There are times when we totally love God, and then there are other times. I grew up with the command to love God with all my heart and mind and soul and strength. The command was not presented in a fearsome and judgmental context, but in a kind and gentle way. It registered on my mind, and I sometimes felt not quite right when I was not doing this. But no one ever introduced me to a way to do it. Eventually I realized that we need an on-ramp to love, indeed many on-ramps, and I found some that worked for me. Actually the entire truth, beauty, and goodness program of personal growth represents such an on-ramp. But the time finally came (today) when I sought a more direct approach.
If we explore the meaning of this command in each of its four aspects, and if we then make a personal and wholehearted decision to do pour forth this love immediately upon gaining a glimmer of understanding of each aspect–when that love begins to pour forth–then a new kind of fulfillment can break through.
The heart, as I interpret it is our motivational center. It represents our commitment to the values that motivate our decisions about what to do. These values are not simply our ideals for ourselves, but the values that actually operate in daily life. After working on truth, beauty, and goodness for a long time, it becomes easy to commit to these values as supreme. But there’s a frontier that remains: secondary values. Noticing ourselves reacting to situations in ways that don’t feel quite right, we make the adjustment so that the secondary value aligns with the primary value and with the source of values: love. For example, we exchange a loving attitude for an inward frown (prompted by seeming to recognize the lack of a particular value in someone). We remember: oh, this person, like each of us, is a divinely created, infinitely loved, spiritually indwelt, evolutionary, free-will son or daughter of God. Our Father’s spirit is in this person, and we can love him in the other person.
The mind is the place where we study to gain a better understanding of other people and of the divine ways. The Creator does not merely give us a mind to struggle with on our own, stumbling by chance into using it successfully or failing miserably. There is divine ministry to the mind. In the variety of activities that arise from day to day, we engage functions of mind in which we can learn to seek and find God and the creation. Think of the mind’s scientific, moral, and spiritual gears, and functions of mind that we share with other creatures. We can relax the mind and allow intuition to dawn, perhaps after investigating and reflecting in the light of reason. In these ways, our thinking gradually becomes a little better day by day. And when we wholeheartedly dedicate our mind to loving God, to sustaining that love all day long, and to putting other mental activities into the encompassing framework of love, changes begin to appear right away.
The soul is beyond the mind. It is the true self, where no mask disguises our authentic and emerging status as children of God. When we leave behind for a while being centered in the mind and center instead in the soul, our relationship with God becomes more simple. We can love in a quieter and gentler way, or in a more vigorous and profound way than we conventionally do when we are not centered soulfully. Today’s story about loving God is about a very happy time. But it is essential to include a side that is less featured in popular religion and spirituality. Friendship with God is not only for the joyous times. In the soul we can weep and mourn and ponder serious matters without needing to hurry to put on a happy face. We do not need to keep up appearances, but we do need to abide in the truth of our relationship with the Father’s spirit presence. In and as soul, one step closer to God, we stay connected. We can express celebratory discoveries of truth, beauty, and goodness—or the agony of the lack of these values—and when the time is right we emerge into back into the light. In the soul we can silently enjoy the back and forth of receiving and returning the Father’s love; we can communicate in wordless pulses and feel (albeit dimly) the divine response in the values that gleam in the worshipful and gratefully attentive mind. When as soul we thoroughly commit to loving God, that beautiful wholeness of sincerity is more powerful than a commitment rooted only in the mind.
To love God with all our strength implies a commitment to steadfastness over time, no matter what challenges arise. This is where cosmic stamina comes in. When we sense any shrinking back from wholehearted love in this dimension, we turn to the area which we are reluctant about and mobilize our commitment to love in that type of situation too.
Thanks to divine spirit uplifting my own mortal efforts, I must have reached a sufficient alignment by today to be ready to make this unified and multidimensional commitment. This is a way of saying that one cannot simply achieve a great decision by following a written description regardless of one’s prior preparation and maturity. It’s not like putting a coin in a juke box and getting the music automatically. Nevertheless, I cannot help believe there is tremendous power for anyone in the wholehearted determination to break through the barrier that separates us from loving of God fully. Each person’s breakthrough will be unique, no matter how the descriptions may vary or overlap. In the end there is not much to say, since words cannot convey the nuances of value feelings and the gestures of heart, mind, soul, and body, some unremembered, some inexpressible.
Photo credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/18/WOW_Torah_Reading.jpg/1280px-WOW_Torah_Reading.jpg
Somehow reading this left me with a feeling of peaceful, spiritual anticipation. It reminds me that we are all part of something – a story, for lack of a better word – so rich and real and transcendent in its divine beauty.
