Lights of Love wrote on Dec 5^th, 2013 at 4:06pm:


Hi Kathy,

I don't think developing love can be reduced to only let go of basic fears.
I do agree that fear can be an important factor that keeps people from developing love.

Fear can be brought in us in for example our childhood by our parents. At that stage we have little or no resistence and our parents are the ones who know us best, so they also know best how to scare us if they want.
So fear can be placed in us by our parents and it can be done very thouroughly. This then makes it very hard to let go of in the rest of your life.

You need to confront yourself with your fears and you need to experience yourself with that fear in a different situation where that fear is not justified. If you do that you are creating experiences that will make it clear that those fears are not justified and can actually be let go of.

There can be other fears as well and each need to be overcome in their own specific way.



But I don't think it is only fear that is keeping us from expressing love. I think it is also a lack of consciousness. In the book Question and Anwer by JR they say there is only unconsciousness which has to be overcome.
Please read the reply by Margriet in the topic Fallen Angels, in particular the quote of Question and Answer, part 5, page 108.

This topic Fallen Angels has some very interesting aspects about how to make yourself a sphere of light your own.
It learns that our character traits are not all of the same level and that the lowest are the ones that withhold us from taking a higher sphere into our posession.
Jozef rulof already said that to acknowledge 'mistakes', the wanting to see your own mistakes (read learning moments) is already quite something.

Master Alcar explained in several books how he made his way to the spheres of light.
He had already access to the first sphere of light. He had feel for art. In many lives he had developed his painting skills. In the age of Art he was reborn on earth as Anthony van Dijck and brought many pieces of art to earth. However, that did not help him to master a sphere of light. Quite on the contrary. That life confronted him with some of his lower character traits that were still in him. He acted according to those traits in that life and when he passed over again to the afterlife he had to accept the LAND OF TWILIGHT instead of a sphere of light.
This is specifically explained in lectures 39-57, book 3, no. 39, page 17 which is qouted in the reply that I linked to here before.

So it is definately not always fear. The Masters look at it as being confronted with unfinished traits in yourself that need to be worked on.

Margriet did a very fine job of analyzing those books and put her findings in that article. There is quite a lot to say about it. It is more about working on your higher feelings of love and bringing your lower aspects into harmony with those higher feelings. And so, step by step, you move to higher spheres of light.

But it goes with stumbling and falling back. You are always, time and again, confronted with the lower aspects that withhold you from taking a higher sphere fully and completely into your possession.
You need to have become conscious of everything that blocked you. You have to break that down in yourself and start living in a different way.
And this is by serving and loving other people.



Mogenblue

recoverer wrote on Dec 5^th, 2013 at 5:37pm:


Maybe that's why they invented different words for it.



Regards,
Mogenblue

Quote:

Mogy, the previous offer, blunt as it may be, still stands, if you're up for it. Feel free to rise up to the occasion, step by step. As Alcar could have said to his other life: get working at it, free yourself of your blocked shortcomings and you will be a Dijck no more.

Quote:

There are topics within topics, that's my true knowledge. This being an important topic is your true knowledge, and so much for it and other true knowledge about this and the other co-main and sub topics herein, however important and semi important they may be according to different true knowledge.

DocM wrote on Dec 6^th, 2013 at 12:58pm:


This is such a glorious answer.
I had to quote it before you retract it.
You really conquered yourself, Doc.


Much appreciation,
Mogenblue

Hi Doc, nice to see you return to the board.

My only thought on this thread is to mention what ES said about heaven and hell.  As you say, ES is one of the most extensive afterlife explorers but even so, that doesn't automatically mean that everything he said is totally correct.  Same goes for Seth, Elias, etc.

So.....ES emphasized that where we end up when we die is dependent on our true self, or as he said, our true love.  A person who outwardly lives a good life, obeys the laws, is kind to others, may or may not play a part as to his fate.  If his real Self is someone who lusts for sex but who suppresses it at least in terms of not taking action to fulfill his lusts, that nonetheless represents his true Self.  As Jesus said, a man who lusts in his heart has committed adultery nonetheless.

What has always bothered me about the true Self is that nowhere in my reading of ES does he say how that Self can be changed.  It really sounds as if we are who we are, and regardless of what we do or how hard we try, it doesn't alter or affect our true Self.

