Icelander said:

End of conversation?


Well I'm glad you squeezed all that in as it was ending.

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There's always room for clarification, and the tying up of loose ends.

OrgoneConclusion said:

Some of you are aware of what I went through (do a search). To this day, some 8 months later, I am unsure if I had a mental/emotional breakdown or a real mystical experience, or both.

Here is my question: Can one be considered temporarily "insane" if one has discovered the pinnacle of unconditional human love? Or was I truly sane for the first time? Is it not more insane to live in fear of such expression and feeling; to wait until death, or conditions are totally perfect (they never are), and then allow yourself such depth of emotion?

Was it too much? Definitely! It was way too much. Blinded by the light and all that...

If we all saw each other as I saw a random stranger, what might the world look like?

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MarkostheGnostic said:

Why did I even wonder who was gonna be the one to make a Cosby joke after my comment?

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You wanted me to do it!

Icelander said:

He doesn't need to help me by telling me I don't get it. He never explained that passage to my satisfaction. Just said basically I'm so damaged by my past experiences I can't understand.

Why don't you take a shot at that passage and give me your in depth analysis.

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Not exactly, and definitely not in the sense of putting you down. Being traumatized, (in this context by religious belittling), would prevent most anyone from being open to the same religious language-game later in life. I't's not about a failure of comprehension, you're a bright man, it's about not wanting to hear the same language that was accompanied by God-knows what kind of guilt-laden, accusatory, demeaning shit. For a majority of individuals, teasing apart the good from the bad like knotted hair is not the choice. They just cut off the whole problem, tossing out the good with the bad (like 'tossing the baby [Jesus] out with the bathwater'). It would require an intense therapy to separate the "wheat from the chaff" and incinerate the chaff. Memories remain, but the nasty negative emotions are excised and cease to ill-affect the person.

OrgoneConclusion said:

Did I truly get a glimpse of The Divine (external) or was it all in my head (internal)? Is there any possible way to discern the truth?

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MarkostheGnostic said:

Jokeshopbeard said:

MarkostheGnostic said:

love is an act of will, not a feeling.

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Heya Markos, could you share your thoughts in regards to love being an act of will please? I've suspected this myself but have found few who readily agree.

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How about beginning with Love as a State of Being, beginning with page 59? Because I take the love-as-will notion from Augustine of Hippo, who is a lot more difficult to read than Ram Dass! But, I'll offer another link for a paper on Augustine and love. Essentially "For Augustine, love is always an act of the will."  Maybe begin with the middle of page 28 to page 31: "The potential for this movement inward..."

https://books.google.com/books?id=Ske6kzQlmKcC&pg=PA60&lpg=PA60&dq=love+as+a+state+of+being,+the+only+dance+there+is&source=bl&ots=sPflz2EzVh&sig=p6XPeimyMkpRfhNItYpPcZzF_TY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JPjTU-CfF4OYyATh8YKAAQ#v=onepage&q=love%20as%20a%20state%20of%20being%2C%20the%20only%20dance%20there%20is&f=false

https://books.google.com/books?id=EhGb_pbYhFQC&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=augustine+on+love+as+an+act+of+will&source=bl&ots=WlbAGljDWJ&sig=hoGwduYpkTi0Pkowzsu5ODzw3SQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwib9P2n5ozLAhXH4iYKHUoJB5UQ6AEIJTAB#v=onepage&q=augustine%20on%20love%20as%20an%20act%20of%20will&f=false

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Love as a state of being is far easier to understand for a hick like me

Lakefingers said:

We'll turn the world upside down and call our hatred the rule of the heart, chasten the world and call it the villain. We see our barrenness as the yield, but call the fruit of the world rotten. Isaiah, so wise to say understanding is flawed but never calls into question his own, he tells us of the mystery but cannot tell it. Our hate for the ignorant world wins us the world.

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What?