From the Divine Sun, or from the Ultimate Being who is God, there
are three major Rays. These are also called the Primary Rays. They
have been given a variety of names from different teachings, but as
these are discussed the reader should be able to understand the
general meaning of each. They are Will, Love, and Intelligence. Other
names might be Power, Being, and Light.
But in terms of how this Power is brought forth through beings, we can also understand the first Ray as Will. Considering this in relation to God, the Ultimate Being, the first of God's primary attributes is Power. This is the Power of creativity, also known as the creative Power. It is the Power of manifesting. From nothing, there suddenly is something. So from the manifest nothingness, God has the Power to create something. Or understand this as: from the unmanifest Being of God, or from the hidden latent Potentials of God, the Creative Power brings forth manifestation. The Creative Power, God, has to manifest something; this is in God's nature, as it were.
Now, in relation to who we are, which is of course related to how God is, we too have creative power and the urge to creatively express something from our own being. We have this same fundamental power, as received from God, or as received from this Ray of God; but our own power is, of course, limited and only to some degree.
Also, the first Ray is Will. Will and Power are intrinsically related. These are two sides of the same coin, as it were. So in terms of God, there is God's Power and God's Will, but these are inseparable concepts, and in reality they are really the same, the same Ray Quality.
Yet there is more to understand in the meaning of God's Will. Because Will implies purpose, intention, and aim. That is, when we say something is God's Will we are also implying that there is purpose, intention, and aim in this. To have a haphazard or random Will doesn't make any real sense. Power could be haphazard or unintended, but Will implies intention and a goal in mind. So in terms of God, it is significant to understand that God has Will -- meaning that God's Will always has a purpose and aim involved. One further important idea in this is that Will is a directed Power. In other words, God's Power is not just a haphazard, arbitrary, or random expression of Power. Rather, it is a directed Power -- directed with purpose, intention, and aim.
Now, the same truths can also be applied to our own lives. We too have creative power, and we too have intentional will. This is the first Ray at work in us. For us, as human beings, the first Ray is our power of will. It is our execution of will. It is how we execute our power. So for us, the first Ray is our potential power -- our power to manifest, to express ourselves, or to make things happen. But it is also our potential power of will -- which is our power of intention and our power to direct energies, that is intended towards a certain aim or goal. Our will is necessary to direct the power we potentially have. So without will, we won't get much really done or accomplished. Even if we have a wonderfully loving heart and plenty of intelligence, we won't get much done if we do not have enough of this power of will.
Will is an ability and power that makes us special as human beings. Unfortunately though, this power of will is quite often misused for merely selfish purposes - by those who are not tuned into love and spiritual purpose. Then on the other side of things, most spiritually minded people, with love and goodness as their guide, tend not to use their power of will, because they think it is being pushy. So then in the world, we have those who lack love but who use will aggressively for their own self-interests, vs. those who have love but avoid using will for fear of being too aggressive. Hey there spiritual, loving, good people ! Start using your will ! Let's get going !
Will is a power that can direct energies, via the mind. In other words, will can direct mental energies for the success of some goal or another. So this is a very special power, and this will comes from the first Ray. Will is an intentional directing of energy, for some intended purpose or goal. Get the goal straight and right; then get the will going in directing energy towards its completion.
Will directs energy, both physical and mental. The physical direction of energy is obvious. One puts forth a physical energy to make things happen, to be creative, and to make changes when needed. This physical energy is a force acting upon things and others. Any creative activity in the physical world will need physical energy applied towards some goal. But the use of mental energy is, mostly, seldom discussed. The basic premise involved with using mental energy is that the mind combined with will can produce actual results in the physical world. In short, the mind can make things happen. Nobody is all-powerful in the use of their mind, but everyone is somewhat powerful. Read that again and don't forget it.
Concentration is another essential trait of the first Ray. This is also related to will, because will is a concentration of energy towards the fulfillment of a goal. In order to complete or accomplish anything one needs some sort of concentration. A mind or attention that is scattered will have a difficult time getting to a goal or completing something. The general meaning of concentration is some kind of mental focus, or keeping one's mind and attention on the task at hand.
