Objectives: The Pilgrim will meet and achieve the following conditions associated with the Principles of Spiritual Love.

Links: 1. Introduction 2. Find the Path of Love 3. Recognize the Corruptions of Love 1. Parental corruption 2. Depersonalization of the Other 3. Equate civil/criminal law with TRUTH 4  Destruction of person's work 5. Denial of the REALITY  of  ONE (UNITY) 6. Promoting self, incest, or nepotism over competence 4. Recognize the Mistaken Notions of Love

5. Dynamics of Spiritual Love 6. Recognize the Masquerades of Love 7. Love made Visible 8. Meditation and Love as a Way if Life 9. Summary of the Nature and Dynamics of Love Return to Top

Mystical Protagonist:
In this session together, I want to integrate some of the ideas from our six previous Dialogues.  All of these concepts must work together in order to fulfill the promise of the Mystical Paradigm.  That promise includes the manifestation of Love in practical, reliable, and stable in your life and throughout our society.  That promise translates into practical rather than romantic terms.  That is what the poet Gibran referred to when he said, "...work is love made visible." [Gibran, 1923/1951]

You will spend the rest of your days choosing among opportunities to work and serve, or exploit and consume. How to choose?  To work for ego leads you on the empty path of illusion and ultimate failure and disappointment. But if you work with Love, you will recognize the face of Love, become the Presence of Love, demonstrate the power of Love, and be blessed accordingly.

InQuiring Mind:
Well, I admit I will choose differently now than when I first appeared before you.  To my surprise, what I first resented as a waste of my time now appears to have some value.  I confess to still suffering some cynicism.  I experience a kind of  clarity that comes and goes, but one which is still resolving itself and still somewhat obscure.  I guess that is the nature of "The Path" that you keep talking about.  I have been looking forward to this particular Dialogue where I expect to get some closure, some final answers to some unanswered questions I had when we started.  At least I now feel drawn into a Power greater than myself.  Scary!  Yet I feel myself resisting. I guess that is what you want for me to experience.

P:  Promising!  Now, keeping the clues of all our prior dialogues in mind, we initiate our last dialogue.  I will address the dynamics of L/love and its impact within ourselves and on the quality of life for human systems of all levels of complexity.  Spiritual Truth must survive the compelling traps of ego mind as it resonates in the deepest parts of our innermost Being. As your rebellious mind is brought under Spiritual Control, even in our brief time together, your C/consciousness, is already being informed and empowered by a larger Spiritual Truth than your ego's intellect.  This is a beginning that points toward the higher purposes, the Greater Cause.

You have to consciously develop the capacity to surrender your instinctive devotion to "self centerdness" and move toward Wholeness that incorporates all that exists beyond your self.  You can risk supplanting erotic love for Agapic Love which is not experienced by receiving anything, but in giving everything. The Spiritually illuminated recognize that our (Soul's) purpose on earth is only to develop our Spiritual Consciousness and to serve others in that cause for themselves.  Nourish your ability to recognize the Spiritual health of your Soul by undertaking actions that make Love visible.

We purify our Souls by overcoming adversity with Grace. Grace, is our Spiritual capacity to remain open to the blessing of Spiritual Information, Forgiveness, and Wisdom.,  To pursue the Path of Love is to be nourished and guided by the Holy Spirit.  We become open to receive the blessings of the Presence within. That Presence instantly empowers us with the capacity to unconditionally forgive all hurt and insult, beginning with forgiveness of self. Unforgiveness deenergize and blocks our accessibility to Spiritual Truth. Only by accepting the eternal presence of Grace, can we fully dedicate our actions as one who gives unconditional Love (service or "work made visible") to the needs of others.  Only our choice of living the unpardonable sin denies us Grace.

Q: I've heard about that. What is the one sin that is unpardonable?

P: The key to the answer is found in this quote:

“Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." [Mat: 12:31-32]

Q: So the MP is consistent.  Everything begins and ends within us.  We are the agent who decides for good or ill.

P:  Correct.

Q: How then can we be forgiven when we have placed ourselves among the unpardonable.

P: Once we recognize this primal error, once we change our way of thinking, once we open ourselves to empower Spiritual Consciousness, once we unconditionally acknowledge the Power and Presence of this GRACE, then we are instantly transformed. We are restored to Grace, and we benefit from that Source of eternal Grace that is ever within us.  Then we have Spiritually quickened and made accessible to us the Presence of the Holy Spirit, the power of GOD within us.  The Parable of the Prodigal Son illustrates this Spiritual Truth.

Q: But how will I know when I am on this Path?  I am learning that to be true to even the most basic elements of myself is a challenge, is difficult.  But what are the signposts of this Path, this "Way of Love."  That Spiritual gyroscope you mentioned, how can I use it to keep me on course?

P:  Let's begin with clarifying the corruptions of Love for if we cannot recognize them, they can seduce us, can destroy our capacity to serve and become Love.  By recognizing the nature of these corruption's, you will see how the three traps of ego consciousness work through them to deny the Spiritually unilluminated access the blessings of Love in their lives. Recall from the dialogue on Karma and Reincarnation, the parable of the Train that Left the Station. [review parable & interpretation, return via browser's "back" button] This parable illustrates the nature of the seeming life and death challenge of finding and living Love when beset by mental confusions, when we are overcome by the three traps of ego mind.

Q: So, finding Love is like finding the ticket for the right Train.  And the trick is to "purchase" the right ticket for the right train by how we invest our life.

P: In Karmic terms [dialogue 6], only one Spiritual train (for you) leads to Nirvana, or permanent Unity with the ONE, (the ultimate City of Salvation, and the perfect UNITY with LOVE.) The Spiritual train that serves you, may not serve me nor any other. Since we all live at different locations on the "humanscape" of Reality, each of us must earn our own ticket to that correct train for ourselves. All other tickets return the traveler to one or another earth plane city of dissatisfaction, i.e., a rebirth to have yet another chance at purifying the Soul from its errors, its material obsessions and attachments.

Metaphysically, a city represents a population of ideas (thoughts, values and constraints.) This is a metaphor for rebirth under correcting mental and emotional Karmic challenges. These new "thoughts" and experiences serve for further purification of the Soul.  These experiences sometimes appear as those "senseless" sufferings we so deeply resent when we cannot comprehend them for what they Really are, opportunity.

Q: Can you at least summarize the main idea for me.  I find the concepts seem to come and go, like sound from a distant A.M. radio station.

P:  Building on the parable's interpretation, here is how the MP interprets this story from the perspective of finding the Path to Love.:

(1) Life on earth (Gaia) is to the Soul, as the womb is to the biological fetus. The "train" symbolizes a vehicle, a process for transition, for transporting one's consciousness from one sense dominated experience (earth plane city of the ego) to Spiritual Consciousness (the ultimate "City of Desire.")
(2) Being able to get on the right train (the Spiritual one) symbolizes the pilgrim's capacity to choose the Spiritual link (right ticket) between the status of one's Soul (in a given ego dominated city) and transcendence into UNITY, the ultimate destination which is the City of Desire (collection of Spiritual ideas) that yields Illumination and Salvation.
(3) The tribulations of life are the energizing situations that compel you (father's admonitions) to seek a "train" [the medium defined by the nature of a ticket, or the current status of one's C/consciousness, i.e., one's current Karmic state] to reach the city of desire.  The "ticket" sets one's empowerment, or permission to raise the ego consciousness from its sleep of Spiritual complacency.  The developing Soul must seek its ticket within the "city" (current ego realm of material ideas) of one's birth (where our Karmic journey is picked up.)
(4) "Missing the right train" is symbolic of the misdirected efforts of a mistaken life (wrong ticket or goal, e.g., as in the acorn's fantasy in the oak tree parable.) Such errors lead to another intermediate way station, or to oblivion or hell, the ego's rejection of Grace, at worst.  The we have the experiences we call "hell on earth."
(5) Catching the "right" train, (a Spiritual ticket to the sought for City of Salvation,) symbolizes finding and submitting to a Spiritual process of ego discipline, combined with service to others, that works for you.  The practice of the discipline must include frequent deep Meditation on Love. This is a required investment and discipline that empowers you to liberate your Soul's Conscious from ego dominion to thus permit your reunion with Spiritual UNITY.
(6) The "Conductor" on the after death train symbolizes the review of the Akashic record (Book of Life) presented to us by our Spiritual teachers whom we can question in this intermediate Realm or Bardo plane between rebirths. There we evaluate our Spiritual status, learn the impact of our life on others, and the cost-benefits of our earthly acts that have empowered or impeded our own Spiritual growth.  We prepare ourselves for a return to a new city to continue our Spiritual growth. For those who do even inadvertent harm, and especially malevolent harm, this is the experience of hell, because they are simply forced to experience within themselves the literal feelings of hurt and harm they have brought upon others. For those who have perpetrated physical, emotional or Spiritual harm upon others, this is hell indeed, for there is no greater hell than to experience yourself the effects of the harm you yourself have perpetrated, or permitted, to be placed upon others. However, when Karmic fallout is good, the Pilgrim experiences the joy they brought others.   I personally so testify from the experience of Knowing as this fate has been applied to me already in this life. You, and every person, will confront this Truth of your errors alone, yourself.  I promise!
(7) We can experience the parable of the Train that Left the Station through our failed experiences with L/love. We fail by looking outward, not inward, attempting to "get" gratification, not "give" it, all in order to "catch" the right relationship, or to seek a material destination (personal ego gratification supplied by an external goal, e.g., great sex, marriage, recognition, money, or power.) Thus we consistently act in ignorance of even the existence of, let alone the purpose and value of, the Secret Inner Journey that is actually directing our course, whether by design, or by default.

Q: It is still hard for me to relate to Karma, it was so alien to me prior to these dialogues.  But I'm making progress.  At least I can now intellectually accept its possibility .

P: The doctrine of Reincarnation and its relationship to Love must be understood as the vehicle through which Karma resolves its ultimate Cosmic justice. I can hardly speak to the scale of positive impact on contemporary life if a "critical mass" of the intelligentsia can even begin to understand that Karma exists, and why the Karmic interpretations of the Mystical Paradigm are basically correct. Egotistical thoughts alone, let alone evil thoughts, thoughts that are empty of Love, produce a tree of withered fruit.

Q: You mean the tree of evil grows in the ground of the human ego?

P: Yes, and Love is the only protection against the bitter fruit of the tree of evil.

Q: Sounds like a new spin on the "Adam and Eve" myth.

P: Possibly.  But the urgent importance of nourishing the capacity for Love is neither sentimental nor romantic claptrap.  Love is a healing and unifying power.  Its importance is validated by the material evidence of our problems in our world that correspond to the wide spread presence of the corruptions of Love.  These threats are sufficient in and of themselves to justify the search for our capacity to access that desperately needed empowering Spiritual Consciousness.  Only this status can make contact with our essential inner Presence. It is an accomplishment whose emergence is badly needed if the earth is to survive.  The humanity of earth must be transformed to express as a way of life, the values of the Tree of Love.

Q: I now begin to sense that some of the parables you have used in the Mystical Paradigm are simply pale statements in contemporary language for the Reality behind the Sacred writings found in every culture in every era. But isn't Love hostage to the reality of Karma and Reincarnation? Love is blocked, locked up within us until we fully discharge our Karmic debts. This inner potential may be seen through the lens of the Mystical Paradigm, right?  Don't we, mustn't we, all focus upon the events of the world simply to survive in it, beginning with our own life?

P: You will decide. Love must be chosen and then nourished to grow and flower like a beautiful tree.  The power for Spiritual Transformation, for Spiritual Transfiguration, for Spiritual transcendence over the adverse effects of the ego mind only lies within each of us.  Each of us has the power to rise above our currents status. [Butterworth, 1968]  Living and being Love is the only medium for certain and complete Spiritual Transformation, Transcendence and Transfiguration.  This is True regardless how Love may be expressed.

In  your Soul's pursuit of restored Wholeness (experienced as an increasing capacity for Love) many pitfalls are offered by your ego controlled carnal senses and intellect.  These can distract and divert you.  The first objective is to recognize that distracting false illusions may be believed, desired and served as love.  The we are defeated, we miss the right train to the city of desire. The secret of any "con" game is that it is "convincing."   But your actions are without the substance of Spiritual Love, they are sterile, or they may produce bitter fruit, not the sweet fruit of the Virtues.

Q: Somehow, your telling me that I must ignore the basic needs of my mind and body in order to serve and to become this Spiritual Love.  That seems really hard to do.  There is so much my mind tells me is not just convenient and pleasurable, but also essential.

P: Not to ignore the senses, you cannot. The goal is to discipline them.  The mind alone is destructive because as slave to  your ego, it is solely pragmatic and devoted to self interest in processing the data from the material world. 

Q: Suddenly I see the connection to that early psychological model of Freud: id, ego, and super-ego.

P: Only Spiritual Consciousness (the inner source of Truth) empowers your mind to understand the ultimate and crucial relationship that connects all of us, and all of our experiences by a common theme, the urge toward reunion with Wholeness. Love is the manifestation and experience of wholeness, the expression and feeling of Unity, harmony, integration, and trust.  We can identify the presence of Love as it evolves through its various forms as being part of the positive experiences we have. We steadily move closer to restoring our original but forgotten Spiritual state in any of the dimensions open to us-- interpersonal L/love, parental L/love, L/love and altruistic service to any cause that has the capacity to protect or bring more Love into the world. We especially benefit  from  the direct Love of GOD expressing through ourselves as our state of Spiritual Consciousness advances.

But the antipathy of love and the root definition of evil [Fillmore, 1959-1990] is any non Spiritual thought [baal]. It manifests as any act that willfully promotes, supports, or condones division, separation, distrust, alienation, depersonalization, and/or anomie.  You must protect yourself against these creations of the three traps of mind.

To become Love, you first must become empowered to detect the corruptions of Love, and the mistaken notions of Love. Then you will be prepared to also detect and recognize the Masquerades of Love. I begin with some common examples of the corruptions of Love that you will find in the world today.

Corruption 1: Evil Created By a Systematic Parental Corruption of Love:
P:  When Real Love is present it is often missed for what it is. The immature and unilluminated sensate mind, the ego intellect, does not  recognize either the legitimate Presence of Love, nor can it recognize the corruptions of Love when exposed to them. Thus a person, especially a vulnerable child, can be seduced into believing that these corruptions are manifestations of the Love for which it yearns.  Then they are further harmed by attributing any abuses that follow as being aspects of the nature of Love. Thereafter they are lost to the genuine appearances of Love when it happens. They then tend to ignore the clues of Spiritual Love, to react defensively, to abuse It, or send It away. Further, they can also act to harm its messenger.

Q: I can now predict that this harm or blessing , whichever, will begin in childhood, at birth even, when we first "get off the train." And then we are managed and directed by the unilluminated ego intellect.  How sad. And of course I bet that any destructive cycle can endure across generations.

P: Yes, in the study of inter generational family therapy, a model exists in which the intervenor can track the interpersonal corruptions across generations using a kind of ledger of psychic debt. [Boszormenyi-Nagy & Sparks, 1973]  In the contemporary psychology you say you studied, tell me what the term "codependency" means to you in the context of our discussion, say for example, with a young woman who suffered the loss of a viable father figure very early in her life.

