Higher Love

Last week I got into a debate on the definition of love.  I feel that higher love is always a good thing, that feeling love towards someone can only help the world and bring more joy and understanding into the world.  The one debating with me disagreed, saying that love causes war, death, pain, suffering, and more strife than any other thing in the world.  The idea was that love is the root cause of most great tragedies throughout history.  I thought that it was not love, but jealousy, envy, anger, unrequited wanting and yearning, and ownership that causes these things, not true, higher love.  The discussion ended abruptly that we would have to agree to disagree.  I was very vexed and sad after this conversation.

Earlier this week I was reading Gabrielle Bernstein’s quote from the Course of Miracles, lesson 153  “For in my defenselessness my safety lies” 

Here, the lesson of love is that we never have to defend ourselves, our actions (whether right or wrong), our position.  Bernstein quotes the adage, “Would you rather be right or be happy?”  I found this particularly ironic as my husband quotes this as "would you rather be right or be married."  I guess happily married is implied here, but it somehow lost some of its meaning and makes it sound like you are married to the proverbial ball and chain-- agreeing with your spouse for the sake of not arguing.  LOL!  When we put down the sword of self-righteous and justification, when we no longer need to be right or valued or approved of in order to have self-worth, we can just be happy and set out of the fight.  It is the fight that rages within us that is the problem.  

Yesterday in yoga, the instructor talked about always taking criticism as a learning opportunity  no matter what state of mind it came from and how it was intended to be taken.  It is an opportunity to monitor your responses.  Are you suddenly defensive?  Then it is an opportunity to change yourself, your thoughts, your responses.  You always have room to grow, change, learn, and become a better conduit of earth and sky—A conduit flowing full of spirit.  My. mind. was. blown! 

 Today Thorn Coyle brought up committing to spreading love and choosing to love even in the face of hatred and strife.  Thorn expands the idea of love to include the just causes that we are passionate about.  What do you stand for?  How to you make love more abundant in the world?  Through this we heal ourselves and each other.

I am so happy to have this lesson come up for me, be illustrated several ways, and I waas even be given opportunities to practice what I am learning this week.  It is so much easier to integrate lasting, deep change when we are conscious enough to see the lesson being taught.  I give credit to the meditation I have been slogging through daily.  Cheers!