CHAPTER 17
Be Wounded, Not Insulted
SRI DA AVABHASA: For those who Are Committed To Love (and
who Always Commune With The One Who Is Love), Even Rejection
By others Is Received and Accepted As A Wound, Not An
Insult. Even The Heart-Necessity To Love and To Be Loved Is
A Wound. Even The Fullest Realization Of Love Is A Wound
That Never Heals.
* * *
The egoic Ritual Calls every individual To Defend himself
or herself Against The Wounds Of Love and The Wounding Signs
Of Un-Love (or egoic self-Contraction) In the daily world.
Therefore, Even In The Context Of True Intimacy, The
Tendency (Apart From Spiritual Responsibility) Is To Act As
If Every Wound (Which Is Simply A Hurt) Is An Insult (or A
Reason To Punish).
The Reactive Rituals Of egoity Must Be Released By The
selfTranscending (and Then Spiritual) Practice Of Love. This
Requires Each and Every Practitioner Of The Way Of The Heart
To Observe, Understand, and Relinquish The emotionally
Reactive Cycle Of Rejection and Punishment. And The
Necessary Prerequisites For Such Relinquishment Are
Vulnerability (or The Ability To Feel The Wounds Of Love
Without Retaliation), Sensitivity To the other In Love (or
The Ability To Sympathetically Observe, Understand, Forgive,
Love, and Not Punish or Dissociate From the other In Love),
and Love Itself (or The Ability To Love, To Know You Are
Loved, To Receive Love, and To Know That Both You and the
other, Regardless Of Any Appearance To The Contrary, Are
Vulnerable To Love and Heart-Requiring Of Love).
It Is Not Necessary (or Even Possible) To Become Immune
To The Feeling Of Being Rejected. To Become Thus Immune, You
Would Have To Become Immune To Love Itself. What Is
Necessary (and Also Possible) Is To Enter Fully Into The
Spiritual Life-Sphere Of Love. In The Way Of The Heart, This
Is Done By First Entering (By Heart) Into My Company (and,
Thus and Thereby, Into The Company Of The Divine Person),
and (Therein) To Submit To The Divine Embrace Of Love,
Wherein Not Only Are You Loved, but You Are Love Itself.
Then You Must Magnify That Love-Radiance In the world of
human relationships.
If You Will Do This, Then You Must Do The Sadhana (or
Concentrated Practice) Of Love. As A Practical Matter, You
Must Stop Dramatizing The egoic Ritual Of Betrayal In
Reaction To The Feeling Of Being Rejected. You Must
Understand, Transcend, and Release The Tendency To Respond
(or React) To Signs Of Rejection (or Signs That You Are Not
Loved) As If You Are Insulted, Rather Than Wounded. That Is
To Say, You Must Stop Punishing and Rejecting others When
You Feel Rejected. If You Punish another When You Feel This,
You Will Act As If You Are Immune To Love’s Wound. Thus, You
Will Pretend To Be Angrily Insulted, Rather Than Suffer To
Be Wounded. In The Process, You Will Withdraw and Withhold
Love. You Will Stand Off, Independent and Dissociated. You
Will Only Reinforce The Feeling Of Being Rejected, and You
Will Compound It By Actually Rejecting the other. In This
Manner, You Will Become Un-Love. You Will Fail To Love. You
Will Fail To Live In The Sphere Of Love. Your Own Acts Of
Un-Love Will Degrade You, Delude You, and Separate You From
Your Love-partner (or Your partners In Love) and From Love
Itself. Therefore, those who Fail To Practice The Sadhana Of
Love In their intimate emotional-sexual relationships, and
In human relationships Generally, Will, By That Failure,
Turn Away (or Contract) From God (or The Great Condition
That Is Reality Itself).
* * *
Love Does Not Fail For You When You Are Rejected or
Betrayed or Apparently Not Loved. Love Fails For You When
You Reject, Betray, and Do Not Love. Therefore, If You
Listen To Me, and Also If You Hear Me, and Also If You See
Me, Do Not Stand Off From Relationship. Be Vulnerable. Be
Wounded When Necessary, and Endure That Wound or Hurt. Do
Not Punish the other In Love. Communicate To one another,
Even Discipline one another, but Do Not Dissociate From one
another or Fail To Grant one another The Knowledge Of Love.
Realize That each one Wants To Love and To Be Loved By the
other in Love. Therefore, Love. Do This Rather Than Make Any
Effort To Get Rid Of The Feeling Of Being Rejected. To Feel
Rejected Is To Feel The Hurt Of Not Being Loved. Allow That
Hurt, but Do Not Let It Become The Feeling Of Lovelessness.
Be Vulnerable and Thus Not Insulted. If You Are Merely Hurt,
You Will Still Know The Necessity (or The Heart’s
Requirement) Of Love, and You Will Still Know The Necessity
(or The Heart’s Requirement) To Love.