Childhood spirituality

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Comment by richard meyers on April 11, 2009 at 1:44pm

Recently spent a few hours with my three grandchildren: Callum (8), Maisy (6) and Joshua (3). They love just being plain silly and so do I. They are better at it than I am however and I get tired sooner! What I couldn't help noticing was that the levels of silliness expressed shifted with each of them. Within just a few years the free expression of surreal images changes and becomes less so. They love to tease me with - from Joshua "You look like a hat!" All four of us laughed like mad at this. To Maisy's "You look like a monkey!". To Callum's " You look like an old woman!" (Aint it good eh, what respectable grandparents have to put up with!) But my point is the freshness of Josh's "You look like a hat!" to me, illustrates an openness of spirit and unself-consciousness that subtly we lose as we get older. It is beautiful when we encounter this childlikeness in older people, what it gives us is hope for the future: aging need not be about saying goodbye to merriment. A good natural sense of humour, by which I mean easy access to 'mirth', seems to be a common trait in the sages of old and I suspect in the present.

The free play of the imagination in pre-school children in particular, is a tonic for us older inhabitants and something we can learn from.

Comment by Robert Sadler on April 2, 2009 at 6:23pm

A pleasure to be with all of you .
Nice group.

Comment by Emma on April 1, 2009 at 7:29pm

Yes ive heared of Casten, But unfortunately London and the tate modern is about 300 miles away so not too easy to get to the exhibitions.

I also used to lay on my back and look up at the volumous sky and still do when im out camping, especially while out wild campig as then its very clear at just how vast the universe and how small we are in comparison, without the pollution of man made lights.
Ive never found myself to feel fear or panic about how my life is to be, ive always been completely accepting of it even as a child.
Rather I find more fear and panic comes from other humans as opposed to nature and animals. Humans are ive always felt that their potential can be great, whether it be for great kindness or great evil. I tend to pick up how a person is and then choose to act accordingly or not.

As a child i was aware of both sides of the coin in humans and also in animals, as ive grown up, ive subsequently seen and experienced that humans can choose how they act and how they think wereas animals are dictated by nature and are a bit more predictable with adequate study.

Just like when looking at the sky and feeling how small you are, it will always be the same, as a child i wonder if it was a mix of awe and fear at the same time as this would have been a new experience for such a tiny brain.

Comment by Annie Waldsax on April 1, 2009 at 6:18pm

The Unilever Series: Carsten Höller
About | Visiting information | Interview | Events & Education | Images | Video | Interactive film | Resources
Free, timed tickets are available in the gallery on the day and cannot be booked in advance Height restrictions apply



Navigate the interactive using your mouse. To view fullscreen, select this mode from the controls. Use the hotspots to view the installation from three different perspectives.

For myself I can find that the emotional rush or sensation I have had in spiritual encounters can be a very similar feeling of opening outwards and excitment. As I read about your tree climbing and the need to push limits I am wondering id you have come across

the artist Carsten Höller? He recommends a "daily dose of sliding" to all. He held an exhibition at The Tate Modern a few years ago. It was an installation of large slides which the public were allowed on! He sums up the experience of sliding in a phrase by the French writer Roger Caillois as a 'voluptuous panic upon an otherwise lucid mind'. As a child when I would lie on my back outside on a sunny day and I drifted off into the enormous cloud ridden sky, I could feel how tiny I was (am) and how transient my live would be. That would send me into a kind of voluptuous panic then. Now when I do the same and look deep into the night sky my panic seems to be much smoother and less of a panic. More accepting perhaps. By the way you can find the Carsten Holler exhibition on the internet as an interactive video. Not the same as being there for real though!

Comment by Emma on March 30, 2009 at 6:19pm

Yes i used to love climbing trees , jumping from there middle branches i even had a favourite tree we used to climb called "the bouncy tree". Even now i dont think twice about climbing a tree, but jumping from them im a bit more wary of. This new legislation about health and safety is driving everyone mad.
Im looking for outdoor jobs in mountain leadership and expedition leadership, but you need soo many qualifications regarding to all this stupid legislation.
Everyone knows its dangerous to climb a mountian but we still do it and we take it as part of the risk. But now you need all these insurances to protect yourself from personal liability etc..

