WELCOME TO JENRAY'S CELEBRATIONS

Hi to everybody...if anybody would like to read the whole essay. You can download it as a PDF file here...It's called a Bird's Eye View...and I wrote it over twenty years ago now I think...never dated it unfortunately...LOL....

Great big hugs to one and all...

Hi to everybody...here is the second part of this essay on Love...

Part 11 Aspects of love…..
What exactly does it mean when a human being falls in love? If it is the most powerful source of pleasure, it could be described as the meeting of another human being who incites intense feelings of pleasure in another human being, and draws them to pursue the individual in order to increase the experience or continue it. If the attraction is reciprocal, further meetings will decide whether the pleasure factor is reinforced and ongoing, and is strengthened with the revealing of the personality of both individuals. Initially, the attraction is based often on the appearance of the individual and, only in subsequent meetings, on their personality. Unfortunately, further meetings may reveal facets of personality which will decrease the pleasure in one or both people, and they
will go their separate ways. However, if this does happen, but the facets are tolerable to both people, a continuation of the relationship might be considered worth while, because the balance of pleasurable facets outweighs the facets which displease or even induce revulsion to a greater or lesser degree.
Very few individuals meet another who meets all their personal needs, so, falling in love does require a certain amount of compromise to remain stimulating and ongoing. However, while some undesirable facets of personality could be overlooked initially, as time passes, they could become intolerable as the pleasurable feelings are reduced whenever they reappear in front of the individual who had been able to accept them at the beginning of the relationship. This may take many months or even years to realise, and it is then that a falling out of love occurs, and the individual unable to cope any more with the undesirable facets of their partner's personality, leaves. If no pleasure is derived from a relationship, it is certain love no longer exists within it, and the opposite emotion has replaced it, namely revulsion or even hate, which will lead, in the end, to rejection of the offending individual. Sadly, this is, probably, why so many marriages break down.
Love can die when intense pleasure in the other dies. Liking somebody is not the same as loving somebody. The former induces pleasure but the latter induces an intensity of leasure which nobody else can match. This is love. In the same way, disliking somebody is not the same as hating somebody. The same criterion applies; the former induces mild revulsion while the latter induces a profound revulsion, namely hatred, which nobody else can arouse in the same way. Of course, human beings are capable of loving more than one person at a time, but each relationship will be at different levels of intensity, and for completely different reasons. The relationship between a man and a women, or two men or two women, depending on their sexual preferences, is based usually on a one to one basis, mainly because there is such a large expenditure of energy called for to ensure the continuation of love and making sure it does not die through neglect or by upsetting each
other. When another individual appears on the scene, the one to one relationship becomes unbalanced, and one or other of the partners is thrown into a state of confusion when they find themselves drawn to another who arouses even more intense pleasure than their partner. Many people claim to love both their partner and their new found source of pleasure, but in different ways. One provides one form of intense pleasure while the other satisfies another one, which may or may not being satisfied in the original relationship.
More often than not, it is due to the latter reason a partner initially splits their
interests with another outside. The energy required to maintain two relationships invariably ends with somebody getting hurt or abandoned in favour of the other.
The young have a tendency to fall in and out of love frequently, mainly because their bodies are undergoing huge changes as their hormones prepare their bodies for reproduction. Inexperience and blind responses to the demands of their maturing bodies can lead them to pursue potential sexual partners selfishly. The intense pleasure of love is laid aside for self gratification in many cases. Where no sexual union takes place until love is present, the urge to find a suitable partner increases accordingly. Eventually,
the majority of people do meet somebody who fulfils their desires and needs, but it is often a long and difficult journey to reach that point, and some never achieve it.
In the modern world, many young adults are choosing to abandon the practice of legalising their relationship or having it sanctioned by a religious ritual. They prefer to form free unions where both partners accept that the other is committed to the relationship but both remain free to leave the union without the need for a public divorce. Although many still choose to get married, the increase in living together between young people is going to have a profound effect on future understanding of partnerships between consenting adults.
This will lead to new methods of publicising these relationships so that both partners will be recognised as a couple, but without binding legal or spiritual contracts attached. All ready a variety of services have been created to meet this need, but they are still relatively rare. Common law partners are recognised within the legal system as having rights similar to those of legally bound couples now when the relationship has lasted for several years, and, especially, where children are involved. The recognition of the validity of these unions enables two individuals to feel more secure and protected from the
possibility of being left homeless, financially bereft and abandoned if one partner decides to leave. This public acknowledgement of this new form of union cannot fail to affect the previous practices, and may well make them obsolete eventually.
Several cultures have chosen to select partners for their children when they reach adulthood. In these case, if the selection is carried out without the needs of the son or daughter being taken into consideration fully, and divorce is discouraged or forbidden, very unhappy consequences can ensue as the result of a mismatch. However, as this practice has been going on for centuries, there must have been more successful matches than unsuccessful ones otherwise the practice would not have survived. This method of
