【你要的是「停止」行為或「改變」行為？】
懲罰只是「停止」了行為，卻沒有完全「改變」行為。
記住，你不希望孩子只是暫時「停止」其行為，而是去真正「改變」其行為。這兩者是有區別的。
很多人相信懲罰是一種修正錯誤行為很適當且有效的方法；而很多人真的相信神會處罰那些不遵守神的律法的人，因此人類有所謂的「道德權威」，並有互相以道德權威對待和監督的責任。
所有這些想法都是不真實的 (untrue)。但是，關於神和關於生命，人類卻相信了許多不真實的事情，因而人類無法和平和諧地相處。
這些信念大部分是在你們年幼時被教導的，而你們很多人又照本宣科地傳給下一代。
毫無疑問地，實施強制和懲罰的學校是傳遞局限───而因此，不準確───的觀點給下一代的主要管道，而你們實際上還故意創造出這樣的學習機構，讓它們從一個片面且局限的觀點在教導孩子們關於生命的事。像某些教會學校、正統猶太小學及伊斯蘭學校，就是最好的例子。例如，一間伊斯蘭學校只以一種伊斯蘭的生活方式在教導孩子。在大多數這種學校裡的課程表，幾乎都是極端片面狹隘的。
摘自《走出靈性文盲》第5章
Punishment merely halts behavior, it does nothing to change it.
Remember, you do not want the child to simply stop her behavior, but to alter it. There is a difference.
Many people do believe that punishment is an appropriate and effective remedy for misbehavior, and many people do believe that God punishes human beings for not obeying his laws, and that human beings, therefore, have the moral authority and the responsibility to do the same to each other.
All of this is untrue, but your species believes many things about God and about Life that are untrue and that make it just about impossible to live together in peace and harmony.
Most of these beliefs were given to you when you were young, and many of you have passed them on to your children in precisely the same way they were passed on to you.
Schools with punitive and coercive practices have without a doubt been the primary means of transferring limited—and, therefore, inaccurate—views to your offspring, and you have actually created, on purpose, learning institutions that teach children about life from a singular and restricted point of view. Some parochial schools, yeshivas, and madrassas are prime examples of this.
A madrassa, for instance, teaches children about life in an Islamic context only. The curriculum in most such schools is almost always severely limited.
