Number Eighty Eight

All human relationship takes one of two forms -- acceptance or control.  Acceptance is unconditional; it is seeing the other as a whole, with love.  Control always involves the use of force; control destroys love because it requires the other to give.

Whether control takes the form of small, coercive manipulations or complete enslavement, this is the same continuum of what Buber called the "I-It" relationship.  The other is not seen; the other exists only to serve the needs of self.

The verbs tell everything: One takes control; one gives love.  At the far extreme of control-based relationships lies sociopathy; at the far end of acceptance lies belonging -- to the whole, to all of consciousness.

Number Eighty Seven

The last sunrise illumines the east.  The last day begins.  Soon all plans will end; the hope for what the next day brings will end.

In the window a bird sings to no one.  It is over; this life.  The body's heavy burden is lifted; the last lesson either learned or unlearned.

Now is the gathering of moments, of every choice.  We listen to every uttered word, the truth and the deception, feeling what the words brought -- whatever pain or comfort.

Now is the gathering of every touch -- for violence, healing, or love.

And now, in the darkness at the end of the last day, the ones arrive who know us.  They have been there in a hundred lives.  Soon we begin again.

Number Eighty Six

The objects around us appear to exist in the moment.  But they contain all the elements of the future and the past.  They exist -- at the same time -- in every form they have taken, or will ever take.

Soul consciousness can hold the past and the present.  And when not in human form, can extend backward through every incarnation.  Like rocks and suns, soul consciousness contains all future selves, all future development.  But this is hidden, compartmentalized to create the illusion of linearity.  Because all learning, all development happens simultaneously.