arranging unions is less easily achieved when the young adults have moved out of their indigenous culture, or been born into a foreign one. Many young people come under the influence of the host culture and decide the ways of the past are not their ways. This can cause conflict within the family and only considerate negotiation between parents and the young adults can settle the disputes. Unfortunately, this does not happen always and the young find themselves abandoned by their families and ostracised permanently, especially if they choose a partner for themselves outside their own religious and racial culture. The previous practice was based on the premise that love grows by familiarity after marriage. Obviously, this does happen sometimes, but, where divorce or separation are forbidden, an error of judgement can condemn two individuals to a life time of pain, distress and, often, physical and verbal abuse of one partner, usually the woman. The argument put forward by those who wish to continue the practice is that the relationships
between individuals within the host culture break down so frequently now, the old ways are more successful, because the prospective partner is chosen very carefully, so why change what has worked well for such a long time. It remains to be seen how long the practice will survive the onslaught of human progress and change.
What attracts two people to each other and makes them want to spend the rest of their lives together has remained a mystery for centuries. The subject has been explored in depth at the end of twentieth century by psychiatrists, psychologists, doctors, scientists, theologians, poets, writers, artists and the ordinary person in the street. It is probably because human beings have been led to believe that 'love' is something extraordinary instead of what it might well be, an emotional, physical and mental attraction between two individuals which satisfy each for either a limited period of time or until one dies and the relationship is terminated. Where the latter happens, the remaining individual might well continue loving the lost partner, but with less expenditure of energy because no longer required to sustain the relationship on a day to day basis.
Their absence may well lead the remaining partner to seek out another one when the pain of the loss has subsided sufficiently and loneliness sets in. The same reaction can occur when two people divorce. A process of grieving follows frequently as the removal of an often deeply loved partner from the family home, suddenly in some cases, is akin to a real bereavement and a period of recovery and healing is extremely necessary. In the past, many marriages were made solely for the purpose of keeping wealth or power in two families. Love was absent often, and the consequence was an unfulfilled and unhappy relationship which continued until one partner died. Today, divorce frequently ends such relationships because the two individuals involved are prepared to accept no longer such an enforced union.
Where children are involved, the pain of the break-up of a marriage often has devastating consequences on their ability to make satisfactory choices when it comes to choosing partners of their own, because their judgement of what love entails, namely compromise and a high degree of unselfishness, is damaged by their early experiences.
Many individuals, who have spent a large amount of their lives together, may find the intense pleasure they found in their partners initially reduces gradually to a state of contentment where the intensity of feeling levels off, and both accept the qualities and shortcomings of each other in a different state of pleasure. This does not mean love has died, but has moved onto a different level, above mere liking, but below the early intensity of feeling. Most long term relationships arrive at this point as time passes, and, if strong enough, will provide sufficient energy to enable the union to continue until one partner dies. It comes as age mellows the powerful emotions, and two people reach
acceptable compromises between each other in the meeting of the needs of each partner by the other. Where such compromises cannot be made, even long term relationships fall apart, and both partners go their separate ways, often to the bemusement of their children, relatives and friends who considered their relationship permanent and indissoluble.
While I have looked briefly at human love between two adults, another source of love is that found between parent and child. This relationship is going to have an even more powerful effect on the future world than is the changing relationships between adults and their sense of their own selves. It is vitally important the emotional, mental and physical needs of the young are met within this rapidly changing world.
Parents, normally, experience intense pleasure from their children which bonds them for life. This love, however, is rarely unconditional. If their children fail to live up to their expectations, the intense pleasure can be reduced to intense dislike, or even hatred. The result of this falling out of love leads many families to be conflict ridden, and gives the children a damaged comprehension of this most powerful of emotions. The well being of the young relies heavily on the happiness and well being of their parents. Where the latter is flawed or absent, damaged young adults go out into the world, and, frequently, inflict their damage on future partners. It is a vital part of growing up that young people are helped to understand that, in spite of all the stresses and strains their parent's relationship may undergo, they are still a source of intense pleasure, and, as a result of this, are loved still by their respective parents. While it is far better to love unconditionally, it is the most difficult achievement for any human being. Most fail to a greater or lesser degree, because their understanding of this concept is subject to their own experiences of such love.
Certain religions have taught their adherents for centuries that divine love is
unconditional, but, on closer examination, it is clear it is not. It is given only if
allegedly divinely inspired laws are kept and rituals followed. Failure to do so result in eternal damnation. The contradictions in this teaching is becoming impossible to reconcile in the minds of many believers, and they are abandoning their religions in favour of a one to one relationship with their God, or losing their belief altogether. Through this, it is essential a new understanding of the meaning of love emerges at the dawn of the new
millennium. Human beings know it to be the most powerful experience they will ever have, and may well become completely disillusioned with it if it proves to be merely a chemical, emotional or physical response to a particular stimulus. It has to be far more than that, otherwise it will lead to the emergence of unfulfilled and very unhappy human beings with mental and emotional problems previously unseen in the world. The damaging of human
emotions and minds often leads to a breakdown in physical health as a side effect, so it is very important for modern human beings to arrive at a new understanding of the value of human love if the world is not to produce a surfeit of sick individuals.
