“Simply Love” wrapped in a bow and flying high.
The Secret
Have you ever asked yourself:
“What would love do now?”
I personally asked myself this question during many challenging times in the past. The heart has always been central to how I walk my path and make desicions. In doubt, I choose to be guided by the light, no matter the darkness I have been met with. And it just disappears! Whatever it is - I know Love is the strongest POWER, so Poof, gone
No other question is relevant, no other question is meaningful, no other question has any importance to your soul.
Now we come upon a very delicate point of interpretation, for this principle of love-sponsored action has been widely misunderstood—and it is this misunderstanding which has led to the resentments and angers of life—which, in turn, have caused so many to stray from the path.
For centuries you have been taught that love-sponsored action arises out of the choice to be, do, and have whatever produces the highest good for another.
Yet I tell you this: the highest choice is that which produces the highest good for you.
As with all profound spiritual truth, this statement opens itself to immediate misinterpretation. The mystery clears a bit the moment one decides what is the highest “good” one could do for oneself. And when the absolute highest choice is made, the mystery dissolves, the circle completes itself, and the highest good for you becomes the highest good for another.
It may take lifetimes to understand this—and even more lifetimes to implement—for this truth revolves around an even greater one: What you do for your Self, you do for another. What you do for another, you do for the Self.
This is because you and the other are one.
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It is important in relationships to remember this truth, for without it relationships will be very difficult.
So often, under the old understandings, people—well-meaning and well-intentioned and many very religious—did what they thought would be best for the other person in their relationships. Sadly, all this produced in many cases (in most cases) was continued abuse by the other. Continued mistreatment. Continued dysfunction in the relationship.
Ultimately, the person trying to “do what is right” by the other—to be quick to forgive, to show compassion, to continually look past certain problems and behaviors—becomes resentful, angry, and mistrusting, even of God. For how can a just God demand such unending suffering, joylessness, and sacrifice, even in the name of love?
The answer is, God does not. God asks only that you include yourself among those you love.
God goes further. God suggests—recommends—that you put yourself first.
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I tell you this—putting yourself first in the highest sense never leads to an unGodly act.
If, therefore, you have caught yourself in an unGodly act as a result of doing what is best for you, the confusion is not in having put yourself first, but rather in misunderstanding what is best for you.
Of course, determining what is best for you will require you to also determine what it is you are trying to do. This is an important step that many people ignore. What are you “up to”? What is your purpose in life? Without answers to these questions, the matter of what is “best” in any given circumstances will remain a mystery.
As a practical matter—again leaving esoterics aside—if you look to what is best for you in these situations where you are being abused, at the very least what you will do is stop the abuse. And that will be good for both you and your abuser. For even an abuser is abused when his abuse is allowed to continue.
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Therefore, treating others with love does not necessarily mean allowing others to do as they wish.
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Yet despots cannot be allowed to flourish, but must be stopped in their despotism. Love of Self, and love of the despot, demands it.
This is the answer to your question, “If love is all there is, how can man ever justify war?”
Sometimes man must go to war to make the grandest statement about who man truly is: he who abhors war.
There are times when you may have to give up Who You Are in order to be Who You Are.
There are Masters who have taught: you cannot have it all until you are willing to give it all up.
Thus, in order to “have” yourself as a man of peace, you may have to give up the idea of yourself as a man who never goes to war. History has called upon men for such decisions.
The same is true in the most individual and the most personal relationships. Life may more than once call upon you to prove Who You Are by demonstrating an aspect of Who You Are Not.
Excerpt from “Conversations with God”, Book 1, Chapter 8, by Neale Donald Walsch.
Putting yourself first doesn't mean loving others less. It means no longer excluding yourself from the love you give.
