human being who is actually god on earth is called an avatar. One of the most famous incarnations of Vishnu is when he came down to earth as Rama, together with his consort , Lakshmi who became his wife in the story, the beautiful princess Sita. This story is found in one of the scriptures called the Ramayana

The story tells us that the earth was in the grip of a wicked demon King called Ravana. Vishnu’s task was to come to earth to rescue it. His consort ,the beautiful princess ,Sita ,was to form the bait. This is what happened Telling the story well, in your own words, will give you level three (facts)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………The story is re enacted every year at the festival of Divali , a festival of lights. This iswhat happens at the festival and what it meansYou will need to look this up in a book or on the internet. This enables you to write up to level four ( why, because )……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……..Divali is great fun but it also affects Hindus by helping them think about spiritual issuesAnswering this well will enable you to write up to Level six ( level five :the affect of religion on a person, family or community.Level six :the variety of belief within a tradition)…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Some people say it is like the Christian festival of Christmas, it also has similarities with the Jewish festival of HanukahDiscussing the similarities and differences between these festivals enables you to write up to level eight (Comparison between religions, development through history)………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The levels covered in this task mean no levelled essay is necessary.

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7:ReincarnationThis is a fascinating topic which pupils will enjoy. Teaching it at this point however will mean that they can appreciate it from the Hindu point of view and understand theconcepts that underpin it.

What follows are two accounts that you could use with your pupils to help them understand reincarnation. One is a simple account, the other is more difficult and canbe used for extension work. If you are a non specialist or this is a new area for you, they will help you grasp the concepts quickly.

There are also some stories following the lesson recipe which you can read at appropriate parts of the lesson to illustrate the concept of Maya. They provide much material for thought and discussion about how we see life and how we deal with difficulties in our lives. They seem so overwhelming when we are involved in them.

Picking up this thread builds nicely onto the work in coping with change. It develops the pupils’ own spirituality, while enabling them to appreciate the wisdom of Hinduism and to appreciate what everyone can learn from it, whether they belong toa religious tradition or not - the universal spirituality that underpins all the religious traditions of the world.

If you begin with modern European and American accounts of remembering a previous life (from books and the internet ) you will enable to start where the childrenare, tap into what they already know and engage their interest before looking at the topic academically. If you do not begin here they are likely to take you back to it, themselves !

The topic invites the use of thinking skills, in looking at issues of verification.It links with religion and science and with work on the after life, religious experience and the problem of evil (See Teaching Abstract Concepts)

If you use the simple summary of Reincarnation and one, or all, of the stories that follow the lesson recipe, together with accounts of far memory, you will have enoughmaterial for two or more interesting lessons, with plenty of variety, stories to engage,followed by information, followed by an activity.

All of this will stimulate pupils to tackle the creative writing task. This is structured toensure that pupils are stretched and produce a positive learning outcome showing evidence of their learning, as well as enjoying using their imagination to write a story. An example from Laura Thompson in year nine is included as an example ofhow one pupil interpreted this task and used it to aim for level eight.

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A simple summary of the concepts in reincarnation People who believe in reincarnation think that a person’s soul moves on after death to inhabit yet another body . Hindus call this Samsara meaning literally “that which flows together “

They believe that a soul can move from plants or animals in successive lives until it finally reaches a human body and from then it is born again and again.

Where a soul moves on to depends on how it lived its last life. If a person has beenmorally good, it gets a better position in its next life. A persons’ present status and condition are the results of how it lived previously.

Karma is moral law/behaviour. Because people are free to make choices they can understand whether they are doing the right thing or the wrong thing and their behaviour automatically determines their fate. There is no god to judge them, or decide whether they will go to heaven or hell – a person decides their own fate.

Hindus say that life on earth is temporary . No material thing is permanent . Everything changes all the time, as Shiva teaches us. To go after material things, rather than improve spiritually, is an illusion, Maya, it is not real. The only thing you will take with you into your next life is the imprint of your actions. The only thing that is real is the Atman. Your life on earth exists to mould your character for the next one

The goal of all human existence is to become free of the body .One day every human soul will realise in a deep way the emptiness of the material world and the flesh and it will no longer wish to be re born. (see the stories about Narada that follow) This release from the cycle of rebirth is called Moksha It will merge with the Atman, becoming pure spirit once again. This is Nirvana.

Extension reading on reincarnationWe are going to look now at some of the explanations that have been offered by philosophers, psychologists and religious writers for this very interesting belief about life after death. Remember, what I am about to tell you are other people’s attempts to think about the existence of the soul, you can make of it what you will.

The belief in reincarnation concerns the possibility that we have a two fold nature – a physical body that exists for seventy plus years storing up experiences and an inner “you” , an indefinable something that cannot be touched. weighed of felt, but which has existed for thousands of years, passing into and out of a series of physicalbodies. It does this in order to gain some kind of maturity

The important thing, it seems , is not what you were in a particular life but how you were it! .Did you achieve great things by smashing everything else in your path to get there? Or did you manage it through wanting the greater good of those people

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around you / Perhaps you lived an ordinary life, as most of us do. Did you always try to think about others or did you behave as you wanted to behave ?

Buddhists believe that every action will bear fruit, rather like St Paul’s statement thatwhat you sow you will reap. You will receive the consequences of the way you live one life in the next. You may not be born as beast , or something unpleasant as a punishment, but you will be condemned to be re born over and over again until you put right the damage that you have done to the spiritual you. One theory about how itworks is as follows.

