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The Path © 1998 by: Cirse Windom
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Oppression and Equality ~ social law spiritual law |
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"there are those who hold them selves above social law." assured began. "those who claim allegiance to a higher law.... a ‘spiritual law’."
"i believe that each individual must retain the right to subscribe to a personal standard of belief; but, i have often found that such a belief can, and often does, manifest its self into behavior ~ behavior seen as potentially offensive to others ~ behavior that may spark conflict."
"how can we achieve common acceptance, meaning respectful regard of another’s particular belief, without compromising the integrity of differing others’ individual beliefs?"
"i think, assured, that as individuals many of us feel a need to view our existence through some spiritual perspective. we possess a sense of faith which we often feel the need to define."
"essentially we strive to explain in logical terms the often seemingly illogical events which occur during our lifetimes. because ours is but a moment in the continuum, the rhythms of our environment can seem chaotic, consequently unsettling, even frightening."
"we strive valiantly to maintain imminent influence over our environment ~ and that which is beyond our control we feel compelled to attribute to some ‘higher’ source, some all knowing entity.... to which we can also affix blame. many persons arrange and subscribe to convenient beliefs ~ and those beliefs, as much as the individuals or their societies, can vary greatly."
"but, as members of a society, those persons also subscribe to social law: a collection of common laws or codified behavioral standards as equally as diverse as ‘spiritual’ ideals, but which govern the actions of the population."
"spiritual ideals, are highly subjective. as equally dynamic as social law and can very much influence social law, but ultimately.... are of the individual."
"social law, on the other hand, must account for the control and therefore security of its members.... each one.... as well as that of the whole.... and so must be structured around a common notion of fairness. as members of a society, we are bound by those social controls."
"it is prudent that social law provide individuals the opportunity to freely explore and express the parameters within which they seek to explain their spiritual selves or their sources of faith ~ regardless of social norms...."
"for.... to restrain that evolutional fulfillment within an individual, and thusly their society, is to frustrate the need for spiritual discovery and expression ~ which is of oppression and may potentially lead to eventual retaliation."
"i knew of two separate societies," assured began, "both of which strictly forbade the possession of sticks, and thusly, severely punished members who possessed them."
"and yet.... within the first, i saw that the ruling order possessed sticks. the members of the society were fearful for their safety, fearful of their ruling order ~ for they had become tyrants. but the members were unable to defend them selves against such tyranny. retaliation became a social movement, but without a means to defend them selves their offensive strategy was greatly weakened."
"within the second society, neither the perceived ruling order nor its subscribing members possessed sticks. but.... an element of their society did. they were called ‘outlaws’ and, regardless of social law, they were able to find and possess sticks. the members and perceived ruling class, them selves, were unable to defend against the brutality inflicted by this lawless band ~ and so, regardless of law or appointed leadership, the lawless band was the actual ruling order."
"both societies were at the added and perpetual mercy of other societies who often sought to oppress them."
"as such, the vulnerable societies sought to enact laws which would control all societies, known and unknown."
"this simply created greater and more complicated conflict."
"assured, a sound society tends to respect not only other, differing societies.... not only others and their own governing bodies of social law.... but, others and their governing concepts of differing individual spiritual ideals as well ~ providing, among its own society, equal access to a means of defense. for, defending spiritual ideals is not the only factor which sparks defensive measures."
"balance through equality will always be sought and made attainable by those with the greatest social demand."
"although we must ceaselessly strive to control our selves, there are occasional times for controlling others. societies, and the individuals who comprise them, must decide when their actions are fair and when their actions are oppressive. because it can be difficult to assess, through the eyes of self preservation, when we are being oppressive to another, our self awareness and thusly our awareness of others is crucial to honoring the concept of fairness."
"certainly, simply being ‘outlaw’ does not equate to being ‘wrong’."
"any law must be enforceable, and a good measure of a law’s need and effectiveness is to see how many dwell or would like to dwell outside of it."
"there will always be those ~ whether inside or outside of law ~ who choose to oppress or perpetrate violence."
