A student confided in Suzuki Roshi that she had tremendous feelings of love for him, and that it confused her. “Don’t worry,” he said. “You can let yourself have all the feelings you have for your teacher. That’s good. I have enough discipline for both of us.” Buddhist Story
The human heart is much too small to contain the love of Spirit—a realm where you are immersed in an ocean of the Divine whereas personal love most often comes with conditions and limits. When you’re working with a powerful teacher, counselor, or doctor who seems to know you in a deeper kind of way, it’s not uncommon for your spirit to get excited. But an intimate stirring of feelings doesn’t mean romantic love; rather a divine touch of unconditional love has entered your soul. It can become easy to want to transfer those feelings to the one who seems to have awakened them. Divine Wisdom operating within and between the two can close the gap of separation and support the emergence of something greater. An experienced teacher has been to this intimate and illumined place before and knows the feeling is part of the healing power of love and doesn’t take it personally.
As your relationship to within is activated, your soul will hold mastery over your thinking. Your celestial discernment shifts to being a receiver of the gifts of grace, and you more easily integrate the mystical into your life without being swept away. The Power felt in the presence of a master can take you to the very boundaries and beyond what you have humanly known was possible. But remember, it’s not the teacher; rather it’s what is going on inside of you that’s beyond your senses that you’ll want to come to know more intimately.
Spiritual Contemplation: Have you ever had a teacher, counselor, or doctor see you in a way no one else has and awakened an appreciative love within you? How did that finally settle down? How has that experience and insight served you to this day?
Affirmation: All love leads me to a greater experience of Spirit’s love expressing as me!