THE NATURE OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

There are many who strive, today, to love without limits, that is to say, unconditionally, who find it possible to do with those who do not burden them with distress, or cause them difficulties in any one of a number of ways, yet who, in the presence of someone else's rage, rejection, or indifference, find it impossible to respond with love.    This limitation of the human heart cannot be overcome through the use of will, except on a limited basis, for the will-to-love can be plentiful, but the emotions that get in the way of love can also be plentiful.  What is needed is a fuller immersion in, and experience of, the 'vibration' of Love, so that it becomes a living reality that is first offered to the self, after which it can be offered to others.  The vibration of limitless or unconditional love is not one that is self-created.  Rather, it partakes of the Divine and must be received in the way of an experience of God's love that softens the heart, melting the sharp edges that are often carried in relation to unhealed situations in life or in relation to people with whom one has had difficulty in the past.  One can speak of 'unconditional love' and understand that it lives within each human heart at its Divine core, but to arrive at the place where it can be felt as a feeling and conveyed to others as well, it must be awakened first, and this awakening is an awakening of the Christ-self within. To speak of the Christ-self within is not to identify such love with any particular religion, for it does not belong to any religion.  It belongs to the universe of souls and to the Heart from which all human hearts derive.  This greater Heart has included in the lesser, the capacity to reach toward the limitless in the way of love, compassion, mercy, and gratitude, and has provided an inner path to do so which is carved out by the many ways in which one can pray for, meditate on, and receive an experience of Divine love.  In this way, the human heart becomes connected with the Heart of God, the Heart of Hearts, and can then love others with what it has experienced within itself.  Often, the awakening to the unconditional love that God has for all souls that man seeks to find within occurs spontaneously when the soul is ready, simply because it is time, and the embodied self is ripe for such an experience. Sometimes, the synergy of being with a group of others who pray together and share in God's love can quicken the awakening of the Divine heart within each human heart.  And sometimes, being in the presence of an Illuminated One - a being who has awakened to the Divine Heart within sufficiently to transmit the vibration to others - is needed in order that the light within be ignited as if by a small match that then produces a flame that grows and grows. The longing for an experience of Divine love in order to feel it, to become it, and to share it with humanity, are the steps toward awakening of the Christ-self.  At the foundation of this longing is the spiritual gravitation of the human heart toward the Heart of God.  This gravitation is something that is indigenous to the human soul.  It is part of the spiritual unfoldment of the soul.  And so allowing it to grow and nurturing it, will ultimately produce the benefits of longing and of praying, expecially when accompanied by the purification of those aspects of thought and feeling that may additionally be standing in the way of greater love. In relation to such an awakening, it is important to understand two things: first, that spiritual awakening for each and every soul is much more possible today, due to the earth's infusion with greater light.  This infusion has already transformed the spiritual atmosphere in which humanity lives.  Across the board, it is making it more possible for souls to have experiences of spiritual deepening that either would not have been possible before, or would have taken much longer.  Second, one must realize that the words 'unconditional love' or 'limitless love' can be used without the speaker having full awareness of their meaning.  For until the experience of merging and melting of heart within Heart takes place, it is not possible to know what the words mean, although it is still possible for the spiritual gravitation to take place that enables the heart to keep reaching toward what it most deeply seeks. The Christ-self within is the capacity to embody God's heart within one's own and to share the love that comes from this joining.  All steps taken in pursuit of this joining will bear fruit, and all steps taken with indifference to the outcome of any action or path in terms of love, will increasingly separate one from the Source of love.  This is to say that in order to receive Love, one must desire it, one must have a place within where it can reside, and one must wish to share it, for such love cannot be held for the benefit of the self.  This would be incompatible with its essence. There are many guides, steps, paths, and practices which are all designed to open the heart to greater love.  What is important is to begin walking toward the Heart whose call is sounding ever more loudly, even now, as it attempts to heal an earth that is greatly in need of healing. May all who seek unconditional love seek to share it in the way of God - as the gentle rain that falleth on the good and the evil alike.  And may all such seeking bear fruit and be blessed.

LOVE AND TRUTH

Sacred relationships rely on two currents of healing found within all relationships. The first is the current of love, support, generosity, and sympathy that manifests as the quality of gentleness. The second is the current of truth, justice, and righteousness that manifests as the quality of firmness. All relationships and all interactions are composed of these two intermingled currents.

