Innocence and Ignorance



By Adam Dei Rocini, 7th March 2013


Innocence and ignorance must not be confused with one another, because innocence is not connected with ignorance in any form. Innocence is a quality of the Creation and is inherent in the spirit form of each individual human being for all times. The spirit form can never be perverted or corrupted by things of a material nature and therefore innocence can never be lost or destroyed. However, it is experienced in life truly and more readily during childhood, before the consciousness becomes associated with and clouded by worldly contrivances of distraction and cravings to the material, which are often wild, usually begin to take over and form in the psyche. These replace and drive it away, causing it to become experienced less and less in its pure form during growing up and throughout life as a grown-up.

The innocence that a baby has for example, if unhindered, continues to be present during childhood even through the growing and learning phases of development and in some cases lasts longer than others. Eventually it begins to fade in life as the child grows up into a woman or man, enters human society and becomes affected by all its requirements for living and surviving. In the modern world, although the human being has a free will, it is practically impossible for him/her to avoid being subject to immorality in some form. It is quite possible, from childhood, for innocence to be carried much further into the life of the human being and perhaps not be forgotten at all, however, unfortunately, it is in the carrying out of these requirements of living and surviving in the world and in the preparation for these during growing up, that the naturalness of his/her own true inner nature can be forgotten and the outer nature can be formed and established as a worldly identity. However, for the most part, this worldly identity of the outer nature is an artificiality, which is created for the purpose of coping with all the often undesirable and unavoidable external stimuli which come along with the requirements of living and surviving, interactions with other human beings and events of life. This outer nature deceptively and erroneously often becomes the human being's only identity in life. From the moment of the creation of this outer nature by the human being, it is already far away from his/her inner nature, however, over time, it becomes even farther removed from this, depending upon the human being's forms of interaction with the unnatural external environment created by human beings. It can come to the point where the human being becomes a slave to his/her own deceptively created outer nature and forgets that it is only the false cover which has been built up around his/her inner nature.

Sometimes the experience of innocence dwindles more quickly, especially in the case of offspring who have older siblings, as the older siblings usually subject the younger ones to their greater contact with the world, which then gets taken in by the younger ones, who, more often than not, are more compelled by all the opposing worldly things and thereby these rule the consciousness and therefore become bad habits. It is through natural innocence and the dreams, wishes and talents of the child that his/her life can be helped and guided in the most salutary direction. This is why the upbringing of the human being should be allowed to proceed naturally, and not be forced in one particular direction or another by the parents or siblings only according to their own, oftentimes incorrect views of the world and what they believe to be best for the child.

The fact that innocence is viewed as ignorance, is precisely due to ignorance itself, that is to say, lack of knowledge and understanding; however this can be reversed and corrected through learning and studying the spiritual teaching, putting it into practice and also through pondering and thereby coming to an understanding about it. An inner nature is inherent in each and every human being. This inner nature wants to reveal itself to the human being consciously, if only the human being does not drown it out and suppress it and makes the effort to perceive it. Through consciousness development, that is to say, developing and improving the personality and character, the human being can remove bad habits, vices, addictions, materialism and material distractions, which are accumulated over the years and can replace them with good habits such as meditation, and thereby give innocence an opportunity to unfold its joyfulness in his/her psyche again as a true expression.

