Beautiful People

When we grow, move to another level of being, we find that we have less and less in common with the world we used to inhabit. As the nature of our person changes we often see those changes reflected in our environment. When I learn new ways of being, when I set my mind to a higher frequency, I begin to disconnect from those around me who are still at their own level of being. Most people go through their whole lives in pretty much the same arena. They may have a few ups and downs but their lives assume a regularity. Each day is a routine, sleep, work, eat, repeat until the day you die. Its only a few of us who are constantly changing, always breaking our boundaries and finding new ways of expanding ourselves that truly change as life goes on. What is it that sets these two classes of people apart? It might be a toss up between confidence and courage. Without either of these you won't have what it takes to pursue anything to any real degree of success because you won't believe in yourself to go the distance when you aren't sure if you can, and you won't have the faith to jump when you don't know what you're jumping into. It is the attitude we hold when going into the unknown that keeps some people on the same level, while others are constantly hopping the tiers to new levels of personal development. I've been the person fighting for comfort, safety, normalicy, all in an effort to preserve what I was lacking most - confidence. When you have no belief in yourself, when you see yourself as defined externally rather than internally, then in the absence of positive information, you begin to doubt yourself, and everything you do suffers as a result. Nobody can accomplish anything until they first believe that they can. It could even be said that our beliefs as to what we can accomplish affect our performance greater than any outlying circumstance. The extent to which we achieve is determined by the extent we believe we can.
In order to achieve this confidence of being, its important to understand what a person requires in order to have it. I have not achieved many physical things, and yet I have the inner knowledge that anything thrown my way I can use in a positive way, depending on how I choose to bend with it. In order to be a successful person, one does not need all the external evidences of success. Success is a process not a destination, and it is the appreciation of this process that will keep you up even as others give up. All that is required for a person to have confidence in their ability to overcome, is that they believe in their ability to overcome, regardless of evidence to the contrary. This all comes from the attitude that a good spirit can overcome any obstacle. It isn't even that you are overcoming, thats just a side effect. Its that you focus on your spirit, and the things of the outside begin to fade into the background as you build momentum and generate an internal focus that continues to drive you in a direction of your choosing, rather than one driven externally. It is the choice of priority, which is more important? The outside, or the inside.
Because all that is required for human excellence is the state of faith - faith in your own excellence, I have developed the belief that all people are beautiful. Rachel is a girl with alot against her, most of it coming from herself, but I still appreciate and love her as a beautiful, unique human being, unaware of her own capabilities. It isn't all the superficial difficulties we face in this world that determine our capabilities, its the strength of our spirit, but sometimes we get so involved and feel so overwhelmed by our external difficulties that we overlook our greatest source of strength, our unalienable human potential. I will continue to try and show her that her inner strength can help her to overcome all that stands in her way, and a great way to do that will be to practice these principles and disciplines in my own life. But there are many ways to turn a person's head, and I will continue to use my ingenuity to find a way that will reach her. I can't convince her of her own worth, but maybe I can help lead her to it. Once she has the confidence in herself to do whatever she desires, her decisions will be much different. I once read that low self-esteem can be traced as the source of all serious human pathologies, and I would have to agree with that. Most people, including Rachel, make decisions based on things outside them - their behaviour is determined by circumstance and they are ultimately a product of their environment. They view the problem as being outside of them, and as a result give away any power they had of changing it. They forfeit before they're even out of the gate.
When we see any problem in our life as our own, then we instantly have all the leverage we need to solve it - regardless of the source of the problem. If we see that all things can be dominated from within, even if not in the way we expected, then we have that measure of control which allows us to influence the course of our lives from the only engine we truly control - ourselves. Its when we give our power to others, when we blame others for our problems, blame our circumstances, that we miss out on the opportunities that contrive our lives.
Opportunities are usually disguised as hard work, so most people don't recognize them. - Ann Landers.
Taking advantage of all opportunities in life, the obvious as well as those that are harder to see, is a crucial element of leading a life that makes a difference. Rachel see difficulty and sees a reason to give up, but if she only recognized the opportunities available to her with each new problem, she would be a much more empowered person today than she is now. She has an immense reservoir of opportunities to learn from, but would rather turn her back on them, prefering to run away or as she calls it 'moving on', without really stopping and learning from all the opportunities she has been given that have been disguised as obstacles in her mind. Those who can take a negative and reframe it as a positive are those who master life because they take everything that other label good or bad and see it all as good, as somehow working towards their grand design because they have the flexibility and faith to learn from even the most challenging of circumstances. Whether it teaches me, or increases my discipline, expands my capacity for forgiveness, or just helps me have fun, all things in my life contribute to my well being, and it is this attitude that has given me a new perspective on my life and a new confidence in the face of the unknown. You might call it a faith in divine providence, Marcus Aurelius called it the Reason of the Universe, whatever it is, its an understanding that all things in the universe are essentially benevolent, it is only our perspective that makes it otherwise. In this sense who we are truly defines our reality by allowing those who see the malevolently to be threatened at every turn, and those who see it benevolently as being always in the cradling arms of universal security. All determined by the power of our will. This power of perspective, a power completely overlooked by those who focus on others, on their situations, on life outside of them, is the single greatest force we can master as people on this earth, and it gives us the power to navigate life according to the greatest joy or the worst misery. Our fate is truly our own, and we control our experience of the world.
All people are beautiful, regardless of their superficial differences, and each in their own way. We all have so much farther to go in our quest for the realization of our potential, but it is certainly the quest that we should enjoy, and not the attainment of its object. The future will never come, but the now is always present. Even now, in the minute actions of my daily life, I hope to help people according to my knowledge and wisdom. I will develop a greater discipline in maintaining my mental frequency that will help me to influence people to raise their own mental state to one that is more positive through the constancy of my own mental state. I have taken great leaps in understanding my states and growing as a person, and I wish that I could bring Rachel along with me, and I am confident that I can, its just a matter of whether or not she will. I will continue to attempt to show her how much more she could possess if only she believed in her ability to take it, but she has been in this rut for a long time, and I don't maintain any illusions as to the ease of the task before me. Having someone change a way of dealing with life that they have used for so many years won't be accomplished in a day, and it will only be through persistent, creative, long-term effort that I might get through to her. However long it takes, and whether or not she takes notice, the process will be an excellent inspiration to expand my knowledge of motivation, relationships, and personal power. I can only learn from these difficulties, and anything in life that improves the quality of my person is not in vain.

