THE CHILD

WHEN PEOPLE ASK THEMSELVES what is the right way to bring up their children they must first of all consider and adjust themselves to the particular child.

The personal wishes of the educator in this matter must be put completely aside.

The child must go its own way on earth, but not that of its educator.

It is well meant if an educator sincerely wishes to put at the disposal and use of his child those experiences which he himself had to undergo in his life on earth, with a view to sparing the child much in the way of disappointment, loss and pain.

But in most cases he achieves very little!

In the end he has to recognize that all his efforts and good intentions in this matter have been utterly in vain, for at a certain time the maturing child quite suddenly and unexpectedly goes its own way, and in decisions of importance to itself has forgotten or disregarded all admonitions.

The educator is not justified in bewailing this, for with all his good volition he entirely failed to realize that the child he wished to educate has by no means to follow in his footsteps, in order properly to fulfil the purpose of its existence here on earth.

All the experiences which the educator could or was obliged to undergo in the past were intended and necessary for him.

They were therefore only of use to him, provided he was capable of absorbing them in the right manner.

The experiences of the educator, however, cannot bring the same benefit to the child because, for the purpose of its own development, the child’s spirit must pass through entirely different experiences that accord with the threads of fate connected with it.

Not two of the many men on earth follow the same path for the purpose of furthering their spiritual maturing!

The experiences of one man are therefore spiritually valueless for any other man.

And if one person exactly follows and imitates the footsteps of another he has just frittered away his own time on earth!

Until the child reaches maturity you shall only prepare the tool which it needs for its life on earth, and nothing else, namely, the physical body with all its gross material functions.

Exercise the greatest care to see that you do not distort or even completely disable it through excesses or one-sidedness!

Next to the necessary physical training, schooling in the right activity of its brains plays an important part.

The first period of this training ends with the beginning of maturity, and not until then must the second period begin, which is to teach the spirit to control the entire body correctly.

Until the spirit breaks through in the years of their maturity the children of earthmen have only a predominantly animistic intuitive perception.

Naturally they are already set aglow inwardly by the spirit, i.e., they are not merely like noble animals in the highest state of development, but already very much more.

Nevertheless the animistic prevails and is therefore decisive.

It is absolutely imperative that this be borne in mind by every educator, and the basis of an education strictly adjusted in accordance with it, if the result is to become complete and without harmful effects on the child.

The child must first receive full understanding in the great activity of all that is animistic, to which at this time it is still more open than to that which is spiritual.

In this way its eyes will open in joy and purity to the beauties of Nature which it sees around it!

The streams, the mountains, the forests, the meadows and the flowers, as well as the animals, will then become familiar to every child, who will be securely anchored in this realm, which is to provide the field of activity during its sojourn on earth.

It will then stand quite firmly and fully conscious in Nature, in the whole world of animistic activity, full of understanding and thus well equipped and quite ready to work with its spirit also, uplifting and furthering to an even greater extent all that surrounds it like a huge garden!

Only thus can it become a true gardener in Creation!

On this basis and not otherwise must each maturing child stand when the spirit breaks through, healthy in body and soul, joyfully developed and prepared on that soil to which every child belongs.

The brain must not be one-sidedly over-burdened with things that will never be needed during its life on earth, things which do cost great pains to acquire, consequently wasting its strength and weakening body and soul!

If, however, a preliminary education already takes all his strength, then man has nothing left for his real task!

With the right training and preparation for real life, however, work becomes only a joy, a pleasure, for then everything in Creation is also able to vibrate in full harmony, thus supporting the maturing of youth by furthering and strengthening it.

But how senselessly men act towards their children!

What crimes are they guilty of against posterity!

Just when the spirit within the young girl’s body breaks forth so that it can make use of the gross material and ethereal tools entrusted and given to it, in order that she may become a real human being, this young representative of womanhood is dragged off to earthly pleasures … with the idea of getting her quickly linked up with a man!

The spirit, the true human being, which has yet to face earthly activity, thus never gets a start.

Becoming paralyzed, it must watch how the earthly intellect, which was exclusively and wrongly trained, expends itself in nothing but glittering nonsense in order to appear clever and witty and thus cover the lack of true spirit.

It must observe how the intellect becomes implicated in all sorts of impossible things, thereby requiring and squandering the entire strength the tool is able to give.

Finally the woman becomes a mother without ever having been a real human being!

Thus there is no field left for the spirit, no possibility for it to become active!

And things are not much better for the young man!

He is weary and fatigued from over-burdening study in schools, his nerves overwrought!

He provides only a diseased soil for the spirit breaking through, a brain distorted by and satiated with useless things.

Thus the spirit cannot work as it should, and in turn cannot develop itself properly, but is stunted and completely smothered by the weight of the dross!

There only remains an unquenchable yearning to give some inkling as to the presence of the immured and suppressed human spirit.

Finally even this longing is lost in the mad whirl of earthly haste and greed which is first meant to act as a bridge over this spiritual vacuum, and which later on becomes a habit and a need!

This is the manner in which man now goes through his earthly life!

And for the most part the faulty upbringing is to blame for it!

If man wishes to stand aright here on earth the first part of his training, i.e., of his education, must absolutely be changed.

Let children really be children in these matters!

Never allow them to enjoy equal privileges with grown-ups, nor indeed expect that grown-ups should adjust themselves to children!

You are giving them a strong poison by doing so!

For the spirit of the children has not yet broken through from within, they are still largely dominated by their animistic nature, and therefore they are not on a level with grown-ups.

Children feel this very distinctly!

Therefore do not allow them to play a role which deprives them of this consciousness!

You only make them unhappy!

