"Why should I wish to see God better than this day? I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then, In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass, I find letters dropped in the street, and every one is signed by God's name, And I leave them where they are, for I know that wheresoe'er I go Others will punctually come forever and forever."
---Walt Whitman
"Except for their genitals, I don't know what immutable differences exist between men and women. Perhaps there are some other unchangeable differences; probably there are a number of irrelevant differences. But it is clear that until social expectations for men and women are equal, until we provide equal respect for both sexes, answers to this question will simply reflect our prejudices."
---Naomi Weisstein
"Sometimes I wonder if men and women really suit each other. Perhaps they should live next door and just visit now and then."
---Katherine Hepburn
"Set your expectations high; find men and women whose integrity and values you respect; get their agreement on a course of action; and give them your ultimate trust."
---John Akers
"By friendship you mean the greatest love, the greatest usefulness, the most open communication, the noblest sufferings, the severest truth, the heartiest counsel, and the greatest union of minds which brave men and women are capable."
---Jeremy Taylor
"Men and women are equal in love. They are equally vulnerable and equally powerful."
---Elizabeth Rapaport
"The most wonderful of all things in life, I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one's relationship has a growing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing; it cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a sort of divine accident, and the most wonderful of all things in life."
---Hugh Walpole
"Relationship means something complete, finished, closed. Love is never a relationship; love is relating. It is always a river, flowing, unending. Love knows no full stop; the honeymoon begins but never ends. It is not like a novel that starts at a certain point and ends at a certain point. It is an ongoing phenomenon. Lovers end, love continues. It is a continuum. It is a verb, not a noun. And why do we reduce the beauty of relating to relationship? Why are we in such a hurry? - because to relate is insecure, and relationship is a security, relationship has a certainty. Relating is just a meeting of two strangers, maybe just an overnight stay and in the morning we say goodbye. Who knows what is going to happen tomorrow? And we are so afraid that we want to make it certain, we want to make it predictable. We would like tomorrow to be according to our ideas; we don't allow it freedom to have its own say. So we immediately reduce every verb to a noun."
---Osho
"Forget relationships and learn how to relate.In a better world, with more meditative people, with a little more enlightenment spread over the earth, people will love, love immensely, but their love will remain a relating not a relationship.If you enjoy being with somebody, you would like to enjoy it more and more. If you enjoy the intimacy, you would like to explore the intimacy more and more. But it has to be a commitment from one heart to another heart. It has not even to be verbalized, because to verbalize it is to profane it. It has to be a silent commitment; eye to eye, heart to heart, being to being. It has to be understood, not said."
---Osho
"As soon as the love relationship does not lead me to me, as soon as I in a love relationship does not lead another person to himself, this love, even if it seems to be the most secure and ecstatic attachment I have ever experienced, is not true love. For real love is dedicated to continual becoming."
---Leo Buscaglia
"A powerful connection between two people is a potent psychic factor that exists regardless of either person's opinion about the relationship."
---Sarah Ban Breathnach
"Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself, not as you would wish to be, but as you are."
---Jiddu Krishnamerti
"You didn't come into this world. You came out of it, like a wave from the ocean. You are not a stranger here."
---Alan Watts
"As the ocean 'waves,' the universe 'peoples.' Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe. This fact is rarely, if ever, experienced by most individuals. Even those who know it to be true in theory do not sense or feel it, but continue to be aware of themselves as isolated 'egos' inside bags of skin."
---Alan Watts
"Rare indeed, is the relationship in which the other is not cultivated for what one can get for oneself."
---Anthony De Mello
"To relate is to react. To react is to understand oneself. To understand oneself is to be enlightened. Relationships are schools for enlightenment."
---Anthony De Mello
"Oh soul,you worry too much. You have seen your own strength. You have seen your own beauty.You have seen your golden wings. Of anything less,why do you worry? You are in truth the soul, of the soul, of the soul."
---Jalal al-Din Rumi
"Create a life that fits your dreams and you realize your true soul path and embark on a spiritual journey that nourishes the sacred and embraces the immortal."
---Michael Teal
"If we identify with the soul we awaken the authentic self , inspire the spirit and fuel the fire of transformation."
---Michael Teal
"The Buddha's teachings on love are clear. It is possible to live twenty-four hours a day in a state of love. Every movement, every glance, every thought, and every word can be infused with love."
---Thich Nhat Hahn
"Wouldn't it be powerful if you fell in love with yourself so deeply that you would do just about anything if you knew it would make you happy? This is precisely how much life loves you and wants you to nurture yourself. The deeper you love yourself, the more the universe will affirm your worth. Then you can enjoy a lifelong love affair that brings you the richest fulfillment from inside out."
---Alan Cohen
"We've shared intimate moments. Allow me to become your mystical lover."
---Arthur Tugman
"Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves, without any insistence that they satisfy you."
---Wayne Dyer
"Love is a temporary madness. It erupts like an earthquake and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have become so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. That is just being in love which any of us can convince ourselves we are. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two."
---Louis De Bernieres
"Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
---1 Corinthians 13: 4-7
"Don't look for perfection in me. I want to acknowledge my own imperfection, I want to understand that that is part of the endlessness of my growth. It’s absolutely useless at this stage in your life, with all of the shit piled up in your closet, to walk around and try to kid yourself about your perfection. Out of the raw material you break down you grow and absorb the energy. You work yourself from inside out, tearing out, destroying, and finding a sense of nothingness. That nothingness allows God to come in. But this somethingness— ego and prejudices and limitations— is your raw material. If you process and refine it all, you can open consciously. Otherwise, you will never come to anything that represents yourself...The only thing that can create a oneness inside you is the ability to see more of yourself as you work everyday to open deeper and say, fine, ‘I’m short tempered,’ or ‘Fine, I’m aggressive,’ or, ‘Fine, I love to make money,’ or, ‘I have no feeling for anybody else.’ Once you recognize you’re all of these things, you’ll finally be able to take a breath and allow these things to open."
---Swami Rudrananda
"Only in an open, nonjudgmental space can we acknowledge what we are feeling. Only in an open space where we're not all caught up in our own version of reality can we see and hear and feel who others really are, which allows us to be with them and communicate with them properly."
---Pema Chodron
"We are all one. Ours is not a better way, ours is merely another way."
---Neale Donald Walsch
So, yesterday I just hit a point where I was like, "How did I get here???" This week I have been encountering women who are in insecure relationships so they themselves come across as insecure and suspicious. I have encountered men who cannot imagine what the female species is saying or doing. I have been dealing with concepts of sexuality: heterosexuality, homosexuality, and everything inbetween and seemingly outside the realm of possibility.
Ugg! I am frustrated.
I feel life should be simpler and much more satisfying...filled with love and honor...truth that transcends the moment...power that bolsters all people to be all that they can be and to me that IS LOVE.
First, let me say that as beings that ARE love we must wrap our heads around the reality of our deepest and highest selves. Preferably sooner than later. As long as we sell ourselves short as "this or that" or NOT "this or that" we will know great confusion and quite possibly great suffering. I have known both.
I grew up in a house full of men. I was the youngest child of four. I lost a lot. I developed coping skills that would enable me to "succeed" in some sort of goal making. [I was, after all, a Type-A personality.] Often, by default, my goals were to make my "perpetrating" brothers rue the day they dominated me. This usually meant being the most annoying, aggravating, irritating person around! It wasn't much but it was something. I mean, at least I felt some productivity.
As I intersect with mid adulthood, there is an ironic twist to my childhood. My brothers are now all married. Their wives and their girl children are succeeding where I could not. My brothers, in the name of marriage and commitment, accept the equalizing measures between the sexes (i.e., speaking with consideration, giving and sharing their space with others, conceeding that more than one opinion counts, etc.). They often bite their lips in strain as they cope with the fact that they are not "king of the hill." [It is a small vindication for me, but it is something!]
When I was young I knew very little about love relationships. I had a strong understanding of friendships, but connections between men and women were delicate to me. My childhood had been saturated in relationships with boys. Much to my chagrin,puberty washed all that away. Body chemistry between peoples was volatile and often non-understandable. As a result, I went through a series of relationship phases. And I think I have said it many times in many blogs that to have love that endures between two people there must be strong love for the self in each of the parties.
I didn't have much love for myself. I was taught to please and give. I expected boys and men to give me great difficulty. That is what I knew from my familial experiences. I frequently felt overwhelmed by the vibrations males would emit. I believed in caring for people with my whole heart. Most boys and men wanted nothing to do with caring unless it came in some sort of physical form. This was devastating to me. I felt horribly rejected and misplaced.
In college, out of confusion, hurt, and self-neglect, I accumulated many young men and expressed myself physically as much as possible. And at some point I began to merge over into the perceived male mind set. I openly chose to disregard my true nature to care in place of a plethora of male-female physical interchanges. And at some juncture I snapped.
One summer I got involved with a young man named Mark who was known for being a "player." He cajoled, charmed, and convinced me he had changed. He acted sincere and earnest. My caring (broken) heart opened and let him in. So, I got emotionally close to him---or at least it seemed to be that way. We talked on the phone incessantly, we spent the summer playing in the sun and having fun, we enjoyed sleeping in each other's arms at night. Our physical interaction was not completed because I had heard that men lost respect for women if the women expressed themselves like that physically. So I held onto myself and held out with Mark day after day after day. And then one night I gave in a little.
Mark and I had spent a few months being together, and in the flash of an eye and with a tad bit of "my weakness," our "relationship" halted. He did not call me after a pitcher of beer and a passionate interlude. He waited and waited and waited. Over a week went by. And as it turned out in the big picture, Mark never stopped being that "player."
Later I discovered more hurtful information. I was under 21. I couldn't go to clubs. Mark was of age. He had been hanging out with many other young women that summer, some of who were in my sorority. I felt trashed and I wanted vindication.
Yes, vindication is an ugly little, unloving aspect of my persona that crops up from time to time. It used to happen a lot as a young person. I had anger and hurt I didn't know how to deal with. I continue to work through anger that wells up in me when I get hurt. I think I am much more communicative now. I have learned to please less and honor myself more. I feel whole.
I drove myself so hard when I was in school. I desired something real and tangible in the world of love. But I wouldn't get that for many years to come. Looking back, I feel happy that I experienced a lot of connections rather than just one. In other words, I am thankful I didn't find a commitment to engage in. [I almost did, but my illness broke and sent the relationship flying out of the ozone layer. I can't tell you how glad I am about that.]
I have seen so many marriages and commitments falter over the years. I believe that we begin to really know ourselves between the ages of 35-45. I can't imagine trying to grow with someone else when I haven't finished growing myself. That is a lot to ask.
I love Osho's view of relating versus relationships. I like the continuum. The trick is that mainstream society does not think this way. Mainstream society focuses on the family and "stability." I am 38 and I have never been married. I can't conceive of the notion of marriage, pregnancy, and family stuff. Certainly I have visited my brothers and their families and the families of my friends, but it is all so remote to me. For me, life is about recognizing my own love and then mingling that love with all mankind. I have to think of me. That is the way it is. Families can't think this way.
