Death has come!

Death has come. She doesn’t ask, she comes and that’s it. And very often it’s so unexpected that you get scared, get lost and don’t find anything to say. Adults are one thing, children are another thing. How do they feel at these moments? And bad luck, no matter how much I have encountered the consequences of death, a child is greatly influenced by exactly HOW AND WHAT adults explain this to him.

And the fact that it would be possible to talk with a child about the eternal, turn his entire self-centered worldview upside down, and give an incredible impetus to self-development and self-knowledge. So adults manage to do everything to make the child remain a child, afraid to grow up, afraid of events, afraid of death as such.

There is a public opinion that a child needs to be protected from hints of death, his attention should be taken away from this integral attribute of Life, washed down and glossed over. After all, if there were no Life, there would be no death, and vice versa.

But these are all words. Remember that when Buddha (Siddhattha Gautama) was fenced off from death and the understanding of death, he lived a luxurious worldly life. One day, after 13 years of marriage, Gautama, accompanied by the charioteer Channa, traveled outside the palace. There he saw “four spectacles”: an old cripple, a sick man, a decaying corpse and a hermit. Gautama then realized the harsh truths of life - that death, illness, aging and suffering are inevitable, that the poor outnumber the rich, and that even the pleasures of the rich eventually turn to dust. This prompted Gautama, at the age of 29, to leave his home, family and property to become a monk.

We will not delve into the life of the Buddha, but let us pay attention to the fact that even an indirect meeting with death changed his entire life.

Think about the fact that when death visits your family, even of your dog or other pet, think carefully about what to say to your child! Think and understand that at this moment the child hears you, he needs it, he will hear your every word as if under a microscope! Realize that it is in this brief moment that you can switch the tracks and direct the fast train in the right direction.

Will there be a second chance like this? Can you immediately and unconditionally turn the needle in that direction? Think about it, your own development is hidden here!