~Love...thy will be done
Since I have found you my life has just begun
And I see all of your creations as one
Perfect complex
No one less beautiful or more
special than the next
We are all blessed and so wise to accept
Thy will love be done~
(From "Love Thy Will Be Done" by Martika)

~ I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor empires nor things present nor things to come, nor height or anything else created shall be able to separate me from the love of God...~ St Paul (Letter to the Romans: 8:38)

~Our real nature is pure LOVE which must return to its source, the pure awareness. This pure love, our true nature, we have forgotten through the power of Maya, and have replaced it by our attachment to material objects - love for certain objects and hate for others...~ Ramesh Balsekar

What would it be like to love without conditions? To love ourselves unconditionally, to love others unconditionally, to love Life unconditionally? So often, we find ourselves placing conditions on loving ourselves, others, life and even the divine. And so we unwittingly place conditions on whether or not we welcome peace and joy into each moment. Even prayer can turn into a shopping list of requests, rather than an expression of trust in, and surrender to, the infinite love of the divine.

The current human condition is that we are each consciousness identified with a certain set of experiences, and tend to judge everything else in relation to how it affects those experiences. Whereas the Universal Self (the infinite field of Awareness in which our bodies, minds, thoughts, and experiences happen) IS love without conditions. The awareness of all "others" is as real as "ours". Our spiritual evolution involves moving beyond our identification with individual perception and experience, to finding the infinite freedom of our true essence - the awareness that has always been present and always will. We discover the unconditional divine love, that loves and accepts us AS we are, not in spite of how we are.

It is one thing to know this intellectually, but how do we apply this in practice in this evolutionary realm called Earth, where light and the apparent absence of light often seem to appear side by side? Here are some approaches that I have found useful:

- be unconditionally loving towards ourselves. We can regard our selfish human nature as a naive pet, and therefore learn from and move on from our mistakes, without judgement, blame or guilt. Only once we are compassionate to ourselves, can we find the strength to genuinely face up to just how identified with our own experiences we have become. We can also know that all the beauty we see around us is a reflection of the infinite Self within.

- realise the wisdom of Socrates' perspective that people can only choose what they believe to be good. (Though what people THINK is good is often mistaken). As we know this, we become more forgiving of ourselves and others. As evolution progresses, people's understanding of the good expands beyond their own individual experience, through wider circles of awareness, to include the good of all.

- understand that in a way, perception is projection. What we do not accept within ourselves, we project outwards. Unless we embrace our shadow, it consumes us. Often that which we resent around us is a pointer to a hidden aspect of our own human nature that we are not facing up to.

- understand our own hidden pay-offs of judging others. We only make others wrong to make ourselves right. Certainly, love includes standing up for the truth, and love does not have to be passive. We can assert our boundaries, without blame. But positively standing up for truth is different from making others "wrong".

- recognise that, somehow, all things are working together to further the evolution of love, despite appearances. This world is meant to be a place of evolution, it is not a paradise. Sometimes, only apparently negative experiences can shake us out of the dream-trance. Despite the apparent intentions of an individual, the intention of the Universal Self is always love.

There is no point trying to place conditions on what is, in reality, our own true essence.

Love, thy will be done!

Love and peace!
Joseph