There Is No Fear In Love

1 John 4:18

"There is no fear in Love, for perfect love casts out fear."

"How to Feed the Homeless"

Watch on You Tube

http://www.businessinsider.com/-homeless-people-in-new-york-city-photos-2012-6?op=1

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/12/homelessness_around_the_world.html

How can people just walk past this mother and her child and do nothing?

Types of Love

Article in the NY Times by Dr. Paulette Koufman Sherman

 "  So What is Love?

Here is my general conception of love: It’s a warm feeling based upon knowing and accepting someone. This relationship often involves mutual learning, caring and growth. Also, when you love someone you generally want them to be happy.

The dictionary.com definition of love had a few versions:

-a profoundly tender passionate affection for another person

-a sexual passion or desire

-a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection

Which could lead to another question (and article): Is love a concept, feeling or action?

Here is a list of some different kinds of love that we hear mentioned. These are not dictionary definitions; I 've defined them with stream-of-conscious associations. This will give you an opportunity to think about each kind of love and offer your definitions as well.

                                 15 Different Kinds of Love:

Infatuation- loving feelings towards a love object that are largely based upon fantasy and idealization (instead of experience). Often when partners get to know each other, infatuation diminishes.

Romantic Love- An abiding love for a partner with whom you feel passion, attraction, caring and respect.

Eros- a passionate love usually involving sexual feelings for a love interest.

Companionate Love- feelings of warmth towards a friend with whom you love to spend time

Unconditional Love- A type of affection and caring that is so strong that you feel it consistently, regardless of what that other person does

Conditional Love- A love that requires specific action or conditions in order to be maintained. For example, at its extreme, a parent who gives very conditional love would only love his child when he gets straight A’s, becomes a surgeon and has two children. The love is based on outside conditions and when they do not occur, the love is withdrawn.

Puppy Love- A childish, innocent temporary crush on someone that you don’t know well.

Maternal Love- This term usually connotes love that is nurturing, accepting and protective. In actuality this love can also be given by a father etc.

Paternal Love- This term connotes love that involves guidance and some authority. Paternal love usually prepares a child to be ready for the outside world. Again, in reality this type of love is not gender specific.

Soulmate Love- This type of love is described as a love that has survived multiple life times. Not everyone believes in this concept.

Spiritual/Divine Love- This type of love recognizes the Divine light in everyone and everything. Love is given to everyone as an act of loving God.

Love of your country or patriotism- This is love for the place you live or the place that were born. It is a type of loyalty and a special feeling of belonging that you attribute to that specific geographic location.

Self-Love- This is a positive feeling that you have about who you are and what you deserve. It often is expressed by treating yourself well, respecting yourself, wanting yourself to be happy and expecting others to respect you too.

Brotherly Love- This term connotes having a feeling of love for your neighbor, because all humanity is considered to be part of a larger family of human beings.

Tough Love- This term is used to describe a love that is expressed by setting boundaries for the good of the other person. So for example, a parent may send their teenager to rehab if he is drug addicted, even if he does not want to go. They feel that this is an act of love because it stems from a desire for their son’s ultimate good and happiness.

Which Types of Love Have You Experienced?"

ReinCARnation ... Da Do Ron Ron...

I used to have a little blue sports car that I cherished so much I kept dumping money into him year after year. I named him Bill because the first time I laid eyes on him I fell in love.

The lyrics:

"I met him on a Monday and my heart stood still
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron
Somebody told me that his name was Bill
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron

Yeah, my heart stood still
Yes, his name was Bill
And when he walked me home
Da do ron-ron-ron, da do ron-ron"

[ Lyrics "Da Do Ron Ron" by the Crystals]

I met my Bill a Sunday and I fell in love instantly.

Bill was my very own first car. After about 6 or 7 years we had to part company; I was moving across country and had to leave him behind.


