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  by David Truman |
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What does it MEAN to be totally committed? Obviously, total commitment takes innumerable forms in the different situations and on the various levels -- physical, emotional, and spiritual -- in which we act. Furthermore, each individual's expressions of commitment, like flowers and snowflakes, are unique. Even so, the forms of action that commitment takes can be described perfectly well. The following article can be taken as a list of things not only to select from, but ultimately, to become altogether. That's a radical thought, perhaps, but when you've read this article, you might be motivated to do just that!
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| Our bodies are AWESOMELY well suited to the communication of caring. Once we have a clear intention to love, it’s almost as if the body itself will find ways to do it. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The usual model of physical service is so unimaginative, but actually, there are endless physical ways in which we can enlighten, amuse, heal, and help others.
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With the ears on our head we can listen -- and everyone loves to be heard. With our tongue, we can speak; we can say something which indicates a greater unity than they were expecting, something which may pull a person out of a funk. Like "I love you," for example! If we can walk, we can surprise somebody by walking to their house. As long as we have strength in our bodies, there's a way to physically give.
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A game attitude expresses real commitment. If we have any talent or ability -- some kind of trick, coordination, dance, mime, song -- we can amuse people with it. We can dig a hole and plant them a tree; knit a sweater; paint a picture; dress up and present a pleasurable appearance for someone to behold. We can do innumerable little gestures which communicate our awareness of others, such as raising one eyebrow, touching a person's arm, or pointing a thumb skyward for good cheer.
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When it comes to loving, the body should be considered as a donkey, or perhaps as a clown. Why not put something on the head that doesn't belong there, to make someone smile? It is such a truly minor sacrifice, one that hardly costs anything to accomplish.
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The wonder of physical service is this: it reduces the separateness inherent in bodily existence. The body is normally a concrete symbol of the separation of one person from another. But physical service bridges that barrier -- it creates a sense of oneness. The more we serve each other physically, the more we call attention to our Unity. So USE the body; work it for love! AH. . . how sweet it is!
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Demonstrations of caring often involve loss of face, but loving isn't about self-protection anyway. If it makes the beloved happy, do it!
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True love exceeds the world -- and so, therefore, do lovers. But lovers do not use outrageous or unconventional behavior just to get attention. For them, it is caring that creates daring! As we mature in our understanding of the requirements of the heart, we begin to see how the conventions of society do not represent our duty so much as the obstruction of our duty. We begin to recognize that in order to express total commitment, we practically HAVE to exceed what convention might recommend. And often.
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There's a world of possible actions that are beyond the call of duty, and beyond the bounds of convention. Many of them could very effectively indicate love, surrender, a sense of unity with another being. We can, for example, bring a flower to a person for whom it's not appropriate to give a flower, or at a time when it's unexpected. Creative actions, properly performed, cause delight and raise the level of feeling for all involved.
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When we do anything that departs from social convention, it lets others know that we are willing to take a little personal risk in order to express a deeper kind of closeness and caring, a deeper commitment to them. Any time we bust through a conventional pattern of separation we're breaking through the separation itself. The life energy liberated by the expression of greater freedom, in the name of love, helps enlighten both parties.
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| Our emotions can make fine gifts. And we can offer emotional gifts as consciously and generously as we offer our physical service. |
Everyone wants and needs a chance to express the greatest parts of who they are. But most of us think we share positive emotions more freely and consistently than we actually do. Many of the emotions we suppress in ourselves -- and avoid in others -- are positive ones. For example, sometimes we withhold loving thoughts because they make us feel vulnerable, or because we think they sound silly. How sad! All we withhold is wasted.
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Let's let our own beauty be, let's live it fully and happily. Use positive emotions freely and generously to bring out positive feelings in others. Our happiness can be for other people: "I've got something to tell you, something that will make you happy. Just listen to this. . ." Our laughter can be laughter for other people, too. And of course, our emotions of love are for others.
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Timing is important in the sharing of emotion. Emotions don't last very long. For best results, positive emotions should be expressed without hesitation or delay. We say, "Don't let your 'zip' droop. Deliver the pizza while it’s hot." This insures their maximum strength and impact.
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Finally, when it comes to emotional expression, use a blend of spontaneity and constancy. Emotional commitment means reliable expression as well as spontaneous expression. Love thrives on REGULAR expression of deep feeling, and CONSISTENT emotional warmth.
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Almost every emotion can be used to enlighten others.
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No emotion needs to go to waste: even our negative emotions can be used to express total commitment. Under the right circumstances, even anger can be constructive. When people place themselves in danger, anger expresses a living concern we feel for their welfare. Likewise, sadness can be useful: "I am sad to see you go. You add so much to my life. I will be waiting hour by hour for your return." Who, upon hearing those words, would not well up with a wonderful feeling of being wanted and needed?
