Learn Curve for Girls

Suhani Dewra

Kanisha was back to school. So were her friends. The vacation was the term closure of Class IX. As the girls got together after a long two-month break, they had much to discuss. Each of the girl spoke in length about the highlights of the holidays. Kanisha’s friend Sameera had the most unique vacation.

“It was the most rigorous course of my life,” Sameera heaved a sigh.

Sameera had visited a meditation course that was designed to train the mind.

“Train the mind? O why? We have a sensible mind,” exclaimed her friend.

“What we think is a sensible mind, isn’t really so. There’s more to it,” Sameera interrupted.

Sameera started to explain what the itinerary of the course was and what it taught her.

“By the time the course finished, I felt much lighter and the clarity of how I saw things increased manifold,” said Sameera.

“Nothing of what you say makes any sense to me,” pat came a reply.

 “So, here is the thing. What we think, how we feel, what we see…can be done better. If we solve an Algebra problem in half-an-hour, we could do it quicker. Say in fifteen minutes. If we feel good from within, we can feel better. If we see the sky blue in color, we could see the same blue color in high definition. For all this to happen, our brain has to be of a certain quality and …… has to be devoid of unnecessary emotions.

Meditation does that,” elucidated Sameera.

“That is what I was made to do in the course,” she added.  

Sameera then elaborated on the everyday activities of the course, which included long hours of practicing meditation.

“So you say that you are smarter now?” quipped Kanisha.

“Yes. In some ways. You will see that in the monthly tests,” Sameera replied.

Just then the teacher entered the class and wondered what were the girls gossiping about.

“Ma’am, Sameera attended a meditation course during the summer vacation. She says that it helped her brain become sharper,” blurted Kanisha.

“Oh, yes. Meditation is a tool that most adults use to keep the body and mind in a good shape,” agreed the ma’am. “In fact, Siddhartha Gautama credited his enlightenment to the technique of meditation he discovered,” ma’am added.

“I thought it was merely a mental exercise; didn’t know it could be so powerful?!” exclaimed Sameera.

“That is what Siddhartha Gautama said. When he sat under the Peepal tree on the fateful day in Bodh Gaya, a town of Bihar, he followed a practice of meditation that is termed Vipassana, which means ‘to see things as they are’ in the Pali language. As the practice commenced, he started getting rid of all the experiences he had gathered ever since the beginning of his existence. After 49 days of continuous Vipassana, Siddhartha Gautama was fully empty of all what was within him, leading to enlightenment,” explained the ma’am.

“But ma’am, wasn’t the Buddha who gained enlightenment?” asked a girl.

“Buddha is anybody who has reached the ultimate version. It is not a name, it is a state of being, which our prince Siddhartha Gautama attained and is therefore addressed as the Buddha.

“I was always under the impression that Buddha was a name,” commented Kanisha.

“Me too,” added Sameera.

“Anybody can be a Buddha for that matter. Sameera, you too if you practice your meditation well and realize the highest version of yourself,” said ma’am.  

“Ma’am, I wonder if the Buddha was the perfect man, why didn’t he invent something? Like a special vehicle to drive to the Moon, just like how we do to the malls?” questioned Kanisha.

“Yes. If he was the awakened one, he should have invented video calls back in that age and conquered distance,” came the sentence from another girl.

“Did he write some scriptures? If he did, I would like to lay my hands on them and get to know him and his teachings better,” yet another comment.

“Well, Siddhartha Gautama is told to have written nothing. He only offered practical lessons. And coming to answering why didn’t he invent video calls or the special car to the moon, I don’t know. I am not the Buddha, which means I do not have all the answers,” responded ma’am.