Last night I was interacting with an ex-boyfriend and friend of 20 years. We have had our moments. But, I am really about non-violent communication at this stage in the game. He can often try my communication skills!!! Yesterday, I had to end the conversation because he was getting aggressive with me after a day at the office. I had to explain that when my brothers speak to me like he was speaking to me that it was time for a nap. He wasn't thrilled with my response but it was the best statement for both of us. We went our separate ways and there was "no blood shed."
I do not understand why I can have friendships that are fluid and beautiful but when it comes to relating with members of the opposite sex there is something devastatingly hard between us. Now let me explain. I have tried a variety of people to love and be loved by over the years. I changed the types and the temperaments whenever I found a distinct incompatibility. But it drives me nuts to be so unsuccessful.
My good friend said I should not look for "emotional je ne sais quois" with men, leave that for our girlfriends. I feel this is selling men down the drain. Men are capable of strong emotions and great deepness. Men are more loyal than any woman I have ever known. Men can open up and be excitingly real. I have experienced men with these valuable traits. My most recent ex-boyfriend was all of those things and more. The reason we failed as a couple was that neither of us was whole when we met. That deficit caused many difficult scenarios to manifest. In conjunction we were living in separate countries and we were both quite poor.
When I meet interesting people I see their very best. I expect that best to be groomed and brought forward in each of our lives so that an amazing life will ensue and be maintained. [To me that is the ultimate form of commitment.] I get very far with this formula. But, so far, destiny has not revealed a match for all time. This disheartens me; but I rarely quit. I am persistent and determined. [And I complain when I get beside myself!]
I believe in the love that we all ARE. I choose to seek the face of God in everyone I meet. It is important to me.
I find that most people are locked into the mundane world of "wax on, wax off." This saddens me greatly. I am a dreamer, an idealist, a leader, a visionary in a broken body. I have achieve huge dreams throughout my life. We are each filled with the most unimaginable greatness.
When we don't see this, know this, be this the universe suffers.
We ARE LOVE right here right now. We can be and must be authentic to live fully and robustly. To settle for anything less is Godlessness, and I have no desire to be God free. I exist in God and God exists in me. This is true for everyone. [It doesn't matter whether people believe it.]
If I can find extraordinary traits of love in one man, I can find extraordinary traits of love in all men. We are all ONE in the Web of Life, the Divine Matrix. We must believe this and live it every second we can.
Men and women can blend in the pallette of LOVE and LIFE. I have experienced it. It is totally possible and completely plausible. My great frustration lies in the wait and the where and the who of the "land of inbetween."
Men have huge hearts. Men can communicate effectively in the boardroom, on the football field, and in privacy. Women can love without insecurity, laciviousness, and hovering. LOVE is bigger than any issue that any of us have. It IS. If we commit to practicing true love we will not need to possess and dominate. We can be heart centered and free. We can be safe and trusting with our deepest selves. That is what LOVE is.
Don't accept anything less. If you have already, start today to learn what real LOVE IS. It begins with you. Look inside your heart to the Divine within. Find what IT has to say. You do this by getting still and listening until the quiet comes. Then you trust the message.
Men and women can make the "impossible" happen. Every man is LOVE. Every woman is LOVE. LOVE+LOVE=LOVE. It is just that simple.
Mankind is used to subscribing to the law of scarcity. LOVE is infinite. LOVE is abundant. LOVE is GOD. If we believe, if we practice what we believe, we will know great empowerment in our relating.
Yesterday, I was exhausted from the diatribe of people that don't get how special we all ARE. [I was feeling impatient.] I miss the man that filled my life with all those things that many call impossible. I miss the active emotionals currents between us that electrified my soul and set my spirit in flight. That man knew the mystical world I crave to share and have deep inside my being.
My journey has made me weary; but, I know my dream exists.
Men don't think scarcity thoughts about women. women don't think scarcity thoughts about men. Believe in real tangible LOVE that springs eternal. IT IS!!! Open your hearts, feel your spirits come alive. Trust that life is bigger than what you see. LOVE created the universe. Give yourself to it. You ARE LOVE. Believe it and receive it.
You can. Yes, you can!
Friday, April 17, 2009
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
"Training is needed in order to love properly..."---Thich Nhat Hanh
"There are different kinds of voices calling you...and the problem is to find out which is the voice of God rather than of Society, say, or the Superego, or Self-interest."
---Frederick Buechner
"Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it's clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice. [Shambhala Sun March 2006 ]"
---Thich Nhat Hahn
"Our deepest calling is to grow into our authentic self-hood."
---Parker Palmer
"It is precisely because our present life is so inseparably linked with desire that we must make use of desire's tremendous energy if we wish to transform our life into something transcendental."
---Introduction to Tantra
"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?"
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Woman was taken out of man; not out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled underfoot; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
---Unknown
"If you use love as an escape, the euphoria is unlikely to last long. However much we may try, we can never run away from ourselves. We will never find happiness if we don’t change ourselves from within."
---Unknown
"This is how we love, Buddha-style: impartial to all, free from excessive attachment or false hope and expectation; accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. Buddhist non-attachment doesn't imply complacence or indifference, or not having committed relationships or being passionately engaged with society, but rather has to do with our effort to defy change and resist the fact of impermanence and our mortality. By holding on to that which in any case is forever slipping through our fingers, we just get rope burn."
---Unknown
"Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely."
---Lama Thubten Yeshe
"Hinayana teachings focus on personal conduct; getting your own life together. Mahayana teachings are about what naturally happens next: your heart opens to others. You can’t help it. So the Mahayana is about compassion and recognizing the profound interconnectedness of all phenomena.
The Vajrayana is about working with every circumstance as an opportunity for complete enlightenment. Here one finds teachings on ordinary magic, crazy wisdom, and auspicious coincidence—the ways the world conspires to introduce you to your true nature.
With these ridiculously superficial explanations, let’s look at the four noble truths and the three yanas in light of relationships."
http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2008/03/05/buddhism-and-relationships-four-noble-truths-three-yanas/
"Four Noble Truths of Relationships
1. Relationships are deeply uncomfortable.Whether it’s your first date or tenth anniversary, there is simply an enormous amount of discomfort involved in relationships. We’re afraid of being hurt, disappointed, overtaxed, ignored. The interesting part is that all these things happen. This is just the way it is, even in happy relationships.
The thing no one tells you is that it’s impossible to stabilize a relationship. Yes, I really mean those italics. Impossible. The emotional exchange between two people shifts like grains of sand in the desert: some days you can see forever and some days you just have to take cover because something kicked up out of nowhere and now sh-t is flying all over the place. You can’t see two feet in front of you and it stings. On still other occasions, imperceptible winds cause little piles to slowly accumulate until, one day, a familiar path is altogether blocked. You just can’t tell what’s going to happen. And just like hiking in the desert, you have to be as absorbed in the present moment as you are attuned to atmospheric indicators. Woe to she whose attention to either lapses.
The bad news is you never get to where you thought you were going. You get somewhere else instead. The good news is that there’s basically no way to have a boring relationship.
2. Discomfort comes from trying to make the relationship comfortable. At the root of the discomfort is the wish that it wouldn’t be uncomfortable, that we could eventually find the “right” person and relax. But the truth is that when you do find the (or a) right person, it’s anything but relaxing: your neuroses, their neuroses, and all the hopes and fears you’ve ever had about love flood your situation. Whether you bargained for it or not, you get introduced to your deepest self while someone else is trying to introduce you to their deepest self. It can get very confusing. But instead of wasting time trying to make it not confusing, better to dive right in and be really nice to each other as you consider the root of your own and his/her confusion. (Acting nice to each other in the midst of confusion is love. Shhh.) (PS Acting nice doesn’t always mean being all sweet and demure. But I digress.)
3. It’s the inability to create safety that plots the path to love.True love seems to exist on some mysterious edge of its own. It can’t be controlled and when you try, it calcifies. To keep it alive, at some point you just have to let go and see what happens.
When you work with all this nuttiness, love becomes more than mere romance. It turns into something way better: intimacy. Romance has got to end, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But intimacy? It has no end. You can’t be, “oh, intimacy, we’ve done that. What comes next?” Nothing comes next. That’s it. Discuss.
4. It is possible to work with the uncertainty skillfully.Instead of flinging yourself kamikaze-like into the flame of love, you can train in working with the heat. As with anything you consider important (or life-threatening, for that matter), you don’t want to just show up and hope for the best. You want to play the odds.
Applying the view of the three yanas could help.
Three Yanas
1. Hinayana
As mentioned, Hinayana teachings are about personal conduct: right speech, right action, and so on. You get your own life in order through discipline, honor, and effort. You know how to make your bed, pick up your clothes, and make it to work on time. Basic stuff, but without which everything simply falls apart. Very important.
When applied to relationships, Hinayana view could mean things like calling someone when you say you will. Being on time. Having good manners. Listening when they talk and other such radical propositions.
2. Mahayana
When you are a stand-up human being, you can extend yourself to another in a more profound way. In fact, you want to. It just happens. You could find love and actually enjoy it.
Once you get into a relationship however, you find out something pretty disturbing: you have to love them back.
For whatever reason, all the relationship books and TV shows in the world seem to be about how to get love, not how to give it–which is quite a complicated proposition. Here’s the problem: most of us aren’t looking for someone to love. We’re looking for someone to cast in the role of boyfriend or girlfriend. Central casting, send me someone who has a job, a car, and speaks English! (My stringent requirements for potential boyfriends, back in the day.) You can get as specific as you want when you send in your requisition (I need someone with brown hair who likes dogs but not cats, enjoys rowing, and has never eaten at Hooters), but eventually that person is going to break character. Then what? Alarmingly, you have to dispense with all your requirements and have a look at the actual person in front of you. You see that this person is as important as yourself. This is the very teeny-tiny beginning of compassion: when you agree not to be the most important person on earth. But that’s okay. Now you can start to figure out what it really means to love.
3. Vajrayana
If the Vajrayana teachings are about meeting the circumstances of everyday life as a potential moment of transformation, then applied to relationships it could mean something like this: Every single thing that happens between you and your beloved is an opportunity to love more. Everything. Even crappy stuff.
Just as no one can tell you how to make giving birth or spilling your coffee into an opportunity to attain enlightenment, no one can tell you how to do so when your beloved leaves you for someone else or fails to empty the dishwasher. (Although he promised he would.) Big or small, heart crushing or annoying, delightful or irritating, no matter what happens, in the Vajrayana view it is fodder for wakefulness, for love. And just as with Vajrayana meditation practices, you can read books about how to do them and even have a great person teach them to you, but at some point you’re on your own. You have to figure it out for yourself.
