- We can be shaped.
- We can be involved.
- We can be invited.
- We can be included.
These look like four ways in which we can be cared about. My aesthetic
intuition notes that they presume different degrees of participation on
our part. The fact that we are included is completely independent
of our own participation, we don't have to be aware. For us to be
invited, I think we must have 1-dimension of awareness, we have to be free
to accept or decline. For us to be involved, I think we must have
2-dimensions of awareness, we must be able to consider how we will participate.
For us to be shaped, I think we must have 3-dimensions of awareness, we
must be able to engage the reasons why we are
participating. But this is just an aside.
Who is it that does the shaping, the involving, the inviting, the including?
It think that structurally it is the concept of Everything.
For me, I identify this with God. There are four aspects by which
we relate to Everything (or God) and I think we can relate them to the
ways we are cared about:
Everything that Wishes for Everything
God who loves us (wants us to be alive - sensitive and reponsive) more
than we love ourselves.
God shapes us so we are full of life, each individually.
A: Kaip tu dalyvauji gyvenime? D: As bunu salia. Laikykis
salia manes.
Everything that Wishes for Not Nothing
God for whom all that happens is good.
God involves us as his instruments.
A: Noriu sirdingai bendrauti su kitais. D: Prileiskite vienas
kita, as parupinsiu jausmus, pazingsniui itrauksite vienas kita pas mane.
Everything that Wishes for Not Everything
God for whom things are just as he wishes.
God invites us to concur.
A: Noriu rupintis kitais. D: Isiklausyk, kas jiems svarbu, ir
atsiliepk.
Everything that Wishes for Nothing
God who is self-sufficient.
God includes us, but we are all equal in our irrelevance before God.
A: Noriu atsiduoti tavo poziuriui. D: Noriu, kad kiltu gyvybe
kur jos nebuvo, ir lietusi i gyvybe.
These four aspects that care about us, they presumably are the same as: "Caring about God, relationship with God, relationship with others, and caring about others". My feeling is to identify them as follows, which I partially base on insights and intuition of our members (Cass McNutt, David Albert Harrell, Marius Narvilas) regarding these. (I invite everybody's input, which is crucial for getting these right).
We foster the idea that we all can be shaped.
We therefore foster "Caring about our relationship with God."
How else are we going to be shaped?
We foster the idea that we all can be involved.
We therefore foster "Caring about our relationship with others."
How else are we going to be involved?
We foster the idea that we all can be invited.
We therefore foster "Caring about others."
How else are we going to be invited?
We foster the idea that we all can be included.
We therefore foster "Caring about God."
How else are we going to be included?
We should be on the lookout for ways that we can be shaped, involved, invited, included. That will help check the above statements, which are rather bold.
I think what they say is that we cannot shape, or involve, or invite, or include another person of ourselves. All of these ways of caring about us happen by means of the Everything that shape, involves, invites, includes us. A person will not be shaped - will not have a life change - unless by means of the relationship they have with the Everything that loves them more than they love themselves. A simple way to say this is by means of "Caring about their relationship with God". A person who is too weak to be involved or invited, such a person will not be included into our society - will not be treated as a human being, will be cut off - unless we ourselves relate that person to an absolute, and such an absolute will be an absolute with respect to Everything. So we must relate Everything to this person, even though Everything is self-sufficient, we insignificant creatures must encourage Everything to "grow", to be sure to include us all. A simple way to say this is "Caring about God". A person will not be invited - and will not grow - unless we "care about others". A person will not be involved - will not work to create a world will gentle souls can flourish - unless we "care about our relationships with others".
We can then formulate six objectives that express "Love your neighbor as yourself", where although we are different individuals, but the love for us is the same.
What we foster when we think about our own thoughts:
We are involved differently, but we are included in the same way.
(We have different gifts, but the same joy.)
Our different gifts are not reason for us to be comfortable.
Being open is reason for our common joy.
Open rather than Comfortable: I am happy, and have gifts
which may keep me happy. But I received them not for anything I did.
