Esoteric understanding of the word ‘love’ as applied in the writings of Djwhal Khul and Alice Bailey.
Love, which is not emotion or sentiment, and which is not related to feeling (which is a distortion of true love), but is the fixed determination to do what is best for the whole of humanity, or for the group (if the larger concept is not possible to you), and to do this at any personal cost and by means of the uttermost sacrifice. Only those who truly love their fellowmen can see the issues clear and can grasp the inevitability of the things which must be done to end the present rule of terror and so usher in the new rule of peace.
Source: The Externalization of the Hierarchy
When I say “love,” I refer to soul love and not to affection, emotion or sentiment. I refer to that detached, deep love which can pour through the personality, releasing it from limited expression and at the same time streams out into the environment.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age I
Love is that inclusive, non-critical, magnetic comprehension and attitude which (in group work) preserves the group integrity, fosters the group rhythm and permits no secondary personality happenings or attitudes to mar the group work.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age I
Love is not a sentiment. Love is the great principle of attraction, of desire, of magnetic pull, and (within our solar system) that principle demonstrates as the attraction and the interplay between the pairs of opposites. This interplay provides every needed grade or type of unfoldment for consciousness. Conscious response is first made to the most potent and to the densest kind of attraction in matter, that of the mineral kingdom. Dense as it is, and heavy as is that type of vibration, it is nevertheless an expression of embryonic love. Response again comes, with greater facility and more true awareness and sensitivity, in the next kingdom, and the consciousness of the vegetable world emerges. But this too is love. It responds more freely and reacts to a far wider range of contacts in the animal kingdom, and the basic instinctual desires emerge and can be recognized. They, in due time, become the motivation of the life, yet still it is only the love of God which is manifested. It is love between conscious life and conscious form; it is love between the pairs of opposites, leading to an eventual synthesis or marriage; it is relationship between the basic dualities; it is not sentiment but a fact in a great natural process. Always there is the emerging glory and radiance of a growing love, until we come to the human kingdom wherein love enters another plane. Then responsiveness and sensitivity and human sentimental reaction develop into a rudimentary mind. The consciousness of loving and being loved, of attracting and of being attracted, enters through the door of the intelligence and expands into the human state of awareness. Pleasure and pain become definite factors in unfoldment, and the long agony of humanity commences. Love then is seen in its naked selfishness, but also its potential glory can be sensed. Love or attractive desire then attracts to itself that which it feels it needs, but later, that is changed into what it thinks it should have, and this, in time, is transmuted into that which it knows is the divine non-material heritage of a son of God. Ponder on these last few words, for in the true understanding of love as feeling, love as thinking, and love as aspiration will come a clarification of man’s problem and his liberation from the thralldom of the lower loves into the liberty of love itself, and into the freedom of the one who possesses all things, and yet desires nothing for the separated self.
Source: Esoteric Psychology I
True love or wisdom sees with perfect clarity the deficiencies of any form, and bends every effort to aid the indwelling life to liberate itself from trammels. It wisely recognizes those that need help, and those that need not its attention. It hears with precision, and sees the thought of the heart and seeks ever to blend into one whole the workers in the field of the world. This it achieves not by blindness, but by discrimination and wisdom, separating contrary vibrations and placing them in position diverse. Too much emphasis has been laid on that called love (interpreted by man, according to his present place in evolution) and not enough has been placed on wisdom, which is love expressing itself in service, such a service that recognizes the occult law, the significance of time, and the point achieved.
Source: Letters on Occult Meditation
Active intelligent love (the bringing forth from latency of the inherent quality of love by the intelligent application of the mind faculty) will be the result of the evolutionary process. Just as objectivity is dual, life-form, so subjectivity is dual, mind-love, and the blending of the two produces consciousness. Spirit alone is unity, and is undivided; the development of Spirit (or its assumption of the fruits of evolution) is only to be realized and brought about when the dual evolution of the form and the psyche is consummated. Then Spirit garners the fruits of evolution and gathers to itself the qualities nurtured during manifestation, – perfect love and perfect intelligence showing forth then as active intelligent love-wisdom.