The willingness to try is love itself. Isn’t it?http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2008/03/05/buddhism-and-relationships-four-noble-truths-three-yanas/
"When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable."
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha. [True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.]"
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Rahula, practice loving kindness to overcome anger. Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return. Practice compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return. Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success. Practice non-attachment to overcome prejudice. Non-attachment is the way of looking at all things openly and equally. This is because that is. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing only to chase after another. I call these the four immeasurables. Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others."
---Buddha
"Grasping at things can only yield one of two results: Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear. It is only a matter of which occurs first."
---Goenka
"We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love."
---Thich Nhat Hanh
Compassion: The definition is: wanting others to be free from suffering. This compassion happens when one feels sorry with someone, and one feels an urge to help. The near enemy is pity, which keeps other at a distance, and does not urge one to help. The opposite is wanting others to suffer, or cruelty. A result which one needs to avoid is sentimentality. Compassion thus refers to an unselfish, de-tached emotion which gives one a sense of urgency in wanting to help others. From a Buddhist perspective, helping others to reduce their physical or mental suffering is very good, but the ultimate goal is to extinguish all suffering by stopping the process of rebirth and the suffering that automatically comes with living (enlightenment).
"The point of Buddhist meditation is not to stop thinking, for cultivation of insight clearly requires intelligent use of thought and discrimination. What needs to be stopped is conceptualisation that is compulsive, mechanical and unintelligent, that is, activity that is always fatiguing, usually pointless, and at times seriously harmful."
---Allan Wallace
"The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves 'inside the skin' of the other. We 'go inside' their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, 'to suffer with.'"
---Thich Nhat Hahn
"To open ourselves to the truth and to bring ourselves face to face with our personal and collective reality is not an option that can be accepted or rejected. It is an undeniable requirement of all people and all societies that seek to humanize themselves and to be free."
---Bishop Juan Gerardi
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
---Matthew 6:21
Since love resides in us and around us, since love resides everywhere, you would think that it would make sense that love would be our very essence. Well, it IS; we are just fairly unfamiliar with our deepest and highest Self. We typically exist in a sort of "rational" cocoon which separates us mentally from all that we ultimately ARE. Some call this cocoon Maya. But this rational plane called Maya, also, gives us a unique identity within the cosmosphere.
As mankind, we inherently know that we are experiencing something extraordinary as we learn all about living. Some of us respond favorably to this extraordinary aspect of life which calls us forward, makes us want to go on, and gives us drive. Some of us respond with shock, fear, anger, or some other type of negative energy. The perception there is that the "something" is too powerful next to our darkened and heavy, mass-like beings.
In the beginning, our spirits were unavoidably in the dark about what that extraordinary "something" IS. Every human spirit is first birthed on planet earth. From that starting point, the spirits then must grow and develop. They must learn how to open themselves to the Light---Be the Light. This takes time. It is a process. And as the spiritual process procedes, the purity of the "something" that each of us is immersed in, causes our individual and collective body-soul-spirit-mind to question and to wonder. To live.
We find that we are eternal creatures. We are, in fact, Divine orchestrations. And that "something" we are immersed in is Love Divine. No matter what, that Divine Love is all-encompassing. It is a permanent state of being for all of us. [There are many stories to the contrary, but consult your heart for the Truth. Love IS.]
Life is not closed in a box of sheltered desires, rules, regulations and/or ideas. Life beckons us forth...over and over again. It explodes and collapses. It gives and gives. It knows us long before we know it; and yet, does it? For it IS everywhere. It WAS and it WILL BE. It is to be gotten. It is to be given. It is to be breathed. It is just to be.
Our soul which is dowsed in eternal bliss is the vehicle that comes and goes throughout our incarnational growths and developments. The soul unfolds just as it is supposed to. Its awakenings are timely. Our soul does not move prematurely. It does not move late. It is sovereignly motivated. And there is no such thing as a soul that fails to know the Great I AM. THE GREAT I AM IS.
Life doesn't reign over God. God reigns over life. God is life. God IS/WAS/WILL BE.
Reviewing Christian Scripture, there is an indication that there are souls that have come and gone and there are souls that are in current existence. The reason for all this is relationship with Love [God]: Through it [Him], with it [Him], in it [Him], for it [Him], etc.
"We did not invent our mission, and our mission is not a new one, rather we received it just like those who have gone before us. We have been moved by God and motivated by his Spirit as we learn from the life stories of those who have taken the journey already. Some of the stories that have shaped our mission are the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, Samuel and David, Isaiah and Esther, Peter and James, Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul and John, as well as those who have been shaped by their stories - Ignatius, Augustine, Aquinas, St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Corrie Ten Boom, Mother Theresa and those who aren't well known, but are living faithful lives devoted to God.
Jesus of course is the climax of the story and the head of our mission today. Both the scriptures and the Church to which Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom, help us to keep faithful to the mission.
The Renaissance movement birthed a whole new era of thinking, knowing and perceiving, and in many ways a fresh wave of creativity and invention was birthed. In the same way we have entered a new era in which our understanding is expanding in how we gain knowledge and see reality. We are called to understand our times and engage with the world in which we find ourselves in with great wisdom.
Jesus once said that you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, because the new wine would not be able to be contained in the old wineskins. New times require new approaches. The good news is that the message of God is such that it can never be contained to a particular people or a specific time, but it is cosmic in nature, meant for all people in all times. We are to learn from the past, engage in the present, and prepare for the future. Our context, the scripture, the spirit and the community of God help us to determine the best way in which we live out the story of God faithfully and effectively.
Shalom is the way in which the prophets talked about a day when all things would be put right again. Those things that have become corrupt and polluted would be re-made in such a way that it would take our breath away. Through imagery and story, their words painted a picture of how things are supposed to be. People would no longer be looked at as tools and property in the hands of the powerful, but as people made in the very image of God. People would not try to build their own kingdoms in which they rule in their own way, but would gladly be a part of the kingdom of God, letting God be God, so that peace would prevail in the world. They pictured a world in which the environment that was originally created good would become freed of the curse. They spoke of a place in which people would genuinely love each other.
Then Jesus came along and said something that is utterly amazing. When his followers asked him how to pray, one of the profound statements he made was that we should actually pray that these things would come about. He said to pray, "May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He was telling his followers to pray for the coming shalom, pray that the world would be made right again. That peace and beauty would prevail over violence and corruption. In the same way, Jesus invites us all to become active participants in bringing the hope of the prophets to reality. And though we won't see the fullness of that reality immediately, we can live with great hope that Jesus will finish what he started. Until then, we are to pray and work so that what is true in heaven would be true on earth."
http://kairos.la/beliefs/
God is Love and Love is God. This IS a constant. But we, also, ARE always love, too. Our bodies were designed perfectly for each of our incarnations. Our souls were made to be molded and shaped through the changes of our being. Each life we have an opportunity to live is an experience we have to bring us closer to the I AM of us and the I AM of God which ultimately are One in the same.
To discern the illusion of the Maya that seemingly separates all that is, we need only begin to drop the pretenses of what we think we should be: Our mental armor of knowledge that was assigned at birth and padded frequently throughout our years of existence.
To get to the quick of that which we already ARE, we need only begin to trust our heart (our real and inextinguishable Love, our internal residence of Divinity, our God Spot) which houses the Power of the Universe---the Source of All that IS/WAS and WILL BE.
Mankind by necessity has to learn its way through the cocoon-like rational exterior in which it temporarily abides. [This is often referred to as Enlightenment.] From my perspective, today's necessity---the cocoon---was actually a choice mankind made way back when. Therefore, breaking through that mental barrier of Maya is a primary destination for humanity. It provides us with our individuality. It enables us to choose for ourselves. It prepares us to love with maturity and grace. It calls us by name. It is the Way---our Way.
I come from a Protestant Christian foundation, so that Scripture is what I am most familiar with. [There are other belief systems that render a congruent story of the Beginning. Please seek them out. There is such beauty in diversity!] And in Protestant Christianity the Beginning of time included the first man called Adam, and the first woman called Eve.
I have been enamored with the tale for years, but I will condense Adam and Eve's story as I know it today. First, Adam failed to live according to God's will.
[Is this possible since God is sovereign??? Christian theologist, Dr. R.C. Sproul, states his point on sovereignty as, "The answer to that question will not determine whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, a Calvinist or an Armenian, but it will determine whether you are a theist or an atheist." Sometimes the students can't see the connection. And I say to them, "Don't you realize that if there is one molecule in this universe running around loose outside the scope or the sphere of God's Divine control and authority and power, then that single maverick molecule may be the grain of sand that changes the entire course of human history, that blocks God from keeping the promises He has made to His people?" It may be that one maverick molecule that will prevent Christ from the consummation of His kingdom. For if there is one maverick molecule, it would mean that God is not sovereign. If God is not sovereign, then God is not God. If there is any element of the universe that is outside of His authority, then He no longer is God over all. In other words, sovereignty belongs to deity. Sovereignty is a natural attribute of the Creator. God owns what He makes, and He rules what He owns. Reprinted by permission of Ligonier Ministries from "Now That's A Good Question" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/9170/SPROUL10.HTM ]
Adam willingly subjected himself to his manly desire for Eve and the mysteries of Life. He ate of the forbidden fruit in the center of the Garden of Eden that Eve spoke of so passionately. [She had been bitten by the "fangs" of subtle deceit. Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted her with lofty ideations and sweetened versions of his truth.]
Suddenly, beyond reproach, Adam knew the tree of knowledge, and in doing so he lost his and his descendants' free access to the Tree of Life (He made his first independent choice while being ill-advised of the various repercussions).
Furthermore, the main effect of that choice was that Adam naively and jointly selected the path of death for all men and women. He and all his descendants would eventually return to the dust from which they were originally molded and made. All people would know the intricacies of genetics.
[Uh, haven't many of us been cursing their ability to makes decisions?!? Especially those of us who have aspired to be "goody two shoes" most of our lives!]
I believe it is this first attempt at the decision-making process that created mankind's embryonic Way. Life eternal was at once hidden in the cloak of "knowledge-oriented" mystery (the biggest encryption case ever). I am sure the Heavenly Father in all His mercy conceived that to live forever without knowing love as a personal choice would have been a fate far worse than bodily death.
From my perspective, God knew all that would Be (He is omniscient); and like a parent who teaches and teaches and teaches His child, God played a loving game of "hide and seek" with his mortal delights.
God had already touched his belligerent and brightest angel, the highly creative Lucifer, with a "wand of disgrace." Lucifer, by obstinate choice, was thrown from the heavens and became sainted as the lowest, most despicable character sent to rule the earth for a bit. Satan for a time [a mere moment in the field of infinity] was crowned a master illusionist of Maya. As a result, he was initally forced to crawl upon his belly in a continual reminder state of humility; and it was that twisted, pride-ridden position that he willingly locked himself into being. There was no written release for the king of hell.
Mankind from that point on would need special guidance; and for some human lives, absolute deliverance would be imperative.
