Make me an instrument of Love.
Deepen my ability to give
and to receive
precious gifts of the Spirit
made manifest by encounters
of Love.
Love without fears
Love without walls
Love with full connection.
Love that is free to blossom and grow.
Make me an instrument of Love
as I nurture sacred pastures
in the present and eternal landscapes
of Life.
One can experience love through one’s default settings.
or
One can choose to mindfully experience love through co-created mutually-honoring practices of love.
How can you tell the difference?
Quite simply:
How you feel.
How you feel is the indicator of and signal for what the basis of your experience is.
If you are feeling lonely, or sad, or angry,
or disconnected, or anxious, or ambivalent,
or tired, or numb
you are experiencing love through your default settings.
If you are feeling happy, centered, calm
eager, enthusiastic, energetic,
comfortable,
connected, at peace
and free,
you are experiencing love through practices of love.
And the missing piece in much of the rationalizations of new thought material about what love is, and what it is not, is the simple truth that loving is something that is co-created.
This is not to discount ancient texts or modern-day adaptations of age-old insights on individual practices of connection to Spirit and self-love.
What I am talking about is the dilution of the capital T truth of love in all its aspects and the replacement of interconnectedness under the guise of self-sufficiency.
As many of our new thought didactics do. They dilute love. Discount it even to accommodate their assessments on reality, their assessments on what best practices are for living, or more accurately stated: their assessments on what fastest routes are for achieving enlightened states of being.
The great irony of their dilutions and single-focused pursuits for becoming more than human, is that they are Ego-led. Becoming brilliant distractions and detractors from the experience of living in the present.
A Course in Miracles (ACIM), for example, has many wonderful insights that whether or not you believe it is inspired from Christ, or is channeled, or is simply secularly offered when applied and practiced is beneficial to our daily lives. It is a manuscript at its core about love. Yet some interpretations of it glosses over the key elements of love.
Specifically familial love, parental love and romantic love.
Some interpretations stigmatizes them.
Especially if reading only some excerpts or passages without full context. Because some of these can, at a passing glance, appear to diverge sharply from the intended teaching until the student goes beyond the surface of the lesson and reaches a deeper understanding of the significance of the message.
Let’s look at romantic love since that is something that comes up alot for many who find their way to this blog.
Much in the same way fundamentalist Christians through their narrow and selective interpretations of the Bible choose to implant feelings of sinfulness on out-of-wedlock sexual relations and same gender love relations, some would have us believe that ACIM writers indicate through their concepts of “special love” that there is something fundamentally wrong with those feelings of extraordinary connection that we experience that are
- beyond what we’ve experienced with others
- more than what we experience with others
- better than what we experience with others
And some ACIM interpreters (not to mention students) find themselves in a double bind about this.
For they point to what is taught is that all is love.
Love is all there is; anything else is illusion. Love is love. And it is all the same because we are all One.
Because we are all One, it is reasoned that feelings of specialness in our connections with others is a symptom of our false belief in separation.
They have come to believe this with certainty.
Yet, they also know for certain there are different aspects of love.
Some love is different than other love.
It is.
And this truth cannot be escaped.
As such, there is no reconciling the polarity this creates in their strivings towards unity.
So when one who wishes to cultivate practices (and feelings) in alignment with these kinds of interpretations of ACIM messages, and such one experiences the kind of love connection that is different than others, they can become triggered by the recognition that this love is ‘special.’
For “special love” is, according to surface interpretations of ACIM, a manifestation of fear and of hate. Because “special love” is a way for Ego to create feelings of separation.
Since they are on paths seeking unity not separation, they reason all sorts of things:
- this love must not be what it feels like it is – this “special love” must be an indicator that they are off course,
- there must be something wrong with them for them to feel this “special love” for their beloved,
- there must be something wrong with their beloved for them to feel this “special love” for them,
- there must be a reason for them to feel this way that is opposite of the love they think they feel – so look for ways to discount and discredit it.
Often times this analytical process turns toward suspicions, anger, judgements. Left unchecked, mean outlashes and accusations toward their beloved can occur as fear is being allowed to override the love and push it away. Which of course will often ramify with triggered responses from their beloved.
Even in their “conscious” attempts to cognizantly dissect the situation and mindfully realign themselves, they do not realize that they have blinded themselves to the miracle of what has been made manifest.
They are operating on default settings instead of through practices of love.
That is evident in the new feelings of pain and struggle that are dueling with (and inevitably replacing) the feelings of joy and ease.
And the spiral and loops commence.
Blissful experiences with deep love, triggering encounters with mental reasonings that “special love” is bad, igniting fear-in-action rather than love-in-action.
Yet, this is not what is being taught in ACIM about love at all.
Yes, “special love” has become a trigger word-combination for those in ACIM circles.
But it need not be.
“Special love” is not bad, and it need not feed fear; and it need never turn into hate.
“Special love” is an indicator that you have merged with someone with whom you could co-create a Holy Relationship with. And this can be what is made manifest as long as you move forward with co-creating a Holy Relationship as the mutual goal.
Because this person we feel this “special love” for and with comes equipped to meet whichever destiny we choose to mutually unfold together – the choice is up to us whether it become bad-special love (fear/Ego-default-settings/restrictions) or Holy-relationship love (authentic-being/love-in-action/enlightened-unity/freedom).
The miracle is at our fingertips when we choose Holy Love.
When we recognize this, we open the doorway to the Holy Instant, and perpetual Holy Instances, that we can experience with someone that instills in us these feelings of extraordinary connection, of extraordinary love.
We have two choices:
We can allow ourselves to become triggered, identify it as bad-special, begin to question the validity of it, begin to question our paths and our feelings – which will only trigger more doubts and make manifest into our reality more confirmation of such doubts.
OR
We can gratefully accept this miracle as a direct answer to our prayers for confirmation of being One with all, and seek to cultivate a Holy Relationship with the one who evokes such feelings of extraordinary connection and love. And look for ways that we are meant to collaborate in joint Special Function with each other and for the world. Thus, extending to the world the holiness that has blessed the relationship.
Whichever path we choose, the Universe will provide us with confirmation that we are correct.
Because every day we are presented with confirmations of what we believe.
That is a fulcrum of our non-duality, our Oneness, our unity made manifest on Earth.
Love is our mission, our miracle and our choice.
