Degeneration as a Universal Law

The message? Shared pleasures decrease unhappiness.

jeanw5's avatarI Ching as a Way to Enlightenment

Spirit shares I Ching wisdom:

I Ching 17 – Following.
Lake is above Thunder.

Following follows Delight (16)
and leads to Degeneration (18).

The way of delight leading
to disaster?

Not necessarily so.

Please explain.

Delight in itself is neutral
as far as ethical outcome
is concerned.

Then it’s a matter of what
delights us?

Yes.

So, in the case of …

Yes?

I’m trying to express taking pleasure
or being pleased with activities
that bring pleasure to others
as well as to myself.

Go on.

In such a situation, how could
mutual pleasure lead to
degeneration?

Degeneration is a necessary part
of any outcome.

How?

It’s a Universal Law.

Then please explain how
this law works.

Everything changes.

When?

Continuously.

But, if shared pleasure is
an outcome then how can this
be considered as degenerating
anything or anybody?

When shared pleasure is increased
then displeasure or unhappiness
is decreased…

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Projection and Rejection as Intrinsically Connected

jeanw5's avatarGrass-Roots Spiritual Philosophy 101

Our simple seeker was meditating on the concept
of projection and rejection as being one and
the same.

One and the same what?

Perhaps not exactly one and the same, but ..

But, what?

Perhaps they are the same whatever, from
a different perspective.

What different perspective?

You’re asking me?

Yes. If you have an idea then you owe it
to yourself to at least attempt
to express it, if only to yourself.

But, isn’t just toying with an idea
the same as expressing it?

Not as long as it is too vague
to take any recognizable shape.

Then, rejection as a form of projection.

Yes?

With photography we necessarily
reject what we do not plan
to project our focus on.

Yes, but that wasn’t ..

I may have forgotten …

I don’t think so.

Then, what?

You were stepping into thoughts
too deep for your comfort zone.

About rejection…

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We Each Know Everyone Else

Spirit tells me that there have always been
dedicated teachers of wisdom in every culture
since time began, who have shared their
understanding and awareness of how life
can be lived for the benefit of all.

But, there are surely many more ways than
one to live a life that benefits all,
if it was possible to know how the life
we live could harm anyone.

Awareness would teach you.

How to become aware?

Experience.

Experience of what?

Being harmed as a result of how others
live their lives.

It isn’t possible to know how all others
live their lives.

Why?

I don’t know all others.

Do you know yourself?

Yes, I think so.

Then you know everyone else.

Awareness of Opportunities and How we Respond

Dear Reader, The ending of this post greatly surpassed where my simple mind might have taken it, and so I had to share it with you.

jeanw5's avatarI Ching as a Way to Enlightenment

Spirit shares I Ching Wisdom.

Hexagram 28 – Great Surpassing follows
Nourishment.

That makes sense.

What makes sense?

When and if we are well nourished,
the better we are able to develop
our physical potentials.

What about our intellectual,
emotional, and spiritual potentials?

Those, too. If parents have the means
to care for their children
as most surely would if they could,
then each new generation would have
the opportunity to develop beyond
where they might otherwise have gone.

How far back does it go?

What does that mean?

We can only do for our children
and our community what we are
able to do, now.

But …

Yes?

What if we are unaware of what
we can do for others, or might have
done for ourselves?

Then what?

Yes.

We each are responsible for how
we live our lives and the choices
we make, here and now.

Yesterday has…

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We Each Have a Reason For Being Whom We Are

Spirit tells me that the purpose of unconditional
love is …

Does unconditional love have a purpose?

Everything has a purpose.

And everyone?

And every one what?

Does everyone have a purpose?

As in a reason?

Yes, I guess.

Yes, you guess what?

I guess I mean to ask if everyone
has a reason, but …

But what?

I suspect you will then ask me
to complete my sentence.

Yes.

Do we each have a reason for being
whom we are?

Yes.

What reason do I have for being
whom I am?

What reason would you have for being
anyone else?

I lose?

Yes.

Are Bad Guys Necessary?

Spirit’s final “yes” is not meant to suggest approval of my simple, final thought. It’s his way of gently expressing a critical attitude toward my overly-simplified thought processes.

jeanw5's avatarGrass-Roots Spiritual Philosophy 101

Our simple seeker was recalling a confusing dream
of being lost in traffic and intensive construction
on her way to Church to celebrate a festival of
harvest.

She could hear the service begin. A loudspeaker
was being used, and yet it didn’t seem to cause
her to wonder why, even though it had never
been part of any previous experience.

