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Children naturally want to discover and learn new things. Through the media and a hectic and complicated living environment their senses are nowadays often overloaded with countless impressions. We want to give children the opportunity to focus their attention on themselves in the silence of meditation and to discover their mind with all its hidden abilities and latent potentials.

Anapana meditation is a concentration and mindfulness exercise. It is a necessary preliminary practice for Vipassana meditation, which is offered only to adults, but it can also be practiced independently. The object of meditation is the natural breath. The effort here is to be aware of each breath as it comes in and flows out. Experience has shown that children as young as 8 can master this exercise with amazing ease. And they enjoy it, so many of them like to come back.

Back home children can continue to practice what they have learned in a way that suits their needs. It is reported again and again that the benefits for the children are also reflected in their behavior and attitude. Children themselves express that meditating helps them to concentrate and improve memory. Meditation provides them with a tool to help them better cope with anxiety, anger, stress, and the pressures of growing up.

Courses for children and young people have been part of the regular course program of Vipassana centres all over the world for many years. In Austria they take place irregularly, mainly at rented locations as 1-day courses. Course dates can be found here.

By the way: If there is no course for you availabile or if longer courses are preferred, you will also find German-language Anapana courses for children and adolescents in the following countries:

• In Switzerland: sumeru.dhamma.org
• In Germany: dvara.dhamma.org

All courses in this tradition are run exclusively on a donation basis and with the support of volunteers. No participation fees are charged. For better planning and timely processing, we ask that your child registers at least 2 weeks prior to the start of the course: Course registration.

The care of the children is usually done in small groups by experienced meditators. Parents who are already meditators themselves and have successfully completed a course in this tradition can register for the service.

Please note that children should not be pressured to participate in such a course. The course is demanding despite a child-friendly social program and your child should therefore participate of its own volition.