Every child is a Buddha

Every child is a Buddha

By encouraging a child to breathe deeply from their stomach, parents ensure that the child’s connection with the abundant flow of the universe  is not severed, and they stay rooted in their Buddha nature, 

says Sanjiv Ranjan 

In the times of Lord Buddha, there lived a Brahmin called Bhaggava Gagga  who held a high office in the court of King Pasenadi of Kosala. One night, his  wife gave birth to a son. On consultation with an astrologer, he was told that  his son was born under the constellation of robbers.  

This indicated that the child would have within him the nature of a thief. Bhaggava was  perturbed. He disclosed this information to the king. The king reassured him and told  him to educate the child so that he may lose his evil propensity. The child was called  Ahimsak, which means one who can do no harm. 

As the child grew up, he was extremely well-behaved and unusually strong in body. He was  studious as well as intelligent. In due course, Ahimsak was sent to Taxila and accepted as  a disciple by the foremost teacher at the exalted place of learning. Over there, Ahimsak  served his teacher dutifully and humbly, and soon become his teacher’s favourite student. 

This ignited jealousy in the heart of his fellow students and they hatched a plot to  alienate him from his teacher’s love. The first group of students went to the teacher and  told him that Ahimsak was plotting against him. They were reprimanded by the learned  man and sent away.  

But the students persisted and finally were successful in poisoning the teacher’s  

mind. He began to doubt that a man with as strong a body and mind as Ahimsak  

would not harm his interests at the university. So, when his studies came to an end,  

Ahimsak asked his beloved teacher what he could offer to him as Guru Dakshina.  

His teacher said, “You must bring me a thousand human little fingers of the right  

hand. In that way, you would pay homage to all that you have learned from me.” The  

teacher thought that in this way, Ahimsak would probably be killed or caught by the  

king’s men and suffer the penalty of execution. 

Ahimsak was shocked at his master’s outrageous demand. But when told that  

everything that he had learned would not bear any fruit, till he submitted what had  

been asked, he relented and set out to fulfil his commitment to his teacher.  

He equipped himself with weapons and went into the wild forest where he would  

attack travellers and take a finger from each one of them. He hung these fingers in a  

garland around his neck, from which he received the name Angulimala. He collected  

999 fingers this way and was waiting for his last victim so that he could fulfil his  

promise to his master.  

The Buddha knew that the king had issued an order for Angulimala to be caught and  

slain. And so, he decided to go into the forest to save him. He was warned to leave the  

forest, but the Buddha paid no heed. When Angulimala saw the approaching monk,  

he took out his sword and followed him. The time had come for his penance to end. He  

was about to get his 1000th finger. 

He began following the Buddha, but even though the Buddha was walking at a normal  pace, he could not catch up with him, for no one can do so with a person who is  flowing in the river of existence.  

He then called out to the Buddha and the latter stopped. With the deepest compassion  in his eyes, he looked at Angulimala and said, “I stopped forever when I took the vow of  non-violence to every living being. You are the one who is running away from yourself.” He was calm in the face of death. He looked at Angulimala steadily in the eye. A  great change of heart came over Angulimala. A current ran through his body, and  his suppressed purity broke through the dam of an enforced cruelty. He fell at the  Buddha’s feet who ordered him to enter the  monastic order. 

And so, Angulimala became a Bhikshu. He was  asked to centre himself on his breath. But each  time he tried to meditate, images of the people  he had slain would come surging up into his  mind. He would run away from his past and  open his eyes. The Buddha knew that this had  to be healed; otherwise, he would never know  his true self. 

So he sent Angulimala to beg for alms in a  house where a woman was going through a  very difficult childbirth. Angulimala felt deeply  moved by her suffering. For the first time since  he had been ordained, he felt compassion stir  in his heart. He went back to the Buddha and  

told him what he saw. The Buddha ordered  him to go back to the woman and heal her  misery by saying, “Sister, since I was born, I  have never purposely deprived a living being  of life. By this truth, may you and the infant be  safe.” To this, Angulimala said that he could  not speak of such a grave falsehood. He had  claimed many lives. 

The Buddha then asked him to go and say,  “Sister, since I was born again with a noble  birth [his transformation], I have never  purposely deprived a living being of life. By  this truth may you and the infant be safe.” So  Angulimala went to the woman and sat beside  her and spoke these very words. The Buddha  knew that only truth can heal powerfully.  The woman delivered her child safely. This incidence had a deep impact on Angulimala. By saving  her, he felt redeemed. He could now accept his past and  breathe deeply. Through his breath he entered Vipassana  and through Vipassana he attained to sainthood. 