To love without truth means to not see others, and therefore to relate to them in a shallow way. It also means to not be seen oneself, and therefore to pay the price of reduced intimacy. When we love without being truthful, we relate to others from the surface of ourselves. As a result, we may have difficulty feeling loving or that we are being loved.

On the other hand, to have truth but not love, means to fall prey to judgment about the limitations of others. It is to create distance from others through the restriction of our gentleness and compassion, both of which are needed to develop intimacy and to help someone change and grow. In each of our relationships, love and truth, gentleness and firmness, must be tied to each other in such a way that each permeates the other. Only in this way can our life with others remain in balance.

Even though love comes from the heart, our culture also defines which actions will be perceived by us as loving, and which will not.

Sometimes, it tells us that being truthful is not loving. Sometimes, it confuses us about what love really is. This confusion takes many of us in the direction of limiting our truthfulness so that we will appear loving, even though we don't really feel authentic in what we are expressing. It causes us to be afraid of being firm with others because we will be seen as 'making waves'.

Within a sacred life, we are called to integrity before God. We are called to find ways of being honest with ourselves and with others in all forms of our expression. At the same time, we are called to become expressions of love. Because of this dual calling, we quickly come up against the cultural confusion we have lived with about what it is to be loving and what it is to be truthful. We need to find a way within ourselves to balance these two strands.

Sometimes being loving means to support someone in what they feel they need. This may include offers of sympathy, help, statements of affection, and affirmation of another's positive qualities. Sometimes being loving means to support someone in who they are inside - who they are as a soul - not in what they feel. This may include confronting unconscious behavior, setting limits, requiring accountability for words and actions, and saying "no" to what is being asked for.

To make the distinction between these two currents of love and to decide which is needed in a given situation is not always easy. It requires a clear mind and heart to do so and the courage to speak the truth. Gestures that are typically loving and supportive are easier for us to offer to others than gestures that show love as truthfulness. This is not difficult to understand. To hear the positive truth about oneself feels like support and love to most people and is most often felt as nourishing. To hear the truth about limitations or blind spots does not commonly feel like love to others, first, because their sense of self may be uncertain and in need of bolstering, but more importantly, because they are not committed enough to seeing life as a learning process in which each limitation is revealed in order to be overcome.

The offering of truth to others must be done in a way that joins truth and love. This is only possible when the mind is not clouded by need or fear and the heart is filled with a spirit of generosity which seeks to help another in as pure a way as possible. When this is the case, our inner knowing of another can be offered to them as a mirror to the self so that they can see themselves through our eyes.

Inner knowing is built into each of us, and continues to be present even when we feel it to be missing. Our sense of truth is our inheritance; it is a function of our soul. It resides within our hearts as intuition and within our bodies as sensitivity and can be reached for at times of need, even though the way to it may seem dark.

If we do not invalidate our sense of truth but rather seek it deliberately, we will find it in the deepest place of our heart. What gives us this inner knowing is not primarily any studying we have done about the human psyche, or any experiences we have had with groups of people. It is the innate goodness of our soul, our spiritual core, that tells us when something feels right to us and when it feels wrong. Intuition can be cultivated and enhanced over time, but it is always there. The more we rely on it, the more clear are the messages it sends to our conscious minds and the more we can trust these messages.

Our sense of truth tells us when what we are saying or doing serves the best interests of another, and when we are speaking because we are angry, frustrated, or impatient. These are not good reasons for being truthful. In fact, in the presence of these reasons, a good deal of the time we will not be truthful and most of the time we will not be well-received. It is only when our hearts are clear and we stand in the place of love, that we weave together the two currents of relationship that are gentleness and firmness. Only in the presence of both can we try to do what is best for others and can we believe in our own reasons for doing so.

The fear of speaking truth often causes us to accomodate to situations that do not serve the best interests of anybody. Generally, this is because we are afraid of the disapproval we might incur by standing for a point of view that is different from anyone else's. Many times this places us in false situations - situations where we do not express our true feelings for fear of being seen as not-loving - situations where we do not reveal what we think for fear of appearing different and unlikeable.

Ideed, we are different; this is our gift and our destiny. We each have a unique perception to add to the world. But we are also the same. We are also human, struggling with the same learning process that others struggle with. It is our commitment to being human that makes us want to help others become more human as well. It is our commitment to being whole that makes us want to help others become whole as well. Fear limits our capacity to become more human and to become more whole. In the presence of fear, we walk around as half of ourselves rather than as a whole being.

