Agapé as universal love in Erich Fromm’s teaching

 I was able to obtain an eBook edition of Erich Fromm’s The Art of Loving. In this book the famous psychologist explores ways that people can become more loving with one another. 

Although Dr. Fromm never uses the word ‘agapé,’ in those places where he uses ‘love’ in a universal, spiritual way that the meaning is ‘agapé,’ I found that I gained deeper awareness of his teaching when the word 'love' was changed to ‘agape’ in the following quotes.

“What matters in relation to agapé is the faith in one’s own agapé; in its ability to produce a reaction of agape in others, and in its reliability.

“The capacity to experience agape demands a state of intensity, awareness, enhanced vitality, which can only be the result of a productive and active orientation in many other spheres of life.

“There is only one proof for the presence of agapé: the depth of the relationship, and the aliveness and strength in each person concerned; this is the fruit by which agape is recognized.

“Agapé is an activity, a power of the soul.

“Agapé encompasses the sense of responsibility, care, respect, knowledge of any other human being, the wish to further another’s life. Agape is love for all human beings; it is characterized by its very lack of exclusiveness.

“Agapé is not primarily a relationship to a specific person; it involves an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love. Agapé is an active power in us; a power which breaks through the walls which separate one from another, which unites us with others; agapé makes us overcome the sense of isolation and separateness, yet it permits us to be ourselves, to retain our integrity.

“There is no ‘division of labor’ between agapé for one’s own and agapé for strangers.

“If I truly share agapé with one person, I’m open to agapé with all persons, I have agapé with the world, I’m open to agapé with life. If I can say to somebody else, “I share agapé with you,” I must be able to say, “I share agapé with you in everybody, I share agapé through you to the world, I share agapé in you also myself.” 

“Those who are seriously concerned with agapé as the only rational answer to the problem of human existence must arrive at the conclusion that important and radical changes in our social structure are necessary.  To have faith in the possibility of agapé as a social and not only exceptional-individual phenomenon, is a rational faith based on the insight into the very human nature.”

Dr. Fromm’s insights thus fit in with the other insights about agapé that I’ve explored throughout the postings of this blog. In this blog I’ve tried to show what Dr. Fromm meant about “the only rational answer to the problem of human existence.”

More “Agape” insights from the 23 postings

After waiting over a month from the last of the following 23 postings of quotes, as I read them again I’ll continue copying here some of the insights that stood out as especially spiritually helpful, so what follows is a collection of those special insights. 

(And of course, because I had started seeing in modern writing that where the spiritual meaning of love appeared, we could gain new understanding by substituting ‘agape’ for ‘love.’ So I did that in the quotes from those 23 blog postings.)

    “Spiritual power is the animation energy of agape. The light of agape is the energy and motion that have called us to prayer, allowing us to perceive at least bits of deeper reality.

    “Our hearts are like diamonds because they have the capacity to express divine light, which is agape; we not only are portals for this agape, but are made of it.

    “I felt a shift inside, the conviction that agape was having its way with me, softening me, changing my cold stone heart. The feeling grew stronger and stronger, until, unfortunately, church was over. Driving home, I tried to hold on to what I’d heard that day: that having agape for your enemies was nonnegotiable. It meant trying to respect them, it meant identifying with their humanity and weaknesses. It didn’t mean unconditional acceptance of their crazy behavior. They were still accountable for the atrocities they’d perpetrated, as you were accountable for yours. But you worked at doing better, at having agape for them, for the profoundest spiritual reason: you were trying not to make things worse.

    “We don’t transform ourselves, but when we finally hear, the Spirit has access to our hearts, and that is what changes us.

    “You are Spirit, you are agape, and even though it is hard to believe sometimes, you are free. You’re here to share agape, and to receive agape, freely.” …Anne Lamott

“First we need to turn to God, we need to feel God’s agape, we need to open our hearts to God’s agape. As we pray for others, our prayers are gradually transformed, our hearts are softened, and our eyes are opened. Once opened we can never close our eyes again. We begin to see the world through God’s eyes of agape. The process of praying for others begins with God. God already has agape for us. God is already involved in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray. God calls us into a network of relationships with God and all of creation. When we pray for others, we respond to God’s call and become engaged with God and our sisters and brothers. Our prayer is also an expression of gratitude for God’s ongoing presence in our lives.” …Jane Vennard

    “Life is essentially about learning to share agape. When we have agape for someone from our depths — from Essence — we draw the other’s Essence out from hiding so that he or she can more easily express it.

