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(March 1891)
Publications:
- The Path, vol. V, no. 12, March 1891, pp. 368-371
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DATA
Title for references: Walsh MA - What Can Theosophy do for the Children
Short description: Argues that Theosophy, as simple Truth rather than Sanskrit terminology, is well suited to children ...
368 "Can Theosophy be taught to children" is the question to-day among those F. T. S. who feel the necessity of giving bread, not stones, to those little ones upon whom depends the future.
It cannot be done, reply some. Can children understand Sanscrit terms and the subtleties of Oriental metaphysics? But Sanskrit terms and Oriental metaphysics are not Theosophy. Theosophy is a term signifying Truth, and Truth expresses itself in simple words and in any language. As for the subtle problems, they are not Truth, only the efforts of our darkened minds to build special systems to take the place of Truth.
Again, others say, "Do not teach the young anything of religion; let them grow up free and choose for themselves." If Theosophy were a creed, a set form of opinions, no advanced thinker would favor imposing its forms upon the young.
It is not a change of fetters, but liberation that they need. Now Theosophy is liberation, for it inducts us into the knowledge of Universal Law; it369presents to us the working of this Universal Law on every plane of human expression of cosmic manifestation. It is right thinking. At every step towards this true knowledge our progress has been impeded by wrong thinking, false ideas of Nature, and the bad habits consequent upon this wrong thinking. Shall the children be left to the same fate, or shall they benefit by our experience? Were it a question of method in writing or arithmetic, there would not be a moment's hesitation; common sense would decide.
Children naturally accept Truth, for their thoughts are not yet crystallized in error. Truth alone satisfies them. When we give them our false notions, do not their questions often startle us into a realization of our false position? Children are nearer Truth than their parents, imprisoned as these are in prejudice. But the tendency of the young mind is soon warped by the process of education. In the family, in the school, in the world, one stupendous error distorts all ideas of life. It is the error of Separateness. Religion is divorced from science; God from practical life; time from eternity; each life is a fresh issue without a past, even if it be allowed a future; knowledge is separated into isolated divisions, and, in spite of suggested improvements in this direction, few teachers ever find the thread which unites all knowledge into one great harmony. Thus the child's world is marked off into distinctly separate spheres totally unrelated to each other, external to and essentially different from himself. Is it any wonder that injustice, selfishness, and gross materialism grow out of such a condition of thought?
Into this chaos Theosophic teaching introduces Unity. The picture persistently kept before the young mind is the Oneness of all things. One Being manifesting in myriad beings; one life-fire sending forth countless flames of finite lives; one eternity manifesting in time; one white light of universal consciousness breaking into prismatic rays of earth intelligence; one soul-self radiating into numberless souls and selves.
Ah! but this is too difficult to explain to children. Too difficult in appearance only! The teacher of the infant class in our Sunday School is astonished at the readiness with which the little ones grasp this idea of Oneness. They have no wrong thinking to correct. Truth is written on every page of Nature's book of life; therefore the earnest teacher who realizes this truth will find illustrations without number. For example; the seed evolving into stem, branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit; the essential identity of ice, water, vapor, steam; fire, every spark of which is a potential fire; the human body with all its complex and varied organs; the story of the formation of the earth (that time when all was water); the correlation and interchangeability of heat, sound, light, electricity;—these and numberless other facts may be made into pictures of Unity.
Children are delighted to find correspondences. Show the girls strug370gling with a problem that arithmetic, music, and song are one; a beautiful story in which the sparkling stars, the many tinted flower petals, the sea, the wind, and the beating of one's own heart sing "We are one"; and forthwith mental interest is awakened, a glimpse is caught of that world of Unity wherein the "dewdrop and the star shine sisterly".
The Oneness of thought found in the many Scriptures of the world is also an excellent lesson, teaching religious tolerance founded on mutual respect.
A plan that works well with us is as follows: Write on a black-board some Bible text—say "The Golden Rule"; then on slips of paper inscribe texts of like meaning from the Hindu, Chinese, Buddhist, Persian, etc. Distribute the slips and have each child the text on his slip giving the book it is taken from, and comparing it with text on black-board. The following Sunday the texts may be memorized and recited at roll call.
The idea of Unity should be the basis of all instruction, for without it Universal Brotherhood is a myth and the co-operation incident to a high true civilization is impossible. A knowledge of Unity will lead our youth to a real understanding of Universal Law; it will bring harmony into the school and banish thence that mass of technicalities forgotten as soon as learned, and that leave the mind undeveloped and weakened.
On a higher plane this sublime idea of Oneness teaches the gospel of Strength, for it shows the God within, the Higher Self; thus our children will look within self for the light which guides, the way which leads to the real Soul. If Theosophy presented this one truth and no more, it would be well worth the sacrifice of an hour or so a week to put before the eyes of the child-mind this beautiful picture, to give them this clue that will lead them through the maze of their daily lessons in separateness. But Theosophy has still other wisdom of a most practical kind.
The law of cause and effect, the inexorable Karmic law "As ye sow so shall ye reap"; action and re-action, Karma rules the Theosophic school. All its methods and processes should be in harmony with the Karmic law; in this way personality, reward and punishment born of caprice and always personal, will disappear. An enlightened mind of the consequence of action, of the power and function of true will, of the purpose of life, of the destiny of the ego, will be the result.
Another thought to impress upon the plastic mind of youth is the supremacy of the world of ideas over the world of matter. If the children are directed how to work out the history of the objects around them, of the furniture, of their clothes, of the buildings, of all the material of a great371city, they will see that it is the idea which is the real and the enduring. When this fact has been grasped, let them go a step beyond, where they will find than the flower-gemmed field, the mountains, the streams, the ocean, the limitless star-studded space are the expression of divine ideas.
Let them note the difference in energy between ice and steam, let them reflect upon the life-force of the silent sunbeam, and they will soon learn that inherent energy increases as solidity decreases. It will be a life lesson.
And now upon the broad base of Unity we have builded of Karmic action and Thought Force a fitting school temple wherein humanity may find Truth and study her secrets; but we need a dome to crown the whole. Let that dome be Universal Rhythm, that Kosmic harmony directing every movement of atom and orb; the great Breath symbolized in life and death, sleeping and waking, the rise and decay of nations and races, the pulse of our life. As like begets like, so the contemplation of that all-governing harmony will produce harmony in the limited; harmony of faculties and forces, the thought expressing itself spontaneously in act; harmony of aspiration and condition, when will is to be.
The Theosophical Society has before it the great work of changing public opinion in regard to education. We must preach by example as well as by precept. An hour or so a week is very little to give to the children, but it is a beginning. May it be the seed of a mighty tree! Work and trust; the sunrise comes.
Marie A. Walsh, F. T. S.
Footnotes