It could be said Amdo -- a sweet, calm, and curious boy who lives in Brooklyn with his mother Jae -- has been meditating since before he learned to walk.
As a toddler, he was fascinated by his mother’s meditation practice and began to crawl into her lap and sit with her when she meditated in the mornings. Jae, a book conservator who’s been practicing 
Soto Zen meditation as a discipline for four years, soon begun giving Amdo gentle guidance on the principles of meditation, which he’s already applying to his life.
“I tell him, 'Feel what it feels like to feel a tingle in your fingertips,'” says Jae. “It’s not a technique, but you have to be really still [to do it]. There was one time when I was really agitated, and spontaneously Amdo was like, ‘Mom, feel your fingertips!’”
One psychologist says that while “not all kids will be able to do meditation,” she’s found that “many kids” can “learn meditative breathing techniques that will help them regulate and not lose control.”
Merriam-Webster defines the act of meditating [which is simply a handy catchall Western translation for various Eastern words for different kinds of practices that cultivate good qualities: bhavana, jhaneti (developing tranquil-absorption, states called jhanas or zen), kammatthana (field of work), anussati (contemplation or recollection), sati (mindfulness) and sampajanna (clear comprehension)] as “to focus one’s thoughts on, reflect on, or ponder over.”
This means that the definition of the opposite of meditation might be: “to be a toddler.” But some parents are embracing the idea that meditation can calm their rambunctious young children. For holistically-minded moms and dads, it’s like a dose of spiritual Ritalin.
Not everyone buys it. Deepak Chopra, a household name in American gurus, writes on his website that “there’s no hard and fast rule” for meditation readiness. But he names “8 or 10 years of age” as the earliest conceivable moment.
[The Buddha said 7-years-old, which Christianity and Catholicism later latched onto as the age of accountability and reason. To validate this number, the Buddha ordained his 7-year-old son Rahula as the first child novice-monk and made a rule that no one any younger could be ordained.]
Youngsters have limited capacity for extreme concentration, body awareness, or understanding the abstract concepts (visualization, loving-kindness) associated with some meditation practices.
Parents apparently have a different visualization: serene, sedate children who learn to love... More