Too many people suffer from a lack of persistent attention on the task at hand, or they cannot concentrate their attention for any longer than a few minutes. Instead, their attention gets scattered here and there, and they are easily distracted by almost anything -- which makes them immediately forget what they were doing just a few seconds before. This can be quite a disability; but for many people it is the normal. The only way to solve attention problems is to practice attention and concentration. It is mostly a case of training the mind or of developing this ability. Our drug happy medicine establishment can only come up with drugs to help the problem; but the real and lasting solution is simply a training or practice of mind in concentrating attention, while not allowing other stimuli to become a distraction. It is all to do with practice in developing concentration. Every development in oneself requires practice, and every time we even try something we are helping develop our abilities.
Now, in order to do hold concentration we also need a strong will. Our will must say, "Yes, this is what I will do," then one's will must keep oneself in this commitment. And our will must also say "No" to anything that comes about to distract oneself from the commitment. So will and concentration and commitment all go together. Will is very much about commitment, determination, and persistence. It is keeping one's mind and energies on task - towards the Aim, or towards what is seen as the Goal or the Purpose to be fulfilled.
There is a definite power of yes-energy in any commitment or perseverance. This yes energy, this power of Yes, is the power of agreement, commitment and perseverance. All three of these are essentially important, and those who have all three of these within their self become very powerful in their ability to manifest and to help the world around them. We call this the affirmative power of will, but it can also be called the power of Yes.
But then, a complementing power must also be present, which is the denying power, the power of No. This can be a more difficult power to develop. And often it is not at all popular. But just as much important as the Yes, we also need to exercise a No in certain instances. This is our power of dismissal. We need to dismiss certain kinds of energies that are not useful towards our goal. We need to dismiss certain distractions. We cannot simply allow everyone and everything to sway us in their direction. And we cannot simple agree with everything. We have to sometimes pronounce No, and be firm about it. Really, it is a matter of being practical and also of being concentrated. The practical person cannot merely accept everything or anything as being practical, because many ideas are basically stupid or bound to fail. The concentrated person cannot allow everything or anything into their mind, because this would be a continual distraction.
This importance of No is also related to a larger metaphysical principle, the destructive power. This is also an aspect of the first Ray. Destruction is not always bad. Granted it is true that destruction of lives, or of forests, of air or of water, is a bad destructive thing. There is plenty in the history of humanity that shows the horrible tragedy of destructive powers. But not all destruction is bad. For example, the white blood cells of our body destroy harmful entities in the body. So the destructive power of these white blood cells is very good and very needed. Many things of nature destroy other things, and for a good purpose. So praise be to the power of destruction (when helpful towards a greater purpose).
Likewise, we have a power of mind that can destroy illusions and delusions. We need to use our power of mind to destroy false beliefs about what is true, destroy delusions about our self, and destroy distractions of the mind that can hold us back from greater goals. This is the fierce mind, the shattering power of Shiva within us. This is also related to the power of clearing, which is very important along the path of life. We will want to clear negative or troubling energies from our living spaces and from our mind and aura. Thus, clearing is also an aspect of first Ray power.
Another aspect of the first Ray is motivation. The first Ray is the primary motivator in our lives. In other words, whatever motivates us is how our first ray is working. Consider what it is that motivates you. Many things, no doubt, but there are primary motivators in everyone's life, and we can learn a great deal about our self if we consider what these are. What motivates me? This is how my first ray is functioning.
If there is no motivation, there is no will. They are both intimately related. So is desire. Desire is also an aspect of the First Ray; but the typical human desire is quite a long way away from the original First Ray Will of the Divine. Nonetheless, all desires gain their energy from the First Ray. Yet, so many desires are First Ray distortions. Much like will, many people have desires that make things happen. Will and desire are both powerful directors of energy. Yet ordinary desire creates directions in energy that do not necessarily have wisdom or higher purpose. At least it is possible for will to also include wisdom and love.
