Lesson 1        THE THREE FACES OF LOVE

1. When I say “love”, what comes to mind for you?  Is it a feeling? An expression? An attitude?  A sensation?  Is it active or is it dormant?  Is it relative to something or someone else, or does it stand alone without relating to an object, situation, person or “other”?    How do you know it exists? Think about your answer and make a note of it in the space below.

1.  Some say that God is love and Love is God. What do you say?
2. God is so much more than love which is an attribute or quality in the substance of God.  To say “God is Love” diminishes God to a single attribute and is pretty small minded indeed.  It discounts the many other beautiful qualities and powers of life and consciousness.    I say that God is the original conscious creative existence within which everything else exists.  The substance of God, Divine Being, within which the universe and all its components exists,  contains numerous  qualities and potential powers  that are merely responsive to the ever expanding results of the initial action.  Many of these potentialities do not depend on consciousness in order to continue manifesting and transforming.   The Mind of God contains Consciousness and is activated by Divine Life itself, which is a component of the entire Being of God.  Divine Mind is the central power of God and Consciousness is the central power of Divine Mind.  When focused it concentrates the Life Force from within itself and activates the mind’s latent potential of perceptual awareness.  Consciousness compared to the life force without consciousness is like light compared to darkness. It is the power that brings the light of awareness to mind.
3. The “body” or wholeness of God is Divine Being (Divine Life) and Divine Intelligence is the substance that fills the Mind of God (Divine Mind).  The unconscious Life Force is contained within the universe but the living creatures who inhabit the universe receiving their Life Force directly from Divine Mind, making us conscious.  Both Consciousness and Life (activating power and perceptual power)  are contained within Divine Mind.
4. Consciousness (awareness) is the central point of Power in Divine Mind and Consciousness is a power of Divine Being that is either dormant or active in all of life.  Life is the activating power of existence or being, while Consciousness is the perceiving  power of being.  Consciousness is dormant in some areas of existence and activated in other areas of being.  That is to say, Consciousness is active only in living souls.  All conscious creatures are living souls and capable of being cognizant (aware) of their environment plus some of the qualities of Divine Mind.  We living souls who inhabit human form have a much greater capacity for consciousness than other living souls  in the universe, such as insects.  (We grant that each galaxy in the universe has a form world in which living souls are evolving into more and more expanded consciousness of current and ultimate reality, still in each galaxy we would find that the “most intelligent” creatures of that world have within them the potential to become conscious co-creators with God. )
5. God Mind concentrated mind energy within itself to create living souls who have with a “central sun” of Consciousness.  When the consciousness of the created being  is focused outward to the body and environment of its existence, it cannot develop its potential to become more aware of its environment.  When it is focused into itself the conscious mind can perceive that which is contained within its own mind, both the Divine and the mundane. When consciousness is focused on the elements of its own being, apart from the body and environment in which it exists, it can perceive the powers and qualities that exist within its own consciousness. 
6. The more conscious a living soul is of the Source of its consciousness, the more “Light” or power it has to perceive the elements, qualities and powers within itself, thus transcendental meditations expand the awareness of one’s own being and of the source.  The souls of human beings have the potential to perceive all the elements., qualities and powers of Divine Consciousness within them/us.   We are free to express those powers (abilities) and qualities in relation to the elements within our own consciousness/mind in the “management” of our consciousness and the way we think and feel, and we are free to use them in our environment as powers.    The difference between a potential and a Power is that when a quality is activated it is a power.  When not activated it is merely a potential.   The  Life force of existence is the activating power of anything.  Consciousness has the ability to direct the life force that is contained within itself.  Consciousness is not activated in every living thing.  When we see a plant, for example, absorbing the life force and responding to it, we might believe that the plant is conscious.  That is not the case.  This is not an act of consciousness but an act of the universal life force flowing like a river through the system of the plant to feed and develop it according to the pattern in its seed. The pattern is its potential.   Where there is a potential for consciousness to be activated  in a living thing that being becomes a living, conscious mind within a form.   The consciousness itself, being aware of itself, then has dominion over the action of the life force that is in its own consciousness.  It can discover dormant qualities, powers and knowledge within itself and by focusing on them can expand them; or by failing to focus on them can leave them dormant (merely potential).   That is to say: through the directing power that is within Consciousness, the conscious entity can direct the life force (activating power) within its own consciousness.   The product of that concentration of consciousness is expanded awareness of whatever the being is focused on. 
7. By holding the concentration of consciousness at one point, the life force in that consciousness is directed into the object or subject of concentration or attention.  The concentrated life force of the consciousness then activates the object or subject of the focus and produces  perceptions of the object of focus in that consciousness.   If the object or subject of focus is not conscious  itself, it merely reflects the Light or Power of combined life and consciousness (mind) that is directed upon it.  But if the perceived object or subject is conscious it becomes aware of the Light that is directed toward it and responds with its own developed qualities and elements.  This awesome interaction is called mutual perception.  However, the perceiver cannot perceive in the “other” a quality that it has not yet discovered and developed to some degree within itself. 
8. We could spend much time examining the question of “What are the elements or the qualities and dormant powers of consciousness?”  But let’s just proceed into our study of love by saying that, when it is not activated, love is a dormant power contained within the consciousness of conscious beings.   The life force flowing through the consciousness activates its dormant powers, therefore all conscious entities perceive some degree of the energy or power that we call love.  Some have developed it more than others.  Some have developed it in relation to outer considerations while others have developed it as a quality in itself that they may or may not use in relativity.  In any case, love is a quality within one’s own  consciousness.  When the love energy is stimulated within it, the conscious entity becomes more aware of that energy and says, “I love……..” 
9.  To say that God is love or that love is God is to greatly diminish one’s consciousness of the life and existence of God.  But to say that love is in God’s Consciousness and in the consciousness of all conscious entities is an accurate statement.
10.  When the qualities of Divine substance are activated or stimulated, they serve as powers or abilities, but when dormant they are merely potential.   Love is one of several latent powers (or potentialities) that are contained within Consciousness.  The quality of love is expanded in one’s consciousness in two ways:

a)      Concentration of the conscious being’s attention upon the love within itself serves to turn that being’s life force upon the quality of love.   That, in turn illumines and expands the love energy causing the entity to be more aware or conscious of love within itself at the time of focus.  (Prove this to yourself by taking a few minutes now to focus on a memory of love or an ideal of love that you have within your own mind.  If you can concentrate on that, you will feel the sensation of love being activated in your own being as both a thought and a feeling that is pleasant to you.)

b)     Another way to expand the consciousness of love is by directing the  attention of the Consciousness toward something outside yourself that is pleasing or appealing to the consciousness.  This stimulates thoughts, desires or feelings of pleasure, harmony or sympathetic attunement in the substance of the conscious being. 

 The feelings and thoughts of love are by-products of having stimulated the quality of love within your consciousness.   Love itself is a perceptual experience of active energy within your consciousness. 

In conclusion for this week’s examination we will leave you with the following ideas to think about:

 Love is an experience of the conscious being.

Love can produce an urge to action of either mind or body

Love produces thoughts and feelings when it is stimulated.

When the thoughts of love and the feelings of love are combined they are   experienced as an attitude or outer demeanor of love

Basically, inactive love is an ideal that has not yet been brought to life by mind action and outer action.

Activated love is an experience that is sensed in the conscious being by the conscious being, itself.  It may or may not be obvious to others.

All else that we might consider love or attempts at love would be ways of using, demonstrating, showing, or applying love either within the self or outside the self.

The 3 “Faces” of love or ways that love is shown are:  Agape, Impersonal Love and Personal Love.  Next week our examination will address the beauties and the pitfalls of these ideas when they are not synthesized into a whole.

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