[phantom3165]

I understand the desire/need to label a thing and give it attributes but I personally feel we invest too much into it. When I label something I conceptualize it and it becomes a thought form. I am no longer connected to the experience and the next time I "think" I see it or something similar, I habitually go to that associated thought form and "think" I understand a thing. We all do this, it is how we are all programmed and reinforced by one another, but it makes us experientially lazy and it is the root cause for all of our suffering.

When I conceptualize you by labeling you good (Lightsider)or bad (Darksider) based on the limited perspective of any given string of moments in which I interact with you, I immediately fail to see reality now and the next time we cross paths, because I no longer really see you. Instead I see the projected image of my habitual collection of thought forms and associated emotional elements about you. If you compound this by adding everything we sense you start to see the horror of our situation.

You might contest that there are truly odious beings or that cannot be completely true, because sometimes my life may be threatened. On a certain level that would be a valid argument unless you considered that the person you are threatened by is just as habitually addicted to their collected thought forms as you. This can also be know as identification with form. When I forget my "self" and completely be(lie)ve what I am experiencing, I become attached and identified to the outcome. The real you can never be harmed so who is it that is afraid?

This then brings up the question of fear. Why do I fear another person or event? Who is it that fears in me? Why do I feel the need to label something good or evil? I feel that when we started out on this planet we developed the ability to categorize and label other forms including ourselves so we could communicate more effectively when we were in danger or wanted to collectively work on complex problems. This is what separated us from all the other animal forms. This ability which originally included all of our senses was a gift because we also knew who we were beyond form,but just like everything in a causal reality, change occurred and the Ego was born. The ego is nothing but a collection of thought forms that cooperate in preserving and enhancing its self image through associations and stored memories of past experiences. It also knows and "fears" death because it will die when the body form dies.

I went a little off topic but I think it is important to really get a grasp of this labeling process we constantly engage in and how destructive and damaging it is to us personally and collectively as a species. We have to use language to express ourselves and that means labels are needed in order to understand one another, but we must become acutely aware of the trap we create by our dependency on this process. What is a lightsider or a darksider to me and why must I label anyone in this way other than to describe a specific characteristic I bear witness to in a given moment based on my own very limited understanding of the person being labeled? Can I let go of my habitual associations and see the whole situation in the moment of judgment? If I'm clever I can watch myself for a time and see this process in myself. Can I watch a tree without labeling it or does it just become part of the background noise in my mind?

This all goes on around us all of our lives but most do not realize that it also happens on the inside in exactly the same way. What would it mean to truly be? How can I become open to each moment as if it were a new experience and truly allow everyone and everything to be whatever it is no matter how we personally perceive its polarity in relation to our selves? Can I realize that when I look or interact with you I am looking and interacting with myself by seeing an aspect of me in you. Do my actions define me really or are my personal motivations which spawn my actions the true definition of my character. I can be a good person all my life and be regarded as such and still be motivated by self love, clever manipulations, or the need for external approval. When Christ was dying on the cross, what did he really mean when he said;"Father forgive them for they know not what they do."? We are all programmed organic machines who have the possibility of transcending our programming by realizing our habitual programmed reactions and action. We are all innocent of sin because we do not really know what it is we are doing. How can we judge or claim that our way is better than another's without realizing that we do the very thing we react too?

So to sum this lengthy diatribe, I hope I have offered up some new ideas that can cause, by association in your own mental library, the wish to fervently understand better the world around you and inside of you. May your journey be filled with epiphanies and understanding. May you love yourself enough to let go of all these preconceived notions and embrace each moment as if you were just born into it.

Peace and thanks for asking the question