Q The current psychological paradigm of codependency is consistent with Peck's thesis as you have represented it before. As a young women, for example, such a child will often resort to prostitution in adolescence, or seek out to unconditionally serve to acquire the love of men who are considerably and inappropriately older then them. Male children adopt futile efforts to demonstrate and feel machismo. Children who try to compensate for an abusive alcoholic parent likewise become anchored into accepting a victim's cycle of exploitive behavior.  They can only find meaning for themselves by continuing their victim status.  As an adult they attach themselves to an alcoholic or other abusing partner.  [Mellody, 1989]

I have also learned from behavior science courses that the concept of codependency also illuminates the behavior of individuals who are overcome with chemical dependencies in addition to alcohol, and who suffer chronic clinical depression.  The problem may be worsened when the parent has been abusive. That pathological male model or female model are the only models the victim child/adult can relate to, and there are plenty of evil men and women to serve it up to them. A consistent pattern with this kind of dysfunctional behavior, apart from a child being a victim of overt abuse, children can also become overcompensating at opposite extremes, i.e. as in a so called "goodie-two-shoes."    Having "imprinted" on the pathological model parent, they attempt to become the perfection they were denied.  Then they attempt to fulfill vast, adult scale obligations demanded as compliance to parental or other adult authority in exchange for what they think is love.  They must take on adult level responsibilities to earn the approbation of their dysfunctional parents, older siblings, or other adults. Correct?

P: Basically.   In such cases, say from a possessive and manipulative mother, the children will learn to devalue themselves sometimes to the point of destructive self contempt.  Gifts given are not expressions of unconditional Love, but are conditional upon compliance to earn the good will of the parent, and to earn more gifts. What the child then defines as "love" are only affirmations made conditional upon the child's compliance and servitude.  Sometimes such a demand is far beyond the capability of any child. Therefore, per our above discussion, evil comes into the world by influences which are related to the chronic absence of Spiritual or Agapic [pronounced ah gah' pik] needs for Love.  This withholding of unconditional Love is sufficient unto itself to destroy a child's potential for Spiritual emergence, let alone the added burden when a child suffers this psychological abuse in the presence of chronic punishment.

Q: And I understand the capacity to transcend the limits imposed by such an upbringing is a potential of the Mystical Paradigm. Once awakened in the victim, it can serve as an empowering conceptual tool for the victim to escape those psychic limits.

P: Yes, but conceptual insight is unreliable, and still requires risk taking to follow through.  However, there are ways out, desperate as it may feel to such a victim.  One may find a cruel fate in the quality of their upbringing, but that may be the gift of an adverse Karma.  After being born into a world of manipulative and punishing adults, there has to be some prescription to help the victim child overcome the crushing burden of guilt and anger that is the legacy to any child who is so betrayed of L/love.

Q: But you say that children do what they are shown, and the evidence is strong that cycles of abuse are maintained across generations.  So how can such a victim child break out of the cycle?

P: In addressing guilt and blame, and the human tendency to punish those who we believe have afflicted us, the Lebanese Christian mystic, Kahlil Gibran, has stated the following in his masterwork, The Prophet:

"Oftentimes I heard you speak of one who commits a wrong as though he were not one of you, but a stranger unto you and an intruder upon your world. But I say to you that even as the holy and the righteous cannot rise above the highest which is in each of you, So the wicked and the weak can not fall lower than the lowest which is in you also. And as a single leaf turns not yellow but with the silent knowledge of the whole tree, So the wrong-doer cannot do wrong without the hidden will of you all.  Like a procession you walk together toward your god-self.  You are the way and the wayfarers.  And when one of you falls down, he falls for those behind as a caution against the stumbling stones.  Ay, and he falls for those ahead of him who though faster and surer of foot, yet removed not the stumbling stone."
[Gibran, op cit, 1923-1951, p-37]

P: You will find that the compassion and capacity for forgiveness is a derivative of Love. Conversely, the capacity for Love becomes a derivative attribute for those who can freely give compassion and forgiveness.  Forgiveness, like thrift, begins at home with one's self.  By such means, the victim becomes the victor.  Those overwhelmed by the hate and evil of others must first find the capacity to forgive before they can respond with good.

For example, Pitirim Sorokin, who, as a young man, was abused and hounded by the communists in Russia who sought to kill him, eventually responded by creating an institute for the study of L/love at Harvard University.  Viktor Frankl, [1963] who wrote, Man's Search for Meaning,  overcame the evils of his sustained ordeal in Auschwitz, a Nazi concentration camp in World War II, while thousands died all around him. His book accounts for how he applied a Spiritual dimension to his concentration camp experience and survived.  From this he created his logothearpy, a means for finding meaning from the worst kind of personal disaster and suffering.

By such means, some few children, comprehending the reflection of an eternal TRUTH even in the depth of the shadow of evil, or by GRACE, are able to rise above the evils of parents and the adult society in which they dwell.  They then bring an extraordinary variety of pure Love into the world.  The Love that counts is not the idealized romantic love or carnal emotion of lust and desire.  Sorokin wrote:

"In a love relationship, the egos of the parties are freely merged into one 'we'...their mutual love is the end value for them.  Each party gladly does and gives anything for the well being of the other party.  There is no bargain or calculation of profits, pleasures and utilities.  The relationship between all...those who practice the love precepts of the Sermon on the Mount are the examples of the love relationship." [Sorokin, 1967, page 76]

[review table summary of Sorokin's documented evidence of the Power of Love, use browser back button to return]

  "A loving relationship is one in which each one sees the beloved not as an extension of self, but as a unique, forever becoming, beautiful individual--a situation in which the persons can bring their own special I to each other, a blending of selves without loss of self.

 A loving relationship is a reciprocal, active, changing bond that allows, encourages, in fact, almost demands using all the qualities so that the lover will be all that he or she can be." [Buscaglia, 1984, page 50]

P: This is my prayer for you and all who will live and implement the Mystical Paradigm, that you become Love, for this is the only reliable way you can fully influence the world.   In our present discussion I intend to clarify how Love is both the victim and the antidote for the mind trap corruptions of agendas, communication, and HIP. We choose which will apply!  The potential to give and receive Love is enhanced by the consistent demonstrations of trust and Love in a child's emergence from infancy through childhood into adolescence.

agendas move from self serving goals to altruistic ones
communication is made healthy when Love is the consistent ambiance for behavior of all kinds, and
HIP competence is expanded by the Trust present in Love that promotes the reduction of fear and stress in the presence of uncertainty allowing a rich set of possible alternatives and options to emerge, and empowering the required capacity to risk.

Something you said suggested to me that, in my ignorance and Spiritual emptiness, I might inadvertently become the enemy of the Love I seek. I might act to defeat it, to destroy it, or to drive it off.  In addition to overcoming the evils of a narcissistic parent, how can such a victim recognize and defeat the enemies of Love they will find among their peers, and among the authorities they must serve?  At the least, how can they identify the effects of these evils on their lives and in the World?

P: You may have heard the saying that "you are what you eat."  Far more profound is the assertion that "You are what is defined by your C/consciousness."  Buddha said, "we are what our thoughts are" [Twin Verses], and Jesus said the same thing in different language. Gnostic Gospel of Thomas]

Corruption #2, Systematic Depersonalization and Objectification of "The Other":
P:  The is the opposite of the kind of Love bonding Sorokin described above.  In life, perhaps you may have noticed that before any kind of harm (whether by word or deed) is to be perpetrated upon a person, group, institution or system, it must first be preceded by a systematic program of separation, division, depersonalization, objectification, and alienation.

