Ian & Stuart's Australian Mac: Not for Sale/Another.not.for.sale (Australia).iso/hold me in your arms/Pagan/love-catalyst

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Ann Davies Sunday Service 2-14-60


    LOVE THE GREAT CATALYST


Gospel of St. John, chapter 15 (KJV)
:1    I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
:2    Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch
that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.
:3    Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
:4    Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
:5    I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
:6    If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
:7    If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will,
and it shall be done unto you.
:8    Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my
disciples.
:9    As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
:10    If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have
kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
:11    These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and
that your joy might be full.
:12    This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
:13    Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends.
:14    Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you.
:15    Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his
lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you.
:16    Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain: that
whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you.
:17    These things I command you, that ye love one another.

We are going to speak of love in perhaps a way that you're not usually
accustomed to. Because you see one of the most misunderstood words
unfortunately in our English vocabulary is this word Love. And one of the
most misunderstood emotions is the emotion we call Love. And indeed until we
know a little more what it is and know what to do to embrace it, we have
little hope, truly of attaining to the fulfillment. In relationships here or
in the attainment of that glorious unspeakable, incommunicable experience,
the True Knowledge, direct knowledge of the love of God and what it really
means. And one incidentally cannot be had without the other - not really. The
Gospel of St. John chapter 15 from which we read, this is a pure Qabalistic
treatise. And indeed we couldn't even begin in a short talk like this to give
the full implications of what has been said. But we are going to try at least
to give some of the most vital aspects that are involved.

Now first of all, lets analyze the idea of Love, away from anything personal
for a moment. It has been said God is Love. And indeed the master who's
behind our work, as have masters behind all true occult teachings, has told
us, not once, but many times, that if we must look for a reason for
manifestation... that if we must look for a reason for individuation... for
the appearance of separateness, there's only one answer that can be given if
we know what it means.  And the answer is --  The reason is because God is
Love. Alright, now what might that mean? Well look at the way the universe
acts and works. We've heard of the law of gravitation. I'm sure that most of
us have meditated on the idea that gravitation is an expression of love.
Because what is gravitation? It is attraction. And attraction is what? When
two things, or elements, atoms, or groups of bodies are drawn together by
attraction, its called the law of gravitation. I think a better term would be
the law of Love, really. Because remember in occultism we are taught that
there isn't anything which exists which is not of God, in God, and an
expression of God. So the whirling nebulas, the planets whirling around their
suns, the moons around their planets, all these composed of the various
elements which finally work themselves down to the atom. All these things are
in motion through the law of Love. Or as science likes to put it, the law of
attraction through gravitation. But we say that in as much as all appearance
is really a sensory experience of a motion of consciousness, which in essence
we can call God, or Life, or the Lord of the Universe, whatever we want, it's
the same idea, then indeed the very universe, the physical universe is an
expression of Love because it is the law of attraction, of gravitation which
keeps elements together to form bodies. And these bodies, whether they be
suns or planets or the physical vehicle which we walk about in, or the
vehicle of a creature or a tree, these are all being held together, a field
of force, by the gravitational law, or let's call it the law of Love.
Therefore we might say to begin with in trying to get a better understanding
of Love, we could say then that everything that exists, exits because God is
Love. Exactly as the Master has told us, and as everyone has been taught
truly, though we usually don't know what it means, it sounds beautiful. And
because its sounds beautiful we try to feel inspired. But it's much more easy
to be inspired when we know truly from a deeper part of our natures just what
this beautiful thing is.