They become unsteady upon the firm soil of the childhood which is their rightful due, and which is ordained for them in Creation.

But they can never feel at home on an equal footing with grownups, because they lack the principal quality which entitles them and makes them able to exist on that level – the complete connection of their spirits with the outer world through their bodies!

You rob them of the genuine childhood to which they are fully entitled according to the Laws of Creation, and which they even need urgently, because the experiences of childhood are absolutely necessary for the later development of the spirit.

Instead you often allow them to mingle with grown-ups in whose company they cannot move freely since they lack every quality to do so.

Such children become unsteady and precocious, which naturally only appears repulsive to grown-ups, giving an unhealthy impression, and disturbing pure intuition and all harmony.

For a precocious child is like a fruit the kernel of which is still unripe, whereas the shell is already about to grow old!

Beware of this, parents and educators, for it is a crime against the Laws of God!

Let children remain as children!

Children that know they are in need of the protection of all grown-ups!

The task of the grown-up is only to furnish the protection which he is able and also in duty bound to give where the child deserves it.

Unless you yourselves destroy this Law of Nature the child, in its animistic state, quite distinctly senses the need of the grown-up’s protection and consequently looks up to him, by way of balance voluntarily showing him the respect which implies the desire for support.

But in most cases you do destroy this Law!

You tear every child out of its quite natural intuitive perceiving through the false methods you apply to them, very often just to satisfy your own desires, since for the most part the child is a lovable plaything to you which you wish to enjoy, and which you try to make prematurely intelligent so that you may be proud of it!

All this is of no benefit to the child, but only harmful!

In the days of its youth, which must be considered as the first stage of its development, already starting with the earliest years, you have to fulfil more serious duties towards the child.

Not your wishes, but the Laws of Creation must be the decisive factor in this matter!

And the decree that every child must be a child in all things!

A human being who has really been a child will grow up to give full value as an adult.

But only then!

And a normal child can be solely recognized by the fact that it has a genuine respect for grown-ups in its personal intuitive perception, which thus precisely corresponds to the Law of Nature.

All this every child already bears within itself as a gift of God.

It will develop this if you do not bury it!

Therefore keep children away when grown-ups converse together, for they do not belong there.

In this also they must always know that they are children, and as such not yet of full value, not yet matured for their work on earth.

Much more is contained in these apparent trifles than you think today.

They fulfil a basic law in Creation which you often disregard.

Children, all of whom still stand predominantly in the animistic, are in need of this as an outward support, in accordance with the Law of the Animistic!

Grown-ups must give protection to children!

Therein lies more than the words alone indicate!

But they must grant protection only where the child deserves it!

Children must return something to balance this protection, so that they may already learn through experiencing that there must be equilibrium everywhere, and that therein lie harmony and peace.

This also is demanded by the nature of the animistic.

It is just this, however, which many parents and educators have often neglected, although it is the fundamental condition for a proper upbringing, if such is to be carried out in accordance with the Primordial Laws of Creation.

Everyone lacking the conception of unconditional equilibrium is bound to waver and fall, no matter whether sooner or later.

And the consciousness of the unavoidable necessity of this conception must be hammered into the minds of children from their very first days so that it becomes as much their own, as much a part of their flesh and blood, and as natural as the feeling for physical balance which they develop, and which is based on the same fundamental law.

If this principle is carefully applied in all education, there will at last be free men who are pleasing to God!

But just this most indispensable and main fundamental Law in this Creation was disregarded by men everywhere.

Except for the sense of physical balance this law is not observed and practiced in the field of education.

This necessarily brings about one-sidedness of an unhealthy kind, causing every man to flounder about psychically on his course through Creation and continually to stumble and fall!

It is sad that this intuitive sense of equilibrium is only accepted as necessary for all movements of the physical body, but does not receive the proper care and is often altogether neglected, in things psychical and spiritual.

The child must be carefully guided in these matters by imposing external restrictions upon him from the first weeks.

To neglect this brings about dreadful consequences for the entire existence of every human being through the Law of Reciprocal Action!

Just look around you!

In the life of the individual, as well as in the family, in state activities and in the attitude of the churches, indeed everywhere, there is a serious lack of consideration in this and only in this!

And yet you find this law manifesting clearly everywhere, if only you wish to observe it!

Even the physical body indicates it; you can find it in regard to food-intake and waste-elimination, also, indeed, in the various kinds of food you eat if the body is to keep well, in the balance between work and rest in all its details, quite apart from the afore-mentioned Law of Equilibrium which enables every individual body to move, and only thus to become fit for its task on earth.

This law also holds and sustains the entire world, for only through the balance of equilibrium can stars and globes pursue their respective courses and maintain themselves.

And you, you little men in Creation, no more than a speck of dust before the Sublime Creator, you overthrow this law by refusing to heed and obey it fully!

For a time it was possible for you to distort it, but now it jerks back into its original form, and in doing so it must hit you painfully!

Out of this one fault has grown all the affliction which hits Creation today!

It is also the cause of dissatisfaction and rebellion within nations where a proper balance is lacking on the one side.

However, this is nothing but a continuation and development of those mistakes which the educators make in regard to youth!

The new kingdom, the Kingdom of God on earth, will create equilibrium and with it a new generation.

But before it can be understood force will have to be used to bring about the right conception of equilibrium.

It will bring it about forcibly by remodeling all that is distorted, a process which is already taking place, because all that is false and unhealthy must run itself to death, urged on by the invincible power and force of the Light.

Then will follow the gift of the true conception of all the Primordial Laws of Creation.

Strive to recognize them correctly already, and you will stand aright in this Creation.

This in turn will result in bringing you nothing but happiness and peace!

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