Values Of Love - Simple Life

Unit Five Simple Life

Objectives Voluntary simplicity believes that by’ living simply without, one will be richer within’. Simple things can be beautiful. And really air, water, nature are all free (or

nearly free) and most beautiful. By forgetting this we lose the sense of thankfulness and compassion that go along with the values that give us peace. In this study, we focus on the beauty of simple life and the wonders it can do if we combine it with the spirit of compassion and service. Also learn about humility and the importance of setting aside personal ambitions for working towards collective goals. Finally start to understand the dangers of waste. Habits:  I am not greedy.  I am thankful.  I work together to help others.  I don’t waste.  I like unity.

Rosy Roach 1. Rosy Roach was a grass cutter. She earned enough for her self to eat. The rest of the money she saved in a jar. One day she found the jar was full. She gave it to Superbunny to buy a ring. Then she said, ‘But what can I do with this ring. I don’t need it. I like simple life!’ 2. Just then they saw Lady Bug at the tire shop. ‘Can you give me some tires? I need them so that I can work and feed my family. I will pay you later.’ She asked. But the Tire Man said, ‘I am sorry Lady, but no money, no tires.’ Rosy gave her ring to the tire man and said, ‘Here, take this ring. And give this good Lady her tires. The Tire Man looked at the ring and said, ‘This can buy you even forty tires!’ 3. Lady Bug got all her brothers and sisters, cousins and uncles and aunts to work with her. They mad a company called the ‘Happy-Busy-Beetles Truck Company’ They carried many different things: shoes, umbrellas, books, candies, 4. They worked hard and could feed their families. Lady Bug was thankful and said, Rosy, you gave me one ring. But I could earn much more. I want to thank you.’ And

she gave Rosy a box with 100 rings! ‘She said, ‘But what will I do with so many rings? I just like a simple life!’ Well, said Superbunny, there are many more who need help. And he called Turtle. 5. Turtle told he wanted to feed his family too. Rosy gave her the 100 rings. Turtle started to work as an airplane. He did very well and could help others too. They made their own airport and carried people all over the world. 6. To thank Rosy, The Flying Turtles gave her 1000 rings. Rosy wanted to refuse, but they said, ‘Maybe you can help others even more!’ Rosy called Superbunny and thought for a long time who could do something good with these rings. 7. Finally they called Street Kid and the Little Good Witch. Superbunny was very serious, ‘Can you, can you …..?’ They nodded their heads, and said, ‘We can! Yes, We can!’ 8. The next day they called all the Lady Bugs and Flying Turtles. They also bought much food and medicines and send them to the poor people all over the world. Airplanes and trucks went in and out. They were very busy. 9. That night, the piglets watched the news. It said that today for the first time, the world was without hungry people and that nobody was without medicines. Superbunny almost cried, ‘…and it was so easy,’ he said, ‘that even our little Rosy could do it.’

Questions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Why did Rosy save the extra money? Why did Lady Bug need the tires? Did she use the chance to start a business very well? Why did Lady Bug succeed? Was she thankful? Who did the children help with the food and medicines? Do you know about any poor people near you? Do you think you can help with what you don’t need for your self?

Ideas for Movements with the Story Yoga poses suggested for the main characters: Rosy Roach Lady bug Turtle

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crocodile pose hare pose turtle pose

Simple Life Song Make art out of waste materials . Teach the children this song:

We like simple life, Simple life I am happy with what I got What I do not need I want not. Because we like simple life, simple life…

I’m the inspector The inspector Who checks on greed. I come to see If you have anything extra, Anything you do not need. Oh, no! Forget about it, We like simple refr. Be happy with what you got What you don’t need

Want it not. Because we like Simple life, simple life! I don’t like greed. I don’t like What I do not need. Organize a flea market or a sale of extra toys with point cards (instead of money)

How to change the world with magic The story of Rosy tells how by living a simple life, you can make a big difference in the life’s of others. In real life there are many rich people who give away their money to change the world. What would you do if you had a magic porridge pot and could spend it to help make the world be a better place?

