To
suppose that the Creative Intelligence of the world would create woman in
bondage and leave her bound would be to dishonor that Creative Power which
we call God. On the other hand, to suppose that God could make woman as an
individual, without leaving her to discover herself, would be to suppose an
impossibility. Individuality must be spontaneous and can never be automatic.
The seed of freedom must be hid within the shell of the human. But, like the
Prodigal Son of old, woman must make the great discovery for herself.
Although the journey may at times seem hard and the burden too great to
bear, woman still feels within a subtle sense, a mystical presence, a divine
Reality. Thus, the inherent nature of herself is forever seeking to express
itself in terms of freedom. We will do well to listen to this inner voice,
for it tells us of a life wonderful in its scope, of a love beyond our
fondest dreams, of a freedom which the soul craves.
But
the great love of the universe must be one with the great law of Its own
Being, and we must approach love through the law.
This,
then, is the teaching,-Love and Law. As the love of God is perfect, so the
law of God is also perfect. We must understand both. "Who hath ears to
hear, let her hear." i
"Do
not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you
the Kingdom."
Luke
12:32
The
day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and
gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love.
And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we
shall have discovered fire.
Pierre
Teilhard de Chardin
The
Mastery of Love Begins in a Dream
Remember
that old song that begins "Life is but a dream sweetheart?"
What if that truly is the case? In
the Four Agreements, Don Miguel Ruiz shares with us four agreements that
organize and assist us with the manner in which we effectively and
authentically can deal with the "dream" that life is.
This notion that we are living in a dream is borne out in many of the
different wisdom traditions. I no
longer remember the source which I now paraphrase, though I suspect it to be
the Upanishads, "A human being is God sleeping, and God is that same man
or woman awake." Last week
we worked on distinguishing between what is real, that which is eternal, and
that which is appearance, which is anything that changes.
Dreams, as Ruiz describes them, are a part of that which changes.
The Four Agreements are tools to help us in the process of personal
transformation. Let's review them
since they provide us with a foundation for The Mastery of Love.
1.
Be impeccable with your word. When we recognize that our word ultimately
creates our reality, we see the imperative nature of being impeccable, of
being above reproach, in what we say and believe about
God, Life itself, ourselves and others.
2.
Don't take anything personally. Worrying about what others are thinking
puts up barriers against giving and receiving love. No power in the world can change who we are, we are the
children of a loving God.
3.
Don't make assumptions. Come to each moment with spiritual curiosity.
Who is your spouse, your child, your boss, your self?
Nothing is static. The mystery of life unfolds endlessly, new in
every moment.
[Story
about the "newspaper lady."]
4.
Always do your best. Life will always present us with new challenges to
stretch us into a new best. Best is about bettering our personal best,
always stepping into the next realm and deepening our ability to love.
The
thing I notice about this Toltec wisdom is that it leads to the same place all
the other mystical traditions lead us, to the recognition and practice of Love
and Law. Just on the face of what
I just said, you can see that Love would be more accessible.
So, what does Love mean?
When
we look inside the great religions of the world, where the differences melt,
we find that every one of them teaches us that we're here to learn the lesson
of Divine Love, to really learn how to love one another and to love God. And
when we wonder how to do that, all we have to do is look at the content of our
lives where the lesson of love is trying to be made known for us.
That's where God's shows up for us, in the everyday of our lives.
That's where we find the holy encounter - always an encounter with
Love, the essential element out of which all is made.
The
opportunity for perfect love is given to us every day. All we have to do is
look at a circumstance that feels imperfect and recognize it as a gift.
We can take whatever faces us and find the good. This is what happens
when we don't assume that we know what someone else is saying or that we
understand what they are doing and why. We
can take whatever is in our hearts and find perfect love.
In John 15, we read: "As the Father loved Me, I also have loved
you; abide in My love...that your joy may be full."
Love
and intimacy are the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well. I am
not aware of any other factor in medicine - not diet, not smoking, not
exercise... not drugs, not surgery - that has a greater impact on our
quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death."ii
Dean
Ornish
When we take things
personally, that is, when we fail to see the Love in each and everything, we
make our selves sick or unhappy. We
all wish to be loved and appreciated and finally, it comes down to our
willingness to allow ourselves to experience Love no matter what is going on.
If we choose to be loving, if we choose to find the Love in each and
every experience we cannot help but increase the Love that each and every
person around us experiences in Life. In
the afterglow, we bring warmth first to ourselves and then, as if in the wake
of a boat, the same generous emotion that we have chosen for ourselves,
without any further effort on our parts, washes over those around us.
In each and every religious tradition we are told to begin with
ourselves before we move on with any plans to extend our wisdom to others.
I
am not suggesting self-indulgent, sentimental greeting card behaviors toward
oneself, but a difficult practice of being with Life the way that it is and
appreciating the expression of Love in each and everything that comes your
way. By choosing to BE Loving, we
choose to be challenged, to demonstrate what we believe at bottom: that life
is Good. This is not something that we immediately accept, but is generally
felt as a hope, a dream for how life could be.
We have to persistently practice this until we can wholeheartedly
accept that life is Good, that all is Love.
Morrie Schwartz said to his friend Mitch:
"The
most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it
come in."
His
voice dropped to a whisper. "Let it come in. We think we don't deserve
love, we think if we let it in we'll become too soft. But a wise man named
Levine said it right. He said, 'Love is the only rational act.'"iii
As
an expression of Love, the Four Agreements that don Miguel Ruiz has shared
with the world are the beginning of Love, they are a challenge, and the space
into which we step when we recognize that all is Love and that first we truly
must begin with ourselves. Living
with these four agreement naturally leads us to the realization of a
state of mind that honors the idea that life is essentially good, that Love is
all, these practices give us methods to recognize God in everything, and the
fourth and final agreement, to do ones best, allows us to avoid
self-condemnation, the road to ruin for all great ideas.
We
have to remember to be like little kids, doing our best to learn something
that we do not know. I remember
learning to bake, I remember rubbery tire-like angel food cakes that were
anything but angelic. I remember
burnt cookies and other cooking disasters, but I did learn to cook well, I did
learn to master the ingredients in the kitchen, and just as I was able to do
that I know for myself and I know for you that we can also do this, that we
can be the Masters of Love.
"There
is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer;
no
disease that enough love will not heal;
no
door that enough love will not open;
no
gulf that enough love will not bridge;
no
wall that enough love will not throw down;
no
sin that enough love will not redeem."
Emmet
Fox, Sermon on the Mount
"I
believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy...
From
my own limited experience I have found that the greatest degree of inner
tranquility comes from the development of love and
compassion.
The
more we care for the happiness of others, the greater our own sense of
well-being becomes. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others
automatically puts the mind at ease. This helps remove whatever fears or
insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any
obstacles we encounter. It is the ultimate source of success in life."
H.
H. Dalai Lama
Ernest
Holmes used to begin his radio talks by starting with the statement which I
leave you with today: "There is a power for good in the universe, greater
than you are, and you can use it." I invite you today to join with me in
using these Four Agreements to forward your spiritual development.
AFFIRMATION
"Today,
I will be impeccable with my word. I will not take anything personally, I will
not make any assumptions, and I am going to do my best."...Today is the
beginning of a new dream." iv
Thank
you for being here today.
Emerson
Center for
