402: Day 05 - There Can Be Only Love
December 2, 2009
by Jeffrey Pierce
Sometimes this whole spiritual teacher thing sucks.
I know, I know… we all have our challenges. Each lesson is uniquely tailored to the student. Yada yada yada, blah blah blah.
I’m mostly kidding. Okay, I’m totally kidding about the “sucks” thing. The rest of it? Yeah, that holds pretty true.
But I do know how you feel.
One of my students once innocently asked me, “If that’s true, then what challenges are you facing?” I don’t remember what my answer was, but I responded honestly, sharing with them what I was struggling with in my own studies and how I was learning to overcome those challenges.
“I’m not going to have to learn this, am I?” they asked with some very real trepidation. “That’s like spiritual grad school stuff, right?”
I laughed and assured them that no, each of us were presented only with the lessons we were ready to handle. The point of the conversation wasn’t that one of us was further along in a particular “subject” in Earth School than another. We had been discussing how our lessons are tailor made for each of us and I was assuring them that I faced my own teachings that were just as challenging as those my student was trying to embrace.
Right now I’m learning to manifest unconditional love.
And it’s a pain in the ass.
I got ready to leave to go running this morning when our cat, Carmel, meowed to go out. It would be fine, except it’s a challenge to get him to walk out the door as he has a strong preference to go in and out of our home through one of our windows. The cat was let out (through his window) and just before I shut the door behind me to go run, our dog (Kismet) let me know that she also needed to go visit a tree. When they need to go they aren’t quiet about the need and both Kismet and Carmel will notoriously keep fussing until one of the sleeping members of our family wakes up to let them out. (Carmel stands outside our bedroom door and quietly meows to be let out while Kismet runs to and fro, like a little kid that is barely able to control their bladder, her nails clicking endlessly on our wooden floors). By the time all of the members of our four legged family were taken care of, there was precious little time to run.
Unconditional love means loving without condition. I know, right? Duh. But that means the sleeping members of our family, the meowing cat, the dog… anyone who comes my way, and learning to do so with love rather than thinly veiled frustration.
So as I ventured out before dawn on another cold (27°F or -3°C) morning, I didn’t go for distance this morning. I went for speed. I didn’t have time left for anything else, but everything happens for a reason, right? One mile at an uncomfortably fast pace with the last quarter mile as fast as I can run.
The lesson for the morning is a little hard to succinctly place into written word as it draws from numerous sources, weaving all of them into a single fabric. The first piece came from some work that I’d done with one of my spirit guides, a wonderful teacher who I’ve chosen to call Acarya. While I’ve shared the experience with you before in the pages of Old Ways, here it is again for those who may have missed it…
Acarya walked next to his student, the older man setting a carefully measured pace, easing through the closely cropped meadow grass that bordered the blossoming orchard. His student had come to this place, between the worlds, seeking advice and insight into the events of his life.
The older man stopped, gracefully turning toward his student, his motions so precise that they barely disturbed the robes that were draped over his lean, athletic frame. Acarya could have been from any of a half-dozen Asian countries. Even his student was unsure of his origins.
“Each of us begins our spiritual journey as such,” the teacher began, the lines around his eyes deepening as he squinted his vision against the sun. He gestured casually to one side and a gleaming suit of armor appeared next to him, suspended just above the grassy meadow. “Many teach that the journey is to remove the armor. It is said that the defenses that protect us also keep us insulated from love.”
As if in response to his words, the armor disappeared, leaving a vague, naked human form hovering in the spring air. Light radiated from the center of its chest, shrouding anatomy with illumination. The details of the body were indistinct. Even in the sunlight of a perfect spring day it was impossible to tell if the form was male or female.
“When the armor is removed, love can be felt, but the sword can pierce the flesh.” A polished, silver sword appeared, suspended in the air. As Acarya continued, the blade suddenly thrust toward the defenseless person and sunk itself bloodlessly into the androgynous being’s chest. “Others teach that to truly experience love, we must accept the blade. That love only flows when it is still fully experienced when the flesh is pierced.”
Acarya paused, letting his student roll the concept around in his mind. “But this would be love in spite of pain. Pain is a product of fear. Fear is the absence of love. Release the fear, you release the pain. Without fear, without pain, there can only be love.”