Q: I recall our discussion in our Dialogue on Power and Control where you described the Milgram [1974] syndrome and the dynamics of prejudicial actions.  This is a predictable phenomenon. Before any interpersonal friendship or relationship is broken up, the target person must first be emotionally isolated. For example, one may wish to attack a group, organization, culture, or ethnic element. Or one's group may want to attack an individual, whether the person is same sex or opposite sex, homosexual, lesbian or heterosexual, whether an intimate or casual relationship, personal or professional. In all cases, before harm of any kind or degree is done, and regardless of scale or the nature of the target, there must first be a pattern of systematic objectification, depersonalization, emotional and intellectual distancing, and alienation.

Q: Yes, I have noticed,  especially in male and female relationships. It happened to me already.

P: You know the signs then.  What was at the outset a trusting, warm and cozy relationship, slowly begins to cool--we even use that word.  The aggressor system (individual or group) begins to establish an emotional, psychological, and Spiritual distance from the target person or group. One can observe the following dynamics:

first, there is an imperceptible decline in attentiveness that become more pronounced until it is at last noticed by the target.
at the beginning, where separation of any kind could not be tolerated, now it is tolerated, then promoted as "rational" excuses are offered to justify it.
when at the beginning, any uncertainty or ambiguous statements or events associated with the target victim were accepted in trust as inconsequential, these steadily begin to be given greater suspicious weight by the perpetrators.  The target innocently responds by sincere efforts to assuage the perpetrator's accusations, bending over backwards to provide assurances and to comply with what is soon recognized as escalating demands.
where forgiveness was once freely and unconditionally offered, doubt is now openly expressed. Accusatory questions are now asked. Disbelief of explanations are claimed. Confrontations occur.
where the friends or lovers once avoided any area of potential conflict or minimized its presence or importance, challenges to these areas begin to be intentionally forthcoming by the rejecter. As the distancing and alienation is progressing, incidents may be deliberately created so that the resulting issues can be put forward and exploited.
the target person (or group) who may have once been even worshiped is now castigated.  Faults are enumerated at any opportunity.  Weakness is labeled and exploited.  What began with affection is now replaced by resentment, doubt, and anger.
Finally a point is reached where a suitable "justification" for separating has at last been validated in the mind of the perpetrator, and the final act of separation is taken, guilt free.   The partnership, friendship, or love relationship has been destroyed and is over.  The target person or group may now be aggressively refused, denied, blamed, or even attacked.

P: Both perpetrator and target systems may be oblivious to this alienation dynamic. Each scenario has its own explanation, and must be resolved in the total context that originally created the relationship.  It is defined and energized by the respective ego needs of the parties involved.  That calls for more analysis that we have time for.  I simply want to make you sensitive to the general process of objectification and distancing, i.e., the alienation of L/love.  Look for it in any human system demonstrating stress. Be sensitive to it. Always remember that villains and victims are not always objectively identified, not to themselves, to each other, or to outsiders.

Q: What do you mean?  That you can't identify the villain in such a scenario?

P: For example, the one who wants out of a relationship may not have the courage or honesty to say so up front.  Instead, they become the ones who orchestrate this program of objectification upon the confused and anxious target. The may do this intentionally or unconsciously, I suspect its often the latter where Spiritual Consciousness is poorly manifest.  The rejecter acts to drive their partner to increasing levels of distress until the partner, in helpless despair and desperation, finally takes overt defensive action to separate as the only means left to end his/her torment. The target victim breaks off the relationship.  Then the target can be blamed by the aggressor for the separation.   But who then is really the victim or villain?

Q: This is surely true very often when married people end their relationship.  Then I can surely see how these process inflame emotions when couples separate and argue over the custody of their children.

P: Lawyers and Judges, whom the established myths of our society proclaim are devoted servants to justice, provide some of the most potent examples of the capacity to depersonalize and exploit all parties who allow themselves to be caught up in litigation.  An unfortunately common and extreme example of willful objectification of one parent by another is routinely found during divorce proceedings. This is one truly evil technique that lawyers can exploit to create and perpetuate endless litigation, especially where child custody is an issue.

In order to separate a loving child from its loved parent in the process of forming two households, the target parent, most often the father these days, must be cast as an incompetent, indifferent, harmful, or even dangerous person. Then removal of the father as a parent can be shown to be in the "best interests of the child."   The child can then be officially "protected" by "awarding" a child to the mother.

Because of the workings of the civil law, the Truth of such claims need not be accurately considered in the cauldron of the courtroom. A charade of a "formal" psychological inquiry is often undertaken which may be intentionally prejudicial to the father.  Then the court can remove and deny his parenthood and reduce that father to a "wallet" and a mere visitor in the lives of his his own children. Recall that this capacity is a primate capacity, a struggle between alphas or beta contenders.  Instead of the jungle, or forest cave, the cauldron is in the lavishly appointed  courtrooms of the civil law.

On the other hand, a wealthy, powerful, and Spiritually empty father can use his connections with the court to trump up an indefensible charge of moral depravity against the mother. Or his lawyer can provide any other convenient and serviceable claim.  Any normal weakness in the mother can be exploited and used to deny her the right to be a viable parent to her own children.  In every case of such routine abuse at the hands of the law, the children are the victim for lawyers are capable to equally depersonalize these children victims to such conflict. Their work requires that they are incapable of feeling the profound hurt and anguish every such child feels at being removed from the parental influences of a Loved and Loving parent.  Not only are lawyers capable of this depersonalization, but the judges are as well as they orchestrate the rituals of the courtroom.  Ah!  The power of it all.

Q: The really sounds ugly.

P: Want to have an interesting and unforgettable vacation?

Q: Why not?

P: Then spend a week sitting in at your local circuit court. There is no better forum to observe the variety and scale of  human weakness than in our civil and criminal courts.  Everywhere present is the unmistakable presence of agendas of depersonalization and alienation of the human victims to the law.  The court is one place where all who enter there are vulnerable to being made victim, except the lawyers and court personnel who feed in this trough of evil.  The lawyers are both the cause and beneficiaries of most of it. They seek any justification to deny the target parent from parental access no matter how specious their allegations are to the real "best interests of the child."

Businesses an family farms are made bankrupt by the exploitive abuse of civil law that ensures their failure, and that their civil value can be safely consumed by the predators. The elegant offices of the lawyers, and court rooms that they have arranged for, and their tidy and stylish clothing masks the inner impoverishment of their absent or anemic Spiritual character [ref the dynamic of Dorian Gray]. Thus lawyers and judges who are totally enslaved by their ego intellects today are not likely to accept the MP's promise of the patient, lurking, and certain Karma, and its Perfect Justice that ripens a sit awaits them in due time for each such atrocity for which they are culpable.

Q: I note that here are scenarios that can only be healed by Love, but that our society serves up the reverse.  What else ought I become aware of that Corrupts Love?

Corruption #3: Equating the civil and criminal law as reflecting a Spiritual Truth.
P: Love is a reflection of Wholeness within the Perfection of the LAW.  But in their commanding roles by which they orchestrate this process of worldly law, lawyers can reach the most obscene depths of Spiritual depravity.  They deliberately, aggressively and zealously act to promote this process by manipulating the law to serve their own needs.  The first act of lawyers is to cut off direct communication between their client (or any conflicted party on any issue.)  They then require that all communication be handled by the lawyers which they then manipulate.

Q: Lawyers are accused of that a lot?

P: The very process of adversarial litigation in any civil matter is designed to use contrived legal force to foment distrust, hatred, and discontent in order to keep the punishing litigation process energized. The proclaimed rules regarding perjury notwithstanding, lies are an unchallenged weapon of adversarial litigation that are condoned in fact by the system of law in our courts today.  Watch the dance being conducted by the defendants lawyers in current cases of corporate abuse [e.g. Enron, et al.] Remember our definition of evil?  I speak now not only from my direct experience, but as an activist and observer in the travails of numerous desperate and decent parents who only wanted to preserve a meaningful parental relationship with their loved children while they and their former mates rebuilt their lives under separate roofs.

