CHAPTER TWELVE

UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: THE ROOTS



Each step along our path has been prepared for us and in turn contributes to preparing us for the next one. This “Truism” is the most basic foundation stone upon which all development relies, including and prior to the instant we recognize as Creation. The “stuff” of everything that is, everything that ever has been, everything that ever will be, has always existed in one form or another. “Always”; transcends time, eclipsing its parameters, stretching beyond its investiture at Creation. The substance of our being, including all manifestations, traces its heritage to the only form that existed before time. Remember, time is a facility of the physical world, with no correlation in eternity. Everything outside, or before time, or after time, everything that is not measured by time, is Eternity! That is to say, while in the material confines of each embodiment, (going through the motions of a physical being), space and time are the only reference points we have, to diagram or identify anything. The engram our meager comprehension and inadequate lexicology vainly designates “eternity”, the source to which we all return, escapes our most educated attempts of analysis or denomination, except to allege its timelessness, its omnipresence. Out of that fount for all that is, manifests the restrictive physical experiences that the onset of time has provided a venue for since Creation. Any spiritual advancement on our path is preceded by and reliant on the choices we entertain during the course of our physical interactions.

Carnate forms change and grow increasingly complex (evolve) because of the layering that results from experience’s injection of adaptability into every level, but consciously, we remain ignorant of Divine Order’s influences, not to mention its reasons, issued to coax us through the physical appointments in which we find ourselves. For the most part, sentient beings go through the motions of dealing with daily responsibilities, fooling themselves into thinking the decisions made are actually of their own free will. From that narrowest possible point of view, our choices do seem to be of independent origin, based on intuition or past experience. These sources appear reliable, if not original, because in effect; they represent all the options available that will eventually serve as the conduit through which our burgeoning faith recognizes its spiritual connection between the influences of Divine Direction and the commensurate material provision.

At that point in the chronology of our incarnate edification, we lacked the insight or revelation to proceed with any more than “blind faith”, or the expectation that the desired outcome of a practiced action, had a predictable and acceptable percentage of odds in favor of ending just as it had, many times before. We’re frequently amazed though when the disappointment of unpredictability factors itself in, and while ready to accept kudos when things go “as planned”, we’re quick to blame shortfalls on anything but ourselves. By keeping undesired attention from focusing on a weakness, finding fault for shortsightedness recalls the common finger-pointing aspect of what we now recognize as original instinct’s attempt at self defense. When the unforeseeable bordered on the uncomprehendable, we sought out new levels of indictment that would conceal the depth of our ineptness, yet find firm ground on which to make a stand supporting what amounted to baseless expectations. Otherwise void of any actionable explanation, that shaky finger of accusation had no recourse except to point in the direction of whatever pseudo-god was imagined to hold authority over that particular aspect of our life and if initial fears could be allayed, a relationship with newly imagined super natural powers would center on; how we could best use its implied, unique expertise to our advantage. Relationships, after all, were infantile to say the least and hinged entirely on what we could gain from them, rather than on what we could contribute. With spiritual awareness desensitized by instinct’s interdiction, gods of every description represented little more than opportunities for us to impose some influence in areas where we had no experience, so nurturing a relationship with them was clearly to our benefit at a time when control was synonymous with survival.

Bear in mind, it was at this juncture of our Divine Path that every facet of physical interaction was converging on the aspirations of hope maturing into faith, if only by way of reward through sacrifice. Oblivious to the perfect guidance that constantly weaves the tapestry whose completion signifies our return to at-one-ment, we advance in ignorance by what can only be described as trial and error in the narrow one point perspective of ego-centered, self-serving behavior patterns. A status quo, or any level of mutually expected civility, had yet to be established, so the norm was a hostility mandating a daily struggle for survival. In this environment of one way relationships, any hope for improved standards of living were usually doused by set backs in current lifestyles, before appreciable advances could be realized.

As alluded to earlier however, the prevailing shroud of darkness separating us from The Truth, brought to light the talents of those few who were anointed to be the instruments of hope for the seekers, who otherwise lacked an audience with the myriad of idols whose favor might be sought. We were, quite without cognition, allowing ourselves to be manipulated to follow a path that would bring us under the influence of those anointed individuals, who avowed to provide a venue for the introduction of our personal relationship to the relevant pseudo-god. Returning now to that point of introduct-ion––which we deviated from to establish the pertinent connections between reality and the world confined by time––it may be seen with the clarity of that germaneness how sacrificing valued possessions in order to appease a god, was simply the logical and natural extension of the price we would pay in the hope of some benevolent reward pertaining to our specific beseechment. The practiced expectation of such results coming into fruition, is the kindling called hope, feeding the fire of faith, whose warmth both comforts and beckons us and whose Divine Guiding Light, in time, expels the darkness concealing Truth. With the reward incentive––that occasionally acceptable results of answered invocations offered––and the urging of those we were coming to rely on to facilitate the germinating relationship characterizing our idolatry, our immolation increased in direct proportion to the immediacy placed on the desired supplication. Now, in The Light of Truth, the relevance of our petition’s consideration to the offering made, has reached the ultimate observance applicable to the limits of carnality.

When last visited, it was implied that human sacrifice demonstrated an absence of value for life in general, but its practice actually represented something entirely different from the eternal perspective. It was the highest manifestation of love that could be invoked through our maturing physical relationships, at that point during our recurring incarnate experiences. As the level of veneration exceeded the heretofore prescribed penance, so our expected offering evolved to reflect a new degree of contrition. Sacrificing rose from propriety, through the tendering of proprietorship, to the eventual dispensing of our personal legacy altogether––in the manner of giving the ultimate endowment––the product of “our reason for being”; our own offspring! There is no greater display of love than to give up what we love most, believing that by doing so, the fulfillment of that object’s future will be more assured than it would be in our own care. In its own way a leap of faith, a human offering was seen as delivering the sacrificial life into the presence of the idol in question, to be ennobled as supernatural itself, perhaps perceived as everlasting or at least some semblance of whatever our narrow imagery allowed us to ponder as eternal. If, additionally, during this “sacrificial” soul’s most recent reappearance, however brief, it had served as an example to emulate, (i.e.; generating or evoking pure love), then that life had indeed fulfilled its immediate––and only necessary––attribution, and all who benefited could count themselves vastly richer for it. Even if the influence of a being who shares our path isn’t readily obvious on the temporal plain, the assimilation of its consequence into our eternal advancement is secured in ways that are immutable. That assimilation, the spiritual reward of a deep personal experience, escapes the “survivors’” esoteric discernment because of the emotionally clouded view of their “loss”.