03-11-2012, 01:04 AM
There are some very interesting things happening in this thread.
It appears that the Law of One is often not perceived as directly useful in real-life situations. How, for example, do I handle my attacker by using the Law of One? Or how can I change the entire world?
In truth, the Law of One is reflected in all of experience. You cannot escape it. You can only pretend that you can. What brings any experience to you? Why it is your own act of creation, your own thoughts about yourself and others (which is the same thing)! Do you see people in poverty? Then you must also be in poverty. Do you see people in pain? Then you must also be in pain. Do you see people who act with violence? Then you must also be violent. Do you see people whose intentions are not fully pure? Then yours are also not fully pure.
The flip-side of this coin, however, is that the fictional people you describe, such as the hypothetical rapist, is not a person in your experience. Until you are faced with a rapist, you do not have the opportunity to see yourself in his eyes. This is why you do not change the world. The entire Planet Earth is not your world. You only interact with a small portion of it. But within this portion, you are omnipotent. No, you cannot break the laws of nature (given to us by our Creator), but within the boundaries of those laws, you may Create whatever kind of experience you like. Your personal world can be one of the utmost harmony, and all you have to do is change yourself.
Have you never taken joy in that which brings suffering to another? Not even once? If you have, then there you are, looking back at yourself in the eyes of the rapist.
I have been there. And having been there, I know what the mind of the victimizer looks like. I know that the suffering inflicted on the victim is equal to the suffering experienced by the victimizer. What else but compassion can I feel? Guilt is suffering, and it doesn't matter if you are STS or STO, you will feel it.
The Cave of the Shadows is a place which must be visited if a Choice is to be made. Both STO and STS will visit the Cave of the Shadows. Both must also visit the Light outside. It is only with full knowledge of the options available that a Choice can be genuinely and full-heartedly made. Once, when I was a child, I intentionally dropped something hard on my brother's head just to see what it was like to hurt someone. The moment I saw him recoil in pain, I knew I would never take joy in intentionally causing the suffering of another. This does not mean I have not caused others to suffer -- far from it.
However, there are those who see beauty in the power that lies coiled in the ability to inflict suffering. You may not see this beauty, but your perspective takes nothing from the legitimacy of that of those who do see this beauty, just as theirs takes nothing from the legitimacy of yours.
It appears that the Law of One is often not perceived as directly useful in real-life situations. How, for example, do I handle my attacker by using the Law of One? Or how can I change the entire world?
In truth, the Law of One is reflected in all of experience. You cannot escape it. You can only pretend that you can. What brings any experience to you? Why it is your own act of creation, your own thoughts about yourself and others (which is the same thing)! Do you see people in poverty? Then you must also be in poverty. Do you see people in pain? Then you must also be in pain. Do you see people who act with violence? Then you must also be violent. Do you see people whose intentions are not fully pure? Then yours are also not fully pure.
The flip-side of this coin, however, is that the fictional people you describe, such as the hypothetical rapist, is not a person in your experience. Until you are faced with a rapist, you do not have the opportunity to see yourself in his eyes. This is why you do not change the world. The entire Planet Earth is not your world. You only interact with a small portion of it. But within this portion, you are omnipotent. No, you cannot break the laws of nature (given to us by our Creator), but within the boundaries of those laws, you may Create whatever kind of experience you like. Your personal world can be one of the utmost harmony, and all you have to do is change yourself.
Shin'Ar Wrote:I believe that you know that there is a flaw in your thinking. I believe that you want to make this aspect of the One and the All make sense in every situation and circumstance. But you have to know, that when you would look into the eyes of a man that you have just witnessed raping a child, that you would not see yourself there. You have more to consider here than what you define as being One. you have to answer to yourself that if this is what you believe, than why do you NOT see yourself in that rapist's eyes.
Have you never taken joy in that which brings suffering to another? Not even once? If you have, then there you are, looking back at yourself in the eyes of the rapist.
I have been there. And having been there, I know what the mind of the victimizer looks like. I know that the suffering inflicted on the victim is equal to the suffering experienced by the victimizer. What else but compassion can I feel? Guilt is suffering, and it doesn't matter if you are STS or STO, you will feel it.
The Cave of the Shadows is a place which must be visited if a Choice is to be made. Both STO and STS will visit the Cave of the Shadows. Both must also visit the Light outside. It is only with full knowledge of the options available that a Choice can be genuinely and full-heartedly made. Once, when I was a child, I intentionally dropped something hard on my brother's head just to see what it was like to hurt someone. The moment I saw him recoil in pain, I knew I would never take joy in intentionally causing the suffering of another. This does not mean I have not caused others to suffer -- far from it.
However, there are those who see beauty in the power that lies coiled in the ability to inflict suffering. You may not see this beauty, but your perspective takes nothing from the legitimacy of that of those who do see this beauty, just as theirs takes nothing from the legitimacy of yours.