Archive for Unconditional Love
Everybody can be great
“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”
“Everybody can be great … because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and verb agree to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
photo by: Annie Spratt
The Untethered Soul (meaningful excerpts) …
A wonderful looking back on a transformative period in my life!
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2012
During the past year I have had the good fortune to read an extremely meaningful and fortuitous book, “The Untethered Soul” … fortuitous in terms of the timing of when and how it came to me. It is one of a handful of books, over the course of my life, to have drastically altered me. Lately I’ve been re-reading it, while doing cardio at the gym, by opening it up to whatever page wants to present itself to me. I found the following excerpts to be powerful (yet again):
“Life is surrounding you with people and situations that stimulate your growth. You don’t have to decide who’s right or wrong. You don’t have to worry about other people’s issues. You only have to be willing to open your heart in the face of anything and everything, and permit the purification process to take place …
The stuff that holds you down periodically rears its head. When it does, let it go. You simply permit the pain to come up into your heart and pass through. If you do that, it will pass. If you are sincerely seeking truth, you’ll let go every time. This is the beginning and end of the entire path – you surrender yourself to the process of emptying yourself …
Getting involved in the darkness does not dispel darkness; it feeds it. Don’t even turn toward it. If you see disturbed energies within you, it’s okay. Don’t think that you don’t have blockages left to release. Just sit in the seat of awareness and never leave. No matter what goes on below you, open your heart and let it go. Your heart will become purified, and you will never know another fall …
Always let go as soon as you’re aware that you didn’t. Don’t waste your time; use the energy to go up. You are a great being who has been given a tremendous opportunity to explore beyond yourself …
So don’t fall. Let go. No matter what it is, let it go …
That which is holding you down can become a powerful force that raises you up.
You just have to be willing to take the ascent.”
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Source: The Untethered Soul (meaningful excerpts) …
Garden of You
Always struggling,
manipulating,
brainstorming,
conniving.
Always the energy
sent into the ethos
after the goal in mind
from my point of view.
I acknowledge it now;
I let go my selfish yearnings.
I replant my best intentions
in the Garden of You.
In meditating on my prior post, “Reflections of your Being”, I was forced to acknowledge what the last line of that incredible quote says:
“… people are not ready to surrender that much. They want the other to surrender; then it never happens.”
Even when you have the BEST of intentions. Even when your love and giving feels pure; free of negative energy. Even when you sacrifice. Even then … the seed of self interest takes root. We want our love – our investment of time, energy and Soul – to be rewarded with the validation of being returned.
It’s natural … we really can’t help it! That is why it takes the very active mindset of constantly grounding ourself in God … pruning back those probing tendrils of selfish hope, and planting them back in the Divine.
Unconditional Love is neither easy or natural … it is the great adventure of open-hearted fragility … the indomitable strength of letting go, and trusting God with ALL things.
Going against one’s learned nature is difficult … don’t get discouraged … just open your heart, and God is there; it’s that simple … no penance required. You simply are THAT Loved.
——-
Picture credit: gardenwebs.net
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Source: Garden of You
Clarity Comes in the Afterglow
There is a curious replenishing that occurs within when we see something through to the finish. You can see this in the world all around us: sports, careers, hobbies, etc. When you finally reach that pinnacle you can stop and look back at what you have accomplished … and be grateful. The same thing happens for us spiritually as well; if we take the time to actually sit, meditate, and listen to God … and then to begin the spiritual undertaking we feel guided toward, and see it through to the end.
Often times the biggest breakthroughs we can have in our lives come AFTER we’ve seen something through to the end. We tend to want these discoveries to happen while we are working so desperately hard … we want to see the results. This seldom happens. Usually we finish something, relax into the new place where we have arrived, and then somehow everything seems to CLICK … that “a-ha” moment! Suddenly everything we were trying to force our Selves to understand and embody … just happens within us, and we feel a wonderful sense of renewal.
