This is a newly carved out space to periodically share excerpts from our new book prior to its publication later this year. We welcome (we crave) your comments, suggestions, and critiques.
We already shared an excerpt pertaining to the unification of eros and agape, along with a little wisdom borrowed from Goldilocks. Next, we began to introduce the concept of the Supreme Being, not as a religious construct or mystical superstition, but as a logical conclusion of and representation of actualized Love. In fact, substituting the word, Love, for the words, Supreme Being, or the Supreme, will always be factually correct. Love is the cosmic power that connects us to each other and all available elements of cosmic technology.
by Alice Popkorn Flicker/creative commons
How does an individual learn to unify the experiences of eros and agape? There is no one specific answer to this question. The necessary path must be found and established within the experiences of the individual and will not generally be the same for all. But there are some obvious consistencies in one’s approach that can be identified as signposts along the way.
Since people acquire their initial concepts of agape from socialization of myth, and since such concepts tend to be wildly distorted, even while preserving a thin thread of Truth, we begin by examining what is real and genuine in the worshipful experience of agape. Only in this way can we know we are talking about the same experiences for all people, even when those experiences vary greatly in detail.
The simplest and most efficient explanation is that orgasms and eroticism in general are directly connected and a key component of one’s adoration of the Supreme.
The key understanding is that the Supreme, as the creator-person of the universe, enjoys a personal connection to every human through which every thought, emotion, attitude, belief, pain, or pleasure of that human is shared and appreciated by the Supreme. The enabler of this contact is the Spirit of Truth, the active element of the Supreme in the human mind. No one is ever alone in the universe, though they may suffer from personal and social isolation at times.
The practice of agape is not a matter of personal whim. The Spirit provides to every human a certain conviction of Truth—that which is real in the universe and consistent in the intellectual mind, and so, in human experience. Individuals who ignore these leadings because they conflict with greater attention to greed and fear, or shame and guilt, lose any rational basis to consciously choose the Supreme, abandoning their fate to the leadings of their self-centered and primitive human mind.
Genuine, vitally powerful agape depends on the willingness of the human to set aside preconceived notions of personal importance and desire in favor of the subtle direction of the Supreme. Fortunately, human engagement with the spirit is a self-correcting process that leads to significant personal enlightenment. In effect, one must first decide to exchange one’s personal desires and attitudes, no matter how deeply felt (or how shallow), for the inspiration of the best ideal response to life circumstances. But once this decision has been sincerely made, the Supreme can take over management of the uplift of personal desires and attitudes. You will never be forced to act or not to act in specific ways. Rather, you will always choose something, be satisfied with the result, and gain further insight into your choice, which may affect subsequent choices you make.
Although the surrender of one’s selfish desires takes both time and effort, the initial step of conceiving of engagement with the Supreme as the guiding principle of one’s decisions opens the door to progressive enlightenment. Once freely admitted to the privacy of personal decisions and attitudes, the Supreme is capable of refining and upgrading these decisions and attitudes to be in line with cosmic realities and destinies. One has begun the process of becoming fully human and a partner with the Supreme in the constructive development of the universe, and one’s self.
It is the adoption of this enlightened agape that makes possible the unification of eros with the divine experience. Without such conscious preparation to bring these two ideas together, eros and agape, we are forced to run the risk that unreformed egos may serve only base human desires that lead to exploitation and abuse of others, turning the human mind from adoration of Truth. Fortunately, the adoration of Truth provides a baseline vital experience to which eros may be effectively integrated.
