by new boy 7 Replies latest jw friends
You may feel trapped right now by life conditions.
You are the only jail keeper that surfaces in your own life.
Whenever you realize that you have the power to be free, freedom follows.
Everything that you do in life is by choice, and you are free to choose again.
Even prisioners are free to choose their thoughts so that they feel peace and happiness under any conditions.
Love is the only answer....Love of self and love of others.....even those who my be guards.
Your ultimate point is valid ,but many people find the path to this love blocked and need some instuction on how to obtain love.
Perhaps you could edify?
The greatest illusion on the planet is that of separation....we are all the the same.
By sending love to those who who are locked into some kind of mind set, we free ourselfs of judgement.....and we are able to say "That, but for the grace of god go I." That under different circumstances the person we hate so much could be me .....Was that not what the great teacher said "Forgive them...for they know not what they do"
They were not "conscience" of what they were doing, as we have done things to others we were not "conscience" of.
Love is the greatest thing...
Everything in this world is done out of love or fear.
No mater what happens to you, ask the question "What would love....do now?"
Funny, thats my dilema, I'm a guard and I'm a prisoner. It seems like all I do is work sometimes. If they say I have to work 60 hours, I have to work 60 hours. So I'm a guard and I'm a prisoner.
I know I could quit, But I cant find a job that pays as well or has the benefits.
I've already tried working for less.Not having enough money sucks. I always end up with a job that makes me work more than 40 hours a week.
I know I could quit and just be a bum. But I stay on the thread mill.
So I feel like a guard and a prisoner.
Love is the only answer
Amen, Keith.
Love ya,
Nate
I'm just a visitor. W.Once
.....Some of us are "Medic`s"...OUTLAW
When I first read the title of this thread, I immediately thought of this:
When US social scientists conducted the by-now classic prison experiment to test the power of the social situation to determine behavior, values and attitudes, they were surprised by the results. They discovered just how powerful external factors can be in corrupting the behavior of ordinary people. In that experiment, well-adjusted US college students took on the role of prisoners and guards in a functional simulation of prison conditions.
It is worth quoting the results of the experiment: "Many of the normal, healthy mock prisoners suffered such intense emotional stress reactions that they had to be released in a matter of days; most of the other prisoners acted like zombies totally obeying the demeaning orders of the guards; the distress of the prisoners was caused by their sense of powerlessness induced by the guards who began acting in cruel, dehumanizing and even sadistic ways. The study was terminated prematurely because it was getting out of control in the extent of degrading actions being perpetrated by the guards against the prisoners - all of whom had been normal, healthy, ordinary young college students less than a week before." http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article6245.shtml
Then I read the opening post and realized what I was thinking had nothing to do with what you were thinking...but now I am mulling over the possiblity that maybe it could be relevent after all, thinking about how we can become trapped in certain mindsets from which it can be difficult to break free. How we see the world, how we treat ourselves, how we treat each other, according to our reactions to various external factors.
How do we get beyond being trapped in an abusive/guard abused/prisoner polarized mentality? Sometimes it takes an intervention by someone who sees what is happening to us and cares enough to step in. But the key to deep change is still within us and must be carried out by us on our own behalf, even if with help. We have to be able to see the possiblity of something better, want it, and be willing to work for it by changing ourselves rather than demanding that others change first, because that is not within our control.
I remember realizing when I was very young that I was not better than anyone else and that the potential existed in me to be anything from the very worst kind of person to the very best. It was a bit shocking (to my mother as well as myself when I revealed my thoughts to her). Realizing we have a choice is hugely important, whatever conditions in which we find ourselves, and regardless of what anyone else is doing.
I have often wondered why people make the choices they do, or why some deny they have any choice.
~Merry