One other aspect of love as a source of intense pleasure cannot be ignored. Human beings are capable of deriving intense pleasure from material objects or activities often close to or surpassing in intensity that derived from a relationship with another human being. Such loves can be replacements for the absence of a satisfactory human relationship, but not always. Many individuals pour huge amounts of energy into the pursuit of their favourite activities while retaining a satisfactory relationship with their partners. It has to be said, human beings have only so much energy within them, therefore it is
difficult to believe the human relationship will not suffer to a greater or lesser degree from this division of energy expenditure. Probably, the partner will have had to decide to agree to be either an equal partner alongside the second pursuit, or be satisfied with playing second fiddle to it, and compromise, because in their own self interest to respond in this manner, or, alternatively, pursue the activity as well so as to remain close to their partner.
The danger of the pursuit of such activities is that not all are healthy. A human being who is damaged mentally and emotionally may well begin to pursue activities extremely harmful to other individuals. In such cases, it is possible to derive intense pleasure at the moment of the act. The terrible consequences of such a pursuit is obvious, but these responses have to considered because it is clear pleasure is derived from hurting other people in some very damaged individuals.
In the past, such actions would be blamed on the presence of demonic forces, namely, the devil, within the human being, but this explanation no longer suffices. The person would be classified as evil. This means lacking in love, but it is not necessarily the case. Perversion in love can exist. The individual may be cold and calculating in the carrying out of the act, but they must derive a high degree of intense pleasure from carrying it out otherwise it could not be completed. It is an utterly selfish love where the perpetrator is the only one deriving any pleasure so self gratification is its aim, and, if completed, its achievement. Hatred may be the underlying driving force, but the damaged
individual would see this only after the act had been completed, and may not
even be aware of it until it was pointed out to them.
This is the darkest expression of misdirected human love, but many other degrees of unhealthy loves exist in the majority of human beings. Love of power, money, hard drugs, alcohol, criminal activities, pornography, or sexual deviancy for example can all induce intense pleasure in some people, and huge amounts of human energy are expended in the pursuit of all these activities. The lovers of such pursuits may argue their activities are their own personal choice, and see little harm in following their desires, but all can
cause damage to other human beings not to mention the individuals themselves. In the case of alcohol and hard drugs in particular the pleasure becomes addictive if consumed in sufficient quantities, and deprives the individuals of the freedom of choice. In the end, their initial pleasure may turn to hatred when the effects of their addictions have worn off, but they will be unable to break their addictions because of the very temporary intense pleasure derived from the intake of the substances. This form of dependency does involve the emotional and mental faculties of the addicts but the physical body is the part of the human being most affected, with it demanding satisfaction regardless of what the other faculties are telling the individuals. All the others are less addictive physically, but, if loved powerfully enough, can lead to mental and emotional dependency on the thrill achieved when the individuals satisfy their needs.
There are, of course, as I mentioned before, less harmful loves such as the pursuit of a whole variety of pastimes, or chosen careers, or directed towards a loved pet, and, if not placed above that of human relationships, provide a beneficial effect on the individuals involved.
No human being on earth can survive without any love whatsoever. They will shrivel and die from neglect and loneliness if they find themselves in such a state. Where love is absent, a world will begin to exist where human life becomes of little value. The abandoning of religions should not mean that human beings cannot work out for themselves what love is in purely human terms, why they need it, and what they want from it. The business world may
concentrate all its energies on creating wealth, sadly, often at the expense of the developing nations, predominantly by the sale of armaments and by the enforced growth of cash crops, more energy should be concentrated on creating a world where love can thrive, where human beings feel valued, not for their financial or material wealth, but because they exist, and, through this, their healthy mental, emotional and physical needs should be met from birth to death. In the end, only the ordinary men and women in the street can ask these questions and seek out the answers for themselves. Experts may put forward proposals, but unless they strike a chord in the deepest part of the human psyche, they will be rejected as unworkable or irrelevant. It may sound foolish to talk of such a pursuit when so many individuals are struggling to put food in their mouths, clothes on their backs and to find shelter for themselves and their families, but, if human beings had found the answer to the question of what is love, these problems would have been overcome all ready, because the world would not be able to sit by and see any human being deprived of even the basic of human rights, namely food, shelter and clothing. Only when dire poverty is eradicated will every human being have the luxury of being able to consider their own emotional, mental and physical needs.
Many religions have upheld poverty as a virtue or karma, and this erroneous belief has led to many people being able to consider the resolution of this dreadful dilemma impossible, and, therefore, not worth being overly concerned about or merited as repayment for past sins. In a world where the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer, the urgency to find solutions should be a major priority of all human beings living in affluent societies
across the earth, and, if ignored, could lead to dreadful, unforeseen consequences. Not least, the death of millions, if not billions, from neglect and failure to act when all the signs pointed to a catastrophe on the part of those with more than their fair share of the world's wealth.
There are more opportunities today to support the removal of poverty than have ever existed before. Perhaps, before the individuals living within the affluent societies seek answers to their own needs, they might put their energies into enabling every human being to be in that advantageous position, then every individual could contribute instead of, as it is now, only the few.

Great big hugs to one and all...

Hi to everybody...here's a few thoughts taken out of a longer essay I did a long time ago now, but seems quite relevant still...

Part 10 What is love
I want to discuss a subject here which has as many depths as there human beings on the face of the earth, but one which nobody remains unaffected. It is the human concept of love and its opposite emotion, hate. In the past, human beings have been told love is a God given gift, and hate comes from an enemy of God, the devil. Love proves the existence of God within the soul,
while hate proves the existence of the devil and love's absence. This is an interpretation common to western and eastern Christianity, whereas eastern and Middle Eastern belief systems concentrate more on right attitude of mind, heart and body, which, if disciplined, will produce healthy, well balanced individuals capable of living a life which embraces love and hate alongside all the other degrees of emotions found in humankind. How can human beings at the end of the twentieth century regard these two emotions where faith in a deity or the absence of a practised belief system is becoming more prevalent by the day? Is it important to find an alternative understanding? I would suggest it is, simply because the fragmentation of religious or spiritual belief is increasing, and one day in the not too distant future will be an insufficient basis upon which to understand the driving forces in human nature.
For thousands of years human beings have striven to explain these two powerful emotions and their effects on the human psyche. It does not seem necessary at the end of the twentieth century to seek an outside source for either one. Regardless of where the individual believes it comes from, the most important issues are what effect do they have on individuals and how do
they influence their responses to given situations.
First of all, it could be proposed that love is the most powerful pleasure sensation known to all human beings, while hate is the most powerful sensation of revulsion. Huge degrees of intensity exist within each of the emotions. From infancy, human beings need love to grow into mature, emotionally healthy, adults. If it is absent, or inadequate, frequently, the end result is an adult incapable of understanding what love is, and who will sublimate often dangerous abnormal replacements as sources of pleasure.
Such adults cannot be blamed for their later reactions to love's absence in their early years, because, without it, they cannot appreciate or understand the pleasure of a healthy expression of love. Unless helped by another, prepared to take the time and great effort, to undo the inappropriate replacements and build a new comprehension of love as experienced by an
emotionally healthy individual, the damaged human being will not be able to relinquish their chosen sources of pleasure, which, in many cases, can cause them and others extreme harm or even death.
It is for this reason it is vital human beings explore these powerful emotions without the burden of religious interpretation. Their origins are as primitive as the first creature with a rudimentary brain. Any primordial creature with sufficient neurones or chemicals to produce a reaction could be said to be capable of experiencing a primitive sensation of love or hate. As evolution
increased the size of brains in reptiles and mammals, these sensations multiplied accordingly until the human brain came into existence, capable of language and analysis. These two abilities enabled human beings to explore the pleasure and revulsion sensations in themselves and their primitive relatives, and to try to find explanations for their powerful influence.
Primitive thought processes tended to place powerful emotions, forces of nature, or natural objects with longevity on pedestals, because, apparently, beyond their personal control. This reaction was a logical step as the capacity for analysis and thought grew in primitive groups of human beings. Identifying powerful forces and separating them off from the group in the form of idols,
totems or rituals would be a natural response. At the dawn of this ability, perhaps, the powerful emotions were not included as separate entities for reverence. The forces of nature, embodied in symbols of fertility, such as mother goddesses, probably, were amongst the first to be revered, but, gradually, as concepts expanded, the emotional forces became embodied in
appropriate images, and rituals were organised to pay homage to them. The shaman would become the mediator to communicate with these forces, and would be able to influence the group in how it reacted to particular situations
and problems. Slowly, with the birth of civilisation, constant refinement led to the introduction of organised religions with their own priests. Myths and legends would be used to illustrate and support these new beliefs, and, while the people believed in them and obeyed the rituals laid down by the priests, the religions grew in strength and numbers of adherents.
Once the capacity to write down the rituals, myths, legends and rules came into existence, particular religions would become established as part and parcel of the cultural inheritance of specific peoples. These would undergo continual updating and amending, but their essential teachings would have to remain intact if they were have a sound foundation, and continue to exert an influence on their members. Too much alteration would confuse the people and undermine their confidence in the priests to offer them satisfactory answers to their human needs, or to provide reassurance they could commune with these forces on their behalf.
