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I want to know what the right age for a child to learn meditation, for example if I do anapana with a toddler, can it stop the development or it will help the child to stay into panya later.

Vipassana courses starts from 8 year old, but that may be due to other reasons, but personally I think I can teach my daughter as soon as possible.

At the time she is less than 3 months old, and she had started making sounds, I know it doesn't make any sense, but this is the age when infants start to learn and copy things right?

I think if I act like I am breathing my daughter will stop copying me in coming months, so could doing anapana be good or bad for her?

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  • Are you aware of the objective of anapana meditation? Without being able to communicate why she should practice it, asking her to do it might be dangerous. She might fall under an illusion merely concentrating on breath leads to realization of dhamma.
    – Ravindranath Akila
    Mar 28, 2017 at 14:25

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I have a 17 month old and personally I feel there needs to be an intention to meditate in an individual, rather than blind copying or operant conditioning.. An infant's mind effectively goes through a process of building a self in the first few years and Buddhist thought goes against such a process in a way that I don't think a really young infant will comprehend. Myself, I am waiting till the kid hits 2.5-3 years old, when he will have enough access to language to begin the process of meditation through a personal, conscious choice (if he doesn't want to, then I won't force and will wait!).

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    I think that if the kid will regulary see you meditating will become curious and then you can use that curiosity to have the intention come from within him.
    – user4878
    Mar 28, 2017 at 15:55
  • True - he has been curiously plucking away at the guitar since 6 months old when I play, but if I meditate in front of him, he only tries to peel my eyelids open with his scratchy nails for now! At least in his case, language will be a must!
    – Ilya Grushevskiy
    Mar 28, 2017 at 16:26
  • I really like how expresive your writing is. Best wishes for you and your close ones!
    – user4878
    Mar 28, 2017 at 16:48
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An infant should ideally not practice Anapana without knowing why it is practiced in Buddhism.

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  • knowing by infant or parents ?
    – Ritesh.mlk
    Mar 30, 2017 at 4:03
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    I suggest that you speak of the reason(s) why an infant should ideally not do so. You could explain the shortcomings. If you know of infants that were damaged by this practice, don't hesitate in letting us know.
    – Tenzin Dorje
    Mar 30, 2017 at 9:56
  • Parents and infant both. The problem with encouraging them to practice blindly is that, nowhere in the Tipitaka do I see Buddha merely preaching Anapana Sathi meditation. He always follows it with some indication to dhamma, such as The Four Noble Truths.
    – Ravindranath Akila
    Mar 30, 2017 at 11:00
  • @RavindranathAkila. Your post has been flagged for low-quality due to length and content. Please include your recent comment to your answer in order to increase content-quality.
    – user2424
    Mar 30, 2017 at 12:11
  • @RavindranathAkila I was thinking when a child goes to school first time, Do he know why is he going there, but later on after 20 years it makes sense to him, If we start motivating them to focus on breathing why do we need them to know Why?
    – Ritesh.mlk
    Mar 31, 2017 at 4:12
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We never know exactly the past karma of the individual let alone other however close, even of ourselves. The best thing is watch closely the behavior and emotional changes and act yourselves as a role model.

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