Mankind's heart would often feel faint, unsure, and without direction. Man and woman would find struggle with that which they did not already know. Mankind would need education. Mankind would be suspect of ignorance and influence. Mankind would cry for redemption. Mankind would know the power of the One outside of its most rational experience. Mankind would feel unable to face its inner being just yet. And as a result, Mankind would forever seek the healing salve that only Love could provide. Man and woman would live for total reconciliation with the parts of themselves that were harbored in the safe-keeping of the Great IAM.
But Mankind too, would know the lover of its soul. For Love was everywhere as God intended from the very start. Man would steadily grow to know the empowerment of the love inside himself. Man would steadily begin to know Oneness with all that IS. Man and woman would forever find eternity in the heart of God.
I haven't found this embryonic process exciting until lately. It took me learning many lessons about love and healing before I could be happy about all my life's experiences. I held so much disdain in my mind and heart because my soul had chosen a path that got serious during my childhood.
As a young being, my shoulders [my spirit] felt too slim to carry the burdens of the people around me. And yet I would try and try and try. My body-mind "picked up" [absorbed] the love and the unlove of others when I was very small---perhaps at the age of two. I am not sure really when it occurred; but, it did occur. I was an empath. I felt the power of the world around me as well as the world inside me. It was very unnerving!
I spent countless number of years sculpting my life into a masterpiece of depth and hunger. Was it any wonder that I gleaned so much pain from the surface of my being? I thought everything had to be studied and measured. I felt that everything must have profoundness and/or meaning. I could laugh. I could cry. I could do whatever as long as the depth of my emotions were meaningful and potent.
I learned the story and experience of Agape around the same time frame; but my many educations (spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, societal, etc.) quickly divised "a route" to sever my being's "umbilical cord" from its root.
Day after day I would learn the Way of Unlovingness. I would learn from my family, from my church, from my school, from my peers, classmates and friends, from country, and from the world around me. And, eventually, I would forget the tremendous pleasure and empowerment the Loving Way had to offer. Worst of all, in a reversed state of understanding---a darkened state of living that I gleaned from the Unlovingness my very self manufactured---I experienced perpetual lessons of doubt, shame, indifference, and unlovingness which cultivated a dark spirit to balance the inpenetrable highlights that clung to the love I still knew and fought for .
I was initiated in the path of Lilith. I began to perceive life through a ball of pain and suffering. Folk tradition: The Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this certain tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date Ben Sira between the 8th and 10th centuries. Its real author is anonymous, but it is falsely attributed to the sage Ben Sira. The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older.[38] The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to Ben Sira, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah.
However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to Sira. According to Gershom Scholem, the author of the Zohar, R. Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting.[39]
The idea that Adam had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone". He forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam, but the two bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way, they were equal, and she refuses to submit to him:
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day.
Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.
The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire,[40] although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ‘‘Lexicon Talmudicum of Johannes Buxtorf.
An Armenian writer Avetik Isahakyan describes Lilit as Adam's first wife. However, here God created Lilit from fire and Adam from soil. Lilit did not like how Adam smelled like soil. In the end, she escaped with Satan in the shape of a snake. Only after that did God create Eve from Adam's bone, so that she would always be with him. "But though Adam's lips said Eve, his soul always echoed Lilith."[41]
In the folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen.[42] Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable.[43] The fecund myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, Yenne Velt is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn.[44] Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real at this time.
Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates. Although these two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately, there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles.[45] But the aspect of the witchlike role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore.[46]
One story tells of how a daughter of Lilith dwelling in a mirror came to possess a narcissistic young girl. A wife had bought a mirror and hung it in a room of her daughter. The mirror had been hung in a den of demons and a daughter of Lilith resided in it. Whenever the mirror was moved from the haunted house, the demoness within went with it. The girl spent a lot of time gazing at herself in the mirror, each time drawing closer and closer into Lilith's web. The daughter of Lilith watched the young girl's every movement. Biding her time, one day Lilith's daughter slipped out and possessed the girl through the eyes. Seizing control of the girl, Lilith's daughter dominated the girl's every move. Driven by the evil wishes and desires of Lilith's daughter, the girl became promiscuous and ran around with many men.[47]
It is said that every mirror is a passage into the Otherworld and leads to the cave that Lilith went to after she had abandoned Adam and Eden for all time. In this cave, Lilith takes up demon lovers, who father upon her multitudes of demons who flock from the cave and infest the world. When these demons want to return they simply enter the nearest mirror.[48]
"Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem." [49]
Kabbalah: The major characteristics of Lilith were well developed by the end of the Talmudic period. Kabbalistic mysticism, therefore, established a relationship between her and deity. Six centuries elapsed between the Aramaic incantation texts that mention Lilith and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings. In the 13 centuries, she reappears and her life history becomes known in greater mythological detail. [50]
Her creation is described in many alternative versions. One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day. Because the "living creature" with whose swarms God filled the waters was none other than Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier Talmudic passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as Adam, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After Adam's body was created a thousand souls from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God breathed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacks humankind. Yet another version claims that Lilith was not created by God, but emerged as a divine entity that was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din). This aspect of God, one of his ten attributes (Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael.[51]
An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The "first light", which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot), appeared on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be light" This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of evil.” A husk (q'lippa) was created around the brain" and this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.[52]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
Inner devastation would cause me to long burn with inequity. I learned how to feel unaccepted, unloved, angry, hurt, and venegeful very well.
But I knew this state as sin. And for many years I would believe that my very soul deserved its sense of condemnation because my forefather and my foremother, Adam and Eve, created eternal darkness outside the loving arms of the Holy Father begotten as the Son called Christ Jesus.
Ritually, I would devote myself to "mental and emotional flagellation" so that I would remember the "One True Reality of Life" as seen by the Christian Church. In other words, I would say, "I have sinned..." [Not once, not twice, but every service I attended. It was the deepest Mantra of my being. I would even use it at home in prayer and Bible study.]
And then, I would, further ritually, immerse myself in the absolution of Christ. And I would BE clean in every sense of the word.
I followed this Way of Sin and Cleanse until approximately 5-6 years ago.
My heart nearly died from the pain. I didn't get how freely love was available. I thought the Scripture that God had a plan for me included the ritual of owning my sin, wearing it on my sleeve and absolving the sin through the power of Christ Jesus. Every aspect of my life was "written" out in some bizarre pre-script. I had to be this. I had to be that. I accepted the shoulds and the woulds. I cried out at my creative urges. I shuttered at my natural ways and desires. I longed to understand God's mysteries. I thought way too much. I felt overwhelmingly burdened. Grace could not solve my mind's conundrums regarding Doctrine and Life. And I failed to receive the blessings I was given before birth.
I was angry. I was depressed. I nearly lost my will to BE. [Over and over!] I begged for mercy. I asked for help. I prayed in faith that was so large before me.
And then I breathed in some cool, crisp air. I was released into the land of knowing. Love was all around me. Love filled me to overflowing. I just needed to believe it into my being one breath at a time. And when I could not believe, I practiced something entirely new, compassion for myself. And love would finally penetrate my heart again and again and again.
Life is a process. Life is relationship. Life is God inspired and God begotten. My thoughts must always ease inside my inner world and then must be transformed into daily miracles. All I needed those many years was to trust my heart and then understand that learning how to love is a practice and a Way.
Each moment we experience life, we have an opportunity to co-create our being and our world into lovliness. But to do this effectively, we must accept the greater sense regarding love. We must accept its infinite wisdom. We must accept its course for our lives. We are creatures transformed at first from dirt. According to Protestant Scripture, we had life breathed into us and through us. We are special. Each of us has a Divine destiny, and our "lives" will continue to evolve until that destiny is reached.
This is paced just right. Every aspect of our being is perfect and in harmony with all that IS. We are wholeness. We are love itself.
As we begin to release all that we know so that we can be all that we already ARE, we will start to glow with our inherent power. Our protected snip-its of love will succumb to THE LOVE. We will exist together as One. But this is a path first and a right second. This comes in flows and ebbs. This comes one inspiration at a time.
I believe that we chose to learn our Ways through life.
Our genetic lines are rich with education. Sometimes we know successes just the way we expect to know them. Sometimes we fall down and have to get up again and then success is earned. Sometimes the successes we know are surprising. Sometimes there are no successes at all. But love remains nevertheless. Love is the Great I AM. Love needs nothing to make it absolutely perfect. It just IS.
And it IS EVERYWHERE ALWAYS.
Words are extremely important because they form thoughts. Thoughts create all that we see and do. If we remind ourselves over and over that we are sin first [that we are unworthy of being], we reap what we sow. We harvest pain and destruction followed by absolution if we are lucky enough to understand what absolution even means.
However, if we choose to believe we ARE LOVE first, last and always, we, again, will reap what we sow...a fruitful, ever-abundunt harvest!!!
I know Christ and I feel very rich for knowing Him as the man-God that walked the earth, was unjustly crucified, was buried, separated from God the Father in bodily and spiritual death, and rose from the dead so that He could share His "perfect" incarnation with His disciples before ascending to Heaven and leaving His Holy Spirit for every being in the world.
But I feel compelled to share my story of previous horror and dismay coupled with my story and current experience of Love and compassion.
Christ fills me with power. He fills me with Love because He IS LOVE. And I have, finally, remembered who I was in the beginning of time, and the beginning of my life as Joan: LOVE!!!
And so I now practice the art of Loving, the Way of Love and Compassion. I no longer am sin. I never was. Only in the illusion of Maya are we as men and women anything but LOVE. Believe it and receive it. Live your legacy, live awakened in the heart of God. Assume your rightful place in eternity!
---Frederick Buechner
"Love is the capacity to take care, to protect, to nourish. If you are not capable of generating that kind of energy toward yourself- if you are not capable of taking care of yourself, of nourishing yourself, of protecting yourself- it is very difficult to take care of another person. In the Buddhist teaching, it's clear that to love oneself is the foundation of the love of other people. Love is a practice. Love is truly a practice. [Shambhala Sun March 2006 ]"
---Thich Nhat Hahn
"Our deepest calling is to grow into our authentic self-hood."
---Parker Palmer
"It is precisely because our present life is so inseparably linked with desire that we must make use of desire's tremendous energy if we wish to transform our life into something transcendental."
---Introduction to Tantra
"People deal too much with the negative, with what is wrong. Why not try and see positive things, to just touch those things and make them bloom?"
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Woman was taken out of man; not out of his head to top him, nor out of his feet to be trampled underfoot; but out of his side to be equal to him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
---Unknown
"If you use love as an escape, the euphoria is unlikely to last long. However much we may try, we can never run away from ourselves. We will never find happiness if we don’t change ourselves from within."
