One of my mentors who teaches mindfulness in elementary schools talks about the sadness he feels when he sees children change from having an open, joyful curiosity about everything to becoming obsessed with appearances and acquiring whatever is popular. This is essentially the process that Jiddu Krishnamurti spoke of when he said, “You think you are thinking your thoughts, you are not; you are thinking the culture's thoughts.” Mindfulness and spirituality is largely about undoing that conditioning, which is a different process that Pablo Picasso captured nicely in this poignant quote: “It takes one a long time to become young.”
Photo by Lewis Roberts on Unsplash
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