(This article in a deep-dive conversation format, courtesy of Notebooklm follows)
"It makes no difference how deeply seated may be the trouble, how hopeless the outlook, how muddled the tangle, how great the mistake. A sufficient realization of love will dissolve it all." — Emmett Fox
No matter how often I am reminded—through verse, experience, or consequences—I still manage to forget the eternal truths that could set me free in an instant. Perhaps that’s why I teach with such passion: I need to learn and remember these truths myself.
One of the most liberating teachings is this: Acceptance always precedes love. While the experience of unbounded love may be the Holy Grail of spiritual attainment, acceptance is the narrow way that leads us there. Acceptance is the soil in which pure love takes root. Without it, love remains conditional, elusive, and ultimately unattainable.
Yet, because we often misunderstand this profound connection between acceptance and love, we exhaust ourselves chasing love in its many forms—approval, affection, belonging—believing it is something we must acquire. We search outside ourselves, imagining others hold the key to the love we so desperately seek. This belief has its roots in how many of us were raised: we learned to associate love with conditions. Our worth felt tied to our performance, to others’ approval, to fleeting circumstances.
While this conditioned understanding of love may make psychological sense, from a spiritual perspective, it is a falsehood.
Love is not something to be earned or imported; it is innate to us.
From a Judeo-Christian perspective, we are made in the image of Divine Love. In the Buddhist tradition, love is an inherent quality of our true nature. It is neither created nor destroyed but simply is. Though it may be obscured by fear, pain, or conditioning, love remains a living presence within us, waiting to be reawakened through awareness and intention.
The way to awaken love is always through the heart.
At first glance, this may seem obvious—“Of course, love comes from the heart!”—but how often do we close ourselves off from life, even while yearning for love? When life presents challenges, whether in the form of circumstances or people, how quickly do you open your heart in acceptance? If I’m honest, I must confess that my instinct is often to do the opposite: to brace, to resist, to protect myself. Yet this is the very reaction that closes the door to love.
When difficulties arise, our default is to see them as evidence that something—or someone—is against us. This mindset traps us in a cycle of victimhood, reactivity, and contraction, which only amplifies our suffering.
But there is another way.
It begins with noticing the moments when we are tempted to close our hearts and choose a different path. A simple, intentional reminder—"Stay open, heart"—can work wonders. This doesn’t mean we deny discomfort or suppress our pain; it means we stay present, fully and courageously, with what is. An open heart grants us the strength to face life’s challenges with grace, and in doing so, we become a channel for the love within us.
This is the love that heals—the love that reminds us we are never separate from its source.
When Jesus commanded, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” he wasn’t merely issuing a moral directive. He was revealing a profound spiritual truth: the separation between “I” and “thou” is an illusion. When this illusion dissolves, love arises naturally, unbidden, and complete. This is the holy birth we celebrate—not only during Advent but in every moment when we allow the barriers between ourselves and others to fall away, and oneness to be born again.
As we move through this sacred season, may we remember: Love is already ours. It flows freely through the open heart, dissolving every tangle, healing every wound, and illuminating the truth of who we are.
Namaste,
Rev. Larry
Thanks again. I can always use a reminder.