Carly Simon 'You're So Vain' dedicated to all the men who have been brainwashed to believe the words youtube
When I was watching this video I was thinking of the breeze, the smell, and all the wonderful things associated w/the ocean and then I started to think of the Gulf Spill. (It made me sad, not only for the words in the song and how they apply to my life, but for all the animals and wildlife lost and how the world is changed because of greed and hate.)

GOD GAVE ME YOU and my 2 husbands 2 (after all that's where my kids came from, eh?) youtube

IMAGINE with lyrics John Lennon youtube

Empathy is Love
EXCERPT:
Creating a kinder and gentler world: The positive psychology of empathy
Paul T. P. Wong, Ph.D., C. Psych.
President, International Network on Personal Meaning
Coquitlam, B.C., Canada

Just imagine that we live in a kinder and gentler world, where people seek to understand rather than to be understood, show sensitivity to other people's feelings, routinely engage in acts of kindness , and strive to make this world a better place for everyone.

Just imagine that we inhabit a world where conflicts are resolved through non-violence means, where all individuals are respected and valued regardless of their race and creed, and where the bounty of earth is enjoyed by all.
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I’m not a big believer in organised religion. But I believe that there is a higher power and a much bigger universal energy that makes things happen the way they do. I’m a spiritual person, even though there is no single incident that I can pick saying it was a turning point in my spiritual beliefs. (I simply think I was born that way.) An incident when I was 7 made me believe that things happen for a reason. I was given ether when having a tonsilectomy and died on the table and had to be paddled back. Later on in life I was involved in a car accident. It was the kind people usually don’t survive. I was driving my car and it hit water on the road. An irrigation ditch had washed out and I started hydro-planing and ended upside down in a canal with water coming in. When I got out of the wreck no one could believe that I survived. After that incident my life changed a lot. These experiences make you realise how fragile life really is.

I try now to meditate every day as it helps to clear my thoughts. People usually think that their relationship with God should be down to earth, but I believe that this relationship should be horizontal, on the same plane. You must also connect yourself to the people who are special to you, once you do that then the God inside of you surfaces. There is both good and bad inside us and it depends on which side you project to others.

I think all religions inherently propagate love and sometimes this can backfire and lead to the exact opposite. That’s one of the reasons I don’t believe in an organised religion. I believe the universal energy will take care of the rest.

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... "The first of all the commandments is, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment."

And the second is "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these."

The second teaching Jesus stated "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" has became known as "The Golden Rule"; "Love your fellow as yourself".

The first written record of The Golden Rule where it is stated "Do for one who may do for you, that you may cause him thus to do."

What we know as "The Golden Rule is called "in some systems the ethic of reciprocity, a fundamental moral principle and meme," in other words meaning "treat others as you would like to be treated." The Golden Rule is the foundational principle underlying what today we define as human rights...

The Golden Rule seems to predate both Judaism and Christianity and thus it is a universal principle. in any event it is at the core of every major religion. Principal philosophers and religious figures have stated it in different ways.
The Golden Rule was a common principle in ancient Greek philosophy. Here are a few examples from the Greeks:
"Do not to your neighbor what you would take ill from him."
"Avoid doing what you would blame others for doing."
"What you wish your neighbors to be to you, such be also to them."
"Do not do to others what would anger you if done to you by others."
"What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others

The Golden Rule is also found in Buddhism which states:
Putting oneself in the place of another, one should not kill nor cause another to kill.
One who, while himself seeking happiness, oppresses with violence other beings who also desire happiness, will not attain happiness hereafter.
In addition, the Dalai Lama has stated:
If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.
We also find the Golden rule In Islam. In his Last Sermon, the Prophet Muhammad said to his believers:
"Hurt no one so that no one may hurt you."
The Qur'an commends "those who show their affection to such as came to them for refuge and entertain no desire in their hearts for things given to the (latter), but give them preference over themselves."
None of you [truly] believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself.
Seek for mankind that of which you are desirous for yourself, that you may be a believer; treat well as a neighbor the one who lives near you, that you may be a Muslim [one who submits to God].
"That which you want for yourself, seek for mankind."
And so on, we find examples in all faiths....

Hillel & The Teachings of Love Your Neighbor

During the childhood days of Christ Jesus, when King Herod and the Roman Emperor Augustus ruled, a Jewish teacher named Hillel lived in Jerusalem. He taught for approximately forty years during the period between 30 BCE to circa 10 CE.
It is possible that Jesus met him and even learned from him, as Hillel was a famous teacher with his own school.

Hillel is popularly known as the author of two sayings. The first is:
"If I am not for myself, who will be [for me]? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?"
He is also famous for expressing "The Golden Rule" when he was asked by a Gentile, who wished to become a Jew. The man asked Hillel for a summary of the teaching of Judaism in the most concise terms....

"What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow: this is the whole Law; the rest is the explanation; go and learn"
With these words Hillel spoke of the fundamental principle of Jewish moral law, the Biblical precept of brotherly love. Love of man was considered as the kernel of the entire Jewish teaching.
....The exhortation to love peace emanated from Hillel's most characteristic traits — his meekness and mildness are of legend and his standing as a righteous and loving human being have become proverbial, as is seen from the saying: "Let a man be always humble and patient....."

The teaching to love your neighbor as yourself was inherent in the teachings and faith of Jesus. And it was a teaching that Jesus demonstrated throughout his ministry through his activities; the teaching to love others was fundamental to his entire ministry.
Jesus kept the Hebrew Commandments as a covenant with God and taught them to us that we might develop a spiritual discipline that puts the principle of Loving God first in our lives and following, the demonstration that we love God through our activities towards one another.
If we love God first, all else follows, for the love of God inspires us to love others. In teaching us so, Jesus was in keeping with teaching the most ancient of the commandments and in keeping with the Divine Principles at the foundation of all of the World's Great Religions.
Jesus' teaching was not a new teaching nor was it confined to Judaism; if we look to the religions of the world we may find this teaching at the base, in one form or another, of every religion. In that sense he was a world teacher. All of the great traditions teach that "We are to Love God" and "Love our neighbor as ourselves."
Through the Heart we may come to know the Love of God through the Heart we may become the Love of God.