Another aspect of first Ray is purpose. The first Ray has purpose. It has direction and goal. The first Ray is leading somewhere. It is intending somewhere. It is heading somewhere. And there is something special about this Purpose. It is not just any direction or goal. No, the direction and goal have a greater purpose. In other words, the goal intended has a real Purpose. You see, Purpose implies something special having importance. We don't say, "I have a purpose!", and then equate this purpose to some little petty desire. So purpose and desire cannot be the same thing. No, Purpose is something very special and important. Like, what is the Purpose of life? This is not some mere desire or whim of the moment. If there is a Purpose in life, then this is incredibly important, In fact, if we realize a great Purpose, then this Purpose motivates us – it motivates us to intentionally and willfully head towards the goal or completion of this Purpose. Next, we naturally desire to organize our efforts and affairs accordingly. So Purpose rules, as it were. That is though, if we have a Purpose, or if we realize a Purpose. Thus, Purpose is essentially related to Will and Goal, and thus to the First Ray.
Thus, the first Ray energy is firm, intent, concentrated, committed, and its will is dedicated and motivated by some greater purpose. The first Ray could go astray in some people if their purpose in mind is flawed or perhaps egocentric or ethnocentric. So the motivating purpose in mind is important in how the power of will shall be directed. It would be an unintelligent will and thus an unintelligent use of power, if a person's will had no clear purpose or goal in mind. Random or haphazard uses of power are unintelligent. But a wrong purpose in mind, or harmful goal in mind, is even worse in the mind of one who has great power of will. And so this power of will needs to be mixed with intelligence and also with love.
Knowing a Purpose, a Goal or Aim, is important in how to direct the mind and will. That is, one could have amazing abilities of concentration, commitment, determination, perseverance, and will. But where is this directed to? Who or what decides that?
Imagine that you have great powers to accomplish things. You have great will and power. But then the question is -- towards what will this be used? What is the Goal? What is the greater Purpose that shall be the inspiration for this amazing will? There are many people who have strong will and also strong powers of mind and concentration, and great determination as well. But they also need to know what goal to direct all of this energy and power towards. A strong will and power, without knowing what to use it for, is like a hunter haphazardly shooting at anything. In other words, the hunter has power but is unintelligent about how to use it.
Most people with lots of power and will are like this. They really do not know how to ultimately use their energies, powers and will. Most will just do what they do know how to do; which is to make money and get what they want. But some might ask themselves about what is the ultimate goal of life, or what is the Greater Purpose. If you simply put your will and energies towards whatever; then you will get a 'whatever' world. But if you use your will and energies towards something with greater Purpose, then you are serving that greater Purpose. You are then serving something greater than just yourself or just what the society thinks is good.
But how can you know this greater Purpose. Or how can you know what is a greater goal, or a smart goal? You have to have intelligence. That is, intelligence is necessary to understand Purpose, and it's necessary to understand any kind of real goal. So the next Ray to discuss is the third Ray of Intelligence. We will leave the second Ray, the middle primary Ray, for last.
Intelligence is needed to understand Purpose. In addition, Intelligence is needed to understand how to fulfill the purpose. The first Ray of Will does not help in this. So intelligence is an important essence in itself.
To clarify better, the cosmic first Ray has Purpose. This is why we brought this idea up in the discussion of first Ray. First Ray, in its true energy without any distortions, is will/power with greater spiritual purpose. In how the first Ray actually manifests in the world and in history is another matter; because what we often see in the world is only a partial expression of the first Ray, and thus we might see will and power expressed without any higher Purpose involved. This could be called first Ray, because of the will and power involved, but it is only partial because the greater Purpose is not involved. Yet the full expression of first Ray is will and power, with a higher Purpose.
The cosmic first Ray has Purpose. But one still needs an ability to know the Purpose. This ability is part of Intelligence - which comes from the third Ray.
Intelligence is everywhere in natural life. Anything alive must have some kind of intelligence, to some degree, else it would not be alive at all. Even all living cells, however small, have some degree of intelligence. This might not be a conscious intelligence, as we think of ourselves as; but there is nonetheless an intelligence, a needed know-how or program for how to survive and carry on. As far as inanimate things or non-living elements of nature, it is debatable if these have intelligence or not. Some think that rocks and crystals have intelligence, and some believe that water has an intelligence, and there is actually real evidence to support these beliefs; but this can be discussed some other time.
Third Ray is the energy source of Intelligence and Knowledge. Intelligence is, essentially, a capacity. It is a capacity, an ability, to discover and learn. Everyone has this capacity, but few make use of it as could be possible. Like any spiritual Quality, this has to be developed or actualized from its latent state.
