{"id":15639,"date":"2011-02-11T12:59:25","date_gmt":"2011-02-11T17:59:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/15639\/love-begets-love\/"},"modified":"2011-02-11T12:59:25","modified_gmt":"2011-02-11T17:59:25","slug":"love-begets-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/15639\/love-begets-love\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Begets Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

\n

Love Begets Love<\/strong>
\nby John L. Petersen<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Individual emotions, left alone, contemplated, or given free reign, proliferate \u2013 they generate the breeding ground for more of themselves. If you\u2019re happy, that perspective becomes the base for seeing joy in many aspects of the events that emerge throughout one\u2019s day. If one is fearful about a potential event that might happen, then the ground is fertilized for that apprehension to lie in the bottom of oneself and in some way color the outlook of everything else. It may not dominate things, but it inhibits the full expression of who one might be.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

These emotional conditions are, at a certain level, mutually exclusive. This is particularly the case with corrosive feelings like fear, hate and anger. One cannot truly be joyful at the same time as being fearful. You cannot be hateful and happy at the same time. You are either truly light or you are somewhat heavy. One only needs to remember how a \u201cconcern\u201d chews at the mind, influences other aspects of life, and shapes one\u2019s outlook to know that it\u2019s hard to be happy if other things \u201cseem\u201d not to be working.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In a very real way, fears, concerns, anger and other such emotions, (regardless what \u201cseems not to be working\u201d), show us that we are not fully living in the present. If we were doing so, we would be quite unattached to a potentially negative possibility that just \u201cmight\u201d happen. It just might not, so being concerned produces no discernable benefit (just like excited anticipation really doesn\u2019t make a good thing happen in any particular way). The idea is to live now, not in the past or the future.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This whole thing is also about faith \u2013 confidence that the universe (or the Source, or whatever you want to call it), with all of its extraordinary capabilities and possibilities, can certainly find a way to effectively juggle those issues that we seem to think are important and produce an outcome that we like. If one really believes in the intelligence, resources, and benign, loving nature of the environment in which we live, it\u2019s impossible to conger up any situation that might not turn out to be quite positive \u2013 even without our personal intervention.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, love begets love. Fear begets fear. Joy begets joy. The principle is clear, is it not? If you want more love in the world, you should love a lot \u2013 you should spread it around. Plant it everywhere and allow it to grow. If you\u2019re happy and loving, you\u2019ll not only be taken care of, but there are good indications that that state is by far the most fertile for producing our most abundant and positive futures.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The larger lesson here is that it is only when we, as individuals and as groups, learn to consistently live in a space of happiness and proliferating love, will we be able to change not only ourselves, but our world. It\u2019s like a virus \u2013 if we start to broadcast love and happiness we\u2019ll be contagious \u2013 it will change those around us. It will infect the rest of the human organism. If we do it right, everyone will become sick with love . . . which is not all bad. (Well, probably not everyone \u2013 but enough to make a really big difference.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

What I\u2019m proposing is not particularly easy. We live in a world full of institutions, conventions and common perspectives that try to assert control over various aspects of our lives, often specifically arguing for behavior and constraints that are antithetical to love and happiness. They tell us what we should and shouldn\u2019t do and then generate fear about painful implications that will certainly materialize if we don\u2019t do as they say. Whether it is the government, society, religions, families, advertisers, employers, or those pitching concepts and ideas (like academics and pundits), more often than not their basic objective is to change what you naturally might otherwise want to do or think. Rather than being open, enabling and encouraging they want you to do what they think is right. It\u2019s about control.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The first step of moving out of this space is therefore to understand that one cannot go to a different place without moving. If you keep doin\u2019 what you\u2019re doin\u2019, you\u2019ll keep gettin\u2019 what you\u2019re gettin\u2019. If your approach to life is essentially defined by others \u2013 remaining the product all of the institutions and messages that are telling you what you should and shouldn\u2019t do \u2013 then that\u2019s what you will be: defined by others. Alternatively, each of us can begin decide to think for ourselves, letting our behavior be essentially shaped by feelings like love and happiness.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Some might find this simplistic, idealistic, and na\u00efve. But that\u2019s only if you look at it from the perspective of the way the current world works. If you think things will never change or are unchangeable, then you\u2019re right. But, if your objective is to consider how we might rise to a new level of humanity and society, then the old way of looking at things will, by definition, be unenlightened. We need a new framework.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s more complicated than I have space to here to explicate, but my guess is that this fresh mindset would result in a new set of principles for society \u2013 for humans living together. What could well emerge would be a commitment to things like cooperation, sustainability, interdependence or oneness, personal development, and resilience, et. al., concepts that we find familiar but, in this case they would be wrapped in a new semantic context. Since our problems are a direct derivative of how we see ourselves and our world, seen through the lens of love and happiness, this paradigm would explain ourselves and our world in a radically different way that would undermine many of the biggest issues that we have today.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If we change our mindset, we change our world.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps a step in the right direction might be a variation on the old principle that has deep validity for groups of individuals trying to effectively live with each other: live and let live. There\u2019s a new corollary: love and let love. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Love & Light,
\n\u2665Angel Love\u2665<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Perhaps a step in the right direction might be a variation on the old principle that has deep validity for groups of individuals trying to effectively live with each other: live and let live. There\u2019s a new corollary: love and let love. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15639\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/friendburst.com\/blog-new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}