Love is being

Love is more than a thought, more than a word, more than an action - it is a way of being. Everything in our world stems from our inner experience of who we are. What we do has less to do with our circumstances and more to do with who we are when those circumstances arise. When we focus on who we are and who we want to be, then everything falls into place. It is this quality of persevering spirit, a spirit that continues undaunted in the face of changing circumstance, that propells people to greatness in spite of overwhelming odds. True strength lies within, and it is those who have recognized and focused inwardly that have overcome outwardly and become heroes. It wasn't that they overcame their obstacles, it was that they realized that the obstacles didn't matter compared to who they were on the inside. Our inner strength is so much greater than we realize, and often times we become so immersed in the world that its easy to overlook that immense inner resource that never leaves us. Whenever the world around us stews in fear and the belief in separation, it doesn't even need to be considered. We don't own the world, can't control it, it isn't ours. The only thing we own is that which our will has power over - ourselves. Focusing on things in the world will only waste our effort and time because we ignore our greatest and most efficient area of power - our inner being. It is by understanding, connecting with, and controlling this inner self that we can unleash a great inner strength that will impact the world like ripples in a pond. Trying to create that residual effect without a strong source impact is impossible. Even those who focus on the world and make some progress do so from a place of inner action. If they focused on what lies within them, rather than without, they would find their efforts greatly magnified in effect. Its all we can do to stay on top of ourselves, and ensure that what we hold inside is what we want on the outside, to be pure, loving, compassionate, and forgiving. When we hold these things within, no external barrage can dissuade us because we aren't even paying attention to it. If you put all of your attention on who you are then you have little left for anything else. It is the discipline of applied focus that gives us greatness, the ability to master our inner resources and distribute them according to our will, not according to the whims of instinct or external forces.

