Recently they were over for a visit and I said, " Most people don't seem to realize that children are as intelligent as adults." Sadie shook her head in agreement with a big smile on her face. I went on, " Adults have more information in the heads, but no more intelligence than children."

Of the two levels of mind, I prefer that of children. They are innocent and open to life fully. When they pretend, they know it is only pretending. Where adults are pretending all the time and are rarely aware it is just pretense. Adults think they should teach children, but there is more for adults to learn from children than they have to teach them. Not that we should not do our best to prepare the little ones for the life they will have to take part in, but as adults we are trying to let go of much we have been miss-taught in order to become sane again.

Last night I was thinking about another talk I had with a little friend, age 10, about computers and what real spirituality is all about. If you see a child as being like a brand new computer with only the system software loaded in it, then you can get a clue of where our problem is as adults. Here you have a child/computer that has all the capacity it will ever have from birth. It has an empty hard drive, pure awareness, that has not been contaminated by any other software, conditioning, and is free to accept what reality has to offer. Then as we start to teach, condition, these wonderful little beings we create all sorts of nonsense and misidentification. We program them with our religions, our nationalism, our racism, our fears, insecurities, and all manor of other viruses. We contaminate the purity of these bright wonderful little beings, all in the name of love and feeling we are doing the best for them.

As adults, we come to realize that we are messed up machines. We feel one thing, do another, hide our true feelings, and lie almost constantly to ourselves and those around us. This is normal, normal for a sick society, which is just what we have. We need to erase our hard drives and start fresh again.

As we start to question our beliefs, conditioning, and concepts, we are in fact erasing a lot of nonsense from our minds/hard drives. Each time we go a little deeper we are becoming more childlike with the openness and wonder that fills their hearts. As our concepts fade away, we find ourselves in a void. That state can scare some of us who still carry the ego image of who we think we are. It makes us feel insecure to face the fact that we ourselves are only a complex concept. Once one gets past that level of fear and lets go, not as an act of ego but as openness to life in simplicity, then the door to Reality can open. You will find yourself a child again with the innocence that we all once had. You will not have to pretend you love when you do not. You cannot help but love, not as an act, but as an expression of the Life that you are.

My dear little friends Frankie and Sadie could teach us all how to be joyous again. How to find the wonder in every day things. How to be trilled by the stories of the old man next door. How to experience heart felt laughter at the antics of their wonder-dog Hardy. I am deeply grateful for my dear little teacher's visits that help keep this old man sane. May we all find that teacher within us, to guide us home, to the Heart of Laughter and Joy.

Erase your hard drive without any backups.

Melvyn Wartella