As we look at the current state of the world, it can easily feel like civilization is coming to an end. All around us we see suffering, pain and strife. Racial, ethnic and national divisions are globally inflamed, and separateness seems to be the order of the day. Seeing this, it is easy to believe that humanity is on the brink of disaster, and that we are witnessing the prelude to another Dark Age.
Yet, these problems are not without remedy. The realization of our essential oneness is the redeeming antidote, and it is love that makes such realization possible. Love is therefore the custodian of The Saving Force.
Love exists as a pervasive energy underlying human existence, and it never waivers. It is the force that reminds us of our fundamental oneness. And, it is this realization that human evolution is tending toward. Yet, love is not something that must be cultivated but only discovered and lived. It preexists. Indeed, we do not develop the saving force of love. Instead we cultivate our capacity to inwardly recognize and embrace it.
As we consider this subject, it must be realized that love is hierarchical. By this is meant that love can be experienced at varying levels. At the lowest level, it manifests as desire and animal magnetism. Our cravings, wants and longings relate us to love at a very base level. When looked at from a higher perspective, it manifests as personal love and aspiration. And on a still higher level, love is directed toward the oneness of humanity. In such cases, the love of humanity is all that is known, and there is no personal benefit or agenda involved. Indeed, the highest type of love is the most impersonal and yet the most broadly inclusive.
When a person is relating to higher love, solutions to problems become more apparent. In this regard, love can be considered revelatory. Often problems seem irreconcilable because there is a lack of understanding between the parties involved. Yet, when a person holds a sense of higher love, the barriers that prevent finding a solution begin to dissolve. Love can lift the veils that tend to prevent us from seeing the way out of a conflict or crisis. Through the power of higher love the sacredness within the other can be sensed. In this way, a soulful connection is realized. It is this that then serves as common ground from which to find resolution to oppositional points of view.
It may well be asked, how does one distinguish between higher and lower love? As already mentioned, higher love is more impersonal than the form of love we most often experience. Higher love does not want for itself. By this is meant that it requires no reciprocation. Typically when we experience love, it is accompanied by the hope of love in return. Indeed, the usual experience of love is often rooted in a hidden yearning to be loved. In this regard it is reciprocal. Yet higher love does not require this, for it is always sufficient unto itself.
The evolution of human consciousness is profoundly connected to love, and our changing relationship with it. Indeed, the expansions of the mind (spiritually understood) only occur because there is a widening intimacy of the heart developed at the same time. Several methods can help enhance a person’s relationship to love. Most important of these is to work toward perceiving life and events in terms of the larger whole. In other words, try to recognize those things that remind us of our commonality and oneness. By so doing we counter the mind’s separative tendencies. The spirit of criticism and division wanes when one cultivates an inclusive perspective to life and circumstance.
We have seen that higher love often manifests as The Saving Force. This sacred energy has the power to uplift humanity by revealing the fact that we (as a kingdom in nature) are essentially one. At its lowest level, love manifests as personal desire, and at its highest point is experienced as universal love dedicated to wisely contributing to humanity’s betterment. Our relationship to love is therefore hierarchical and evolves from personal to impersonal expressions of the heart. Love is not something that must be created for it always exists. We need only to find it deep within ourselves.
