After eight years of training in a silent Zen monastery, and after meeting Rupert in 2014 and attending his retreats over the last decade, I found the activity of my life woven through with a bright thread, what might be called – the act of being.
The thread has been about knowing a happiness you can’t explain because you have no reason for it that you can point to; about the joy of pure being; about knowing who you are, resting in presence, and acting in the world on behalf of this deep knowing.
Transcendence and transformation. In The Heart of Who We Are, Caverly deftly holds two seemingly opposing truths – our shared being of oneness whose nature is peace, and our shared world of apparent separation and its suffering – and invites us to explore how our true nature might find its fullest expression in both ourselves and the collective. This beautiful and courageous book not only provides a way for us to explore who we are and how we are in the world but stands as a shining example of what it means to do both.
And, following this sacred thread led to the creation of Peace in Schools.
In 2013, after a teen suicide at a Portland public high school, the principal was desperate for a way to offer well-being in the school. He invited me and my co-teacher to offer two full days of demonstrations to 10th-graders.
What were we demonstrating? That it’s possible to remember that, in Rupert’s words, we are the happiness we seek. We demonstrated that inquiry can be our guide. That not only can we remember the heart of who we are, we can align our lives to reflect this remembrance. We called what we were offering Mindful Studies.
During those days in a high school gymnasium, somewhere near the end of each 90-minute class, I dropped the phrase, ‘You are not your thoughts’. The silence was profound, especially given the number of young people gathered in this one place. You could almost hear their silent self-talk, the internal dialogue that often runs in the backdrop of our minds:
If you are not your thoughts, then who are you?
Their interest was piqued.
The principal called me several days later. ‘We’ve created a monster’, he said. ‘Over 300 teens have signed up for your class, and I have absolutely no idea what to do about it.’
I founded Peace in Schools in response to this call. In fall 2014, we launched Mindful Studies™: the first for-credit, semester-long mindfulness course of inquiry within a U.S. public high school.
How different might your life have been if, in high school, you had been guided through an inner curriculum?
Imagine, as a teenager, being supported in asking important questions like:
Who am I?
How do I belong?
How can I be happy?
Imagine how different our society would be if discussions about our personal and collective conditioning were as common as attending a sporting event. What if our workplaces, markets and schools were spaces where we explored how our habitual way of perceiving ourselves, each other, the world, can cause suffering? How would our communities transform if it were normal to support each other in remembering the heart of who we are?
Through Mindful Studies, we’ve seen teens increase self-compassion and emotional regulation and decrease anxiety and depression. Over 6,000 teens from ten Portland public high schools have completed our 72-hour course. Also, since 2017, we’ve served 1,700-plus educators and parents through our university-accredited mindfulness trainings. For those interested in how we do what we do, we’ve created a free six-part video series about our philosophical approach. It’s called Peace with Youth Starts with Us, and there you’ll see how Rupert’s teachings have shaped who we are and what we do through Peace in Schools.
Today, Peace in Schools is rolling out a major initiative to expand access to Mindful Studies, raising over $2.7 million of support since May 2023 from Visionary Investors, many of whom come from Rupert’s community.
This past autumn, I had the opportunity to observe our first school beyond Oregon to have adopted our Mindful Studies class. It was one of the more rewarding experiences of my life. In the lively group discussion that filled this California classroom, these are actual statements teens made:
‘The judge is just reinforcing my survival strategy.’
‘Criticising myself gives me the illusion that I can control myself and others.’
And my personal favorite from the day:
‘Self-compassion is a gateway to let down the walls of the conditioned mind.’
How would your life be different if in high school you had been guided, through your own direct experience, to find this level of insight?
To learn more about how we’re doing what we’re doing, or to learn how you can support us, visit www.peaceinschools.org
In whatever way each of us are called to express the deepest knowing of who we are, may we do so. May acts of being infuse our world.
