The primary purpose of the Abiding Heart's Learning Approach is to (re)connect to our Buddha Nature according to each individuals’ capabilities. We are guided by the Buddhist path of learning and inner development; a process that is both experiential and transformative. In this approach, we learn to apply our insights, or heart understanding, in everyday life, gradually forming new habits that are motivated by bodhichitta, or all encompassing love. This style of learning also embraces Dr Steiner’s children’s pedagogy that engages the head, heart and doing, and teaches us to learn about life from life, in a process towards spiritual awakening. We do this through the content of the children’s curriculum, the teacher training courses and the method or skilful means. By immersing ourselves in this way of being and process of learning, teachers and children alike, discover a space within themselves that is open, soft and radiant. The essence of this openness is love, which is at the core of all true spiritual endeavour and ultimately transcends desire and concern for oneself. It is the very heart of enlightened wisdom. The Abiding Heart’s Learning Approach goes beyond transmitting knowledge and facts. It is grounded in process with less focus on outcomes. Abiding Heart’s aim is on nurturing the learners’ changing consciousness through meditative and other experiences. In this approach, all aspects of learning and experiential knowing are interrelated. In this way, a shift towards integration in the way we think, feel and act is more likely to occur. This type of learning includes internal and external changes in consciousness in their connections to selfhood, others and nature. To carry out such a shift our unique approach nurtures learners as their awareness grows, widens and deepens in the development of wisdom and compassion. The aim of our approach is to have a learning journey that is intuitive, involving the heart/mind. As Buddhism’s and Steiner’s ideas of learning are transformational in nature, the emphasis of our approach is on developing wisdom and compassion in order to live a meaningful life. Our approach is holistic, giving equal weight to engaging head, heart, doing and being in the process of learning and teaching. It is centred on emotional literacy, and a multi-sensory experiential approach to learning. By integrating a range of learning approaches into the cohesive Abiding Heart’s Experiential Buddhist Learning Approach, (for children and adults) we are able to deeply engage in inner exploration and offer a range of skills to apply in everyday life. Through our learning approach and curriculum content we help nurture and develop resilience in our children and their teachers. We researched and examined how the Buddhist learning and teaching styles can be “translated” through Steiner pedagogy to form the Abiding Heart’s Learning Approach and our Experiential Buddhist Learning for children. In addition, we studied the intersection, or meeting points, between these learning methodologies and contemporary learning systems and developed our own unique learning approach. The Abiding Heart’s Learning Approach is a fusion of: Buddhist learning approach Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy Aspects of contemporary learning methods and practices: Experiential - learning through doing and experiencing Integrated Project based Inquiry based Contemplative, experiential - meditative Co-constructive Peer learning Central to our approach is nurturing the development of imagination and perceiving each child as a unique individual that has this wonderful ultimate nature that is all encompassing goodness. For example, in the Buddhist view, to be aware of suffering is the beginning of healing. Our suffering, such as mental afflictions and obscurations are not innate. They are temporary and therefore, they can be removed. In our learning approach, in line with Buddhist practices and Steiner-Waldorf pedagogy, we use our capacity of imagination to develop positive mental dispositions. We imagine having all encompassing compassion and wisdom. We do this through imagining having enlightened, wholesome qualities of mind, speech and body or in the way we think, speak, feel and act and use our will. In our learning approach, we embrace the Waldorf approach of nurturing the development of imagination in children, making mental images or learning to visualise. Following the Steiner’s method of using stories to aid in developing imagination and the Buddhist use of imagination to visualise deities and their enlightened qualities, we use concepts to go beyond concept. We have designed developmentally appropriate deities practices, such as Shakyamuni Sadhana or Avalooiteshvara Sadhana, where the children learn to imagine the enlightened qualities of a Buddha. To aid the children with the deity visualisation we use re-enacting important events in the Buddha’s life, such as the night of enlightenment; paubha/thangka painting; Charya dance (deity dance) and Charya gita (songs). The children are able to experience the being of the deity in body, speech and mind, and imagine how their own enlightened qualities can manifest in body speech and mind or in actions, speech, feelings and thinking. By having such daily positive affirmations, we are helping children develop an inner disposition towards reconnecting with and manifesting our own Buddha Nature. It is possible for the children (and us) to imagine this and with that sense our true nature, because in our essence, we already are full of this wisdom and compassion or unconditional essence love. In the Abiding Heart's Learning Approach, teachers perceive each child as a unique individual. This manifests through the child’s temperament or personality type, specific body constitution, their individual karma they bring with them into this incarnation and the karma of the group/culture/race they were as well as the time in history they were born into. Each child is treated as a unique individual but not as special. This is because in essence we all have this primordial wisdom or enlightened nature. This uniqueness manifests in the child's character, karma, temperament, personality type, body constitution and all-round make up. The essence of our pproach is that it rests on the understanding that spiritual development means the spirit of enlightenment motivated by love and compassion for the individual (for oneself and others), or by the power of goodness. This way of learning through engaging the head (understanding/knowing) and the heart (experiential/meditation), promotes and nurtures resilience and healthy ways of being in every aspect of our lives. True transformation occurs when our innate qualities of wisdom and compassion are fully expressed, enabling us to care deeply for ourselves, for each other, and for the world. ​ “Receive the child in reverence, educate them in Love, and send them forth in freedom.” Rudolf Steiner