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Originally Posted by tc33  Taylor, thanks for your responses, especially response #1 which was very brief and prescriptive. I believe you are correct in that developing compassion and kindness, both in my thoughts as well as my actions, are the keys to progression. We shall see! |
I tried to keep #1 brief because the path to Love is quite simple, it just requires consistency. And good luck to you!! Another useful tool might be finding a mentor who is already in Love or a group of like minded people.
And now on to the dreaded philosophy...
Michael, I really like your definition of love as reaching for new perspectives. It's interesting. I've never thought of it that way before. The way I understand what you mean by that is it is also an unbiased, open minded, innocent context.
Now one thing I didn't mean to do was put down the intellect. Intelligence has it's place, and without it, we'd all be dead most likely. My point is that it has limitations. What I mean by the mind surviving on dualities is that we think logically with language. Language needs a subject and an object. It needs categories of thought. Without division and particulars, language cannot work. And language, thought, and the intellect are very very useful. I hope this makes sense.
Another mistake the objective mind makes is this: a thought represents reality. In fact, a thought never represents reality. All language is a metaphor for what really is. The thought, 'a cup' is not the same thing as a real cup. 'A Cup' represents a creation of the mind, and not the creation of God. True honesty is letting go of the false world of your mind to reality. So while the mind is very useful especially in manipulation of physical form, (math, science, communication, etc) it is limited. It does not see reality. It cannot see the present, only the past, represented by concepts. And it cannot comprehend the unity of life. As Buddha said, "Unity itself and the idea of Unity are already two."
When I first started looking into Steve's subjective reality, I was thinking objectively, and we had a brief discussion via email when I tried to challenge his views. The way I finally understood what he meant, was by reading David Hawkins, which I highly, highly recommend. You can't hold Steve as an objective entity in your mind and believe in subjective reality. You must look at this constant field of awareness that gives everything in your reality it's authenticity. When you realize that, you see that there are no other people, no separation between things, there is nothing, but this complete, silent, awareness. This awareness is the only
you, that there really is. It's the only anything that really is. The ego, or the personal self is just a body and thought process that is contained within the awareness. Actually that's not true, but language breaks down quite quickly when discussing nonduality.
I was never able to come to these conclusions looking at it objectivley. Only when I turned to my own inward experience could I understand what Steve and David Hawkins and the mystics were talking about. It's funny because looking from an objective point of view, it seems so easy to call it delusional. But when you personally experience some of this, you realize that the objective world is a dream, and wonder how you never realized any of this before. Have you ever been reading for hours at a time and then all of a sudden something interrupts you, "Oh yeah. Life is going on." You were so caught up in concepts, that you forgot the real thing. Well enlightenment is like that, only a million times more intense.
So forgive me if I didn't directly discuss a lot of what you brought up. Just trying to be efficient.
And for your information let me quote what Hawkins says about Love taken from Transcending The Levels of Consciousness.
p246 "In terms of the evolution of consciousness, this level reflects transcendence of identification with the limiting linear domain and its positionalities to the awareness of subjectivity as the primary state that underlies all experience. Thus, the sense of reality moves from what is perceived to the condition or faculty by which it is experienced."
p245 "Love takes no position and thus is global, rising above the separation of positionality. It is then possible to be 'one with another' as there are no longer any barriers. Love is therefore inclusive and progressively expands the sense of self. Love focuses on the goodness of life in all its expressions and augments that which is positive. It dissolves negativity by recontextualizing it rather than by attacking it. As such, it is benign, supportive, and nurtures life; consequently, it is the level of true happiness."