How much does it cost to know someone?
What is the price?
What must be exchanged to acquire that knowing? Dollars? Dinners? Diamonds?
To procure any object, any thing, there is a price tag attached, a value established, effort involved.
Heaven, also, knows the value to attach to its greatest reward.
And the greatest reward, that upon which all creation has come into existence, is Gnosis.
To know… and be known by,
To love… and be loved by,
To trust… and be trusted by….
There is nothing more valuable, no journey as rich and diverse and worthy… as to Know. And to Be Known.
For, to know another is to walk on holy ground. To know someone… not just on the surface, not just the color of their eyes, the way they hold their head, those things which catch their attention, their laugh, those things which draw their laughter even… but to know someone, deeply, intimately, inside and out, summer and winter, rich and poor, bitter and sweet, know how they will take and process and act upon any experience… That knowing… is worth an eternity’s investment in contrast.
For, how can one “know” that he “loves” Heinz ketchup… if he has not tried other varieties? Or gone without?
How can one “know” that he loves Molly… if he hasn’t yet experienced Jane and Samantha and Teri?
If Jane and Samantha and Teri hadn’t already broken his heart, proven untrustworthy, or of different value systems and propensities, with what contrast would he have to ascertain that Molly’s song was the song, after all, that really harmonized with his?
And yet, that which is unknown cannot know. That which is unloved cannot love. That which is untrustworthy cannot trust.
Like a toddler dressing up in mommy’s shoes… she can play at the game of love, she can imagine and pretend, and even engage others in the diversion, but until one is ready, loving and knowing and trusting is merely a pretense.
To know is to love is to trust.
And so now we arrive… just moments away from “Valentine’s Day.” “I LOVE YOU” day.
Exchanged are myriads of red paper hearts, sparkling diamonds, voices ringing with those three syllables. Sweets to see, wear, eat, and hear. Often these sweet gestures have truth within them. More often they ring hollow, a fishing line baited with saccharin hopes. Who will bite? Will this trip be successful? Or, will I leave this day hungry again, all my lines returning empty? Will my latest attempts prove once again disappointing, leaving me feeling unvalued, unloved myself?
Again: that which is unknown cannot know. That which is unloved cannot love. That which is untrustworthy cannot trust.
Until a person, one who has traversed the mortal road, walked the rocky path of adolescence and adulthood and decided that, no matter the cost, I must dis-cover who I am… Who I Really Am… She who I shed years ago in my pursuit of worldly fitting in. Until a person, one so integrous and committed and zealous… until one determines that they must KNOW Who They Are, it is impossible for them to have the funds available within them self to discover who another is… really and truly.
Only when you learn to love yourself can you trust yourself. The best way to begin to know your True Self is to trust your Self.
And so it all begins with love. Self Love. TRUE, Actual, Eternal… Self Love.
LOVE Self —> Trust Self —> Know Self —> = GNOSIS = —> LOVE —> Trust —> Know Another
One cannot Know another until they can truly trust another. Knowing and trusting requires experience, myriad experiences of Loving another. Loving and trusting allows for knowing.
Indeed, the value we place on ourselves directly affects the value we place on others, and, conversely, the value we place on others directly affects the value we place on ourselves.
We must be careful, ever vigilant, to not overvalue what we are not, nor to undervalue what we are.
We must allow our selves to pay with our attention. Our purified and single-minded attention is the greatest medium of exchange in existence; no dollar, yen, euro, gold or silver can compare. We must pay sincere, unadulterated, wondrous attention to our self; to everything about us, it matters not where we start, as long as we start with our self.
“Why did I choose to wear this today? In fact, why did I buy this shirt? What attracted me to it? Who determined its value? Who influenced my choice? Is it really me? Do I feel my self in it? Am I comfortable?”
“How am I feeling this very moment? Am I in peace within my skin? Is my heart warm and serene? Do I have love pouring forth from my eyes? Does my being sing a song of rejoicing love? Do I have real value to contribute to this world? Am I truly blessing others in our exchanges this day? Or, am I not? What alternative feeling is drawing forth my attention? What is the most forth-right way of addressing this feeling? How can I return to full alignment and emotional balance?”
“Where do I have stiffness? Is there residual pain from my experiences, my interactions with others? If so, what is that pain signifying? What judgments am I still holding onto of myself and any others? Am I ready to release and relax and learn from this pain, this stiffness, this hurt? Now? In the void that results, am I ready to replace that emptiness with light and love and a lesson learned? Am I ready to grow UP in spirit?”
We must learn to see and know and be that God, the Real and Absolute and Eternal version of our Self.
And… we are the god we allow others to be.
Which leads us squarely to the First Two Great Commandments.
Matthew 22: 37 Jesus declared, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your *heart and with all your *soul and with all your *mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’
In order to bless this day and make it holy, I must FIRST love my Self (the pure Spirit/ “Lord my God” that imbues me with Life, Consciousness, and Direction), with all my heart…. I must pour forth self-validation via the connection I have with my ventral vagus nerve… feeling that love resonate within my heart. I must truly and warmly and consistently bask in the goodness of being Me! I must love my self with all my heart. But through my heart, my feelings, my emotions, is only one way that is required to learn to love.
