The Cure Is Transformation (from post to the newsgroup - alt.consciousness.mysticism) Bruce: -- feeding the starving is a bandaid[tm] and a worthy activity, but is treats a symptom, not the underlying dis-ease. Betsy: Well put, Bruce! And what is the treatment for the underlying dis-ease? Could it be sharing? Bruce: No, although uncoerced, profoundly sapient sharing is certainly one of the results of such a cure. The cure is the radical transformation of the human psyche and spirit often called "enlightenment" or "Self-realization," the direct experience and rightful embodiment of that which theists call "God." Everything else is just treating symptoms and has no impact on the underlying condition. When there is a critical mass of humans conscious of their divine nature, suffering of all ilks will be deeply understood and ministered to only as appropriate. Those who choose to suffer (there are many millions who do!) will do so, those innocents in need will be embraced in compassion without entanglement or impediment to their own course of life, their "path." If you would have such a transformation, if you would be such a transformation, then you will drop every word I've written like a hot potato, drop every "idea" you've ever harbored about what "God" is, every image you've ever cherished, every hope and every dream you've wished to come true, every assurance of heaven and every warning of hell, every comfort, every ambition, everything but the utter silence and immeasurable emptiness of this very moment, this eternal, timeless infinity, this "God," this incomparably precious NOW!