Toxic parents don't realize they are toxic! Spiritual

 Toxic parents don't realize they are toxic! Spiritual

From a spiritual perspective, many people don’t realize that “toxic parents” are, in fact, toxic. There is a spiritual reason why toxic parents often fail to recognize themselves as such.

This isn’t limited to toxic parents. Many people are unaware of their own faults—for example, the act of wasting large amounts of food often goes unnoticed or unconcerned by most.

In the same way, toxic parents often do not see themselves as toxic, and there may be quite a few in society today.

There are various types of toxic parents, but the most common are those who engage in educational abuse.

In Japan, the education system tends to value each individual piece of knowledge above all else, and there is a prevalent mindset that if a child scores high on paper tests, they are inherently valuable as a person.

Once people enter the workforce, the tendency to evaluate others based on test scores gradually disappears. Yet, within the desire to affirm one’s own value, parents may still tend to demand high scores from their children.

In Western countries, there is a stronger tendency to evaluate people based on their character, such as their involvement in volunteer work, rather than by test scores. Comparing oneself to others numerically is less common.

There is a prevailing sense that “I am me, and others are others,” and the habit of comparing oneself to others is weaker.

Japan, as an agrarian society with a history of cooperative farming, may have cultivated a unique cultural tendency to pay close attention to others, which influences this mindset.

“Toxic parents” don't realize they are “toxic parents.” Their “low spiritual level” and “spirituality.”

From a spiritual perspective, “toxic parents” often do not recognize themselves as toxic, and this reflects a low level of spiritual maturity.

As I have discussed many times on this blog, the growth of the soul is marked by each individual “awareness” in knowledge, and likewise, the growth of the heart—spiritual maturity—is also built upon each individual “awareness” from the heart.

When spiritual maturity increases, one’s presence in a mental sense strengthens, the capacity to enrich others’ hearts through creative energy rises, and the more “awareness” one has, the broader the perspective from which one can view the world. This is not a complicated idea; it is simply about becoming an “adult” in a spiritual sense.

Conversely, when spiritual maturity is low, one’s presence is weak mentally, and the tendency is to prioritize satisfying one’s own heart over fulfilling the hearts of others. With fewer “awarenesses” from the heart, one’s perspective on the world tends to be narrow. In this sense, low spiritual maturity reflects a “childlike” state.

Those with low spiritual maturity, due to their weak presence and susceptibility to stress, are more likely to seek a sense of self-importance in harmful ways. This energy can manifest in slander, child abuse, bullying, emotional abuse, “monster” behavior, toxic parenting, stalking, and even violent crimes.

A common thread among these behaviors is that they stem from a preoccupation with one’s own sense of existence. When attention is overly focused inward in this negative way, the ability to maintain an objective perspective diminishes, which is why toxic parents often fail to recognize themselves as such.

“Toxic parents” are unaware that they are “toxic parents,” “presence,” and “spirituality.”

From a spiritual perspective, toxic parents often do not recognize themselves as toxic, and their behavior can be driven by a need for a sense of presence.

The psychologist Sigmund Freud proposed the “pleasure principle,” noting that whether eating, sleeping, or using the restroom, humans naturally experience some degree of pleasure and are fundamentally driven to seek it.

In an extreme sense, one could say that “a sense of presence” equals “pleasure.” When a person feels happiness, they simultaneously experience both a strong sense of presence and a strong sense of pleasure.

Not feeling a sense of presence does not just mean one lacks recognition; because the mind and body influence each other, it can also trigger stress as a threat to one’s life.

The stress response places a person in a state of either “fight” or “flight” against the source of stress. Both options require energy and can generate further energy within the body and mind.

In other words, toxic parents often act out to seek their own sense of presence and pleasure, and in some cases, this behavior can manifest in ways similar to an addiction.