Divine Love

I read this somewhere recently:

As one becomes a source of Divine love rather than an eternally hungry searcher for love, the picture of one's life changes.

When I considered this statement, I realized that when a person is hungry for and searches for love, the ego can misguide or misdirect them. This can manifest itself in many ways. People may brag for example or try to become powerful enough to demand attention and notoriety as a means of getting "love". Sometimes people will become doormats or stalkers in an attempt to get love. They may do outlandish things or break all the laws to get love and attention or as a way to express their anger over not getting love. When we try to get love it almost always ends up being a negative experience even if you just become a really nice person or people pleaser. That won't hurt others so much as a rule (thought it can) but it will certainly hurt you in the long run.

When, on the other hand, we are able to allow Divine Love to flow through us, we love more honestly and openly because all the grasping that we do when we are trying to get love is less necessary. Why? Because we are already filled and the hunger is only to keep that Divine Flow going. What we then get back from others is just frosting on the cake and I like to think it is all Divine Love being reflected back at us even when it is being delivered by another person. I believe that we can love with our human capacity but it becomes enhanced when we allow it to become one with Divine Love.

The more you can drop or lay aside your personal issues, prejudices, demands, judgments and such, the more Divine Love has a chance to flow unimpeded. This is called giving your will to God/Infinite Being.

When we ask for God’s will to be done, what we are really asking for is to allow Divine Love to act through us as completely as possible as often as possible. We can begin to notice when we are blocking and then we can release it. It isn’t for the faint of heart to desire to carry out this mission.

Everything is a call for love. It is easier to accept ourselves and others and our behaviors when we know that all anyone wants is love and they are trying to get it one way or another. In some cases that is through acting out or doing things that upset other people. Either way it is someone expressing their idea that they lack love.

When we love, when we set aside our own human will, our lives change and we find that love is no longer something we search for but rather it is something we become.

FACING OUR FEARS AND DISCOMFORTS

I don't like to think about my fears or discomfort. I would rather think about my joys and think positive, etc. The latter is not a bad thing to do but done to the exclusion of facing what it is I am thinking or feeling at some given moment that may be judged by me to be negative or fearful is to not be honest with myself.

We like to think that we can find some spiritual path that will forever eliminate those things that we do not wish to think about or experience but I wonder if we can ever reach that point.

Discomfort and fear can be a good thing. When we feel uncomfortable or fearful it could be a message to use caution or to back away from some danger. It could be a wake-up call to face, to accept, and then work through something that we have suppressed.

We like to find a spiritual path that would eliminate fears altogether. We want to have a means to avoid fear and pain but we can't avoid feeling these at times. At this stage of my journey I think we can have spiritual tools to help us deal with pain or fear but to think that we will never experience things we would rather skip over is probably not realistic.

Just when I think I may have "slain” the last dragon", I start hearing another snorting off in the distance coming my way. It sure keeps me humble. ;)

The Bible says that perfect love casts out fear. To learn what that really means may be a task worth pursuing.

Meanwhile, on a lighter note, the Bradford Pear trees that the gas line people were going to chop down in October 2006 are still here and blooming like crazy. What a beautiful sight outside my window! Eventually they will chop those trees down but I have "now" and I can enjoy them right now this moment. That's all we have anyway - this moment, this now.

Suggested Steps of the Spiritual Life (adapted from AA)

1. I admitted my life was unmanageable or/and I was out of control or/and I was not happy or/and I was going nowhere or/and I was missing something important or/and _________and I was powerless over it.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn my will and my life over to the care of God as I understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.

5. Admitted to God, to myself and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.

6. Was entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons I had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God, as I understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for me and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I carried this message to others by practicing these principle in all my affairs. I walk the talk.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT NOW?

I acknowledge that whatever I have at any given moment is a gift in some form or another and I can thank God for all those moments. I had to remember that anything I have is on loan to me. I don't own anybody or any thing. I had to remember that what is is and whatever is, will and can change.

I am so grateful for all that I have and all that is.

What is important now? Whatever is in front of me and whatever I want to be important is important. I can choose what I want to focus on. I can be present. I can show up no matter what kind of day is unfolding. It's always our choice even when it feels differently.

WHAT DRAWS US TO THE SPIRITUAL PATH?

Last Wednesday evening several of my friends and I gathered together to begin what we hope will be a time to come together every week to discuss spiritual topics and to share the spiritual path with one another. I opened the discussion with the purpose of our being together and that this included being open and tolerant of other people’s opinions, ideas, experiences, and beliefs. I then opened the floor for anyone to begin to share something that was a question or something they wanted to discuss.

The first person to speak wanted to explore what it means to live a spiritual life. It was an excellent way for this group to begin. The meeting of souls went very well as it does in this Internet medium with the added nicety that we were face to face, could hug one another if we felt moved to, and had lovely refreshments afterwards with more fellowship with one another. We gathered around the kitchen island laden with delectable finger foods prepared with loving and thoughtful hands and there began a continuum of spiritual discussion. I think sooner or later we recognize wherever we go, with whomever we speak, and no matter the topic that we carry our spiritual vista with us. Everything, every discussion can be done from a spiritual standpoint no matter what. It only takes some awareness on our part to begin to be able to do that.

This morning these questions became ones I wanted to explore: What makes people become drawn to a spiritual path? What causes people to seek a deeper path from perhaps the one they are currently on?