I even wrote to a Swedenborg group asking this question and never got a reply.  It bothers me because it seems as if we really have no control over our destiny.

I could be misreading ES, and hope that I am.  Would welcome any reactions to this.

ps- Don, this thread is tailor made for you!  Come on in, lots of us miss you.

You're welcome, Matthew   I agree it is an important topic and that's why I'd like to expand a little more.  But first, Mogenblue, I, too, thank you for starting this important thread.

Sometimes things happen in our lives where we have to react to them.  We might think that in some circumstances reacting with fear is a good thing because it keeps us safe, but that's not true.  Being fearless doesn't mean that you have no brain or give up your intellect.  In fact, being fearless means that you will be able to use your intellect in more productive ways because fear always causes you to feel confused and unable to think clearly, perhaps even act inappropriately to the circumstance.

There are things we'd choose not to do such as walk out in front of a speeding bus, or walk down a dark alley at night in a bad neighborhood, but not because your motivation is fear... you can be motivated by having good sense intellectually and choose not to put yourself in danger.  Being fearless never means to be stupid and not use your intellect.  For example, if I were fearlessly hiking along a mountain path and saw a mountain lion I wouldn't just simply walk on by paying no attention to the potentially dangerous circumstance.  Since I'd know mountain lions could be around, I'd be prepared and know what to do in case I spotted one.  If I'm fearless, then I'd be clear headed and able to react quickly and in the most appropriate way.  I might not survive but my chances of survival would be greatly optimized because of not being in a state of fear.  If I were in a state of fear, I might be paralyzed by it, feel confused... run when I should stand still or stand still when I should run, etc.  Fear only causes us to not think clearly, makes us feel nervous, shaky or panicky.  Fear is the problem.  It's never a good solution and will not help us to evolve in productive ways.

When we are fearless we can confront a situation, even one where we might not survive, but we could at least give it our best shot by being fearless, which is always better than having fear.  Fear makes us ineffective in circumstances where we need to act decisively using good judgment.  Having fear isn't part of what helps us to survive in a physical world, nor does it help us to progress spiritually.  In fact, fearful motivation of our intent could lead us in downward spirals that directly affect our experience of the afterlife.  Whereby motivations borne of love, caring, kindness, and so on, bring into being spiritual maturity within us.

Kathy

PS to Rondele - I think this speaks to the main points ES makes, too.  I don't think we can single out one thing such as lust and have that define our true inner self.  If consciousness is fundamental, and I think it is, then we likely have a lot of qualities that determine the state of our inner being.  The more loving those qualities are, the more control and power we have over our destiny.  On the other hand, as mentioned above, fear leads us spiraling downward so to speak.

Hi Roger,

Well, first of all I don't think anyone existing in the ELS is completely fearless.  I know I'm not. lol

I think the dream reality is different than say the reality we are in when we let go of our body.  In the dream reality we don't have full control over our thought processes because since we are asleep, we're not conscious.  Now if we were awake while in the dream state/reality then we would have awareness and choice would be available to us.  Actually about a week or so ago I woke up suddenly three nights in a row in a state of panic.  Once awake I realized I was dreaming about fearful thoughts I'd been entertaining during the day.  I remember other times when I'd wake up feeling fear because of a movie I'd watched.
 
For the most part I think our dreams are made up of thoughts and experiences we have and sometimes we are able to work out problems that we're dealing with in our everyday life.  I think while we're dreaming there's also opportunities for us to receive messages from our guidance system.  For example, an artist may dream of a beautiful painting, wake up and be inspired to paint it.  Or a song writer may dream of a tune, wake up and hammer it out on his piano. 

Several years ago when I was going through a tough time in my life I dreamed of tornadoes night after night.  Finally I figured out I needed to stop spinning fearful thoughts in my mind like a broken record.  Another time I dreamed of Buddha and a golden spider, but never have figured out why, so sometimes dreams don't make sense to us.
 
I know some people have a lot of beliefs about what dreams mean and so forth, but I try to not develop a belief system to try to explain them.  I should mention that I think once we are awake in a dream, we may not be in the dream reality, but in a different reality.  The way you can tell is if you have complete awareness and conscious choice available to you.

Kathy