THE LOVE TESTAMENT

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" rowspan="2" width=210 BGCOLOR="#99CC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="2758dfc3.jpg"> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id25_10.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="THE CONSCIOUS TRANSFORMATION: Proof of C"><U><B>The Quest</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>THE CONSCIOUS TRANSFORMATION</B></div> <div> <B> </B><A HREF="id64_intro.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE=" TO WHICH WE BELONG"><U><B>Introduction</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>TO WHICH WE BELONG</B></div> <div>  [A Rallying Pamphlet] </div> <div> --------------------------------</div> <div> <B>   </B><A HREF="id26_m.htm#human_transcendence" TARGET="TRLX_Middle" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>The New Wisdom</B></U></A></div> <div> <B>HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <div> <B>A Love Wisdom</B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.studiesinmeaning.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.studiesinmeaning.com"><U><B>The New 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COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Calibri" ><B> </B></FONT></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=398 colspan=2 BGCOLOR="#CCCC99" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="2768dfc3.jpg"> <div>  <A NAME="human_transcendence"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></div> <div> <B>   HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <div> <B>   A LoveWisdom</B></div> <div> <B> </B></div> <div> <B><IMG SRC="309afb80.jpg" border=0 width="175" height="184" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><B>  </B><B><IMG SRC="30d17ba0.jpg" border=0 width="279" height="186" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#993300" FACE="Calibri" ><I><B> </B></I></FONT></div> <div> <I><B>                                                        Transform and Transcend</B></I></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> Written, Compiled & Edited</div> <div> By</div> <div> Joseph Sguigna</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>CONTENTS</B></div> <div> ____________________________________________________________________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="255" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 41 ><NOBR><div> <B>VOLUME ONE</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> <B>A CONTEMPLATIVE PERSON</B></div> <bR> <div> Written </div> <div> by</div> <div> Joseph Sguigna</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>PART ONE: The Way </B></div> <div> The <I>Wisdom</I><I> </I>Underlying Human-Transcendence</div> <bR> <div>   <A HREF="#introductory_thoughts_1" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Introductory Thoughts </U></A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#prelude" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>PRELUDE: A Voice in the Wilderness  </U></A>                            </div> <div>   <A HREF="#preliminary_thoughts_on_wisdom" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Preliminary Thoughts on Wisdom    </U></A>                          </div> <div>   <A HREF="#human_transcendence_a_love_wisdom" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Human-Transcendence: a Love-Wisdom</U></A>               </div> <div>   <A HREF="#the_psychology_of_humanness" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>The Psychology of Humanness     </U></A>                         </div> <div>   <A HREF="#the_philosophy_of_transcendence" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>The Philosophy of Transcendence</U></A></div> <div>   <A HREF="#human_trancendence_as_a_love_wisdom_of" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Human-Transcendence as a Love-Wisdom of Insecurity</U></A>        </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#part_two_the_source_3_" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>PART TWO: The Source </B></U></A></div> <div>  The <I>Love</I><I> </I>Underlying Human-Transcendence</div> <div>                </div> <div> <A HREF="#transcendent_love_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Transcendent Love </B></U></A><B> </B>(And Its Variants)                            </div> <div> <A HREF="#human_love_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Human Love</B></U></A><B> </B>(and its Variants)</div> <div>    Self-Love</div> <div>    Erotic Love</div> <div>    Vital Love</div> <div>    Nihilistic Love</div> <div> <A HREF="#human_transcendent_love_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Human-Transcendent Love</B></U></A><B> </B>(And Its Variants)</div> <div>    Humanistic Love</div> <div>    Ideal Love</div> <div>    Selfless Love</div> <div>    Mystic Love</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#part_three_the_meaning" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>PART THREE: The Meaning</B></U></A></div> <div> The Meaning Underlying Human-transcendence  </div> <div> <A HREF="#the_poetics_of_love" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>The Poetics of Love</U></A>                                  </div> <div> <A HREF="#unto_self_freedom_3__" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Unto Self-freedom  </U></A>  </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#part_four_the_wisdom" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>PART FOUR: The Wisdom</B></U></A></div> <div> The Wisdom of Love</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#councils_of_love_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Love Councils</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#the_word_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>The Word: Love</U></A></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>_____________________________________________________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="257" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 41 ><NOBR><div> <A HREF="#volume_two" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>VOLUME TWO</B></U></A></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <div> <B>A Love-Wisdom</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Eminent and Perceptive Persons</B></div> <div> Edited By</div> <div> Joseph Sguigna</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>CONTENTS</B></div> <div> _____________________________________________________________________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>PART ONE: The Way </B></div> <div> The <I>Wisdom </I>Underlying Human-Transcendence</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="#introduction_5" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Introduction </U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#some_contemporary_thoughts_of_wisdom" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U>Some Contemporary Thoughts on Wisdom</U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="#the_nature_of_wisdom_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>The Nature of Wisdom</B></U></A><B>    </B>                                        </div> <div> Ancient Perspectives</div> <div> Modern Perspectives</div> <div> <A HREF="#the_way_of_wisdom_3" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>The Way of Wisdom</B></U></A></div> <div> Ancient Perspectives</div> <div> Modern Perspectives</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <A HREF="#part_two_the_source_6" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>PART TWO: The Source</B></U></A></div> <div>  The <I>Love </I>Underlying Human-Transcendence </div> <div>               </div> <div> <A HREF="#transcendent_love_6" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Transcendent Love</B></U></A> (And Its Variants)                              </div> <div> <A HREF="#human_love_6" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Human Love</B></U></A> (And Its Variants)                                   </div> <div>     Self-Love</div> <div>     Erotic Love</div> <div>     Vital Love</div> <div>     Nihilistic Love</div> <div> <A HREF="#human_transcendent_love_7" TITLE="THE LOVE TESTAMENT"><U><B>Human-Transcendent Love</B></U></A><B> </B>(And its Variants)                                   </div> <div>     Humanistic Love</div> <div>     Ideal Love</div> <div>     Selfless Love</div> <div>     Mystic Love</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ==========================================================</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>VOLUME ONE</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A CONTEMPLATIVE PERSON</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="275" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 84 WIDTH="263"><div> <B>PART ONE: The Way</B></div> <div> <B> The </B><I><B>Wisdom </B></I><B>Underlying Human-Transcendence   </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#990033" FACE="Calibri" ><B> </B></FONT></div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4a5a3560.jpg" border=0 width="419" height="342" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Van Gogh</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="introductory_thoughts_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Introductory Thoughts</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>1</B></div> <bR> <div> We are in the midst of a conscious transformation – a transformation of consciousness that goes beyond knowing to understanding, beyond reason to intuition, beyond self-love to selfless-love; a transformation through a Love-wisdom: human-transcendence, leading to the ascendancy of justice and wisdom over injustice and ignorance.</div> <div> As our nature is both human and transcendent (flesh and spirit, self and soul, so to speak), each pitted one against the other, as it always seems, this human-transcendent Love-wisdom resolves this age-old conflict by having these two "antagonists" balanced into a relatively harmony – hence a conscious transformation.</div> <div> Underlying this wisdom is the unifying bond, or power, of Love that holds all things together in their proper place; so that rather than our humanness repelling our transcendence, and vice versa, each attracts one another in the right proportion, or tension, relative to the individual. </div> <div> This human-transcendent transformation, then, has wisdom as its guide, and Love [as the bond of unity] – (or Love, with a capital 'L') as its source.</div> <div> Human-Transcendence covers a wide range of human, transcendent, and human-transcendent observations of our complex humanity  moral and spiritual idealism, evil, our vulnerabilities, our various moods and inclinations, our frailties, our inner and outer conflicts, our insecurities, and so on.</div> <div> By pinpointing the array of our human complexities, this work helps us become acutely – not just vaguely – aware, and accepting of, the limitations of our humanness, the limitlessness and uplift of our transcendence, and the possibilities and refinements of our human-transcendence.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>2</B></div> <div> What is this conscious transformation in regards to wisdom?</div> <div> It is an expanding self-understanding that comes through a wisdom that balances our humanness with our transcendence. This wisdom plumbs the psychological essentials of our humanness in relation to the philosophical essentials of our transcendence. Both these essentials originate from the source of wisdom; namely, Love [as the bond of all unity].</div> <div> Transcendently speaking, we identify this bond of unity as the Meaning of unity, as an undivided, unmanifested whole: the oneness underlying all things, all reality. Spiritually speaking, we identify this bond of unity – Love – this meaning, this oneness, as God, or the Godhead, to be more precise.</div> <div> And since each of us – not to mention "things" – is an individual unity-complex, there is this aforementioned underlying bond that unifies us into this particular being, interrelationally part by part, so to speak. Hence we have our individual meaning in the scheme of things, are essentially Love, and so of oneness. Accordingly, in this sense, of Love, we are essentially God, are essentially the Godhead. And so, God is within us as It is within everything, unifying all being into infinite relationships. </div> <div> This "God within" paradigm is the cornerstone of the conscious transformation of which I speak; since it is the foremost living truth of our being – : that we are essentially the meaning, oneness, love, of all being. "God is love," as it has been handed down to us from all time and from all climes. And as God is love, so is love God.</div> <div> These grand statements, of course, have to be demonstrated as believable – hopefully true – beyond just words, however philosophically, poetically, even scientifically, convincingly stated. And the closest we can get to that truth is to experience Love and its results. It is a simple enough matter to experience and witness acts of love in our everyday lives. These, however, do not transport us to the ultimate oneness, the bond, of Love. Yet there is the experience of that ultimate oneness known as the mystic experience. Perhaps we have all experienced, momentarily, at least, that oneness to one degree or another. If we were to read of this ultimate experience from authoritative sources from all time and from all places, we would become more familiar with its reality; and so perhaps be convinced of that reality as being Love, God, Power; as being ourselves too as that Love, God, Power, even though we may not have experienced it.</div> <div> Having set down this evidence, the next stage would be to introduce the reader to the wisdom of this God- within reality; from which stage would follow the source of this wisdom, being Love.</div> <div> As a person gains this wisdom, that is, attains self-understanding, he becomes more receptive and sensitive to the truths, the Meaning, of human nature and of essential nature: Love.</div> <div> This conscious transformation happens through the contemplation and practice of these truths.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>3</B></div> <div> <B>The Call</B></div> <div>  I  want to be free! – The soul-cry of our age. </div> <div>      And what is this freedom that is so cried-out for? Not political freedom; assume we have that. Not personal freedom; assume we have that too. </div> <div>      Then what? Is it not freedom from our all-too-human self in its suffering and vulnerability, in its lusts and carnality, in its frailty and self-absorbtion? ...That's it! – the target for a type of individual whose eye is on his-her more-than-human self.</div> <div>      Such individuals are bothered, troubled, frustrated, even oppressed, by their humanness, regardless of their practicality, regardless of their social status, regardless of their age, regardless of their success, regardless of their biology; and however they attempt to assuage or  discount this eternal insignia of their (human) nature, they fail either comically or tragically. They feel severely limited compared to the limitless power they intuit inwardly.</div> <div>      Something more – much more – than their human side is discerned in their intuitive minds, call it what they might: soul, spirit, transcendence, nothingness, purity, oneness, eternity, Love, will. It is their God; not the God of the Jews, nor of the Christians, nor of the Mohammedans; but the God that resides in the inwardness of their minds – where they themselves, and everyone and everything else, are God,  are One! </div> <div>       Essence, Source, Power, Love, Meaning-whatever It may be called-of everything is that which resonates their being, whether they're in the glut of the mundane, or in the glow of transcendence,  or in the thrall of depravity.  It stays ever present, however distant we are from it – Knock! Knock! Knock!: always the knock, as D.H. Lawrence wrote of It.</div> <div>      From whence It comes, or why It strikes this or that individual so poignantly, so acutely, so profoundly,  remains as mysterious as Itself. But It cannot be denied  neither in the beginning nor  in the end.</div> <div>      And it is this Presence – this absent Presence, that inspires the cry for freedom in such individuals. This is what they mean when they cry out, I want to be free! Their freedom is to be in touch with It; to move with It; to live in, for, and by It. This is their freedom – their self-freedom: the freedom from the pull and push, the drag and jolt, the whim and crush, of their all-too-attached-self. Once freed from self, one then is in touch, in contact, in enlightenment, with one's eternal Transcendence; then weakness transforms into strength, lust into love, cowardice into courage, ego into humanity, and finally flesh into soul.</div> <div>      That is the ideal to which we aspire – and to which we will never fully, or even nearly fully, attain in this life; for how can we possibly be free in life when we are bound to natural necessity. That is the contradiction facing every individual who cries out, I want to be free! It is as much as crying out for God, or Purity – "Give me purity before all else!" (Wittgenstein) There is no attaining to, not to mention sustaining, It, God or Purity, or Soul -- or Freedom in this life. If there is any freedom in life it is the promise of death. And should death be Freedom-in its pure state then that is when we will attain it permanently, and not before.</div> <div>      But can we attain to a measure of self-freedom in this life? Can we approximate it? If the answer is no, that will make no difference to the warriors of self-freedom. Nothing will stop them; not even the impossible. They are convinced. They know  that freedom is in their mind – "God has put eternity in man's mind," saith the Bible. Their quest is to transmute that freedom in the mind to freedom in act, in consciousness. They want to, need to, must,  reach it; make it a living reality in their daily lives. But How?... How? And that is their struggle. And that is their tragedy. How very few of us throughout the ages have tapped this mine of Freedom. Yet there it is: ever in our minds...somewhere…somehow.</div> <div>      And if the answer is yes; then what? What do we do? Where's the way, the path, the guide? Have we not searched everywhere: all religions, all philosophies,  all wise men and women, all art, all mysteries? And we are still nowhere – except at the promise. Our mind says no; It says yes. It calls us on and on beyond ourselves into the dark of our mortal minds unto the light of our immortal being. </div> <div>      And this Call will not abide only a passive cross-legged, on your knees, meditative prayer for freedom from the human condition; it necessitates an engagement with the human condition – to enlighten not only yourself but your fellow man: if only one other human being.</div> <div>      And is this not the very thing so many of us want: to free ourselves from our own chains so that we can free others? Yet the inward struggle proves too exacting of us, not only  in the long run, but in the short run as well; so we turn outward to help others. We wear ourselves inside out. Our own freedom always seems so far off, so elusive; its efforts so tiring, so tedious, so hard! Just when we think we have it, it's gone. Or just when we think we can relax a little from it, it makes its demands once again. We can't free ourselves? Then let us free others! And so we sing our songs, write our books, paint our pictures; change the laws, feed the poor, expose corruption, minimize exploitation, dignify minorities – all good works, helpful, all heading toward the goal; yet always within the same old interminable rut of human psychology: – the right of justice and wisdom on the defensive against  the might of injustice and ignorance on the offensive.</div> <div>      Yet [I]t is given to us in our times to turn the tables on this tiresome, centuries-old state of affairs. A new psychology is needed in tandem with a new wisdom, to tip the scales in favor of justice and wisdom. Another book of  ideas alone will not do it. We need a book of an individual's mind and  will in struggle for a balance, a harmony, between his humanness and transcendence – for freedom from self-absorption opened to self-freedom. This person must stand as a living proof  a testimony, a witness, of not only the struggle but the achievement of this balance. And what is this balance? Freedom – self-freedom, to be precise, in which he lives the freedom to be himself at his optimum in relationship to others and to his transcendence.     </div> <div>      So what we have is a person who is in touch with his transcendence, and who aspires to, and struggles toward a balanced harmony with it in relationship to others. This is his freedom, his self-freedom for which his daily struggle is carried on; never attaining to its ideal, but ever advancing toward it.</div> <div>      Let me announce myself, the author, as this man, who after 35 years of innumerable searchings, trials and tribulations, has attained a measure of higher understanding enough to live by in sightings of the ideal of Love.</div> <div>      Let my experiences infuse with those who are of like mind so that our numbers increase many-fold in the years to come, so that we transform not only ourselves but society into warriors for justice and wisdom unto freedom – self-freedom.</div> <div>      Let us begin with self-understanding – deep understanding toward higher understanding. It is through self-understanding that we will aim us toward the freedom that we cry out for from our depths and our heights.</div> <div> <B>…</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4a11ed70.jpg" border=0 width="286" height="215" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="prelude"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>Prelude</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>1</B></div> <bR> <div>      Rejoice! I, Koheleth, teach a new wisdom imparted from the old. Hear me you seekers, you aspirants, you despairers, you world-wearied ones, you tortured of soul, you psychically damaged victims. Heed me well. Vanity of vanities! All is vanity, and a chase after wind – as I taught in ages gone by. </div> <div>     But now the dawn breaks over the dark of these tense and anxious times to radiate with full splendor within the mind of man an inner vision, a living presence, of a truth organic to his being. </div> <div>      I renew my plaintive sigh for suffering, dispirited mankind; but now with resplendent beams of hope with which to dispel the shades of his groping self.</div> <div>     Yes! There is found a way for contemporary man out of his malaise, a way for him to love the earth, to love the rich flow of his blood, without being victimized by them; a way to a consciousness of finer realities through the lush forest of the coarse and the ugly and the grotesque. </div> <div>     Listen to my words, my son, my daughter; let them sink deep into you, leaving you renewed, refreshed, in the bath of self-freedom.</div> <div>     Not immortality do I teach; not heaven nor hell; not sin nor purity; not rebirth nor resurrection; – no, not even God do I teach! Wisdom is what I teach; a wisdom that balances man’s humanness with his transcendence – a human-transcendent wisdom; through which all things fall into place, into proper perspective. Having reached the fullness of one’s humanity, all need of faith and hope and belief dissolves of itself.</div> <div>     Once again, for the sake of this new age, do I refrain that nothing is new under the sun; all is eternal occurrence. And so I speak not of new truths, of which there are none, but of the eternal truths of existence, viewed in a new and fuller dimension through which skeptical, trembling man might glean some understanding.</div> <div>      Of a higher and deeper reality do I teach so to bathe your troubled souls with soothing consolation; but not without the boldness of spirit to nobly accept life’s inevitable occurrences. </div> <div>     Come, let your woe be turned to joy, your failings to victories, your fears to daring. I invite you to grow with me to maturity into your inward sanctuary of the Transcendence of all that is. Tranquil pleasures, inner peace, are what we seek; compassion as well as passion; affection as well as desire. I not only affirm life, but affirm <I>more </I>life, which is to be found in the illumined consciousness of a transcendent Reality inherent to phenomenal being.</div> <div>     Not indifference, not passivity, not withdrawal, not acquiescence, do I endorse; but rather robust, ennobling, spirited life both inwardly and outwardly. I wish not so much to enlighten as to edify, and to warm the heart.</div> <div>     Let us then look into the secret breast of man and woman; let us see them as they really are both in their individual and collective nature, and not as they <I>seem </I>to be or <I>should </I>be. Let us enter the variegated corridors of human nature, and there we will unravel the mysteries of man’s inmost feelings, needs, fears, desires, yearnings. Having once detected the tumor of his spiritual malaise, we can then excise it with the salve of holy understanding.</div> <div>      </div> <div>   </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>2</B></div> <bR> <div>     What is man but an ever-turning wheel of opposing factions; a kaleidoscope of shifting moods and impressions! No sooner is he satisfied than his restless mind is on the wind again. Change is rooted to his very nature: </div> <div>    now desiring, then satiated; </div> <div>    now of the spirit, then of the senses;</div> <div>    now loving, then hating;</div> <div>    now calm, then enraged;</div> <div>    now fervent in interest, then cool in indifference;</div> <div>    now devout, then profane;</div> <div>    one time in need of attention, another time only solitude will do;</div> <div>    one time optimistic, another time pessimistic;</div> <div>    malice rules his breast as does kindness;</div> <div>    no sooner is he tingling with pleasure than his soul is steeped in disgust;</div> <div>    now is he compassionate, then see him aflame with passion;</div> <div>    how self-assured he is today, how racked in doubt tomorrow;</div> <div>    inspired today, barren tomorrow;</div> <div>    now at peace with himself, then back to his wild dogs;</div> <div>    now serious, then given to folly;</div> <div>    now he admires, then he disrespects;</div> <div>    now pleasant, then disagreeable…and on and on.</div> <bR> <div>     What are we to make of this wonder of the universe, this ‘paragon of animals,’ this monster of cruelty? Is he ever to be content? Must he ever be excessively desiring, needing, fearing, doubting, resenting, lusting, fighting? Can he never be at peace with himself and with others? Why so easily offended, so easily slighted? Must his turn of mind ever be judgmental and faultfinding? Must he ever be judging, hurting, spiting, backbiting? Why must he always be right? Why always on the edge of anger, despair, depression? Why is he never content for long, and why as quick to irritability as he is to revenge? How deep must we probe before striking his precious vein of goodness, of love in all its variants. </div> <div>     Is it desirable that man be solely good, or must he also be tinged with a touch of evil?</div> <div>     But, I ask, is man essentially good or is he essentially evil? Or is he essentially both? – or essentially neither? Or is he essentially nothing but what he makes of himself? This we must ponder.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>3</B></div> <bR> <div>      These are the searching questions I pondered over man for a good many years, and have not found my enquiries in vain. Much understanding have I gleaned of man in his manifold ways and guises and secret yearnings; and in this understanding shines the wisdom of the ages, the eternal wisdom, as a warming, enlightening potion to be administered to the needs of our times, to the skeptical man, to the material man, to the doubting man, to the perplexed man, who yet continues to yearn for higher, more, consciousness, than that of his ephemeral self-consciousness.</div> <div>     Freedom I have to offer; but freedom with understanding and peace, with compassion and affection, with strength and nobleness. The freedom of manliness, far beyond the mere male, the masculine, the freedom of womanliness, far beyond the mere female, the feminine, is the freedom I give. </div> <div>     Come, let your life begin to take on meaning – and your death as well! Come, gain understanding of yourself – your true self, and of others; and you will be better able to live with yourself and with others.</div> <div>     Fragmented man we will now survey in the vanity of his existence and self-strivings, and come to see what little profit man has from all his labor under the sun, and the truth that all is vanity and a chase after wind – except that man know himself in the true nature of his being!</div> <div>     Man is to rise above the vanity of his existence so that he may harness himself to the wisdom of his life: to the ineffable source of, or reason for, his sense of truth, beauty, goodness, and love. Is such a union possible? Let us embark upon our odyssey beginning first with man immersed in and for his self-striving world, and next with man in his gradual ascent of the mount of his highest vision; and then will our answer begin to unfold. </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>4</B></div> <bR> <div>     Among men and women have I lived these many years, and have witnessed their various ways and byways, their surfaces and depths, their desires and needs, their passions and impulses, and have concluded about man on earth that all is self and a craving for stimulation; from whence issue all the good and the evil in the lives of men and women. Desire and passion are their boon and bane, their pleasure and pain, their joy and suffering, their gain and loss.</div> <div>    Pleasure, profit, power, prestige, are what man seeks, and all else comes secondary – yes, including even the erotic, and friendship; these he needs emotionally as his body needs nourishment; but just as the body requires more than just food for the maintenance of its strength and health, so does the soul, the psyche, of man require more than the erotic, and friendship for the gratification of its strivings and cravings.</div> <div>    That man collectively is not an admirable biped is a tale long told and wearisome to hear; that he has moments of glory and grandeur, of self-sacrifice and heroism, of beauty and purity, need not be reiterated further by me; that he is a victim is also a tiresome theme that has long run its course, and need not be belabored further by my pen. But that man is a creature of his needs and shifting moods, of his human and individual nature, of his transcendence beyond his “I”, this is the theme in need of elaboration by which to view him in proper perspective: the perspective that from the all-too-human side of his nature, he is ever bound to his creature self; but that from his more-than-human side, he is ever free in the bracing atmosphere of his transcendent self. This is the theme through which I revolve my argument that man is to find himself  as more, much more, than his all-too-human self; not that he should disintegrate his all-too-human self, but that he should strengthen it, refine it, be less vulnerable to it, less victimized by it; in sum, that he should balance it with his transcendence.</div> <div>     Of a particular type of person do I lend my voice, who in his perplexity, his doubt, his skepticism, his fear and trembling, his anguish, is nevertheless in search of  meaning, of integrity, peace and self-freedom.</div> <div>     For such an individual, reason must be harmonized with feeling, facts with the rationale of such facts, concepts with intuition, freedom with responsibility, gentleness with strength of will, matter with mind. Freedom for him must not be a flight to otherworldliness; it must be a balance between life and existence, between reality and ideality, between his humanness and his transcendence.</div> <div>     Man in search of himself must first understand man as man in his humanity, in his humanness right down to his core; and best this understanding comes by understanding oneself – “Know thyself,” advised the wise Socrates.</div> <div>     Yet to know oneself is to cross stormy seas, to track through barren wastelands, to scale forbidding peaks, to descend to subterranean caves, to face fire-belching dragons of one’s frightful self. Are you up to it? Can you brave the journey to its exalted end? Are you a warrior of the soul. If you are, then join me in my own trek through the lush jungle of my soul through which I observed and examined myself: my not too admirable self, my not too self-sufficient self. Having come to myself in all its sundry aspects, better have I been able to live with myself, better am I able to live with others, better am I able to enjoy life as it is.</div> <div>     Come, my friends, dare to know! You will not die, you will not collapse in “fear and trembling,” you will not come to hate, nor lacerate yourself with guilt and shame. After all, you are human, as we all are with all nature’s elements residing in us Remember the ancient Roman’s truism: "I am human; nothing human is foreign to me.” </div> <div>    So, my good friends, rise above yourselves so to gain more understanding, more love, more virtue, more strength, more life. Follow my experiences, my observations of man in his vanity, in his wants and needs, in his pleasures and pains, in his vulnerabilities, and possibilities, from whence will emerge the new man, the new woman.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>5</B></div> <bR> <div>     I, Koheleth, applied my mind to search and investigate all things man is capable of under the radiant sun; and behold, found that man in his humanness is lover of self and of stimulation preferably; and that only periodically is he lover of transcendent intangibles which alone give full meaning to his existence, which alone raise his spirit in wonder and bliss. </div> <div>     A leader of men and events, yet is he himself governed by his impulses of desire and passion and possessions. </div> <div>     A lover of beauty yet is he drawn into the whirlpool of sordid, unabshed pleasures. </div> <div>     Humble is he at times, yet proud in his humility. </div> <div>     Strong in intent, but weak is he of will. </div> <div>     Freedom is what he longs for, but bondage is what he craves, and from which he dreads to be released</div> <div>     – the very release of which he aspires!  </div> <div>     Paradoxical is this striving, craving, creature, man, grunting under the living sun! </div> <div>     I saw men and women desperate for success; and I asked myself, why?</div> <div>     I saw men desperate to love and be loved; and I asked myself, why? </div> <div>     I saw men and women of a wise stamp turn into fools just to be accepted; and I wondered exceedingly.</div> <div>     I saw all the wrongs man has perpetrated against his fellow man just so he be right, just so he does not lose face, just so he wields a measure of power; and I asked myself, why?</div> <div>     From the wealthy and the powerful, I learned that their need for recognition motivated their interest in wealth and power; and I asked myself, why?</div> <div>     I have known men and women to prematurely age and decline for no other reason than inactivity and no longer being needed; and I wondered exceedingly.</div> <div>     Among the various peoples I have learned that the predominating motive for, and in, war is individual ambition; and this has taught me much about man in his strivings under the sun.</div> <div>     I have witnessed good men turn bad for the sole purpose of approval and acceptance of his fellow men; and I sympathized deeply for his inner suffering.</div> <div>     I myself have done many foolish and reprehensible things in my vain life to gratify my sensuality and appetites, to assuage my fears and needs, to secure myself-esteem, to gain respect and recognition; and I marveled at my vulnerabilities despite my seeming strengths and assurances.</div> <div>     For many long years my appetites, desires, passions, and self-love ruled me mercilessly; and I loved my sensual-self; but too frequently regretted their after-effects. And I suffered in my sensuality and in my self-love, but would not let them go lest I lose my masculinity, my manhood – so I thought in my foolish, vain days of youth. The religion of my fathers instilled guilt and sin in me for the enjoyments of my sensual, sexual, loving self; and I desponded.</div> <div>     But, then came the day when I grew out of the religion of my fathers and no longer was conscience-stricken for enjoying the pleasures of my sensual, sexual, loved self; no longer feared the judgment of an all-seeing God “up there.” I came to accept my ego-sensuality, its boon and bane, without guilt or shame riveting my mind. </div> <div>     Yes, no longer did I suffer religiously for my sensual indulgences, for my self-loving. But now I had myself to answer for them. I discovered to my dismay that my ego-sensuality distanced me from my transcendent leanings; and in consequence of my indulgences, I felt disoriented, less a man. It was now my humanness, not religion, that shamed me. I suffered and sighed for my transcendence.</div> <div>     I then took upon myself an inner search for the reasons why my sensual and loved self caused me more sorrow than delight. And so deeper I burrowed into myself, and into the hearts and souls of men and women, and lo! I discovered the scourge of man in his groping here under the radiant sun – : fear!; fear of physical pain without titillating pleasures; fear of mental pain without the anchor of his ego-sensual strivings. </div> <div>     Now armed with a fuller understanding of man’s condition under the heated sun, I betook myself to further investigation of his grunting and sweating under his tripartite scourge of desires and passions and fears; and this is what I found.</div> <div>     I found man above all in psychological need of being needed, and that in truth all other emotional needs were sublimated to this one over-riding need. Yes, even for many, his need to be loved! And to satisfy this need, I found man susceptible to many meanderings, many evils, many fears and insecurities, much folly, much suffering; even madness. I found men and women crazed, starved, for affection, drunk with power, sunk in perversions, dazed in fantasies, busy in greed, attached to possessions, susceptible to flattery, ruthless in ambition, crazed for praise, frantic in loneliness, faultfinding, plagued by what others think of us, quick to resentments and driven to suicide, induced to cruelty and impelled to rule and manipulate, steeped in pride, given to viciousness. I saw them attempt the improbable, I saw them dazzled by illusion and delusion, the impossible. I saw them crippled emotionally. I looked upon all the injustices committed by man, but the mortal fear of not being needed: his need for meaning; to be of importance; to be accepted, respected, admired, liked, loved – if not by one or few others, then by everyone!</div> <div>      Countless other complexities of behavior have I witnessed men on earth subjected to, or subject others to, all a reflection of his need to be needed; and I wondered exceedingly that he should be termed primarily a sexual being! I have known men and women to take their lives even in early youth, for no other reason than that they felt no longer needed: no longer of worth or meaning, either to themselves or to others or because of personal honor. I have known of crimes and outrages committed for no other reason than to be noticed, recognized, accepted, admired; to belong to one’s peers. I have seen men and women reject or repel love for personal honor, for power, for acceptance by their fellows. I have witnessed countless lives ruined for no other reason than parental rejection, or parental dependence. I have seen the pursuit of power and possessions, and wealth, and honor, and fame, destroy marriages and families and friendships. I have known men and women who lived against their conscience and better judgment merely for the plaudits of the crowd. I came to understand the intricacies of sexual behavior, and found them to be more a result of psychology than physiology: more a result of emotional needs than physical needs. I witnessed men and women using rather than gratifying each other for their own personal ends and fantasies and ego-strivings. I saw men and women aroused to mating more for enhancement of their self-image than of their sexual needs.</div> <div>     Yes, I was not blind to the fact that Nature’s secret chamber of chambers was that humankind propagate itself, and that all else, human and animal, issued from that one impulse. As She designed the make peacock with its array of feathers to captivate the female for propagation, so she designed mankind’s ego-sensuality array for that same purpose. Yet I learned that man was more than his ego array, more than his sensual-sensuous-sexual array; that his self superseded his ego-sensuality, that it encompassed psychological and transcendent needs that defined his humanity, his living existence. Man must work and relax, man must create and destroy, man must thrill and despond, man must know and understand, please and be pleased, man must need and want, must feel pleasure and pain, must love and hate – and so must contend and harmonize the opposites rife in life.</div> <div>     No, man is more, so much more than his sexual-erotic nature, however it may dominate his life – and dominate his life it does for the majority of our race. And, so from that vantage point, I concluded that man’s sexual needs are more as a means than as an end: a means toward self-importance, toward the security of being loved, of belonging or possessing another, of being needed. </div> <div>    With this new understanding of man’s need to be needed, I marveled exceedingly that man has of late been classed as primarily a sexual being!</div> <div>    But I probed further into this new finding that man was essentially in need of being needed lest I overlook the all-pervading power of sexual love, and lo, I found that sexual love is but one important aspect of man’s existence on this earth, not the important aspect! And further I discovered that this aspect is primarily a youthful phenomenon in which to propagate our human race which in midway of our life is transformed into a phenomenon in support of our emotional well-being: as relief from tensions, as supportive of our self-image, as a means of putting meaning into our lives – as supportive of our need to be needed.</div> <div>    And, behold, I even discovered that our need to be loved is a reflection of our need to be needed. For I knew that if I were to be loved by another, I was needed; and if I were needed, I was important; and being important, my life had meaning; and that my life had meaning meant I was secure from the ravages of loneliness and aloneness which can lead us invariably to desperate acts, to disoriented states of mind. Being loved by another, I was cared for, belonged to someone, had someone of my own – was in an emotional affectionate bond of unity with another human being. I was not alone, and so not estranged from my self. I was a well-balanced, integrated individual who meant something to someone, and so was needed, and so was secure, and so was contented. I loved her as complementary to myself, and so was bound as one with her; she fulfilled my need to be needed. But I found that so long as my love resulted from my self-need, my love was not truly love, but need. Love, I told myself, must be more than a self-directed need; but at the time I knew not what love could otherwise be.</div> <div>     I learned that as human love, in its transcendent aspect, involved compassion and affection, and that many unfortunates cannot love in this way or are not loved in  this way; their psyches resort to a psychological turn of mind in needing to be needed than to be loved; it was like, “if I can't, nor am inclined to be loved, then I will be needed.”</div> <div>     This also I learned of the love-need among men and women toiling under the heavens: that what they claimed to love was what they really needed for their personal security. I have heard men claim love of God, and to love for Him, when what they meant was that they needed God for their inner security. I have known men who claim to love mankind, and who dedicate themselves to good works, when what they meant was that they needed to love mankind for their inner security. I have heard men expound their love of knowledge and beauty and creativity, and I knew in my heart that they needed to love these for their inner security.</div> <div>    And I knew that this inner security imparted to them inner power of pride and self-possession. I knew that self-possession to be a necessity to vulnerable man under the heavens, and so to be secured whatever the price, whatever the deed – whatever was to be loved! All these aspects of man I witnessed and knew myself to be as susceptible in my own way as the next man.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>6</B></div> <bR> <div>     No, I did not see that the evil men do is necessarily evil inherent in man as a whole! Yes, there are those given to evil most naturally as I had encountered more than enough in my worried, turbulent life; but more often than not, I saw good men become evil. I saw need; I saw fear; I saw appetite, desire and passion! I saw his physical and emotional needs ruling him. I saw his physical and emotional fears pursuing him. I saw him governed by his appetites, and desires and passions in his need of being needed. I saw self and the craving for sensation, and the fear of negation of either. I saw a pitiably, insecure soul in man, and I no longer wondered at or judged his vagaries and cruelties under the heavens. I saw him more as a victim than master of himself. I saw him driven by the gusts of his natural inclinations and his fears, I saw him scourged and maddened by jealousy; and I despaired exceedingly that there was little hope for man to become master of himself and of his destiny. I believed in man, and so believed in hope for him. But to my sorrow, I not only saw men and women driven and subjected by the insufferable natural conditions given  to every man being of human nature – for I have seen and heard of many who have conquered these; but I saw also men and women subjected and driven by their own individual nature, unable or concerned to rise above their lower selves to the noble acceptance of life. I despaired what I thought in my mind that many are destined to be lost souls. Why, I asked myself, will one person take to moral or wise exhortation, and not another person though you brand it into his brain? To attempt an answer to this perplexing enigma, I took myself to deeper investigations into the human factor, and learned of the following truths.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>7</B></div> <bR> <div>     Among the sons of men I lived for many years and was bewildered by the sundry diversities of attitude and behavior. I applied my mind diligently to seek a common pattern governing men’s actions, but was unable to find one. But then I turned my sights in upon myself seeking a frame of reference determining my own behavior and attitude behind my appetites, desires, and passions, behind my fears and need to be needed. And what I found was an unchangeable character, my own individual nature which was the center of all that I was, and which has not changed during all my checkered life. In many ways have I altered my mode of life and thought, much have I learned and matured, but always accompanying these various alterations, was my identifying center that made me inclined to whatever modifications my character underwent.</div> <div>    Ever I remained, Koheleth, the unique individual man of a type of nature receptive, vulnerable, repelled, impressionable, unimpressionable to the various experiences to which my mind and character were exposed.</div> <div>    I viewed my life in it panorama of events and growth and maturity and understanding and character development, and discovered of myself a particular type of nature: one of sensibility, of a reflective cast of mind. Energetic, vital, and daring I was; yet always with a touch of modest reserve. These I discovered are as much a part of me as is my physical stature, and that I could no more change than my height. These and other states of mind are me, are the psychological counterparts of my physiology which make up the unique me, without which I would not be myself.</div> <div>    Though subject to my lusts, I preferred continence. Though subject to my desires and passions, and so impelled to lies, dishonesty, inconsideration, anger, stinginess, I was nevertheless inclined toward justice. Though subject to my selfish ends, I was nevertheless inclined to the welfare of others. Though passionate, I was inclined toward compassion. All these inclinations are as much features of my mind and character as my facial features. They are me and I am them. </div> <div>    As another man loved physical prowess, I loved mental prowess. Given the opportunity, my mind took easily, lovingly, to knowledge and understanding. As another man must climb a mountain, or sail the sea, so must I seek and love on the alpine peaks of intellect, wisdom, beauty, spirit. Amidst all my alterations of mind and character, never has my central nature been adverse or indifferent to the call of glorious wisdom.</div> <div>     Though much of a reprobate in my fiery youth, ever did my moral character – offshoot of my individual nature – suffer in conscience and yearn for nobleness. Always when I wronged myself or others. I suffered tenfold for my wretchedness. Never could I be offhand or casual to the inner demands of my moral character. This I know of myself since the dawn of my reason. I saw others free from guilt of conscience in their injustices, who even preened themselves for their injustices and lusts; and at one time I envied them their carefree ways – so I thought them in my foolish youth. I attempted to emulate them in their wrongs hoping to be free of all restrictions, but never was to succeed.</div> <div>     Much was I ridiculed and scoffed at, and pitied that I could not give way easily to the “way of all flesh.” An idealistic soul in a materialistic milieu is one destined to suffer many humiliations. And so he attempts to conform, and suffers more; but his need to be accepted outweighs his resistance to assert his individuality, his idealistic yearnings. But I secretly knew of myself that as much as I conformed to foreign patterns of behavior, just so much I remained my innately true self. Given the least opportunity, I rebelled against artificial oppressions against my innate self; and though I suffered in loneliness and by rejection, I stayed true to myself even in spite of myself. I could act no other way. I was destined to act out my true and demanding self, though very much stifled by social conventions. </div> <div>    Fortune shone on me, for I found a loving friend and companion who perceived my starving self submerged by untoward conventions and attitudes foreign to it. And behold! With her faith and guidance brought me to my true self, free from all my other superficial, social selves.</div> <div>     And so with love and guidance, knowledge and understanding, moral development, I came to know my true, inner self free from its artificial bindings – my innate, unchangeable self which, though for many years stifled,  still governed me unknowingly; governed me in that I was always, primarily of a soft and gentle disposition, and this, no extent of social conditioning or threat could have changed, however it may have thwarted or modified this disposition.       </div> <div>     Being predominantly of a soft, gentle, quiet, retiring nature, how could I radically change to an opposite, hard, coarse, loud, outgoing nature except by some overpowering force? Even if such a force did alter my basic disposition, still it could only be an artificial, temporary change without intrinsically changing me; for me to intrinsically change, my nervous system would have to be reordered.</div> <div>     So, I am who I am, and who I have always been, though in a less developed stage of development. For though my basic disposition remains ever the same, it still is subject to modifications of mental and character developments, or even retrogressions.</div> <div>    </div> <div>                           </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>8</B></div> <bR> <div>     Having learned of my innate, unchanging moral character, and that I was predominantly of a soft nature, I betook myself to compare and contrast my nature with those of others, and found myself confronted with a prodigious task; but have since  arrived at some finding which have not only enlightened me in the under- standing of intricate human nature, but in this understanding, have bettered my relationship with those of whom I applied this enlightened understanding; which has proved to me the validity of my findings.</div> <div>     Of my observations of groping mankind under the ever-turning wheel of night and day, I saw men and women of innumerable types, some of noble souls, and others craven souls; some of spirited temperament; some of delicate sensitivity and others of raw crudeness; some gross but gentle, others refined but coarse; some moral-minded, and others far removed from a moral sense. I knew of unscrupulous opportunists, and of uncompromising idealists; I knew of men and women with cruel and dominant streaks in their nature, and men and women of benevolent and accommodating natures. I have known those of a warm and engaging personality, and those whose personalities were cold and distant. Some have impressed me as preeminently selfish, and others as preeminently selfless. I have encountered those concerned only for ambition, and those only for aspiration; those concerned only with that is, and what ought to be for them, and those concerned with primarily what ought to be for the good of all, and those who live only for pleasure wherever they can get it.</div> <div>      After much cataloging of the motley characteristics of intricate man, I discovered, to the delight of my understanding, a fundamental pattern of two opposing traits in the nature of man; that of a soft nature, and that of a hard nature! What under the predominantly soft nature, one set of characteristics predominated; and under the predominantly hard nature, another opposing set of characteristics predominated. This I learned: that no one person is wholly soft nor wholly hard, but predominantly one or the other. This also I learned: that one of a soft nature was of a more impressionable, pliable, receptive cast, as is soft wax; whereas just the opposite applied to the hard-natured individual, as is hardened wax.</div> <div>     With this new understanding, my eyes and mind went searching for comparisons and contrasts in these dual natures of men and women, and made the following observations: that a type of person was impenetrable to moral exhortation, and he, I termed predominantly hard-natured being unimpressionable to the principles of justice and the feelings of compassion and affection.</div> <div>     That a type of person was predominantly self-directed and so inclined toward the traits of arrogance, aggression, avarice, antagonism, ruthlessness, shamelessness, cold-heartedness, expeditiousness, injustice, meanness, superciliousness, worldly, inflexibility, amorality.</div> <div>     That a type of person though self-directed too, yet nonetheless strongly other-directed, and so naturally inclined toward the traits of benevolence, kindness, compassion, empathy, sympathy, affection, justice, even-temper, consideration, moral-minded.</div> <div>     And from these contrasting natures, I learned that an extreme of hardness or softness leads to weakness and vulnerability; that the over-soft individual is as susceptible to inhumanness as is the overly hard individual; that for a well-balanced nature, one needs a proper balance of both hardness and softness, but that always one or the other predominated in a man or woman.</div> <div>     Having come to recognize the innate and unchanging nature in men and women, and that one’s nature was predominantly hard or soft, I searched into myself and discovered the basis of my own nature, which without question was predominantly soft. All the traits I ascribed to the soft natured soul I found in me more or less. I found also that the softness of my nature was fairly tempered by the hardness of my male elements. I learned of myself that I was neither too good nor too bad; self-engrossed but not oblivious to the feelings or concerns of others; passionate, but not without compassion nor affection; sensual, but not disinclined toward virtue; ambitious but not ruthlessly.</div> <div>     I recognized the dualities in me, the dualities of my soft and hard counterparts; but always, even in my worst moments, I recognized the better, more refined, part of my soft nature, that part which continued to strive for a higher more noble existence. I knew my softness was not weakness, but was malleable as gold under fire; that it was this malleability that made it possible for my soul to be strong in its weakness, in its vulnerability, in its impressionability, in its susceptibilities. I would be hard against my weakness, and it was my softness that made this hardness possible.</div> <div>     And with this new understanding of human nature, of its innateness and unchangeableness, of its soft and hard counterparts, I realized what it was that would nor could ever change in me, that it was my moral character which sprung from my basic soft nature resultant of my unique temperament and constitution founded on the physiology of my nerve cells and chemistry. I found, after deep reflection, that though my moral character changes exteriorly in my actions and attitudes, it does not change interiorly. For its center is this peculiar extent of my receptivity to the unity of human nature, and this receptivity determines the extent of my sense of justice, sympathetic sensibility and selflessness, which I can sum up in the one beautiful word love.