Questioner: Can we help our children and others we love overcome their unconsciousness? Or do they need to go through it themselves?
ET: More and more children are born these days who don’t have to go through the deep unconsciousness that they (adults) had to go through, and certainly that I had to go through.
ET: More and more children are born these days who don’t have to go through the deep unconsciousness that they (adults) had to go through, and certainly that I had to go through. And nowadays, more and more children are born to parents who are awakening, or parents who are relatively aware. I can’t think of any conscious parents in my generation. There may have been some, but they were rare. They are still rare today, but much less rare than they used to be. I loved my parents, but they were deeply unconscious. The question is, therefore, how to help children to maintain relative awareness, so that they do not fall into the mass ignorance that still pervades mass culture, the technology that promotes unconsciousness and addictive behavior.
The most powerful teaching is not what you say or do to them, but your state of mind at home. This is the basis of teaching children. This has nothing to do with teaching, the basis of the transmission of consciousness is not that we want to transfer consciousness to them, but to keep the space of presence while we interact with them at home. Also, to be as present as possible when you interact with your husband. There is a connection that infects them, either with a presence or a pain body.
The most essential thing is to be aware before doing anything. They observe how you behave and take that into account to some extent. Of course, another influence is mass culture, as they spend more time in school. Sometimes there may be things that you can point out to them to keep them in touch with direct experience, sensory experience. Don’t let them lose their connection with nature. Today, so many children are involved in technological toys that they no longer experience nature. This is something completely foreign to them. This is a very harmful thing. It is a tremendous deprivation to be deprived of the direct experience of the natural world that connects you with the deeper levels of your own being. Having an animal at home is a big help. If the children relate to the dog, it is not a conceptual relationship. You can touch the dog, take care of the dog. To go out in nature from time to time, without the gadgets that (children) usually have.
Watching television is a state of semi-comatose hypnosis. It might not be easy because everyone else is doing it. It’s not that you have to completely eliminate these types of activities, but discourage them from spending 100% of their free time doing them. Take them to nature without gadgets. Encourage them to take control of sensory experiences – touch, feel, look at things. Encourage them not to confuse conceptual labeling with real knowledge or experience.
When (children) are learning a language, encourage them not to equate concepts with reality. When you teach them what something is, encourage them to touch it, see it, feel it, not just say “this is called such-and-such.” Keep watching. Otherwise, you stop experiencing it – and you only have a mental label.
Interviewer: They also label themselves. I’ve noticed this with my daughter, she comes home and says “I’m stupid” for this or that.
ET: It’s a good way to encourage him not to identify with his thoughts. So if you point out that it’s just a thought and they don’t have to believe every thought that comes up. If you can somehow work with them to make them realize that it’s not their thoughts, to put space between them and their thoughts, to observe their thoughts, and when the thoughts come, you can explain that “it’s just a thought” and it may not be reality, it may not be true.
Most people have a pain body. Separate the identification from the pain body by pointing out that it is the pain body. I’ve often said not to call it “pain body” for kids. Give it a name, call it something, and mention it when you pick them up from time to time. Then show them “what was it that took over?” to develop an awareness. There is emotion and there is awareness. Encourage this so that they are able to look at the emotion that comes over them from time to time. And after the event, not during the event, tell them, “What grabbed you when you started screaming yesterday? What was that?” and says, “How does it feel?” or come up with a game to make it something they know about. Then “let’s wait for the next time and see how it feels.” If you have, you can point out after waking up from your pain body – “the same thing happened to me”. The key in education is to show them the possibility of awareness, rather than always identifying with what comes to mind.