Love is wonderful

Love is such a wonderful thing, I can't see why anyone would deny it to themselves in any measure. There are so many people in the world focused on their hurts, worrying over their fears, that sometimes love just has a hard time getting through. Its only when we let go of those things, allow, forgive, be courageous, and be willing to accept any hurt that we begin to understand what love is and what it feels like. As human beings our methods won't give us the results we desire most of the time, but its with each of those times that we reflect, learn, and do better - growing more in our capacity to show people love and in our understanding of it. The only failure is a failure you don't learn from. Its the fear of trying and failing that keeps most people on the ground. They become outcome oriented, worried about whether or not it will work, without focusing on the benefits such efforts give them as a human being. Every time we put ourselves out there in the world to help someone, could someone get hurt? could we hurt ourselves? could things not go as well as we planned? Sure, but at the end of that experience we have that valuable experience that we can learn from. In the Iliad there is a story of Philoctites, who has been bitten by a snake and taken on board the ship. The wound festers and the shipmates begin to fear the disease it would bring on the rest of the ship. So they abandon him on an island. They continue on to the Trojan war, and start to loose quite badly. Searching for guidance, they turn to the oracle which tells them that the reason they're loosing is because they left Philoctites on the island, for within his wound is the bow and arrows of Hercules. His wound had knowledge they had learn from. SO they picked him up and continued on with the war and won. It is our wounds that give us the knowledge we can learn from to improve every aspect of our lives, from house chores, to life long pursuits, to enhancing out ability to love. Love is something we get better at the more we put ourselves out there, the more we try, the more we forgive, the greater and greater our capacity for love becomes. Occasionally I see those out in the world continuing on blindly, ignoring the great bounty their love could bring for the world and themselves, and I get angry, but that is not a response that is compatible with a loving perspective. It is another one of those fear induced responses, maybe my fear that the world can't be better, so I have to be frustrated to make progress. But anger is pushy, love is patient. On of the greatest attributes about love is that it isn't exhausted. Often times in the pursuit of anger we will tire ourselves out, because anger is inherently destructive, out of harmony, with our being. Love nurtures us, and with each moment that we focus on it - it sustains us. The more we put into it, the more it gives us back, and in so doing a person learns to increase the flow of that ever giving fount of love that resides within us all, some more than others. The only thing we can do when others show fear, anger, hatred, judgement, is to be patient with them, and continue on in our path with the knowledge that love will always outlast fear, because it is inherently better for you. Simply by giving to those people, showing them in earnest a better way through the example of our own deeds, contributing to the lives of those around us, we can make the world a better place if only for those in our company.
Fear, distance, separation, dislike, all of these things come to us much stronger than love does. Given that social programming is coupled with our biological instincts, its no wonder that love holds a minimal foothold in most peoples lives. Love is encouraged in our society mostly as a romantic notion, and the principles of higher thinkers, Ghandi, MLK, Jesus, are often explained away in order to make room for our destructive tendencies. But love is all you need. It can be the driving force to help us accomplish what we desire in our relationships - inspiring us to learn, grow, hurt and overcome all in the interest of improving the love we share with others. Love is like any other thing that requires investment, but the more you invest in it, the more it gives back to you. For too many people, love is just a high, and once the lows set in, love is no more. The love I speak of is spiritual, called from deep within us as a recognition of our one-ness with all things. Once you take into account that we are all a part of each other, attacking or doing damage to any one part makes little sense as an organism divided against itself is doomed to destruction. There will be adverse elements in the world that excite reactions similar to those they produce. Its when others act negatively towards us, and we respond in kind, that we spread the cancer. The only way to allay the progress of these malignant tendencies is to respond benignly, to continue on with our course of compassion unswayed. It is through the healthy functioning of the whole that the sick elements are eventually rendered whole. Valuabe advice for how we conduct ourselves in difficult times, when there are many who seem against us. Our worlds consist of what we put into them, if it be love, then that is what we shall receive, if it be anger, then we shall likewise be given that anger in return. Our decisions, our ways of being, determine the very course of our lives. I choose love, for it is a wonderful thing.