Tasked to gift him to a charity, my big brother, Pat, took custody the day I moved. Unfortunately he couldn't find a charity that would take the poor little guy and had to do the unthinkable. When he finally told me he'd completed his task he sent me an email:

"He's been reincarnated." he wrote hoping to lighten my mood and give my sad loss meaning.


BE LOVE
Cherish One Another 
 BE CAREing

Retirement

Pat, my older brother, possesses an amazingly calm patience when it come to the inevitable, which always amazes me because he is so impatient with almost everything else.  Many years ago when he retired nearly 10 years ahead of me he called to tell me. He said, with his usual wry humor:

"I'm retarded now." 

Wishing you all a Lovely Thanksgiving!

Be Good To One Another

and

Do No Harm

External Considering

I receive weekly quotes from Pema Chodrun. This morning's quote was a good reminder to me about what Gurdjieff called internal and external considering.

"August 29, 2012

THINK OF OTHERS

Sharing the heart is a simple practice that can be used at any time and in every situation. It enlarges our view and helps us remember our interconnection.

The essence of this practice is that when we encounter pain in our life we breathe into our heart with the recognition that others also feel this. It’s a way of acknowledging when we are closing down and of training to open up. When we encounter any pleasure or tenderness in our life, we cherish that and rejoice. Then we make the wish that others could also experience this delight or this relief.

In a nutshell, when life is pleasant, think of others. When life is a burden, think of others. If this is the only training we ever remember to do, it will benefit us tremendously and everyone else as well. It’s a way of bringing whatever we encounter onto the path of awakening bodhichitta."

~~~~~~~

...again for those who tend to romanticize everything they hear or read,*"remember yourself" while practicing this. The saying "Fake it til you make it." is only helpful while you are learning to walk. By now most of you have been walking on your own for long enough to no longer 'fake it'. I had to remember this myself this week while in the company off a difficult person who commented and criticized everything at every turn.

 At one point I noticed I was feeling quite irritated by the incessant stream of criticism and negative commentary and became very quiet inside. I "remembered" myself and listened from a more centered space. I let go of the life conundrums I was wrestling with, stopped and "shared" my heart. The irritation vanished and just by making this little adjustment my friend was able to relax for a bit as well.  What held me in it's grip no longer held me and, for a time my friend became less embroiled in his life dramas as well. 

*Self Remembering: In Search of the Miraculous, Chapters: VII, IX, 

OPEN to the moment
BE Peace

 

LOVE

Logo Design, L.Lopez 2011

Magnetic Attraction

“One night, the evening of Holy Thursday, having finished my work, I had gone to play billiards, when suddenly during the game I heard noise and shouting in the next room. Throwing down my cue, I ran in and saw four men beating up another one.

Although I did not know these people at all or what the trouble was about, I ran to the rescue of the one who was being attacked. In my youth I used to be enthusiastic about Japanese ju-jutsu and Hivintzian fiz-les-loo and was always glad of an opportunity to apply my knowledge of these methods. So now also, just for the sport of it, I joined hotly in the fight, with the result that the two of us, the stranger and I, gave our opponents a good licking and soon forced them to retire.

At that time New Bukhara was still quite a new town. The population was made up of haphazard elements, including many exiles from Russia living under the surveillance of the police on what were called 'wolf tickets'.

They were a motley crowd of people of all nationalities, some with a past, and some perhaps with a future. Among them were criminals who had already served their terms, and also many political exiles either sent there by the courts or by the administrative orders widely used at that time in Russia.

The surroundings and conditions of life of these exiles were so wretched that all of them without exception gradually became drunkards; even those who formerly never drank and had no hereditary predisposition to drink fell quite naturally and easily into this common tendency.

The company in whose fight I had got mixed up belonged to this category. After the fight I wished to take my companion-in-arms to his home, fearing that if he went alone something unpleasant might happen to him on the way, but it turned out that he lived in the same place as the other four, in repair cars on the railroad tracks. As it was already night, there was nothing to be done but suggest that he come home with me, to which he agreed.

My new acquaintance—and this was Soloviev—turned out to be still a young man, but it was clear that he had already taken to drink. He had come out of the fight rather damaged; his face was all bruised and one eye badly blackened. The next morning his eye was swollen almost shut, and I persuaded him not to leave but to stay with me until it was better, the more so since the Easter Holidays had begun and he had finished work the day before. On Good Friday he went off somewhere, but came back to spend the night with me.

The next day I had to run about almost all day long. I had to deliver the flowers ordered for Easter. I was not free until evening, and as I had no Christian acquaintances and nowhere to go to celebrate, I bought a khoulitch, paskha, some painted eggs and everything else customary for this feast, as well as a small bottle of vodka, and brought them home.

I did not find Soloviev in, and so, after washing and making myself tidy—I had no other clothes to change into—I went off  alone to the evening service at the church. When I returned, I found Soloviev already asleep. As there was no table in my room, I quietly, so as not to disturb him, brought in from the court outside a large empty case, covered it with a clean sheet and placed on it all the things I had bought for the feast, and only then woke Soloviev. 

He was very surprised at everything he saw, and gladly consented to participate in this solemn repast. He got up and we sat down together at the 'table', he on my books and I on a pail turned upside down.

First of all I poured out a glass of vodka for each of us, but to my astonishment he thanked me and refused to drink. I drank alone, and Soloviev began to eat. Philos, who was present at this celebration, received a double portion, two sheep's heads. We sat in silence and ate. It was not a happy Easter either for me or for Soloviev. Picturing to myself the familiar scene of the family feast, I began to think of my family far away. Soloviev also was thinking about something, and we sat a rather long time without speaking.

All of a sudden, as if to himself, Soloviev exclaimed: 'Help me, 0 Lord, in memory of this night, to be able never again to drink this poison which has brought me to such a life!' He fell silent, and then with a disconsolate gesture murmured, 'Ah... me!' and began telling me about his life. …”

 ~ From:MEETINGS WITH REMARKABLE MEN by G.I. Gurdjieff, Chapter VII Prince Yuri Lobovedsky: SOLOVIEV

Used Books and DVD's

For more about magnetic attraction read: ISOTM, Chapter Ten

The Gift of Easter

"By far the strongest poison to the human spirit is the inability to forgive oneself or another person."  - Caroline Myss

