empathy and the contented acceptance of mystery.

[weareunity]

Hello all.

Is there a relationship between empathy and the contented acceptance of mystery?

If first we must know, then perhaps we overwhelm our ability to feel ?

Are these questions we have to answer, or are such questions among questions which have no answers as such but whose value/pertinence is in the pondering?

Cheers. X.

[Miss Hepburn]

I'm not following at all; maybe if you gave an example
of empathy and contented acceptance of mystery.

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by weareunity

Hello all.
Is there a relationship between empathy and the contented acceptance of mystery?

well scientists/engineers keep just handing the keys to all sorts of destructive stuff, to tyrants who have no qualms about using that stuff. A little empathy for the plight of those who always become targets, and they might be able to make themselves settle for not striving to know answers that others are going to be mean with...

If first we must know, then perhaps we overwhelm our ability to feel ?

i find that the feelings associated with knowing and trying to know overwhelm most other feelings. I've been assuming that means, the reason people don't want to 'know truth' is that 'knowing truth' doesn't feel as good as spreading lies...

Are these questions we have to answer, or are such questions among questions which have no answers as such but whose value/pertinence is in the pondering?

we don't HAVE to answer them. But personally I find if there is a question, and I'm not going to have the answer either because it is denied to me or because I choose not to have said answer, I might as well go do something more satisfying with my time than ponder the ineffable.

[weareunity]

Hello Miss Hepburn, Falling Leaves and all.

Perhaps we are each able to experience/glimpse some part of the possibility that each standing alongside other in connection is able to provide a sense of being which may be mysterious but is not fearful of mystery, the unknown, or the unknowable.

Cheers. X.

[Miss Hepburn]

I don't think very much is mysterious, sorry.
And i know that not many have sat in stillness and silence
...getting away from the word meditation...for over 50 years many times for 3-6 hours a session.
Things are "revealed:...pure and simple.

No bragging here, just the way it is.
Downloads, answers, insights, knowledge open like Sunrises inside!
No intellect, no philosophies, no figuring things out..
just dawning revelations given..."Ah-ha moments".

My 2 cents to the topic...I suppose I was not content with 'mystery' at a young age...esp, when I saw
how truly iignorant some 80 yr olds still were!
I mean, still thinking they were some sort of victims in the Universe; Completely Clueless.
I was quite effected, I rem.

[FallingLeaves]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

I mean, still thinking they were some sort of victims in the Universe; Completely Clueless.

personally, I'd almost rather be a clueless victim than keep fighting with other people trying to be happy when they tell me to but then won't actually let me.

yeah i know i know you are going to say my own happiness is completely up to me, but if it is going to be completely up to me then it is I who gets to decide whether or not I want it, so why are you going to keep prodding me if I decide I don't?

Anyway I think being a clueless victim has its moments....

[FallingLeaves]

hi ms hepburn

sorry for being so obtuse, just, it is very difficult to carve out a place for myself when everyone around me is telling me where I should go sit and then being mean about it if I try to actually sit there

[Redchic12]

Hey FallingLeaves I don’t feel that you are a clueless victim at all. There’s things you don’t know and haven’t experienced yet, same as the rest of us, including myself.

You’re doing the best you can, given the level of consciousness that you are at. Same as the rest of us. Imo

[Louisa]

Hi weareunity. I've been experiencing something like this lately. Where someone does something that seems to bother me. And I feel like I don't know what they're thinking, or why they are acting as they are, and my first impulse in the past might have been to feel upset. Something instinctively seemed to warn me that there was something wrong with how they were acting, something possibly harmful. But I have learned to not need to know how, or why, they are acting as they are, and to not assume anything bad about it. Because I've often learned that things aren't as bad as they seem, or not bad at all, the deeper I understand something.

Other times, maybe there is something wrong but it's not necessary for me to understand what's wrong. I can more easily see the remaining goodness if I don't fixate on what seems wrong. Over time, I gradually see and have empathy the complex reasons why people are as they are. Even if there is something harmful. Or I can more easily see how things aren't harmful at all, too, when that is the case. I think a lot of times, people feel they need to be on guard and understand the wrong or harmful behaviors of others. But often it's not necessary. Only in some cases do we really need to be so cautious about others. If we need to protect ourselves. But often even then we can better protect ourselves when we have more space and less assumption, about what another is doing and why. There's so much peace, and compassion, found in not knowing, and in mystery, for me. That is my experience, anyway.

[weareunity]

Hello Louisa.

The account you have graciously given us regarding your experience around the thread topic is --for me--uplifting, inspirational and interesting. A bit like watching a realisation taking shape. Thank you.

I am reminded of song lyrics by Phil Ochs ---There but for fortune go you or I.

We generally know so little of each others back stories. Back stories with consequences which can sometimes be so very difficult to cope with in later life. To realise this is not necessarily to provide excuse, but to add to our understanding of behaviour.---including of course our own behaviour.

Cheers. X.