The Light in Our Sky Series #3
A quote from Kitaro Nishida
The Light in Our Sky
Volume #3
January 17th, 2025
“If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I think there can probably be no greater happiness than this.” Kitaro Nishida. (Japanese philosopher, 1870-1945.)
PA: The idea of simplicity is a common one in spiritual writings, and the advice to be childlike is also often found—in the Christian Bible among other places (“Unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”). I think the idea is open to misinterpretation, as in equating this spiritual ‘simple’ with being a simpleton. Naive. Childish. I’m not enlightened, so I can’t claim a full understanding of what Nishida and Christ and others were getting at with their idea of simplicity, but to me it means something like not overlaying everything with our judgments and comparisons. Just feeling, being, seeing, at least part of the time, the way a child does. I’ve read Zen sayings like, “When you are eating, just eat.” “When you are tired, sleep.” In order to function in the modern world, adults have to analyze, judge, and compare, of course. But maybe we overdo those things and don’t spend enough time fully experiencing joy and pain, breath and being.
ZAN: One of the things I’ve enjoyed most about volunteering with children over the years is their enthusiasm—I’ve seen kids cheer when there’s a special treat at snack time and jump up and down with excitement when introduced to a new game or toy. Maybe part of that pure joy comes from not holding the reins of life. For the most part, children aren’t trying to control the way life happens to them because the adults in their lives are responsible for meeting their basic needs. So every special experience that comes their way is a delight. It’s only when they become adults themselves that they start believing they act upon the universe rather than the other way around. Maybe the lesson here is to give up a little bit of control. That doesn’t mean failing to pay the bills or not keeping up with household chores, but letting go of the part of ourselves that wants to bend and shape life to fit our narrow expectations for it.
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Yes, I love the previous comment about wonder. Seeing the world around us with a sense of wonder. Also, I notice how children observe without judgment. We start out in life just observing. Children don’t make judgements, especially about themselves or about others, until we are taught. A wonderful goal as adults- to once again just notice- about ourselves and about others, without judgement.
Thank you, Pa and Zan.
Zanny and Roland,
It's curious how the conversation over Kitaro Nishida's observation about the essentiality of attaining the purity and simplicity of a child's heart--"If my heart can become pure and simple like that of a child, I think there can probably be no greater happiness than this."--so swiftly and marvelously turned to the essentiality of attaining a child's wonder. To me, the wonder of a child differs from the purity and simplicity of a child, where purity and simplicity seem more like states of being, while wonder seems more like an expression of those states of being, a way of living in the world that's enabled by purity and simplicity. I suppose purity, simplicity, and wonder are all essential. But it was heartening to see the conversation naturally gravitate to wonder, to acting on purity and simplicity to understand and better the world, rather than dwelling in purity and simplicity to live contentedly in the world, so the happiness Nishida aspires to serves others.
Thanks, Bob