"we mustn’t victimize our loved ones and our selves to these and their lightless ways. we must be able ~ while maintaining our innate sense of responsibility and honor ~ to defend against them.... or be willfully helpless to their lightless whims."
"many laws are structured around the belief that we must protect one another from ignorance. shield a vulnerability from responsibility."
"but, it is as unwise to punish a majority for the act of an ignorant individual, as it is to punish an individual for the acts of an ignorant majority."
"such laws potentially perpetuate ignorance by keeping us from knowledge and individual ability.... as well as responsibility."
"families are the natural educators of their children. society ~ in the interest of conformity ~ can be much harsher and emotionally detached."
"each of us has the opportunity to either teach our children honor and compassion through example from the beginning.... or see them taught through fear of consequence much later."
"societies must ask them selves: is there a true social as well as a simultaneous individual need for a law ~ or, is it simply enacted to facilitate some perpetual gain for an individual, group or institution ~ and at the expense of a perceived fair and broader benefit?"
"laws are often enacted less on the principal of fairness and more out of a desire to dominate. laws which respect and protect individual’s inherent rights of peace in being are essential to the stability of a society, but once imbalance is introduced by some other facet, individual, group or institution in an effort to gain advantage, then there exists the potential for greater upheaval in social accord. so much of social contentment is spent contending for select and secured advantage."
"if we need social law, in order to keep us within our honor and bind us to compassion and responsibility.... no law will ever do so."
"deterrent enforcement of those laws can however nurture within individuals a respect for such regard."
"again, assured, a society is only as ill as it’s members. if we allow crime, then we our selves are criminal."
"peace, through enlightenment, is the only lasting and therefore true path and destination ~ and it is always preferred ~ but, because of the nature of our existence, we mustn’t rule out violence as a means of attaining equality.... as a means of facilitating and encouraging enlightenment."
"for.... as long as there is oppression ~ there cannot be peace."
"and as long as there are limited means of achieving equality, there will always be the potential for oppression, and thus ~ the potential for retaliation."
"we are instinctively driven toward the struggle for equality, which involves oppression and retaliation."
"this is, by nature, a violent path ~ but, because we are aware of this and relative consequence ~ and because we can consciously choose our way based upon our extensive abilities, we must strive to equalize not dominate."
"we are one society upon this path."
"for our children.... for all children"
"a
thread is easily broken. "will, alone, remains our greatest equalizer." "it can destroy us ~ it can weave us as one."
assured began: "although you acknowledge violence as a means of defense, and therefore as a means of encouraging enlightenment, some individuals claim that spiritual ideals dictate their abstinence from violence, and insist upon others acting in that belief also."
"i find, assured, that when one’s spiritual belief involves the endangerment of another member of society, social law prevails.... for the security and thus freedom of all. this equally applies when one’s spiritual belief dictates and encourages violence."
assured regarded seeker with interest, thought a moment, then offered: "i’ve known separate societies of differing beliefs instruct their members against the self control of propagation. although each society maintained different reasons for their beliefs ~ all forced, through social appraisal and sometimes law, either the births of new beings upon their members.... or no births of new beings upon their members."
assured continued. "some cultures favored gender; thus, such laws or appraisals served to maintain an inflated population of one gender or the other. some, refused to allow their birthing entities autonomy, and employed oppressive laws in order to facilitate hierarchy. some societies believed in abstaining from ‘violence’ and viewed birth-control as a violent assault upon unborn beings and even potential beings. some, simply sought to propagate others of their belief. some, simply sought to propagate sources of potential labor."
"among those societies who dictated birth-control.... some wanted to control their population based upon available resources. others, again, wanted to absolve their birthing members of autonomy and employed such laws to maintain hierarchy. others, again, desired an inflated supply of a particular and favored gender, and once obtained, ceased the reproduction of other children."
"among some societies able to manipulate a fetus, the fetus was often either aborted or gender-altered. social custom or the ruling order then, dictated which gender would be birthed. and, among these birth-controlling societies, there were laws enacted regulating the propagation of each member family. sadly, families not desiring any children were allowed and even expected to propagate a child. families who desperately desired many, were confined to only one child."
