26. The Rights of a Child to the Parent
Many children live in an unfortunate delusion towards their parents, which is to their greatest detriment. They believe they can blame their parents with the reason for their own existence on earth. Often one hears the remark: “Of course my parents have to take care of me, for they brought me into the world. It is not my fault that I am here”.
Nothing more foolish can be said. Every human being is on this earth at his own request, or at his own fault! Parents merely provide the possibility of incarnation, nothing more. And every incarnated soul must be grateful that it has been given the opportunity to do so!
The soul of a child is nothing more than a guest in the home of its parents. This fact alone is enough to explain why a child has no rights whatsoever over its parents! It has no spiritual rights to its parents! Earthly rights, however, have only arisen from the purely earthly social order that the state provides so that it does not have to assume any obligations itself.
The child is an independent person in its own right, spiritually speaking! Except for the earthly body, which is necessary as a tool for activity on this earth of Gross Matter, it has received nothing from its parents. Just a dwelling, therefore, which the soul, already independent, can use.
However, by procreation, parents assume the obligation to care for and maintain the dwelling thereby provided for the soul, which has taken possession of it, until is capable of taking over the maintenance itself. The time for this is shown by the natural development of the body itself. What happens beyond that is a gift from the parents.
The children should therefore finally stop relying on their parents and instead think about getting on their own two feet as soon as possible. It is of course irrelevant whether they are active in the parental home itself or outside it. But there must be activity, which must not consist in amusements and the fulfilment of so-called social duties, but in a definite, real and useful fulfilment of duty, in such a way that the activity in question would have to be carried out by another person specially employed for the purpose, if the child no longer does this work. Only in this way can one speak of a useful existence on earth that brings maturity of the spirit! If a child performs such a task in the parental home, regardless of whether it is of male or female sex, it should also receive from the parents the reward that would have been due to a person employed for this purpose. In other words, the child must then be regarded and treated as a truly independent person in the fulfilment of its duties. If parents and children form special bonds of love, trust and friendship, then it is all the more beautiful for both parts; for then this is a voluntary bond, out of inner conviction, and therefore all the more valuable! Then it is genuine, and holds together even for the afterlife, for mutual advancement and joy. Family pressure and family customs, however, are unhealthy and reprehensible as soon as a certain age limit of the children is exceeded.
There are, of course, no so-called rights of relationship, on which aunts, uncles, cousins, and all the other things that try to be peeled out in terms of relatives, so often rely. It is precisely these rights of relationship that are a reprehensible abuse, which must always disgust an independent person.
Unfortunately, this has become a habit out of tradition, to such an extent that usually a person does not even try to think otherwise and quietly submits to it, even if with reluctance. But for those who dare to take a small step and think freely about it, from the depths of their soul it all seems so ridiculous, so repugnant, that they indignantly turns away from the presumptions provided for by it.
Such unnatural things must be cleared up! As soon as a fresh and healthy human race awakens within itself, such abuses will no longer be tolerated anyway, because they are contrary to every sound sense. Nothing really great could ever arise from such artificial distortions of natural life, because people remain far too unfree in the process. In these seeming trivialities lies a tremendous bondage. This is where freedom must begin, when the individual breaks free from unworthy custom! True freedom lies only in the right recognition of duty, which remains connected with voluntary fulfilment of duty! Fulfilment of duty alone gives rights! This also applies to children, who can also only acquire rights through the most faithful fulfilment of duty. –
However, there is now a whole range of strictest duties of all parents that are not related to children’s rights.
Every adult must be aware of what is actually involved in procreation. The previous carelessness in this, the thoughtlessness, and also the wrong views have taken their revenge in such a disastrous way.
Just realize that in the very near world of the beyond, a great number of souls are already waiting in expectation for the possibility of reincarnation on earth. These are mostly human souls who, held by threads of karma, are seeking some kind of redemption in a new life on earth.
As soon the opportunity arises for this to happen, they attach themselves to places where an act of procreation has taken place, in order to wait and watch the maturing of the new human body as a dwelling place. In this waiting, ethereal threads are spun from the young body to the soul, which stubbornly stays close to the expectant mother, and vice versa, and at a certain maturity the threads then serve as a bridge which lets the foreign soul from the beyond into the young body, which it then immediately claims for itself. A foreign guest moves in, who, through its karma, can cause the parents much grief! A stranger! What an uncomfortable thought! A person should always bear this in mind, and should never forget that one can have a say in choosing from among the waiting souls, provided one does not carelessly miss the time to do so. Incarnation is, admittedly, subject to a Law of Attraction of the Homogeneous Species. But for this to happen, it is not necessarily the case that one of the parents has to be of the same nature as the soul, but sometimes it is enough that one of the persons who is in close proximity to the expectant mother. is of the same nature. How much harm can now be averted as soon as the human being knows the whole process correctly and deals with it consciously. But as it is, they only dally frivolously, attend games and dances, give parties, and do not care much about the important things that are being prepared during this time, which later intervene powerfully in their whole life.
They should consciously direct many things in prayer, which, based always on fervent wishing, weaken the evil and strengthen the good. The foreign guest who then moves in with them as a child would be such that he would remain welcome in every way! There is much talk of prenatal education, in the usual half-understanding or misunderstanding of some of the effects that make themselves felt outwardly.
As is often the case, however, the human conclusion drawn from observations is wrong. There is no possibility of prenatal education, but there is an unconditional possibility of influencing attraction, if it happens at the right time and with the right seriousness! This is a difference that has more far-reaching consequences than prenatal education could ever achieve.
Whoever has now come to realize this, and yet still associates thoughtlessly, deserves no other than that a human spirit should force its way into one’s circle, which can only bring him unrest and perhaps even evil.
For a spiritually free human being, procreation must be nothing else than the proof of one’s willingness to accept a foreign human spirit into the family as a permanent guest, to give it the opportunity to redeem itself and mature on earth. Only where there is a heartfelt desire on both sides for this purpose should the opportunity for procreation take place. If we now consider parents and children from these facts alone, many things will change of their own accord. Mutual treatment, education, everything will receive a different, more serious basis than has been customary in many families so far. There will be more consideration and more mutual respect. A sense of independence and a striving for responsibility will become noticeable, and as a consequence this will bring about the natural social advancement of the people. The children, however, will soon learn not to arrogate to themselves rights that never existed.–