    “It’s not easy to break free of ego identification and to share agape. When we do, we feel free and happy. And agape, freedom, and happiness are what we all have wanted all along. Agape isn’t something we can understand because its not able to be grasped by the mind. Agape is not in the mind’s or the ego’s domain. It’s a quality of Essence — of who we really are. Yet agape is where fulfillment lies and why relationships are so important to us.

    “To align yourself with Essence and experience agape and the other qualities of Essence, all you have to do is notice agape … choose agape over the ego’s ideas, and that choice brings you into alignment with Essence. From Essence agape flows.” …Gina Lake

    “God’s kingdom is agape. What does it mean to share agape? It means to be sensitive to life, to things, to persons, to feel for everything and everyone to the exclusion of nothing and no one.

    “Agape is already there within you. All you have to do is remove the blocks you place to sensitivity and it would surface.

    “What is agape? It is a sensitivity to every portion of reality within you and without, together with a wholehearted response to that reality.

    “When you are tapping into agape you find yourself looking at everyone with new eyes; you become generous, forgiving, kindhearted, where before you might have been hard and mean. Inevitably people begin reacting to you in the same way and soon you find yourself living in a loving world.” …Anthony DeMello

Agape in a MARTIN LUTHER KING sermon

Back in 2010 I wrote in this blog about Martin Luther King’s use of ‘agape.’ In his book of sermons, Strength to Love, he talked about agape, in his sermon "Loving our Enemies," when discussing the word that was used in the Greek translation of the command from Jesus about enemies. Dr. King said:

“Our responsibility as Christians is to discover the meaning of this command and seek passionately to live it out. The meaning of love [in that command from Jesus] is not to be confused with some sentimental outpouring. [That] love is something much deeper than emotional bosh. Perhaps the Greek language can clear our confusion at this point. In the Greek New Testament are three words for love. The word eros is a sort of aesthetic or romantic love. In the Platonic dialogues eros is a yearning of the soul for the realm of the divine. The second word is philia, a reciprocal love and the intimate affection and friendship between friends. The third word is agape, understanding and creative, redemptive goodwill for all. An overflowing love which seeks nothing in return, agape is the love of God operating in the human heart.”

So I wondered how Dr. King’s words would read if in the rest of his sermon he would have used ‘agape’ instead of ‘love,’ where he meant ‘agape.’

“At this level, we share agape not because we like them, nor because their ways appeal to us, nor even because they possess some type of divine spark; we have agape for everyone because God has agape for them. At this level, we have agape for the person who does an evil deed, although we hate the deed that he does. Now we can see what Jesus meant when he said, “Love your enemies.” We should be happy that he did not say, “Like your enemies.” It is almost impossible to like some people. Jesus is speaking neither of eros nor philia, he is speaking of agape. Only by following this way and responding with this type of love are we able to be children of our Father who is in heaven.

“Far from being the pious injunction of a Utopian dreamer, the command to have agape for one’s enemy is an absolute necessity for our survival. Agape even for enemies is the key to the solution of the problems of our world. Jesus is not an impractical idealist: he is the practical realist.

“When I speak of agape I am not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Agape is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality.

“At the center of nonviolence stands the principle of agape. The nonviolent resister would contend that in the struggle for human dignity, the oppressed people of the world must not succumb to the temptation of becoming bitter or indulging in hate campaigns. To retaliate in kind would do nothing but intensify the existence of hate in the universe. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate. This can only be done by projecting the ethic of agape to the center of our lives.

“Everywhere and at all times, the agape ethic of Jesus is a radiant light revealing the ugliness of our stale conformity.