So we have that element that's involved. Now let's see how we apply it. We
certainly know that every human heart longs and yearns for Love. This is
granted. It doesn't matter who the human being might be. Even that human
being who thinks he or she has love. You'll find if you look deeply, there's
still longing for it. It apparently isn't all there. Or there wouldn't be the
hunger continuing and continuing. Of course we have periods when we, shall we
say, fall in love. This is another term that is used and it said to be a
little different than just loving. Although we'll examine it and see. We have
periods when we fall in love, where we think we've got it. And perhaps for a
week or a month or it might even last a year, this really intense aspect of
it, when the head is in the clouds and the whole being radiates. And we look
around and smile and everyone looks at us. You know the saying: "All the
world loves a lover." And of course it's very healthful, because the
endocrine system, as we know, becomes quite stimulated when we're in love. So
it must be a very good thing to fall in love. Though usually we don't know
what to make of it, because we end up with it's opposite, as we shall see. It
must be a very wonderful thing and rather a lovely gift. When we consider
that it makes the eyes glow, the skin radiate, the lips smile, the heart
rejoice, and the wonderful thing it does physiologically. When you consider
the energy that comes about through the entire endocrine stimulation. And
remember the endocrine system in occultism is definitely tied up with what we
call the psychic centers. It is through the endocrine system that we have our
force connections with the psychic and other vehicles. And we must not
overlook this. All occult work, all occult work is aimed at stimulating the
psychic centers, which are called chakras in the eastern philosophy and
called the inner holy planets in western occultism. And for very good reason.
When we give our series on esoteric astrology, as tied up with awakening of
the chakras, you will see why they are called the seven inner holy planets.
Nevertheless, that has to be quite a long series.

Now then, when we consider the beneficial effects we have, at least
temporarily, in this state of falling in love. We need to examine a little
more closely what happens in this state. Why are we not able to maintain it
and just how is this state applied to the other kinds of loving and perhaps
even to the love of God. This is what we need to examine a little more fully.
And let's not any of us who have passed the age of 40 or 50 say: "well I'm so
old now, it's to late for me." Believe me, no one is to old to fall in love,
my darlings. And do not give yourself such negative suggestions. Because of
course the first thing we must examine is how to fall in love with ourselves.
And this does not mean what it usually means, not at all. You see, usually
when the youngster and the adolescent falls in love, what really happens is
that an image is projected from the man to the woman and/or from the woman to
the man. They project an image upon each other. Of course this is our big
problem anyway. We project images upon each other and think that this is the
reality of the person. This is where the trouble comes in. And yet, believe
me, we can fall in love without being lost or deluded by the image. This is
what we have to learn to do.

But let's examine what usually happens. We project an image upon each other.
And so the woman sees the man as this idealized form of this great, like a
god-like being, truly. "Oh he's wonderful", you'll hear the youngster, and
sometimes its a youngster of 40 or 50, but still, in the falling in love,
"he's wonderful". Or he will say, "Oh, she's glorious". But you see
unfortunately what is being experienced as wonderful and glorious and what
the glow is really about is that one has become enamored with one's own
image. Now, mind you, there's nothing wrong with being enamored of one's own
image, if one knows that this is what it is. To use a principle is one thing.
To be deluded by it is another. So that just as we have told you before,
human beings may live together and speak together and share many things
together for a lifetime, and they've never communicated at all. They've never
really known each other. In the same way people fall in love, and naturally
they don't know each other, because they're in love with an image. They're
not able yet to fall in love with the true being. Not yet.

But this falling in love apparently is good practice anyway. It keeps one's
hand in the ability to at least project a certain intensity of emotion. And
in the long run everything serves a constructive purpose. No matter how
painful it might be in it's repercussions while we are evolving and growing.
But let's try to understand this principle more, so that we will not make the
same mistakes that the youngsters make.

We have then this mutual projection of an image which is so glorious, and we
call this the state of falling in love. And usually when two individuals
marry, especially if they marry very quickly, immediately starts the
disillusionment. Because after all, one's ideal image would do everything
exactly as one wants that image to be and do and act. And this goes in both
directions. So then we start having disillusionments and we find out that he
is a so and so, because he did this and that and the other. And she is
absolutely unbearable, what did I ever see in her she does such and such and
such. I mean this happens when the mutual projection was completely and
entirely picture without any of the real affinities that might have existed
underneath. You have complete disillusionment when the "in love" was complete
"in love" with just a projection. And indeed, this is true of most human
beings. Very rarely, very rarely indeed are there even one or two real traits
that we have been aware of and accepted in our hearts. And because we have
been trained to think and feel in certain ways and certainly certain
responsibilities that come with relationships, especially if there are
children. We sigh, and we make the best of it, but we walk through life very
unhappy. Very frustrated, very cheated, very cheated indeed. And what usually
happens unfortunately is that our capacity for love becomes less and less and
less as we walk in these frustrations, in these disappointments.