"i found the reasons for regulation among societies were as diverse as the beliefs and cultures who spawned them."
"often though, spiritual ideals were sighted as a basis for these laws or actions."
"within these regulatory societies and surrounding an issue, was often angry conflict and great emotion, both within individuals and thusly among social members. some members retaliated against such oppression by acting in a manner opposite to that socially expected or dictated."
"these wanderers were considered outlaws, also."
"i saw, among the complying members of non-birth-controlling societies, children born into famine. born into over-crowded and disease infested conditions."
"i saw those children suffer horribly, not only because of their circumstances ~ but even because of the social judgment leveled upon their gender, race, relatives, physical or emotional constitution and social status."
"i saw these infants ~ these beings of hope and faith, cast from their societies, trodden upon, inflicted, neglected and blamed."
"i saw them grow into models of their elders ~ and though many were unwanted by the birthing entity or pair, unwanted even by many in their society.... spiritual ideal and its consequent social law compelled them into being."
"some supporters of these non-birth-controlling ideals and laws claimed that all beings were sovereign, and no birthing entity should be given the choice of the decision to birth or not. and they claimed that such laws protected the unborn ~ the potential."
"although they claimed to receive life as sovereign and revere each entity ~ they were willing to war against and violate, ultimately, others who did not share their beliefs."
"i saw that as these new beings were dictated forth, the reasoning of the birth-controlling societies became compelling. for, much of the resources and quality of life for the non-birth-controlling society had become strained. and the very existence of so many unwanted and wanted served to ultimately destroy the sovereignty of any."
"more laws were consequently enacted to extensively govern the existences and even the deaths of all member beings."
"i was unsure whom to defend among such societies ~ because i was unsure who was oppressing whom."
"assured, many solutions to challenging individual as well as social perceptions can be found in our natural environment. if we look to the interrelated, spherical nature of existence, we can rediscover insights otherwise lost to our rationalizing, doubt plagued and egocentric reasoning."
"it is prudent to be wary of beliefs which can steer us away from our faith and sense of place and belonging within the sphere ~ for, such beliefs tend to steer us also and mostly.... from our selves."
"i think it’s crucial that each entity retain the right to regulate them selves in their own emotional and physical constitutions."
"to force unwanted births is to usher and subject a new being to an atmosphere of potential resentment, which can manifest blame and hatred, rage and brutality."
"to give or take and infant away from such an atmosphere is to potentially impart a sense of non-belonging caused by parental rejection. as i’ve said, children often have little or no basis for comparison ~ and they often, readily, blame them selves."
"we may feel sickened from the violence toward a child in a family or social situation ~ but, we must remember that that child often is unaware of any other option. and could possibly suffer tremendous loss of positive identity when removed from such an atmosphere."
"and yet.... to allow a child to be or remain a victim of either emotional or physical battering is unconscionable."
"this type of conflict can introduce grave imbalance to a society, and its individual members."
"certainly, there will be births which are unwanted and which the birthing entity will bring forth regardless of social law. to force propagation is to introduce even greater imbalance."
"to intentionally propagate suffering."
"other species of the path, our relatives, often regulate their propagation through the observance and sensing of natural indicators, like food stores, climatic changes or habitat availability. as such, they often possess the emotional and physical means to either avoid pregnancy or facilitate early termination."
"even after a birth, among some such societies, if the young one is severely weakened or unable, it’s being is quickly transformed, and its potential suffrage is ended."
"humans, like some other of our animal relatives, are able to tend and nurture our unables, our forgotten, our abandoned or otherwise unwanted ~ possess the means and are able to create and nurture strong family bonds out of not only lineage.... but love alone."
"when we, however, have the means, as other species, to regulate our selves and our propagation.... it can be for the sound betterment, the stability of society and individuals that we do so."
"our beliefs ~ which can be extremely egocentric, fear based and even cruel ~ can steer us and keep us quite distant from our natural, logical processes...."
