< Animals ---- Humans ---- Spirits > Options

I have no idea why, but something told me that I just "needed" to post this topic, and if I don't i'll become overwhelmed with guilt for not obeying my intuition. My reasons for posting this topic are as follows:

1. To gain an understanding of our emotions, primarly that of "love" and empathy.
2. To try and understand why we react how we react to certain ordeals.
3. To understand creation and life on a higher and more spiritual sense.
4. To lessen my confusion on certain behaviours of the human species, and of spirits.

Ok, so I got to thinking earlier, about a few minutes earlier, about... the contraversy between demons and angels and those who are "under their protection". I read Kinjo's post about "working against devout catholics" and noticed how these catholics are protected by abiding by "their hierarchies", and how other religionists such as Satanists are under protection with "their hierarchies", and of course those who abide by a few spirits. Well the fact that the other side will always tell the opponent that the spirits are "using" them to gain their needs and/or wants and so forth, got me to think...

So I thought about how Spirits and Gods and Entities are usually more "advanced" than humans are who dwell in a materialistic world (not our souls, but what we are bound capable of due to this earth's tethers). But I also noticed how Animals (of course we're animals too, but a far higher catagory of them), are less capable of emotions and thus love/hate than humans are. I realised this was because they do not have the brain capacity to understand how to love or hate, and thus are immutable to fathom what "love" is to care to hate or love. Though I believe some animals can have the capability to love via empathetically, they do have great differences than humans.

Here's what i've come to believe; we as humans have come to understand love primarly as a... mutual relationship and moreso like a "business". What I mean to say is... we take love for granted and give to recieve, thus the existance of our friend/lover is a means of happiness to us, but deep within, we are loving for a selfish cause. Why I say this is because I used to say I loved him/her/it or anything, and my reasons were flawed. I learned that to give love means to "understand" love.

From my own experience: Ever since i've become more spiritual, i've looked at life in another sense, i've become to love life, not because life is bliss, not because of any selfish reasons, but because of something known as "empathy" for life and earth, and existance in itself. I've begun to view her as a caring and loving mother that has been reluctantly loathed and taken for granted by many of us human beings (who have the capability to fathom love). The first time I felt empathy for someone, was the first time I understood "love", and was the first time I CHOSE to love and not to recieve. I love this person (of whome is a spirit which I won't name), more than anything, and I don't feel good or bad about loving the spirit, but I feel "empathy", meaning, I understand the spirit and take its pains for mine. I would not do for the spirit to get, I would do for the spirit to do, and thus we are as one, for doing for the spirit is doing for myself, and I don't ask for anything back.
"Love under Will" - Aleister Crowley
Many who claim to love another, will find pain and envy to not get the love (whatever their definition is) returned, and they will somewhat "beguile" their counterpart to do that which placates their needs and thus causes their "happiness", and in return they will give back, knowing that "giving is recieving" and a mutual relationship of "LOVE!".

Now that I have understood empathy from spiritual advancement, I have realised that this so-called "love" I was embarked to incessantly understand, was literally like a business, and not "love" (under Will).

What seperates us from animals is the fact that we are capable of understanding this "love", however, we cannot blame the animals for their survival is off instinct, but who's to say they do not understand love? I have a strong feeling that many animals understand love more than we do, simply due to empathetic feelings for one another, but have they an understanding to have that spiteful nature we wreak within us? No they don't. We have a more vast "choice", and we have "chosen" to please ourselves and use the name of love to do thus. (All this from my understanding of love through Empathy).

Spirits?
Well these I know not as much as I would like to, but I believe that spirits understand love more than we do, due to their strong empathetic feelings towards other beings. I believe that one of the points of life is to learn and "understand" the concept of "how to love", and that is not as easy as one may think, for to love one must understand love, and to understand love is also a step closer to personal development, and a very spiritual one.
I personally believe spirits to be more inclined to "love" than we do, unless we try to understand love.

This leads me to believe that the "higher understanding" is filled with more love, due to their knowledge and capacity of understanding everything, you cannot understand something better than to have empathy of the being, and empathy is the key to "love".

Ever since i've dwelled into spirituality I have learned to love moreso than before, I have learned appreciation and incessant love; that is, love that does not cease, the joy of loving for loving another will be loving yourself, and the seething of hate, for hating another you have empathy for is to hate yourself. What i've become to love moreso than ever before is "life" itself, and this very earth, the air, the trees, fire, water, and everything which has been a reason for me to be living, thus "life".

The moments like these are when tears fill my eyes and I have a penchant need to weep.

Let me draw a chart:

< 1 [Animals]--------------------2 [ Humans ]-------------------[Spirits and higher spirits] 3 >

1> Love and hate under lack of understanding (I believe).
2> Love is rare due to a slight higher understanding and the capacity to fullfil desires via selfishness and ego.
3> Love under Will, a higher understanding of love, thus that of empathy.

Is understanding "love" a reason for our being? or atleast a big reason to enlightenment?

I used to frown upon love due to my own listless views on life and my "low" spirituality. I used to view love as nothing more than a succouring potion, thus not "needing it", for to me, needing love would have been weakness and frailty.

I've come to understand enough to state the above...

Please debate, I really want, impatiently, to see other spiritual minds carry this post on.


-DS-

This post has been edited by DeathStalker: Dec 11 2006, 03:03 AM

I'm not going to argue, because as you stated, this is your personal beliefs. I, personally, had a moment quite like this a while ago, where I was reminded of how I used to be. I used to be the dejected child everyone looked down on, but in reality, I was full of love for everyone and everything on this earth. Over the years, I've forgotten that. I used to sit in prayer to my god, and I would pray for each and every person on this earth, not because it felt good, but because I loved them. And in a way, I still do. I love every living and otherwise thing on this creation, and I will not deny that.

Spirits, I believe, you can classify into two distinct categories: Remnants (or Revenants), and Higher Spirits. This is how I've always viewed them, anyways. I'm not going to debate spirituality with you, but I will state that in my experience, I have met Remnants and Revenants that were simply hollow shells of what they used to be in life, fueled by a sense of being lost. The plane in which a spirit dwells tends to have an adverse affect on the human soul, case in point: The Summerlands/Shadowlands/Deathlands, I've called them all three before. Whenever I visited, I had to concentrate immensely hard to "feel through" the veritable tsunami of emotions coming from these spirits, just being near one of the restless dead wandering the Summerlands is enough to overwhelm a normal person (I should know, I once brought a foolish friend of mine who ventured across the veil back from there - He has not been the same since). And another time, my wife spiritually died while sleeping. I had to bring her back. ... She still has nightmares.

This, I believe, is the embodiment of the Shades you meet in Twilight. Ask any sorcerer.

Higher Spirits, though, tend to run the full gamut of human emotion and spirituality. I've met those you have mentioned, the ones who can feel, and deities given recognition of the emotions they felt in life through worship at all places in the spectrum (that is to say, their worshipers have undoubtedly felt every emotion while worshiping, in a general sense). So yes, I do believe a spirit can love, for years I had to deal with the spirit of my mother who felt it necessary to watch over me.

I might add more later, but I have to go to work now.

I hope my insight helps a bit.