First understand that real knowledge can only come from intelligence. In other words, intelligence has to be active in order to realize and gain knowledge. Many people rely on books and teachers to give them knowledge. But this is really an accumulation of memory, of facts, of quotes, etc. Real knowledge is a real knowingness, a real understanding; not simply a mimicking of some book or teaching. Real knowledge depends on the person's own developed intelligence, and also on the real experience and insight gained from this intelligence interacting in the world. And this is not merely a linear and deductive intelligence; this possible intelligence in each person also includes intuition and spiritual insight.
So this term, intelligence, as used here, is inclusive of all spiritual understandings, insights, and intuitions. For at the core of all of these is the third Ray of Intelligence, which is the Divine Intelligence, or we could call this the Intelligence of God. But remember that this Intelligence is not simply an accumulation of facts, as in "God must know so very much." Intelligence is essentially a capacity or ability to learn and understand. So intelligence seeks out and discovers, and is always learning. It does not simply sit back and gloat over all it knows.
There are two sides of intelligence, potential and active. This distinction can also be understood as the intelligence capacity/ability (which is often latent or in potential), distinguished from activated intelligence or intelligence actualized from its latent potential. In relation to one's own self, we each can intuit that we have an intelligence -- some of which is active and at work, then some of which is in us but not yet activated or not yet developed. We seem to naturally believe that we have more intelligence potential than as yet manifested -- so this is a natural intuition of our own latent potential. Few people would think that their own only possible intelligence is just only what they are now expressing. So we just simply know that there is more intelligence possible in us. This is our intelligence capacity or intelligence potential.
In other words, we each have an active aspect of intelligence, which is the degree of intelligence that is actively at work in our life, and of which we use regularly. But within us is also a larger capacity of intelligence that we have not yet awakened and actualized, which is our potential intelligence. Our active intelligence is what has surd. Our potential intelligence is still underneath our regular consciousness, and it does not usually come forth. But it could come forth at any moment or in any situation; and sometimes it actually does. In general, we need to develop our intelligence potential and bring it into actuality, by practice and studies.
We also have an unconscious intelligence. In other words, we are not conscious of a large part of our intelligence, even though this intelligence is active and at work. So there is a part of intelligence of which we are not normally conscious, and this intelligence does not require a conscious directive or conscious management. It just works on its own, for whatever purpose it has. This could still be understood as active intelligence, since it actively works, but its activity is not dependent on our conscious ego directing it or thinking about it. The physical body obviously has much intelligence, but normally we are unconscious of all this vast intelligence at work. But even mentally, we have an intelligence hidden from normal view, which is mostly unconscious to us. Once in a while we notice this as it comes to help us, and it seems to come from nowhere or from a very hidden part of us. And so we often label this as our intuition coming into play from its unconscious abode.
So in summary, we have a potential intelligence, which is our latent and as yet activated capacity of intelligence. Then there is also active intelligence, which is intelligence at work, but some of this is conscious and some unconscious. In fact, most of the active intelligence is unconscious to us; yet this is simply a limitation of our waking consciousness -- for it is nonetheless possible for all active intelligence to be consciously experienced.
Also to note is that potential intelligence is an important metaphysical understanding, especially important in spiritual metaphysical ideas; because in spiritual metaphysics there is a Greater Intelligence 'pre-exiting' a-priori to all actual manifestations of intelligence, and all manifest intelligences acquire their intelligences from the greater Intelligence which is, in relation to each manifest intelligence, its latent potential capacity.
One aspect is knowing how-to do something or accomplish something. Know-how is the same as practical knowledge. It is obvious that we need intelligence to know how-to-do things, whether it be cooking, cleaning, construction, making money, teaching, understanding chemistry, or whatever. The possibilities of know-how are endless.
Another aspect of Intelligence is to know the Purpose of any how-to knowledge. First understand that any know-how is intrinsically related to some purpose. And that is why it is called know-how -- because it is a knowing how-to get to somewhere or how-to achieve something, which is its goal or purpose. Yet many people, who do learn and know how-to do certain things, do not actually think very much about why they are doing these things; as in what is the real purpose of this? They will know the immediate goal; like if you are building a house, the goal is obviously a finished house. But does the person consider the purpose of this house? Hopefully they will, because this knowledge of purpose could determine the design of and placement of its rooms. But few people reflect upon purpose in depth.
