Saturday, January 13, 2024



THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF #7

NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE

THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF 

 NAVIGATING THE APOCALYPSE 


Spiritual laws are operative whether or not we understand them or can explain them or whether or not we even know about them or believe in them. 


The Contents of these several Blogs are below. These are to delineate the crucial factors in the Search for the Self. The Brown color delineates what has been done so far.


ABSOLUTE  SPIRITUAL TRUTHS


THE SEARCH FOR THE SELF

SELF-REALIZATION or  (“BECOMING”)

FREE WILL

IMPERMANENCE AND NON-ATTACHMENT

KARMA’S FIVE PRECEPTS 

SOUL ARCHITECTURE

THE THREE DEADLY SINS OF KARMA 

 THE THREE DEADLIEST SINS OF KARMA

THE HERO/INE vs. THE WARRIOR ARCHETYPE
THE HEALING OF MEANING
DEATH - THE FINAL JOURNEY

SPIRITUAL PRACTICE – "FIELD" – SPIRIT GUIDES
GRATITUDE

LOVE - FORGIVENESS 

ENERGY SYSTEMS



LOVE AND FORGIVENESS #7


LOVE


… doing for love is not the same as doing with love.

 

What do you seek?
Being right or understanding?
Being heard or hearing?
Being loved or loving?
If you seek the one you will not find the other.
If you seek the other you will find both.

 

The more you do for love, the more love will do for you.


Love, laughter and song chase away the dark forces and all that is dreaded from your nights and days.


Love on the Tree of life forms a Triad that balances Judgment and Mercy. The Ancestors teach us to "sweeten" our judgments, to try and walk in the others' shoes and to judge the action not the person. It is said that when the student of Kabbalah has mastered this Triad s/he  can teach themselves. 


“To awaken the heart, is to awaken the dormant soul.” Gandhi


It is also the most difficult chakra to master in yoga.


…The early sages taught that
 the pursuit of wisdom ennobled the intellect with knowledge of God, while love brought one into His presence.



“A coward is incapable of exhibiting love; it is the prerogative of the brave.” Mahatma Gandhi


Loving and being loved is soul talk. To love is also to be vulnerable to love from others and to love one's-Self - that part of us made in the image of the Divine.

 

“Love is the most universal, formidable and mysterious of all the cosmic forces.” De Chardin


We are all one, though not the same.



 "You are me, and I am you. Isn't it obvious that we “inter-are”?  Thich Nhat Hahn


"The fundamental delusion of humanity is to suppose I am here and you are out there." Yasutani Roshi 


Love your neighbor as yourself obliges us to see the divine spark that is in all of us. It does not require we like, nor or have anything much to do with him or her, but respect the Self within them. This is not love as a sentiment or emotion but as a commitment. Its embraced by the yoga greeting Namaste - I recognize the divinity within you.


Ubuntu is a Bantu concept.

  

“Ubuntu speaks to the essence of being human. The solitary individual is in our understanding a contradiction in terms. You are a person through other persons. Ubuntu speaks about the importance of communal harmony; warmth, compassion, generosity, hospitality and seeks to embrace others.” 

Bishop Tutu


FORGIVENESS #1

(Mercy vs. Judgment)

Despise no person and consider nothing impossible, for there is no one who does not have his/her hour and there is nothing that does not have its place.” Talmud 

"Patience in enduring evil
Mercy to the point of recalling only the good qualities of our tormentor.
Remembering them in the innocence of their infancy.
Mercy beyond the letter of the law ...” Cordovero

The second Triad of the Tree of Life concerns empathy and compassion which enables forgiveness. 

The goal is not to retreat from misunderstandings but is to avoid giving cause for them. The intention is not simply to do away with misunderstandings but to have either more or better understandings.

Mercy, compassion, empathy are key to Forgiveness.


“To err is human, to forgive Divine

"Forgiveness is part of the treasure you need to craft your falcon wings and return to your true realm of Divine Freedom.” Hafitz


To forgive is to return to Self and to "... lay our burden down by the riverside and to study war (inside of us) no more."


Forgiveness relieves the one receiving it and the one giving it - of a burden that can be an albatross around one's neck


God save thee, ancient Mariner
From the fiends, that plague thee thus
Why look'st thou so ? - With my cross-bow
I shot the albatross.
...
Ah well a-day. what evil looks
Had I from old and young
Instead of the cross, the Albatross
About my neck was hung... S. T. Coleridge


“Forgiveness is the most completing gift we can experience for we all have its sweet need.  

John O’donahue


“In forgiving and letting go we can then exalt in treasuring what we truly most treasure.” J. O’donahue


“Forgiveness is the most completing gift we can experience for we all have its sweet need.” J. O’donahue


Forgiveness is generated by empathy and compassion, not only for others but also for ourselves. Many of us are making new year resolutions at this time. Forgiveness should be considered as being one of them.


THERE ARE THREE COMPONENTS TO FORGIVENESS


GRANTING OURSELVES FORGIVENESS


This is often the most difficult.


"And if your friend does evil to you, say to him, “I forgive you for what you did to me, but how can I forgive you for what you did to yourself?”  Nietzsche


“What are the ways of the Holy One. A God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and faithfulness, extending kindness to the thousandth generation, forgiving, iniquity, transgression and sin.” Exodus 34:6


Before we can forgive others we first need to forgive ourselves or we may project that burden onto others.


“If we do not transform our pain,

we will most assuredly transmit it.” Richard Rohr


GRANTING OTHERS FORGIVENESS


To engage in the dance of movement with one’s opponent makes him/her a partner. 


“Actions arise from conditions. Do not judge then the former until the latter is well understood. If you have eaten what the judged one has eaten, and worn his clothes, and thought his thoughts, and felt both his joy and pain then you may say you have stood in his place but only briefly compared to the length of his stay. So still you may not know the past or present plights that plague him. 
Our judgments are frequently fraught with error and usually tainted with arrogance. Compassion and love are our salvation and joy.” Hillel

"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods.” Goethe


ASKING OTHERS FOR FORGIVENESS


Forgiveness must begin with remorse, regret, acknowledgment and confession for what we have done.


“A person cannot find redemption until s/he sees the flaws in his soul and tries to efface them. Whoever shuts out the realization of his flaws is shutting out redemption. We can only be redeemed to the extent to which we see ourselves.” Talmud


“Iniquities are etched upon our bones such that traces remain even when God forgives. One must acknowledge and confess the wrongdoing to have the stain cleansed and the record removed.“ Ezekiel






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