Principles of Sacred Consciousness, Principle Three – Discovering Our True Essence as Love
“Love heals fear and is the most unifying force in the universe. Giving and receiving God’s love is the highest form of consecrated spiritual commitment. As we take more risks in living love’s expression in our lives, we broaden the river of love that flows through us toward all of humanity. In this way, we heal the Earth as we heal ourselves.
The first step begins with us. With each thought of self-judgment that arises we can choose to focus not on blame, but on forgiving ourselves. We can respond to ourselves with patience and tenderness rather than criticism. We can take an active part in the transformation of ourselves through basic self-care and through efforts to unconditionally love ourselves. These efforts are manifested through self-nurturing behaviors and through the ever-widening expression of the truth of who we are.
This loving attitude toward ourselves is the precondition for genuine love toward others. For love toward others needs to grow toward its Divine expression. It needs to outgrow its basis in personal need and become an outflowing of energy that is unconditional. When we know that our expression of love is no longer dependent on the response we may or may not get from another, we have moved a great distance toward the capacity to feel and to be the embodiment of our Divine essence.”
I’ve been immersed in this passage for weeks. The possibility of tangibly experiencing Divine love in my body has increased greatly over the course of my working with the Principles. I can physically feel waves of love passing through my heart and radiating throughout my body – clearing away density and limiting thoughts or smaller emotions. I experience myself inhaling God’s love, and feel it’s nourishing warmth cascade out from my chest to my extremities.
I believe that this increased sensitivity to light has come mostly as a result of strengthening my commitment to alignment over the past few weeks. It started with a commitment to sit and align my heart with God every morning, and two to three additional times per day – sometimes alone and sometimes with support from others. Out of this, something seamlessly arose – I started just remembering God throughout my days at random times. I started remembering my devotion, my aspiration to fully join my heart with God’s Heart and fully and completely align with the flow of Holy Breath that pours fourth from Heaven and progressively illuminates the Earth. As I remember, I attune my heart to this experience of aspiration, and am met by Divine love and light surrounding and infusing me.
But the last paragraph of the passage still feels like a frontier for me. When I meet people, I still mostly habitually withdraw or descend into a small version of myself. Instead of meeting people with love, and experiencing myself as a conduit for God’s love, I squeeze myself into a role and say what I think is expected of me. I definitely notice less of a propensity to worry about peoples’ response to me, and more of a feeling of being grounded in who I am. But I clearly have work to do in becoming more conscious of where the fear of being seen is rooted, and why I feel the need for self-protection and withdrawal. As I move into an exploration of the Fourth Principle, I will surely have many opportunities to examine these things.
thelivinglight 