6
- Loving the Unlovable
Beloved brothers and
sisters, is it not true that as your eyes gaze upon the ocean, you
will say that it is blue because it reflects the arching sky which
is above it? If your eye wanders into the distance you may behold
it as grey, or sometimes even tinged with green or mauve or with any
other hue which the ocean may capture from the arching colours which
fill the sky with glory. Yet it is the ocean that you see and you
will say that the colour of the ocean is blue.
If your eye
gazes upon the gentle blossom which unfurls its petals upon the
branch from which it has grown, you may say: “This is a red rose,”
or: “This is a rose which is pink,” sometimes you may even say:
“It is white.” Yet is it not true that the white petals are
sometimes silvery in their sheen or stained with a tint of gold or a
hue which is pink? And yet the hue is so delicate that you will
say: “This is a white rose.”
What of the
red rose you love so well? Hidden within the petals, do you not see
shades and shadows which have hues that are almost purple, tints
that are delicate pink and tinges which remind you of gold? Even
the red rose has variations within its redness - yet it is still a
rose although you may say the rose is of this colour or of some
other hue.
Whatever
you may gaze upon within the ways of your earthly world, you will
discover that every hue holds within its heart a multiplicity of
rainbow colours because this is the fashion in which the Great
Master Creative Force has brought it into being. And it is so with
these hues and colours which are seen within the soul body of the
human person (the aura) which reflect the feelings and
emotions, the aspirations and desires of the hidden soul and inward
person.
Why then do
you say to me: “What is the colour of love; of what nature is
love?” I would say to you that as the rose has a multiplicity of
variations within its hues, so does love have a multiplicity of
variations in its nature.
As you live
your life in the ways of earthly experience there is the tender love
which blossoms in the years of your youthfulness, the love between
maiden and man, and man and maiden; then there is the deepening
love from their con-joining together which gives a richer hue,
having within itself the tints of devotion as the infant child comes
to enlarge the circumference of their lovingness. Also in the
lovingness of earthly life there is found what is known as loyalty,
a hue and shade which has a different colour from the tender hues of
early love, a colour which is strong and clear - loyalty is also a
part of lovingness. In this blossoming of love and lovingness
within the aura there comes sometimes the ruby and scarlet hues
which are the symbols of sacrifice - sacrifice, too, is part of the
quality of love.
You need to
meditate upon the nature of love and see all the varying aspects of
its nature, for when you say: “Is it possible to love the
unlovable? How can we feel love for the unlovely?” then I would
say, You need first to ask in what nature do you mean love and of
what kind of love are you speaking? The very fact that you say:
“How can we love the unlovable?” is a revelation of the love within
yourself. It betrays your desire to love the unlovely and proves
that you have love within your heart for those who are difficult to
love. So you should not torment yourself because you think you
cannot love the unlovely, but know that your very desire to love
them shows that the seed of nobility is set deep within your soul.
Later, through this kind of loving, you will be able to develop and
express your desire to love as compassion.
Then there
is the quality of love which causes you to say: “I feel sorry for
him, I feel sorry for her.” Beloveds, this too has within it a
tinge of love from the heart: it is not the ruby red of sacrificial
love but has a tint of the love which dwells deep within the soul.
As you gaze upon the depraved, the neglected, the ugly, the
resentful, the hurtful, you long within your soul to aid them in
their distress, yet you are aware that no words come within your
mind which may reach them - yet you pity them.
Pity,
beloved ones, has also a part of love. The heart which is cold and
completely closed can feel no pity. When you say: "I pity them, I
feel sorry for them," then your soul is revealing a tinge of love
similar to the subtle tint within the rose petals or the heart of
the ocean, in the subtle colours within the arching sky. When you
feel such pity, when you desire to help, when you voice your
feelings and say: “I wish I could do something,” then I would say,
This is the outward and visible sign in the earthly world of the
outflowing of frond-like structures which go from your aura as
delicately as the unfolding feathers of birds. They reach out and
momentarily touch the soul or aura of the one whom you desire to
help, touching them with a touch so gentle that they are scarcely
aware of it - and yet they are blessed.