As mentioned, the quality of innocence is confused with ignorance by human beings due to lack of knowledge and understanding, not following, or straying from the laws and recommendations of the Creation, and also due to having fallen away from his/her true inner nature into bad habits, vices, addictions, materialism and material distractions. All of these, which oftentimes become all that the human being knows in life, in enormous erroneous assumption, are viewed as normal and acceptable and are debauched in greedily and without control. While this happens the consciousness and psyche of the human being are overrun and corrupted by them. Thereby, the consciousness and the psyche are overrun by negative thoughts and feelings of guilt, doubt, worry, anxiety and so forth and the innocence is unable to be experienced or realised any longer. If the human being continues to debauch in all of this, these thoughts and feelings occur logically and inevitably; this occurs because the human being does not listen to the true innermost nature of the spirit beaming its energy into the human being's inner nature, which is constantly reminding him/her of its creational-natural purity and its will to realise this. The harbouring and carrying out of all these wrong thoughts, feelings, deeds and actions must be removed by the the human being, so that, in turn, guilt, doubt, worry, anxiety and so forth can be removed.  Only then, the human being can actually listen to his/her inner nature and his/her true feelings and impulses. Really, how does one expect to listen to the delicate sound of the flight of a bee, when it is drowned out by the roaring noise of a jet aircraft! The spirit form, in and of itself, knows what is right and what is in accord with the laws and recommendations of the Creation and all the high values, even if the consciousness of the human being is not completely conscious of these in all their fine details. This is very good reason for the human being to listen to and perceive his/her inner nature and his/her true feelings, in order to meet with and know these in their true form, without confusing them with the material and worldly, at which point they become lost or ruined. In this regard it is necessary to practise self-control, patience and calmness in the face of all the material distractions so that love, peace, freedom and harmony and all the high values can be realised.

As a mature woman or man, innocence is also forgotten and viewed as out of the ordinary in society, taking a backseat to the chaotic and superfluous tasks as well as the din and bustle of everyday life. These are viewed as important functions and normal activities as a grown-up in life, but are merely sophistications, which take the human being further away from what is creational-natural. Therefore the innocence, which is most certainly experienced by the human being during childhood and which his/her inner nature so deeply wishes to bring to fruition again, in quite a number of cases, becomes substituted by these wrong values. However, as mentioned, innocence is inherent in the spirit form of the human being for all times and can never be lost or destroyed, therefore it can be experienced by the human being again later in life, if he/she only makes the effort to leave behind the inhibiting worldly distractions, remove cravings to them and strives to perceive it. This does not mean that all the worldly things should be avoided or forgotten, or that the human being must become a recluse, rather that amid all of these, he/she directs his/her attention towards human beings and occurrences in life which are worthy of his/her time and attains valuable life experience from them, which results in real learning, understanding and evolution and the attaining of knowledge and wisdom. This is where the difficulty arises, because there is so much in the world, which has been created by human beings, based in the thoughts and materially, which is counter to the creational-natural. Many a human being who is aware of this must live amid all of it. Therefore, in order to fit in and not appear so strange and different to others and also to protect his/her inner nature from being trampled on inconsiderately by others, he/she simply keeps his/her mouth shut or lapses into his/her outer nature as a form of protection. Nonetheless, the human being also has the choice of finding others who can honour and respect his/her inner nature as his/her true nature and therefore it can be made known openly and comfortably and not become deliberately suppressed by himself/herself or mindlessly walked over by other thoughtless and inconsiderate human beings. Also, simply meditating for a short time daily or as often as possible can grant the human being peace and calm and a new outlook to life.

Ignorance and having little or no knowledge of the world and all the bad and negative things therein, has nothing to do with innocence. The human being may be exposed to the most evil things in the world, however he/she will never lose his/her innocence which is a part of the spirit form and connected to it eternally. It is simply that the human being in general has gotten so far away from it by being consumed in all the worldly things that a small glimpse or fleeting memory of it from childhood, which is brought to light later in life, scares him/her to the core. In direct comparison to wrong behaviour, all the worldly contrivances of distraction and cravings of the psyche he/she has undertaken, subjected himself/herself to and built up over the years, it is like entering into a strange, forgotten world. Nonetheless the human being will find this world revitalising and refreshing, if only he/she dares to explore it again. Having knowledge of and partaking in all the worldly contrivances of distraction, is no badge of honour in life because most of this is filth and corruption, noisy, useless, time-wasting beguilement, in which no true knowledge and enjoyment can be found and which thwarts innocence. The human being should always make the effort to protect innocence and experience it personally. If forces are at work to defile what is creational-natural and thereby innocence, whether through perverted, forceful and dishonest human beings, vices, addictions, materialism, lovelessness, hatred and other negative feelings and emotions, or whatever it may be, every effort should be made to avoid this or correct it if possible.

