What Does Your Life Stand For?

I believe life to be a journey of the evolution of the Spirit. At some point in the course of each person’s life, something will happen that will bring about a 180% shift in the way he or she perceives reality. When this shift occurs, we begin to remember that the answers lie within us. We begin to take back our true power. We begin to remember that our purpose is to Love. We begin to remember Who We really Are.

I‘m sure that most if not all of those who consider themselves to be spiritual beings on a spiritual journey would agree with this quote, taken from the lengthy but meaty bio I wrote more than a decade ago. But I’m going to challenge us together to delve into the meaning of the word “Love” here, in the hopes of shedding some light on why the world situation appears to be so dark, even hopeless, when viewed through the eyes of the individual.

Because each individual is unique, the way we perceive and define love will differ from person to person. We can string together a list of adjectives a million miles long – kindness, caring, compassion, gentleness, understanding, empathy, etc – and still barely scratch the surface of this limited world, which points to an Eternal Reality that in Truth is part and parcel of the fabric of ALL life. Even those who, in the eyes of the majority, commit the most heinous of actions are, in their own world and from their (unconscious) perspective, behaving lovingly. Hitler BELIEVED, with all his heart and soul, that the white Aryan race needed to be protected from contamination by the Jews. In HIS mind, he was expressing love for his beloved Germany and the German people. No amount of debate, discussion or disagreement could have swayed him from his commitment to what he thought was true.

Do we not all define Love as the commitment to ideals that we personally hold dear? If a burglar is breaking into your home and you fear for your family’s life, would you shoot to kill? Ahhhh…here is where the justifications start. BECAUSE we have bodies that appear to be separate, our understanding of love is inextricably entwined with the belief that we need to protect ourselves from external enemies. It is NOT loving to kill… unless you are in fear for your life or the life of a loved one. Furthermore not only do we need to protect ourselves from other bodies, but we also need to defend our opinions, points of view, emotional responses and reactions, and belief systems, from any one and any thing that threatens the dissolution of our tenuous hold on the idea that there is an “I” who has control over anything.

Are you still with me? Where could the Love possibly BE in such a mass and mess of warring forms, all in such a state of chaotic denial that there is always a “they” onto whom to project and blame, rather than taking full responsibility for each movement of Consciousness within our own minds and beings? Have not the most vicious of wars been fought over religion, in the supposed name of Love? Can there possibly ever be peace on Earth when every single one of us is fighting for his or her “form” of love to be the right one?

Where, then, is the answer?

It lies in the unconditional surrender of the individual to the Whole. It lies in the unconditional willingness of each individual to offer his or her entire life in service to Love, with no egoic strings attached. It lies in the ability to relinquish, if only for a moment in time, all attachment to every temporal belief we have ever held dear, in exchange for the experience of Eternity, which can and does change your life forever.

One of my first teachers spoke one day about unconditional love. He spoke to the fact that we are not bodies but Spirit; that we are not “in” our bodies, the body is IN US. He spoke of loving thy neighbor as thyself not as a pretty mental construct but of the way he lived and breathed every moment of his life. He told each of us that he loved us as a part of his own Self. In the middle of his gentle, compelling talk, a man in the audience stood up and angrily shouted: “What would you do if I held a gun to your head and shot you dead?”

Chuck looked him in the eye and, without missing a breath or a beat, he answered:

“I would die loving you.”

There was no doubt that he meant every word.

What does your life stand for? Are you merely trying to make a better world for yourself, your family, your country, your race? Do you know the Truth, or are you simply working your ass off to replace one set of illusions with a prettier, more politically, or socially acceptable set of illusions?

Do you even have a clue what I mean when I state:

As you walk the path
beware trading iron chains
for golden handcuffs.

If you do, then it’s time to give an unequivocal YES to destiny. 100%. 99.9% just won’t do it anymore. STOP holding back. STOP playing it safe.  Get off the treadmill.

Attachments and aversions
are both addictions.