Story: Magic and Dreams Jonathan walked home from school. On the way he found a new shop. It said, ‘Magic and Dreams’ on the signboard. Jonathan entered and saw an elderly Indian man with thick, rimmed glasses, looking at him. Jonathan also saw racks full of bottles, apparently empty. He asked, ‘What is inside these bottles?’ The Shopkeeper answered, ‘Dreams’. Jonathan looked inside and saw a lot of different dreams floating around in the bottle. He loved them all and asked if there was any dream for him. The Shopkeeper laughed and said, ‘You are young. You still have plenty of dreams. These are for people who have lost their dreams. But you need something else. You need magic.’ He took Jonathan to the back of the shop and handed him a pair f shoes. ‘They are magic shoes, Jonathan. When you put them on, they can make you go anywhere in a second.’ Jonathan tried them on and at once closed his eyes and said, ‘I want to go home.’ And yes, he found him self at home as soon as he opened his eyes. So he traveled all over the world. When it was dinner time, he thought. I like to eat with somebody who has not eaten yet. So he closed his eyes, snapped his fingers and when he opened his eyes was with a boy in Africa. Together they ate dinner. He also

promised to come back. In fact Jonathan started taking all the food from the fridge, the juices from the store, the cookies, even his books and toys and gave them away, as he found that there were many people who were hungry, thirsty or in need of the things he had. Then his mother called him and asked, ‘Jonathan, I went shopping today, but where is all the food? Where are all the toys and the clothes?’

Jonathan explained how he had magic shoes. His mother laughed at him, but then he took her hand and together they flew off. When mother saw all the good work her son was doing, she organized trucks and trucks of food and clothes and books and Jonathan went snap, to Africa and …..Asia and the mountains and the desert and the rivers and the jungles …. And then ….. Rrrrrringggggggggg! It was the alarm. Jonathan had to wake up. It had been a dream. But wasn’t it a beautiful dream?

Don’t waste

Usually we say that the three r’s are: Reading wRiting aRithmatic

Simple life means we follow these three r’s of : re-use, re-duce and re-cycle. (explain) If we use less things, there will be less war and less crime and peace will have a better chance. Learn to tell this story of Mr. Carter and how he re-used and re-cycled his coat, and that way re-duced his waste.

Mr. Carter’s Coat

Mr. Carter loved to look good and so he loved clothes, but he almost never bought any. It is because the clothes he did have he used again and again. Use a large (A-2) paper and draw and fold as you tell the story of what he did with his coat: Coat – became a sweater Sweater became a vest. Vest became a cap Cap became a butterfly. Bow tie became a button. The button became a story.

Train the children to tell this tale Facts about Garbage Every year, Americans

 

Throw away 50 billion food and drink cans.

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65 million plastic and metal jar and can covers.

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More than 30% of our waste is packaging materials.

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Some 85% of our garbage is sent to a dump, or landfill, where it can

27 billion glass bottles and jars.

take from 100 to 400 years for things like cloth and aluminum to decompose. 

Glass has been found in perfect condition after 4,000 years in the earth!

==================== Make no waste posters

Unity Rosy liked to work with others. Lady Bug’s family worked together. So did the Flying Turtles and the children as well! Do you know what the secret of their success was?

Unity! They worked together! The greatest waste of people is that we don’t do things together. If we were all united in one goal to serve the world, wouldn’t the planet be a better place? Listen to this story from the fables of Aesop: =================================

The four sticks

The four brothers liked to fight, fight, fight. This made their father cry, cry, cry. He gave them sticks to break, break, break. ‘I can’t.’ said the first. ‘I can’t.’ said the second. ‘I can’t.’ said the third. ‘I can’t.’ said the fourth. He took the sticks from them and gave Each one one, each one one. ‘I ‘I ‘I ‘I

can,’ can.’ can.’ can.’

said said said said

the the the the

first. second. third. fourth.

‘Alone you won’t last long. But together you will be strong. So, my sons, 1,2,3 and 4 Do not fight anymore.’