Source: A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
Love is the right apprehension of the uses and purposes of form, and of the energies involved in form-building, the utilization of form, and the eventual dissipation of the superseded form. It involves a realization of the Laws of Attraction and Repulsion, of the magnetic interplay between all forms, great and small, of group relationships, of the galvanizing power of the unifying life, and the attractive power of one unit upon another, be it atom, man, or solar system. It involves an understanding of all forms, form purposes, and form relationships; it concerns the building processes in man himself, and in the solar system; and it necessitates the development of those powers within man which will make him a conscious Builder, a solar Pitri of a coming cycle. This is one of the great revelations at initiation: the unveiling to the initiate of the particular cosmic center whence emanates the type of force or energy which he, the initiate, will be concerned with when he becomes in due course of time a solar Pitri, or divine manasaputra to a coming humanity. Hence he must have, not only knowledge, but the energy of love likewise to enable him to perform the function of linking the higher three and the lower four of a future race of men at some distant period, thus permitting of their individualizing through the sacrifice of his own fully conscious middle principle.
Source: A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
Love. As earlier said, this is not affectionate sentiment, or the possession of a loving disposition; these two later aspects are incidental and sequential. When the intuition is developed, both affection and the possession of a spirit of loving outgo will, necessarily, in their pure form, be demonstrated, but that which produces these is something much more deep and comprehensive. It is that synthetic, inclusive grasp of the life and needs of all beings (I have chosen these two words with intent!) which it is the high prerogative of a divine Son of God to operate. It negates all that builds barriers, makes criticism, and produces separation. It sees no distinction, even when it appreciates need, and it produces in one who loves as a soul immediate identification with that which is loved.
Source: Glamor – A World Problem
Love, for many people, for the majority indeed, is not really love but a mixture of the desire to love and the desire to be loved, plus a willingness to do anything to show and evoke this sentiment, and consequently to be more comfortable in one’s own interior life. The selfishness of the people who are desirous of being unselfish is great. So many contributing sentiments gather around the sentiment or desire to show those amiable and pleasant characteristics which will evoke a corresponding reciprocation towards the would-be lover or server who is still completely surrounded by the glamor of sentiment.
Source: Glamor – A World Problem
The understanding of love and the expression of love are strictly personal matters. Love can remain indefinitely a theory or an emotional experience. It can become a motivating factor in life and something which we contribute to the whole. If each would think out for himself the meaning of love in his life, and if all would decide to give love and understanding (not emotional reactions, but steady, steadfast, understanding love), then the tangles in this troubled world of ours would straighten out, and it would be an easier place in which to live. The present chaos and turmoil would then more rapidly disappear. Love is essentially the realization of brotherhood. It is the recognition that we are all the children of the One Father; it is pity and compassion and understanding and patience. It is the true expression of the life of God.
Source: From Bethlehem to Calvary
You can develop within yourself a more conscious comprehension of the nature of “wise love.” This is love free from emotion or devotion; it is love aware of the objects of love as they essentially are and a love which is able to see in character and temperament the working out of karma.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age II
Let love be the keynote in all relationships, for the power which must salvage the world is the precipitation of love, and how shall that find its way onto the physical plane save through a group whose ears are attuned to its imminent emergence, and through the lives of those in the group who are irradiated by love itself? It is here that there is lack – not intentionally or because of the existence of its opposing quality – but simply through world pressure and strain.
Source: The Externalization of the Hierarchy
Much light comes if we can ponder deeply on the three expressions of Love: Love in the Personality, Love in the Ego, and Love in the Monad. Love in the Personality gradually develops through the stages of love of self, pure and simple and entirely selfish, to love of family and friends, to love of men and women, until it arrives at the stage of love of humanity or group love consciousness which is the predominant characteristic of the Ego. A Master of Compassion loves, suffers with, and remains with His kind and with His kin. Love in the Ego gradually develops from love of humanity into love universal – a love that expresses not only love of humanity, but also love of the deva evolutions in their totality, and of all forms of divine manifestation. Love in the Personality is love in the three worlds; love in the Ego is love in the solar system, and all that it contains; whilst love in the Monad demonstrates a measure of cosmic love, and embraces much that is outside the solar system altogether.
