Masonic, Occult and Esoteric Online Library
Our Relation to Children
By C. W. Leadbeater
Physical Training and Purity
73. Do not forget also that the physical training of the child is a matter of the greatest importance, and that a strong, pure, healthy body is necessary for the full expression of the developing soul within. Teach him from the first the exceeding importance of physical purity, so that he may regard his daily bath just as much an integral part of his life as his daily food. See to it that his body is never befouled with such filthy abominations of modern savagery as meat, alcohol or tobacco; see to it that he has always plenty of sunlight, of fresh air and of exercise. So shall he grow up pure, healthy and happy; so shall you provide for the soul entrusted to your care a casket of which it need not be ashamed, a vehicle through which it shall receive only the highest and best that the physical world can give — which it can use as a fitting instrument for the noblest and the holiest work.
74. As the parent teaches the child, he will also be obliged to set the example in this as in other things, and so the child will thus again civilize his elders as well as improve himself. Birds and butterflies, cats and dogs, all will be his friends, and he will delight in their beauty instead of longing to chase or destroy them. Children thus trained will grow up into men and women recognizing their place in evolution and their work in the world, and each will serve as a fresh centre of humanizing force, gradually changing the direction of human influence on all lower things.
75. If thus we train our children, if we are thus careful in our relations with them, we shall bear nobly our great responsibility, and in so doing we shall help on the grand work of evolution; we shall be doing our duty, not only to our children, but to the human race — not only to their egos, but to those of the many millions yet to come.
Copyright© 2016 by Anand Gholap. All rights reserved.