Maintaining Compassion

When others treat us bad, we are inclined to respond in kind. Their projection finds reflection in us, and we must magnify it, out do them, in order to feel safe. The thought erupts that if we just do this thing, get back at them, then our urge will be satisfied and we will no longer have these feelings, but often is the case when we find our revenge at hand and we are not sated. Through justification we have excused our malicious intentions, but once they have played out, we find that the justification was a veiled deception, deceiving us from the true nature of our intent. We did not intend to do harm for good, or to achieve a sense of justice, but because we chose to do harm. It becomes a state of mind that we choose, even though many of us are not actively aware that we have chosen it, we feel its pull, and assume that it is natural, that it is genuine, that it is 'us'. If we were only to question, to give attention to this automated process of reflection, then we would see a process that is not inspired by our true desires, but by an automated mechanism, instinct, meant to preserve the human, but not their humanity. As subjects of environmental programming, the vast majority of us do not even question the values and beliefs that we have taken from our environment. For Rachel and Amanda grew up in homes full of violence and retribution, and because that is the world they grew up in, they have accepted those values at a time when they were not concious enough to question them. Yet the presence of these values remains, and will until they actively give them attention and question them. If we were to all question our values we would discover that many of them do not serve us well. The call for revenge, often confused with justice, only serves to fill its holder with malice and poisons every breath they take. Hate is little more than a madness, a disruption of the very core of our being. It can be categorized purely in that fashion, as destroying the proper functioning of a system and allowing thoughts and actions which would in no way be reasonable to a sound mind, to be justified and even encouraged. When those around us display this madness, we feel the stress and discomfort it brings, and like ripples in the water we are compelled to be influenced by them, but unlike all other creatures in the natural order of things, we are not bound to respond according to our environments, but have an underlying current of will - conciousness - that gives us the power to choose our reactions, to decide for ourselves the state of our mind, rather than allowing it to be dictated to us by fate.
In the face of disunion, I would rather choose to be a compassionate person, despite the expressions of anger, fear, and revulsion given by those I love. We all say that we would like things to be perfect, that we would like to get along, but very few of us are willing to drop our grudges, forget our old divisions, and create a healed and unified future. When they turn to strife, I will turn to unity, and that I all that remains in my power to do. The only way to bring the values into the world that we desire to see is to exemplify them with the only engine we have full control over - ourselves. If I want my relationships to be healed, to be loving and compassionate, giving, and caring, then I must represent those values within myself, in my thoughts, feelings, and actions. While most of us will respond in the only way that seems natural to us, according to those values we learned at a young age, we find very little awareness is given to the processes which we take for granted. Amanda will tell you all day long how she wishes the world were a better place, how she values love and forgiveness, but when the real tests come, she responds in the manner that she was taught as child, with violence, with anger, callousness and distance. If only she paid enough attention to see that the way she is creates the world around her, then she would change her ways, but because the process occurs unconsciously for her, she doesn't even question it, all she knows is that she despises the feelings, without knowing where they come from. Wow so much of this was completely unknown to me just a few months ago. How much more is there for me to learn?

