Innocence is the way to approach life! The moment you realize that you need to regain your innocence, you are ready for the transformation. The scale of measure of regaining innocence is to watch your reaction to the little things in life. Innocence sees all little things with awe and wonder. That is why children are so wonder filled all the time. You can see it in their wide eyes. If you are able to see things in wonder, then innocence has started happening in you. It is possible that with all the knowledge of the world you can still have clear and innocent eyes. Those are the eyes of the sage.

Childlike innocence is beautiful but not enough. It has to be lost to life and regained with complete awareness and maturity

Childlike innocence discovers many things but cannot understand most of it. It enjoys it at the level of its innocence, that’s all. Whereas innocence regained not only discovers these new things, but also understands all of them. That is the difference. Childlike innocence is beautiful but not enough. It has to be lost to life and regained with complete awareness and maturity. It is said that a mad man and a mystic look alike. Both of them will be eccentric in their ways, laughing abruptly and doing things incomprehensible. But they are actually at the extreme two ends of the same spectrum!

Extremes always look alike. Outwardly they appear to be the same, that’s all. Similarly, a child and a saint may look alike in their innocence, but they are actually at the two extreme ends of the same spectrum. The child has not even started its achievement of regained innocence, while the saint has finished it. The innocence of the child is still the god given innocence he came with, not the innocence that he regained through life. The innocence of a child can be easily disturbed, whereas the innocence of a sage can never be disturbed. Getting the innocence disturbed and working to regain it permanently is the process of maturity. That is the travel through to the other end of the spectrum in becoming a saint.

If a child is brought up in love, the innocence of the child is preserved. Then he moves around with his heart, not with his head. He may use his head as a utility but functions from his heart. It does not mean that the child will become useless. No. His innocence will not be corrupted by knowledge, that’s all. He will be centered on love instead of on knowledge, that’s all. Knowledge itself is not the problem. Only the attitude with which it is carried is the problem.

Innocence has a totality about it. This totality is called grace.

With innocence regained, you will once again be able to look into the eyes of the other. Your innocence not only makes you vulnerable, it also makes you integrated. With knowledge, you are fragmented within you. With regained innocence, you are integrated and honest to yourself and to others. That honesty will radiate from your eyes and touch the other. That honesty is maturity. Just the longing to become innocent again is enough. It will start destroying all that is not you inside you. After all, it is just layers of conditioning. But it is important to hold your will strong until the process is complete. The will is a constant reminder to be sincere and honest without cunningness. Decide not to rest until the de-conditioning is total.

The beauty of maturity is that it allows you to function as a mature person when required and as a child at all other times. It easily allows you to flow from one to the other so that you are in perfect harmony with the Whole. When you regain your innocence, you are called dwija, reborn, mature. The key is not to give up in your effort in regaining your innocence. The journey may be frustrating at times, because it is taking time and not happening. It is so because society has conditioned you with many layers. The onion has to be peeled layer after layer to reach the center. 

Frustration is a precondition to burst open with transformation. So don’t relax, that is enough. It will happen. Remember, innocence is already in you. It is not about any end objective outside. Just this remembrance will give you the relaxation after every frustration.

• Everyday just sit for a few moments, sit by yourself and calmly go into your innocence.
• Feel the innocence in you.
• Feel the purity in you.
• Feel the overflowing from within you.
• Let it spread through your body, mind and being.
• Feel how beautiful you are in your innocence.
• Do this everyday. Soon you will see that you will awaken to it as your very nature.
• All that is not you will be burnt and the real you will emerge. Innocence has a totality about it. This totality is called grace.

That is why enlightened masters appear to be so graceful and beautiful all the time. Innocence manifests itself as wondrous beauty to the eyes of the beholder. It is so total that even the most cunning mind cannot deny it. It simply defies all logic and touches you.

Being innocent is like functioning from your very consciousness. It is thoughtless awareness. Until then you function from your mind. If you just sit and watch the source of every thought that rises in you, you will soon drop all thoughts and go back to the thoughtless awareness that you had as a child. Thoughtless awareness is innocence. But this time it will be the innocence of maturity because you have gone through the process. Thoughtless awareness doesn’t add to your knowledge. It simply deepens your innocence and makes you see the universe with more awe and wonder. Innocence sees no opposites, it just sees, that’s all. Its beauty is in its nonjudgmental seeing.

source: Living Enlightenment