Spirited Child Diablog
Children don’t cover up nearly as well as adults. Sometimes this makes a child’s self-centeredness easy to spot. Other times it reveals undisguised wonder, innocence, bravery, or wisdom.
Do you have an inspiring child anecdote, story, or poem to post on your blog? It might concern your own child, someone else’s child, or come from your own childhood.
After you post, email the permalink by Friday January 4th to martin22204 [at] yahoo.com with “child diablog” in your subject line. Please provide a link to this post at Original Faith so your readers will know about the Spirited Child Diablog too.
On Sunday January 6th I’ll post submitted links along with a brief description of each. Included will be a link to my own “spirited child” post, which is coming up next . . .
From: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
--William Wordsworth
“Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:14
Do you have an inspiring child anecdote, story, or poem to post on your blog? It might concern your own child, someone else’s child, or come from your own childhood.
After you post, email the permalink by Friday January 4th to martin22204 [at] yahoo.com with “child diablog” in your subject line. Please provide a link to this post at Original Faith so your readers will know about the Spirited Child Diablog too.
On Sunday January 6th I’ll post submitted links along with a brief description of each. Included will be a link to my own “spirited child” post, which is coming up next . . .
From: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home:
Heaven lies about us in our infancy!
--William Wordsworth
“Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God.” Mark 10:14
Posted by Paul at 5:33 PM Permalink
10 Comments:
A principle comes to focus when it is denied. Eternal principles get polished only through violent debates that try to extinguish them. Here the denial of Nachiketas, the principle of the eternal child, is done by Usan, the conservative parent. Usan is obsessed with holding onto the worldly objects. He also craves for the glory accompanying the performance of sacrifices. In the grand sacrifice of life where everything is to be given away Usan acts as a miser intent on absorbing all vital resources giving out as little as possible. The prana principle in him dominates over the apana principle.
A thesis gives life to its antithesis. Nachiketas is the son of Usan. Nachiketas, the eternal child, is the fire of pure passion. When one has inhaled fully the inner urge to let out the breath becomes powerful. The relief of letting out the breath is as intense as the joy of taking it in. Usan, the conservative parent, lives in all of us. But so does Nachiketas the child.
As Nachiketas watch the miserly behavior of Usan the urge to give away all accumulations keeps growing. Just as Usan wants to be pure prana Nachiketas wants to be pure apana. Even though Nachiketas is a child he carefully observes the nature of the gifts being given away in the sacrifice being performed by his father. He says to himself: “These cows can not drink water. They refuse to eat the grass offered to them. They have stopped yielding milk. A person giving away only such cows ends up in the domain of unhappiness.” The authoritarian parent wants to delegate only the vestigial processes that do not count. Such authoritarian behavior takes one to a joyless existence.
The childlike instinct in the seeker asserts itself through the words of Nachiketas, to question the validity of the actions of his parental nature. Nachiketas asks his father: “To whom are you going to give me?” He repeated the question thrice. The three repetitions are addressed to the parental behavior in the domains of body, mind and intellect. A question when properly asked contains its answer. To his questions Nachiketas gets the answer: ‘You are being given away to death”.
Is this an act of exasperation on the part of Usan? No. It is an act of enlightenment. There is no exasperation anywhere in Upanishad. Every word, every nuance, in Upanishads is an instrument for enlightenment. The direct question of the uncompromising child, still in touch with divinity, is addressed to the body, mind and intellect of the worldly conservative parent. Nachiketas is challenging the reluctance to change that characterizes a conservative. Death is only the extreme form of change where the magnitude of the transformation and the uncertainties of the hereafter are exemplified ad infinitum. The declaration of Usan that he gives up the acquisition closest to his heart, his son, to death is an act of consecration. He is now no more afraid of the phenomenon of change. It is this total acceptance of change that makes spiritual progress possible.
The subtle principles of the phenomenon of life then unreel through the dialogue between Nachiketas and death.
The problem might be to find two people both of whom have enough familiarity with both the Upanishad and the New Testament!
Death is certainly hard to get the mind around. It's such radical change that it brings up the question of identity.
btw,have written a new story do take a look :)
There are hundreds of anecdotes I could tell but they aren't kept in pigeon-holes marked "inspirational", "humor", "spiritual" and so on. There is no category marked "Aren't children cute?" either.
What is a diablog anyhow? Haven't heard of it.
What do you mean by "spirited"?
Perhaps these questions will be answered in your own "spirited child" post, which i await with interest.
MISTIPURPLE: And for that matter it's not necessarily easy being a child. Or green. Purple?
VINCENT: Paralyzed inspiration - sounds worse than writer's block!
"Wonder, innocence, bravery, or wisdom" were meant to suggest the kinds of qualities that the story might present, though certainly doesn't have to be restricted to those.
What I'm calling a "diablog" (kind of like "dialog...") works exactly the same as a "carnival" if you happen to have done one of those. To participate, just do as the post describes - do a post on your own blog and send me the permalink by the deadline so I can post it along with other links that will all be on this same topic.
Yes, an example would be good. I'm posting it next time because I thought it would make this post too long.
Slowly his awareness cleared. He looked up and saw the stars shining benevolently on him. He knew they were responsible for the life throbbing within the boundaries drawn around him by nature. Unlike an inanimate rock he was now saddled with the knowledge and responsibility of becoming, being and consummating every moment of his life. He knew of the many births and deaths to unreel transformations that will go on till the dissolution of his personality... till the day when the Lord calls him back. But he was glad that the stars shone on him and he was the master of himself as long as he lived. That put the cross of space and time squarely on his back, which eventually he knew, will claim his life. But he didn’t mind, for what mattered was the here and now. And as long as he lived he would be the master of himself.
He smiled at the stars, and they smiled back at him. In them he saw the faces of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva.
The wise men of the East had their eyes wide open...Because they were waiting for his arrival. The status quo of sterile knowledge had driven them to desperation and they knew this had to happen some time. Better sooner than later.
They saw the stars that dawned with the childbirth in the stable. They had a glimpse of what it meant for them and the world. The stars were there for all to share without contention. When the eyes are riveted on infinity and all are masters of themselves... responsible for becoming, being and consummation... all petty competitions vanish. They knew that with the stars shining on all, the static hierarchy that enslaved men will give way to the dynamic throbbing relationships where everyone was alive and free to love everyone else.
The kingdom of love had dawned with its king crooning in a cradle.
When I look up I see those stars, and I weave destiny keeping my eyes fixed on them. Up there are the ideals I live for and with. When they shine ambiguities and doubts melt away. Then I feel that whatever I do is an act of love that keeps me in the company of the Lord.
When I look around I see the throbbing crowd of my neighbors. Our shoulders touch and there is hardly any movement that I can make without touching someone else. Our lots seem to be so much linked together. But it doesn’t irritate me now. Because I know that they share with me the same stars that shine brilliantly in the sky.
In the acknowledged brotherhood we hold each other's hands and turn our movements into a dance... A lovely dance…where all are held together by a string of celestial music…the music of the stars.
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