Our ability to love unconditionally is related to our consciousness levels. By being able to love more, with less conditions, we pave the way towards the stage of our eventual enlightenment, where we can love the whole world, reality, without any expectations, because we self-identify with all that arises in our consciousness. I try to wear away the boundaries and distinctions that wear away love's presence. Love is including the other person as part of your identity, but we won't know this if the light of love's effects (affection) doesn't shine out from us. This doesn't change our identity, it just changes our awareness of our identity. Illusions don't need to be cherished, because they are just illusions. This is the goal of liberation, and of enlightenment.


The statement "God is Love" can be seen as either naive or very, very profound. It depends on our distinctions. However, In Unconditional Love their are no distinctions.

           Everyone I meet can become my mentor, if I am able to see the truth in them. If we are able to see the Voice of truth within an individual, the Voice that calls for something more, for Spirit, we can arise together. Together I take your hand in mine, and we will ascend together. As One.

           Oh my God. I can't believe you asked me this question. It would probably have to be either Jesus or Buddha or a meeting between Jesus and Buddha (?). Jesus the Christ's message has been so often interpreted and reinterpreted throughout the ages, that I would just like to meet the mystic man behind it. I would ask him, if he really believed in the notion of sacrifice, or if he was showing the world something else. Sincere people should check out the books, A Course in Miracles, and The Aquarian Gospels of Jesus the Christ. They offer a radically different notion of Christianity. Whether you believe them or not, they offer very interesting ideas.

       It depends on the quality of life. Aw what the heck, I'll take another 100 years.                
                               There can be only One-- The Highlander

                I've recently been meditating, and imagine a circle growing so that is so inclusive that it includes everything. What would that feeling of freedom be, without boundaries, that feeling of Being, and I emotionally identify myself with it and think, I AM THAT, that sense of fullness, that sense of freedom, and "I" dissolve into that. This peace and Self-fulfillment is always there for us. It is only when we believe we are attacking our reality, that we believe we are separate.

           I don't know, that's why I need to learn it.

              The recurring theme of the past few months is to not define my problems as "problems." It's sort of a catch-22. By thinking of something as a problem, we help create and give it resistance. By actually not thinking of it as a problem, the resistance becomes not even noticable and able to be dealt with. Our focus helps direct our awareness. Do we want to keep our problems, or are we willing to see how something is "not a problem."

Our problems cannot be solved by the same consciousness that created them"-- Albert Einstein.

                Love is all inclusive. Love is the extension of the Self, not of the self image. Love is wanting the highest possible outcome for another, and it is also when the walls come down in front of you, and in those moments of authenticity, you know exactly what the other person is thinking, or feeling, and you connect with them.  Love is including that other person as a part of you. There are those who are able to devote themselves to serving and connecting with others out of love. Jesus said to love your "neighbor" as yourself. I couldn't have said it better myself.

       I know i'm on the right path when my mind is firing full throttle on some creative ideas, and one idea leads to another, without repetitiveness, like it's on divine fire. Although there is no "wrong" path, there are ones that bring our energy down, and ultimately aren't life-supporting because they depress the body. The right path is one that leads to peace of mind, meaning, and inspiration. To be in-spired is to get fulfillment from the awareness and awakening of our Spirit.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/71567/broken_escalator/

 

"Liberating education consists in acts of cognition, not transferals of information. It is a learning situation in which the cognizable object (far from being the end of the cognitive act) intermediates the cognitive actors-teachers on the one hand and students on the other. Accordingly, the practice of problem-posing education entails at the outset that the teacher-student contradiction be resolved. Dialogical relations-indispensable to the capacity of cognitive actors to cooperate in perceiving the same cognizable object-are otherwise impossible.

                 Indeed, problem-posing education, which breaks with the vertical patterns characteristic of banking education, can fulfill its function as the practice of freedom. Through dialogue, the teacher-of-the-students and the students-of-the-teacher cease to exist and a new term emerges: teacher-student with students-teachers. The teacher is no longer merely the-one-who-teaches, but one who is himself taught in dialogue with the students, who in turn while being taught also teach. They become jointly responsible for a process in which all grow. In this process, arguments based on ‘authority' are no longer valid; in order to function, authority must be on the side of freedom, not against it. Here no one teaches another, nor is anyone self-taught. Men teach each other, mediated by the world, by the cognizable objects which in banking education are ‘owned' by the teacher.