In the end, our capacity to be loving and our capacity to be truthful rest upon the strength of our desire to live life with integrity - to be truly ourselves as God would have us be. Only when we wish for this in a deep way, can we find the courage that is needed to stand for what we believe in and to speak for what we stand. When this is the case, all of our interactions with others become a testimony to the values we hold. If we do not betray ourselves, we support others in becoming more truthful as well. To express our love through both gentleness and firmness is the goal of our wholeness. It is to bring into balance the two currents of healing that can help humanity grow.

THE HEART'S JOURNEY

Beloved Ones, the heart's journey is one that can be taken by anyone at anytime of life, day or night, in the morning or evening of life, in the heights of success or in the depths of emptiness - the heart can be turned to as the foundation for a new beginning and a new way of life, no matter what has taken place before.  For love is not a matter of having to learn something that one does not know.  It is a matter of remembering something that has been covered over or forgotten. Remembrance, more than anything else, depends upon desire - upon wanting to discover the hidden depths of one's being and inner connection with the Divine so that it becomes clear, and bright, and tangible - so that it becomes as real as the most intimate part of oneself.  Often, the connection to the deeper strata of love has become buried in worries, or sorrow, or in concerns for the future or the needs of the present.  Then, it feels as if there is no time for love, no room for love, and that one must wait before involving oneself more in the inner life. This beloveds, is an illusion.  For there is no separation between the inner life and the outer life of the kind that was once thought solid and clear.  What happens outwardly has everything to do with what is maintained inwardly, and what creates a surrounding environment that is filled with grace and blessing is the inner state of being ready to receive grace and blessing, of turning toward the light and of opening the heart with gratitude for what will come.   Without this, there are only the residues of the struggle for survival.  There is only the pain of feeling alone in the world, having only oneself to count on.  Without this, there is the continuing sense of separation that has fueled the alienation and sense of isolation of modern man. But this is no longer necessary, Beloved Ones.  For a veil is being lifted from the collective eyes and heart of humanity so that what seemed entirely real and necessary before, no longer seems so, and what seemed vaporous and unreal before, suddenly moves into the realm of possibility.  The removal of this veil is a function of the earth's transition into greater light.  And, indeed, the light that is infusing the very cells of the Earth's physical body is changing all things that are embodied as well as the consciousness that they hold.  For this reason, it is a time of awakening, a time when more can happen, even for those who feel they have left their hearts behind - even for those who feel their hearts have dried up due to pain and circumstance.  This is because the heart's capacity to respond to new hope is always present. However buried it may be, however much darkness may still remain, it is only the willingness to contain more light that is needed in order that more light be present.  And with greater light, the heart can open again like a flower that has been closed for a period of time due to conditions of lack of light, that suddenly bursts into bloom. Even a small prayer that the heart be opened can be a sufficient beginning to allow the inflow to begin.  Even the smallest of breaths, asking that love fill the heart, can begin the stream of energy that will altogether remove the hardened places of inner being.  It is a matter of knowing that it can be so.  It is a matter of willing it to be so.  It is a matter of trusting that it is so. The current of light that is everpresent at this time, brings with it a quality of upliftment that has not been present before.  It brings with it the intuitive knowledge that there is hope for overcoming the limitations of darkness and despair that has not been possible before.  And with this new hope and upliftment comes a need to make a choice regarding the willingness to trust once again, to come alive once again, to let love and life flow so that the entire psycho-physical organism can be restored to its essential grace and purity.  Some may still feel that this is not possible, given all that has gone before.  But the light that is here and is true can heal all that is wounded, can bind up all that is broken, and can restore the heart of innocence to those who seek such restoration. In place of cynicism, let new hope be present.  In place of doubt, let the willingness to trust, however tentative, be present.  And in the place of the belief in one's own incapacity to do more, feel more, grow more, believe more - let it be known that the possibility for growth is never ending.  For life and growth are perpetual, no matter what choices one makes.  And even if there is a choice in the present to remain closed and to remain self--protective in order to decrease the possibility of disappointment, even then life and growth will flourish, and will make out of the present decision, something that can give rise to new possibilities. For this is the nature of hope, Beloved Ones.  It is not based on how we feel or choose to feel.  It is based on the nature of life itself and on the current that moves through life.  It is Life that creates hope, and that even out of cynicsm, doubt, despair, or suffering, can make all things new.