Victims

In life we are all either kings or pawns.
People live two primarily different lives, those who are a product of their circumstances, and those who produce their circumstances. The vast majority of us, 95% I'd estimate, live lives full of blame and accusation, where nothing is their fault and everything is to blame for the lives that they live. Its easier to sit down and list off all the things that are wrong, and all the things that keep you from doing something about those wrongs, in order to make yourself feel better in the short term. In the long term, however, such thinking gets you nowhere, even wastes your life away, because at the end of these rationalizings, nothing has changed. Our mindset inspires the thoughts we produce. If we believe we can, then we will, if we believe we can't, then we won't, and our thoughts will continue to this effect. I hope to change that in people. It isn't about processes, it isn't about solutions, it isn't about obstacles, its about mindset. So many people in my life are living the same way today that they did yesterday, and the day before that, as far back as the behavior started. They don't change because they don't have the mindset of change, but of comfort. If I know anything about change its that its unsettling. When I'm facing my fear, and I'm not sure what I'm standing on, the feeling of being disturbed, of not having anything to hold on to - would make most people cringe and flee. But I strike out head first into the maelstrom and not only endure, but thrive. Is it because I'm unafraid? Is it because it doesn't hurt? No, its because more than believe, I KNOW that I will grow for every moment I spend in that storm of spirit. It is the fire that tempers the steel of my being, and the farther forth I venture, the farther behind I leave my loved ones who are frightened of the fire. I don't want to leave them behind, I want to take them with me, but in order to do that, I have to learn how to give them a hand, to encourage them, tell them it will be alright, and show them through to the other side, where we will be strengthened in our bond together. I wish Rachel could see that the beliefs she has about life and relationships don't serve her wants. She wants to have a happy, healthy relationship, but instead of asking, how can we overcome this together? She lists off the things that are wrong, and instead of them being opportunities for growth, she sets them up as obstacles to the relationship. She really is a beautiful person, but she is plagued with defeating life practices, and as such, she will never even scratch what she is capable of as long as she holds on to those old mindsets, old ways of finding blame.I am a constantly growing person, and over time I've continued to grow by leaps and bounds, but I've also left behind the people who didn't grow, because they allowed our differences to separate us. If I want to find a solution for this, I'll have to start finding ways to give to other people the gifts I have recieved. Show them the better way, and help them adopt the practices that give me the success I desire in the areas I pursue. It really is a world of the can do's and the its not my fault's. Those with power will always outnumber the powerless, and is it because they were given more? No, its because they took more. They believed in themselves and their abilities, and in so changing their mindset they consequently changed every aspect of their existence. When you have the right mind, you tend to ask the right questions, develop the right solutions, produce the right results. When you have the wrong mind you get the wrong in all those areas. Our lives are built from the inside out. History is full of people who build riches, lost them, and built them up again. At more than one point in their life they were no better off than trailer park trash, with everything stacked against them, and the one thing that they had that was different was their attitude. They chose their path, pursued it, and took action as a result and in no time were back on their feet. These haves had no more than the have nots, not in capability, or starting advantage, and yet they succeeded because of a simple thing that we don't believe in very much - the human spirit.We can all change, we are not held to the ground by anything tangible, but by the chains of our own pessimism. By realizing the simple reality that you are free, then you can be free, and all things will be opened to you. In life we get what we look for. Seek and ye shall find. If we want to see problems, difficulties, insurmountable odds, then we will find those things. If we see instead opportunity, growth, and potential success, then we will find those things. When I think of Rachel I see a chance to grow closer to her than anyone she's ever had in her life. When she thinks of me she probably sees hopelessness, abuse, maybe even hatred, and because thats what she chooses to see, then thats what she has. We are born into this world flooded with information from our senses, and we grow to believe that that is all there is. We buy into the attitude that our lives are determined by what is around us, rather than our life being determined by ourselves. It is the mindset of the victim, I have no choice, I am trapped, there is no other way. Self defeating tapes play back and forth all day every day in their mind, and then they continue to complain when they produce the very results they'd been telling themselves all along they would get. I could show her a world where she doesn't have to be the victim. Where she not only decides what she wants, but gets it! The thing is, whether we believe it or not, our lives are ALWAYS a product of ourselves. If we ignore it, and continue to infest our minds with pessimistic thoughts then our lives will be exactly what we do not want. When we look at ourselves and believe, when we constantly focus on what we do, rather than don't, want, then we will find ourselves blessed with it. Input determines output. Until we learn to take advantage of the limitless power of the human spirit, then we will always remain pale shadows of ourselves, defeated by the slightest twist of fate, beaten down until we have no life left to live. We live reactively or proactively. We all hold our fate in our hands, what we choose to make of it is entirely the result of our decisions. Until I find a way to show her that she doesn't have to give up, that every day is a new opportunity to create the life she wants - instead of running from the one she doesn't, then she will continue to be beaten down, not by me, not by her circumstance, but by her own limiting beliefs. She is truly her own worst enemy.