You will never again be reborn as you, this is why you do not remember your previous lives. What happens is that the spirit of a person is drawn back into its spiritual causal nature and from this will be created a new personality. This may not be at all like the previous one but at the same time certain qualities may be carried over because they need to be sorted out, or because they are so strong that they make a strong impression on the spiritual nature. These may be good or bad qualities, but they will affect the new life. At the end of this life, the personality that has been created will be absorbed back into the causal nature and only those with very marked traits will be passed on. No doubt you can see how it might take time before a violent emotion such as hate is finally brought under control.

The self, then or whatever animates you , will be, according to this belief, reborn many times, but the individuality of any particular incarnation will never appear again.What carries on is attitudes. The individual who had excessive pride will not be reborn in the personality of the previous life but what will be reborn is the pride. This will take the person through a life full of the consequences of such a trait until the person learns what is the cause of his problems and eliminates it, again over severallives .

What is the point of this belief? Those who believe it say that they believe that the ego is predestined to improve , learning from its mistakes because of the suffering it causes itself…The believer lives life aiming at the conquest of illusion in him/herself. She/he decides that there is no way that he/she can avoid the duties which are a part of life. She/he decides how important their thoughts and attitudes are. They come to the conclusion that only important thoughts are important – no amount of trivia can justify the function of the human mind – and settles down to work out how he can best use his mind towards a useful life. The aim of life, these people insist, is not satisfaction, but strengthening the inner resources, the character.

If you remember a part of your previous existence, what you remember is not your past life, but the life of the spirit within you. This fits in an interesting way with the idea of Brahman /Atman. Hindus teach that everything is one, the spirit of all living things is part of Brahman, therefore they do not think about the separateness of things in the same way that the West does..

How does this tie in with Religion and science ?

The reincarnating ego is thought to be part of the universal mind from which proceeds the moulding, directing, guiding force which is the essence of all the forces at work on the physical plane. All the world of form is evolved by and through this

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force, integrating atoms into forms and disintegrating them again, it is similar in a sense to the ability to project into the real world the forms created by the imagination.

Some people believe that events, even strong emotion, can take on physical form, so if you are continually having selfish thoughts, they will take on a kind of form that can be passed on; while if you continually devote yourself to unselfish thoughts and actions, this kind of mould will be formed for the next life.

In the middle ages , some people believed that man was simply a materialisation of spiritual principles . through the medium of the brain, the soul galvanises the body into activity. In this way, the body is given life.

A Hindu Swami says

“Everything that has form(shape, matter can be seen) evolved out of this akasa.(energy) Itis this akasa that becomes the air, the liquids, the solids, the sun, the moon, the stars. It is the akasa that becomes the animal body, the human, every form that we see, everything that can be sensed, that exists. It can only be seen when it takes on form. At the beginning of creation there was only akasa, at the end ofthe cycle the solids, liquids and gasses all melt into the akasa and the new creation simply proceeds out of the akasa”

The theory of the pulsating universe ?

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Lesson recipeTo create a set which would help pupils remember and learn the concepts, we used the evolution of the Jaguar car. We thought of doing this because the time that we devised this lesson in 1999 Jaguar had just launched the new Stype and theadvertisement on the TV used as its theme tune “History repeating” by Shirley Bassey and the Propellorheads. It is a terrific piece which is a great way to raise the spirits and focus the pupils at the beginning of the lesson. The words are appropriate, too.If you want to use this idea as a multi sensory focus but you can stillget it on the Propellorheads album.

In the centre of the display we put a baby doll from it in a huge spiral we twisted brightly coloured fabric. Round the spiral we placed pictures of the Jaguar car from the XK 120 launched in 1948 to the S type.

On the board, in a circle, to match the one on the floor we wrote the key concepts Karma, Samsara, Moksha, Nirvana. We likened Samsara to the quest for the ultimate driving experience in the perfect Jaguar. This would lead to Moksha, being free from the desire to seek for any more versions. This would represent attaining Nirvana.

Around the set we placed posters saying All actions have consequences. This iswere we planned to hit the spiritual target, relating the concepts to the pupils own view of the world and their own lives.

The activities are designed to create variety in the lesson, to reinforce literacy and to bring in a kinaesthetic element .They will discuss in pairs, use their imagination. Stand up and sit down. Use thinking skills with literacy to match key words to text. Make decisions and justify them. Contribute individually through reading or discussion

This is what you need

Doll Fabric to make a spiral Pictures of the Jaguar or any other car or object that has developed perceptibly Keywords Posters of “All actions have consequences” Scriptural quotations on overhead and also on card sentence by sentence

enough for each pupil to have one.( See activity) CD player

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Music “History repeating” or other suitable song.

This is what you do1. Class come in to circle of chairs and settle. Fade the music and ask if they can work out what the lesson is about2. Ask what they know about reincarnation3. Introduce the topic with accounts of far memory .This will relate to the pupils own

experience, before you take them into the Hindu experience and more academic study. Refer to people who have claimed to have far memory (examples can be found on the internet )

Why might they not be true ? Invention The desire to have attention May be part of things that the person has read

Activity: On the board or overhead have a list of the following time periods with some visual clues so that pupils can picture them.

