"Prospering Power of Love"

We cross the Infinite with every step and encounter the eternal with every second.

Rabindranath Tagore

The connection of love is total. In love, difference disappears and the human soul accomplishes its object in perfection, exceeding its own boundaries and traversing the threshold of infinity.

Rabindranath Tagore

I'd like to share a story contained in the writings of Anthony deMello ( Awareness.) As with most stories, it has many layers of significance beyond the obvious humorous intent.

"There was a man who went to the priest and said, "Father, I want you to say a Mass for my dog." The priest was indignant. "What do you mean, say a Mass for your dog?" It's my pet dog," said the man. "I loved that dog and I'd like you to offer a Mass for him." The priest said, "We don't offer Masses for dogs here. You might try the denomination down the street. Ask them if they might have a service for you." As the man was leaving, he said to the priest, "Too bad. I really loved that dog. I was planning to offer a million-dollar stipend for the Mass." And the priest said, "Wait a minute, you never told me your dog was Catholic."

While this story speaks of love in a very upbeat humorous manner, it can also be construed to be viewed in a somewhat negative manner. Our work is to recognize that when love is given a label, such as having a financial value or comes with some kind of attachment, it causes many people to misperceive it in the outer world. When we attach a specific love value to a person, place, thing or circumstance, and we do not see the underlying dimensions that genuinely reflect its essence, we lose sight of the purpose or the real connection love offers us as flowing from the Source of All Life.

Writers of every persuasion write of love's impact. From poets to painters, and from sinners to saints, the stories are colorful, difficult, kaleidoscopic, transformative, purifying, healing, life changing, life altering and bring people from around the world into a commonality that allows us to truly recognize a single thread, or bond that unites us. The label of that bond is often called love.

The greatest spiritual teachers that have ever walked the planet affirm love as the very heart of life ... Jesus is reputed to have said, "A new commandment do I give you. Love your neighbor as yourself." And again, "Love one another."

The teacher Sai Baba (India) says, "Understand that the purpose of life is to know the embodiment of love, namely God, through love and demonstrate through your own love that you have known him. When you enter into the love of God, His compassion will flow into you."

When we say that love prospers us, what ideas are we invited to reflect upon? Some considerations follow.

1. To love more fully, bless all sentient beings. Include all races, cultures, religious groups and gatherings, of all persuasions. Quite literally, exclude no-one. All of humankind carries a divine fragment, and each being awaits his opportunity to discover the dormant divine spark of life within. If we bless each person we individually meet, then no-one can "steal our thunder." No-one can take anything from us... for indeed, we each await a moment in life, in which we can discover who we are. All we need is a gentle "push," nudging or thrust to encourage the resident inner forces to be set free, and that can and does happen, anywhere, anytime with anyone.

2. To prosper means to flourish. When we love another human being either in a very personal, intimate, romantic, sensual sense or in a more broad based manner such as a friendship, or what is defined as a spiritual relationship, we experience an inner expansion that allows us to be more aware of them and of ourselves. We feel alive, excited to be on the planet. We feel purposeful, hopeful and enthused about our life. We are encouraged to take risks, try a new idea, learn a new skill, or explore an avenue of our interest heretofore not considered. In short, we thrive, we flourish, as we expand into a new dimension of our soul when the grace and gift of love touches our life. As we experience a transformation, our horizons change, shift and clouds lift from the outer screen of life to reveal an inner splendor. Truly prospering here implies a flourishing that brings good in many forms into our life.

3. No one being knows the range or scope of the dimensionality of love. The Course in Miracles suggests according to author Dr. Jerry Jampolsky that Love Is the Letting Go of Fear. I suspect that until we awaken sufficiently, waiting until we are a bit more conscious of our inner nature, the challenge of entering into love's domain is somewhat akin to travel in an airplane or crossing the ocean in an ocean liner. Such experiences, if we have ever traveled in either of the two avenues just mentioned, require us to trust all the men, woman, professional (or otherwise) who invite us to make such a journey. Only when we give permission to make such a commitment to ourselves can the journey be one that enables us to know what inner and outer gifts may emerge! Love is an inner journey and involves risk and deep trust, giving an internal permission to ourselves to learn something of what the larger invitation to love invites!

Finally, Love prospers us when we honor ourselves. How do we accomplish this? By keeping our agreements with ourselves. Simple agreements, simple steps ... like eating less or making more healthful choices and then doing so; following through with commitments, simple, small and often not significant, if viewed by others. But any agreements with others always begin with an agreement/contract with oneself! If we keep an agreement with ourselves first and foremost, then we will have a basis for keeping any agreements with others.

As we honor business arrangements, financial obligations as well as others, social duties and personal chores we show respect to ourselves. We "catch" ourselves finishing a project, fulfilling a promise made to ourselves and/or to another and the cycle continues.

We build a life, a step at a time, hour by hour, day by day. The many whys of life, the larger questions are often answered by allowing ourselves... to continue to explore the activity that life invites and see where it takes us. As with so much of life, love is a journey, not a destination. It is an unfolding, a flowering that like a rose, graces us with petal after petal of beauty, one petal at a time. We cannot force it, push it, manage or manipulate it. It has it's unique rhythm. Our task is to be open to our own soul's rhythm in its unfolding - each and every day.