"You create your reality"

[Jade]

All I can tell you is that I don't see victims as aggressors -- it's a flat out misinterpretation of what I'm saying. It's more like: I'm walking along a path and find someone who has been attacked by a wild animal, the wound is bleeding and they are picking at the wound, causing it to bleed more profusely, and I say, "If I were you I would stop picking at the wound, you are making it far worse." And they say, "I'm trying to find the source of the pain. I have to keep picking at it till I find the source and then I can make it stop." And I say, "It actually doesn't work that way. What you are doing only leads to endless pain. Leave it alone, stop picking at it, and it will heal. You are preventing your wound from healing."

And people just keep picking at the wounds, because they can't understand that their actions are preventing the very thing they are desiring.

So your response to finding a person stranded out in the woods, wounded and in pain, is to scold them and tell them why your way is better than their way, and that their way is causing them even more pain?

And then, as you say, they continue to pick at the wound. So maybe a different course of action is called for?

In my opinion, Jade, you are either willfully misunderstanding Anagogy or you really don't understand his words. I'll probably get busted for this but I often find your remarks judgmental.

This is a metaphor as I understand it. It does not mean anything so melodramatic as ignoring someone physically wounded in the woods. I'm sure we would all help a person in that circumstance.

Working against—resisting; not taking responsibility for—the catalyst is what Anagogy is alluding to (in my understanding; referring to "picking at the wound"), rather than going with it, accepting responsibility, and letting it lead you to greater wisdom.

I appreciate your opinion, Diana. I understand what anagogy's points were, and if I implied that I didn't, that was a mistake. I've even said I agree with many of them. I was just attempting to make my own point. I am also truly grateful that you shared your feelings on my judgemental attitude. It's obviously not intentional, so it looks like I have work to do. I was just standing up for what I thought was a pattern of cruelty being perpetrated against posters.

If I was being willfully ignorant it was because I felt that I was arguing against others who were being willfully ignorant to me. Obviously we are all struggling to make our points here. Anagogy's analogy doesn't work for me because it talks about an attack by a wild animal, when we're talking about human vs. human interaction. But I really don't see a need to dredge this part of the discussion up, I feel we've moved past it.