Our mission is to educate kids in Dharma so that they learn and practice Generosity, Morality, Patience, Joyous Effort, Focus & Concentration and gain Wisdom to benefit others.

Starting Them Young

The Manjushri Kids Class (MKC) was conceived by His Eminence Tsem Rinpoche who is the Spiritual Guide of the Kechara House Buddhist Association because he saw the importance of inculcating good values in children from young in accordance with Buddhist principles.

We suffer unnecessarily due to the mistakes we made in the past and the negative karma that had accumulated due to those past actions. If we had known the harm we were causing ourselves, we would be less likely to have persisted in those ways. So ignorance was the major factor that attributed to the problem. Then knowledge would be the solution to the problem.

If children had been provided the knowledge from young, then their actions as they are growing up would be guided by that knowledge. Teaching them wisdom as taught by the Buddha is the most sacred gift parents could give their children because Dharma knowledge protects them from making wrong choices in life and suffering as a result.

H.E. Tsem Rinpoche has always reminded his students that food and clothing can only help our children for this life but Dharma knowledge would benefit them lifetime after lifetime long after we have passed away. So if we love our children, we would want to prepare them not only for this life but all future lives and what better way than to give them Dharma knowledge.

It was on this basis that Rinpoche conceived of the Manjushri Kids Class. The first class was held in March 2008 with a group of five students, taught by a group of committed students of Rinpoche, entirely on a voluntary basis. Appealing to young minds, the curriculum includes lots of fun activities including outdoor trips and excursions interspersed with wonderful moral stories, prayer sessions and Dharma lessons. The kids enjoy themselves while their minds are skillfully moulded with principles as taught by the Buddha, readying them for the future.

Since then, in the short two years, the MKC has grown in popularity so much so that membership now stands at 70 and is still growing. Parents have reported that they have noticed significant and positive changes in the behaviour of their children since attending the class. It is due to the kindness and care of Rinpoche that we continue to enjoy this avenue of education that benefits not only our children but ourselves too, as their parents.