Thank you.
Beloved Darren, after my absence of over two months from this forum, to see your ready comment is deeply encouraging.
Somehow reading this left me with a feeling of peaceful, spiritual anticipation. It reminds me that we are all part of something – a story, for lack of a better word – so rich and real and transcendent in its divine beauty.
Thank you.
Beloved Darren, after my absence of over two months from this forum, to see your ready comment is deeply encouraging.
Thanks, Jeff! Your posts always seem to be just what I need.
And your appreciation makes me feel warm and comfortable. My current coach told me to put the full address of the website on social media so people would come here to the blog site. That way comments shared become part of the ongoing conversation that others can join and sense that they are not just peeking into something isolated in cyberspace.
Thanks, Jeff! Your posts always seem to be just what I need.
And your appreciation makes me feel warm and comfortable. My current coach told me to put the full address of the website on social media so people would come here to the blog site. That way comments shared become part of the ongoing conversation that others can join and sense that they are not just peeking into something isolated in cyberspace.
Thanks brother Jeff for sharing that rich description of your efforts and finally your determination to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. From my own experience, I know that such an achievement is not a decision that is made lightly or arrived at lightly. It takes much reflection upon past and presence experiences and growth.
I think that it is a matter of appreciation of the love that God has for us that eventually causes us to cross the line of total dedication to loving God supremely. And when such a decision is arrived at through the many avenues of getting there, a peace comes over our soul and our life purpose that passes all understanding. We are then willing to trust him with our deepest and most precious longings and desires. Our faith then instructs us that this is the way to the source of all that is true, beautiful, and good in our experiences.
Thanks again for sharing and further stimulating the desire to know more and more about our loving heavenly Father.
Dr. Perry
I well know that breaking through to a full love of God only makes me a late-comer to a long parade of realized souls in the flow of historical humanity’s procession toward God. But it is especially gratifying to have at hand the ready counsel and support of one who has preceded me in many essential realizations. Your sustained and sustaining participation, in spite of all that you endure, is a continual inspiration to those who know you, Dr. Perry, not least to the long-time readers of this weblog.
Thanks brother Jeff for sharing that rich description of your efforts and finally your determination to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. From my own experience, I know that such an achievement is not a decision that is made lightly or arrived at lightly. It takes much reflection upon past and presence experiences and growth.
I think that it is a matter of appreciation of the love that God has for us that eventually causes us to cross the line of total dedication to loving God supremely. And when such a decision is arrived at through the many avenues of getting there, a peace comes over our soul and our life purpose that passes all understanding. We are then willing to trust him with our deepest and most precious longings and desires. Our faith then instructs us that this is the way to the source of all that is true, beautiful, and good in our experiences.
Thanks again for sharing and further stimulating the desire to know more and more about our loving heavenly Father.
Dr. Perry
I well know that breaking through to a full love of God only makes me a late-comer to a long parade of realized souls in the flow of historical humanity’s procession toward God. But it is especially gratifying to have at hand the ready counsel and support of one who has preceded me in many essential realizations. Your sustained and sustaining participation, in spite of all that you endure, is a continual inspiration to those who know you, Dr. Perry, not least to the long-time readers of this weblog.
Thank you for your insights. It is truly good to see a new post. These four aspects are clear, vital, and worthy of personal examination. Do you find these to be in any way ordered, or hierarchical, so that one leads forth to a richer understanding of the next? The reason I ask is that recently I begun reading Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Fortuitously, I attended a lecture that focused at least in part on this work and its message. Among one of the important messages I gleaned from the book and the lecture is “the sacrament of the present moment”, which, among other things, asks us to “get out of our own heads” and to appreciate what gifts are offered in the present moment, even if what is offered does not seem much like a gift. It spoke to me the message of trust, faith, and love of God and what is given, and that what is offered in this moment — however broadly or narrowly that might be construed — is a unique opportunity for growth. Perhaps growth in the aspects you mentioned above.
Blessings!
Beloved Charles, thank you for your always keen collegial thoughts. I will only say a little in response to the marvelous questions you raise, explicitly and implicitly. First of all, I look for the potential lessons in a sequence to see what I can find, but I am wary of overdoing it; sometimes alternate sequences are very illuminating. In my particular case, to begin with the heart released the flood; the rest came rather easily. I tend to use a path from mind to soul that takes mind to a certain culmination in wisdom (that is my current wisdom synthesis). Wisdom has a quality of overarching simplicity which bridges to the simplicity of soul, in which the mind’s potentially distracting associations of ideas are no longer immanent. And soul’s craving for spirit communion brings one face-to-face, as much as we can experience, with spirit.
