Religious Consciousness is universal. How will that of our children express itself? Here are contrasting views. An optimistic view of the readiness of young children for the divine.

But also a much more scornful view of the readiness of Generation Y Children live in states of divine consciousness and bliss and should be taught meditation from as early as five, visiting Benedictine monk Fr Laurence Freeman says - and teachers confirm that the practice reduces aggression among students. Schoolchildren should be taught the ancient spiritual practice of meditation alongside religious doctrine, Fr Freeman told the Sydney Morning Herald during a visit to Sydney. Meditation is one way to tap into children's innate sense of the divine and could lay the spiritual foundations for an enduring religious life that outlasts parent-organised Sunday worship.

For the past 20 years the World Movement for Christian Meditation, of which Fr Freeman is founder, has been bringing the contemplative experience out of the monasteries into the wider community. Fr Freeman calls his ecumenical movement a monastery without walls, and its growth has been particularly strong among Christians in Australia, where there are now more than 335 meditation groups, said to be the largest number per capita in the world. Now this visiting British Benedictine monk wants to introduce it to children, who, he says, are particularly receptive to meditative practices. "I remember as a child of three or four waking up in bed and I was filled with the most exciting, overwhelming and frightening degree of love and joy.

I didn't know what it was and ran into the sitting room and threw myself into my mother's lap. "Children live in states of divine consciousness and bliss ... We shouldn't be surprised when children give up on God in adolescence because the religion doesn't bear much similarity to their experience. "If relationships are only based on Sunday churchgoing and don't have a deeper experiential level, then the children as young adults will lose the connection." Meditation has already been tried in Catholic schools in Townsville. So successful was the pilot project that mandatory meditation classes have been introduced to all 31 schools in the diocese, and the program is being used as a model for other dioceses.

Ernie Christie, the deputy director of Townsville's Catholic Education Office, said meditation was taught as prayer three times a week from kindergarten to year 12. Sessions are accompanied by gentle music and a candle. "It's a skilled discipline, and the earlier we get them the more they see it is a natural part of their being. Anecdotally, the feedback has been nothing but positive. The kids are calmer, more open to doing school work, and in secondary school they are asking to do meditation sessions prior to exam time. "The teachers are saying kids are not as aggressive after meditation. There has not been one negative comment from any of our parents across all our 31 schools, and that's remarkable."

'Schoolchildren should be taught the ancient spiritual practice of meditation alongside religious doctrine,
Fr Freeman told the Sydney Morning Herald during a visit to Sydney. Meditation is one way to tap into children's innate sense of the divine and could lay the spiritual foundations for an enduring religious life that outlasts parent-organised Sunday worship.'

SOURCE
Meditation brings spirit of calm to school life (Sydney Morning Herald, 30/4/07)
LINKS (not necessarily endorsed by Church Resources)
Fr Laurence Freeman (World Community for Christian Meditation) World Community for Christian Meditation Catholic Education Office Diocese of Townsville Feature - Meditation is for all (CathNews, 27/7/05)

Spirit of Generation Y:
Young People’s Spirituality in a Changing Australia

ISBN : 9781920721466
Author(s): Mason, Singleton & Webber
The Spirit of Generation Y describes young people’s spirituality, values, worldviews and community engagement. Drawing on data from a large scale national study of youth values, spirituality and citizenship, it describes the patterns and ‘types’ of spirituality in Generation Y, and discusses the possible influences shaping these forms of spirituality. It further considers the consequences of these forms of spirituality for the way in which members of this generation participate in society.

Individualism and Generation-Y

(Rev. Dr.) Michael Mason C.Ss.R. S.T.M. M.Phil. Ph.D.
Research Fellow, Institute for the Advancement of Research Director, ACBC-ACU Office of Pastoral Research AUSTRALIAN CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

'One feature of Generation Y (those who were born 1981-1995) that keeps coming to the fore is the depth of the impact on them of liberal, secular individualism in its postmodern form.' 

The book reporting on the study The Spirit of Generation Y is due for release in September this year.  I have been reflecting on the implications of our findings for the future of voluntary associations, including the churches.  One feature of Generation Y (those who were born 1981-1995) that keeps coming to the fore is the depth of the impact on them of liberal, secular individualism in its postmodern form.  It may be useful to try to sketch its main features; it seems to help explain where today’s young people are ‘coming from’ on a number of issues.  The following is free-wheeling and general, without hedging every statement with qualifications; assuming that we are talking only of broad trends in Generation Y, with plenty of individual exceptions. 

