Buddhism and the Wisdom of Children…
We (adults) pride ourselves at teaching our young ones how to make it through life, growing and learning, getting and spending, and all the other things that count for adulthood. But is that truly a worthwhile effort, and are they indeed really learning anything important? Sometimes it seems that all we are really teaching is how to fear the powers that be, and then the ability to lie, cheat, steal, and murder is merely a by-product of that more basic capacity to fear.
But shouldn’t they be teaching us a thing or two at the same time, like maybe how to laugh and play and enjoy the day as if there were never indeed one before and may never be another one after? I mean, have you ever met a child incapable of smiling? No, not that I can remember, but I know many adults who never seem to be able to summon up the courage to let go of their fears in that way for even a moment. But, wait a minute, you’re thinking, isn’t a child’s smile likely to turn into a frown without the slightest notice, and for even less reason?
And there’s the rub. Yes, for many a child, an emotion is only a transient sensation, as ephemeral as a passing cloud and with even less reason, merely the chatter of butterflies without vocal chords, just the flapping of wings in a season without time, meter or rhyme, while adults do the hard work of civilization. So, the middle path is always the sweet spot of reconciliation, the wisdom of age and the sensation of youth, coexisting in a crucible of truth, forever beholden to the divine principles that contrive us. Buddhism is the wisdom of men, as learned from children—and women. But that’s another story…
The loneliness of travel should be crushing sometimes, but it’s not, not really, and I seem to attract it, by design, as if to do otherwise would mean I’m lazy, and corrupt, too weary in my old age to do the right thing, stay true to my principles, those principles of non-possession, non-attachment and non-consumption…
Predestination is, or at least WAS, the Holy Grail of all religion, primitive religion, false religion, to have it all figured out, planned out, whether past lives or Heaven and Hell, the threat of future punishment to keep you in line at the present, but the Buddhist belief in past lives creates life not proactive, but retroactive. Ditto Christianity with heaven and Hell. That’s the social function of religion, keeping us in line…
streaming consciousness... 
Reply