"B" <BGKent@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:n0OUj.37966$zw.11902@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Long ago I've learnt by the grace of God to look at others and send
> them a loving thought...a spiritual hug as it were. Sometimes we have
> days when everyone is bugging us it seems and when I have my open
> channel to Christ unblocked I just send them a loving thought. I do
> believe that this softens things...maybe not right away..but it does
> work. Sometimes picturing this person as a baby with fear or pain
> helps your love to get to them. Now I don't mean condescension...that
> will never work for no one is better or worse than anyone else in Gods
> eyes..but to see us as creatures of God come down to this very tough
> earth school which is a remarkable thing in itself and we should be
> proud of ourselves for this...to learn...
There was a recent discussion elsewhere about the ethics of 'sending
energies', whether well-meant or not, to other people; the general
consensus
was that it was intrusive and unacceptable. I'm not sure if a Christian
prayer *for* someone, rather than an 'unblocked-Christ-channel' thought
sent
*at* them, would be a rather different concept, though?
As to thinking of the person as a baby - well, whether it's condescending
or
not, it would still seem to be something the sender, or the pray-er, is
doing to make *themselves* feel better about the recipient. As I
understand
it, 'love your neighbour as yourself' doesn't mean that you first have to
re-shape the 'neighbour' into something more lovable, otherwise 'loving'
would be remarkably easy.
A baby is a wise
> soul....full of love and clear as a crystal to be imprinted in this
> new life ,,, a baby generally wants to get past the crap and just love
> you simply and from the soul.
Babies are actually incredibly self-centred little creatures.
One of the points in the Bible that I do
> believe is truth..is that God wants us to come to it as little
> children..in that we are to be open and trusting and love...pure love
> getting past all the ego onion layers that we build on us as we get
> older. Ever see how children can play and get along before they learn
> how to distrust? before they learn how to over-identify with the
> differences and not the similarities?
What age-group do you mean, here? Very small children *have* to learn to
recognise difference, otherwise they function as if everyone else was a
'clone' of themselves, and can't understand perspectives other than their
own. That's a fairly major factor in autism.
>
> I once saw a girl in the supermarket dressed soooooooo provocatively
> that it bordered on (to me) the ridiculous. She was wearing
> tight....see through and chaps...yes...chaps...My first
> reaction..after just looking and thinking she looked provocative...was
> to roll my eyes and get irritated. I caught myself..I caught myself in
> mid-irritation and started thinking about how much this girl wanted
> attention..that it was a self screaming for love and acceptance and
> equally fearful that she was going to get other girls picking on
> her...I could see that. She simply wanted people to SEE her..to LOVE
> her as herself. I looked at her and sidling up I said..."I love your
> chaps"..and the smile that came out of that girls face was immaculate
> and so beautiful. Probably not what the girl expected from me...not at
> all...but it made her feel good and it made me feel good that I
> stopped a stupid judgementalness and hypocrisy (heck who doesn't love
> good attention?) right in its tracks. I praised Christ for this quick
> lesson. We all need to work from a centre of love...tolerance and
> compassion and realize when ego (the need to compete and fear of being
> worse or better and away from God etc.)raises its ugly head.
I was reading an interesting article on the Golden Rule which is relevant
here; the author pointed out that the GR relies heavily on the actor's
assumption that the recipient has exactly the same view of a situation as
they do. F'r instance, if I give food to a hungry person because I would
want someone to do that for me, and that person is actually struggling
very
hard with keeping a religious fast, my putting a steak dinner under their
nose is a harmful act, not a beneficial one. I think it's very dangerous
to
project one's own motives on to someone else's behaviour, and act
accordingly. That *is* egotistical. In the situation you describe, your
initial response - that you didn't like the girl's clothes, and found them
irritating and ridiculous - was set aside not while you considered why
*you*
didn't like them, but while you constructed a motivation of 'screaming for
love' and 'fear of being picked on' for her, and then approached her with
that construct in mind. Did you *really* love the chaps, as you told her
you
did? Or did you love *yourself* better, for being nice to someone *you*
had
categorised as insecure and exhibitionist?
Jani, who hadn't considered the GR in that light before, and finds that it
makes a LOT of sense. Although I expect that Matthew, amongst others, will
think it too relativistic :)
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