Probably the most fundamental and therefore greatest single piece of spiritual advice ever presented to us is “Love Thy Neighbor.” That isn’t quite as easy in practice as it seems it should be. When we are reacting to the fears in residence at the foundation of our unconscious it can’t be done. Your imperfections trigger recognition of my own imperfections. I don’t like that. It must be your fault. You need to change. That’s the knee-jerk reaction. In truth I need to change and you are a mirror of that need.
Learning love for others is a process of discovery. We might feel or see our similarities and appreciate the simple reality that the differences between us aren’t very important after all. As we gain depth through experience the capacity to empathize with others keeps pace. This is especially true when successfully confronting our weaknesses. Everyone has issues. Attempts to hide them are the roots of our worst patterns of behavior. Grappling with weakness yields understanding, a foundation of love.
Empathy is an elementary component of love because we are reflecting another person and feeling their likeness in that reflection. Needless to say our view is always a little distorted because of the flaws in the mirror of our own self-image. As we polish out the imperfections our reflective capacity increases to the point of such accuracy that we undergo incidents of telempathy. Those are moments of great clarity during which we experience communication through the resonance between us.
Telempathy uses our ability to appreciate physical reality through the lens of the solar plexus. It is that center that allows us to feel the qualities and attributes of the material universe. The clarity of our capacity for reflection from that center of consciousness is vital in all sorts of creativity. Applied to human interaction we wait quietly, feel the presence of the other person and are able to adjust our initiatives and responses to suit the moment. Empathy is a refinement of the gut-level reaction because we feel first and then respond consciously rather than feel and react unconsciously. It enhances the meaning of responsibility, which then becomes the ability to respond.
When the heart becomes our focus we shift away from responding to physical resonance toward feeling the spirit as others are broadcasting it. There is a whole realm of information available through the heart that we access through the basic field of spiritual energy, Love. We can actually receive spirit-transmitted thoughts when our minds are quiet enough. They provide us with a clearer image of the moment during which our physical senses suddenly become significantly less important. It is in those moments that our consciousness resides in the heart we can truly say, “I love you.” It is a state of openness, not exclusivity. There’s more to it, though.
Opening the heart to the ‘I love you’ state is one of the most important individual goals I’ve discovered. There is an additional experience of greater value yet. It is the real meaning of the phrase, “when two or more are gathered in my name.” Substitute the open heart for ‘my name’ and you a new social dynamic of spiritual potential when two or more gather with open hearts. Achieving the state “I love you” is just fine, but two or more sharing the experience becomes “I Love with you”. That is simply sublime.
![Image](http://www.theoreticsinstitute.org/pics/Love.png)
Welles
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