The following was written and printed in a publication in San Diego in the 1970’s under the Buy Line, Awareness. I continue to write and update material on this topic.
Transforming Love
I notice something wonderful happening in the world around me. Because of the way I view things, people look different to me, and it seems like everything is working. Life presents the most extraordinary opportunities as long as I am open to them. The moment I resist a new experience, I rip myself off from ever knowing the joy that awaits me on the other side of wonder.
It hasn’t always been this way for me. In my estimation my father was a very conservative man, although he claimed to be a liberal. Perhaps at that time in history, he might have been considered a rebel by those even more conservative than he was, but I was of a different time and started out not willing to be satisfied with constrictions and limitations. I wanted to live in a peaceful world that would offer unlimited opportunities for every one. I even believed I could fly. My father, on the other hand, believed that we, as human beings, are limited and restricted to what we could accomplish, how much money we could make, how wealthy we could be, our personal happiness and even how much love we are entitled to have, or give, or to whom.
My father was my teacher, and because I loved and respected him, I decided he was right. Looking at the world from that point of view, there was certainly a lot going on to support that philosophy. So somewhere along the way I abandoned my ideals of living in a perfect world filled with love, and I even forgot that there was indeed a time when I knew I could fly. I really closed myself off from living by believing that this was true.
After a while, I noticed that by looking at life this way, I had also given up my personal happiness and natural joy I had as a child for just being alive. I went from enthusiasm to apathy. The thrilling, exciting exuberant way I attacked life was gone. I no longer looked forward to awakening to a bright new day. Instead of bounding out of bed each morning, I’d pull the covers further over my head, creating more darkness, prolonging the day’s beginning. This went on for years until one morning I awoke is such a depressed state that I made an irreversible decision not to ever live that way again. At that moment I began a process of re-learning and re-programming that after many years, brought me to the philosophy from which I now live every moment of my life.
Love is no longer something I need to search for. I thought it was outside my Self, so I read books to find it there, I looked for people I could get it from, I even went to India to continue my quest. It wasn’t until I re-discovered the natural love that comes from within me that my search ended. I used to think love was an emotion that was the opposite of hate. For me, it is merely a state of Being and coming from that point of view, I realize now I don’t even have a choice about it. If my state of Being is love, then that is what I do, and it doesn’t matter who is the recipient.
Can you imagine yourself looking at life from this point of view? I tell you, as a result of my willingness to do this, all the confusion that I had about love is gone and I feel incredibly free.
I encourage you to do what I did and barrel through the fear and misinterpretations you may have about love. Tell yourself that everyone loves you and that you love everyone no matter what it looks like. Start behaving as if this was the truth and after a while you’ll notice that it is. In this way we’ll all have the opportunity of making a contribution to the world working. And I love you!