With the collapse of a previously cohesive group or civilisation, more often than not, the religion died with them, and this has continued throughout history. It is a process which is continuing to the present day, and, at the end of the twentieth century, globalisation is beginning to dissolve separate civilisations, and, through this, has a profound effect on the major religions or
belief systems around the world. The danger of separating the powerful emotional forces of love and hate and embodying them in deities or powers has been amply illustrated in the history of the past two thousand years. When a religion places one emotional force, namely love in this case, wholly within the body of being outside of the natural world and entirely separate from it, that emotion becomes open to abuse and manipulation on the part of those who claim to be able to mediate between the supernatural and the natural world on behalf of those who can only look on and hope they get a share of that emotional force. Elaborate rituals were required to reassure the people they could receive a taste of this supernatural love.
The establishment of hierarchies of priests ensured the religions exerted their influence on the whole society from its leaders to the least amongst it. Human understanding of this powerful emotion was discouraged, and its experience outside of the religion was vilified as inferior or, worse, demonic, initiated by the enemy of the embodiment of love, the embodiment of hate in the form of a supernatural demonic entity. Light and Dark would become symbols of the battle between these two forces. The introduction of laws defining how Love could be lost and become Hate ensured that the religion's adherents would
begin to be fearful of losing the love of the supernatural being and be plunged into darkness or filled with hate. Variations of this theme would come to be a common basis upon which all future religions were built, and which have survived to the present day.
As religions became more powerful, new concepts were incorporated. The most powerful of these was that of the presence of a soul or spirit within the individual follower. The introduction of such a concept is understandable if the greatest fear of human beings is considered, namely death or the fear of complete obliteration. In its absence, the priests had no way of offering hope
to their followers of an existence after death. Only by providing an escape clause, namely the creation of an invisible presence of a soul or spirit, could they control their followers' greatest fear. It was the ultimate stranglehold on the human psyche. Priests could say who went into the Light and who went into the Dark or who was filled with love and who was filled with hate. The fact
that they were subjected to the ebb and flow of these powerful emotions alongside their followers was kept well hidden, or sublimated into other less healthy expressions of these forces and explained away as expressions of the supernatural being's love. Abuse and manipulation was always a danger, and had to be present at the birth of these religions simply because no human being can avoid being affected by them. As the religions' followers grew in numbers, so the abuses became more widespread and damaging. While confined to small groups, primitive spiritual practices were, probably, far less open to abuse than the later major religions. The shaman was a single individual who would pass his or her knowledge onto another at the end of their lives, so a failure on their part to provide spiritual reassurance to the members of their group would be met with extreme hostility and rejection, so it was in their best interests not to abuse their position of power. Modern human beings may well see their practices as primitive and superstitious, but the shaman was a deeply respected member of any group, and their myths, stories and rituals were as sophisticated as any in the world today, and carefully considered to bear the greatest benefit for the group. The fact that these groups survived successfully, otherwise none of the inhabitants of today's world would be here, suggests the shamans had a right balance of myth, magic and ritual to keep their groups healthy, happy, and safe.
With the introduction of a soul or spirit, later religions would include descriptions of a supernatural world and offer the promise of entry into it to their followers, providing they obeyed the religion's laws and followed its rituals faithfully. Many of the primitive beliefs were incorporated into these later religions, such as the concept of the ladder to the world of the spirits, which the shaman would climb and bring back messages and information from it. Later on, this world would become known as 'heaven' or 'Paradise', or, where no such physical concept was adopted, a state of bliss for those who have achieved perfection.
In the Christian religions, each individual was designated one life and one soul, and, therefore, one chance to get to heaven or be plunged into its opposite state of being, hell, the realm of the demonic entity. In the eastern belief systems, the human being could not hope to gain perfection in only one life so the introduction of the concept of many lives, or reincarnation, was
introduced. These belief systems have not separated existence into natural and supernatural in the same way as the western, and to a certain extent, Middle Eastern religions, but see them as one and the same being, with human beings failing to realise this through ignorance of their true state of being, namely existing in the mind of the supreme being with all physical