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Even in our worst moods, we can help others by offering ourselves as a sort of guinea pig -- a useful object lesson to others about what does not work. If something negative happens upon us, we can ask ourselves, "What can I do to help my friends avoid this experience, or benefit from it?"
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Thus, even in our most desperate situation, we can contribute to the happiness and furtherance of other people. And remarkably, when something negative is used for the good -- presto, it turns positive! As we put our negative emotions to positive use, we purify and transform them.
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More than words, emotion helps them FEEL the value of things. By sharing our emotions, we show people what is valuable in life, and how valuable it really IS.
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May every positive emotion in our body and mind be committed to enhancing love. Let's wear our hearts on our sleeves. When we are fully committed, emotionally, we live in trust, in innocence. We are transparent, we are human to the point of being childlike. We freely share. Now all of our emotional content is freely available. We are in no sense hiding. We are completely honest and forthright, emotional, living, dynamic -- HUMAN. And as long as we are being ourselves for love's sake, being ourselves IS emotional commitment.
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Whenever we walk into a room, we can feel what's going on, psychically. That is no big deal, no magic trick -- it's just natural awareness. But if we try, we can make sure that our feelers are always out, and that we always USE what there is to feel. For example, when we feel somebody's down, we do things designed to heal the hurt. That's our spiritual commitment: to feel AND to heal.
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There's so much more going on than what our ears can receive, our eyes can perceive, our hands can feel. We can use our psychic sensors for the good of others.
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True love is so eloquently expressed by paying attention. We ought to maintain steady awareness of our loved ones; we should never leave their side psychically, no matter what's going on. When we're walking fast through a carnival, we never forget our friends; when someone's yelling, screaming and crying, we never forget them. When someone we love is in the other room, or another state, we hold them close.
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We hold our loved ones close like a mother hen with so many little chicks. Each one is completely dear, and none of them is going to be forgotten. We feel every fluctuation in their feelings, their hearts, their vibrancy, their self-sense.
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The chick is so much more than the beak and feather. And spiritually, people are much more than their bodies. They are sparks of God, those beating hearts. In human beings, God is embodied, manifested in flesh, to be witnessed and enjoyed by us. We should never allow such a grand gift, such an exquisite sacrifice, to go unnoticed or unloved. We should never allow the being, soul, heart of those we love to escape our grasp. We should never fail to see their infinite sensitivity, their perfect love, their expression. Realizing the sacrifice that they have made even to be born here with us, we ought to treasure them beyond what these words can ever tell.
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Through all the trouble a person could possibly experience, we never cut them off. No problem that could be encountered by another being, no difficulty, no apparent confusion, or unfortunate manifestation should dim our love. Psychically we never consider at any time that this being is less than at any other time. A chick with a broken leg is just as lovable. We always give it our full attention and love. And spiritually, we recognize our obligation, our unity, our love for all beings throughout eternity.
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It is important to realize that attention can be spiritually "tuned." Is the glass half empty, or half full? What we watch for, we see. Just so, what we focus on in people is what they get from us.
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We owe it to our loved ones to tune ourselves up with good thinking and feeling.
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General tuning. If we are to maximally benefit those we love, we need to keep ourselves in good tune. We can depress ourselves terribly, and depress those around us, if we tune to the frequency of negative thinking in ourselves or in the world at large. Conversely, we become fountains of peace and joy to others if we tune ourselves up with good thinking and feeling. Surely those who see us coming would rather see us in peace than in misery. So why not tune our transmitters to the frequencies on which love is always on the air waves -- to the sources of truth, to God, to the light of the universe?
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When we are spiritually committed, we dwell in our intuition of unity with all beings, in our intuition of the divine. We feel it. We tune our sensors to this vibration in the atmosphere, this light, this apparent pleasure and radiance, and we enjoy the divine condition all around us always.
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Spiritual commitment means tuning to the goodness in others.
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Specific tuning. Real spiritual commitment requires that we take responsibility not just for tuning in a general sense, but also for what, exactly, we are tuned to receive from each person we encounter. Obviously, the basic spiritual commitment we make to any person is to help him up, not bring him down. To make good on our commitment, we must tune to the frequency of his beauty. We support his goodness by meditating on it, recognizing it, mentioning it. We reinforce it with our gladness to see it and our gratitude for it.
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Getting what we focus on. For those who are willing to take charge of their own focus, it is wonderful to know that we get what we focus on: as we tune ourselves to beauty, we see it, and we receive it. And as we focus on the beauty of others, we will heartily thank them for being such radiant creatures -- for being, essentially, the divinity we could not have seen prior to our total spiritual commitment.
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The real commitment is to love. It's all so very simple in the end: we just love, and keep on loving. We love with everything we've got. In good times and bad, in our happiness and in our pain, we commit ourselves to loving without reservation. We never stop loving, and we withhold nothing. That is total commitment.
by David Truman Please feel free to share copies of this article. |
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