This Monday, Susie will facilitate. She shares:
As grown ups we believe we are all grown up. In reality we hold inside of us our inner child. We hold inside the pre-natal consciousness from when we swam around in our mother's womb. In her womb, we felt love when she felt love, and we felt fear when she felt fear, and the full range of reactions and emotions and physical manifestations within.
At birth we became aware we had to survive. We had a super-consciousness, a higher understanding, an awareness that was perfect. We were born divine.
As we grew, we had experiences, thoughts, emotions and dreams. We experienced what was soft, warm and comforting as well as pain, hunger, fear and discomfort. We learned to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Our experiences ranged from pleasurable to traumatic, and our brain recorded all of this. Thich Nhat Hahn speaks of the inner child in his books, and in a meditation that we will listen to together.
Through our sitting practice, walking practice, and breathing practice we have the opportunity to quiet the mind, listen to our inner child, and care for our inner child.
Please join us at 7pm for meditation and sharing.
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Excerpts from Thich Nhat Hahn's Book, Reconciliation: Healing the Inner Child
When we become aware that we've forgotten the wounded child in ourselves, we feel great compassion for that child and we begin to generate the energy of mindfulness. The practices of mindful walking, mindful sitting, and mindful breathing are our foundation. With our mindful breath and mindful steps, we can produce the energy of mindfulness and return to the awakened wisdom lying in each cell of our body. That energy will embrace us and heal us, and will heal the wounded child in us.
You have to talk to your child several times a day. Only then can healing take place. Embracing your child tenderly, you reassure him that you will never let him down again or leave him unattended. The little child has been left alone for so long. That is why you need to begin this practice right away. If you don't do it now, when will you do it?
With practice, we can see that our wounded child is not only us. Our wounded child may represent several generations. Our mother may have suffered throughout her life. Our father may have suffered. Perhaps our parents weren't able to look after the wounded child in themselves. So when we're embracing the wounded child in us, we're embracing all the wounded children of our past generations. This practice is not a practice for ourselves alone, but for numberless generations of ancestors and descendants.
Our ancestors may not have known how to care for their wounded child within, so they transmitted their wounded child to us. Our practice is to end this cycle. If we can heal our wounded child, we will not only liberate ourselves, but we will also help liberate whoever has hurt or abused us. The abuser may also have been the victim of abuse. There are people who have practiced with their inner child for a long time who have had a lessening of their suffering and have experienced transformation. Their relationships with their family and friends have become much easier.
The people around us, our family and friends, may also have a severely wounded child inside. If we've managed to help ourselves, we can also help them. When we've healed ourselves, our relationships with others become much easier. There's more peace and more love in us.
Walking with Our Ancestors
When we were only four years old, we probably thought: I'm only a four-year-old child, a son or daughter, a little brother or sister. But in fact, we were already a mother, already a father. All past and future generations were there in our body. When we take a step on the green grass of spring, we walk in such a way that allows all our ancestors to take a step with us. The peace, joy, and freedom in each step will penetrate each generation of our ancestors and descendants. We walk with the energy of mindfulness, and with each step we see countless generations of ancestors and descendants walking with us.
We are a continuation of the stream of life. Maybe our parents weren't able to appreciate us, but our grandparents and our ancestors wanted us to come into life. The truth is that our grandparents, our ancestors, always wanted us to be their continuation. If we can know this, we will not suffer so much because of our parents' behavior. Sometimes our parents are full of love and sometimes they are full of anger. This love and anger comes not only from them, but from all previous generations. When we can see this, we no longer blame our parents for our suffering.