I could have been born in awful circumstances, I sometimes imagine Cambodia,
where even these gifts might be useless, and life might be very miserable
and short. If I think these are useful gifts, then I have a responsibility
to use them to serve those who do not have my good fortune, and to reach
out to them. This is what they would want me to do.
A: Prasau tyraus, kuklaus mastymo. D: Dirbk viena kryptimi, priimk
pagalba is kitos krypties, as tave priglausiu, viska statau arti taves.
What we foster when we think about our own stands:
We are involved differently, but we are invited in the same way.
(We have different strengths, but the same challenge.)
Our different strengths are not reason for us to judge.
Getting along is reason for our common challenge.
Get Along rather than Judge: I am not able to judge what
is truly hard for me to do, and what is truly easy. I only know my
efforts as I make them inside of me. I only know one outcome for
any effort I make: I never know how much I fell short, or how much I did
extra. So how can I judge another? I know the difference between
agreeing and refusing to make an effort. I have no way of measuring
the amount of effort, so I can only presume that any efforts we make are
equal, so long as we make them. Issue by issue, I can challenge us
to make an effort, but I must accept as satisfactory any effort made.
A: Noriu suvokti tiksla kurio man siekti. D: Isryskink galimybes,
as atrinksiu, nes matai tik dalinai.
What we foster when we think about other actions:
We are shaped differently, but we are involved in the same way.
(We have different environments, but the same rights.)
Our different environments are not reason for us to blame.
Saving is reason for our common rights.
Save rather than Blame: My environment affects me, and
may make me think badly of others. I must ever thrust myself outside
of my own situation, and enter that of others, so as to counter my prejudices.
Everywhere I go then becomes my neighborhood, and I may respond on behalf
of my neighbors, when they are not strong enough to do so. So I am
ready to respond, as I myself think appropriate, to anything on behalf
of anybody. Most especially, on behalf of my enemy.
A: Prasau mokyk mane kaip kiti isijungia i tavo veikla. D: Mano
reikalai duoda kiekvienam progu prabusti ir ugdytis.
What we foster when we think about other thoughts:
We are shaped differently, but we are invited in the same way.
(We have different knowledge, but the same belief.)
Our different knowledge is not reason for us to convince.
Taking a stand is reason for our common belief.
Take a Stand rather than Convince: I believe (in God),
regardless of anything I do or will know. This is so important to
me that it is an unconditional stand that I take. But this is the
belief that I have been raised with. There are other people who seem
to be raised with other beliefs. If they take an unconditional stand,
then I respect that there should be no argument or evidence by which their
belief would ever change. So I do not want their belief to change.
But I believe there is one truth, one true belief. So there must
be a way of translation by which every person who takes an unconditional
stand has this same true belief.
A: Saugok mane, kad galeciau semtis kitu isminties. D: Mokykis
patirties stokojanciuju skaidrumo.
What we foster when we think about other stands:
We are shaped differently, but we are included in the same way.
(We have different priorities, but the same importance.)
Our different priorities are not reason for us to measure.
Coming to our senses is reason for our common importance.
Come to My Senses rather than Measure: I should be ready
to give up my life for another. I think of jumping into water to
save somebody, or pushing them out of the way of a truck. That person
might be a baby, who has not yet invested in life, or an old person, who
is about to leave life. That person may have no talent, or none of
my interests, or no care for other people. But none of these things
should matter. Otherwise, I am separating myself from other people.
For the very sake of our equality, I have to be ready to hand over my life
for others without question, without weighing the risk for them, or the
risk to me. And likewise for the smallest chores of life. I
should not measure the importance of people, but value as important what
we share, the opportunity to do what any good person would do.
A: Noriu suvokti kito nuostata. D: Buk pasiruoses kitais keliais
isijungti i musu gyvenima.
I think this is especially important from God's point of view, because without these six checks we can confuse the four aspects, the ways we conceive him and relate to him, confuse them for God himself. At the same time, I think they allow for slack, and good is slack, and slack is closely related to life, which we will want to better understand.
