In Reply to: I agree Observer posted by Freeatlast! on March 23, 2005 at 18:22:25:
yes, we were taught to say "I love you" to everybody. And it was almost always very manipulative. Who but a saint can really love everybody? I was no saint, most of us weren't.
I had moments when I really believed that I loved everybody, but it became obviouse later that I did not.
This delusion was not unique to us. The hippys in general tended to think that they "loved everybody," but when push came to shove, they really didn't. Still, those outside of cults were just nieve, but those within them had this nievety chaneled into a tool, or rather, a weapon. Why do you think they called it "love bombing?" Has it crossed anybody elses mind that if you love people, you don't drop bombs on them? Bombs are tools of destruction.
Many years later, when I went to a Rainbow Gathering and heard people on hill tops yelling "we love you" to the four winds, I had a very negative reaction. Many (admitedly, not all) of these same people would ignore me when I asked for help. People thought I was really uptight. Perhaps I was, but some old bad buttons were pushed by seeing and hearing this.
Bottom line: we can sometimes fell a general sense of love for everybody. But our time and energy and resources are limited, so
the for real love, the kind that makes you really stick around and help somebody, well, that has to be limited, for most of us.
And, to really feel genuine love for humanity takes many years of hard work on ourselves, looking at. and not ignoring, our own garbage, our anger, jelousy and resentment.
If we try to skip this step, we may fell something, but it isn't real love.