I wrote my first manuscript when I was a neophyte on the spiritual path, about 1979, and called it One Voice in Many. I have just found it again, in a beat-up file folder among records of long-ago classes I taught. It was typed on an old portable Olivetti typewriter, before the day of computers! What a surprise to meet myself again as I was perceiving the world back then. Some of it is naive, but some is quite fresh and simple.
There is no way to know yourself but through love in action and love in stillness. Being, in any of its modes, is synonymous with love. If you can be, you can love. And you cannot not be, therefore you are love. Come to love any way you can. Will your parts to come together cooperatively, in love. The desire for love is really the desire to know yourself and the Divine. And no matter what desires people have, it is always for more, which is the evolutionary path.
Don’t be confused by the dictates of the limited, linear mind. Finding your level of achievement on the spiritual path means nothing and has no effect on your actions because in each moment there is always the same choice: Act from the Divine will, which is your own inner voice of deep pleasure. Cooperate and be as loving as you can. Be your true self as totally as possible. Do not seek to understand before you be loving. Be loving and you will understand.
So it is not stories of soul evolution or grand accomplishments that are important, but the living of love that both radiates and creates a quiet dignity within. This allows others access to their own reservoirs of love and makes it safe for more love to be expressed in the world. “Love thyself,” even if you don’t know the fullness of who you really are yet, others know and support you in finding that fullness.
By you being an example of one who chooses love, in difficult times as well as easy ones, others will learn so much more than a book can show. By being willing to share your process and vulnerability with people, they may be encouraged to risk revealing their own caring side. Courage and beauty touch others when words cannot.
Do not worry over lack of expertise. Be brave, be persistent, be patient. Remain open to new possibilities and keep experimenting. Don’t be afraid to fail, because even in this there is a wealth of useful information for everyone involved. Even if you feel you are not succeeding, others may be learning something of great value from you that you had not envisioned.
Copyright by Penney Peirce