I would like to share a little bit about myself as a very young child.

To accept death is to completely embrace life. Death is the only inevitable certainty in life. We can have more control over our life, and how it’s lived, by strengthening the mind, by expanding our consciousness, and having better control over the process of living our existence; and therefore, we would have better control over the process of dying in our own life. Of course, there are always other factors to consider when we talk about death, just as in life, those factors being family, friends, acquaintances, and our surrounding external circumstances. Hopefully this story will provide you with a better awareness in your own life, and about the process of dying, and death itself. Therefore, providing you with a deeper understanding about our purpose in life.

I would like to share with you a little bit about my understanding from a very young child. First of all we, for the most part, the western-minded ones are not willing to discuss the dying process, death itself. Not willing out of fear, confusion, and mostly I would say, out of not having answers, not being able to discuss it intelligently, and not able to discuss it spiritually. And I would say that it has a great deal to do with that fear of the unknown, and therefore, it is hushed in us from very young children all the way up until the moment that we find ourselves in the dying process.

As I started earlier to tell you that as a young child I was very aware of the contrast in attitudes and beliefs about death. Those that I knew inwardly, and of course, those attitudes and beliefs that were imposed or that I was being taught. I saw in most people, as a child, such a fear of death that as I said it was either not spoken of, or people were rushing through life so quickly, and so unconsciously, like a run away locomotive going nowhere fast. I can remember terms that are very familiar that attest to the naiveté in the beliefs of many of western consciousness. I say this was stemming from ignorance of The Truth. These terms such as, “you only live once”, “live it up while you can”, “you only get one shot make it count”, these kind of things.

Adults were supposed to be wiser, because they were older. So, wisdom automatically was assumed to come with age. Not always necessarily so, as we all well know. So therefore, they were our shining examples of how to live the life. As a young child I chose not to live in fear of something I didn’t know, but to go forth and explore those realms of the unknown beyond those who could not give me answers.

I could not see the purpose in fearing life or death especially when I was aware of the process of rebirth. I had already experienced the worlds of the un-embodied. I was familiar with my own rebirths. This is not something that I often speak openly of, for many reasons. As a child I was familiar with the dying process and leaving the body, and all of the consciousness flooding forward in the dying person. Aware through those who were, as we call crossing over into the astral, because many had often sought comfort and solace in me. At that time in life I was intrigued with the ignorance of many people around me. I often tried to carefully explain what it was I knew, and to speak to others about the afterlife, which had been revealed to me both in dreams and in visions, and in my waking state.

As a child I did not realize how many of the living were deprived of the ultimate meaning of life, let alone the threatening truth about death. After all, all the great religions of the world clearly mention, in some way, that death is not the ultimate end all.

As a young child I was often silenced about speaking of such things, particularly death. Much of what I knew, and followed as the purpose of life, and of this existence as the Truth that was spoken from within. I was drawn to the dying person. All that I knew to do was to listen, comfort them, help them to be peaceful, and to surround them with compassion, pour forth all the love in my heart. All I knew to do was love them. Whether it was butterflies, birds, cats, snakes, or people. As a young child I sang hymns quietly at times. I listened very carefully as their life would come flooding back in memories. For all the animals I made special funerals with foods, and water, flowers, and garlands, and I made it a habit of wrapping them in a piece of my clothing, and carefully reminding them that this would protect them, and keep them close to one who loves them to send them off on their journey into another realm. I offered prayers, and even at that young age I assured them that we would meet again, and they would be healed.

When I was between, I would say, nine and eleven we lived near a very busy street where there were many car accidents occurring often it seemed. In the late nights when we heard these terrible crashes my bio-mother would yell out for us to get blankets, and we would rush to the crashes. There were often horrific sights of horribly mangled bodies, and dead people. Even though the police, paramedics, fireman, and my bio-mother would be tending to these bodies I found myself attempting to soothe the frightened souls. They were confused as they were departing those mangled bodies. Often appearing to be in disbelief, and crying out in fear and confusion. No one knew they were there, and in their confusion they were fearing that they had nowhere to go. In all of this hysteria I do not know if I was of any real solace to them. I did try to let them know that their physical body was of no importance to them anymore. There was a church on the corner there, and I would often try to gather them on the grass with me. I knew from very young that this life was not all that there is, but I certainly lacked words to explain what I knew, and even so I was highly discouraged to speak of disease that I saw in a person’s body, or about death. I didn’t always have the discretion as a very young child to keep to myself what I saw, and therefore, I was guilty at times of blurting out a disease I saw growing in a person, or the fact that I saw them dying soon. I did learn that discretion as time went on. A painful lesson, yet a good one.