Well of course we're talking about the extreme cases and there are too many
such on this planet. Too many, tragically too many. However, we also have
those who are capable of maturity. Sometimes some people are almost born with
this ability. And I guess it's because in previous incarnations they've had
enough repercussions, so they have learned to differentiate a little bit
between the projected picture and the true person. And then where there's
been a real contact with the true person, there's always a better
understanding or companionship. Still it's never really perfect. At least the
few that might be perfect are so few indeed that I wonder that if more than a
hundred exist on the whole planet. Believe me, I am not giving you a
pessimistic evaluation here. We know human nature very deeply indeed. And we
know how few human beings there are who walk in true love, in true love.

Now then, people become unhappy, discouraged, frustrated and they often
decide, "well I just am being taught by the Lord of the Universe to stop
loving individuals. I have to go beyond that, I've got to love God." You see,
I mean this is a lovely out. But Jesus said "A new law I give unto thee...
Love ye one another." And my darlings, no human being even begins to have the
capacity to love God or know God until he has learned how to love humanity.
"Love ye one another." Nevertheless no human being knows how to love humanity
until he has learned how to love himself.

And how are we going to learn to love ourselves? Well, acceptance. Of course
it's a nice easy word. How are we going to learn to accept ourselves? It's
not done overnight. That's one of the things that our work is all about.
That's one of the things that Tarot is all about, that the Qabalah is all
about. People are being trained to fall in love with themselves. But of
course, we don't tell them that, because if we said to you at the beginning
of the course, "What we want you to do really, is to fall in love with
yourself." I mean, you probably never would have started studying with us at
all. "Because after all that's selfishness. Look at all these ego maniacs,
the trouble with them is they love themselves too much." Haven't you heard
it? But they don't love themselves darlings, ego maniacs never love
themselves. Ego maniacs hate themselves. That is why they have to force their
importance upon others. A person who loves himself and loves others doesn't
have to have such unhappy drives.

So let's give a few examples. You know that's always the best way. To show in
a homely way how these things act. Well let me give you one case history very
briefly of what love is not, but where the people think they love. Because
when we can see that, it helps us to recognize where we've made our errors
through illusion and delusion in the past. That will help us to wipe out some
of the frustrations and unhappinesses we still carry. And perhaps even
discover how we feel about people right now who we're supposed to be close
to. So let me give you a true case history that has come very recently to my
attention.

This man and woman married when they were very young. He was only 18, she was
I believe 24. There was 6 years difference, but he knew she wouldn't have him
if she knew how young he was, so he told her he was her age. And the married.
She was his very first love. He came to here pure and virginal and full of
idealism. A very idealistic soul by the way, very sweet, idealistic soul.
They married and had a couple of children. However from the very beginning,
he found himself subjected to tirades which he didn't pay too much attention
to, being very young. He didn't know that this was very abnormal in a
relationship. He was very naive, though he was quite brilliant in other ways.
He managed in time to attain to a very prominent position. But you see we can
be very bright in some ways and be very blind and perhaps almost morons in
the field of human relationships. And yet the most important place to learn
how to be bright is in the field of human relationships. All else will come
when we learn that. "Love ye one another."

So the marriage progressed through many years of this. And because this was a
very young boy, and because he had very erroneous ideas, idealistic as he
was, he fell by the wayside once. And was absolutely horrified with himself
over the terrible thing he had done. Well it was certainly a very foolish and
weak sort of thing to do, let us grant it. Nevertheless he could not bear his
guilt, so he ran to his wife to unload his guilt by confessing to her. And
then we had of course, you can imagine the situation, there was a blowup that
almost equaled the atomic bomb. And of course we do not blame the poor woman
in the case either. This is the sort of thing that happens when people aren't
totally fulfilled, even though they are not aware of the fact, it is apt to
happen quite often in life. And we need to understand what makes people do
these things, in order to finally outgrow these tendencies.

