“What is your advice to a spiritual aspirant who is serious about realizing the state of enlightenment?
Spiritual commitment simply means to recontextualize the goal and meaning of one’s life. This needs to be done totally, all inclusively, so that life does not become segmented into spiritual work versus ordinary life. All life now becomes spiritual practice because context becomes the priority that encompasses every act, thought, or moment. This poised point of view already results in a degree of nonattachment.
From this viewpoint, the emphasis in practice is to observe all the content of evolving life without making any comment, criticism, or judgment. The prevailing attitude can be stated as, “That is how it seems to be.” The observer/witness becomes detached from commentary about life and is then capable of transcending opinionation, likes, dislikes, aversions, attractions, arguments, or objections.”
By David R. Hawkins, M.D., Ph.D.
On the level of love, we are heartfelt, generous, nurturing, affectionate, steadfast, and forgiving. Love is protective, collaborative, uplifting, holistic, and gracious. It is characterized by warmth, gratitude, appreciation, humility, completion, vision, purity of motive, and sweetness.
Love is a way of being. It is the energy that radiates when the blocks to it have been surrendered. It is more than an emotion or a thought—it is a state of being. Love is what we have become through the pathway of surrender. It is a way of being in the world that says: “How can I be of help to you? How can I comfort you? How can I loan you money when you’re broke? How can I help you find a job? How can I console you when you’ve suffered a major loss in your family?” Lovingness is a way through which we light up the world.
Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the beauty and harmony of the world by showing kindness to all living things and, thereby, supporting the human spirit. That which we freely give to life flows back to us because we are equally part of that life.
Like ripples on the water, every gift returns to the giver. What we affirm in others, we actually affirm in ourselves.
Once we become willing to give love, the discovery quickly follows that we are surrounded by love and merely didn’t know how to access it. Love is actually present everywhere; its presence only needs to be realized.
Love expresses itself in many ways. The little boy memorizes a ditty taught to him by his father, and he is still able to say it eighty years later. The Navy sailor steers the ship through a terrible typhoon for three days, nonstop, without food and drink, when all of his shipmates are seasick. The doctor loves and prays for every patient without their knowing about it. The mother cleans up the messy pants of a young child with diarrhea, saying, “Honey, it’s not your fault; you couldn’t help it.” The wife gets up early to make coffee every morning just the way her husband likes it. The doggie waits by the door for the owner to return and wags her tail when he comes through the door. The kitty purrs. The songbird sings.
Typically, people think of love as “romantic” love, as in “Honey” and “Sweetheart.” But romantic love is only a minor part of a human lifetime. There are many types of love other than personal, romantic love, and they infuse our everyday experience: love of pets, love of family and friends, love of freedom, love of purpose, love of country, love of attributes, love of creation, love as virtue, love as enthusiasm, love as forgiveness, love as acceptance, love as motivator, love as appreciation, love as kindness, love as essence of relationship, love as group energy (for example: Alcoholics Anonymous), love as admiration, love as respect, love as valor, love as fraternal bonds of unity (buddies, classmates, shipmates, teammates), love as friendship, love as loyalty, love as affection, love as cherishing, love as self-sacrificing maternal love, love as devotion.
“Love is a many splendored thing,” as the popular song goes. Experientially, this statement is true. When we have surrendered all of the resistances to love and let go of the negative feelings that block love, then the world is radiant with the splendor of love. On the level of love, this radiance is no longer hidden from us.
“the true source of joy and happiness is the realization of one’s existence in this very moment. the source of pleasure always comes from within, even though it is occasioned by some external event or acquisition. in any one instant of time, no such thing as a problem can exist. unhappiness arises from going beyond the reality of the now and creating a story out of the past or the future-which, because neither exists, has no reality.”