In the advent theme, love would be my favorite candle. To me, love is what brings joy, hope and peace. The quest for love is each person’s life quest, although it may come after many of their personal quests achieved
In the advent theme, love would be my favorite candle. To me, love is what brings joy, hope and peace. The quest for love is each person’s life quest, although it may come after many of their personal quests achieved didn’t bring them what they wanted. This quest is symbolized by stories and myths of quests in many countries throughout time, often about a great trouble to a village which required a brave hero to go on a quest for a solution.
The quest for the Holy Grail is the most popular through the Arthurian Legends, which is a fusion of Percival’s quest for a grail that provided food and drink for people, and the grail being the cup that Jesus used during the last supper.
There is Jason’s quest for the “Golden Fleece” representing power and authority, an emperor’s quest to bring laughter back to his daughter, several quests for the perfect mate, cures for illness, finding a new land to live in such as Moses and Aeneas did.
They continue. Jonas Salk vowed to find a cure for polio, and did. NASA vowed to go to the moon. We each have our personal quests, but at the root is the quest for love. I’ve known many now who have had great land holdings or wealth, whose inventions have helped to shape our world, who have retreated a bit to find a relationship with love.
And it’s not the flash love that is “I’ll love you if you’ll love me back.” That’s business. True love is beyond the personality. True love is our personal branch of immortality, which we only can get to when we recognize it in another. Jesus’ admonition to “Love your neighbor as yourself” means just that (Mark 12:31). I recognize that within each of us is an equal, flawless, incorruptible expression of God’s love. I can’t have it for myself without offering it to another.
Also, we have to forgive others to be forgiven ourselves. (Mark 11: 25-26). That’s because the love that Jesus and other prophets in other religions were talking about was spiritual love. It is not a logical subject. Thinking about it too much can get one all mixed up. It’s the love that surpasses understanding, just like the peace he left with us. It’s not logical and doesn’t make sense to forgive the person who blinded you. Yet, we are told to forgive it. Since it doesn’t work from the mind, we must go to the heart.
It must be discovered through the spiritual heart. Now that is the worthy quest, for spiritual love has no form, yet we can see the results of it working in our lives. The good news is that the pathway is getting wider for us as more and more people are finding it, living it, and sharing about it.
To spiritually forgive someone is not to first condemn them as a criminal and then in your high righteousness let it go (and you get to go to heaven … not really if you are still condemning them as a criminal). Spiritual forgiveness means remembering that the person is still a beloved child of God, that you share the same Creator, and that what they did in this 3D world won’t affect who you both are in the true spiritual world. And that you’ll be as full of love for each other as you are full of it for yourself. No false modesty needed. All the ego games are gone in the spiritual world.
Now it still might be a good choice for harmful people to be locked up for awhile, until they begin to remember their true quest, which is often started by someone who loves them unconditionally so strongly that they feel it.
The spiritual world is the one that Jesus stated he was king of, that his accusers couldn’t understand. Many still don’t get it today. But what Jesus was asking us to do is to remember each other’s holiness in the worst of times, as well as the best of times.
And here is a clue about when you know you’re off your quest: When you think that God loves you more than anyone. You don’t earn God’s love by doing seemingly wonderful things. You have it always! You can’t escape it. God loves you and if you’ll just take about 20 minutes to clear out the thousands of thoughts that creep into your mind twice a day, giving that time to your Creator with many names, you can begin to feel it. Feeling it is the prize of the quest. And it can solve any problem this world presents.
Oh, I could write about this forever, but I would rather leave you with some terrific quotations that might just start that glow in your heart. Cause that’s where your quest will take you: to your own heart. It has to be felt and experienced, not thought about.
w “The thought, ‘I rest in God.’…will carry you onward to the certainty of God.” (A Course in Miracles Workbook lesson 109)
w “The state of aloha can be created in an instant. It is a decision to behave with kindness, generosity, wanting to give joy to another.” Auntie Irmgard Farden Aluli.
w “Give us the wisdom to teach our children to love, to respect, and to be kind to each other.” Native American Peace Prayer
w “The individual, who boldly and courageously asserts the will to love in the midst of a world of fear and hate, will create for himself and for those who love him, a magic world of serenity and peace. ‘Abdu’l-Baha (Baha’i)
w “Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.” Mother Teresa, Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
w “The Universe has your back.” Esther Abraham Hicks
w “You need not fear the Higher Court will condemn you. It will merely dismiss the case against you.” A Course in Miracles Text p. 88
“The Wise One trusts his heart above the world, lets all things come and go, and focuses on Heaven.” Lao Tzu
w “At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us.” Albert Schweitzer.
w “Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.” and “Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
w “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.” Proverbs 3:3
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Questions?
Hale ‘Opio Kaua’i convened a support group of adults in our Kauai community to “step into the corner” for our teens, to answer questions and give support to youth and their families on a wide variety of issues. Please email your questions or concerns facing our youth and families today to Annaleah Atkinson at aatkinson@haleopio.org For more information about Hale ‘Opio Kaua’, please go to www.haleopio.org
