How to Treat Others - Specifically The best way to relate to others - including oneself - is with love and compassion and to enjoy and have fun with them whenever possible. This is good *general* advice. If everyone followed it, our society and quality of life would take a quantum leap foreword. These words are not new. Over two millennia ago Jesus said, "Love one another," and Buddha said that we should have compassion for those who suffer - which is pretty much everybody.
In addition to this general advice, we can treat others in *specific* ways. We can do this by attempting to *know their Soul Essence* and relating to them on that basis. This may sound easy, but it is not. The material world is one of appearances, something that most people identify with. But we are much more than just our physical appearance or how we act. We are multidimensional beings. That is, we exist in various forms simultaneously on many levels: the physical body exists on the material plane, the soul on the astral plane, spirit on the spiritual plane, and more. For example, a person may appear to be a savvy business person. But if you were to see behind the façade, maybe you would see a little baby: Innocent. Simple. The "savvy businessman" role is simply a mask, something the ego built so he could adapt to a society that doesn't value innocence or simplicity. Once you can see the Soul Essence of a person, your relationship with him or her will change. You begin to address the essence instead of the mask: You would treat a baby differently than you would a business person. As you address his innocence and simplicity, the *tone* of the relationship changes. While this practice may sound impractical (at best) to some, those who use it can increase their sensitivity and awareness. It can deepen and clarify relationships. How do we find the Essence? As far as I know, there's no guaranteed way that anyone, through the force of personal will, can make this happen. Rather, you can combine the intention of finding it with some technique. If the "channels are open," then you could receive an answer. (It's also possible that you could receive this information spontaneously, without even asking for it consciously.) I know two techniques that may work: directed meditation and pre-dream practice. Meditation When trying to find another's essence by meditating, you visualize the person or say his or her name. For example, you can repeat, "Spirit, I want to know Carol's Soul Essence; Spirit, I want to know Carol's Soul Essence," for five or ten minutes or however long you want to do it. You can enhance this by visualizing Carol in your mind as well. The response you receive (if any) during meditation (or maybe even the next day) could be in the form of an image or a symbol, a word or a phrase, or maybe a feeling. Pre-Dream Practice Pre-dream practice is very similar to the meditation technique, except that you do it in bed just before falling asleep. Focus on the individual and ask Spirit, "Show me the essence of this person." Repeat that over and over while holding that person in consciousness. Also request that you remember the dream. They say that the last thing you are thinking of before you fall asleep is what you will dream about. If you are successful with this technique, you will have a dream that contains an image, a phrase, or a feeling that you will *know* applies to that person. Images may be symbolic of a person's essence. A baby, for instance, could indicate innocence and simplicity, which would be aspects of that person's soul. The person's astral form, though, would not necessarily be a baby. In any case, metaphysics is not physics: it doesn't follow the same strict, deterministic rules of Newtonian science. But that doesn't mean it's not real or valid. Metaphysical laws work at the soul level, and like the Too-Small-to-Ever-Be-Seen "strings" postulated by String Theory, we cannot put these laws under a microscope. Besides, Newtonian science itself is full of holes when applied to the multi-layered universe. And so it is with all science. Such is the nature of reality. Conclusion A person's ultimate essence is the All-That-Is. Treating everyone as the All-That-Is (or as part of it) is a good practice too, although it can be somewhat abstract. Treating others as their Soul Essence can be satisfying on many levels. By doing this you touch them deeply and personally. They will feel the connection, because you are addressing them "beyond the mask." In the process we bypass some of our own ego filters. Seeing others in this way shifts and fine-tunes how we relate to them. You would treat a person with the essence of a baby quite differently than you would a person who believes he or she is a businessperson. When you treat someone this way, they will feel that you know them, care for them, and love them -- at a deeper level -- because you do. END Michael at The LightLounge Related article: Fantasy Modeling: an astral body primer at http://lightlounge.org/articles/a_fantasy.html More at http://lightlounge.org
