h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Without meaning to be rude to anyones tao, religion, personal beliefs, or anything at all; I must say that I don't think the world wants to be loved, and doesn't really care if you do or don't!

What actually helps, is being nice to other people. BUT, and it's a serious but, most of them don't want you to nice to be them, don't care if you do. And you won't meet a lot of the so-and-so's anyway!

Still, if you can be nice to some of the people, some of the time, you'll probably get through.

The best thing is to love yourself. NOT unconditionaly, because >you are< just as bad and good as every other human, but enough that you don't make you miserable. In this way, you will find it easier not to make other people miserable, and so the world becomes a better place. Slightly.

Hmph, I sound like a damn pamphlet for a minor guru!

H&K
Z

Yowsa, Zed. Think you've answered your own question/problem but I'm gonna add my pennyworth anyway... do you want to be loved? If you do, isn't there a chance that others do too? And if you do, you need there to be people in the world who are willing to love (as well as to love yourself, yeah.) We are all a part of the mix.



Compassion is *the thing* here... we're all sentient beings in the same boat, same godawful/amazing situation, and this is a big key... love everything, even the shite... love your enemy even if only for the chance he gives you to be the good guy!



Not gonna say any more so as not to sound like a pontificating git. Many bhikkus boddisattvas and bhuddas have said it better than I...



Later,



BTH

Yowsa, Zed. Think you've answered your own question/problem but I'm gonna add my pennyworth anyway... do you want to be loved? If you do, isn't there a chance that others do too? And if you do, you need there to be people in the world who are willing to love (as well as to love yourself, yeah.) We are all a part of the mix.



Compassion is *the thing* here... we're all sentient beings in the same boat, same godawful/amazing situation, and this is a big key... love everything, even the shite... love your enemy even if only for the chance he gives you to be the good guy!



Not gonna say any more so as not to sound like a pontificating git. Many bhikkus boddisattvas and bhuddas have said it better than I...



Later,



BTH

I think you have stated things as clearly as they are ever going to be stated, on the whole.

Its just, well, all most everybody does want to be loved, that is a truth. But I find it better, and easier, to love a few people a lot, rather than everybody & everything. Most of us just want an easier time of it, while we're here. I am all in favour of not being horrible to people, when given the chance. But I am fully prepared to be evil in return. I am a creature of the universe, and the universe does not love us unconditionally. It would be...different... if it did. I'd like to say better, but how would we know?

There is balance in all things, Ying & Yang I think is the most popular expression of such.

I try to live by the balance, and to recognize that I am part of cycle of things.

Hmm, what I think I'm trying to say is that we shouldn't take life to seriously and personally.

I've rambled on enough. D'you think we should start our own publishing company?

H&k
Z

Zed said: I am a creature of the universe, and the universe does not love us unconditionally.

I think the Zen answer would be that the duality of "I" and "the Universe" is just an illusion. If you look in fine detail at the universe, it is made up of things ... we are some of the things that make it up ... if you look in fine detail at us we are made of the same stuff as the rest of the universe ... it's just that we choose to describe a certain collection of stuff as "I", and a wider set as "the Universe". At some point I will die and decay, but even though "I" as a particular collection of stuff will no longer exist, all that stuff will still exist. Even while I still exist, the stuff that constitutes me is just a transitory set of physical and psychological phenomena, so "I" am the same as everything else in the universe. In that paradoxical context, the question of whether or not "I" am loved by "the Universe" becomes unimportant.

Probably haven't quite got the hang of that argument, but then i have never experienced satori!

There is no I, there is no universe, there is no stuff and there are no collections of stuff.
There is only Mind.
This IS satori.

If you can't get there it's because there is nowhere to go.