[net.religion] A minute of silence

ark@rabbit.UUCP (Andrew Koenig) (09/18/84)

There is a value to beginning a class session with
a minute of silence that I have not seen mentioned
and that has little, if anything, to do with religion.

It is similar to the reason that many activities
that require concentration can usefully be preceded
by some kind of simple, almost mindless action.
To explain, here is a quote from "Zen in the Art
of Archery," by Eugen Herrigel:

	A flower master begins the lesson by
	cautiously untying the bast which holds
	together the flowers and sprays of blossom,
	and laying it to one side carefully rolled up.
	Then he inspects the sprays one by one,
	picks out the best after repeated examination,
	cautiously bends them into the form which
	exactly corresponds with the role they are
	to play, and finally places them together
	in an exquisite vase.  The completed picture
	looks just as if the Master had guessed
	what Nature had glimpsed in dark dreams.

	...But why doesn't the teacher allow these
	preliminaries, unavoidable though they are,
	to be done by an experienced pupil?  Does
	it lend wings to his visionary and plastic
	powers ... if he unties the bast so
	elaborately instead of cutting it and carelessly
	throwing it away?  And what impels him to
	repeat this process at every single lesson,
	and with the same remorseless insistence,
	and to make his pupils copy it without
	the least alteration?  He sitcks to this
	traditional custom because he knows from experience
	that the preparations for working put him
	simultaneously in the right frame of mind
	for creating.  The meditative repose in which
	he performs them gives him that vital
	loosening and equability of all his powers,
	that collectedness and presence of mind,
	without which no right work can be done."

I suggest that beginning a class with a minute of silence
would help the students to take their minds off the
petty annooyances of how they got to the classroom,
and focus their attention on the work ahead.

However, even if this were the only purpose to which
teachers might put a minute of silence at the start of
class -- even if no one tried to use it as a wedge
to force children to pray -- I cannot see any justification
for the government's mandating this or any other
teaching technique.

mjk@tty3b.UUCP (Mike Kelly) (09/20/84)

A moment of silence is fine.  It also doesn't require a constitutional
ammendment to happen -- just a teacher in control of the class.  

Mike Kelly