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I was on a message board where a parent asked how she can teach her children her beliefs that are improving from the result of the new Ekhart Tolle book, A New Earth. It made me think about what I am doing and will do with my little girl and wanted to share:
It's hard to quickly sum up what you should tell your children, especially if we are also growing in knowledge as we speak. What whould you want your children to learn out of the life they've been given? I'll give you my thoughts for my child and maybe you'll connect or mabe not, but it's worth a try.
My parents came from India and one of the things I brought into our home is something called 'ahimsa'. I'm not the BEST advocate for it but I'm doing the best I can. Ahimsa means no-injury...living with peace...living in love. It's the type of practice where you simply try to live through acts of love and find peace where situations tempt you to feel otherwise. Again, I said it's something I'm doing the best I can at enforcing... it is not easy with our ego and Eckhart's "pain-body" in the way, but try the idea of it.
Here's my world for instance...let's say a bee enters your home. I can think of at least 10 families I know that will have chaos in their house. Children on the couch, parents flying all over the room cussing and swearing with a fly swatter, spray, broom...whatever weapon they can find to kill that annoying 'pest'. I'm born and reared in the U.S. so I completely understand that knee jerk reaction as I mimicked my friends and reacted the same way for years. One day when I was a teen, I killed a bee and watched it as it fell to the ground. It was then that my heart sunk for the 1st time. I know...I know...you're saying "but it's a bee". Yes...but it had a life and I took it because it flew in my home by accident. To us it was an uninvited guest, but to them...just another opening in their outdoor world. Since then I always found a cup, bowl or what have you and captured the lost bee and let it out. It wasn't looking for trouble...so instead of taking it's life for my own selfish purposes, I sent it back on it's journey. That is my perception and my husband does the same with spiders and other 'creepy crawly' creatures.
I know we can't do that for all creatures...you can't exactly invite a poisonous creature in for tea and cookies...and I still haven't figured out the purpose for a mosquito - lol. I'm just using my heart to help keep a sense of love for creatures and peace in our home. If we change our perception for a single bee, it may start to change your perception of other living things, and ultimately yourself and children.
I want my child to embrace the world G-d has given her, from the small insects to the stars in the sky. I believe we have a purpose to watch over the earth that G-d gave and asked us to manage. I believe that G-d also gave us our children, and in turn we have a duty to teach our children about G-d and all of His children that live on all of His land. I believe that many children have been reared without really appreciating the value of our earth and all beings that were given residency. Sometimes it looks like there are just a bunch of cliques in this world, ganging up on someone that looks different or has something they want, which is really why I think we have the wars that we do.
If my child can learn anything from this book and the belief that I have...she would learn about awareness within herself and forgiveness to others that have not attained that sense of awareness.
If you want to teach your children goodness and peace, it has to first start from within, moreso with you. Once you feel right with that emotion, it will be easy to convey and you do pose as role models for your babies. You can also introduce them to meditation or martial arts, where use of the inner self can bring about a certain order in the outer self. Their outside behavior should reflect their inside belief, in my opinion. Again...it will all start with you.
My daughter is only 17 months old now but I've accomplished getting her to understand how to take a deep breath and a loooong stretch. Little by little she'll feel encouragement to embrace the good around her and hopefully protect herself from the bad with the help of G-d's blessings.
Even as the Bible states "Ask and you shall receive...seek and you shall find." You will find that place you want to be in and even better...you will build the foundation for your children to dance along with the rhythm of life's beat.
It's hard to quickly sum up what you should tell your children, especially if we are also growing in knowledge as we speak. What whould you want your children to learn out of the life they've been given? I'll give you my thoughts for my child and maybe you'll connect or mabe not, but it's worth a try.
My parents came from India and one of the things I brought into our home is something called 'ahimsa'. I'm not the BEST advocate for it but I'm doing the best I can. Ahimsa means no-injury...living with peace...living in love. It's the type of practice where you simply try to live through acts of love and find peace where situations tempt you to feel otherwise. Again, I said it's something I'm doing the best I can at enforcing... it is not easy with our ego and Eckhart's "pain-body" in the way, but try the idea of it.
Here's my world for instance...let's say a bee enters your home. I can think of at least 10 families I know that will have chaos in their house. Children on the couch, parents flying all over the room cussing and swearing with a fly swatter, spray, broom...whatever weapon they can find to kill that annoying 'pest'. I'm born and reared in the U.S. so I completely understand that knee jerk reaction as I mimicked my friends and reacted the same way for years. One day when I was a teen, I killed a bee and watched it as it fell to the ground. It was then that my heart sunk for the 1st time. I know...I know...you're saying "but it's a bee". Yes...but it had a life and I took it because it flew in my home by accident. To us it was an uninvited guest, but to them...just another opening in their outdoor world. Since then I always found a cup, bowl or what have you and captured the lost bee and let it out. It wasn't looking for trouble...so instead of taking it's life for my own selfish purposes, I sent it back on it's journey. That is my perception and my husband does the same with spiders and other 'creepy crawly' creatures.
I know we can't do that for all creatures...you can't exactly invite a poisonous creature in for tea and cookies...and I still haven't figured out the purpose for a mosquito - lol. I'm just using my heart to help keep a sense of love for creatures and peace in our home. If we change our perception for a single bee, it may start to change your perception of other living things, and ultimately yourself and children.
I want my child to embrace the world G-d has given her, from the small insects to the stars in the sky. I believe we have a purpose to watch over the earth that G-d gave and asked us to manage. I believe that G-d also gave us our children, and in turn we have a duty to teach our children about G-d and all of His children that live on all of His land. I believe that many children have been reared without really appreciating the value of our earth and all beings that were given residency. Sometimes it looks like there are just a bunch of cliques in this world, ganging up on someone that looks different or has something they want, which is really why I think we have the wars that we do.
If my child can learn anything from this book and the belief that I have...she would learn about awareness within herself and forgiveness to others that have not attained that sense of awareness.
If you want to teach your children goodness and peace, it has to first start from within, moreso with you. Once you feel right with that emotion, it will be easy to convey and you do pose as role models for your babies. You can also introduce them to meditation or martial arts, where use of the inner self can bring about a certain order in the outer self. Their outside behavior should reflect their inside belief, in my opinion. Again...it will all start with you.
My daughter is only 17 months old now but I've accomplished getting her to understand how to take a deep breath and a loooong stretch. Little by little she'll feel encouragement to embrace the good around her and hopefully protect herself from the bad with the help of G-d's blessings.
Even as the Bible states "Ask and you shall receive...seek and you shall find." You will find that place you want to be in and even better...you will build the foundation for your children to dance along with the rhythm of life's beat.
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