“A vigorous enforcement of civil rights laws will bring an end to segregated public facilities which are barriers to a truly desegregated society, but it cannot bring an end to fears, prejudice, pride, and irrationality, which are the barriers to a truly integrated society. These dark and demonic responses will be removed only as men are possessed by the invisible, inner law which etches on their hearts the conviction that all men are brothers and that agape is mankind’s most potent weapon for personal and social transformation. True integration will be achieved by true neighbors who are willingly obedient to unenforceable obligations.

“We must never surrender our supreme loyalty to any time-bound custom or earth-bound idea, for at the heart of our universe is a higher reality— God and the realm of agape— to which we must be conformed. This command not to conform comes, not only from Paul, but also from our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, the world’s most dedicated nonconformist, whose ethical nonconformity still challenges the conscience of mankind.

“We must have agape for our enemies, because only then can we know God and experience the beauty of God’s holiness. The relevance of what I have said to the crisis in race relations should be readily apparent. There will be no permanent solution to the race problem until oppressed men develop the capacity to have agape for their enemies. The darkness of racial injustice will be dispelled only by the light of forgiving agape.

“Agape is the most durable power in the world. This creative force, so beautifully exemplified in the life of our Christ, is the most potent instrument available in mankind’s quest for peace and security.

“Wisdom born of experience should tell us that war is obsolete. There may have been a time when war served as a negative good by preventing the spread and growth of an evil force, but the destructive power of modern weapons eliminates even the possibility that war may serve as a negative good. If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survival, then we must find an alternative to war.”

Agape in THOMAS MERTON’s “No Man is an Island”

Because Thomas Merton was a Trappist monk, in those places in his book, No Man is an Island, where he uses ‘love’ in a spiritual way that the meaning is ‘agape,’ the word was changed to ‘agape’ in these quotes in accordance with biblical tradition.

“If I am to share agape with my brother, I must somehow enter deep into the mystery of God’s agape for him. I must be moved not only by human sympathy but by that divine sympathy which is revealed to us in Jesus and which enriches our own lives by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. I must seek the life of the Spirit of God breathing in him. And I can only discern and follow that mysterious life by the action of the same Holy Spirit living and acting in the depths of my own heart.

“My sharing agape with them must be to them the ‘sacrament’ of the mysterious and infinitely selfless agape God has for them. My action of sharing agape must be for them the minister not of my own spirit but of the Holy Spirit.

“Only agape, which is as strong and as sure as the Spirit of God, can save us from the lamentable error of pouring out on others a love that leads them into error and urges them to seek happiness where it can never be found.

“What all look for in life is our own salvation and the salvation of those we live with. By salvation I mean first of all the full discovery of who I really am. Then I mean something of the fulfillment of our own God-given powers, in having agape for others and for God. I mean also the discovery that we cannot find ourselves in ourselves alone, but that we must find ourselves in and through others. This is summed up in two lines of the Gospel: 'If any man would save his life, he must lose it,” and, “Have agape for one another as I have agape for you.' 

“The discovery of ourselves is always a losing of ourselves— a death and a resurrection.

“To find 'ourselves' then is to find not only our poor, limited, perplexed souls, but to find the power of God that raised Christ from the dead and 'built us together in Him unto a habitation of God in the Spirit' (Ephesians 2: 22).

“True happiness is found in unselfish agape, which increases in proportion as it is shared. There is no end to the sharing of agape, and, therefore, the potential happiness of agape is without limit. Infinite sharing is the law of God’s inner life.

“The gift of agape is the gift of the power and the capacity to share agape, and, therefore, to give agape with full effect is also to receive it. So, agape can only be kept by being given away, and it can only be given perfectly when it is also received.

“In order to let agape flow to others I must be true to them, to myself, and to God.

“Only agape, that senses the designs of Providence, can unite itself perfectly to God’s providential action upon souls. Faithful submission to God’s secret working in the world will fill our sharing agape with piety, that is to say with supernatural awe and respect. This respect, this piety, gives our sharing agape the character of worship, without which our acts of sharing agape can never be quite complete. For agape must not only seek the truth in the lives of those around us; it must find it there. But when we find the truth that shapes our lives we have found more than an idea. We have found a Person. We have come upon the actions of One Who is still hidden. And in that One we also find ourselves.”

