Month: April 2019

In Part 1 of this series we discussed that a key to recognizing true love from counterfeit love is that true love will manifest itself as both love of self and others simultaneously.  Sin when masked as virtue will often do a good job at mimicking love of self or the love of others, but will find it hard to do both. 

In Part 2 we discussed why that is. It is due to the nature of sin being rooted in a fracturing of truth which is a fracture of the self.  At the highest level this can be seen as a fracture of the inner and outer selves.  This fracture is what allows a person to see a portion of truth in an imbalanced way, and indulge in it at the expense of everything else (the definition for selfishness or hate).  But this blindness goes both ways and while allowing it to indulge in one aspect of truth, it is simultaneously only capable of mimicking the portion of truth it remains aware of, oblivious to the side it has shut itself off from – hence its tendency to be able to mimic love of self or love of others, but not both.

At the same time this fracture and blindness has other important and inherent characteristics that we can detect.  In this post we will discuss what those characteristics are, enabling us to categorize and recognize all sin at a higher resolution.  So not only will you be able to say it doesn’t appear like an action is loving to both self and others simultaneously, but you will have the tools to pinpoint exactly how it is happening.  And then armed with the ability to recognize and pinpoint all sin we will then be ready to consider some familiar and practical examples to detect counterfeit love in our own lives and the lives of other people around us. 

The ultimate aim being that by recognizing counterfeit love, we can see the evil in us for what it really is.  By seeing the evil we then have the ability to course correct and properly analyze and navigate the tumultuous, loud, and contentious voices we are constantly bombarded with and instead invite integration, spiritual maturation, and true love in its place.  It is this very process that will fill our lives with more meaning, harmony, and happiness.

The 2 Resultant Poles of Fractionation that Identify Sin: Inferiority vs Superiority, Walled-off vs Boundaryless

As touched upon in the last post in discussion of the above image, a fracture of truth in the self at the highest level can be seen as a split of inner and outer selves. This can be visualized in the above image by thinking of each individual as represented by a house, yard, and fence in a neighborhood of other individuals / homes.  Inside the house represents the inner self, the yard represents the transition from the inner to outer self, and the fence is the appropriate boundaries we have with the outside world, that lets people in and keeps people out when appropriate. 

When we are fractured, part of this fence becomes a stone or brick wall, and on that principle of truth the individual is split into inner and outer selves.  Instead of acting as one cohesive individual, the two will act as if they have their own personalities, desire, and will without regards to the other.

Inferiority vs Superiority

And then being split from the other side of truth (the individual whether looking through the eyes of the inner or outer self, because both can’t happen simultaneously anymore) arguably the greatest problem is that an individual is no longer capable of seeing the full eternal and infinite value of themselves or others.

This inevitably leads to seeing people in a hierarchy of value according to the particular blind spots of the fracture, and placing one’s self somewhere in that hierarchy.  Therefore the first specific scale we see inherent to a person acting from a place improperly indulging in fracture or sin, is that the action will come from a place of either inferiority or superiority.

Walled-off vs Boundaryless

Due to the fence being broken, dysfunctional, and now with a stone wall that has split the inner and outer selves, a person’s boundaries are also inherently broken on that principle when they indulge in the fracture.  And this leads to the second major scale inherent in sin, depending on which side of the wall they are acting from their boundaries will either be overly walled-off inappropriately shutting out yourself or other people from each other, or boundaryless allowing somebody’s boundaries to be inappropriately and freely crossed by another.

These poles allow us to create what I call the quadrant model of sin, hatred, and selfishness.  I have adapted this quadrant model from a fairly popular psychologist and therapist in the LDS Community who happens to live in my ward here in Chicago, who put it together from a collection of ideas from other current psychologists. I have thought through it a lot, and have tweaked the model as well as built upon the overarching explanation to reflect what I have learned since, including seeing this through the Jungian lens of the undeveloped and fractured or disintegrated self as a causal explanation.

The Quadrant Model of Sin, Hatred, and Selfishness

Due to the inevitable poles caused by the fracture of self, all sin and selfishness, whether overt hatred or more commonly counterfeit love (hatred masked as love), can therefore be categorized in four main groups:

• Walled-off inferiority
• Boundaryless inferiority
• Walled-off superiority
• Boundaryless superiority

Hatred in each of these quadrants exists in degrees.  The lower levels of hatred we might call weaknesses or immaturity, the kind that every human being on earth is guilty of from time to time as we progress.  The deeper the levels of hatred go the more readily we are able to recognize and characterize it as evil. 

