Category Archives: Conscience

There Are *No* Ordinary People!


“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, … Continue reading →

Image | Posted on February 6, 2013 by | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Only Proactive People Can Genuinely Love Others, Reactive People Can’t (updated)

Posted on January 17, 2013 by

(The following is abridged and adapted and modified from Stephen R. Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change”) Between stimulus and response, human beings have the freedom to choose—but only *if* we develop and … Continue reading →

Posted in "Man's Search for Meaning", "Siddhartha", Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Critical Thinking, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Hermann Hesse, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love is a Choice, Love is a Decision, Love is Not a Feeling, Luke 6:32-35, M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Perspective, Proactivity, Reactive, Real Love, Responsibility, Spiritual Growth, Stephen Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Examined Life, The Road Less Traveled, Truth, Viktor Frankl, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Love, the Feeling, versus Love, the Capacity (Immature Love versus Mature Love, part 2)

Posted on January 8, 2013 by

. A properly (or fully) developed human being is a Loving human being. Love, ultimately, is a capacity. A capacity that develops as the result of developing many other capacities and virtues and behavioral predispositions. Some of these are of … Continue reading →

Posted in chapter 13, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Friendship, Generosity, Gratitude, Honesty, Immature Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Perspective, Real Love, Self-Love, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare (updated 12-26-2012)

Posted on December 26, 2012 by

. (This is an updated version of a post I first publish on Feb 28, 2012 — “Why Real Love Is So Difficult & Rare“) . . “We have lost our sense of values: when your fence falls, you mend … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Czeslaw Milosz, Differentiation, Emotional Maturity, Generosity, Honesty, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Self-Extension, Spiritual Growth, Thích Nhất Hạnh, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Feeding Your FOOL versus Feeding Your CONSCIENCE

Posted on December 14, 2012 by

. This post is in response to a post on another blog I read and follow– http://momastery.com/blog/2012/12/12/to-all-the-confounders/ . “I must learn to love the fool in me–the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Gandhi, Glennon Melton, Martin Luther King Jr., Matthew 7:12, Momastery, Real Love, Self-Love, Spiritual Growth, Truth, Waking Up | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Mature Love v Immature Love

Posted on October 11, 2012 by

. Erich Fromm, in “The Art of Loving,” wrote, “Immature love says: ‘I love you because I need you.’ Mature love says: ‘I need you because I love you’.” The first statement is based on dependency—I am dependent on you, … Continue reading →

Posted in "Reverence for Life", "The Art of Loving", Albert Schweitzer, Conscience, Conscious Love, Courage, Death, Dependency, Emotional Maturity, Erich Fromm, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, Love, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Rilke, Spiritual Growth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Thoreau on Love

Posted on July 14, 2012 by

Love is a severe critic.  Hate (as well as self-centeredness and self-interest) can pardon more than love.  The heart is blind; but Love is not blind.  None of the gods is so discriminating.  We may love and not elevate one … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Courage, Intimacy, Love is Not a Feeling, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, Thoreau, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why Do We Love?

Posted on June 19, 2012 by

Why Do We Love?  Is it for our own sake or the sake of the one we are loving? [W]e don’t love people and animals because we will have them forever, we love them because loving them changes us, makes … Continue reading →

Posted in 1 Corinthians 13: 4-7, Conscience, Courage, Czeslaw Milosz, Emotional Maturity, Immature Love, Intimate Relationships, M. Scott Peck, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Thomas Merton, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Are You *Ready* for a Relationship?

Posted on June 2, 2012 by

Good relationships don’t happen by “accident.” They’re not just based on chemical attraction, projection, and mutual intoxication that just happens to last for years and years. Good relationships require something more: they require fundamentally good and decent people. When two … Continue reading →

Posted in Conscience, Cullen Hightower, Dependency, Differentiation, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Responsibility, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Romantic Love Dies from a Lack of Love

Posted on April 26, 2012 by

. “Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don’t know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings.” … Continue reading →

Posted in Anaïs Nin, Ayya Khema, Conscience, Conscious Love, Immature Love, Intimacy, Intimate Relationships, Mature Love, Mental Health, Real Love, Spiritual Growth, Truth, Waking Up, What is Love? | Tagged , , , , , | 23 Comments