</div> <div>     Understanding myself thus, I now looked about at others expecting to see the same order whether of softness or of hardness. I thus found myself faced with prodigious difficulties, for it was not simple matter to determine whether one person was basically hard or basically soft; since society had the insidious tendency to harden and submerge the soft-hearted. I found that unless one had immense inner resources, and, or, fortunate upbringing, to show one’s softness was to make one too vulnerable to the will of others; and so one hardened himself to his finer sensibilities, and sensitivities.</div> <div>     I learned that many hid behind false masks so to protect themselves from the predators, the ridiculers, the militants; and that in most cases, it was invariably impossible to reach into the secret well of another’s deepest and truest self; that to possibly learn of the true self of another, one had to know that person intimately; which the opportunity for such intimacy  and trust is incredibly slim.</div> <div>     But I came to learn the signs of one or the other nature: that a predominantly soft natured person invariably showed signs of a moral, sympathetic, gentle sensibility; and that the predominantly hard-natured person the opposite signs if one could see through him beneath his frequently deceptive facade of a glowing personality.</div> <div>    This I learned after much painstaking and frequently mistaken observations: that beneath the social influences and personal modifications and surfaces lies the central, unchanging core of one’s nature, predominantly hard or soft; and thus I concluded that men and women in their time under the heavens do not change, that what they fundamentally are at birth of disposition, so they remain till their dying day.</div> <div>     I learned this truth, and from thenceforth came to better understand the intricacies of men and women striving to live on the face of this earth. And with this understanding, my illusions and delusions, my hopes and expectations, for man in his gropings disappeared one after another. I learned to accept men and women as they were, no longer as I thought they should be, according to my ideals of nobleness. But I saddened that many men and women were ruined by their environment, by others by their own selves; that they would never come to know themselves for better or for worse, because of their own limitations and those of their surroundings. I saddened that men and women were destined to never rising above themselves despite all their efforts; that they would always be governed by their all-too-human needs, fears, desires, passions, impulses, lusts, vulnerabilities. I saddened for those who were primarily soft-natured, though forced into hardened actions and attitudes foreign to themselves. I saddened that the morally and spiritually inclined were distorted into immoral and materialistic channels beyond their control. I also saddened that the hard-natured ones exploited and corrupted the overly soft individuals; I angered at their ruthlessness, their cruelties; the magnetic hold they had the more receptive, susceptible, sensitive soft ones.</div> <div>    But in my sadness and anger, I recognized the truth of human nature in its softness and its hardness, and came to accept the natural order of this duality in human nature, and saw that by certain compulsions, inner and outer, the soft-natured could be hardened into the exigencies of survival and self-respect; and that the hard-natured could be softened into the aristocracy of refinement and culture.</div> <div>    I learned too that the soft-natured are not all good, as  the hard-natured all are not all unfeeling and selfish; that the soft-natured can be induced into injustices by inner and outer necessity, just as the hard-natured can be induced to just and considerate acts.</div> <div>    I learned too that the hard-natured are as indispensable to human relationships and culture as is the soft-natured; that the one complements the other; that indeed there is “a time to love and a time to hate; a time for war and a time for peace; a time to gather stones and a time to scatter them; a time to embrace and a time to be far from embraces…” And I learned also that man in his restlessness for diversity cannot be satisfied with love alone, or with peace alone, or with compatibility alone, or with goodness alone, or with anything alone. Life is diversified, and so consequently is man in his varied degrees of softness and varied degrees of hardness. No one is totally soft or totally hard; totally good or totally bad; totally loving or totally hating; totally sympathetic or totally unfeeling; totally dispassionate or totally passionate; totally considerate or totally inconsiderate.</div> <div>    What makes the difference from one man to the next is whether he is satisfied in his varied dualities; or whether he seeks to go beyond them; toward a more comprehensive love or a more comprehensive hate; more goodness or more badness; toward more sympathy or more cold-heartedness; more dispassion or more passion; more consideration or more inconsideration; more spiritualness or more worldliness. Moving toward the exclusiveness of the negatives alienates one from the oneness, unity of human affiliation and life; moving toward exclusiveness of the positives unionizes one toward unity of humanity and life. That direction which brings with it the higher, refined experiences of joy, peace, inner freedom, and strength, is the path we, my sons and daughters, are to take in quest of higher consciousness, of transcendence. And as all sages from East to West have discoursed on the path of unity, of oneness, of love, of virtue, of the spirit, as the only path to higher consciousness, so this is the path we are to take, but in light of this new wisdom of man, as not only a creature of self and the craving for sensation, but as being essentially in need of being needed, and so driven by his appetites, desires, passions, and fears; as well as being subject not only to the limitations of his human nature but of his individual nature, predominantly hard or soft.</div> <div>    What emerges from this new understanding of men and women under the heavens, is an inevitability of human limitations but without the determinism beyond man’s control; for it is possible to rise above this inevitability, to nobly accept it in a higher consciousness of the Higher Reality beyond phenomenal reality. This noble acceptance and higher consciousness frees man from his fate while at the same time being subject to it; the difference being that he is no longer a victim of his fate, but master of it.</div> <div>    Come, my sons and daughters, journey with me up to this Higher Reality under the enlightenment of this new wisdom, this new understanding of man as an inevitability, but master of it. Come to understand yourself, and so come to yourself, through the observations and experiences of me, Koheleth, a man who has come to peace within his troubled soul, a man who has found a new-born freedom from the embroilments of this panting world, a man who has found the essence of Being within himself, in and out of the world, a man who has found love in his breast, but a love tempered with a restraint of understanding the inevitability of man in the world.</div> <div>    Let us begin our higher and ultimate journey.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>9</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Moral Quest</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div>     In my newly gained wisdom of the human breast, I saw man in his affairs under the revolving heavens in an entirely different focus. I now saw him from two aspects, and so could no longer say that all men and women were this, or all men and women were that. Here was one man or woman predominantly soft-natured, and there was one who was predominantly hard-natured; and on the basis one’s basic nature, one person more given to justice, and another more given toward injustice. In which case I could no longer say of man collectively that he was either basically bad or basically good; for I now understood that we all had both tendencies in us, though one was less or more predominant depending upon the person’s intrinsic nature.</div> <div>     I saw those who were basically just act unjustly because of influences of fear of rejection, of not being loved or needed, of social pressures of one kind or another, of not being accepted. I saw those who were primarily unjust act justly, not because of an intrinsic change of character, but because of such influences as expediency, age, to make favorable impressions, and fears of one sort or another. </div> <div>     I gained insight also into man’s nature, that though he was circumscribed, determined by the dictates of his intrinsic nature, he nonetheless had the freedom to expand the potential of his particular moral character whether for good or for ill, toward more injustice and indifference, according to particular tendencies. I saw that man was free in this regard, but not free to be other than his nature, both human and individual, dictates. Yes, he is free to become more just, more loving, more considerate, more generous, more courageous, calmer, inwardly stronger; just as he is free to develop more oppositely of these traits – but only if his moral character tends toward either set of traits. Yes, man was free, but within the bounds of his human and individual nature.</div> <div>     I soon came to understand that it was the fool who ever rested content with himself, who believed himself to be as morally good or bad as he was capable. Man is an imperfect being, pulled this way and that by the impulses of his self and craving for sensation through which, on both counts, give rise to his manifold appetites, desires, passions, lusts and fears. Ever given to these allurements, he can never attain to the ideal image of himself. But in inverse proportion to the lessening of his sensual and needing self, just so does his moral and spiritual self increase. So I learned as I took perspective of myself over the long years of self-development from the lure of my sensual and needing self to the higher reaches of my moral and spiritual self; or I might say from my lower to my higher self.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>10</B></div> <bR> <div>     I did rail at my lower self innumerable times for ever keeping me from my higher ideals; but never did I despise my lower self, for I knew it to be as much  part of my human nature as is the potential of my higher self – though I have since learned that my lower self is more allied to my animal nature than to my human nature. </div> <div>     I enjoyed my appetites, my desires, my passions, but to my consternation, found myself given more to excess than to moderation – such was the keenness of sensual pleasure. I often suffered for my sensual indulgences, either in regret, remorse, shame, a weakening of purpose and command of myself, many physical discomforts, frustrations innumerable, a self-directedness which frequently caused friction and resentments with others, a loss of inner control and self-respect, much repentance and wretchedness.</div> <div>      I began to resist my sensual pleasures, but found myself no match for their ever enticing lure. I fasted, abstained, made resolves and vows, but to only temporary avail. I gradually began to fast permanently from one or two appetites which to this day I have abstained. But mostly I continued in my cravings for sensation, never really gaining consistent control or moderation over them.</div> <div>      I loved the pleasures of my body, but loved the pleasures of my soul more, though for many years these pleasures were too tranquil, too short-lived to withstand the intensity of the delight of my senses.</div> <div>      I wanted and strove for virtue to upgrade my stature as a man, but was ever faced with the force of my animal nature. Yes, I became more truthful, more honest, more sincere, more generous, more considerate, more calm; but still was prone and susceptible to carnal pleasures, and first and foremost to my own interests. My integrity never became complete, since my inordinate affections and desires and passions I knew would take precedence were there a conflict with the principles of my integrity. Yes, I would lie rather than having to admit to an inordinate or improper indulgence.</div> <div>      I knew I would gain little moral courage so long as I was under the sway of my sense pleasures; and I despaired at this truth. To know that I had little control over these sense-pleasures depressed my conscience; but I always picked myself up after each fall, each disappointment, each wrong omission or commission, and tried again, and again, and again. I tried every possible and means to overcome, to gain a modicum of control, and slowly, gradually, I gained a small footing; but I always slipped back. Yet I never gave up the good fight. I was intent on wining it; though victory seemed eons away.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>11</B></div> <bR> <div>       The more I understood virtue, the more I realized how very tenuous my little virtue was. Though I had attained some of the virtues, I nevertheless knew in my true evaluation that I wasn't truly virtuous nor morally fine. I knew I would fail myself in matters of moral physical courage so long as I was under sway of my sense pleasures. When under such sway, I somehow became less a man, lost some of my self-respect, would not and could not be morally strong when under such influence. I feared the possibility of cowardice, and this truth despaired me.</div> <div>     True, I had moral integrity, but I knew in my heart that this integrity rested on sand, was surrounded by the weeds of my sensuality. I needed to strengthen this foundation so that this integrity would flourish fully against whatever adversary, whatever suffering. I felt compelled to be strong, durable, enduring, noble – and discovered that through self-control I would attain these traits.</div> <div>     So, I searched into the meaning of self-control, and behold I found it to be not one of the virtues, but the way to all of them! I discovered that to be generous my inclination toward possessiveness and stinginess had to be controlled; that to be calm, I had to control my impulse to anger; that to be courageous, my mortal fear had to be controlled; that to be truthful or honest, I had to have my desires and fears under control; that consideration required my self-directedness to be controlled.</div> <div>     Besides control of my sense pleasures being under the domain of self-control, I came to perceive that self-control was not the least important to keep one from despondency, despair, futility; that one must keep his moods under control no less than his appetites.</div> <div>     I learned that at the heart of self-control lie the control of my thoughts and eyes; that with these under control, my sensitive appetites would be under control.</div> <div>     Self-control taught me not to give in so easily to my weaknesses, my susceptibilities, my inclination, I understood that self-control required self-denial and a moderation that at the time I was not up to. I experienced some of the inner strength and tranquility that self-control begot; but this new understanding and practice could only be a temporary stepping stone for me at that stage of my life, because I knew then that only when I arrived at the stage of preferring this inner tranquility, and the strength of denying myself sensuous pleasure over the intense pleasure of “giving in” to them, would self-control be truly effective for me. I was not ready for its demands in the realm of the senses; but it did advance me to the stage of controlling my moods of depression, ennui, hopelessness, restless. This much did self-control gain for me at that stage of my life.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>12</B></div> <bR> <div>      Along with my growing understanding of the efficiency of self-control, came thoughts of the acceptance of life as it is, began to course through my mind. I came to see the relationship between the two and knew that I had to accept the struggle, the pain, to control the urges and moods of my sensual self. Yes, I no longer succumbed so easily to my dark moods, my carnality, and sensuality; I had learned to recognize them for what they were, and accepted them as inevitability part of my nature.</div> <div>     Now I did not passively accept my adverse moods and appetites; did not resign myself to them; but came to accept them nobly, with a sense of heroic dignity, and thereby continued my struggle to rise above them if possible, or at last to bear their onslaught. This took a courage I was not always up to; but whenever I did contest with a present mood or passion or impulse and conquered it, then I experienced a strong sense of inner control and peace.</div> <div>      I found that my new consciousness of acceptance induced the desire to control myself, and to accept the inevitable for the sake of my dignity, my honor; because it was noble and beautiful to resist and endure. To master the mood became the dictum of my new consciousness of acceptance. Acceptance was not merely to face a situation, but to brave it as well.</div> <div>     With this new realization of acceptance, and its being the purpose behind my striving for self-control, not only in moral matter, but with my shifting, unaccountable moods, I began to apply its philosophy to the problem of existence, to human life and consciousness. </div> <div>     There is evil in the world, there is ugliness in the world; everywhere cruelties, injustices, suffering, mad folly, licentiousness, and all manners of sights and sounds and odors, which make one recoil in disgust, or fear or protest. So much in life grates our sensibilities grates our sensibilities that we tend to shun all that does not conform to our image of how life and human living should be. We prefer not to face the underside of life, and so we immerse ourselves into beautiful luxuries, beautiful manners, beautiful art and music and poetry. We have our sciences, and our philosophies, and our aesthetics to keep us ever attuned to the beautiful, to the graceful, to the good, to the clean, to the happy, to the sublime, to what we call the “beautiful life.” What is ugly, sordid, dirty, impure, ill-mannered, rude, crude, we avoid as a taint to the beauty we want so much to put into our lives. What is not radiant with color, wit, sociability, affability, goodness, richness, is bleak with pain of spirit. We do not want to face what does not uplift the spirit. We want perfection, order, cleanliness, grace; and we suffer in spirit in the absence of these: when there is strife instead of affability; dirt instead of cleanliness, war instead of peace; disorder instead of order; melancholy instead of cheerfulness; hate instead of love; lust instead of affection; passion instead of compassion; impulse instead of reason. Being so immersed in surface beauty and surface goodness, and surface grace, and surface affability, we cannot easily adjust to, accept their opposites. When faced with overcast weather, we ourselves become overcast; when faced with ugliness our stomachs turn and render us helpless; when faced with our lusts and passions, and impulses, we suffer the consequences of our carnality; when faced with foul odors, filth, disarrangement, poverty, ill-manneredness, we shrink in helplessness. We have become overly-soft, overly civilized, overly cultured overly aesthetic, wrongly thinking our aestheticism is akin to the spirit. We want to reform the world so that everyone will live for beauty, goodness, grace; that everyone will live in peace, in harmony, in love, in spiritual and material well-being. Foolish thoughts! Since when has man, or when will man, ever subscribe to such perfections? Man is an imperfection; a being of varying natures, varying needs, varying inclinations, varying moods. He is human, he is animal; he is good, he is bad; he likes, he hates; he loves, he lusts; ever desiring, ever shifting in moods and affections; he hungers, and so he must kill to eat; he must survive as must his species, and so these life-purposes come before all else, thereby every keeping him primitive, primeval; his life must take on meaning, he must be inwardly secure, and so he takes whatever means, moral or immoral, to satisfy the demands of his every-demanding self. Sensations, enjoyments, stimulations, he ever must have, and so he seeks and craves them wherever they may be found, whatever the price, whatever the novelty. Boredom comes easily to man; satiation comes easily to man. Satiation leads to boredom, and so he must ever replenish his craving for sensations.</div> <div>    No, man is not much of an admirable being; his goodness is every offset by his impulses and appetites; his grace denied by the thrust of his urges which leave him giddy with expectation. Man is self-directed, vain, critical, often times malicious. Whence then all the talk of man and perfection? Life does not accommodate man’s thirst for beauty and goodness, for life is as ugly and bad as it is beautiful and good. Old age is considered ugly, and do we not all age? Selfishness is not an admirable characteristic, and are we not all selfish? Lust is animal-like, and do we not all lust? Personal survival comes before the survival of others, and have not men always killed others in order to survive? As beautiful as we may be in body, face, and dress, are we not full of foul odors and natural functions and habits which remind us of our real origins. As human as we are at beautiful affairs and with acquaintances, are we as easily so with among whom we live with day in and day out, those closest to us?</div> <div>     No, we are not beautiful people living a beautiful life. Life is founded on opposites, and being part of the world, so are we replete with opposite traits.</div> <div>     All this understanding came to me in my new consciousness of acceptance, wherewith I began to look upon living and human life in a more penetrating perspective. I began to put away my foolish ideals and expectations for mankind, though I do admit reluctantly and sorrowfully at first. I did not like it that man in general was not redeemable, that he did not want to be redeemable, except in the very few cases. Regretfully, I had to admit that men and women in general lusted for life, and did not aspire to moral goodness, or to spiritual consciousness, except in those periods when they suffered from loneliness, or poverty, or failure; or in grief, or in matters of necessity or expediency or exigency. When man was successful, loved, appreciated, admired, these proved to him his worthiness as an excellent human being, and so why need he think of moral or spiritual development?</div> <div>    These truths saddened me to see man wrapped in ignorance and vanity and misery, and sensuality and power, and wanting nothing more in life so long as they were needed, so long as they felt themselves to be important in the eyes of others, so long as they had the means to satisfy their appetites and passions, so long as they were still attractive to the opposite sex.</div> <div>     But with my new understanding of acceptance, I was better able to accept man as he is, has always been, and always will be so long as his nature remains human as we know it. He must be loved and liked, he must survive, he must be loved and liked, he must survive, he must be accepted and respected and admired, he must avoid boredom and failure, he must avoid pain and suffering and sorrow, he must feel important, must put meaning in his life, he must have inner and material security, he must propagate his race. And with all these “musts,” he also must satisfy these needs in his own way, no matter how bizarre or wrong, or perverted, they may seem to another person.</div> <div>     This is the way of the human world, so I came to understand and accept which henceforth ended my illusions and delusions of noble man striving under the heavens to live his little life in high morality, beauty, and spirituality before it ends forever in the shroud of nothingness. I came to accept these truths not as “brutal”, but as truths of nature as she in her mysterious way arranged it. Nature, I learned, functioned more as the rule than the exception; and whatever was the rule than the exception; and whatever was the rule, I came to understand was natural however it may go contrary to my taste or attitude or nature. I came to accept people as they are, no longer as they should be. I saw man as governed first by the dictate of their own nature, and second by the dictates of their own nature. I now understood deeper than I ever did, the natural ways of human nature and individual nature, and did not expect anymore of man under the sun.</div> <div>     Most men and women I saw victims of their human and individual natures, and I no longer judged them; nor did I pity them, but rather came to feel for them kindly as all one family of man in need of many consolations and illusions to ease their way through this sweating laborious life.</div> <div>     Now I knew I was prepared to look upon my life with my wife and sons in the radiance of love, for it was my wife of the gazelles who taught me the deep ways of human love; and with human love in one hand, and my transcendent Love on the other hand, I balanced I balanced the two unto  a new wisdom: a Love-wisdom of human-transcendence.</div> <div>     </div> <div>     And now I take my leave of you, my friends, to find your way through the lush jungle of your humanness and the radiant pathway of your transcendence. May my fecund findings guide you through your journey to self-discovery and transcendent realization, to the transcendence of your humanness, and to the humanness of your transcendence. </div> <div>     Your human-transcendence is the dawn of your day I bequeath to you so that you may rejoice in both your humanness and your transcendence; that in your humanness, your pains may take their rightful place with your pleasures, that your wants and needs may balance you out, that your ego may sublimate itself to the totality of your self; and that your transcendence may lead you to the right of your acts, to the truth of your life, to the understanding of your humanity, to the grace of your integrity, and to the being of your existence – all ideals to be transformed into realities, as far as that is humanly possible, as far as that is individually possible for you.</div> <div>     Onwards then toward a higher understanding. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> _________________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4da6a900.jpg" border=0 width="106" height="144" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>1</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="preliminary_thoughts_on_wisdom"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Calibri" ><B>PRELIMINARY THOUGHTS ON WISDOM</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div>   1.  Let Wisdom be my mistress, as I am male; my master; as I am female.</div> <div>   2.  With Wisdom by my side, I soften my defenses, I drop my shield.</div> <div>   3.  Wisdom is the passageway through which I meet myself as love.</div> <div>   4.  It is a joyful wisdom we want; not a somber, severe, austere wisdom.</div> <div>   5.  Wisdom is our transcendence in thought, feeling, and action.</div> <div>   6.  Wisdom is the image of eternity.</div> <div>   7.  Trying to capture the quick of Wisdom would be like trying to seize a shooting star.</div> <div>   8.  Wisdom is as effervescent as a breeze wafting through our mind; yet more real than our breath.</div> <div>   9.  After all the words used to try to capture the meaning of Wisdom, it nonetheless remains ever ineffably a conundrum.</div> <div> 10.  Wisdom makes us wise in action (in practical matters) and deep in thought (in contemplative matters). How? By imparting to us truths of life and Truth in Love.</div> <div> 11.  Our destiny lies in the folds of Wisdom of which we have only intimations.</div> <div> 12.  Through Wisdom do we sense our essentiality.</div> <div> 13.  Wisdom is nowhere somewhere in our conscious being.</div> <div> 14.  Wisdom is God (Pure Being) actualized.</div> <div> 15.  What Wisdom means is beyond our ken but “within” our being.</div> <div> 16.  Wisdom is the medium through which eternal truths issue.</div> <div> 17.  Think of Wisdom as the key to our eternal nature.</div> <div> 18.  Think of Wisdom as the messenger of eternal truths.</div> <div> 19.  Wisdom is sure to beautify herself in our minds so that we are drawn to her in sweet desire.</div> <div> 20.  Wisdom sets forth its ideals in our minds so that we aspire to them however unattainably.</div> <div> 21.  Wisdom abides in the eternity of Truth as One, and shares this truth with man in living concepts.</div> <div> 22.  Wisdom is so inherent to eternal Truth that those who live only for life's truths have little share in her bounty – though they are offered to them.</div> <div> 23.  As there is a method to madness, so there is a share of wisdom in ignorance – though we may never grasp this truth.</div> <div> 24.  Wisdom shares her secrets to those who, not only are receptive to them, but who love them. One such secret: that there are no problems, only solutions; another such secret: Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans; one more such secret: Love is all you need. You might recognize these secrets in Lennon's songs.</div> <div> 25.  Wisdom is everywhere to herself, but nowhere to us; just as our mind is nowhere to be found (perceived) yet everywhere in thought.</div> <div> 26.  Now Wisdom is here, then it's gone; now you're sure of it, then unsure; now in its bosom, then in the cold, now in possession of its treasures then barren of them.</div> <div> 27.  When you act wisely, you act in love; since love holds everything together in its place and order – even when it separates in strife; for is not everything bound in relationship one to the next, one to everything however far apart?</div> <div> 28.  Through good (morally and deliberatively) judgment, the disciple of wisdom measures (i.e. judges, determines) the proper distance between persons in harmony or in strife.</div> <div> 29.  The disciple of wisdom deciphers well good from evil, the soft-natured from the hard-natured, and acts accordingly; that is, measures correctly the distance between the two in persons through sound judgment regardless of the consequences.</div> <div> 30.  Acting in wisdom – with good deliberation, good judgment, with understanding of the full truth of the situation.</div> <div> 31.  He acts in wisdom – is at one with the Source, the Essence, of universal Truth, eternal Oneness: Love.</div> <div> 32.  He acts through wisdom – He lives in, for, and by, the inspiration of Wisdom.</div> <div> 33.  Wisdom is your wisdom; you just have to find it in yourself, listen for it, be receptive to it.</div> <div> 34.  Perhaps your errors, your wrongs, are as much a part of the wisdom of the whole scheme of things, as are your accuracies, your  rights.</div> <div> 35.  Be wise in your folly – meaning: be the fool at times but know when you are, and when to desist.</div> <div> 36.  Sensuous beauty ensnares us all, but Wisdom's beauty frees us in peace through Love.</div> <div> 37.  Project Wisdom in your mind as your Friend – your Jesus (or Buddha, or Krishna, if you will) – your mysterious Presence that is every rapping at your inner door, however silently it may be, however you may ignore it.</div> <div> 38.  Wisdom is your vital lifeline to your Eternal Oneness, your Unity.</div> <div> 39.  Now and then wisdom does more than guide you through life – it infuses you with its bliss.</div> <div> 40.  You might think of wisdom as the “Son of God” who imparts the WORD to our minds from the Godhead.</div> <div> 41.  Jesus as the WORD – or just as well Buddha, or Krishna, or Ramakrishna. This WORD gives us as Wisdom through which we live wisely in love and die eternally in Bliss-Oneness.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4a7894c0.jpg" border=0 width="393" height="332" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Renoir</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>2</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="human_transcendence_a_love_wisdom"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE: A LOVE-WISDOM</B></div> <bR> <div> The following notes and talks give an introductory understanding of the key terms of the human-transcendent wisdom: "humanness," "transcendence," and "human-transcendence – each in relation to the concepts of wisdom and love. With this introductory understanding, one will be better able to assimilate the ideas and ideals in the following development of this human-transcendent wisdom.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>PREFACE</B></div> <bR> <div> The following aphorisms and two fictional  talks were written as three separate pieces. They are: The Wisdom of Human-Transcendence, The Psychology of Humanness, The Philosophy of Transcendence. </div> <div> The purpose of these works is to convey an explanation of concepts in an extended format. These concepts -- humanness, transcendence, human-transcendence – underlie the basic structure of the human-transcendent wisdom set forth in desktop published books and on this website.</div> <div> The idea behind this threefold division of human nature is that in the most general terms, we are both psychologically and transcendently human; and that, to live a full life, both personally and interpersonally, we have to find the proper balance, harmony, between these two irreducible facets of our being, according to our own individual temperaments and leanings. This balance, harmony, is our human-transcendence; attained through a Love-wisdom. </div> <div> In the briefest outline, our humanness is that aspect of us that binds us to this life through the erotic, the vital, and the self, in us; our transcendence is that aspect of us that underlies all the physical and psychological determinants of our nature and which inspires us to become aware of, and live, in accordance with it; our human-transcendence is that aspect of us that keeps us in touch with our transcendence through the balancing, or moderation, of our humanness.</div> <div> It is strongly urged that all interested, sincere persons read these introductory works as the second stage of this Love- wisdom before venturing into the other stages.</div> <div>      </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>INTRODUCTORY NOTES</B></div> <div> 1.  Human-transcendence is a Love-wisdom of life that integrates – balances, harmonizes, the two sides of our nature: our humanness and our transcendence.</div> <div> 1:1.  Our humanness is that part of us that comprises our pleasures, pains, our wants and needs, and our self, or self-identity, and how these relate to our transcendence.</div> <div> 1:2.  Our transcendence is that part of us that transcends, or goes beyond our humanness, and concerns our moral, aesthetic, and, you might say, spiritual ideals. It has to do with truth, right, understanding, grace, and being.</div> <div> 2.  Concerning our humanness, the first thing to consider is that the pleasures and pains, the wants and needs, we experience revolve around – or determine – our sense of self, or more particularly, our self-identity. </div> <div> 3.  The pleasures related to our humanness stem mainly from our being needed, admired, respected, accepted, successful – and whatever else that contributes to the well-being of our self. The pleasurable feelings, of such pleasures. </div> <div>      Then there are the physical pleasures of eating and drinking, sex, exercise, relaxation, sport, and all the rest that contribute to our well-being.</div> <div> 3:1.  The pains related to our humanness stem mainly from not being loved, needed, respected, accepted, successful, and whatever else that deflates the well being of our self. The painful feelings of depression, anxiety, apathy, worthlessness, resentment, jealousy, guilt, shame, hatred, anger, desolation, loneliness, frustration, desperation, of being rejected, ridiculed, embarrassed,  insulted, rejection – are some such pains. Then there are the physical pains that result from improper or excessive eating and drinking, sex, and all the rest that deflates our well-being. </div> <div> 4.  It is to our transcendent side that we turn in order to assure ourselves that we maximize the well-being of our self. This we do by acting truthfully overall, by acting rightly overall, by being understanding  overall, by being in touch with the grace – the intermediary – of our being.    </div> <div> 4:1.  These facets of our transcendence help control, moderate, balance, the onrush, excess, and intensity of the emotions, passions, impulses, moods, drives, that endlessly fuel the caldron of our humanness.</div> <div> 4:2.  In order for our transcendence to guide us aright in these matters of our humanness, we have to gain the proper perspective, and understanding, of our humanness in relation to the our transcendence; and this proper perspective, this understanding, is what I consider as the wisdom of human transcendence.</div> <div> 4:3.  This wisdom gives us the necessary understanding of the relationship, the balance, between our humanness and our transcendence. When our actions approximate this understanding then we can be said to have attained a measure of the wisdom psychology of human-transcendence.  </div> <div> 5.  The most basic understanding our humanness that we have to realize before we can make any progress in this wisdom is that we are permanently ingrained and enmeshed, in the human fabric; and that any human or transcendent endeavor that we may undertake is going to have to take this reality into account.</div> <div> 5:1.  This understanding of our humanness will help us realize that we cannot, and should not, always tell or live the truth, that we cannot always do what is right, and should not; that our human and transcendent understanding is ultimately limited to our human frailties, as is appropriate; that whatever grace we may realize is temporary, and perhaps best for us in this life; and that any grasp of our being in its totality is at best limited to our intuition, insight, and vision, which perhaps is the best state of affairs.</div> <div> 5:2.  These human limitations are, of course, relative to the individual; since the more transcendently inclined a person is the more transcendently he or she can be; and vice versa, the less transcendently inclined a person is, the less transcendent can he or she be.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ____________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4d5d80e0.jpg" border=0 width="216" height="270" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Warren</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>TOWARD HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <bR> <div>   1.  A human-transcendence is what we want: a life that is human in its transcendence. </div> <div>   2.  We have our humanness, and we have our transcendence; and from these two, we arrive at a human-transcendence. </div> <div>   3.  Yes, be transcendent, as transcendent as you can be; but hesitate before you seriously deny, judge, condemn, or hate your humanness – or anyone else's. </div> <div>   4.  Transcendence can take you from zero to infinity, from here to eternity, beyond good and evil. </div> <div>   5.  A serene calm with transcendence; an agitated tension with humanness. Both profit us in their place, and in balance. </div> <div>   6.  Just as you are human so are you transcendent: temporally human, eternally transcendent.</div> <div>   7.  At each inspiration, at each effort, to control yourself, refine yourself, go beyond yourself; know that a transcendent element is working in you. </div> <div>   8.  Some aspects of our humanness: our need to be needed, to be loved, to belong, to be respected, to be admired, to be secure, to be accepted, to be right, to be appreciated, to be intelligent – and the whole host of psychological needs that anyone can fill in. Then there are our fears, our insecurities, our moods, our sensuality, our ego, our passions, our lusts, desires, greed – and on and on, endlessly it seems; all indicative of our humanness, our all-too-human self. </div> <div>   9.  Some aspects of our transcendence: our sense of beauty; our tendency toward goodness, toward right, toward grace, toward being, toward contemplation, meditation; our impulse to create, to know, to under- stand, to observe, to reflect, to analyze; our intuitions and visions of universal truths; nirvanic states of pure bliss-light-power; all indicative of our transcendence beyond the categories of self and reason, space and time. </div> <div> 10.  Let your sense of transcendence offset, soothe, the brunt of your humanness. </div> <div> 11. The balance of opposites is the key to freedom: to self-freedom; and human-transcendence is such a balance. </div> <div> 12.  Transcendence saves. </div> <div> 13.  Think transcendently, and you will feel transcendent, you will be transcendent. Through the way of human-transcendence we are neither all-too-human nor more-than-human; we are human in our transcendence and transcendent in our humanness. </div> <div> 14.  Human-transcendence is a mature wisdom of life; for normally those who strive for higher ideals have to pass through a long gestation period before they come to realize that they cannot be totally transcendent, no more than can the realist be totally human. </div> <div> 15.  The way of human-transcendence aims for a guiltless, fearless life. </div> <div> 16.  Be wary that your humanness does not get the better of you – nor your transcendence. </div> <div> 17.  Try not to be too hard on yourself; give way to the human in you when need be – or desire be – at times; relax the tension of effort now and then, but be careful that it doesn't slacken. The human in us tends more toward inertia when it comes to effort . </div> <div> 18.  Human-transcendence: simply the moderate balance between both the human and transcendent in us. </div> <div> 19.  Living this human-transcendence, you do not lose your masculinity, or your femininity; rather, you refine it so that you become more manly than masculine, more womanly than feminine. </div> <div> 20.  The transcendent-humanist delights in diversity, and joys in unity; for he sees diversity as the other side of unity. </div> <div> 21.  The human fascinates; the transcendent awes. </div> <div> 22.  The human-in-us limits us; the transcendent-in-us expands us. </div> <div> 23.  If you must, continue to strive to be transcendent only beyond the all-too-human part of yourself; and finally, if you are human in the full sense of the word, you will come back to your human side, and not make severe, austere demands upon it so much. Having reached this stage of your development, you might then begin to harmonize the two sides of yourself. </div> <div> 24.  Living transcendently human is the many-sided, the full, life amidst the play of opposites. </div> <div> 25.  Before you readily fall into the trap of the excuse, "After all, I'm only human," remember that you are also transcendent; and that part of you makes its demands too. And judgment is on the side of your transcendent self; use it often, and wisely – if that's not being redundant. </div> <div> 26.  Human-transcendence is an ideal wisdom grounded in the realities of life.</div> <div> 27.  The transcendent experience is that state of consciousness which goes beyond self-consciousness. </div> <div> 28.  This wisdom of life gives not only the proper due to the Dionysian (sensual, dark) and Apollonian (reason, light) sides of our nature, but it is an endeavor to harmonize the two. It is the all-too-human and the more-than-human way of life; it represents the law of polarity, and acts as a checks and balances of the opposites in life. There is no perfection in this way, only a balance between perfection and imperfection: a balance between ideals and realities. </div> <div> 29.  In this way of life there is little embarrassment or shame at being all-too-human, or regret or remorse for not being more-than-human. </div> <div> 30.  Even those who are not very receptive to transcendence would do well to foster some aspects of their transcendence if only to relieve them from the relentless pull and frustration of their human side. </div> <div> 31.  You have failed yourself transcendently? You are not coming up to your ideals? Fine. Don't despair; your human self wants its way, too, you know; you still have blood coursing through your veins, you know; you still drink, eat, and sleep, and eliminate, and copulate, you know; you still feel warmth and cold, fatigue and irritation, you know; if you examine yourself closely enough, you will see that your pride is still with you, you know. These are all human; so let us not disparage them, please...you know. </div> <div> 32.  Nietzsche's overman – a chimera? Not at all! It is a reality if one can come to live the human-transcendent life. </div> <div> 33.  Relax both sides of you; be kind to each other. </div> <div> 34.  In order to accept and love your humanness, you need your transcendence; you cannot pull yourself up by your own human bootstraps, as the saying goes. Your humanness is blinded to itself: it only knows itself, or more correctly, it only is itself. It is your transcendence that loves, that understands, that tries. </div> <div> 35.  Human-transcendence is an ideal philosophy – not a philosophy of ideals alone, but an ideal philosophy in the sense that it is an ideal way to live in accordance with one's humanness and trans- cendence – : that is the ideal to strive for. </div> <div> 36.  How good, how free, it is to once again love your humanness! This truly is the joyful wisdom of which Nietzsche taught...Nietzsche! humanity's prophet of the new man, of the new way, of the new freedom. We are your heirs, dear man, who loved mankind so much that you laid down your sanity for it. You are the true Christ-like figure, the true Christian, not your wax models from churchdom, from Christendom. We owe a vast debt to you, oh, titan of freedom! You are our Prometheus. </div> <div> 37.  Oh, to get to the point of just as soon turning to your humanness as your transcendence without compulsion, without impulse; but with judgment, perspective, understanding, wisdom. </div> <div> 38.  What we need in our age above all is to come to a human-transcendence; and that is the enterprise for generations to come: a wondrous enterprise; a challenging, daring enterprise; the Olympic enterprise – if not a terrifying enterprise! </div> <div> 39.  Should you feel superior, or worse, arrogant, in what you believe to be your freedom in human-transcendence, you are sorely mistaken in that freedom, friend; because superiority and arrogance smack solely of the human, not of the transcendent. You're on the wrong track. Try again. </div> <div> 40.  Enjoy your humanness; rejoice in your transcendence; let the one run into the other; for in the balance of both of these two sides of yourself, you are truly, fully human. </div> <div> 41.  At the moment that I am aware that I am human, all-too-human, I am transcendent of my humanness. It is this willing awareness that transcends my self-will. </div> <div> 42. This human-transcendent Love-wisdom, is surely the best of two worlds: the human and the transcendent. </div> <div> <B>…</B></div> <div> 112.  And what does not feeling contempt for anything imply but that such a wise individual has come to accept and love the diversity and opposites in both human life and all other forms of life. </div> <div> 113. There is beauty and goodness in life just as there is ugliness and evil. We've known this all along. Life has it that way, and who are we to deny or reject the one over the other? True, the one delights and the other pains; but are we such softlings that we would want only the delightful? </div> <div> 114.  You say your life has been a wreck. Others did it to you, more than you yourself. You have no promise in your life. Rage, and resentment war in your mind. Depression sinks it often enough. You have no God to turn to. A few friends make it possible for you to go on. Yet your life is on the wane. Your humanity has fairly much done you in. Nothing seems left...except your transcendence! And what can your transcendence do for you? Well, let's take a review of some of its aspects: – our sense of beauty. our acts of love, our tendency toward goodness, toward right, toward grace, toward being, toward contemplation, meditation; our impulse to create, to know, to understand, to observe, to reflect, to analyze; our intuitions and visions of universal truths; nirvanic states of pure bliss-light-power. Of these aspects, which appeal to you </div> <div> 115.  Life itself is ugly and cruel; and humans and animals are merely instruments of this bleak side of life. They didn't ask for it; it was biologically given free of charge. and so, let us be a little more hesitant before we judge too severely, too cruelly, the evil that comes over us impulsively. Fortunately, most of us are not so easily overcome by such force; but others by temperament and constitution are mere playthings to this force of evil in life. They haven't a chance; they're victims, as we all are in our own way. So, why all this judgment and prejudice and bigotry and condemnation and humiliation? </div> <div> Let us consider the sexual side of us for a minute to make my point stronger. Those given uninhibitedly to their sexual nature we denominate as whores, rakes, degenerates, perverts. but did they freely choose their particular proclivity, I ask you proponents of free will ? When puberty washed over them like a flood, did they, could they, carefully deliberate whether puberty should or should not have such a volcanic effect on them? Was it their choice to be so sexually sensitive that they become engulfed by the least sexual stimulation, and can think of hardly anything else? Are they to be condemned for their "sins" to everlasting hellfire for their natural tendencies? Rather condemn life than these poor souls who received such an untoward fate – untoward not so much for the individual who might very well be content with his endowment, but untoward because of the price society exacts on them in ridicule, condemnation, rejection, punishment. Not to say that the extremes of sexuality do not have to be kept in check; but they don't have to be degraded. After all, in the final say, it is life itself that is the culprit. </div> <div> 116.  But how many can attain, let alone maintain, this point of view? and how many of these can put such a point of view in practice? </div> <div> 117.  Still, there is always tomorrow, always something to look forward to; and the least, if not the most, we can say about people in general is that they get bored with anyone way of looking at matters. And so, for no other reason than boredom, they might try a new way of life. And if so, then, my fellow men and women, we have a future to look forward to. </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4ac2c5e0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="350" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Michelangelo</div> <bR> <div> <B>3</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_psychology_of_humanness"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>THE PSYCHOLOGY OF HUMANNESS</B></div> <bR> <div> Sharon.  In what sense do you use the word our "humanness"? Couldn't you just as well use the word our "psychology"?</div> <div> Joseph.  As I see it, our humanness is one pivotal range of our psychology. Put  simply, it is our vulner- ability. </div> <div> Sharon.  Vulnerability to what?</div> <div> Joseph.  To necessity.</div> <div> S.  Necessity to what?</div> <div> J.  To our humanized animal nature.</div> <div> S.  Which is?</div> <div> J.  The composite of our pleasures and pains, our wants and needs, and our self – or self-identity.</div> <div> S.  Well, if these are what define our humanness, without which, I suppose, we would be no more than clams, why then do you consider them our vulnerability? The higher animals – the apes, in particular – are made up of this composite of pleasures, pains, wants, needs, and self. They don't manifest any significant signs of vulnerability – boredom, for one – even though they are vulnerable to sickness, attack, aging, etc.</div> <div> J.  True; but the distinctive mark of the human animal is our self-consciousness: the awareness of being a human being – and all the psychology that derives from that reality.</div> <div> S.  I see that. In sum, then what you're saying is that our self-awareness if our vulnerability, which in turn, defines our humanness.</div> <div> J.  Right. It is our self-awareness that motivates us to imitate, explore, innovate, be curious, beyond mere animal consciousness.  </div> <div> S.  I noticed that you're speaking both of self-consciousness and self-awareness. Are you using the two terms interchangeably?</div> <div> J.  No, not precisely. There is a distinction. As self-conscious, we are psychologically human; as self-aware, we are transcendently human.</div> <div> S.  You'll have to explain that carefully to me.</div> <div> J.  Let me put it in a nutshell: as self-conscious, we know what we are doing; as self-aware, we know why we do what we do: we know the motives or intentions of our actions.  And it is this knowing-why that troubles us so much that would make Thoreau declaim that we all live in quiet despair. ...Well, I don't know about all of us; but at least those who are self-aware. I think that as soon as a human being begins asking "why" of his existence, or of existence itself, self-awareness clicks in with the reality that there either are no answers or that if there are answers, we can't know them all or to their limit. And this troubles, frustrates us, to the point of despair, dread, angst, anxiety, of all sorts. And for these self-aware individuals, knowing that there are so many unanswerable questions to their lives, realize the mystery to life and existence: Why? Why? Why? No answers despite all the answers! And this troubles them, consciously and/or unconsciously, some to the extent that they must pursue this unknowable mystery all their lives; or they take to faith or a religion, astrology, or any meaningful (to them) answers that will explain the mystery away so that they can be rest assured that all's right in God's heaven and earth. </div> <div> When under such an influence, the mere human is looked at askance, is perceived as a block to the answer to these inscrutable mysteries. They think that if they minimize their human side the Other side will appear in all its glory, that the Holy Grail will be given them. From that point, all natural human-animal functions become cumbersome,  "animal," even "unnatural"; They must limit the irrational in us and emphasize the rational – at least to the barest minimum, otherwise we'd die as individuals and as a species – wants, needs, pleasures, pains, self, so that the Answers will pour into our being. Then, guilt enters the picture, since our animal-human side will not give in so easily to such tomfoolery, unless we divorce ourselves from mainstream humanity – hence monks, sanyasins, gurus, and the priesthood to a good extent. And even then there is no escaping entirely the lure of sensuality</div> <div> Now we can attribute all this anxiety-ridden frame of mind to the bane or boon, depending upon the individual, of self-awareness. Without self-awareness, no such mental dendrites would be created, and so no psychological ideation. We could still be self-conscious, as so many people only, or mostly, are; that is, know that we are alive, know that we are to die, know how to reason, know how to build and create, know that we are propagating our race differently than the animals, know that we are man and woman beyond male and female, know the similarities and differences between the sexes, between the races, between justice and injustice, and so forth. But without enquiring as to the why and wherefore of these human conditions, no, or few, psychological "problems" would arise, and so no reason not to enjoy our human sensuality. Why should our pleasures, wants and needs be curbed so long as no one is hurt except oneself, perhaps; so long as we are not striving to transcend our minds to answer the mysteries of life and existence? Yes, we are still vulnerable: vulnerable to the consequences of excess, of public opinion, of failure, of rejection, of insult, of embarrassment; but we are not vulnerable to anxieties, neuroses, and the like. This is the position of the self-conscious individual.</div> <div> S.  Well that was quite an exposition, and fairly much explains the issue at hand. But how does all this relate to our humanness?</div> <div> J.   We, as human, are all vulnerable to stimuli that arouse our erotic nature, our vital nature, our self-nature. This vulnerability, when active, pains us for relief, for satisfaction, for gratification; there's almost no stopping this very human process. The more self-aware we are of this vulnerability, the more we realize how bound we are to our sexual, vital, self wants and needs; how they interfere with our higher leanings, how tedious they can become, how victimized we are to them, how limiting they are. Those who are mainly self-conscious only, can continue in the round of pleasures with their pains, wants and needs, self-stimulation with hardly a thought of the mysteries of life and existence; but the self-aware individuals suffer deeply knowing that they are stuck, stymied, frustrated, in their humanness; that their lifelong habits and conditioning that ground them to their humanness are walls to their transcendence – that is, to the freedom that they sense is to be found in the answers to the mysteries of life and existence. The Faust legend is the paradigm of a man who sells his soul to the devil so that he can get to, unravel, the ultimate secrets of nature.