21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

Simon Parke:

‘We will also be cautious about attaching ourselves to the word ‘love’ for the word has lost its way. Its origins are fine. Openness towards all is the spring from which love once flowed. But it has become polluted by the ego, and cut off from its source. From being an attitude to life that acknowledges all as equal, and lives the ultimate oneness of reality, blessing all and favouring no-one, it has become a high-voltage emotion, something possessive and jealous and therefore never far from hate.

‘Openness has become a controlling and localised emotion called ‘love’. Love is now shorthand for something untouched by wonder.’

Action in the world then can easily become an obsession of the ego. Our quest for fulfilment of desire is potentially just another abstract goal or ideal to which we might aspire, as explored previously. A thing to possess rather than a living reality. Matthew Fox contrasts compassion with compulsion:

‘This temptation to compulsion is one more reason why contemplation and solitude are so important an ingredient for compassion. We need to learn to let go even of our good intentions, our good works, and attitudes and this kind of letting go is learned in solitude and cosmic contemplation.’

Solitude and contemplation are therefore a necessary counterpoint to our action in the world. They put us back in touch with the formlessness discussed in Chapter 3. Grace and our notions of parochial purpose are then only

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