Ancient EgyptAncient GreeceAncient Rome Anglo Saxon times (King Alfred the Great and the Vikings)The Medieval period (Robin Hood, Knights in armour)Elizabethan England (Shakespeare, Queen Elizabeth 1)The Eighteenth century ( wigs and wide dresses ) The Victorian period (The industrial Revolution)The First World War The Second World War The Sixties

Ask the pupils to imagine which of these time periods they would go back to if they could. Talk with their neighbour for two minutes to say what and why.

Go round the circle and tick each time period as it is chosen

Now we are going to look at the work of an American psychologist who did a similar thing .She used 1,008 people not one class and she hypnotised her subjects first !

She asked them what sex they were What colour their skin was What they were wearing What was on their feet What food they ate What they were doing.

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She decided that if these experiences were invented or just wish fulfilment then they would not match what we know about the past. She believed that most people would choose to be male, white , live a long time ago and be wealthy or even famous

What she found was that most people lived in the last 150 years were equally distributed between male and female, lived very ordinary lives and had skin colour that matched the distribution of skin colour on the planet. She concluded that they were real memories . She found just 11 errors.

4.The case is different with children who seem to remember a previous life They have too little experience to be making it up

There are a number of examples of this . Some research has shown that children below the age of six are more likely to remember a previous life than an adult but that they are rarely believed and the memories fade by the time they are six or seven.

Whatever we think about this fascinating belief about the after life Many people do live their lives believing it to be the case, how might this belief affect a person?

5.Explain the Hindu belief in the transmigration of souls using the key words on the board. Relate to the evolution of the Jaguar carReinforce with scriptural quotes used on the overhead and the idea of all actions have consequences

Activity: A Religion neutral exercise to hit the spiritual target enabling pupils to relate their learning about the law of Karma to their own lives.

Activity : Type the quotations out on pieces of card in numbered order enoughfor every person in the room and place them under chairs at the beginning of the lesson .Each pupil can now read out their line in turn. This creates involvement and reinforces literacy. Place each one on the overhead projector and ask the pupils to identify where they refer to the key words on the board.

An alternative would be to give the quotations out in groups or pairs with the keywords on slips of paper or card and get them to place them over the lines to which they refer.

Activity ; Stand up sit down – can be used as a plenaryStand up if you think that all actions do have consequences.Interview members of the class who do not agree asking them to give reasonsfor their belief.Sit downWhole class standSit down if you think the law of Karma is a reasonable idea Interview pupils look for answers such as it makes sense of the inequalities between people

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Sit downStand up if you think Reincarnation is not a reasonable idea Invite pupils to say whySit down

What follows are some scriptural quotations for you to make int posters or put on to a powerpoint and two stories to read or tell to illustrate the Hindu concept of time.

Fire cannot burn the soul, wind cannot chill it,Water cannot wet it , sword cannot pierce it.So how can it die the death of the body?

Just as a person casts off garments when they are old and finds ones that are new, so the soul casts off the body and moves on to one that is new.

The soul is never born, never dying, unchanging forever

Just as smoke hides fire and dust hides the mirror so the body hides the Atman

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Chapter two of the Bhagavad Gita, The Song of God

Just as in this body the embodied soul must pass through childhood youth and age, so too, (at death) will he take another body up: In this the thoughtful man is not perplexed

The Bhagavad Gita

A man acts according to the desires to which he clings.After death he goes to the next world bearing in his mind the subtle impression of his deeds: and after reaping the harvest of those deeds, he returns again to this world of action. Thus he who has desire continues subject to rebirth.

The Upanishads

He who lacks discrimination, whose aim is not steady and whose heat is impure never reaches the goal, but is born again and again. But he who has discrimination, whose mind is steady and whose heart is pure, reaches the goal and, having reached it is born no more. The Upanishads

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The Parade of AntsIndra, lord of the storm was the king of the gods and a mighty warrior. At the beginning of the world he slew the dragon that had been holding the waters of heaven captive in its belly. He flung his thunderbolt into the coils of the dragon. The waters burst free and streamed across the land circulating through its body.

The flood is the flood of life and belongs to all, the sap of the field and forest, the blood coursing through a person’s veins.

Feeling incredibly full of himself Indra summoned Vishvakarman, the god of arts andcrafts to make him a great palace.

However magnificent Vishvarkarman’s efforts Indra was never satisfied. His pride was so great that he wanted more and more turrets and pleasure gardens and exoticchambers to express his own importance.

Vishvakarman was desperate. He went to Brahma, Lord of creation, to ask for help. Brahma assured Vishvakarman that all would be well. As he made his way home, Brahma went to find Lord Vishnu, the Supreme Being. Vishnu listened in silence to the problem. Finally he smiled and nodded to indicate that he had understood and the problem would be solved.

The very next day a small pilgrim boy around ten years old arrived at Indra’s palace. The child was beautiful, radiant with wisdom. Indra recognised the importance of his young visitor and asked him the purpose of this honour. “Sir”, said the boy “I have heard of the wonderful palace you are building and I came to ask how much longer itwill take to complete. I am wondering this because no Indra before you has ever managed to complete a palace”.

Indra was astonished and most amused by the reference to Indras before him .”Tell me “ he said, laughing, ”Are there so many Indras before me ?”

“Yes”, said the boy, “I have seen the universe dissolve and come into being many times – who could count the universes that have passed away and the creations thathave come into being? Who could possibly count them, each one with its Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and its Indra. There are some among your servants, Lord, who think it might be possible to count all the grains of sand upon the earth and all the drops of rain that fall but no one thinks it is possible to count the Indras there have been.