As often as he had come to this meadow, Acarya’s student knew better than to ask a clarification. The teacher was wise beyond all measure. Questions went unanswered, met only with a silent pause. The message would be completely presented, but it would be framed according to the teacher’s understanding of the student’s own learning process.
The message was rich with subtext. In lessons long since committed to knowing, Acarya had taught that there was only one force in all of existence – love. It was like being submerged in the sea, an experience where the water of the ocean that surrounded us and filled us was love, not a marriage of hydrogen and oxygen. At times, mankind experienced fear, but fear was only the ripples one created when trying to push at love and move it away. All of the negative things in physical incarnation – hatred, greed, pain, even fear itself – were born out of our own efforts to push love away from us and the manner in which we interpreted the ripples we created.
Acarya turned to look into his student’s eyes, holding his gaze to indicate the importance of the coming message. “If the journey is a process of removing what keeps us from experiencing love,” he began, “Then removing the armor is only the first step.” He gestured at the human form beside him and the light within it began to grow, the physical body fading away as it did so, leaving an indistinct brightness where once a person had stood. “The sword cannot pierce what is not present. You need to let go of what you seek to protect. If there is nothing to protect, you cannot be harmed. If you cannot be harmed, there is no place for fear.” He paused, offering a knowing smile to his student. “If there is no fear, there can be only love.”
As I neared the half-mile mark of my run, I found myself reflecting on this particular lesson. Working with Acarya is always a challenge for me. The problem is that he doesn’t give just enough for you to figure it out on your own, he simply dumps the entire answer in your lap. I don’t know about you, but when I’m chasing away the shadows of ignorance, I like to allow them to fade in the slowly rising light of inner illumination. Having a spotlight turned on them is somewhat uncomfortable. After all, you can’t hide from the truth, especially when it is spoken within you. Once it’s there, it’s there – and I don’t know about you, but once I’ve seen some little nugget of wisdom, I can no longer ignore it or the applications it holds.
So I’m running along, thinking of Acarya’s lesson, when the lyrics of a very forgettable (but easy to run to) trance song reached my ears, the singer chanting, “Love! Peace! Unity!”
I had to laugh. As Acarya had explained, “You need to let go of what you seek to protect. If there is nothing to protect, you cannot be harmed. If you cannot be harmed, there is no place for fear. If there is no fear, there can be only love.”
And if there is only love, if all that exists is love, then you are love. And if you are love, by extension, you are not only one with Spirit, you ARE Spirit.
Love. Peace. Unity.
Indeed.
In one of my favorite books, Magic and Mystery in Tibet, the author talks about her experiences with lung-gom-pa, lama’s who practice a particular mystical art known as lung-gom which allows them to travel across vast distances at a very rapid pace.
However, it should be explained that the feat expected from the lung-gom-pa is one of wonderful endurance rather than of momentary extreme fleetness. In our case, the performance does not consist in racing at full speed over a short distance as is done in our sporting matches, but of tramping at a rapid pace and without stopping during several successive days and nights.
As I turned the corner and headed into my final quarter mile, Acarya’s teaching began to mix with the lyrics, “Love! Peace! Unity!” Without considering why, I began to chant a new (to me) mantra as I picked up the pace.
“I have no body! I am only soul!”
As I chanted those over and over in my head and the strangest sensation overcame me. I wasn’t tired. I wasn’t fatigued. What I felt could only be described as a ball of light starting at my heart chakra and expanding until I felt like a pleasantly swollen balloon ready to pop. I felt completely over-filled. Gravity, temperature, and effort no longer existed. There wasn’t a shred of cold, muscle soreness, or lack of breath as I sprinted to the finish of my run. I felt, in a word, good.
It’s an experience that I don’t fully understand and obviously haven’t had the opportunity to repeat. Usually, I don’t share these things until I’ve dissected it, studied it’s various parts, and can successfully reconstruct it over and over again, but you’re experiencing this as I do. It happened just this morning. And where it leads, what it holds, and how it may or may not change things is still to be discovered by both you and I.
But as Acarya said, “There can be only love.”
It should be very interesting to see where this leads.