We seek it here, we seek it there, we look for love everywhere! We expect it to come to us, usually through another person. All our conditioning says it is something that happens to us. The mythology of our fables, legends and modern day entertainment industries say it is something we ‘fall into’. And yet…and yet real love cannot be acquired, possessed or accumulated. It cannot be known when we think it comes from outside ourselves. The ultimate paradox is we are it. We are love. Each one of us is a source of love that has forgotten that ‘love is what I am’. Say it now “I am love”. Doesn’t feel right does it? That’s because its been so long since we knew and experienced ourselves in this true way. And yet we all know that the deepest trust and the purest love is known and experienced only when we give it, not take it. As we give love in whatever way is appropriate, we are the ones to experience it first, on the way out. Falling in love is impossible. It is only infatuation, obsession with an external object which appears to fill a gap in ourselves. As soon as the object or person is remembered when they are not present and when they do not need to be remembered, it is simply attachment which, if sustained, will become a dependency. And attachment and dependency are not love. But you already know that…don’t you?

To help others discover their talents is the best help we can give. Sometimes people are unaware of their talents, or afraid to use them. But if we do not use the gifts we have been given, we can never be truly happy. Throughout our lives, people help us grow.  As we grow older, we can help others too. Making others aware of the things they do well and subtly encouraging them to use their talents is the best way to help them progress.

With humility and love, flexibility becomes natural. When we come across someone who is not being co-operative we need to become humble and try to understand what the other person is communicating, if not through words at least through actions. When we are able to listen with love and understanding, we will not be rigid anymore but will be able to adapt to communicate and co-operate with others.

Often when we have to adjust to a person or a situation, we experience many negative thoughts. We find it difficult and tend to feel we are making this adjustment only for the other person’s benefit. To adjust means to understand that nothing can be done to change a situation – it is more sensible to accept it. I adjust not because it will benefit others, but because I will benefit in the long run. This is like crossing a physical obstacle; I cannot remove it so I have to find a way around it if I am to progress.

Values are related to each other as if they were members of a great family . From peace and happiness emerges inner joy. From this state of wholeness love awakens and with is the desire to share and give . Two of its relatives are tolerance and respect. All values have a shared origin which unites them – the peace of spirituality. When you lose peace you begin to lose everything.

When we confront a problem or a difficult situation, we tend to face it with worry or negative  thoughts. Although outwardly we might seem to face the situation, we are not able to deal with it. And most of the time we find that we are failing. The best way to deal with a situation is to start by calming the mind. Only a calm mind can find the answers to problems. I need to understand that every problem has an answer. When my mind is relaxed I can trust my intuition to find the answer that is already there.

Spirituality is not a luxury, something for people who have nothing else to do but sit around and meditate. In fact, it is the lack of spirituality in daily life that is causing the breakdown and destruction of our planet and our civilization. As we restore spirituality we can find methods of working together to create better selves and a better world. Thus we can see, looking at our global relationships, that spirituality is an integral part of life.

Let the past be the past – both my past and the past of others. There’s no need to keep repeating the past in my head. Think: Whatever happened, happened, it’s OK for me to move on. Let me be supportive and make it easy, not difficult – for myself and others. When I stay in the present, everything is pleasant.

We all have a relationship with everything. Obviously the relationship we have with the people and objects in our immediate vicinity is more intimate than the rest of the world. For most of us the most common relationship is possession. In our minds we think we own and possess things like cars and houses and carpets and golf clubs etc. This thinking easily spreads into jobs and tasks and positions and perhaps even other people. “I want you”, and “You are mine alone”, is the essence of many romantic film scripts and song lyrics. What we forget is that this relationship is wrong. It is not possible to possess anything. Care for..yes. Use…yes. But possess…no. You can’t take it with you when you go, so we say! And yet it’s the idea of possession which lies at the heart of all fear, war and conflict. Can you see it? Fear of loss, fear of not acquiring what we have already decided is ours in our minds. So what is a better relationship we can choose which takes all the fear away. Be a trustee. Everything comes to us in trust, for us to use and then to set it free. The consciousness of trustee sets us free of the tension of grasping and guarding. To see ourselves as trustees of everything that we receive, including our bodies, encourages our innate capacity to ‘care for with dignity’. It is a much more relaxing way of relating to the things which we are privileged to receive in life.