Source: A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
This term “The Law of Love,” is after all too generic a term to apply to one law governing one plane, but will have to suffice for the present, as it conveys the type of idea that is needed, to our minds. The Law of Love is in reality but the law of the system in demonstration on all the planes. Love was the impelling motive for manifestation, and love it is that keeps all in ordered sequence; love bears all on the path of return to the Father’s bosom, and love eventually perfects all that is. It is love that builds the forms that cradle temporarily the inner hidden life, and love is the cause of the disruption of those forms, and their utter shattering, so that the life may further progress. Love manifests on each plane as the urge that drives the evolving Monad onwards to its goal, and love is the key to the deva kingdom, and the reason of the blending of the two kingdoms eventually into the divine Hermaphrodite. Love works through the concrete rays in the building of the system, and in the rearing of the structure that shelters the Spirit, and love works through the abstract rays for the full and potent development of that inherent divinity. Love demonstrates, through the concrete rays, the aspects of divinity, forming the persona that hides the one Self; love demonstrates through the abstract rays in developing the attributes of divinity, in evolving to fullest measure the kingdom of God within. Love in the concrete rays leads to the path of occultism; love in the abstract rays leads to that of the mystic. Love forms the sheath and inspires the life; love causes the logoic vibration to surge forward, carrying all on its way, and bringing all to perfected manifestation.
Source: A Treatise on Cosmic Fire
He must be love, and manifest it forth, but it may be love working through power, it may be love in harmony, or love working through knowledge, through ceremonial or devotion, or it may be just pure love and wisdom, blending all the others. Love was the source, love is the goal, and love the method of attainment.
Source: Letters on Occult Meditation
The love of love must dominate, not love of being loved.
Source: Esoteric Psychology II
Love is not a sentimental, emotional state of consciousness. It takes into account the point in evolution and the development of character of those to be loved; but in spite of all, it is a love which sees truly, and which, because it sees so truly can act wisely.
Source: From Bethlehem to Calvary
The mass of men need arousing to see that good comes to all men alike and not just to a few privileged groups, and to learn also that “hatred ceases not by hatred but that hatred ceases by love”. This love is not a sentiment, but practical goodwill, expressing itself through individuals, in communities and among nations.
Source: Problems of Humanity
Love is not a sentiment or an emotion nor is it desire or a selfish motive for right action in daily life. Love is, the wielding of the force which guides the worlds and which leads to the integration, unity and inclusiveness which impels Deity itself to action. Love is a hard thing to cultivate – such is the inherent selfishness of human nature; it is a difficult thing to apply to all conditions of life and its expression will demand of you the utmost you have to give and the stamping out of your selfish personal activities.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age I
Brother of old, we have worked together for some time – for some years. I have chosen you for instruction and to be part of my group of disciples and this choice, being accepted and responded to by you, indicates relationship, activity, and an allegiance which will confront you for many lives. Have I ever, since the time that our relationship started in this life, failed to meet your need when that need was of a spiritual nature, determining character and conditioning the future? Is not such a response on my part an expression of true love? Love is not making the object of the love feel comfortable superficially. If I induced that reaction in you, I would not merit your confidence and trust and in the long run I would not thus hold your respect. Love is far-seeing wisdom which seeks to keep alive in the object of that love those sensitivities which will guarantee safe progress. Love is, therefore, guarding, stimulating and protective. But it is not a personal matter. It is a positive protection, but does not lead to a negative attitude of being cared for on the part of the one who is the recipient of the love and protection. It is the stimulating power of divine love which I seek to pour out upon you and upon all whom I serve as Master and Teacher. This will lead you wisely to protect yourself from glamour, illusion and personality reactions, also from error and prejudice in order the better to serve both Humanity and the Hierarchy. Ponder on this.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age II
As to the part love has to play in the healing process: Love is the life expression of God Himself; love is the coherent force which makes all things whole (I would have you ponder upon this phrase), and love is all that is. The main characteristic of the distinction between soul energy and personality force, as applied to healing, lies in the region of the application and the expression of love. Personality force is emotional, full of feeling, and – when in use – the personality is ever conscious of itself as the healer, and is the dramatic center of the stage upon which are two players, the healer and the one to be healed. Soul energy functions unconsciously and is wielded by those who are in contact with their souls and who are consequently decentralized; they are “off the stage” themselves, if I might use that expression, and they are completely occupied with group love, group activity and group purpose.
