what is the deal with "love" and how does that inform our day-to-day, our perception of self, our understanding of how we fit into society and our role and responsibility to those beings outside of our self.
lately i've been thinking a lot about 'love,' and i go back to peer's dismissal of the 'love trumps hate' slogan and the issue with overlooking wrongs in the name of 'love', and i keep going deeper (or nowhere) with the philosophical questions of what is 'right' and achieving righteousness and a just society/world. what are the issues with forgiveness and understanding, can those approaches to creating 'change' truly create a "better" world... on the one hand can 'understanding' the 'oppressor' really create equality, justice, and liberation, and on the other what happens when we let our anger towards the 'oppressor' transforms into hate and a desire to dominate?
“Because of the awareness that love and domination cannot coexist, there is a collective call for everyone to place learning how to love on their emotional and/or spiritual agenda. We have witnessed the way in which movements for justice that denounce dominator culture, yet have an underlying commitment to corrupt uses of power, do not really create fundamental changes in our societal structure. When radical activists have not made a core break with dominator thinking (imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy), there is no union of theory and practice, and real change is not sustained. That’s why cultivating the mind of love is so crucial. When love is the ground of our being, a love ethic shapes our participation in politics” (bell hooks).
[https://genderpressing.wordpress.com/…/cultivating-a-love-…/]
what are ways in which we embody energies of domination, of control, of toxic power. pay attention... pay attention... constructive anger can exist within our love, we can cultivate this powerfulness of anger to create righteousness, to create justice... balance, a harmonious world. yet, be cautious of how our emotions begin to dominate our own beings, and become destructive. we need to be able to center ourselves beyond our self. be open to change, be open to learn, be open to be wrong, be open to change. LOVE is caring, is feeling, is challenging, is not being afraid, is being rooted in our connection to others.
“You have to have compassion because it gives you the juice, the power, the passion to move. When you open to the pain of the world you move, you act. But that weapon is not enough. It can burn you out, so you need the other—you need insight into the radical interdependence of all phenomena. With that wisdom you know that it is not a battle between good guys and bad guys, but that the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart. With insight into our profound interrelatedness, you know that actions undertaken with pure intent have repercussions throughout the web of life, beyond what you can measure or discern.” (Joanna Macy)
[http://jonsenglishsite.info/Cla…/1_Love_Practice_Freedom.pdf]
so what is our 'interrelatedness' beyond the wishy-washy-white-washed worldview of "we all bleed red"? yes we all do bleed red, and we all live in this earth, universe, but why is that important to know, and why is it important to have that understanding guide y(our) thinking, y(our) movement, y(our) activism (if that is your route)? we need to be able to see ourselves as part of a lager whole. there is a zapatista-inspired philosophy that 1+1≠2, but 1+1=1, because even though me and you reading this make up two humn beings, we are part of one humxn race, engaging with the same thought, we are two parts in the wholeness/oneness of the earth. you can hold up two fingers, but they are part of one hand, one body. we are the same entity... and how can acknowledging this change our thinking and our approach to life? how can knowing in this way influence the way we take responsibility for ourselves, our actions in life, how we relate and work together?
i feel i am very idealistic and romantic, but at the same time I feel that it is VITAL to our survival that we are able to DREAM. i feel that we need to be able to hold onto the dream of harmony and peace, of love and respect. all humns have the power to dream; much of the time our dreams control us because we are not consciously authoring our own dreams. we are fed illusions constantly –– that i am this, that this person is that, this is how this should be, and that is how that works. along with those illusions are the oppressive structures. in someone's dream someone had to have imagined the idea that one group is 'better' than the other, etc, and over centuries, millennia that dream has manifested into the very real nightmares of colonization and all the -isms that have manifested thereafter and before.
how do we wake-up? what is becoming 'conscious' truly? can we be 'conscious' if we are aware of racism and advocate for 'y(our) people' while subscribing to patriarchal illusions of domination (sexism, toxic masculinity, homo-/transphobia)? can we be truly conscious if we subscribe to an "us" vs "them" mentality, of working for our own self interest, without the whole picture in mind/heart?
Don Miguel Ruíz says "Everyone is dreaming." although this is not dreaming while we are asleep, it is the dream we live in all aspects of our life, the dream that defines how we perceive the world–– how we perceive ourself, others, how we've been molded, passed down the symbolism, reaction, 'truth' of how we relate to all things around us. what we perceive to be around and even what we perceive not to be around. through dreaming, envisioning, creating the intent, we have the ability to change, but i feel we must center love as we envision, not a white-washed love, but a love of all humanity, of all life nonetheless.
we are removed from 'love' or remove ourselves from being able to whole-heartedly connect to ideas of it because i feel we associate it with 'religion' or 'blind-faith' or loosing our ability to control our life (dominate). we've inherited an idea of religion with a god that judges and punishes and with that assumes a culture of a supposed-'spirituality' of criticizing, inaction, and self-righteousness without responsibility. and that makes us question (for an understandable reason) the wishy-washiness of flowery language, of the realities of spirit. but, i feel we must re-cultivate that in a different way (for some it's re-claiming ancestral traditions, re-connecting with the earth, etc). i hold onto the belief (maybe it is also an illusion) that spirituality (love) and activism (movement) must co-exist, be part of the same energy and embodiment of our collective dream for harmony and peace, of love and respect.
