Do you really 'love' your neighbour?

[imagineu]

Even after all the wonderful spiritual material that i have read or viewed, i still keep coming up with a question!
How do i apply and integrate these teachings SIMPLY into my life whenever i can and wherever i am, when i'm feeling high or low, in public or private?
This seems to change - often. Right now after reading Zero limits by Joe Vitale
i have decided to do the following:
I have been 'estranged' from my neighbour ever since they poisined our beautiful tree because it blocked their view. uuuhhmmm There are others in my life that i try not to 'judge' but i do and i never feel good after thinking about them. So i figured if i could feel good about them, ask for forgiveness within me, accept that in some way i have participated in this situation, say i am sorry, thank them for this opportunity to grow and send them love in return. I had to feel better about my day. So today all day long i did this even when i felt niggled or a tinge of negativity or heard a comment i didn't like - i said Please forgive me, i'm sorry, i love you and i thankyou. Its now 9.27 p.m. in Cape Town and i have had a wonderful day. Goodnight

[olmate]

Hi imagineu,

Welcome to the forum. The translation of practice into life practice is very important and as you point out, often difficult.

Meeting and meditating with so many who follow the extraordinary and wonderful pilgrimage in the usual course of their lives helps me see more clearly than ever before the true nature of this journey we are making together. I have come to know it as a journey of faith, of expanding capacity to love and to be loved, and so also as an expanding vision of reality.

And I have come to know it too as a way that demands more and more faith. Mountains get steeper the closer you approach the summit and the path narrows. But so also the view becomes vaster, more inspiring and more humbling which in turn strengthens me for the deeper commitment required for the last stage of the climb.

Meditation as a way of life centred faithfully and with discipline is the way I experience an opening of my heart. As anyone who follows this path comes to know for themselves, its demand upon us increases with each step along the path. As my capacity to receive revelation increases so too does the natural impulse I feel to make my response, my openness, more generous, more unpossessive.

The strange and wonderful thing is that this demand is unlike any other demand made upon me. Most demands seem to limit my freedom, but this demand is nothing less than an invitation to enter into full liberty of spirit - the liberty I enjoy when I turn away from self.

What seems the demand for absolute surrender is in fact the opportunity for the infinite realization of my potential. But to understand this I know I cannot flinch from the fact that the demand is absolute and consequently so must be my response.

So when those day to day tests come along - be they an annoying mosquito or a charging elephant, I know that I have control over my response.

Thanks for your post. As you can see, it triggered a whole chain reaction of thought as I read it.

Nothing but the best...

Olmate

[Itlandm]

Originally Posted by imagineu

I have been 'estranged' from my neighbour ever since they poisined our beautiful tree because it blocked their view.

Your neighbors must already have felt estranged before they went to such lengths, even though you were not aware of their feelings. Anyway, now that your tree presumably does not block their view, should not your relationship be better than when it did? Or can you think of some other reason why they would want to be your enemies?

This is also the case if a friend or loved one strikes out against you. By attacking you, they have achieved more balance in the relationship, as they see it. Before they did, they felt that they had treated you better than you treated them, that's why they felt the need to change the balance. This is usually the case. Even though we certainly don't think "I deserved that!", you can generally be sure that they think "You deserved that!".

Of course, they may think so because they are totally deluded. People will be that. But it is still worth remembering that this is how they see it.

Some times, of course, the best form of love you can practice toward someone is to stay away from them. This is a true fact. Personal growth may change this eventually. Until then, "do no harm" will have to be enough.

Sometimes there is nothing we can do to avoid racking up negative points. Perhaps the shape of your nose reminds them of someone who bullied them in high school, and every time they see your face they feel the pain. There is really nothing we can do about such things in others, we just have to make sure we don't do this ourselves. So in some relationships, you will simply have to be better than them just to maintain a balance, or else keep away. In other relationships, it can be the other way around, that people give you too much credit, but you rarely see anyone complain about that!

Something I do regularly after I heard of it, is to bless random people silently when I am out and about. I look at people and think "Bless you!" "May good things happen to you!" and so on. There is some doubt as to whether this actually causes good things to happen to them, but there is no doubt that if you do this habitually, it will be easier to make the right decision in the split second when you have to decide whether to help or harm, whether to take or give.

[Panthau]

Just imagine that theres no freewill. We all react in the context of our conditioned mind, the way we are programmed in our childhood and later years, and the way things are at the very moment "you" decide something. Its no free decision, its a conclusion of your mind, that takes everything into account you know and the way you´re programmed at that very moment. So no ones bad or good, everyone acts just the way its meant to be.

The second thing is, that you dont need to love your neighbours personality. But if you found the true love to yourself, to your infinitive inner beeing, which is connected to erveryone and everything (also to your neighbours infinitive being), then theres no other way then to love the part of your neighbour, that is unconditioned. His personality is just a small focus of his soul, that is experiencing a personality that knows no other way to achieve his goals then to do "bad" things like poisoning your tree. Remember, theres no good or bad... just the conditioned mind, that trys to find the best way it can through his small point of view.

[imagineu]

Thankyou for this indepth response Olmate and the warm welcome.
Love the extract from your reply. My meditation experience has been
short and irregular. Next Wednesday evening i will be hosting a TM introduction to meditation at my home and will be attending a weekend course
the week after. I know i will have a more meaningful response then, for now the closest i get to a meditative state is quietly enjoying the growth in my garden and the smell of water on the earth in the early morning.... goodnight

[imagineu]

[quote=Itlandm;19068] i'm really loving this place/place, so much insight, thanku
a quote i will remember.

[imagineu]

[quote=Panthau;19074]Just imagine
I do imagine and know with all my heart what you mean. It is the process of moving beyond the limitation of judgement and reaching within to feel that space of love that connects us all, hard to reach and elusive when looking....
goodnight.