The Christian injunction to love one’s neighbor has spread like wildfire as a result of globalization, itself undertaken by Western countries (which have a Christian tradition). Are we really in a world of love as advocated by the Gospels? It seems that loving others has been summed up in shaping them in our image. It is more difficult to feel empathy when the other is different from us in many ways. Is there a real reason to love people, other than the one advocated by Jesus?
Loving is an emanation
Essentially, we are often mistaken when we talk about love. We think that it depends on the object (the beloved) whereas it depends above all on the subject (the loving being). Someone loves because it is in his nature. Afterwards, of course, his love can more easily crystallize when this love meets a greater receptivity of the object. In short, it is not a question of loving because we have been asked to do so. No, it is rather a question of saying to ourselves that love is a reflection of what we are. The love we project is only the product of an inner work and not the materialization of a miraculous encounter.
Loving is a level of consciousness
Thus, we must not love people for what they are but rather love by what we are. We must be loving. Love is a flame that we keep burning in order to give a little of its warmth to others. Some people have the power to rekindle this flame while others can smother it until it is extinguished. The intensity of this glow (your level of love) is the result of the work you have undertaken. The more you have worked on yourself, the more you will have the ability to love indiscriminately.
Maintaining and sustaining the flame
A simple way to keep the flame alive is to practice loving. By doing this, it is like adding fuel to a glowing fireplace all the time. That said, there will be people who tend to abuse your heat because they are unable to feed their inner fire. In this case, you will have to protect yourself because you could quickly be overwhelmed by toxic people who have not found their own way to emanate love. Knowing how to love without expecting anything in return is noble. Nevertheless, learn to preserve your flame like a camper preserves the campfire from a cold wind. Give, knowing that your flame of love is not infinite and that it can be extinguished if you are not careful.
Good ways to keep your inner fire burning
Do things with love
If you do things sincerely in love, it will grow.
Link up with God
If you want to search for the lost flame or maintain the existing fire, you can always ask God for help.
Take care of the divine that comes within us
Every being has a particle of the divine, even if he or she does not know it. Washing, dressing well, sleeping well, and eating well protects your body which is the temple of your soul. Without a healthy body, your soul cannot express itself to its full potential. If you take care of yourself, you make your soul want to stay and flourish in your fleshly temple. Under these conditions, you have no excuse to start working with your heart.
Practice an asceticism
When you lack something, you can develop a hidden quality. A blind person usually has better hearing and sense of touch than others. By depriving yourself in a punctual way (fasting etc.), you could develop your sensitivity and also grow your love. It is a paradoxical effect, one must know how to deprive oneself on the material level in order to succeed in growing from a moral and spiritual point of view. Asceticism must be desired and not suffered, otherwise it can become an ordeal that will only increase your frustration or resentment.
Study and apply
Someone who develops wisdom comes closer to love. There are several intermediate steps before you get to wisdom. First, you must gather information. This information has to be selected on your part: you cannot read or study everything. The result of this selection will become knowledge. The knowledge must undergo reflection. The result of this process is called knowledge. Finally, knowledge must be put into practice, it must permeate our being through the filter of experience. The result of this process will become wisdom. It is thus a successive filtering in 4 stages to arrive at a particle of wisdom.
