SYMPOSIUMS

LECTURE

No. 7 – MOVING TOWARDS GREATER LOVE

MOVING TOWARDS GREATER LOVE

SUMMARY

The Teaching of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH shows the path that leads to growth in both love and inner happiness.

Seeing life as a school, forgiving oneself the mistakes of the past and considering oneself a creative subject foster happiness.

It then becomes possible to go beyond selfishness and the restricted love that is directed towards one group while rejecting those outside it. This is not always easy, but the practice of simple spiritual exercises gradually opens the heart and sets us on the path of a broader love, one more united in solidarity, that embraces the whole of humanity.

This feeling of brotherhood opens us to Divine Love, of which the MESSIAH is the living Example. He expresses the Infinite Compassion of the Realised Being, helping each person to free themselves from hatred and suffering and to conquer inner happiness. Opening oneself to Divine Love means beginning by accepting the blessings of this immeasurable Love in order one day to be able to share them.

TALK

People sometimes think that love is automatically a source of happiness. But in the name of a misunderstood love, one can go as far as destroying one’s own life and that of others.

We should therefore accept that a love which respects the difference and freedom of others, oriented towards each person’s positive evolution and enrichment, develops over time, through many moments of awareness. The Teaching of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH shows the path that leads to growth in both love and inner happiness. We will discuss it together, distinguishing three stages for the sake of clarity:

I. CULTIVATING WITHIN OURSELVES WHAT WE WANT TO GIVE

II. DEVELOPING LOVE FOR OTHERS

III. OPENING OURSELVES TO DIVINE LOVE

I. CULTIVATING WITHIN OURSELVES WHAT WE WANT TO GIVE

In many cases, those who do not develop their emotional autonomy need to live through their loved ones, and this leads to the spiral of selfishness, jealousy, possessiveness and mutually inflicted suffering. To be able to leave others the freedom to exist, it is important to cultivate within oneself the love of life, of one’s own life, the foundation of happiness.

We will start from this sentence by the contemporary thinker Robert Misrahi: “Happiness is a way of existing that arises from a radical change in the way we look at the world.”

So let us try together to look at existence in a new way that fosters confidence in ourselves and in the future.

First, let us try to consider life as a school that gives us opportunities to evolve and progress. This perspective allows us to accept events as so many experiences, to put them into perspective, to step back from them and thus to manage them better. Provided we look them in the face, we can draw useful lessons from every situation, including failures and trials. This perspective of learning also allows us to accept ourselves fully, and to see in our qualities as well as in our limits, shortcomings and mistakes the springboards for a positive transformation. This acceptance prevents us from projecting onto others what we refuse in ourselves and frees us from emotional dependence.

“The key to true freedom,” says the Lord, “is to manage to accept and love oneself as one is.” (La Loi d’Évolution des Âmes, p. 229)

Second, let us try to consider life in its continuity, beyond death. His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH teaches that “death is only a change of state” (La Révolution du monde des vivants et des morts, p. 371).

In order to reincarnate in the best possible conditions, souls continue to evolve in another school of life, that of the invisible, called the Column of Light. Knowing that life continues in the hereafter prevents us from sinking into anguish and allows us to help the departed through positive thoughts, and through prayers if we are believers.

Third, let us try to consider life as a creation.

From this perspective, every human being is the creative subject of their own future, and not an object subject to fate and dependent on outside circumstances. Far from being a comfort in which we risk getting bogged down, happiness becomes a conquest that has meaning. To live is to choose. Creating a happy future for oneself means consciously experiencing one’s freedom while taking into account the Law of cause and effect. For our thoughts, as you saw yesterday, are creative, and so are our words and our actions. We are, as the Buddha says, their “owners” and their “heirs”: we bear their good or bad consequences.

So choosing happy consequences means sorting through our desires and choosing the best thoughts, words and actions, which are the first expression of the Divine in each person. The more we express this Divine within ourselves, the more we develop it, and this has a beneficial effect on those around us. But we sometimes say to ourselves: “I will never manage to see my Divine Essence: I have too often thought and acted badly!” Well, we all have the possibility of freeing ourselves from guilt if we sincerely want to make a fresh start. For example, I am going to read you an extract from the Meditation of Forgiveness of Oneself (Le Flambeau d’Unité, p. 400).

