should be our child. This is the attitude we achieve through understanding. This is the real sense of the word love.
"Lester, what it seems like to me you're talking about love is giving, giving of yourself and so forth. Here's the conflict I have, occasionally, is that it seems like as you give of yourself, that people tend to take more and more and eventually it seems like they can if you don't, in effect, if you don't put a stop to things, bleed you dry, emotionally, mentally, financially and they use you as a crutch...," says Paul.
Paul, I say no, that's impossible, if we feel the real love. I'm turning right back around the other way. If we have the correct attitude of love, that doesn't happen. Now, what you're saying, I hear very often.
"But don't you think that people.. .there's something about, I don't know. The impression I get is that love is a sign to other people in a way of weakness perhaps and it seems like there's a loss of respect. I just wonder how you can give and yet keep the respect," says Paul.
The givingness is not in things, number one. The givingness is an attitude. We can always maintain an attitude of love. Now, most people who give, are not giving lovingly, they're giving because of the credit they will get for giving. Look at me I'm doing good or I get my name in the paper or something like that. You see, that type of love will get us into trouble. People will drain us on that because were looking.
"For something in return," says Paul.
We're looking to put ourselves up in the process and therefore, they'll pull us down.
"Don't you think though, it's easier to love somebody 5,000 miles away than somebody next door to you," says Paul.
The easiest thing in the universe to do is to love everyone. This is what I think. This is what I've discovered. Once we learn what love is, that's the easiest thing to do. It takes effort and agony not to love. It takes tremendous effort not to love everyone. And you see the effort being expended everyday. But when we love, we're at one with them, we're at peace and everything falls into line beautifully. The main thing is to see love in the sense I'm trying to define it. Then, those things don't happen. But when we love in the sense that humanity understands the word to mean, then you're right. But I don't call that love.
"But what do you call it?" Paul asks.
Selfishness. Actually, we're doing things to help ourselves and yet in the high love, in the spiritual love, there's no self abnegation. We don't have to hurt ourselves when we love everyone and we don't. You see in love there's a thing of mutuality. That which is mutual is correct. If you love, you hold to that love and therefore people won't take advantage of you. If you're loving, you're applying the most powerful force in the universe. But it's the love of Jesus that I'm talking
about. Practically speaking, if someone is trying to hurt you and you just feel love for that person, then that person continues, you'll see them hurt themselves. They continue further, to almost destroy themselves or just knock themselves out. They won't be able to oppose you anymore. But we have to practice this love that I'm speaking of, not to love as we have known it.
"To love the way you're saying, it isn't something that you say I'm going to do. I'm going to love. I'm going to apply this to and love this person so much he's going to kill himself," Paul says.
No, that wouldn't be love.
"It's a basic attitude, its nothing you're physically or even mentally doing. It's just a concept," Paul says.
It's a constant attitude that evolves in us when we try to develop it. However, we should try practicing the love, as I said before, first on our family. Grant everyone in the family their own beingness, if you can. If you can't, keep trying, keep trying until you can. Then, apply it to friends, then, strangers, then,
everyone. See, by doing this you will develop it. Although, as you say, it isn't something you can turn on just like that.
"Just like beingness, you, in a way is all we do have, all of us have it. It's layered over by many attitudes," says Paul.
It's smothered by wrong attitudes. Now, this love I talk about is our basic nature, it's a natural thing, that's why it's so easy. The opposite takes effort. We move away from our natural self. Cover it, smother it with concepts of the opposite of love. Then because we're not loving, unloving comes back at us and proves to us the concepts like Paul brought out, which we all experience when we first start practicing this love. You're not alone Paul.
"Isn't love almost like a selfishness? Because when you love somebody it's such a wonderful feeling for you...," says woman.
Well, this is a matter of semantics that I don't want to get involved in. The way you put it, yes, but not in a general sense.
"I know when I love somebody, I feel so good...," says woman.
It's true, after you discover what love is. It's the greatest thing in the universe. It's a thing everyone wants only because it's its basic nature, in the first place. Every human being is basically a extremely loving individual.
"Does it come down to this thing of pleasure and is it the same type of thing where your mind becomes still in one avenue of thought, of concentration, of acceptance of the other person and therefore the mind is still," says Harry.
Yes.
"The true nature then comes through, which is the love," continues Harry.
Yes. Yes. The more we love, the less we have to think. If I'm not loving you, I have to be on guard. I have to protect myself. If I'm not loving the world, I'm always protecting myself from the world, which causes more and more and more thoughts, puts me
extremely on a defensive and subconsciously it builds up, year in and year out. Then, I'm a mass of thoughts, protecting myself from the world, see. Now, if I love the world, the world can't hurt me, my thoughts get quiet, the mind gets peaceful and then that infinite self is right there and that's the experience of this tremendous joy.
"In other words, it's not the object that brings this out, it's the quieting of the mind that lets us actually being come through. It really is the love experience, isn't it?" says Harry.
Yes.
"More than the object. When we say it's the object that we love.," continue Harry.
But, it's actually what you say. You're taking it right from the top now.
"The shine coming through.," says Harry.
What Harry is saying is that we take our infinite beingness, our infinite joy and we cover it over with
thoughts. We take the natural state, which is unlimited, we cover it up with thoughts of limitation. The thoughts smother this infinite self that we are. It smothers the capacity to enjoy. And so, all we need to do is to quiet the thoughts or rid ourselves of all thoughts. Now, what's left over is the infinite, glorious being that we are, which is our natural state. Isn't that odd? It's our natural state, that's the way we were, that's the way we're going to be. We are actually that now, but we don't see it. This infinite glorious being that we are, being absolutely perfect can never change. It's always there, we just don't look at it, we look away from it, we look far away from it. What we should do is turn our mind inward and begin looking at it and the more we look at it with a capital "I," the more we see It.
Everything seems to point to the same direction, doesn't it? That happens as we get more understanding of what life and the universe is. Everything fits together more and more, until it gets simpler and simpler, until it's just one absolute simple called God. God is simple, everything else is complex. The greater the complexity, the further we are from God. That's
why God is one and only one or one without a second. Have I covered the subject of love?
"In practice, then if someone else has a heartfelt desire and our heart, I'm going to use that word, that same feeling and there's a feeling, if I went along with him, I might lose something, than that isn't love. But if it was complete in the sense that whatever they wish, I wish because their feeling must be my feeling, is only one feeling. Then, I wouldn't be afraid. But if I'm afraid.," Bob says.
There's a word for it today called togetherness. It's a very good word. Doesn't that fit what you're saying? Togetherness, together we see one, the same thing, we want the same thing. Is that.
"Seems a little weak, in a sense, to me," continues Bob.
But that's the word being used. I think we'd be better off if we dropped the word love and used words like togetherness, oneness.
".the thought occurred to me that when you're trying to align your interest with another interest. I have the attitude that I know my beingness or I feel that I'm lined up, I can't get hurt. So therefore, how can anybody else hurt me? So therefore, I want the other person to have what they want also because, again, this mutuality thing. I know that I can't get hurt, so I know I must extend the same privilege. It isn't a thing that I have to line up mutually here or, you know, same ideas or align myself with anybody. I just know that I'm
on the track, that I'm alright. Then everything else, then nothing can hurt me, regardless of what other attitudes there are," Paul says.
That's true.
"So then you just accept you love or you accept all situations for everybody because it has to be good for them it can't only be good for you regardless of others." Paul continues.