Another quote from Radical Optimism following on from yesterday's post:
"Love can't be required. In spite of the language in which our tradition speaks to us, you can't really command people to love.
... That is why the abundance of "salvation" has to come first. First, learn to relax the ego-defenses by fully accepting God's unconditional sustaining love; then enter into the Trinitarian Life of shared personal love energies; and finally, manifest that life by incarnating it into the workaday world. To make this last step, of unselfish behavior in the world, the condition for meriting the first step, the reception of God's love, is completely erroneous because quite impossible.
This is where we have made things so difficult and miserable for ourselves. We have tried to make ourselves believe we have to do something we can't do. This is why preaching against sin and punishing misbehavior have so little effect. They don't reach the root of the trouble, the belief that we are not loved, are not safe, don't have enough being.
Our most important task in the manifestation phase of contemplative life is, in my view, to correct this terrible error. We must preach and practice God's abundant, unconditional love. This is the truth of God's nature, the fulfillment of our own nature, and the rescue of our fellow beings."