I’ll stop for now. Many blessing.

Shanti

Why Is Violence In Our Children Worsening? Part 2

Those children whose will is strong, who choose to survive and overcome the violence of an imbalance minded parent suffer greatly, However, their potentials of good outweigh the violence of retaliation and they grow up refusing to be yet another predatory example of the violence they have experienced first hand.

Some children break, fearing they cannot over come the nature of the violence they have been forced to succumb to and conform, falling prey to the thinking of “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Thus, they act out their own rage. We cannot really control another unless there is either predisposed weakness in the face of control and/or the willingness to be controlled. This we have many accounts of throughout the evolution of the human existence in time. This is however, easy to accomplish by hammering away (again violence) at a child’s mind. The way we enforce this is by assaulting the body often enough conditioning the child to pain/nonconformity being one and the same. The violence of torturing a child’s body by spanking or standing nose to the wall or better yet heaping chores on them in order to teach them a lesson is not the means to obtain the result of a lesson well learned. It does however drive the message of insignificance and it does nurture the ever-burning desire for meaning in their little lives. They will succeed in breaking free of the suppression one way or another – The means are endless, as you well know …

Take potty training for an example. The retention or release of ones bodily waste is a matter of control. If not taught with a great deal of love and patience it often becomes a child’s recourse with their parents. Eating is another means of control.

Fear tactics become unimpressionable to a child who is fighting for freedom of thought and expression. The most tragic means is suicide, many little lives end due to an exhaustion of unsuccessful attempts via self-destructive means to end the violence or not become the monster they have suffered at the hand of. Worst yet, is they act out these violent pinned up raging emotions on others directly.

The way to change the problems of violence we see is to start with ourselves. Questions to ask ourselves:

-What are my self-destructive patterns?
-When will I stop blaming everyone else for my unhappiness?
-Did I really learn to be good through fear and suppression?
-Am I prejudiced and judgmental against people who do not share the same concepts and beliefs as me therefore, condemn them before knowing them as a human being?
-Did fear and forced conformity give me a sense of self-acceptance?
-Do I teach my child/children that, as many people that inhabit the earth there are equally as many paths to walk and everyone’s path is right for them? Providing it does not impair another’s life through violent means of any degree.

Spiritual life, unselfish love, structure with rubber boundaries, a willingness to expand your mind as a parent, a true ear of listening, a gentle guiding hand, a lot of acceptance of the little individual you have been blessed with to nurture and endless patience knowing this path of child rearing is repetitious teaching, are all necessary ingredients that aide in the process of molding a child’s life.

Many adults have told me I am too idealistic and would not survive “in the real world.” Well, for better or worse as the saying goes, I am a living example of overcoming these very unpleasant violent tendencies in others. I have raised three beautiful little beings without the use of violent tactics or oppressive means of so called discipline to meet the end result of their up- bringing.

They were taught that whatever path a person takes in life is their choice and have every right to live it as long as they do not suppress another inhibiting their potentials in any way. A difficult lesson for young and impressionable, for they struggle in their own freedom—friends ridicules and even physically punishes their passive ways. The other side—they see the violence, the blatant tendencies of intentional means of others to have power over another. They witnessed this in parents of children who were their friends and other children with peers. In their
attempts to educate, as they have been educated they were often rendered helpless as the adults and other children around them rallied to the seemingly winning team of oppressors in the route of violence in pursuit of power over.
Circuitous isn’t it?… But not impossible to overcome.

Many blessings to you as you attempt to change thy self
in order to save the spirit and
mind you have and that of another.

Shanti

The war is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you have the holiday blues?

Childhood memories are one of the prime problems that  people face during the holiday time, unpleasant memories, abusive memories, memories of the holidays not being the way they are suppose to appear, or the way they appear to be going with others. All of these memories stay with us, and they make impressions in our mind, and they form the perceptions we have about anything and everything.

How these problems are handled depends on one’s mental strength and stability, one’s spiritual life, balanced emotions, and one’s physical well being. What happens often is a person digresses. They digress into the emotional turmoil of their childhood tendencies. The emotions have strengthened due to their hold on the mind’s perceptions that are based on these past impressions, you see. A person will feel imprisoned, and feel unable to escape from this pressure, this emotional turmoil. However, I tell you, with true faith and devotion in one’s spiritual life, that is, faith and devotion not born of fear, doubt, and coercion, one can escape the holiday blues. One’s mental strength, emotional balance and healthy body depends on one’s spiritual affiliation. One way of handling the holiday blues is to remember; “To thine own self be true”, the confront each problem.