Reality can be likened to many things, one is an onion.
Most all people are on the outside of the onion, heavily vested in ego games they have been handed out and told to play with. Many of these games involve very complex scripts constantly rehearsed in the head and reinforced by various sources that exist on the onion level which would provoke one to punch man #1 or man #2 if X Y and B + C are met.
Some people would have no criterion they would encounter that would ever cause them to punch man #1 or #2, in the extremes they would rather die than to raise a fist in violence, even defensively.
Now, when you run around viewing the outer layers of reality, things are very very ugly, but everything has its core and everything has its source.
Beneath angry bar drunk #1 is a God shackled in chains just screaming, LET ME BE, LET ME BE BENEVOLENT, LET ME HEAL YOU.... but this is in such conflict with bar drunk #1's ego programs that to introduce God into his system would be tantamount to downloading a computer virus. His ego which is so firmly vested in divisiveness would feel it is under extreme duress, and when the layers are stripped away, he would think he is going to hell, dying, etc... and would refuse to let go of his anchors, until he realized the truth at least.
Now some people, they have stripped away most layers, but they haven't quite completely unraveled the onion into oblivion... yet, they know with good faith through experience that they are of the same composition of everything else, and they are near enough to the "core" to be able to see through other people's surface layers into that wihch we all come from. That inner core, which does not have tangible existence, that once reached yields open space and complete infinitity, perceived albeit subjectively.
For them, they are not as easily daunted by surface layers, because if they are insulted, they look beneath the insult. Why is this being said? If they see there is actually truth in the hard words, then they learn something about themselves they didn't know, and they are not poisoned enough by egoic delusions (although i don't think ego in and of itself is bad, i do not use the term "ego" in a negative way) to JOIN angry bar drunk #1's malicious programs and dance a fearsome dance...... They think.... why does he say I am a nerd... is there something I am projecting which is negative? Is there something wrong with him? Does he suffer from afflictions? They listen to the silence between the words, and they know, that beneath all the garbage, the raving junk-yard dog is a puppy... beneath all the hatred and the walls, this man is an infant.
Because they see this, they are not likely to get into conflicts. They have no reason to defend themselves, as they are composed of the same self as everyone else, and they are not likely to ever act out any ego-games that would make people angry in the first place.
If a fight is about to break out, they may smile and say "hey man lets just have a drink instead" and they'd buy him a beer, whatever they do, it would be completely contrary to the negative scripts angry bar drunk #1 is running. This is just a metaphor and is not be analyzed in one single bit. Absolutely no "but what if he was intent on hurting you no matter what" that is not the point of this story at all.
So.
You speak of a void. This void is a desire to touch the inner-space that ties all of reality together. To be one with God. The nameless, the ineffable mystery that countless people have named, labeled, dissected, created false formulas for. Those that have touched it have taught others to touch, however if their truth is interpreted by deaf ears, it results in the blind leading the blind.
If one man says, television is Satan. And another man says, television is Satan. One could be full of shit, and the other could be speaking truth. It depends on how far out they have learned, and what they MEAN when they use that random compilation of words. Generally it would be an unskilful thing to say unless in metaphor, as the subject is so broad and takes so much peeling to get at, that if someone took face value seroiusly they would either become extremely terrified, or denounce you as a loon. So one would describe the bad qualities of television catered to the individual's ears.
At any rate. We all have voids in us, and society teaches us that these voids can be filled by certain activities that actually create deeper holes. What we need is God. Or Jesus. Or whatever you want to call it... I am not quite sure what it is yet...... and everything in this world is a tool. The tool can be used to connect to the Source, or it can be used for self-indulgence, or however you want.
So every person is a tool. So when you see a person and you have a void, you may be running errant surface layer programs that you have been taught by media that make you rather parastical, you may think that the only way you can be happy is if this person becomes your Jesus for you...... while sometimes and often times romantic love can indeed be used to connect to source, it can only be done by the ready and the willing and the skilful and the understanding..... if a surface dweller tries, he will be trying to make himself whole with someone elses hole....
not good right?
We yearn to be accepted, because we yearn to see ourselves reflected fully naked in reality, with absolutely no censorship and no masks. We yearn to access the one THROUGH duality (albeit duality may be an illusion....)..... but if we don't understand that things are inherently "such" and to call "such" suchness is to take away from the suchness of "such", and if we don't understand the ineffable is inside us as well as outside, effortlessly omnipresent, and that things are "fine" then we can cause much suffering by craving this unity.
Many people interact by passing empty plates around saying "eat, eat, eat all you can" and somehow thinking this starvation is nourishment....... but really what we want is as simple as you put it..... the love unconditional that a mother has for a child. A God has to a planet..... you (should) have to yourself.
And if you can just LOOK inside people, you will see that they are just ignorant and deluded, and that whatever they PROJECT is not what they ARE.
You project yourself as an asshole, especially by closing your first post asking us if we think you are an asshole. That is just a hat. It's just a mask. You know something true, obviously, or you wouldn't be so pressed to write about it.... and yet...... if what we know does not make us happy, we are not interpreting it correctly.
The Buddha got enlightened by realizing how terrible the suffering of the planet was, yet, he could also see that EVERYONE is a Buddha, every single person in existence IS.... so he did not get enlightened by being sad, enlightenment is incredible happiness by being at ease with being.
Beneath everyone's suffering is a center, and you have to look for it.
When you see it, you are looking into a mirror, everything is a mirror, and always has been and always will be. To think you are separate is false...... you have a subjective identity, but everything is reflected by you, your sense faculties, your biases, if you realize that communication cannot happen without cooperation, you realize that you cannot assign fault or blame to anyone for any conflicts, as it means there is ego involved. You realize that you are looking into a mirror, so if you are arguing and one says 2+2 is 5, and the other says 4.... you are both right... its semantic differences..... its a language barrier. Something is being lost in translation.
and if they want to fight, they really want something else, and if you get INTO a fight with them, it is because you harbor the same ENERGY and the same patterns as them, so again, fault cannot be assigned.... if the experiencer is so quick to recognize the ASSHOLE in someone, then they are very familiar with what assholes are, are very studious on the subject of anal symmetry, and ..... like attracts like.
If you looked instead not for the asshole in man #1, but, the Christ, the Jesus, the Buddha, the God, the ineffable, inside him... you would catch at least a glimpse of it, recognize that you are looking into a mirror, and you would be happier because of it. And so would this man.
So....
yes there are cold and ugly and hideous walls everywhere. It's terrible. It's awful. But what is wonderful is the walls are so insubstantial, fickle, and illusory, that only the very ignorant cling to them as if they are real. So don't worry too much.
-------------------- I am the MacDaddy of Heimlich County, I play it Straight Up Yo!
....I embrace my desire to feel the rhythm, to feel connected enough to step aside and weep like a widow, to feel inspired, to fathom the power, to witness the beauty, to bathe in the fountain, to swing on the spiral of our divinity and still be a human......
Om Namah Shivaya, I tell you What!
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