One might know how to do a whole lot of things, and also be very good at accomplishing them; but does this person also know the purpose of their life? It might make a difference. Many people have know-how, but few people know about greater Purposes; like, what is the Purpose of life? To know this, one has to have a greater intelligence, a larger understanding of things and a greater vision of life.
So Really, the knowing of greater Purpose is a very advanced level of intelligence. To know how to do something requires intelligence, but an even greater level of intelligence is required to know the Purpose of the purpose of this know-how. This could be called the meta-intelligence of knowing the meta-Purpose.
The third aspect of this Ray is knowing what is true in life and in oneself. Generally this is lumped together as knowledge of reality, but we can distinguish knowing of world and knowing of oneself. Knowing what is real and true in the world around us is not as simple as it sounds. There is much to deceive us from the world, or from those who pretend to be what they are really not. Deception is one of the great problems that will continue on for awhile in the world, until people force the deceivers to up and be honest. Yet, deception in oneself is also a problem, and this is even more insidious, even more covert. And so this is one of the bigger problems in oneself: self-deception and the self delusions that go along with this. So the third Ray of knowing truth is the energy that can dispel deception and delusion, by way of realizing what is actually true.
A person with active third Ray will be strongly motivated to search for the truth and find it, whether this be in the world or in oneself. The third Ray is, thus, the source of curiosity and interest in discovering the truth. This third Ray curiosity and interest motivates one to discover their inner soul and to find out the qualities and purposes of their soul, and it seeks knowledge of the principles of nature or the laws of the Cosmos. It seeks to know about the true reality of oneself, and it seeks to know what is really true in the world and with others.
In regards to knowing truly about the world and life, this greater intelligence is continually expanding its view and understanding, to include more in its holistic understanding. It is never satisfied with just a limited scope, but instead seeks to see the larger picture, the more holistic picture, and the interrelationships between all parts of the Whole. As well, there is ever deeper insight into the universal Principles and Purposes of life. In addition, this greater intelligence understands the most important Values and ethical Principles of life; thus understanding the foundations of what is spiritually good.
As already said, the third Ray soul-energy seeks the knowing of real and true Purpose. It seeks to know the most important Goal/s, which is a knowledge of real Value. Then it seeks to know how-to get there. So in summary, the third Ray seeks knowledge of Reality, Truth, Value, Rightness, Purpose, and also the practical know-how-to get there. This makes a person with lots of third Ray a great teacher, or a great developer of intelligent planning.
These qualities of third Ray could also be summed up as Wisdom. So Wisdom is a another word we can use for the third Ray. Wisdom could be defined as a wise use of intelligence, and what makes intelligence wise is if it has a knowing relationship with some greater Purpose. Because the use of intelligence, or decisions made with intelligence, are not necessarily wise, unless they have a connection to a meaningful and significant Purpose. Additionally, what makes intelligence wise is if it is practical; for if one's intelligence is only confined to knowledge that has no practical value or practical use, then it lacks in the wisdom of how to us it. So wisdom is intelligence and knowledge, but combined with a knowing of Purpose and a Vision that is practical. In other words, wisdom knows the why of any active intelligence and also the how of making it practically work.
The AA Bailey esoteric teachings sometimes speak of love-wisdom and correlates this to the second ray, rather than the third. But we need to be cautious about how these descriptions are interpreted. For in those teachings wisdom is not placed as second ray; only love-wisdom. And love is most definitely the main energy of second ray. So what is being referred to is the wisdom of love, and giving this emphasis by the term love-wisdom. For the primary quality of second ray is love, which will have its important wisdom (of love) and be expressive of that wisdom. The meaning of wisdom is large and general, and one could even say that all of the different seven rays have their own kind of possible wisdom. But for the sake of clearer understanding, the concept of wisdom is best understood in close relation with intelligence and light.
