Sunday 1 December 2013

OSHO : Leave The Kid Alone

Till your child turns seven, protect him from outside influences, says OSHO

Up to seven years, if a child can be left innocent, uncorrupted by the ideas of others, then to distract him from his potential growth becomes impossible. The child’s first seven years are the most vulnerable. And they are in the hands of parents, teachers, priests.... How to save children from parents, priests and teachers is a question of such enormous proportion that it seems almost impossible to find how to do it….
If you have a child, protect the child from yourself. Protect the child from others who can influence him: at least up to seven years, protect him. The child is just like a small plant, weak, soft: a strong wind can destroy it…. You put a protective wiring around it, but that is not imprisoning, you are simply protecting. When the plant is bigger, the wires will be removed.Protect the child from every kind of influence so that he can remain himself — and it is only a question of seven years, because then the first circle will be complete. By seven years, he will be well-grounded, centred, strong enough.You don’t know how strong a seven-year-old child can be because you have not seen uncorrupted children, you have seen only corrupted children. They carry the fears, the cowardliness, of their fathers, mothers and their families. They are not their own selves. If a child remains uncorrupted for seven years, you will be surprised to meet such a child. He will be as sharp as a sword. His eyes will be clear, his insight will be clear. And you will see a tremendous strength in him which you cannot find even in a 70-year-old adult, because the foundations are shaky. So, in fact, as the building goes on becoming higher and higher, the more and more shaky it becomes.
So you will see, the older a person gets, the more afraid he becomes. When he is young, he may be an atheist; when he becomes old, he starts believing in God. If you are a parent, you will need this much courage — not to interfere. Open the doors of unknown directions to the child so he can explore. He does not know what he has in him…. He has to grope in the dark. Don’t make him afraid of darkness, don’t make him afraid of failure, don’t make him afraid of the unknown. Give him support. When he is going on an unknown journey, send him with all your support, with all your love, with all your blessings. Don’t let him be affected by your fears. You may have fears, but keep them to yourself. Don’t unload those fears on the child because that will be interfering.
To be a parent is a difficult job, so unless you are ready to take that difficult job, don’t become a parent. People simply go on becoming fathers and mothers not knowing what they are doing. You are bringing a life into existence; all the care in the world will be needed.
From Darkness to Light,

courtesy: Osho International Foundation, www.osho.com 

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