Postmodern individualism
The human individual is of supreme value, and personal freedom and autonomy are inviolable rights; egalitarianism is strongly affirmed; The only ‘truths’ are those from personal experience or science;  everything else is free for all to imagine as they choose; so any attempt to impose doctrines or ideologies is oppressive; individual reason is sovereign; Values are for each individual to choose; imposition of values is oppression, an attack on personal rights and freedom;Tolerance, consequently, is much broader than that of earlier generations on many issues; but narrower and more moralistic on others, and is combined with intolerance of those who would restrict individual freedom in the name of common goods; Religion is a relic of primitive, mythic beliefs which science has exposed as false, but which are still used by authoritarian structures (churches, traditional families, States) to support the imposition of values and  norms which control and oppress individuals; Preference for rights over law as guaranteeing freedom; rights are to be maximized, laws minimised; emphasis on human rights and social justice within this context; The common good is no more than the sum of defined individual goods; Sacrifice, especially self-sacrifice, is a repugnant notion; and similarly with other traditional self-effacing virtues such as humility, obedience, service, meekness, repentance; Spontaneity is in principle preferable to formality, structure; Freedom is freedom from commitments, responsibilities; Personal fulfilment is achieved by asserting and expanding the Self to its maximum potential, transgressing imposed boundaries, rejecting attempted limitations.

The philosophical heritage of this ideology is complex – there are elements of classical liberalism, existentialism, nihilism, secularism and libertarianism; some of its progenitors (leaving out the ancient Greeks) date back to the 17th and 18th centuries, like Locke, Hume, Rousseau, Hobbes, Mill;  others are more recent: Nietzsche, Sartre, Ayn Rand. The modern figures have had in common a passionate hostility to religion and to altruism. 

Are Generation Y too readily condemned as selfish?  Perhaps they should not even be described as ‘individualistic’, since that implies a blameworthy choice of self over others, over common goods; but they have had little or no choice; rather their ‘individualised’ condition has been imposed on them by contemporary society and culture.  They are condemned to it; to ‘pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps’ – literally! – to the task of creation of the Self in isolation from others.  In a perfection of solitary confinement, their doors are locked from the inside, since the culture has convinced them that the world within is their true home.They value individual freedom above all else, but focus primarily on ‘negative freedom’: ‘freedom from’ external influences, obligations, commitments: a situation in which all possible options are kept open. 

The Tradition calls this ‘indeterminacy’ rather than freedom; it can be a paralysing void.  They face the dilemma that every decision to act reduces this ‘freedom’ – to decide to do X means one is losing the opportunity to do Y if the two are incompatible.  As a consequence, they have very little ‘freedom for’, since every choice surrenders some of these precious options; and the strongest choices – e.g. of a career, of a partner, limit alternative options most! 

The traditional  concept of freedom sees it as most fully realised in large, long-term choices, in action rather than passivity;  sees it enhanced, not reduced, by undertaking commitments.Their freedom, such as it is, is also compromised by strong pressures towards conformity from marketing and institutional structures, and from the little groups of their fellows to whom they cling so desperately amid the waves of constant change. The strongly anti-institutional element in individualist ideology obscures their view of the structures which regulate so much of contemporary life, so they are socially naïve rather than critical. 

They do not perceive how their behaviour is structured and controlled, and indignantly deny that their choices are influenced by anything except their own spontaneity, while at the same time conforming closely to the pattern of these invisible norms.  Collective action, alliances, memberships, which all come with concomitant obligations and responsibilities, are anathema to them, since they involve institutions and limit ‘freedom’; as a result, a host of secondary ‘mediating institutions’ located between the individual and the State are ‘greying’ and slowly withering away for lack of support: local communities, service clubs, unions, local sporting organisations, hobby groups and clubs, churches, political party branches.

This development constitutes the greatest threat to democracy, to civil rights, to social justice and ultimately to the sustainability of societies whose moral vision depends on the constant, committed involvement and activity of large numbers of ‘citizens’ through such secondary organisations.  Not all of these organisations need to have a directly political focus – but they provide forms of shared engagement in social activities and the promotion of ideas.  Whether they cooperate or conflict, they contribute to the good of the whole society by developing its reflection on itself, and by action for social improvement.  Despite some outstanding exceptions, Australian youth are not much interested in ‘citizenship’, nor much engaged in it.

The city that traditional Christian culture built over two millennia has been looted and burned by nihilistic intellectuals and globalised laissez-faire capitalism.

  'They will need a lot of healing and nurturing in enclaves strongly defended against the corrosive power of the dominant culture. '

Perhaps Generations X and Y in developed Western countries can be seen as today’s ‘cultural boat-people’, whose refugee status no one will acknowledge. The city that traditional Christian culture built over two millennia has been looted and burned by nihilistic intellectuals and globalised laissez-faire capitalism. To distract them from the woes of cultural deprivation, youth have been given a hundred channels of cable TV, a million sites of Internet porn, and the constant background noise of advertising. 

In the brave new world which denies the radically social character of  the human person, they are profoundly isolated, alienated from society; they commit anomic suicide in increasing numbers, or destroy themselves with alcohol and drugs. The cultural police, schooled in Dawkinsian scientism, are quick to stamp out any attempt to rebuild religiously-grounded meaning structures. Divided and conquered, youth are highly vulnerable to manipulation by marketers, and to extremely tight control by the State.

They will need a lot of healing and nurturing in enclaves strongly defended against the corrosive power of the dominant culture. These refuges will unavoidably be at first small; but green blades have a way of appearing in even the thickest concrete.