"beliefs which, many times, are designed to elevate us above and separate us from our animal relatives."
"if we were able to influence the being of other entities many would, and do so regularly. if we could convince wolves not to propagate based on a spiritual doctrine which encourages them to abstain from propagation for the perceived betterment of our human species, many would try. in fact, those same wanderers who would attempt such, often employ other, equally effective means to do so."
"if we could convince chickens to propagate at an artificially rapid rate ~ for the perceived betterment of our human species, many would try. and again, many do through various methods."
"if we could influence the climate, the skies, our oceans, we would. in fact, much of our technological evolution is created out of this desire to manipulate our destinies to such a degree that we control each influencing factor."
"but, we should realize that given the inability of our natural surroundings to ‘evolve’ also ~ that is, to equitably respond to our influence ~ we can quite feasibly evolve our selves into extinction."
"so dependent can we become upon the technological means employed to ‘regulate’ our environment, that we can displace our own evolution.... making us vulnerable to the singular, specialized, and very fallible technologies we ironically employ and depend upon to make us perceivably less vulnerable."
"unless we maintain the ecological rhythms of our wholistic and naturally occurring environment, we may find our collective selves willfully driven upon the rim of immanent destruction. with nowhere to go but over. joining those of whom we’ve already extinguished."
"we must be aware of this, when deciding to employ the technologies available to govern fetal development."
"the more influence we possess, the more aware we must be of how each of those decisions will or potentially can affect the whole of the path, including the unborn beings and those who are given to their care."
"influencing embryonic gender, disposition, constitution or termination, incubating children, surrogating birthing entities, delegating nurturing abilities to others or institutions.... all these factors we must carefully consider when assuming the roles initially reserved for selection by our natural environment."
"we must be able and willing to closely examine the wholistic and far-reaching consequences of our actions and our reasons for them when we elect to manipulate any naturally occurring process. this can be an unwelcome secondary concern when we desire to reduce occurrences of fetal disease or deformity. but still, even out of such perceived noble pursuits, we must be prepared to acknowledge our consequences."
"we cannot forget our susceptibility to subjective judgment."
"what we may as an individual or culture deem unacceptable, another individual or culture may covet. such is our emotional nature."
"and yet, to reduce such decision making to logic alone, to delegate that decision making process to technologies designed to absolve us of choice ~ is to remove emotion as an integral component potentially employed as a balancing mechanism.."
"we must be prepared then, to emotionally address every consequential facet arising from the introduction and employment of our technologies."
"if we desire to totally displace the ability of nature to choose for us. then we must truly be prepared to chose everything for our selves.... and others."
"do we know enough to make such decisions?"
"it seems to me that our individual destinies are contingent more upon how we regard and manage our selves with relation to our natural environment, rather than how and in what ways we can manipulate and re-design the whole of the path which we only portionally occupy."
"when deciding how much we ought to attempt to influence, particularly in manipulating the being of another, we should realize that nature provides us non-human-regulated opportunity, triggered through often subtle influences of the path as a whole, to evolve or devolve through mutation."
"the unexpected odd occurrence can mercifully provide us with an otherwise inaccessible opportunity to consider our selves, our placement, our relationship to the path, and either continue our course, veer from it or reverse it based upon the propagation of such mutations."
"we tend to see our selves in other species, see those which frighten us as a direct threat.... those that awe us, as possessing a sense of sovereign power.... and those that trigger nurturing instincts, as adorable and in need of coddling."
"what we must strive to do, however ~ is see them, and each of their wild natures within each of us."
"we are animals, assured, just as our wild relatives ~ but our need and ability to dominate has both led and driven us from our natural sense of belonging."
"we must be aware of and carefully consider this, when socially dictating that any entity.... forsake their right to propagate, or forsake their right to abstain."
"we tend to believe that we are greatly accurate and able in directing the affairs of others ~ in intervening and pressing upon all inhabitants of the path our codes of social order and doctrines of spiritual ethic.... but, i have seen that those who seek so desperately to control another, often do so because they are most unable to control them selves."