we must believe, know, trust ourselves that we have that connection, that we are spirit, capable of love, and transforming beyond the limits we are led to think to believe exist. in Don Miguel Ruíz's book "Beyond Fear," it explains that our 'tonal' and 'nagual' (aspects of our 'spirit(s)') "only exist because of intent." "The tonal and the nagual can only exist because of intent. Intent is that connection or that force which makes possible all transference of energy between the nagual and the tonal." One part of our spirit is related to the light, the 'tonal' (which is related to nahuatl words for the sun 'Tonatiuh' and day-time 'tonalli') which is everything we can see and part of the dream that only exists from the reality of the "light" (the things we see, the life we sometimes think is the only truth, because it can be seen and interpreted due to what the light shows us). while the other, the 'nagual', relates to the dark, what we don't see, the 'night'... (i really don't know anything about this, and even though this information has circled around a lot - and become distorted - in 'new-age' interpretations - i feel there is valuable insight in attempting to understand this understanding of our own energy). so maybe, part of what we don't see is love, those aspects of spirit that many doubt to be true. we've been led into a thinking of reducing our sense of self into oblivion, into fear, disconnection, and nihilism. but in life everything always exists in this duality, the seen and unseen, and centering the spirit and love is just as important as the physical manifestation of social change.
the book goes on to explain that without intent "There would literally be nothing in existence at all. Intent is life. It is eternal transformation and eternal interaction. Intent is what we call God. Intent is life by itself; it is God and it is Spirit.” intent is what we all have the power of. some of us have begun to re-name 'prayer' as 'intent'. the invisible is our will to think, to question, to breathe, to care, to feel, to desire, to conjure up stories and the ability to imagine and transform the 'invisible' into 'visible' is the force of power of the infinite, which we are a part of.
so what i'm trying to really figure out is how do we cultivate a world of responsibility and cultivate the consciousness that we are in relation with each other. how do we stay empowered and invested in change-making, peace-making, justice-seeking, given all the burn-out, apathy? and what is healing on a societal/world-level?
i'm really trying show up more from now on, while also investing in my own growth and commitment to love, understanding, empathy, healing, and peace. thank you to those of you who always read, engage with, challenge, and acknowledge my thoughts/processings~
i believe another world, a just world, is possible. that world is here now, we just have to free our spirits to be able to access the dream, and collectively unite to dream together.
lately i've been thinking a lot about 'love,' and i go back to peer's dismissal of the 'love trumps hate' slogan and the issue with overlooking wrongs in the name of 'love', and i keep going deeper (or nowhere) with the philosophical questions of what is 'right' and achieving righteousness and a just society/world. what are the issues with forgiveness and understanding, can those approaches to creating 'change' truly create a "better" world... on the one hand can 'understanding' the 'oppressor' really create equality, justice, and liberation, and on the other what happens when we let our anger towards the 'oppressor' transforms into hate and a desire to dominate?
“Because of the awareness that love and domination cannot coexist, there is a collective call for everyone to place learning how to love on their emotional and/or spiritual agenda. We have witnessed the way in which movements for justice that denounce dominator culture, yet have an underlying commitment to corrupt uses of power, do not really create fundamental changes in our societal structure. When radical activists have not made a core break with dominator thinking (imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy), there is no union of theory and practice, and real change is not sustained. That’s why cultivating the mind of love is so crucial. When love is the ground of our being, a love ethic shapes our participation in politics” (bell hooks).
[https://genderpressing.wordpress.com/…/cultivating-a-love-…/]
what are ways in which we embody energies of domination, of control, of toxic power. pay attention... pay attention... constructive anger can exist within our love, we can cultivate this powerfulness of anger to create righteousness, to create justice... balance, a harmonious world. yet, be cautious of how our emotions begin to dominate our own beings, and become destructive. we need to be able to center ourselves beyond our self. be open to change, be open to learn, be open to be wrong, be open to change. LOVE is caring, is feeling, is challenging, is not being afraid, is being rooted in our connection to others.
“You have to have compassion because it gives you the juice, the power, the passion to move. When you open to the pain of the world you move, you act. But that weapon is not enough. It can burn you out, so you need the other—you need insight into the radical interdependence of all phenomena. With that wisdom you know that it is not a battle between good guys and bad guys, but that the line between good and evil runs through the landscape of every human heart. With insight into our profound interrelatedness, you know that actions undertaken with pure intent have repercussions throughout the web of life, beyond what you can measure or discern.” (Joanna Macy)
[http://jonsenglishsite.info/Cla…/1_Love_Practice_Freedom.pdf]
so what is our 'interrelatedness' beyond the wishy-washy-white-washed worldview of "we all bleed red"? yes we all do bleed red, and we all live in this earth, universe, but why is that important to know, and why is it important to have that understanding guide y(our) thinking, y(our) movement, y(our) activism (if that is your route)? we need to be able to see ourselves as part of a lager whole. there is a zapatista-inspired philosophy that 1+1≠2, but 1+1=1, because even though me and you reading this make up two humn beings, we are part of one humxn race, engaging with the same thought, we are two parts in the wholeness/oneness of the earth. you can hold up two fingers, but they are part of one hand, one body. we are the same entity... and how can acknowledging this change our thinking and our approach to life? how can knowing in this way influence the way we take responsibility for ourselves, our actions in life, how we relate and work together?
