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Are you Childish or Child like?

lobsterlobster Veteran
in General Banter
Do you live in the real world? I live in a filtered projection. The projection is made up from upbringing, circumstances and environment. Social conditioning; karma if you will. Much of my attempts to be an adult is influenced by child like qualities. What is the Middle Way? Do we for instance bring childish methodology to our dharma?
Well I do.
For example I find my pomposity, ego and general sense of importance open for a good giggling. I believe advocates of Buddhist inspired, 'right violence' or those believing the Buddha was a lotus stepping demi-god, are well meaning non-children. I hopefully have more respect for their capacity for adult rationality than my own childishness.
I am relearning a child like wonder at this world, as it is, which I barely have any comprehension of . . .
It is a funny place to be. Very much an adult. Very much a child. Very much a variety of falling away selves.
Soon I will be a Buddha. How childish is that? Giggles to the usual kind place . . .

Is Buddhism a call to grow up from our childhood and even adult influences and preconceptions?
I am feeling broody. Let's hope I have a lotus born Buddha . . . :thumbsup:

Comments

  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    I love to watch my 2 year old daughter be fully present in every moment......I am a bit envious at times!
    lobster
  • lobsterlobster Veteran
    Ah a natural Buddha . . . . :clap:
  • mettanandomettanando Veteran
    Neither.
  • mettanandomettanando Veteran
    edited January 2013
    This Rousseau -like belief in chlidlike innocence is a crock.
    A fact that has been recognised by child psychologists and educationalists for the best part of one hundred years. ( And for what its worth sits at odds with kamma-vipaka too.)
    A fact which does not stop it being beloved by romantics.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    I was childish last year, I was a little childish last week and quite childish yesterday, I was also childish some moments ago and I may be a little childish in some moments to come. I was mature last year, I was a little mature last week and quite mature yesterday, I was also mature some moments ago and I may be a little mature in some moments to come.
    lobsterseeker242
  • TheEccentricTheEccentric Hampshire, UK Veteran
    I am the only one here with the excuse to be childish because I am a child
    Bunkslobster
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    mettanando said:

    This Rousseau -like belief in chlidlike innocence is a crock.

    It has nothing to do with innocence really. It has to do with being open to new information without prior bias.
    A fact that has been recognised by child psychologists and educationalists for the best part of one hundred years. ( And for what its worth sits at odds with kamma-vipaka too.)
    A fact which does not stop it being beloved by romantics.
    Einstein looked at the world with the eyes of a child and was able to make sense out of something nobody else could at the time. So what if light moves just as fast coming at us whether we are running backwards or not? Who cares if it goes against what we already know? We've found our constant. Too bad he ended up being just as blind and set in his ways when it came to quantum mechanics.



    Invincible_summer
  • upekkaupekka Veteran
    go to the
    nurssery Rhymes
    and
    children stories

    take a careful look
    one will be surprised to see
    the Dhamma behind them
    the Truth behind them



    :)
  • BunksBunks Australia Veteran
    upekka said:

    go to the
    nurssery Rhymes
    and
    children stories

    take a careful look
    one will be surprised to see
    the Dhamma behind them
    the Truth behind them



    :)

    I recently read my daughter Alladdin. His brother was chopped into 4 pieces and Alladdin killed his brother's killers by pouring boiling oil on them.

    That book has been thrown in the bin!
    ThailandTomTheEccentric
  • ningjing1977ningjing1977
    A child is real Buddha , look how they think , look how simple they make life, we all used to be like that at one time, inocent and free and living in the now.
  • jcuestjcuest
    mettanando said:

    This Rousseau -like belief in chlidlike innocence is a crock.
    A fact that has been recognised by child psychologists and educationalists for the best part of one hundred years. ( And for what its worth sits at odds with kamma-vipaka too.)

    A fact which does not stop it being beloved by romantics.

    The fact is a young child still haven't a strong developed mind, so he haven't an Ego. When we have developed an Ego, starts our problems, and through meditation, we try to dissolve it..lol
    So, in this sense, is enviable the natural state of a little child.
  • ThailandTomThailandTom Veteran
    Bunks said:

    upekka said:

    go to the
    nurssery Rhymes
    and
    children stories

    take a careful look
    one will be surprised to see
    the Dhamma behind them
    the Truth behind them



    :)

    I recently read my daughter Alladdin. His brother was chopped into 4 pieces and Alladdin killed his brother's killers by pouring boiling oil on them.

    That book has been thrown in the bin!
    This actually made me laugh out loud a little lol..
  • ningjing1977ningjing1977
    Its ok to pour boiling oil on someone if your at very high altitude so the oil boils at 30 degress lol
    novaw0lf
  • novaw0lfnovaw0lf Veteran
    edited January 2013
    I personally don't envy the way children think and act. There are other psychologists who rank children at the highest of egocentricity; it's all about what they need. Children may be free in one aspect, but completely dependent in another, and often think they are the center of the universe because they haven't developed a real sense of the world yet. I also don't envy their lack of wisdom. I actually like the process of learning, gaining scars, and growing...having a story to tell and being aware of death. I think there's something precious about being a child, but there's also something very precious about growing old as well, something that many of us forget as we yearn for youth, and being aware of our own mortality as well. Also, children are at the lowest level of morality, pre-conventional (a theory by Skinner, I believe. Though, I may be incorrect on the specific psychologist), in fact, morality doesn't even register to a child which is, I think, a double-edged sword, another aspect of being free in one way, and dependent and utterly controllable in another.

    There are many, many reasons I could go on and on about, but I'll spare you a novel.

    And to answer the original question: I personally don't think any of us truly live in reality, because what we perceive is just that: subjectivity. We define our realities in relation to the scope of our personal universe and awareness of the universe when kept in check by responses of those around us.
  • upekkaupekka Veteran
    ThailandTom said:

    Bunks said:

    upekka said:

    go to the
    nurssery Rhymes
    and
    children stories

    take a careful look
    one will be surprised to see
    the Dhamma behind them
    the Truth behind them



    :)

    I recently read my daughter Alladdin. His brother was chopped into 4 pieces and Alladdin killed his brother's killers by pouring boiling oil on them.

    That book has been thrown in the bin!
    This actually made me laugh out loud a little lol..
    if you kill
    be prepared to be get killed

    :)
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