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The Great Mind-in-a-Jar Experiment 
This experiment is fun to try on your own, or with family and friends. 
Find a glass jar (ask your mom or dad - it can be any size as long as it is round and clear). Fill it with clean water and go sit down on your meditation cushion. This water represents your happy, healthy mind, like when you wake up in the morning feeling great and you can't wait to get up and see what's going to happen next. But then, you get out of bed and start thinking - in other words, you start your collection of ‘thoughts'. You can use the white sand for ordinary thoughts, (like, ‘I wonder what's for dinner') white fairy dust for happy thoughts, and colored sand or sparkles for the rest: black for scary thoughts, blue for sad thoughts, yellow for smart thoughts, and pink for loving thoughts, purple for ‘I want', etc. (Avoid red, it discolors the water.)  Stir the thoughts with a big spoon saying, "This is my mind in a hurry, this is my mind stressed out about homework, this is my mind worried about getting to school on time, this is my mind thinking about my birthday" or whatever. Now sit up straight, cross-legged in a good meditation posture (no slouching, please) and ring a gong saying, "This is what happens when I stop and let go of my thoughts."
Sit quietly (2-5 minutes) and watch the ‘thoughts' settle down to the bottom. (The sand should help knock down the sparkles, so that most end up on the bottom.) Midway through, take a moment to feel your breath going in and out, your chest rising and falling, the cool air coming in through your nose and the warmed air going out. Ring the gong VERY loudly to end and sit perfectly still until you can't hear the gong any more. Notice how extraordinarily peaceful the room has become in those final moments as you hear the last reverberations of the gong. (If you are doing this experiment with family and friends, midway through remind everyone to feel their breath as described above, and at the end ask everyone to sit quietly until the gong has stopped sounding. When you're done, pour the water down the sink and the sunken ‘thoughts' into the trash can, rinse and start all over! Supply list:
Clear round jar
Water (tap water is fine)
White sand
1 ounce each of different-colored sand and sparkles
Big spoon Download PDF. (click to open in new window, or right-click to save to your computer.) Back to The Family Corner home page.
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