</div> <div> S. I see now quite well your distinction between self-consciousness and self-awareness, that the former knows the facts of his life; whereas the latter, not only knows but questions these facts; and I agree with it; I also see that the self-aware person suffers more than the self-conscious person for his questioning awareness. However, I'm still not clear on the vulnerability relationship to our humanness. Wouldn't you apply the term "humanness" to the self-conscious person as well?</div> <div> J.   Well, in the general sense of the word, yes; as humanness is the noun form of "human", which applies to all attributes characteristic of mankind. In a more specific sense of the word, however, as I am using it, its meaning applies to the self-aware person. In which case, we say of such a person that his humanness conflicts with his transcendence; or in other words, her all-too-human side conflicts with her more-than-human side. In other words, whatever psychological traits and behavioral patterns that contrast, or limit, a person's aspirations and inspirations of a higher, transcendent, ideal order, then those traits and patterns can be classified as that person's humanness. Is that clear?</div> <div> S.  Let me see if I've gotten it. Is this what you're saying: whatever psychological traits or actions, motives, or intentions we have that conflict with our transcendent nature, these are what constitute our humanness? Is that right?</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4ae34810.jpg" border=0 width="308" height="385" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Picasso</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>4</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_philosophy_of_transcendence"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>THE PHILOSOPHY OF TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <bR> <div> Sharon.  All that you write revolves around the concept of transcendence. I like the word; it seems to have significant meaning. </div> <div> Joseph.  It has even more meaning when you personalize it as my transcendence.</div> <div> S.  What is my transcendence?</div> <div> J.  Everything just and wise that you are. In other words, whenever you act justly and wisely – or in justice and in wisdom – you are acting, or being, transcendent.</div> <div> S.  How do I know when I'm acting justly or wisely? It seems very complex to me.</div> <div> J.  Well, first of all, we can simplify the matter by saying that when you act justly, you as much act wisely, and vice versa; in which case, you have done the right thing.</div> <div> S.  Sounds even more complex to me; because in my experience, doing the right thing can be as difficult as a novice archer hitting a bulls-eye.</div> <div> J.  And why do you think that is?</div> <div> S.  Well, for one thing, our ignorance gets in the way, clouds our mind; as do our ego, our impulses, our passions, our fears, our lusts, our insecurities, and on and on.</div> <div> J.  Speaking of bulls-eyes, you hit the bulls-eye with that truth. So, then are you saying that doing the right thing is almost impossible?</div> <div> S.  Certainly in most cases, unless you're a monk, or a bachelor, with few responsibilities. It's all to much, too overwhelming, too requiring, to have to be doing the right thing all the time. There's no end to it, no let up. We falter after a while; we're not up to it. Too many obstacles bar the way: fatigue, varying moods, impatience, disappointments, to name a few of our human frailties.</div> <div> J.  I see. Now, before we go on, we have to be clear in what respect we're using the word "right." We're using it mainly in regards to our personal and interpersonal well-being. We're not using it in regards to our work and in relation to our co-workers and peers. Doing the right thing in these areas do not pose too much of a problem for most people, since our job is at stake, for one thing, and we're getting paid for doing the right thing. Nor are we using the word in moral matters; since we are not faced with many moral decisions or dilemmas in the normal course of our daily lives. And for those who are moral-minded, doing the right thing morally, does not normally pose much of a conflict.</div> <div>      So, given that right is not a problem in the matters just mentioned, it is clearer as to what we are referring to in speaking of the immense difficulty in consistently doing the right thing in every day matters. Regarding this thought, the title of an old love song comes to me: "Little Things Mean a Lot."</div> <div> S.  And what are these "little things"?</div> <div> J.  They're innumerable, of course. But a few of them are: "Should I pick up this piece of paper or leave it for her to pick it up?" Leaving things to the last minute; having to have the last word in everything; holding grudges; leaving undone what should be done. And then there is the whole host of unfair conduct toward others, such as: pettiness, insults, impatience, irritability, inconsideration, spite, criticisms, backbiting, gossiping, prying, and on and on and on.</div> <div> S.  All this negativity seems to stem mainly from one's ego, doesn't it.</div> <div> J.  That's right; and the insensitivity and desiring and greed, and vanity;  the misunderstandings, prejudices, denials, delusions, power hunger, and more, are all symptoms of the ego-directed person.</div> <div> S.  It's amazing, even astonishing, of how much we have going against us in this matter of right-doing.</div> <div> J.  That's true. They keep us, in good part, from not only doing right, but in ignorance of what is right. We perceive and judge a situation or person more by our ego perspective than by their perspective, than by fuller truth of the matter.</div> <div> S.  Right. And without knowing the fuller truth of a situation, or of a person, how can we possibly know what is the right thing to do in so many complex situations. So, we "play it by ear"; we act from what we "feel" is right, from our experience, than with understanding.</div> <div> J.  Exactly. So, where are we now in this matter of right and transcendence? </div> <div> S.  I'm not sure, but I do know that acting only from our ego engenders much conflict and hostility between people.</div> <div> J.  That's for sure. No wonder that sages and seers and gurus of all ages and climes have insisted upon dispelling the ego if there is to be any spiritual – or in our terminology: transcendent – advancement. </div> <div> S.  But hardly anyone wants to, or can, let go of their ego. That's all they have, or, so they think.</div> <div> J.  And no convincing them otherwise will ever alter that state of mind.</div> <div> S.  So, there seems nothing to do then. Mankind is fixed ever in his ego with just glimmerings of something beyond it: something more valuable, more precious, more life-affirming, more complete.</div> <div> J.  That's true, but with this one proviso: that not everyone is so ego-bound that it governs their every act and thought. There are countless people, I'm sure, who do see the truth, who are understanding, beyond their ego. These are the individuals who, not being so compelled by their ego, can see clearly the right thing to do however they might not be able to act upon that insight.</div> <div> S.  But don't these individuals you're describing have a low self-esteem, in the first place?</div> <div> J. I think you're confusing two concepts here. There is a distinction between a person's ego and his self. Ego is just one integral facet of the total self-complex, not similar or identical to it. The ego is concerned with the "I"; with the "me first," the "I am the best," the "I am someone special – more than you". The self, on the other hand, involves our vital nature: its fears, needs, anxieties, guilt; its will to life, to keep the body healthy, and more. It covers the whole range of emotions and sentiments involved in the erotic element in us – marriage, children, family.</div> <div>      Accordingly, a person may have a low ego threshold, yet by fulfilled as a parent, a spouse, a profes- sional, a worker. In which case, his self-esteem is at a high key. On the other hand, another person may have a strong ego, but because of various setbacks  and failures in family life and professional life, his self-esteem would be at a low ebb.</div> <div> S.   Can we say, then, that an egoistic, or egotistical, person is not the same as a self-loving person?</div> <div> J.  Good question; and right on the mark. We could put it this way: vanity is an earmark of ego, which renders a person insensitive to anything much beyond that vanity; whereas, pride is an earmark of self-esteem, which can be a noble trait in a person.</div> <div> S.  So it is the ego that has to go, not the self?</div> <div> J.  Well, we couldn't very well function as human without our self; but we could fairly much without our ego.</div> <div> S.  So, having made this distinction between the self and the ego, where are we now?</div> <div> J.  That, where the ego prevails and its vanity predominates in an individual, there he or she stays enmeshed. For those whose ego and vanity are a minimal part of their psychological makeup, these are the ones who can be receptive to transcendence.</div> <div> S.  By which you mean receptive to justice and wisdom?</div> <div> J.  Right. For then they are open to knowing the truth about a situation or person or themselves. And with this truth, they can gain an understanding that will help balance their self with the wisdom of their total being.</div> <div> S.  Their total being? </div> <div> J.  Yes, the totality of their physical and mental structures and processes.</div> <div> S.  That's an infinite interchange of energy and matter.</div> <div> J.  Yes. where does it end?...Or is there an end to it all?</div> <div> S. I don't suppose we'll ever know.</div> <div> J.  Certainly not "know"; but perhaps "be".</div> <div> S.  Well, rather than we get into the metaphysics, or spirit, of this, let me ask you. You defined transcendence at the beginning of our talk as "everything just and wise that we are"; which I think gives an excellent understanding in one sentence. I'm thinking, however, why you didn't include "loving" in it; since love is such an all-pervasive, positive concept, that I believe is the basis of justice and wisdom, or more particularly, of our being just and wise.</div> <div> J.  It's interesting that you should ask this question because it anticipates my own thoughts. as I see it, transcendence is love. It is the undercurrent, the essence, of all that we are and all that we do in good and in evil, and in between.</div> <div> S.  That's quite a stupendous statement! But, I have a question. Didn't you identify transcendence with everything just and wise that we are? Now you're saying that transcendence is everything, period; which means to me that transcendence is not only the just in us, but the unjust as well, not only the wise in us, but the ignorant in us as well. Then you say that transcendence is love; which, according to you, is the source of both good and evil. Can you clear this up for me? I'm terribly confused.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4d764c10.jpg" border=0 width="356" height="449" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>5</B></div> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="human_trancendence_as_a_love_wisdom_of"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>HUMAN-TRANCENDENCE AS A LOVE-WISDOM OF INSECURITY</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Preface</B></div> <bR> <div> This I asked my wife: What would it be like were I to live by my belief that everything is ordained Meaning? </div> <div>     I mean, if I really believed that everything is meant to be – and let me add: and if it were true? – then why would I be so quietly anxious all the time: about my work, about my family, about others, about security? Why not just flow with life, as it is, as it must be? </div> <div>      "Monumental questions," as my wife put it; and added, were probably impossible to answer. ... Ah, a challenge! Impossible, did she say? </div> <div>     And so I armor myself for another transcendent quest. </div> <bR> <div> This thought comes to me: The new warrior of the soul: He-she who combats fatigue, inertia, impatience, irritability, insecurity in order to be more than self – to simply be whatever is! </div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4b0ea3a0.jpg" border=0 width="234" height="314" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Wallich</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>THE WISDOM OF INSECURITY</B></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>An Invocation</B></I> </div> <div> With truth in one pocket and faith in the other Let us face the unknown. </div> <div> Let us leap into our destiny: </div> <div> to circumvent the law of supply and demand, </div> <div> to overwhelm the rule of the few over the many, to wrestle the inertia of passivity, </div> <div> to penetrate the blind force of will. </div> <div> Let us be worthy </div> <div> Let us be mighty. </div> <div> Let us be warriors of the soul. </div> <bR> <div> But how? </div> <div>     Enact your noblest deeds from your profoundest need.</div> <div> How? </div> <div>     Set aside security.</div> <div> In place of what? </div> <div>     For the wisdom of insecurity. </div> <div> And let my children starve? </div> <div>     Your children will not hunger. </div> <div> Guarantee me that. </div> <div>     There are no guarantees. </div> <div> I can't live with that. </div> <div>     And in that way your children starve. </div> <div> For what? </div> <div>     For the succor of your strength. </div> <div> Security, then, is weakness? </div> <div>     Not weakness, but death. </div> <div> Of what? </div> <div>     The instincts of life. </div> <div> Which are? </div> <div>    To live by tooth and nail. </div> <div> Like a savage, an animal? </div> <div>     A human animal. </div> <div> War, then? </div> <div>     Precisely. War against your enemy. </div> <div> Which is? </div> <div>     Your security. </div> <div> So I am to live in pain and fear?</div> <div>     You do anyway.</div> <div>  In my security? </div> <div>      In the dread of losing that security. </div> <div> Dread? </div> <div>     The dread of desolation – the more security, the more dread. </div> <div> Am I then not to be secure? </div> <div>     Oh, yes, you are to be, by all means; but to live insecurely in that security </div> <div> In dread, then. </div> <div>     No, in wisdom. </div> <div> What wisdom? </div> <div>     The wisdom of insecurity. </div> <div> You're speaking in riddles. </div> <div>     Yes, in the riddle of human life. </div> <div> Solve it for me. </div> <div>    And would its answer be the ultimate security, for you? </div> <div> It could also be the ultimate insecurity, depending upon the answer. </div> <div>     And now you yourself have come to the wisdom of insecurity, of which I speak. </div> <div> How did I do that? </div> <div>     There are no answers, you see, despite all the answers.</div> <div> Another riddle? </div> <div>   <B> </B> A particular answer solves a particular question in the realm of the rational mind. The mind (or rationale) of Life itself proffers no such questions nor answers for us. And there lies the dread of our ultimate insecurity: that we may not be eternally </div> <div>     conscious of ourselves. </div> <div> That's unsettling enough to consider; but where does your wisdom of insecurity fit into this ? </div> <div>     My point is that since we are ultimately insecure as to our essential being, how could we possibly be or feel secure in our conscious self? We are not only essentially insecure at all times, but relatively insecure at all times as well by the vary obvious facts of reality themselves</div> <bR> <div> I don't feel insecure at all times. </div> <div>     No, you don't feel insecure at all times, but you are insecure at all times. It's just a matter of circumstances that make you feel it – which are bountiful enough, in this life of flux and opposites </div> <div> True enough. And so the wisdom of this insecurity is ? </div> <div>     That we are essentially insecure, and so are relatively insecure; and to live by this wisdom. </div> <div> And what kind of life is that? </div> <div>     To live rightly in action and purpose according to your circumstances and character regardless of reward or no reward – the universal message of the Gita, as it comes to me now. </div> <div> Were you speaking with the Gita in mind? </div> <div>     No, the relationship of the wisdom of insecurity and the Gita's message just came to me as I was saying it. </div> <div> Interesting. </div> <div>     Very...And just as convincing to you? </div> <div> Yes... strangely, yes. Yet at the same time, insecurity frightens me very much. </div> <div>     It is supposed to. It is a polar negative in life. </div> <div> The thought of losing what and who l love is excruciating. </div> <div>     And that is why the Zen masters advise that you free your mind from thought. Then that agony goes. </div> <div> Is that what you suggest? </div> <div>     Only if you live in and for wisdom solely. Then that would be your purpose in life: to end suffering of the mind; because it all     </div> <div>     is in the mind: the pain and pleasure, the needs and wants. </div> <div> But I want to live in the stream of life. </div> <div>     And its tempest. </div> <div> Which I can't escape, of course. </div> <div>     And you never know when life will be one or the other. </div> <div> True. </div> <div>     Then, all the more must we live in that truth, that wisdom: that nothing is secure, even from moment to moment. </div> <div> It's so obviously true when you think of it. </div> <div>     Yes, but we don't allow ourselves to think of it, because, as you pointed out, it pains too much. </div> <div> But wisdom is supposed to bring tranquillity, equanimity, isn't it? </div> <div>     Like being in the eye of a storm? </div> <div> Something like that, yes. </div> <bR> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4bbc32c0.jpg" border=0 width="451" height="300" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Wyeth</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="323" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 68 ><NOBR><div>  <A NAME="part_two_the_source_3_"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Calibri" ><B>PART TWO: The Source </B></FONT></div> <div> <B> The </B><I><B>Love </B></I><B>Underlying Human-Transcendence    </B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Prelude</B></div> <bR> <div> Into The Light of Day</div> <div> Dedication: To the love of my wife and of my kind that moves me in deep undercurrents, I offer you my thoughts in these sacred words given to me by you, my fellow wayfarers, and by all our ancestors coursing through our blood, nerve and brain from the beginning to the end of it all.</div> <div> I lift the veil of Love a little so that we can see It clearer than ever we did before. I bring the intuition of Love out of the dark of our mind into the light of day! ... But!  only as image of its Meaning forever beyond our ken in life  but not beyond Its touch.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>For the Consolation of My Wife</B></div> <bR> <div>   1.  Love is what you are.</div> <div>   2.  God is Love, and so are you.</div> <div>   3.  Though suffering surrounds you, though sorrows aggrieve you...but love, and you are in touch.</div> <div>   4.   Let the God of Love console your mind; for you are Love and Love is you.</div> <div>   5.   Be inspired. For God does love you, though Love does pain you to the quick.</div> <div>   6.    Love is fire in the blood: the quickening of all that lives. And so, your God is He, is She, as well as It of all that IS.</div> <div>   7.   Your God does love you, just as you love God...for God is Love and Love is you.</div> <div>   8.   And when you pray to God, your Love, know that is when you are in touch.</div> <div>   9.   To be in touch is God's grace in you to love yourself in everyone that you can.</div> <div> 10.   Why do you stray from your God in Love when all that He wants is for you to love yourself as She for He and It?     </div> <div> 11.  God is Love as the bond of unity.</div> <div> 12.  You yourself are Love as well: as bond of corporal-psychic unity. And as you yourself are a bond as one – as parts to whole; so is that self-same bond the ONE that unifies all things as one.</div> <div> 13.   Love! though you die to yourself. For dying to self is living to Love.</div> <div> 14.   Why despair that you have lost your God when God is centered to your being? How can God have lost His way when She is everywhere –<FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Calibri" > </FONT>when It is no-where?  </div> <div> 15.  In the darkness of your mind is surprisingly the light of Love. All you need is be in touch with It. </div> <div> 16.  Love! though you hate your life at times; for only Love can bear life through and make it bow to acts of love.</div> <div> 17. Why pine for what is not, nor ever can be? Could Love have done it otherwise? Can it be done otherwise? That is for you to discover; since you yourself are Love. This hint might help you find your way: that Love destroys as it creates; and from what is destroyed is upon that which is created either anew or new.</div> <div> 18.  As pain is the price for whatever is dear, so pain is our friend as much as is pleasure – however hard to take is this truth.</div> <div> 19. Though you be caught up in the affairs of the day, however trying, however tense, know that your acts of love keep you in touch with Love: your God. And your acts of love, though painful they can be, wear this simple truth to your breast: that your pain can be your pleasure just as your pleasure can be your pain. </div> <div> 20. If only you understood what you believe then fear would fade from your mind for good, and your spirit would carry you through this enigmatic life. </div> <div> 21. Free your spirit! Be in touch with Love. Love is God of unity: that which binds all things as – the very God that binds you to yourself and to the world itself.</div> <div> 22.  Feel yourself as the bond you are – and that is God in touch with you. That is your spirit speaking to you. That is the spirit you think you lost, but is ever there waiting for you.</div> <div> 23.   Acts of love is Love manifested. And what are acts of love, you ask? An act of love is what you do that is right and true, and good of will.</div> <div> 24.   Since life is flux of opposite poles, there is no constant this or that; and we are caught in the midst of it, conscious that there's no way out. So best it is to bear or flow with it, and not give in until our mind or body fail – and then it would make no difference at all.</div> <div> 25.  I'm sorry life is so very hard on you, that solace seems so far away. But that you're loved and that you love can make you strong where you'd otherwise be weak and failing.</div> <div> 26.  You are in touch with God for sure when you act in love, and pleasure bathes your mind in good. Each act of love yields its reward in pleasure that you acted so. Yet when the act is done and the pleasure's gone, Love slips away from consciousness unless you start all over again. And if you feel no pleasure from an act of love; yet you feel it was right nonetheless, you still are in touch with your divinity – perhaps moreso, since Love itself is not the pleasure you feel. And would you not act in love even though you felt no pleasure? Is your act measurable by the pleasure you feel, or by the love you impart?</div> <div> 27.  Acts of love are not for others only; but for you alone apart from others. For is it not your first priority to love yourself as the embodiment of Love, as the bond of your own unity? For only as you love your world can you love the world.</div> <div> 28. When you do good for another, the pleasure you feel is the affirmation of the oneness you conjoined with another.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>_________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4bcfa290.jpg" border=0 width="250" height="297" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Rembrandt</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="310" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 31 ><NOBR><div>  <A NAME="transcendent_love_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Calibri" ><B>TRANSCENDENT LOVE</B></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>I</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE SPIRITUALITY OF LOVE</B></div> <bR> <div> Now that our human-transcendent lovewisdom has been introduced in its human setting – our psychology, and in its transcendent setting <B>–</B> Love as the bond of unity, The next stage in this conscious transformation is to explore the nature and variations of Love as the bond of all unity in relation to human-transcendence. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Introductory Thoughts</B></div> <bR> <div>   1  Rejoice! I bring the spirituality of Love, its Oneness, to those who are seeking a fuller, more meaningful, life both personally and socially, both humanly and transcendently.</div> <div>   2  You have your life as it is, content or not, content and not; yet aspire to something more, something beyond your settled life. You may have your beliefs and values that define you philosophically, psychologically, religiously; yet somehow are still at a standstill reaching for a wisdom that will balance your life more roundly, more effectively as a person in relation to yourself and to others, in relation to life and to eternity, so to speak.</div> <div>   3  Let me assume further that you've “been through it all” regarding ideas and ideals purporting to be the way to self-fulfillment, self-freedom, and the good life; and have found that everything helps a little, in its own way;  but nothing helps fully, consistently, or in the long run. We can liken this situation to a handful of sand that keeps sifting away until only a few grains remain.</div> <div>   4.  So there we are stranded; yet ever aware of the man, or woman, we aspire to be, of the good we would like to do, of the momentary “intimations of eternity” that “call [us] on and on across the universe.” [John Lennon]</div> <div>   5  And so our life goes by, day after day, month after month, year after year, in our ego-sensual excesses, with a little understanding gained here, a little wisdom lived there. Perhaps that is all we can expect from our frail humanity – ever seeking, never gratified, ever desiring, never satisfied.</div> <div>   6  Are we then to forego our ideals, our intimations, as illusions, or worse, delusions, and just live the best we can? </div> <div>   7  If only it were that easy! For many of us, our ideals and intimations are embedded into our psychology irrevocably, however we may twist and turn, however we may neglect or ignore them – “knock, knock, knock!” they keep at us, as D.H. Lawrence so aptly put it. And by not heeding these ideals and intimations, our “living the best we can” often enough deteriorates into wasting our life away.</div> <div>   8  What then are we to do? Take on the good fight, that's what!  And what is this good fight? Simply put: to live Love. – “living to love is the reason we shine” [The Bee Gees]. And by “living Love,” I mean it not only humanly, but transcendently; and not these two separately, but harmoniously, as humanly transcendent.</div> <div>   9  And this way of life requires a balanced, integral wisdom – a human-transcendent wisdom.</div> <div> 10  And this human-transcendent wisdom will give both your humanness and your transcendence their due; and accordingly will broaden you as a person personally, interpersonally, socially and spiritually.</div> <div> 11  And it is this human-transcendent wisdom, or simply human-transcendence, that underlies a conscious transformation that will lead from one person to another, and to another, and still to another, until gradually, eventually, it becomes a massive movement everywhere. </div> <div> 12  And this human-transcendent wisdom has at its spiritual center: Love as the bond of unity, as Oneness, or simply, Love. </div> <div> 13. By joining the concept of oneness to the concept of Love – Love-oneness – we give Love its spiritual meaning, and its human significance: its spiritual meaning, inasmuch as Love, as the bond of unity, is the one principle, or power, that unifies all things into their respective form and purpose; its human significance, inasmuch as Oneness simplifies the abstraction of Love into a more meaningful concept – and experience – with which humans can identify and relate to. </div> <div> 14. Accordingly, I use both Love-oneness and Love-spirituality interchangeably; with the understanding that Love–oneness is more humanly specific; that is to say, we can identify more with the abstraction of oneness than we can with the abstraction of spirituality.</div> <div> 15  Love! What we all are </div> <div>      From zero to infinity</div> <div>      From here to eternity.</div> <div> In other words, we are essentially Love phenomenally and transphenomenally.</div> <div>      Love!  What we all need</div> <div>      From birth to death</div> <div>      From person to person.</div> <div> In other words, we are in human bondage to love in all its human relationships. </div> <div>      Love! What we all draw to</div> <div>      From good to evil</div> <div>      From beyond both good and evil.</div> <div> In other words, Love is what draws (attracts) us to both good and evil, and to that which is beyond good and evil; that is, to transcendence: our Love-oneness..</div> <div> 16.  The Oneness of Love manifests itself through both our humanity and our transcendence. As human, we are vulnerable to all the entwinements of relational love; as transcendent we are receptive to all the intimations of eternal-infinite Love. </div> <div> 17    "Love must be reinvented."</div> <div>                <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >- Rimbaud</FONT></div> <div> And so it is being reinvented through our Love-Oneness </div> <div> 18  "Seek thou within: seek not for God above!</div> <div>       The proper name for God in man is Love."</div> <div>            - Pope</div> <div> Finally, after more than 250 years, when this meaningful couplet was written by the great English poet, Alexander Pope, we come to the truth of it that God is within us, not somewhere “up there," "out there"; and that God is not only Love, and something else, but that Love is God as nothing but Love. Our Love-oneness brings this Truth home in its full human understanding.</div> <div> 19  "Some day, after we have mastered the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness...the energies of love. Then for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire."</div> <div>                                                                                                                         <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" > - Pierre Teilhard De Chardin</FONT></div> <div> Here is a philosophic-religious scientist (Jesuit / paleontologist) of the first order heralding "the energies of love" to be harnessed into a consolidation of effect and purpose that will surely advance the consciousness of mankind. And this is the effect and purpose of our Love-oneness.</div> <div> 20  Considering that Love is essentially spiritual, and as religion concerns itself primarily with spiritual matters, there is then, an obvious relationship between Love and religion  “God is Love,” for instance, as the Christians put it. It will be in place then to explore this meaningful relationship; but with this in mind: that I am not advocating a religion but, again, the spirituality, the oneness, the Love, underlying all religions. </div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4be3b8a0.jpg" border=0 width="315" height="394" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Renoir</div> <bR> <bR> <div> 2</div> <bR> <div> LOVE AS THE ESSENCE OF RELIGION</div> <bR> <bR> <div> I</div> <bR> <div> I:1     Imagine that religion were based solely on the meaning, practice, and experience, of love with its accompanying wisdom.</div> <div> I:2    On what grounds would religion then stand? Would love not then be its spirituality as the essence, or principle, or oneness, of traditional religions?</div> <div> Ah! What a divine religion might be found out if charity [divine love] were really made the principle of it instead of faith.</div> <div>                                                                                                                                          <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >- Shelley</FONT></div> <div> I:3     Love, then, at its root, would be of both spiritual and religious significance.</div> <div> I:4     Regarding love's religious significance, were we to trace the root meaning of religion, we would find that it has its French derivation religare, meaning `to tie back, tie up, tie fast; fasten...(re-RE + lig -- bind, tie),' and understood to mean the linking of the human and the divine. And relatedly, that the word “Dharma” in Hindu and Buddhist tradition derives from the Sanskrit word “dharan,” meaning something that holds together; and that this Latin root “eligio,” meaning “to link-back” to the spirit, is the identical meaning of the word “yoga” which comes from the Sanskrit “Yuj;” i.e., "to yoke" to the spirit.</div> <div> I:5     Relatedly, by looking first at the concept of love in its historical, metaphysical meaning, we see that it is understood as the universal attractive force, or power, that binds all things in unity. Otherwise stated, love is the bond of unity. Love, then, is clearly related to the root meaning of the word "religion."</div> <div> I:6     Furthermore, to take the Latin root of the word religio, "to link back" – that is, to link the human back to its spiritual root – we find that wisdom is the guide through which we are able to link back to our spiritual root: Love.</div> <div> I:7     Accordingly, It is through the way of religion, then, that connects, binds, us to our spirituality, our Oneness: Love; and it is through wisdom that guides us to and through, this binding.</div> <div> I:8     Regarding Love's spiritual significance, we can transfer the metaphysical meaning of love into a religiously spiritual context; in which case, we have the familiar statement "God is love." If love is the bond of all unity, and God is love, then, of course, God is the bond of all unity. The essential word here is "bond." – God is the bond of all unity.</div> <div> 1:9   Considering that God is spiritual in the religious sense of the word "spiritual," then, of course, Love, is spiritual; and accordingly, I will capitalize the word as such when used in this spiritual context.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> II  </div> <bR> <div> II:1    We now have the spiritual basis of religion: – its Love spirituality.</div> <div> II:2    Accordingly, this love spirituality fits perfectly into the very nature of the meaning of the word religion; which would be at the very core of all religions – their universal spirituality.</div> <div> II:3    As the universal spirituality of all religions, this Love fulfills the need in our times for a spiritual revolution in our Western tradition; namely, the "revolving" of emphasis of the outward God round to the inward God at the center of our being, and of all being – "The kingdom of Heaven is within you." "You must be perfect as your God in Heaven is perfect." (Jesus); "God has put eternity in the mind of man." (Ecclesiastes) – Yes, it goes back that far, and further, in our history!</div> <div> II:4    If then the kingdom of God is within us, that eternity is in our minds, then somehow we can experience, at the very least, intimations of this Kingdom, of this eternity within us – it is in our minds somewhere! somehow!. This experience is known as the mystic experience.</div> <div> II:5    This mystic experience would be our personal touch, our relationship with, our awareness of, It; and these are experienced as the bliss of Oneness, Power, underlying all reality, all multiplicity.</div> <div> II:6    Besides this mystic experience of, the spirituality of, Love, we need a practice of Love in our daily lives and that is through a wisdom that balances both our humanness and our transcendence; in which case, this spirituality has both a philosophy, a psychology, that grounds it humanly and idealizes it transcendently into a human-transcendent wisdom..</div> <div> II:7    Lastly, this Love spirituality, as both a human and transcendent endeavor, has its human exemplar in the charismatic person and music of John Lennon as the Artist of this spirituality, with and without the Beatles.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> III</div> <bR> <div> III:1  Given all these conditions, we would then have the basis  for all religions that is both realistic and ideal, thus satisfying the two sides of our human nature: our humanness and our transcendence.</div> <div> III:2    We must keep in mind the human part of us regarding this Love spirituality; in which case, Love diversifies into  human love, transcendent love, and human-transcendent love – the balance between the two.</div> <div> III:3    Would not this Love-spirituality satisfy the receptive humanist, if not the open-minded agnostic, and even the soft-core atheist; especially if we added further that this Love spirituality is individualistic  and companionable, not organizational; is exclusive of ritual, dogma, catechism, dignitaries, theology; has psychology and physics on its side.</div> <div> III:4    And would not this Love-spirituality restore the good name to religion, which has lost its role and meaning to so many people.</div> <div> III:5   For consider: as Love is the essence of all religions – whether it is called God or Allah, or Brahma, or whatever else – our Love-spirituality would not conflict in any way with any other religions, only amplify, clarify, essentialize, them. In this sense, then, religion is – or should be – spirituality, essentially, expressed. </div> <div> III:6    Love is so essential, so crucial, to our lives, and to life itself, that, if for no other reason, it is incumbent upon religion to keep in touch with its essence, its divinity, its source; and this `in-touch-with' is both the wisdom and the mystic aspects of our Love spirituality.</div> <div> III:7   Jesus taught, lived, and experienced, Love in both its human and transcendent embraces, and died for it; and so, he belongs to all mankind as an avatar – the avatar to Christians – of Love. Buddha, the same, in his way, and all the other avatars down through the ages in their ways. All other religious aspects of Christ's stay here on earth, or Buddha/'s or Krishna's, or anyone else's, are matters of faith and belief; and are valid as such according to the vast diversities of our human nature. Let the religions keep their myths, their theologies, their rituals, their symbols, their scriptures – they are priceless for the human psyche; yet, at the same time,  let the practitioner keep always in mind – or, in soul, if you like – that underlying all these practices and beliefs centers his essential being, his Love-oneness.</div> <div> III:8    For those who shy away from, or are adverse to, religion for whatever reason; yet have a strong spiritual bent, the Love-spirituality alone can be their interior way of life, their own religion, so to speak.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>IV</B></div> <bR> <div> IV:1  This Love-spirituality, or Oneness, as said, has a psychology, a philosophy, and a wisdom, as its underpinnings. As such, psychology is concerned with our humanness; philosophy with our transcendence, and wisdom with our human-transcendence.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4c2860d0.jpg" border=0 width="390" height="269" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Homer</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>3</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE PHILOSOPHY OF LOVE</B></div> <bR> <div> Introductory Thoughts</div> <div> DEFINITIONAL NOTE: The word "transcendence" in its etymological derivation means 'to climb across', 'surmount'. Transcendence, as it is defined in the dictionary, and pertaining to our purpose, means: "proceeding beyond or lying outside of what is perceived or presented in experience; being beyond material existence or apart from the universe; superior or supreme; referred to but beyond, direct apprehension; outside consciousness." </div> <div> 1. Now just as humans are drawn and held together by the binding force which is called love, we can expand the meaning of this binding force to apply to all phenomena from an atom to a star, from an amoeba to a human. </div> <div> 2.  Depending upon the nature of the phenomenon – whether it is microscopic (an atom) or macroscopic (a body) – this binding force is manifested either as gravity, electromagnetism or weak/strong nuclear forces. </div> <div> 3.  As all phenomena are held in place to their appropriate order, structure, place, time, and identity, so do they have their particular relation to everything else however near or remote – the eye is related to the brain, which is related to the heart, which is related to...and on and on ad infinitum.; the nucleus of an atom is related to its respective electrons, and these, in turn are related to the nucleus, and the nucleus is related to its respective protons and neutrons...and on and on ad infinitum. </div> <div> 4. Though the same essential binding force, or principle, applies to both human beings and to all other phenomena, we can assign our definition of human love as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity only to human beings – though not discounting selected higher mammals, such as, the dog. In order to apply this same basic concept of love to include all other phenomena, we can simply delete the words "affectionate" and "compassionate," and we have an all-inclusive, universal meaning of love as the bond of unity – that which binds everything as an ordered whole, or unity – yet which is not itself bonded, but is unity itself. </div> <div> 5. In metaphysical terms, this bond of unity can be considered as the universal power-principle, to all existing phenomena. We can interpret "power" as the sum of forces keeping everything uniquely together; and "principle" as the ordering of this power, or simply, order. In both human and non-human terms, this bond of unity is put simply into one word: Love. </div> <div> 6. Love, then, in its all-inclusive, all-pervasive, meaning is the bond of unity – all unity. In its human meaning, it is specifically termed as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity. </div> <div> 7. Inasmuch as this bond of unity is the source of our being, yet transcendent of it (relative to our understanding), it can be considered our Transcendence. And inasmuch as this Transcendence is Love, we are Love. </div> <div> 8.  Hence, when Love is referred to in this transcendent sense, it can be termed Transcendent Love. </div> <div> 9.  Considering that Love is the identifying sameness, or oneness, to all things, inasmuch as it is that which unifies everything, and considering further that each existing entity is placed in relation to every other existing entity, however near or far; and considering still further, that each relation has its purpose, or role, in the whole scheme of existence – then it is appropriate to say that whatever exists has its unique meaning in the scheme of things. Which is to say, that which has purpose has meaning. </div> <div> 10.  If, then, each existing entity has its unique meaning, then it is just as appropriate to say that existence itself – Love – is the ultimate Meaning of everything – whatever that meaning may be, however unfathomable it is to us. </div> <div> 11. This unfathomableness is so astonishingly mysterious, so ineffably beyond our ken, so wondrously present that we have no alternative but to consider this bond, this Love, as divine: as spiritual. And since we ourselves, individually, are bonded as a unity of "parts" and relations with meaning, and as such, are Love, we too are essentially divine. </div> <div> 12.  Given, then, that we are essentially Love, and so, essentially divine, it is beholden upon us to live our divinity as Love, as far as that is humanly and individually possible. </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ____________</div> <div>    1.  Love is the bond of unity. </div> <div>    2.  A bond is the tension between forces. </div> <div>    3.  A bond exists between all separate individuals, or entities. </div> <div>    4.  Love binds separate individuals, or entities, into a unity of purpose. They interact as, at, one with each other. </div> <div>    5.  Love wills unity.</div> <div>    6.  Love unifies everything diverse and separate.</div> <div>    7. As with a watch, though all the parts are in unison to give the time, the time itself is entirely abstract from the parts and their interrelatedness. The concept of time (in man's mind) conceived the watch so as to tell the time. As an analogy, Unity, we might say, is like the conception of time; and all the parts and interrelations between them constitute the bond that tells the time. </div> <div>   8.   Love is unity, or God, manifested. </div> <div>   9.   A bond of unity is a relational phenomenon; Unity is the totality of relational phenomena.</div> <div> 10.   Life is Love willed animately.</div> <div> 11.   Love is the bond of everything; it is the identification of everything.</div> <div> 12.  Love, being a bond of unity, is a field, or tension, of forces interacting together, not only as a particular bond of unity, but in relation to other bonds of unity, or field, tensions, of forces. In other words, one field or tension of forces affects, or interacts with, other fields of forces. Which is to say plainly: Love affects other realities, either of love or of non-love.</div> <div> 13.  Love between two persons or entities, as a bond of unity, is a power-pack, a quantum of energy. And since this energy-quantum has concentrated, ordered, purpose and intention (in human terms) as a particular field of forces, it can be termed “power" so as to distinguish it from other forms of energy. This form of energy-quantum is the power that initiates volition in humans and in other forms of willing in all other time-space-causality phenomena. It is the power to will. </div> <div> 14.   A bond of unity in a psychological and transcendent sense is called "love." In a physical sense, a bond of unity is called a "tension of forces." In a metaphysical sense, it is called "the power to will." In a spiritual sense, it is called "meaning" between (not "of") everything. – (In all these senses of a bond of unity, order clearly obtains.) – And in a mystic sense, a bond of unity is experienced as a purity of "bliss." </div> <div> 15. Love, then, in capsule form is a bond of unity between life and world processes; it is the tension of forces that is the power to will in order with meaning within bliss. </div> <div> 16. What we have then is what we might call an infinite regress from love in reference particularly to human life; to the further abstraction of universal will in reference to animals, plants, and all other forms of animate and inanimate matter-energy structures; to the still further abstraction of an underlying universal order to the will and love of phenomenal reality; right through to the ultimate abstraction, mysterium, MEANING, which is experienced in human consciousness as the pure power of bliss. </div> <div> 17. This love between persons can be generalized as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity. Though the passion of the love relationship normally wanes over a period of time, or may not be part of the relationship, the affectionate and compassionate aspects of the love always persist so long as two people are considered to love each other. </div> <div> 18. Now were we to consider this attractive force between persons in a broader perspective, such as, the attraction between animals, this meaning of human love, as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity, still applies, though certainly less intensely, in descent from the higher mammals to the lower species of the animal kingdom. </div> <div> 19. Now abstract all animal sentience from this meaning of love, and we still have the attraction, the attractive, binding, force, operating between living, animate matter as between cells; in which case, these cells are held together as ordered units in relation to other cells. </div> <div> 20. Next, abstract all animate factors from this meaning of love, and we still have the attraction, the attractive, binding, force, operating between inanimate matter, from a grain of sand to planets, to stars; from molecules to atoms to quarks, and so forth; in which case each and every thing is held together as ordered units in relation to all other ordered units.</div> <div> 21. In both these cases of animate and inanimate matter, the same essential binding force or element, or principle, applies; though we cannot apply our human definition of love as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity to them. To apply to the same basic concept of love as a binding, unifying  principle to animate and inanimate matter, all that has to be done is to delete the words "affectionate" and "compassionate," and we have an all-inclusive, universal meaning of love as the bond of unity – that which attracts everything  to everything else, and keeps everything together as an ordered, related whole, or  unity. This I term Transcendent Love, or Love as the bond of unity.</div> <div> 22. The word "transcendence" in its etymological derivation means 'to climb across', 'surmount'. Transcendence, as it is defined in the dictionary, and  pertaining to our purpose, means: "proceeding beyond or lying outside of  what is perceived or presented in experience; being beyond material existence or apart from the universe; superior or supreme; referred to but beyond, direct apprehension; outside consciousness."</div> <div> 23.  As, then, we understand Love to be the bond that binds each and every thing together as a whole, inwardly and outwardly, and that entailed in this bond, this Love, is the meaning of each and every thing, unfathomable to us – then,  that is reason enough to consider this bond, this Love, as divine: as spiritual. And since we ourselves, individually, are one of "each and every thing," we too are bonded as a unity of "parts" with meaning; and as such, are Love, which too is our divinity: our spirituality.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4d91eca0.jpg" border=0 width="286" height="458" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> 4</div> <bR> <div> <B>THE POETICS OF TRANSCENDENT LOVE</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> 1    Of Love I write in accents deep</div> <div>       as inward bond of unity.</div> <div>       Love it binds all things as one</div> <div> as ordered will through Meaning's bliss.</div> <div> 2     In the beginning at the end</div> <div>       when past and present and future meet,</div> <div> pure limitless, underlying Love</div> <div> bathes our being in radiance.</div> <div>  3    Love is Meaning; Meaning, Bliss.</div> <div>  that is all we need to know;</div> <div>  for Love is will to-be-at-one,</div> <div>  and Meaning is one-will in Bliss.</div> <div> 4     As Planets spin and atoms swirl</div> <div> as good and evil interact,</div> <div> one will gives ordered meaning to</div> <div> their ultimate identity.</div> <div> 5     Though Love with strife do rule the world,</div> <div> strife is but Love's consequence;</div> <div> for toward good and bad we are inclined.</div> <div> In either case, it's what we love.</div> <div> 6     "Everything is relative" – true; </div> <div> relative to this or that;</div> <div> and Love, being both this and that,</div> <div> is unity relative to none.</div> <div>  7     Love, Meaning, and their Bliss – these three</div> <div> are but the same in Unity:</div> <div> Love binds, Meaning knows all things,</div> <div> their Bliss shines on eternally.</div> <div>  8     Unity – the generic word</div> <div> for Love, its meaning, and their Bliss –</div> <div> is God in Its divinity:</div> <div> its sacred text and holy prayer.</div> <div> 9     Unity on Love depends,</div> <div> and Love is Meaning's binding force:</div> <div> the cause and reason for its being,</div> <div> as the mysterium of the world.</div> <div> 10     Unity is the cosmic One</div> <div> from part to part and part to whole;</div> <div> impersonal – yet personal too: </div> <div> in Love, which binds it all in place.</div> <div> 11     If Love is all and everyone,</div> <div> It knows Itself as-in all things;</div> <div> so everything, as Love itself;</div> <div> knows itself as-in everything.</div> <div> 12     Love as Meaning, Meaning as Bliss:</div> <div> these three as pure conscious Unity: </div> <div> an all-embracing world of light, </div> <div> as the power that wills the world.</div> <div> 13     Love, Meaning, and Bliss, into one:</div> <div> as pure conscious radiance;</div> <div> experienced as Unity</div> <div> is our birthright for us to know.</div> <div> 14     For every action there's reaction</div> <div> empirically in space and in time.</div> <div> The Meaning of phenomena,</div> <div> however, tells it otherwise.</div> <div> 15     Rejoice! I have good news to tell!</div> <div> Of a way of Love as something new:</div> <div> that Love is everything and One,</div> <div> is of good and evil and beyond.</div> <div> 16     Love binds the world as principle</div> <div> of willed cohesive unity; </div> <div> though strife opposes unity, </div> <div> it is strictly consequential.</div> <div> 17     All things will the integrity</div> <div> of their individual unity;</div> <div>  and whatsoever threatens it,</div> <div>  exists as strife of separateness.</div> <div> 18     Strife is pain of separateness</div> <div> in all living sentient beings;</div> <div> in inanimate form and matter,</div> <div> it is force of disintegration.</div> <div> 19     Without love, strife is but a nullity;</div> <div> for to what purpose would strife be</div> <div> were there naught for it to undo,</div> <div> since there must be for there not to be.</div> <div> 20     Strife is love in conflict with itself</div> <div>  in all its multiplicity;</div> <div> for everything is Love as one</div> <div> that cannot coexist as one.</div> <div> 21     As Love enjoins all things as one,</div> <div> so strife destroys this unity;</div> <div> but it can only break what is</div> <div> and that which is embodies strife.</div> <div> 22     Strife is love in conflict with itself</div> <div> in all its multiplicity;</div> <div> In which case, Love conquers all things</div> <div> – Even itself in form of strife.</div> <div> 23     That which holds all things together</div> <div> Is all things together as one;</div> <div> Love we call it – the soul of being:</div> <div> Its meaning essentially we are.</div> <div> 24     Unity is love manifested</div> <div> in myriad multiplicity</div> <div> of forms in interrelations</div> <div> separate but together as one.</div> <div> 25     Love and Soul – interchangeable:</div> <div> when "love" is felt power is spent;</div> <div>       when soul" is thought principle is meant.</div> <div> they mean the same differently.</div> <div> 26     Love, the bond of everything as one,</div> <div> is One itself indivisible:</div> <div> The soul of all that is as, at, one,</div> <div> the soul of everyone and thing.</div> <div> 27     Love is One indivisibly,</div> <div> manifested divisibly</div> <div> in which all things are as, at, one,</div> <div> as intimations of their Source.</div> <div> 28     As all numbers are series of ones,</div> <div> so all things are as, at, one,</div> <div> as a calculus of infinity</div> <div> wherein all "ones" are lastly One.</div> <div> 29     These: – Meaning, Love, and Unity</div> <div> are as the Holy Trinity:</div> <div> Meaning the Father, Love the Son</div> <div> and Unity the Spirit-Mother</div> <div> 30     First God was outward; now: inward.</div> <div> First God was "He," now He's "It."</div> <div> First He was Father-son-Holy Ghost;</div> <div> Now It's Meaning-Love-Unity.</div> <div> 31     Survey the unity in this world</div> <div> that manifests itself as one:</div> <div> in all diversity of forms,</div> <div> in things together or apart.</div> <div> 32     Love is meaning, meaning is love;</div> <div> one is inside, the other out:</div> <div> Meaning gives to love its will,</div> <div> while love gives unity its world.</div> <div> 33     Each ordered multiplicity</div> <div> is an object of structured form</div> <div> in striking uniformity</div> <div> of all its parts in unity.</div> <div> 34     Love: a building up, a drawing to;</div> <div> strife: a breaking down, a turning from.</div> <div> Both are part of nature's way</div> <div> to keep the world a separate one.</div> <div> 35     Love is an identity</div> <div> of everything as equally one,</div> <div> however different and separate</div> <div> whatever strife destroys in life.</div> <div> 36     Identity is the same of two</div> <div> or more separate entities;</div> <div> is that which binds them ultimately</div> <div> and separates them relatively.</div> <div> 37     Destruction is love's other force</div> <div>  (creation its positive charge);</div> <div> one attracts, the other opposes;</div> <div> both together balance the world.</div> <div> 38     Love is the bond, the glue, of all</div> <div> keeping the world in ordered flux;</div> <div> It is principle and power:</div> <div> The Soul and will that moves the world.</div> <div> 39   All the world is will in process:</div> <div> willing to this or willing to that;</div> <div> a willing to maximum effect,</div> <div> and maximum effect is its power.</div> <div> 40  Will is power to the effect:</div> <div> the cause of everything that is; </div> <div>      – Even its effects are causes too–:</div> <div> cause to effect, effect to cause.</div> <div> 41     Love is the meaning of the world:</div> <div> it's ordered bond of unity;</div> <div> but love as meaning of the world</div> <div> is not the meaning of itself.</div> <div> 42    Identity is love in act</div> <div>  with everyone and everything</div> <div>  at the meaning of our being;</div> <div>  as the being of the world.