"where will this end?"
"how much intervention is enough?"
"are we able to discern the subtleties and intricacies of every being and their relationship to all others?"
"so many of us are unwilling even to recognize our selves and our own relationship to others."
"it is not the place, the business of only one or even groups to direct the affairs and attempt to maintain the stability of the whole."
"it is the place, the business of entire ecological systems.... interdependent environmental communities."
"us all ~ functioning as one."
"when blocked, energy seeking incarnation will not cease. it will simply seek a more accessible and amicable means of manifestation ~ an immediate atmosphere better suited, more conducive to nurturing."
"how can one possess the right and wisdom to dictate such manifestation for the benefit of all, or even another."
"all entities are driven by instinct toward fulfillment."
"as such they possess a desire to self decide various inherent abilities in their quest for being...."
"these include the abilities of living, dying, healing and coupling. propagating, rearing offspring, learning, nurturing, expressing and communicating. believing, worshiping, and defending. also, deciding upon occupation, and seeking a means of achieving security, peace and the freedom to self govern. and many other abilities, assured, many...."
"when absolved of their natural abilities and freedoms of choice, when those inherent rights are oppressed ~ most entities will seek and eventually find a means to regain control over the self.... control which is intrinsically theirs"
"when this inclination is ignored, it may be at great expense and suffering to that self.... the unborn or born beings.... all of one’s society.... all of the path."
"we are dependently interrelated, but ultimately sovereign within our selves as able beings."
"it is wise that we and our societies recognize and respect the whole of that relationship."
"there is a surety, assured, in all existence."
"all entities can, if they choose, sense the certainty of rhythm, place and destiny that is inherent in all existence."
"each action or inaction ~ each thought or non-thought influences and is influenced by all others. one must regard life as such ~ in order to resist the urge to possess or control ~ in order to attain acceptance, reverence and love."
"there is peace in such a view ~ a calming and inner peace, that will sustain the spirit, mind and body."
"we should not meet existence with our assumptions.... drawing conclusions.... condemning. to do so, we are filling our selves with a false sense of control and effectively veiling our selves from intuition."
"we must receive and project compassion and awareness."
"in order to sense presence, one must revere each instant and all entities which fill that instant.... which are that instant.... including one’s self."
"our ability to project love and compassion, is subject to the receiver of our intentions; for, they, too, must be reverent in intent, or we are likely to be misunderstood ~ if consciously received at all." seeker paused again, then continued, looking up into darkness.
"perhaps every thought and non-thought i’ve ever had ~ every action or inaction i’ve ever taken, has been for the purpose of bringing me to this instant, beneath this tree...."
"and in this instant.... regarding with reverence and acceptance.... i am able to more wholly receive ~ and thusly appreciate you.... and this tree.... and my self.... and every other energy around and within me. all that we are.... all that we’ve brought.... all that we may be.” a long silence fell about seeker as, sighing deeply, he closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the trunk of the tree.
"and that is enough."
assured.... present.... in the presence of all, remained for a while by seeker’s side.
each breath.... she drew with awareness.
each exhale.... she released with reverence.
each thought and non-thought equal in their influence.
and assured felt great awe at her autonomy and her place in her society among other entities.
slowly, from within the circle of stones seeker had arranged, assured leaned forward and selected, then held.... the stone of love.
carefully, she placed the stone in seeker’s palm, as seeker sat.... eyes closed and peacefully asleep, beneath the tree.
quietly.... assured rose and, imparting deepest gratitude and reverence for her friend and the tree which had so graciously held them both, silently departed from seeker’s side.
turning into and embracing her direction.... assured slowly disappeared into the distance ~ more and differently assured ~ knowing and holding within her, the love of so many.... so much.
seeker.... enveloped in deep sleep and holding the stone, placed by his friend....
was swept, into his self, by a dream.... seeker felt his hand turning the stone over and over in his palm.... over and over smooth and round and warm. over, and over, and over....
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