All the ‘Buddhas’ of this world are centred in the river of  existence, as well as your precious child when they are  born. Every child is born with Buddhahood in their being. 

Understanding the river of existence  

The river of existence is a potent energy field which  traverses the entire universe and connects everything  which forms a part of it, living as well as non-living. Like  all the great rivers which are actually born of the sea, the  movement of this river is always towards ‘The Source.’ 

Because it is all-pervading, present everywhere,  information can be relayed across the universe instantly.  This energy field is a highly benevolent force. It loves us  with an intelligence which is intense as well as purposeful.  All life is borrowed from the river of existence, and when  we die, it is returned to its perennial flow.  

But even though it loves us, it does not interfere with our  free will. We are free to connect or disconnect with it. When  we connect to the river of existence, we move into the flow.  It begins to orchestrate our world. We begin to resonate  and respond to the supreme intelligence which created the  universe. Synchronicity and miracles flood our life, and we  can fully feel in our blood, the adventure of being alive. We  cannot be controlled or manipulated by any force which  resides outside us. 

But if we disconnect from it, we lose out  on our essence. We forget that we are  powerful beings having an occasional  human experience, and that we are here on  this planet to lend to it our fragrance. We  feel condemned and unsupported. We feel  rootless in a ruthless world.  We can now be controlled and manipulated by  forces outside us. Life becomes an uphill task. We connect through our breath .

We are connected to the river of existence by  our breath. Our breath is the essence of our  life. If you have ever seen a newborn baby  breathe, you will notice that they breathe with  their whole body. The breathing is deep, gentle,  and rhythmic abdominal breathing. 

Deep abdominal breathing keeps the child  centred in being. They are completely available  to themself. They are nurtured by the river  of existence and cannot be controlled by  anyone. We all know how babies are a law  unto themselves. They sleep when they want  to, they wake up when they want to, they  feed when they are hungry, and for that, they  have their own time schedules. A baby will  smile only when they feel like it and not in any  compliance with your mood. They will cry if  they are uncomfortable and not alter their  crying unless they want to. 

When we connect to the river of existence, we begin to resonate and respond to the supreme intelligence which created the universe. . We fully feel in our blood, the adventure of being alive. We cannot be  controlled or manipulated by any external force. 

Nothing can be more vulnerable than an infant and nothing can be as out of our control.  This is the essence of living in the flow. It endows you with a vulnerability which is powerful  and which makes you grow and evolve with every second, at an astonishing speed. But  as the infant grows into a child, they become susceptible to their environment. They are  extremely vulnerable to the energy of people around. And then, societal conditioning begins.  

The tragedy of etiquette 

The moment an infant evolves into a child, we begin subjecting them to social rules in the  garb of enforced etiquette. This is where the tragedy begins. Etiquette demands that the  child be inducted into the concept of right and wrong. They are subjected to judgement  and are taught to please elders with ‘good behaviour.’  

They are considered to be a well-mannered child if they do not ruffle any feathers, do  as they are told, and can be controlled. Any deviation from the above, results in a subtle  rejection, where the child senses through the mannerisms or words of those around  them, that they (the child) have unforgivably erred. They learn that when they do what  they feel like, they are socially unacceptable. This generates tremendous stress in their  tiny being. This shearing stress can express itself in any form, the three most common  being fear, shame, and guilt. These feelings create repression in the child’s psyche, and  they learn to hold back their feelings instead of freely giving vent to them.  

They learn to numb themself to the overflowing, overwhelming energy which threatens  their status quo with those whom they love the most. To do this effectively, the body  moves into shallow breathing. Shallow breathing does not allow feelings to be deeply  felt. It does not allow an overflow. Shallow breathing favours repression. The moment  the child moves into shallow breathing, they are pulled out of the river of existence. They  stand upon the shores of society—naked, trembling, and vulnerable. They can now be  manipulated and controlled because they have lost their connection with the flow. They  have lost the current which would have taken them to their Source. 

One of the most valuable gifts you can give your child is to not coerce them into conforming to  anything which generates stress within them. And the most powerful gift you can give your child  is to ensure that their breathing stays deep forever.  

Because if their breath is deep, they will never lose their connection with the river of existence,  whose very nature is the ability to look after all its children— effectively, efficiently, and  resourcefully. If their breath is deep, they will live authentically, by virtue of being able to honour  and express all their feelings fully, without judging them in any way. By being able to transform their  emotions through love and awareness, they will have full control over their thought processes. 

