1 result for (book:ecs2 AND heading:"esp class session decemb 8 1970" AND stemmed:harmless)
[... 49 paragraphs ...]
If you feel in that way then you should first of all admit to yourself, honestly, that that is your feeling, and as a feeling it exists and is legitimate. Do not say, “I will not feel in such and such a way, or worse, I do not feel this way.” Do not say, “God bless his soul,” when you hate his guts. You are the one who will feel the pain in the guts in that case, and not him. Instead honestly admit the feeling as a reality. Now, if it is strong, use whatever commonplace methods are available to you, a punching bag, yell your lungs out if you prefer, but when you are finished then say, “This is a feeling that I have, it was legitimate. Soon I will not feel the need for such feelings for understanding will change my emotional makeup. Now, the feeling can vanish from me that I have expressed it in a harmless way that I know.” Then immediately forget it and imagine the vitality of the universe as being strong enough and wise enough to absorb your petty violence and survive.
Do not, therefore, exaggerate the situation or magnify it by imagining this feeling as affecting the other person involved. Say, “I feel this way and I must express it at this time or be honest, but he has his protection from my feelings. He is filled with the vitality of life even as I am.” But if you ignore the feeling or pretend that it does not exist, then it is repressed within you and it draws to it all those other repressed violences; minute, insignificant details, seemingly, that gain charge until they fill you and must be expressed. Then you can meet the same individual four years later when the situation is forgotten and react violently and hurt him, where harmlessly the feeling automatically and spontaneously would have been expressed.
Now, I cannot explain this so quickly to you for it is a delicate question and each individual in the room must learn his own way of handling these feelings. But there are ways, and there are creative ways. For as you progress, the annoyances will no longer be annoyances. You will be big enough to absorb them but while they are realities, you must accept them and deal with them as realities and trust in the vitality of life to absorb them harmlessly and even to translate them into constructive activity. I will have more to say on the particular point in other class sessions.
[... 4 paragraphs ...]