by José Luis Kutscherauer, Director of Cafh1
en español
Though the address below was delivered privately to an assembly of members of Cafh in Olmué, Chile, in May 2018, Seeds believes that everyone who is dedicated to spiritual unfolding for their own good and the good of all human beings will find it inspiring and helpful. For information about the teachings and fundamental ideas of Cafh, go to www.cafh.org.
Audio Introduction
Let us cherish the grace we have received: the gift of having the power to love! The greatest intrinsic gift we possess is the capacity to love and the best thing we have to give is love.
Let us nourish this gift, the most valuable faculty with which we have been endowed! May our love expand permanently until we encompass the entire universe. Each particle we include reveals the immeasurable greatness of eternity.
Just as the sun does not discriminate on whom it sheds its light and warmth, let us love without making differences and without disregarding the slightest expression of this inner power.
Much of humanity's suffering is due to lack of love. All the doors are open so that we may reach the maximum expression of love, without underestimating any of the stages that can take us there. Our teachings lead us along a path that does not stress negative attitudes such as fear or competition as the means that move us to unfold. Rather, it appeals to the unfolding of our consciousness and to strengthening the values that we naturally harbor in our hearts.
There is no feeling more universal than love. Love leads us to live for the common good and to work so that our relationship with our fellow human beings may be a source of wellbeing. But love does not develop on its own. It is a value which is nurtured by the noblest expression of the will. Of the innumerable expressions of the will, the most elevated is love, since it always benefits, strengthens, comforts.
There is a vital need to increase the number of souls who, moved by love, are able to grow in serenity, clarity of thought and power to reflect and act for the well-being of the world. Our great challenge today is to be able to counteract the influence of the innumerable distractions which capture our attention, calling us, with increasing intensity, to live focused on our self-satisfaction without attending to our work, our relationships and, what is even more important, to our inner life. Only by dissipating the veils of illusion and strengthening our inner values will we be able to reorient ourselves so our life may be directed toward the common good.
Our only real possibility of loving is in the present. We lose the sense of fulfillment which each moment offers us when we abandon the present in order to seek satisfaction in what we were able to attain in the past or in illusions of the future. There are so many good moments that we missed because we distanced ourselves from the present!
Implicit in love is the attitude of presence, of offering, which begins with interest and attention placed on the object of our affection. If we are not attentive, we miss reality and life, which only occur here and now.
At the beginning of our development we all respond to the instinct of conservation. In the measure in which we develop, that force centered only on ourselves gradually expands until we reach Substantial Union with the Divine Mother.
Let us consider and appreciate the expansion of love, departing from that first manifestation which is the desire to live, the love of life. Life appears at first as a blind instinct that drives us to seek self-satisfaction. At the same time it moves us to unfold. It is the driving force moving us to improve. This force can lead us to seek wealth and power, to seek knowledge or, also, to develop a high degree of spirituality.
Due to the fact that we possess self-awareness we are able to perceive our instincts. This allows us to reflect on their nature and learn to orient them. It does not make sense to try to suppress our instincts. What does make sense is to learn to exercise our freedom in order to transform the power of selfishness and the search for self-satisfaction into generosity and participation.
Our task is to carry out systematically the practice of going to the depth of our consciousness and to discover there which elements foster the expansion of our love and which are the obstacles that delay it.
If we make wise use of what we experience and come to know through our daily life, we learn to direct our efforts toward harmonizing human with universal values, those which integrate us to the totality of life in the universe. As we unfold, our desires align themselves with those values, so that they cease to be unattainable goals and begin gradually reflecting themselves in our being.
It is a fact that there is a connection between everything that exists in the universe. There is no particle isolated from the rest. Any event that occurs anywhere in the universe affects everything else. To become permanently aware of this reality means, on the one hand, that each one of us is a field of forces and that we are free to use them. On the other hand, it means that we are responsible for how we radiate those forces. Through our willingness to unfold, we can become a powerful focus of love, ready to offer ourselves any time, anywhere.
In the beginning, the love moving us to preserve our own life leads us to attack in order to survive. As it expands, that love becomes defensive. We defend what we feel we are and belongs to us. We defend the projection of ourselves, both in the source of food and in the family. Both the maternal instinct and the instinct to join as a couple are born from this love.
From that first emergence out of the shell of oneself, to making countless sacrifices for the sake of others, we are moved to unfold by the defensive instinct. We fight to preserve what we have achieved; this struggle reinforces our attachments. This leads us to focus our love on our instruments: our body, our soul. The love of our body leads us to love everything that gratifies our senses. It is interesting to observe that, up to a certain point in our unfolding as human beings, we maintain ourselves as if we were an island, without sensitizing ourselves to the needs of others, seeking only our own pleasure.
Our teaching tells us that the supreme end in the life of the soul is to discover the spark of the divine present in our hearts. At a given moment, we feel the calling to respond to this reality. We are aware of the fact that the divine within us is the same as that in each being, in each expression of life. This leads us to expand our love enabling us to understand, assist and love our fellow human beings. Without understanding, without the ability to feel that we are one with another being, love remains very limited. We take a step further when we dedicate our love to another human being. Although we seek a response and demand love, we also give everything for the person we love. As we unfold, the small circle that delimits our existence expands. We love our children, the extended family and even related groups. By becoming aware of the fact that we possess that extraordinary power, we deepen our love, we become sensitized, we perceive the pain and joy of others and even make them our own. Compassion is born in us, leading us to suffer for others and also to seek their welfare.
This is how the expansion of our consciousness, that is, our inner unfolding, leads us step by step to love for the sake of loving; beyond seeking a compensation, we live with a feeling of fulfillment due to the simple act of loving. We learn to love everyone equally, transcending differences, because we perceive the divine spark animating them. From the depths of our being we understand what each person is: a human being, with infinite possibilities. It is no longer a person´s behavior that determines how we perceive what a soul is. We understand that behavior is changeable, modifiable and the product of circumstances and choices, some perhaps mistakenly made due to ignorance.
When that love that makes no differences is directed to one person in particular, true friendship becomes manifest. This love does not vary with circumstances, because we expect nothing from the person we love and only seek to give ourselves. There is no obstacle, characteristic or doubt to interfere with the free flow of our love.
Pure love, as it expands, leads us to intuitively feel the divine presence in any expression, for it reminds us of the divine presence in creation.
And beyond these experiences we are able to envisage the state of union which can be attained when love is permanent. It is through our soul, through each soul, that the divine will is expressed. When we reach this state, we no longer seek to be something different and separate. Our search is focused on identifying ourselves with the undifferentiated essence of life.
From our spiritual dwelling in the heart, may we multiply our love to reach all souls. May each of our hearts be a pulsating source of love willing to give without expecting anything in return.
© 2018 Cafh
All rights reserved
Notes
1. Cafh: The word Cafh has ancient roots; for the members of Cafh it symbolizes the effort of the soul to attain union with God. At the same time it represents the presence of the divine in each soul.