existence being merely an illusion. As the major religions or belief systems exist into the present day, clearly each provides its followers with some degree of comfort, reassurance and confidence still, but for how much longer remains open to question.
These thoughts are exactly that, thoughts. They are not intended to criticise the spiritual practices of any individual, but to point out where their beliefs might have originated, and how their myths, laws and rituals came about. If, after discovering that, the individuals choose to believe in their religion still, it is their choice and they must be allowed to be free to do so, but, and a 'but'
should be added, as long as their beliefs are not causing wars, conflicts and the destruction of a healthy approach to the most powerful of all human emotions, namely love. Where it incites the opposite emotion of revulsion or hate for another individual who does believe in their religion, it is an unhealthy presence within the society, and it needs reassessment by its adherents
because not based on real love but on the need to be dominant. If the latter, its adherents cannot fail to see those outside of its field of influence as either misguided, ignorant or living in darkness, and, therefore, deprived of any possibility of entering their concept of heaven.
It is not surprising, considering this conclusion, that many individuals within communist countries, who have found themselves in newly emerging capitalist countries after the downfall of their previous system, are returning to the reestablished religions. When communism emerged as a viable political system, its leaders set about undoing the influence of religion, but it was an enforced undoing, not a freely arrived at decision by the people. Making religious practice illegal removed from the people the time to reassess the value of what they had believed in prior to the political revolution. They had no time to come to the conclusion that they could live without it, and discover the value of viewing love as a natural human response to given stimuli, and, likewise, hate from the same perspective. Today, various religions are vying with each other to gain the hearts and minds of their peoples again with all that such an undertaking entails, not least, the increase in animosity and conflict between
peoples who, previously, lived alongside each other relatively peacefully.
It should be clear the enforced abolition of such practices does not set people free, but cuts the floor from beneath the people's feet leaving them floundering in a vacuum, and forces them to sublimate their need for a deity with a human replacement in the form of a powerful leader. This has happened across the earth wherever such a revolution has taken place. In the case of fascism, religious practices were not banned, unless practised by human beings within the society considered undesirable and unwanted. Religions were used to support the newly established systems.
Fascist leaders realised the power of the support of the Christian religion in particular to legitimise their political aspirations and, actively, went out of their way to persuade them of their sincerity to provide protection and prosperity for all their peoples. It was not difficult to get their support because the religious leaders invariably agreed with their ideas, if not all their methods of
incorporating them into the body politic. Once established though, the acceptable religions found they could not extricate themselves from the liaisons made at the beginning of the overthrow of previous forms of government, and became tools of the state; impotent to act as opposing forces. In the distant and recent past, this coalition of religion and state has been a source of profound disturbance for many individuals who could see the massive contradictions inherent in these unions. On one hand, the religions were preaching love while, at one and the same time, supporting a state which practised extremes forms of hate and the persecution and murder of any individual who stood in their way.
Such alliances have given rise, in no small way, to the gradual disillusionment with religion in general so prevalent in many societies at the dawn of the new millennium. There were individuals within the various religions who did stand out against the inhuman activities of the political leaders, but they lost their lives or were imprisoned for their opposition more often than not, or removed from danger by their own religious leaders and effectively silenced. Many individuals amongst the hierarchies of the religions were ardent supporters of Fascism because they feared Communism more with its godless beliefs. They
were prepared to close their eyes when it came to its darker side, and it was these individuals who enabled the leaders to survive, sometimes for far longer than they would have if their religion had opposed their authority publicly.
The modern world has only to look at the twentieth century to see how deadly such alliances are on the well being of the people governed and guided by such leaders and priests. This is another profound reason why modern human beings need to review precisely what love means to each of them, and what enables human beings to experience it, and its counter emotion, hate as well, in order to reduce the power of the latter to cause havoc and harm wherever it exists. So far this has been a discovery of the influence of religions on the emotions of love and hate, and that is understandable because most of modern human beings' comprehension of these two forces are based on religious explanations of their meaning and origins. For many, these
explanations are no longer satisfactory. It is time to look at love and hate freed from the baggage of the supernatural and superstition.