Those present who wish to may take advantage of this special moment to lighten themselves of what weighs on their existence. A brief note on vocabulary:

The Law of Evolution is the forward movement towards moral and spiritual progress.
The Golden Age is the mental state of unity, truth and brotherhood.

“Sit with your back straight,” says Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, “do not be afraid of yourself.

Say solemnly (…), as if you were speaking to another self:

I forgive you the evil done in error and momentary ignorance. I forgive you all bad thoughts and cancel all their effects.

I forgive you all unkind words and cancel all their effects.

I forgive you all malevolent actions and cancel all their effects.”

Now hear the answer coming from yourself:

“I accept the great forgiveness granted and the cancellation of my debts of the past, of all my bad thoughts, and of all malevolent actions and words.

I renounce self-punishment and self-destruction and solemnly promise to respect the evolutionary Laws of the Golden Age in every respect.

May Almighty God, present in each one, protect me from all falls and guide me towards the true Light.” OM

This forgiveness frees the way we look at ourselves and at the world. It restores our right to happiness, allows us to undertake the necessary work on ourselves discussed yesterday, and to forgive others. The Teaching of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH helps each person on this journey. “Put into practice,” He says, “the Keys to success given freely, with no other hope of reward than that of seeing you happy at last, at ease in your body, at ease in your soul, at ease in your mind, serene in all your actions and in your thoughts.” (Vers un Age d’Or d’Unité, introduction)

As we transform ourselves according to a new vision of existence, we free ourselves from many tensions. We have more and more strength to wage our inner battles and to accept others in their difference, which is our second stage.

II. OPENING OURSELVES TO OTHERS

“We will have to fight faults as tenacious as selfishness, greed, pride, vanity, jealousy, anger, envy and hatred. These prevent the opening of the heart.” (Le Yoga de l’Amour dans la Force, p. 25)

First, it is important to take care not to sink into selfishness, which is often born of suffering and imprisons the individual in resentment. Next, it is necessary to go beyond the level of restricted love: it is normal to love one’s family, one’s country, one’s religion and the groups to which one belongs. But does that give us the right to reject others? Can we taste serenity with one foot caught in the spiral of hatred and its consequences? The case of religions gives food for thought. The sacred Texts encourage us to move towards greater tolerance and love. For example:

“Hatred is appeased only by love. This is a universal Law,” says the Buddhist Dhammapada (Twin Verses).
“Love one another,” say the Gospels.
“Repel evil with what is better, and your enemy will become like a devoted friend,” we read in the Qur’an (XLI, 34).

Some people within each religion put these precepts into practice. But others have forgotten them: they reject those who pray to another Face of the Divine and who express their faith differently. They fuel wars and persecutions. How can they conquer a true inner peace?

The MESSIAH OF SYNTHESIS, who comes for reconciliation, reminds us that “God is the same for all and present in each one”. He warns His own disciples against intolerance: “Being an Aumist means living one’s faith without seeking to impose it on others” (L’Aumisme, p. 42).

He says to all: “Humans of the Earth who kill one another out of love of exclusion and sectarianism, raise your consciousness beyond the separate soap bubbles that are your families, your regions and your homelands. Reach the dimension of love for the whole Earth” (Vers un Age d’Or d’Unité, p. 157). And in His Books He offers several spiritual techniques that foster the opening of the heart. Here is one that is easy to put into practice, even if we sometimes feel what are commonly called “blockages”.

“If you wish to open your heart, then follow this prescription of Love recommended by the God who is within you and who suffers in the desert from not sharing.”

“Visualise your body in an aura of golden yellow light, the Light of Love, and repeat OM mentally and quickly to purify body and mind.
Between two series of repetitions, affirm: ‘I am in Unity with the Lord God, all Love, present in me and in each one.’
Think of a golden yellow light in your heart, becoming a Sun of Light that fills your chest, and affirm:

I love my parents as myself and wish them all the happiness in the world. I love my enemies as myself and wish them all the happiness in the world. I love all the men and women of the earth as myself and wish each one all the happiness in the world.”

“These three wishes,” adds the Lord, “must be preceded and followed by the rapid repetition of the sound OM, which multiplies their effects. This allows the Heart Chakra to open slowly and gradually, and Love to be expressed to others.”