Agape in DESMOND TUTU’s “The Book of Forgiving”

The following quotes are from Bishop Desmond Tutu’s insightful reflection on his work confronting stark divisions among South African communities, The Book of Forgiving. And of course, his practical understanding of forgiveness was forged dealing with the long years of terrible suffering from the racism of South Africa. Because he is a bishop of the Church of England, in those places where he uses ‘love’ in a spiritual way that expresses the biblical ‘agape,’ the word was rendered as the ancient Greek word ‘agape,’ in keeping with biblical tradition.

“Before we could engage in any effort to earn God’s agape, it was given to us as gift.”

“We are created to live in agape and connection with one another. When there is a break in that connection, we must have a method of repair.

“True transformation is when we unleash the power of agape. We create an environment for positive change. 

“In each of us, there is an innate ability to create joy out of suffering, to find hope in the most hopeless of situations, to heal any relationship in need of healing.

“We all want to be free of the pain of living with a broken and unforgiving heart. We want to free ourselves of the corrosive emotions that threaten to burn away the agape and joy residing in us. We want to heal our broken places.

“I knew the only way I could go on living was to forgive the terrorists. In those moments, I knew that forgiveness was essential, so I forgave. There is already enough hate, we must send our agape and compassion. I knew that to respond with agape to an act of terror was the only way to triumph over terrorism.

“I have learned that my forgiveness required a deep level of acceptance of what had occurred. This does not mean agreement with or any kind of pardoning or condoning of the action that hurt me. It simply means acceptance of the reality of the situation and letting go of the incident, which cannot be changed.

“We live surrounded by so much agape, kindness, and trust that we forget it is remarkable. Forgiveness is the way to return what has been taken from us and restore the agape and kindness and trust that has been lost. Peace always comes to those who choose to forgive.

“Before compassion comes the willingness to feel compassion.

“If we are to help them, we must do so without reservation and from a place of agape and caring.”

“There is still a world of possibility, even when the worst thing happens that could possibly happen. Forgiveness gives me the capacity to contribute something of value—to create a positive outcome to a terrible tragedy.

“Our survival as a human race depends on it.

“MEDITATION:

  1. For this meditation you will need to get still and centered.

  2. Find a quiet place to sit or lie comfortably.

  3. Follow your breath.

  4. Breathe in, visualize agape entering you like a golden light.

  5. With each inhalation, you will see the golden light begin to fill you from your toes to the top of your head.

  6. When you are filled, you radiate this agape outward effortlessly.”

Agape in ANNE LAMOTT’s “Traveling Mercies,” “Plan B,” “Help, Thanks, Wow”

The following quotes are from 3 of Anne Lamott’s series of memoirs. In the places where she uses ‘love’ in a spiritual way that the meaning is in keeping with the original biblical meaning of ‘agape,’ the word was changed to ‘agape.’

“Our hearts are like diamonds because they have the capacity to express divine light, which is agape; we not only are portals for this agape, but are made of it.

“You are Spirit, you are agape, and even though it is hard to believe sometimes, you are free. You’re here to share agape, and to receive agape, freely.

“We don’t transform ourselves, but when we finally hear, the Spirit has access to our hearts, and that is what changes us.

“I felt a shift inside, the conviction that agape was having its way with me, softening me, changing my cold stone heart. The feeling grew stronger and stronger, until, unfortunately, church was over. Driving home, I tried to hold on to what I’d heard that day: that having agape for your enemies was nonnegotiable. It meant trying to respect them, it meant identifying with their humanity and weaknesses. It didn’t mean unconditional acceptance of their crazy behavior. They were still accountable for the atrocities they’d perpetrated, as you were accountable for yours. But you worked at doing better, at having agape for them, for the profoundest spiritual reason: you were trying not to make things worse.

“Spiritual power is the animation energy of agape. The light of agape is the energy and motion that have called us to prayer, allowing us to perceive at least bits of deeper reality.

“This is the most profound spiritual truth I know: that even when we’re most sure that agape can’t conquer all, it seems to anyway. It goes down into the rat hole with us, in the guise of our friends, and there it swells and comforts. It gives us second winds, third winds, hundredth winds.