There's a second part which I will put in a separate post.

Great big hugs to one and all...

Hi to everybody...I've had these thoughts on my website for a long while, and wondered whether to put some of them here for your consideration...this is the longest one...

Good and Evil?

It takes a long time to realize something sometimes. It has taken me many years of study to reach the following conclusion. The thought that occurred to me has a simplicity about it which suggests it may well be true. Real truths usually are simple - they are made complicated by people who are in love with analysis and deconstruction. My thought is not original because there is very, very rarely such a phenomenon but it is now part of me as it is part of other thinkers as well.

The concepts of good and evil have played a massive part in the lives of most human beings since the idea was first proposed thousands of years ago.

My thought was that these concepts are purely man-made which emerged out of a desire to control people by rewards and punishments. Both require archetypes hence the emergence of a good god and an evil devil, but, in reality, neither exist. The first recorded definitions of good and evil were the Ten Commandments as laid down by Moses, though earlier civilizations had their own laws long before this most famous set was written down. From this dictat came all the laws ever made in all subsequent western empires in particular, and which have laid the foundations for every conquering civilization ever since. The result is a world constantly in a state of chaos and confusion because the codes they are obliged to live by are based on a lie.

So what do I see now? I see a much more logical and rational concept, namely altruism and self-interest instead of good and evil. Neither of these two qualities require an archetype because both are an absolute necessity for survival and basic to evolution at every one of its stages. Without a degree of altruism, the human race would perish very quickly, and without a degree of self-interest, exactly the same result would occur. You could say that examples of ‘good’ people carried altruism to an extreme, and vice versa for ‘evil’ people carrying self-interest to an extreme, but the motivation for each quality is very different. ‘Good’ people seek to emulate a perfect archetype which does not exist because manufactured by humankind over the centuries, and the same applies to ‘evil’ people, but less so, because ‘evil’ people are classified as such only by the ‘good’ who are, in turn, basing their judgement on a lie. It is far more likely that ‘good’ people based their judgements of good and evil on what they believed their god had revealed to them about such matters. ‘Evil’ people, on the other hand, would be far less likely to base their judgements on what they believed the devil had revealed to them about such matters. Such people would be very few and far between in any population. Far more likely is that such people pursued their own needs without regard for their effect on their fellow human beings and became classed as ‘evil’ by the ‘good’. In reality, they pursued self-interest to an extreme end which damaged those around them because not tempered by an appropriate level of altruism.

Altruism will always balance self-interest if a human being is taught the value of both aspects of human existence from an early age. To accent the former above and beyond the latter is just as dangerous as the earlier ideas of good versus evil. All human beings must, to a greater or lesser extent, protect their own survival which will require a healthy amount of self-interest. But, running alongside this self-interest will be altruism which will enable each human being to recognize when it is better to lay aside personal needs in favour of another’s. The right balance between the two should create mentally and physically much healthier people than do the still current concepts of good and evil.

The most dangerous trend at the moment in human history is the movement to re-instate ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as the basis for all judgements made on fellow human being’s actions. ‘Axis of Evil’ - ‘god fearing men and women’ - ‘God bless us’ etc. etc. etc. are just a few examples of much used phrases usually voiced by those who see themselves as ‘good’ going up against those perceived as ‘evil’. The incongruous fact that the majority of individuals designated ‘evil’ by those who consider themselves to be ‘good’ in today’s world were, not so long ago, considered ‘good’ as well, because allies in the past against another set of human beings classified as ‘evil’ by the then two allies. The fickleness of these distinctions is what makes me certain that the basis for judging is profoundly flawed and based on a non-existent reality.

All major religions in today’s world are undergoing a backward step towards fundamentalism amongst many of their followers. This entails a re-enforcing of ancient concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ as interpreted by successive spiritual leaders who refuse to accept any watering down of ‘scriptural truths’. The end result is tunnel vision and an incapacity to see that human evolution and survival depends on its ability to adapt and change as history unfolds and times change. This can only lead to greater and greater conflict, not only with the world at large but between the various religions as well. The whole basis of these beliefs are strengthened by reward and punishment - the good find god, the evil find the devil - the good are rewarded with heaven, the evil with hell. The promise of immortality in the afterlife goes hand in hand with these respective rewards and punishments thus rendering the believer terrified that failure to be ‘good’ will earn them eternal punishment in hell. The fact that the ‘afterlife’ is based on a completely man-made concept escapes these believers and has little or no basis in reality. Faith in the teachings is the demand made on all believers and those who fail to maintain their faith are castigated and cast out.

There was an effort to create a system of living based on altruism in the last century. It was Communism. Unfortunately, many countries, which adopted it, fell into a trap which proved to be fatal. The leaders tried to drive out self-interest and make altruism the be all and end all. It was doomed to failure because of this. It is not surprising as its founder, Carl Marx, belonged to the very people who created the Ten Commandments, and it was extremely unlikely that he would have been able to entirely eradicate its influence on his thoughts. The raising up of altruism as the guiding light of the entire movement entailed the suppression of all forms of self-interest. This led to tyranny and the oppression of millions of human beings, but, the basic premises of Marx’s beliefs were not entirely wrong.

There was a great need to move away from the concepts of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ and to replace them with more rational and logical qualities. The great mistake was to underestimate the value of self-interest as a survival mechanism and to force individuals to accept altruism. Forced acceptance of any quality cannot be right. Human beings must see that a particular pattern of behaviour is in their best interests before they can accept it. It is their very self-interest that will enable them eventually to see the reality behind the concept. Drive self-interest away and what are they left with? A grudging acceptance of an imposed pattern of behaviour which will be abandoned as soon as the individuals enforcing the behaviour are removed from power. Self-interest will have a field day then instead of being balanced by the very quality the enforcers were trying to impose namely altruism.

China, unlike Russia, has realized that healthy self-interest is not the enemy but only after years of extreme repression of any sign of it. Today it encourages both altruism and self-interest and is well on the way to becoming a very successful economy. Russia, on the other hand, is still caught in the grip of self-interest with few signs that altruism is managing to loosen its hold. It is an extremely hard balancing act for any people to achieve and only time will tell whether those who have embraced communism in the past will find that happy medium and create a healthy society where all individuals can thrive and prosper. Cuba is probably the most successful country in the world at achieving a balance far earlier than the huge communist states but it remains to be seen whether the death of Fidel Castro will change that - personally I hope not. Mistakes were made in the early days but it does seem to have acquired something unique in the world; a people who have remained loyal to one leader who clearly has their trust and respect and who has mellowed over the years alongside his people. The people are certainly not wealthy materially, but appear to have an attitude to life and each other which reveals pride in their achievements and freedom to be themselves regardless of how much their vast and immensely wealthy neighbour objects to their existence.

