WHAT’S GOING ON                                    

#147 October 2006

ALONG THE WAY

Are we grown-up enough to not be controlled by emotions?  (anger, fear, guilt, insecurity and their many synonyms)

THIS MONTHS THOUGHT

Happiness is when we don’t want to change anything.  So, what keeps me from being happy, right now?  What value does unhappiness have?

LOVE:  School Talk #1

The subject has been requested.  I ask many people to give me what they wanted me to talk about.  So, the most of them said to talk about “love.”  That must be a good subject these days.  So, we’ll talk about “love.”

The one English work “love” has come from many Greek words, which seem to have had a more concise meaning.

The first one is PIA that the Greeks used which referred to love of your offspring or maybe the offspring’s concern for their parents.  Now, let’s don’t assume this is purely a human trait.  If any of you grew up on a farm you know if you make a little baby pig squeal, you got an old sow to contend with very quickly and she’s vicious in no uncertain terms. Or even an old mother chicken.  If the baby chicken squawks, here she comes. So PIA is fairly known amongst all animals of any size or degree of evolving animals.  So let’s not think that this is strictly human.

The next one is EROS.  That’s the way the little one got here, so obviously that goes around pretty well between all sorts of creatures both great and small.  Humans have it and they make a production about it.  It is based on the same thing that results in little baby calves and little baby puppies and little baby kittens and little baby birds.  Eros is the mating attraction and it’s very common.

And then there is PHELIA, which means, “I like” which is the simplest word we could use today.  So, we might could say, “I like chocolate cake.  I like boxer dogs.  I like colonial houses.  I like antique furniture.”

Now, all kinds of creatures, as we’re said, seem to exhibit these forms that the Greeks used instead of “love,” but they’ve all been translated into the one English word “love.”

The other Greek word they had was AGAPE.  That refers to understanding.  I understand that whatever you are doing, ever have done, or ever will do and whatever I’ve ever done, I am doing or ever will do, at the moment of doing, is felt to be right or proper or justifiable.  Now the justification is always breaking down on us, if you’ve noticed.  It can feel very justifiable at the moment, but three hours later the justification breaks down and we have feelings of guilt.   Basically AGAPE is the one where you have an understanding of other people and yourself as well.  Whatever you were doing at that moment was the only thing you could do with what light you had at that moment.   This is an advanced state and only human beings can have this form of love.

Now we would like to add one more on here.  We will put UNCONDITIONAL LOVE.  Now unconditional love is where we have delight in another human being without regard to conditions or what that person does.   Most of us think of love as “that’s fine as long as you’re doing what I want you to, when I want you to, and in a way I want you to.”  You got all sorts of things in the way.  So I think we’ll find that most of the love we know about in personal and interpersonal relationships is very conditional.  We have conditions set in order to have my reciprocated love. Now let’s see if we could conceive of having a caring for, love for, someone that we did not have a condition set.  Think you could do that?  There would be no conditions.  No matter what they did, you would still have the same feeling for them.  Think you could do that one?  Probably not.

Unconditional love leads to power.  Now most everybody would like to have power.  Whatever the power you want to do is up to you.  Some people want the power to heal.  Some want the power to entertain.  Some want the power to do a jillion other things, whatever they may be.  Maybe it’s to make a business go.  But without unconditional love, there is only struggle.  There really isn’t any great power going around.

Now let’s see if we can conceive for a few minutes what is the obstruction to unconditional love.  We maintain you have about everything if you don’t have an obstruction to it.  It is the nature of you to have it.  So, what would be some of the obstructions to unconditional love?  We want to have our way right now.  We want to have other people do what we want them to do.  We want a little control.  Now, if you don’t have control, we can get ticked off at people after a while.  So if they would be controllable, they would be lovable.  We have all these conditions that we set up before we could love them.

