When Jesus was baptized he came up out of the water, saw the heavens open and heard a voice that said, ‘This is my beloved child in whom I am well pleased.’
Whatever your spiritual background, imagine if some enlightened being - Jesus, Maharaj-ji, Buddha, Quan Yin - were to say this to you. Repeat it a few times.
How would knowing that you don’t have to go looking for love change your life? To know you are a blessing, the essence of love itself, which can’t be lost? Would it change how you showed up in your day-to-day life? In your heart?
This is such a profound and beautiful question. I was conditioned to understand that there was something “wrong with me”. I have clear recollections of being told from a young age that I was an evil seed. It led to years of trying to earn my worth. During some healing work the person I was working with made a statement that I was worthy and enough just by being born. It was the first time I had ever heard or understood that concept and it has propelled me to seek further healing where I was able to connect to this concept during a psychedelic experience where it was Ram Dass’s voice that led me to really recognize my innate goodness. I think we have to undo a lot of what we have learned, wipe the mirror clean. The love we are seeking is inside us.
Yes, I think this is essential to finding my way back home. We are all children of the one, and I believe, dare I say know, we are all essentially and inherently good. Thanks for this reminder!!
Initially I thought well, if I heard that ,then others “heard” it too…were cradled, immersed, completely absorbed in love…our egos weren’t necessary. What would that look like? That was my head version.
When I got quiet and thought that was way too complicated or imperceptible, what bubbled up was the sense that we all have heard that on some plane or level. That is why we are all here, longing and moving toward that cradled, immersed, and completely absorbed in love. We do know it, we just keep forgetting! As it is…
I’m not sure I have an answer to this beautiful prompt. But, what it brings up for me is what Krishna Das talked about last night regarding the “longing”…how the longing itself is the response. It makes me wonder if all that longing is pointing us back right to place of this knowing.
What I find in being reminded, again and again, that I am beloved, is that it makes me want to share it with others. I forget, I am compassionately reminded, and it just wants to flow into the hearts I come into divine play with. I think for me, the change this has brought into my life is awareness, and an invitation to communicate it over and over. Hanuman forgot his true nature until he was reminded of it, and I think that is why I find in him such a profound example and inspiration. We have this opportunity to rediscover our sacredness and belovedness and keep walking together and reminding one another.
I feel that all the seeking and restless ‘grabbing at something’ would fall away. That’s just what I feel would happen. But would I feel completely satisfied in having an intangible knowledge? I’m not so sure.
I think it would take time for me to let it sink in, and to truly be okay in that truth. And believe it wholeheartedly. It’s like breaking an old habit. So many years of telling myself I’m unworthy , then suddenly an external source says I am worthy? I want to say I’d STILL doubt it for a bit.
Isn’t that crazy? I think I’d need to use that phrase (from the source) itself as a mantra and let it come to fruition without forcing myself to simply believe it. Because my ego would still want to push it out and say ‘no way man, there’s no way’.
Then once it sank in deep enough and my head stopped tripping me out, I feel like my heart would just explode with love. The path would become clear and unquestioned. The anxiety of unknowing would fade and worthiness would finally replace self denial.
These prompts have really allowed me to be very honest with myself and I appreciate that opportunity to have such candor with myself, and this community. I’m always very surprised when I begin to respond to these questions. From what I think I’m going to write then what actually comes to the surface as I furiously type my messages.
I think you’ve captured it right there, Tayler - no external source can ever convince us of our belovedness and worthiness. It comes from the inside out… and to borrow a metaphor from KD, it takes time to ripen into this!
Due to other teachings and practice, I know intellectually that this is the case. It requires daily practice to keep remembering it… a lifelong journey.
If I really knew it I would be more loving with other people. I would feel happier every day, more safe, more trusting in the future.
Do we need an enlightened being - Jesus, Maharaj-ji, Buddha, Quan Yin - to say this? I think if a father and a mother are expressing this and living up to what they say, there wouldn’t be so much woundedness…
The teachings lead us in this direction as well. There is insight to cultivate here. Incorporate into practice. Life.
It is not about receiving limitless or unconditional love; it seems many do not receive this even tho available. It is about recognizing this love already exists, and not expecting fantastical results in the process.
It isn’t just that society ‘over promises’, we also ‘over promise’ to ourselves. Interdependence is evident in most/all things, but this does not mean they are equivalent, immediate, or permanent. Love is a process.
To know for me would be to trust me, to know that I am safe to trust the knowing and the heart. It would have me showing up authentically. But I also reside in the deep fear of my Self being too big or too much and how can we authentically love to big? In a society that isn’t prepared for pure love it’s scary to relinquish into this.
But it would change very little externally and everything internally.