</div> <div> 43     Love is the synaptic link</div> <div> between here and eternity,</div> <div> between reality and meaning</div> <div> where bliss is bathed in radiant light.</div> <div> 44     Love is enactment of world meaning</div> <div> in creation and destruction</div> <div> of ordered processes and forms</div> <div> that keep it altogether as one.</div> <div> 45   Is there such a thing as soul</div> <div> supernatural to this life?</div> <div> I would venture there is for sure;</div> <div> Yet not a soul as one by one.</div> <div> 46    Soul I know as being-pure,</div> <div> where nothing is except itself:</div> <div> being inclusive of everything,</div> <div> yet of itself is but itself.</div> <div> 47      "What is soul?" you want to know –</div> <div>  A question touching life and death.</div> <div>  Soul is the bond of unity:</div> <div>  that which keeps all things at, as, one.</div> <div> 48   Soul as the bond of unity</div> <div> is the metaphysical name</div> <div> for the physical name of will,</div> <div> or for the human name of love</div> <div> 49   "Soul": the word for you alone;</div> <div> "Love" the word for others with them;</div> <div> "Unity" the word for the whole;</div> <div>       and MEANING the word for all words</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>   </div> <bR> <div> <B>5</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Variations of Transcendent Love</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4c6f12b0.jpg" border=0 width="241" height="299" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <div> <B>[i]</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>LOVE AS ESSENTIAL BEING</B></div> <bR> <div> Introductory Comments</div> <bR> <div> As the term “Love” has so many human and nonhuman aspects to its meaning, it is somewhat awkward to write of it in terms of philosophical metaphysics – which, I believe, is necessary to grasp the meaning of Love as the bond of unity, or as the power to will. We do have to conceive of it in metaphysical terms in order to flesh out its meaning philosophically. Accordingly, I use the term “Essential Being” as a replacement for Love in the following notes. Also, the meaning of “essential being” is more specific when speaking of Love in metaphysical terms. In either case, the reader can easily replace one term for the other. </div> <div>   1.  Essential Being is that which structures the world.</div> <div>   2. That which structures the world constitutes phenomenal reality less all phenomenal manifestations: matter, mass, energy, gravity, electromagnetism, time, space, causality.</div> <div>   3.  Essential Being is trans-pantheistic manifesting Itself in and beyond the world in varying modes of will, reason, spirit, goodness, unity, eternity, love, the void.</div> <div>   4.  Essential Being not only determines the logical structure of the world – as we understand it, but its illogic as well – as we do not understand, but intuit, it.</div> <div>   5.  Essential Being is immaterial inasmuch as It is the structured configuration of all that is; and so being non-material, can be considered as spiritual.</div> <div>   6.  The concept of Essential Being” is rich in connotations, depending on one's frame of mind or mood. It can be thought of as will (Schopenhauer), spirit (Hegel), substances (Spinoza), the demiurge (Plato), the prime mover (Aristotle), Logos (Heraclitus), the One (Plotinus); including such concepts, the kingdom of God, the Holy Spirit, the void, eternal infinitude, the Good, and on and on.</div> <div>   7.  Many people may not be able to identify with the various religious conceptions of God as creator, but they can identify with the many-sided concepts Essential Being.</div> <div>   8.  Essential Being is the creative principle of the world.</div> <div>   9.  The structure of the world staggers the imagination, but that which structures the world enwonders it.</div> <div> 10.  Essential Being underlies the unity of everything as It structures the diversity of the physical world.</div> <div> 11.  Essential Being is beyond time in the frame of timelessness.</div> <div> 12.  Essential Being goes beyond the logic of the world; it determines the logic of the world.</div> <div> 13.  Essential Being is the potentiality of everything.</div> <div> 14.  The mind's infinite range of conceivability is the dimension of eternity, or timelessness.</div> <div> 15.  It is through the conceivability of the mind that Essential Being is intuited, felt, thought, believed.</div> <div> 16.  All is flux (change) except Essential Being.</div> <div> 17.  One who is consistently awed by Essential Being will not, at bottom, disdain any aspect of phenomenal reality, since phenomenal reality is the most obvious (to us) manifestation of Essential Being.</div> <div> 18.  Essential Being essentializes all individual beings to their form and function.</div> <div> 19. The roots of reality are the eternal, changeless mathematical relations inherent in the world; which are manifestations of Essential Being.</div> <div> 20.  Essential Being is not only eternal, but temporal; not only infinite, but finite.</div> <div> 21. There is a divine order to the regularity of physical processes in the natural world; “divine” inasmuch as this order is beyond the materiality and processes of the world. It is the impetus of order; and so, is not the order alone, but both the order and impetus.</div> <div> 22.  In Essential Being I “see” the possibility of impossibility.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4dc97210.jpg" border=0 width="407" height="289" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Dali</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>[ii]</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Verses of Surrealism</B></div> <bR> <div> NOTE: At a brief stage of my life, I was in a surrealistic frame of mind, and the following verses came to me from "nowhere" in my mind with neither purpose nor plan. A word would come to me, or that I would see in a book; then a flow of thoughts stemming from that world would pour forth; and I would write them down as they came without revision or refinement. </div> <div>    These verses collectively represent Essential Being, Love, flowing through my mind to you, within and without us both humanly and transcendently. They are images that bind us to our life and to life itself. They are a dance between here and eternity. They speak of the essence of our being unto Essential Being itself.</div> <bR> <div> <B>1</B></div> <div> Life is mind-interpretation</div> <div>   of factual ratiocination,</div> <div> Is only an intricate manifestation</div> <div>   of Something-else  beyond this life.</div> <div> And so it's true life is a dream:</div> <div>   a dream of cause-effect in time</div> <div> And when awake, we sleepwalk in dream;</div> <div> Asleep, we are the dream.</div> <div> <B>2</B></div> <div> "Off I go to Nowhere Land,"</div> <div> say I to my six year old son;</div> <div>     – "There's such a place as Nowhere Land,"</div> <div>         So says my darling boy.</div> <div> I: "And what is there in Nowhere Land?</div> <div>  Nothing is there, everywhere."</div> <div>       "There's just one thing I know is there,"</div> <div>       So says my beautiful boy:</div> <div>       "There's just one star that's shinning there."</div> <div> My son, he knows Eternity.</div> <div> <B>3</B></div> <div> <I><B>Across the Universe</B></I></div> <div> I have a cryptic message for you –</div> <div> You who are my friends at soul:</div> <div> Your mind will cross the universe</div> <div> If you listen receptively </div> <div> To Lennon's psychedelic-mystic song.</div> <div> Tomorrow never knows</div> <div> What today will be tomorrow.</div> <div> Tomorrow is today-to-be,</div> <div> Today-to-be is yesterday tomorrow</div> <div> And so there is nothing to know.</div> <div> <B>4</B></div> <div> <I><B>Ordination</B></I></div> <div> Let me tell you how it's going to be, </div> <div> Let me tell you how it is;</div> <div> And let me tell you how it was :</div> <div> What's going to be is;</div> <div> What is was;</div> <div> And what was is going to be.</div> <div> <B>5</B></div> <div> Atoms of apperception</div> <div>   not seen by sight,</div> <div> Structure the world all bound up tight.</div> <div> There and not there in endless flight</div> <div> Visible only to blinding Sight.</div> <div> <B>6</B></div> <div> Round you see me, square you don't,</div> <div> Triangular I am in rectangular space.</div> <div> Square you see me, round you don't</div> <div> As round and square as I can be,</div> <div> I am that I am as round as square</div> <div>    everywhere</div> <div> At all times.</div> <div> <B>7</B></div> <div> Imagine an infinite walk from X,</div> <div> Straight ahead without a curve;</div> <div> Step by step you make your way</div> <div> Walking through infinity</div> <div> For an endless eternity.</div> <div> And if you were to view yourself</div> <div> You'd see you hadn't moved from X!</div> <div> For X itself is infinity.</div> <div> <B>8</B></div> <div> <I>MIND without Mind</I></div> <div> Shrivel me, time, unto my death</div> <div> So that my flesh may reek with stench;</div> <div> Only then will I be free</div> <div> In the Mind </div> <div> sans humankind.          </div> <div> <B>9</B></div> <div> A mosque somehow in the void of me</div> <div>    wherein God prays to me.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>[iii]</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Power To Will</B></div> <div> (An Introduction Spoken to My Wife)</div> <bR> <bR> <div>     Now I'm not a hundred percent sure that I have this down; but it could very well be, what I'm going to say.</div> <div>     Remember 10 years ago when we first got together in the car – just before we got together actually – and we talked about being able to reach the transcendent, eternal,  part of us by our own means: by just like triggering into it rather than through yogic practices, meditative sessions, or drug-induced altered consciousness; or through purity of soul, or ethical virtue, or fasting, or sensory deprivation, and the like, before one can be spiritually worthy before communing with that eternal part of us.</div> <div>     It just automatically came out of me back then, and we both knew, between us, that this "triggering in" through our mind rather than through practices was not only possible but that it had to be. it always seemed that that would be my final push, the final striving, in my later years to reach that, if it were even possible. The idea was that  this eternal experience would be one that happened whenever you wanted to more than once or twice in a lifetime beyond our control.</div> <div>     Well it looks like it's here; the beginnings of it anyway. You know, I have my overall metaphysical, mystic, transcendent wisdom, of Meaning, as the ultimate of things in its most abstract form, whether that meaning be a principle, a power, or whatever it may be; but within that meaning is the meaning of the world right down to the meaning of a grain of sand. And Love is a manifestation of it, the unifying aspect of it, that holds everything together from inanimate to animate matter from the atomic particles in a grain of sand to plants, to animals, to human beings – that's what we call Love in human terms.</div> <div>     But there's also a phrase that has always been kind of on the periphery of my mental meanderings that came to me in a flash back in 1969, 23 years ago; and that is the power to will  that  you've heard me speak of on and off over the years. It always returns to my mind "out of nowhere", so to speak; yet I didn't quite know what to do with; how it fit into the scheme of my developing human-transcendent wisdom.</div> <div>     Of course, Nietzsche's will to power makes very good sense to me because, yes, we will for power; not necessarily brute, physical power, but moral power, ego power, intellectual power, spiritual power – whatever direction it takes, the more power we have, the more control of our lives, the more we experience of life and of the universe; the broader we are, the more transcendent we are. Now the power to will is the converse of the will to power. In the will to power, we will to that power; whereas my phrase, power to will, which – by the way, I came to that phrase before I had even read Nietzsche – relates to the very power towards which we will; which is that ultimate principle that makes it possible to actually will, whatever that power is.</div> <div>     All right. so that's the intellectual background of what I'm about to tell you. Now you know, over the years in my transcendent session, I'm always striving to reach the ultimate of everything, the oneness, the meaning. I use all these terms in an attempt to click into It somehow or other; and I've even used the Power to will concept in the past on and off; but nothing much happens. I've tried to go the Zen way of not thinking of anything; and other means in vain. And you know I've had two ultimate pure-conscious experiences; but they just happened to me; I don't know where they came from. I had no control over them. But what we're talking about is that we do have control over  this blessing, this beatitude; so how do we go about that? How do we trigger into this Vastness in us?</div> <div>     Well, coming right to the matter hand now, the other night, having awakened at 3:30 in the morning, and not being able to get back to sleep, I started getting my mind into a transcendent mode – I almost always do that a little before I fall asleep. And the power to will came to me again; and so I thought, let's try that again. In the past when I've tried this thought of the power to will, it does blank out my mind of, however momentarily, of my own thoughts. When I think of the meaning of the word "power" in the phrase "power to will," my mind tries to get into that power, which is a purity, which is not willing at all; it's that which determines the willing, whether it is conscious or unconscious or instinctual willing, whatever it may be. </div> <div>     So, this time, the other night, I did go into a sense of blanking out everything except this purity; but it doesn't last long; my mind always comes back to my willing this or that thought or image. </div> <div>     But something happened this time that I got into that state of power, the power to will; that means  I tried to get into that state in which determines my willing. In which case,  I don't deliberately, or intentionally will any thought or feeling; and I just kind of blank them out as much as I can, and suspend my mind into it. Well, I was going through that process, and something new happened to me, that came to me that this is the answer! the way into this pure state of our eternality through this sense of power to will!.  Not just power; it makes no connection to anything mystic; it's remote, it's distinct, it's out there; like the Zen people who say don't think of anything, empty your mind of all contents, and you'll be in touch with what's pure. But something essential is missing in such a practice; there's no connection to the emptying your mind with the pure state; whereas with the power to will, there is a connection: your willing is your thinking mind, and the power to will is that which makes you think. So there is a relationship between the mind and the soul, so to speak. You have to back out of that deliberate conscious thinking and try to blend into this power which makes you think. And be doing that, you're in contact with this Power.</div> <div>     As I was going into it, however momentarily – each time I would come out of it and start thinking again; and I'd repeat the phrase, power to will, power to will, trying to get back into an empty state of mind – consciously speaking, of course – I got these odd surrealistic images, like two teddy bears floating together in the sky, stranger faces, and so forth. I've told you often in the past about that twilight time just before I'm about to fall asleep, I'd see all these psychedelic imagery of the oddest swirling colors and shapes, and faces  of things and animals and human beings that would just  be  there without my evoking them. And I never was one whose normal imagination functioned in such wild imagery. And do you remember when I would tell you that I would hear such tremendous classical unheard of music in my head before I would fall asleep; and I have no sense of musicianship other than I love music overall. Where did all that come from? It never happened until my middle years. It's been always the most fascinating unresolved mystery to me - until now, it seems.</div> <div>     So I thought the other night, “This is what the surrealists were trying to reach, and were able to, individually in a temporary manner.” Their minds were attuned to that altered, surreal state of consciousness, and they wrote and drew about it. But then it would have to become contrived after a while, because apparently no one has been able to stay in that altered state continuously – shy of mind-altering drugs, that is. Much the same with me in different periods of my writing and reflecting life. At one time I was in a period of nature poetry writing when the verses just poured out of me, with hardly an effort at all except for polishing. and then it was over; and I never have been able to write such poetry again; and it would be contrived of me to try to. At another time in my life, I was in a dream analysis phase, and I remembered and recorded practically all of my dreams, and made some amazing discoveries. Yet that period ended, and I hardly ever remember, except fragmentarily, my dreams any more.</div> <div>     To return to my course of thought, it's one thing to say I want to empty my mind and reach this power in me; but you can't just do that; you have to know what you're doing – and what you're doing is being in contact with the eternal flow, the meaning, of everything; the power that makes everything exist, that is existence. And I also understood for the first time Kazanzakis writings about the blood of our ancestors flowing in our veins; and that we must use every drop of that blood to try to make God conscious of itself in us and through us. God is screaming in each of us to be known. We must justify everyone's past existence with all its suffering and cruelties to make God conscious through us. Now I understand what he meant. </div> <div>     Relatedly, in this power to will – this Power – is the meaning of everything; and in this meaning is every- thing that has ever been. And it's a flow; and everything and everybody is there – not physically, but in structural form, a potentiality, as I see it. And in this flow – just imagine, now; of course this is speculation, in a way; but in this flow is everything that has ever been, that will ever be, and ever is. And you get in contact with it, in one sense, you might see individual " figments of your imagination"; and in another sense, you might see - and I use "see" in the sense of our so-called third eye – everything in one totality, in all possibilities, then being in this flow, this Power, is just pure, sheer, power because our mind's cannot go into that bare abstraction so much, we see surreal images; all of a sudden a person will appear something or someone that you've never seen before, or a past event of your own life, and so on forever.</div> <div>     So, it's like, in this Power that wills everything is everything, is the whole world. And if we can just click into it, we become that world either in a individual mode of mental forms or a universal mode of formlessness – a pure state of consciousness or power. This is where you come from, where you are, where you're going to be, where everything meets into one, the eye of the needle.</div> <div>     I thought, If all this is true, what a salvation for people. So if we're able to get into this universal flow, this eternal reality, and to begin its understanding, and its development in ourselves and in others, you can go into this world when you're suffering, when you don't want to be here, you just shift into this other world. You know that at night, when the day is over, however humdrum, or terrible, your life may be; that at night, when you're alone, after the kids  and spouse are asleep, you can enter your world: a world that is eternally real, and so more real than the shadow reflection of it. I'm reminded of Lennon's lines in his gorgeous song "Across the Universe": Nothing's gonna change my world. He knew.</div> <div>     So if we knew that this  transcendent world, Power, was more real than this life, and that we could just shift into that world whenever we wanted, that would give us a strength to carry on; would give a meaning to our lives, that my particular meaning is the same meaning as the meaning of the world.</div> <div>      My wife:  "Sort of like the edge of reality?"</div> <div>     The edge of reality?</div> <div>      My wife: "Between this reality and the other? Where you were? Where you went? where you saw all these things?"</div> <div>     To me that's the eternal reality, that oneness, that we experience now and then; that's that bliss state, the pure-consciousness, the psychedelic, the surrealistic, the mystic experiences, the LSD experience, the near-death experiences, and so on. And you wonder, how can this eternal reality be all these things, when it is one. Perhaps many people just get an intimation of it, because of their particular cast of mind. But It's everything; and according to one's particular mind and experiences and physiology and receptivity is how one will experience it. Now, I'm able to experience some of the surrealistic imagery inherent to this power; but I'm not too interested in that phase of this universal reality; I want to get right to the totality of everything without imagery. That's the way my mind works; but depending on my condition at a particular time, I will see surrealistic imagery.</div> <div>     So all this stems from this phrase "power to will," which has been with me since 1969 and has never left me. And when Nietzsche wrote that the essence of the world is the will to power; well, he just missed it a little bit; but he certainly was closer to the truth than everybody else.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4cd2e880.jpg" border=0 width="302" height="392" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Rembrandt</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>[iv]</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The God Within </B></div> <div> <B>or</B></div> <div> <B>Our Inward God</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>1</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD IS DEAD / ALIVE</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> God is dead – in our mind.</div> <div> God is alive – in our mind.</div> <div> Which God is “dead” and which God is “alive?”</div> <div> For many, the God that is dead is the God of Jehovah, the God without us that metes out rewards and punishments in life and beyond, the God that is good within the scope of evil, the God that loves within the scope of hate.</div> <div> For many, too, the God that is “alive” is the God within us – the eternal essence of our being.</div> <div> It is to both of these perspectives – that God is dead and that God is alive – that I address myself.</div> <div> “God is within us!” – as declaimed from Jesus to Buddha, to Krishna, to the Vedanta, to Zen, to Tao – each in his or its own way – to everyone known and unknown.</div> <div> And what is this “God-within?” Our eternal nature, whatever it may be called, or experienced as: God, Brahman, Self, Love, Essence, Being, Soul, satori, bliss, Light, the Godhead, Eternity, in an attempt to name the Nameless.</div> <div> And it is this God-within that we name our divinity, our meaning, our oneness, our purity, in an attempt to sanctify our immortality.</div> <div> And yet for all this spiritualizing of our human nature, this God-within remains so abstract, so remote, so “spiritual.”</div> <div> Yes, the-God-within saves – saves us from ourselves, from others, from the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” It gives meaning to our lives – that we are not mere configurations of random atoms, not mere animals, albeit human animals.</div> <div> Yet, something is missing. And that something has to do with psychology and wisdom.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4d111590.jpg" border=0 width="273" height="345" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Reade</div> <bR> <div> <B>2</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>GOD IS WITHIN US</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  God is within you. Look nowhere else!</div> <div>   2.  God is you! You are God.</div> <div>   3.  Wake up to the wind of change about you. Be not a sluggard; you will be left behind.</div> <div>   4.  Certainly you must know that the Jehovah God has been dying his slow death before your very eyes. Your inward God is killing him.</div> <div>   5.  You are your own salvation; do not shirk it.</div> <div>   6.  Be stalwart! Take the plunge into the quick of your inward universe, into the universe itself – into yourself.  </div> <div>   7. Let the ritual go. It does not save. It palliates, yes; but at the same time, it bars the way to the deeper – deepest – recesses of the truth of your being, of being itself.</div> <div>   8. God is that which abides within you and without you. It just as well abides in a blade of grass as it does in houses of worship. Remember Blake's eternity within a grain of sand?</div> <div>   9.  Your own being is the house of worship. Enter its golden gates of eternity.</div> <bR> <div> 10.  Oh! that universe "out there" – "in here"</div> <div>        Oh, my god what wonderment!</div> <div>        And here I am encapsulated in three dimensional reality.</div> <div>        But it is as it is; and so I'm here.</div> <div>        I have eternity to be "There!"</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4e0dd090.gif" border=0 width="221" height="265" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Dali</div> <bR> <div> <B>3</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE DIVINITY WITHIN US</B></div> <bR> <div> There's a Divinity within our minds</div> <div> That all compact our being binds;.</div> <div> And how we know this, is just as divine</div> <div> As It urges us onward to seek for Its sign.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> And what is this sign? That there is meaning to all that exists, however it eludes us and always will.</div> <div> And how do I know this? How is it proved? By the urge to explain this meaning poetically, philosophically, religiously, and even scientifically in its own way. For it all comes down to seeking a unified structure that explains the meaning of the world from particular truths to universal truths to spiritual Truth.</div> <div> Our minds are programmed for this search by the very “instinct” in us to know and to understand. The fact that we are able to learn limitlessly proves the point.</div> <div> Of course, in the ways of human life, this learning is limited and is easily warped by our ever present ignorance of the truths of life and of human life. We err just as readily, if not more than, we hit the mark.</div> <div> However all this may be, our potential to learn and to know and to understand is part of our genetic makeup. It is this innate potential that we can consider as the divinity within us.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Threefold Way of Our Love Divinity</B></div> <div> 1.  Self-understanding, self-freedom, and self-transcendence, are what this divinity of Love has to offer. This self-understanding is gained though a psychology of humanness that explores the various ego, sensual, and vital aspects of our humanness in relation to our transcendence. These aspects are observed through the perspectives of self-love, erotic love, and vital love.</div> <div> It is through this psychology of humanness that we gain an awareness of the barriers to our self-transcendence. This self-transcendence is gained through a philosophy of transcendence that explores the essence of Love in its various transcendent perspectives. These perspectives are: God Love, World Love, Divine Love, and Mystic Love. It is through this transcendent philosophy that we gain an awareness of Love as our Divinity, transcendent of self – our self-transcendence. </div> <div> This self-freedom is gained through a wisdom of human-transcendence that explores our aspirations and strivings to balance both the human and transcendent sides of our nature. The quest for this self-freedom is explored through the perspectives of humanistic love, idealistic love, and selfless love. It is through this wisdom of human-transcendence that we gain an awareness of the ways to our self-transcendence which frees us to be the person we have always wanted to be. </div> <div> So, put together, we have our Transcendence; and we have our humanness that in good part bars our way to our Transcendence (Love); and we have our human-transcendence that in good part makes our way, to It. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Features of Our Love Divinity</B></div> <div> 1. There are three distinct features that highlight this Love divinity: </div> <div> It can appeal to various types of minds that are open to self-enquiry, such types as: the philosophic, the psychological, the devotional, the existentialist, the pragmatic casts of mind – even the agnostic or atheistic cast of mind, if they are in any way receptive to the intuitive/mystic workings of human consciousness: our transconsciousness as I might call it. </div> <div> It can appeal to a person's temporary frame of mind; so that, if now we feel devotional, our Love Divinity offers its consolation; or if at another time we feel philosophical, It offers an adventure of ideas and ideals and sentiments to assimilate into our minds and actions; similarly when we feel psychological, or tranquil, or fervent, or peaceful, or warrior-like, or humanistic, or erotic, or proud, or tragic, or self-directed, or selfless. This Love divinity covers all of these moods and frames of mind. </div> <div> It has both a simplicity and complexity that can appeal to the person who needs as few words as possible – only thoughts that edify without recourse to intellectual analysis; or can appeal to the intellectual person who requires reasoning: a metaphysics, a philosophy, a psychology, an ethics, with his spiritual way. </div> <div> 2. All told, this Divinity of Love has something to offer most everyone who aspires to, and strives for, wisdom; and human-transcendent wisdom, with its accompanying transcendent philosophy and human-ness psychology, is that which opens the vista to this Love Divinity. </div> <div> 3. To aspire to live transcendently without self-understanding constitutes the two-dimensional human being; to psychologically understand ourselves without an underlying transcendent rhythm, also constitutes the two-dimensional human being. The three-dimensional human being understands himself humanly through his transcendence, and acts accordingly as best he can, always striving, struggling to surpass himself. This is wisdom: both human and transcendent, both practical and contemplative: thus a human-transcendent wisdom. </div> <div> 4. To attain this human-transcendent wisdom, both a psychology for the human part of us and a philosophy for the transcendent part of us are required: the one to understand ourselves and the other to free ourselves. And so, we have our self-transcendence as the attainment from our self-understanding and our self-freedom. </div> <div> 5. Yet these three – self-transcendence, self-understanding, and self-freedom – are really one and the same reality, for if you are free, you are transcendent and if you understand yourself, you are transcendent. They are separately named so as to differentiate each of their meanings into the transcendent part of us, the psychological part of us, and the human-transcendent part of us. </div> <div> 6.  So basically the way of this divinity of Love is that it is a wisdom; and this wisdom has its accompanying psychology and philosophy as its foundation: its human-transcendence. </div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4e16c6c0.jpg" border=0 width="364" height="364" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Baer</div> <bR> <bR> <div> 4</div> <bR> <div> <B>BEING AS SOUL</B></div> <bR> <div> My being is my totality – all that I am.</div> <div> My quest is to be as much as humanly possible.</div> <div> An image of Being would be an invisible center point expanding infinitely in all directions returning in upon itself.</div> <div> "Soul" is our personal concept of Being.</div> <div> Being is both alive and nonliving. In which case, a grain of sand is as much being as a man or universe, inasmuch as a grain of sand is.</div> <div> From every pulse to every breath to every thought is living being.</div> <div> Being is both cause and effect of everything.</div> <div> To minimize your thought and self is to maximize your awareness of Being.</div> <div> To focus in on one thing only, without awareness of anything else, is to be that thing – not the material thing, but the being – its soul – of that thing.</div> <div> Being is both everything and nothing – everything material and nothing perceived as material.</div> <div> Being is its own essence; in which case, everything is essential.</div> <div> Being is both the determined (the object) and the determiner (essence of the object).</div> <div> Inasmuch as anything is, nothing is more or less.</div> <div> Being is the abstract of materiality. </div> <div> My finger is a material thing; that it is a material thing is its Being – the "is-ness" of it. That it is this finger is its particular beingness, or its form..</div> <div> The totality of individual forms (fingers, hands, feet, heart, brain, cells, etc.) that constitutes and integrates the essential whole of something (an animal or human being) can be conceptualized as its soul.. My soul, then is the totality of forms that make up my physical and mental self. The essential whole of me is the conglomerate of entities that form me as this individual. This essential whole is my soul. it would be inappropriate to consider the form of my finger, for instance, as the soul of my finger; in which case, we would have multiple souls, or essential beings. distinctions have to be made to aid our limited understand- ing of limitlessness.</div> <div> Being is the abstract of everything-a conceptual abstract.</div> <div> The being of a tree</div> <div> And the being of me</div> <div> is our identity.</div> <div> The philosopher's stone: My consciousness of being is my divinity.</div> <div> The spirit of being is everywhere inward of all phenomena.</div> <div> Being is spirit – the intangible, invisible, invariable immaterial reality that simply, purely, is.</div> <div> That a tree is-what-it-is is its soul. And since soul is immaterial, it can be considered spirit.</div> <div> Soul is the essence of my being: that which determines my being as this being.</div> <div> Self is my psychological identity; soul is my, parapsychological, or transcendent identity.</div> <div> Soul is being particularized.</div> <div> My being is my existence – that I exist; my soul is my being – that I exist as this being.                </div> <div> Soul is differentiated being.</div> <div> "I love your soul" – meaning: I love that which makes you what you are as this person. "I love your being" – meaning: I love that you exist, soul and all.</div> <div> A logical progression of being to soul to love. – Soul is the essence of my being. The essence of my being determines me as this individual being. That which determines me as this individual being is what keeps me together, or binds me, as this individual being. Soul, then, is the bond of my individual being.</div> <div>     My individual being is myself as a unity – or totality of elements as a whole. Soul, then, as myself is a bond of unity. The word "bond" in the phrase "bond of unity," implies an attractive force that binds all separate elements of an entity as a whole – a unity, or binds two or more separate beings . But the word "love" is denominated as this attractive force. </div> <div>     So, the word "love" is a synonym for "soul." Yet synonyms do not have precisely the same meanings. Conceptually "love" has an impersonal meaning; whereas "soul" connotes a personal meaning. According- ly, when we refer to our essential being, it makes no personal connection for us to say "my love"; whereas it does make that connection to say "my soul." </div> <div>     The word "love," however, has an inter-personal meaning which invokes in us a sense of oneness, togetherness, harmony, with others. We feel as, at, one with them. It evokes an affectionate warmth and tenderness toward others in joy and delight and a compassion for their suffering. It is this affection and compassion that identifies us with them. Whenever we feel a flow of tenderness for another, our spontaneous exclamation is almost always "I love you." Or whenever the pain of another is as though it were your own pain, then that is love in the sense of being at one with the other; you have spontaneously identified your own being with that of another person. Even if it were a matter of being in touch with the collective unconscious of all human suffering in our genes – as when a person runs blindly into a burning building to save another – still, you would have tapped into the common pool of mankind where we are all one. This is love.</div> <div>     So we might sum all of this up by saying that being, soul, and love, are each essentially the same inasmuch as they ARE – be-ing – but are differentiated in life; differentiated in this sense: being is our impersonal universality; soul, our personal universality, and love, our inter-personal universality.</div> <div> Being is impersonal; soul, personal.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4d3f37e0.jpg" border=0 width="243" height="382" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Dali</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>5</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>THE MYSTIC SAYINGS AND MEANING OF JESUS </B></div> <div> <B>   WITH INTERPRETATIONS</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>From The New Testament</B></div> <div> 1.   Behold, the kingdom of God is within you.</div> <div>           </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> "Within us" as part of us or as the whole of us? But then how could the eternity and infinity of God be a part of us. It's hard to conceive of eternity or infinity being parceled out in sections. Then if God is "in" us as the whole of us, then God is everywhere, endlessly. Would that be in every atom of us? and if God is the whole of us, are we then essentially God? If so, then we need to urgently revise our perspectives of religion and spirituality.</div> <div> 2.   I am in the Father, and you in me, and I in you.     </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>          </div> <div>  INTERPRETATION</div> <div> This saying might be interpreted as meaning: The Father contains Jesus, and Jesus contains you, and you contain Jesus.  Or, The Father consists of Jesus, and Jesus consists of you, and you consist of Jesus. Or, I am the Father, and you are Christ, and Christ is you.</div> <div>     If we consider the interpretation of passage 1 above, then this last interpretation would be closest to the truth of the saying.</div> <bR> <div> 3.   Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> One's inward God will be revealed to him if he be perfectly receptive to It – as Jesus was.</div> <div> 4.   You...must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is Perfect.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Perfect in what sense? perfectly moral? perfectly loving? perfectly forgiving? perfectly virtuous? perfectly patient?... and we can go one and on. Now, of  course, as human, we are imperfect, and can be nothing else. So long as we are  subject to our chemical psycho-physiology, we can never be perfectly anything, if by perfect we mean purely selfless – Perhaps an act or two, now and then, yes, in which we acted intuitively, without thought, but by pure compassion or love. ... and here we come, perhaps, to the true meaning of "perfect" – a perfect act of love. But what is a perfect act of love? Is it not when we identify with a person (or animal or anything) so that we become one with him or her in mind so that we act in unison with him or her, so  that her suffering is our suffering, her joy is our joy?</div> <bR> <div> 5.   God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Which implies that we already are spirit and truth, otherwise how could we in the flesh only  be able to worship in spirit and in truth? And since "spirit" is indivisible, infinite and eternal, we essentially are the same.</div> <div>              Compare: God has put eternity into man's mind. (Ecclesiastes)</div> <bR> <div> 6.   When the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> When the spirit of truth comes to our realization comes to us in which case it is always there, being indivisible spirit.</div> <bR> <bR> <div> 7.   I tell you truly, there are some standing here who will not taste death before they see the kingdom of God.</div> <div>          </div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> So the kingdom of God, which is Spirit, God, can be realized here and now in life. But where is "here"? In our mind, when It suffuses us with Its grace; But when "now in life"? when its grace unexpectedly descends upon us, most likely when we are psychologically receptive to its visitation. And how does this receptivity occur? By our shedding the trappings of our ego and sensuality. And this is why Jesus and his apostles are so intent on our shedding our self so that we may be ready for its visitation. </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>From The Gospel of Thomas</B></div> <div> <B>Jesus</B></div> <div>   1.   I disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> His mysteries are those which pertain to his identity to God, our identity with Him, and so our identity with God, as will be amply evident in his sayings below. And those who are worthy of his mysteries are those who are receptive to learning of them, and who are willing to take the necessary steps to realize the Truth behind these mysteries.</div> <bR> <div>   2.    If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the kingdom is in heaven,' then the birds of heaven will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the fish will precede you. Rather the kingdom is inside you and it is outside you.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> We cannot fly as the birds, nor swim as the fish; yet we are more than flight, we are more than aquatic, inasmuch as we know we are human, and so, that  we are immortal. The birds of the air and the fish of the sea too are essentially immortal; yet they do not know this Truth. We do – which is both our grace, and our anguish. The kingdom is within us inasmuch as God "runs through" every-thing, by which It creates and holds everything to its place, structure and order, from a particle of dust to an amoeba to a human being to a star, to a galaxy, to a ... The kingdom is without us inasmuch as everything, again, from a particle of dust to an amoeba to a human being to a star is God made manifest, are images of God – immortal Spirit made mortal flesh, infinite being made finite energy-matter. </div> <bR> <div>   3.   Have you discovered the beginning, then, so that you are seeking the end? For where the beginning is, the end will be. Fortunate is one who stands at the beginning: That one will know the end and will not taste death."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> The beginning of all things is the essence of all things, beyond good and evil, beyond space and time, beyond cause and effect. In which case the beginning  Is the end and the end is the beginning; in which case, further, there is in Reality, no beginning nor end' they are as we interpret noumenal Reality as phenomenal reality. That we realize this Truth frees us from the fear of death; since, in actuality, there is no death beyond the dying of the mortal body.</div> <bR> <div>   4.   Whoever has ears should hear. There is light within a person of light, and it shines on the whole  world. If it does not shine, it is dark.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> A person of light radiates his (or her) realization of his divine nature; and his being shines with it in presence and in deed. This person manifests this inward light in creative works of science, art, religion, philosophy; and these works  advance man's consciousness, drawing ever closer to the realization of his Pure Consciousness as God. And on a lesser scale of works, those individuals of light, who in their private, common life, perform works of love and justice and wisdom that ever bear witness to the Holy One pressed dearly to the heart. Without these persons of light insinuating themselves into our lives, we walk ever engulfed in the darkness of our humanness. </div> <bR> <div>   5.   From Adam to John the Baptist, among those born of women, no one is so much greater than John the Baptist that the person's eyes should not be averted. But I have said that whoever among you becomes a child will know the kingdom and will become greater than John.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Once a person realizes that he, as well as Christ, is a – is as much the – son of God, then his life will be of more relevance than even the great prophet John the Baptist; because inasmuch as John was a prophet heralding the coming of Christ, this prophecy is as nothing compared to the good news a person of Light has to offer the world, however small in scope his life may be. It is the realization of God as man, of man as God, that is the central point; not prophesies.</div> <bR> <div>   6.   If they say to you, 'Where have you come from?' say to them, 'We have come from the light,  from the place where the light came into being by itself, established [itself[, and appeared in their image.' If they say to you, 'Is it you?' say, 'We are its children, and we are the chosen of the living father.' If they ask you, 'What is the evidence of your father in you?' say to them, 'It is motion and rest.'</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Those of the light of realization are to reveal the source of this light so that those without the light may attain to it, or believe,  have faith, in it;  because those unfamiliar with the light cannot realize or conceive, that they too are of this light, the enlightened ones must show them its manifestations are in the world of motion, or flux; and that the essence of this motion is without motion – the first cause (Aristotle) – but is rather the form of all things in motion.</div> <bR> <div> 7.   His followers said to him, "when will the rest for the dead take place, and when will the new world come?" He said to them, "What you look for has come, but you do not know it."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Jesus is the incarnation, the witness, of what they are looking for. In this sense the new world has come; he is right in front of them. He is in their presence to pass on the Truth that the "rest for the dead" is eternal life, and that the "new world" in truth is the eternal world. When will his followers ever get the point, and stop living in superstition?</div> <bR> <div>   8.   Two will rest on a couch; one will die, one will live.</div> <div>             Salome said, "Who are you mister? You have climbed onto my couch and eaten from my table </div> <div>             as if you are from someone."</div> <div>         Jesus said to her, "I am the one who comes from what is whole. I was given from the things of   </div> <div>         my father."</div> <div>             "I am your follower."</div> <div>         "For this reason I say, if one is <whole>, one will be filled with light, but if one is divided, one  </div> <div>         will be filled with darkness."</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Jesus is so intimately, so fully, in touch with his – our – Divinity that he can live in no other way than in It and for It. He has come to reveal this Truth to man that he may know that his life has meaning beyond his animal-human existence. Were we to realize this inward Truth, This God-Divinity, we would be whole in understanding , and not be so divided, seeking here and there ceaselessly for solutions to problems that do not even exist. When we come to this Wholeness, we shine with It; we no longer stumble in the darkness of our minds.</div> <div>            </div> <div>   9.   One who knows all but is lacking in oneself is utterly lacking.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> A person who has knowledge – rational, intuitive – of the divine nature, but has no realization of it, nor lives in and for it, is like the person who is missing a dimension; like the difference between a real horse and a painting of a horse. One who has never seen a horse but is presented with a picture of one, has an impression of what a horse is, but knows nothing more of its nature and behavior. Once this same person sees an actual horse and learns of its nature and behavior, he then can be said to know what a horse is. He might than go on to become a horse specialist, and so forth. The same with a man whose words tell of the divine nature, but whose presence and actions lack authenticity of it. There is no revelation, no realization, no enlightenment in the man.</div> <div> He is "utterly lacking" in the spiritual dimension of it.</div> <bR> <div> 10.   If you bring forth what is within you, what you have will save you. If you do not have that within you, what you do not have within you [will] kill you.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> If you bring forth the Spirit within you into the very fabric of your life so that It shines forth unto everyone, you have fulfilled yourself and are saved from the desperation, desolation of knowing that the divine nature dwells within you, yet you cannot realize it for whatever reason, the main reason being the preponderance of your self-concerns, your fears, your anxieties, your confusions, in short, your ignorance. Of course, you do "have that within you" but without realizing it and living it, you may as well not have "that within you."</div> <bR> <div> 11.   I am the light that is over all things. I am all: From me all has come forth, and to me all has reached. Split a piece of wood; I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Jesus shines with a divinity that bears witness to the essential nature underlying everything, everywhere, from which all things issue.</div> <bR> <div> 12.    Whoever is near me is near the fire, and whoever is far from me is far from the kingdom.</div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Concoct the stupendous energy in each and every atom of us, and we have the heat of the sun at our core; and this is the fire-core, we might say, is the synapse between life and being – however esoteric this may sound. By imitating Christ, we get to the core of the flame of us; otherwise, we are as distant from God as we are from the sun.  </div> <bR> <div> 13.   Images are visible to people, but the light within them is hidden in the image of the father's light. He will be disclosed, but his image is hidden by his light.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> All that we perceive, ourselves included, are but images (or manifestations) of our essential nature. these images conceal the Real (the father, God) from us. This Real is the blinding Light that closes off revealment to us; yet this Light is given to us in Vision; and it is this vision that discloses the Light from the image of light.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>From The Epistles of the New Testament</B></div> <div> <B>Paul</B></div> <div> 1.   Let us leave the elementary doctrines of Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, with instructions about ablutions, and the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible to restore again to repentance those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> There it is! Paul knows; and he announces it to the world: the secret doctrine – "I disclose my mysteries to those [who are worthy] of [my] mysteries." – that we too are "partakers of the Holy Spirit here and now just as Jesus is, was, and will be, eternally. But the world was not ready for this "secret doctrine, "if it is ready even in our times – well, at least we are ready more than ever we were.</div> <div> And not being ready, Jesus had to spoon-feed the people of his times with "elementary doctrines," that included " a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God...eternal judgment." It was dangerous enough to attempt to convince people that he was the Son of God let alone convincing them that they too were. So he taught the kingdom of God in parables and in  metaphors and in beatitudes and in the laying on of hands and in redemption and of resurrection and of moral perfection and of acts of love. with hints of the underlying Truth of God's kingdom. And as far as the events – or meaning of – his death of the cross, his and resurrection, we might consider what the great mystic Ramana Maharshi [the master] has to say about them:</div> <div>                 The Master gave the true significance of the Christian faith thus:</div> <div>                          Christ is the ego.</div> <div>                          The Cross is the body.</div> <div>                          When the ego is crucified, and it perishes, what survives is the Absolute Being (God) </div> <div>                          (cf. "I and my Father are one") and this glorious survival is called Resurrection.</div> <bR> <div> And regarding these elementary doctrines, to whom would we have to repent? To ourselves? since we are essentially God. Why would we need faith when we know – i.e. have been enlightened to our inward Truth? Why would we need to cleanse ourselves of sin when sin has nothing to do with our eternal nature; besides, we suffer enough for our sins on earth; why must we suffer for them eternally, as well? The laying on of hands? Fine! Whatever gifts you have use them; But from where do they come? From your inward Self: your Godhood. The resurrection of the dead? You are resurrected on the moment you draw your last breath here in your mortal body.</div> <div> It would be as though an adult returned to kindergarten that he would return to the "elementary doctrines of Christ" once he or she has been "enlightened," has "tasted the heavenly gift," has "become partakers of the Holy spirit," has "tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come."</div> <div> And what does it mean to be "enlightened"? – To have realized the eternity that God has put into man's mind (Ecclesiastes). And what is this realization? – That one's consciousness has dissolved into the Pure consciousness of God such that there is no trace of self, or anything, but God in one's mind. One's mind becomes the universal mind – We become one with all. And this enlightenment is the "heavenly gift" – and it is a gift, because it does not come at our bidding. And surely this enlightenment includes us as "partakers of the Holy Spirit". We then know "the goodness of the word of God"– that in Him, as Him, we are eternally free as He is; this is our sitting at His right hand in heaven. And these "powers of the age to come"? Well, once we have attained "the age" to come, i.e., eternity, then all powers are ours – we are all powers</div> <div> Now as to how many people have experienced this "heavenly gift" We have no idea; perhaps more than we could ever know, since people normally would  be cautious in revealing such a bliss Experience. Who would believe them? They would be considered mad; even demonic! So, those who have experienced this God Bliss – perhaps everyone in one way or another, at one time or another, in their lives – would be so bewildered by it that they would think they were hallucinating </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>John</B></div> <div> 1.   God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> INTERPRETATION</div> <div> Now Jesus himself nowhere directly makes this compelling, sovereign, statement that God is love; yet his teachings are practically nothing but councils of love. On what authority, then, does John make this claim? His own in vision, or elsewise? God's? or even Jesus' himself? Elsewhere, John states that "love is of God," and he who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God; for God is love. In this love of God was made manifest among us that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the expiation for our sins."</div> <div> In this latter passage, he again repeats that God is love, and further states that love is of God, and that he who loves knows God and that God's love for us was so strong that he sent his only son Jesus to save us from our sins. This passage, based on the statement "God is love" highlights two seemingly opposing interpretations of meaning that run through the Gospels and the Epistles; and how to reconcile them or decide for one over the other is the challenge for contemporary man. </div> <div> One interpretation, which seems the more obvious one, and the one that Christianity, the religion, has adopted and has built its theology upon, is that God is love in the sense that he is of love, as John puts it; in the sense that we mortals understand as love: the attraction to others, rather than repulsion, that inspires us to do good works toward others and to feel affection and compassion toward them. The more love we show toward others, the closer we draw to God through Jesus; we then are "partakers of the kingdom of God" If there is no, or little, love in us, then the further from Jesus we are and therefore, from God; and accordingly, we are lost souls. Jesus came to mankind to bear witness to this truth and to "command" us to love our neighbor so that we may be saved and also bear witness to this light of love within in our own little way. Without Jesus this is impossible.</div> <div> Let me lead off with the second interpretation of "God is love" by considering the meaning of the last statement of the above paragraph. A man once told me that the reason he attended mass every morning before leaving for work was to curb his violent temper; and it worked overall. This is one essential saving grace of Christianity whether it is to control one's temper, one's lust, one's greed, one's gluttony, one's hate, one's sloth, one's cowardice, one's skepticism, one's aggressiveness, one's "Critical eye" and the like There is no gainsaying the immense value of the Christian religion in this case alone, which without the image of Jesus as savior, not only would we fall into sin, but we would no doubt wallow in it as well. To him we pray to "lead us not into temptation". To him we turn to inspire us to love, to do good, so that we may "keep in line," so to speak, and even hope that we may find ourselves in love and goodness by following Christ's way.</div> <div> Even a more vital purpose of the Christian religion is the saving consolation it offers to believers who suffer from loneliness, boredom, grief, inadequacy, failure, weak will, anxiety, anguish, terminal illness; who fear the loss of loved ones that they will never see them again, who fear self-annihilation; who suffer from the absurdity, the tragedy, of life. Any one of these conditions casts such a shadow over our mind that it tends to deteriorate our will to live. And so we turn to Christ to place ourselves in his bosom of love and hope and light and peace and promise that we will live eternally "at the right hand of God."</div> <div>  Now Jesus being the preeminent love-being of the world, it would be understandable that his intense passion for mankind would be to save men and women from their "hell on earth" that they and others, and life itself, imprint upon their frail nature, who never asked to be born vulnerable to "sin" as they were. His profound compassion would be to console men and women from this "valley of tears," this cauldron of desires. How to save and console mankind from the ravages of life: that was his divine mission; and so he taught his gospel of love, and died his death of agony, and rose as testament to his divinity, his Sonship to God.</div> <div> Yet all was not peaceful in his gospel; for he came with "a sword" as with an olive branch. He came preaching Gesethemene as he did the kingdom; he lived for peace and died in violence; he taught hate of one's parents for the kingdom of God; he proclaimed family dissension on his behalf; he acknowledged that he was not good that only God was good; he destroyed the property of the money-changers in a rage of righteousness.</div> <div> The point of this side of his teachings apparently was to instill fear of damnation into people – which the Jews were accustomed to anyway from the authority of their own scripture. Jesus commanded his followers to love. Certainly Jesus knew that no one can be commanded to love another person. Why then did he come off as a tyrant in this regard? Well, he knew human nature well enough to know that to expect most people to wisely sacrifice the flesh for the spirit was too much to expect or hope for – "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak." Jesus took this "fire and brimstone" approach because of people's basic laxity and easy inclination toward sensuality and pride; that they are moved more by fear and awe than by truth and understanding.  </div> <div> Jesus surely knew furthermore people's need for an authority figure, a wise leader, an avatar who radiates as more-than-human to assure them that everything will be all right here and now. All that has to be done is what they dictates or commands or wisdom. Now to assert that one is sent from God Himself to teach His laws, that he is the Redeemer, the Savior; that through him, the Son,  poor mankind will be set free – this is to be the ultimate God Incarnate, the charismatic founder of a religion. </div> <div> We see then the multiple levels that Jesus functioned on: as the Prince of Peace, as the Warrior of War, as the Lamb of Love, as the Accuser of Damnation, as the Consoler of the Ailing. His peace was of the mind, his war was against the flesh, his love was of the soul, his damnation was of the evil one, his consolation was of the heart. This was no ordinary, nor even extraordinary mortal; here was the overman! the oversoul! This truly was the Son of God! – the multiple Man as witness to the Truth of all truths.</div> <div> No other man in history was so multi-dimensional. What-Who made this man so Godlike? And the answer to this question has taken all its various interpretations down through the ages of Christianity. Our interpretation which is now quite obvious is that this mortal man was so in touch with his Divinity as God, so Godlike, that he lived as God and died to man as no other person in history has as testimony to that Divinity. </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>_______________________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4e38f480.jpg" border=0 width="399" height="328" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="208" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 30 ><NOBR><div> <B> </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" > <A NAME="human_love_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></FONT><B>HUMAN LOVE</B></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>Introductory Thoughts</B></div> <bR> <div> 1.  In its overall positive sense, We understand human love between people in two fundamental senses: in an erotic sense as a compelling passion and intimate affection for another person, mostly of the opposite sex; and in a vital sense as a profound compassion and endearing affection for another person, as for a parent, child, or friend. Erotic love normally encompasses vital love; but not the reverse, since erotic love involves sexual desire. </div> <div> 2. The underlying identity of human love is that it is a binding force that attracts one person to another. When two persons love one another, there prevails a binding attraction that compels an intimacy between them to the exclusion of all, or most, others. This attraction between them draws, binds, them together inseparably. They are two persons as one. The degree of tension of this bond, is relative to the "chemistry", or "elective affinities" (selective, attracting characteristics) between the two individuals. </div> <div> 3. This binding factor, of course, is relative to the extent of love that exists between the two individuals, which depends upon the type and intensity of their relationship.</div> <div> 4. Considering that the pivotal descriptions associated with human love are "affection," "compassion," "bond," "unity," we can accordingly define love between human beings as an affectionate bond of compassionate unity. And though the passion of love relationships normally wanes over a period of time, or may not be part of a relationship, the affectionate and compassionate aspects of the love always persist so long as the two persons are considered to love one another. </div> <div> 5. Though the passion of the love relationship normally wanes over a period of time, or may not be part of the relationship, the affectionate and compassionate aspects of the love always persists so long as two people are considered to love each other. </div> <div> 6. From a broader, more complex perspective, human love includes also a negative connotation, as well as a positIve-negative connotation. Regarding the latter, self-love has both negative and positive connotations inasmuch as positively, one can, and must, love oneself prior to be even capable of loving others in a natural, expansive expression. When, however, self-love predominantly excludes the interests, well-being, and sensitivity of others, for one's own aggrandizement, then it is understandably frowned upon as a negative characteristic of a person. </div> <div>      As regards a strictly negative aspect of human love, a person who acts from spite or malice, or wickedness in general, and enjoys, thrills to, acting thusly, we can safely assume that he loves evildoing; that is, destruction. He loves it inasmuch as he is drawn to it, as others are drawn to loving-kindness, goodness, and the like. His predominant tendency is to break down, destroy, whatever or whoever it may be for the sheer sake of doing so, whether it be relationships, rules, happiness, protocol, lives <B>–</B> anything to upset whatever is positive</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4e5f42f0.jpg" border=0 width="244" height="303" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Challand</div> <bR> <div> 1</div> <bR> <div>   1.   A bond exists between all separate individuals, or entities.</div> <div>   2.   Love binds separate individuals, or entities, into a unity of purpose. They interact as, at, one with each other.</div> <div>   3.   Human love is a unifying experience.</div> <div>   4.  Human love manifests itself in three fundamental ways: as (1) personal love, (2) interpersonal love, and (3) impersonal love. Personal love is foremost love of self; interpersonal love is foremost love between selves; impersonal love is love without self and selves.</div> <div>   5.  The sense of belonging, of sharing, of being needed for oneself – are expressions of the bond of unity, of feeling loved, between any two persons. In a human sense, a bond of unity is to be at, or as, one with another; Unity itself is one.  </div> <div>   6.  We say we are at one, or that we are as one with another; not that we are one with another – except only metaphorically. We cannot be one with another; we can only be one – that is absolute, pure, oneness; or unity itself.</div> <div>   7.  Through understanding comes unity without passion, need, desire, or need.</div> <div>   8.  We do not actually feel unity with anyone or anything; what we feel is a bond of unity, a oneness, with another as an intermediary between oneself and Unity itself. This bond is a simulation, a manifestation, of unity; not unity itself.</div> <div>   9.   An experience – if we can call it that – of Unity, would be just that: total, complete, absolute, pure, Unity – : oneness, with no intermediaries or relations. This would be the mystic experience.</div> <div> 10.  A bond of unity is a relational phenomenon; Unity is the totality of relational phenomena.</div> <div> 11  Our temporal minds can normally experience only a bond of unity (love), not Unity itself. It needs to make a connection, an identification, with another reality in order to feel a sense of Unity. This sense of Unity is derived from binding, or uniting, ourselves with another so that we get an idea of what Unity itself is.</div> <div> 12.   Personal love is a necessary, though limited, unifying experience; it is like the first rung of the ladder to Unity,  or the key to the way to Unity. Interpersonal love is an actual or potentially limitless unifying experience; it is like access to all the other rungs to the ladder to Unity, or the opening with the key to the way of Unity. Impersonal love is love of Unity itself without intermediaries. This is the direct, mystic bond with Unity. The tendency of individuals possessed of such impersonality when it comes to human beings and relationships, and other beings, is to negate them either by solitude or in intercourse with them. Hence arises human evil in many of its guises. With such individuals there is neither self-love nor interpersonal love; only love of Unity,  which for them is no more than a void, a nothingness, an absurdity, a meaninglessness. Such persons are surely not totally impersonal; they do have a sense of self, a sense of decency and integrity toward others; but  they are not a dominant factor of their makeup. These are the ones who should never have been born. They do not belong in this reality, and so nothing of life ever satisfies them for long. They go through what life has to offer them very quickly; and then are done with them and life at an early age. The rest of their lives, if it were a building up, is for the sake of tearing down. Nothingness is their basic frame of mind; and they feel no or little qualms in bringing to nothingness other's doings as well; for they believe they are in fact doing them a good turn by confronting them with their stark truth: that all is nothing, or comes to nothing; so it makes little difference whether we live or die, are in pleasure or pain, are in poverty or in riches. We are nothing. And they feel it's their obligation to bring everyone they can to that realization. He, or she, is a nihilist in the true sense of the word.</div> <div> 13. A person who has a strong impersonal bent in his nature, yet has an equally, or near equally, interpersonal bent as well is a fuller person in life as a human being than the former nihilist. His destiny is the same as the nihilist's, and everyone else's, but his interpretation of the reality of unity, and the supra-reality of Unity itself, encompasses humanity in his mind rather than annihilating it. And so he lives a fuller, deeper life: and certainly is more beneficial to life as regards good.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 2</div> <bR> <bR> <div>  1.  Life is love willed.</div> <div>  2.  What we will we desire, want, need; are urged, impulsed, toward and all the variations thereof. These are forms or aspects of will.</div> <div>  3.  What we will strongly, we are said to love; what we will moderately, we are said to like; what we will weakly,  we are said to be indifferent to; what we do not will at all, we negate, or is a negation to us – nothing.</div> <div> … continued</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 3</div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  The more we will beyond our self-will, the more we love beyond self-love.</div> <div>   2.  Whatever action, thought, or emotion is entertained against another person is in reality an attraction to something else that will act against that person – whether it be anger, revenge, retribution, hatred, rationalization, and the like.</div> <div>   3.  Anger, hatred, violence, etc. are responses, reactions, to which our minds gravitate when something or someone threatens or repulses us in any way.</div> <div>  4.  Repulsion is inverted attraction.</div> <div>  5. What repels or repulses us is an attraction to its opposite – injustice attracts us to justice; the perception of ugliness turns us to our sense of beauty that offsets – as well as determines what is ugly.</div> <div>  6.  What repels or repulses us as evil in all its manifestations is simply an inverted attraction to what is good in all its manifestations – always relative to each individual; since, as we all know, what is good for one person could be evil to another: and vice versa.</div> <div>  7.  Love of self conflicts with love of other selves when the passions and emotions are rife.</div> <div>  8.  The stronger the bond between two persons, the deeper the passionate affection.</div> <div>  9.   Love, first of all, is a bond; and second of all, it is the bond of unity between any two or more individual beings. When two persons are in unison with each other, that relationship is called a bond of unity, or simply love. They love each other, they are friends, in the truest sense.</div> <div> 10.  When we say that we want to love more, what we mean is that we want to be love more; which in another way, is to say: we want to feel, to be, at one with more.</div> <div> 11.  To love another (or others) is a being at one with that other; and a “being at one” with another is to be bonded in unity with that other.</div> <div> 12.   Love binds two or more persons together in unity, or as one.</div> <div> 13.   Love is a binding force, or power.</div> <div> 14.   What does love bind? What kind of force is it? As a general answer, love binds the “elective affinities" between any two persons or entities. By "elective" is meant: a tending to operate on one substance rather than another; a tending toward one object rather than another; being sympathetically inclined toward.</div> <div> 15.   By “affinity” is meant an attraction to, or liking for a person, especially of the opposite sex, having a particular attraction for one; a causal connection or relationship; a resemblance; the attractive exerted in different degrees between substances or particles that causes them to enter into and remain in chemical combination. In human terms, and in relation to love as the bond of “elective affinities” between any two persons, we can say that love is a “force that binds as a result of the elective (the “choosing” of affinities (favorable  characteristics, traits, attributes, features, etc.) between any two individuals.</div> <div> 16.  In short, love as a bond, is a binding force of elective affinities; and "elective affinities," is basically what we mean when we say that the chemistry between a man and woman is just right, is an irresistible force between them. They love each other and cannot be separated without the most severe psychological trauma.</div> <div> 17. The more we love – are love – the more we understand; and the more understand, the more in harmony we are with our surroundings, with everything and everyone. The less we understand, the further from love we are with everything and everyone. The less harmony, the more conflict. We are either in harmony with others, or in conflict with them. We cannot be indifferent to others so long as we interact with them.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 4</div> <bR> <div>  1.     Love is willed, either consciously or unconsciously.</div> <div>  2.    Love is harmonious between persons when the unity of purpose between them prevails; it is conflictual when this unity of purpose is  unbalanced. This conflict initiates separateness, dispersion, clash of interests, and so forth. In conflict, the parties suffer diffusion; are fragmented; and so become less effective together, but usually separately.</div> <div>  3.     Love, when it is harmonious between persons, impart power of effect; or, in a word, power.</div> <div>  4.     The more love – or, the more at one we are with another, or others – the more harmony; and the more harmony, the more power.</div> <div>  5.     Love, then, imparts power. The more we are imbued with power, the more energy we extend; and since the expenditure of energy is simply more power to will, love, then, from a variant perspective, is the power to will.</div> <div>   6.     We will – consciously, unconsciously, instinctively – to be at one (unite) with another so to be more than we are apart from that other; which is to say, to intake more power into our being – to be this power apart from will: our self-will. Those who are quite satisfied with their self-will, and to its extent of power it affords them, have no need to unite with another other than for the purpose of inflating their own self</div> <div> being.</div> <div>  7.      The sense, the feeling, of love is power in action.</div> <div>  8.      The more love extended, the more power accrued.</div> <div>  9.      The more power the more effect.  </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4e7c93b0.jpg" border=0 width="201" height="315" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <bR> <bR> <div> I</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="533" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 173 WIDTH="523"><div> <I><B>SELF-LOVE</B></I></div> <div> <B>[Love as Essentially Self preservation, Self-identity]</B></div> <div>     This aspect of Love expresses the predominant concern for one's own </div> <div>  preservation and well-being, excluding or including the concern for, and well-</div> <div>  being of, others - in relation to oneself. On the surface, it encompasses all matters </div> <div>  concerning one's ego-sensual-self, both creatively and destructively, both positively </div> <div>  and negatively, both instinctively and psychologically, both personally and socially, </div> <div>  both interpersonally and intrapersonally.</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  One must be strong to love beyond self-love.</div> <div>   2.  It is hard to love without feeling, because much is required – too much for many. </div> <div>   3.   We will our good; for each act of will is to the attainment of some end of which we consider the good of  </div> <div>  our well-being, however slight, or marginal, that good might be.</div> <div>   4.  What we consider our good is that which preserves the integrity, or unity of our self and being as a    </div> <div>  whole.</div> <div>   5.  One must often overcome the mood, the inclination, the impulse, of the moment to feel or express love.</div> <div>   6. Love has always to contend with the jabs and pokes of others: their sarcasm, arrogance, indifference, remoteness, mood changes, and all the rest. This way of love is no easy ride.</div> <div>   7.  It is one thing to be all smiling, pleasant, and courteous toward our equals; that is easy – on the face of things, that is; but not so easy toward those whom we consider our unequals. That is quite another matter. Perhaps it would be the best thing to consider everyone, right down to the lowest, the meanest, our equals. But to take this crucial step, is to go beyond the normal human expression of love. Is this not what is needed, though?</div> <div>   8.  We're apprehensive of truly loving, of really giving of ourselves – yes! And so we continue to speak about it, write about it, sing about it. A cul-de-sac if ever there was one.</div> <div>   9.  What? If I am to love, I can no longer be party to gossip, to barbs, to jibes, toward  others? Am I to be an austere, compassionate patron; Only to see the good in others? Will I not be an utter bore to others? Not for me, thank you. Love must be something more – much more!</div> <div> 10.   If you think love is easy, is a kind of weakness, then, my friend, try it sometime – especially when you don't feel it!</div> <div> 11.  The severe, hard masculine expression does give one a sense of power – manipulative power; it is a guise designed to instill fear, awe, respect for you into others. It alienates. The softer, relaxed lilt to one's expression is a guise too, perhaps; but it instills ease and cheer and friendliness for you into others. It unites.</div> <div> 12.  Being in a rush, being anxious, eager, restless, fatigue, are deterrents to the control love. To offset these, love must be foremost in your mind and life. Too much to expect? Mostly, yes.</div> <div> 13.  And often it happens that our love toward others seems artificial to us; and we might feel others feels the same – :our smile or gesture are not quite sincere, overdone, as it were. But then we can't be expected to always be totally sincere in all that we do. And on the other hand, nor can many of us be false to ourselves  or to others. In this latter case, one does not pretend love, but is himself because the truth of the matter (his non-loving mood) is more important to him than a show of love. Yet this does not mean that one must be rude or dour or sour.</div> <div> 14.  It is easier to love at a distance, in appearance, than those near to us </div> <div> 15.  It's hard to be always loving, nice, when there's seems to be always something to criticize about others.</div> <div> 16.  The gravity of our physiology and of circumstances make goodwill a trying, requiring, feat at times – perhaps more often than not for so many of us.</div> <div> 17.  How we, deal with the Hitler type, the psychopath, the hard-natured? The force of love may not be able to penetrate to make a difference to that evil ego; but it can make us better deal with them so that the force of their evil does not over power us. You will not subject yourself to their level by exploding emotionally – they wait for that to happen. Only fear and threat to keep them in line? </div> <div> 18.  And she can say to me, "I thought you were to be so all loving..." And I can reply, "No, I'm not all loving – Do you know anyone who is? – but I'm trying my best. I do fail myself; but then, I'm not perfect; are you? – A little sarcasm to show I'm not perfect. </div> <div> 19.  Why do we avoid love? Because it requires us to grow up in the fullest sense of the word. Hardly a person wants – really wants – that responsibility and the effort that comes with it. </div> <div> 20.  When we're angry, disappointed, dissatisfied in ourselves, it is not at all easy to be pleasant to be thoughtful, or considerate of others. And so, if we want to love, we're going to have to get to the root of this anger, disappointment, dissatisfaction</div> <div> 21.  Why the repugnance when we observe what we consider an unctuous loving attitude in others? Is it that we know it can't be real, because we know how difficult it is to make the effort to rise to a level of warm, engaging feeling for others – unless, of course, the effort is really for one's own good.</div> <div> 22.  You watch how fast your love goes out the window when your best-made plans are thwarted by someone – unless, of course, you are well seasoned in the way of love.</div> <div> 23.  It's not that love fails me in my recourse to it when in need, or in lust, or in ego, but that I fail it; that I am not up to it, am not loving enough.</div> <div> 24. If I am to live love am I no longer to be privy to gossip, to jibes, to barbs, to anger outbursts against others? Am I to be naught but compassionate? Understanding? Only to see the good in people? Will I not be an utter bore to others? That is the dilemma one has to come resolve within himself – if ever he can.</div> <div> 25.  If I look at you, I find a flaw easily enough, as you do me; If I listen to you, I can even easier find a flaw, as you can with me; but as soon as I turn my mind to the thought of love – hard as it is often enough! – Ah, then all your flaws dispel, and you are beautiful through and through. Somehow human love gets through to the soul.</div> <div> 26.  But how can I love when so much suffering and evil role the world; when I can't succeed creatively, professionally; when an underlying anger almost consumes me?</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>VARIATIONS OF SELF-LOVE</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>[Self-love In a negative sense]</B></div> <div> 27.<I> The log in our eye</I>. – It is hard, sometimes even impossible, to be understanding, much less sympathetic, toward those whose faults and weaknesses we do not possess ourselves; and  which, if we judge too harshly, blind us to our own.</div> <div> 28.  <I>More a matter of self</I>. – Are we really as sociable as we appear, as we think we are? Or are what drive us out into society the need to be seen, to make an impression, to gain an advantage – to get away from ourselves: the "ourselves" we can like only if others do.</div> <div> 29.  How delicately we must tip-toe</div> <div>       when dealing with the human ego.</div> <div> 30.  <I>Can deny it</I>. – Ah, me, even my show of humility has the taint of pride.</div> <div> [<B>Appearances</B>]</div> <div> 31.  <I>Shifting sands.</I> – Today man seems to me such an incredibly wonderful being; everyone is so friendly, so caring, so good. But tomorrow?</div> <div> 32.  <I>A matter of true interpretation</I>. – "You're too nice a person to say no," sounded more to the truth like, "You're too weak a person to say no."</div> <div> 33.  <I>An honest assessment</I>. – Could it be that our loving-kindness not infrequently serves to avert the displeasure,or anger, or wrath, or judgment, of others? Let us be honest with ourselves.</div> <div> 34. <I>Male sham</I>. – Behind his stern and austere, bearded visage is just another man shot through with vanity, greed, foibles, failings, insecurities, needs, impulses, anxieties, lusts, fears, weaknesses of all kinds. No one special. </div> <div> 35.  <I>Softening the blow.</I> – She said it in humor, but  meant it in truth.</div> <div> 36.  <I>A matter of convenience</I>. – Last night he showed such concern that I was ill – being conveniently with me; but today, though I'm still ill, such little concern – being  conveniently absent from me!</div> <div> 37.  <I>Veils of strength</I>. – Behind the veil of my strong security lies always the dungeon of my lone insecurity.</div> <div> 38.  <I>A subtle inversion of meaning</I>. – I see through her. She thinks she's doing me a favor in asking to do her a favor. Very subtle, my dear.</div> <div> 39.  What I once did for her as a favor she now expects of me as an obligation. No wonder I'm wary of her.</div> <div> 40.  <I>The general attitude</I>. – "Be nice. Give me what I want; don't interfere with my pleasure; respect my rights, hands off my property; don't act superior to me.  Keep these in my mind, and we'll get along just fine. </div> <div> 41.  Could it be that our loving-kindness not infrequently serves to avert the displeasure, or anger, or wrath, of others? Let us be honest with ourselves.</div> <div> 42.  Fearing to upset another's feelings often upsets our own.</div> <div> 43.  We know what we tend to think of others when they become "down-and-out" as not so special after all, not so worthy of our admiration anymore, not even worth our associating with. This is one reason why we dread ever to fall into such a situation, for we know others will think the same of us. Is it so surprising then people would do almost anything, however improper or unjust, to maintain their positions, to feel  and present themselves as important, of value, needed, admired, honored?</div> <div> 44.  <I>Not what I expected</I>. – I asked her to feel free to criticize; and when she did, I resented it!</div> <div> 45.  <I>For the pleasure of self</I>. – The pleasure we enjoy on hearing – and speaking, or thinking -- ill of others is simple confirmation of the good opinion we have of ourselves – which, I might add, is not too admirable an opinion.</div> <div> 46. <I>The vulnerable cave-in</I>. – Yes, you are right, he is making a fool of himself, is not upholding his professional dignity; but what would you do if you were miserably alone in a vacuous existence, quietly desperate for someone – anyone – to be with, no matter what station in life?</div> <div> 47.  <I>Layer upon layer</I>. – So as not to be thought too soft, we harden our exterior in defense of our soft interior: a defense we can never seem to build strongly enough.</div> <div> 48.  <I>Two perspectives</I>. – People appear so very obvious and uncomplicated when viewed in respect to their vital needs, fears, appetites, desires, passions, impulses; yet, so infinitely complex in respect to their myriad sentiments, aspirations, yearnings, quests.</div> <div> 49.  NATURE EITHER WAY</div> <div> Is it our fault that nature blessed us or cursed us with this or that of which we're inclined:</div> <div> With this or that excess</div> <div> With this or that oddity, </div> <div> With this or that oppression,</div> <div> With this or that destructiveness</div> <div> With this or that creativeness?</div> <div> Hardly – as anyone would presume.</div> <div> Are we then not victims of not only our human nature, but of our individual nature as well? "Character is destiny," as the Greek philosopher of old declaimed.</div> <div> Most likely-as anyone would presume.</div> <div> Yet,  is it not our responsibility, our self-respect,  to develop or temper that blessing or curse? </div> <div> If we want to ,if we can – as anyone would presume?</div> <bR> <div> [<B>On Myself in Particular</B>]</div> <div> 49.  Self-defense. – If I may appear aloof, hard, indifferent, and cold, I am so mostly in defense against the same in others.</div> <div> 50.  <I>Deep in trivia</I>. – Often when I'm thought to be deep in contemplation, my mind is on little more than my next meal, or on what  I plan to wear the next day, or on what a wonderful person I am...or on some such trivial matter.</div> <div> 51. I know why I sometimes willfully, spitefully, start a quarrel, refuse a kindness, act indifferently – so that I may assert my independence, my personality, my freedom of expression, my masculinity, my rights, my aggressiveness. Not a very admirable picture of myself; but certainly a natural one.</div> <div> 52.  <I>Strike first</I>! – I had better intimidate him before he intimidates me.</div> <div> 53. <I> In need of praise</I>. – I complimented her as an incentive for her to compliment me.</div> <div> 54.        <I>Said for Effect Only</I></div> <div>        Forgive me, dear, I did not mean it;</div> <div>        I said it only for effect.</div> <div>       Without reflection I wield my wit –</div> <div>       A habit hard for me to correct,</div> <div>       As my vanity is hard to check.</div> <div> 55.  <I>Two sides of the same coin.</I> – </div> <div>  i.   Just look at the way he behaves; how disgusting! – Look at the way I just behaved; how disgusting.</div> <div> ii.   The very thing I criticized her for yesterday is the very thing I feel myself inclined to do today.</div> <div> 56. <I> Self-lov</I><I>e in the way</I>. – Where are the tender feelings I once knew? Do they still exist in me? Why am I so bland most of the time while others feel so intensely. Have I lost my sensitivity? Has the coarseness of reality blunted my sensibilities; or is it that my defenses have damned them shut so that I don't effuse with vain outpourings from my hurting heart? ... Or is it that I'm just too wrapped up in myself? No doubt, this latter.           </div> <div> 57.  Oh, it is hard to keep oneself in check, to strive for goodness against so many faults; to aspire to feel and love deeply, sensitively, when so much indifference prevails.           </div> <div> 58.  I shrink when complimented that I am a good man. I know better.</div> <div> 59.  I curse my memory when I can't remember, but bless it when I dare not remember.</div> <div> 60.  I shudder that I would think what I just thought.  Am I that vile?</div> <div> 61.  I leave others to their peculiarities; I have my own.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4ea49240.jpg" border=0 width="329" height="292" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Munch</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>II</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="496" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 154 ><NOBR><div> <I><B>EROTIC LOVE</B></I></div> <div> <B>[Love as the Erotic Bond of Life]</B></div> <div>    This aspect of love manifests itself between the sexes that attract them to   </div> <div>  each other sexually, sensuously, sensually, relationally, so as to mate them as </div> <div>  one; or more precisely: two-as-one. Offspring normally results from this love </div> <div>  which binds parents to children, children to parents, siblings to siblings. This </div> <div>  erotic love extends into a vital relationship in which "blood-to-blood" </div> <div>  defines the intense bond between family members.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1,  The love between a man and a woman at its fiery center fuses them together in passion and beauty.</div> <div>   2.  “Ah, you love Love; not me. How can I call you mine?" </div> <div>       "But all the more am I yours I am you! – and with you alone, do I feel it!</div> <div>   3.  Love is the élan vital in the veins of the lover.</div> <div>   4.  The feeling of love is firstly most naturally aroused by the opposite sex; then by one's children – erotic love. This is the nearest many even get to love itself; which is sufficient enough for nature's design.</div> <div>   5.  It is almost impossible for desire not to arise when an attractive woman shows a soft, feminine interest in you – you know, that certain smile, look, gesture. And you do want to make love to her – just a touch! But is this love? Lust? Or just nature on the loose.</div> <div>   6.  "Would you prefer that I love you as a woman or as a person?" </div> <div>        “A woman first then as a person; for I am a woman before I am a person.”</div> <div>   7.  If you are supposed to love your mate, but do not mutually enrich each other in a "certain human fra- grance," then you may have something that binds you together, but you do not have mutual love. Something is wrong; a canker is in the bud. Better take stock of yourself, and your "loved" one. </div> <div>   8. Reproach a prostitute? Never! Her pimp? Well... That would take a good deal of love-understanding that many of us are not up to. </div> <div>   9.  Where lust goes, love does not follow except at its most elemental form of attraction.</div> <div> 10.  Lust is the sister of Love – sometimes in unison, sometimes divided.</div> <div> 11.  Through physical love pure Love is neared.</div> <div> 12. Dear friend are you locked in the jaws of a "despised love," cannot extricate yourself from him, her? You suffer, I know. I sadden for you; but you are fortunate to feel such pangs, for what we suffer, we...dare I say it?! Love.</div> <div> 13.  And for those men strong in the man-woman relationships, yes, you need a woman's love as your life's blood; but for your love of Love itself, that they cannot trespass, nor pass off lightly, for there within lies your strength, your salvation, your goodness, your sensitivity, your love for her deep to her being. D.H. Lawrence would certainly verify my point.</div> <div> 14.  And for those woman strong in the man-woman relationships, yes, you need a man's love as your life's blood; but for your love of Love itself...that they cannot trespass, nor pass off lightly, for there within lies your strength, your salvation, your goodness, your sensitivity, your love for her deep to her being. D.H. Lawrence would certainly verify my point.</div> <div> 15.  The love between a man and a woman at its fiery center fuses them together in passion and beauty.</div> <div> 17.  Love is the élan vital in the veins of the lover.</div> <div> 18.  It is almost impossible for desire not to arise when an attractive woman shows a soft, feminine interest  in you  – you know, that certain smile, look, gesture. And you do want to make love to her – just a touch! But is this love? Lust? Or just nature on the loose.</div> <div> 19.  The feeling of love is firstly most naturally aroused by the opposite sex; then by one's children – erotic love. This is the nearest many even get to love itself; which is sufficient enough for nature's design.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>VARIATIONS OF EROTIC-LOVE</B></div> <bR> <div> [<B>The Man-Woman Attraction</B>]</div> <div> 1.  <I>Feminine force</I>.-- She smiles at me, and I feel my masculinity.</div> <div> 2.               <I>Natural Gender Traits</I></div> <div>       Ah, me, how she enjoys her femininity!</div> <div>       How she revels in it!</div> <div>       How she stirs me by it!</div> <div> 3.  <I>Love or lust</I>.– When my genitalia are roused by a woman, then I know I want her body; when, however, my heart caves in, then I know I want her soul.</div> <div> 4.  Bio-psychological differences.– The natural differences between the strengths of the masculine man and the vulnerabilities of the feminine woman, enchant the sensuous mind and rouse the organic body.</div> <div> 5.  More than a woman.– Thank God for women! gentle soothers of us restless men. They bring us light and peace to quell the storm-tossed dark of our troubled minds. – If only they were all we needed!</div> <div> 6.  <I>A woman's device</I>. – The one sure way a woman can win over her  vulnerable man, if tears will not do it, is to be unable to rise from bed the next day: face drawn, body drained, emotionally distraught – stricken! And all because of him!. That should do it.</div> <div> <I>     A man's device</I>. – As women know how to get around men, so men too have their little devices, one of which is the favorite "sob story" – Convince her that you are the most down-trodden of men, the most unfortunate, the most misunderstood, the loneliest; and watch how gradually her coldness warms, her distance nears, her maternal instincts rouse, her sexual nature stirs. Like butter she melts into your arm – and you have her.</div> <div> 7.  <I>The soft deception</I>. – [Version 1]: Easy for a man to be deceived into thinking that because a woman's features are soft, that her heart is also. [<I>Version 2</I>]: Beware! That you be not deceived into thinking that because a woman is soft-bodied, that she is just as soft-natured.</div> <div> 8.        <I>Lust for Sale</I></div> <div>       Prostitution</div> <div>       keeps social morality ever nervous</div> <div>       by rendering it an age-old service.</div> <div> 9.  Reversal of roles. – Every man is tested for his strength by a  strong woman, and if he is not strong, she will be; though at the same time she will damn his frightened little life.</div> <div> 10. A matter of temperature. – Yesterday I loved you warmly; today we've quarreled, and now I love you coldly.</div> <div> 11.  Weakness of the spirit. – Is there one man in a thousand who would not put aside his ideals, his highest vision of God and Truth, to secure the woman he loves. So much for the Oversoul.</div> <div> 12.            <I>Female Tormentors</I></div> <div>         Some women love us in return</div> <div>         While others make us ache and burn;</div> <div>         They tempt us on but do not care,</div> <div>         As we quake inside and tear our hair.</div> <div> 13.  Reverse Psychology. – Paradoxical, but true, that the dominating woman can only be truly, though secretly, content by being dominated herself; who even yearns to be dominated by man stronger than herself. Did not the Poet put his Midas finger on this type of woman in his Catherine, the shrew? Another thought: Could the same be true of men? – of a Hitler or Napoleon type?</div> <div> 14.              <I>A Pained Rapture</I></div> <div>          A feminine smile!</div> <div>          Carefree, full, abandoned, and pert,</div> <div>          Pleasures a man so much it can hurt.</div> <div> 15.  She looked at me, hot – inviting lust;</div> <div> And what could I do but kiss and thrust.</div> <div> 16.  <I>Eros' master design</I>. – We men know through long experience how very vulnerable we are to the natural beauty and grace of women, but has it ever occurred to us that we can be just as vulnerable to their natural goodness !? – that their goodness can be just as bewitching as their soft femininity; that, quite as a matter of a fact, it is their goodness which so emphasizes their womanliness: that beam of their soul which dispels all our defenses, and which transforms even the homeliest woman into a goddess in our eyes? who would have thought of it! – that goodness too is part and parcel of Eros' master design! Beauty I knew to be his stock and trade...but goodness too!? God, is there no way out? Is nothing exempt from that little fellow?</div> <div> 17. <I> A Race of Voluptuaries</I></div> <div>      When we consider that all of us,</div> <div>      men and women alike,</div> <div>      are attracted to, attached to,</div> <div>      seduced by,</div> <div>      curvaceous colorful forms</div> <div>      rapturous melodious tones,</div> <div>      sweet enticing fragrances,</div> <div>      rich succulent tastes,</div> <div>      warm embracing bodies –</div> <div>      there is little else to conclude</div> <div>      but that we are a race of voluptuaries.</div> <div> 18.  <I>More self than woman</I>. – She needs a man who is more a man than she is a woman.</div> <div> [<B>Man-woman affection</B>]</div> <div> 19.  <I>Sympathetic interplay</I>. – I gaze at her, warmly and lovingly, to elicit a soft and affectionate smile from her.</div> <div> 20.  <I>Loving Arms</I></div> <div> With my arms around her</div> <div> she sighed deeply and said,</div> <div> "This is so very soothing,</div> <div> so quiet</div> <div> so serene;</div> <div> and here</div> <div> and secure</div> <div> and reassuring</div> <div> against the world out there."</div> <div> 21.  <I>An affectionate gesture</I>. – While walking together, she reaches over to straighten my collar, and in so doing, her fingers touch the nape of my neck. At the touch, I feel a warm flow of affection toward her-in no way related to sex; since she is much older than I, unattractive to me erotically, with nothing between us except a mutual friendliness and understanding. Then why the pleasure of her touch?...No, it was not so much her touch as it was that she felt free and relaxed enough with me to make that gesture of straightening my collar, which indicated her fondness for me. Before, I could say that I liked her; at that moment, I felt that I did. All the difference in the world.</div> <div> 22.        <I>A Possible Saving Grace</I></div> <div>       Thank God you are only human,</div> <div>       neither perfect nor pure,</div> <div>       else your loss would afflict me </div> <div>       more than I could endure.</div> <div> 23.               <I>Beyond Words</I></div> <div>       Dear one, I love you so very much,</div> <div>       so very much more than words can mean;</div> <div>       but only words can convey my love</div> <div>       when we're apart, or when we'll be gone.</div> <div> 24.  Ah, my dear, I feel my love for you deep</div> <div>       When by sorrow or pain you're made to weep;</div> <div>       Then am I turned into ardent heat,</div> <div>       As my soul reaches out for yours to meet.</div> <div> 25.  <I>Be rest assured</I>. – Have you wondered lately whether you still love your spouse? Well, you do, perhaps more than you think, or feel, if you look forward to seeing her, him, after every working day.</div> <div> 26.  <I>A question of love</I>. – What once annoyed me about her no longer does. Do I love her more – or less?</div> <bR> <div> 27 <I>That electric curent</I>. –  Ah, the sexes! Nature Almighty! What a mysterious wonder! My bare arm brushes against a woman's bare arm, and I feel a current of love (sexual?) energy course through me at that moment. I didn't even see her face No such touch of a man could ever do the same to me – except in a milder form when I touch one of my sons. with my wife – well, it's a foregone conclusion that I melt in warmth when I touch her skin...after all these years! But a total stranger? Just the touch and knowing it was a woman. I don't get it.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4f86d7b0.jpg" border=0 width="365" height="379" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Da Vinci</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> III</div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="504" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 172 ><NOBR><div> <I><B>VITAL LOVE</B></I></div> <div> <B>[Love as the Vital [blood] Bond to Life and between Human Beings</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" ><B>]</B></FONT></div> <div>    This aspect of love expresses itself as the intense force that binds us  to life, </div> <div>    or to another human or sentient being. Sympathy, affection, compassion and</div> <div>    empathy are the main binding  sentiments of this form of love. It is this form </div> <div>    of love that is organic to our being as  indicative of our self-preservation, </div> <div>    loneliness, compassion, futility, empathy, horror, rage, fear, the sense of </div> <div>    tragedy; and the "blessed" relief or appeasement of these various types of </div> <div>    suffering <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >–</FONT> are some of the incisive emotions associated with vital love.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  Life is love willed animately</div> <div>   3.  What we will we desire, want, need; are urged, impulsed, toward and all the variations thereof. These are forms or aspects of humanized will.</div> <div>   4.  What we will strongly, we are said to love; what we will moderately, we are said to like; what we will weakly, we are said to be indifferent to; what we do not will at all, we negate, or is a negation to us – nothing.</div> <div>   5.  What we will is to that which we are attracted, or drawn to.</div> <div>   6.  To that which we are attracted we love</div> <div>   7.  What attracts us we are drawn to, as one body to another, as one force to another, as one thought to another.</div> <div>   8.  To that which we will, either directly or indirectly, is to that which we are attracted.</div> <div>   9.  An act of will is a force of attraction.</div> <div> 10.  To will unity with another is to will (ultimately) Unity itself.</div> <div> 12.  Love is a matter of degree, which ranges from the faintest liking through admiration, adoration to worship.</div> <div> 13.  The stronger the attraction the more intensely we love; the more intensely we love, the tighter the bond, the tie, the bondage.</div> <div> 14.  Every act of will is an affirmation, a consent, to act or think in a given way. This "given way" is always a  movement toward something or someone. Even when we turn away from something or someone, it is always toward something or someone else: that which caused us to turn away, equally caused us to turn toward an opposing direction.</div> <div> 15.  That which causes us to, without repulsion, to move toward something or someone can be said to attract us.</div> <div> 16.  Perhaps more suffering has come from not being loved or needed than any other cause.</div> <div> 17.  Are we, lovers of Love, to turn our backs on, our minds from, the cruelties, terrors, and horrors of life? Smile on it all? Hardly. How can we who love not feel the stab of these to the very heart; for he who loves all, feels all – not just the pleasant feelings. And since love is the strongest force in life, so is the possessor of the strongest type.</div> <div> 18.  A bond exists between all separate individuals, or entities.</div> <div> 19.  Love binds separate individuals, or entities, into a unity of purpose. They interact as, at, one with each other.</div> <div> 20.  Human love is a unifying experience.</div> <div> 21.  Human love manifests itself in three fundamental ways: as (1) personal love, (2) interpersonal love, and (3) impersonal love. Personal love is foremost love of self; interpersonal love is foremost love between ourselves and others; impersonal love is love without self and selves, as love of nature or of God.</div> <div> 22.  The sense of belonging, of sharing, of being needed for oneself – are expressions of the bond of unity, of feeling loved, between any two.</div> <div> 23.  In a human sense, a bond of unity is to be at, or as, one with another; Unity itself is one. </div> <div> 24.  We say we are <I>at</I> one, or that we are <I>as</I> one with another; not that we <I>are </I>one with another – except only metaphorically. We cannot be one with another; we can only be one – that is absolute, pure, oneness; or unity itself.</div> <div> 25.  An attraction to something or someone is a moving toward, a pulling to, bonding oneself in unity with that other. When that bond happens, love, as we understand it in its human or animal sense, happens, however fleetingly, however temporarily.</div> <div> 26.  Do your eyes moisten, your chest heave with feeling when you see, or read, a touching loving scene? Then know that you love, that deep love has its hold on you.</div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>VARIATIONS OF VITAL LOVE</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> [<B>The human bond</B>]</div> <div> 27.  In humor she said to me, but with the most serious intent: "Kick me, bruise me, use me, blacken my eye, tear my hair… anything – but don't ignore me!"</div> <div> [<B>The need to be needed</B>]</div> <div> 28.  Warmly my employer assures me that she needs me; and I swell with emotion to know that I belong, that I'm accepted.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> [<B>The sentiment of affection</B>]</div> <div> 29.  While walking together, she reaches over to straighten my collar, and in so doing, her fingers touch the nape of my neck. At the touch, I feel a warm flow of affection toward her – in no way related to sex; since she is much older than I, unattractive to me erotically, with nothing between us except a mutual friendliness and understanding. Then why the pleasure of her touch?...No, it was not so much her touch as it was that she felt free and relaxed enough with me to make that gesture of straightening my collar, which indicated her fondness for me. Before, I could say  that I liked her; at that moment, I felt  that I did. All the difference in the world.</div> <div> 30.  A moment of oneness with all that man is. – 0h, I do love man in his humanness! – Yes, even in his perversity, his wickedness! But I love mankind most when I feel at one with it; and I feel most at one with man when he lives in truth and beauty, in peace, in sincerity, in moral courage, and in all those fine traits that glorify, unite, and justify our race.</div> <div> 31.  Not up to my ideal. – Yes, I have moments of tenderness, of that "loving feeling" – but not enough of these moments, I'm afraid, to offset my hardness of heart, my indifference, my self-engrossment.</div> <div> 32.  <I>Self-protection</I>. – I am presently working at being indifferent to other people's indifference to me.</div> <div> 33.  A nonentity. – Oh, it can sear and pang us to be ignored, to matter nothing, it seems, to  anyone; as though our presence could as well be absent. Self-pity engulfs us to tears almost; and to the child in us we again revert, pouting that nobody loves us, that nobody cares.</div> <div> 34.  <I>Sympathetic interplay</I>. – I gaze at her, warmly and lovingly, to elicit a soft and affectionate smile from her.</div> <div> [<B>The tragic sense of life</B>]      </div> <div> 35.  Yes, I'll die, but I'll never know it – being dead; that is a consolation. But now I feel death's drear breath shuddering my nerves: nothingness! and this distresses me to the bone.</div> <div> 36.  Farewell, farewell, my fading youth,</div> <div>       soon – oh, much too soon –</div> <div>       you will depart from me;</div> <div>       no more will I be the vibrant flaming verve,</div> <div>       no more the body beautiful.</div> <div>       Over the peak of vitality</div> <div>       unto the descent of debility.</div> <div>       Farewell again my beloved youth,</div> <div>       my preening pride,</div> <div>       my short-lived companion,</div> <div>       the youth I thought would always be.</div> <div> 37.      <I>In Every Mind</I></div> <div> A teeming world is in every mind</div> <div> Of ego-thoughts of every kind</div> <div> Shaping each person's destiny</div> <div> Toward what he will or will not be.</div> <div> A steaming world is in every mind</div> <div> Of seared emotions of every kind</div> <div> Driving one often against his will</div> <div> To acts productive of much ill.</div> <div> A streaming world is in every mind</div> <div> Of ways and means of every kind</div> <div> To be ensured that one is needed,</div> <div> Secure, comfortable, and heeded.</div> <div> A gleaming world is in every mind</div> <div> Of sentiments of every kind</div> <div> Ennobling the human spirit</div> <div> With glimmers of the Infinite.</div> <div> 38.  Alone we suffer, alone we die,</div> <div>       in the dread confinement of our souls –</div> <div>       though others may love us,</div> <div>       though others may care.</div> <div> 39.  <I>The pale cast of death</I>. – The hollow, wan,  darkened death-resigned eyes of an aging, ailing man; who just a short while past was alert, beaming, and well.</div> <div> 40.           <I>Two Attitudes</I></div> <div>       Suffering he sees as part of life </div> <div>       and so feels little for those who suffer </div> <div>       – as they feel little of anything for him.</div> <div>       Suffering she sees as part of life</div> <div>       and so feels much for those who suffer</div> <div>       as they feel deeply at one with her.</div> <div> 41.  She's gone from life</div> <div>        after these many years of loving companionship;</div> <div>        and here am I alone with myself,</div> <div>        left to myself,</div> <div>        feeling abandoned, disoriented,</div> <div>        of no importance to anyone;</div> <div>        not a soul cares!</div> <div>        Alone, afraid, empty,</div> <div>        bereft of all human comfort.</div> <div>        A dull thud of despair verges me</div> <div>        unto the fringe of  nothingness,</div> <div>        depriving me of all the colors of life.</div> <div> 42.  <I>Chrysanthemums</I></div> <div> Chrysanthemums on the dining room table</div> <div> Drooping with age after a thriving life</div> <div> – Reminding me of my very same fate.</div> <div> Chrysanthemums on the dining room table</div> <div> One day more and now are withered</div> <div>     – Reminding me of my very same fate.</div> <div> Chrysanthemums on the dining room table</div> <div> The final day and are in rigor mortis</div> <div>    – Reminding me of my very same fate.</div> <div> 43.  Ah, my darling precious one,</div> <div>        I try but cannot love you more;</div> <div>        For age has drained me to the core,</div> <div>        Is edging me into oblivion.</div> <div>       We've lived together long and close,</div> <div>       Have loved each other strong and true;</div> <div>       But now I've nothing left for you;</div> <div>       I'm feeble, frightened, and morose.</div> <div> 44.  <I>No solace</I>. – What, tell me, pierces parents more with sorrow than having had taken from them by ruthless death their darling, lovable child: radiant with gaiety and with ebullient, innocent mischievousness? What leaves behind a pallor more somber, an emptiness more void? What turns the spring of their lives forever into cold and barren winter?</div> <bR> <div> 45. <I>The Child at Her Skip</I></div> <div>       A child skipping along her way</div> <div>       Carefree in her singsong sway.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="52290300.jpg" border=0 width="400" height="304" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Caillebotte</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>IV</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="590" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 143 ><NOBR><div>  <A NAME="nihilisitc_love5_1_2_1_1"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#800000" FACE="Calibri" ><I><B>NIHIL</B></I></FONT><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Calibri" ><I><B>ISTIC LOVE</B></I></FONT><I> </I></div> <div> <B>  [Love as the Nihilistic (destructive = evil) Will in Nature and in Human Nature in Particular]</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" ><B> </B></FONT></div> <div>     The aspect of love attracts a person to destructive behavior <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >–</FONT> self-destruction included. </div> <div>     This person loves, is attracted to, enjoys, thrills to, breaking down persons, relationships, </div> <div>     situations <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >–</FONT> anything; its main concern is ill-will rather than good-will. The hard-natured, </div> <div>     psychopathic, psychotic and narcissistic (to some extent) individual is indicative of this </div> <div>     type of love.