“If you want to be forgiven, if you want to experience that kind of agape, you have to forgive everyone in your life — everyone, even the very worst boy friend you ever had — even, for God’s sake, yourself. In fact, not forgiving is like drinking rat poison and then waiting for the rat to die.

“…ask God to help them have a sense of peace, and for them to feel the agape of God.

“To survive unsurvivable losses and finally come to happiness again is possible when agape comes to them through their closest people and through a community of support, helping them and surrounding them with agape.

“Agape falls to earth, rises from the ground, pools around the afflicted.”

Agape in LOUIS SAVARY & PATRICIA BERNE’s “Kything: the Art of Spiritual Presence” (second post)

The book uses ‘kything’ to put forth a very basic communion-between-persons skill that can be used to establish spiritual presence between and among people. [The word was used in A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle, who got it from Jamieson’s Scottish Dictionary of 1856] In the 18th chapter, ‘Kything and Jesus Christ,’ direct quotes are used from the places in the New Testament where ‘agape’ is used on the original Greek, so quotes start there then expand to other quotes where ‘love’ used in a spiritual way is changed to ‘agape.’

“Nor does Jesus exclude from the indwelling anyone who has agape for him and believes in him. ‘Any who have agape for me will be true to my word, and my Father will have agape for them; we will come to them and make our dwelling place in them’ (Jn 14:23). John’s First Epistle is also filled with assertions of this mutual indwelling: ‘No one has ever seen God; but as long as we share agape with one another, God will live in us and God’s agape will be complete in us.’ (1 Jn. 4:12-13)

"In his book The Descent of the Dove: A Short History of the Holy Spirit in the Church’, Charles Williams recognized the permanent mutual indwelling of God in us, us in God, and us in each other (in Christ). Williams called this mutual indwelling 'co-inherence,' and saw it as the central reality of Christian life.

"This spiritual and sacred presence enables the person to know and have agape for God directly and immediately. Williams asked the next logical question. Is there also a spiritual and sacred way for believers to know and share agape with each other directly, spirit-to-spirit?"

"Kything is a beginning of the ‘discovery’ Williams called for, the development of a technique not only to make this indwelling of God in persons and persons in God more conscious, but also and perhaps more importantly for our day, to facilitate the exchanges of agape in mutual indwelling that Christians are called upon to make with each other in Christ. “I give you a new commandment: Share agape with each other. Just as I have shared agape with you, you also must share agape with one another. By this agape you have for one another everyone will know that you are my disciples” (Jn 13:34). The world will recognize the presence of Christ by his followers’ ability to be present to each other, spirit-to-spirit.

"Jesus showed his agape by indwelling in his friends, making his spiritual home in them. In turn, he wanted his friends to share agape with each other by co-inhering in each other as well as in him. Ultimately for the Christian, to kythe with agape is to participate in the divine life.

"Agape urges us to live for all the members of the Body of Christ (2 Cor. 5:15), and to please the Lord in all things. In this common agape sharing, available to conscious experience through kything, we are willing to put ourselves in another’s place, to suffer for them, to console them, to rejoice with them, in a word, to live in them.

"Mystical prayer is essentially an experience of unity with God and God’s creation. Kything is a gateway to mystical experience and can certainly foster deeper prayer states. When you kythe you transcend separateness without losing your identity. When you kythe you enter into a state of agape and spiritual union.

"As a spiritual energy agape is the ability to be unconditionally loving. In this sense, agape is a prerequisite to deep kything, for the conditions and expectations we place on others or ourselves when ordinarily we love often keep us or distract us from the depth of communion of which we are capable."

Agape in TODD OUTCALT’s “Common Ground”

Although Todd Outcalt, in his collection of international wisdom quotes, never uses the word ‘agape,’ but in those places where he uses ‘love’ in a spiritual way that the meaning is ‘agape,’ the word was changed to ‘agape’ in the following quotes.

"Prayer is, at least in part, built on the foundation of agape, devotion, and humility that leads us closer to the divine.

"The Parable of the Good Samaritan is about practicing the very heart of God by demonstrating God’s agape through action, not lip service. Concern for others should cross boundaries. Take us out of our comfort zones. Make a new day possible.