The degrees of hatred are represented by rings, like rings in a pond.  Each ring goes through all 4 quadrants and has more in common with each other than the next ring further away or closer to the center.  The further out from the center you go represents the further away from integration an individual is and the more deep-seated the hatred becomes.

As people sin in all 4 categories they are likely to be moving around all 4 quadrants from a place in a similar rung.  But whether acting out of superficial levels or deeper levels of hatred, the source is the same – fracture and blindness that leads to selfishness and justification at the expense of the greater whole. 

The integrated self in contrast acts in love and consideration of the whole in harmony, balance, and unity with all other aspects of truth.  Love therefore sits at the center and represents proper integration.  The more integrated you become, the more you have spiritually matured, and the more likely your actions will be coming from the pure center that is integrated love.

Mapping the Fractured Inner and Outer Selves onto the Quadrant of Hate

Now we’ve got our models let’s take a look at how an imbalanced preference for the inner or outer self might map onto our quadrant of selfishness.

Unbalanced Preference for the Inner Self

If someone has an imbalanced preference for the development of the inner self at the expense of the outer self, how will this begin manifesting itself in relation to the world?

1. The inner self without the development of the outer self, fears the unknown of the outer others and therefore in times of inferiority will hide or wall itself off from others and getting to know them.  We can visually imagine this as the fractured inner personality that wants to always sit inside the house.
2. As the inner self develops, it will inevitably get lonely and want to be known. The less developed outer self will focus on the less developed inner self of others and instead of appropriate interacting with the outside of others, will inappropriately try to burst through other peoples fences in order to push the inner developed self onto the ‘weaker’ others.

This is the very definition of walled-off inferiority and boundaryless superiority respectively.  Or in other words acting from the fractured and unbalanced preference for the inner self corresponds to diagonal quadrants 1 and 4 represented by the color blue.

Unbalanced Preference for the Outer Self

Now what of the person who has an unbalanced preference for the development of the outer self at the expense of the inner self? How will this manifest in relationship to the world?

1. It fears itself or its lack of inner strength and therefore in times of inferiority will preference the group or the relationship to the group over the inner self, and therefore seeks to understand the group and take care of its needs by first molding into its image to find value and identity, which can also manifest as allowing the group or person in the relationship to freely enter and impose the group values on their inner self by allowing unbounded access to their yard.
2. By assuming group identity and showing preference to it, it walls off the true inner self from group knowledge and can assume the moral superiority of the martyr (sacrificing self for the team, or special group/tribe). And if they hold what is valuable to that group, they will feel a sense of superiority to those who do not possess that thing – but not having an inner strength to display that superiority overtly – acting from the weaker inner self stands from inside the wall focusing the attention outside the wall condescendingly looking down on the outer others who are ‘less’ – thus feeling and expressing that superiority in the passive-aggressive world.

This describes boundaryless inferiority and walled-off superiority respectively.  Or in other words acting from the fractured and unbalanced preference for the outer self corresponds to diagonal quadrants 2 and 3 represented by the color pink.

The Loser, The Codependent, The Mean Girl, and The Mob Boss

Now that we understand how a fracture causes a split in the inner and outer self, and how this split leads to indulgence or sin in the 4 categories outlined in our Quadrant Model of Hate, we are prepared to take a deeper look at what each category of sin entails and also to consider how we can recognize each category of sin when it attempts to mask itself as love.

1) Walled-off Inferiority – The Loser

This form of sin or hatred is characterized by avoidance or denial. It avoids or pretends a problem does not exist, and may uses hobbies (video games) or life (job) in an unbalanced way as a distraction.  This is also most often where the misuse of physical lusts and addictions reside – as a means of indulgence to hide from emptiness, pain, or anxiety.

This category of hate can mimic love by extolling the virtues of individualism.  A claim might be made that “I am living my truth” or that they are being authentic to their true self. Or it could take the form of I’m not ‘hurting’ anybody else – you have your life and I’ll have my life, no problem no worry. 

But you can most easily detect this form of hatred because it ignores and sacrifices responsibilities to other people around them.  It seeks to avoid people in favor of personal indulgence.  “Am I my brother’s keeper?”, might be the question asked. 

True love always answers in the affirmative, and while developing the individual self is important, will not shy away from confronting the difficult friction that naturally arises in relationships with others.  It won’t pretend that friction doesn’t exist to avoid the awkwardness of confrontation , because it wants the air to be cleared.  True love of self through individual growth will always care about nurturing the growth of relationships with others as well, and will not hide from that responsibility or do it resentfully, but will actively seek it out.