So she now had something, even more sorrow and real with which to use the
tirades. Well it is now 25 years since this couple married. They are still
together. But, here is the situation. And this we need to understand, because
we all do the same things in lesser measure, and perhaps some of us equally
that way in relationships. Here is the situation now. Well, lets first tell
you, about three years ago the man finally went a marriage counselor. He was
determined that the marriage has got to work. He went to a marriage
counselor. The marriage counselor tried and tried to talk to him. He said I
want to know what it is that your wife feels is wrong with you as a husband.
So he went to his wife and asked her. He said, "The psychiatrist wants to
know what you feel is wrong with me as a husband." And she said, "I'll tell
you, I'd love to tell him what's wrong with you as a husband. Here you write
this down. First of all you are a liar. You lied to me about your age when we
got married. Second of all you're a cheat." Incidentally he happened to steal
couple of library books in the first year of their marriage, he wanted them
so badly. A very naughty thing to do of course, but that had been 23 years
previously. "You are a cheat and a thief. You stole those two library books.
You have absolutely no integrity or honesty or dependability." He
occasionally came home half an hour or forty-five minutes late for supper
when he got lost in business. He was a very top executive and top executives
do get caught in things that get all concentrated perhaps in a job that has
to get done, so there was that. "You have no integrity, no honesty.
Furthermore your are a lousy lover. And you paw women." Which he didn't
really. He was one of these sweet... He's a sweet Libran. You know Librans
are very sweet towards other people and gracious. And anyone whose jealous of
course would interpret it ways that the jealousy interprets. So these
complaints were brought to the psychiatrist. Who finally got her to come to
see him in order to try to get her personal reaction. Well by the time they
were through, this is what the psychiatrist said. Now this is very rare. He
said to the man, "Divorce her. You are both unrealistic about each other. You
cannot see each others real selves at all. And furthermore she wants to
demasculize you. In other words, she wants to neuter you psychologically.
Because of her bitterness there's absolutely no hope or opportunity, there's
no chance that you two can get together. Because you've never even met each
other, let alone get together." Well the man was horrified. He said, "What.
Divorce my wife. I love her." Now daily he had been subjected to hysterics,
name callings, all through these years mind you. He had been rejected in the
marital act regularly. And told also how inept he was. And yet he was
determined he loves his wife, he's going to keep his marriage, the
psychiatrist was wrong. He was determined he was going to keep this marriage
and make it work. That she was going to accept him.

Now what was the real situation there. Well I think you've already seen. They
had never met each other. She had a vision, a dream. And she never matured
enough to accept him as he was. And incidentally he was a very sweet human
being. He had never been able to accept her as she was. She was a very
bitter, jealous, possessive, hate ridden human being. He had to see her as
being loving, because she said she was loving. And he had to accept that
because she said that of herself. So that a lifetime together saying I
love... She was always saying, "I'm deeply in love with you. You are my whole
life." And he said, "I love you." But my darlings, neither of them ever loved
the other at all, because they never even met, so how could they love. They
never made real contact with each others hearts, with each others souls, with
each others personalities. Not really.

And so you see many human beings go through life because they have decided on
a picture or a pattern that they think in relation to that person. They go
through life determined, because they have to see themselves as being loving.
Incidentally this man has to see himself as being honorable, because she has
said he's not. With integrity, because she has said he's not. As being noble,
because she has said he's not. And as being spiritual, because she has said
he's not. So he's going through life trying to prove to her that he is the
qualities that she has claimed he is not. And she has gone through life
collecting injustices. Now how many of us are injustice collectors? Hunting
for the evidences in the other person that show that they are not completely
and thoroughly focused on us. Hunting, hunting. We all do it if we'll watch
ourselves. This of course is not healthy. Even though we must be aware.

So here's an example of people who are determined that they each are in love
with the other, and they are not. They don't even love each other. He is a
masochist who wants to remain where he can be reviled and degraded and he has
it. She is an injustice collector, a martyr and a sadist. And they each
fulfill the other beautifully, beautifully on the negative side. In other
words, this is what we call negative attachment. And this is our great
problem darlings, all of us. To become aware of negative attachment. Negative
attachment imprisons us more thoroughly and has more power over us, and
directs what we decide to do more fully than does love. Did you know that.
It's because we haven't grown up enough. When we grow up enough it will not
be so. And before we can grow up we must recognize and see what this is and
how we, everyone of us utilize it in various ways.

