The Three Forms of Intimacy in Childhood

1. Bodily Intimacy with Human Relations

Expressed via service: The giving of energy and attention in all relationships.

2. Bodily Intimacy with the World of Nature

Expressed via freedom of movement and association with the elemental world.

3. Bodily intimacy with God (The Mystery, or Divine Reality)

Expressed via meditation and the reception-release cycle of the feeling breath.

These three forms of intimacy are not hierarchical. In other words, a child should not first relate only to the matrix of human relations (particularly the mother), then begin to associate with the matrix of the world of Nature, and then finally, on that basis, begin to associate with the Divine Reality or Mystery of existence. From infancy a child should be brought into forms of bodily intimacy with all three aspects of existence. The third aspect—the Divine Reality or Mystery—is the senior principle, and pervades and influences the domains of human and natural relations. The Divine Reality or Mystery is the primary matrix of association in which every child should learn the art of bodily intimacy.

Thus, the key to raising a child according to the highest wisdom is to establish the process of bodily Happiness in the child's life. Teach the child how to keep energy and attention in Happiness, or the "feeling of the Mystery," at all times.

(see What to Remember to Be Happy)

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