2002-11-27. Discipline of Love
Costa Rica #021127
Topic: Discipline of Love
Group: Costa Rica TeaM
Teacher: Alana, Legion
TR: S. Butterfield
Opening
TR: Dear Father, Dear Mother, I surrender my heart to your love, and my mind to your will, which is good will. Thank you.
Alana: Yes, this is Alana. These are the days in which you turn in faith toward our Father’s and our Mother’s love. This is the day of attendance, each day attend – attend to love.
Lesson
You are attending the university of love. You need to learn how to love. You need to know the ways in which to relate beyond the differences of expression that cause pain and conflict. You need to learn patterns of behavior tempered by the greater love that is Michael’s love, given to you in concert with our Father and our Mother to give this love away.
These are the days for giving love away. And yes, in so doing, you encounter those old habits, patterns of thinking, and the lesson of the day becomes difficult, hard work, not so much fun, nor play, but truly work, requiring your attention upon the task, the task of learning to love. Joy is found in the learning, in the learning of the lesson each day.
The discipline of love is the discipline of joy. In forgiving yourself, for all those things you’ve imagined, for all those errors of love you’ve committed, for all those failures of understanding, you will, as you work at it, discover “the pearl of great price,” the love that can not be denied, the deep abiding joy. Sometimes this discovery appears within your individual stillness practice, your studious attention, your constant focus, your prayer, as you surrender all your troubles to our love, to Jesus, Christ Michael, our Father and our Mother, the source of all love. Sometimes, as your self forgiveness spills over into the forgiveness of others (for the two are so intertwined) you look up and you see the forgiveness coming toward you, given away to you, and you are thankful.
We have said for you to hold each other’s hands. Hold our hands as well. Give the touch of love, when you can. Accept our touch of love when you can not. You need the touch of love to have faith that in touching another with love, your love will not be diminished, your love will not go away, your heart will not be emptied, but rather fulfilled.
The holy communion of love embraces everything, and everyone. Do not feel ashamed, nor guilty, nor worthy of blame or betrayal, if you, a small human being, have difficulty welcoming change with love, or understanding change from the perspective of love, or effecting change with love. When a crisis of faith occurs, your faith will be sustained by Father, Mother, Michael, and ourselves, holding your heart high, your mind embraced by our love.
When you have walked through the darkness and come to the door at the precipice of our welcome, our welcome is always there…yes?
David: Yes.
Legion: And we welcome you with joy, yes?
David: Yes.
Legion: You are loved beyond all compare, my friends. There is no need for competition, nor jealousy. In the Holy Communion of Love, even the smallest gesture shared, is filled to over flowing.
We are here to catch your tears, to hear your cry. Simply listen, and listen simply. There is no need for pomp and ceremony. Lift the cup of love and let its aroma give love away. Sip the cup of love and let love’s nourishment fill you with such warmth and light and radiance that love is shared, love is given away, easily, simply, humbly, and with the pride of joy.
Embrace your brothers and sisters today with our love. Thank you.
Dialogue
Legion: This is Legion. May I help you?
David: I don’t know that I need any help today. I feel extreme gratefulness for having just heard the beautiful, lyrical words of Alana. I look forward to reading them.
Legion: Wonderful.
David: I would like to express my thanksgiving to you Legion, and Song, for the work that you have done with me, steadily giving me balance. This morning my beloved and I were sharing our thoughts, feelings and awareness of this university of love. We are working with our inner life and patterns. It is a wonderful feeling of richness and appreciation to know that my partner is with me in turning our faces toward the light, and that she is with me in enduring and being as helpful as possible when one or the other is going through difficult times. You have brought into our lives a togetherness that I have never felt before.
Legion: Thank you. You know when you are slighted. You know when you are wounded. You know when you have been betrayed. You know all your angers and shoutings of misunderstanding, your accusations. But when you step into the unknowing, into the unknowing of surrender, into the unknowing of stepping into the light and love that is beyond all measure, then you say, “I don’t know that I need anything today, Legion. I am so grateful. I am so thankful.”
Yes. The discipline of love is the discipline of joy. In the discipline you surrender, and allow love to show you the way to joy. Thank you.
David: I must say, Legion, I’ve been to a lot of schools and universities in my life, and the curriculum you’ve given us is more difficult and demanding than anything I’ve studied. The curriculum you have given us is life itself.
Legion: My friend you became accustomed to a university of study about life, a university of study about God, a university of study about religion, a university of study about humanity. This is the university of love. There is no about-ness about it.
It is useful to study the words of the lessons as they come forth in words toward you, or at you, or in your mind, but in the university of love, the lessons are worthless without the practice of the learning in the lessons. The lessons are not to be memorized and regurgitated for an A-plus. The lessons are to be lived.
You may well ask, “Why do these lessons continually come, transcript after transcript, year after year?” You often ask, “Why must I stumble again? I thought I learned that one.”
Each lesson is learned, again and again, in a new way, revealing, “Oh! There is that way to love, as well!”
It can be useful to study the lessons of the past, be these your stumblings and your errors, or the wisdoms of your successes and clarifications. But each day is a new day: a new day to learn a new lesson in the university of love; a new day to surrender everything to know love; a new day to know God’s love for you; and a new opportunity to know the lesson of the day. To know the way of love is to surrender to love with forgiveness and compassion and mercy, and then to give the love given unto you away.
Closing
The discipline of love is the discipline of joy. Rejoice! Have faith! Have faith that Michael’s mission to bring the Holy Communion of Love to you, and to those who come to you, and to those to whom you come, will succeed and will bring the light of love to your concerns. “Holding high the mission” is holding high the light of love. Allow that light to shine today. Fear not. Doubt not. Simply shine.
That shining radiance of light is most simply expressed with a smile. No words are necessary, nor degrees in learning. The smile of love allows the light to shine from your eyes. The light shining in your eyes is how you recognize the smile of love. Thank you.
