Aaron Wrote:...
The most important tool here is awareness: knowing always what is being felt; and if anger or greed are being felt, touching those, not with judgment but with an acceptance that allows the being not to need to act on those emotions. It is not the emotions themselves that are a problem. You don’t harm another by feeling greed. You harm another by taking what belongs to another.

How much more lovingly can you begin to respond to all these forces within yourself? As you do that, the need for them will pass. It is as if you were swimming across a river and there were 100 floats to hold on to. Moving across the river, you swim to one of them and grab hold to keep you afloat. And yet as you look, you say, “They mar the beauty of this scene. I don’t want them.” But in one aspect of you, you know that if you get rid of them and your swimming ability is not yet refined enough, you will drown. So you leave them there, noticing that they mar the beauty, but also that they are useful until you have perfected your swimming so you do not need them anymore. At that time, they will simply drift away.
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(08-12-2016, 09:18 PM)Patrick Wrote: Aaron is quite good with analogies and I find this particular one really beautiful.

http://www.llresearch.org/transcripts/issues/1991/1991_0303_1.aspx

Aaron Wrote:...
The most important tool here is awareness: knowing always what is being felt; and if anger or greed are being felt, touching those, not with judgment but with an acceptance that allows the being not to need to act on those emotions. It is not the emotions themselves that are a problem. You don’t harm another by feeling greed. You harm another by taking what belongs to another.

How much more lovingly can you begin to respond to all these forces within yourself? As you do that, the need for them will pass. It is as if you were swimming across a river and there were 100 floats to hold on to. Moving across the river, you swim to one of them and grab hold to keep you afloat. And yet as you look, you say, “They mar the beauty of this scene. I don’t want them.” But in one aspect of you, you know that if you get rid of them and your swimming ability is not yet refined enough, you will drown. So you leave them there, noticing that they mar the beauty, but also that they are useful until you have perfected your swimming so you do not need them anymore. At that time, they will simply drift away.
...

Thank you Aaron / Q'uo for these beautiful messages.