Suddenly a parade of ants appeared in the hall of the king.

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The column was four metres wide. It marched across the hall and out the other side in an endless stream. The boy burst into laughter. The king begged him to share the secret of his amusement . “I laughed, O Lord “, he said “Because of the ants, but I cannot tell you why. It is a secret that can only be understood by the wise”. The king begged and the boy having been asked to teach the great king explained “I laughedbecause each ant was once an Indra like yourself, who by living a virtuous life ascended to the rank of the king of the gods but then through many rebirths has become an ant again. It is through holiness and good deeds that one becomes elevated to the highest ranks, as you have been and through selfishness and greed that you sink again”.

The king was reduced to silence, as for the first time he contemplated his own insignificance. Cured of his desire for great magnificence he called Vishva karman to him, rewarded him richly for all his efforts and sent him on his way.

The Waters of ExistenceThere was once a holy man, Narada, who wanted to understand the secret of Maya,that what we think is reality, is just an illusion. All material things are impermanent, constantly changing. All things of this world are an illusion, even time itself. “How canthis be?”, he thought “ What does it mean? Only by really understanding this can I befree from attachment to the things of this world and gain Moksha.

He went into the desert to be alone and meditate to find the answer to his question.

Moved by his deep sincerity Lord Vishnu chose to appear to him to help him understand.

The man was very hot .They found themselves beside a clear, cool pool. Vishnu toldthe holy man to enter the pool and that as he sank below the surface he would findthe answer to his question.

Mystified, the man did as his Lord bid him.

As he sank below the surface, feeling the waters cool his burning skin, he entered another world . He emerged from the pool as Sushila, a beautiful princess, the daughter of the king of Benares. The king loved his daughter dearly and they were very close. She was very happy and soon the father bestowed her hand in marriage to the handsome son of a neighbouring King. They grew to love each other very much.

In time they ascended to the throne in her husband’s kingdom and ruled in peace and happiness. They cared well for the people over whom they ruled. Sushila had many sons and grandsons and was blissfully content.

However , in time, a feud broke out between her father and her husband.The feud became a war and presently a great battle ensued. When Sushila heard of the tragedy she rushed to the battlefield where she found her sons, grandsons, uncles, nephews, father and husband all slain.

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With a great lament she built an enormous funeral pyre and laid upon it the bodies ofall those she loved . Finally she set light to the pyre and overwhelmed with grief and loss she flung herself onto the flames. As she did so she felt the burning fire become once more a cooling pool.

Vishnu stretched out his hand and helped the holy man from the pool and asked him“Who is that son you are crying for so heart brokenly?”

NaradaVishnu had a final lesson for Narada.

As they sat down together in the hot sun. Vishnu pointed to a village in the distance and asked Narada if he could go and fetch him a drink of water.

Narada approached the first house he came to and knocked on the door. It was opened by a beautiful young girl. Looking into her eyes , Narada was entranced. He entered the house and met her family. No one seemed at all surprised to see him. In the fullness of time he asked the girl’s father for her hand in marriage.

This was no more than the family expected. They were soon married . Twelve yearspassed. The couple had three children. The girl’s father died and they took over the farm. They were very happy.

One day the rains came with unusual force. The roofs of the houses were swept away along with the animlas. Torrents of water swept along the main street.

It was night. Narada took his family outside into the pouring rain ready to climb to the hills for safety. Placing the baby on his shoulders and grasping the other two by the hand, he told his wife to hold on to him round the waist. He used all his strength to forge a way through the swirling waters.

Suddenly his foot struck a rock and he stumbled. The baby slipped from his shoulders into the torrent. With a cry, he let go of the others to reach for the baby, dislodging his beloved wife as he stooped. All were swept away and drowned.

Blinded by tears of grief, Narada made his way to a muddy bank, flinging himself upon it, he sobbed as though his heart would break, overwhelmed by feelings of desolation.

Suddenly, he heard a voice, gentle and concerned “Narada , where is my water? I have been waiting here more than half an hour”.

What does this story have to teach us all about coping with tragedy ?

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Levelled Creative Writing Task

To show that you understand what you have learned about reincarnation you are invited to write a story, using your own imagination. If you would prefer you can leave out the story and using the level descriptors write a descriptive essay

Your story needs a main character. This could be you or someone you invent.

This character will live two lives. The second life will be caused by the way they have lived the previous life. This will show your understanding of the law of Karma and you will be writing at level four. Your work will be improved if you include the specialist vocabulary such as Samsara and Moksha.

You could stop at this point. However…

In order to reach the highest levels you could imagine that you are explaining reincarnation to a young child.

You might be a Hindu, a member of another tradition , you might be a grandparent talking to your grandchild or you may be just yourself.

You could explain what Hindus believe about reincarnation, if you wish you couldadd your story of the two lives at this point. You will be working at level four (why, because ) and level five where you describe how it affects Hindus’ attitude to life. level six is achieved when you show variety of belief and practice within a tradition. You could do this by showing the different responses between men and women or different social groups.

Level seven: critical analysis is achieved where you discuss whether you think the story is true or not .You could do this through the questions the child asks and the answers you give.

Level eight will be achieved by comparing this idea about life after death with that of any other traditions you have studied.

