[davidsun]

Originally Posted by Starman

What we see in this world, whether we call it "good" or "evil" comes from within us. We are responsible for our outward behavior, and I feel life is about lessons, and I don't know what the lessons are for others, barely are aware of my own lessons. The lessons may look harsh on the surface but the impetus for those lessons came from within. Nonetheless, I do accept that we are often tested. You are talking about the victims of others failed tests.

I very much relate to the idea of 'failure' to 'pass' 'tests', Starman - the 'test' being whether or not one accords 'selfish' gratification a greater Love and Joy priority, in terms of subjective value, than the wellfare of others. I 'see' hate for instance as just being disappointed Love, and haters being people who Love and enJoy 'hating' more than they care about others.

I remember being very (to say the least!) angry and hateful (i.e. 'evil' ) and so 'indulging' in feelings and reveling in anger and hate based fantasies towards my ex-wife (for a whole number of justifiable 'reasons') for instance, until I consciously chose to stop doing so and started wishing and treating her 'well' because I 'saw' (i.e. understood, believed, thought and felt) my/our child would be better off if her mother was in the best possible 'health'. In due course, of course , because that led to my becoming a more wholistically loving and joyful person such a decision redounded to my benefit as well.

From my treatise which presents my philosophy pertaining what incarnating gives us the opportunity to 'learn' (and so choose') which the above 'episode' was a 'lesson' in:

What this means is that, analogous to the way it takes many years of ‘schooling’ wherein initially ignorant and unskilled novices are tasked with learning and given the opportunity to master increasingly complex ‘lessons’ and thereby, upon ‘passing’ greater adeptitude-demanding ‘tests’, progress through a series of ‘grade’ levels to the point where they finally ‘graduate’ from vocational training programs and schools of knowledge, it takes numerous physical lifetimes for ‘young’ souls to become masterfully adept at deploying their ‘inner’ Love and Joy ‘program’ in relation to Life and others in it in the context of the infinite psychospiritual possibility containing ‘stream’ of sometimes mind-n-spirit sparking opportunities and sometimes mind-n-spirit daunting challenges that are encountered in the course of living in a matrixially multi-layered, complexly interwoven physiosocial system such as ours.

The alternative in relation to any particular challenge and/or opportunity, of course, being to ‘fail’ to do so, though, as you probably know if you are experienced enough, such ‘failure’ does not in and of itself preclude anyone from progressing in the above regard because one may often learn even more by reviewing and learning ‘lessons’ from one’s ‘failures’ than one’s ‘successes’. Indeed, the possibility of ‘failure’, and so ‘failures’ themselves, are crucial components of a soul’s developmental process. A string of ‘successes’ alone will not result in one’s developing the degree of mental acuity and emotional resilience required to recognize, wisely navigate, and functionally emancipate oneself from being subject to the pulls and pushes of immediate selfish-gratification affording ‘temptations’ which, besides often leading one in a ‘wrong’ (short-term-gain-long-term-cost) direction, divert precious attention and energy away from the goal of maximally actualizing one’s Love and Joy potential in relation to and with other aspects of Life’s Presence and Flow Process. As in the case of a child’s learning to stand up, walk, run, etc., experiences of ‘failure’ resulting from one’s being short-sighted, careless, uncoordinated, etc. and (so) losing one’s balance, tripping and falling, bumping into walls, etc. in relation to others actually pave the way for ‘success’ in this regard.

The short version of ‘the full story’ is that, with the benefit of having both (‘unsuccessful’ and ‘successful’) kinds of experiences, souls may incrementally become aware of the ins and outs of the multivarious kinds of liabilities that attend ‘petty’ selfishness and (so) in due course choose as well as ultimately manage to transcend any and all selfish-‘i’dentity based inclinations, such that they eventually become fully functionally capable of and completely devoted to optimizing and augmenting The Entity of Life’s Love and Joy Flow (beyond the scope of their ‘own’ selfish one) and from then on live in a state of ‘at oneness’ (i.e. in conjunction) with said ever‑ongoing process forever (i.e. ‘eternally’) thereafter. The alternative possibility in this ‘ultimate’ regard, of course, being that souls may completely capital ‘F’(!) Fail to do and be so.