The last point I need to make is to warn of the danger of misinterpreting such a concept that I have proposed. Neitsche wrote ‘Beyond Good and Evil’ where he tried to show how humankind must move beyond these two concepts to more mature concepts. He proposed that Humankind must be a god unto itself and to leave behind the ancient gods. To become a super Man. His was a genuine effort to express a new concept but, unfortunately, it was perverted and corrupted by Nazism into a grotesque parody of what he was proposing. To be a god unto oneself means that you and you alone are responsible for your own actions and their consequences. This entails a huge amount of responsibility placed on shoulders of individuals not used to thinking profoundly for themselves. The Nazi propaganda machine took over the role of religious leaders in order to remould their people into the first members of a new world order. It was the absolute antithesis of what Neitsche was advocating. Setting an individual up as a supreme leader is always a mistake but to provide him with a machine to manipulate the minds and hearts of a whole people is nothing short of madness. Instead of using altruism as a motivation for helping fellow human beings, the Nazis appealed to the most savage aspects of the human mind namely territoriality, ritual, aggression and social hierarchy. Self-interest, in this case, was promoted as the supreme good with altruism demoted to blind obedience to the point of annihilation of responsibility for one’s own actions. It is not necessary to say here what the result was of that particular experiment other than to say that humankind still has not recovered from it.

To sum up now: all human beings have to adapt and change in order to survive. This is the law of evolution which governs our world. When a concept becomes a danger to the survival of humankind it has to be looked at very closely. The concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ has become a threat to the existence of all human beings on this earth because there are individuals prepared to defend its survival with nuclear war if necessary. No sane human being would consider this a rational response to a perceived threat, but, unfortunately, sanity is in short supply in some areas of the world. Lies produce insanity in the guise of ‘honorable’ men and women prepared to defend their way of life no matter what the cost to the rest of humanity. Unless we grow out of our infantile approach to these all-important issues, we might well see the end of our current world in a nuclear holocaust. There are individuals today influencing those in power with their fingers on the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons to bring about Armageddon. The utter insanity of this leaves most sane people reeling with disbelief, but fundamentalists of all the major religions believe in a cataclysmic end to human kind and then a renewal from the ashes of the old world. This is a self-fulfilling prophesy if sane individuals do not stand up and raise their voices in protest.

So far we have seen biblical and scriptural prophecies of doom as little more than warnings of what might be rather than what will be, but, today, sadly we are beginning to see a movement towards fulfilling the most horrifying one: that of the destruction of humankind in the totally erroneous belief that a god will come down and make everything new. To grow beyond ‘good’ and ‘evil’ is not demonic as some individuals might see it. It is a sign of the human race maturing and leaving behind its childhood. Altruism and self-interest are kindred spirits which could lead us to a much more balanced and prosperous future. The only thing I am absolutely certain about is that clinging to the concept of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ will lead us only to disaster and bloodshed on a scale never conceived of before. Taking care of each while taking care of ourselves at one and the same time seems a much better way to live than the ways of the past. I hope it is because it is what I believe in now with all my being.

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Hi to everybody...I found this on a site about serenity and peace of mind, and thought I'd share it with you...we could all do with a bit of both I think...

A Navajo Indian Prayer

The simplest and most obvious prayer is a request to the Great Spirit that the adversity ends and that one be restored to health. Such prayers often involve "affirmations." There is a considerable psychological literature on the healing power of affirmations. Here is a beautiful Navajo prayer that uses affirmation:

O you who dwell In the house made of the dawn,
In the house made of the evening twilight ...
Where the dark mist curtains the doorway,
The path to which is on the rainbow ...
I have made your sacrifice.
I have prepared a smoke for you.

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Have a good evening and great big hugs to one and all....

Hi to everybody...sorry, but got into a writing mode...wrote this this afternoon...

Better days to come.

Big hugs to one and all....

Hi to everybody...a blast from the past here....three for the price of two...HLOL...

Homo Sapiens

Big hugs to one and all....

Hi to everybody...a moment of inspiration HLOL...haven't written anything in my poor old Vanillacustard blog for ages...not since I've been feeling physically whacked and emotionally drained...
Not everybody's cup of tea maybe, but it speaks to me....

Creator of worlds.

Big hugs to one and all, and have a restful night and sweet dreams....

Hi to everybody...here's a poem that I wrote a few years ago now, but still like

Living Software

That's it, my friends...Hope you have a lovely day, great big hugs to one and all...

Hi to everybody...I expect my friends who are poetry enthusiasts will know this one but it does strike a chord still in me and I guess in many other readers...

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

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That's it for now, big hugs to one and all and have a lovely day...