Love thy Neighbor (excerpt from post to newsgroup - alt.consciousness.4th-way) rk (in response to a previous poster): Here's a hint that may start you off on the "True" path of love: LOVE THY NEIGHBOR AS THYSELF; THEN SCREW THE RULES!! Bruce adds: There is a crucial corollary to the "LOVE THY NEIGHBOR" advice, and it can be found in the fact that in the absence of self-love (which is not narcissism or self-indulgence), that advice is utterly moot. By and large, we do not love in the whole sense, but settle for trivial, conditional subsets we label "love." This is the devil's bargain we sign on to when we accept compromises like "isolation," with its false promise of escape from a hellish world, in lieu of the love that theists call "God." There is no respite in the woodland cabin or the incense-reeking ashram, we take the world with us wherever we go -- unless/until we are in it and not of it, in which case escape and denial lose their appeal, their function and their meaning.