We are used to thinking in terms of what we can teach our children. Maybe we need to ask ourselves what we may learn from them.

Kindness, as we will see, has many facets. But its essence is as simple as can be. We will find that kindness is a way of making _less_ effort. It is the most economic attitude there is, because it saves us much energy that we might otherwise waste in suspicion, worry, resentment, manipulation, or unnecessary defense. It is an attitude that, by eliminating the inessential, brings us back to the simplicity of being.

Psychosynthesis brings the matter to a point of extreme simplicity, seeing the self as the most elementary and distinctive part of our beings - in other words, its core. This core is of an entirely different nature from all the elements (physical sensations, feelings, thoughts and so on) that make up our personality. As a consequence, it can act as a unifying center, directing those element and bring them into the unity of an organic wholeness.

If kindness has falseness at its base, it is no longer kindness. It is labored courtesy.

It's all really very simple. You don't have to choose between being kind to yourself and others. It's one and the same.

The transition from rebellion to acceptance has an extremely important consequence. . . in which we start seeing life as a training school, to teach us what we need to learn.

We are used to thinking in terms of what we can teach our children. Maybe we need to ask ourselves what we may learn from them.