What is the highest good? (I say "Patience" rather than "Love")

reply to post by arpgme

If you cannot love a person as they are, then you only love them as you would want them to be and not as who they actually are.

Acceptance is ultimately the story of our journey to realise we ourselve are not perfect and mortal creatures about to die. When we reach that point our capacity to love is at its greatest, as we accept the plight of those around us whether close to us or not, is the same as our own, vulnerable creatures, seeking acceptance, friendship and hoping love in a world which was unrelenting and unforgiving.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


Acceptance can lead to seeing everything as perfect or nothing as perfect - the choice is your on which perspective you will take.

reply to post by arpgme

Acceptance can lead to seeing everything as perfect or nothing as perfect - the choice is your on which perspective you will take.

This is true, and the enlightened person is a person who accepts everything is perfect the way it should be. The irony is the enlightened person also can be a pragmatic person also, and plan for the worse outcome rainy days, as despite his inner voice telling him the world is round, his logical mind knows its really flat.

reply to post by AthlonSavage


From a lower perspective, it is flat. This is what the eyes see, this is the reality.
From a higher perspective, it is round. This is also factual and with the correct technology it can be seen.

It's looking at the world from different perspectives.

reply to post by arpgme

From a lower perspective, it is flat. This is what the eyes see, this is the reality.
From a higher perspective, it is round. This is also factual and with the correct technology it can be seen.

It's looking at the world from different perspectives.

Agree completely. The worlds a rubic cube of different reference points for awareness.

Impatience leads to Control

Feeling impatient will lead to a strong impulse to act. Acting from impatience can cloud a person's judgement. It can also cause one to become angry faster and it is more likely to turn into aggression (control) than with having patience.

Control leads to Apathy

When one is controlling, the only thing that matters is if everything is being controlled in the way that the person wants. The only thing that matters is if everyone is "obeying" their rules. The feelings, thoughts, opinions, experiences of pain and suffering becomes ignored because more effort is going into controlling out of impatience rather than the acceptance in order to understand which comes with patience. This leads to apathy (not caring or not even noticing the mental and emotional state of others - compassion)

reply to post by arpgme


I agree with this completely. The terrible thing is, I recognize myself in this.

I teach first grade, and I'm burned out. I lack the patience I once had, and I find myself more controlling and demanding of my students. This is a bad thing. I have to pay very close attention to what I'm doing, constantly calming myself through breathing and other examples.

The school year is almost over (13 days!) and I'm hopefully transferring to a new school (the administration here is horrible and let to a lot of my frustrations).

Thank you very much for posting this. I'm going to print it out and stick it on my desk as a reminder.

S&F

Why does one have to be "above" the others? Love, patience, compassion, respect, acceptance... Why does there have to be an order? That's just man's mind needing to keep busy.

Originally posted by arpgme
reply to post by AthlonSavage

 

From a lower perspective, it is flat. This is what the eyes see, this is the reality.
From a higher perspective, it is round. This is also factual and with the correct technology it can be seen.

It's looking at the world from different perspectives.

This is pretty awesome. Two facts that completely contradict each other yet cannot be denied as fact from an individuals point of reference.

With love, comes patience. If you have no love, then you have no patience.

With my experiences in life, I have come to find that this statement proves to be true, time and time again.

To me, love is the highest good.

There is only Love and Fear. Patience is a form of Love. I consider the traditional Fear to mean power. There is Power of Love and Love of Power. It is Loving to have patience. It is also wise, and growth of soul. With a wiser more endowed soul, more Love occurs. More opportunities occur to use your talents to help rather than exploit them for money or power. So it all boomerangs back to Love.

Love is patience, kindness, compassion, mildness, thoughtfulness, fortitude, ie going the extra mile for someone, assisting others, forgiveness, gentleness, humor, helping those in need, laughing, joy, peace, protecting, conserving, inventing, working for empowment of others, nursing, healing, teaching, using talents wisely, sharing, caring, and every positive attribute.

reply to post by arpgme


Complete self control.

