Alo and De Old Known #70
(PD) Alo and De Lake on Land.
Copyright ©2018 November 18, 2018
Alo: Welcome Tom... we appreciate your being here...
Yan: Yes, thank you Tom, for joining us.
Jun: Welcome Tom...
De: We are indeed pleased and happy that you are here Tom... father, please sit between Jun and I...
Tom: Thank you everyone for the polite and warm greeting.
Alo: You are very welcome... Tom, Morning Dove has told us of the elders' discussions...
Tom: Yes, we've been debating how to further improve our community. It's one thing that all community people are polite to each other, but we've been wondering if we ought to create some sort of instruction or class to teach younger people. There are a lot of things that we only learn by experience, and we wanted to help younger people learn while avoiding the same mistakes that the elders had to learn the hard way.
Alo: Honorable goal... to learn, before regrets... avoid regrets...
Tom: Exactly. Before Morning Dove and the others reformed the community, I worked in the city. Every day for over a year I'd walk into work and say 'good morning' to everyone, but no one ever said 'good morning' to me. After a year, I stopped saying 'good morning', and the other people there then said that I had an attitude problem. Ha! Little things like that can gnaw at a person the rest of their lives. Injustice is a thing that shouldn't occur. But like here, just now, all of you greeted me so kindly. To me, it was very wonderful. The elders want to explain to the young people why it's important to always be mindful and polite.
Alo: The absence of politeness, increases appreciation for politeness... to learn politeness, might need to first learn the effect of impoliteness... not merely make customary motions... be polite, because, know firsthand what impolite is...
Tom: Exactly. We were thinking about maybe something like a school class, maybe once or twice a week. The class would present scenarios for the young people to learn from, by example. My first thought was to avoid teachings, no 'do this do that'. Commandments do not teach.
Alo: Agreed... politeness comes from the heart, radiated from the heart, not come from following orders...
Tom: The elders' question is if there might be an ancient writing that speaks of a similar way of teaching young people. We thought that if there was an ancient teaching, then we could use that to help show that politeness has been important throughout history.
Alo: I have not yet read of an ancient teaching, similar... but, hopefully, there do exist similar teachings in the other books that I have not yet read. One sentence, comes to mind... loosely, and abbreviated... 'behavior, it custom perform him cheerful, respectful, him place respect'... the words are nice, but, commandments... cannot feel and be cheerful upon command... cannot feel warm heart of respect, upon command... need first, life... heart...
Yan: Of what I witnessed in west cultures, it is customary to give bows, and to speak honorific words... but, often, I only saw mechanical... no heart... the customs, meant well, but, often caused dishonest expressions... fake politeness...
Tom: Exactly what we're wanting to avoid, and what we're trying to figure-out how to do usefully. Fake politeness is horrible to most of us. Fake voices, fake bows, fake smiles, fake everything, while expecting everyone else to not notice. To me, a custom of fake movements and fake words can only lead to the people themselves becoming fakes.
Alo: Practice... it will surely take time, to practice, to experiment, to discover how to illustrate to young people... illustrate in a way that is personal to each individual... let them learn firsthand... let them understand, through their own lives...
Tom: Yes, we thought that it might take months or more to get a feel of how to present the teaching.
Alo: Little things first... only present little things, that do not leave large impressions... let little understandings, combine... create large understandings...
Tom: Yes, exactly. And that is what we are hoping to do, to help the young people understand what happens if the lack of understanding might cause a big mistake that hurts another person for the rest of their lives. Everyone knows that strong bad emotions literally destroy a person's life. The global religion has known it since the 1800s, but still there are no classes or instructions of how to not hurt people. City people hurt each other while not caring. It's as if the believers in the global religion hurt people on purpose, and we want to completely avoid that kind of mistake in our own people.
Yan: The west cultures, they often speak of being cautious, to not harm another person's emotions... I never did see a similar thing in any other culture...
Alo: The knowing of harm caused, by bad emotions, is obvious to all thinking people... but only understood firsthand, by those who have been hurt...
Tom: I agree strongly. And there again, the global religion has the teaching, but none of the people who believe in the religion will behave with concern for another person's life. The people say that they believe the religion's words, but no believer will do what the words say. Hypocrites. When in the city, I once asked people to say something nice to me. Ha! It's funny to me now, but it wasn't funny at all back then. I literally begged, literally begged for a whole year, but still not so much as one person could say a kind word to me. The stress finally got to me, and caused me to break-down. I was pretty much bedridden for a whole year after that, only getting out of bed to eat cereal with milk, or other small necessities. It felt like my heart was hanging by a single little thread inside my chest, always feeling like I could die at any minute. I finally got better, but I had to force myself to become cold inside and to no longer care about other people. And there you are, I couldn't find so much as one believer in the global religion who could speak a kind word, not one. But coming back home, here everyone speaks kind words, and now my heart continues to slowly heal. Many people literally die from bad emotions caused by uncaring people, and now I understand because I have been close myself. I want to make sure that our young people never experience a similar thing, nor cause it.
Alo: Then, maybe, in the class, create little scenarios that are gently unkind to each person... let the person feel the little discomforts that do not linger with pain... and then tell the people examples of one's own life.
Yan: I have seen references of the ancients having done similarly... I am not yet familiar with the way that the ancients did so, but, apparently, they saw a similar need... I will look back at the references, and try to find as much information as I can...
Tom: Thank you, we deeply appreciate it.
De: And look... at how easy it was... Yan, offered to help...
Alo: Precisely... good people give of their time to help others... care for other people... it is a natural expression of one's heart... if good...
Tom: And unheard of in the city.
Alo: I sometimes, daydream... maybe, someday, a future culture... remote from all others... not need to teach... lifestyle, mindful... born mindful...
Tom: Must be birthed somewhere. Maybe here.