Could you conceive that it would be possible to have unconditional love– that you could love regardless of what the person does or does not do? It is possible that we could by knowing self and seeing where we have our little bits of conditioning?  First off, we think the whole purpose of living is to be non-disturbed.  I don’t think any of us have achieved that state very long at a time except with the help of alcohol or drugs for awhile.  This works for only a few hours.  So, we have set up as a bunch of little conditions.  Number one:  If I complain enough, you’re supposed to do what I want you to do.  So there’s a certain amount of complaining goes on all the time. Next:  we stick up for our rights.  That’s when we get a little angry.  That ought to get them straightened up! (To be continued next month)

A STORY

Flying an airplane has brought much joy into my life for many years.  Even as a little girl I was fascinated with aircraft.  When I heard a plane, I would run outside to spot it and my eyes would follow it until it was out of sight.  Aeronautics class seemed much more fun than Home Economics in 1946 as a high school freshman.  I was interested in what forces went together to make an airplane fly.  Well, was I ever surprised to find that the key to lift is resistance!  The resistance of the wind meeting the wing of the plane causes a difference in pressures on top of the wing and the underside of the wing.  This pressure creates a vacuum that lifts the plane up.  Without the resistance of the wind meeting the wing, there would be no LIFT.  Resistance gives lift, not only to a tiny plane, but to aircraft weighing many, many tones.  Resistance is, therefore, transformed into power.

What a concept!

My life has been filled with resistance.  The car won’t start.  It rains on my picnic.  Someone throws my dolly in the dust.  Things don’t go my way.  Inertia immobilizes me.  Distractions keep me asleep.  Others criticize or disapprove of me…. and on and on and on.  If I’m asleep, I will complain, blame, ignore, avoid, try to change, and try to control resistance with methods that not only destroy my peace, but destroy the body as well.

It is vital to my well-being to remember that resistance is the force that grows and evolves me. It is one of the four forces of the creative process and is necessary for the completion of any aspect of life.   It can lift me above the ‘world’ and it’s hypnotic spell to heights of beauty and joy.  If this is true, and I know that it is, why would I not be grateful for all resistance that comes my way and quit whining when things don’t go my way.  Well, I forget that resistance is a precious gift.

I will remember to remember.

FORMS OF RESISTANCE

(From: The Place of Language in the Teachings page 25)

1. Resisting all forms of what is judged painful.
2. Resisting all possibility of losing that which is judged pleasurable or comfortable.
3. Resisting not having one’s own way, NOW!
4. Resisting not getting one’s rights.
5. Resisting any reflection on one’s image of self.
6. Resisting any challenge to one’s beliefs.
7. Resisting failure to realize one’s expectations.
8. Resisting any challenge to one’s fault-finding.
9. Resisting change.
10. Resisting making up of one’s mind. (Faith)
11. Resisting experiencing what is, from moment to moment.
12. Resisting knowing oneself.
13. Resisting agape.
14. Resisting saying “NO.”
15. Resisting consciously playing a role.
16. Resisting giving up all pre-conceived opinions.
17. Resisting dis-identification.
18. Resisting a quiet mind.

ZEN SARCASM

1. Do not walk behind me, for I may not lead.  Do not walk ahead of me, for I many not follow.  Do not walk beside me either.  Just pretty much leave me alone.
2. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a broken fan belt and leaky tire.
3. Always remember that you’re unique just like everyone else.
4. If at first you don’t succeed, skydiving is not for you.
5. Everyone seems normal until you get to know him
6. There are two theories to arguing with women.  Neither one works.
7. Generally speaking, you aren’t learning much when your lips are moving.
8. Experience is something you don’t get until just after you need it.
9. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
10. Never, under any circumstances, take a sleeping pill and a laxative on the same night.
11. Don’t be irreplaceable.  If you can’t be replaced, you can’t be promoted.
12. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day.  Teach him how to fish, and he will sit in a boat and drink beer all day.
13. If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.
14. Behind every successful woman is herself.