I have been experiencing this over the past few days. Truthfully, this past week has been an incredibly difficult and emotionally stressful week … but all of that came about as a result of seeing something through to the finish; something that I felt guided by God to start, and this week to finally bring to a place of completion. It has brought about a lot of changes, and if I were to write them down on paper it would all seem daunting and stressful. Truthfully though, the hardest part was in making myself DO them … willing myself to follow God’s guidance, even if it seemed frightening. The repercussions that have come afterward are almost afterthoughts … I feel such a wonderful sense of peace in knowing that I am on the Path that I am supposed to be on.
Clarity comes in the afterglow of Divine consummation.
The trials that I currently am going through I know to be things that I am intended to experience and learn from … because I know I am on that Divinely guided Path. That transforms them from anxiety causing events, into lessons that I can embrace … such a different outlook and perspective from what I spent most of my life doing!
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– pic by Larry Roby. This post was a result of meditating on my prior post, “Replenishing Renewal“.
~~~~~~~
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
re-blogged from Clarity Comes in the Afterglow.
The Growing and The Flowering
A flower cannot bloom before its time. If it were even possible for humans to impose their will upon a plant to flower, the plant simply would not be able to … its constitution and make-up at that specific time could not fashion the flower petals inside of a bud that has yet to be born. One would have to accelerate the evolution of that plant a thousand times faster than its normal growth rate … what then would that do to the plant?
In the same way, we as people are designed to flower and flourish. However, each of us also needs our own period of gestation and hibernation and growth. Those who are growing should not look at those who are flowering with envy … your time will come. Those who are flowering should not look at those who are growing with disdain or judgment … your flowers will die and then you too will be growing again.
This is one of the greatest difficulties presented to religions in this day and age. The flowering are looked at, by the religious institution, as affirmation that their teaching is correct. The growing are looked at as people who have yet to flower … if only they would heed the religious teachings better – then they too could flower. This drives the growing ones away, and sets the flowering up for the failure of a future downfall when they too will be growing.
Every … single … person … needs the nourishment of Love. It does not come as a reward for heeding teachings … it should simply be … all the time and beyond conditions. It might take twenty years for one to flower … but God ‘s timing is beyond our comprehension. Perhaps their flower will be the most beautiful of all … and all they needed was time, and unconditional Love.
~~~~~~~
Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach
Unconditional Love! (Part Two)
Unconditional Love can only exist in a non-reactionary state.
Too often Love is construed or mistaken for how we react to another person. Someone we have positive feelings for gives us a gift, and so we have a warmth that glows within us. Someone we have passion for caresses and kisses us, and so a fire consumes us. This is not Love … not in the truest sense; that being Unconditional Love. This is merely a reaction to someone else’s action. When your heart’s foundation is based in reactionary love? Whatever relationship you have will eventually either cease to exist or be rewarding.
Here’s an example:
As an artist (that being someone in the world of art, not necessarily a painter) I find that I am more prone to grandiose statements or actions. I feel more (or at least I think I do) and since I also communicate my feelings for a living, I communicate all those feelings … sometimes without much of a filter (lol). In some ways this is what many find charming about artistic/sensitive people … and in other ways, it is what people find threatening. There is a flip side to every coin.
So today I made a statement that was, for me, simply a statement of fact … a reflection of the Love that is within me. The other person’s reaction was dismissive. Given the wide-open state of my heart in saying what I had said, my immediate reaction was to stiffen internally … somewhat akin to the reaction one would have after being slapped, except I don’t believe I had any outward reaction at the time. What I really wanted to do was just get away … go somewhere (preferably away from this person) where I could meditate and sort through what had just happened and my feelings about it. For the next half hour or so I was somewhat cool and withdrawn, and my heart CERTAINLY was not wide open any longer.
This is an example of reactionary love. I closed my heart, and in doing so I stopped the flow of Love to this other person … and I ALSO closed off the original flow of Love coming to me. That is what happens when you choose to close your heart … you are closing yourself to God’s Love.