Total control over their mind would bestow upon them the ability to live from a vision which is  grand, clear, intuitive, and extremely innovative and creative—something which emanates from  within them and serves the universe in a way which they and only they can execute.    

Truth—the Hara connection 

All spiritual traditions, no matter what culture or religion they belong to, give tremendous  importance to the breath because it is only through your breath that you can know your true  nature. The Japanese tradition of being centred in the Hara is one such phenomenon. The Hara  centres the  child in the Hara. Whenever  any living  being becomes  centred in the  Hara, their  Buddhahood surfaces is an energy vortex, a few fingers below the navel. It is believed that within the Hara lies the  ‘elixir of life’ which flows into the river of existence.  

When your breathing becomes deep and when it touches the Hara, your being dips into the  elixir of life. You begin to know your true nature. When you know your true nature, you  become fearlessly centred in the truth. Truth is a function of being at ease with your ‘self’.  If you are not at ease with yourself, you will never be truthful. You will always seek to hide  under subterfuge. You will always run away from yourself. 

No matter how much you discuss the evil of telling lies, no matter how many sermons you  give notwithstanding the punishments you dole out to encourage the truth, know that your  child will never be truthful if their breathing has become shallow. If you want your child to be  truthful you will have to spend time and energy restoring the depth of their breath; something  which they were born with but was robbed from them by society and insensitive or ignorant  parenting. Deep breathing centres the child in the Hara. Whenever any living being becomes  centred in the Hara, their Buddhahood surfaces. They become aware of  the fact that they were enlightened at birth. A deep, calm fearlessness,  even in the face of death, surfaces. The very presence of such a person is life-transforming, even if the presence is that of a child. When the breath touches the Hara, the individual mind merges with the ‘whole’. It moves into a complete resonance with the universe, just like  it happens when an enlightened one stabilises in samadhi, the cosmic  union. The unified mind has no beginning and no end. Its potential is  vast, limitless, without any boundaries. It can gaze at infinity with an  effortless ease. It can travel to stars billions of light years away because  the clouds of the ego have not been allowed to restrict true vision. Every  infant is centred in samadhi. The Hara is a biological reality . The Hara is not an intellectual concept. It is a biological reality. Why else  would a foetus in a mother’s womb, first breathe through the navel?  

Our first experience of breathing is through our umbilical cord, which  is attached to our mother’s blood vessels. The foetus directly breathes through the Hara. 

This is because it needs to be connected to the river of existence to  be created perfectly. The number of chemical, physical, and biological changes taking place within the foetus in utero is mind-blowing. Cells  are rapidly integrating and differentiating through millions of chain  reactions. 

Even if a single step is missed or ill-timed, it can result in gross  deformities. Hence the river of existence, like a loving mother, ensures  that the phenomenal intelligence which gave birth to the universe is available to this newly-forming ball of life.   

Hara-kiri—the bane of a child’s life 

The Japanese term for suicide is hara-kiri. Hara-kiri was a suicide  ritual where disgraced officials were told to slash open their abdomen  with a sword. 

When you disgrace your child, no matter how  innocuous it may seem to you, you wound the  Hara. The injury could stem from something  as simple as calling the child a bad boy or a  bad girl. Remember that a child comes to us  from another world, a world where there is  no judgement. So being called a bad boy or  bad girl severely injures their relationship  with the self. They stop loving the self due to  the shock to their being. 

When you disgrace your child in any way, you  disembowel them in a metaphorical context.  You have left them on the shores of society  to die slowly each day, minute by minute— minutes which span a lifetime. Most childhood  traumas stem from three main deviations from  love: 

•Judgement 

•Repression 

•Coercion  

Judgement  

The child comes to this world from a place  where all beings are equally loved, where there  is no sin, no virtue, no concept of good or evil.  That is why when the child first experiences  judgement, it comes as a shock. One of the  worst things that you can say to your child is  that they are a bad boy or bad girl.  

When a child feels judged, it destroys their  spirit. It destroys their self-love and their  connection with their own sacredness. The  child does not need your judgement to become  discerning. Discernment stems from love for  the self. If your child loves their self, they will  never let themself be sabotaged, neither by  them nor by anybody else. But if a child feels  judged or condemned, they will feel the need to  punish themself. They will feel that they do not  deserve good things in life and by believing so,  won’t allow them into their life. 

