Never forget that you are more than what you do. You are more than anything you teach. You are more than anything you say. You are more than anything you could ever express. Always keep in mind that the highest good will prevail and that your main job is simply to cooperate with it. It’s ironic, but the key to being truly in control is to cooperate.
– John-Roger with Paul Kaye (From: What’s It Like Being You?, p. 80)
Childlike is not childish. A childish view is spoiled, immature, and personality-driven. Childlike, on the other hand, relates to qualities we associate with the heart: being open and honest, living in the present moment, trusting our intuition. As adults we can learn a lot from this approach. The child is not concerned with protecting his image and can, therefore, be a true learner, open and receptive to whatever comes his way. If we drop our concern with appearances and take each moment as it comes, instead of rehashing the past and worrying about the future, we, too, can greet life in the same innocent and trusting way. This approach can be challenging for people in a society like ours, which overemphasizes the intellect. Intellectuals often have difficulty letting go of their ideas about how life should be. Their minds constantly take them out of the moment and into efforts to analyze and manipulate the world around them.
When we are in harmony with spiritual laws, we can let go of our opinions and approach life with what Zen master Shunryu Suzuki called “beginner’s mind”: “In the beginner’s mind there
are many possibilities,” he said, “but in the expert’s there are few.” We can live in the state of true play. What we generally call “play” are games of strategy. This form of play, whether in
relationships or on the football field, is all about competition and one-upping others. But the true self’s only game is the game of loving, which involves cooperation and caring. When we look at
life from a true-self perspective, we continually discover new things about ourselves and others.
Never forget that you are