---Unknown
"This is how we love, Buddha-style: impartial to all, free from excessive attachment or false hope and expectation; accepting, tolerant, and forgiving. Buddhist non-attachment doesn't imply complacence or indifference, or not having committed relationships or being passionately engaged with society, but rather has to do with our effort to defy change and resist the fact of impermanence and our mortality. By holding on to that which in any case is forever slipping through our fingers, we just get rope burn."
---Unknown
"Some people live closely guarded lives, fearful of encountering someone or something that might shatter their insecure spiritual foundation. This attitude, however, is not the fault of religion but of their own limited understanding. True Dharma leads in exactly the opposite direction. It enables one to integrate all the many diverse experiences of life into a meaningful and coherent whole, thereby banishing fear and insecurity completely."
---Lama Thubten Yeshe
"Hinayana teachings focus on personal conduct; getting your own life together. Mahayana teachings are about what naturally happens next: your heart opens to others. You can’t help it. So the Mahayana is about compassion and recognizing the profound interconnectedness of all phenomena.
The Vajrayana is about working with every circumstance as an opportunity for complete enlightenment. Here one finds teachings on ordinary magic, crazy wisdom, and auspicious coincidence—the ways the world conspires to introduce you to your true nature.
With these ridiculously superficial explanations, let’s look at the four noble truths and the three yanas in light of relationships."
http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2008/03/05/buddhism-and-relationships-four-noble-truths-three-yanas/
"Four Noble Truths of Relationships
1. Relationships are deeply uncomfortable.Whether it’s your first date or tenth anniversary, there is simply an enormous amount of discomfort involved in relationships. We’re afraid of being hurt, disappointed, overtaxed, ignored. The interesting part is that all these things happen. This is just the way it is, even in happy relationships.
The thing no one tells you is that it’s impossible to stabilize a relationship. Yes, I really mean those italics. Impossible. The emotional exchange between two people shifts like grains of sand in the desert: some days you can see forever and some days you just have to take cover because something kicked up out of nowhere and now sh-t is flying all over the place. You can’t see two feet in front of you and it stings. On still other occasions, imperceptible winds cause little piles to slowly accumulate until, one day, a familiar path is altogether blocked. You just can’t tell what’s going to happen. And just like hiking in the desert, you have to be as absorbed in the present moment as you are attuned to atmospheric indicators. Woe to she whose attention to either lapses.
The bad news is you never get to where you thought you were going. You get somewhere else instead. The good news is that there’s basically no way to have a boring relationship.
2. Discomfort comes from trying to make the relationship comfortable. At the root of the discomfort is the wish that it wouldn’t be uncomfortable, that we could eventually find the “right” person and relax. But the truth is that when you do find the (or a) right person, it’s anything but relaxing: your neuroses, their neuroses, and all the hopes and fears you’ve ever had about love flood your situation. Whether you bargained for it or not, you get introduced to your deepest self while someone else is trying to introduce you to their deepest self. It can get very confusing. But instead of wasting time trying to make it not confusing, better to dive right in and be really nice to each other as you consider the root of your own and his/her confusion. (Acting nice to each other in the midst of confusion is love. Shhh.) (PS Acting nice doesn’t always mean being all sweet and demure. But I digress.)
3. It’s the inability to create safety that plots the path to love.True love seems to exist on some mysterious edge of its own. It can’t be controlled and when you try, it calcifies. To keep it alive, at some point you just have to let go and see what happens.
When you work with all this nuttiness, love becomes more than mere romance. It turns into something way better: intimacy. Romance has got to end, that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. But intimacy? It has no end. You can’t be, “oh, intimacy, we’ve done that. What comes next?” Nothing comes next. That’s it. Discuss.
4. It is possible to work with the uncertainty skillfully.Instead of flinging yourself kamikaze-like into the flame of love, you can train in working with the heat. As with anything you consider important (or life-threatening, for that matter), you don’t want to just show up and hope for the best. You want to play the odds.
Applying the view of the three yanas could help.
Three Yanas
1. Hinayana
As mentioned, Hinayana teachings are about personal conduct: right speech, right action, and so on. You get your own life in order through discipline, honor, and effort. You know how to make your bed, pick up your clothes, and make it to work on time. Basic stuff, but without which everything simply falls apart. Very important.
When applied to relationships, Hinayana view could mean things like calling someone when you say you will. Being on time. Having good manners. Listening when they talk and other such radical propositions.
2. Mahayana
When you are a stand-up human being, you can extend yourself to another in a more profound way. In fact, you want to. It just happens. You could find love and actually enjoy it.
Once you get into a relationship however, you find out something pretty disturbing: you have to love them back.
For whatever reason, all the relationship books and TV shows in the world seem to be about how to get love, not how to give it–which is quite a complicated proposition. Here’s the problem: most of us aren’t looking for someone to love. We’re looking for someone to cast in the role of boyfriend or girlfriend. Central casting, send me someone who has a job, a car, and speaks English! (My stringent requirements for potential boyfriends, back in the day.) You can get as specific as you want when you send in your requisition (I need someone with brown hair who likes dogs but not cats, enjoys rowing, and has never eaten at Hooters), but eventually that person is going to break character. Then what? Alarmingly, you have to dispense with all your requirements and have a look at the actual person in front of you. You see that this person is as important as yourself. This is the very teeny-tiny beginning of compassion: when you agree not to be the most important person on earth. But that’s okay. Now you can start to figure out what it really means to love.
3. Vajrayana
If the Vajrayana teachings are about meeting the circumstances of everyday life as a potential moment of transformation, then applied to relationships it could mean something like this: Every single thing that happens between you and your beloved is an opportunity to love more. Everything. Even crappy stuff.
Just as no one can tell you how to make giving birth or spilling your coffee into an opportunity to attain enlightenment, no one can tell you how to do so when your beloved leaves you for someone else or fails to empty the dishwasher. (Although he promised he would.) Big or small, heart crushing or annoying, delightful or irritating, no matter what happens, in the Vajrayana view it is fodder for wakefulness, for love. And just as with Vajrayana meditation practices, you can read books about how to do them and even have a great person teach them to you, but at some point you’re on your own. You have to figure it out for yourself.
The willingness to try is love itself. Isn’t it?http://www.susanpiver.com/wordpress/2008/03/05/buddhism-and-relationships-four-noble-truths-three-yanas/
"When we come into contact with the other person, our thoughts and actions should express our mind of compassion, even if that person says and does things that are not easy to accept. We practice in this way until we see clearly that our love is not contingent upon the other person being lovable."
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Training is needed in order to love properly; and to be able to give happiness and joy, you must practice DEEP LOOKING directed toward the other person you love. Because if you do not understand this person, you cannot love properly. Understanding is the essence of love. If you cannot understand, you cannot love. That is the message of the Buddha. [True Love. A Practice for Awakening the Heart.]"
---Thich Nhat Hanh
"Rahula, practice loving kindness to overcome anger. Loving kindness has the capacity to bring happiness to others without demanding anything in return. Practice compassion to overcome cruelty. Compassion has the capacity to remove the suffering of others without expecting anything in return. Practice sympathetic joy to overcome hatred. Sympathetic joy arises when one rejoices over the happiness of others and wishes others well-being and success. Practice non-attachment to overcome prejudice. Non-attachment is the way of looking at all things openly and equally. This is because that is. Myself and others are not separate. Do not reject one thing only to chase after another. I call these the four immeasurables. Practice them and you will become a refreshing source of vitality and happiness for others."
---Buddha
"Grasping at things can only yield one of two results: Either the thing you are grasping at disappears, or you yourself disappear. It is only a matter of which occurs first."
---Goenka
"We really have to understand the person we want to love. If our love is only a will to possess, it is not love. If we only think of ourselves, if we know only our own needs and ignore the needs of the other person, we cannot love."
---Thich Nhat Hanh
Compassion: The definition is: wanting others to be free from suffering. This compassion happens when one feels sorry with someone, and one feels an urge to help. The near enemy is pity, which keeps other at a distance, and does not urge one to help. The opposite is wanting others to suffer, or cruelty. A result which one needs to avoid is sentimentality. Compassion thus refers to an unselfish, de-tached emotion which gives one a sense of urgency in wanting to help others. From a Buddhist perspective, helping others to reduce their physical or mental suffering is very good, but the ultimate goal is to extinguish all suffering by stopping the process of rebirth and the suffering that automatically comes with living (enlightenment).
"The point of Buddhist meditation is not to stop thinking, for cultivation of insight clearly requires intelligent use of thought and discrimination. What needs to be stopped is conceptualisation that is compulsive, mechanical and unintelligent, that is, activity that is always fatiguing, usually pointless, and at times seriously harmful."
---Allan Wallace
"The essence of love and compassion is understanding, the ability to recognize the physical, material, and psychological suffering of others, to put ourselves 'inside the skin' of the other. We 'go inside' their body, feelings, and mental formations, and witness for ourselves their suffering. Shallow observation as an outsider is not enough to see their suffering. We must become one with the subject of our observation. When we are in contact with another's suffering, a feeling of compassion is born in us. Compassion means, literally, 'to suffer with.'"
---Thich Nhat Hahn
"To open ourselves to the truth and to bring ourselves face to face with our personal and collective reality is not an option that can be accepted or rejected. It is an undeniable requirement of all people and all societies that seek to humanize themselves and to be free."
---Bishop Juan Gerardi
"For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
---Matthew 6:21
Since love resides in us and around us, since love resides everywhere, you would think that it would make sense that love would be our very essence. Well, it IS; we are just fairly unfamiliar with our deepest and highest Self. We typically exist in a sort of "rational" cocoon which separates us mentally from all that we ultimately ARE. Some call this cocoon Maya. But this rational plane called Maya, also, gives us a unique identity within the cosmosphere.
As mankind, we inherently know that we are experiencing something extraordinary as we learn all about living. Some of us respond favorably to this extraordinary aspect of life which calls us forward, makes us want to go on, and gives us drive. Some of us respond with shock, fear, anger, or some other type of negative energy. The perception there is that the "something" is too powerful next to our darkened and heavy, mass-like beings.
In the beginning, our spirits were unavoidably in the dark about what that extraordinary "something" IS. Every human spirit is first birthed on planet earth. From that starting point, the spirits then must grow and develop. They must learn how to open themselves to the Light---Be the Light. This takes time. It is a process. And as the spiritual process procedes, the purity of the "something" that each of us is immersed in, causes our individual and collective body-soul-spirit-mind to question and to wonder. To live.
We find that we are eternal creatures. We are, in fact, Divine orchestrations. And that "something" we are immersed in is Love Divine. No matter what, that Divine Love is all-encompassing. It is a permanent state of being for all of us. [There are many stories to the contrary, but consult your heart for the Truth. Love IS.]
Life is not closed in a box of sheltered desires, rules, regulations and/or ideas. Life beckons us forth...over and over again. It explodes and collapses. It gives and gives. It knows us long before we know it; and yet, does it? For it IS everywhere. It WAS and it WILL BE. It is to be gotten. It is to be given. It is to be breathed. It is just to be.
