Clay Stories……………………………………………………..
Light — Real or Reflected?
“There are ten pots reflecting the sun. How many suns are there? Ten reflected suns and one real sun. Break one pot and how many suns are there? Nine reflected suns and one real sun. Break eight pots and how many suns remain? One reflected sun and one real sun. Break the last pot and how many suns remain? Is it only the real sun? Actually, what remains cannot be described. What Is remains! How do you know that the sun which you are looking at is the real sun unless there is a reflected sun?” — Sri Ramakrishna
We took this opportunity to teach 
about a few of the 24 Cosmic Principles of Sankhya, which is foundational for both Yoga and Vedanta. We learned about the five elements, the five cognitive senses, and the fourfold mind. Using modeling clay, the kids made pots depicting each of these principles. Particularly amusing were the pots depicting the fourfold mind. The pot of manas, or dual mind, had four faces on it showing happy, surprised, sad, and angry expressions to illustrate how the dual mind is reactively tied into sense experiences. And it fit ever so neatly in the pot of ego! The pot for the element, space, also received creative treatment, being given an abstract shape to remind us that it is really formless and all-pervasive.
From the lesson handout:
We look out into the beauty of nature. We see the wonders of the earth, the awesome power of fire, the vast expanses of lakes and oceans; we feel the wind against our skin; we see the majesty of the sky filled with stars at night and the sun and clouds by day. Any one of these elements in our world can inspire us with joy, freedom, and a feeling of infinity.
As beautiful as these are, they only capture a small fraction of the freedom, existence, and bliss of Atman….just like a small pot reflects only a little of the sun’s power.
The children learned how the cosmic principles are related to each other. By the end of our classes, they were connecting earth to smell, water to taste, sight to fire, touch to air, and hearing to ether/space. This prepares them for the teachings of yogic meditation, as well as Vedantic discrimination between the eternal and the noneternal.