Dear Merla,
Your letter rang out to me. But before I get into it, I wish to express
regret to listmembers who have written to me a while back around the subject
of "Smallest Entities -- and MCS". Continuing fabric softener and gas
exhaust billowing thru my windows are the key culprit to the exhaustion that
has immobilized me on corespondence catch-up let alone more basic life
activities, but thanks to a listmember who reached out to me with energy
work, this has begun to improve the past couple days, and I hope to catch up
on all corespondence soon.
Merla, to your key question, << Is it better to stiffle negative feelings,
let a lot of things just go by and always try to feel appreciation for
everything? >> the lesson I've learned from AA on this is that it is very
important to honor ALL of our feelings. I think that any anger we feel in
connection with life-destroying attitudes and actions is perfectly
understandable in the light of our basic survival instincts. What is being
done to the earth is threatening our very survival (and that calls up the
equally "natural" instinct of fear). If we were not angry and fearful about
it, that would be unnatural!
Our anger gives us the "clue" that there is something wrong, and that is the
first step in being able to take action, gather information, that will be
necessary to correct what is wrong. I look at Christ overturning the tables
of the moneychangers in the table as an "archetype" for the value of
righteous ("reality-based" -- untrammeled greed, and lack of compassion for
the suffering of creatures damaged by it, DOES threaten the very roots of
life) anger. This is just one way in which a so-called "negative" emotion
actually is positive.
As far as another what is called "negative" emotion -- fear -- is concerned,
I have "looked" closely, using a method called Focusing (described in a book
by the same name by Eugene Gendlin, Ph.D) at my own body's experience of fear
and the survival-based function it serves (fight, flight, or freeze) and at
the end of a years-long process, come to realize that Christ's "Forgive them
Father, for they know not what they do" is based in a "scientific"
understanding of the bodymind.
To wit (and in very abbreviated form to what I will delineate in the book I
will write if I ever get a place to live where I am not constantly getting
zapped by chemicals that fling me into bed all too often -- of which my
essay, <<The 'Spiritual' Nature of 'Physical' Matter and, by Extension, of
Our Material World">>, posted a couple/few weeks ago to this list, is the
draft first chapter):
<<Those greed-gripped individuals whose polluting (whether with chemicals or
with "manipulated" lifeforms -- genetic engineering) and otherwise
systemically-destabilizing actions are causing our global ecology to
downspiral precipitously, are *responsible* but not to *blame* for what they
do, because they are in a hypnotic haze induced by a fear-full bodymind.
This fear (of not having enough, of not being enough) is carried by them in
their bodymind into every situation, and colors their every perception of
reality and hence their every action. Their lack of accurate perception of
the value of the material world -- including of their own bodymind
irrespective of how much money or "power" they have -- leads to a lack of
accurate perception of the damage they do, and so they continue it and deny
that it is damaging to anyone who points a finger and says, "Look, look what
you are doing!"
If they cannot see themselves, the world, their actions, accurately --
properly -- then are they not what is (I would say, rather
anachronistically), called "mentally ill"? As such, they are sick and
suffering individuals, and can be forgiven, for "they know not what they do".
Hence, we can "love" them (a "positive") even though we feel anger and fear
for how their lack of acurate perception threatens our very survival, and
even while taking whatever steps we need to take to protect ourselves against
their damage. We acknowledge the validity of our feelings, and then move on
to the love-based actions that in our best estimation, can help to heal the
world through correction of misperceptions wherever we encounter them.
In that context, if it is true, as Sri Aurobindo "proves" to my satisfaction
in his The Life Divine, that the foundation of life is goodness, then
compassion for the sick-and-suffering who trample that goodness, becomes the
natural benchmark for action in regard to them, once we have accurately
perceived by way of our experience of our OWN bodymind states, how enslaved
they are to THEIR bodymind states.>>
The seeming paradox of how "negative" actually is "positive" in this context,
and consonant with your comment: << I think this question applies to what is
happening in the world today that we are all thinking about all the
time...how DO you turn it around>>, is reflected in the fact that:
It is seeing how our own *if out-of-balance* fear and anger can paralyze us,
or lead us to repeat actions that harm ourselves or others, that lets us
fully bodymind "see" and understand the haze of misperception and the
bodymind grip that such misperception can have upon the destroyers/damagers
of our Earth. That understanding not only lets us forgive them (for what
they know/*see* not what they do), thus "freeing" us to move onto the
positive work, but also points to the bodymind nature of the underlying
source of global ecological downspiraling, and hence gives clues to what must
be addressed to reverse it.