~~~

Luke 23:34 KJV:
 "Then said Jesus: Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do ..."

~~*~~

You cannot know what being forgiving is until you are able to do.

For your own well being and that of others, practice forgiving.

To practice forgiving is to practice unconditional love.

To practice unconditional love is to practice Being.

To practice Being is to Work.

Know that to forgive is not to allow those you forgive to continue to abuse you.

Know yourself
Know your boundaries,
Honor value, cherish and respect yourself - not from ego but from Being in an awakened, and conscious state.

To Know yourself is to Be present.

To Be, you must practice the Work every day, in every way.

Nothing is more important. 

Easter

Stations of the Cross ~ la via Dolorosa

Judas played his part well

Gethsemane - an angel came to keep Jesus company while he waited for what he knew was to come

Arrested in Gethsemane

On trial

Mocked, taunted, tortured and beaten, and crowned with thorns

He dedicated himself to doing and enduring all this for all of us for all of eternity

Crucified

La Pieta ~ the pity

Resurrection

Women at the tomb

Ascension

LOVE

“I have found the paradox, that if you love until it hurts, there can be no more hurt, only more love.” ~ Mother Teresa

Man Cannot Do

Weekly reading and exercise

LaloBean.Etsy.com

A Hint of You

For a moment a shadow crosses the moon
Beard and twinkle flash in memory
Heart sighs for what might have been.

~ Lalo for Majnun, 2012

Happy Valentine's Day Beloved

Valentine's Day Elephant Art Print ~ BlackBaroque. etsy.com