What happened to us?

beautiful beautiful beautiful

that warms up my tear ducts TCO

thank u

We need more moments like those............

Kindred Spirits?

Guess so

yep

You are most welcome friend

So the question remains…What happened to us? You know GLP, you know better then most, but perhaps some of you don’t understand my question in its simplicity.

I’m asking you this as a simple man, understanding that you as a group of people understand these things better then most and I will give you an example so that you understand the question better.

Lets take that thing we call T.V. as an example. Do many of us truly understand the “damage” that thing does to one self after long exposure?

I think you get the idea now, or at least I would hope so. So tell us GLP, what are the other “things” that effect us or dumb us down in this life?

And sorry for the delay friends…was spending some time with the kids.

Peace

agreed... :)

AWWWWWWWW...........

when we were supposed to swallow our ego, we chose to swalllow our soul.

Perhaps friend, but it represented something far more to me…the innocence of humanity in general. I read once that babies can communicate to one another without the use of words, as we know them. And then there is of course the fact that a smile is universal…:)


Peace

"A dissertation on the nature of man, for your edification."

"You realize that a tiger, following its nature is not evil. Looking at your own species you are less kindly, less compassionate, less understanding. It is easy to condemn your own kind.

It may be difficult for you to understand, but your species means well. You understand that the tiger exists in a certain environment and reacts according to his nature. So does man. Even his atrocities are committed in a distorted attempt to reach what he considers good goals. He fails often to achieve the goals, or even to understand how his very methods prevent their attainment. He is indeed as blessed as the animals,. however, and his failures are the result of his lack of understanding. He is faced with a far more complex conscious world than the animals are, dealing particularly with symbols and ideas that are then projected outward into reality, 'where they are to be tested'. If they could be tested mentally in your context, there would be no need for physical existence.

Too many complicated issues are connected here, so that I must at best simplify. It was as if man said: "Now what about 'this' idea? What can we do with it? What will happen if we toss out into reality, physically? How far can we go with 'any' of the great social, scientific, religious ideas that are so peculiarly the offshoots of man's mind. If such issues could be worked out on some non-physical drawing board, again, the great challenge of physical existence would be neither necessary or meaningful.

How far, say, can nationalism be carried? To what extent can the world be treated as if it were external to man, as an object? What can man learn by treating the body as if it were a machine? As if it were a mirage? As if it were driven by blind instinct? As if it were possessed by a soul?

To some extent, these are all unique and creative ponderings that on the most part of the animals alone would be considered the most curious and enlightening intellectual achievements. The animals must relate to the earth, and so must man. As the animal must play, mate, hunt his prey or eat his berries within the physical context of sun, ground, trees, snow, hail, and wind, so in a different way man must pursue his ideas by clothing them in the elemental realities of earth, by perceiving them as events. When he is destructive, man does not seek to be destructive per se; but in a desire to achieve that which he thinks of as a particular goal that to him is good, he forgets to examine the goodness of his methods. One animal chasing and killing its prey serves the greater purpose of preserving the balance of nature, whether or not the animal is aware of this - and again, the animal's intent is not evil.

Man consumes ideas. In so doing he contributes to a different kind of balance, of which he is usually unaware. But no man truly acts out of the pure intent to do wrong, or to be vicious. Storms rend the summer sky, sending forth thunder and lightning. Earthquakes may ravage the countryside. You may deeply regret the havoc worked, knowing that neither the storm nor the earthquake is evil. Not only did they have no wrong intent, but the overall condition corrected the earth's balance. This requires some unique understanding. I am aware of that - and yet the destructive storms worked by mankind ultimately cannot be said to be any more evil than the earthquake.

While man's works may often appear destructive, you must not blame man's 'intent', nor must you ever make the error of confusing man with his works. For many well-intentioned artists, with the best of intentions, produce at times shoddy works of art, all the more disappointing and deplorable to them because of the initial goodness of their intent. Their lack of knowledge and techniques and methods then become quite plain.

By concentrating too deeply upon the world of newspapers and the negative reports of man's actions, it is truly easy to lose sight of what I tell you "is each man's and woman's basic good intent". That intent may be confused, poorly executed, tangled amid conflicts of beliefs, strangled by the bloody hands of murders and wars - and yet no man or woman ever loses it. That represents the hope of the species, and it has ever remained lit, like a bright light within each member of the species; and that good intent is handed down through the generations. It is far more potent, that illumination, than any hates or national grudges that may also be passed along.