Build something together Give everybody a piece of clay. Explain that everybody has a piece of clay and that we are going to use it to make something together. Ask them to think of what they want to make (but they can’t tell anybody.) Then start, by calling the students one by one to add their piece of clay to the project sculpture. What does it end up like? Break up the sculpture and divide the clay again. This time let’s make a plan and really work together. Discuss what you want to make in details. Then ask the children again. Can they work united, each contributing something different?

The Magic Stick There are many stories of how luxury breaks the bonds of love and trust and turns people into beasts and monsters! Maybe you have heard the story of the three wishes (and the sausage on the farmer’s nose). How about the story of the poor fisherman’s wife who asked a magic fish for more and more, and finally disowned her own husband, only to be returned back to her poor house and become a simple and happy woman again? The following story is from Nepal The Magic Stick Once a boy was asked by his mother to cut some trees for firewood. When he went into the forest to cut a tree or two, each tree asked him not to cut him. Stop, stop don’t cut me I am an ..(apple).. tree If you care for me I will care for you So he only collected branches that had fallen on the floor. It took him a long time and his mother scolded him. This made him angry inside. The next two days the same happened. He couldn’t hurt the trees but was angry at his family. The third day however, a little man came and said, ‘You have been kind to the trees. They want you take this magic stick. The boy used the magic stick to make himself a beautiful palace. He wished for many other things. And he got really fat with all the things he ate. One day it got very hot. He wished the sun to go away. Then it became very cold. So he wished the sun to come

back, but only to shine on him. Unfortunately that is what happened and all the sun’s rays shone on the little boy. It got extremely hot and he was going to be roasted badly, but luckily his magic stick was roasted first and that undid all the magic it had done and he became a poor little boy in his mother’s home again. But this time he was wiser and thankful.

Peewee: I want to live and be myself! Simple life, means that that you don’t waste. The most beautiful part you should not waste is yourself. Other people can sit on top of you, frustrate you or stop you from being who you are, but there is a time you have to stand up for yourself and show the world who you really are! Listen to this tale of Peewee.

Peewee the Dancer Jonathan had many toys. Cars, blocks, robots, balls, you name it. He had it all. More than anything though he loved a little puppet, called ‘Pee wee’. He liked Pee wee so much that he even would sleep with him, holding him closely to his heart. It was after one such night that when Jonathan got up to go to school, Peewee got up too and said: ‘Today I’m going with you.’ Jonathan couldn’t believe his eyes. Peewee had become alive and was coming with him! He hurried up and together they went on the school bus. Jonathan kept Peewee by his side. There were many children on the bus. Jonathan started to play with them. They were very noisy. In fact they were so noisy, that the bus driver got upset and said: ‘Jonathan, You’d better get out.’ ‘But I have to go to school.’ said Jonathan. ‘That’s fine.’ said the bus driver. ‘You can walk to school.’ Jonathan was so confused that he forgot to take Peewee with him. By the time all the children had gotten off the bus, Peewee was left behind, all alone. ‘And where do you want to go?’ asked the bus driver. ‘I’d like to go to the park.’ said Peewee. In the park there were lots of trees and lots of bushes and flowers. Peewee liked it

From the Story: Peewee the Dancer

there very much. But what he didn’t know, there were also lots of dogs. And they were not all bad, but they wanted to play with Peewee. One of the bigger dogs got hold of Peewee and ran around with him, holding him between his teeth. Peewee shouted and screamed: ‘Help. Somebody help me.’ Luckily the dog’s owner Lucy, heard Peewee’s screams. She told her dog to let go off Peewee. Lucy put Peewee into her pocket and took him home. Lucy was a big girl and didn’t play with puppets anymore. When there was a jumble sale, she took all her toys, including Peewee and put them up for sale. An old man looked at Peewee, picked him and asked: ‘How much is this puppet?’ ‘Ten cents.’ She said. The old man took Peewee home. The man was a puppet master. He had many puppets and often played with them in his puppet theater. He took Peewee and tied many strings to his hands, his vest, even to his head. The old man was making Peewee into a marionette. Every night Peewee had to dance in the old man’s puppet show. Whenever the puppet master pulled a string, one of his hands would go up, or one of his legs would turn left or right. It was very painful for Peewee. He didn’t like it at all. Now, one night as Peewee was again getting pulled around this way and that way, he saw a pair of scissors. Peewee took the scissors, cut of the strings and for the first time in many weeks, he started to smile. 12. He stretched his body, checked his arms and legs and then began to sing: I want to live, and be myself I want to dance, and be myself. I want to sing, and be myself I want to show everybody who I am. The people were stupefied. Even the puppet master had walk from behind the puppet box and looked on with surprise. Little Peewee could dance and sing all by himself. When the show was over, the audience threw hundreds of flowers at the puppets. And