The ideas in this letter are very helpful, for me at least, to better understand our system of ten objectives, why it makes sense. There are many helpful conclusions. For example:
Our work on the import/export standard, which fosters thinking about our own thoughts, should arise from the outlook, that in life: We are involved differently, but we are included in the same way. (We have different gifts, but the same joy.)
Steve Raiff's work on Harmony of Motivation, http://www.brainfarming.com/motivation/
fosters thinking about our own
stands. I think, as director, that this should arise from the outlook,
that in life:
We are involved differently, but we are invited in the same way.
(We have different strengths, but the same challenge.)
Our new work on groves and GroveMinder, which fosters thinking about
other thoughts, should arise from the outlook, that in life:
We are shaped differently, but we are invited in the same way.
(We have different knowledge, but the same belief.)
Our investigatory method, and our volunteer work for the Lithuanian
parliamentary elections, which both foster "thinking about other stands",
should arise from the outlook, that in life:
We are shaped differently, but we are included in the same way.
(We have different priorities, but the same importance.)
With regard to the "big picture" of our laboratory, I am looking for
a foundation for six of our objectives: thinking about our own thoughts,
actions, stands, and other thoughts, actions, stands.
My feeling is that they can be derived from the commandment, "Love
your neighbor as yourself". I think that they offer different aspects
of what it can mean to be a neighbor.
Here are some examples of the kind of logic that helps me think of
others as my neighbors.
...
The above six examples of "logic" are "data" from my own life.
They are lines of thinking that allow me to bridge the chasm with other
people in a meaningful way. I suppose they are familiar to you, and
I would be very glad if you could share more such examples. We use
them, but they are hard to remember. I thought of the first couple
of examples, and then I reconstructed the rest by using a structure that
I have derived from some intense passages from Jesus' Sermon on the Mount,
Matthew 5. ("Get Along rather than Judge", etc.)
Question
Note how Maslow's hierarchy relates to the six lesser objectives, and
also the markings of the foursome relate to them.
There is one more answer, given by Jesus himself, to the question: "Who
is my neighbor?" Luke 10. He told the story of a man left
half dead by
robbers, and how a priest and a holy man each passed him by on the
other
side of the road. But a Samaritan - a despised culture - walked
up to
him, cared for him, brought him to the inn, payed the innkeeper, and
told him he would reimburse any extra expense on his return.
Which was
a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?
The one
who had mercy on him. Go and do likewise.
So Mercy is, I think, something altogether more. It is interesting,
however, that the "neighbor" wasn't the man half dead, but the
Samaritan. So "love your neighbor as yourself", taken literally,
means:
love the Samaritan, the one who showed mercy. But then Jesus
says "Go
and do likewise", which has us do what the Samaritan did, "do unto
others what you have others do unto you". But "love your neighbor
as
yourself", from this point of view, means love those, care for those,
who reach out to you, who are neighbors to you, just as you love
yourself. And we love them as ourselves by doing exactly what
they do
("going and doing likewise") reaching out to others.
So the six lines of thinking are not of themselves Mercy, but I think
they are ways of "going and doing likewise", ways of allowing for Mercy
by bridging the chasm with others.
| Ten Structures | Ten Commandments | Ten Objectives |
| Representation: Everything that Wishes Nothing. God that lacks nothing. | Have one God. | Caring about God. |
| Representation: Everything that Wishes Not Everything. God for which things are as he wishes. | Do not say the name of God in vain. | Caring about our relationship with God. |
| Representation: Everything that Wishes Not Nothing. God for which all that happens is good. | Celebrate the sabbath. | Caring about our relationship with others. |
| Representation: Everything that Wishes Everything. God that loves us more than we love ourselves. | Honor your mother and father. | Caring about others. |
| Do not kill. | Caring about other stands. | |
| Do not steal. | Caring about other actions. | |
| Do not commit adultery. | Caring about other thoughts. | |
| Do not lie. | Caring about our own stands. | |
| Do not covet our neighbor's things. | Caring about our own actions. | |
| Do not covet our neighbor's spouse. | Caring about our own thoughts. | |