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8: Building a temple in the classroom and re enacting Puja

I am grateful to Dr W Owen Cole for the following anecdote. On a visit to a town in India Owen asked the taxi driver how many Mandirs there were .He replied 90 or 900. He went on to explain there are 90 buldings that are mandirs but there is mandir in every house congregational worship is not necessary and is not a regular feature of Hindu life in India. Puja (worship) is conducted in the home ,usually by the mother each day. A clean area, perhaps in the kitchen, may be set aside, or in a larger home, a whole room may be devoted to worship. A simple home may have a picture of an image a larger may have elaborate images which they mayactually wash and dress.

The pattern of puja described below is similar in the temple or home. In addition, in the temple the rituals may be conducted by a priest and the congregation may takepart in Darshan which is a dramatic ceremony conducted most effectively in ancient dark temples where the image or images reside in the centre of the temple in what represents the womb of the world from which the Atman, the life force or energy emanates. The congregation may gather in the darkness and during the ceremony the priest illuminates the images’ faces with the light of the arti lamp. Darshan is the glance of the God, revealed by the circling of the lamp into the human eye, penetrating right into the depths of the human soul. The darkness and sudden illumination is a powerful participatory symbol providing comfort and inspiration to thebeliever. It is also customary for the visitors to walk around the shrine room often following a covered way designed for the purpose. Circling the images represents the unity of all things. In the Mandir the symbolism is on a grand scale.

Taking part in puja in the temple at Neasden north London one of my students described the experience as one of the most dramatic and emotional she had ever experienced. What created the impact for her, which marked it out from the worship in the home which we had re enacted in class was the sense of drama. The imageswere revealed as the doors that covered them were opened in the midst of a packedcongregation,the loudness of the music seemed to penetrate our beings, it felt like adramatic call to awaken ourselves once more to the spiritual realities of life.

With some imagination you can turn the whole classroom into a temple, as we do (see photographic tour in Making RE make sense)or, you can create a simple shrine which you can pack into a box and set up in a classroom anywhere.

This is how to make a large temple to create maximum impact.Put desks in a row at the back of the classroom and cover them with brightly coloured fabric . In the middle of the row of tables place another to form a kind of apron. Cover this with fabric. This will contain the ingredients for puja.

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In the middle, place a large cardboard box covered in tin foil. Imagine the box turned up side down on the table .Imagine it with the front cut out leaving a decorative edge.Cover it with tin foil. This forms the cover for the murti. If you have been using a cupboard for an ark (see Teaching Judaism) then you can use this with the doors open, lined with foil or fabric. On top of top we have placed other cardboard boxes tocreate the tower reminiscent of the mountains in which the gods live,

To each side put a smaller box cut out and covered in a similar fashion. You now have three shrines dominating the back of the classroom. Place Murti in each one. Use a picture if you do not have real images.

Decorate the shrine with Christmas tinsel and fairy lights.

On the apron in front of the main shrine you need the ingredients for puja.These represent the five elements of the earth and the five senses . These five things represent the unity of everything .

If you are on the move place fabric over a single table ,aim to make a simple shrine in a home, see below.

Put something on the shrine to represent each of these The five elements Air - whiskFire - either a proper arti lamp or five tea lights on a traywater - water in a small potWind - whiskEarth – flowers and fruit

The five senses Sight - The shrine itselfSound - A small bellTouch – performing the ceremonyTaste – Prasad food offered to the deity and given to the worshippers Smelling – incense

Preparing the class to take part in part in Hindu worship

A re enactment of this kind may present problems for some pupils. I talk to my class about three weeks before the lesson .I explain that we are not taking part in worship because It is not a temple and I am not a priest , It is a demonstration. Worship is about what is in your heart. Pupils will know if it is not appropriate for them to be in the lesson. Any pupil who knows that it would not be appropriate for them to take part could let you know before hand so that you can make arrangements for them to work elsewhere.

It is also helpful to explain the arti ceremony to them (see below ) and say that they can take part if they wish.

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It is most authentic if the class will remove their shoes and sit on the floor .It is therefore best to ask them about this the lesson before. If you have sufficient fabric you can spread this on the floor for pupils to sit on.

This is what you need Tables in a row , or just one table in a non specialist room Fabric, the brighter and more sparkly the better. Murti or pictures of images , small postcards would do. Fairy lights Extension lead Tinsel Flowers

Fruit Incense ,joss stick or scented candle Arti lamp or five tea lights on a tray. Matches Whisk or use your hand to move the air Sweets to use as prasad, (smarties, m&ms)

Indian Music CD player

This is what you do1. Class come in to music and the smell of incense and leave their shoes at the

entrance and sit on the floor in front of the shrine. Fade music. 2. Greet the pupils in role as the mother or priest. Place your palms together in

front of you and bow from the waist . It means, the spirit within me greets the spirit within you. Invite the class to greet you in response .Repeat the exercise. Relate it to previous learning about the Atman. 3. Aim :Todays’ lesson will draw together all we have been learning about Hinduism and enable us to see how regular worship each day affects the spiritual life of a Hindu family.

4. Explaining puja in the home: Every Hindu family of believers will have a shrine in their house for Puja. It may be whole room set aside if their house is big enough and will look rather like our shrine. It may be a simple shelf in the kitchen (the cleanest room in the house ) with just a picture of the deities that the family especially respect.