Resilience

Its hard for me to hold something against someone that I so easily succumb to myself. There are those who would judge me, put me into a box they've formed in their mind. They have already mapped out my dimensions and objectified me, transforming a living being into a static entity. It all emanates from the pain we feel as a result of our ignorance combined with our assumption. When we decide to let the pain go, when we realize that nothing can harm us - only we can harm ourselves, then we can be truly liberated from the automatic process of casting judgement. When we stop living reactively and start living proactively, then we become a force in the world, rather than being subjected to the world's forces. Those who inspire great change did so not by grabbing hold of the world and forming it as they chose, but by taking as complete advantage as possible of the one thing in the world they could control, themselves. By gaining concious control of our own organism, and overriding the natural processes that are hardwired into us from nature and nurture, then we can truly become masters of our own destiny and our lives are directed not according to our urges, but according to our will. Then we begin to act in the interest of a world that exists in our vision for a better world, rather than reacting to the world of our past. The past can teach us many things, but it should only be utilized to the extent that it enriches us in the now and subsequently enlarges our future.I know that any time I suffer, any time I feel the pain of another, it is not something to be despised, or to flee from. I take hold of it as an opportunity for me to expand, for wherever there is pain there is room for growth. Thats all pain is to me, an indicator of potential improvement, and as such takes on a positive connotation. Whenever I am unsettled I know that I am expanding my boundaries and improving my ability to handle all the things that life brings my way. It is not for me to question the divine providence of the world, but to appreciate all things that enter my arena, for they can in no ways bring me down. If I am flexible in my approach and lenient in my understandings, then everything no matter how difficult holds the promise of enhancing my being, all I have to do is take advantage of it. As I grow in my understandings of the world and humanity, I feel especially privileged to be given this knowledge, and to take advantage of it wholly, but I also think what this knowledge is giving to the world at large. Sure it helps me to grow and advance, but what of all those out there who cringe from the nature of their reality? Most of us choose to despise what we have been given, hating our fortune, running away from opportunities simply because we choose to hold on to an old mindsets that increase our hurt. I don't know what makes me so willing to destroy my presuppositions, what it is that allows me to break myself down time and time again in the pursuit of higher spiritual awareness, but it is a gift that I hope not to take exclusive advantage of. There are many people out there who live in suffering and hold great pain entirely because they choose to. I want to show them a better way, a way to let go and not be afraid, a way to walk into that unsettling feeling and emerge a stronger person. We don't need to fear the fire if we know we will come out purer on the other side. Life is a fire, it tests us, builds us up. It applies the stresses that enhance our being. Through the continual application of pressure we become stronger, as a weight lifter puts on muscle, so our character grows by overcoming the challenges that life sets before us. In this way my capacity for love grows. Each heartache, each harsh word, each pain that is given to me from another person enhances my ability to absorb that pain, and respond in a positive manner. Once I allow the negativity of another to reflect in me, then I only contribute to the energy that brings them down, only now it is magnified within them and present within me also. Everyone loses. Someone has to forgive, someone has to be proactive - allowing their will to decide the state of their being, and not reactive - allowing their environment to decide the state of their being. By choosing to embody love, by seeing that those who cause hurt only cause it because they suffer, and understanding that I choose to give them the love that they may not deserve, but they desperately need - I can enhance my own understanding of love and capacity for it. There is a way that we are taught to react to pain, and then there is an entirely different way of loving through the pain, allowing that divine state to shine through you and out into the world. It is that way of being that I hope to achieve in greater amount, the ability to refuse all hurt, and be a source of benevolence, with no trace of malice. Of course there will be those who despise this way of being, or who mistrust it, refusing to believe in its possibility in the world because they refuse to believe in its possibility within themselves. We have martyrs for a reason. There are those whose goodness drives other people to heights of insanity, the result of a law of nature perhaps. For every action their is an equal and opposite reaction. For everyone that chooses to love, there is one who embodies suffering and so spreads it throughout the world because it is the nature of their being. By seeing my pain as beneficial, by continuing to strive for love within myself, I wash away layer after layer of accumulated suffering. I'll never get to be that perfect person, but it is not the result that I strive for, but rather the intention. It is the intention to be loving that forms within me a loving attitude, and where effort and attention are directed, change is bound to follow. Lifetimes are built one day at a time. It is by the consistent attention to the improvment of myself today that will result in the change I experience tommorow. I've spent so much of my life in tommorow and yesterday that I'd forgotten about today, and about the power that it gives us to live our life anew, to make changes, to be better people. Each and every day I change a little bit, my knowledge expands and I grow closer to that day when I will no longer reside on this earth and will move on to another existence. Then I will have my result and will be able to reflect on all I've done and say that I have come so far from where I thought I would go.