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> 1</div> <bR> <div> [<B>The hard-natured person</B>]</div> <div> 1.  The futile impulse. – Are there not some people who are so casehardened that you feel impelled to reach in and wring their hearts, exclaiming, "Feel! you callous one; melt a little, you block of ice!</div> <div> 2.  <I>Family Lies</I></div> <div> Father, brother, daughter, sister, or son;</div> <div> It makes no difference,</div> <div> When all is said and done;</div> <div> For different natures clash asunder</div> <div> While the darker one</div> <div> Has the fairer one for plunder.</div> <div> 3.  <I>The predator</I>. – He raises his own worth by lowering the worth of others. Some man he is!</div> <div> 4.  <I>The Insidious One </I></div> <div> His pleasantries are said in guile</div> <div> While undermining you with a smile.  </div> <div> 5.  The aggressors prey on the meek through fear and force; while the meek, in their own fashion, prey on the aggressors through a show of passive helplessness and need.</div> <div> 6.  That which repels me does sometimes insidiously, seductively, frighteningly, attract me, God!</div> <div> 7.  <I>Not too close</I>. – With some people you dare not draw too near, for they will hiss and frown, snarl and snap, and reduce you to a fool for caring. Socially, they appear so warmly engaging, polite and helpful and even sympathetic – until the least familiarity turns their warmth to icy cold.</div> <div> 8.  <I>Beautiful face, ugly soul</I>. – She is such a pretty child, but whose obnoxious behavior deforms her into an ugly, little imp.</div> <div> 9. <I> Difference of attitude</I>. – As I am inclined to like people, she is inclined to dislike them.</div> <div> 10.  <I>Strike first</I>. – I had better intimidate him before he intimidates me.</div> <div> 11.  <I>A mean streak</I>. – Notice with what goodwill she treats her friends and passing acquaintances; and yet with what ill  will she behaves toward her mother who has only the best  will toward her.         </div> <div> 12.  <I>In name only</I>. – He paid his last respects to his departed friend – and stole his wallet!</div> <div> 13.  <I>The short fuse</I>. – Yes, to be sure, he is a man of "infinite patience," a paragon of goodwill; but with one exception-don't cross him!</div> <div> 14.  <I>Her worst enemy</I>. – Only insidious age will blunt the edge of her native insolence as it ravages her beauty.</div> <div> 15.  I sense he is disputing with me now not from difference of opinion, but from sheer spite</div> <div> 16.</div> <div> Pity the man bound to a wife</div> <div> Who harrows him with domestic strife</div> <div> Whose rancor cuts him through like a knife.</div> <div> Her disdain for all that's dear to him</div> <div> Has sunk his spirit, wearied his limbs;</div> <div> Still, he indulges her every whim.</div> <div> Kept from his friends and family,</div> <div> She guards him as under lock and key</div> <div> While misspending all his hard-earned salary.</div> <div> And more to add to his distress,</div> <div> She's done what anyone could guess:</div> <div> Broken their bond through faithlessness.</div> <div> And yet for all his suffering,</div> <div> He fears to leave her odious sting</div> <div> Lest his world dissolve to nothing.</div> <bR> <div> 43.  <I>From hatred to strife</I>. – He glares at me with seething hatred; how fiercely he would like to batter me for depriving him of his little  pleasure. So continues always one ineradicable source of human strife.</div> <div> 44.  <I>The predator</I>. – He raises his own worth by lowering the worth of others. Some man he is.</div> <div> 45.  <I>Stern advice</I>. – The way to get along with him is to agree with him.       </div> <div> 46.   Should I be too good to you for your sake</div> <div>         would be much too sugary for you to take;</div> <div>         What's needed to keep your love and respect</div> <div>         Is a good dash of pepper meant for effect.       </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 2</div> <bR> <div> <B>The Image of Evil</B></div> <bR> <div>   1.  Evil is a dance wild on the precipice of chaos. </div> <div>   2. How we thrill, chill, vicariously to the portraits of evil, conflict, criminality, rage, violence, murder, revenge', lust, destruction, malice of all kinds – as represented in film and literature. How these representations ease the tensions of our own wicked and destructive propensities normally guarded under the lock and key of culture. </div> <div>   3.  <I>Oh, yes, depravity</I>: – Evil's relaxation – disgusts, nauseates delicate stomachs...and yet...and yet... </div> <div>   4. The heart of darkness in man speaking. – "Life's horrors in bloodshed have driven me mad, have driven me into the asylum of Evil itself. Quick! I thirst. Pass me my goblet of blood." </div> <div>   5.  The surging, fierce blood-fire to snap the life out of a helpless, whining victim, catches one at the throat; and only a stroke of sanity left in the mind could deter him. </div> <div>   6. Evil strides and struts across the world in iron boots trampling and grinding to a pulp the good that would, be done. Fortunate for the world it has only two feet! </div> <div>   7.  "Kill! Kill! Bloodshed! Bloodshed! Death to All! All power to me!" Thus saith the Evil One frothing in diabolic glee. </div> <div>   8.  Evil is such a sneak. It hovers behind closed doors, haunts dark alleys, strikes from behind, and below the belt. </div> <div>   9.  Being the perpetrator of evil is light years away from being its victim. </div> <div> 10. In the most scrupulous bourgeois you could tap treasures of duplicity, hatred, malice, depravity, and who knows what else, concealed in the cellar of their souls. There, their wild dogs can be heard barking to get free. </div> <div> 11.  <I>Evil speaking</I>: – "I terrify the world and loose its bowels. Fear is my tongue of fire, destruction my sword of death. I dance in orgiastic abandon, and sing song of chaos. I mock your ideals and make war on your peace. Be either my friend or my foe; in either case, I'm out to destroy you. Only the warrior of the soul do I respect; and even him, I will bring to his knees at the least sign of weakness All others I will hound to the grave. I am the invincible one.</div> <div> 12. <I> Blood-lust</I>: – The crazed shark attack of evil.</div> <div> 13.  "Who cares," "What does it matter in the long run," "Everything is permitted," "So what if others get hurt," "I'll get even," "I don't give a damn anymore," – Oh, how the force of Evil revels in such nihilistic utterances, how it loves when humans sink so low in despair. and nothing pleases Evil more than for a person to carry out these utterances in deed. "Do it, do it!"</div> <div> 14.  <I>Depravit </I>–:  the slime of Evil.</div> <div> 15.  <I>Evil to polite society </I>–:  "Yes, you fear and despise me, thinking thereby that you will shame me into staying my distance. Fools! I am everywhere at all times: in you, in front of you, behind you – particularly in your dreams where I am free to commit, through your unconscious consent, the most diabolical and lustful acts that ever entered man's mind. Were it not for your cultural sanctions, I would annihilate you all! But, then again, I take glee in the rules you set up against me, as I enjoy nothing more than breaking them. No, you don't get around me so easily, my friends! True, all your legal and moral sanctions restrain you from committing the major outrages in my name: murder, treachery, mayhem, resentment – these are my kinsmen too, didn't you know. So, please, don't put on moral airs of righteousness in my presence, if you don't mind, I know you better – better than you know yourself. </div> <div> 16.  Evil washes itself in the slime of human degradation. How the pungent and foul odor of its bath water invites us into the tub. </div> <div> 17.  A: Don't speak to me of evil; I want to be good, I want to love, I want to be     </div> <div>            beautiful of soul. Give me purity before all else. </div> <div>        B: Yes, I know; you want to mock the evil genius in you. But it is on to your </div> <div>            little game; after all, it created it: the game of now-be-good-now-be-bad. </div> <div> 18. Hypocrisy, bigotry, envy, greed, malice, ingratitude, arrogance, snobbery, are just some qualities reducible to a single term... Yes, you guessed it: our enemy and friend, Lord Evil.</div> <div> 19.  <I>Dionysian desecration</I>. – Salome's dance of the seven veils for the head of the Baptist, John, to be delivered on a silver platter.</div> <div> 20.   Oh, how the ministers and slaves of Evil smack their lips in sheer relish at the distress and misfortune of others, for then they know that these innocents have fallen victim to their master and lord. And even keener the pleasure, is in masking their relish as "sincere" concern and sympathy; this addition of deception tingles them all the more.</div> <div> 21.  The quintessence of evil speaking through a lost soul –:  "Now that I have spent these many years in the construction and creativity of my life, let me straightway destroy it in one stroke, or piecemeal, as it suits my humor. What have I to do with solidarity or consistency."</div> <div> 22. Observe the unadulterated, primitive delight so many children take in their little cruelties toward any- thing or anyone who is helpless, abnormal, deformed, or different from the norm in a glaring way. And note further, the sheer pleasure they take in watching their fellows being punished, deserved or not. Is this not evil at its more innocent play?</div> <div> 23.  Frenzy, ferocity, darkness, chaos, annihilation, nothingness, blind will – some further connotations for the force in the world we denominate as evil</div> <div> 24.  Speak of tranquility, "inner peace," purity, goodness, to one settled in the darkness of evil, and you will be sure to incur his aversion, if not his odium; though not necessarily in the open, of course.</div> <div> 25.  <I>Greed</I>: – The highwayman of evil.</div> <div> 26.  Scoundrel, blackguard, riffraff, guttersnipe, hoodlum, crook, murderer, cutthroat, traitor, – all SS officers in the service of Evil enforcing their havoc on the moral order of the living.</div> <div> 27.  Evil is the fascination of the world. It whirls us into its kaleidoscopic colors of the nether world of forbidden enchantments that put both our respectability and life on the line.</div> <div> 28.   Evil speaking to the weary, desperate sold lost in the confusion and ignorance of the mind:–"Come to me, my sons and daughters in darkness; let me soothe you in sweet forgetfulness and inertia; let me turn out that scorching light that gives you no answers. All I request of you is to destroy your emotional balance. And this you can do through my favorite remedies: alcohol, gluttony, opiates, debauchery, indolence, severance of all human comfort and love, hopelessness, futility, and all such means to wean you from your humanity. And if you are fortunate enough, you will go mad, as did one of my favorites, Nietzsche."</div> <div> 29. Those darkened by their evil tendencies disdain all show of light that promises relief, tranquility, joy, freedom. They have fallen prey to psychic destruction either by nature, choice or through victimization. Even God himself could not save them.</div> <div> 30.  Those much prone to evil, destruction, can be just as nauseated by good as the good are by evil.</div> <div> 31.  <I>The sadist</I>–: The SS stormtrooper of Evil.</div> <div> 32.  Gossip, backbiting, tale bearing, these we know as not very respectable pastimes; but, oh, how dull life would be if no one at all, or only a very few, engaged in them! And, yes, people are hurt by them, and even ruined; but these are the evils that are to inevitably follow if mankind is not to be bored out of its skin and boredom we know to be one of the worst banes to afflict man.</div> <div> 33.   The true ensign of Evil would never justify his acts as right. No, he knows them to be wrong, that they break the canons of human trust, solidarity, decency, and love. He takes bounding pride in this knowledge. "How rare a person am I!" he preens himself, "How unique! How bold! How terrible!"</div> <div> 34.   We refuse to hear – we dare not hear! – or even think for a moment that we too might be capable of the worst atrocities, of the lowest degradation imaginable. Oh, no, not us! we are far too rational, far too moral, far too sympathetic, a person for that – so speaks that delicate flower, reason, while our underlying sea monster of irrationality smiles on wryly.</div> <div> 35.   Evil disunites, disperses, disintegrates, destroys; thereby preparing the ground for unity, integration, creation-the eternal cycle of love then strife.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> 3</div> <bR> <div> <B>Pathics of Evil</B></div> <div> <B>[In Verse]</B></div> <bR> <div> INTRODUCTORY NOTES</div> <div> 1. The term “pathics” is the collective term for either of three types of hard-natured persons who do evil – destruction, breaking down – or malice, upon their fellow man. The type of the person's natural tendencies, will determine in general whether he or she is a psychopath, sociopath, or narcipath (narcissist). </div> <div>     In reading these pathic verses, and any other book dealing with this matter of the "mean ones," – to use this simplistic phrase for now – the commonplace terms applied to them are "psychopath," "sociopath," and "narcissist." These terms are commonly used interchangeably, and so can be confusing as to the degree of meanness in any one person and his behavior. </div> <div>     The term "pathic" then will be used in this book as the comprehensive, generic, meaning for those </div> <div> 2.  Accordingly, my wife came up with a comprehensive term that includes all three terms; yet, distinguishes the degree of meanness entailed by each of the terms. The term "pathics" is this comprehensive term that includes the sociopath, the psychopath, the narcipath – I will modify the term , "narcissist" to "narcipath" so that the suffix, "path," is consistent with the other two terms, as well as to avoid the various connotations, favorable and otherwise, of the term “narcissist.    </div> <div> 3.  If we consider the term "evil" generically as meaning destructive, the breaking down of good, justice, love, peace (peace of mind, as well), then we can define these three variants of pathics in the following general way: The narcipath does evil (deliberate harm) for the sake of self aggrandizement; the sociopath does evil for the sake of dominance over others; and the psychopath does evil for the sake of evil, or more particularly, of malice.</div> <bR> <div> 1.   I feign an interest in what you say</div> <div>      So you will buy for me and want to pay.</div> <div> 2.  Not from the act do I feel regret,</div> <div>      But that from you nothing did I get.</div> <div> 3.  I cannot feel for anyone's pain</div> <div>      I'd just as soon cause it or my own gain.</div> <div> 4.   I glare at you with eyes of ice</div> <div>      Which is my reptilian satanic device</div> <div>      Of cutting you down slice by slice.</div> <div> 5.  You think I love you because I say so</div> <div>      When it's control I want much to your woe.</div> <div> 6.   I see you need a friend in me;</div> <div>      Too bad! You've lost yourself to win me.</div> <div> 7.   I'm as rational and delusional free</div> <div>      As you witness my open normalcy;</div> <div>      But be careful! I'll warn you not:</div> <div>      I'm looking always for you softest spot.</div> <div> 8.   Don't I just look like the "real thing";</div> <div>      Well-adjusted, and pleasant as can be;</div> <div>      Yet underneath lies my conspiracy</div> <div>      To undermine whoever is controlling. </div> <div> 9.   Of  robust, mental health I appear,</div> <div>      Not your typical mutineer;</div> <div>      And so I am what you do see –</div> <div>      Though on the surface; not under me. </div> <div> 10.  They called me "bully" as a kid</div> <div>       And punished me for what I did;</div> <div>       I soon learned well as I grew up</div> <div>       To pretend to be a docile pup.</div> <div> 11.  "Seem" is the guise that earmarks my life;</div> <div>       I seem to love; yet what I love is strife. </div> <div> 12.  They say I've no conscience, and that's for sure;</div> <div>       And for that lack there is no cure.</div> <div> 13.  My wit and my charm</div> <div>       Are meant to disarm</div> <div>       As I wield my way</div> <div>       Scheming day after day.</div> <div> 14.  Yes, I wear my "mask of sanity";</div> <div>       But can it be said  I'm not really sane?</div> <div>       Or is it that I'm so uncanny</div> <div>       That even insanity I'd feign?</div> <div> 15.  Come now! Do you think I care a jot</div> <div>       Just because I say I love you a lot?</div> <div> 16.  For my misdeeds my ultimate goal</div> <div>       Is to weave disorder and count my toll.</div> <div> 17.  You build it and I'll destroy it</div> <div>       And you can be sure I'll truly enjoy it.</div> <div> 18.  I know I've got you by the tail</div> <div>       When by my charms your defenses fail.</div> <div> 19.  Psychopath they'd call me if they but knew</div> <div>       What I am in truth and what I do,</div> <div> 20.  As I weave my deviant ins and outs </div> <div>       At every opportunity's whereabouts.</div> <div> 21.  I scorn your goodness while I play my part</div> <div>       In seeming good: my consummate art.</div> <div> 22.  I'll tell you a secret you ought to know:</div> <div>       I have no self to which you can go.</div> <div> 23.  My style is to hit below the belt,</div> <div>       And to strike a blow behind your back;</div> <div>       So, you'd better learn how to first attack</div> <div>       Before you experience the cards I've dealt.</div> <div> 24.  How I thrill to catch you off guard;</div> <div>       Just when you think me soft, I turn hard.</div> <div> 25.  Sexual conquest is me at my best:</div> <div>       To seduce you winningly at your behest.</div> <div> 26.  A part of me is my changes of mood</div> <div>       My favorite one being when I brood.</div> <div> 27.  Conflict for me is serious business;</div> <div>        It defines me in all my dirty mess.</div> <div>        How nice I am to you right now; </div> <div>        But please be fooled, it's my natural ploy:</div> <div>        To act myself as a pleasant decoy</div> <div>        For as much of me that I'll allow.</div> <div> 28.  Does the way I talk, all agitated-like –</div> <div>       As though each word is like a strike –</div> <div>       Make you nervous and out of sorts</div> <div>       Without a rudder or any supports?</div> <div> 29.  Ruining lives by inflicting pain</div> <div>        Is my delight and well-earned gain.</div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> ______________________________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="411" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 31 ><NOBR><div>  <A NAME="human_transcendent_love_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#663300" FACE="Calibri" ><B>HUMAN-TRANSCENDENT LOVE</B></FONT></div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <IMG SRC="4efc54d0.jpg" border=0 width="453" height="333" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Seurat</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>I</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="584" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 157 WIDTH="574"><div> <I><B>HUMANISTIC LOVE</B></I></div> <div> <B>  [The Love of Humanity]</B></div> <div>   <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >   The concern we feel and show toward other human beings, exclusive of erotic or self-</FONT></div> <div>   love.  Mild affection, sympathy, are some of the sentiments of humanistic love. Comradeship, </div> <div>   camaraderie, companionship, sociability, cordiality, moral acts, loving-kindness, justice, </div> <div>   consideration, personal freedom, equality, peaefulness, are a few of the manifestations of </div> <div>   humanistic love.]</div> </tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  It is easier to love our neighbor with Love on our side.</div> <div>   2.  Love of our neighbor is in truth love of ourself.  </div> <div>   3.  As we love ourselves should we love others? Answer, simply: more or less.</div> <div>   4.  Overcome injustice with justice; surely; but be sure you do so lovingly, else your self-love may intrude itself to your dismay.</div> <div>   5.  I know we (in our hardness) can't help judging others – that's our humanness; I know as well that we (in our softness) can't help sympathizing with others – that's our transcendence. </div> <div>   6.  When you do your duty for another, it can be either a moral act or a loving act: moral when it is right to do it, no matter what you feel to the contrary; loving when </div> <div>   7.  Mock the old and the ugly and the handicapped, and you mock yourself; for won't you be one of “those” in time, or by accident! And do you not mock the love in you that</div> <div>   8.  And should we love the unworthy? Answer: from afar and cautiously, and with awareness, and justly – now there's a thought (love the unworthy justly) to ruminate over.</div> <div>   9.  The evil-doer strikes at you and wounds you – psychically or physically. Are we to love him-her? How could we! Are we to “get even”? How could we not given the opportunity! How does humanistic love,  “love your neighbor, “ apply in such circumstances?</div> <div> 10.  When you suffer deeply, acutely (empathy) for another's suffering, then know that you are at the pith of Love.</div> <div> 11.  There are those for whom love for mankind overshadows their love of self; though the two blend into each other imperceptibly.</div> <div> 12.  In terms of Love Itself, love of mankind is in truth love of oneself – are we not all atoms formed into this atomic world of matter and energy?.</div> <div> 13.  It takes a depth psychology and a higher understanding to love those whom we're inclined not to; that is, and understanding of</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Variants of Humanistic Love</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.  <I> Christendom's paradox</I>. – Christ forgave his persecutors, and Christians have been persecuting the Jews ever since.</div> <div>   2.     <I>Existential Self-freedom</I></div> <div>        To accept life nobly as it is,</div> <div>        And man in all his artifice,</div> <div>        All judgment one must then dismiss</div> <div>        And all illusions of heavenly bliss.</div> <div>   3   When I observe man at his worst, a tragic sadness sinks my soul; and yet I know that I am man, and so cannot presume myself as righteously beyond reproach. What all man is, what all he does, I share the responsibility.</div> <div>   4   <I>A Matter of Preference</I>. – O I do love man in his humanness! – Yes, even in his perversity, his wickedness! But I love mankind most when I feel at one with it; and I feel most at one with man when he lives in truth and beauty, in peace, in sincerity, in moral courage, and in all those fine traits that glorify, unite, and justify our race.</div> <div>   5   <I>Love of love</I>. – Why does my chest heave, my eyes moisten, to see people embrace in affectionate love, to see goodness of heart prevail?</div> <div>   6  Away from the world of men and women I turn</div> <div>         to save myself,</div> <div>      And back to the world of men and women I turn</div> <div>         to feel myself.</div> <div>   7.   <I>A Sympathetic Ear</I></div> <div>         A little human warmth,</div> <div>         a little concern,</div> <div>         a little encouragement,</div> <div>         have magically lifted the pall of my apathy.</div> <div>   8.  <I>Our own barriers</I>. – It is hard, sometimes even impossible, to be understanding, much less sympathetic, toward those whose faults and weaknesses we do not posses ourselves; and which, if we judge too harshly, blind us to our own.</div> <div>   9.  <I>Into deep recesses</I>. – When I look deep into the eyes of people through the quiet repose of their countenances, to the hidden corners of their being; I then forget for the moment their arrant ways, and consider their better parts, their vulnerabilities, their desperations. I do not judge them at such times.</div> <div> 10.   In our own image. – Not until we cease trying to mold others into our image of what we deem right and good, proper and true, will we come even within distance of understanding our fellow man – not to mention ourselves.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> [<B>Goodwill</B>]</div> <div>   1.  Goodwill is love particularized, is love in moral action. </div> <div>   2. <I> Goodwill</I>: A kindly feeling: well-wishing, benevolence, friendliness; a will acting freely from pure      </div> <div> disinterested motives; an open, charitable attitude, without reservation or bitterness; a willingness to be </div> <div> fair-minded or impartial; good intention; virtuous inclination or disposition; cheerful consent; heartiness;      </div> <div> readiness.</div> <div>   3.  Goodwill is the man of action's religion.</div> <div>   4.  Goodwill is to be applied not only to others but to oneself as well – especially toward oneself!</div> <div>   5.  A person of goodwill is always ready for a smile – she can't help herself. He brightens the day just as does the sun; but she has one advantage over the sun: she even brightens a sunless day.</div> <div>   6.  Goodwill is love anthropomorphized.</div> <div>   7.  She of goodwill surely gets angry, but never in spite or resentment, or rancor. Good-willed anger is anger justified and gauged rightly.</div> <div>   8.  Goodwill can't but help being on the verge of joyful tears of love and sympathy toward everyone worthy of it.</div> <div>   9.  Goodwill is just that: willed goodness – goodness strong and directed; goodness wrapped in refined      </div> <div> judgment and subtle sensitivity.</div> <div> 10. The man-woman of goodwill suffers, grieves, yes; but his goodwill toward himself will not permit him to despond in his pain.</div> <div> 11.  Goodwill is not in the least concerned with being right all the time; what is being right in comparison to </div> <div> freedom from psychic tension? Goodwill fears not in the least being silly, childlike, sentimental, demonstrative; for these responses recapture the spontaneous, simple innocence of the child that stays within us all through our lives, however stifled.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4f1095f0.jpg" border=0 width="265" height="351" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Da Vinci</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>II</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="525" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 122 ><NOBR><div> <I><B>IDEAL LOVE</B></I></div> <div> <B>[Love as Ideal Perfection]</B></div> <div>     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >Love conceived or intuited, as perfection, purity, order, beauty; the good, truth, </FONT></div> <div>  moral excellence, as exemplified in Jesus, Buddha, Krishna, Gandhi, <I>et al</I>; and </div> <div>  the human inspiration, aspiration, and struggle to approximate this ideal love, </div> <div>  this ideal state, through morality and its virtues.</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <div> 1.  In the beginning stages of love, one must be assured that he is not so all loving, that he is not incapable of hate or lust or resentment, and all other familiar self-needs and expressions.</div> <div> 2.  Love has to be reserved, not given too effusively; otherwise it will be misunderstood, mistaken, even resented, if the other is not able to reciprocate.</div> <div> 3.  To love fully is to be aware of loving.</div> <div> 4.  The last thing one must think is that love is weak or saccharine.</div> <div> 5.  We must come to realize that when we are considerate, thoughtful; when we feel sympathy, compassion, empathy; when we are buoyed up with joyous energy – that is the flow of love happening to us.</div> <div> 6.  Love is a strengthening, a buoyancy.</div> <div> 7.  Love teaches patience – does it ever!</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>ACTS OF LOVE</B></div> <div> 32.   Love in action: –<B> </B>good works.</div> <div> 33.   Love penetrates the veil of Maya.       </div> <div> 35.   If God is Love, let us then reach God through acts of love.</div> <div> 36.   Love pacifies the impulsive urge in us.</div> <div> 37.   Lust will not do unless impassioned with Love's embrace. </div> <div> 38.   Love makes no exclusions; it encompasses all.</div> <div> 39.   Fear not to love. It is yourself at your very best.</div> <div> 40.   An Image of Love: Love dances the soul with the simplicity of a child.</div> <div> 41.   What you do not like, then love.     </div> <div> 42.   Patience lies in wait for Love to ease its way.</div> <div> 46.   Love is the master of moods.</div> <div> 47.   "Think of God<B>" </B>–<B> </B>The dictum of the sages.</div> <div>         But what to think? –<FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#336666" FACE="Calibri" ><B> </B></FONT>The question of the ages.</div> <div>         Answer: LOVE.</div> <div> 48.    Say, think, the word "Love" to yourself; keep it in mind always. Let it be the talisman around your </div> <div>           mind and heart.</div> <div> 49.   Transform everything you do into acts and thoughts of love.</div> <div> 50.   Love motivates us to love; that Love which is inward of us – and so is us.</div> <div> 51.   Love all persons in understanding; a few in affection; and those closest to us, in depth.</div> <div> 54.   Think of yourself as Love incarnate – that which you essentially are.</div> <div> 55.   Through the explosion of death into the light of Love we go.</div> <div> 56.  Think, ponder; love deep, deep in your heart, straight through you mind, inward to your being and know and be the Love you are.</div> <div> 57.   Love acts in grace and in strength. It defies inertia so that It may create Its works of Love.</div> <div> 58.   Think the word Love, and be free – believe me!</div> <div> 59.   Love is not possessive; It is free as the bird on the wing, as the breeze through the air.</div> <div> 60.   The thought of Love energizes, vitalizes, uplifts, the spirits. Think of love, and up goes the adrenaline level.</div> <div> 61.   Right is Love in action; sympathy, Love in feeling; duty, Love in principle; good, Love in beauty.</div> <div> 62.   Love is an overcoming of self – and other selves.</div> <div> 63.   It is now time in our history for love to take the ascendancy over ego. The ego has long had its day. It's time for it to take the backseat. Yes, long live the ego! But strong live love!</div> <div> 64.   Love wins all – even when it loses. A paradox, yes, but one to be understood. </div> <div> 65.  Just the thought of love alone can be enough; one does not always have to be loving, always have to have an object to love – human or otherwise. </div> <div> 66.   Love is the great harmonizer – it gives us both the flesh and the spirit. What more could we want! </div> <div> 67.   The feel of love makes one "stand tall." </div> <div> 68.   It is for the man or woman of love to teach others to feel softly, and then to love strongly. </div> <div> 69.  We are able to face life more easily with the love attitude. The love attitude is more, much more, than the loving attitude. There need not be an object of love present always – thank God, or Love, for that; just the presence of love in one's mind.</div> <div> 70.  When you do a favor for another person without expecting, or even wanting a thank you, then know you did it from love or for the sake or rightness of the act itself – which, I suppose, amounts to the same thing. </div> <div> 71.   Much that we feel, think and do is inspired from love; we just don't realize it. It is now time to realize it, so that we can grow in it – be more loving. </div> <div> 72.   Love is a giving; and in the giving, is a receiving. </div> <div> 73.  There is an exuberance, a special vitality, to the love life. </div> <div> 74.   Draw inward to yourself to the center of your love force from whence it draws you. </div> <div> 75.   Humor and easy laughter come easily to the lover of love. </div> <div> 76.   With love, I gain a strength to make gestures that I normally couldn't do because of masculine pride, and just of pride in general. </div> <div> 77.   A reserved half-smile a subdued exuberance are requisite in the requisite circumstances. </div> <div> 78.   Just as your goodness must have some edge to it, so does your love; we are dealing with humans, not angels. </div> <div> 79.   Love is a softening feel – but by no means a weakening. </div> <div> 80.   Love "empties men of disaffection and fills them with affection." (Plato) </div> <div> 81,  Observe how, when you lighten up, brighten up, that others do too. A smile, a good morning, an interested comment or attitude – especially a little compliment – will break down stone barriers, will warm chilly moods – not always, of course, but extensively enough to make it worthwhile. </div> <div> 82.   If you really did that kindness, that thoughtfulness from love then it shouldn't bother you, if is not appreciated. This is true self-lessness. </div> <div> 83.   There is no need to despair, friend; love saves all – the proper perspective of love, that is; and this perspective is everything. </div> <div> 84.   Oh, it can be hard, hard, hard to contain one's impulse to "strike out," to "strike back," at the offender of our pride, our self-esteem, our confidence, our pleasure, our fears, our complacency – and ever so much more does love then needs its armor and arms for defense. </div> <div> 85.  Wash the taut, serious, frown, expression from your face. Put a relaxed responsive expression on instead. </div> <div> 86.   It takes courage to love what you do not love. – that's the strength of it. </div> <div> 87.  If we want to love, to be loving, then the first thing to be do is simply to practice love. This does not mean you will in disposition be loving – meaning: have the feeling or right sensitivity and understanding of what it means to be loving – but you will have, at minimum, the right intention behind your acts of love. </div> <div> 88.   Love does not say, "Oh, you're not pleasant or courteous to me, so I won't be to you." No, love wants no return; it must act as it does. </div> <div> 89.   Can love transform the ugly into the beautiful? My life-long quest. </div> <div> 90.  Whatever loving expressions you normally could do only periodically, with love you do more continually, more consistently. </div> <div> 91.   Love makes us finely sensitive to ourselves and to others. </div> <div> 92.  When you really, truly, love – then there is no fear of saying at rhe right time, with the right person, "I love you", or even "I love you so very much!" or even more daringly, "I need you so very much." </div> <div> 93.  It's not that love fails me in my recourse to it when in need, or in lust, or in ego, but that I fail it; that I am not up to it, am not loving enough. </div> <div> 94. When love becomes an integral part of you, other's loving attitude will not be so offensive. Your ignorance, your – yes, hidden jealousy – will not be so dominant. </div> <div> 95. You have to be firm and sharp at times with others; but there should be a strong reserve in that firmness so that it doesn't become an insult or an abuse. </div> <div> 96. A sensitive awareness and understanding of the force of love working in human beings makes for perceptive understanding of human nature in action. For example, the mother's blind defense of her child caught in a lie or at cheating at school. </div> <div> 97.   Laughter, wit, humor, joking are so enjoyable because they give a collective sense of community and a sense of pride in being human. Affection comes easily with humor; and affection is a manifestation of love. Humor is a unifying factor. </div> <div> 98.   Love is a dance and a song, a joyous time, a radiance of sunlight through a beclouded sky. It's a skip and jump. It has humor and cheer on its side. It's happy as a lark, Innocent as a babe. But love knows too when to frown, when to grieve, when to suffer. "There is a season..." </div> <div> 99.   The thought of love inspirits the mind and uplifts the spirits...and then it is gone! What then are we to do? Love dispirited, love downcast. Be the love warrior when it is gone from you. </div> <div> 100. Without the grounding of love, all metaphysics, mysticism, philosophy, poetry, are but sterile intellectualism – thrilling, inspiring, to be sure; but empty of works. </div> <div> 101.   Love eases anger . </div> <div> 102.  Being alert to the meaning and practice of love keeps one "on his toes" – never a dull moment, so to speak, always something, someone, and oneself to contend with. It's an intensely active day-to-day life. You can hardly let your defenses down before the gravity and focus of one's self tend to “take over” once again. </div> <div> 103.   When in weakness, appeal to the power of love in you; mean it, and this power will surely take its effect. </div> <div> 104   We have been speaking, thinking, and living God for all these centuries; well and good. Now let us make the shift to Love; that, I think, is more to the point. </div> <div> 105.   Love is a self-refining process, the natural way to egolessness. </div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Variants of Ideal Love</B></div> <bR> <div> [<B>Moral Idealism</B>]</div> <div>   1. <I> </I><I>Moral Pride</I></div> <div>       When righteousness is too severe</div> <div>       Self-righteousness will domineer</div> <div>       And true sense of right will disappear.</div> <div>   2.  Self-control. – When I have myself under control is when I feel most in control.</div> <div> [<B>Soul-Struggle</B>]</div> <div>   3.  <I>My divided self</I>. – What I strive to be, and what I am, separate me from myself.  </div> <div>   4  <I>Thorn in the side</I>. – What is a young idealist who envisions man as essentially moral, aesthetic, spiritual, to think, or hope, when he sees everywhere men and women in service to their palate and genitals – himself included?</div> <div>   5.  <I>Fragmentation</I>. – My sense pleasures I enjoy, my vanity too, even my lusts, as well, in their place. Why then do they trouble me? – Do I have the wrong perspective on life? </div> <div>   6.  <I>Tides of the mind</I>. – What was so fervent this morning is so bland tonight, of no apparent importance at all.</div> <div>   7. <I>The warrior of the soul</I>. – It takes an almost superhuman will to keep intact one's higher ideals, one's standards, one's aspirations, against the stark, indifferent, brute facts of reality rushing in on us on all sides – human reality, especially; and our individual  reality, in particular.</div> <div>   8.  No sooner am I sated, and through with keen sense  pleasures, than swept away am I again.</div> <div>   9.  <I>Both friend and foe</I>. – I continually forego my higher aspirations; the world is too much with me – or against me, as the case may be.</div> <div> 10.  Oh, it is hard to keep oneself in check, to strive for goodness against so many faults; to aspire to feel and love deeply, sensitively, when so much indifference prevails.</div> <div> 11.  I shrink when complimented that I am a good man. I know better.</div> <div> 12.  <I>My impulses</I>. – I say I won't...but I do! I do! Damn!</div> <div> 13.  It is hard, sometimes even impossible, to be understanding, much less sympathetic, toward those whose faults and weaknesses we do not possess ourselves; and which if we judge too harshly, blind us to our own.</div> <div> 14.  <I>'Tis devoutly to be wished</I>. – I have a dog much loved by me, who eats slowly and sparingly, satisfied with simple pleasures, lives only and fully in the present moment free from all tensions and anxieties; is neither proud nor rancorous; bears no grudges, harbors no resentments; enjoys a romp now and then – though free from excess, folly, and mischief; is devoted, faithful, loving, and tractable; stays close to me when I'm ill, cares not whether I am old or ugly; does not insist on her own way, knows what is harmful to her and wisely avoids it; takes no thought of death or dying, is not plagued by groundless fears, is bothered very little by sex, is quiet and tranquil in her ways; wants nothing more than she has, is at peace with herself and the world.</div> <div>     This beautiful soul of a dog epitomizes the very ideals for which I strive, but can hardly maintain!</div> <div> 15.  Not until we cease trying to mold others into our image of what we deem right and good, proper and true, will we come even within distance of understanding our fellow man – much less ourselves.</div> <div> 16.  When righteousness is too severe,</div> <div>        Self-righteousness will domineer</div> <div>        And true sense of right will disappear.</div> <div> 17.  No sooner am I sated, and through with keen sense  pleasures, than swept away am I again.       </div> <div> 18. <I>Thorn in the side</I>. – What is a young idealist who envisions man as essentially moral, aesthetic, spiritual, to think, or hope, when he sees everywhere men and women in service to their palate and genitals – himself included?</div> <div> 19. "I'll do it this one last time," – I tell myself over and over and over again.</div> <div> 20.  Aren't I the one! In the same breath that I assure myself I am not going to do such-and-such, my mind is devising to do it.</div> <div> 21.  Our "thorn in the side" is perhaps well-founded,</div> <div>        For it keeps us wisely to the earth well-grounded.</div> <div> 22.  <I>Ambrosia for the masses</I>. – If religion be the opiate of the masses, then surely is sensuality their ambrosia.</div> <div> 23.  <I>A Race of Voluptuaries</I></div> <div>      When we consider that all of us,</div> <div>      men and women alike,</div> <div>      are attracted to, attached to,</div> <div>      seduced by,</div> <div>      curvaceous colorful forms</div> <div>      rapturous melodious tones,</div> <div>      sweet enticing fragrances,</div> <div>      rich succulent tastes,</div> <div>      warm embracing bodies –</div> <div>      there is little else to conclude</div> <div>      but that we are a race of voluptuaries.</div> <div> 24.  <I>Despite the truth</I>. – His sister inadvertently caused the accident. He lies for her and takes the blame upon himself to protect her from disgrace. He could not have acted otherwise – despite the truth – and still maintain his sense of right, his manly honor, and prove his love for her.</div> <div> 25.  <I>More than the truth</I>. – I'm sorry, but I just can't tell you the truth in this matter; I think too much of you for that.</div> <div> 26.  Being clean-minded, one becomes clear-minded.</div> <div> 27.  <I>The moralist's credo</I>. – Moral honor before anything; before happiness, before even life itself.</div> <div> 28. In your quest for high morality</div> <div>      Or holy spirituality,</div> <div>      Ease the tension of severity</div> <div>      From your poor and frail humanity</div> <div>      To enjoy a little frivolity</div> <div>      In pleasure's keen sensuality;</div> <div>      But not so much that laxity</div> <div>      Jeopardizes your tranquility</div> <div>      And takes you from your affinity</div> <div>      With, and love for, your true reality.</div> <div>  [<B>Some thoughts on Moral Goodness</B>]</div> <div>   1.  Moral goodness, moral virtue, moral obligation, moral duty are the four basic motives for acting morally.</div> <div>   2.   A person who acts from moral goodness or moral obligation is motivated primarily intuitively, by loving-kindness or benevolence. A person who acts from moral virtue or from moral duty is motivated primarily by principle, by reason. Both types of motives are not mutually exclusive; meaning, that a morally good person could just as well act from virtue or duty; and so with a morally excellent or duteous person could act from loving-kindness or benevolence. That which distinguishes both individuals as moral-minded is that their main concern is the right act is done for the benefit of the recipient of that act. </div> <div>   4.   A morally good person differs from a morally excellent person (virtuous) inasmuch as the latter acts with practical wisdom, the former with practical understanding. In which case the virtuous person would hardly make a mistake in his moral choice, whereas the morally good person could very well err in his moral choice.</div> <div>   5.  A further distinction to be made is that between the naturally good person and the morally good person. The morally good person is necessarily naturally good; the naturally good person is not necessarily a moral person.</div> <div>   6.  One answer to the question, "What is the morally right thing to do?" is to follow the "wisdom of the species" which has come to us through ages of practical experience. Moderation and courtesy are two such elements of this wisdom.</div> <div>   7.  If anything is absolute in ethics, it is that nothing, in ethics, is absolute. Just as men vary in nature, nurture, and mind, so do they vary in outlook, belief, and conduct. This is as self-evident as anything could be.</div> <div>   8.  Anyone contemplating the study of ethics has this one axiom to keep ever in mind: that whatever moral statement he may make, or moral position he may take, it carries with it an exception. There will always be someone to interject an "But what if. . .?" or "You are forgetting. . ." or "You fail to see that. . .".</div> <div>   9.  Self-respect is an important motive for acting rightly, and should not be confused with self-interest or selfishness. It may not be a moral motive, but it can be a noble one.</div> <div> 10.   Yes, we can be taught to be truthful, honest, dutiful, patient; but we cannot be taught the sincerity that make these virtues.</div> <div> 11.  It is a commonplace that most of us would much prefer to receive a kindness from love or affection than from some abstract moral principle, such as, duty or moral obligation. Which incentive, then, is of more consequential worth: sentiment or moral right?</div> <div> 12.  A moral person is one who does what is right on principle (the Kantian man); the good-hearted person is he who acts through sentiment; and the virtuous or truly good person is he who acts rightly on principle and through sentiment.</div> <div> 13.  To say of someone, "He is a very moral person," we might have the tendency to add:"but he is unfeeling," "but he has no sense of mercy," "but he has no compassion," "but he would tell the truth no matter the consequences."</div> <div>      Conversely, to say of someone that he is a good-hearted person, we might be inclined to add: "but he is a fool who is continually being taken advantage of," "He doesn't make distinctions," "He acts on his feelings without thought of the consequences."</div> <div>      These "buts" do not normally apply to the virtuous or morally fine person.</div> <div> 14.  "What is the right thing to do?" is the perennial individual moral problem.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>[Moral Realism]</B></div> <div>   1.  <I>The nonmoral and moral minded</I>. – There are those who demand respect by force of will, and those who command it by force of character.</div> <div>   2.  <I> Tainted goodness</I>. – I shrink when complimented that I am a good man; I know better. Not that I'm not  a good man; It's just that I'm not as good as I appear to others. That they  don't see nor know. That  I would seriously hesitate to let  them  see or know!</div> <div>   3.             <I>Moral pride</I></div> <div>      When righteousness is too severe</div> <div>      Self-righteousness will domineer</div> <div>      And true sense of right will disappear.</div> <div>   4.  <I>The true motive</I>. – Do I really want to help him (moral sympathy); or am I unable to refuse him (moral obligation) - or do I dare not refuse him (mortal fear).</div> <div>   5.  <I>The way of all flesh</I>. – Said to me: "When I'm so tired, I don't care what I should  do." </div> <div>   6.  <I>The heroic way</I>. – Do you feel depressed today? does everything seem dark, futile, foreboding of ill? ...Hold on to yourself! Bear with it, refuse to do now what you  know you will later regret. If your condition is not too chronic, tomorrow you will surely recover: feel better, refreshed, alert, more optimistic; and if not tomorrow, then the next day. Be patient, be strong.</div> <div>   7.  <I>The warrior of the soul</I>. – It takes an almost superhuman will to keep intact one's ideals, standards, and aspirations against the stark, indifferent, brutal facts of reality – human reality, especially; and one's own  reality, in particular.</div> <div>   8.  <I>A woman's morality</I>. – A gentle, modest woman of character need not be as morally fastidious (telling the truth all the time, for instance) as a man may  be; since she inspires in good part the direction of his moral ideals.</div> <div>   9. <I> Fairness in return</I>. – The minimum guarantee of being treated fairly is to be fair oneself.</div> <div> 10.  <I>Word of honor</I>. – Those who respect their word respect themselves. The converse naturally follows.</div> <div> 11.  <I>Self-control</I>. – When I have myself under control is when I feel most in control.</div> <div> 12.  <I>The Bridle of Morality</I></div> <div>      Strength of character!</div> <div>      Is that not what we all need</div> <div>      To curb our ego's wayward steed?</div> <div> 13.  <I>A moral concern</I>. – He wrote this note to his mother asking if she wouldn't mind giving his a particular inspiring tapestry that he inadvertently found stored away: "It is an heroic subject and I would indeed find a feeling of history and strength of character on looking at it." </div> <div>     "So," thought I, "Someone else is concerned with strength of character too." – But of course he is, and countless others too. But where are they when we need them!</div> <div> 14.  <I>Awaken</I>!</div> <div>      Awaken you moralists! you teach in vain</div> <div>      So long as men seek power and gain,</div> <div>      So long as pleasure assuages pain.</div> <div>      And when desires of the senses reign,</div> <div>      Who would willingly resist and abstain?</div> <div>      Who would not think moral persuasion inane?</div> <div>      Or those whose lives are a continual bane:</div> <div>      Failure and despair their only domain;</div> <div>      Think you they care for what is humane?</div> <div>      Concerning these truths, two "morals" pertain–</div> <div>      Success before goodness men rather obtain;</div> <div>      Sense pleasures first, then moral right in train.</div> <div>      The only hope you perhaps can sustain,</div> <div>      Is that few of your stamp will join your campaign</div> <div>      To live by high standards hard to maintain.</div> <div>      It's true that virtue can't be taught</div> <div>      To those whose blood is burning hot,</div> <div>      Nor to those whose hearts are cold:</div> <div>      Goodness in them cannot take hold,</div> <div>      Except perhaps for personal gain–</div> <div>      For this, even goodness they'd feign.</div> <div>      But for natures gentle and good,</div> <div>      Moral training possibly could</div> <div>      Take deep effect in mind and heart,</div> <div>      And give young souls a running start</div> <div>      Toward inner strength and peace of mind</div> <div>      That in this life is so hard to find.</div> <div>      Let them learn by moral example;</div> <div>      And, from wise men's saws, sample</div> <div>      The deeds that in print they exhort</div> <div>      To action through moral effort.</div> <div> 15.  <I>Good </I><I><U>For</U></I><I> or </I><I><U>Of</U></I><I> You</I></div> <div>      Yes, that was good for you to have done,</div> <div>      But your motives I feel I must question;</div> <div>      From your deed it does not ensue</div> <div>      That what you did was good of you;</div> <div>      You might not have acted morally,</div> <div>      Nor for any concern for me.</div> <div> 16.  <I>Moral Humor</I></div> <div>      Show me a man of virtue true,</div> <div> And I will show a saint to you;</div> <div> But never have I seen a saint,</div> <div>  And if I did I'd surely faint.</div> <div> 17. <I>A breach of  love</I>. – I'm sorry, but I just can't tell you the truth in this matter; I think too much of you for that.</div> <div> 18. <I>Ethical relativity</I>. – Not until we cease trying to mold others into our image of what we deem right and good, proper and true, will we come even within distance of understanding our fellow man – much less ourselves.</div> <div> 19.    <I>Righteousness Vs Self-righteousness</I></div> <div> When righteousness is too severe,</div> <div> Self-righteousness will domineer</div> <div> And true sense of right will disappear.</div> <div> 20.  A man, or woman, strong in character and purpose radiates his strength to others thereby inspiring them beyond themselves; but with his departure, go also his strength and  purpose.</div> <div> 21. Mankind! what a sorry lot</div> <div>       Between good and evil it's besot.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4f562f70.jpg" border=0 width="354" height="247" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> Hokusai</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>III</B></div> <bR> <div> <TABLE BORDER="2" CELLPADDING="1" CELLSPACING="1" WIDTH="579" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 121 ><NOBR><div> <I><B>SELFLESS LOVE </B></I></div> <div> <B>[Love as a Purifying and Mystic Experience]</B></div> <div>     <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >The striving for refinement of one's ego-sensuality so as to approximate, and make one </FONT></div> <div>   receptive to, the unity  of Love that could lead to the "blissed" experience beyond self of </div> <div>   Oneness, All, Nothingness, the Void, Satori, Nirvana, Bliss-Consciousness, Purity, or </div> <div>   whatever else it may be named <FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Calibri" >–</FONT> though having no name</div> </NOBR></tD> </tR> </TABLE></div> <bR> <bR> <div>   1.   Selfless love deals with the emotions and sentiments and refinement and sensitivity regarding oneself primarily</div> <div>   2.   Selflessness concerns itself with nothing to do with the self in its totality, ego, sensuality, and all, for the sake of Love. Egolessness concerns itself primarily with freedom from the ego-self primarily for the sake of Love itself; selflessness concerns itself primarily with freedom from both the totality of one's ego and sensuality for the sake of Love itself.</div> <div>   3.   Ideal Love involves the struggle between one's ego complex and egolessness for the sake of Love itself. Selfless Love involves the struggle between both one's ego-sensuality and selflessness for the sake of Love itself.</div> <div>   4.   Selflessness involves the erotic element in all its sensuality (appetite, sexuality, sensuousness).</div> <div>   5.   Egolessness involves the perspectives of pride, </div> <div>   6.   Selflessness aims for self-refinement.</div> <div>   7.   Selfless love encompasses. </div> <div>   8.   Selflessness. – The way to self-freedom.</div> <div>   9.   Love eases anger.</div> <div> 10.   Love is a self-refining process, the natural way to egolessness. </div> <div> 11.   Just try to think love when you're seething with anger at another's injustice toward you, or to another! If love at that time takes its soothing effect, and proceeds with judgment, discernment and effect, then know that you are truly a loving person, that love is more important to you than any self-abrasions. </div> <div> 12.   When you are excessive or deficient in loving, it is not love that is one or the other – for there is neither excess nor deficiency to Love – but oneself that is  “one or the other.”</div> <div> 13.   Love man, love God, love life, love your spouse, your children; but the main thing is to eventually drop the object of love, and to just love; and then the love of all objects of love will have meaning and significance and perspective.</div> <div> 14.   Love is the ultimate motivation for egolessness, however one may attribute it to Truth or God or Jesus, or  Buddha, or nirvana, satori, or beatitude, and all the rest. The same applies to kindliness, consideration, helpfulness, and all the other social virtues.</div> <div> 15.   Love abjures self-centered anger. There is no way they can meet. </div> <div> 16.   In love there is self-freedom-freedom from the promptings and urgings of self. </div> <div> 17.  Love softens self-assertion where self-assertion is self-aggrandizement. </div> <div> 18.  “I am Love!” The exclamation of freedom, of salvation. </div> <div> 19.  Love is freedom, first and foremost – even more than feeling.</div> <div> 20.  It's not that love fails me in my recourse to it when in need, or in lust, or in ego, but that I fail it; that I am not up to it, am not loving enough.</div> <div> 21.   Love makes us finely sensitive to ourselves and to others.</div> <div> 22.   Can love transform the ugly into the beautiful? My life-long quest.</div> <div> 23.   Much that we feel, think and do is inspired from love; we just don't realize it. It is now time to realize it, so that we can grow in it – be more loving.</div> <div> 24.   There is an exuberance, a special vitality, to the love life. </div> <div> 25.   Draw inward to yourself to the center of your love force from whence it draws you.</div> <div> 26.   As the tide of his anger rises, the ebb of my love settles it. </div> <div> 27.   