Do you love your enemy?

[ayar415]

QUOTE Post 20 EXCERPT:

Originally Posted by Rah nam

I don't have enemies, I might have people I don't like, and I usually come to a neutral feeling toward them. In my understanding, this is the most effective way to avoid any energetic connections.

How would you handle foreign policy if you are the Secretary of State of the USA to enable America to have a neutral feeling towards Russia, China or Iran? I would like to ask Thich the same question with regard to his method of "loving your enemy".

If we are to take spirituality seriously, then we must take ourselves seriously.

[Starman]

I take spirituality seriously but I do not take myself seriously. I laugh at some of the things I have done in the
past that at the time seemed so serious. With joy and laughter our hearts open but with too much seriousness
we may close down. Life is a dance, a play, and even suffering may be part of a person’s playful dance.

When I was an ambulance paramedic in Denver, Colorado there was this couple who would call 911 just about
every month. They practiced sadistic-masochistic sex, and they were not very good at it, because they
frequently injured each other and had to call 911. But they said they experienced bliss inflicting pain on each
other. There are also people who love to argue, they become exhilarated by having an opponent. There were
military contractors who were upset when the Soviet Union was disbanded, they thrived on having the U.S.S.R.
as an adversary.

There are people who enjoy pain, just like there are people who enjoy being hateful. There are people who
are continually involved in a crisis, everything to them is a crisis. No these are not “normal” behaviors, but
the word “normal” only means average; it is how the majority behaves. What is normal in Saudi Arabia may
not be normal in the U.S. Normal does not mean healthy nor does it mean that it is the right way of doing
things.

[Rah nam]

Originally Posted by ayar415

QUOTE Post 20 EXCERPT:


How would you handle foreign policy if you are the Secretary of State of the USA to enable America to have a neutral feeling towards Russia, China or Iran? I would like to ask Thich the same question with regard to his method of "loving your enemy".

If we are to take spirituality seriously, then we must take ourselves seriously.

That's a funny question. If you see the world as I see it, you could not see those mentioned including the USA as enemies, they just play the game as well as they can, some are dark, some are very dark, with the exception of the Russian leader. The US front line politicians are patsies for those who run them and everything else, and I never would be a patsy for anyone.
So, I could not place my self in his shoes.

Integrity, Respect and honesty are very rare in politics, perhaps they should start there.

[Unseeking Seeker]

In my view, forgiveness presupposes perceived sense of injury from someone from whom we have an expectation. For example, if an entity in a human body shell misbehaves, we feel aversion because we associate an imagined code of conduct from a human being. So we feel injured, we dwell on the thoughts, we suffer. Then, as a self-help exercise to heal, we ‘forgive’.

All of this is a mind game.

Now, if an animal, insect or reptile bites us … we don’t forgive it, we simply recognise that its in the nature of it to act in that manner. We protect ourself, if able, yes but we don’t feel a need to forgive because we recognise.

Likewise, let us say, God grants an animal an opportunity to experience human life as a progression in its evolution. The instincts are feral but the outer appearance is human. So, knowing no better, it can do no better. Once we accept this, we do not feel a sense of ego-injury. The need to forgive is obviated.

As Miss H pointed out earlier on this thread, sometimes bitter experiences are offered as life lessons for our soul development. So, grin and bear it. Accept, recognise, transcend.

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by BigJohn

Starman,
very well said.

Thanks.

Plus uno 1000%

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by ayar415

If we are to take spirituality seriously, then we must take ourselves seriously.

An unspiritual take IMO. YMMV.

[pixiedust]

Originally Posted by Rah nam

Integrity, Respect and honesty are very rare in politics, perhaps they should start there.

It's rare IMO because it doesn't work. (shakes head)

[BigJohn]

Back in 2006, 4 young, gentlemen tried robbing me.

That event, opened my eye to a lot of things. As for the 4 young men with machetes...... I don't consider them my enemies. They may have come 'along' to be part of a test(s).

[sky]

Originally Posted by ayar415

QUOTE Post 11 EXCERPT:
The Buddha has no way to deal with something that doesn't exist.
The monk has enemies and his way to deal with them is called loving kindness.
Do you have enemies?

Both The Buddha and TNH encountered people who wanted to do serious harm to them....
I don't know if I have what is usually defined in words as ' Enemies '

[hallow]

There's people I don't care for, some my not Care for me. But at the end of the day.... I am my own worse enemy.