5. Explaining puja in the temple: The temple may be visited regularly, especially in England , where it is a chance for the community to meet, or occasionally for rites of passage. Visiting the temple may be very rare for a family in India or otherparts of the world where it hard to reach one. God is everywhere and so can be remembered and offered respect everywhere. Congregational worship is not necessary .The pattern of puja is similar whether it is performed in the house by the mother or the priest in the temple or a Hindu visiting the temple where there isno priest

6.I would like you to imagine now that we are a Hindu family performing puja First of all our state of mind. We will welcome the spirit of god into the image like a guest.

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Close your eyes for a moment and imagine if you could choose anyone at all to have as a guest in your home who would it be ?

Open eyes and take ideas , usually it is a celebrity. If they were coming to visit what preparations would you make ? - Cleaning and

making a nice meal. That is exactly what happens in puja, as you will see in a minute.

Now although the deity is welcomed as a guest, there is also a sense in which they are always there in the home – each morning mother wakes them up .What do you do when you wake up ?

Have a wash Get dressed Have something to eat All this is what happens in Puja7.When mother is ready to offer worthship, respect, she does this by using symbols to represent the five elements of the universe What are they ? And the five senses , what are they Can you work out why ? - It represents the oneness of all things - Brahman/

Atman

8.Re enactment :Let us begin Raise music Mother /priest bows before shrine Rings bell to summon the spirit of the deity into the image The image may be washed and dressed – mime this Mother says the Gayatri Mantra “let us think about god who made the world.

May he guide our minds” Food is offered to the deity.(use the sweets which will form Prashad )The five elements are used

Incense is lit The air is moved with whisk or hand Flowers are offered symbolising the earth Water is sprinkled over the shrine9.The Arti ceremony The arti lamp is lit, the five wicks symbolising the five elements and the five senses - the unity of all things filled with Brahamn /Atman. The lamp is moved in a circle in front of the image . In the temple the lamp would be moved in a circle in front of the devotees The lamp would be taken to each person present who is invited to place their two

hands over the flame and pass their hands symbolically filled with the sprit of godover their head .This represents the sprit of god being awakened in every person

Pass a dish of sweets around .This is prashad . This food is now full of the spirit of the deity

If mother attended the temple in the morning she would take the food home to her family .It is rather like the Eucharist in Christianity.

10.Hit the spiritual target by finishing with meditation. Close eyes, watch the breath, feel oneself calming and relaxing, breathing slowing down

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Read the passage used in the Atman lesson This is myself within my heart, followed by the passage from the Gita which begins fire cannot burn the soul.

11.Open eyes and come back into the classroom for the debrief/ plenary This should focus on reinforcing the significance of the symbolism, relating it

to all the pupils have learned about Hinduism Have a discussion in which you draw from the pupils how it will affect the

Hindu family to take part in this every morning before they go off to school or work what does it remind them of ?(link with other traditions eg Muslim and Jewish prayer)

How will they react to the stresses and challenges of the day ,to animals and to the environment to people who annoy them?

Vocabulary /flash cards Puja worshipWorship literally “worthship”, giving value, respect, appreciation, gratitudeArti ceremony with lamp of five wicks representing the five elements and the five sensesPrasad gift of food given to the gods and given back to the worshippers at the end of pujaGayatri Mantra prayer said each morning by the mother

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Cloze procedure/writing frameHindus worship images called Murti in the home each day. They are put in a clean pace or if possible in a separate room. Each morning the spirit of God is welcomed into the image like an honoured guest . A bell is rung. The mother bows before it which means “the spirit within me, greets the spirit within you” The image is washed. If it is a large image in a temple it may be dressed and decorated with flowers.

The Gayatri Mantra is said “Let us think about God who made the world. May he guide our minds”.

On the shrine will be things to represent the five elements. These represent Brahman, the life force of the universe. There will also be things to represent the five senses

As worship is offered, the air is moved with a whisk, fire is lit with candles and incense. Water is sprinkled and flowers are offered.

The combination of the five elements and the five senses represents that all things are one because they are all part of the universal life force

At the end of Puja the food offered to the deity is eaten by the family or the congregation of worshipers. This is called Prasad. This represents the blessing of god being taken inside them.

Describe how this daily worship affects Hindus (level five : the effect of religion ona person, family or community. Level six :the variety of belief within a tradition )………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………Research: Find out about Hindu temples, using books or the internet. Describethe symbolism of the building, the “womb” that contains the image and the worship that takes place there.

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Levelled essay

1.Describe Hindu worship in the home (level three : facts ) 5 marks

2.Describe Hindu worship in the temple. Explain how the symbolism of the building affects the experience of worship, making it more dramatic and intense than worship in the home. (level four: why, because. Level five .The effects of religion on a person, family or community level six the variety of belief within a tradition) 5 marks

3)Describe how regular worship affects Hindu spirituality (level five and six )5 marks

4)Does a Hindu need to attend the Temple in order to practice Hinduism?Level seven: Critical analysis. Comparing and contrasting temple worship with worship in a church , mosque, or synagogue will enable you to write up tolevel eight. 5 marks

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9:Re enacting a Hindu wedding in the temple

You can use this to re enact all, or any, of the rites of passage. Because I teach Hinduism in year nine and do it for just a term I have concentrated on the belief and philosophy of Hinduism as I think this will be the hardest aspect for pupils to access outside school. I also think that once they appreciate Hindu belief about God they willrespect and understand Hindu practices. The wedding is the only rite of passage which I re enact .It comes at the end of the course and is a highlight for the pupils.

It is about helping pupils understand more than just what happens. The spiritual target is hit when it also draws out, how taking part in this ritual, enables the couple to feel changed by the experience.