"It is imperative, for any peace of mind, that you believe in that existence of man's innate good intent." It is shared by all other animals. Each animal knows that under certain conditions the other may fight or posture aggressively, or defend its nest. Each animal knows that in time of hunger it might be hunted by another. Except for those situations, however, the animals are not afraid of each other. They know that each other animal is of good intent. "Grant your own species the same."

Now: Make a distinction in your mind between man and man's works. Argue all you want against his works, as you read in your newspapers or errors, stupidities, treachery or war. Collect pages and reams of such material if it suits your fancy - and I am speaking not only to you who are reading this, but to anyone who hopes to find a hint of truth, peace of mind, or creativity. Collect books of man's failures. I do not personally know why anyone would collect the worst works of any artist, and get pleasure in ripping them apart.

Man has produced some fine works: The high level; of verbal communication, the multitudinous varieties of emotional interactions and of cultural exchange, the facility with exteriorization of ideas and concepts, the reaches of the imagination - all of these, and many others, are unique in the universe. To identify man with his poorest works is to purposefully seek out the mars, the mistakes, of a fine artist, and then to condemn him. To do this is to condemn yourselves personally.

If a scientist says consciousness is the result of chance, or Darwin's theories say that basically man is a triumphant son of murderers, many people object. If you say, however, that men are idiots, or that they are not worth the ground they walk upon, you are saying the same thing. For you must be concerned with this reality as you know it; in those terms, to condemn man is to condemn the species as you know it, and the practical terms of your world. In your terms, while you live, and in the most pertinent terms of intimate sensation, your reality must be what you perceive in the framework of your time, and what you create within that framework as it is experienced.

Therefore, I entreat you not to behave as if man will destroy himself in some future - not to behave as if man is an imbecile, doomed to extinction, a dimwitted, half-crazy animal with a brain gone amuck. None of the prophesied destruction man so fears is a reality in your time; nor, for all the critical prophets through the ages, and the forerunners of doom, has the creativity of man destroyed itself in those terms. Man is in the process of becoming. His works are flawed - but they are the flawed apprentice works of a genius artist in the making, whose failures are indeed momentous and grotesque 'only' in the light of his sensed genius, which ever leads him and directs him onward.

When you are considering the future in your terms, constructive achievements are as 'realistic' as destructive ones. In those terms, each year of man's existence in fact justifies a more optimistic rather than pessimistic view.

You cannot place man's good intent 'outside' of the physical context, for outside of that context you do not have the creature that you know. You cannot say that nature is good, but spawned man, which is a cancer upon it, for nature would have better sense. You cannot say, either, that Nature - with a capital 'N' - will destroy man if he offends her, or that Nature - with a capital 'N' - has little use for its own species, but only wants to promote Life - with a capital 'L' - for Nature is within each member of each species; and with-out each member of each species, Nature - with a capital 'N' - would be nonexistent.

Because you are natural creatures, within you there is a natural state of being. That state can be an ever-present reservoir of peace, vitality, and understanding. The natural creature-validity of your senses must remain clear, and only then can you take full advantage of those intuition and visions that must come through you own private intersection with space and time. In those terms, the ever-actual integrity of nature everywhere surrounds you. It represents your direct experience."
(thanks ever S&J)

w/luv,
just me

Hello gooderboy, nice to see you again.

i refer to the 'zone' as the "personal bubble"

one way of looking at it... :)


Peace

... thanks mucho and a bunch, lol, and a great big super duper gooder howdy right back at ya there too.

Interesting read gooderboy, but I was thinking more along the lines of things that affect us, in our environment, that we have little to no controller over…Hope that makes more sense friends.


Peace

... but but and but... lol, if indeed said 'zone-ings' were of any sorta up close and personal kind of a 'bubble at all... wouldn't it be instead then, 'my zone' and/or 'my personal bubble'???... and cuz after all how can ya ever personalize yourself upon something that's being kept impersonal... and I mean, really... doesn't that just sorta conveniently keep ya seemingly safely distanced and/or separated for your own 'stuff'?

... and yet, methinks/feels/knows.... nowheres but/and nowheres is it about 'control' at all (well, and maybe save in the minds of man anyways)... but rather it's all about 'flow' (and as in dear energy always flows along the lines of least resistance).... and ya know what I mean?

And... I would for sure hope that we are 'affected' by everything and all in our environment too.
(and you know, lol, sorta like Msr Einstein said, "God's to be found in the details.")

That is a very heart warming story :-)

..but the thread title is really a sad reality.