I was brought up in a catholic church and none of it i believe in anymore, all this eternal damnation is silly. I mean look at the state of the church nowadays, its opposing human rights by saying gay people are in mortal sin.
Nature now is a mortal sin, so is money , greed, fun, love etc.. soon theyll be telling everyone that breathing is a mortal sin. Its absolutely ridiculous.
I have no reasons for finding my way back to that sort of church when all it does is degrade you and tell you that you are a sinner for everything you try to do.
But I agree the latin mass is absolutely awesome, especially at easter vigil. I used to read at mass everyweek, sometimes 2 x a week if one of the others was ill and away. I loved it too and tryed to become a nun in tyburn benedictine order, but it was very strict and oppressive. I found myself being repressed and wasnt able to express myself enough, Not allowed to laugh for example, i mean what is the point of being repressed by a religion just because a mother superior didnt like you laughing or dancing for the guest or singing to them?
No i couldnt live that life and im glad i left, im free to express my way of life as best as i can now.

Comment by richard meyers on March 30, 2009 at 5:43pm

Health & Safety rules governing the nature reserve I work in drive me balmy! Believe it or not I am not allowed to climb a ladder higher than 4 ft. Any tree work has to be done by contractors! As children we love climbing trees. I would almost say it is necessary that we do so for the exhilaration. We all need to push our limits from time to time in order to grow, children especially.
Needless to say children are discouraged from tree climbing.

On another tack, as a Catholic child I was (for a while) like many others in love with the idea of becoming a Priest. Puberty put paid to that fantasy, but I remember serving Mass as an alterboy and loving it. Latin was still in use, I loved the sound of it and it just flowed off my tongue. I used to rehearse in front of a piano in the front room, ringing a little handbell from time to time. The dark side of Catholicism was also present and created a lot of fear in me: eternal damnation for example, especially of concern in the case of dying, as my brother did, apparently in a state of so-called 'mortal sin'.
Today I don't believe a word of it, but as a child it caused me a great deal of pain.

Namo Amida Bu!

Comment by Emma on March 30, 2009 at 9:45am

I totally agree there. When i was younger i was not afraid of anything - nowadays i have this "adult sense of fear" that things can hurt me and am more timid in some of the things i will try, ie as a child i didnt think twice about jumping to a plunge pool, whereas as an adult i am constantly thinking about the what if's.
Alot of this down to education and over rationalisation that as adults we tend to do and also health and safety laws that are constantly being enforced by other "adults".
This is just one example, of how different a child a is to and adult and how we grow to be too self protective, but i am sure there are many more examples i could give.

Comment by richard meyers on March 29, 2009 at 2:30pm

Hello again,
I think children have a brightness to their perception that sadly gets left behind in our culture. Overlaid by whatever school and the mass media emphasises and often forgotten during adolescence, the child grows self protective and sometimes cynical. Many of us experiance a feeling of 'homesickness' for this former self as we get older and look to rediscover it in a variety of ways. If we're lucky we discover mentors that can help us find a way back to our authentic selves. Art can reconnect us, as can becoming parents ourselves. We learn once again to see the world afresh as we relearn how to play. I really think young children are naturally spiritual beings, open hearted systems and that they have much to teach us 'clever' grownups about being here.

Comment by majella on March 29, 2009 at 1:16pm

Is that kind of way of looking at the world something a lot of children grow out of?

Comment by Annie Waldsax on March 29, 2009 at 12:46pm

Hello,

I am Annie and can say that I ahve always "sensed" some kind of spiritual element within my self since early childhood. I guess that I would have liked more conversations at home when we where growing up. Conversations that did not have a "right" or "wrong" view attached to our ideas of spirituality. Our mother was a "private" Christian I think. She seemed very reluctant to get into discussion; she would rather we went out and explored the path we chose without her opinion in case her opinion coloured our explorations. Very generous of her but not enough for me to bounce off my ideas against at the time.
I attended a school that followed a Quaker way of being and I think this is what has helped me to look at "how" we are towards each other. 26 years ago it was my entering into parenthood that re awakened my spirit and forced me into facing my own demons. I know it sounds cliched but I have learned so much from my children about how to live lovingly. I have also learned that there are times when my ability to be loving has been very challenged and certainly not easy to maintain. Lately in the last 10 years that is, Buddhism and the teachings of The Buddha has made so much sense as to why we struggle with being mindful and deeply loving towards others. I think that is my daily practice and is where I am constantly learning more about how to live the 8 fold path.

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