Two other important aspects of the third Ray are Cosmic Light and Consciousness. The third Ray is often correlated with Light in esoteric teachings. This of course is also related to consciousness, since light and consciousness are two sides of the same. Light descends down the planes, from Source to manifestation. And over a long process of time, the spiritual Cosmic Light transforms/evolves manifestation towards finer degrees of harmony, beauty, and joy. This is the road in which we participate. But what Light actually does is illuminate oneself and the reality all around oneself.
Light illuminates reality, in self and in world; which then enlightens that person -- enlightens them about what is real in their self and real in the world. So this illuminating Light actually awakens us to what is real, and in turn, it reveals and dispels what is false or unreal. The Light shows what is real and true; and it dispels the unreal and the false. Thus, this Light is awakening. Spiritual Light is an awakening energy.
Spiritual Light awakens and also dispels illusions. When we receive Light, our mind is brightened with more awakening to what is real and true. What is real in ourselves and in the world is illuminated more. This is how true understanding and knowledge is attained; not by books, but by our own experience and realization, due to an illumination of Light.
When we are blessed with Light, our consciousness expands and sees evermore clearly. Remember that consciousness and light are both the same; one being subjective, the other being objective. So any illumination of Light and any increase of Light is, also, an illumination and increase of consciousness. Therefore, if we send out Light from our own consciousness, we are helping to increase the consciousness of others, and also increase their illumination and enlightenment. May Light be increased in everyone. May Light illuminate the minds of all humanity. May the consciousness of all humans expand and awaken evermore to what is real and true.
So, as we increase in us light and consciousness, becoming more consciously enlightened, we are also increasing our intelligence and wisdom, bringing Intelligence and Wisdom more into conscious knowing, into actualization and into manifestation.
The third Ray is one of the major Rays of God. It is the Intelligence aspect of God. Yet it should also be understood as the Consciousness and Light of God. These are all intrinsically related in the third Ray. Divine Consciousness is everywhere; God's Consciousness is everywhere. And so is Light everywhere. Both generally pervade the whole universe. Or we might just say that all reality, all universes, everywhere, is Consciousness and Light; for there is nothing but God; or in other words, everywhere there is God. There is only One Being, so there is no where that is not within the One Being of God. This is the universal knowing, the absolute realization. And so God's Intelligence must also be everywhere.
But there is another principle at work in all of this, which is the unfoldment of Light through time. This is an esoteric principle which is little understood. Time is a progressive continuum. It is progressive, in the sense that Light, Consciousness, and Intelligence are progressively unfolding in time, throughout the universe. What this means is that these powers are not fully active in all places, in all people, and in all circumstances. Light, Consciousness, and Intelligence are progressively unfolding, from their Divine Potential into actualization and into manifestation. So, everywhere there is Light, Consciousness, and Intelligence; but this might be just in Potential and not yet actualized into manifestation. And because of this, we must understand the 'principle of degrees', which is that in any particular instance there is some 'degree' of Light, Consciousness, and Intelligence. In other words, Divine Intelligence is not necessarily present, actually, in every instance or circumstance. It could be present in just its potential state - being present, as it were, but only as a present potential.
In the larger cosmic Whole, Love is one of the three major Rays of Divine Being, along with Will and Intelligence. If one meditates on this Triad of the Divine Being, all sorts of insights and understanding will unfold.
So what is Love? It is the energy of Beingness that holds us all together as One. We are all in this Love; as we are all in One Being. Love is the energy-force that connects us. It is like a grand cosmic magnetism or cosmic gravity. And we can actually feel it. We can feel it in us, connecting us, moving us, and bringing us together. We feel the love to be together, or to come close together, in the most harmonious relatedness possible. Love also gives us a feeling-sense of belonging, which universally is our belonging in God, or in One Being.
So let us suppose that we are full of third Ray. We now have an actualized intelligence. We have the ability to really see what is true with an expansive holistic understanding. And we know the true Purposes and Principles of life. We know the spiritual Light and it is bright in our mind.
Then as well, let us suppose that we are also full of first Ray. We now have an actualized will, which gives us the power to make decisions and complete what we decide to do. So we have spiritual knowledge and spiritual will. But we also need spiritual love. This is what centers us in our greatest motivation and in what is truly most important. Love is at the center between knowledge and will. It even has some of both in it. Love is, esoterically, the greatest power and the greatest wisdom.
