What's love got to do with it....

[outlier_lynn]

Every once in awhile I like to let people know what the hell I'm talking about. This is one of those times.

When I use the word love, I am definitely NOT talking about "romantic love." "Romantic love" is lust in it's Sunday go to meetin' clothes. When I mean lust or sex, I will say lust or sex.

When I use the word love, I am definitely NOT talking about a relationship of any style or model. There are many words to describe relationships, but love isn't one of them. A relationship is a thing. Love is a way of being.

When I use the word love, I mean accepting people for the way they are and the way they are not. Love has no demands, requires no changes and never requires reciprocity.

Love is not an action or set of behaviors. It is a state of being that calls forth grace (I'll define that one another time). Love is not the opposite of hate, it is the opposite of indifference.

Love is a way of being that calls the lover into actions that promote wellbeing of self and of others.

There is no love where these is violence. There is no love where there is competition. There is no love where there is intolerance.

That's what I mean when I say love. Okay?

You, the one reading this. I love you.

Love, peace and justice.

Comments

[dancing-star.livejournal.com]

I don't know you except through the LJ, and I had figured out that this was how you used the word love. Wish more people accepted as well you seem to.
Blessings

[rejuvenation.livejournal.com]

Interesting how "love" in interpurted by others. People automatically think mushy feelings. I always felt that true love is not about feeling - even in the most romantic of relationships...as "feelings" change, don't they? But true love, no matter what the context of the word (eros, fileo, agape) does not. True love, to me...seeks the other persons highest good. Eros-romantic, Fileo-common connection/close friends, family, agape-fellow man, strangers. Just a thought. :)
I love you too!
~M

[rejuvenation.livejournal.com]

BTW, I see you list landmark as an interest. Have you taken the program? What do you think of it?
~M

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

I have completed what they call their Curriculum for Living. It is their basic series that consists of the Forum, a related seminar, Advanced Course and the SELP (Self Expression and Leadership Program). In the SELP, participants have volunteer coaches and the coaches have volunteer coaches (Head Coach). I am currently a head coach.

I think Landmark is remarkable. They begin with a framework which holds that participants are whole and complete when they walk in the door. Nothing is getting "fixed." The program is an inquiry into the way people and society works so that we can gain access to how we are being in the world. It gives us access to our own blind spots.

All the greatness in my life right now has come about because I participated in the Landmark Forum. The risks I am now willing -- even eager -- take to have an extraordinary life where completely impossible before. My life was good and getting better all the time but it was only going to be better in a narrow range of possibility. Everything else was either unknown or not available. Landmark gave me the tools to see possibility and opportunity where I could never see it before.

I learned to listen for miracles in life.

Through their tools I created myself as a messenger of love in the world. That was not who I was being before Landmark. :)

I highly recommend their programs to anyone who wants breakthrough results in their lives. Results that can't be predicted and are extraordinarily wonderful.

Love,
Lynn

[rejuvenation.livejournal.com]

Although it is currently something out of my league from a financial standpoint...I certainly hope to participate in it in the future. My son took the program in Georgia, and I see a remarkable differnce in him. Remarkable. Here the program 1s $400 for the forum and then there are 10 sessions following. My next thought...do you believe that it is along the lines of the principles of the "Advaita/Nonduality" spiritual teachings? To me, it appeared to greatly liken itself to that. Are there any other teachings or readings you may be able to suggest that would somewhat cover the philosophy of the teaching that Landmark provides without actually taking the course? I heard that there was a earlier program EST/ESP...I am not sure of the initials...that was the "first" of the program, before Landmark Education bought it. It apparantly was much more..."Corporal and Punishment" in style...brow beating if you will. Any thoughts?
~M

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

EST was the great grandparent of the Forum. Some of the underlying philosophy is present, but it is very different.

The folks who create and recreate the Landmark programs are well versed in many philosophies and traditions. They build a model (they have several different models they use) of human behavior and create something called "distinctions" about each major area of behavior.

The group dynamic is part of why it works, though.

I see a lot of eastern philosophy with western rigor of language.

The notion they start with is that our history isn't in the past but in our future. Everything that has ever happened to us keeps us from having a wide open future. We believe that we are limited by our histories. That we have no freedom to express ourselves because we have "evidence" that it is not safe to do so.

The Landmark work breaks that apart. If you examine the lives of great people, they were able to express an idea such that other people were moved, touched and inspired to action. M.K. Gandhi altered life in South Africa and freed India. That is playing really BIG in the world. Most people say they could never be that kind of person. Their history tells them so. Landmark Education debunks the myth of the "common man."

Very powerful.

You could make an "unreasonable request" of your son to help you afford the Forum. The follow-on seminar is free and optional.

An unreasonable request is one we make after we have waded through all the reasons why we shouldn't make the request. That way the other person gets to make up their own mind. :)

Love,
Lynn

[rejuvenation.livejournal.com]

Haha, well...I think that I will save some extra dollars here and there in my cookie jar. One of the biggest changes I have seen in him is that he is moving toward being more financially responsible. After he makes his first million...I may hit him up for the advanced course. ;)

Well, here is another question then...are you familiar with the Anthony Robbins programs? Personal Power? I am wondering if it is simular to his 30 day "change around" that many also rave about. I work with many different techniques in what I do, and I have purchased the 30 day program some years back...and also pick up boxed editions of various techniques here and there when I find them, as portions work well with simple visualization. Just a thought, as I am not even certain you are familar with Robbins or not. 30 days is a long time, as all change begins in an instant. He has a new program it that is a 7 day program. That seems more realistic in this day an age...as also does the landmark. Thank you for your delightful feedback. I am going to work on a submission for your other site as well.
~M

[crazed-lynn.livejournal.com]

I'm not familiar with Anthony Robbins or his programs.