It reinforces the vital role of rites of passage in enabling believers to experience the awesome nature of the new responsibilities they take on as they reach each new stage in their lives.

If pupils have re enacted weddings in different traditions they will have the role and responsibilities of marriage, parenthood and family life constantly reinforced in a variety of different ways. This will encourage them to think about the role of a ceremony of commitment in their own lives, their own role within marriage and the importance of their own spirituality in helping them cope with the inevitable difficultiesand challenges married life, including a partnership that is based on the expectation of a long term permanent commitment, brings.

We divide the classroom in two by tying plastic washing line to the heating pipes. This is by no means essential. I mention it here as another source of ideas for you. We have found all sorts of uses for the line which we leave permanently in place, using clothes pegs to pin up pupils, work, pictures or key words or from which to hang lamps, fairy lights or other decorations for the various sets we create. In this lesson we peg sheets from the line to create a division so that boys get ready for the wedding on one side and girls get ready on the other. It increases the drama of the bride not being seen by the bridegroom.

It is helpful to have prepared pupils in advance for this lesson. Walk them through the stages so that the re enactment happens in a context they understand and helps them, make sense of it all. It is also helpful if you have allocated roles beforehand and who will wear costumes. Putting on saris is time consuming as each girl needs help, even if you have given them a lesson before hand.

Putting on a sari

Work out which part of the sari is the hem.

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Work out which end of the sari is decorated and so will be the part that goes over the shoulder to be seen at the end.

Open the sari out . Put the end in the middle of the front of the girl and wrap it round the back until it meets at the front again tuck it into a waistband.

There should now be yards of sari in one hand and an opening in front so that theperson can walk.

Take the spare sari material and begin to make small pleats until about half the material is used up. Tuck the pleated material into the front of the waist band. This should mean that the girl can walk easily.

The remaining material goes over the shoulder. It can also be draped to cover thehair, which the bride should do.

The secret of a successful re enactment is to create a sense of ritual and solemnity. This is difficult when pupils are excited by the novelty and dressing up. The ceremonies are themselves often quite brief so there is the practical issue of filling the lesson purposefully. The secret is to write a “sermon”. I have written one for each re enactment I have devised. I use it to do a number of things .

First, I welcome the congregation in role as the officiant and say that not everyone who is there is a member of the tradition and so I remind everyone of what will happen today and why. I also remind the guests how the symbolism of the building reinforces the meaning of the experience that the couple will have . This reinforces the learning, reminds everyone of the keywords and concepts so that the re enactment will be as good an aid to the pupils learning as it could be, as well as a lotof fun.

Next , I tell the story of the couple which brings the wedding alive, and engages the pupils attention and their feelings. In this story. I develop the learning by blending knowledge and understanding about a traditional wedding with a modern one . I use their jobs and how they met to confound stereo types while making no value judgements about traditional or modern ways of life.

Finally I talk about the spirituality of Marriage. This “Sermon” appears on page ….

You can see photographs of the wedding in the photographic tour in Making RE Make Sense

This is what you need CD player Indian music Two chairs set out facing each other covered in fabric (in front of the temple if you

have one) Wedding clothes: If you can get them a wedding turban for the groom, which shows he is king for the day. a garland and a pale coloured jacket.

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For the bride a red sari, embroidered with gold. Jewellery for the hand and feet and a wedding garland.

As many saris as you have for the girls to wear Men’s jackets or evening shirts for the boys A piece of cloth to hold in front of the bride and groom so that they cannot see

each other. A ribbon to join their hands A rope or piece of string or cloth to symbolise their joining Two plastic cups to represent the two clay pots crushed by the bridegroom A stone for the bride to tread on Something to represent the sacred fire in the middle of the room Boxes or objects to represent gifts, ideally, enough for every pupil to come up

bow and present a gift at the end. The seven steps for the walking round the sacred fire written on the board Order of service for the teacher in role as priest to read.(on page …)

This is what you do 1.Pupils enter the classroom to music as though it is to a temple.Leave bags by the door2.Fade the music and introduce the lesson to calm everyone down. Send the boys and girls to different part of the room to dress 3.Pull down the sheets from the washing line This part will be necessarily chaotic as everyone gets ready.When the bride is ready she could go outside the door, out of sight.4.Put the sheets back up on the line.5.The bridegroom sits in his chair waiting for the bride 6.Two pupils hold the cloth in front of him so that he will not see the bride as she enters7.Play music for the entry of the bride accompanied by other girls in saris who will help her to her place.8.The couple reach their hands under the cloth guided by the priest and hold hands. This signifies their consent to marriage.9.The priest wraps a ribbon or cloth around the hands to symbolise their joining.10.The cloth is lowered for the rest of the ceremony.11.The priest takes a piece of string and wraps it round the couple, laying it on the floor as a symbol of their union.12.The priest reads the “sermon”13.The bride and groom hold the ribbon (it should actually be tied into their clothes) and walk seven times around the sacred fire . As they do so the priest should explain what each of the seven “steps “ represent 14. The bride places her foot on a stone to show how she will build her home and family on a strong foundation.15.The bridegroom crushes two clay pots which traditionally contain a mixture of yoghurt and milk. This expresses that they are now one.16.The bride and groom return to their seats and class members may come up one by one and lay their gifts at their feet.17.Remove and fold up costumes

Debrief /plenary

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Reinforce the learning by asking pupils the meaning of the symbols.How does it affect the couple that this takes place in a temple?What symbolism do the class see in the sacred fire ? What difference will this ceremony make to the couples’ married life ?

