Have you ever seen a small child discover a light switch? It’s an amazing event; it’s such a powerful on-off, on-off visual and such an aha experience for the child. The majority of the world’s population is comprised of what are known as adult children. They work with the life switch, on-off, on-off. They turn it on somewhere around seven, eight, nine, ten o’clock in the morning and they turn it off sometime after ten at night. Then they have to try and figure out how to fill the space between those two moments. But you are not one of those people. You are what is known as a spiritually advanced human being.
Nevertheless, most of the rules on this planet are made for the adult children, and most of the leaders on the planet are also adult children, who have a tendency to compete vigorously.
Evolved beings don’t need to compete. They know that in an infinite universe there is enough for everyone.
Children, on the other hand, are always concerned. “Is that for me?” “Is that mine?” But children can learn to share. I was introduced to this at our school in India, through what is called the community chappals, or sandals. You take off your chappals as you go into sadhana in the morning, and when you come out you merely look for a pair that fit because yours will have walked off with somebody else. It’s kind of an initiation into the notion that:
What’s yours is mine and what’s mine is yours and we’re all good with that. @gurusinghdaily
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Ownership and territory are unnatural, which is why we have to fight so hard to maintain them.
But ownership is important to an adult child, who has not escaped from his insecurity about entering into the unknown. When you know exactly what your territory is, and you can guard and maintain it absolutely, you never have to enter the unknown. But this doesn’t describe you; it pertains to those you meet.
When you meet adult children, you need to act like an adult—that is, very gracefully, so you can teach the adult child by example how to grow. As you may know, a child doesn’t actually learn from the words you speak, but from the attitude you keep.
As you develop your adult nature, your evolved spiritual nature, it’s very important that you practice how to relate to adult children, because they make up about eighty-six percent of the planet’s population. The last thing you want to do when you run into an adult child is demand that he be adult. It’s like walking up to a four-year-old and saying, “I can’t believe it, after all these years. You’ve had four years to master this.”
Guru Singh is a world-renowned yoga instructor, author, musician, and family man. Guru Singh works with the Dalai Lama, teaches with Tony Robbins, and has recorded an album with Grammy® Award-winning artist Seal. He can also be found on Facebook and Twitter.
Check out Guru Singh’s most recent book: Buried Treasures: The Journey From Where You Are to Who You Are.
Image courtesy of Ales Krivec.