This I hope is not to shocking to all of you to here. But truly occult
aspirants must be willing to look at the truth, honestly. We must be willing
to look reality in the face, because reality my darlings is good. It is
beautiful, it is glorious. And if we suffer pain discoveries, it is only
because we are clinging to the negative attachments or the pattern we have
formed that we think is our security. Let's look honestly and see. And then
we will be ready to do something about it. Of course Tarot is exactly what's
going to see to it that we do something about it, if we work with it and the
rest of our work it will do it for us. Only if we utilize it fully and
regularly and consistently. In other words, there is a way out of this trap
if we choose to work with it, and if we're desperate enough to work with it.

Now then, what is love. I mean let's give you a little anecdote now to show
about love. Now in this instance, I'll give you a little experience of mine.
Not showing how loving I am, because of course I know I'm loving. Though some
might disagree with my idea of what loving is. But I'm very fortunate, I have
fallen in love with myself, by the grace of God. And I enjoy it very much.
But this little anecdote has to do with a friend of mine, showing how truly
he knows how to love, and he does. I was with this friend one day and he was
taking me somewhere on an errand, and the questions came about trusting
people. And I said to him, "Do you trust me?" And if you'll excuse my
language please, he said, "Hell no." I chuckled and I said, "You don't?" He
said, "No." I said, "Why?" He said, "Well, maybe that isn't exactly the right
answer. And yet, well let me put it this way. I know that if I wanted you to
do a certain thing and you decided that it wasn't your nature or in your
ethic or your idea to do it, you would just go about your sweet way. And if I
asked you, did you? If you thought I'd get angry at you, you'd lie to me.
'You'd say Oh sure I did'". And I said, "Well, I've only done that about once
or twice haven't I? And you would have gotten angry. And had you become angry
it would have interfered with the lovingness of our friendship. And I figured
time will soothe the breast, and it didn't injure you did it?" And he said,
"Oh my, no. Certainly not." I said, "Do you ever tell a lie? A white lie if
someone wants to force you to do things a certain way which is not in
accordance with your basic beingness or integrity?" He said, "Yes I guess
so." And I said, "OK. You see, I'm no different than you are there."

He said, "Well no, there's something else. For instance. If I gave you a gift
of money for Christmas or your birthday. And said to you, 'now this money is
to be spent on such and such.' I know very well that you'd pay no attention
at all and before I knew it it would be spent on your daughter, or your
grandson, or a friend. My purpose would have been thwarted." I said, "Oh,
yes. You're still angry with me." He said, "Well I'm annoyed. You thwarted my
purpose. I gave you a sum of money for a birthday present for you to buy
yourself a purse and the next thing I know, your grandson has the orthopedic
shoes. I didn't give it to you for his orthopedic shoes. I gave it to you for
a purse." I said, "Well, now then that gift of money was not a free gift. You
didn't transfer the money to me to do as I pleased with. What you wanted to
do, you were making me an agent for you. You appointed me as your agent. You
know me, I just didn't accept the appointment, did I. Because if I have a
gift, if it's a fee gift, now it gave me greater pleasure to see that my
grandson had orthopedic shoes, than that I should have a purse. Besides it
was too much trouble for me to go buy a purse, and it was very easy to just
hand it over to my daughter to see that my grandson had orthopedic shoes." So
we chuckled about that.

Now mind you all this was in laughing, chuckling, accepting good humor. So
there was this chuckle involved between us. And I said, "Well, don't you
trust me in anything?" He said, "Silly. Of course I do. I would trust you to
never do anything to hurt me that was within your power. To always protect me
and help me if I were in trouble. To fight for me if you thought that there
was an injustice being perpetrated against me. I would trust you in all
that." I said, "You see, then you trust me in the important things. It isn't
very important if I refuse to be your agent then is it? Or if I will tell a
white lie in order to avoid having you annoyed with me." And he said, "That
is correct." And I said, "You know, I really am very happy to hear that you
don't trust me. Because, this is real love. You are not trying to make me, or
you are not trying to fool yourself into thinking I am certain qualities. You
are willing to accept that I am me and that I am going to be me no matter
what anyone else wants. And yet in essence you love me and you are devoted to
me. Because you know that in the important thing I am there, I accept you. In
other words, you accept me as I am."

