Play is the Expression of Genius
Child related insights from Gene Key 3: Chaos to Innocence, by way of Innovation
In this post, I share my contemplations on sections of this particular Gene Key, because it contains insights for consciously raising children and promoting their natural learning & development. I share quotes from the Gene Keys book by Richard Rudd (in Italics) along with my own reflections (in Bold).
“If you truly want to see the genius of innovation, you only have to watch a young child at play.”
We must trust in play and allow infinite time and space for the child to engage in it, for it is creativity in action.
“When seen through the eyes of the 3rd Shadow, children appear to create nothing but chaos, but to the higher eyes of the 3rd Gift, a child is a living expression of genius. If we can recall the image of the cellular membrane allowing in certain frequencies from the environment which then impact on our DNA, this is exactly what a young child mirrors back at us. The child both mutates its environment (as any parent knows!) but is also mutated by its environment.”
Play is real, dynamic learning through active experimentation with the environment in the present moment.
“The Gift of Innovation requires then that adults also allow themselves to be shaped by their environment. This means that you must be as open-hearted and open-minded as a child.”
We do not have all the answers and can learn from the child. Our conditioning has usually stamped out our creativity (aka play), closed our hearts, and has us living from our minds, but we were not born this way. So, how can we keep our children’s hearts and minds open as we raise them?
“What would happen if the world had no governments? What might happen if we had no religion, education, police, army or money? Because we do not trust life, the only answer we can give to this question is chaos. The truth is that we do not know what would happen, but the child inside us longs to find out. That is what this 3rd Siddhi is all about - it is about no barriers, no laws and no work - just play!”
What might an entire generation of children allowed to develop naturally and allowed to continue to play without limitation throughout childhood and into their adult years look like? It’s an exciting thought, although slightly scary to our conditioning perhaps! But innovation is the word which naturally springs to mind. They surely would innovate completely new and different ways to do everything.
“… to a child, play is absolutely serious. The toy in the child’s hands does become the centre of their universe, just as our individual lives become the centre of our universe. We are innocently unaware of the magnitude of our great good fortune to be alive and playing out the epic exploration of consciousness with all of its toys in the world of form.”
Again, we should trust in play and its all-encompassing nature. The playing child is embodying the higher levels of consciousness many of us seek. To observe, enter into and learn from children’s play can be a spiritual practice for the transformation of consciousness.
“…consciousness will never grow up. It will keep on exploring, playing and experimenting forever, all because its nature is innocence. Life is innocent, we are life, and therefore we are innocent. That is the equation for the next millennium. As the 3rd Siddhi comes into the world, which it will do very shortly, a great remembering of our innocence will emerge in humanity because the first vessels of the new human destiny (spoken of in the 55th Gene Key) will all be children. The strange thing about these children is that the consciousness within them will never grow up and become serious. Their awareness will function in an entirely new and different way from our current brain-centred awareness. Their brain will be the environment itself - it will be inside every other human being, creature, plant, stone and star. We cannot yet imagine that kind of cosmic consciousness, but it will soon come pouring into the world like a great breaking wave.”
If this is the future, then surely a goal of a conscious adult living now is to become aware of and then detach from the seriousness which our conditioning has led most of us to adopt. Again, we can learn from children about how to do this. Indeed, when you step away from the mainstream or become a conscious observer of conditioning, places of organised adult action can seem almost laughable at times… all these little children dressed up and pretending to be so grown up, taking whatever business this is so very seriously! Or observing the tendency for tedious small-talk in adults, whereas children just get straight to having fun. How refreshing! Can we let ourselves go and be silly with our children? If not, what is it that is stopping us?
“What incredible things life discovers when it is left alone to play! This is the central message contained within the Ring of Life and Death - that the chaos of play is to be deeply trusted and revered. Play is the expression of genius and genius always finds a new solution to the challenges it meets along the way. We are all really children - children of the cosmos - and our only real job is to let go of our seriousness and find the delight in every exquisite jewel that life places before us.”
If this way of seeing resonates — if you’ve ever found yourself wondering whether what looks like chaos might actually be something else entirely — this is the work I do with parents.
In my 1:1 sessions, we look together at your child, their behaviour, their patterns, and the context around them — so you can begin to see what’s actually there, rather than what’s been assumed.
Not to fix them.
But to understand them more clearly.
You can find more about those sessions here.