"If we see God as merciful and benevolent, then the whole of our lives may be oriented around this divine gift. In the divine mercy, we ourselves may become merciful. As the Christian mystic Meister Eckhart once wrote, 'The seed of God is in us … and now the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree and a hazel seed grows into a hazel tree. A seed of God grows into God.'

"There may be moments in life when we may be called upon to extend agape in ways we never imagined. Sometimes sacrifices are required. Sometimes we must trade one priority for another. A heartfelt compassion can move a person to strange acts of kindness.

"When spiritual gifts go unused, they atrophy and become useless. And if we attempt to keep all the blessings of God for ourselves, they waste away and cannot be of use to others — which is their intended purpose.

"In the Sufi faith, Jesus holds a place of deep reverence and emulation, even devotion, and it was Jesus who demonstrated having agape for all of God’s creations. Empathy is often regarded as a purely human trait, but in a Sufi story about Jesus, we see agape extending to even a beast of burden.

"Although John Donne once said that “no man is an island,” we tend to live as if isolation and individualism are the greatest good — even the highest goal — in life. In this age of individualism and privacy we can become obsessed with our own happiness and security. But the more we focus on ourselves the more miserable, it seems, we become.

"Agape can be described, defined … even ignored. But agape experienced is a great power and a remarkable teacher. Agape moves us."

"One truth about agape which has withstood the test of time: Agape is the greatest power.

Agape in Marianne Williamson’s “The Gift of Change” (second post)

Again, in those places where Marianne Williamson uses ‘love’ in a spiritual way that the meaning is ‘agape,’ the word was changed to ‘agape’ in these continuing quotes from The Gift of Change.

      “Agape is our spiritual reality, untarnished by anything that has happened in the material world. A new commitment to agape is rising up from the depths of our humanity, and its power is changing us on a fundamental level. Recognizing who we are — that we are agape, that we are as God created us — is the most important thing we can do in any instant.

      “In God we are infinite agape, and agape is the one and only force that hate and fear cannot withstand.

      "So… regardless of who ridicules us, it’s important that we continue to celebrate agape — not only the good feeling it brings, but also its actual power to heal all things. On the level of true solution, agape is the answer no matter what category of human experience.

      “The answer is that agape is inside us, just waiting to be unleashed. The darkness is an invitation to light, calling forth the spirit in all of us. Every problem implies a question: Are you ready to embody what you say you believe? Can you reach within yourself for enough agape, strength, forgiveness, clarity, serenity, patience, and faith to turn this around?

      "As we block agape’s power to change our own lives, we block its power to change the world. As we release the fear-based thoughts we’ve been taught to think by a frightened and frightening world, we see God’s truth revealed: that who we are at our core is agape itself. And miracles occur naturally as expression of agape.

      "Agape is to fear as light is to darkness: in the presence of one the other disappears. As we shift our perceptions from fear to agape (sometimes in cases where it’s not so hard and ultimately in cases where it takes spiritual mastery to do so) we become miracle workers in the truest sense.

      "We don’t learn agape, which is already etched on our hearts; we do, however, begin to unlearn fear. And with every change we make from blame to blessing, we pierce the veil of illusion that separates us from the world we want.

       "When we mentally identify with the realm of the spirit, we see endless agape, unlimited possibility, and the oneness of all things.

      "It’s hard to stay loving in a loveless world. And yet, with God, it’s possible. When we spend more time working to view life through agapic eyes, and less time trying to figure out why we’re unhappy to begin with, then our lives transform much faster.

      "We are here because we have a mission: to be the agape that is missing in a loveless world and thus reclaim this darkened world for light.

      "God is present within us, in any moment, to help us return our minds to agape.

      "Agape extended is the key to happiness; agape withheld is the key to suffering. The agape I seek can only be found as I extend my agape to others, then peace comes fairly easily.

      "We were born with a natural desire to extend ourselves in agape, yet the thinking of the world then trains us to think unnaturally.

      "All of us are on a spiritual path, but some people simply don’t know it. All of us, individually and collectively, are being forced by circumstances to remember who we are in relationship to agape itself.

