Relationships

Psychic relationships are the most potent illusions.

Love, affection, compassion, friendship, forgiveness, kinship, filial
piety, romance, attraction, infatuation, lust, nurture, enemity, hate,
resentment, grudge, ...

All these, and more, originate from the identity within and are
directed at another identity. Hence, whether they be classified as
"good" or "bad", they help in the persistence of the identity, both in
this body and in the body with which the relationship is happening.

The advice that is given in case one is failing in relationships
is to modify the power structure a little bit, to give more, to adjust
a little bit, to be more loving and accepting, to be less demanding,
to not have too many expectations, to forgive and forget, to move on,
to become occupied in one's work, to not brood over it, to try to find
someone else, ...

Never, never, never is one told to identify the root cause of this
failing. Because such advice would be considered unkind.

The root cause of all the mayhem in human relationships is because of
the illusion of a psychic self which needs to be sustained. An
unstable, tense, equilibrium is maintained when things are going ok.
Resentment, hurt, jealousy, posessiveness are the clouds which always
loom at the horizon in a normal relationship.

The celebration of birthdays, of anniversaries; congratulations
and consolations; gratitude and repentance, all these are devices to
sustain the self.

Naturally, a human being who does not indulge, or care to indulge,
in such relationships or rituals is considered inhuman, an un-feeling
monster.

Believing in one's destiny, living from the heart, following one's
true nature, trusting one's intuition, having faith in God and in the
essential goodness of man, loving unconditionally, all are solutions
which only renounce rational thinking, and enhance the feeling aspect
of oneself. As long as the illusion of self, or a soul or a being, is
present, both rational thinking and heartfelt emotions can only lead
to misery, malice and sorrow, as the vested interest is always the
preservation of one's self.

Sharing of one's time with another human being is a privilege which
is poisoned by the identity-fed feelings, both positive and negative.
Sharing as a need is essentially a symptom of loneliness, and as only
the psychical self suffers from loneliness, sharing is but a
covering-up of one's essential separate nature.

Can there be living together without being related as identities?
This is the foremost challenge in human interaction.