The two figures walked on the dirt trail surrounded by wildflowers that looked like jewels in a green sea of grass. Bunnies nibbled on the edge of the thick brush as young snakes sunned themselves on the path.
Disciple: Yama, spring has come and with it rebirth as both flowers and beasts create anew. Tell me of humans and why it is that raising children, which seems so natural for the beasts of the field, seems a sorry lesson of trials and errors for us.
Yama: Every creature knows how to raise its young as itself. A cat raises a kitten to be a cat; a bear raises a cub to be a bear. They require no learning; it is their nature. They have no choice. Most creatures are not even raised but simply hatch out of their own special nature, such as that snake over there that just slithered out of Snake-ness, knowing exactly how to be a snake. Humans, on the other hand, are not animals: but a mixture of both Animal and Angel, and who must stand between both. Animals are found within each person. One may be gentle as a mouse one moment and bold as a badger the next, and as dense as a sloth another. Yet all the while one has freedom to change. Animals are quick to grow up. Human children, on the other hand, take the longest to mature because humans are multi-faceted and not specialized. You all have so much to learn, and since you have no predators besides yourselves, you have plenty of time.
Disciple: But we act like we do not have time. We seem to be pushing the children to grow up, as if childhood was simply a means to being an adult.
Yama: A seed leads to a shoot, a shoot to a sapling, a sapling to a flower, a flower to a fruit, and a fruit to a seed. Which phase is most important?
Disciple: None. They are all equal. None can exist without the other.
Yama: And so it is with the phases of a human life. However, since adults rule your society, the adult perspective is king, while a baby’s perspective or a child’s or one ready to be led away by me is devalued, ignored or even shunned. And more and more children are treated as little adults, all in the name of equality. The adult perspective, however, is usually filled with fear, as each adult holds on so desperately to who they think they are. They fear change and the unknown. Most are unhappy with their lot because of this fear. And all this fear they pass onto their children.
Disciple: How so?
Yama: They believe they are bodies. And bodies die. And their educational systems generally revolve around that premise, whether it is being born due to original sin or by some biological event. The children are shoved facts to be remembered for tests—facts about things and events outside of their puny biological selves; instead of being nourished by the wonder and mystery of life that flows around and within them.
There are three pillars that hold up the Temple of Life: Truth, Beauty and Goodness. In your society’s education perhaps they teach a little towards truth, but no more than whether something is true or false. It is not guiding children in developing faculties to discriminate between the True, or Permanent, and the false, or transitory. Of course, if they did that how many consumers would you have who would rush out and buy the latest car that they tell you will make your life complete or would charge the hill in a rain of bullets because some leader says this will eventually lead to peace on earth?
Disciple: Yama, I see what you mean. Yet with my first child, although I was actively spiritual, I thought nothing of having my son going to public school like I did.
Yama: The reason you thought nothing of schooling is that you didn’t exist in school.
Disciple: What do you mean that I didn’t exist in school? I still remember my school days.
Yama: Do you? How much do you really remember?
Disciple: Well…not much at all. Only fragments.
Yama: You slept through most of the lessons; otherwise you would remember. I remember everything: I remember everyone I take away with my noose or walk alongside guiding, and everything that I have ever done--because every moment is precious to me. That is my teachings to all humans as both Death and Dharma. Be alive. Be awake. Take each moment as your last so it will be experienced as your first.
If you were taught as though everything that a teacher gave you was precious, was wrapped with Beauty and given because of its Goodness you would remember your education. Most adults think nothing of education because they were not truly educated and they think suffering in the classroom is normal. After all it prepares one for the suffering of meaningless jobs.
Disciple: It wasn’t until I walked into the beauty of a Waldorf kindergarten room for the first time and cried. It was then that I knew what I missed as a child.
Yama: Just as when one receives a massage for the first time one realizes what a relaxed body feels like, so until one experiences more well-rounded education one will not think any new education is needed.
Animals have it so much easier than human parents. Human parents have to learn as they grow, which is called creativity. Of course, creativity is rarely seen anymore in your schools, so how does one grow up to be a creative parent? A vicious cycle indeed.
Disciple: Is there any hope for us as parents then?
Yama: Of course. All this that you call life is but a classroom anyway and it is all a learning experience. What you adults need to do is lighten up and be present. In other words, have some fun. And I do not mean going out and buying more things to try to bring meaning to your life. Hang out around children and watch how they squeal with pleasure at the darnedest of things. In that way I do not have to do the dirty work and bring some catastrophe that for those who survive may come to the place of a child and finally value the essential in their lives.
I so much enjoy guiding as Dharma than leading away as Death.
Yama is the name of the Hindu god of Death as well as a name for Dharma, which is best translated as doing what one is allotted to do. It can also mean following the Still Small Voice instead of the loud urgings of the ego. Yama has said in my book (unpublished) that he comes as Death when we do not listen to him as Dharma. When we are following him as Dharma there exists no Death for we are in the Eternal Flow of Creation. Yama came to me after a dream a few years ago which inspired the fore mentioned book, The Teachings of Yama: A Conversation with Death.
If you, dear reader, have a question posed to Yama please submit it to me and we’ll see if it is answered in the next issue. Yama is not a channeled entity. Yama is only a point of focus in the ocean of inspiration. I am fully conscious and there exists no separation between Yama and me.
janaka stagnaro 2005
www.janakastagnaro.com