This is http://www.essayz.com/a9802221.htm Previous-Essay <== This-Essay ==> Following-Essay Click HERE on this line to find essays via Your-Key-Words. {Most frequent wordstarts of each essay will be put here.} ========================================================== %FEAR TRUE DESCRIPTION OURSELVES EXCLUDE COMMUNITY+980222 %GOOD DEVIL LOVE REJECT EXCOMMUNICATION 980222 What can separate us from the Love of God and neighbors? Any of the following can separate us from the Love of God and neighbors; from their love of us, and from our love of them --- so long as we assent to the agent and separation, accepting them as keepers of God's will: 1. Fear of true descriptions of our selves. 2. Fear that we will be excluded from community. 3. Fear that we are not good enough for Love. 4. Fear of rejection, exclusion, excommunication. 5. Fear of exposure/revelation of our lacks. 6. Fear of exposure/revelation of our failures. 7. Fear of exposure/revelation of our inadequacies. 8. Attempts to please other fearful people. 9. Dishonesty about our own perceptions/experiences. 10. Collusive games of mutual self deception. 11. External demands that we conform --- "or else." 12. Threats of rejection/excommunication. 13. Attempts to be/do what we cannot be/do. 14. Sacrifices of personal and/or communal integrity. 15. Sacrifices of truth and honesty --- to conformity. If we do not assent to the separations pointed to above, and do not accept such separations as being appropriate, they will not endure. We will be able to accept reconciliation, and so will be enabled to find ways to help bring about reconciliation. If we believe and act as if separations such as those suggested above are inevitable parts of trying to be "good people" who do good things in conformity to the will of God; then we are doomed to endure the kinds of separations which are engendered by all that the above suggestions point to. We need to learn how to be honest with ourselves and with a few nearest and dearest friends and lovers --- about whatever it is that we have been letting separate us from God's and neighbors' love; and from our reciprocal love. We need to help each other come to be honest about whatever it is that we have been letting separate us from God's and neighbors' love. To do so we must let go of our most cherished collusive games of mutual self deception; for the price of continually playing such games is too high. In the absence of Love; all else is vanity, nothing, worth nothing. If we cannot describe to ourselves and a few of our nearest and dearest friends and lovers whatever may be our own most meaningful experiences and perceptions --- we are separated from ourselves, from each other, and from God; in a state of alienation which undermines our: personal integrity, communal integrity, health, meaning and significance. We are imprisoned, and not free to be true to ourselves or each other. We are imprisoned by our fears, and by the fruits of our fears. We need to be liberated from our oppressive fears by Love. Yet we fear such liberation, for we cannot comprehend how it can be possible; because liberation is forbidden by the unarticulated rules of our collusive games of mutual self deception. According to those unarticulated rules, we must save ourselves --- by becoming good enough to qualify for acceptance into open and honest dialogue; and then to maintain behavioral standards that continue to qualify us for acceptance. The qualification procedures are competitive and we must be better than most other people---before we can qualify for acceptance into open and honest dialogue; and continue to qualify for inclusion among the best who are in competition. (c) 2005 by Paul A. Smith in (On Being Yourself, Whole and Healthy) ==========================================================