Living

by joelbear 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  joelbear

  There is only one law, love your neighbor as yourself.

  very simple words that get buried under lots of gobbledegook

  we strain to rid ourselves of the guilt of the shoulds that were cast upon us throughout our life.

  we run our lives based on these shoulds and apply these shoulds to others.

  There are two parts to the law. love your neighbor gets most of the attention. but Jesus understood that in order to be capable of this we must first love ourselves.

  we have to let go and love ourselves. then we can feel loved and this love will prompt us to love others.

  love is the source of all good.
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  jstalin

  I agree! The golden rule is the simplest and most powerful moral guide out there!
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  BlessedStar

  helllo.

  Are you comic book fans?

  BlessedStar
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  enderby

  what if i am masochistic? . . . and i love being so.
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  joelbear

  do what you will, but harm none.

  love yourselves.
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  FairMind

  If you don't love yourself, you will be unable to love others.
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  enderby

  i believe that it is impossible to exist without 'harming' others in an unqualified sense. i take the moral of the golden rule to be a point about motivation and intention, not perfect consequences. afterall, in trying to help my neighbours and friends i have sometimes caused them more 'harm' than good. but, my motivation was one of sincere altruism.
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  Brigid

  'an it harm none, do what thou wilt....

  or just do what thou wilt.

  It takes self knowledge: True knowing of the Self before you can know your true will and nature. When you truly know the Self, then you can love the Self. Live from the Self.

  When you love the Self then you can know and love others.

  Another fabulous post from joelbear, who obviously does much introspection.

  Blessings,

  ~Brigid
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  enderby

  also . . . why does jebus get all the credit for the 'golden rule'? one can find a clearly articulated and rationally defended version of this moral principle attributed to confucius (who lived approx 500 BC) in part 5 of The Great Learning. there, he explains that it is meant to bring together chung (conscientiousness) and shu (altruism). and! . . . confucius did it all w/o invoking vague meaningless christian concepts like 'love' or 'self'.
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  Sentient

  ^Good point enderby, Confucious did say it much earlier. Still, I don't think anyone deserves full credit for figuring out how to do what any one of us has the ability to discover for ourselves. These people were not gods but just people like you and me. Really they just found a good way to say what you've already observed through your own experience.
  
  "Truth is an event, and only through experience can the veracity of the truth be verified."
  -William James