Heartburn

Curry is bad, don't eat it.
Those who are certain are those who assume. When I feel pain, I usually find something external to attribute it to - a natural process and a justifiable one. It exists to preserve us from those things in the world that threaten us, a primitive method of self preservation based on our animal instincts. While it works well to ensure the survival of the organism, it does little to encourage the growth of the spirit. There are those in my life whose assumptions are born from pain, and their pain is born from their assumptions. Its a vicious circle of feel baditude. The pain causes me to form assumptions, and so I understand the natural process, and how can I condemn something that is so easy to succumb to. I know because I've succumbed to it myself. Its so easy for me to judge, but that judging is just another reaction to the pain, and that pain results from the judging, another ironicly hilarious circle. Its amazing how our natural processes can spiral out of control, resulting in the destruction of our sanity and well being. Only by looking at my pain and facing it can I overcome it. But we feel love when we give love. I understand that you can't make someone feel love. Its been an assumption of mine that love is given, and when love is given the you feel it. After observation I've come to think that love comes from within. It cannot be received, only expressed. Sometimes the circumstances of our lives will encourage us to adopt the mindset of a loving person but that mindset is then dependent on our circumstances. Like the Joker said, "They're only as good as the world allows them to be." But when things go sour, so do we. Its that dependency on the external that ultimately results in our allowing the world to dictate our behaviour.There's a belief that we can choose to hurt someone in order to prevent a greater hurt from happening. But if those great examples of loving behaviour from the past can teach us anything, its that pain only begets more pain. Ghandi, MLK, Mother Theresa all absorbed immense punishment and encouraged others to do the same, for it is only by absorbing the suffering of others that it dissipates. When we allow that suffering to reflect in us, then it grows and magnifies. If someone doesn't learn to forgive, if someone doesn't learn to stop that cycle then it will perpetuate eternally, until all of us are destroyed. Human conciousness has the potential to either destroy or save human kind. Its all dependent on how we direct it.It would seem that the extent of love could be determined by the extent a person is able to suffer. The suffering is not an ultimate result, but rather a knee jerk reaction inspired by our fear.