After the beginning stages of love pass – and who knows how long these last? – we do have to work hard at loving, at maintaining the sense of love; it does not come easily. Yes, the love feeling does come over us without effort at times, but we cannot rely on it to come when we want it because of our ego-self. Hence we work at it day after day, week after week, month after month year after year, until it finally becomes a natural virtue.</div> <div> 28.   The key to depth philosophy: that love transcends self, that love overcomes strife</div> <div> 29.   Love is modest; it does not go strutting about in pride of self and deed. It understates; is much given to gauged reservation.</div> <div> 30.   Let the thought of love intrude into your other thoughts at every opportunity. No matter what you are thinking, interrupt the flow and think simply of love, love, love.</div> <div> 31.   Oh, what joy of adventure to love! – to love where ego "dares not go! " What daring such love takes. </div> <div> 32.   To love without desire – is that possible! The desire of the opposite sex?</div> <div> 33.   Just the thought of love alone can be enough; one does not always have to be loving, always have to have an object to love – human or otherwise.</div> <div> 34.   Oh, what joy of adventure to love! – to love where ego "dares not go! " What daring such love takes.</div> <div> 35.   The key to depth philosophy: that love transcends self, that love overcomes strife. </div> <div> 36.   Love is modest; it does not go strutting about in pride of self and deed. It understates; is much given to gauged reservation.</div> <div> 37.   In the beginning stages of living love, one must be assured that he is not so all loving, that he is not incapable of hate or lust or resentment, and all other familiar self-needs and expressions.</div> <div> 38.   Love is selfless.</div> <div> 39.   Let the thought of love intrude into your other thoughts at every opportunity. No matter what you are thinking, interrupt the flow and think simply of love, love, love.</div> <div> 40.   Love frees the mind from the impetuous ego.</div> <div> 41.   Love frees the mind and unravels the ego.</div> <div> 42.   Love is free; the ego is bound. Therein centers the conflict of human life and love.</div> <div> 44.   When ego turns ogre and sex turns tyrant, Love is turned outdoors.</div> <div> 45.   Love lets down all the restraints that the self sets up.</div> <div> 46.   Self intrudes itself into the source and flow of love.</div> <div> 47.   Love is an overcoming of self – and other selves.</div> <div> 48.   Ah! To live in wonderment! That is the life!</div> <div>         within the grace of Love beyond all strife.</div> <div> 49.   Forget how feel or do not feel – Let it go – Be concerned with being your Love-self </div> <div> 50.   Self-love has me judging others; my Love-self has me judging myself.</div> <div> 51.  Love inspires, empowers, uplifts and enlightens – What more be said for Love's efficacy. .</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>Variants of Selfless Love</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>[Soul Struggle]</B></div> <div> 1.  The very thing my conscience said no to is the very thing my will said yes to.</div> <div> 2.  <I>How Can I</I>?</div> <div>      How can I bear the pain</div> <div>      that I should</div> <div>      when I relish pleasures</div> <div>      that I shouldn't?</div> <div>      How can I bear ugliness</div> <div>      even sometimes</div> <div>      when I am enraptured by beauty</div> <div>      all the time?</div> <div>      Pursued by fears</div> <div>      too much</div> <div>      how can I endure adversity</div> <div>      even a little?</div> <div>      Ever the wit</div> <div>      with everyone</div> <div>      how can I be serious</div> <div>      with anyone?</div> <div> 3.  <I>Thought Or Desire</I>?</div> <div>      To live in thought and not desire</div> <div>      Puts us on a plane much higher</div> <div>      Than on a carnal one afire.</div> <div>      But such heights are too rarified;</div> <div>       Our senses must be gratified,</div> <div>      And so down to earth we backslide.</div> <div> 2.  <I>Self-mastery</I>. – Again this mood has mastered me. Will ever I master it?</div> <div> 3. <I>Thorn in the side</I>. – What is a young idealist who envisions man as essentially moral, aesthetic, spiritual, to think, or hope, when he sees everywhere men and women in service to their palate and genitals – himself included?</div> <div> 4.  <I>My impulses</I>. – I say I won't...but I do! I do! Damn!</div> <div> 5.  "I'll do it this one last time," – I tell myself over and over and over again.</div> <div> 6.  Aren't I the one! In the same breath that I assure myself I am not going to do such-and-such, my mind is devising to do it.</div> <div> 7.  Our "thorn in the side" is perhaps well-founded,</div> <div>      For it keeps us wisely to the earth well-grounded.</div> <div> 9.  <I>Ambrosia for the masses</I>. – If religion be the opiate of the masses, then surely is sensuality their ambrosia.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <IMG SRC="4f92c2d0.jpg" border=0 width="300" height="301" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></div> <div> Homer</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>INTIMATIONS OF PURE-LOVE-BLISS</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Aesthetic Experience</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>I</B></div> <div> Man is an aesthetic being</div> <div> in quest of higher consciousness </div> <div> of beauty, goodness, purity, </div> <div> beyond his animality.</div> <div> Most seek beauty in sensuous forms, </div> <div> others in Nature's pageantry,</div> <div> and fewer still in love of God,</div> <div> and one or two in quest of Soul.</div> <div> Transcendent beauty is sublime, </div> <div> serene and aspirational; </div> <div> worldward beauty is enchanting, </div> <div> sensuous, inspirational.</div> <div> The contemplation of beauty </div> <div> inspires ideals of perfection </div> <div> revealed only in brief moments, </div> <div> being sent from Eternity.</div> <div> The magic of beauty's touch</div> <div> is likened to ambrosial fragrance</div> <div> of jasmine, frankincense and myrrh, </div> <div> wafting through the soul's pure places.</div> <div> Behold man in his consciousness! </div> <div> fount of all aesthetic values, </div> <div> without whom nature lies inconscient </div> <div> of all its sheer magnificence.</div> <div> That mysterious perception </div> <div> our minds transmute into beauty </div> <div> in an intellectual pleasure</div> <div> of a deep, intuitive kind.</div> <div> Beauty is a soft emotion </div> <div> induced by objects of the senses </div> <div> impressing us with symmetry </div> <div> of form and elegant design.</div> <div> Depending on one's frame of mind, </div> <div> beauty can be experienced</div> <div> even in stark disharmony,</div> <div> or in abstract simplicity.</div> <div> In the consciousness of beauty</div> <div>  we are raised above ourselves: </div> <div> our passions are then quieted,</div> <div> we enjoy a good without desire.</div> <div> The heaving bosom, the quiet sigh, </div> <div> the enigmatic smile; or tears</div> <div> of joy, of bliss, or of despair</div> <div> characterize the aesthetic spell.     </div> <div> Unappreciative of beauty,</div> <div> one is merely half alive;</div> <div> not quite human in the finer sense </div> <div> of refined sensitivity.</div> <div> Whatever elevates our lives </div> <div> above our gross carnality, </div> <div> beyond materiality,</div> <div> is aesthetically significant.</div> <div> An aesthetic experience</div> <div> is a softening process</div> <div> of man's basic humanity </div> <div> given to wayward impulses.</div> <bR> <div> <B>II</B></div> <div> The aesthetic inclines us </div> <div> to the sensual as it does</div> <div> to the spiritual in us</div> <div> depending upon the stimulus.</div> <div> Desire aroused by sensuous </div> <div> beauty of masculine or</div> <div> feminine traits, sets an atmosphere </div> <div> of enchantment between the sexes.</div> <div> The more susceptible to beauty </div> <div> of sensuously delicate forms, </div> <div> the more impulsively inclined </div> <div> to excessive sensuality.</div> <div> The sensuous expressed in modes </div> <div> of physical and adorned beauty, </div> <div> of culture, grace, and intellect, </div> <div> lead to the mating of the sexes.</div> <div> Feminine frivolity</div> <div> delights the heavy hearts of men; </div> <div> masculine purposefulness</div> <div> thrills the fluttering hearts of women.</div> <div> For women, beauty in a man</div> <div> is force of character and will;</div> <div> For men beauty in a woman</div> <div> is modest grace, play, and tenderness.</div> <div> Beautiful faces and bodies </div> <div> of men and women sensuous, </div> <div> entrance the imagination</div> <div> into a dreamy, desiring mood.</div> <div> Sensuous beauty arouses</div> <div> the desire to be beautiful oneself, </div> <div> especially attractive</div> <div> to the eye of the opposite sex.</div> <div> What to a man is more lovely </div> <div> than the alabaster texture</div> <div> of a woman's soft and silken skin, </div> <div> her body's shapely, flowing curves.</div> <div> A woman's beauteous visage</div> <div> inspires in men the image of </div> <div> celestial purity, beaming rays </div> <div> from a chaste and loving soul.</div> <div> The ethereal loveliness</div> <div> of a geisha's delicate face, </div> <div> eyes innocently seraphic –</div> <div> an ideal of femininity.</div> <div> But gaze upon a woman's beauty, </div> <div> upon the contours of her form, </div> <div> and streams of sensuous delight </div> <div> inspire men's creative minds.</div> <div> The rapture of a melting kiss </div> <div> of one you love, not yet yours, </div> <div> can vivify one's consciousness </div> <div> into paradisiacal realms.</div> <div> What is more sensually tingling </div> <div> than the near anticipation</div> <div> of a touch, a caress, the first kiss </div> <div> of the adorable one you love!</div> <div> That certain look, that certain smile, </div> <div> of a woman falling in love with you </div> <div> enrapture the soul</div> <div> enhancing it beauteously.</div> <div> Sensuous beauty elevates us</div> <div> above gross sensuality;</div> <div> we eat and drink, but with graciousness; </div> <div> we mate, but with loving unity.</div> <div> Cleanliness is next to godliness, </div> <div> as is said, and experienced</div> <div> by those given to beauty</div> <div> of the body and the senses.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>III</B></div> <div> Creation in whatever form</div> <div> transposes one beyond himself</div> <div> into higher realities</div> <div> of essential living truths.</div> <div> A work of art can transport us</div> <div> beyond our willing selves</div> <div> into universal wisdom</div> <div> of man in his humanity.</div> <div> We honor artists deservedly</div> <div> for the beauty they dearly impart</div> <div> to our otherwise mundane lives,</div> <div> for the beauty they inspire in us.</div> <div> The sensuous harmony of words</div> <div> set in poetic modulations</div> <div> of elegant, vivid rhythms,</div> <div> thrills the mind and stirs the feelings.</div> <div> A sense of the beautiful,</div> <div> of the sublime, can be derived</div> <div> by solving intricate proofs:</div> <div> mathematical, logical.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>IV</B></div> <div> Music! wonder of the abstract: </div> <div> romantic, classic, primitive; </div> <div> each form expressive of our need </div> <div> to transcend gross reality.</div> <div> Music! sublime of the spirit,</div> <div> inspires reverence for life; </div> <div> poeticizes human life </div> <div> in various shades of mood divine.</div> <div> Music! charming and delightful, </div> <div> beautifies man's drab existence; </div> <div> conduces to an atmosphere</div> <div> of graciousness, good-will, romance.</div> <div> Thank God for music, its uplift,</div> <div> for its boon, to the otherwise barren lives</div> <div> of those without an inner presence </div> <div> of a transcendent regality.</div> <div> Music sinks deep into the soul </div> <div> either lifting it sublimely, </div> <div> arousing it sensually,</div> <div> or delighting it joyously.</div> <div> Romantic music softens us </div> <div> into a sighing mood for love, </div> <div> supported by our fantasies</div> <div> of pleasing self-aggrandizement.</div> <div> Music: rhythmic, loudly primitive, </div> <div> excites the blood sensually</div> <div> to power of masculinity,</div> <div> to coyness of femininity.</div> <div> The pulsating beat of sounding drums, </div> <div> the piercing twang of rhythmic guitars, </div> <div> stir the blood to Dionysian</div> <div> frenzy or soft aphrodisia.</div> <div> The tragic muse of melody</div> <div> which moves us to deep sighing tears, </div> <div> uplifts us out of our little selves </div> <div> thus broadening our humanity.</div> <div> The sighing strains of violins </div> <div> wring the sensitive heart in woe: </div> <div> that wondrous man can be so vile, </div> <div> and glorious life so cruel.</div> <div> Heavenly inspired string quartets </div> <div> sighing melody rapturously, </div> <div> purify the human state, </div> <div> inspiring it to seek the Divine.</div> <div> The sadness in an andante</div> <div> melts our soul in deepened sorrow </div> <div> for a life we cannot understand, </div> <div> for the suffering of poor mankind.</div> <div> Whose but Wagner's sonorities </div> <div> blaze with such resounding splendor, </div> <div> with such swirling, sensuous vigor; </div> <div> yet can attain such transfigured peace.</div> <div> Tormented man, Tchaikovsky! </div> <div> Your woeful chords sing tragically, </div> <div> while your melodic tonalities </div> <div> enchant with poignant register.</div> <div> The delicate scores of Debussy, </div> <div> his dancing play of tonal colors, </div> <div> charm the mind in a kaleidoscope </div> <div> of melting poetic textures.</div> <div> Mighty titan! noble Beethoven!</div> <div> the towering accents of your majestic rhythms </div> <div> inspire in men lofty thoughts</div> <div> and heroic stately virtues.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>V</B></div> <div> That I exist perplexes me, </div> <div> sometimes with spiritual joy, </div> <div> other times with tragic sadness; </div> <div> but always with wonder and hope!</div> <div> Life is comic as it is tragic</div> <div> To the sensitive mind of man,</div> <div> and thereby takes on meaning more </div> <div> than merely living and then dying.</div> <div> Just as man is faced with life</div> <div> with all its harsh realities,</div> <div> just so much in due proportion </div> <div> must he be soothed in sweet illusion.</div> <div> Illusion is beneficial</div> <div> if it blesses one with hope, or </div> <div> with beauty and creativity; </div> <div> otherwise it becomes delusion.</div> <div> The tragic sense of life in man</div> <div> inspires art, philosophy, religion, </div> <div> even atheism; </div> <div> all of which ennoble his race.</div> <div> It's sad that we must live then die </div> <div> without apparent reason why</div> <div> except a faith in some Beyond,</div> <div> easily paled in this whirlwind life.</div> <div> The materiality of this life,</div> <div> its pedestrian tasks,</div> <div> and repulsive human sordidness</div> <div> – make us sigh, cry out, for BEAUTY!</div> <div> The tragic sadness of human life </div> <div> in suffering, helplessness, and death,</div> <div> inspire highest forms of art </div> <div> expressive of deep sympathy.</div> <div> Nostalgic for days gone by,</div> <div> or precious loves that gave such joy, </div> <div> for times of camaraderie,</div> <div> for beauty that will be no more.</div> <div> Man's inhumanity to man </div> <div> blackens hope with foul despair, </div> <div> expunges love with smears of hate, </div> <div> and sullies beauty with ugliness.</div> <div> An 1880 photograph of a woman, </div> <div> young and fair... now gone;</div> <div> so strange ... so sad... that once she lived </div> <div> in youth and beauty, then aged and died!</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>VI</B></div> <div> Above,</div> <div> a gull wings through the sky;</div> <div>  free,</div> <div> beyond the mundane world.</div> <div> Out at sea,</div> <div> a sailboat alone</div> <div> sails rides shimmering wavelets </div> <div> made golden by the setting sun.</div> <div> Horses lazily grazing in a wooded grassland, </div> <div> while in the background looms a mountain of trees.</div> <div> A blood-red sun slowly sinking</div> <div> in a horizon of swirling</div> <div> blazing amber, rose, and golden hues.</div> <div> Branches and twigs of barren trees </div> <div> sheathed with scintillating ice</div> <div> in a starkly winter-clad forest.</div> <div> Above,</div> <div> gossamer-strewn puffy clouds </div> <div> floating by in an azure sky</div> <div> with a crescent moon faintly visible.</div> <div> In the wilderness, a waterfall</div> <div> gushing down in a foamy mist, </div> <div> supplying a meandering stream</div> <div> at the bottom of a steep and cragged bank.</div> <div> A lazy, summer day by a stream</div> <div> with a stone bridge passing over it  --</div> <div> a boy sits barefoot, musing, while fishing; </div> <div> his faithful dog beside him.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>VII</B></div> <div> Appreciation of beauty</div> <div> can join people together</div> <div> in mutual affiliation</div> <div> for the good of love, peace, and joy.</div> <div> Sympathy with fellow-beings</div> <div> in their need, distress, or joy,</div> <div> swells the heart with loving-kindness</div> <div> beyond the bounds of the willing self.</div> <div> To love one's neighbor as oneself</div> <div> requires a beauty of the soul</div> <div> free from ego's impetuous will</div> <div> driven to satisfy "me-first."</div> <div> When we truly love one person,</div> <div> we can truly love all people;</div> <div> for love is of the heart and soul,</div> <div> wherein all of us are truly one.</div> <div> What a lovely, innocent feeling</div> <div> it is to simply like a person</div> <div> for no other reason in the world</div> <div> than just to like him for himself.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>VIII</B></div> <div> What pleases us as beautiful</div> <div> we deem as something fine and good, </div> <div> as that which makes ourselves feel fine, </div> <div> and imitative of that good.</div> <div> The beauty of the human soul </div> <div> is manifest in its moral sense;</div> <div> is enriched and made more sensitive </div> <div> by sensations of the beautiful.</div> <div> The evils inherent in life</div> <div> and in man inspire nobility</div> <div> to overcome that which destroys: –</div> <div> with love, compassion, and virtue strong.</div> <div> How to become beautiful of self? </div> <div> by quiet strength of character; </div> <div> by striving for the right and good, </div> <div> with fellow-feeling all around.</div> <div> A beautiful soul shines forth </div> <div> without resentments, greed, or lust; </div> <div> free from vanity's self-absorption, </div> <div> in tranquil harmony with good.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>IX</B></div> <div> Give me purity before all else! </div> <div> Therein the beauty of the self </div> <div> radiates encompassing love and </div> <div> frees us from our ego-self.</div> <div> An aesthetic experience</div> <div> can be so painfully beautiful </div> <div> in a sigh for pure perfection </div> <div> unattainable in this life.</div> <div> Beauty transforms us into </div> <div> beautiful beings amidst the taint </div> <div> of our barren lives,</div> <div> for the moment etherealizing us.</div> <div> The sun appears white as the moon,</div> <div> Yet it blinds my unshielded eyes;</div> <div> as does the purity of the soul</div> <div> blind those engulfed by pleasure's drive.</div> <div> To live in the beauty of the world</div> <div> is fleeting and determinant;</div> <div> to live in the beauty of the soul</div> <div> is lasting and inexhaustible.</div> <div> Better to feel inward beauty</div> <div> Than just the beauty of the senses;</div> <div> for then both soul and world unite</div> <div> in symmetrical harmony.</div> <div> The beautiful can inspire in us</div> <div> a yearning for our purer selves:</div> <div> for what is good, noble, pure;</div> <div> for love of nature, man, and spirit.</div> <div> Our minds envision the sun as pure,</div> <div> as they do the stars set in night;</div> <div> and in our souls we long for</div> <div> such purity to beautify us.</div> <div> Transcendent of the willful self</div> <div> in realms of beauty consciousness,</div> <div> ecstatic waves of inspiration</div> <div> ennoble, purify, the soul.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>X </B></div> <div> <B>Nocturnal Whispers</B></div> <div> Quiet, peaceful, gentle night </div> <div> with book in hand and heart aglow; </div> <div> mind transcendent of the body </div> <div> blended into eternity.</div> <div> Breathe in deeply the nightly silence, </div> <div> feel it tranquilize your soul,</div> <div> away from the bustle of the world, </div> <div> away from tensions and commitments.</div> <div> Merge yourself into the deep of night, </div> <div> see nothing, hear nothing – only feel; </div> <div> feel inward peace and quietude... </div> <div> and nothing but pure experience.</div> <div> Shhh... Be still...Do you hear it? </div> <div> The stillness of eternity...</div> <div> The swirling music of the spheres</div> <div> within the quiet of your mind?</div> <div> Nothing exists but your presence:</div> <div> your breathing, the glow of your senses;</div> <div> stay that way as long as you can,</div> <div> In blessed exhilaration.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>XI</B>      </div> <div> Of existence do I stand in awe,</div> <div> of its logical structured order;</div> <div> but more in wonder am I still</div> <div> that such order IS, and why it IS.      </div> <div> This mysterious universe!: </div> <div> Incomprehensible to us, </div> <div> however we may theorize, </div> <div> however divine our vision.</div> <div> Poetic insight into reality, </div> <div> mysteriously intuited</div> <div> as nature, man, love, and God </div> <div> are felt as one in unison.</div> <div> Philosophic wonderment </div> <div> in being and nothingness; </div> <div> abstracting form from matter </div> <div> in quest of eternal essences.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <div> <B>XlI</B></div> <div> Behold the conscious mind of man! </div> <div> Behold the spirit of his being! </div> <div> Wonder of the universe!</div> <div> Creator of the Unmanifest!</div> <div> Man is the aesthetic animal</div> <div> who looks up to the heavens awed,</div> <div> asking of the universe</div> <div> the soul-seeking How? Why? What? Whence?</div> <div> Ethereal sense of beauty–:</div> <div> sublimity, divinity,</div> <div> is but transmuted consciousness</div> <div> of nature's sexual design.</div> <div> Man's aesthetic pulse for beauty </div> <div> is an inborn urge for transcendence </div> <div> into higher realms of consciousness </div> <div> of ideals of Truth, Love, and Good.</div> <div> Supreme aesthetic experience–:</div> <div> to find beauty within oneself: </div> <div> in virtue, in love, in quietude, </div> <div> in the stillness of Eternity.</div> <div> Freedom of inward peace and strength </div> <div> beyond self and sensuality, </div> <div> rendering everything divine</div> <div> at the core of our being.</div> <div> The sublimity, the purity,</div> <div> the sweet joy and serenity,</div> <div> in being free from the wild of life –</div> <div> is sheer beauty of the spirit.</div> <div> The sudden, jerking soulful sob,</div> <div> the dampened eyes of mystic joy, </div> <div> the instant of pure understanding, </div> <div> that Something lies beyond our senses.</div> <div> Oh, these spurts of illumined bliss </div> <div> felt for Something higher, more divine,</div> <div> than aesthetic sublimity</div> <div> than even virtue and human love.</div> <div> Is our longing for beauty</div> <div> a longing for divinity,</div> <div> to reach the Fount of all that is, </div> <div> to become ourselves at one with It?</div> <div> 0, my soul, live for Eternity! </div> <div> outside of relativity;</div> <div> rise above sensuality</div> <div> in love of good and purity.</div> <div> Spirituality is beauty –:</div> <div> beauty of thought, beauty of feeling,</div> <div> beauty in the conduct of our lives, </div> <div> beauty that is equanimity.</div> <div> We do want inner peace and quiet, </div> <div> want to glow in spiritual light, </div> <div> – want to bathe in beauty of soul –</div> <div> but cannot have such bliss for long.</div> <div> To live in luminous consciousness </div> <div> is an aesthetic experience: </div> <div> divine; etherealizing</div> <div> man above carnality.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>__________________________________________________</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> David</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="part_three_the_meaning"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>PART THREE: The Meaning</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_meaning_underlying"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>THE </B><B>MEANING</B><B> </B><B>UNDERLYING HUMAN-TRANSCENDENCE</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4fb8c020.png" border=0 width="396" height="258" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> David</div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="the_poetics_of_love"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#990000" FACE="Calibri" ><B>THE POETICS OF LOVE</B></FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B>I: Transcendent Love</B></div> <bR> <div> 1     Of Love I write in accents deep</div> <div>        as inward bond of unity.</div> <div>        Love it binds all things as one</div> <div>  as ordered will through Meaning's bliss.</div> <div> 2     In the beginning at the end</div> <div> when past and present and future meet,</div> <div> pure limitless, underlying Love</div> <div> bathes our being in radiance.</div> <div>  3    Love is Meaning; Meaning, Bliss.</div> <div>  that is all we need to know;</div> <div>  for Love is will to-be-at-one,</div> <div>  and Meaning is one-will in Bliss.</div> <div> 4     As Planets spin and atoms swirl</div> <div> as good and evil interact,</div> <div> one will gives ordered meaning to</div> <div> their ultimate identity.</div> <div> 5    Though Love with strife do rule the world,</div> <div> strife is but Love's consequence;</div> <div> for toward good and bad we are inclined.</div> <div> In either case, it's what we love.</div> <div> 6     "Everything is relative" – true; </div> <div> relative to this or that;</div> <div> and Love, being both this and that,</div> <div> is unity relative to none.</div> <div>  7     Love, Meaning, and their Bliss – these three</div> <div> are but the same in Unity:</div> <div> Love binds, Meaning knows all things,</div> <div> their Bliss shines on eternally.</div> <div>  8    Unity – the generic word</div> <div> for Love, its meaning, and their Bliss –</div> <div> is God in Its divinity:</div> <div> its sacred text and holy prayer.</div> <div> 9     Unity on Love depends,</div> <div> and Love is Meaning's binding force:</div> <div> the cause and reason for its being,</div> <div> as the mysterium of the world.</div> <div> 10   Unity is the cosmic One</div> <div> from part to part and part to whole;</div> <div> impersonal – yet personal too: </div> <div> in Love, which binds it all in place.</div> <div> 11   If Love is all and everyone,</div> <div> It knows Itself as-in all things;</div> <div> so everything, as Love itself;</div> <div> knows itself as-in everything.</div> <div> 12   Love as Meaning, Meaning as Bliss:</div> <div> these three as pure conscious Unity: </div> <div> an all-embracing world of light, </div> <div> as the power that wills the world.</div> <div> 13     Love, Meaning, and Bliss, into one:</div> <div> as pure conscious radiance;</div> <div> experienced as Unity</div> <div> is our birthright for us to know.</div> <div> 14     For every action there's reaction</div> <div> empirically in space and in time.</div> <div> The Meaning of phenomena,</div> <div> however, tells it otherwise.</div> <div> 15     Rejoice! I have good news to tell!</div> <div> Of a way of Love as something new:</div> <div> that Love is everything and One,</div> <div> is of good and evil and beyond.</div> <div> 16     Love binds the world as principle</div> <div> of willed cohesive unity; </div> <div> though strife opposes unity, </div> <div> it is strictly consequential.</div> <div> 17     All things will the integrity</div> <div> of their individual unity;</div> <div>  and whatsoever threatens it,</div> <div>  exists as strife of separateness.</div> <div> 18     Strife is pain of separateness</div> <div> in all living sentient beings;</div> <div> in inanimate form and matter,</div> <div> it is force of disintegration.</div> <div> 19     Without love, strife is but a nullity;</div> <div> for to what purpose would strife be</div> <div> were there naught for it to undo,</div> <div> since there must be for there not to be.</div> <div> 20     Strife is love in conflict with itself</div> <div>  in all its multiplicity;</div> <div> for everything is Love as one</div> <div> that cannot coexist as one.</div> <div> 21     As Love enjoins all things as one,</div> <div> so strife destroys this unity;</div> <div> but it can only break what is</div> <div> and that which is embodies strife.</div> <div> 22     Strife is love in conflict with itself</div> <div> in all its multiplicity;</div> <div> In which case, Love conquers all things</div> <div> – Even itself in form of strife.</div> <div> 23     That which holds all things together</div> <div> Is all things together as one;</div> <div> Love we call it – the soul of being:</div> <div> Its meaning essentially we are.</div> <div> 24     Unity is love manifested</div> <div> in myriad multiplicity</div> <div> of forms in interrelations</div> <div> separate but together as one.</div> <div> 25     Love and Soul – interchangeable:</div> <div> when "love" is felt power is spent;</div> <div>       when soul" is thought principle is meant.</div> <div> they mean the same differently.</div> <div> 26     Love, the bond of everything as one,</div> <div> is One itself indivisible:</div> <div> The soul of all that is as, at, one,</div> <div> the soul of everyone and thing.</div> <div> 27     Love is One indivisibly,</div> <div> manifested divisibly</div> <div> in which all things are as, at, one,</div> <div> as intimations of their Source.</div> <div> 28     As all numbers are series of ones,</div> <div> so all things are as, at, one,</div> <div> as a calculus of infinity</div> <div> wherein all "ones" are lastly One.</div> <div> 29     These:– Meaning, Love, and Unity</div> <div> are as the Holy Trinity:</div> <div> Meaning the Father, Love the Son</div> <div> and Unity the Spirit-Mother</div> <div> 30     First God was outward; now: inward.</div> <div> First God was "He," now He's "It."</div> <div> First He was Father-son-Holy Ghost;</div> <div> Now It's Meaning-Love-Unity.</div> <div> 31     Survey the unity in this world</div> <div> that manifests itself as one:</div> <div> in all diversity of forms,</div> <div> in things together or apart.</div> <div> 32     Love is meaning, meaning is love;</div> <div> one is inside, the other out:</div> <div> Meaning gives to love its will,</div> <div> while love gives unity its world.</div> <div> 33     Each ordered multiplicity</div> <div> is an object of structured form</div> <div> in striking uniformity</div> <div> of all its parts in unity.</div> <div> 34     Love: a building up, a drawing to;</div> <div> strife: a breaking down, a turning from.</div> <div> Both are part of nature's way</div> <div> to keep the world a separate one.</div> <div> 35     Love is an identity</div> <div> of everything as equally one,</div> <div> however different and separate</div> <div> whatever strife destroys in life.</div> <div> 36     Identity is the same of two</div> <div> or more separate entities;</div> <div> is that which binds them ultimately</div> <div> and separates them relatively.</div> <div> 37   Destruction is love's other force</div> <div> (creation its positive charge);</div> <div> one attracts, the other opposes;</div> <div> both together balance the world.</div> <div> 38   Love is the bond, the glue, of all</div> <div> keeping the world in ordered flux;</div> <div> It is principle and power:</div> <div> The Soul and will that moves the world.</div> <div> 39   All the world is will in process:</div> <div> willing to this or willing to that;</div> <div> a willing to maximum effect,</div> <div> and maximum effect is its power.</div> <div> 40  Will is power to the effect:</div> <div> the cause of everything that is; </div> <div>      – Even its effects are causes too-:</div> <div> cause to effect, effect to cause.</div> <div> 41   Love is the meaning of the world:</div> <div> it's ordered bond of unity;</div> <div> but love as meaning of the world</div> <div> is not the meaning of itself.</div> <div> 42    Identity is love in act</div> <div>  with everyone and everything</div> <div>  at the meaning of our being;</div> <div>  as the being of the world.</div> <div> 43   Love is the synaptic link</div> <div> between here and eternity,</div> <div> between reality and meaning</div> <div> where bliss is bathed in radiant light.</div> <div> 44   Love is enactment of world meaning</div> <div> in creation and destruction</div> <div> of ordered processes and forms</div> <div> that keep it altogether as one.</div> <div> 45   Is there such a thing as soul</div> <div> supernatural to this life?</div> <div> I would venture there is for sure;</div> <div> Yet not a soul as one by one.</div> <div> 46   Soul I know as being-pure,</div> <div> where nothing is except itself:</div> <div> being inclusive of everything,</div> <div> yet of itself is but itself.</div> <div> 47    "What is soul?" you want to know –</div> <div>  A question touching life and death.</div> <div>  Soul is the bond of unity:</div> <div>  that which keeps all things at, as, one.</div> <div> 48   Soul as the bond of unity</div> <div> is the metaphysical name</div> <div> for the physical name of will,</div> <div> or for the human name of love</div> <div> 49   "Soul": the word for you alone;</div> <div> "Love" the word for others with them;</div> <div> "Unity" the word for the whole;</div> <div> and MEANING the word for all words</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>II: Human Love</B></div> <bR> <div> 59   Erotic love joins body-mind</div> <div> of masculine and feminine</div> <div> to propagate oneself from two</div> <div> for immortality of life.</div> <div> 60   Sex release for self alone</div> <div> with another, or oneself,</div> <div> is love of sex as urge and thrust;</div> <div> not sex as womb and phallic Love.</div> <div> 61   Strife in everyday human terms </div> <div> is conflict of opposition, </div> <div> felt as pain of sink or swim</div> <div> – and love holds out as best it can.</div> <div> 62   The business of life demands</div> <div> our whole attention practically;</div> <div> and only now and then can we</div> <div>       contemplate its reality.</div> <bR> <div> 63   If your love is deep or intense</div> <div> beyond yourself into this life,</div> <div> you will joy when that bond is fast,</div> <div> and grieve, as well, when it is lax.</div> <div> 64   If you love only what is good</div> <div> or easy, or beneficial,</div> <div> then love in part is your life's worth;</div> <div> for love in full is to love in pain.</div> <div> 65   Life in all its diversity</div> <div> fascinates the mind of man;</div> <div> for each mind creates its world of sense</div> <div>       in ordered multiplicity.</div> <div> 66   And when self-love gives no relief</div> <div> from pain of living futilely,</div> <div> then love of death takes over one</div> <div> to self-destructive acts on others.</div> <div> 67  When strife attacks, self is afoot</div> <div> for the pleasure gained in conflict.</div> <div> This pleasure can be so keenly felt</div> <div> it cancels out all self-concern,</div> <div> 68   And when self-love gives no relief</div> <div> from pain of living futilely,</div> <div> then love of death takes over one</div> <div> to self-destructive acts on others.</div> <div> 69   When strife attacks, self is afoot</div> <div> for the pleasure gained in conflict.</div> <div> This pleasure can be so keenly felt</div> <div> it cancels out all self-concern,</div> <div> 70   Whatever contributes to our good</div> <div> that we pursue as best we know;</div> <div> those of justice live for love,</div> <div> as do the unjust live for strife.</div> <div> 71  The bond of families is of blood</div> <div> that keeps them tightly knit as one;</div> <div> but love of kin personally</div> <div> transcends the family unit.</div> <div> 72   Where there is little love or none</div> <div> for parent or child personally,</div> <div> still respect the bond of family;</div> <div> but save yourself from kinship grip</div> <div> 73   Love of my wife is balm to my soul;</div> <div>        balm to my soul is love's caress</div> <div>  of my mind and my senses that make</div> <div>        me feel intimations of bliss.</div> <div> 74   Love between persons is blind to right;</div> <div> it binds them together for themselves;</div> <div> justice is love's catalyst</div> <div>       that keeps in mind our love for all.</div> <div> 75   Fatigue, it gets us every time</div> <div> so that we care not what is right;</div> <div> our loss of energy rules our mind,</div> <div> our best intentions slip away.</div> <div> 76   Love without judgment is blind will</div> <div> caring indiscriminately,</div> <div> often at mercy of others</div> <div> and the suffering of oneself.     </div> <div> 77  The will to fight crosses over </div> <div>       physical retaliation</div> <div>       to psychological response</div> <div>       of spite and malice for the thrill.</div> <div> 78   This thrill wells up from primeval blood</div> <div>        to harm and hurt mercilessly</div> <div>        anyone who poses a threat,</div> <div>        or irritates, or disagrees.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>I</B><B>II: Human-Transcendent Love</B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> 98      Passion for what we desire, </div> <div>     sympathy for all that lives, </div> <div>     is ardent will to be-at-one </div> <div>     with that of which we're separate.</div> <div> 99       Do right, be true, to all, to you;</div> <div>      understand yourself in all. </div> <div>      Accomplish this in vibrant grace, </div> <div>      then know through Love you share in Being.</div> <div> 100      Love is knowing we can be</div> <div>      everything in Unity;</div> <div>      though outwardly we just are this,</div> <div>      inwardly we all are this.</div> <div> 101      Love is you, Love is me, Love is all, </div> <div>      at the Meaning of our being. </div> <div>      and the Meaning of our being, </div> <div>      is the same of everything.</div> <div> 102     Hear me those who love the most:</div> <div>     You are nearest Love's secret way</div> <div>     and this secret must you cherish,</div> <div>     for in it is your strength in weakness.</div> <div> 103     Interpretation is all we know</div> <div>     of Unity's reality.</div> <div>     We think and live it as we can</div> <div>     from which perspective suits our mind.</div> <div> 104     That we are Love, know that for sure</div> <div>      at the essence of our being;</div> <div>      of this truth our first duty is:</div> <div>      to live this love in strength and grace.</div> <div> 105      Love is knowing we can be</div> <div>      when we close our minds to thought,</div> <div>      can be the Love we truly are:</div> <div>      the Bliss of Love's pure entity.</div> <div> 106      If to the word "Love" you are intent,</div> <div>      then feel your body bonded whole;</div> <div>      and if to "Meaning, "think your mind;</div> <div>      and if to "Unity," then be as IT.</div> <div> 107      As human beings of flesh and blood, </div> <div>      we suffer through the force of strife; </div> <div>      but as transcendent human beings, </div> <div>      we are the principle of Love.</div> <div> 108      Love is the "Son" – the Soul of Meaning:</div> <div>      our one eternal heritage.</div> <div>      And when we act in love toward all, </div> <div>      We radiate transcendent Meaning.</div> <div> 109      My Soul of Love, I am its being,</div> <div>      though here live within my mind–:</div> <div>      mortality my destined end.</div> <div>      an end that is the ONE beginning.</div> <div> 110      Those who have a beauty of soul</div> <div>      radiate the beauty of Love</div> <div>      as the inwardness of unity</div> <div>      as the pure light of Meaning's bliss.</div> <div> 111      "It' is your soul I love" means</div> <div>      It is the love in you I love,</div> <div>      your loving nature from its source,</div> <div>      suffusing your humanity.</div> <div> 112      O, my Soul! I am as Love!</div> <div>      It's so hard to bear this life,</div> <div>      that without my mind on you, I sink;</div> <div>      yet even that I can hardly do.</div> <div> 113      The business of life demands</div> <div>      our whole attention practically;</div> <div>      and only now and then can we</div> <div>      contemplate its reality.</div> <div> 114      Love in man creates unity</div> <div>      and love in woman preserves it.</div> <div>      What seems destructive in such souls</div> <div>      is inverse creation for the whole.</div> <div> 115      First God was outward; now: inward.</div> <div>      First God was "He," now He's "It."</div> <div>      First He was Father-son-Holy Ghost;</div> <div>      Now It's Meaning-Love-Unity.</div> <div> 116     Survey the unity in this world</div> <div>      that manifests itself as one:</div> <div>      in all diversity of forms,</div> <div>      in things together or apart.</div> <div> 117      Pleasure we want, but pain we shun;</div> <div>      thereby limiting our short life.</div> <div>      Let us live with pain a little more</div> <div>      so to enrich our life in love.</div> <div> 118      If in love you aspire to live</div> <div>      then to its center aim your will</div> <div>      where all is compact of fire pure,</div> <div>      where Meaning lights and frees our world.</div> <div> 119      Once I sought within my mind</div> <div>      the meaning of Love's realty.</div> <div>      Partial answers only I found,</div> <div>      until I knew that love is meaning. </div> <div> 120      Love is meaning, meaning is love;</div> <div>      one is inside, the other out:</div> <div>      Meaning gives to love its will,</div> <div>      while love gives unity its world.</div> <div> 121      I am love and so are you</div> <div>      and so is everything in being;</div> <div>      and though we live in strife as well,</div> <div>      we're all together for or against.</div> <div> 122      All will to power is a quantum leap</div> <div>      from less to more, from here to there;</div> <div>      more free the will, more might the power,</div> <div>      until is reached the power to will.</div> <div> 123      To look up at the sky in sighs,</div> <div>      and witness nature's wondrous sights:</div> <div>      white sun beaming through fleecy clouds;</div> <div>      I know the glory of my mind. </div> <div> 124      Soul is but an image of love</div> <div>      an identification</div> <div>      of our essential divinity</div> <div>      and of our immortality.</div> <div> 125      See your soul as an inward image</div> <div>      representing your divinity:</div> <div>      as Meaning of the world in love</div> <div>      diversifying unity.</div> <div> 126      Our soul is love personalized:</div> <div>      To give an image where's there's none;</div> <div>      "soul" gives meaning to our being –</div> <div>      personal to the impersonal.</div> <div> 127      Love your world of divinity, yes;</div> <div>      but not that you should scorn your life;</div> <div>      for life is your reflection of</div> <div>      eternal still in vital flux.</div> <div> 128      "Meaning" for the contemplative mind;</div> <div>      "Love" we enact in bond with others;</div> <div>      "Unity" we see as the whole;</div> <div>      and "Bliss" is for the mystical.</div> <div> 129      Bliss is pleasure taken from here</div> <div>      unto eternity, infinitely:</div> <div>      in sheer power of luminance,</div> <div>      in purity of consciousness.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B>The Meaning of Love</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Introductory Thoughts</B></div> <bR> <div>   1     Love is the Meaning of all that is.</div> <div>   2     Meaning empowers Love, which wills unity.</div> <div>   3     The more I love in act, the more I am Love in Meaning.</div> <div>   4     I am my Meaning more than I am my self.</div> <div>   5     My Meaning is Love – that which binds me as this being in relation to all beings.</div> <div>   6     Both good and evil are human consequences of Love; yet Love is neither one nor the other.</div> <div>   7     Meaning inheres in, manifests itself through, Love.</div> <div>   8     Love imparts unity, and Meaning imparts Love.</div> <div>   9     Love binds the world as it is according to its ultimate meaning.</div> <div> 10     Though Love keeps the world as it is, Meaning keeps Love as it is.</div> <div> 11     Love holds everything together as it is; Meaning is why everything is as it is.</div> <div> 12     Meaning –: the Meaning of everything.</div> <div> 13     Meaning is/is-not everything.</div> <div> 14     The meaning of Meaning in a word: Meaning.</div> <div> 15     Meaning –: the ultimate mysterium of everything.</div> <div> 16     Were we to ask, "What is the meaning of Meaning," we would find ourselves moving in a  circle going quite nowhere. We could only keep answering: meaning.</div> <div> 17    The "scheme of things," The "nature of reality," and all such phrases, are familiar substitutes for "the meaning of ..."</div> <div> 18    That our life has meaning -: our dread and anguish if it does not.</div> <div> 19     Self-love –: so that our life is to mean something. </div> <div> 20     All that we do or think has meaning – whether we know it or not.</div> <div> 21    As life has its meaning, however unfathomable that meaning is to us, so our life has meaning.</div> <div> 22    That we mean something is our share in Meaning itself – however insignificant our share may seem to us.</div> <div> 23    We strive and struggle to put meaning into our life so to be in touch with the meaning of life itself; though we have no idea that that is our passion. Perhaps one day we will have that idea.</div> <div> 24     My meaning is Meaning; is <I>essentially </I>Meaning, to be more precise.</div> <div> 25     Though I may be of little consequence in life, I am of <I>all</I> consequence in meaning.</div> <div> 26     My "lowly" meaning in relationship to all meaning I fit into the total existential mosaic. I play my part in the scheme of things, however insignificantly to my perspective.</div> <div> 27   From good to evil, from love to hate, from the sublime to the ridiculous, from the ordinary to the bizarre, all that we do and think in our interest and concern is that our life be meaningful, that we  matter in some way - and so, that we are loved; or at least needed.</div> <div> 28     A person will kill for love, or lack of love; and that is the evil inherent in love.</div> <div> 29     Our pursuit of God is no less nor more than, is ultimately, our pursuit of Meaning.</div> <div> 30     If God is Love, then the Godhead, of which the mystics speak, is Meaning.</div> <div> 31     Though I may conceive Meaning, though I may intuit It, even experience It, I nevertheless can never understand Its eternal infinitude.</div> <div> 32     We can know of Meaning; but can never know It – at least in our present form of  consciousness.</div> <div> 33     Meaning is "behind the scenes," so to speak of the modes of Love that we conceive,  such as, order, essence, being, substance, and the like.</div> <div> Love is my divinity, while Meaning is my sanctity. And why "my divinity"? Because of its pure one  ness of everything. And why "my sanctity"? Because it is the that love is pure oneness - Remember "I am that I am."</div> <div> Love is free - the way unto self-freedom.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> _________________________</div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4fd650c0.jpg" border=0 width="357" height="268" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <div> <B> <A NAME="unto_self_freedom_3__"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></div> <div> <B>UNTO SELF-FREEDOM  </B></div> <div> <B>[The Pursuit of Meaning]</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Introductory Notes</B></div> <bR> <div>   1.  I want to be free! <I>– </I>The soul cry of our age, of all ages in one way or another.</div> <div>   2.  Is it free to or free from or both?</div> <div>   3.  We want to be free to do or be or think or feel this-or-that.</div> <div>   4.  We want to be free from doing or being or thinking or feeling this-or-that.</div> <div>   5.  To be free from something is to be free to something.</div> <div>   6.  Conversely, to be free to something is to be free from something.</div> <div>   7.  So we have answered the query: from #2 as both.</div> <div>   8.  More particularly, we want to (aspire, etc.) be free from such-and-such so that we may be free to such-and-such - however trivial, however lofty <I>– </I>and vice versa.</div> <div>   9.  But so long as we want to be free - to, or be free - from, we are in fact not free except incidentally, in this or in that case - but certainly not in all cases.</div> <div> 10.  So, as long as we have wants, we have obstacles to one or more of these wants that push us to want to be free to satisfy or gratify them. These obstacles our own or others or circumstances are what we want to be free from - which obviously cannot always happen. So we are bound, not free; and will always be bound so long as we have one want that cannot be met.</div> <div> 11.  Hence we cannot be free in any absolute sense of the word. Relatively, incidentally, here and now, yes, we can be free; and perhaps the less wants we have, the more free we can be - so far as wants are concerned.</div> <div> 12.  One would think that if we could minimize our wants to the furthest margin, then there would end all obstacles to our freedom from this-or-that and to this-or-that; for then we would not want to be or do or have this or that; and since we would not want to be or do or have this-or-that, there would be nothing to be free from so that we could in fact be, do, or have this-or-that. In this state of affairs we would be not want free, but obstacle free; since all other wants would be minor, of little or no consequence, having no obstacles to bind us from satisfying or gratifying them. In which case, we would have attained the freedom from burning desire that Buddha sought and taught long ago.</div> <div> 13.  But does this freedom of desire assure us our freedom from the suffering of the world, that by being unattached to objects of desire, we become free from suffering?</div> <div> 14.  Before answering this crucial question, let us assume that one who is free from compulsive wants (or desires) is also, by proxy, free  from his or her compulsive ego; since it is the ego aspect of our own self that does most of our wanting.</div> <div> 15.  And a further question is, what has this ego sublimated itself into now that it is not compulsively, but only moderately, wanting "everything under the sun"? It could not have just disappeared - the ego prevails if not stampedes! It must be wanting something - even if it's nothing!</div> <div>      But I'll return to this question shortly.</div> <div> 16.  To refer back to the question from #13, my contention is that by far that that person who closes the door on one major form of suffering - wants - opens another door of suffering even wider; that door being his needs. Our needs touch that vital part of our self, our being, even. Aside from physical needs, being a source of much suffering if not met, there are our psychological needs and transcend out needs, which if not met can be a source of deep suffering. So, if our need to love and be loved is frustrated, unmet, we suffer; if our self-respect, our dignity is trammeled by others or by circumstances, we suffer; if we meet with failure, we suffer; if our loved ones suffer or die, we suffer - and on and on.</div> <div> 17.  "But," you may say: "The reason you suffer in your needs is because you are attached to them. So, just as you freed yourself from attachment to your wants, do the same with your needs, and all the more will you be free.”</div> <div>      "All the more" - which implies that this freedom that we cry out for is a relative freedom, not an absolute freedom. In which case, the freedom of which Buddha spoke is, if it is a psychological freedom, seriously falls short of conviction, since he did not consider our needs in his analysis.</div> <div>      Which brings me to my answer to the matter of renunciation of attachment to one's needs. Now as it is possible to minimize one's wants so as not to be attached to remaining insignificant ones, is it as possible to minimize our needs? Not if we want to remain human, however flawed, frail, and vulnerable we are. The freedom we want is to make us more human, not less than human. It is freedom with our needs, not freedom without them.</div> <div> 18.  Our needs are those which constitute our vital humanity. To not need to be loved nor needed, to not need to be respected, nor admired, to our dignity and honor - and to not suffer when these needs are not met - whether for God or bliss or eternity, may make us saints or seers or avatars or sages but they will not number us among the human race; perhaps some super race.</div> <div> 19.  Accordingly, we cannot be free with our needs, nor free without them so long as we are all-too-human. And I believe that the cry for freedom is for the freedom within the human sphere not without; since we have an eternity for that freedom upon our death.</div> <div> 20.  So we come to the juncture that this freedom that we cry out for is relative in the first place - relative to the minimization of our wants and their concordant ego presence and relative to the interplay of our psychological needs, not to mention our physical needs - since when it comes to survival we are reduced to the animal level or physiological stimuli-responses, and all their myriad variations; nor to mention our biological needs to reproduce our species and all their variations and controls over our behavior.</div> <div> 21.  Clearly, then, there is no absolute freedom in our human living framework. What then is this freedom that is so sought after? Surely those who aspire to it must intuitively know that there is no absolute freedom just as there is no absolute anything ensuing from the human conceptual mind whether it be absolute justice, absolute love, or absolute anything. What then?</div> <div> 22.  "I want to be free!" An ideal of the mind or a truth of the mind? So let us ask what someone means by that exclamation in the following dialogue - considering that the reader has read this brief analysis so far.</div> <div> <I>First Person</I>: </div> <div>         By "wanting to be free," what exactly do you mean?</div> <div> <I>Second Person</I>:</div> <div> Well, considering all that you're analyzed so far, I can say that I want to be free enough from my wants and ego so that I may be free to be more expansive toward others and life, and to accept and love my human needs and consequent vulnerabilities, frailties and faults with the guidance of wisdom.</div> <div> Well, you've put - or should I say packed - the matter very succinctly. And it's all quite clear and self-explanatory except for two words: "expansive" and "wisdom." Would you expand on them?</div> <div> By "expansive," I mean to be more thoughtful, more considerate, more understanding, less critical, less judgmental, less...</div> <div> May I stop you here before I forget my comment?</div> <div> Yes, of course.</div> <div> When you say more "understanding" of people, wouldn't you find in this understanding that there are people who are hard-natured enough that you could not be considerate nor thoughtful toward them; that you'd have to be more on your guard against then loving toward them?</div> <div> Yes, that's true, but that doesn't mean that I would have to be inconsiderate or unthoughtful toward them, does it?</div> <div> No, but how would you treat them then in your new-found freedom?</div> <div> With caution first of all, of course. But then on second thought, I suppose this caution, wariness and distance would be interpreted by them in certain circumstances as treating them inconsiderately, unthoughtfully - especially if the person is a member of your family, with whom you live with everyday.</div> <div> So you would have to limit your thoughtfulness and consideration only to those deserving of them.</div> <div> It looks that way, doesn't it; though that doesn't mean that I would therefore treat them unjustly; or on the grounds of an eye for an eye.</div> <div>      Certainly not unjustly; but why not an eye for an eye?</div> <div> So you mean like you stole from me so I'll steal from you; or you insulted me so I'll insult you?</div> <div> No, that doesn't sound like the appropriate conduct for you, does it? How then would you treat someone who treated you unjustly, unfairly, by insulting or embarrassing you in front of others, let's say? And I ask you this in light of your freedom.