Q: So who is the real victim in this process?  Where is the presence of Love that presumably created the children in the first place?  It surely is the children.

P:  The only "equity" in this licensed practice of evil, is that all contesting parties are made victim in some capacity.  Only lawyers "win." However, as you note, it is the children who most overtly suffer and who are helpless to understand or cope with their pain.  Love is Unity--Wholeness.  Note in that context what the Mystical Paradigm reveals about the process of litigation.  In their success, lawyers and the attacking parent conspire to violate the most central Spiritual mandate of THE LAW that applies in matters of child custody:

"And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  Matthew 19:4-6 [emphasis added]

P: I will strongly assert that the only relationship that this mandate Spiritually applies to, is the children of a male and female union.  This instruction has been traditionally applied only to a marriage of adults as sanctified by the power and control oriented self defined "legitimate" church.

But in the metaphysical sense of the Mystical Paradigm, this injunction only applies to the children who are, the "one flesh," that are issued from that male-female union.  Children are the Spiritual Unity made flesh, made manifest by the union of two separated Souls, a mother and a father.  One can argue both sides from a Metaphysical position whether or not that Scripture applies to the marriage itself.  Many of those who are Spiritually joined have never seen the inside of a church. Many who have been joined by a church have found themselves in a marriage made in hell.  But one can never deny and dismiss that this Scripture surely applies to the children of that union who are irrevocably joined by GOD.

Q: Heavy!  It's a good thing that the Spanish Inquisition is no longer with us.  So what does that say about the religious wedding that almost everyone feels compelled to have?

P: One can argue as a matter of metaphysics and one's personal faith whether or not two people are in fact joined by God in a religious ceremony. But there can be no defensible argument by anyone that a child who is issued from a man and woman has been joined to both of them by GOD.Thus any third party managed separation of parent and child for any reason other than a provable life threatening pathology is one of the few conditions of life that truly qualify for the label "mortal sin."  The public quickly acknowledges that this certainly applies to the killer of a parent who is murdered from their children. But I only suggest these insights to you to illustrate a Principle. We do not have the time here to develop their social implications in detail.

Q: What does the MP have to say about the current debate regarding gay and lesbian marriage.  Aren't they allegedly joined in Love?

P: These details are beyond the scope of this dialogue.  But I can summarize by arguing that the debate has nothing to do with Spirituality and any real or professed Love that gay and lesbian parties have for their partners.  Like abortion, the debate is energized by the religionists. [definition] Nor does it relate to the Spiritual needs of the parties to such unions.

Q: Really? Then to what does it relate?

P: It relates solely to the politics of power and control by those who act to repress the gay and lesbian life style.  Right wing religious extremists, and their followers, want nothing more than to dictate the life styles of all who they see live outside their narrow and restrictive religion grounded tenets.  They are oblivious and indifferent to even the possibility that Love might be served by gay and lesbian unions.  They don't care because they are Spiritually empty candidates for the baboon society.  [Dialogue 2 on agendas]

Failing to attract such persons by the power of their teachings and the beauty of their own life style which often suffer serious lack, the religionists have become motivated by an innate fear of their own Spiritual inadequacy.

Q: How so?

P: The fear that their faith might be empty or misplaced.  Instead, they seek external means to impose their will on those outside their faith group by imposing laws and statutes that reflect their religious creed. This has been the classic case since the original betrayers of Christian Truth at the beginning of the Gnostic persecutions in the second century of the first Christian church. Recall our introductory discussion of this matter? [revisit]

These zealots include any and all who support to their restrictive teachings and values.  This complexity is outside of our discussion of Love, for you see that the politics of gay and lesbian marriage has nothing to do with Love.  Lets move on to another area of interest for you.

Q:  Since I am at the beginning of my working life, how does the corruption or expression of Love function in the workplace?

Corruption #4, The Destruction of a Person's Work (Love Made Visible) for the Politics of Power and Profit:
P: If work is Love made visible, and Love reflects a conditions of Wholeness, then the evil of separating a person from their work is an  abuse of Spiritual Love.  We find this separation routine as a way of life in our predatory capitalist society.  This contrived denial of meaningful work is frequently created in many organizational levels and social structures. Such actions are a violation of Spiritual Unity.

Decent, competent, loyal, and hardworking employees of long tenure can be mercilessly removed from their work when their company is taken over after losing a stock war, or other "legitimized" hostile takeover, or even a "friendly" marketplace manipulation.  It can be done solely to improve the "bottom line."   The perpetrators insure that, as they ruthlessly arrange to separate their employees from their livelihoods, they will learn nothing of the Reality of the bitter costs that their actions will impose on their innocent and helpless victims.

They usually separate themselves as decision makers from their target employees by an echelon or two of intervening lower management. So called "human resources" or the "personnel office" become the "hit men" for this dastardly work.  Consistent with the Milgram Syndrome, they see nothing wrong with their actions.  They are just following orders, or they too would be out in the street.  But the Law of Karma does not make this tidy distinction.  In their own Spiritual ignorance and indifference, the stockholders who know they benefit from this cruelty support these abusive actions by voting and dollars.  Profits go up, stock goes up, and the Spiritual health of the perpetrators and our entire society go down.   As noted many time before in our dialogues, a massive Karmic adjustment ripens to claim both the guilty perpetrators and the "innocent" pacifists who did nothing about it. .

Q: I can appreciate that few managers would dare object to being given the evil assignment to murder victim employees from their livelihoods, especially if the killer supervisor's own advancement, and even his/her own tenure, in the organization is dependent upon it?

P: Organizationally, this kind of assignment is often a litmus test of loyalty for the perpetrator. Perhaps it is a rite of initiation into the higher bastions of executive management. Such an assignment follows the same principles used by a community or underworld  gang to initiate a new member.  The aspirant must murder an assigned target to prove he is trustworthy.  Likewise for one to claim executive membership, they must murder the livelihoods of all those whose sacrifice is required in the interest of preserving and maximizing corporate wealth. .  For this assignment to have success, the perpetrator may send in the "storm troopers."  These are especially hardened, Spiritually empty individuals who are fully capable of directing and implementing this kind of Spiritual atrocity.

Q: What most impresses me about this discussion is the abject ignorance of the perpetrators of such harmful actions. They are oblivious  that they are committing any kind of atrocity at all, let alone a Spiritual atrocity.   I surely would have been.  They apparently have a  dismissive, "Well that's the way it has to be." attitude.  And I can understand this now when I reflect on the relationships of such behavior to the dynamics of the Milgram Syndrome. [dialogue 4, review] Why can't the government, elected by the people, be more influential in preventing such abuse, or at least protecting the victims from catastrophic financial loss?

P: First of all, recall my arguments from our introduction where I made the case that we no longer live in a democracy.  We live in in a corporocracy [kor poor 'ok ruh see] where corporations own both major parties and buy the congress and the administrative institutions and agencies of government.  The electorate is helpless to influence this larger pattern of corrupted political ownership and influence.  They presently lack the C/consciousness to even understand their peril.  Lets examine the presence of Spiritual Love as reflected in the behaviors of our government.

Q: Why are we going back into these areas when our topic is supposed to focus on the nature of Spiritual Love?

P: Because the dynamics of Love cannot be separated from the cultural and social ecology upon which its health depends.

