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God is Love, and because God is love itself and not "lovING" we know that this Love is unconditional because Love can only Love.
This appears that you are assuming that the Creator God of the Bible exists as Love and that such a one protects all of us. This is clearly not what happens in this world - people are being killed constantly. I cannot buy into the notion that a Creator God exists and creates all these horrific events out of love. Maybe I am misreading your post's intention though, so if you can elaborate on whether God as Love is also the Creator God, that would help. (Don't get me wrong, I am not disputing that God is Love, but only the notion of God as Creator.)
Originally posted by arpgme
Love protects, cares for, nurtures, and according to the bible it "holds no records or wrongdoings and does not boast".
Yes, staying open with everyone is good and true - and also simple when we recognize moment to moment that we all arise in fundamental unity. However, being very passionate with a person certainly can still be possible all the while recognizing one's fundamental unity. What you suggest sounds like the human race would die out if we just loved one another but never felt in love and passionate for a specific other.
Originally posted by arpgme
True love is keeping an "openness" with all of the people you encounter in your life. If you are "passionate" about one person, then your love is not unconditional, because this "passion" is based on the person - the conditions instead of YOU - YOUR inner nature/quality.
True peace is not found within, just like it is not found without. Yes, there are many techniques for becoming inwardly calm, etc., but such are experiential (i.e., conditional) states. Unconditional peace is seen to be the case when all inward and outward seeking subsides - including going beyond just a mental understanding of this, as is commonly presumed these days, it seems.
Originally posted by arpgme
True peace is "relaxation" that comes from within, and this relaxation affects how you treat others whether with more acceptance and open-mindedness or more rejection and judgement.
If knowledge or materialism or control of matter through knowledge is all that man strives for, yes, that does create distraction from one's true nature. However, if one recognizes one's non-separation from God and others, then developing knowledge and discovery can be very useful. If done on the basis of love, it will be benign and potentially of great help to many. Such a person can be very passionate about such discovery - and Unconditional Love does not have to fade as a result. In fact, if it did fade, it was not likely Unconditional Love to begin with, because by definition the Unconditional is beyond the conditional.
Originally posted by arpgme
The fruit of knowledge is a mindset... a trick to get humans to keep yearning for more and more...
Originally posted by Inquisitive1
Interesting take on the genesis/garden of Eden story. Sadly, It's not one I see supported by the bible itself or any of it's lost books. Though I agree with you that knowledge makes me want more and more of it..
In the christian cannon the tree of knowledge was reported to give Adam and Eve the knowledge of good and evil. Something I personally find odd was ever forbidden to begin with since one could say Adam and Eve now know the difference between the two. I would think "god" would want that in two would-be servants, but for some reason we can only speculate "god" chose to forbid eating of it. It never actually explains why.
inquisitive
However, the Nag Hammadi / Dead sea scrolls paints an entirely different picture of the forbidden tree. As far as to say that it was forbidden not by God, but the by the accidental creation of one of Gods aspects -In this case Wisdom who was also named Sophia. Sophie's accidental creation became known as Ignorance, and in fact was so (he thought he was alone and therefor God). It was after Sophia realized humans where involved that she, being wisdom, planted the tree for Adam and Eve to eat and know. And it was Sophia herself who transformed into the snake and spoke to Eve. As we know Adam and Eve did not die but where taken from the garden.
God is Love, and because God is love itself and not "lovING" we know that this Love is unconditional because Love can only Love.
Satan is the destruction of this, giving
the fruit of knowledge to make
humans to STRIVE and to open their
eyes and always want MORE AND
MORE.
Originally posted by Inquisitive1
reply to post by vethumanbeing
Another interesting take on it you have aswell. That's all we have, though is interesting takes, versions, and ideas. We'll never really know, which is why I never claim to. I have ideas same as you.
Telling me "what you think you know is wrong" is funny because you are stabbed by it, too.
Originally posted by jiggerj
reply to post by arpgme
God is Love, and because God is love itself and not "lovING" we know that this Love is unconditional because Love can only Love.
Hi Arpgme, Can you explain what love is? Not what love does, but what it is. My thinking is that love is on one end of a line of emotions, with all emotions made of the same stuff as love.
So, if a god feels love then he must also feel all of the other emotions. One cannot have the ability to love without having the ability to hate. IMO
If love is to "care for" or "help" others... and you help someone who is very negative being destructive to society, and you help a loved one who is very close to you... you will notice the "FEELING" that it is more than an action.
This state of relaxation you are describing is an ancient approach engaged particularly in various eastern spiritual traditions in which the practitioner identifies more and more with apparently above the physical body brain-core states. In such states, one's attention is moved out of identification with the gross physical body and even into states above the physical body-mind, and perhaps even transcendent of the gross body-mind.
Originally posted by arpgme
However, I already defined how I am using the word "love" here. I am talking more about an "openness" (state of relaxation) towards others equally and fairly.. This cannot be "aimed" at anyone. It is there for all to tap into and you can choose to stay more "there" in each moment if you choose too. Or you can allow the drama to take you in for your emotion...
By the way, you said if people were loving then crimes would go unpunished which would be an injustice to the one who was harmed...
Well if that person was relaxed they wouldn't feel such a impulse by their emotions to go out and harm others.
Jigger, love is not a notion or feeling, it is a FORCE just like gravity;
What you are describing is what is conventionally considered to be love - a conditionally caused feeling in the body-mind. Real love is Unconditional - i.e., beyond of all conditions, and only directly "known" when the whole body-mind is transcended in any given moment of recognition of our actual condition here.
Originally posted by LesMisanthrope
Feelings, any feeling, comes from and is produced by the body, not mystical forces we call Love. We don't revere and call sexual arousal God. We don't call jealousy God. We don't call trust God. Yet these are facets of what we call Love.
When two bodies enjoy each others company, there's no love to witness, only two bodies enjoying each others company. It's not some force called love that binds them, but desire, respect, comfort, lust, shared memories—an amalgamation of real observable sensations that appeals to the ones who have them.
Love is a state of appearance. When we see two people in a long passionate embrace we say it must be love, but it can never be anything more than two people in a long passionate embrace.
As far as I am concerned, the "christian cannon" is the New Testament.
In the christian cannon the tree of knowledge was reported to give Adam and Eve the knowledge of good and evil. Something I personally find odd was ever forbidden to begin with since one could say Adam and Eve now know the difference between the two. I would think "god" would want that in two would-be servants, but for some reason we can only speculate "god" chose to forbid eating of it. It never actually explains why.
Originally posted by jiggerj
reply to post by vethumanbeing
Jigger, love is not a notion or feeling, it is a FORCE just like gravity;
Hmmm, if I am all alone in the woods, gravity will find me and hold me to the ground. If I am alone in the woods and issue forth massive amounts of love, will people suddenly come looking for me or something? Will bears not attack me? Will birds come to rest on my shoulders?