everybody went home, speaking about the beautiful show of the dancing little Peewee. The puppet master was tired. He couldn’t think very well anymore and wanted to sleep. He quickly put all his puppets into a box and went home. Peewee was in that box too. It was dark in there. And he couldn’t breathe. He climbed up and pushed very hard to open the cover of the box. Then he jumped out of the box and started to walk around. What he didn’t know, that there was a rat, a very big rat hiding behind the box. As soon as the rat saw little Peewee, the rat jumped on Peewee and ripped him apart into a thousand pieces. The next day many people came to the puppet theater. They wanted to see the little dancing Peewee. But the show didn’t start. They had to wait for a long time and when still there was no sign of the little dancing puppet, they started to bang on their chairs and shout. Finally the puppet master came. He showed his puppets. But the people were not happy. They didn’t want the other puppets. Not tonight, and started to shout: ‘We want Peewee. We want Peewee.’ The old man went to the back of his theater and returned with a little bag. He opened it and showed the broken body of little Peewee. ‘He was eaten by a rat, last night. I can’t fix him anymore.’ The people were upset. ‘You have cheated us. You have cheated us!’ Then they started to chant: ‘We want Peewee. We want Peewee!’ They were banging the chairs and shaking their fists and rattling their bags. It was really noisy. Then suddenly some of the people started to shout: ‘Quiet! Be quiet.’ When everybody was very quiet they heard a very soft voice, singing: I want to live, and be myself I want to dance, and be myself. I want to sing, and be myself I want to show everybody who I am. It’s Peewee.’ they said. ‘It’s Peewee. It is our little Peewee!’ ‘But how is it possible?’ they asked. ‘How is it possible?’ He sang only once, and then it became quiet. When it was clear that there would be no second song from Peewee, the people got up and put flowers on the little bag with

Peewee’s broken body. Then they went home, talking about little Peewee. 21. The next day, the old man came back to the puppet theater to clean up. He put all the flowers together in a vase and then picked up the little bag with Peewee’s body. ‘What?’ said the old man. ‘It’s empty! Peewee’s body has gone!’ The old man asked everybody: ‘Have you seen Peewee? Have you seen little Peewee?’ Nobody had seen Peewee. There was only a man, a cleaner who said he had heard a sound at night. ‘Late at night,’ he said, ‘I heard the sound of somebody walking slowly and singing. Walking and singing. He sang: I want to live, and be myself I want to dance, and be myself. I want to sing, and be myself I want to show everybody who I am. And then I heard a loud bang, as if he closed the door. And then it was quiet.’ Nobody has seen Peewee again. Some people say he is still walking around the world, walking and singing. But nobody has seen Peewee again.

Quiet time – Visualization Simplicity is at the core of our meditation. By asking yourself one single question: Is this thought/ idea/ feeling important? You can give up many of your thoughts and many of your fears and even many of your worries. Tell the children this story:

The Old Woman and a Ruby I want to tell you a story Really true. Of an old woman who found some gold And rubies too. A stranger came and asked her for some food. As she didn’t have any She asked if giving some rubies Would be any good. The stranger jumped of joy And took the rubies and also some gold Which would give him lots of money, if sold. But then the stranger looked at the old woman’s face And gave the gold and rubies back. ‘I do not want these, though valuable they may. Please teach me the peace of heart, That let’s you give such expensive things away. This is my story, This is all I want to say, ‘It is nice to get, But much nicer if you can learn to give away’ Then ask them to sit quietly and think about the beautiful heart that can make them give away anything they have.