P: I ask, how mush Love is found expressing within and among the elements of our government and the citizens it serves?  Apart from the sordid world of corporate warfare, job elimination atrocities have been going on in the government as well since the onset of the first Reagan administration.  It continues on the instructions of the controlling corporate power mongers who now own the electoral process. The evidence shows where the social contract, a lifetime guarantee of employment and the resulting retirement benefits between the federal government and its workers are being freely repudiated, and therefore the Good Faith and Seal of the United States is betrayed of its own work force. [source examples of betrayal]

Encouraged and empowered by the power feeding frenzy of Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich in 1995, on the instigation of Ohio's republican congressmen, John Kasich and his henchmen, The US Bureau of Mines office in the rural mountains of West Virginia was completely shut down with only in 90 days notice.  Several hundred federal workers were thrown into the street.  What raw power we extend to our elected representatives that we no longer "own."   What kinds of deals surrounded that action? There was no industrial or commercial depth in that community for other employers to absorb the hundreds whose livelihoods were precipitously destroyed.

Q: That has to be a shining example of the debasement and absence of Spiritual Consciousness.

P: When a federal worker retires, they and/or their spouses are subject to what is called an "offset penalty." This act of congress requires that every federal annuitant or beneficiary loose from at least one third to all their earned social security. This entitlement is earned while in private sector employment, but reduced simply because they will receive income as a federal retiree.  It makes no difference that the worker has earned 100 percent of the credits required to receive full social security, usually during their early careers when the dollars they paid in had as much as 40 times the purchasing power of the dollars they now receive in retirement.

Q: So the victims of such a process have to manifest Spiritual Love in the face of that challenge to their basic agendas.

P: These kinds of repudiation by our government is being done in obeisance to the materialist God of money and power--as you should recall from the discussion in our fifth dialogue.   But these evil doers focus on abstract, nonsensical myths that they give the status of reality to pure human contrivance, e.g., the soulless requirement of unconstrained competition, unlimited and uncontrolled growth, the exportation of work, indefensible desire to eliminate all federal regulations that do not serve corporate greed. Then there is the mindless desire simply to reduce the government just because it costs money and interferes with the conquering agendas of the controlling power mongers.

Q: Love is surely a long way from these values.  Is this also what is behind the right wing's commitment to the ruin the viability of "the government."  So I can now see that the opposite of Love, its ultimate corruption, is manifest in these conditions.

P: "The Government" and the depersonalization of government workers is first required to harm them as I stated before. "The Government" is first defined as a monolithic abstract collectivity entity.  Then it is likewise depersonalized and demonized as an evil singularity.  It requires a Spiritually anemic electorate for these tactics to take hold and work.  "The government" is then easily defined as a convenient scapegoat by the Spiritually empty politicians who are blindly serve their Power Monger masters.

Q: This denial or corruption of Love is also evident in the depersonalization which is also clearly evident in cross ethnic relationships.

Corruption #5, Denial of the Unity (Wholeness) of Humanity by Pejorative Ethnic or Other Compartmentalized Classifications:
P: Current ethnic issues between African and Caucasian Americans were originally created by the willful objectification and depersonalization of African blacks.  Since it was intolerable, even in the 17th and 18th centuries, to enslave human beings, the Christian Church was approached to accommodate the slave trader entrepreneurs. The church conveniently defined black Africans as a subhuman species so that the slave trade might thereby flourish.  None of the magnificent cultural accomplishments of the early Nubian cultures of North Africa were acknowledged [evidence], nor were the Yoruba culture [source] ,and Benin works of bronze, nor the great art of the Oba in the Palace at Benin in 16th & 17th Century Nigeria [examples] [information], nor the magnificent gold craftsmanship of the Ashanti tribes of Ghana on the southern coast of the horn of Africa [example] [example].

Nor were the architectural accomplishments of the Africans in the ancient city of Ifi with its state of art water and sewer systems built during the Christian dark ages taken into account [source].  Nor were any of the other cultural accomplishments of historical black Africa permitted to become widely or officially known. These facts defining the human nobility of the black peoples of historical Africa still remain unknown to most westerners. [complete resource on historical Africa]

Q: I grow amazed how potent, pervasive, and ubiquitous this pattern abusive power is.  And so any hope for manifest Love is totally destroyed, even today as persistent evidence of mass genocide exists in various sectors of Africa, but is largely ignored by western governments.

P: And the Real tragedy is that this abuse is not recognized for what it is as it occurred, or what its implications are at the time it is occurring.  Take heed to these abuses today.

Corruption #6, Promoting Legitimacy of One's Own, Brother/Sisterhood, Ethnic or National Society at the Expense of Others:
P: There is more that currently drives humanity far from the Truth of Love.  The Nazis and allied combatants in War II shared in common their exploitation of the same principle of depersonalization of the other.   Both the Nazis targeting the Jew and the Allies targeting the German and Japanese populations converted these peoples (not just their leaders) into stereotypic characters that were stupid, obscene and despicable. This depersonalization is required in order to perpetrate violence upon them. One can review the cartoons and motion pictures of that era and find the evidence. [sources]

Q: You mentioned the teaching of Jesus.  He would offer Love as the antidote to all this. I can agree now, from the evidence you presented in our third Dialogue, that he was a flaming liberal and would likely be so today.  Liberal values were a way of life for Him, not a mere proclamation.  He lived forgiveness, compassion and giving of Himself to others, even before the crucifixion.  I now see how His actions made Love visible to human consciousness.  To separate individuals by ethnicity, to withhold Love, to objectify and alienate another, to foster the depersonalization and objectification of others is evil.  Such denial of the Worth can legitimize harming them or exploiting them. This is truly evil.

P: Jesus and those he chose as his apostles were characterized by their having within them the Gnosis.  This is the energizing source for Perfect Healing, Perfect Wisdom, Perfect Intuition, and Perfect Love. But today's, alleged spiritual leaders, religionists in particular, are frequently locked in narrowly defined sectarian versions of intellectualized religious truth.  This condition lies far from the Gnosis.  But capacity to Love is the primary gift of the Gnosis.

Q: I have known some fundamentalist sectarian religionists who, if Jesus came to them walking across the water, would promptly have Him arrested as an impostor. When Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." [Luke 23:34] it makes sense when I think of the frailty of the human ego and the three traps of mind that dominate us today.

P: That Jesus statement was not a gratuitous, self-serving declaration, designed to enhance a public image of His own noble generosity.  The statement was a blunt, incisive, Metaphysically deep, accurate and compelling testimony that acknowledged the primitive state of human consciousness owned by the perpetrators of the crucifixion and those that celebrated it.

Q: They were on the Spatially impoverished "wall" of the Necker cube!  I have already seen that their decedents are alive and well today, and often try to dominate politics as sectarian religionists. I refer of course to those you have identified as the "groinicks."  So, the Mystical Paradigm would define the entire life of Jesus as a demonstration of Love made visible.

P: His life was a living demonstration as Jesus the Wayshower [ref Alkins, 1983]. It ought not be surprising to learn that Love and its capacity for forgiveness when combined with compassion will transform division to reunion. Living Love is the only real antidote for any manifestation of hate, bitterness, resentment, or hostility.  Only Love can overcome the inner fear that energizes hate and conflict.

Q: You could say then, that Living Love brings Unity out of chaos.

P: Yes. Now we can turn from the destructive corruptions of love, to the mistaken notions of Love.

Mistaken Notion #1, Love Confused with Eros and Sexual Lust:
P: In addition to the overt corruptions of Love we have just discussed, Love is often lost due to misapplied energies and expectations. Mistaken notions make you vulnerable to the illusions of Love that are invalid.  Mistaken notions about Love deny you the capability to recognize the presence of  Love when it is before you. One illusion that seduces an individual away from Spiritual Love is its association with human sexuality.  There is confusion of sensual or erotic love with Spiritual Love.  In fact, the reality of a Spiritual Love is typically entirely out of Consciousness for many people in western society.

