Innocence
Look into the eyes of a child, any child, what is it that you see? If you look openly, without any judgment or opinion you will see a marvelous thing. You will see that which is Pure Silence itself, that which is fresh, new, young, open, that which has not been conditioned by belief, by prejudice, by fear, by self-oppression. You will see that which you are always and have been, though perhaps you have forgotten this.
A child, who as a human being, has most recently arisen from Pure Silence. In its birth, it is completely open to life, to reality as it is, unfettered by opinion, unchained by memory and conditioning. A child does not see differences in skin color as anything more than color itself, does not compare or contrast ethnicity, gender or social status. All a child wants to do is play, laugh, look, listen and attend to the bodily needs which are simply eating, drinking and keeping warm and safe. There is great wisdom in this for us if we can see through our own years of conditioning.
It is only after a child is told who he or she is by we adults, with all our systems of belief and judgment and opinion, that the openness gradually fades into the background and the ego self with it's need to be recognized as unique, individual and special takes over and dictates a different idea of reality and that reality is the false, the covered, the grasping and controlling vision which permeates the modern world with its wars and conflicts, with its misery of painful existence. It is that existence, with all its psychological entanglements which we seek to break away from through religion, through therapy, or though addictions, selfish emersion or simply the wasteful numbness of apathy itself in the karmic wheel of life.
There is an alternative. "Be as a child." You may have heard those words before. Be open, be attentive to this moment of Pure Silence. You still are that child! Remember the silence of then, of your you-ness then as a child, of your awareness then. It is the same as now. Put aside all the ideas, all the hurts, the fears, all the shit from then until now and see what remains. What is and has always been in you that is there right now? That is Pure Silence. That is who you are. Hurry, go find a mirror and look into your own eyes. There shining brightly, you will see the same child, the same joy, the same self, alive, free and completely open to the freshness of this moment, to the newness of now. This is you!
Now take this moment and realize there is nothing more than this. Return to this through your day, no matter what happens, no matter what arises. See life through these eyes and all you will want to do is laugh and play. That is innocence!
Happiness to you this moment!