Class 5: Receiving Love

Discussion

We live in a culture where we must constantly be on the defensive - blocking out a barrage of inputs from advertising and the media so that we're not overcome with questionable or negative or manipulative inputs.

Furthermore our traditional Christian cultural heritage programmed us with deep-seated (if mostly-unconscious) fears of an evil force in the univese (Satan) who is constantly trying to grab our souls and lead us into sin and servitude.

• It's no wonder that we tend to be shut down in our hearts and minds, and not open to receive.

So as we approach this fifth expansion, we need to go gently, and consciously, so that the inner 'opening to receive' act that I'm encouraging is understood, trusted, and desired.

First of all, let's look again at the focus phrase for this fifth meditative expansion, because I've taken great care and responsibility to state this meditative intent so that it carries both power and trust:

First of all, notice that the opening process is directly related to your heart. This shifts you out of all your conflicting beliefs and thoughts, directly into experiential mode.

Already in the first four expansions you've shifted your focus of attention to your heart, and to experiencing love in your heart. This fifth expansion builds on that quality of consciousness, clarifying that you're opening your heart experientially, to receive.

• The second part of the focus phrase, "...God's healing love," is actually a variable - you can say whatever you want here.

If you don't believe in God or Allah, please say instead, "My heart is open to receive love," or perhaps "My heart is open to receive insight," or "My heart is open to receive higher guidance," or "My heart is open to receive healing help."

Whatever you need in life, ask for it! Whatever you want to flow into your life, just state your openness to receive it.

• Quite honestly, a while back when I got stuck in a financial crisis, I often said for the fifth expansion. "My bank account is open to receive ... money." And yes, it did come flowing in.

Often, after a few weeks of practice with this meditation, and the gaining of clarity regarding the positive source of the inflow, I encourage people sometimes to simply say, "My heart is open to receive."

Experiment with this focus phrase for a few moments now if you want to - say the first part of the focus phrase, "My heart is open to receive," and see how those words impact you. Then add whatever you want to receive, as discussed above - and see how that feels.

Let's dig right into this question now, so that you have space to explore what it is that you're really asking to receive in your heart. To spur your reflection, let me offer my evolving sense of what love is, based on my experience of this fifth expansion:

Love is clearly a force or power in the universe that generates resonance, harmony, teamwork, entrainment, compassion, empathy, and creation.

• Ultimately, love for me is the creative potential and power of the universe - it's the creative power that indeed created the universe in the first place - and it's certainly the creative power that generates new life on this planet.

Like all words and labels and concepts of the human mind, love is an experience that we have, and that we then reflect upon and generate beliefs and attitudes about. Since the dawn of human language, the word love reflects human experience.

And what is that experience? The inflow of love into our hearts, when our hearts are open to that inflow.

Evern since Einstein stated his now-famous dictum that "The intent of the experimenter influences the outcome of the experiment," the scientific ommunity has been seriously asking if indeed, as the mystics say, the human mind possesses a power that impacts the material world. Furthermore the entire issue of what consciousness is, has come into new analysis.

As I mentioned in an earlier discussion, the Princeton PEAR Studies (http://www.princeton.edu/~pear/) demonstrated experimentally not only that the human mind does possess the power to influence the physical world - but that that power does not operate under the rules and confines of three-dimensional reality.

Specifically, those experiments at Princeton showed that when they increased the distance between the experimenter and the experimental situation, there was zero reduction in effect. Furthermore when they altered the timing, there was zero reduction in effect in the experiment.

• This scientifically verified (as spiritual masters have experienced and stated for thousands of years) that the power of consciousness is a power that operates outside the material domain.

With this understanding of consciousness, we can better understand the nature of love - that it is a force operating in the non-material realm of consciousness, and that it has power to impact the material world, just as focused consciousness has that power.

We have the power to focus our personal intent outward, and influence the world around us. We also have the ability to open our hearts and minds, and receive empowerment (love) from the higher consciousness of the cosmos.

So, we experience all our usual positive feelings in our hearts - of empathy and bonding and passion and so forth. This dimension of human love is very much caught up in our thoughts, our programmed attitudes, and resultant emotions.

We also have the ability to open up and receive a quality of love that carries not just a positive feeling, but also that permeates our being with a higher resonance of wisdom, intent, empowerment, insight and creativity.

In my experience, when we open up to receive love, we open up to receive God's touch in our hearts and lives. This is the ultimate spiritual act.

So now you know my feelings and experience of opening up and receiving God's love - what are your thoughts, and more importantly, wht are your experiences and feelings about all this? Furthermore, are you open to explore this fifth expansion?

The guided audio session for expansion five will take you effortlessly deeper into this exploration - but first, let's pause and reflect:

See what comes to mind, if you turn your focus of attention to your breathing ... expand to include the feelings in your heart ... and say to yourself, "My heart is open to receive ... love, insight and guidance ..."