              The banking concept (with its tendency to dichotomize everything) distinguishes two stages in the action of the educator. During the first, he cognizes a cognizable object while he prepares his lessons in his study or his laboratory; during the second, he expounds to his students about that object. The students are not called upon to know, but to memorize the contents narrated by the teacher. Nor do the students practice any act of cognition, since the object towards which that act should be directed is the property of the teacher rather than a medium evoking the critical reflection of both teacher and students. Hence in the name of the ‘preservation of culture and knowledge' we have a system which achieves neither true knowledge nor true culture.

            The problem-posing method does not dichotomize the activity of the teacher-student: he is not ‘cognitive at one point and ‘narrative at another. He is always ‘cognitive,' whether preparing a project or engaging in dialogue with the students. He does not regard cognizable objects as his private property, but as the object of reflection by himself and the students. In this way, the problem-posing educator constantly re-forms his reflections in the reflection of the students. The students-no longer docile listeners-are now critical co-investigators in dialogue with the teacher. The teacher presents the material to the students for their consideration, and reconsiders his earlier considerations as the students express their own. The role of the problem-posing educator is to create, together with the students, the conditions under which knowledge at the level of doxa is superseded by true knowledge, at the level of the logos.

            Whereby banking education anesthetizes and inhibits creative power, problem-posing education involves a constant unveiling of reality. The former attempts to maintain the submersion of consciousness; the latter strives for the emergence of consciousness and critical intervention in reality.

            Students, as they are increasingly posed with problems relating to themselves in the world and with the world, will feel increasingly challenged and obliged to respond to that challenge. Because they apprehend the challenge as interrelated to other problems within a total context, not as a theoretical question, the resulting comprehension tends to be increasingly critical and thus constantly less alienated. Their response to the challenge evokes new challenges, followed by new understandings; and gradually the students come to regard themselves as committed.

            Education as the practice of freedom-as opposed to education as the practice of domination-denies that man is abstract, isolated, independent, and unattached to the world; it also denies that the world exists as a reality apart from men. Authentic reflection considers neither abstract man nor the world without men, but men in their relations with the world. In these relations consciousness and the world are simultaneous: consciousness neither precedes the world nor follows it...

            Problem-posing education affirms men as beings in the process of becoming-as unfinished, uncompleted beings in and with a likewise unfinished reality. Indeed, in contrast to other animals who are unfinished, but not historical, men know themselves to be unfinished; they are aware of their incompletion. In this incompletion and this awareness lie the very roots of education as an exclusively human manifestation. The unfinished character of men and the transformational character of reality necessitate that education be an ongoing activity."

--Paulo Freire, Brazilian educator (1921-1997) 

      Pedagogy of the Oppressed

    Online. It's my favorite hideout by far.

"Anonymity can be so confortable. It's like a warm blanket." --Max(ine) from Mission Impossible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTKJiP_bdbE

          Although we're all "angels" here at Gaia, I have always been drawn to Metatron, an angel scribe who is said to behold knowledge.

The text leaves the impression that the fullness of the disclosure of the ultimate secrets to this angel can be comparable only to the knowledge of the Deity itself, since according to Metatron, all the mysteries of the world and all the orders (secrets)[2] of creation are revealed before him "as they stand revealed before the Creator"[3] himself.

One learns from Sefer Hekhalot that the angel's initiation into the ultimate secrets and mysteries of the universe allows him to discern the outer and inner nature of things: the mysteries of creation as well as the secrets of the human hearts.

http://www.marquette.edu/maqom/metatronsecrets.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metatron

 

            Include and Transcend Your Differences:

                          An Integral Dialogue

            It is important to first include our differences in a dialogue. I can't stress how important it is to include their differences and distinctions in any sort of dialogue. Just as we have to distinguish the corners of a puzzle piece in order to see where it fits together with another puzzle piece, we have to define the corners of an individual in order to find the space where we can meet that individual.

"The point here is that uniqueness does not necessarily mean exclusivity. At one level of our individuality uniqueness divides us from others, although it does not necessarily make us ‘better' than others. However, at a deeper level, a higher realization of truth, individuality is a state in which we are unique but indivisible from all others. Christian [or integral] uniqueness can therefore be interpreted as divisive at one level but integrative at another." ---  Father  Laurence Freeman (The Good Heart)

            First acknowledge their worth, and then acknowledge the Truth. This requires a certain nonattachment to the person, or equanimity, and attachment to the truth.  You must love your friend, but you must love the Truth more. Sometimes we can see through the illusion when others can't. We can see the truth in people even when they can't. This is space where we can truly meet another person. We attest to the truth of our reality, rather than our differences.

            There is a principle in A Course in Miracles that states, "As you teach, so shall you learn." If we first include their differences, and we must include their differences or distinctions in order to define where they are coming from, and from this shared resonance we can look beyond them. If we teach others that their differences do not matter after we see them, then we are showing them that we share a common reality.