Is it not
true that the brush of an artist, if it caresses the canvas for only
a moment, it leaves its tiny impression? Even so is this tender
brushlike touch which goes out from the soul and momentarily brushes
the aura of the depraved one. In that moment a little mark is
made: in the fullness of time this may become the very centre upon
which spirit can later build a cleansing and renewing influence
which will lift that one from ugliness into loveliness.
When you
have a desire to love the unlovely you may also train yourselves to
gaze with the eye of inward understanding upon those who surround
you. Sometimes look upon the men and women who pace your city
streets and say to yourself: “Within this one there lies the spark
of divine life, there is an imprisoned splendour behind this stony
face and this self-contained personality.” Seek and look and try to
discover the hidden splendour of the soul, and this may make it
easier for you to discover ways in which you may unveil the
loveliness within the soul of the unlovely.
As you ask
your question it seems that it is not asked about those whose souls
are encased in bodies which are bent and twisted by disease nor
whose features are marred and blurred and unbeautiful, your question
is asked about those whose personality appears to be twisted and
whose soul seems to be ridden by hate and the desire to destroy and
harm the creation. It is for these that the real compassion of the
soul has to be unfolded and enlarged.
In the
regions of spirit life, in our service to those who leave the
earthly life through violence and hatefulness, we have to learn how
to love the unlovely and overcome their desire for retaliation. We
have bands of spirits who are skilled in piercing through the armour
of hatefulness with simple weapons of lovingness. In our helping of
those who are lost and lonely, we make use of many little loving
things.
We have
learned that hate in the soul is frequently the result of loneliness
and souls who have left the earthly life and dwell in the grey
places created by their own desolation are alone because they
separate themselves from those who would love and help them - when
we draw near with love and encouragement to succour them, they
thrust us away.
But loving
creatures, little dogs who have loved human people in the earthly
experience, these loving animals can be brought from their happy
places of joy and will accompany us into the grey places. With
their friendliness and joyfulness the little dogs pierce through the
armour of hate and loneliness and with their devotion they reach
these souls who are so alone. Many creatures co-operate with us in
these regions of spirit - sometimes a lion or a horse or an
elephant, maybe even a little mouse - for here in the gardens of
spirit existence these creatures live with love and freedom; they
are responsive to our thoughts and may sometimes draw near to such
souls to lift them out of their darkness into a first realisation of
light.
Even so can
it be for those who are alone in your earthly world, those who
separate themselves from the men and women who surround them till
they are unaware of love. Sometimes the animal or bird, or even the
child, may draw near and with simplicity accomplish that which you
cannot bring into being.
I would say
to you, Do not despair if you cannot express love in the way that
you yourselves understand it but send out your thoughts, radiate
your influence, pray for those whom you cannot touch with words.
Remember that the radiation of the soul and spirit is always a
living radiation of light which will set into motion the patterns
created by spiritual endeavour to bring around the unlovable one; a
pattern and power upon which others, in later times, may build and
add their influence to water the little seed of love which you have
planted. In the fullness of time, regeneration and love and light
may come for each unlovely one, for this is the pattern and power of
the law of life and the law of love.
Even
further would I say to you who are desiring to develop the power of
love, Think to yourselves how a little knife has to be sharpened
against a flint stone, think how a little jewel has to be shaped by
a surface which is rough and rubs and brazes it and turns it until
the imprisoned splendour of the jewel is released. The unlovely and
the difficult to love are the testing stones of your ability to
persevere, they are the trials upon which you test your strength.
How feeble and weak will be your love unless it is tested sometimes
in the need to understand and to forgive, in the need to persevere.
It is in this that you come to truly understand the fact that you
must be grateful for your enemies and bless those who do not
understand you - from them and upon them the true power and ability
and understanding of love within yourself comes to its beauty of
fruition and fullness of unfoldment.
I bless
each one with the blossoming of love within your heart and the
shimmering of light within your soul body, and pray that the Great
Giver of All Good may set upon you the sign and seal of blessing and
lovingness, that it may endure into all the days which are still to
be.
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