Many people believe every child emerges from this world as a perfect being. But, upon arrival “civilized society” immediately sets out to wrap a superfluous ego around that perfection. Like a transparent gauze, year-after-year the bad habits of ego are wrapped around our true mind, binding us SO TIGHT, that by the time we are adults, we rarely have any idea of who we really are.
Regardless of who we are or what tradition we follow, I believe our faith, our practice, and our seeking, are all attempts at an “unwrapping” of that ego-gauze. A hopeful attempt to find our original and perfected Self.
I believe the original perfection we seek, that light and spirit, simply got covered up and hidden under all the worldly, delusional wrapping. The “eternal you” which was never born and never dies, has been right here the whole time. It’s the only place it can be; here and now.
The Perennial Philosophy — the core and ground of all of the world’s great seeking traditions — points consistently to the concept of, “becoming once again as a little child.” The belief being that reclaiming important attributes of our childhood-state is a base prerequisite for reclaiming our true selves.
These attributes include simple wonder and curiosity. And, humor. An unadulterated recognition and expression of the great cosmic joke within all that we perceive. And, sometimes laughing just to laugh.
So, I believe laughing as a child laughs — large, open, truthful — is a critical attribute, symptom and sign of a person who is well along the path to Reality.
Kinnaird 