Taoist Time Travel to Reclaim The Joy of Childhood (with Lao Tzu & Andrei Tarkovsky)

DAILY ENLIGHTENMENT

My son with Pirate, our Jack Russell terrier.

Here is my son and his dog running on the pebble beach at Bordighera. 

This photograph reminds me that a child's pure pleasure in life is the exhilaration of being in the moment in nature.

How can such a simple thing bring such happiness? No fancy house or expensive cars needed, no six-figure salary. Why doesn't he need status symbols to bolster his self-esteem or signal to others that he is important?

In Taoism the emphasis is always on moving backwards. The more you are able to move backwards towards the mind and heart of a child, the longer you will live, the longer you can enjoy health and happiness, the less likely you will become captured by thoughts of fear (what terrors do the future hold?) and desire (what can I possess to fill the emptiness inside of me?)

Be the stream of the universe!
Being the stream of the universe,
ever true and unswerving,
become as a little child once more.

-Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 28

The child's mind is naturally in the moment, it hasn't been misdirected by a modern human culture that is disconnected from the present.

The sage has no mind of his own.
He is aware of the needs of others…
The sage is shy and humble - to the world he seems confusing.
Others look to him and listen.
He behaves like a little child.

-Lao Tzu, Tao Teh Ching, Chapter 49

Lao Tzu, Taoist master and author of the Tao Teh Ching shown riding his ox, facing backwards as the ox moves forwards. This has important symbolic meaning.

Andrei Tarkovsky & Ivan's Childhood

The terribly moving scene at the end of Tarkovsky's movie Ivan's Childhood (Tarkovsky is possibly the greatest film director of all time), perfectly captures childhood's joy.

Why "terribly moving?” because it is the final moment between the body's death in tragic circumstances and his passing into the unknown valley of death.

His last moment is a reliving of what childhood should be: freedom and connection with nature and other beings.

This is the only scene of any movie that I've ever watched that makes me cry every time I see it. They say art should move you, bring out an emotional response, I never understood that, never experienced that deeply until I watched Tarkovsky's cinema.

So how can we begin our backwards journey to longevity and happiness?