I think many if not most will admit that they had some crisis in their lives or some event that brought them to a place of surrender. Perhaps it was a curiosity that had not yet begun to be satisfied with their present orientation. Perhaps it was an indescribable yearning deep inside that called to them. It could have been almost anything or combination of things but what is most important is that there was a shift within and they heard and answered the call no matter how the wake-up call came.

There seems to be an innate longing and need that abides in all of us and that is to love and to be loved. Personally I believe that this is part of what calls us to a spiritual path.

In his book After the Ecstasy, Laundry Jack Kornfield says this:

The things that matter most in our lives are not fantastic or grand. They are the moments when we touch one another, when we are there in the most attentive or caring way. This simple and profound intimacy is the love that we all long for. These moments of touching and being touched can become a foundation for a path with heart, and they take place in the most immediate and direct way. Mother Teresa put it like this: “In this life we cannot do great things. We can only do small things with great love.”

How we get on the path is not important but that we get there is. The path is not really a way. I think the path is an awareness we have that we are trying to find something we think we have lost but was there all along. We think we travel a long way but we never left where we were. The only thing that changes is our degree of awareness or awakening to the Love within. We find what was there all along. Until we have that very personal experience of connection with our Source we are incapable of becoming the limitless, loving, clairvoyant (that is clear seeing) being that we are. The more we are aware of our connection with Source and therefore with all that is; the more we are in tune with the will of God; the more we become the love that we are and the more peace and joy we will experience. We will also most likely see, if we are willing, that every thing that has ever happened to us was a call to Love, to Source, to awakening. It was and is all good. Whatever helps to get us awakened and alive for the first time in our lives doesn’t matter; that we did, does.

WHAT IS GOD’S WILL?

What is God’s will? Does God have a will for us each individually? Does God already have a plan mapped out all the way to the most minute detail for each of us and we have little or no choice about what happens or when?

So as our lives unfold and we experience all that we do is what we are experiencing God’s plan or will for us; or, is what we are experiencing the result of what we believe, what we desire, what we fear, what we think about the most? Do our thoughts and beliefs create our reality, our experiences, or does God decide what those experiences are going to be?

Is God the Creative Energy or Force that brings into fruition what it is that is upper most in our minds so that you could say that we decide consciously or unconsciously what manifests in our lives? If so, then maybe one of our tasks is to make sure we know what is upper most in our minds and to become even more aware of how our beliefs (both those we are aware of and those we are not aware of) are manifesting in our lives. If not, then I guess it does not matter what we think or what we believe.

I have personally experienced that the things I had in my mind and things I believed came to pass or seemed to materialize. It seems so clear at times to me that the thoughts and beliefs I have entertained manifested as my experience. Some of these were the result of long ingrained beliefs I had and many of those were not something I was fully conscious of. These often materialized as things I did not personally want to come into my experience but because of what I was holding onto in my belief system that is exactly what I got. I call this “default manifesting”. On the other hand, some of the things that came to pass in my experience were the result of my deliberately choosing to imagine that what I desired was possible. I focused on it deliberately, saw it done in my mind’s eye, felt how good it felt for that to happen, and gave thanks, expressed my gratitude for that thing. Was this God’s preplanned will for me or did God simply supply the power and the means to bring my thoughts or beliefs to fruition?

The question is, do we or do we not have any say so over what happens in our experiences? Is it that what is, is and what is perhaps going to be is going to be and there is nothing we can do about it or can we begin to have some influence on the way things go? If we are experiencing some things we don’t really want or don’t prefer can we change things after the fact? That would be another really good question. Some would say we can or that we can at least make things better or more bearable with conscious awareness.

Perhaps God’s will is for us to make choices and then live out the ripple effect that will follow each choice. I have noted that our choices are so influenced by our past experiences, our beliefs or what we think is truth. So is the purpose of these choices and consequences to “teach” us things? If so, what are we here to learn?

Are we here to learn that we influence what happens in our lives and therefore choose better so that we can experience heaven on earth? Perhaps God’s will is that we do this so that we can actually experience, the love, peace, joy, health and abundance that are ours for the asking and God’s for the giving.

Some would say that we are here to learn that we are all one rather than separate as we have come to believe. Some would say that we are here to learn what love really is and how to do it. It also may follow that IF we truly love (unconditionally) separateness will give way to unity and thereby we experience that God is One through this pledge and desire of ours to love unconditionally. Perhaps as a result of this understanding we will be able to experience more love and unity and therefore attract into our lives more of the peace, joy, and abundance that we really want.

Some say that God’s will for us to love God and to serve God in this life and the life to come – period. But how we do this exactly is rather a mystery. We are told that we must attend a church, learn what God wants of us according to various interpretations of the Bible and what God wants according to the doctrine and beliefs of the church we chose to belong to. Many do this to the exclusion of others who do not believe as they do or others who seem to behave as they think others should. Yet others who seek to love and serve God do learn that others’ behaviors and choices are influenced by their belief systems, their past experiences, their cultures and subcultures and because of the way they interpret their experiences. This enables them to better have a chance to love them unconditionally.

Are we here to learn, to experience, to serve, to learn who and what we really are? Will we ever, truly know why we are here? Do we really need a reason?

I don’t know the answers to all these questions. I do know that for me learning to love is truly a huge part of why I am here. I know that the more I am able to love myself and others unconditionally that life seems to make more sense, seems to be more productive in a positive way in spite of some things that are negative that come my way, and makes my waking up and getting up every morning a blessing for which I am most grateful.

What is God’s will? Is God’s will what I will or do I will what God wills? Does God have anything to do with it? Do I? Does will (God’s, mine, or someone or some thing else’s’) even have anything to do with anything? Only you can answer that for yourself.