Soul yearns to return home to God. Home to God means the area of supreme divine love that has no conditions attached to it: unconditional love.
So often when we speak of love in a human sense, we don’t see the difference. Sometimes our parents say they love us, and then if we don’t do things exactly their way, they’ll give us the cold shoulder. Or our mate might do this, or we might do this to our mate.
Giving someone the cold shoulder is not unconditional love. It’s conditional. And it’s a form of control. It’s not true love at all. It’s saying, “I want to do it this way, and you’re not doing it my way. So until you do it my way, I’m not going to love you. I’m not going to talk to you.”
It’s conditional love. It’s human love, not divine love. And human love is people’s attempt to be godlike, whether or not they’re conscious of it.
I think it is very important in this life to learn to love someone more than yourself — whether it’s another person or a pet.
And before you can love someone else more than yourself, you begin by first loving yourself. Even Christ said, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.”
Right away some people think this means love your neighbor and forget all about yourself. Loving yourself doesn’t mean to have a high, egotistical regard for yourself or go strutting around like some dictator. It means to have respect for yourself as Soul, as a child of God — or as we say in ECK, as a light of God. Because once you recognize yourself as Soul, as one of these beings of God, you’ve made an important step in your spiritual unfoldment.
The next important step is to know and recognize that other people are also Soul, lights of God.
Love is the goal, then, of our spiritual search. The way to God is ever within the heart, within the loving heart.
A spiritual exercise
Try this simple spiritual exercise to help deepen your relationship with God:
Go somewhere quiet. Sit or lie down in a comfortable place. Put your attention on your Spiritual Eye, a point just above and behind your eyebrows. With eyes lightly shut, begin to sing a holy word or phrase, such as HU, God, Holy Spirit, or “Show me thy ways, O Lord.” But fill your heart with love before you approach the altar of God, because only the pure may come.
Be patient. Do this exercise for several weeks, for a limit of 20 minutes each time. Sit, sing and wait. God speaks to you only when you are able to listen.
