6. A vicious cycle: Separate and different
Separateness and difference
are the two components of Power,
with each reinforcing the other.
The more we maintain our separateness from the “other,”
the more this supports our experience of difference from them.
And experiencing our difference from them
reinforces our inclination to remain separate from them.
And round and round we go,
separateness enhancing difference
which reinforces separateness,
and downward to the experience of
Power without Love.

7. Power without Love
When our experience is grounded in
Power without Love,
we lose all commonality and connectedness
with the “other,”
enabling us to do things to the “other”
we would never do to one another –
suppress them, enslave them, exile them, and murder them.

8. Love to the rescue?
So, where is Love?
When our experience of the “other” is grounded in Love,
we experience our commonality with the “other”
and our connectedness with them.
If our experience of the “other” were grounded in Love,
the likelihood of bigotry, oppression, and rejection
would be greatly diminished,
if not eliminated.
It’s not so easy to oppress people
with whom we feel so much in common
and with whom we are jointly engaged.
So where is Love?