My greatest joy is watching them grow,
learn the things that I teach by being.
Being is all that anyone is or does.
It is our authentic self,
called Atman, Buddha-nature, the image of God, the fitrah, the Tao within,
the id some still name it.
Only when I am assured
that everything is as good as it gets
can I pass that onto the Beings
I take responsibility for and of.
This is the old charge found in every tradition:
stewardship before the Father who never lied,
dharma carried without pride,
amanah held clean,
compassion that does not force.
The difficult part of responsibilities accumulating
is the opportunity of challenge
in accommodating the size and scope of anxiety
to creep inside of the mind.
Simple day to day life
is easy enough to comprehend and deal with.
Knowing those things brings experience.
And experience is life measured with confidence instead of pride,
knowing Father’s never lied,
beings do not witness tears that cried.
Preserving innocence,
building character,
and being honest
are the keys to an otherwise colorless life.
There are now generations of those whose lives through childhood had no color in them.
The single-parent thing is dysfunctional
and impossible to do completely right.
Even if there is no trauma
there is lack of perspective,
limited problem-solving skills,
heightened anxiety leading to the taking of pills.
Those whose eyes do not see reality
instead create their own right and wrong definitions and vocabulary.
Every path has warned of this:
the loss of the child’s clear sight,
the substitution of private right and wrong for what is,
the anxious mind that reaches for anything to quiet itself.
Across the books and the oral ways
the same medicine is offered:
return to Being,
teach by the life you actually live,
keep the innocence you can still protect,
and measure your days by confidence in the One who does not lie
rather than by the pride that colors nothing.
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Justification by source text
Being / authentic self
- Genesis 1:27 – “God created man in his own image.”
- Chandogya Upanishad 6.8.7 – “That art thou” (Tat tvam asi).
- Quran 30:30 – “the fitrah of Allah upon which He has created mankind.”
- Tao Te Ching 25 – “Man models himself on earth, earth on heaven, heaven on the Tao.”
- Mahaparinirvana Sutra – Buddha-nature present in all beings.
Teaching by being / example
- Matthew 5:16 – “Let your light so shine before men.”
- Bhagavad Gita 3:21 – “Whatever a great man does, that other men also do.”
- Quran 33:21 – “You have in the Messenger of Allah an excellent example.”
- Dhammapada 54 – “The scent of the virtuous travels against the wind.”
Responsibility / stewardship held only in right order
- Genesis 2:15 – man placed in the garden “to work it and keep it.”
- Bhagavad Gita 2:47 – “You have a right to perform your prescribed duty, but not to the fruits.”
- Quran 33:72 – the amanah (trust) offered to the heavens and the earth, accepted by man.
- Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go.”
Father who never lies
- Numbers 23:19 – “God is not a man, that he should lie.”
- Titus 1:2 – “God, who never lies.”
- Quran 4:87 – “Who is more truthful than Allah in statement?”
- Psalm 119:160 – “The sum of your word is truth.”
Anxiety from accumulated responsibility / restless mind
- Matthew 6:34 – “Do not be anxious about tomorrow.”
- Bhagavad Gita 2:70 – the man who is not disturbed by desires attains peace.
- Quran 13:28 – “Verily, in the remembrance of Allah do hearts find rest.”
- Dhammapada 33 – “The mind is restless and difficult to control.”
- Tao Te Ching 48 – “In the pursuit of learning, every day something is acquired. In the pursuit of the Tao, every day something is dropped.”
Preserving innocence / pure heart / clear sight
- Matthew 18:3 – “Unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom.”
- Matthew 5:8 – “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
- Quran 91:7-10 – the soul and that which proportioned it; he who purifies it succeeds.
- Dhammapada 1-2 – mind precedes all; pure mind brings happiness.
- Proverbs 4:23 – “Keep your heart with all vigilance.”
Honesty, character, confidence instead of pride
- Proverbs 11:2 – “When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.”
- Micah 6:8 – “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God.”
- Bhagavad Gita 16:1-3 – the divine qualities include fearlessness, purity, honesty.
- Quran 49:13 – the most noble is the most righteous.
- Dhammapada 223 – “Conquer anger with non-anger, wickedness with goodness, stinginess with generosity, falsehood with truth.”
Loss of clear sight / private right-and-wrong / colorless generations
- Isaiah 5:20 – “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil.”
- Romans 1:21-22 – claiming to be wise they became fools; their senseless minds were darkened.
- Bhagavad Gita 2:63 – from anger comes delusion; from delusion, loss of memory; from loss of memory, the destruction of intelligence.
- Quran 2:7 – “Allah has set a seal upon their hearts and upon their hearing, and over their vision is a veil.”
- Dhammapada 5 – “Hatred is never appeased by hatred; by non-hatred alone is hatred appeased.”
- Proverbs 14:12 – “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”
These are the texts the traditions themselves put forward for the same human conditions named in the piece.