Many human beings become discouraged and depressed with the bad and the negative in the world and in society, which is to be expected. This happens because the world as they see it has come so far from the world that they wish to live in, that it is say, their own inner nature wishes to live in. The true inner nature sees a paradise and longs to make it reality, however modern civilised society has deviated a long way from this. In an effort to forget everything the human being tends to turn to distractions and material cravings. Innocence and the true joyfulness which are inherent in the spirit form and come forth from the spiritual Gemüt and find their way into the psyche of the human being are absolutely not connected with intoxication or temporary states, as these originate from drugs and alcohol and so forth which create false highs. These are used as a means to cater to the lower penchants and material cravings of the human being and although the human being may seemingly be experiencing natural feelings, they are always only false and the highs attained from them can come crashing down again. There is a deep dark chasm that separates material highs from the purity and jubilance of innocence. Also, false highs such as fervour or flightiness are caused by the irrationality and insensibility of the human being in order to cater to the abovementioned lower penchants and material cravings and must be guarded against.

During 2012 and other significant dates which come along from time to time and are proclaimed and promoted as bringing big change and upheaval in the world, two main groups of human beings and positions arise. On the one hand, there are those who are afraid of everything or do not believe it, therefore they want it to just go away or avoid listening to everything, so that they can go back to their everyday lives. On the other hand, there are those who wish that some major or catastrophic event will take place and that this will rid the world of everything evil therein or deliver retribution. However human beings in both of these groups are neglecting personal responsibility, precisely because they are not interested in improving themselves in order to bring about a real positive difference. The evil in the world is not simply going to disappear on its own, regardless of how the human being attempts to escape it. It will take effort and hard work to remove it, to stand up for what is right and to bring about everything good and positive. Consider, if some life-changing event actually does occur and a large part of the world is wiped out, what is to stop the humanity from going back to its old ways after everything and thereby nothing is changed for the better. When the entire world actually becomes the paradise that human beings wish to live in, those who did nothing will look back and wonder why they did not contribute anything to make a beneficial difference, because then it will seem so easy to have done something good and positive. If any real positive change is to occur, first and foremost, the human being must improve himself/herself. No doubt the most important task for the human being to do in the current time, and at any time, is to remove all falseness, guiltiness, blame, immorality, guile, deceptiveness, cunningness and harmfulness, and so forth, from his/her personality and realise innocence again and his/her own inner nature.

The above wrong values and the harbouring and exercising of them by the human being, is known as evil. However, the Creation is not and never evil and it is not connected to evil at all, as this is created by the human being himself/herself through his/her own wrong thoughts, deeds and actions. Consequently, the human being who creates evil in his/her life and the lives of other human beings through these wrong values, immediately excludes himself/herself from everything creational, and therefore lives a life outside of it. And truly, this life is what the human being names and knows as hell; that pit which he/she digs for himself/herself through the disregarding and disdaining of the creation-natural laws and recommendations and through the harbouring and carrying out, knowingly or unknowingly, of every wrong thought, deed and action.  

The human being who is truly innocent is protected from the committing of evil and wrongdoing towards other human beings and life. This happens while the human being who harbours and carries out any falseness, guiltiness, blame, immorality, guile, deceptiveness, cunningness and harmfulness, and so forth, must deal with all the effects and consequences of these, which inevitably and relentlessly arise in his/her life, and also everything which inevitably and relentlessly plagues his/her consciousness and psyche.

The modern world which has been created by human beings with all its worldly distractions, which many human beings have become engrossed in, is so far away from what is creational-natural, that the true life, which the inner nature of the human being really desires to be living, has become only a fleeting memory of childhood. The longer the human being chooses to ignore his/her true inner nature and relinquishes it for his/her worldly identity and all the wrong values, and so forth, the less recognisable the true life becomes to him/her.

However, if the human being strives and removes all wrong values, thoughts, feelings, deeds and actions from his/her life and makes the effort to listen to and recognise his/her inner nature again, then the innocence which was experienced during childhood can be realised and experienced again. As it has been said since ancient times, the human being cannot enter the kingdom of the spirit, unless he/she becomes like a child again. In this way, the peaceableness, harmoniousness, calmness, mildness, and the true freedom, joyfulness and happiness which was experienced during childhood in the state of innocence, before the human being is affected by all the worldly things, bad habits, cravings, and so forth, can be brought to fruition again and can have a positively life-changing effect for the him/her in maturity.