Tuesday, November 13, 2007
You Suffer Because You Don’t Have Love
The English language does not have differing words for the word love; it is all lumped together in a single word requiring the use of another word to define the love we talk about. Divine Love is distinguished from human loves in that it is free from partiality. Human loves cling to a particular object to the exclusion of all else, and when that object is removed, great is the suffering to the one who loves. While in contrast Divine Love embraces the whole universe, and, without clinging to any part, yet contains within itself the whole. So in effect the one who comes to it by gradually purifying and broadening their human loves until all the selfish and impure elements are burnt out of them, ceases from suffering.
It is because human loves are narrow and confined and mingled with selfishness that they create suffering. No suffering can result from that Love which is so absolutely pure that it seeks nothing for itself. Nevertheless, human loves are absolutely necessary as steps toward the Divine, and no soul is prepared to partake of Divine Love until it has become capable of the deepest and most intense human love. It is only by passing through human loves and human sufferings that Divine Love is reached and realized.
Once you come to regard your failings, your sorrows and sufferings as teachers telling you where you are weak and faulty, where you fall below the true and the divine, you then begin to watch yourself, and every slip, every pang of pain will show you where you need to work, and what you have to change or remove out of your life in order to bring yourself nearer to the Divine, indeed nearer to the Perfect Love. As you proceed, day by day detaching yourself more and more from the inward selfishness, the Love that is selfless will gradually become revealed to you, and when you are growing patient and calm, when your tantrums, tempers, and irritabilities are passing away from you, and the more powerful lusts and prejudices cease to control you, then you will know that the divine is awakening within you.
That selfless Love, the possession of which is peace and immortality, is the true power, the true meaning of life. All human loves are perishable like the forms to which they cling; but there is a Love that is imperishable, and that does not cling to appearances. All human loves are counterbalanced by human hates; but there is a Love that has no opposite or reaction; divine and free from all stain of self, that loves all alike.
Human loves are reflections of the Divine Love, and draw the soul nearer to the reality, the Love that knows neither sorrow nor change. It is well that lover, brother, sister, husband, wife should suffer deep anguish, and be enveloped in gloom when the visible object of their affections is torn from them; so that they may learn to turn their affections toward the invisible source of all, where alone abiding satisfaction is to be found.
When the sting of anguish penetrates the heart of human love; when gloom and loneliness and desertion cloud the soul of friendship and trust, then it is that the heart turns toward the sheltering love of the Eternal, and finds rest in its silent peace. Whosoever comes to this Love is not turned away comfortless, is not pierced with anguish nor surrounded with gloom; and is never deserted in the dark hour of trial. Are you purged of your temper, your irritability, your vanity, your personal dislikes, your judgment and condemnation of others? If not, then you will bring into your life suffering, as you have not realized the transforming Love of Divine Love.
Divine Love is not a mere sentiment or emotion; it is a state of knowledge which destroys the dominion of and the belief in evil, and lifts the soul into the joyful realization of the supreme Good. To the divinely wise, knowledge and Love are one and inseparable.
It is toward the complete realization of this divine Love that the whole world is moving; it was for this purpose that the universe came into existence, and every grasping at happiness, every reaching out of the soul toward objects, ideas and ideals, is an effort to realize it. But the one who does not realize this Love at present is grasping at the fleeting shadow and ignoring, in their blindness, the substance, and so suffering and sorrow continue, and must continue until the person, taught by their self inflicted pains, discovers the Love that is selfless, the wisdom that is calm and full of peace. And this Love, this Wisdom, this Peace, this tranquil state of mind and heart may be attained to, may be realized by all who are willing and ready to yield up self, and who are prepared to humbly enter into a comprehension of all that the giving up of self involves.
There is no arbitrary power in the universe; as the shadow follows the form, and as smoke comes after fire, so effect follows cause, and suffering precedes bliss. There is no effect in the world around us that does not have a cause, and that cause is in accordance with absolute justice. We all reap a harvest of suffering because in the near or distant past we have sown the bad seeds of selfishness; conversely we reap a harvest of bliss also as a result of our own sowing of the seeds of good.