Our soul which is dowsed in eternal bliss is the vehicle that comes and goes throughout our incarnational growths and developments. The soul unfolds just as it is supposed to. Its awakenings are timely. Our soul does not move prematurely. It does not move late. It is sovereignly motivated. And there is no such thing as a soul that fails to know the Great I AM. THE GREAT I AM IS.
Life doesn't reign over God. God reigns over life. God is life. God IS/WAS/WILL BE.
Reviewing Christian Scripture, there is an indication that there are souls that have come and gone and there are souls that are in current existence. The reason for all this is relationship with Love [God]: Through it [Him], with it [Him], in it [Him], for it [Him], etc.
"We did not invent our mission, and our mission is not a new one, rather we received it just like those who have gone before us. We have been moved by God and motivated by his Spirit as we learn from the life stories of those who have taken the journey already. Some of the stories that have shaped our mission are the stories of Abraham and Sarah, Moses and Joshua, Deborah and Gideon, Samuel and David, Isaiah and Esther, Peter and James, Priscilla and Aquilla, Paul and John, as well as those who have been shaped by their stories - Ignatius, Augustine, Aquinas, St. Francis, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Charles Spurgeon, Corrie Ten Boom, Mother Theresa and those who aren't well known, but are living faithful lives devoted to God.
Jesus of course is the climax of the story and the head of our mission today. Both the scriptures and the Church to which Jesus gave the keys of the kingdom, help us to keep faithful to the mission.
The Renaissance movement birthed a whole new era of thinking, knowing and perceiving, and in many ways a fresh wave of creativity and invention was birthed. In the same way we have entered a new era in which our understanding is expanding in how we gain knowledge and see reality. We are called to understand our times and engage with the world in which we find ourselves in with great wisdom.
Jesus once said that you cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, because the new wine would not be able to be contained in the old wineskins. New times require new approaches. The good news is that the message of God is such that it can never be contained to a particular people or a specific time, but it is cosmic in nature, meant for all people in all times. We are to learn from the past, engage in the present, and prepare for the future. Our context, the scripture, the spirit and the community of God help us to determine the best way in which we live out the story of God faithfully and effectively.
Shalom is the way in which the prophets talked about a day when all things would be put right again. Those things that have become corrupt and polluted would be re-made in such a way that it would take our breath away. Through imagery and story, their words painted a picture of how things are supposed to be. People would no longer be looked at as tools and property in the hands of the powerful, but as people made in the very image of God. People would not try to build their own kingdoms in which they rule in their own way, but would gladly be a part of the kingdom of God, letting God be God, so that peace would prevail in the world. They pictured a world in which the environment that was originally created good would become freed of the curse. They spoke of a place in which people would genuinely love each other.
Then Jesus came along and said something that is utterly amazing. When his followers asked him how to pray, one of the profound statements he made was that we should actually pray that these things would come about. He said to pray, "May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." He was telling his followers to pray for the coming shalom, pray that the world would be made right again. That peace and beauty would prevail over violence and corruption. In the same way, Jesus invites us all to become active participants in bringing the hope of the prophets to reality. And though we won't see the fullness of that reality immediately, we can live with great hope that Jesus will finish what he started. Until then, we are to pray and work so that what is true in heaven would be true on earth."
http://kairos.la/beliefs/
God is Love and Love is God. This IS a constant. But we, also, ARE always love, too. Our bodies were designed perfectly for each of our incarnations. Our souls were made to be molded and shaped through the changes of our being. Each life we have an opportunity to live is an experience we have to bring us closer to the I AM of us and the I AM of God which ultimately are One in the same.
To discern the illusion of the Maya that seemingly separates all that is, we need only begin to drop the pretenses of what we think we should be: Our mental armor of knowledge that was assigned at birth and padded frequently throughout our years of existence.
To get to the quick of that which we already ARE, we need only begin to trust our heart (our real and inextinguishable Love, our internal residence of Divinity, our God Spot) which houses the Power of the Universe---the Source of All that IS/WAS and WILL BE.
Mankind by necessity has to learn its way through the cocoon-like rational exterior in which it temporarily abides. [This is often referred to as Enlightenment.] From my perspective, today's necessity---the cocoon---was actually a choice mankind made way back when. Therefore, breaking through that mental barrier of Maya is a primary destination for humanity. It provides us with our individuality. It enables us to choose for ourselves. It prepares us to love with maturity and grace. It calls us by name. It is the Way---our Way.
I come from a Protestant Christian foundation, so that Scripture is what I am most familiar with. [There are other belief systems that render a congruent story of the Beginning. Please seek them out. There is such beauty in diversity!] And in Protestant Christianity the Beginning of time included the first man called Adam, and the first woman called Eve.
I have been enamored with the tale for years, but I will condense Adam and Eve's story as I know it today. First, Adam failed to live according to God's will.
[Is this possible since God is sovereign??? Christian theologist, Dr. R.C. Sproul, states his point on sovereignty as, "The answer to that question will not determine whether you are a Christian or a Muslim, a Calvinist or an Armenian, but it will determine whether you are a theist or an atheist." Sometimes the students can't see the connection. And I say to them, "Don't you realize that if there is one molecule in this universe running around loose outside the scope or the sphere of God's Divine control and authority and power, then that single maverick molecule may be the grain of sand that changes the entire course of human history, that blocks God from keeping the promises He has made to His people?" It may be that one maverick molecule that will prevent Christ from the consummation of His kingdom. For if there is one maverick molecule, it would mean that God is not sovereign. If God is not sovereign, then God is not God. If there is any element of the universe that is outside of His authority, then He no longer is God over all. In other words, sovereignty belongs to deity. Sovereignty is a natural attribute of the Creator. God owns what He makes, and He rules what He owns. Reprinted by permission of Ligonier Ministries from "Now That's A Good Question" http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/9170/SPROUL10.HTM ]
Adam willingly subjected himself to his manly desire for Eve and the mysteries of Life. He ate of the forbidden fruit in the center of the Garden of Eden that Eve spoke of so passionately. [She had been bitten by the "fangs" of subtle deceit. Satan, in the form of a serpent, tempted her with lofty ideations and sweetened versions of his truth.]
Suddenly, beyond reproach, Adam knew the tree of knowledge, and in doing so he lost his and his descendants' free access to the Tree of Life (He made his first independent choice while being ill-advised of the various repercussions).
Furthermore, the main effect of that choice was that Adam naively and jointly selected the path of death for all men and women. He and all his descendants would eventually return to the dust from which they were originally molded and made. All people would know the intricacies of genetics.
[Uh, haven't many of us been cursing their ability to makes decisions?!? Especially those of us who have aspired to be "goody two shoes" most of our lives!]
I believe it is this first attempt at the decision-making process that created mankind's embryonic Way. Life eternal was at once hidden in the cloak of "knowledge-oriented" mystery (the biggest encryption case ever). I am sure the Heavenly Father in all His mercy conceived that to live forever without knowing love as a personal choice would have been a fate far worse than bodily death.
From my perspective, God knew all that would Be (He is omniscient); and like a parent who teaches and teaches and teaches His child, God played a loving game of "hide and seek" with his mortal delights.
God had already touched his belligerent and brightest angel, the highly creative Lucifer, with a "wand of disgrace." Lucifer, by obstinate choice, was thrown from the heavens and became sainted as the lowest, most despicable character sent to rule the earth for a bit. Satan for a time [a mere moment in the field of infinity] was crowned a master illusionist of Maya. As a result, he was initally forced to crawl upon his belly in a continual reminder state of humility; and it was that twisted, pride-ridden position that he willingly locked himself into being. There was no written release for the king of hell.
Mankind from that point on would need special guidance; and for some human lives, absolute deliverance would be imperative.
Mankind's heart would often feel faint, unsure, and without direction. Man and woman would find struggle with that which they did not already know. Mankind would need education. Mankind would be suspect of ignorance and influence. Mankind would cry for redemption. Mankind would know the power of the One outside of its most rational experience. Mankind would feel unable to face its inner being just yet. And as a result, Mankind would forever seek the healing salve that only Love could provide. Man and woman would live for total reconciliation with the parts of themselves that were harbored in the safe-keeping of the Great IAM.
But Mankind too, would know the lover of its soul. For Love was everywhere as God intended from the very start. Man would steadily grow to know the empowerment of the love inside himself. Man would steadily begin to know Oneness with all that IS. Man and woman would forever find eternity in the heart of God.
I haven't found this embryonic process exciting until lately. It took me learning many lessons about love and healing before I could be happy about all my life's experiences. I held so much disdain in my mind and heart because my soul had chosen a path that got serious during my childhood.
As a young being, my shoulders [my spirit] felt too slim to carry the burdens of the people around me. And yet I would try and try and try. My body-mind "picked up" [absorbed] the love and the unlove of others when I was very small---perhaps at the age of two. I am not sure really when it occurred; but, it did occur. I was an empath. I felt the power of the world around me as well as the world inside me. It was very unnerving!
I spent countless number of years sculpting my life into a masterpiece of depth and hunger. Was it any wonder that I gleaned so much pain from the surface of my being? I thought everything had to be studied and measured. I felt that everything must have profoundness and/or meaning. I could laugh. I could cry. I could do whatever as long as the depth of my emotions were meaningful and potent.
I learned the story and experience of Agape around the same time frame; but my many educations (spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, societal, etc.) quickly divised "a route" to sever my being's "umbilical cord" from its root.
Day after day I would learn the Way of Unlovingness. I would learn from my family, from my church, from my school, from my peers, classmates and friends, from country, and from the world around me. And, eventually, I would forget the tremendous pleasure and empowerment the Loving Way had to offer. Worst of all, in a reversed state of understanding---a darkened state of living that I gleaned from the Unlovingness my very self manufactured---I experienced perpetual lessons of doubt, shame, indifference, and unlovingness which cultivated a dark spirit to balance the inpenetrable highlights that clung to the love I still knew and fought for .
I was initiated in the path of Lilith. I began to perceive life through a ball of pain and suffering. Folk tradition: The Alphabet of Ben Sira is considered to be the oldest form of the story of Lilith as Adam's first wife. Whether this certain tradition is older is not known. Scholars tend to date Ben Sira between the 8th and 10th centuries. Its real author is anonymous, but it is falsely attributed to the sage Ben Sira. The amulets used against Lilith that were thought to derive from this tradition are in fact, dated as being much older.[38] The concept of Eve having a predecessor is not exclusive to Ben Sira, and is not a new concept, as it can be found in Genesis Rabbah.