Arpgme:

What is the highest good? (I say "Patience" rather than "Love")

Without looking at any other postings, I will say 'empathy' is the highest good, because without it, no acts of good can arise. Empathy is not sympathy, it is recognition and understanding of other's circumstances and conditions, which motivates us, nay, compels us to act supportively in whatever way we can, sometimes at a consequential cost to ourselves.

i believe patience is love and vice versa and i tend to agree with you and i'd like to blend in a little "faith" if i may.

reply to post by arpgme


There's a good article on patience here: Patience

Even if you're not a Freemason, it's still a worthwhile read.

reply to post by Quyll

Originally posted by Quyll
With love, comes patience. If you have no love, then you have no patience.

With my experiences in life, I have come to find that this statement proves to be true, time and time again.

To me, love is the highest good.

edit on 8-5-2013 by Quyll because: addition

How can you have love without patience? If you are impatient and irritated, how is that love? Patience leads to acceptance and understanding. Love cannot be without this quality of patience.

Empathy.

Originally posted by arpgme
reply to post by Quyll

 

Originally posted by Quyll
With love, comes patience. If you have no love, then you have no patience.

With my experiences in life, I have come to find that this statement proves to be true, time and time again.

To me, love is the highest good.

edit on 8-5-2013 by Quyll because: addition

How can you have love without patience? If you are impatient and irritated, how is that love? Patience leads to acceptance and understanding. Love cannot be without this quality of patience.

You are love - you are the space that allows whatever is appearing to appear - when you realize the space and put it around all that appears - then patience is what it will look like.

Emptiness.

That's the highest good.

To want nothing, to possess nothing, to do no harm, to walk away from all wealth, to give up power, to attack no one, to kill no fish, to tell no lies, to watch no TV, to quit the internet, to play no video games, to drive no cars, to watch no porn, to seek nothing, to avoid all lusts, to breathe easy, to walk five miles a day, to aim for nothing, to be satisfied with whatever one has, to abandon envy, to forgo jealously, to circumcise no man, to leave women alone, to avoid all prayer, to stay out of churches, temples, synagogues, and shrines, to avoid all Freemasons, to run from the illuminati, to abandon gossip, not to listen to conspiracy theories, not to spread rumors, to avoid all places where the government is planning a "drill", to spend time in the woods, and to cast your gunpowder to the winds and the seas.

This, is the highest good.

reply to post by mysticnoonI am no-one to disagree with the Buddha, nevertheless I still say that love rises to the surface like cream on milk when the desires of self are put aside.


I'm with you mysticnoon - I admire buddha, but I don't take everything he says as gospel, the same as any other great saint. Read em all, take what makes sense to you and leave the rest.

I heard an argument against putting the self aside followed right up by saying the ultimate goal is to be a void - well, that seems alot like putting the self aside to me.

I don't know if I have an opinion on what the highest good is - how would you measure that?

But I do think the foundation for all good is the reduction of the ego, and seeing past the mind
and your own wants and needs.

Since my ego started thinning out, and I started putting myself aside, love just started bubbling up through the cracks in the ego. I rarely get angry because if there is no ego, there is nothing "there" to get angry. I have great compassion because now I see that I am just like everyone else - a divine or perfect self surrounded by a mind and ego tied to worldly concerns and needs. We are all in the same boat there, just in different stages of leaving the ego behind. I don't know that there really is true evil - I think there are just those who are tied up in their own minds and egos and desires to such a degree so they don't really care what happens to anybody else.

The Urantia Papers are in the public domain. Let's see 3 instances of the word 'Love' there, since I agree it is love the highest good:
www.urantia.org...

(3.4) 0:1.17 Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.

(21.2) 1:0.2 The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. “God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited.”

(648.4) 56:10.21 Love is the desire to do good to others.

.LM., 29