Is it a Loving World or a Fearful World?

love

What do you believe? And no bullshit; answer truthfully. In the 90’s, this question and the subsequence discussion resulted in us losing two students in our apprenticeship program.

My position was that it is a loving world not a fearful one. A few of our apprentices couldn’t wrap their heads around this concept that the world is love not fear. The discussion grew more heated as the day wore-on with a few not accepting the world as a loving place. I did understand their position as their past contained physical and sexual abuse. Their focus was on the beastly actions of humans that sow the seeds of fear thus resulting in a world of fear. But the world is not populated just by humans—a human centric view of reality.

The rest of the world, all of nature, operates from a state of love not fear. Love is unity; fear is separation. By a person seeing the world as fearful we get to the root of their dualistic consciousness of separation. The soul essence of a tree is love, the divine consciousness that is part and parcel of the lifeblood of the tree as well as all the other sentient things of this earth; an earth, which in its beauty and bounty, will nurture and provide for all.

Our civilized culture oozes so subtly fear in emphasizing humanities superiority and separation from nature. Fear is profit to the capitalistic paradigm—it powers the engine of war and keeps people’s focus on the future (unknown-fear), not the present or past where knowledge and power lies. Look to the past for the present.

Be uncivilized, be wild, and embrace the world as a loving place not a fearful one. Keeping in mind that all things have consciousness, a behavior to adopt is to talk either silently or out loud to things other than humans, such as trees, flowers, and animals. During this communication imagine that each of you have a divine spark within, and understand that any feelings of love, sadness, or even hate will be felt not only by you but also by them.

One of the keys to compassion and loving-kindness is the relationship of self to self and self to others. Within our conscious there is a way to blur the separation between subject (self) and object (others). It is a focus on repeating either silently or out loud the axiom “I am that I am” and substituting the object after “‘I am that”: “I am that [state object][i] I am!”

This requires consistent practice, just as in any exercise regime where it is more efficient and effective to walk for thirty minutes six or seven days a week, every week, than one hour only two times a week every so often. It would be best to focus on the “I am” a few times a day, every day. At some point your separation between subject and object will become less and less.[ii]

[i] Anything may be inserted, such as I am that star I am; I am that bird I am; I am that person I am; I am that blade of grass I am; I am that cat I am, and so forth.

[ii] Rev. Dr. JC Husfelt, Do You Like Jesus – Not the Church?, 203-204.

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