In order to mature into the God that *I AM*, I must love my Self with all my soul. I must see my hands as God’s hands, administering and serving, cleaning and holding, honoring and building… as a God does, as MY God does. I must love my Self, my holy and pure and eternal self, with all my soul. Each sensory organ must be attuned to administer this inestimable love to my Self. As such, I will look at (with my eyes) those things that bring me joy and/or lead to a greater realization of my divinity. I will listen to (with my ears) those sounds that bring me joy and/or lead to a greater realization of my divinity. My mouth will speak forth words of comfort and care-filled truth when necessary and helpful. My nose, my touch, each aspect of my body will be and bring forth the grandeur of my being.
I must love my Self with all my mind. To do this, I am impeccable with each thought, worshipping my Self with the honor and reverence worthy of a God. With every thought I think, I must look at and re-frame if necessary, re-phrasing any thought that is “less-than” the pure and holy awe that is worthy of the God that *I AM*.
~AS~ I L.O.V.E. my eternal and holy Self, to that very degree (equal to), I am able to L.O.V.E. another. The two build an equation.
Love my Self = Love Others.
And so, as many focus their minds in the coming days… and their hearts… upon loving another, I would first implore each of you to FIRST and FOREMOST, Love *YOU*… with all of your heart, soul, and mind.
I will now share how *I* learned to L.O.V.E. My Self… with all of my heart, soul, and mind.
I was raised within a staunch Christian religion, specifically, the LDS/ Mormon faith. There was not much actual love in our home, it was mostly a Sunday show, but for whatever reason, I have always had a burning desire to KNOW Jesus. I took every scripture, each promise, all the lessons I received, literally. I believed them, took them to heart, wanted to prove each one in my own life. I have always had an intensity, an inner burning and yearning, to apply and to BE that which I somehow sensed was possible for ME to BE.
Because I was raised to honor and to look up to Jesus, because He was the deity that my family, our scriptures and congregations focused upon, because of my sincerity of heart, and because of my inner loneliness in my earthly relationships, I early on determined to KNOW Jesus, to be his best friend. I sought Him… continually. I studied his life, what he said, how he used his hands, where he went, who he hung out with, what he did, how he thought. And as I came to love and trust and know him, I learned to see my self from within his eyes. As I saw myself through his eyes, I learned to laugh at my silly oversights and miscalculations, the times when I was side-tracked and so I over-filled the glass or banged my shin or came to a conclusion in my mind that proved itself inaccurate. I learned to see my adorableness, my precious and unique value. Because of my intense identification with Jesus, I learned to see through his eyes… first myself, and then others.
As I used his eyes to maneuver through my experiences, my relationships, his mind to frame my thoughts, choose my words, I grew more and more trusting of my own inner feelings, hearing him speak to me through them, listening to and regarding their wisdom, the insights they held. It was through Jesus that I was finally strong enough to leave the church that had been my initial nursery and offered me my first glimpses into him. Finding him, without the need of a third party any longer, I realized that he was all that I needed. My temple was my body where we worshipped together. Alone, in sacred harmony. And then I gradually began to realize that He was I. The two of us were so identified with each other that a Oneness had taken place, a marriage had become consummated. The two of us had become One.
HE is the great sub-conscious of my consciousness. He truly is my life. Yet, he without me is nothing, just as I without Him am nothing.
I now hear Him “standing at the door” of my heart… and knocking… pa-rump, pa-rump, pa-rump. My blood courses with His vibration. He, the water-turned-to-sweet wine-blood, and I, the ever-vigilant consciousness, oversee and utilize this Holy Temple to bring healing and solace into this world, our Garden. And, as I listen, I hear his whisper… with every beat of my heart… “I-I. L-LOVE. Y-YOU.” “Pa-rump, pa-rump, pa-rump.” And I melt and return my response…
Indeed, as I have loved Him, once my “outside” God, and the Father which He had internalized (our Unconscious), I have learned to love my Self and realize that within Me was their domicile, the home where they felt most at home. As I did this, the imposed judgments of religion itself, family and culture, were seen, understood, forgiven, and released, along with the people and organizations who propagated them.
Because I have grown into ever-increasing degrees of TRUST that Life is guiding *Me,* I have learned to feel SAFE in each moment, KNOWING that I have available each moment the resources required to meet each challenge with serenity and grace. I can deal with each experience, each individual, with the wisdom and decisiveness of a God, the Divine and Eternal Being that *I AM.*
Because I have not just felt or experienced, but internalized and become “Their” L.O.V.E., I am now so appreciative of every “other” human who, I have come to realize, is just another variation of “me.” Oh, how I love humanity! Despite their foibles and their “shin bumps,” like Jesus chuckling at me as I learned to dis-cover Who I Am while maneuvering through this material reality, I can gently smile as humanity goes through their individual growing pangs in self-knowing, self-trusting, self-loving.
My invitation to you, my readers, is to do your own experiment upon Love. After you have finalized all the dead-end attempts you choose, apply the First and Great Commandment… and the Second which follows it. Learn to L.O.V.E. your Self, with all of your heart, your soul, and your mind. Then… with that purity of heart and soul and mind… then send out pure vibrations of Real Love. Then, you can love me as I Am, and each and every “other” as They Truly Are.
In service…
In my pursuit of Real Truth, I have given up everything. Crawling through the “eye of the needle,” I have learned the *mysteries* and am now giving my life to assist YOU to dis-cover Who *YOU* really are, along with your unique gift to offer humanity. As you learn to seek (in the right place and with purified intent), you WILL find treasures of lasting value, along with every promised reward. Together, we will establish a society of humane beings and live life ALIVE, on PURPOSE, and with a sociality unequaled… because we will each BE and view each other as equally and profoundly DIVINE! Please… catch this Hope and Vision and join with me.
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