Regarding the question of the present moment, certainly the higher experiences on all levels have a quality of enhanced being-present. But I resist the idea of a point-moment. True it is that we can be led astray from presence by worries about past and future; but a great now extends beyond narrow confines. “Now” can refer to the present age, historically or geologically. And within a well-grounded being in the now, we can very well look back and look forward. The wisdom of the now is bolstered by a past-future perspective, lacking which the now risks becoming immature, impulsive, and sensate.
Thank you for your clarification and fruitful response. I recall in class your description of “the now” being much richer and perspective than any given moment. I read de Caussade including the broader sense of the now according to your description. One of his points of wisdom, as I read his fine book, is a call — maybe a need — to move from one perspective to another as needed. The graces and challenges of life exist broadly, and moreover, often our graces are our challenges, and challenges our graces. I take this to be part of his advice. Much more to be said about that, but I believe you hit the nail on the head in your response.
The shifting back and forth between perspectives that I most advocate is between the way of simplicity (call it truth, love, walking in beauty . . .) and paths of thoroughness (such as the seven-fold path in my book: science, philosophy, spiritual experience, nature, the arts, morality, character). Or rather I advocate a unification of these perspectives, where we never leave the way of simplicity as we take some time to travel a path of thoroughness.
I would appreciate your expansion about how graces can be challenges and challenges can be graces.
Thank you for your insights. It is truly good to see a new post. These four aspects are clear, vital, and worthy of personal examination. Do you find these to be in any way ordered, or hierarchical, so that one leads forth to a richer understanding of the next? The reason I ask is that recently I begun reading Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean-Pierre de Caussade. Fortuitously, I attended a lecture that focused at least in part on this work and its message. Among one of the important messages I gleaned from the book and the lecture is “the sacrament of the present moment”, which, among other things, asks us to “get out of our own heads” and to appreciate what gifts are offered in the present moment, even if what is offered does not seem much like a gift. It spoke to me the message of trust, faith, and love of God and what is given, and that what is offered in this moment — however broadly or narrowly that might be construed — is a unique opportunity for growth. Perhaps growth in the aspects you mentioned above.
Blessings!
Beloved Charles, thank you for your always keen collegial thoughts. I will only say a little in response to the marvelous questions you raise, explicitly and implicitly. First of all, I look for the potential lessons in a sequence to see what I can find, but I am wary of overdoing it; sometimes alternate sequences are very illuminating. In my particular case, to begin with the heart released the flood; the rest came rather easily. I tend to use a path from mind to soul that takes mind to a certain culmination in wisdom (that is my current wisdom synthesis). Wisdom has a quality of overarching simplicity which bridges to the simplicity of soul, in which the mind’s potentially distracting associations of ideas are no longer immanent. And soul’s craving for spirit communion brings one face-to-face, as much as we can experience, with spirit.
Regarding the question of the present moment, certainly the higher experiences on all levels have a quality of enhanced being-present. But I resist the idea of a point-moment. True it is that we can be led astray from presence by worries about past and future; but a great now extends beyond narrow confines. “Now” can refer to the present age, historically or geologically. And within a well-grounded being in the now, we can very well look back and look forward. The wisdom of the now is bolstered by a past-future perspective, lacking which the now risks becoming immature, impulsive, and sensate.
Thank you for your clarification and fruitful response. I recall in class your description of “the now” being much richer and perspective than any given moment. I read de Caussade including the broader sense of the now according to your description. One of his points of wisdom, as I read his fine book, is a call — maybe a need — to move from one perspective to another as needed. The graces and challenges of life exist broadly, and moreover, often our graces are our challenges, and challenges our graces. I take this to be part of his advice. Much more to be said about that, but I believe you hit the nail on the head in your response.
The shifting back and forth between perspectives that I most advocate is between the way of simplicity (call it truth, love, walking in beauty . . .) and paths of thoroughness (such as the seven-fold path in my book: science, philosophy, spiritual experience, nature, the arts, morality, character). Or rather I advocate a unification of these perspectives, where we never leave the way of simplicity as we take some time to travel a path of thoroughness.
I would appreciate your expansion about how graces can be challenges and challenges can be graces.
Great post, Jeff! Thank you!
Great post, Jeff! Thank you!