Why then is it so extremely difficult, if not altogether impossible, for earnest would-be healers to work together, as a group, with the sacred science of healing? Because as individuals and as a group they are predominantly personal in their individual and inter-group relations. This may show itself in intense criticism of each other, or of oneself; in a vivid sureness of personal rectitude and sound judgment which does not permit those who hold it to see that there is perhaps a chance that they are not as correct in their ideas as they deem themselves to be; it may show itself in a deep satisfaction over personal subjective contacts. Any or all the above hindrances may be present and make the group demonstration a personality demonstration which negates constructive work, and any attempt only intensifies personality reactions and would greatly (and adversely) affect the personalities of those they might seek to help.
How, then, should they proceed? I would point out that any group member who, as an individual, is free from the above frailties of the personality and from these attitudes, nevertheless knows (and rightly rejoices) that he participates, as a group member, in the group quality. That is one of the incidental difficulties of group work. To participate and yet stand free from weakness; to recognize that the achievements or failures of the individual group members are entirely their own affair; to share and yet not be dominated by the powerful thoughts and ideas of the more potent members in the group is ever a problem. I point this out because, in this coming Age wherein group work will be greatly developed, it will be of value to understand group situations and problems, and then to go forward to the group work together with those who are yours to work with. You will then be the better and wiser for past experiences, and used as a group through shared suffering and limitations and the gained ability of failure rightly met.
Source: Esoteric Healing
The will-to-love involves the recognition of limitation, of desire, of the forcing of an issue and of the intense aspiration really to love. It does not indicate the inflow of Shamballa energy through the medium of the soul whose intrinsic nature is spontaneous love. Where there is a determination to be loving, certain attitudes – either natural and belonging to a developed personality or forced through attention to soul behest – emerge. The disciple knows that he lacks love, because he is constantly finding himself isolated from and not identified with others; he is irritated by others: he is critical of his brothers, either feeling superior to them or looking at them and saying: “Here they are wrong and I am right; here they do not understand and I do; I know them but they don’t know me; I must be patient with them,” etc., etc. Throughout this phase, the attitude is definitely that of the will-to-love, coupled to a deep realization of the handicaps to the expression of love presented by those others and presented also by one’s own habits of thought. This is all a form of self-centerdness. The true way to love is to reflect and meditate deeply and constantly upon the significance and the meaning of love, its origin, its expression through the soul, its qualities, goals and objectives. Most of the reflection carried on by the aspirant is based upon his innate realization that he does not really love in the spontaneous, free way of the spirit. The disciple is, therefore, thrown back on a self-centered position in which he feels: “Now I am loving; now I am not loving; now I must try and love.” Yet all the time none of these attitudes is really true love nor is their result a loving expression because the disciple is identified with himself and focussed in the personality. Love is never worked up, if I might put it so, in the lower nature; it is a free unimpeded inflow from the higher.
Love is spontaneous and carries ever the free spirit of Christ. I would suggest that there has never been a better description of the nature of love than that given by the initiate Paul, even though the translation of his words is faulty at times. Study those passages in the New Testament in which he defines love. Give up emphasizing the will-to-love and emphasize in your own consciousness the need of others for understanding, compassion, interest and help. The usual loneliness of all disciples is frequently incidental to the fact of the self-centerdness of all those whom they contact and the intense pre-occupation of the neophyte with his own growth. The cry of the neophyte is: “Tell me. Tell me. Then I will change. I will accept anything that is said but tell me.” The cry of the disciple is: “Aid the work. Forget yourself. The world needs you.” So many disciples are still shut up within themselves, hidden behind the wall of the personal self and little true out-going love is present. Until they break through and truly love, their usefulness is impaired.
Source: Discipleship in the New Age I