Do you see? This is really love. He does not approve of the fact that I
refuse to be his agent if he gives me a gift of money, but figure it's a free
gift. He doesn't like the idea that I occasionally might tell white lie,
though he agrees that he would tell a white lie too, as we all know if we are
honest with ourselves. Nevertheless there is no rancor, there is no
resentment, there's even chuckle. He's amused and he accepts, and he's a
devoted, a truly devoted friend. Now this is love. And it's the kind of love
that we all need to have. But we do not get this kind of love unless we learn
how to give it. And we do not learn how to give it until first we learn how
to accept ourselves. So that what we like to tell aspirants is basically
this. Don't feel it is so important that you have all the noble qualities, or
whatever these qualities are that you have decided are spiritual qualities.
Like thoughtfulness, and love, consideration, unselfishness... These are
words, words, words. When it's vital to us to think of ourselves as having
all these angelic qualities, because anyone who had them perfectly would
already be an angel and wouldn't have to be incarnated here. When we have to
think of ourselves as having all of these wonderful qualities, then we have
to hate ourselves every time we do the things, or feel the things that are
not expressing them. In other words, we have to be disappointed with
ourselves, or we have to feel grieved and then it is an emotion towards
ourselves which is negative. You see we're not accepting what we are. And if
we're not accepting what we are, we are not able to do things about it.

It's like the couple we told you about. They cannot see what they are really
to each other, the real characteristics are unseen by them, that's why they
are unable to do anything about it. So that if we see we have this little
immature trait, that little immature trait, the important thing is to accept
it as we do with a child, as we do with a pet. And to accept it exactly in
the same spirit as with a child. You know that indulgence. When my dog is
naughty, and my dog is very reprehensible indeed at time as Mrs. Case will
guarantee, she will go off on garbage hunts that are the most fantastic,
intense, determined hunts that you ever came across, and she will empty out
the garbage can, she will knock them down, she's very ingenious and she's
very clever.  And if she wants something, she's going to figure out a way to
get it, and you know she's already 15 years old, but she's as ingenious today
as she was as a pup. And she goes on these hunts and she becomes quite an
annoyance. It is very annoying indeed to find the garbage can knocked over,
the cover off and the nice distribution, hither, thither and yon. She is very
naughty and in other ways too. Nevertheless, I scold her. I'll occasionally
even spank her. And we need to. Love must know. When you really love, love
must know. Of course I see Mrs. Case is smiling, and she's figuring that my
scolding and spanking is sort of like rewarding her for good behavior. Be
that as it may, at least I try to use the proper discipline, and besides she
is 15 years old, and one becomes more indulgent when they reach that age. At
any rate, it doesn't stop my loving the little creature.

As a matter of fact even though I get annoyed, and even though I have to
spank her and discipline her occasionally. In a way I'm also rather proud of
the fact that she's that ingenious. You see this is acceptance where love is
not interfered with. The reason I like to give such a ridiculous example,
really is because if we see it in the ridiculous we're more apt to see it in
it's more homely and regular applications. And besides it's more entertaining
too, don't you think? It helps wake us up a little bit. And it's true, I'm
telling you the truth about that little dog, she does just that. And I feel
exactly that way. Nevertheless, there is this charm about the individuality
and the uniqueness of the creature. Now this is what we need to feel about
ourselves and each other. The charm. About our own uniqueness.