If we first see and include other's differences, and we are able to overlook them, we are teaching them (and ourselves) that these differences don't matter. This in turn will teach others that your different way of thinking doesn't matter (for the time being) and doesn't divide the two of you. We can point to other people's truths with one hand, while indirectly and simultaneously pointing towards something greater with the other arm.  In this way the door of truth is quietly kept open for people to develop curiosity. (The first holon-stage is curiosity, the second holon-stage is finding all you can about the view and integrating it, and the third holon-stage is the lifestyle way.)

            Most people's identities are wrapped up in their paradigms and worldviews. If we try and first throw away their worldview, then we are first throwing away the person. And so "the baby goes out with the bathwater." We shouldn't see it as throwing away their worldview or ‘making them understand.' We aren't trying to ‘make them understand' rather, we are understanding with them, first treating them as equals. This brings a great humility to the table. It takes a certain vulnerability and authentic nature from us.

            If we want others to acknowledge the worth and validity of integral theory or a more comprehensive way of thinking, we have to first acknowledge their worldview, their truths. We first acknowledge the validity of their worldview and way of thinking, and then we bring something new to the table. We can acknowledge the value of their worldview while simultaneously not getting stuck in it. We have to separate the worldview from the person.

            For example Postmodernism values diversity. In order to reach anyone at the postmodern pluralistic stage, we first show them that we value diversity, but that there is also diversity in unity. This is diversity with inter-dependence. No longer can I consider myself independent of others when global warming affects all of us, and the actions of a few radical terrorists show me that I live in a global world. Postmodernism hates and is afraid of hierarchies, and yes we can affirm that there have been dominator hierarchies and they have been bad, but that Integral theory also shows that there have been natural hierarchies, or holarchies. It is not about power ‘under' vs. power ‘over'. It is about taking in a sphere of larger context, a greater holon.

            If Integral theory has a heart, (and surely it does), it is in its inclusiveness. It includes various developmental worldviews, and goes one step beyond them. As such it includes more people, along with those worldviews. This is the beauty of integral theory. It includes multiple disciplines, not losing their distinctions, yet transcends them by finding a way they all fit together. We have to first give people their ‘Dignity' before we show them the partialness of the approach, ‘The Disaster'. The idea that no one "loses" is key to this approach.  Ken Wilber sees this approach as Integral Methodological Pluralism (IMP). A Course in Miracles calls this "Atonement without Sacrifice."

All fear comes about because of the false notion of sacrifice. You are not asked to ‘sacrifice' your understanding or others. You are merely being asked to evaluate what is valuable and what is not.

            Too often we just want to go ahead and rush to transcending other people's values. We don't first include their point of view, their truths, or acknowledge the way they see their worth.

            This acknowledgement of differences is crucial though, and must be taken into account every time we come to the table in any sort of dialogue. In any dialogue, we can't bring our egos (shadow) to the table. We can't assign someone a function, and then get upset that they aren't performing that function. We always have to come to the table as equals. We have to continuously think of ourselves as equals partners in reality. We can think of others as being equal (Spirit is in everyone) while at the same time not according all truth to be equal. (Smaller holons are seen to be partial to larger holons, because larger holons take in a greater context[i]. Conflicts in understanding are resolved upon finding the larger context.) In a sense, we are all in the same landscape of reality, yet some of us have more of a view of the landscape.[ii]

            We are all student-teachers and teacher-students of each other[iii]. Helping liberate others from their suffering, giving them what can help alleviate their suffering, we alleviate our own and refine the things we give in our own mind. By placing value on the subject of dialogue, instead of our interpretations of the subject, we remove ourselves from the equation. This gives us a certain clarity of thought, and in this way we both become learners.

            This addresses the heart and goal of all genuine dialogue. This leads to a new koan. If we first include our differences and then transcend them, how then are we now different? We've just transcended our differences. How can what is the same now be different?

---

[i] Smaller holons, with all their previous connotations, can obscure much larger holons, in much the same way as a leaf in front of your eyes obscures a mountain! Therefore it is always advisable to be open-minded.

[ii]   Different worldviews and paradigms aren't ‘separate', they are merely different spectrums of Reality. There aren't different ‘worlds' only different concepts of the world. Even if you could believe that you are dreaming and the only one in the dream that is ‘real,' you would still have to abide by the reality of that dream.

[iii] See the Brazilian educator and reformer Paulo Friere's idea on education in the book Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

 Recommended books-Verbal Judo: the gentle art of persuasion by George Thompson

                                          And A Good Heart-The Dalai Lama

           Slightly overcast, with a small chance of hurricane, and me calmly meditating in the center of the eye.   ;)