The Innocence of Christmas.

And he( Jesus) said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." This is from Matthew, chapter 18, verse 3, from the Christian bible. What did Jesus mean here by us needing to become as little children? How does innocence relate to purity? Love,(spiritual unconditional love, that is) is pure when it is full of truth, wisdom and knowledge, and this state is an innocent state in that non-innocent states have been stained or are non pure states, so yes innocence here means purity. Helplessness is a state of humbleness in some thinking, in that we want to connect ourselves to the greater oneness, and to do this we need to admit that if we do not do this, we are helpless. Most people think though that they only have power when they are wielding it themselves, whereas, to me, real power can only come when we drop our own self of helplessness into the power of oneness. Doing this is a paradox though, because it shows us that we were never so helpless after all. There is always a mix of give and take in this world then. Power comes from both within and without.

@josie_ Innocence is a state of grace and love living in truth. Consciousness comes along to probe into innocence and give it a sort of knowledge of itself, and so it sees itself in a mirror then, but depending on its reaction to this, it might remain humble about itself, or it might be like Narcissus, and like the image in the mirror more, thinking that this is its real self, and that this mirror image is actually greater than itself. Real innocence shatters this mirror for you once again as there is no room for mirrors and impressions of less than truth in real truth, and in true purity, of itself. "Innocence can be more powerful than experience." Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, the Mexican Film producer, screenwriter, and director, said this. MERRY CHRISTMAS TOO, BY THE WAY.

@innertalks _I wonder if it is ever possible to return to Eden, that paradise of innocence. Having eaten from the tree of knowledge, even the attainment of "sainthood" will still be a poor substitute. To achieve the state of absolute grace, one would first have to become "infinity" itself. The Ouroboros, symbolize by the snake eating it's tail. Was it just a coincident that we find a snake in the story of Adam and Eve? The Christian church demonize it. The concept of "innocence" as the church would have it's followers believe in is a morality play. I have to disagree with that quote regarding "innocence". Experience on the other hand may be a bumpy road but eventually we gain awareness and hopefully a higher consciousness( just another form of intelligence)

Thank you. This happened to me last night, when I attended a late evening mass church service, with my wife, in our local Catholic church here. Yes, Merry Christmas too. We certainly all need God's blessings more and more these days, I think.

Yes, harder said than done though, unless we have help from God on our side.

Thanks siva. You have put that very beautifully. It seems like I hit a part of your heart there which really opened up to me then. Thank you too for sharing your own experiences with innocence. It confirms my experience too. I have been called naive too at times, and too trusting too, but these are, and I want them to remain a part of my own innocence too, which I never want to lose either. Merry Christmas to you and to your family too, siva.

@innertalks Thanks Steve, Merry Christmas to you and family too. I never doubt my path of straightforwardness as that is how I am. I cannot be a pretender and then live with guilt. Let us press on, shine our light, and be the change that we want to see in the world. Others too will soon veer around to the fact that love, truth and innocence are the way forward - siva

@Shiva49 Yes, someone who pretends to be something that they are not, lose themselves in their pretence. It's better to play a straight bat as you do.

Thanks Kavita, God bless you too. Yes, it was a wonderful experience for me too.