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Unconditional love is love as
expressed by God. In Unity we
speak of 12 powers or qualities
that make up a fuller human
endowment from God: faith,
strength, discrimination or
judgment, love, power (as in
speaking the Word into
manifestation), imagination,
understanding, will, order, zeal,
renunciation (Unity calls this
denial, the ability to say "no,")
life conserver (the generative
function associated with
creativity.) They are all
unconditional because they are
God qualities!
If a person were able to
express all of these qualities
unconditionally, he would have no
unresolved nor unresolvable
problems.
Approaching love as
unconditional, in the light of
what I have just written, is
helpful when, at this present
time of collective unfoldment for
our human family, we struggle to
be loving in facing life when
there are still plenty of
problems to solve.
Already a lot of insight is
contained in the concept of
"tough love." The correct
interpretation is that we want to
make sure we are using good
judgment and wisdom and
understanding (to name a short
list) so that our attempts to
love will strengthen and guide
and help others rather than
weakening them or seeming to
condone destructive behavior.
Bully for the loving parent
who understands that discipline
teaches good behavior and turns
out to be the best of being
loving. Story after story tell us
of how thankful children are when
they receive loving discipline
from their parents and teachers.
Football coaches who express
loving discipline, not brutality,
are the ones who are loved. Often
the players are mainly playing
for such a coach. This is true of
course in other sports.
A very practical way to set
our goal to express love
unconditionally is to realize
that to do so now when there is
still so much learning and
growing necessary for a
consistent performance, love
actually transcends feelings of
dislike, misunderstanding, being
hurt or mistreated. Working with
the unconditional love ideal
makes it possible to go beyond
typical reactions, learning that
any attempts at love are way
better than to express ugliness,
retaliation, or hostility. There
may be cracks in this love, but
the other expressions produce
unsatisfactory results every
time. A little bit of love often
helps! You know how you feel when
someone at least attempts to be
loving rather than argumentative
or spiteful.
So what I'm saying is that
every quality we share as God's
human expression of Himself is
unconditional, not just love, and
we will gradually get better and
better results as we work with
the faith that our destiny is to
be able to express them all
without a blemish. It doesn't
look to be in our grasp now, but
let's know it is within our
reach. (I learned that one from
my high-school football coach!)
What he meant, of course, was
that we need to try. If it is
within our reach, an extra effort
might get it within our grasp! So
let us open wide our hands and
heart!
The people of South Africa
joined together to believe that
it is actually within our grasp
if we will be willing to go all
the way. In reconciling with
people who had been enemies, who
had committed all kinds of crimes
against humanity, the South
Africans said to each other: We
are brothers and sisters
regardless of the color of our
skin or any other seeming
obstacle. Love is unconditional,
so we will love each other with
no reservations. Then we will
work out the remaining problems.
This is one of the most
significant examples of how
unconditional love can work if it
is really practiced. It may be
the greatest example in human
history.
Reducing the whole matter to a
somewhat simpler point of view,
we may look at it this way:
Expressing love and all of our
God-given qualities as
unconditional depends upon our
own spiritual unfoldment rather
than changes in others. When
we're expressing God's nature
more wholly, others are going to
look a lot more winsome to us -
and think of how winsome we are
becoming!
NOTE: In my website essay of
June, 2005, titled "SOME
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES FOR
CHARLES FILLMORE'S TWELVE POWERS
OF MAN," there is much
significant information
concerning the yoga chakra system
and the Jewish Kabbalah and yoga
system called the Ophanim. This
is from a Times Colonist
interview with Rabbi Itzchak
Marmorstein and Professor Kitty
Hoffman of the University of
Victoria. This helps us
understand what Mr. Fillmore
(co-founder of Unity) means by
the 12 powers.
Don
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