i feel i am very idealistic and romantic, but at the same time I feel that it is VITAL to our survival that we are able to DREAM. i feel that we need to be able to hold onto the dream of harmony and peace, of love and respect. all humns have the power to dream; much of the time our dreams control us because we are not consciously authoring our own dreams. we are fed illusions constantly –– that i am this, that this person is that, this is how this should be, and that is how that works. along with those illusions are the oppressive structures. in someone's dream someone had to have imagined the idea that one group is 'better' than the other, etc, and over centuries, millennia that dream has manifested into the very real nightmares of colonization and all the -isms that have manifested thereafter and before.
how do we wake-up? what is becoming 'conscious' truly? can we be 'conscious' if we are aware of racism and advocate for 'y(our) people' while subscribing to patriarchal illusions of domination (sexism, toxic masculinity, homo-/transphobia)? can we be truly conscious if we subscribe to an "us" vs "them" mentality, of working for our own self interest, without the whole picture in mind/heart?
Don Miguel Ruíz says "Everyone is dreaming." although this is not dreaming while we are asleep, it is the dream we live in all aspects of our life, the dream that defines how we perceive the world–– how we perceive ourself, others, how we've been molded, passed down the symbolism, reaction, 'truth' of how we relate to all things around us. what we perceive to be around and even what we perceive not to be around. through dreaming, envisioning, creating the intent, we have the ability to change, but i feel we must center love as we envision, not a white-washed love, but a love of all humanity, of all life nonetheless.
we are removed from 'love' or remove ourselves from being able to whole-heartedly connect to ideas of it because i feel we associate it with 'religion' or 'blind-faith' or loosing our ability to control our life (dominate). we've inherited an idea of religion with a god that judges and punishes and with that assumes a culture of a supposed-'spirituality' of criticizing, inaction, and self-righteousness without responsibility. and that makes us question (for an understandable reason) the wishy-washiness of flowery language, of the realities of spirit. but, i feel we must re-cultivate that in a different way (for some it's re-claiming ancestral traditions, re-connecting with the earth, etc). i hold onto the belief (maybe it is also an illusion) that spirituality (love) and activism (movement) must co-exist, be part of the same energy and embodiment of our collective dream for harmony and peace, of love and respect.
we must believe, know, trust ourselves that we have that connection, that we are spirit, capable of love, and transforming beyond the limits we are led to think to believe exist. in Don Miguel Ruíz's book "Beyond Fear," it explains that our 'tonal' and 'nagual' (aspects of our 'spirit(s)') "only exist because of intent." "The tonal and the nagual can only exist because of intent. Intent is that connection or that force which makes possible all transference of energy between the nagual and the tonal." One part of our spirit is related to the light, the 'tonal' (which is related to nahuatl words for the sun 'Tonatiuh' and day-time 'tonalli') which is everything we can see and part of the dream that only exists from the reality of the "light" (the things we see, the life we sometimes think is the only truth, because it can be seen and interpreted due to what the light shows us). while the other, the 'nagual', relates to the dark, what we don't see, the 'night'... (i really don't know anything about this, and even though this information has circled around a lot - and become distorted - in 'new-age' interpretations - i feel there is valuable insight in attempting to understand this understanding of our own energy). so maybe, part of what we don't see is love, those aspects of spirit that many doubt to be true. we've been led into a thinking of reducing our sense of self into oblivion, into fear, disconnection, and nihilism. but in life everything always exists in this duality, the seen and unseen, and centering the spirit and love is just as important as the physical manifestation of social change.
the book goes on to explain that without intent "There would literally be nothing in existence at all. Intent is life. It is eternal transformation and eternal interaction. Intent is what we call God. Intent is life by itself; it is God and it is Spirit.” intent is what we all have the power of. some of us have begun to re-name 'prayer' as 'intent'. the invisible is our will to think, to question, to breathe, to care, to feel, to desire, to conjure up stories and the ability to imagine and transform the 'invisible' into 'visible' is the force of power of the infinite, which we are a part of.
so what i'm trying to really figure out is how do we cultivate a world of responsibility and cultivate the consciousness that we are in relation with each other. how do we stay empowered and invested in change-making, peace-making, justice-seeking, given all the burn-out, apathy? and what is healing on a societal/world-level?
i'm really trying show up more from now on, while also investing in my own growth and commitment to love, understanding, empathy, healing, and peace. thank you to those of you who always read, engage with, challenge, and acknowledge my thoughts/processings~
i believe another world, a just world, is possible. that world is here now, we just have to free our spirits to be able to access the dream, and collectively unite to dream together.