The Reckoning of the Heart: Love is Fierce

There is a reckoning happening on this planet right now. It is confronting the very fiber of our dualistic existence. You can feel it in the headlines, in conversations, in the air itself. No matter where you tune in, there is immense pain and suffering. It is tempting to numb out or to shrug it off with humor, but this is not the time to shy away or sarcastically wish our way toward “better days.”

Now is the time to wake up and do the work.

There is too much illusion moving through our collective field, too much fear being circulated, too much hate being amplified. Those of us who can must show up and choose love. This is the message that is coming through loud and clear.

Where there is suffering and fear, there is also joy and love. This is the dualistic reality of our humanity, our planet, and our universe. We are being asked to actively balance and soften the force of fear. We must cultivate clear seeing and choose love, again and again. When I reflect on these downloads, which I do minute by minute and breath by breath, I can feel that we are being asked to truly embody the teachings of equanimity and unconditional love. We are being upleveled and upgraded.

This kind of transformation takes time. It takes consistent work. And it will not feel simple or easy. Any good renovation takes time and effort. But the takeaway is that where there is suffering, there is joy, and where there is fear, there is an opportunity for love. Since suffering and fear seem to be everywhere right now, we must remember that love is too.

Here is an example:

The other day I was taken by a news clip of an irate man screaming and cursing and eventually hitting another human at a protest. Sadly, this scene is all too familiar these days. His anger was vile, dark, and consuming, as if he was in a trance or held under a violent programming. At first, I thought, “What an awful person. How could someone do this?” But then I caught myself feeding into the same loop of illusion and programming. I was blindly reacting and sending even more fear and anger into an already fear-based storyline.

As I meditated on this man, full of such anger and disconnected from the humanity in front of him, my heart broke open. My heart broke open because I felt the pain and fear that was driving his actions. I could see the illusion he was married to, the divisive, degenerative programming dictating his every move. I understood that he must have endured so much fracturing throughout his own life that what remained was a being consumed by rage. My heart broke for the child and the adult who must have been taught, shown, or even been the recipient of this type of behavior.

And in that reflection, I felt deep compassion. I felt compassion as I had not felt before. An understanding of the deceptive nature of fear. And an understanding that too many humans on this planet become victims to fear and its mind-altering effects. For some, this is all they know. Those who act with rage and hate are blinded by it. And my heart broke open even more.

This moment, this 10-second news clip that rolled through my social media feed, became my greatest spiritual teaching of that day. I understood what the fierce quality of love really means. I felt it in a way I had never felt before. This type of love is not soft and nurturing, though that love is vital and necessary. This is warrior love. Fierce, strong, unwavering, steadfast no matter how tempting and seductive fear becomes. This is the love of equanimity and compassion. This love radiates from a layer of understanding deep inside the wisdom of our cells.

Yes, I fiercely love my children. Yes, I have felt, experienced, and continue to experience a fierce love from my own family and friends. I feel the fierce love of our ancestors and guides. But this level of love is different. This is a love of humanity itself. An understanding that we are all one shared being. We are not just in this together. We are together. We are each other. Somehow, beyond our daily comprehension, we are connected. The people who are completely blinded by fear are energetically linked to those who have woken up and chosen love. We are not whole until all parts of the whole are whole.

This means we have to unveil the illusion of hate that threatens to fracture our humanity. It means that sending forth love is essential to balance and wake up those who are so deeply entranced in the programming of fear. We may not personally know those who embody so much hate, or maybe we do. Maybe we have even been them at times. Either way, the work now is to send forth love through our shared web of being and to trust in the potential evolution of humanity.

Here is the thing about the practice of equanimity and infinite love. It is just that. It is love without boundaries. It is love extended to all beings everywhere. A long time ago I was tauhgt the prayer: Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu. May all beings everywhere be happy and free. This means all beings, not just the ones who fit neatly into our lives. This means even those who are so adamantly opposite to us. And it requires us to still see them as human and to choose love for the sake of our shared consciousness.

This is where the fierceness comes in, because this is not easy. It takes a warrior spirit and intense focus. But we must defend the realm of the heart. We must defend the wisdom carried in our cells. We must defend the shared web of being. It is not easy to see those who actively harm humanity. But they exist, and so do we. We must know that love wins, and even a small drop of fierce love can remove the illusion of fear. It is a mighty antidote.

All of this comes with deep practice and a connection to our shared consciousness. It also comes with a tenderness and understanding of trauma, injury, depression, and moments when and where this practice may not be appropriate. We must always start with a safe space, and many of you have read this in my teachings before. But when the time is right and healing has taken hold, each of us will stand with the armies of earth angels and the guidance of love.

I trust that the fierceness of love will strike through the thin armor of fear and that this reckoning will be one of human evolution. Love is what will allow our minds to pierce the next level of consciousness. I pray that we, as a collective, elevate our being to an understanding and embodiment of love and that we evolve our humanity.

Choose Love is a mantra to honor the great benevolent force of the Divine. We must remind ourselves over and over to choose love.