Those Qualities We Mistakenly Think Are Lost

Tho' much is taken, much abides

Ulysses by Lord Alfred Tennyson

If music be the food of love, play on,
Give me excess of it that, surfeiting,
The appetite may sicken and so die.

Twelfth Night by Shakespeare

Examining those qualities we mistakenly think are lost.^✶

• Love evolves into compassionate understanding
• Memory evolves into recall
• Sexuality evolves into holistic appreciation of another
• Humor evolves into playfulness
• Tolerance of others' folly evolves into selective appreciation
• Pathos evolves into poetic perspective

Let's explain at least two of the above transitions:

Selective Appreciation

1. Tolerance of others' folly evolving into selective appreciation.

From an evolved master's perspective, the foolish choices of those without perception, can be very disturbing. To be tolerant of others' folly is not enlightened, it's dysfunctional.

By changing our perspective, however, we can select to become appreciative. When finding irritation arising, there is an insight waiting for you to gain. Take a moment of absence and remind yourself that every folly you encounter has been carefully placed on your pathway to teach you something. Find such a gift with gratitude. Irritation helps break up stuck patterns of behavior. Don't feel guilty about it. But ask instead what patterns need to yield to a higher order.

Playfulness

2. Humor evolves into playfulness.

The humor of humanity is an external one humans use to appear lighthearted and fun loving. Masters play their way through life like an innocent inner child. Irritation caused by the ineptness of another, can be regarded as the ripples on a pond, for instance. The bigger the irritation, the larger the fish of perception beneath the surface waiting for you to catch. The self-play promotes growth and lightens your day. (Masters often seem "too serious", because they don't play the role of an entertaining clown for others. But in their inner space, their laughter ripples through their being like bliss.)

The Conclusion

The loss of importance placed on certain things we encounter along life's journey, can create a feeling of depression in a master. It is for this reason, that the last book I have left you with, is Coming Home to Yourself — the book of wholesomeness. It teaches you how to replace the empty quest of frivolity with the magnificent quest of redefining life on Earth by rewriting how you live your own life.

^✶See: Creating a New, Higher Way of Being Human