However, the idea that Lilith was the predecessor is exclusive to Sira. According to Gershom Scholem, the author of the Zohar, R. Moses de Leon, was aware of the folk tradition of Lilith. He was also aware of another story, possibly older, that may be conflicting.[39]
The idea that Adam had a wife prior to Eve may have developed from an interpretation of the Book of Genesis and its dual creation accounts; while Genesis 2:22 describes God's creation of Eve from Adam's rib, an earlier passage, 1:27, already indicates that a woman had been made: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." The text places Lilith's creation after God's words in Genesis 2:18 that "it is not good for man to be alone". He forms Lilith out of the clay from which he made Adam, but the two bicker. Lilith claims that since she and Adam were created in the same way, they were equal, and she refuses to submit to him:
After God created Adam, who was alone, He said, 'It is not good for man to be alone.' He then created a woman for Adam, from the earth, as He had created Adam himself, and called her Lilith. Adam and Lilith immediately began to fight. She said, 'I will not lie below,' and he said, 'I will not lie beneath you, but only on top. For you are fit only to be in the bottom position, while I am to be the superior one.' Lilith responded, 'We are equal to each other inasmuch as we were both created from the earth.' But they would not listen to one another. When Lilith saw this, she pronounced the Ineffable Name and flew away into the air.Adam stood in prayer before his Creator: 'Sovereign of the universe!' he said, 'the woman you gave me has run away.' At once, the Holy One, blessed be He, sent these three angels Senoy, Sansenoy, and Semangelof, to bring her back.Said the Holy One to Adam, 'If she agrees to come back, what is made is good. If not, she must permit one hundred of her children to die every day.' The angels left God and pursued Lilith, whom they overtook in the midst of the sea, in the mighty waters wherein the Egyptians were destined to drown. They told her God's word, but she did not wish to return. The angels said, 'We shall drown you in the sea.’'Leave me!' she said. 'I was created only to cause sickness to infants. If the infant is male, I have dominion over him for eight days after his birth, and if female, for twenty days.’When the angels heard Lilith's words, they insisted she go back. But she swore to them by the name of the living and eternal God: 'Whenever I see you or your names or your forms in an amulet, I will have no power over that infant.' She also agreed to have one hundred of her children die every day.
Accordingly, every day one hundred demons perish, and for the same reason, we write the angels' names on the amulets of young children. When Lilith sees their names, she remembers her oath, and the child recovers.
The background and purpose of The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is unclear. It is a collection of stories about heroes of the Bible and Talmud, it may have been a collection of folk-tales, a refutation of Christian, Karaite, or other separatist movements; its content seems so offensive to contemporary Jews that it was even suggested that it could be an anti-Jewish satire,[40] although, in any case, the text was accepted by the Jewish mystics of medieval Germany.
The Alphabet of Ben-Sira is the earliest surviving source of the story, and the conception that Lilith was Adam's first wife became only widely known with the 17th century ‘‘Lexicon Talmudicum of Johannes Buxtorf.
An Armenian writer Avetik Isahakyan describes Lilit as Adam's first wife. However, here God created Lilit from fire and Adam from soil. Lilit did not like how Adam smelled like soil. In the end, she escaped with Satan in the shape of a snake. Only after that did God create Eve from Adam's bone, so that she would always be with him. "But though Adam's lips said Eve, his soul always echoed Lilith."[41]
In the folk tradition that arose in the early Middle Ages Lilith, a dominant female demon, became identified with Asmodeus, King of Demons, as his queen.[42] Asmodeus was already well known by this time because of the legends about him in the Talmud. Thus, the merging of Lilith and Asmodeus was inevitable.[43] The fecund myth of Lilith grew to include legends about another world and by some accounts this other world existed side by side with this one, Yenne Velt is Yiddish for this described "Other World". In this case Asmodeus and Lilith were believed to procreate demonic offspring endlessly and spread chaos at every turn.[44] Many disasters were blamed on both of them, causing wine to turn into vinegar, men to be impotent, women unable to give birth, and it was Lilith who was blamed for the loss of infant life. The presence of Lilith and her cohorts were considered very real at this time.
Two primary characteristics are seen in these legends about Lilith: Lilith as the incarnation of lust, causing men to be led astray, and Lilith as a child-killing witch, who strangles helpless neonates. Although these two aspects of the Lilith legend seemed to have evolved separately, there is hardly a tale where she encompasses both roles.[45] But the aspect of the witchlike role that Lilith plays broadens her archetype of the destructive side of witchcraft. Such stories are commonly found among Jewish folklore.[46]
One story tells of how a daughter of Lilith dwelling in a mirror came to possess a narcissistic young girl. A wife had bought a mirror and hung it in a room of her daughter. The mirror had been hung in a den of demons and a daughter of Lilith resided in it. Whenever the mirror was moved from the haunted house, the demoness within went with it. The girl spent a lot of time gazing at herself in the mirror, each time drawing closer and closer into Lilith's web. The daughter of Lilith watched the young girl's every movement. Biding her time, one day Lilith's daughter slipped out and possessed the girl through the eyes. Seizing control of the girl, Lilith's daughter dominated the girl's every move. Driven by the evil wishes and desires of Lilith's daughter, the girl became promiscuous and ran around with many men.[47]
It is said that every mirror is a passage into the Otherworld and leads to the cave that Lilith went to after she had abandoned Adam and Eden for all time. In this cave, Lilith takes up demon lovers, who father upon her multitudes of demons who flock from the cave and infest the world. When these demons want to return they simply enter the nearest mirror.[48]
"Many generations later, Lilith and Naamah came to Solomon's judgement seat, disguised as harlots of Jerusalem." [49]
Kabbalah: The major characteristics of Lilith were well developed by the end of the Talmudic period. Kabbalistic mysticism, therefore, established a relationship between her and deity. Six centuries elapsed between the Aramaic incantation texts that mention Lilith and the early Spanish Kabbalistic writings. In the 13 centuries, she reappears and her life history becomes known in greater mythological detail. [50]
Her creation is described in many alternative versions. One mentions her creation as being before Adam's, on the fifth day. Because the "living creature" with whose swarms God filled the waters was none other than Lilith. A similar version, related to the earlier Talmudic passages, recounts how Lilith was fashioned with the same substance as Adam, shortly before. A third alternative version states that God originally created Adam and Lilith in a manner that the female creature was contained in the male. Lilith's soul was lodged in the depths of the Great Abyss. When God called her, she joined Adam. After Adam's body was created a thousand souls from the Left (evil) side attempted to attach themselves to him. However, God drove them off. Adam was left lying as a body without a soul. Then a cloud descended and God commanded the earth to produce a living soul. This God breathed into Adam, who began to spring to life and his female was attached to his side. God separated the female from Adam's side. The female side was Lilith, whereupon she flew to the Cities of the Sea and attacks humankind. Yet another version claims that Lilith was not created by God, but emerged as a divine entity that was born spontaneously, either out of the Great Supernal Abyss or out of the power of an aspect of God (the Gevurah of Din). This aspect of God, one of his ten attributes (Sefirot), at its lowest manifestation has an affinity with the realm of evil and it is out of this that Lilith merged with Samael.[51]
An alternative story links Lilith with the creation of luminaries. The "first light", which is the light of Mercy (one of the Sefirot), appeared on the first day of creation when God said "Let there be light" This light became hidden and the Holiness became surrounded by a husk of evil.” A husk (q'lippa) was created around the brain" and this husk spread and brought out another husk, which was Lilith.[52]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith
Inner devastation would cause me to long burn with inequity. I learned how to feel unaccepted, unloved, angry, hurt, and venegeful very well.
But I knew this state as sin. And for many years I would believe that my very soul deserved its sense of condemnation because my forefather and my foremother, Adam and Eve, created eternal darkness outside the loving arms of the Holy Father begotten as the Son called Christ Jesus.
Ritually, I would devote myself to "mental and emotional flagellation" so that I would remember the "One True Reality of Life" as seen by the Christian Church. In other words, I would say, "I have sinned..." [Not once, not twice, but every service I attended. It was the deepest Mantra of my being. I would even use it at home in prayer and Bible study.]
And then, I would, further ritually, immerse myself in the absolution of Christ. And I would BE clean in every sense of the word.
I followed this Way of Sin and Cleanse until approximately 5-6 years ago.
My heart nearly died from the pain. I didn't get how freely love was available. I thought the Scripture that God had a plan for me included the ritual of owning my sin, wearing it on my sleeve and absolving the sin through the power of Christ Jesus. Every aspect of my life was "written" out in some bizarre pre-script. I had to be this. I had to be that. I accepted the shoulds and the woulds. I cried out at my creative urges. I shuttered at my natural ways and desires. I longed to understand God's mysteries. I thought way too much. I felt overwhelmingly burdened. Grace could not solve my mind's conundrums regarding Doctrine and Life. And I failed to receive the blessings I was given before birth.
I was angry. I was depressed. I nearly lost my will to BE. [Over and over!] I begged for mercy. I asked for help. I prayed in faith that was so large before me.
And then I breathed in some cool, crisp air. I was released into the land of knowing. Love was all around me. Love filled me to overflowing. I just needed to believe it into my being one breath at a time. And when I could not believe, I practiced something entirely new, compassion for myself. And love would finally penetrate my heart again and again and again.
Life is a process. Life is relationship. Life is God inspired and God begotten. My thoughts must always ease inside my inner world and then must be transformed into daily miracles. All I needed those many years was to trust my heart and then understand that learning how to love is a practice and a Way.
Each moment we experience life, we have an opportunity to co-create our being and our world into lovliness. But to do this effectively, we must accept the greater sense regarding love. We must accept its infinite wisdom. We must accept its course for our lives. We are creatures transformed at first from dirt. According to Protestant Scripture, we had life breathed into us and through us. We are special. Each of us has a Divine destiny, and our "lives" will continue to evolve until that destiny is reached.
This is paced just right. Every aspect of our being is perfect and in harmony with all that IS. We are wholeness. We are love itself.
As we begin to release all that we know so that we can be all that we already ARE, we will start to glow with our inherent power. Our protected snip-its of love will succumb to THE LOVE. We will exist together as One. But this is a path first and a right second. This comes in flows and ebbs. This comes one inspiration at a time.
I believe that we chose to learn our Ways through life.
Our genetic lines are rich with education. Sometimes we know successes just the way we expect to know them. Sometimes we fall down and have to get up again and then success is earned. Sometimes the successes we know are surprising. Sometimes there are no successes at all. But love remains nevertheless. Love is the Great I AM. Love needs nothing to make it absolutely perfect. It just IS.
And it IS EVERYWHERE ALWAYS.
Words are extremely important because they form thoughts. Thoughts create all that we see and do. If we remind ourselves over and over that we are sin first [that we are unworthy of being], we reap what we sow. We harvest pain and destruction followed by absolution if we are lucky enough to understand what absolution even means.
However, if we choose to believe we ARE LOVE first, last and always, we, again, will reap what we sow...a fruitful, ever-abundunt harvest!!!
I know Christ and I feel very rich for knowing Him as the man-God that walked the earth, was unjustly crucified, was buried, separated from God the Father in bodily and spiritual death, and rose from the dead so that He could share His "perfect" incarnation with His disciples before ascending to Heaven and leaving His Holy Spirit for every being in the world.
But I feel compelled to share my story of previous horror and dismay coupled with my story and current experience of Love and compassion.
Christ fills me with power. He fills me with Love because He IS LOVE. And I have, finally, remembered who I was in the beginning of time, and the beginning of my life as Joan: LOVE!!!
And so I now practice the art of Loving, the Way of Love and Compassion. I no longer am sin. I never was. Only in the illusion of Maya are we as men and women anything but LOVE. Believe it and receive it. Live your legacy, live awakened in the heart of God. Assume your rightful place in eternity!
Monday, March 17, 2008
Growing brave by reflection...
"It is easier to build strong children, than to repair broken men."
---Frederick Douglass
"We are born male. We must learn to be men. Remember, strength is a force. It is an attribute of the heart. Its opposite is not weakness and fear, but confusion, lack of clarity, and lack of sound intention. If you are able to discern the path with heart and follow it even when at the moment it seems wrong, then and only then are you strong. Remember the words of Tao te ching. 'The only true strength is a strength that people do not fear.' Strength based in force is a strength people fear. Strength based in love is a strength people crave."
---Kent Nerburn
"It is time to get back to basics, time to go back to nature and ourselves."
---Darina Stoyanova
"I love men who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection."
---Thomas Paine
"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."
---Woodrow Wilson
I suppose I have been studying men since I was a young child. I started with my father. Then I moved to study my growing brothers. And, eventually, I began to notice those I was not related to. My family was very strong as I grew. The boys and my father were all forces to be reckoned with. I had to buck up or suck up a lot.
However, I am not sure when I started noticing the frailties of men and boys. I am not sure when I started catering to the difficulties they lived with. My mom certainly groomed me to care for others, and since I came from a house full of boys, it was only natural that I cater to the male "species."
I enjoyed baking for my brothers. I enjoyed playing nurse-maid. I definitely liked playing mother hen. But, those joys quickly became problems for me when I began to date. Initially, I was attracted to boys just like my family members. I competed with each male I dated. If I was in debate class, I competed in the realm of debate. If I was being overlooked for some aspect of myself I liked, I competed to be seen and heard. Generally, this competition brought my life a lot of sorrow and frustration. But chemistry-wise, it manifested in the relationships as power and magnetic attraction.
The chemistry part kept me on board a relationship well beyond any point of healthiness. Early on, I couldn't figure out how to connect with "nice" boys and stay interested.
I am now 37, and I have experienced a lot of ups and downs in life. Especially in terms of relationships. My last long-term connection was fraught with chemistry, love, and a myriad of difficult times. We had everything against us from the beginning, but we determined to stick it out and try to make it work. It, of course, did not.
I have found that many men are so segmented that the idea of wholeness and healthiness is often some sort of far-fetched dream in the minds of our United States' community. One friend of mine, for example, was psychologically split into two major components: work and sex. He usually objectified women because he "was just" a package of parts and he assumed women should be viewed and treated just the same--- as breasts, legs, whatever. He would drive himself constantly, and by all intensive purposes, he matched what American society would call highly successful. But, I saw a man who was so far from healthy. I often worried about his happiness and his direction.
The unhealthiness doesn't seem to be religion-based or even sex-based. It seems to be conceptionally-based.
I was thinking about the subject this morning, and I stumbled upon some interesting information. We are said to be co-creators in life. I believe this premise. I, also, currently believe we attract what we think about and what we send vibrations out to the universe for. Sometimes we purposely direct our thoughts toward someone or something. One word for this is prayer. There are other words depending on your system of philosophy.
The world consists of pockets of energy ("thought forms" are a major type of such energy). The history of people has been saturated with pockets of energy and their movement throughout the world. The United States was created because of Manifest Destiny. Nazi Germany was created from a group think harnessed by Adolf Hitler. These are just two examples of how history was shaped from "thought forms."
So, now, consider this: If women and men are pitted against one another via a cultural clash that has been unfolding since the dawn of time, then how do you presume the energy of that action plays itself out? Right! Negatively. Manifestation of positive relationships is hindered by the constant insurge of negative belief systems regarding men and women.
So, we must stop and rethink. We must redirect our belief systems. We must shift the dynamics between men and women from a point of contention to a point of understanding. If we hear ourselves making flippant commentaries about the opposite sex, we must stop and reverse the thought. We must see the positive in every circumstance. If we cannot, we must seek help. If a friend seeks help from us, we must assist as we are able.
The other night, a friend of mine helped me reverse a possible negative moment. The moment wasn't about men and women. The moment was how I was going to handle my tomorrow. He simply said, "Repeat after me. Tomorrow will go smoothly." Those words were powerful!!! I was very grateful for his thoughtfulness in helping me think positively. In the past I have had great difficulty looking toward the silver lining. The silver lining used to feel like a horrible fairy tale that mocked me because of how I grew up.
Positive thoughts are energy that create change. Actually, thoughts are creations. So direct them positively rather than negatively.
Returning to my original thought, men and women were designed to be an interlocking force of greatness and beauty. We must think this point of origin into "re-being." When we get frustrated, we must stop and breathe. And as we exhale a time or two, we must think positive thoughts for men and women. Each negativity creates a wall we must learn to overcome somehow---some way. Breathe in the utmost positive thought for your opposite sex. Now, breathe it out.
Big changes can take time and work. But, if you believe in antagonistic viewpoints regarding your opposite sex, you shall surely reap what you sow and that---most likely---is tremendous pain and suffering.
Each day, make a positive affirmation about your relationship with the other sex. And then expect greatness to come from that affirmation. Trust in love to bloom and grow. It is possible. Believe it! Visualize yourself planting a seed each time you choose to turn a negative thought into a positive one.
---Frederick Douglass
"We are born male. We must learn to be men. Remember, strength is a force. It is an attribute of the heart. Its opposite is not weakness and fear, but confusion, lack of clarity, and lack of sound intention. If you are able to discern the path with heart and follow it even when at the moment it seems wrong, then and only then are you strong. Remember the words of Tao te ching. 'The only true strength is a strength that people do not fear.' Strength based in force is a strength people fear. Strength based in love is a strength people crave."
---Kent Nerburn
"It is time to get back to basics, time to go back to nature and ourselves."
---Darina Stoyanova
"I love men who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection."
---Thomas Paine
"We grow great by dreams. All big men are dreamers. They see things in the soft haze of a spring day or in the red fire of a long winter's evening. Some of us let these great dreams die, but others nourish and protect them; nurse them through bad days till they bring them to the sunshine and light which comes always to those who sincerely hope that their dreams will come true."
---Woodrow Wilson
I suppose I have been studying men since I was a young child. I started with my father. Then I moved to study my growing brothers. And, eventually, I began to notice those I was not related to. My family was very strong as I grew. The boys and my father were all forces to be reckoned with. I had to buck up or suck up a lot.
However, I am not sure when I started noticing the frailties of men and boys. I am not sure when I started catering to the difficulties they lived with. My mom certainly groomed me to care for others, and since I came from a house full of boys, it was only natural that I cater to the male "species."
I enjoyed baking for my brothers. I enjoyed playing nurse-maid. I definitely liked playing mother hen. But, those joys quickly became problems for me when I began to date. Initially, I was attracted to boys just like my family members. I competed with each male I dated. If I was in debate class, I competed in the realm of debate. If I was being overlooked for some aspect of myself I liked, I competed to be seen and heard. Generally, this competition brought my life a lot of sorrow and frustration. But chemistry-wise, it manifested in the relationships as power and magnetic attraction.
The chemistry part kept me on board a relationship well beyond any point of healthiness. Early on, I couldn't figure out how to connect with "nice" boys and stay interested.
I am now 37, and I have experienced a lot of ups and downs in life. Especially in terms of relationships. My last long-term connection was fraught with chemistry, love, and a myriad of difficult times. We had everything against us from the beginning, but we determined to stick it out and try to make it work. It, of course, did not.
I have found that many men are so segmented that the idea of wholeness and healthiness is often some sort of far-fetched dream in the minds of our United States' community. One friend of mine, for example, was psychologically split into two major components: work and sex. He usually objectified women because he "was just" a package of parts and he assumed women should be viewed and treated just the same--- as breasts, legs, whatever. He would drive himself constantly, and by all intensive purposes, he matched what American society would call highly successful. But, I saw a man who was so far from healthy. I often worried about his happiness and his direction.
The unhealthiness doesn't seem to be religion-based or even sex-based. It seems to be conceptionally-based.
I was thinking about the subject this morning, and I stumbled upon some interesting information. We are said to be co-creators in life. I believe this premise. I, also, currently believe we attract what we think about and what we send vibrations out to the universe for. Sometimes we purposely direct our thoughts toward someone or something. One word for this is prayer. There are other words depending on your system of philosophy.
The world consists of pockets of energy ("thought forms" are a major type of such energy). The history of people has been saturated with pockets of energy and their movement throughout the world. The United States was created because of Manifest Destiny. Nazi Germany was created from a group think harnessed by Adolf Hitler. These are just two examples of how history was shaped from "thought forms."
So, now, consider this: If women and men are pitted against one another via a cultural clash that has been unfolding since the dawn of time, then how do you presume the energy of that action plays itself out? Right! Negatively. Manifestation of positive relationships is hindered by the constant insurge of negative belief systems regarding men and women.
So, we must stop and rethink. We must redirect our belief systems. We must shift the dynamics between men and women from a point of contention to a point of understanding. If we hear ourselves making flippant commentaries about the opposite sex, we must stop and reverse the thought. We must see the positive in every circumstance. If we cannot, we must seek help. If a friend seeks help from us, we must assist as we are able.
The other night, a friend of mine helped me reverse a possible negative moment. The moment wasn't about men and women. The moment was how I was going to handle my tomorrow. He simply said, "Repeat after me. Tomorrow will go smoothly." Those words were powerful!!! I was very grateful for his thoughtfulness in helping me think positively. In the past I have had great difficulty looking toward the silver lining. The silver lining used to feel like a horrible fairy tale that mocked me because of how I grew up.
Positive thoughts are energy that create change. Actually, thoughts are creations. So direct them positively rather than negatively.
Returning to my original thought, men and women were designed to be an interlocking force of greatness and beauty. We must think this point of origin into "re-being." When we get frustrated, we must stop and breathe. And as we exhale a time or two, we must think positive thoughts for men and women. Each negativity creates a wall we must learn to overcome somehow---some way. Breathe in the utmost positive thought for your opposite sex. Now, breathe it out.
Big changes can take time and work. But, if you believe in antagonistic viewpoints regarding your opposite sex, you shall surely reap what you sow and that---most likely---is tremendous pain and suffering.
Each day, make a positive affirmation about your relationship with the other sex. And then expect greatness to come from that affirmation. Trust in love to bloom and grow. It is possible. Believe it! Visualize yourself planting a seed each time you choose to turn a negative thought into a positive one.
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