03-17-2021, 08:21 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-17-2021, 09:02 PM by Steppingfeet.)
In my understanding, the idiom "preaching to the choir" is typically invoked when someone is speaking to those who already think or see or feel similarly and congruently.
About the phrase, Google turned this up: "To try to convince someone about something that they already support; to state one's opinion to those who are already most receptive to it."
So the implication is that the person preaching to the choir ought to be expending their efforts elsewhere. Depending on context, that could be for the purpose of convincing or converting or for winning over other's to a cause. (None of which fits L/L's dispassionate mission.) Or just speaking aloud to those who already agree.
Thus, what I also appreciate about the quote in the OP is the way re-envisions the idea by placing value on being with the choir, that is, sharing and being with others of like-worldview, or like-vibration, or like-values, or like-heart. Not in conformity or unanimity of thought. Not in monotone or homogeneity. Not in a silo or on an island, either. But in strength, support, evolution, and the protected/nourished space to grow your particular type of plant.
If parasitic insects are constantly devouring your leaves, or other larger plants are blocking your sun, or if you're being stomped on by other creatures, you as a plant might find reaching your full potential rather problematic.
Things often become more visible in the extremes, so here is a potent examination of the impact of the environment or the collective on the individual:
In the extreme of a purely negative environment, it becomes impossible for the positive polarity to maintain its chosen polarity, its desired evolutionary pathway to the Creator. The unfortunate entity in that situation would be forced to shut down and block their heart completely in order to pursue the ways of being enslaved and enslaving others.
While Earth's environment is not purely negative, much can be extrapolated from that scenario about the influence that the collective entity exerts on the individual entity. Whether it be paradigms of materialism or fundamentalism or militarism or other cocktails of confused values and human disharmony, such outer circumstances can limit, retard, and otherwise distort self-expression and the discovery of self.
On the flip side, these conditions are also highly conducive to the development of will and faith, offering a far more intensive catalyst than the entity can find elsewhere. And some rare souls do teach themselves how to make efficient use of this catalyst all by themselves, at least without visible outward community.
But in the main, I would venture, having at least a minimally protected space of shared hearts is highly productive of the freedom to fully discover the self. Adversity and diversity have their merits, of course, but being seen and held non-judgmentally by others for who you are in a generally shared vision and purpose can be an enormous boon to personal development and all that completely inward, internal work.
I think this has connection to the fact that the only entities able to achieve harvestability during the last 25k year cycle were a small group of souls who together built a polarized *culture* that supported, encouraged, and uplifted the individual in the values of service to others.
The individual is the irreducible unit of evolution, and chapters of the journey may feature solitary or less socially connected stretches, but exactly zero individuals exist outside the context of a collective of individuals. Evolution is as much a collective undertaking as it is an individual one.
About the phrase, Google turned this up: "To try to convince someone about something that they already support; to state one's opinion to those who are already most receptive to it."
So the implication is that the person preaching to the choir ought to be expending their efforts elsewhere. Depending on context, that could be for the purpose of convincing or converting or for winning over other's to a cause. (None of which fits L/L's dispassionate mission.) Or just speaking aloud to those who already agree.
Thus, what I also appreciate about the quote in the OP is the way re-envisions the idea by placing value on being with the choir, that is, sharing and being with others of like-worldview, or like-vibration, or like-values, or like-heart. Not in conformity or unanimity of thought. Not in monotone or homogeneity. Not in a silo or on an island, either. But in strength, support, evolution, and the protected/nourished space to grow your particular type of plant.
If parasitic insects are constantly devouring your leaves, or other larger plants are blocking your sun, or if you're being stomped on by other creatures, you as a plant might find reaching your full potential rather problematic.
Things often become more visible in the extremes, so here is a potent examination of the impact of the environment or the collective on the individual:
Quote:71.14 Questioner: You have made the statement that pure negativity acts as a gravity well pulling all into it. I was wondering first if pure positivity has precisely the same effect? Could you answer that please?
Ra: I am Ra. This is incorrect. Positivity has a much weaker effect due to the strong element of recognition of free will in any positivity approaching purity. Thus although the negatively oriented entity may find it difficult to polarize negatively in the midst of such resounding harmony it will not find it impossible.
Upon the other hand, the negative polarization is one which does not accept the concept of the free will of other-selves. Thusly in a social complex whose negativity approaches purity the pull upon other-selves is constant. A positively oriented entity in such a situation would desire for other-selves to have their free will and thusly would find itself removed from its ability to exercise its own free will, for the free will of negatively oriented entities is bent upon conquest. (See also: 70.23)
In the extreme of a purely negative environment, it becomes impossible for the positive polarity to maintain its chosen polarity, its desired evolutionary pathway to the Creator. The unfortunate entity in that situation would be forced to shut down and block their heart completely in order to pursue the ways of being enslaved and enslaving others.
While Earth's environment is not purely negative, much can be extrapolated from that scenario about the influence that the collective entity exerts on the individual entity. Whether it be paradigms of materialism or fundamentalism or militarism or other cocktails of confused values and human disharmony, such outer circumstances can limit, retard, and otherwise distort self-expression and the discovery of self.
On the flip side, these conditions are also highly conducive to the development of will and faith, offering a far more intensive catalyst than the entity can find elsewhere. And some rare souls do teach themselves how to make efficient use of this catalyst all by themselves, at least without visible outward community.
But in the main, I would venture, having at least a minimally protected space of shared hearts is highly productive of the freedom to fully discover the self. Adversity and diversity have their merits, of course, but being seen and held non-judgmentally by others for who you are in a generally shared vision and purpose can be an enormous boon to personal development and all that completely inward, internal work.
I think this has connection to the fact that the only entities able to achieve harvestability during the last 25k year cycle were a small group of souls who together built a polarized *culture* that supported, encouraged, and uplifted the individual in the values of service to others.
The individual is the irreducible unit of evolution, and chapters of the journey may feature solitary or less socially connected stretches, but exactly zero individuals exist outside the context of a collective of individuals. Evolution is as much a collective undertaking as it is an individual one.
Explanation by the tongue makes most things clear, but love unexplained is clearer. - Rumi
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