</div> <div> That's a hard one; and perhaps is the type of situation that is the reason all ethical theories of right and wrong fail overall.</div> <div> I can see that. So do you have a solution?</div> <div> The truth is, I don't. And that's my point in wanting the wisdom to know the right thing to do in such cases.</div> <div> Which brings me to my other question as to what you mean by "wisdom".</div> <div> To know what is right and to act by that knowledge.</div> <div> And how does wisdom give you that knowledge and strength?</div> <div> I'm not sure, but I believe it has something to do with understanding. The meaning of wisdom has always eluded me somehow.</div> <div> And almost everyone else, I'm sure.</div> <div> But there's something about wisdom that is not only humanly practical, as in your explanation of it, but transcendent as well.</div> <div> Yes, I believe that, because I don't see how we humans could ever gain practical wisdom, given all our human proclivities, without there being something transcendent, as you said, something divine, more than human about it.</div> <div> I believe it. And so when you, or anyone, exclaims I want to be free, they are in fact crying out for wisdom. Would you say that?</div> <div> Now that you mention it, yes. Because if we have this wisdom we are free to act rightly if not in all cases, then in most cases. And that would be all we could expect being human as we are, as you pointed out quite clearly in your little exposition on wants and needs.</div> <div> Not to mention our pains and pleasures that accompany these wants and needs. Depending upon their severity, their intensity, would it then be even possible in their extreme to be free to act in wisdom, wisely?</div> <div> Hardly, I'm forced to say. I remember a friend saying to me "When I'm so tired, I don't care what is right or wrong"; and she was an upright woman concerned with propriety duty, and right conduct.</div> <div> And, you know, even if we did possess this practical wisdom, underscored by wisdom's transcendence, I believe it is impossible, utterly impossible, to not only not always know what the right thing to do is, but just as impossible to act rightly always. In this matter of right, there are innumerable subtleties that determine what is right at the right time with the right person, in the right circumstances, that we cannot possibly consider them at all times. Just as our reason is limited to the mind's fundamental categories of space, time and causality, so is the extent of our morality, our wisdom, limited by the sheer number of behavioral instances, and of what we call exceptions. </div> <div> Bewildering! Well, so much for freedom.</div> <div> No, I wouldn't say that categorically. This freedom - which more particularly is self-freedom - is an ideal toward which we strive, aspire, to attain but can never actually attain because basically it is unattainable; it is not real but is a construct of our mind that seeks perfection in an imperfect world.</div> <div> So why strive for something that doesn't even exist?</div> <div> The ideal may not exist except conceptually, but the perfection that we invest into this ideal of self-freedom perhaps does exist in some way beyond our rational mind, but that we intuitively sense is real.</div> <div> Do you mean that there is this perfect freedom that exists beyond this reality that somehow inspires us to it?</div> <div> Well, I don't know for sure, certainly; since it would be beyond our capacity to know. For all I can surmise, our idealization of this freedom might be the mind's device to impress illusions and delusions upon us so as to stave off our fear of the unknown, or of our eternal extinction, or of our need to be more than merely human.</div> <div> I know for myself that it is my need to be more than merely human that inspires me to this self-freedom; not because I want to be superior to others or even to myself - however odd that may sound; but...I can't explain it. </div> <div> Could it be because you want to reach, to be in touch with, something inward that is more than your mere humanness?</div> <div> Yes, I think that might be it. Yet even that could be a compensation for my dread of my mortality as being nothing but a speck of dust in the universe, of no consequence whatsoever.</div> <div> And if it is that dread, would that alter your aspiration to be more than human - transcendent, in a word?</div> <div> Perhaps for a time I would renounce it; but then knowing myself, I would be back to it sooner or later. You see, I know myself, I'm realistic enough to accept my mortality as transient and nothing more; I know that when I die it won't make any difference to me that I'm no longer alive; and that that is all right. I've been through all of that. But this knocking keeps at me about this self-freedom, this transcendence, as you call it; and I can't deny that knocking; or turn away from it. Oh, I don't know, maybe that the bottom of it all, I'm a coward - I'm not able to face the wretchedness, the absurdity, of this life.</div> <div> Perhaps you are, and perhaps you aren't; you'll never fathom it, will you. Which reminds me, I want to read you something that relates to this, which might shed some light on this matter. Just a minute; I'll get it. ...Here it is; let me read it to you.</div> <div>      All that I've read, done, thought, felt. experimented, known, is nought but vanity, a chase </div> <div> after wind, as old Koeleth wrote centuries ago; and yet for me to be still unfulfilled, seeking </div> <div> to be fulfilled is a mockery gone wild.</div> <div>      I'm always looking for answers, solutions to problems regarding these eternal matters, - the final Truth <I>– </I>but to no avail. Could it be that I'm on the wrong track? Is it true that there are </div> <div> no problems only solutions, as Lennon sang it?</div> <div>      Let me assume that it is true that there are only solutions. </div> <div>      But what solutions? Where are they that will resolve my existential, transcendent </div> <div> predicament? I'm always faced with solutions: in books, in my mind, in my experiences, in art, science, aesthetics, ethics, people, and all else...All else? I certainly do not know everything, let alone understand a mere part of what I know.</div> <div>      And here is the first solution that intrigues me: I do not understand most of what I know. I know X, but do I understand X? Most likely not. How do I come to understand X? By questioning it? But questions imply problems.</div> <div>      So, I propose not to question anything; since such questioning leads me to the cul de sac of there being no Answer despite all the answers.</div> <div>      Why did I think to capitalize "Answer?" Am I looking for the answer: Certainty? The Absolute? the Ultimate? The Thing-in-Itself? God?</div> <div>      I don't know. Again, questions.</div> <div>      How do I strip myself from questioning? Can I thus strip myself? Is everything in life, in mind, a question, rather than a solution for that questioning? Are solutions only a partial understanding of any given phenomenon? </div> <div>      Again, there are no ultimate answers, no ultimate solutions.</div> <div>      So, then, everything is surely relative; certainly in this life. Yet, I'm not justified to use this concept "certainly" in relative existence. There is no certainty. Even this latter statement is not certain.</div> <div>      So what do I come to? A world of contradictions? I mean it is no more certain to say that X is certain than it is to say that x is not certain. so what is certain? Nothing? Or everything? Or both? Or neither? Everything is and is not? Or everything is or is not? </div> <div>      The latter question is easily answered in the affirmative in our normal rational mind; the former question is too paradoxical to even consider answering. Yet this does no warrant that there is no answer; the answer to that question could be the Answer we are transconsciously seeking, yearning for, heading for. Yet, our rational mind cannot answer it. So rather than answer it, let us assume it. In this case, we then delete the question and add the solution. </div> <div>      Hence, regarding The Answer (assuming that there is It), there are no questions; there are only solutions to It, which is Its own solution (I am that I am = God).</div> <div>      Hence all our questions are solutions in disguise. Strange...But true? I don't know. It could be true or it could not be true; or it could be true and it could not be true; or it is true or it is not true; or it is true and it is not true. It all leads to the same solution: there is no solution. Yet there could be. But is there? I don't know...do you? I can't imagine so. But what I can or cannot imagine does not constitute any final solution to anything.  </div> <div>      Is there a final solution? I don't know. But do I know that I do not know? No. Yet how do I know that I don't know? I don't know. Which means then that I could know without knowing that I know. That's possible. </div> <div> Yet it could be impossible. Could it be both possible and impossible? It could be. I don't really know. But perhaps I do know; and perhaps I don't know. I don't know in either case; but perhaps I do....and on and on in a circular track of conceptual reasoning. Perhaps this is what Socrates, the wisest of men, meant when he said that he knows nothing.</div> <div>      All possibilities lie waiting for us then if what is is, and what is is not, or what is is not.</div> <div>      We have to start anew with fresh ideas and concepts and images and feelings and acts and relationships and distinctions and conclusions and beliefs and values and attitudes. We have to trek through unknown tracts of our mind to discover untapped potentials. We have to catch our minds off guard by capturing its fleet messages from unborn boundaries as they dart and dash and disappear through our dentrites. </div> <div>      SPONTANEITY! That is the philosopher's stone by which we will grasp the is and the is-not; or the is or the is-not; or both at the same time! Who knows? Who does not know? PARADOX! That is the non-logic through which we will discover...:who-knows-what?</div> <div>      Spontaneity. Paradox. Are we up to them? do we need so excruciatingly to leave behind us, except for practical use, our moldy manner of mind? If so, then we will be seeking a truth that is false - false to what we normally, conditionally, traditionally, ancestrally, think. We have no choice if we are to transcend the cast of limited thought and action: the cast that pronounces falsely that nothing new is under the sun. Nothing new is within the sun, not under it - perhaps.</div> <div>      To spontaneity and paradox, let me add the other word that mystifies everything even more: PERHAPS! </div> <div>     We will never know - perhaps! We will come to know - perhaps! Who knows? No one. Everyone. Some - perhaps!</div> <div>      We don't have to know anything - then perhaps we might come to know everything. Let us go beyond mere knowing; it has and does serve us well in placeCityNewton's three-dimensional world; but not in Einstein's or Heisenberg's multi-dimensional world. let us strive to understand. Let us seek the meaning of what we do, think, are. But let us not ask questions. Let us have solutions, whatever they are, however contradictory. </div> <div>      Let everything be a solution, not a question or an answer to a question. Or even better, let our questions be themselves solutions. Let us catch our thoughts and images on the run, observe them, wonder at them, record them, live by them, die for them. Let us realize meaning in any mental occurrence, however bizarre, absurd, contradictory, unreal, evil, self-deprecatory, embarrassing, shameful. "I contradict myself. Then I contradict myself," saith the poet Whitman. He knew the lush tropics of the mind that lie awaiting our wonder.</div> <div>      What are we against in this frame of mind? Let me give you a hint. You know, of course, the thoughts that cross your mind which you could never, never, speak aloud to yourself - certainly not to others! - thoughts that would give recognition to what you really believe; and you know you could not bear that truth. </div> <div>     Perhaps you might have dared to voice such thoughts once or twice in your lifetime impulsively. Can you remember the rush of freedom that you felt? Perhaps you said something like: "There I said it! It's out. That's the way it is, and let me go on from here." Perhaps your life had changed from that moment on, for better or worse. But it was the truth that poured out, and you had to face and live it once and for all. Nothing could stop you. Your perspective on life, your life, for good.</div> <div>      Now what if you made it a way of life to face such truths about yourself and others so that you came to know  yourself as you never had an inkling before? You lived your truth, if not exteriorly, then interiorly. what if new dimensions of understanding came to you spontaneously, paradoxically, about yourself, others, life, death, good, evil, love, sex, human relations, human nature? Would you choose such a life? </div> <div>      Perhaps not...There is our "perhaps" again! Perhaps you would; perhaps you couldn't help yourself. You wouldn't know. Perhaps if your mind was so confused, it would automatically make your decision for you. You don't know; yet, perhaps you do. It might be today; it might be tomorrow; it might be...who knows when? A traditional, family, working man in his fifties awoke one morning with a startling self-confession: "I am a scoundrel!" he exclaimed. And from that moment his life changed dramatically. He left his family and lived his life according to his new-found revelation.</div> <div>      So we don't know when the inexplicable will strike us; but you can be almost certain that it will strike at the most inconspicuous, perhaps, inappropriate, time - especially if you're living a lie, knowingly or not. And then where will you be? and then who will you be?</div> <div>      So what I'm advocating is not so far-fetched, if you think about it in relation to yourself. What I am prescribing is to get to it before it gets to you - consciously or unconsciously, psychologically or psychosomatically. Free yourself: face yourself; free yourself: know yourself; free yourself: transcend yourself. You are waiting for yourself.</div> <div>      Having learned what you have learned; having believed what you have believed; having felt what you have felt - take another perspective transcendent of the "known". Try for understanding; let your intuitive self have its way; give it free rein and reign; let it be what you are. Put meaning into your life; stand in awe of it! Dare to understand; understand yourself, and you will UNDERSTAND.</div> <div> Very intriguing. So your point is, I suppose, that everything could be and could not be at the same time. That certainly goes against the grain of our logical reasoning. It's saying that you are sitting and standing at the same time, or that 1+1 is 2 and is not 2. Which is logically impossible.</div> <div> But conceivably or even perceptibly possible.</div> <div> What do you mean by that?</div> <div> Well it's possible that as I perceive you sitting down another being, say with a different perceptive apparatus perceives you as standing and standing is sitting. Or more simply, just think of how different a frog's perception of objects are is from a human's perception.</div> <div> Well, I can see that; but I'm not sure that I can conceive that one plus one can be other than 2. The whole structure of our world would be unrecognizably different.</div> <div> In what way, would you think?</div> <div> Well, let's say that our alien creature has a number system based on two rather than one; there would be no such thing as one of anything; for him his two is one; and so his arithmetic would begin as one (two) plus one (two) equals four, not two. In his case, the number one would act as our zero...I think this is all trailing into nonsense.</div> <div> It can't help but do that, because we're operating from our own only known mathematical structure and system. But I think what you're trying to say is that if both you and the alien are looking at a tree, from your perspective of his perspective you would see his two-trees-as-one; whereas from his perspective of your perspective, he would see no tree at all.</div> <div> That's baffling!</div> <div> As baffling as the mystic's or physicists insight that there are subatomic particles that can be in two places at the same time, or of parallel and holistic universes, or of nonlocality, and the whole host of phenomena that transcends our 3-dimensional, mental categories.</div> <div> It's awesome beyond belief, but then belief is no longer of any consequence in relation to these other-worldly phenomena. But returning to our subject matter what does all this have to do with self-freedom?</div> <div> I think it has to do with infinite possibilities set in eternity - or more specifically, set in the eternity of our mind. Do you remember that sublime saying in the Bible, "God has put eternity in man's mind," and that eternity we can think of as the universal mind; and we are all of the universal mind; that is where our oneness, of which the religions speak of everything is, where we are all one. And it is this oneness, this eternity, that is our freedom - our freedom not only from the suffering of the world, but from the world itself as three-dimensional, of space, time, casualty. Somehow we know, intuit, we are of this Eternal Mind, essentially are It; and we want to free ourselves from our self; our self-consciousness, in order to be, experience, live by, our transconsciousness, our Eternal mind. But as we know, or come to accept, we can never free ourselves absolutely, perfectly, living in a relative, imperfect world.</div> <div> I see what you're saying; and, of course, it's what all the main religions at bottom proclaim, now that I think of it.</div> <div> Exactly, which in itself is a whole study that needs to be revealed.</div> <div> Yes. And what I'm thinking now is that when a person exclaims "I want to be free!" in effect what he is exclaiming is that he want to reach his divinity as Eternity; as God, as oneness.</div> <div> Excellent insight. And not only does he want to reach It, that is, to be in touch with it, but to live by it.</div> <div> And yet he can't, because It is limitless and he is limited.</div> <div> True, he can't absolutely, but he can relatively.</div> <div> How relatively?</div> <div> Well, there are the mystic, bliss experiences of this oneness of everything, there are the intimations of It, intuitions of It, that pass through us momentarily, or longer, depending on the person. Some people experience this oneness as beauty of the good. And in a sense, these are the absolute, abstract, experiences of It, since everything disappears but this absolute oneness during the experience of it.</div> <div> But the person's still experiencing It in his time, in his space, in his causality. </div> <div> I know, that's why I qualified my point by prefacing it with "in a sense." Because even though the experience of Oneness occurs in time, space, and casualty. The actual experience of It is absolute in the sense that time, self, everything relative, dissolves into this absolute Oneness.</div> <div> I see your point; and it's very clear and explanatory. Yet I'll raise the commonplace objection to such pure experiences that they are of such fleeting, momentary passing, of what practical value are they? We still have to go on with our daily lives with all their opposing opposites. I know that the magnitude of such experience can change one's over all perspective on life, such as, he might no longer have a psychological fear of death, or that he may gain the courage to overcome a long-time destructive habit, and the like. But the efficacy of these pure experiences wear off, and we often return to our old ways without any support or guide from them. Yes, that's true; and that is where wisdom comes in.</div> <div> Oh, yes, the ever-elusive wisdom.</div> <div> And why do you think it is ever-elusive?</div> <div> Because we can never really fully attain it, nor know it.</div> <div> And why is that?</div> <div> Because it's an ideal of perfection, an absolute, and we're imperfect relative beings; we covered this in our discussion of right conduct.</div> <div> I know. And being an ideal of perfection, an absolute, that puts it on a transcendent level, beyond our mere psychology.</div> <div> That would follow.</div> <div> Yet being an ideal of perfection or of being absolute, it somehow remains in the human sphere to as a conception that has meaning and influence.</div> <div> I can see that.</div> <div> So we can consider wisdom as both of a human and transcendent reality; as a sort of mediator between the human mind, and the universal mind - a kind of image of the universal mind that crosses over into our conscious mind as a transconscious concept. Do you understand what I'm saying? Probably not.</div> <div> Partly; you'll have to explain it further. It's very abstract, to say the least. </div> <div> Let me break it down analytically first. A "mediator", as you know, is a person who intervenes between two persons, or parties, to objectively resolve a dispute between them. An "image" is a mental picture of an holistic impression; in which case the sensation or perception of a never-before-seen object transforms into a mental picture called an image; and can be recalled at will. A "concept" we might say is the meaning of an image by which we assign words. So, for instance, the first time I see a horse, my brain takes a picture of it, so to speak. This is the image of the horse. As an image only, it has no meaning to it; it is a bare image with no meaning, nor name. Once I learn that this image belongs to a class of animals that is and does such-and-such; and that it is called a horse; it now has been invested with meaning and a name; and now has become a concept which I can understand and speak about without resorting to the image in my mind. All right, so far?</div> <div> Yes. I understand your terms.</div> <div> Let me go further with this analysis of image and concept. Now that I understand cognitively and linguistically what a horse is, whenever I now "see" a horse, I can be said to perceive it as a horse, that is, my mind no longer "sees" a horse as an image only, but as an image with meaning; and so, my mind perceives the horse as horse not merely as an image of a horse. Clear?</div> <div> I think so. So, now we're dealing with four terms: mediator, image, concept, and perception.</div> <div> Right. Now let me see if I can connect them all together to clarify my point about wisdom. Wisdom is the mediator between the universal (or eternal-infinite) Mind and the individual mind in as much as it is a prism mirror reflecting the oneness, or universality of everything. But this reflection remains for must of us a vague image with no content other than vagueness - a sense of the universal mind. It has little or no lasting effect on us other than its sublime sense. Now the more we read of its meaning, the less vague it becomes; and eventually it transforms into a concept - image to concept through knowledge conveyed by words. We now know that wisdom is related to the universal or eternal or essential nature of the world, as well as to our own essential nature. The words and names, poetic, religions, philosophical, explaining or describing this interconnection may be in themselves vague, archaic; nonetheless, when we speak of, or think of wisdom, we do so conceptually, however unclear, remote, or vague is its meaning - at least it now has some meaning.</div> <div> And what is this meaning?</div> <div> Well, let's say that you have learned about the nature of wisdom from Aristotle that it is both practical and theoretical, and from the wisdom books in the Bible that it is both practical and spiritual; and that you come to realize that in practical matters, wisdom imparts the judgment necessary to act rightly overall; and that in speculative or spiritual matters, wisdom imparts to you universal truths about nature in general, and about human nature in particular; and that somehow these transcendent (theoretical, spiritual) truths are the foundation for human (practical) wisdom. So you see that this concept of wisdom is taking on more meaning for you so that you're deriving an intuitive understanding of wisdom. And this intuitive understanding is what makes you exclaim " I want to be free!" For then the truth of your universal being or mind is knocking at your door - knock, knock, knock. And you don't yet know how to open the door; so you go scrambling about opening other doors in search of this freedom, i.e., your universal nature. Now all these other doors - books, scriptures, meditation, therapies, gurus, priests, may all build upon this intuitive understanding until one day, the full perception of the word floods your mind with understanding. And finally, you are convinced that your individual mind is an emanation, a manifestation, of the universal Mind. And there are no more doubts shading your mind. You now know this truth; you perceive it as true. You will not understand it, since wisdom at bottom only an image of this universal mind, oneness. It has helped you make a connection with It, as through a mirror darkly. The word "wisdom" is the mantra, the symbol, the talisman that consciously connects you to the transconscious image of eternity. In Christian terms, you might say wisdom is the holy spirit that guides you through life by the son Jesus (or Buddha or placeKrishna, etc.) to the Father - God, the universal Mind, Oneness. Well, does that "explain matters" to you, extended as the explanation is?</div> <div> More or less, I suppose.</div> <div> Let me see if I can wrap it up in an analogy of our original horse picture example. Let us say that you have never seen a live horse, and that you most likely never will; but you do for the first time you see a picture of one, beautiful and noble. That is the image of the horse; and you are drawn to it irresistibly. You want to know more about horses. Consequently you read all about them and become very knowledgeable about them. Your original image has become a concept full of meaning. Then you take the next mental step by imagining that you are riding, feeding, tending to, this horse that you know only as a picture. You have now transferred yourself in connection with this picture-horse. You have now gained an intuitive understanding of this horse as related to you - as horses actually are to human beings. Now your original mental image had progressed beyond your conception of it to a perception with understanding. It is almost real; but not actually, nor will it ever be real to you, since in your circumstances you never will see a live horse. Do you see this analogy I'm trying to make with our individual mind and the universal Mind?</div> <div> Yes, it brings the abstractness of wisdom into focus. But I'm thinking now of how sad it would be, how frustrating, that I would never see this live three-dimensional horse.</div> <div> I know what you're saying, but you could compensate for that by painting pictures of horses, or writing stories or poems about them, or sculpturing one, or you could even attempt cross-breeding other animals to make a horse - depending upon how much of your life you wanted to devote to horses.</div> <div> But I would never see a live horse?</div> <div> Let's say that; just as you would never become the universal Mind so long as you are encased in your individual mind. You may have intimations of It, you may even mystically experience It momentarily, more or less, but you, nor anyone, I would venture to say will ever be it purely out of this third dimension reality.</div> <div> I can accept that, as I would have to accept the fact that I would never see a live horse. But it just occurred to me now, how would I know if there were in fact a real live horse that the picture represented if I never were going to see one?</div> <div> You wouldn't.</div> <div> And all the books I read about them.</div> <div> Could all be a figment of someone's imagination.</div> <div> But how could such a noble stallion be a figment of someone's imagination?</div> <div> It could be or could not be, or could both be and not be. Do you remember what I read you about that perspective?</div> <div> Yes I do. And does this apply to the universal Mind as well?</div> <div> It could be or could not be, or could both be and not be.</div> <div> I get your point. I'm not sure I like this way of looking at things; it kind of leaves you nowhere - neither this nor that nor neither.</div> <div> As possibilities.</div> <div> And of course what is possible is not necessary.</div> <div> But it could be necessary.</div> <div> Oh, yes, that possibility - or necessity.</div> <div> Now you've got it.</div> <div> Perhaps; but I don't know if I like it. Do you realize that such a belief system leaves us with no logical foundation?</div> <div> How so?</div> <div> Just consider this well-known syllogism: All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal. Now, if all men are or are not or are and are not mortal , then all situations (are or are not) or (both are or are not)...and on and on. We have no footing in reality, it becomes a maze, senseless.</div> <div> In other words an infinite regress of possibilities and/or necessities. In effect, we have shifted the mathematical calculus into a language calculus.</div> <div> Which in either case, we cannot grasp conceptually.</div> <div> As an image, yes; but this image one day can become a perception. And once it becomes a perception, we understand it, and so are close to its meaning; just as mathematicians have turned the image of calculus into a meaningful concept and study however abstract it is.</div> <div> That may be; but of what consequence can such knowledge be to a person such as me who is simply aspiring to be free to be in touch with my transcendence so that I can act rightly beyond my ego-concerns.</div> <div> That's a good point.</div> <div> So do you have an answer? I'm certainly receptive.</div> <div> Well, what comes to me is that such a non-logical world holds promise.</div> <div> Promise of what?</div> <div> A “brave new world,” as Shakespeare put it.</div> <div>  “A brave new world!” What does that mean, other than poetry?</div> <div> So I hear a strain of combat in your voice?</div> <div> Yes, you do. I'm getting dizzy from all this talk about “otherness,” and all its “infinite possibilities” when all I want is some freedom.</div> <div> It's in this otherness where your freedom lies.</div> <div> Well, I can't see freedom in chaos, which all this is to my mind however fascinating it is.</div> <div> I'm not sure that it is chaos as such.</div> <div> Randomness, then? That still doesn't interest me other than intellectual curiosity.</div> <div> Let me acquaint you with a phenomenon - or more precisely  “trans-phenomenon, since it occurs only in my mind <I>– </I>that occurs in my mind before I slip into sleep. There have been a few rare times that just as I'm about to fall asleep, I hear this stupendous music that I can only describe as music “of the spheres.” And if I were a musician and could notate that music, I would be the greatest composer who ever lived - such is the grandeur of this music. It doesn't last long, I don't know how long, seconds most likely; but it is unmistakably happening to me. Then it's gone. This has occurred, I think, at least twice. Has this ever happened to you?</div> <div> No, but I believe you.</div> <div> Now where did that music originate, where did it come from? How did I tap into it for those few seconds? It's simply awesome to me.</div> <div> Doubtfully from the universal Mind of which you spoke.</div> <div> Where else? And what else exists, or sub-exists, in that mind? Is that where the Ideas, or Forms, of everything exists, as the mighty Plato propounded more than 2000 years ago?</div> <div> I just was about to say and in Jung's “collective unconscious,” but this music you heard does not exist in our reality.</div> <div> It's just overwhelming. And in a lesser vein, let me tell you further, that what happens in my mind almost every time I transcend my self-thoughts - again before I go to sleep - I either can opt for a kind of blank state of nothing there, which is pleasant enough, yet hard to maintain, or I can le my mind “of itself,” without my willing, conjure up either the most fantastic of scenes, or the most domestic of scenes. Regarding this latter, before I know it, I can be witnessing a conversation between two people in 19th century garb as though they were real people in real time; and I am a witness to this scene without their knowing it. And then “out of nowhere” a little girl will stick her head between them and stick her tongue out at them. This is just one of many such scenarios that happen to me will-less, or unintentionally. Of course, only rarely is such scenes of visual clarity or duration. Has this happened to you?</div> <div> I think so; something like that; but I can't put my finger on memory right now. That's fascinating. But tell me of your fantastical scenes.</div> <div> I haven't had those in a while; but something like a flying elephant, or a burst of colors shattering everywhere...or, nothing comes to me now; but I've had them in plenty.</div> <div> And what do you make of all this?</div> <div> Well, if we consider all the phenomena that has occurred to variant psychic people of all times and in all places, psychics, mystics, clairvoyants, seers, one has to exclaim quite emphatically that there is another world “in” there that makes itself known to the awe and wonder of the human consciousness.</div> <div> And let me ask - and I don't mean it facetiously - Could this “other world,” or universal Mind, be or not be; or be and not be...and so forth, referring to our earlier topic?</div> <div> Well, the answer - provisional, at best - could be related to the perennial question: How did the many come from the one, or multiplicity from unity, and all such inquiries.</div> <div> And probably the other perennial religious philosophical matter of the freedom of the will - are we free or are we not free, or are we both; or are we neither?</div> <div> What do you think it would be like to live always under this either-or-either-and frame of mind; never certain of anything real and unreal, and so on infinitely?</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div> <B><IMG SRC="4da6a900.jpg" border=0 width="106" height="144" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <B> <A NAME="part_four_the_wisdom"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B><B>PART FOUR: The Wisdom</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Love-Wisdom </B></div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Calibri" ><B> <A NAME="councils_of_love_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A></B></FONT><B>LOVE </B><B>COUNCILS </B></div> <bR> <div>   1     Love what you do not love <I>– </I>identify with it.</div> <div>   2     What you identify with, you understand.</div> <div>   3     Love your enemies at a distance, of course.</div> <div>   4     Love what is ugly but with different eyes than toward that which is beautiful.</div> <div>   5     Love yourself for sure, but not at the expense or harm of others.</div> <div>   6     “Pain is the price of each precious thing,” so writes the incomparable Shakespeare; and that </div> <div>          applies as well to the love of each precious thing.</div> <div>   7     What is precious to us is what we love; though not all that is precious to us is what we should love.</div> <div>   8     What do we love more: that which harms us or that which benefits us? Obvious answer; but not an obvious consent.</div> <div>   9     Can we bear the pain for that which we love more to withhold consent to that which we love less?</div> <div> 10     Love is what we are just as love is what we crave, desire, long for, are enflamed by.</div> <div> 11     The difference between love and Love (with a capital “L”) :Love is why we love.</div> <div> 12     Passionate love as compared, contrasted to, compassionate love is the difference between fire and its glow.</div> <div> 13     Love - with a capital `L' confirm to yourself to be the bond of all unity; love with a lower case `l'</div> <div> consider as the bond of this-or-that in life.</div> <div> 14     Let your love of Love itself be your ruling love.</div> <div> 15    Though one mood after another traverses your mind - those that please and those that pain - keep the thought of Love ever infused in them.</div> <div> 16     Love your pains - certainly not as you love your pleasures, but as an inevitability of life.</div> <div> 17     What is beyond your will to do anything about, leave it to itself and return to Love.</div> <div> 18     Know that Love is the meaning of your life.</div> <div> 19     Love will save you from yourself.</div> <div> 20      “Say the word and you'll be free…And the word, the word is love.” - John Lennon.</div> <div> 21     Love be with you.</div> <div> 22     Love the beauty of a shark but avoid it, or protect yourself from it, for your very life. </div> <div> 23     Love strife not as its proponent but as its opponent to the other face of love.</div> <div> 24     Love your enemy - as your enemy. Identify with him; know his ways so to protect yourself from him</div> <div> who you would certainly not treat as a friend nor expect him to treat you as a friend, except to harm you.</div> <div> Know him, respect him, for what he is, but be prepared to oppose him if and when you must - certainly not</div> <div> with defensive love but with offense love that acts on this maxim: Intimidate him before he intimidates you.</div> <div> Catch him off guard not knowing where you're coming from: use your methods, not his. Pretend as he</div> <div> pretends, but for your protection not his. </div> <div> 25     Act with grace as you do right; act in grace to be sure you do right.</div> <div> 26     Know what can and cannot be done, and do, or do not do, what you must with Love on your side.</div> <div> 27     Let Love inspire you to do what is right - otherwise you don't have much of a chance, overall.</div> <div> 28     Love yourself - be with yourself.</div> <div> 29     Be divine – turn inward to your Love source, to your Love divinity.</div> <div> 30     Keep the thought of Love ever on your mind interspersed between everything that goes on within it; </div> <div>           for Love is certainly in your mind; in fact, is your mind.</div> <div> 31    “Love bears all things” (Paul) And so Love makes it possible for us to bear all things.</div> <div> 32    Act in Love, and you act with wisdom.</div> <div> 33    Love is your eternity. Live it here and now in its living reality.</div> <div> 34    Be prepared always for your adversary's bite; </div> <div>         Meet it resolutely with the power of Love's might. </div> <div> 35    Let the energy of Love calm your anger before it ignites you into an unjustifiable fury.</div> <div> <B>… continued</B></div> <bR> <bR> <bR> <DIV ALIGN="LEFT"></DIV> <div>  <A NAME="the_word_3"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="1" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="1" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" ></A><FONT SIZE="4" COLOR="#0000FF" FACE="Calibri" ><B>THE WORD</B></FONT></div> <bR> <div> The following thoughts are mostly ideals to strive for, not unfailing prescriptions to live by. They are my spontaneous thought-feelings that have some considerable truth and effect to them - they helped me on the moment, and fairly consistently - but are not for everyone; certainly not always. One has to be sensitively receptive to the meaning and power of transcendent Love for their pronouncements to take effect; and even then, there is no consistency to them, since we are especially fallible, susceptible, vulnerable, when it comes to the intense emotions and conditions of our lives. However, even these points are relative to the individual; since the more committed one is to the transcendent sense of Love, the more effective will Love have on one's life and behavior. So, consider these thoughts as effective, yes; as the answer to the psychological and spiritual freedom we are seeking - no. They are one such answer - and an essential one - but much more is needed in this stormy, unpredictable life. The follow-through of this little book, of this Love religion, are part of this "much more is needed."</div> <div>     But for now, let these "words of wisdom" suffice, and place you on the right path - "the road less taken."</div> <div>       NOTE 1: The word “Love” as it is meant by Lennon and myself is the transcendent, or spiritual, sense of it,  interchange- able with God, Oneness, the bond of all unity, that which determines love in all its human, transcendent and human-transcendent manifestations.</div> <div>     NOTE 2: There is no particular order of these notes; they were written as the thoughts came to me, and placed mostly in the same numerical order. There is some repetition of ideas, but with variation.</div> <div>  </div> <div>  1   "Say the word and you'll be free." Free from what? Free to what? Free from the adversities of life, from the impetuosity of one's ego-sensuality, from anxiety and despair, from depression and worthless- ness…and on and on. Free to be more self-understanding, free to be transcendent, free to be  moderate, free to be loving, and on and on.</div> <div>   2   Let Love soothe the "savage beast" in you; however buried, sublimated, repressed, it may be. Keep in touch with your Love divinity, and you will keep from the dark forces of your nature, of human nature.</div> <div>   3   Love – transcendent Love – certainly is all you need, as Lennon sings; especially when It comes to  freeing you mind.</div> <div>   4   Say the word "Love," chant the word Love, sing the word Love, as in the song Love is all you need: Love, love, love.</div> <div>   5   Do you want a dosage of strength in a particular situation? Turn to Love. Repeat the word, and that dosage will impart that strength to you - more than, perhaps you can imagine. Keep the faith!</div> <div>   6    Let Love take over. It knows. Certainly more than you know.</div> <div>   7    Ah, the word Love! sweet to the ears, balm to the mind!</div> <div>   8   Temper the word Love with the wisdom of the species - good and evil, you know; lest you become engulfed in "sappiness," in treacle.</div> <div>   9    Saying, chanting, singing, the word Love will save you from yourself. Not totally, but in good part.</div> <div> 10   Saying the word, thinking the word, Love will embark you on a high adventure sans boredom and egoism and neurosis, and...</div> <div> 11   Don't think that love is merely a feminine quality, while truth is the masculine stance; when in fact they're interchangeable, with the additional merit of love as the pathfinder of truth. Or again, it is the masculine quality of Love that emboldens one to be more than he or she is. As a matter of fact, just think of that old, familiar reality of being first in love with another person. Cannot you then "move mountains." Cannot you then "conquer the world." Are you not "eight miles high?" Are you not in another staggering dimension of your humanity willing to sacrifice yourself, rehabilitate yourself, die, for your love? So perhaps, since we have that surpassing, transcendent dimension in loving another person, something comparable happens to us in loving Love; though certainly not as emotionally intense a river-rapids experience, but a more tranquil, long-lasting oceanic flow. And just as you want to be with your loved one all the time, why wouldn't you want to be with Love all the time – through the word Love, the concept of Love, the feeling of Love, the strength of Love, the presence of Love. Yes, the word Love is an abstraction, but it is a relative human abstraction just as it is an absolute pure abstraction - relative to us, personal to us.</div> <div> 12   You wake up depressed with mind clouded in despair; and can't seem to get through it. Do you drink or eat, or drug, or lust yourself against the depression? …Love can help you. "Say the word and you'll be free." Then you get up and do something creative, constructive, helpful. You work; but in mind is always Love, Love, Love. </div> <div> 13   Boredom drains your energy so that all you can do is "mope around," "loaf around," sleep, You grope for some kind of relief, stimulation, even mischief, to end the dullness. Love can help you. - "Say the word and you'll be free." </div> <div> 14   You're aroused sexually unexpectedly, unwantedly, on the instant; your thoughts, your images, can't stop themselves. You're flooded with "the urge"; your conscience can't help you; your vows are but straw in the fire. And so you give in; and so do we all, with no way out, it seems. The incomparable Shakespeare puts it in his sonnet. </div> <div> The expense of spirit in a waste of shame</div> <div> Is lust in action; and till action, lust</div> <div> Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,</div> <div> Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;</div> <div> Enjoy'd no sooner but despisèd straight;</div> <div> Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,</div> <div> Past reason hated, as a swallow'd bait</div> <div> On purpose laid to make the taker mad;</div> <div> Mad in pursuit and in possession so;</div> <div> Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;</div> <div> A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;</div> <div> Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.</div> <div> All this the world well knows; yet none knows well</div> <div> To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.</div> <div>         </div> <div> And again in The Tempest:</div> <div> Do not give dalliance </div> <div> much the rein, the strongest oaths are straw</div> <div> To the fire I' the blood: be more abstemious,</div> <div>  Or else, good night your vow!  (The Tempest)</div> <bR> <div> 15   What are we to do, then against this implacable force? The best answer is: The best we can, over and over again. Turning to the word Love does help us do this "the best we can."</div> <div> 16    Anger blazes through you at the injustice committed, and you go blind instinctively to</div> <div> attack verbally or physically; yet can you abrupt yourself with a thread of reason before it's too late…with the word Love repeated over and over again. ¯ Say the word and you'll be free!</div> <div> 17   Anxiety swells up in you as you forebode the worst. How will you ever get through the "calamity" of what is to, or might, come. The situation is dire; loss looms over your precarious life. How will you deal with it? Perhaps the chant of Love as your saving grace might ease the pain enough to forestall your mind from expecting the worst, to give you another perspective, to put you back on your feet, so to speak.</div> <div> 18   You can't get to sleep, as you toss and turn restlessly; wanted and unwanted thoughts invading  your consciousness aimlessly - so it seems. Then is the time to chant slowly the word "Love," as it soothes you from the flurry of your unwanted thoughts. Observe how restful and quiet and obedient your mind becomes to the incantation of the word Love as your mind readies itself to put you to sleep. Not always, of course.</div> <div> 19   The word Love is a fathomless fount of physical relief and psychic settlement</div> <div> 20    Let your Love divinity be your constant companion.</div> <div> 21    Be with your Love divinity "come rain or shine"</div> <div> 22    Know that Love is your God of all that is! - the God that binds you all compact into this body-mind-soul tripartite.</div> <div> 22   Your Love is the all of everything; It is not any this or that thing.</div> <div> 23  Chant the sacred word Love just as the sacred word OM is chanted slowly, deep-breathingly; let its meaning pervade you.</div> <div> 24   Say the word aloud, to yourself, in a whisper, depending on where you are, or what situation you're in, or  what mood you're in. In either case, its effect takes hold.</div> <div> 25   Desire, passion, impulse, are natural enough in themselves as they're part of our human makeup. Mostly, however, we do not use good judgment when under their sway, but rather follow the "way of all flesh." Our saving grace, though, is that the wisdom of Love (intuition?) will guide us aright without thought intervening. If you have a moment in between your stormed emotion and your acting on that emotion, …Say the word Love; it might save the day - if you want it to.</div> <div> 26   When you're saying or chanting or singing the word Love, don't think of Love as this or that; but rather feel it as an all-pervading  presence.</div> <div> 27   Let Love be your alter ego; that aspect of you that guides you aright when you might otherwise go astray, or sink into psychosomatic turmoil or depression, or laxity, or whatever else. Know that you have a divine part of you that knows what is right and good for you, even though you may not see it that way. In which case…say the word and you'll be free.</div> <div> 28    We often fail ourselves, as we know, when it comes to doing the right thing; but, by being in touch with Love, we will more often be inclined to do the right thing more than we otherwise would.</div> <div> 29    Let your chanting the word Love be your holy prayer.</div> <div> 30    "When to the sessions of sweet silent thought" (Shakespeare) you conjure up the sacred word  Love, then you will experience the variations of  your mind free from the whirlwind of conscious thinking. Your mind transforms into various transconscious states such as into surreal imagery, in which a tiger is playing the flute, or a kaleidoscopic explosion of colors is whizzing about every which way, or scenes of people from another age, or faces of persons nowhere seen in your life, a magnificent oratorio, or  … and the variations go on limitlessly. Or your mind transforms into a blessed feel of peace and silence and stillness. Or the ultimate transconsious state of Oneness  that pervades your mind with the bliss of nothing but Power - nothingness; the so-called misunderstood: nothingness.</div> <div> 31    Keep in mind that for all the optimism I proclaim for the word Love, we nonetheless are still subject to, beyond our control, the chemistry of our glands and organs and tissues, and blood; and the physiology of fatigue and and hunger and sleep, and sexual appetite, and all the accompanying psychosomatic reactions ensuing from these physical realities that limit our transcendent horizons; and make us vulnerable to failing ourselves when most we would want not to.</div> <div> 32   Drown them out! those seducing thoughts and imagery that sweep you into the chaos of the blood. Turn to Love, your only salvation in such turbulent, burning, </div> <div> 33    The word, the presence, of Love is always there for us; but we don't always want it, do we!</div> <div> 34   Blind yourself to the impulse! Go mentally blank into Love; there is no other way out. It will feed upon itself; and then where will you be? Back into the sink of your self gone "wild," if not "mad," for the moment.</div> <div> 35     Let me tell you, for those whose sense of Love has little or no effect, because it is too abstract, too remote. In that event, you can turn to the word "transcendence." This word has perhaps more concrete meaning, since its meaning is clear: beyond self and ego, beyond the phenomenal mind. It has the spiritual sense of Love; since, in a way the two are interchangeable - which is to be explained in another work. So, when in need, and the word or sense or presence of Love fails you; say the word "transcendence" repeatedly and rapidly so that it blocks out the unwanted thoughts, images, actions, arousal. It works; but you must want if not , need, to be free from them; otherwise even this word will have no immediate effect. Or, if even the word "transcendence," is too abstract or vague a word, then say the verb form of the word: "transcend." Accordingly, you repeat rapidly the words "transcend it."  These two little, but powerful, words have the advantage over the usual utterance we say in a troubled mind state: "Don't think of it," inasmuch as the word "transcendence has am ultra-psychological, or spiritual meaning, beyond just the psychological "Don't think of it."   This utterance has us pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps, so to speak; it's just a psychological defense against our humanness, and not often an effective one, as everyone knows; whereas the saying of transcendence or transcend-it goes beyond the mere psychological part of our nature.</div> <div>            NOTE: All this will be made clearer, and more complete, in a further work.</div> <div> 36   When the mood of futility sneaks up on you to invade your self-confidence, to make all that you have done, and are going to do, seem worthless, to make you want to chuck it all and sink yourself into self-destruction - that is when you most need to offset that false seduction with the positive sun rays of the word Love by saying It, singing It, chanting It until your self-confidence returns and hope displaces futility. </div> <div>      Yet, let us say that that futile mood is valid, that the direction you are going in, the life that you are leading, is, in fact, wrong, misplaced. Then what? It is then that you apply at least three of the transcendent aspects of this Love religion:  right, truth, understanding. You ask yourself: Am I on the right track? What is the truth of my life? Do I really understand what is going on?  What next is required, is that you strongly face the reality, the integrity, of the answers to those questions. And for you to answer these questions truly, you are to have your Love divinity by your side, otherwise you will delude yourself by the stark truth of the possible answers to your enquiries. Actually, the process you are going through is what I call wisdom enquiries; which is an integral part of this Love religion. In struggling, striving, to answer these life-meaning questions, you actually are seeking wisdom; in particular, the wisdom of your life. These wisdom enquiries is a trans-psychological dialogue you are undergoing to discover the truth of your life; which is the real path toward self-understanding in relation to the Love of the world, the Love of your life.</div> <div> 37    It's easier to do what you know to be right when motivated, fortified, by the thought of doing it for Love. Love is your salvation; if not, then make Love your salvation. </div> <div> 38    Feel your pain, your arousal, whatever it is, focus in on it, Love it, identify with it, be it accompanied by, armed with, your word Love, Love, Love.</div> <div> 39   Yes, he is "crazy" under the surface, the veneer, of his "normalcy."  Yet, what is it that keeps him intact, so to speak. Is it not love - that he is loved and is able to love without fear of rejection or of being used. So let us rephrase the statement: Are we not all crazy, or would be crazy, in one degree or another without the love that we need for our particular life?</div> <div> 40   Yes, she is bipolar, a manic-depressive, a neurotic, a  borderline schizophrenic; since love as his nature required has ever eluded her both from her parents and her husbands. Her children assuaged her condition, but only as a temporary, sublimated stopgap. How could she elude this crucial lack of her formative years except through repression and sublimation and medication, and who knows what else. Good works help, therapy helps, career success helps, material goods help, friends help, religion helps, knowledge helps, peer recognition help - all these and more, help her get through her life without extremities. Yet still she remains an incomplete woman because she is not loved as her being demands; and so conversely, she herself cannot love as her being demands. Where is the right man - or woman - to free her? And, as human nature, human ignorance, would have it, it is hardly likely that she would find such a person. And so she lacks her fourth dimension: being herself</div> <div>      From the perspective of our Love-spirituality, Love is her only path to her self-freedom - to love herself so much that she recreates herself in her own image of the person she truly is, however repressed or sublimated that true person is; and to live by and for that person either solitarily or interpersonally, or socially. Love in its full meaning will thereby set her free - free from guilt, free from reprisals, free from repression, free from anxiety, and all the rest of the refuse of our ignorance. By no means do I advocate the absence of all restraints, or the "derangement of the senses" What I do advocate is wisdom; more specifically, the wisdom of the species. This wisdom, of course, takes a stupendous understanding of one's self, of human nature, of human relationships, of transcendence. It comes down to human-transcendence -- the balance between one's humanness and one's transcendence, which is the wisdom of our Love-spirituality</div> <div> 41   Love is a metaphysical God; not an anthropomorphic God – except that Love is embedded into the very being of our human existence.</div> <div> 42    My first inclination is to resist her criticism; but the word Love stops me in my tracks to reconsider that I'm more interested in the rightness or wrongness of that criticism than my wounded self-love.</div> <div> 43    Isn't it amazing! that just before we were flooded with lust, or whatever other extreme, and then with a change of mind through the word Love, that flood dispelled; we were free of it; it's as though it didn't even happen.</div> <div> 44   You say the word Love, it saves you for the time; then it comes back., and you say the word again until it dispels again and again and again; until your mind, of itself turns to something else quite oblivious of what previously troubled you before.</div> <div> 45   Saying the word Love to save yourself from yourself, and to save others from yourself, is an ideal, to be sure. So, as everything else human, cannot be attained absolutely, perfectly. Yet it is an ideal that becomes more and more real as we come to be in love with Love, so to speak. To be in love with Love is to want always to be with Love, and to do well by Love; just as you would be toward your sweetheart.</div> <div> 46    Since Love