Tales of Love and Wisdom for You to Read With Your Child to Enchant, Enlighten and Inspire

Aimed at children from six to ten years of age, this magical collection of read-aloud stories will draw your child into enchanting new worlds and help them to discover a treasury of Buddhist wisdom.

From the tale of The Kind and Wise Stag with its message of forgiveness to the story of Two Ducks and a Turtle which will teach your child to think before speaking, this compendium of twenty stories will inspire, entertain and enlighten kids of all ages at bedtime and help to:

• aid relaxation and prepare your child for a good night’s sleep
• build a stronger bond between you and your child
• teach your child about empathy and showing compassion to others
• stimulate the imagination and enhance the creativity of your child
• boost your child’s self-confidence
• encourage your child along the path of right living

Dharmachari Nagaraja explains the inspirational power of these stories

In today’s world, most people are used to experiencing stories through media such as radio, film and TV. In contrast, through the tales in this book, I hope to offer you the opportunity to take on the active mantle of storyteller. By engaging with the tales and reading them aloud with or to your child, you can create a powerful intimacy and set sail together into a world of wonder and imagination – sharing sights, sounds and, indeed, many feelings along the way. The stories have been especially chosen so that they will offer both you and your child valuable insights into the wisdom of the Buddha, and they are told in a way that makes this wisdom both easy to understand and fun to explore and assimilate with your child.

The tales are aimed at children ranging from six to ten years of age. However, you are the best judge of when your child will benefit from them, as every child’s rate of development varies. At the start of each story, there is a vibrant, full-page, colour illustration of a key scene from the tale, which helps to bring the action to life for your child so that they can associate with the settings, characters and events as you
progress through the narrative. All the stories start in a similar way: your child is asked to relax, be still and listen carefully. This is to promote a focused yet tranquil state of mind in which they will be particularly receptive to listening, absorbing information, thinking creatively and allowing themselves to be transported into the tales. This state will also encourage them to drift off to sleep after being read to at bedtime.

The tales can simply be enjoyed as entertaining stories. However, each one also subtly conveys a host of valuable Buddhist lessons, from which the reader or listener can draw anything that seems relevant to them. And to help you, as a parent, an essential Buddhist value is highlighted at the end of each tale – as a starting point for further discussion with your child if you so wish. These messages provide words of advice on themes such as compassion, generosity and impermanence

About Dharmachari Nagaraja

Dharmachari Nagaraja has been a practising Buddhist since 1988, was ordained into the Western Buddhist Order in 1993, went on to teach at and manage the Covent Garden Meditation Centre, London, has been involved with the Glasgow Buddhist Centre and is a practicing psychotherapist. He used to be a regular guest presenter of Pause for Thought on the Terry Wogan Show on BBC Radio 2, where he first used traditional Buddhist tales to communicate the Buddha’s teachings to a UK audience of 7.7 million people. Buddha at Bedtime is his first book.