Inner Work

For the week of October 29, 2007

Global Unity in God

(Part 9 of 9 in the Inner Work series The Stages of Love)

The ultimate level of love opens us to the deepest truth of unity, wherein the realization dawns that all human beings are children of our Common Father. The Divine Will is One, but differentiates like white light through a prism into the unique rays that form the free core of each individual person. Trace our will through any of us back to its Source and you find the One Will, which we all share. From that Source we have our freedom, including the freedom to love. In that Source we have our global unity. Our individual uniqueness achieves full-flower through our conscious participation in the Great Uniqueness, in the Great Heart of Love.

In the deepest of meditations, beyond thought and sensation, beyond the stillness of consciousness, beyond the Divine Light, contemplating Love, we may at times be embraced by Love Itself. We become Love. We enter the Great Heart of the World and It surrounds and suffuses us with Love, a love that we may carry into life. We may even learn to walk in Love, aware that everything around us is a manifestation of the One Will. Behind every part of this fantastically elaborate world is the Sacred One, Who loves all and Who can love through us with our participation.

Love is always one-to-one. But in global unity our love is no longer limited to a particular small subset of beings, such as our family. That one-to-one relationship of love expands into the big, inclusive tent of Love: one-to-every-one.

Entry into that big tent depends on purity of heart and openness to the Sacred One. We begin where we are, at whatever stage of love we occupy. Along the way, as we practice love, we may even enjoy rare, eternal moments of the heights of Love. But all the while, our true connection with the Sacred Source remains constant, albeit hidden behind the scenes.

Of the many mistakes we tend to make about love, three stand out:

First, we tend to confuse Love with need and attachment. Jealousy, possessiveness, anxiety, and anger follow such self-centered love like a shadow. Real Love asks for nothing in return. The privilege of Loving is itself enough. One relationship, though, can be about self-centered love at certain times and true Love at others. Indeed, the former can move us toward the latter.

Second, we assume that Love is easy and that we have it, so that no effort toward love is required of us. But the truth is that to come to Love we must leave behind its false manifestations such as jealousy, envy, possessiveness, anger, the wish to control, making demands, and setting conditions. We practice giving from our core and letting go of our desire to take and to hold on.

Third, the more deeply we see our lack of Love, the more we may doubt our ability to Love. But any normal person truly and unconditionally Loves his or her children. We have this capacity in us, though it may be hidden by the more superficial layers of our personality patterns and emotional reactions. Given that we can Love, we need only allow ourselves to Love.

At heart, our very nature is Love. To become ourselves means to become Love — uniquely, individually, joyously. Toward this, in all our dealings with living beings, we aspire to Love.

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