Sharing the wisdom of meditation, mindfulness, and inner peace with the next generation.
Dr. Bonnici has devoted over 20 years to sharing the practice of meditation and living enlightenment with children and teenagers. These teachings use simple, heartfelt language to awaken the inner wisdom that every young person carries.
You are the wisdoming of sunshine and stars. This Infinite Wisdoming is already who you are — you can only know it in the deep quiet and stillness of your only moment body.
Read Teaching →Peace is this Unborn Body of Suchness — a poem and teaching from Dr. Bonnici's meditation manual for children and teens.
Read Teaching →Finding the natural way — teachings for children on breathing, stillness, and discovering peace within everyday life.
Read Teaching →Buddha's Meditation Life Journey — a beautifully told story for children and teenagers about the path of awakening and inner trust.
Read Teaching →Library of Congress Copyright — Andrew Shugyo Bonnici, Ph.D. 1998–2003
When we were in our mother's body, before we were born, we did not have a name. We were not yet a baby in the outside world. We were a living and growing being called an embryo. We floated gently in a special water sac in our mother's womb. We did not have to breathe or eat or want for anything. Everything was taken care of by our mother's body. Our mind did not know words. It was in a beautiful Silence because we did not have to think about anything. Our heart did not know about wanting things. So we felt calm and peaceful inside our heart and body.
This was a special time of heart-not-wanting and mind-not-knowing. We wanted nothing and we knew nothing. We felt a Peaceful Love and a Wise Silence that took care of everything inside our body and outside our body.
Then one day we left our mother's womb and we were born into the world. As soon as we came out of our mother's body, we started to breathe by ourselves. We started wanting to have food to eat in our mouths. When we began to want food and nice feelings in our body, our heart forgot about the Peace of not-wanting anything. When our mind began to figure out different ways to get others to give us food or to give us good feelings in our body, our mind forgot about the Wisdom of not-knowing anything.
Buddha was an embryo and baby once too. He was the son of a very rich King and Queen in India. This King and Queen ruled over a group of people called the Shakya Clan. Because he was a Prince, he always got anything he wanted. When he was born they called him "Siddhartha" — the perfect name because Siddhartha means "the one who got anything he wished for."
As he grew up, Siddhartha had everything as a Prince, but he always felt lonely and sad inside himself. He felt lonely even around the people who loved him. He felt like there was something missing, something important that he didn't understand inside himself. His heart never felt peaceful. His mind never felt quiet and calm.
He tried to think a lot about the things that he could do and have as a Prince, hoping he would not feel his hurting heart anymore. But when he thought more about things outside himself, it seemed to make things worse. Lots of thoughts about himself, people, and things just kept happening inside his head. He knew that he really did not have control over all the thoughts that kept filling his mind. This sometimes made him feel more suffering inside himself — more lonely, confused, helpless, small, and scared inside.
So he decided to leave being a Prince. He wanted to go out into the world and find a way of Truth that would bring peace and wisdom to everyday life, just as it is. When he left, the people began to call him Shakyamuni — "The One who left his father's kingdom in search of the Truth."
He shaved his head like a monk and for six years went everywhere looking for wise teachers. But none of the great teachers knew the answer. He tried many yoga meditations, tried to stop all his thoughts, put his body through painful austerities — and almost died. Then one day, very weak and near dying, he saw that all the hard things he had been doing to himself didn't work.
After making himself well again, Shakyamuni didn't know what to trust to guide him to the Truth. Everything outside himself had failed. Just then, he asked the most important question: "What can I trust that will guide me to the Way of living and being that will heal suffering inside myself and others?"
He looked up at the stars and moon and felt a Big Trust rise up in his heart, body, and mind. He said: "I Trust that there is an Infinite Wisdom that makes all things happen together moment by moment without everything everywhere falling apart." He felt that trust also within his own body — his heart beating, his breathing going in and out — and knew that the Infinite Wisdom that was everywhere was also in his body, keeping all its parts working together and making it alive, aware, and feeling right now.
After feeling that deep Trust, Shakyamuni sat down under a tree with his back straight. This time he sat in a special kind of meditation — not trying to make something happen, not trying to stop his passing thoughts. He just let his thoughts come and go and kept following his breath deep inside his body. He trusted that the Infinite Wisdom would answer all his questions.
After many hours of sitting and breathing, and trusting this Infinite Wisdom deep in his body, as the morning star rose in the predawn sky, Shakyamuni felt all his suffering, loneliness, questions, and hurt leave his heart. In their place, he felt a Great Peace arise in his whole body and mind. He did not have to look for the Infinite Wisdom anymore — it was always here, in his own Only Moment Body, in this very breath, in this very heartbeat.
When he stood up from under his tree, Shakyamuni had become the Buddha — the Awakened One. He spent the rest of his life traveling and teaching, sharing what he had found — that each of us carries within us the same Infinite Wisdom, the same capacity for peace, the same Original Body of Meditation.
Dr. Bonnici has conducted annual celebrations of meditation life practice with children for over 20 years.