Q: Really?  I thought we are one of the most romantic and sexy cultures in the world.  Seriously.

P: Seriously, the sexier and more romantic your definition of love is, the further it removes you from promoting your capacity for Spiritual Love. When you watch television and go to movies as a youngster, you are taught by overwhelming example that instead of nurturing any human tendency toward Love (expressed as unconditional kindness, fairness, compassion and forgiveness,) love is a possessive often lustful sexuality.  Rather than demonstrating applied Love, the media moves toward with ever greater and more terminal violence as the celebrated mode for social problem solving.  Making "love" is debased to only expressing the bestial sexual act of copulation, or to use the technically correct term that accurately reflects our society's base and optimal values, to f**k.

Q: Oh! No!  Here it comes, at last, sex is evil.

P: Absolutely not.  Sex is not evil.  It is GOD's gift to a humanity trapped by the senses of the flesh.  Sexuality is an expression that is beautiful, fun, and with the right precautions, healthy. The power of sexual attraction insures the continuity of life.  Ongoing life assures the furtherance of Spiritual awakening of those Souls who are privileged to experience it. But while sensual gratification alone is not evil, it is Spiritually empty.  And therefore it is a serious distraction to anyone who wants to advance on the Spiritual path.

Q: Aww!.  So I can't have it all?

P: You mean lusty sex and Spirituality?  Alas! Maybe! But mostly no--not for most folks. Call on your best HIP competence and bring your base agendas under control. Sex is ethically neutral and its morality depends upon one's approach (C/consciousness) to it (is Real Love also present) in the context of each person's personal values.

Q: Once again you are telling me that it is my C/consciousness that defines the moral status of any act.

P: Not define.  Only the LAW defines. Rather, your C/Consciousness interprets the morality of any action.  But only a Spiritually awakened Consciousness can measure that act against the LAW of TRUTH.  That is the point in scripture that your claims to faith can only be justified by your acts.  [James  2: 14-26]

Q: So the religionists are justified or indicted by their actions, not by their claims.

P: Yes, exactly.   The LAW KNOWS if their actions and claims spring from Spiritual Love, or something less. We always bring to any intellectual or emotional challenge our total personal and Spiritual integrity as we have developed it in our life of unfolding C/consciousness. The Truth of our character in a claimed L/love relationship is only defined by the respect we are able to show our partners in Love.  Our character is demonstrated by expressions of our Spiritual Consciousness as we pursue it in the total context of our lives.

Now let me first clarify the definitions of Love that relate to this part of our Dialogue.  In our society, even simple erotic love is mostly debased.  It is idealistically portrayed as a marketing function at one extreme (ads and commercials,) but then at the other extreme, according to most fundamentalist sectarian religious principles, sex should reluctantly exist solely for producing children. For the profane, it exists mostly to express our enjoyment as we revel in our sexual libido.  Note the following:

Study Point 7-3

[Return from Parable]

P: There are three different manifestations of L/love: Agape,  eros, and lust.  The Mystical Paradigm uses the Greek label, Agape, as its ideal, the concept as defined by Pitirim Sorokin in his book The Ways and Power of Love.   Love when defined as Agape is the most pure Love (a yearning for Wholeness with  a partner,) a Love that is uncorrupted by sensual or sexual expression.  Sometimes Agape is referred to as Platonic love. Here are Sorokin's definitions of eros and Agape: [Sorokin, 1976, p 4]
 
 

P: Notice how the patterns in the above relationships fit eros or Agape.  In eros, the origin of attachment is with reference to self.   The "Self" is oblivious to the Spiritual link with "the other" in the "I-Thou" relationship. [Buber, 1960]  It is the self who derives meaning or validation by being vested in its love of the "other."  But is it the ego, or the Soul who thus expresses?

Q:  Depends?  Which is in control answers your question.

P: Good.  But pure Spiritual Love exists, but only through the Soul, the "I Am" essence of your being..  A mother's and father's love for each other may begin as eros. But unconditional Agapic Love must quickly be found and nurtured within each.  It must express as gifts of the self being freely and unconditionally given by each to each other.  Ego will challenge that Love (e.g., "Look! There!  There is someone more beautiful, more handsome, more powerful, more desirable!")  If this ego diversion is not defeated, then the inevitable pattern of preoccupation, distancing, hostility and separation will eventually begin.  Each can become a victim if they erroneously seek in the other, those mysterious missing elements within themselves.  Instead, they must recognize and nourish their own Spiritual "I Am") instead of looking for the missing ingredients in some other person.

Unconditional giving is part of the secret for couples to remain valued partners throughout their earthly lives. A mature Agapic Love defines the optimum  relationship between parent and child. So much, then, for the Spiritual status of fathers who desert their children's formative years, no matter how much they pay for support.  So much for mothers who betray their growing children of a significant Loving contact with a nurturing parent father, often reducing him to only a visitor in their lives.

Q: Karma awaits them! I know now.  But you say that couples must develop the qualities of Agapic Love for their relationship to survive.  But what if their relationship is joined by GOD, which I now accept as definitely not necessarily the same as being joined by a Church. How do they know they are Spiritually blessed or qualified?  If not, how do they discover how to live in accordance with Agapic principles?

P: To be "blessed by GOD," implies Conscious awareness of the principles of Agape (only through unfolded Consciousness) and the capacity to express its requirements. It is the capacity to hear the Mystical "I" [Goldsmith, 1971] The power of Eros to sustain human love is limited.  As its attracting energy is consumed, what do you think is left for the two lovers after sensual gratification becomes dulled within their shells of Spiritual emptiness?

Q: A failed relationship.  One or both partners begin to look elsewhere for restoration of the missing Eros.  Wow!  I catch on!  The source of empowerment is not in the "perfect" partner, but in the Spiritually Conscious Self.

P: Yes, and further, the synthesis of Agape and eros describes a parents' healthful love for not only for each other, but for any resulting child.  The more a parent lives in Consciousness of Cosmic LAW as the dominate influence, then the more Agape can be expressed to grow and prevail in his or her contemplative joy of mate and child.  Then they extend their parental services to their child in a context of Spiritual Love without loosing the physical pleasures of sensual love with each other.

Q: So lust is a bestial corruption of both eros and Agape.  I always presumed that lust is strictly the animal desire for mating (copulation) and the sensual pleasure it creates.   Those who erotically indulge themselves simply exchange the promise of their Spiritual future for the immediate but temporary high of sensual excitement.  Right?

P: Such is their business. Karma adjusts for all.  It is not the business of others, except to demonstrate by their own example the qualities and benefits of elevated Spiritual Consciousness. I repeat--lust, fornication and even adultery are not evil in and of themselves, they are simply empty.  Such acts are the worship of baal.  Lust is like processed food whose nutrients are removed, which may be delicious while being eaten, but then leaves as excrement with the body's needs unsatisfied (hungry,) as though one had not eaten.  To move from Lust to eros is the first level of transformation of human kind from brute to Angel (Spiritual Consciousness.) Lust, being of the lowest animal nature, its urge for physical gratification destroys the possibilities of an emotionally amplifying Spiritual passion that can arouse even higher expressions of erotic love. [Ref Love as Eros and Spirituality in Tantric Buddhism]

Q: Its becoming clear why it is the first duty and privilege of parents to nurture their child by demonstrating the ways and Power of Love in their treatment of each other.  As you have said, children learn most from what is demonstrated to them, and from what they themselves learn to do from the example, not from what they are told.

