Loneliness and friendship
I'm reading books nowadays, which gives a lot of pleasure. It makes me think. I was about to start a new thread, but found this one and it might fit here.
Even if we may need to be alone at times, being in the company of friends and people is extremely important, maybe even genetically imprinted.
There is loneliness which can lead to a depression and an empty void which can cause a lot of pain. To socialize with people can be the most rewarding thing when it works and can be a hell when it goes wrong.
When I look back on my life as a committed Scientologist I recognize this urge for this basic human need. Here were people who listened and who were interested, in me. Suddenly I had many new friends!
But, by and by, I found out that the friendship was often of a conditional sort, not all of it of course since there were good people too. But it turned out that as long as I agreed on suggestions, plans, scheduling and so on everything was fine, but I became increasingly disturbed by the "hidden agenda" behind the smiles and friendliness that met me if I gave away my time, effort and money (to the "survival of mankind" or whatever).
At times I felt exploited or squeezed into making decisions, sometimes about things that I could not overview or which simply made me feel discomfort in different ways.
There is an experience of pain when "friends" turn around and show you a bad attitude because you want to have it your own way. That is a cunning way of exploiting the old basic human need to sell you all kinds of things.
Friends who accept you as you are are much more valuable than those "big thetans with their big plans", which they made you an part of their palns whether you like it or not.
So the simple lesson is: hold on to your friends, the true ones.
You are very important to each other.
-PWC
EP
