The Quest For The Beloved

When you wake up to the feeling that there is something more; when you realize that you are experiencing the unquenchable thirst; and if in this happening you find your self following paths into addiction, destructive behaviors, loss of your vitality then recognize that you are avoiding the journey, and you are distracting yourself from the quest to the Beloved.  Pay close attention to your dreams; to your random thought patterns; to your unusual waking experiences.  The Beloved is trying to contact you; pay attention, listen with your heart let go of your rational mind and let your intuition guide you into this journey.  If you will enter this quest from your instinctual perspective the Beloved will move closer to you.

As the journey presents itself to you there will be signs along the way to guide you.  A road map of sorts presents itself and you must learn to interpret the signs.  As you are called awake from your dream you will be provided with road signs along the way.  Our dreams speak in a highly symbolic language, and the dreamer must learn to speak this language of deep symbolism with the dream.

To merge with the inner Beloved you must find resolution to the unresolved issues of your early years; of your relationships with parents and parental figures.  The Beloved will present you with opportunities to do this but this requires that you be awake to the road signs, to recognize them and to learn how to interpret them.  

  

As you discover and waken to the Beloved your inner and outer language becomes refined.  The symbols become clear and pristine, and you will find that the language that your dream time has taught you will begin to be spoken in your waking time.  Your encounters with people, places, and things in the waking world will carry the same messages and significance of your dreaming language.  

 

An important awareness in the journey to the Beloved is that he/she will appear in many forms; some not as appealing as others, and at times her/his continence might be frightening.  The Beloved mirrors all aspects of your inner self and invites you to discover and sit down with each aspect, appealing or not appealing, and enter into a dialog with the various aspects of the self.  Union with the Beloved is a call to wholeness not to separation. 

  

As the journey to the Beloved unfolds you enter a place and time of true intimacy.  This happens when you arrive at a state of detaching.  The word detachment is often misunderstood to mean not needing anything.  In reality when you reach the place of being able to detach you are ready to let go of, detach from, your expectations to outcomes.  When you release your expectations for an outcome you enter into the most intimate of relationships.  You can now relate without your expectation being the goal and allow the object of the relationship to be who or what it really is.  That is true intimacy.

 

Most people define intimacy as a close sharing.  It often appears as an enmeshment, but there is this very close interdependent sharing taking place.  For such a relationship to continue both people cannot change the dynamic of this sharing.  When you move to the level of understanding that to live without attachment is to release your expectations in a relationship; to relate to each as who they truly are; the dynamics of the relationship will change.  This change may throw the relationship into a state of confusion, and can disrupt this perceived illusion of harmony and balance.

Sometimes as this happens the balance in current relationships are thrown off.  As we realize and understand non-attachment this can threaten others perceptions; not of us but of themselves; and this may upset their perception of all external relationships. The fear is if you let go of expectations, and allow each to be what he/she is how can you get your own needs met?

 

As you move closer to the inner Beloved the greater is your responsibility to yourself and to your behavior.  What you might have been able to get away with early in your journey no longer works for you.  How you learned to relate to your environment in an earlier stage of your spiritual development will not be helpful as you mature.  The metaphor of your baby shoes is a good one.  As a toddler your baby shoes were invaluable to your ability to walk; as an adult if you try and fit your feet back in those shoes the results will be disastrous and won’t work.  

An outgrowth of your journey to the Beloved is the assuming more and more of the responsibility for yourself and less and less for those around you.  When you come to the point of the sacred union with the Beloved you will have stepped into total self-reliance and self-responsibility, and complete release of responsibility for others.

  

Remember that human beings are relational in nature, and having fulfilling relationships are an important aspect of life.  But having relationships that are based on the truth of each person, and not on hidden agenda, allows each person to grow and become the most they can possible be.

The task for the seeker is to recognize there are many types of relationships and to learn to discern the difference between them.  There will be many posers/pretenders to the outer manifestation of the inner Beloved.  As you practice discernment in your relationships choices you will discover that you are moving toward impeccability in all areas of your life.