©2005 Athene Bitting All Rights Reserved
CXXXII
Kindness:
A Discipline and a Virtue
Lecture based Questions:
1. What is kindness?
It is the acting out of behavior that improves the quality of life for a person, whether human or other intelligence. You can also be kind to yourself. This is highly recommended, as it puts you in the mood to spread kindness to others.
Kindness is a redemptive act, meaning that it grants redemption to the benefactor and to the beneficiary. As a mode of expression, it can be a goal for a person to always act in kindness.
Kindness is not related to love, but to doing the right thing. It is not required to feel love for another to act kindly. The person performing kindness knows what is right and acts accordingly.
Kindness is not necessarily related to generosity, either. It can be something as simple as saying the supportive thing, or not saying the harsh thing, or giving a smile, or letting someone know that you stand with them. A generous act can be kind, however.
2. Is kindness natural to us or is it a learned behavior?
It is a learned behavior, which we acquire by demonstration. When someone is kind to you, you understand how important the action is to your life and how significant it is to your emotional healing. When you get the concept, you want to express it.
Thoughtless remarks and actions that ignore the sensitive issues of another person are the antithesis of kindness.
3. What are the requirements of kindness?
Kindness can only be correct when the receiver appreciates it. In other words, an act is only kind when the beneficiary recognizes it as something desirable, helpful, honoring, and emotionally uplifting.
In order for this to happen, the benefactor must exercise the skill of empathy in connection to the beneficiary. When empathy is involved in our relationships, then the interchange is always right and harmonious. Empathy is achieved when the Astral Body of the helper phases in with the Astral Body of the beneficiary. The ABs do not merge or touch each other. Instead, the person who is practicing empathy changes the VIBRATION of his/her AB to match the AB of the other person. This lends a doubling of feeling so that the empathizer feels what the other person feels and knows what the other person would appreciate.
4. Is there bogus kindness?
Yup. Grand gestures, gifts that exert control over another person, favors that exact some type of debt are all not kindnesses. These are all acts of power and domination. The receiver might need the favors, but will resent the interplay and the emotional contracts that accompany them.
5. What are the benefits of kindness?
The receiver feels hope, relief, emotional support, companionship, depth of feeling, gratitude, and healing.
The giver of kindness feels respect, understanding, correctness, and peacefulness.
Both become involved in the process of redemption, which is a movement of karmic energies heading toward growth, inner peace, and wisdom.
6. Draw or describe one of your helpers. You may use a symbol or describe a fragrance, color, shape, or name to help ground the knowledge of your helper.
Our Guardian Angels lead us to people who can teach us more about kindness. Recall such an event and write it down. How was this nice person kind to you? What did you learn?
7. Exercise: The Life You Save May Be Your Own
Kindness begins at home, so here we seek to express it to ourselves.
1) Sit quietly so that you are not distracted by your body.
2) Imagine yourself in a situation that would delight you.
3) Describe the people and the environment in detail so that they are very real to you.
4) Hold your neck gently with both hands below your ears, the heels of your hands touching each other. Your elbows and arms are relaxed and comfortable.
5) Say, “Thank you, God for healing my life and for showing me the right thing to do.”