“Some days, I find it a terrible thing to go to the supermarket. I’ll see a two-year-old boy walking alongside his mother or father, and the boy accidentally knocks something over. Immediately the parent turns back, smacks the kid, and yells, “Don’t you dare do that!” And the poor toddler is shaken up and doesn’t understand. “What do they want from me?” he wonders. “I’m just learning to walk. It was an accident.” Right then, this child learns that he’s bad, and he also learns that if you don’t like what happens, you hit somebody else."
There are so many (far too many) incidents where adults are hitting other adults on planes, at sporting events, in malls, at stores. We are a strange species on this planet. In all honesty, I'm more and more comfortable staying away for crowded places, not frightened, but just can't quite appreciate many humans. So when I recently came across this insight from Buddhist author and psychologist Jack Kornfield, PhD, it caught my attention and has given me something to reflect on. Here's his take:
“Some days, I find it a terrible thing to go to the supermarket. I’ll see a two-year-old boy walking alongside his mother or father, and the boy accidentally knocks something over. Immediately the parent turns back, smacks the kid, and yells, “Don’t you dare do that!” And the poor toddler is shaken up and doesn’t understand. “What do they want from me?” he wonders. “I’m just learning to walk. It was an accident.” Right then, this child learns that he’s bad, and he also learns that if you don’t like what happens, you hit somebody else." Comments are closed.
|
Victor M. Parachin ...is aVedic educator, yoga instructor, Buddhist meditation teacher and author of a dozen books. Buy his books at amazon or your local bookstore. Archives
April 2024
Categories |