Alan Watts Wrote:Hatred does not necessarily lead to violence. It is unacknowledged hatred that leads to violence! Honest hatred can be expressed in much simpler ways

Alan Watts Wrote:There are no wrong feelings.

There may be wrong actions in the sense of actions contrary to the rules of human communication. But the way you feel towards other people: loving, hating, et cetera, et cetera; there aren’t any wrong feelings.

And so, to try and force one’s feelings to be other than what they are is absurd. And furthermore: dishonest.

But you see: the idea that there are no wrong feelings is an immensely threatening one to people who are afraid to feel.

This is one of the peculiar problems of our culture: we are terrified of our feelings. We think that if we give them any scope and if we don’t immediately beat them down, they will lead us down into all kinds of chaotic and destructive actions.

But if, for a change, we would allow our feelings and look upon their comings and goings as something as beautiful and necessary as changes in the weather, the going of night and day and the four seasons, we would be at peace with ourselves.

What is so problematic for Western man is not so much his struggles with other people and their needs and problems as his struggle with his own feelings. With what he will allow himself to feel and what he won’t allow himself to feel. He is ashamed to feel really profoundly sad, so much so that he could cry. It is not manly to cry.

He is afraid to loathe somebody, because you’re not supposed to hate people. He is ashamed to be so overcome with the beauty of something, that he goes out of his mind over this beauty. Because all that kind of thing is ‘not being in control, old boy‘; not having your hands on the wheel.

I think this is the most releasing thing that anybody can possibly understand. That your inner feeling is never wrong. What you feel is never wrong – it may not be a right guide as to what you should do, but it is right that you should have the feeling of hating, or of being sad, or of being terrified. When a person comes to himself he comes to be one with his own feeling, and that is the only way to be in a position of controlling it.

(September 27, 2016 at 1:54 pm)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote: Hello everyone.  I'm curious how others constructively resolve conflict or bring peace to situations in their own way. There are so many ways to effectively handle different conflicts; ways which I probably would not have thought of.  Hence, the purpose of this thread is for AF members to share and post any and all peacemaking/conflict resolution techniques, ideas, books, communication skills (etc).  Perhaps pooling our collective peacemaking knowledge could help AF members (myself included of course) and anyone else engage conflict more constructively. 

Thanks and live long and prosper AF members and anyone else.

(September 28, 2016 at 4:15 pm)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: I allow them to happen, but I don't allow them to rule me, insofar as that's possible.

(September 28, 2016 at 4:18 pm)Rhythm Wrote:

(September 27, 2016 at 1:54 pm)Kernel Sohcahtoa Wrote: Hello everyone.  I'm curious how others constructively resolve conflict or bring peace to situations in their own way. There are so many ways to effectively handle different conflicts; ways which I probably would not have thought of.  Hence, the purpose of this thread is for AF members to share and post any and all peacemaking/conflict resolution techniques, ideas, books, communication skills (etc).  Perhaps pooling our collective peacemaking knowledge could help AF members (myself included of course) and anyone else engage conflict more constructively. 

Thanks and live long and prosper AF members and anyone else.

Make the consequences for non-peaceful resolution too terrible to consider.  If you want peace, prepare for war.

George Carlin Wrote:Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity

Bertrand Russell Wrote:Love is wise, hatred is foolish. In this world which is getting more and more closely interconnected, we have to learn to tolerate each other, we have to learn to put up with the fact that some people say things that we don’t like. We can only live together in that way — and if we are to live together and not die together, we must learn a kind of charity and a kind of tolerance, which is absolutely vital to the continuation of human life on this planet.

(September 28, 2016 at 7:00 pm)Alasdair Ham Wrote:

George Carlin Wrote:Fighting for peace is like screwing for virginity

Or, to be less flippant: