cold

midnight @ the oasis

What is logic Alex? In an answer to the double jeopardy question: What is a skill in short supply in forming questions and replies at the TDB.

resting

He is a bot?

Spooky

natural

Let us know how you be even if it ain't great... It ain't supposed to great be at this stage ...

Oh were that to be true "What a wonderful world it would be ... I see friends shaking hands ... Saying... how do you do What they're really saying .... is I love you."

Or bad dodges of good queries. There be some artful dodgers and some awful dodgers here..... Edit to add: But no shortage of experts on everything... and spelling badge to bad

A picture of hope!

buy any other name

thorny

Damp-heat

steam

pressure

nothing but a heartache

Earl Grey thank you for your service!

Stop! In the name of love

ran some

After some many years of doing so much with so little, I am approaching the skill level where I be able to do something with nothing.

Does a scorpion choose to bite? Is emotion involved in its action (to bite) or inaction (not to bite) is it dna or culture? I can assure you the choice was made long before stimuli was presented. And it wasn't based upon an emotion. No choice in the matter its doing or not doing! No thought no choice. Hugging a bomber no thought no choice and an example of compassion in action I wont be one to say compassion results from empathy cause it doesn't and its not ok to be ignorant. This ignorance leads to suffering. Totally agree that compassion arises without motive, but I would argue that it is not instinctual. Other wise why would a mother drown her children? Rather its is innate. Found in some and not in others. Just as sadism is.

This and the thread on compassion go hand in hand imho. Knowing what cruelty is, is a beginning of awareness. A first step towards enlightenment, imho. Knowing oneself is a start. I don't think they are enjoying their cruelty, just as one acting out of compassion isn't enjoying it. Its who they are the results of genetics and culture exposure. Its arguable that the sadist and compassionate being are both being true to their being.

Excuse me but I think if I was a carpenter and you were a lady we might have very different reactions / ideas to the same stimuli. And if we were both ladies and carpenters we would never be in the same place ... because we are unique individuals products of our nature and how we were nurtured. Reread Taomeow's remarks on empathy in this thread they are spot on! Your example above is an example of empathy you had a choices. You made a choice based upon best available information ... Live with it. Don't fall on your sword over it. What's love have to do with it? With compassion? Nothing! Nor does fear! Not true compassion. Empathy may be modeled...

No you would be to smart to do that. Compassion arises out of ones being. The only obligation one has is to being true to their nature. It remains inexplicable that one is both aware of the ton of bricks, and not flustered in any way by them. It simply is what it is. Its due to ones nature or not. Six blind men exploring an dragon thru sense touch no matter how refined their are not having nearly the same journey as the one riding the dragon. Imho choice doesn't come into play. I can choose to sit in the dark or flip on a switch for a lamp. I cannot choose to embody compassion. Its either inborne or not. I can't cultivate The veils or fetters that hide one's compassionate heart fall to the wayside naturally to one with skin in the game or innate compassion. No thought no struggle just one acting in their innate true nature. The sun rises on the good and the evil equally. (This realization is the beginning of awareness.) The true nature of human beings includes those with great innate compassion (skin in the game, and those (without skin in the game) without a compassionate nature. That's how it is. The fellow who bear hugged the bomber didn't think. He didn't have a choice ... He had an innate nature of compassion