Consider first the relation between love and will. Will does not get going without a motivation. One has to motivated by something. So the power of will must have a motivation, or an aim or a purpose. Love is the greatest motivator there is. Some might argue that physical pleasure or sex is a greater motivator, but not so; for if true and real love is present, then this is the greatest motivator. So it might be said that love is a great power, or that love has great power.
Love also has a special relation with knowledge and wisdom. We could say that Knowledge gives Will a goal. For without some knowledge of important goals, our will would be an aimless power. So Knowledge/Wisdom provides the knowingness of meaningful goals and purposes. But so does love. For love, as well, provides a meaningful purpose and goal. In addition, love holds its own special wisdom, the wisdom of love. And it also has its own special guidance, the guidance of love. In other words, love is the great wisdom and the great guide.
In addition, let us understand the importance of love as the balancing aspect of the three rays. Imagine a person with great will or great power, but without love. It's a scary thought. Yet we see this in history and in the present world, to varying degrees. Imagine a person with great know-how, but without love. Again, a scary thought, but again we see this in varying degrees. Imagine a person with both power and know-how, but who lacks in love. Something very important is missing, and the consequences of this imbalance will be thrust upon others and in life. So, power without love, and knowledge without love, are very imbalanced, and often harmful. Thus, love is a necessary quality in spiritual life.
So how can we get to love? How can we reach love? How can we find love, and make it real in our everyday life? The sincere disciple of truth will have to admit, at some point, I need to know love and become love. Yet the enemies of love too often show up, which are self-centeredness, selfishness, and petty desires.
What is the true love inside us? It is our caring and concern. It is the quality of our caring about other people, about nature, and about the whole planet. Love is our higher desire to help and to give to these others, to humanity and to nature. Love also seeks to serve the Greater Purposes of harmonious relations, creative freedom, and beauty. Importantly, love seeks to increase harmony, freedom and beauty. Love loves these qualities in life. Love is also an appreciation of harmony and beauty; as well as an appreciative respect for freedom and diversity, because real love is not attempting to make everyone into a replica of one's own religion or lifestyle or fashion.
In addition, love is a realized connectiveness, relatedness and a belonging. But this is not merely a mental or intellectual realization. It is a knowing in one's heart. It is a deep and profound knowing, which is an undeniable feeling of realness. For love has this special quality of being an immediate knowing, and thus we may truthfully speak of the wisdom of our heart. The heart knows; love knows.
This is because love is the expansiveness of our being. The larger our being is, the greater our love is. The larger our love is; the greater our being is. For love is inclusive. So as our love includes more (of others and of life), in this feeling-sense of connectiveness and belonging, our being also includes more, meaning that our being inclusively expands. Thus, in an expanded relatedness and connectiveness
But love not only realizes connectiveness, relatedness and belonging; it also helps develop these qualities in actual life. For love brings people and life together into more relatedness. In an organic way and to do with natural law, we are all already interconnected and related. But if this is not consciously realized and made real in our actual relational behavior, our manifest relationships will not feel or be very related at all. So we need to build and develop relations and relationship, and make good connections with others and with all of life. This is the building of love. Yet love is also the energy that builds good relations.
So love is about relatedness and developing relations, which is to further build and expand our connectiveness with one another; which is also an expansion of our beingness.
Love is also the energy of unification. This is not a forced unity, such as a forced uniformity or forced communalism. Rather, it is a developed unity, with mutual respect for differences and diversity of view. It is a unity-in-diversity. Differences can fragment and divide people, then possibly lead to unhelpful quarreling or fighting. But love can bring us together. Love can bring together the differences and help bring harmony and unity in the diversity.
This is not always an easy road, because sometimes the differences do not seem resolvable and harmony seems a distant hope. Yet with persistence towards unity, and with the important energy-quality of love present, any situation of conflict can gradually move towards harmony and unity. But love needs to be present, because love is the great unifier. Love will motivate people to come into some form of harmony and unity, and greater love will also be the result of this.
Looking at the conflicts so prevalent in our relations, in our lives, and in the world, one might intuitively realize that one of the great Purposes of life is the building of love and harmony, which will have to necessarily involve an ongoing, persistent effort at resolving conflict. Thus, any understanding and work in conflict resolution is very important in the greater purpose of life.