Namaste,
-Lily
you wrote:
<< Subject: Re: FW: [globalnews] Stop the Corporate Takeover of our Water
I'm in the process of trying to have good vibrations most of the time because
of
a book that was recommended to me=D6Excuse Me, Your Life is Waiting by Lyn
Grabhorn. Her thesis is that you can only turn things around by maintain=
ing
strong positive FEELINGS, even in the face of all kinds of things happeni=
ng that
you don't want or when you want something which is seemingly impossible; =
that
attacking these "don't want" issues just makes them worse and longing for
something comes out of a "don't want" mentality too. These feelings can =
draw to
you the same negative vibrations from other people on the same and differ=
ent
issues. I just started this and it is working, but I just had my first s=
etback.
Tonight around midnight I woke up with the most caustic fear around the i=
ssue of
the fairbooth that I'm working on for the county fair. The generator was
running and I went outside and turned it off and took some of my St. John=
swort
tincture and ate some cottage cheese. I'm feeling better.
The unreasoning fear is alienating people and being ostracized for critiz=
ing the
present administration's ties to Monsanto and patenting of life. I bough=
t a
video at the Global JAS conference which shows the implications--It start=
s out
with pictures of bubbling hot springs at Yellowstone and saying that the
microscopic creatures that live in the hot springs were going to be paten=
ted
until there was an outcry. It goes through the issues of the utility pat=
ent and
seed breeding, through the patenting of indigenous people's medicines tha=
t have
been developed over 100s of years and the patenting of cell lines from
indigenous people's DNA.
The theme of the fair is "Star spangled memories uniting Bonner County," =
which I
take to imply a patriotic war theme which I am not in sympathy with at al=
l. The
"united we stand" mentality is strong here and sometimes it gets to me,
especially when some of my fellow organic growers are so much into silenc=
e on
these issues and won't work in my booth. It's hard to maintain my positi=
ve
feelings and as tonight=D6I wake up with a powerful, negative feeling tha=
t I have
to turn around. Butting heads with people of like mind gets to me a lot =
more
than butting heads with someone who is my exact opposite.
I knew that trying always to keep good vibrations would be hard, but when=
you
backslide after a period of focusing on being positive, it is scary.
Has anyone had experience with trying to maining continuous positive
vibrations? How has it worked for you? For years I have been just facin=
g pain,
sadness, anger head-on and working through them, but such honesty makes i=
t hard
on your spouse and can put you at odds with other people too. Trying alw=
ays to
keep good vibrations is a very different way of being, but I think it doe=
s draw
people to you. The idea of manifesting what you want with good feelings =
is
brand new to me. I gave up praying for anything personal that I wanted l=
ong ago
and instead just worked for what I wanted. That makes me a nag, and I'm =
always
trying to accomplish some project. Is it better to stiffle negative feel=
ings,
let a lot of things just go by and always try to feel appreciation for
everything? The two philosophies are at odds. I find it hard to relax =
when
there is so much work that needs to be done. Is this the half-full, half=
-empty
conundrum or is this a change of emphasis from accomplishing things by do=
ing to
accomplishing things simply by feeling good and staying plugged in to you=
r
Guidance?
I think this question applies to what is happening in the world today tha=
t we
are all thinking about all the time...how DO you turn it around=F3by havi=
ng
fairbooths about it in enemy territory or simply by having strong good fe=
elings
about how you would like things to be and enjoying life?
Merla
> It seems the only way around the future is through it...on our terms.
> Possible alternatives would be groups of likeminded folks forming commu=
nities
> around their farms and siezing control of their destiny, water, and
> environmental policy...seems like this needs to become a more serious
> discussion...