      "The truth is that our fundamental happiness stems not from anything that happens in the material world, but from agape.

      "Total agape seems like a very tall order until we consider the reality that total agape is what we are.

      "As we drop the layers of fear and illusion that have hardened around our psyches, we are left with the agape with which we were endowed at our creation.

      "The birth of [our awareness of] our better selves [is] a gradual and continuous process, as in any given moment we either listen to the ego or we listen to agape. Which ever we listen to is what we will become. And whatever we become is the world we will inhabit. We can live in fear, or we can live in agape. And every moment, we decide.

      "The real joy of living emerges from the experience of our true being — when we detach from other people’s projections onto us, when we allow ourselves permission to dream our greatest dreams, when we’re willing to forgive ourselves and others, when we’re willing to remember that we were born with one purpose: to give agape and to receive agape.

      "In our time and through our efforts, we are called to a great vision: to think the thoughts of a world at peace, infused with total agape. For until we think the thoughts of peace, peace will not be ours. We will end war not because we hate it so much; we will end it by loving peace so much more. We will love it so much we will try to live it in our own lives.

      "We know there is a world of agape that lies beyond what we see, and we were born to make it manifest. If we apply ourselves body and soul to the task, then one day — right here on earth — we will experience an illumined world.

      "Crossing the bridge to a better world begins with crossing a bridge inside our minds, from the addictive mental patterns of fear and separation, to enlightened perceptions of unity and agape."

Agape in Marianne Williamson's "The Gift of Change"

Because of how important spiritual love (which I changed to 'agape' in accordance with biblical tradition) is to the writings of Marianne Williamson, I divided the quotes from her book, The Gift of Change, into 2 postings:

      "Agape is the only absolute reality, which never changes and never dies. Dwelling in that which does not change, while things around us are changing all the time, is our key to inner peace.
      "Many of us believe in a powerful agape, an awesome agape so aligned with God that it will change all things.

“Every encounter is a holy encounter if we use it to demonstrate agape.

“God’s agape is everywhere, but if our eyes aren’t open to see it, we miss out. Our problem is rarely a lack of agape so much as a mental block to our awareness of its presence.

“A new movement of agape is rumbling underneath the surface today. Martin Luther King said we have a “glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of agape into the veins of our civilization.” And all of us can participate in this process. Every single moment, with the nature of our thoughts, we can add to agape’s storehouse in a way that blesses the world.

“Martin Luther King did not stand for sentimental love or popular love or convenient love. God’s agape is often none of these things. And if we are to truly honor Dr. King’s memory, we must strive our best to do as he did — to take a stand for agape even in the face of hate and ridicule.

“The notion that a great wave of agape will be the salvation of the human race is an idea whose time has come. And our willingness to be part of that wave gives a transcendent purpose to our lives.

“A new world awaits all of us, as our minds are healed by agape.

“In any situation there is a focus to our perception. God would have us extend our perception beyond what the physical senses perceive, to the agape that lies beyond. For when we see that agape, we can call it forth.

“We either have faith in agape that is eternally true or faith in the illusions of the ego.

“Agape is not just a feeling; it is a force. And it is a force that is ultimately more powerful than violence of any kind.

“Our barriers to agape represent a cosmic force, ensconced within the human psyche in a dark and insidious way — holding dominion — temporary though wicked — over the mental functioning of the child of God.

“Through God’s Holy Spirit, God will outwit our self-hatred and return our hearts to agape.

“Once we find the agape within ourselves, calling it forth in our relationships comes much more easily. 

“To God, we are all loved ones. And when we learn to have agape for each other as God’s agape for us all, we will prepare the table for the what we most want.

NEW MIND = “God can dismantle our thought system based on fear and replace it with a thought system based on agape.

“Our holiness — God’s agape within us — is the only way humankind has ever transcended darkness, and it is the only way we ever will. If we can rise above fear in our life and live the agape within us — if that drama is reenacted enough times by enough of the world’s people — then we will pierce the cosmic darkness and tip the world in the direction of light. The movement of the universe is always in the direction of ultimate agape.

“And together, you will change the world.”