During that half hour I deliberated. Had I taken things too far, or expressed too much. Perhaps I should measure out my Love, and be more reserved with it … because this other person obviously felt uncomfortable with certain aspects of it. Perhaps I was supposed to mirror their aloofness, so that they wouldn’t feel uncomfortable (and so I wouldn’t get that kind of treatment again). After I let that business of my mind fall away I was able to slip into a more meditative place … a place where I can hear and listen what God has to say to me. This is what God said:
“You are not supposed to shut yourself down, or close yourself off. You are supposed to love unconditionally; this means ALWAYS loving to your utmost. There are no exceptions to this … you don’t get to have a safety net that is comprised of the other person’s promises, or actions. You simply Love unconditionally, all the time, no matter what they do or say … and that’s it. Whatever they do … is up to them and has no bearing on the state of your Love. That IS what Unconditional Love IS … there is no other kind of Love.”
A sense of Divine peace washed through me and so I went through what has become a daily practice for me. First, I acknowledge whatever it was that happened. Second, I allow that event to be … I let go of trying to fight against it. Thirdly, I accept whatever happened as something that is now in the past … and therefore something that can no longer be changed. Lastly, after having acknowledge, allowed, and accepted this event … I let it go. Once I have done this I am left with my True Self, who I am outside of reacting to whatever the event may be.
Having taken this course of action, I was simply able to move forward as my True Self … and that person is someone with an open heart, who gives Love freely. So after that half an hour of withdrawal, I simply went back to expressing my Love freely. I didn’t even need to have a conversation with the other person … in a sense that is a condition … a condition that things must be worked through satisfactorally for me to move forward with an open heart again. No, I just let it go … I opened my heart wide open, and continued to allow the flow of Love to move through me freely.
That is an example of Unconditional Love. It took me a little bit of time to get there, but the end result is all that matters. Sometimes it can be difficult, and this is usually in direct reaction to the depth of your feelings to whatever the person, or scenario is. The important thing is to focus on keeping your heart open … if your heart gets closed, that is ALL on you. Your closed heart is not the other person’s responsibility, no matter what it is that they have done … only you can keep your heart open.
Had I not taken this series of actions, I would most likely have had a closed heart for the entire day. I may have grown resentful and held on to that hurt feeling until such a time where I could express it … in such a scenario, the likelihood would be that such an occasion would not conclude positively. A closed heart acting in a reactionary way is never going to result in the other person having an open heart … negative does not beget positive. Love is the only force that produces Love … if what you want is Love? Well, you’d better look at the conditions you are basing that on … and let go of them. If there are conditions what you have is not really Love (with a capital L).
Peace and Love.
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– This post is an addendum to a prior post, “Unconditional Love!”.
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Religion4All is an idea: that every human being (no matter their race, religion, sexuality, social status, lifestyle, or any other possible factor) is LOVED by God; just … as … they are.
We all are loved by God, and NO religion or person has a monopoly on it. Every single person on this planet is loved equally by God … SO many are cut off from God because they are told they don’t belong. God loves everyone … we ALL are beautiful creations … we don’t need to cringe when we hear the words “God”, or “religion”, or their judgments … God LOVES us all!
There is no requirement to change in order to be LOVED by God, or to LOVE God. God is LOVE, and LOVE is God … period. There is no one who God loves more than anyone else … there are only those who choose to LOVE more … to love God more, and consequently then to love each other more. In doing so, we grow closer to God … and know God.
By opening our hearts, and minds to God (free of boundaries like religion, or social trends); by LOVING God … we are exactly where we are meant to be. If we maintain that openness, never allowing any person or event to make us close our hearts, we will be guided by God to be who we are meant to be.
In that space of openness we can then live a life of LOVE, and be guided to where we are meant to be … forever in LOVE.
Southern California, Northern California, Mission Viejo, Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Marin, San Jose, San Juan Capistrano, Santa Ana, Palm Springs, Long Beach