“Sermon” for the re enactment of a Hindu WeddingIt is with very great pleasure that I welcome you all to our Temple today to take part in the marriage of this young couple who have been part of our community since they were born.

Sarita and Samaj were born in Britain and have grown up here. They went to the same primary and secondary school and as many of you know they were friends. Their families have known each other for a long time through coming to the temple. After they lft school and went off to study Sarita and Samaj lost ouch and it was just about a year ago that they met when they found themselves working at the same hospital.

Like many of us, they live as British citizens and follow the British way of life. They have both been to university. Sarita, our lovely bride, is a doctor and Samaj is a midwife. They both play a valuable part in our community. When they start their family they will both continue to work, though Samaj tells me that he thinks he might like to stay at home to bring up the children while Sarita continues to practice medicine at the hospital. Whatever they decide, they are a modern British family.

This is not how things would have been In India in the past. Sarita would have been brought up to run a traditional Hindu home. She would have begun her marred life living with Samaj’s family. Her mother in law would have taught her her duties as a wife and helped with the children.

Their families would have chosen them as husband and wife. The decision might have been taken when they were very young. They would have looked carefully at their personalities and considered whether they would get on together. They would not have been forced to marry if they did not wish to.

In the past they may not have seen each other before the wedding. Their married lifewould be time when they would follow Dharma, their duty. This duty would be to build a home and a family together and to bring their children up to follow our traditions.

Although they live as modern British people, Sarita and Samaj wish to bring their children up to worship god and to take part in the rites of passage.

There are four stages of lifeChildhoodThe Student stageThe householder stage – which is the one they are about to enter today and the

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Retired stageWhich they will enter when their first grandchild is born and they may choose to retirefrom the duties of daily life to study the scriptures, meditate and prepare for the next life.

As we all know this system has many advantages. Marriage starts with friendship and often grows into deep love. There are few divorces in traditional marriage where the couple do not go into it expecting perfect romance all the time. When it comes, they treasure it as a gift.

New families are never alone with their troubles, there are always older people around to help them establish their home. Never any worries about who is going to look after the children while the parents go out and there is always someone to help and give advice with the new baby or if it is ill.

Times have changed and that is good, too. Sarita and Samaj fell in love just as any British couple would, just as their parents always secretly hoped that they would! They have decided ,like so many of our young people, that even though they live according to British customs that they wanted to follow the traditions at important events in their lives and so while they were married in a register office yesterday andSarita wore a long white dress and veil with bridesmaids and had a reception with a wedding cake, today she will have a traditional Hindu wedding like all the women in her family before her for thousands of years.

Sarita and Samaj have told me that it helps them to feel connected to their people and acting out all these special symbols today reminds them of the purpose of their marriage ahead. It is not all romance, it is going to be very hard work with many duties and self sacrifice. This will be very hard, even though they already love each other.

Today, Sarita and Samaj have not seen each other and the women have got her dressed. She is like a princess. She has been given gifts of jewellery which is the wealth that she brings to the marriage. This money is hers to keep so that she is not completely dependent on her husband. Her sari is red to represent fertility and the hope that she will have children.

Samaj wears a King’s turban to show that he is like a King, today.

When Sarita is brought to the bridal chair she will not be able to se Samaj until their hands have been tied with a silken cloth.

We will then lower the cloth so that they can see each other and we will place a sacred cord around them symbolising their joining.

After that their clothes will be joined by a cloth and I will lead them to take seven steps around the sacred fire. Each step represents a special wish for their future.

Seven is the number of perfection and fire represents the Atman, the life force within everything. Fire also represents the cycle of life, everything being neither created or destroyed but only changing. This is what life is all about. Shiva is here in our shrine

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to remind us of this. It reminds us of the law of Karma, that all actions have consequences in this life and the next. When the time comes for Sarita and Samaj todie their souls will be reborn into a new life, the fire reminds them of this, too.

Let us all join together to help Sarita and Samaj take the first steps of their journey into this new stage of life.

Vocabulary/flash cardsBridegroom’s turban shows he is King for the dayRed and gold sari represents fertility and wealthJoining of hands and clothes represents that the couple are one Seven steps represents the journey of life togetherSacred fire represents the cycle of creation and destruction

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Cloze procedure/writing frame

When a Hindu couple get married during a traditional ceremony. They will not see each other until they have given their consent and a in a sense married. The bride enters the room and sits next to her husband. A cloth divided them so that they cannot see each other. They join hands under the cloth .This shows that they agree to be married. This is important because although In modern families the couple willhave chosen each other in traditional families the family may be arranged. Parents will choose someone who they think will be suitable for their child and make them happy. The couples agreement to marry each other is very important .

The couple take seven steps around the sacred fire. This means (level four: why, because )………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Being married in a temple in this way with all these symbolic actions affects the way a couple regard their marriage .Discussing this well will give you level five : The affect of religion on a person, family or community or level six :the variety of belief within a tradition.………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

There are advantages and disadvantages to a marriage where a couple chose each other and to a marriage chosen by one’s parents .discussing these in detail will give you level seven: critical analysis. ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………In what ways are other wedding ceremonies you have studied similar or different? Level eight: comparison with other traditions ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

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The high levels available in this task mean that a levelled essay is not necessary

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