John K Arnold's Post

Thanks Bob,

I feel like I imagine actors and musicians do when they are welcomed and they say "I never knew I left". I appreciate your constant presence. Thanks for the welcome.

I like your phrase. I feel each of us can find our own words to be one with whatever we feel is all there is, whether God, Jesus, the field, the force, universal consciousness or whatever fits. In that there is effortlessness, ease, joy/enjoy/injoy. I have heard and I know from experience "everything experienced fully is bliss". I remind myself with phrases and the more reminders and ways of reminding the better.

Best
John

Hi John,

Thank you for your response. Good to chat with you again.

I agree with what I interpret to be your frame-of-reference, that every belief system, replete with symbology, is an option. It is wonderful that we have the freedom to believe and practice whatever brings us integral health and joy in living. The only line I draw is when zealots of any particular belief system try to impose 'their way or the highway to hell' beliefs on me.

Yes, I've also heard the generalization that "everything experienced fully is bliss." While I understand the intent, I'm not sure I know how in all cases that belief works out in practice.

In other words, while I understand and concur with the understanding that no matter what a temporal 'thing' is, its original essence can be traced to the blissful ineffable, transparent, transtemporal mysterious Source of all essential temporary vibrations, feelings, thoughts, images, beliefs, values, behaviors, possessions, etc., for me something is missing.

Perhaps it would be helpful to attach a little warning label reading something like "Caution: everything experienced fully is bliss [healthful] providing a soul doesn't become psychospiritually identified with, and hence, dominated and managed by, the "thing" (including the 'blissful emotion' itself). That,in striking contrast to a free soul who takes responsibility for cocreatively managing her-his use of the temporal "thing".

That principle of identification-disidentification is not original with me. The Italian transpersonal psychiatrist Roberto Assagioli (1965; 1967: 1973) who discovered psychosynthesis first summed it up pretty much as follows: Anything we identify with dominates and manages us. Anything we disidentify with psychospiritually we can transcend, own, and are free to manage for health or for ill.

An example of Assagioli's identification-disidentification principle at work is my own "dark night of the soul" which I describe in my SIA blog "Who will manage the dark house?" http://www.shiftinaction.com/node/7290.

What are your feelings and thoughts? I value and look forward to your feedback, John.

Yours with empathy, understanding, and trust in evidence-based integral natural science and our timeless, infinite, omnipresent, caring, mysterious Source of all options for expanding consciousness, health, and soul development . . . individually, socially, and ecosystemically,

Bob

REFERENCES

Assagioli, Roberto (1965). Psychosynthesis. NY:Viking Press

__________________ (1967). Jung and Psychosynthesis. NY: Psychosynthesis Research Foundation.

__________________ (1973). The Act of Will

Bob,

I was thinking about how to reply and this episode from the original Star Trek came to me. It related to what we perceive as harm and danger. I too feel strongly and have a charge on other imposing their beliefs on others. Implied in that is that the others are helpless to defend themselves. What is recurring for me is seeing what I hold onto and in so doing I am not free. The episode is below.

Thanks for your notes, John

"Errand of Mercy" is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and was broadcast on March 23, 1967. It is episode #26, production #27, written by Gene L. Coon and directed by John Newland. Overview: At war with the Klingons, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock attempt to sway the incomprehensibly placid population of a planet to their side.

[edit] Plot
On stardate 3198.4, relations between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire have reached the breaking point, and recent negotiations have collapsed. The USS Enterprise has been sent to the world of Organia, a non-aligned planet near the Klingon border, in fear that the Klingons will try to annex it.

As the Enterprise approaches Organia, it is attacked by a Klingon vessel, which it destroys. Kirk warns the Organians of the Klingons, but the Organians are completely unconcerned. Instead, they insist that it is the Enterprise and her crew which are in danger. A Klingon fleet appears. The Enterprise is forced to withdraw, stranding Kirk and Spock on the surface.

The Klingons seize control of the planet without resistance from the Organians, and install the ranking Klingon officer, Kor as the military governor of Organia. The Organians disguise Kirk and Spock, but refuse to do more to resist the occupation. The two start guerrilla operations of their own, over the objections of the Organians.

When the Klingons confront the Organian ruling council and threaten to torture Kirk and Spock as suspected insurgents, the Organians reveal Kirk and Spock's true identities and allow them to be arrested. After preliminary interrogations, the Klingons imprison the two of them in a dungeon. Shortly thereafter, the Organians effortlessly free the pair and hide them in the council chamber.

While Kirk and Spock try to figure out the natives' contradictory actions, Kor retaliates for the escape by ordering mass executions. Still, the Organians continue to protect the two humans, but remain otherwise unperturbed by the Klingons' actions, leaving the Federation officers and the Klingons alike baffled and frustrated.

As Federation and Klingon fleets converge on the system, threatening to turn it into a war-zone, Kirk and Spock execute a daring raid on the Klingon headquarters in hopes of rousing the population into resistance. They prove surprisingly successful, capturing Kor and preparing to make a last stand while the fleets ready to clash.

At that point, the Organians reveal their true nature. They instantly incapacitate both sides, not only around the planet, but everywhere. They are not primitive humanoids, but highly advanced and extremely powerful energy beings, so far beyond the Klingons and the Federation that they were never threatened by either side. The Organians reveal that they have forced the humans and Klingons to make a truce, the Organian Peace Treaty. Both sides protest, but the Organians predict that the two rivals will get along far better in the future than they ever imagined.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk admits his embarrassment at his own initial disappointment with the forcible ending of the war and the imposed peace treaty.