Repression 

Repression is a by-product of the social evil  known as conformism. Right from the moment  a child is born, they are trained into societal  submission. As long as the child does what  pleases others, they receive the validating  love that they need for their survival. But the  moment the child wants to do something in  their own way, they are heavily crushed if it  does not suit the moods of adults around them.  Through punishment and reward, the child is  manipulated and trained in behaviour which  is socially acceptable. They have to wake up,  sleep, play, study, and interact in a way which  pleases everyone around them. They cannot  even express their distress or pain without  somebody trying to distract them or talk them  out of it. In the beginning, the child struggles against the injustice doled out to them in  the name of concern for their welfare, but  eventually, they relent.  

They learn to be non-available to themself  through shallow breathing. Their emotions get  trapped within their unconscious mind, from  where they rule their world and give rise to  misery later in life. Repression gives birth to  an unhealthy thought process. It fractures and  fragments the child. Repressed anger simmers  forever as rage. Repressed sadness turns into  depression.  

 It is not too difficult to prevent repression. All it  needs is a little bit of love and lots of awareness.  

Coercion  

Coercion is a slightly different variation of  repression. Every infant is highly attuned to  themself. They know what their requirements  are and when to ask for them. Children are  highly sensitive to food. There is no such  thing as a universally good food. 

If a child tends to avoid certain food articles,  then it is best to refrain from forcing them  to eat these foods, no matter how essential  you may feel it is. The child will simply listen  to their body and avoid anything which does  not work for their physiology. There are  plenty of children with milk intolerance,  cucumber intolerance, and egg intolerance  who have to resort to subterfuge in order to  escape from such foods being forced down  their unwilling gullets.  

Another form of coercion which severely  damages the psyche is being coerced to go to  school on a day they are not feeling up to it.  Many children subconsciously create illness  because they know that resisting their parents  on this account will be a futile exercise.  Therefore, it will be good if parents can allow  them, once in a while, to not go to school while  explaining to them the importance of attending  school regularly. 

Very often, children are coerced to behave in  a certain way with elders or when they are  in a social gathering. While it is okay to teach  them good manners, the parents should  never stop respecting the child’s own sense of  discrimination, which is far superior to that of  grown-ups most of the times. If you observe  them avoiding an elder, do not to persuade  them to go near him. 

Never force a child to do anything that they do  not want to do. It will only spark off rebellion.  Instead, have faith in your love for your child.  That faith, on its own, will show you the way. 

Shallow breathing—the mother of all  powerless states a dysfunctional state is recognised only when  it affects a small part of the world population.  If something is universally present, applicable  to all, then it is considered to be a part of the  human experience.  

Something akin to the above phenomenon has  already happened when it comes to breathing.  

Most of the world population has grown  accustomed to shallow breathing and it is  considered to be the normal way to breathe.  In fact, if you remember your school times,  you will remember the command: Chest out,  stomach tucked in. 

Stomach tucked in does not give you the space  required for deep abdominal breathing. In  fact, the command should be “stomach out  each time you breathe in and forget about  the chest.” It will fill up on its own.  

As you have already understood, shallow  breathing does not let you drink from the elixir  of life. It takes your attention to the mind. You  become the thinker of confusing thoughts.  Your mind now rules your life. Fear, guilt, and  shame thrive within you, turning your life into  a powerless whirlpool of misery. 

Your body cannot regenerate. You become  afraid to accept your feelings and allow them  to flow. Truth becomes a burden which you  carry in your heart because you are afraid to  own up to it. You are not at ease with yourself.  That is why ‘dis-ease’ finds its way into your  body, mind, and spirit. 

We cannot allow our children to succumb to  this deadly disease. We have to prevent it. If  

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it has already gripped our children, then we  need to find a cure for it. Even before we teach  a child history, maths, and geography we need  to correct their breathing. Teaching anything  to a child before correcting their breathing  is akin to teaching the art of lucid dreaming  to someone who has insomnia. In fact, any  education system seeking to do real good to  humanity and having a lasting impact should  aim at the resurrection and preservation of  deep breathing in all phases of childhood. 

Every child is born with the same purity  which Ahimsak had.  

Every child is centred in their breathing  and does not recognise fear unless it is  taught.  

Every child is nurtured by the river of  existence.  

Every child is completely at ease with  themself and the truth, until his love for  themself is destroyed. 

Let us preserve the powerful act which  deep breathing is, if we want the planet as  well as humanity to flourish and continue.