Meditate upon this, strive to understand it, and you will then begin to sow only seeds of good, and will weed out the bad that you have previously grown in the garden of your heart.
Be Blessed
It is because human loves are narrow and confined and mingled with selfishness that they create suffering. No suffering can result from that Love which is so absolutely pure that it seeks nothing for itself. Nevertheless, human loves are absolutely necessary as steps toward the Divine, and no soul is prepared to partake of Divine Love until it has become capable of the deepest and most intense human love. It is only by passing through human loves and human sufferings that Divine Love is reached and realized.
Once you come to regard your failings, your sorrows and sufferings as teachers telling you where you are weak and faulty, where you fall below the true and the divine, you then begin to watch yourself, and every slip, every pang of pain will show you where you need to work, and what you have to change or remove out of your life in order to bring yourself nearer to the Divine, indeed nearer to the Perfect Love. As you proceed, day by day detaching yourself more and more from the inward selfishness, the Love that is selfless will gradually become revealed to you, and when you are growing patient and calm, when your tantrums, tempers, and irritabilities are passing away from you, and the more powerful lusts and prejudices cease to control you, then you will know that the divine is awakening within you.
That selfless Love, the possession of which is peace and immortality, is the true power, the true meaning of life. All human loves are perishable like the forms to which they cling; but there is a Love that is imperishable, and that does not cling to appearances. All human loves are counterbalanced by human hates; but there is a Love that has no opposite or reaction; divine and free from all stain of self, that loves all alike.
Human loves are reflections of the Divine Love, and draw the soul nearer to the reality, the Love that knows neither sorrow nor change. It is well that lover, brother, sister, husband, wife should suffer deep anguish, and be enveloped in gloom when the visible object of their affections is torn from them; so that they may learn to turn their affections toward the invisible source of all, where alone abiding satisfaction is to be found.
When the sting of anguish penetrates the heart of human love; when gloom and loneliness and desertion cloud the soul of friendship and trust, then it is that the heart turns toward the sheltering love of the Eternal, and finds rest in its silent peace. Whosoever comes to this Love is not turned away comfortless, is not pierced with anguish nor surrounded with gloom; and is never deserted in the dark hour of trial. Are you purged of your temper, your irritability, your vanity, your personal dislikes, your judgment and condemnation of others? If not, then you will bring into your life suffering, as you have not realized the transforming Love of Divine Love.
Divine Love is not a mere sentiment or emotion; it is a state of knowledge which destroys the dominion of and the belief in evil, and lifts the soul into the joyful realization of the supreme Good. To the divinely wise, knowledge and Love are one and inseparable.
It is toward the complete realization of this divine Love that the whole world is moving; it was for this purpose that the universe came into existence, and every grasping at happiness, every reaching out of the soul toward objects, ideas and ideals, is an effort to realize it. But the one who does not realize this Love at present is grasping at the fleeting shadow and ignoring, in their blindness, the substance, and so suffering and sorrow continue, and must continue until the person, taught by their self inflicted pains, discovers the Love that is selfless, the wisdom that is calm and full of peace. And this Love, this Wisdom, this Peace, this tranquil state of mind and heart may be attained to, may be realized by all who are willing and ready to yield up self, and who are prepared to humbly enter into a comprehension of all that the giving up of self involves.
There is no arbitrary power in the universe; as the shadow follows the form, and as smoke comes after fire, so effect follows cause, and suffering precedes bliss. There is no effect in the world around us that does not have a cause, and that cause is in accordance with absolute justice. We all reap a harvest of suffering because in the near or distant past we have sown the bad seeds of selfishness; conversely we reap a harvest of bliss also as a result of our own sowing of the seeds of good.
Meditate upon this, strive to understand it, and you will then begin to sow only seeds of good, and will weed out the bad that you have previously grown in the garden of your heart.
Be Blessed
Labels: life
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