According to Russell Simmons’ latest blog what’s hot in the hood is the deep inner silence and inner happiness that students are experiencing during their daily meditation at the Ideal Academy Charter School in Washington DC where all the students participate in the David Lynch Foundation “Quiet Time” program. Russell paid a visit to the school last week where he spent time with the students who practice the Transcendental Meditation technique for 10-15 minutes at the beginning and end of each school day.
Meeting and speaking with the students left a deep impression on Russell, a board member of the David Lynch Foundation, who said the following after his trip:
To me, it is criminal that Quiet Time is not in more schools. Just as it would be a crime to withhold a safe medicine that could prevent and treat a terrible disease, it is criminal to withhold from kids a safe antidote like Quiet Time that we know can prevent the terrible stresses that destroy the lives of millions of kids and their families.
Dr. George Rutherford, Ideal Academy’s principal has 46 years of experience as an educator and principal in some of the toughest schools in the District of Columbia and he says the Quiet Time program is the only thing that has worked to improve academic performance in his schools. Numerous studies have been conducted backing his experience. A recent study partially funded by the National Center for Complimentary Alternative Medicine helps to explain some of the benefits that students gain from practicing this form of meditation including a decrease in psychological stress and increase in coping ability and reduced risk for hypertension.Previous studies also show that there is a profound level of silence with the experience of pure consciousness that coincides with a state of pure awareness, or restful alertness, in meditation that results in an increase in the brain’s ability to learn and focus outside of meditation. There are many well-documented physiological reasons for this happening some of which you can read about here.
Simply put however, the meditation provides a deep experience of inner peace and happiness.
Some say that true happiness lies within. Others say that love is all you need. And they’re not wrong. But in a world full of chaos, crime, violence and life challenges, pure love isn’t always prevalent. Unfortunately there are some people who never receive love from any outside source and others who can receive it from many sources yet never feel it within their own heart. Having the ability to transcend or dive within your own consciousness, a field of infinite love, energy and intelligence, is a sure-fire and consistent way to nurture and grow in the experience of love and happiness. This transformation comes from within, the only place that it can come from to make a meaningful and lasting impression.
I suppose the experience of transcending, like love, is hard to explain or fathom until you experience it firsthand. There is no way to truly know anything until it comes fully into your awareness. It would be like me trying to explain a really great song and saying the lyrics and maybe humming the melody, but until you heard it in its entirety and performed by a full band with a (real) singer and harmonies… it would sound kinda blah.
Russell shared his experience visiting the Ideal Academy Charter School in his Global Grind blog entry What’s Hot In The Hood and be sure to check out the short video of his visit below. Because while the concept of sitting quietly with your eyes closed may also sound kinda blah, the happiness that radiates out from students who are experiencing this firsthand speaks a thousand words.
, nor do I now, but it was most likely because Don’t Sniff Coke is a great song plain and simple.