Perhaps, during a dream, we are unaware of
any previous experience.

Then why was I aware of where I was trying
to go, to a church that I once attended?

Yes. There is always a blend of the reality
we are familiar with and that we are not.

Anyway, I was lost.

Where you alone?

No. I was lost, together with a friend.
But, I was not totally lost. I was aware
of being close to our destination.

But something was different with the
landscape?

Yes. Traffic was incredibly intensive,

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Where do Expectations Come From?

Spirit tells me tht we deprive elderly people
of the simple pleasure of self-care when
we do for them what they only require
assistance doing for themselves.

They become the object of our care and then
they begin to lose the sense of self-worth
that self-care allowed them to experience
and express.

What if they are unable, even with assistance,
to care for themselves?

When they are dead?

Not physically dead.

Emotionally?

No. Not that either.

Then?

You’re setting me up.

Yes.

Then, please explain.

Explain what?

I have been a care-giver and have
personally assisted clients with
bathing and home care, but
I have never, as far as I know,
been anyone’s first experience
in receiving paid care from.

What has that to do with anything?

Clients have expectations of what
to expect from paid caregivers.

Where do their expectations
come from?

A social worker would have
assessed their needs and …

How?

By testing their performance level
of activities of daily living.
The results would be recorded
on a scale of from very well
to not at all.

The results of the assessment
would determine what assistance
the person being tested required?

Yes.

Have you ever personally known
any client assessed as requiring
partial assistance cleaning
her kitchen or bathroom?

It’s quicker for the caregiver to do
the job alone and the time she
or he is allotted to any one client
is limited.

Then, the client becomes the job
that is objectified;?

That sounds impersonal.

In today’s so-called health care
system, client care has become
very impersonal.

So, how can we improve it?

We can learn to care.

How?

The only way possible.

Personal experience?

Yes.

Higher Values Create Their Own Expression

jeanw5's avatarI Ching as a Way to Enlightenment

Spirit explains I Ching 22 – Adornment

Mountain above and Fire below.

Society is as a fire that brings people
together; first, for survival and then
for other mutually beneficial purposes,
beyond, but never excluding survival.

Culture is as a volcanic mountain
that can only develop, as an adornment,
around a more-or-less stable society.

Culture cannot develop without
generally accepted social rules of relating
to different people in different ways.

A teacher is not a cook or a bus driver.

That’s curious that you would choose
a cook and a bus driver
to distinguish yourself
as other than.

Why?

A cook prepares food for eating and
a bus driver takes one to his or her
chosen destination.

Yes.

But, you do neither.

That is correct.

You seem to neither prepare food
nor offer transportation. Perhaps
the spiritual teachings you share,
after I struggle to digest them
and walk the path…

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Simplicity is Where Thinking Begins

Spirit tells me that Simplicity has its place
but it should not be as a quality of thought.

Is that a personal comment?

Yes.

Why do you not scold my simplicity of emotion?

What have your emotions to do with your thinking?

Is it possible to have deep thoughts and simple
emotions?

What have emotions to do with thinking?

You’re luring me into an intellectual trap.

Yes.

Then, pleas explain.

What?

The relationship between thought and emotion

They interact with each other.

As cause and effect?

Which would be cause?

Emotion.

No.

If thought does not act on emotion, then …

But, thought does act on emotion.

Then why do you say emotion does not
cause thought.

Because it isn’t necessarily so.

Then, interact in this case means …

Mutual influence.

How do they influence each other?

Some of us develop the capacity
to think rationally, while still
maintaining uncomplicated emotions.

Then you approve of simple emotions?

There are no other kind.

Karma is Different than Cause and Effect

jeanw5's avatarI Ching as a Way to Enlightenment

Spirit explains I Ching 51 – Thunder

Thunder above and Thunder below, or
As above, so below.

Thunder makes a loud noise. It does not
present itself graciously or even politely.
but on its own terms, and in its own way,
forcefully, so as not to be ignored.

Why does it have to let the world know
that it’s here, when it is here.

Perhaps it is as a messenger being sent
from a high authority, to announce
an immanent arrival.

A storm?

Yes.

That makes sense, weather wise.

It makes sense and is a reality
in any situation.

How is it possible to be warned
ahead of time in situations of
emotional, social, political, or
environmental disasters?

It is a law of life or, as some
prefer, a universal law.

What law?

Causation, or Karma.

Are they both the same law?

Yes and no.

How do they differ?

Cause…

View original post 38 more words