Also perhaps important to understand is that sometimes a conflict cannot be resolved without some degree of sacrifice. It would be great if each side of a conflict, or all parties involved, were to achieve mutual satisfaction of their every desire. But sometimes this is unrealistic. Sometimes, to resolve conflict there needs to be degrees of sacrifice. This means to sacrifice some of what one desires, and thus to not get everything one wants. In effect, the one who makes some sacrifice is giving up a piece of their own self-interest, which may also involve some amount of ego-sacrifice.
Finally to say, love is a feeling. Fundamentally, love feels. Our love feels for others, and even for the whole world. This is the feeling-connection of love; call it sympathy or empathy, it is a feeling connection we have with others and perhaps also with the natural world.
Love is a feeling of connectiveness and relatedness. Love is a caring about the well-being of someone, or of many people. Love might also feel protective of those cared about, and thus react protectively when harm or injustice is perceived. Love also seeks harmony in relations and resolutions of conflict. Love appreciates harmony and beauty. Love appreciates harmony in relationships and in all of life. Also, love appreciates and delights in beauty.
The second Ray of Love is usually described as Love, or as God's Love, but it might also be understood as the Being aspect of God. Thus, the Spiritual Triad could be understood as the Will, the Being, and the Intelligence of God. The aspect of Being is fundamentally Love, but also included in this are other qualities of the Divine Being, such as peace, unity, harmony, and beauty. These and many other divine qualities are available to us. They are possible for us. They are, already, potentials within us, but need nurturing and development. As well, they are potentials for the world, but need nurturing and development. The second Ray radiates all of these qualities.
Our individual being, in the truest meaning, is the same as our soul. Our being is our soul; our soul is our being. This is also essentially related to the light of our consciousness and also to the power of our presence. Thirdly, it is essentially related to the expansiveness of our love. Thus, a 'larger' being, (but not larger in a physical sense), will have a more expanded consciousness, presence, and love. All these three. Understand also that our individual being is a 'portion' of God's Being, from Whom all being is, and that our individual beingness can expand. The same can also be said of the soul, so know that being and soul are really the same. Different words are used for the same, because each kind of word gives a new kind of insight.
As previously stated, our beingness is a substance of light. But it should also be understood as a power. In other words, being has power; though the degree of its power depends on the degree of its expansion. It has the power of consciousness, love, and will. Consciousness is a power to know, love is a power to relate, and will is a power to make effort. All of these are greatly important. But for now let us focus attention of love. For as we expand our love, so too do we expand our being. Love expands to the degree of the wholeness and inclusiveness of our being.
Finally to say here is that the second Ray of love is the motivation behind any self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice is hardly a popular idea. It has a lot of bad press in our culture valuing individual achievement and looking after our own self-interests. Moreover, self-sacrifice does not sound too nice for the personal ego. But let us dispel the false notion that it has to involve suffering or pain. Self-sacrifice does not have to be a crucifixion. It does not have to be such an awful thing. Instead, self-sacrifice is a letting go of our self-oriented way of being. It is letting go of our "normal" mentality of me-first. It is a letting go of our desire to get just what we want. So this might involve an ego-sacrifice, that life's all about me, or it might involve a sacrifice of self-pride, of me having to be right and those differing having to be wrong.
Fundamentally, self-sacrifice is when one sacrifices one's own personal desires or self-interests for the sake of others; maybe for one's children, or for one's community, or maybe for a larger spiritual purpose involving humanity and the planet. The actual self-sacrifice itself is an act of first Ray will, but its motivation is love. For without any love, there is no reason for self-sacrifice; so self-sacrifice would never be made without the presence and motivation of love. Even if one had a very powerful will, this will would never make any self-sacrifice unless love motivated it to do so. Without love, the power of will is only motivated by self-desires and self-interests. It may achieve a lot, but these achievements do not have meaningful relationship with the needs of humanity or the planet. Remember that love expands our being (and our interest) to include more of the Whole.
Self-sacrifice also means to sacrifice a smaller view of importance in favor of a larger view of importance. Think about this.