The End of Suffering.

Originally Posted by Gem

It's always this thing about 'real love' or 'true love. Thats what ones seek, desire and crave. The SF gurus tempt them and evoke this sense that there is something still to chase... some future conjunction, leaving this momentary experience as is inadequate, and the person themself unacceptable unless they aquire what is presented to them as a carrot on a stick.

I have read all these things but they've been preached and listened to and chased for thousands of years and to little effect... because these ideals only bring people to think 'I don't have this wonderment I want this wonderment If I could only have this wonderment I would be free... and the craving for it escalates, the desire for it becomes obsessive, and again the truth of what is felt right here and now is what is truely forsaken.

I patiently wait until this overt demonstration of how loving everyone is passes by.

I really like this. I understand it. It is true.

Originally Posted by Xan

I don't find this necessarily so, Lisa. Someone may be experiencing love within themselves which doesn't always emanate outward, or not in the ways people tend to expect. I have a cool exterior but love itself is in my awareness all the time nowadays. How it gets expressed and who receives it is not in my control.

"Being a loving person" and Being Love as our essence are two different things.

I keep repeating myself on this issue because there really is something wonderful to experience and discover for oneself beyond all our ideas about love.


Xan

I really like this. I understand it. It is true.

[sound]

Originally Posted by Lisa

I really like this. I understand it. It is true.

I really like this ... I understand it. It is true

Originally Posted by sound

I really like this ... I understand it. It is true

I hear an echo Sound.

ELEPHANT AND THE BLIND MEN

(an oldie but goodie)

Once upon a time, there lived six blind men in a village. One day the villagers told them, "Hey, there is an elephant in the village today."
They had no idea what an elephant is. They decided, "Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway." All of them went where the elephant was.

Everyone of them touched the elephant.


"Hey, the elephant is a pillar," said the first man who touched his leg.
"Oh, no! it is like a rope," said the second man who touched the tail.
"Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree," said the third man who touched the trunkof the elephant.
"It is like a big hand fan" said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
"It is like a huge wall," said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
"It is like a solid pipe," Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.

They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated.

A wise man was passing by and he saw this. He stopped and asked them, "What is the matter?" They said, "We cannot agree to what the elephant is like." Each one of them told what he thought the elephant was like.

The wise man calmly explained to them, "All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the elephant. So, actually the elephant has all those features what you all said."

"Oh!" everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt happy that they were all right.
The moral of the story is that there may be some truth to what someone says. Sometimes we can see that truth and sometimes not because they may have different perspective which we may not agree too. So, rather than arguing like the blind men, we should say, "Maybe you have your reasons." This way we don’t get in arguments.

(Not that there’s anything wrong with arguments.)

[Xan]

There's another happy ending that I first heard to this story.

Someone comes along and performs a miracle and all the blind men see the whole elephant and say "oh!"

Some also say there is no such thing as elephant or... no one really sees this elephant even if there is one (sort of the sour grapes approach).

But then...


Xan

True freedom and the end of suffering is living in such a way as if you had completely chosen whatever you feel or experience at this moment. This inner alignment with Now is the end of suffering. Is suffering really necessary? Yes and no. If you had not suffered as you have, there would be no depth to you as a human being, no humility, no compassion. You would not be reading this now. Suffering cracks open the shell of ego, and then comes a point when it has served its purpose. Suffering is necessary until you realize it is unnecessary.

Eckhart Tolle

Xan- There's another happy ending that I first heard to this story.

Someone comes along and performs a miracle and all the blind men see the whole elephant and say "oh!"

That's cool!

Some also say there is no such thing as elephant or... no one really sees this elephant even if there is one (sort of the sour grapes approach).

ha! Even the story has different perspectives.

But then...

there was cake?

The end of suffering

The end of suffering