We have been taught not to trust..Encouraged not to 'feel'. We have been filled with a fear of others - because if we are going to be 'successful' in this life, we have to 'look after number one'.

It is with a heavy heart that I say there is no turning back. To revert to that beauty of childlike innocence would be to expose oneself to horror upon horror, inflicted on us by those who think of life's success in terms of material gain.

I am sad to say that those children are almost certainly already on the road to indoctrination (through the TV, and this thing we call 'modern life')..are already in danger of losing that which the vast majority of humanity has already lost - and that is the knowledge that Love is everything.

Love, empathy, understanding - all those things that are seen to make us 'weak' in this game of survival we call 'modern life' are in fact the very things that make humanity beautiful.

It's a crying shame that the bullies have got the big sticks right now. We all have the potential to be like those children..

I dunno, I'm just rambling now. I feel a bit saddened by it all..but next time I see you, I'll smile.

...Just as an aside, when I was about 5 or 6 (this is a very lucid memory that I will never lose) - I was playing on the street, and I smiled at a 'grown-up', a stranger..it just came naturally (still does!), and that person didn't smile back - I couldn't work out why?! I was so upset, so 'bothered' as to why this person couldn't smile..

I'm rambling even more now! So I'll stop!

Love to you all. Try and be as those children were. Forget the fear, forget the stigma of smiling at strangers. Spread the love.

reminds me of ants. they always 'chat' with each other when passing by. and they relay some kind of messages. try killing one in a line of others - they'll all start getting frantic & you can see them tell others down the line. are they really communicating, and how? by frequency. something we all haven't quite learned yet.

... rubbish, and piffle too... lol, and cuz t'is not at all true for 'me' we... now maybe 'you' we... but please, oh please... not 'all' we.

And just as an example... if I am really and truly 'looking out for me'... then I am also, and just naturally I am too... looking out for 'all that is' as well. For that 'is' indeed me looking out for me... and in every possible/probable way it is, it is for real.

... oh sure we have, lol... and, we all use it all of the time too. We're just still pretty 'young' at it is all.

I hear you friend but what in the case when someone violates your free will. Shields up!... lol…but is it not true?

Go try walking into somewhere where you “feel” very uncomfortable for good reason…yep those shields will come up..or Scotty be looking for a new job.

Now, on the other side of this I do understand what you are saying friend, for surly one having their “shields-up” all the time in life would be a tragedy to say the least, but as one poster stated already, that requires trust or a least the sense of a safe surrounding “environment”

Peace

LOL Hi Gooderboy! The post was mine - I timed out!

It was kind of a 'Royal we'. I think I was talking about the unthinking masses - there's a lot of them out there!

Not all 'we', no!! (not you 'we', me 'we', or most of GLP 'we' - but 'they' 'we'!!)

I think?! lol

Love & luck

i asked this question at church not long ago
to God
the answer came
Adam and Eve saw that they were naked
and hid themselves
children are not yet aware that they are naked
which in this case is a soul nakedness
personally, i believe before Adam and Eve sinned
that they were clothed in light
and were so bright
that they didn't know they had no clothes on

thats just a rip-off of the old drunk and the blonde baby story...

GET SOME NEW MATERIAL

BITCHES!

nope, sorry...but I know nothing about a drunk and blond baby story..lol

Peace

I actually like it friend, your post that is and I see you understood my question…Thank you

Peace

... well, golly, if'n someone tries to violate me free will... I ask them, "What's wrong with you?"

And, and, and... I always go where it's uncomfortable (and can't ya tell by just what all I've put out here, lol)... but then too... I'm also a cracker who was born and reared in the Watt's area of Los Angeles (or, lol, a very street smart wise ass to the max!)... and... my first very real cultural like shock was when at 15 we moved into an all cracker or white type of environment... now that really blew me away, lol.

or, lol, if I am ever uncomfortable I just start talking about it, and to/with any and every one and all around, and cuz that would be a really curious kinda situation for me, and so I would just naturally want to know more about it, and/or lol, like what the heck's going on.

And, lol, if I am ever uncomfortable, and most always I am... with something new I am doing/being... then I just ask any/every one and all... "Hang in there please, I'll get it... I'm just a newbie is all."

And then too... and if maybe ya think about it... in a very real sense, wouldn't the very bestest shield of all be no shield at all... well... and that is unless we're talkin' clothes and it's like really cold outside, lol.

its the same exact story..

posted all over the net years ago..and on GLP before xmas.


peace.

still a good story