Lets take vanity now, vanity. Of course we've all hear about the terrible
things about vanity. And its vanity, vanity, all is vanity. And there are
moans and there are groans. But has it ever occurred to you that there might
be something very charming about vanity? Well, if we dress up with a new
dress or a new suit and tie and our hair is just so, and we look in the
mirror, isn't there something rather charming about being able to say,
"You're a handsome devil" in the mirror? Doesn't that make you feel good?
Gosh you're nice looking. Gee you've got a nice sweet expression. You see.
Now what's wrong with this kind of vanity. It's harmless. It's laughable in a
way, but it's the self chuckle. Now it's this self chuckle that we need to
develop for falling in love with ourselves. And just this little example of
vanity gives us an idea of how easy it could be. Alright, so we do get angry
sometimes. Say we've blown up at someone. As all of us will occasionally.
Afterwards, instead of brooding, and feeding this anger. I mean isn't it just
as well to sort of see it pretty much like... Mrs. Case's dog Fritzie, he has
a very reprehensible characteristic too, though I'm sure she would not like
to grant it, and maybe she would. If she does it will be with the same
indulgence that I feel towards Tzaddi. Now he has a bone there, he might not
want it at all. But when Tzaddi comes, that's my dog. He guards that bone,
and growls and snaps at her and he becomes the most possessive, devilish,
teasing... and we've known him to absolutely guard a bone for many, many
hours, and Tzaddi just as patiently watching for many, many hours. I mean
there was a meaning in life. Life is suddenly very exciting... "I've got
something I'm going to be able to keep you from having, ha ha ha."

That's human beings darlings, that we're showing you. Well if we see it and
then laugh. You see the chuckle, to see the immaturity of it, and laugh at
it. You see we're able to laugh at it when we here about Fritzie and Tzaddi
doing things. If we can learn to chuckle at ourselves, at these displays, it
is amazing how much more quickly that we'll be able to transmute them.
Because this again, is indulgence, affection and love. We can chuckle because
we think, we're feeling affection for the little creatures, and therefore for
their foibles. In other words, when you love a human being, you love them for
what they are, for their weaknesses as well as their strengths. You look into
reality and you revere their uniqueness. And you are very willing to have
them think differently and feel differently about different subjects. And you
have a lovely time having hearty discussions, which some other people might
call arguments, but they're not, if there's good will. You are loving that
individual when you are accepting that persons unique point of view instead
of recriminations, of condemnations. You know, so and so is a... You know how
often we say... I always like to remind people presidential elections are
coming up, and every democrat is going to call the republicans damn fools,
and every republican is going to be calling the democrats damn fools. For
believing in and being taken in by the propaganda of the other. Instead of
the honesty and the real fine representatives which are ours.

This is separative, and it does not lead to the awakening, the falling in
love with self and others. We must not take ourselves too seriously in these
areas, if we would discover the glorious reality of what we are. And if we
would learn how to thrill to the beauty and the miracle of life in ourselves
and others. Work with the Tarot. Work with the Tree of Life when you get to
it. And you will learn, you will see, but meanwhile having these little
examples we hope will help you to do it a little more rapidly, because we
show it in this homely way. But try to work at chuckling with yourself,
accepting yourself. Try to fall in love with yourself. That you, you, every
single one of you are unique miracles expressing God. As we say in our
prayer... God looks through your eyes. Indeed, thrill to that! God hears
through your ears. Indeed, thrill to that! Isn't that enough reason to fall
in love with yourself? God feels through your hands. God speaks through your
lips. God walks your feet. Thrill to it! Remind yourself. Look at this
glorious day we have today. That blue sky. It would have been better to have
our talk outside under that glorious blue sky. That's the gift of God. Fall
in love with it. Fall in love with the sky.

But how will you fall in love with the sky unless you have your relationship
that's pure. The pure relationship is the accepting relationship. The
willingness to see. And then it expands and expands. And then to have
infinite love, all you have to do is start having love exactly where you are,
with the gratitude that God does live you. And wake up in the morning and
just say "I'm in love with God. And I'm in love with myself." Prance around.
Everyone remembers how you felt when you were in love. Start prancing around
that way. Telling yourself you're in love with yourself. And remember that's
God. Because, who made me? God made me. It may sound silly, but isn't it
true. It's not silly at all. And then you will find, you will find that love
will come back to you in waves of glory beyond anything you can imagine. You
will not have to yearn for love, long for love. Anyone who loves self and
loves life and loves God, and is willing to accept everyone and see the
miracle and love them for being a miracle, even if they're a reprehensible
miracle at times, such a person will never know loneliness. And then, if you
are meant in this incarnation to have that most complete in love of male
female, this is the way you have to prepare yourself to be worthy of it. So
darlings, fall in love, if you know what we mean now.