Mistaken Notion #2, Love Confused with Possessive Loyalty:
A: Many people celebrate Agapic Love as an ideal, as in the Biblical story of Ruth's devotion to Naomi as told in the Book of Ruth. [Chapter 1, Verse 16.] Some families who are arrested at a primitive level of consciousness, manipulate love making with their partner, making sex conditional upon compliance. They manipulate giving as an act of love, but made conditional upon the demonstrated loyalty and obedience of their children to their influence and will. They themselves are validated by the effects of their manipulative power and control over their sexual partners, children, relatives, and others. They confuse their possessiveness with Love. Possessive love is not even conducive to maintenance of a healthy erotic love among consenting adults.

Q: I know children are sometimes coerced and intimidated by manipulative parents and adults (who don't know not what they are doing.)  I suspect that those children follow the will of such parents and only submit to their authority out of fear.  They impatiently wait through adolescence for their first chance to escape, often by an early marriage, or by running away, or in the extreme, by committing suicide.  For the first time I grasp the link between these behaviors with corrupted Spiritual Consciousness.

P: And this Spiritual lack does expresses, in the extreme, as a bad marriage, or dependency on drugs, or prostitution, and so forth.  Constant, subtle coercive expressions of conditional demands such as: "If you Love me, then you will...[do what is wanted]." is a betrayal of Love.  Consider the following Parable:

[Return from the Parable]

Q: That's a high price to pay for secular loyalty. Examine these figures [below.]

P: In addition to the interpretation following this parable, the following summary of observations can help you.  Blanch's family is arrested somewhere between Levels 1 and 2 in this diagram. [upper left figure]  Compare the capacity for Love with the evolution of the ego's expression of needs [figure on upper right.]  The ego cannot manage to fulfill Spiritual needs beyond material self actualization.  Spiritual Transcendence must occur through the application of discipline during contemplation and Meditation in the Silence.  The mind cannot grasp Transcendence.  Interpret the Spiritual significance of this Parable for yourself given these suggestions:

First, "thoughts" and the values they weave, are the Metaphysical meaning and significance of the symbol, "shoes." Like the shoes we "wear," we live by the values that our thoughts reflect.  Our thoughts serve to create and carry us through the events of our life.  [Fillmore's metaphysical definition of "shoes";  The Revealing Word, 1959, p 179]  Comfortable and welcome thoughts are those that align us with the Spiritual Law.  Uncomfortable thoughts are those that are negative and lead us along a path outside the Law of Love.
"Blanche" could be you [a Pilgrim] or any one asked to suffer unreasonably to gain the love of another by serving empty or destructive thoughts, or a Spiritually empty or harmful cause, or to behave unethically with respect to Spiritual Truth.
"Shoes" are any gift or obligation that is perceived as materially good by the recipient's ego.  It appears as a real and valid "good" within the limits set by their current state of ego consciousness.
"Family" can be a real family (traditional or alternative life style), but also at any human system level whose influence is consistent and welcome, e.g., another nourishing, protecting and guiding type of group, a gang, a school or a fraternity/sorority of trusted associates, a group enlisted in a common political or other cause, a church or other organization, or an entire society, or even the entire "family of man." Metaphysically, a family is a collection of related thoughts, concepts, and values at a set level of consciousness.
The adverse impact of a constraint on any person (or any human system) may not be directly evident, but there are always visible indicators of stress expressing indirectly, if you know what to look for, e.g., complaints, visible mistakes, hesitation, withdrawal, unexplained emotional displays, evidence of personal pain, doubt or fear, or obvious discomfort in a special context.
The "ugly misfitting shoes" of the parable represents any expression of an evil concept (collection of thoughts.)  Such evil originates from misplaced material thoughts, and from narcissism, or love of self in the giver or enforcer.  The ego frame of reference for enforcing compliance in this parable was established at the level of the group's (family's) values, and their material expectations or value requirements (shoes) that did not fit the Real needs (Spiritual needs) of Blanch.
The more rigorously enforced a long standing norm or rule, the less able is the "wearer," to perceive that there are acceptable or preferable alternatives. This condition is described in dialogue 4  as "frozen consciousness," or PCC, or low HIP competence.
The tighter and more socially demanding a social expectation (shoe) is offered, with the added conditional requirements (i.e., If you love me, you will...) the greater the courage (provided only by an elevated Spiritual Consciousness) the "wearer" must have to act against that demand or expectation. The relatives' demands must first be compared with the standards of a valid Spiritual gyroscope which must be accessible and turned on.  The demand or expectation must then be Spiritually categorized by the potential victim before it can be recognized as the moral/ethical good or corruption it may represent.
The victim, Blanch, paid the ultimate price for devoting her misplaced loyalty to materialist, ego serving values that were contrary to Spiritual Truth. She acted to serve baal, i.e., secular and material goals. She sought to acquire affirmation by supporting her family's Spiritually empty value system and moral structure.  Another example at the community level we might include beyond the family, would be a member of a religionist dominated church.

Q: In that context, please interpret this Spiritual significance of this parable for me?

P: Blanch had no Spiritual frame or structure derived from TRUTH, i.e., Blanche did not interpret the Spiritual significance of the evident pain and ugliness she herself was experiencing. The was entirely guided by her ego's values and intellectual beliefs that required her devotion to her family. Consider:

"The Law", when it is not created to reflect THE LAW, (e.g.,  in enforced wearing of improperly fit or mismatched shoes,) will send progressively severe warning messages by means of external indicators first, i.e., initial discomfort followed by progressively intense pain, disharmony and sickness, before it finally acts to destroy the system it possesses.
When a person is in a "family" (or group, or organization) system which is embedded in a larger system (SupraSystem,) and when the SupraSystem enforces compliance and devotion to corrupt laws, individuals who serve such systems even innocently, are eventually assured as dire a fate as Blanch, for this is the natural consequence of adverse earned Karma.
There is a point after which, even when there is recognition of a pathology or corruption affecting any system, the damage cannot be reversed, the negative cycle must be fulfilled, and the destruction of the victim system is assured.
This parable only presents the ethical dilemma of one system (person) within the rule structure of a family group. You may be certain that other members of that family are also suffering from the same rule in various ways.  The entire family will remain Spiritually impoverished of a capacity for real L/love and harmony until the corruption is recognized and corrected.  The entire system is vulnerable to becoming completely destroyed (viz. a viz. domestic homicide, corporate bankruptcy, or a national insurrection) by hate, vengeance, or other personal or social calamity.  Alas, such systems are highly stable and can persist across generations.
The parable illustrates the effects of unwitting Spiritual impoverishment.   Blanche's limited Spiritual Consciousness (in fulfillment of her Karma) requires her to submit to her ego's mind created expectations.  Thus loyalty to her family became her baal, the false surrogate for GOD.  Recall the functions of tribulation.  Her perceptions mindlessly dictated a pragmatic (intellectual) approach. She must accept conditions which are harmful to her body (mansion of the Soul) to deserve her worldly family's approbation and love. Her life and death demonstrate that persistent capitulation of Spiritual Principle is the path to death.

P: Let me share with you what Pitirim Sorokin, [1967,] concluded after many years of study at his Harvard Center regarding the power of "Love."  Here we find what happens when Love is not diluted or corrupted, but nourished and energized:

Love stops aggression & enmity, p 48
"Hate begets hate, violence engenders violence, hypocrisy is answered by hypocrisy, war generates war, and love creates love," p 58
Unselfish love has enormous creative and therapeutic potentialities far greater than most people think.  p 60
Love is a life giving force necessary for physical, mental and moral health. p 61
Altruistic [giving of unconditional love] persons live longer than egotistic individuals. p 65
Children deprived of love tend to become vitally, morally, and socially defective, but love is the creative power behind creative social movements. p 66
Love is the most powerful antidote against criminal, morbid, and suicidal tendencies;  p 66
[Love is the most potent antidote] against hate, fear and psycho neuroses. p 71
[Love] is an indispensable condition for deep and lasting happiness.  p 77