
The corresponding emotion for the first level in the development of interpersonal relationships is the absence of malevolent intent. Conceptually, it represents the first level of development but in practice it can require the skills of a spiritually mature person, especially if malevolent feelings are habitual and longstanding.
As with all the values at each of the levels of attainment, they are not predictable by age. A three-year-old can exhibit generosity while an eighty-year-old lives out the remainder of a life of tightfistedness. Germany would have been far better served by leadership from Anne Frank than by Hitler’s misrule. Small children have shown themselves to be capable of heroic acts. Most aspects of spiritual attainment can come at any age, which is not to say that a lifetime of good spiritual practice does not yield benefits and rewards. This proves beyond a doubt that we are capable of high levels of spiritual attainment from an early age. If we ever reach a social state in which we have eradicated harmful influences and have established sound spiritual training and practices throughout our populations from an early age, we can create a world like none we have ever known or scarcely could imagine.
Real
Imaginary
Fictional Narratives
Novels:
- Joseph Conrad, The Duel (1908).
Film and Stage
- The Duellists, in which a military general bears no animosity toward a fellow general, who has gone mad and tried to kill him
- Los Olvidados (The Young and the Damned): this film, about “a gang of juvenile delinquents, whose sole redeeming quality is their apparent devotion to one another”, offers “a brutal and unrelenting picture of poverty and juvenile crime”
Music: Composers, artists, and major works
Music of William Lawes (1602-45):
- Consort sets in 5 and 6 parts
- Consort sets for 5 and 6 viols and organ
- Fantasia for 6 Viols
- Pavane and Aire in C minor
- Fantasy a 5 in F major
- Three Dances for Lyra Viol
Other works:
- Brade, Hamburger Ratsmusik um 1600 (consort music)