Continuity of Life

 “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength,
while loving someone deeply gives you courage.”
~ Lao Tzu

Throughout history there have been teachers who have spoken about a concept few of us today have yet to comprehend, and this illusive concept for which we have spent the vast entirety of our existence here attempting to obtain is still waiting for us to accept it. This achievement, the fulfillment of a concept that we have come to call love also is barely even within our proverbial grasp. But what does it mean, and how do we finally find it.

We can learn from the musings of master teachers such as Jesus and the Buddha and find the concept they spoke of as a state of being where we not only accept love from others but also express it in our actions and deeds. The treatises of these teachings cover a vast expanse of experiences where one begins to discover the meaning of unconditional love, also known as Agape, and where one begins to live their life as an expression of that love.

In order to live in love we are compelled via reason and logic to eliminate fear, this is the basis of these very teachings and ministries. Fear is the one barrier that clouds our acceptance of love. In the orthodox manner by which we are indoctrinated to understand this love, we find that this unconditional aspect we are taught to hold within us has conditions placed upon it through the very indoctrination we have come to trust. So, we carry this fear into our daily lives because we have allowed ourselves to become deluded by the idea that our fate is not of our own making. We are shown by these structured systems that love has limits and conditions of who is worthy and who is not. We are shown and have become so engrained with the idea that we are unworthy of love that we now find it difficult to express it. Furthermore and more importantly these limitations make it difficult to experience it.

Experiencing love does not mean we need to throw on a toga and become a monk, just as much as it does not mean we need to throw caution to the wind and become ignorant of the ways of the world and blissfully walk a path of ignorance being led by someone who professes to know all the answers. By living a life as an expression of love and eliminating the fear in our lives we become, not naked in the dark but empowered in the purity of the light, which washes away our fear.

When I walk a life filled with love I become a beacon of this light. With every step out of my doorway I walk the path laid out before me in these ancient teachings. I see all around me beauty, and I express thanks for and with every breath. This world is not the place of darkness the orthodoxy wishes us to see. It has no power over my happiness, no one but I can provide that.

In the acceptance of responsibility for your own life you are in essence accepting this love. Therefore, you not only are accepting, but you become an expression of it as you allow it to fill your life with purpose. We all have a purpose and we all wish to experience love. So when we find we are not experiencing this love we must ask ourselves why? Is it because you feel your life is out of your control? Take it back… Is it because you feel you are unworthy of love? You are worthy… Or is it because you are afraid to stand in your own truth and do what is right for you? No one can tell you what is right for you, only you have that power. And no one can tell you that you are not worthy of love… only you have that power.

When you are downtrodden and find yourself laden with the illusion that your life is a burden, do not give into that fear; this only leads you away from love. When you find yourself detached from Eros love, otherwise known as romantic love, you will find that as you embrace Agape all else will begin to fall into place. Loneliness is allayed and the broken heart begins to mend. Agape love, or the “highest” love, is where unconditional love resides and this truly is the foundation for the achievement of fulfillment in life. When we can experience this level of love and bring it in to our waking moments, we find that all other love relationships effortlessly begin falling into place.

How we take ourselves out of a place of darkness and fear and rise above it to achieve this level of love is by first realizing that our life is worth living. This experience we are having is placed before us because we have chosen to experience it. Each choice we make leads us further down the path toward atonement with our self. To live in a place where we accept the truth that it is okay to put ourselves above others, to love ourselves first and foremost opens the heart to acceptance of unconditional/ agape love. And when we find this place of bliss we can then begin to express this love to others, how can you love another unless you first love yourself?

 “Love yourself first and everything else falls into line.
You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
~ Lucile Ball

Before this change in perspective on life occurred within me I would wake up in the morning, and the first thing I would do was to turn on the news and see what had happened while I slept. What was happening outside my window to the world cannot fulfill my life and I have come to realize that all of the negativity, the greed, the pettiness, and emptiness were filling my life with those same elements. So… I stopped.

I changed my perspective on the world from one where I was being shown fear and darkness and I embraced the light, the now. I came to the realization that I do in-fact love myself, I love my life and I love this wonderful, beauteous world… And now, when I awake each morning I breathe in the fresh air, I recognize and accept that the day before me is one where it is my purpose to reach out to that world and find some way of expressing and experiencing love.

So when I say, I love you… I hope you now understand.