“Even if it seems difficult or painful to you, persevere in this prescription of wished-for love, and you will see your desert fill with marvellous flowers.” (Vers un Age d’Or d’Unité, p. 153)

This opening brings progress in the feeling of Unity; it leads to greater solidarity in prayer and action.

For Aumists, who as individuals work in the humanitarian organisations of their choice, fundamental solidarity involves building the Pyramid Temple of Unity. “This Temple,” says His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, “is also the Temple of Almighty God present in each one. This is why you are all welcome, without distinction of race, class, religion or ideology” (Une Loi pour détruire le Mal, p. 140).

At a first level, the prayers of men and women brought together by a selfless desire for planetary peace will help to reduce the causes of division and will spread to all the kingdoms of nature. Little by little, wars, violence and suffering will diminish. This is why we have been waging a hard battle for years for the building permit for this Temple of Unity to be granted.

Human beings who want to make a success of their lives must take on their responsibilities with discernment and act according to the consequences, that is, take charge of both their own future and the collective future of their descendants.

Considering oneself a creative subject, united in solidarity with others, brings one into the mental state of the Golden Age and opens one to Divine Love.

III. DIVINE LOVE

Let us say straight away that this is a notion beyond us; it is the unimaginable.

This is why God incarnates: to give us, in the visible world, proof of this Love stripped of all forms of egocentrism, possessiveness and desire for reward, a Love bestowed without restriction on all beings, on nature, and on the whole of Creation. And here we must have the humility to listen to the Being of Light who comes among us to reveal what we may one day hope to experience; to listen to the One who becomes Man so that man may become God. The authentic Master leads the disciple to “the awakening of the inner Master”. He gives his help for “the time necessary for the disciple to purify himself and attain God” (Le Flambeau d’Unité, p. 269). In the same way, each person must, for a certain time, learn from a teacher the writing that will allow them to compose their own texts.

The MESSIAH is therefore a Guide, a living Example who shows everyone the path of Evolution and Divinisation. He gives us a foretaste of the extraordinary happiness born of the ultimate change of level of consciousness, what He calls the “Bliss of feeling united with all that lives and breathes” (Une Loi pour détruire le Mal, p. 410).

“I am you,” He says to each of us and to the whole of Creation, expressing the Infinite Compassion of the One who has experienced total Fusion in God.

The best thing here is to listen to the Lord Himself in the text entitled Mystical Offering:

“I have such tenderness for all creatures that I would like to join

In all that could fight the pain of others,

And, if need be, exchange my happiness for their sorrows.

I belong to the whole of humanity,

While having always had the feeling

Of coming from a distant world where all is Peace, Love, Harmony and Light.

I have more joy in giving than in receiving.

For me, the greatest Gift is the gift of one’s Being.

I have left every dwelling in the world in order to serve,

Expecting nothing from human beings, hoping for nothing.

I have accepted as my mission to help Beings

Who seek to cross the ocean of existences.

May I be a refuge for all who suffer,

May I help those who despair.

Assistance with a view to deliverance

Adds to the happiness of the whole Earth…”

(Une Loi pour détruire le Mal, p. 423)

Divine Love, we now understand, gives all of us without exception, unconditionally, the Strength to move forward at our own pace, whatever our starting point. The more we accept for ourselves the blessings of Divine Compassion, the more we will one day be able to share them. This is one of the Keys to the Divinisation of man.

To conclude, His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH sums up the path to be travelled and the goal to be reached, where inner happiness and love are one:

“From dry love to hatred of the world there is but one step. From restricted human love to sectarianism and murderous fanaticism there is but one step.

To escape selfishness and hatred, go forward, O pilgrim, open your heart to the Love of Love without expecting anything, and you will receive the Light of peace, of the happiness of having wanted Peace and the happiness of others…”

(Vers un Age d’Or d’Unité, p. 163)

We could therefore end by saying that making a success of one’s life and conquering inner happiness quite simply means accepting to learn to love.

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Bibliography:

The Books of His Holiness Lord HAMSAH MANARAH, Éditions du MANDAROM, in particular:

Mémoires d’un Yogi

Le Maître Spirituel et le disciple

Le Yoga de l’Amour dans la Force

L’Aumisme, la Doctrine de l’Age d’Or

La Loi d’Évolution des Âmes

Vers un Age d’Or d’Unité

La Révolution du monde des vivants et des morts