2) Boundaryless inferiority – The Codependent

This form of sin or hatred takes the form of an excessive need for the approval of others and leads to inappropriately accepting the impositions of others, or inappropriately taking on the responsibilities of others in order to feel a sense of identity or approval.

This type of hatred can mimic love in the form of the virtuous martyr, ‘caring’ so much for other people that you sacrifice your own needs for theirs. That’s good right?  Not in its counterfeit form. 

You can detect this form of hatred because while it might appear like a noble sacrifice on the outside, it doesn’t truly respect the self.  It is seeking to earn something while undermining itself. 

True love does not entail allowing people to take advantage of you, and in fact reveals that you do not love yourself (or them).  And while it may be tempting to think you are loving others, true love does not prop up the evil in others that seeks to take advantage of others.  Actively participating in and endorsing a tyrant’s behavior reinforces and perpetuates evil and is not good for the tyrant either.

True love will stand up for personal value, and will set appropriate boundaries, and the strength of love will be evident in being willing to call out the evil in others rather than brush off the fact they are taking advantage of you.  True sacrifice for others takes the needs and desires of the self into the equation, and owns the final desire after taking in consideration everyone equally.  True loving sacrifice will ennoble the individual rather than undermine them.

3) Walled-off superiority – The Mean Girl

This form of sin or hatred lives in the world of passive-aggressive superiority.  It is often very controlling, but does so through covert manipulation.  It is often status seeking and materialistic.

This type of hatred can mimic love in the form of group relationships.  It can mimic the feeling of community, or even something akin to true family with the ulterior motives of the group not being so immediately evident. 

You can most easily detect this form of hatred by looking at group members on an individual level.  You will see that it is very difficult to know the true self of the people who are involved in this type of behavior, it’s hard to establish a genuine connection.  It hides from personal development, from personal morality, and if you press it you might get the distinct impression that there is not much depth behind the surface veneer.  You will know it, because it will be hard to get behind that veneer when you try to connect on a genuine level. 

True love, true community, and true family specifically use the group as a vehicle and means of opening and bonding the inner selves of each group member one to another.  This counterfeit instead tries to close this avenue off and places value on outward markers creating an inherent relational hierarchy.  And when an individual veers from the group goals, does the group respond by reaching out in compassion and concern? Or is there a distinct feeling of being looked down upon for doing so? An air of arrogance from those leading the group? (Perhaps even as intentional relational punishment to keep you in line.) Relational aggression is not true love, relational compassion is.

4) Boundaryless superiority – The Mob Boss

This form of sin or hatred takes the form of power seeking.  It seeks to impose its will on others through overt aggression, intimidation, force, or dominance.  You cross others’ boundaries at their expense to get what you want (or believe you deserve).

This type of hatred can mimic love in the form of standing for an ideal.  It will often make an appeal to just that, what is true, good, or right.  It can be very compelling to see standing for an ideal as heroic or loving. 

But in its counterfeit form you can detect this kind of hatred because it puts principles before people.  What is ‘right’ will be used as a rod to pressure or force someone into submission.  It is cold and uncaring, facts don’t care about feelings.  And while that is a true statement, a person filled with true love will actually care about your feelings facts or not, which is precisely why they would be presenting the truth to you, as an extension of the arm of mercy, not as a means to dominate or win an argument. 

True love will respect individual agency above all else.  True love allows a person the right to choose evil just as much as the right to choose good, and rather than compelling choice, allows choice, and then instead exercises personal agency by responding appropriately to the chosen good or evil.  True love will force no man to heaven.

Karate Kid

Ok, phew, that kind of felt like a marathon getting here.  Have you made it this far?  If so, I am genuinely impressed.  I know how much people can really dislike theory without any seeming practical application in sight.  Please bear with me, I am doing the best I know how to arm you with what I believe can be one of the most valuable practical tools to combat confusion, sin, and discord in your life.  It has truly opened my eyes.

You may be feeling like Daniel in the Karate Kid wondering what putting the wax on and wiping the wax off of a car has anything to do with anything you care about at all.  But as tough or frustrating as it might be at first to consider the theory, if you put in the effort to mentally understand these diagrams and paradigm, I believe you will be greatly rewarded and find yourself suddenly more capable of discerning the world in terms of good and evil as we delve into the practical examples in Part 4, and I think this information can change your life as it has mine.

Here are some questions you might consider to hone your skills in preparation for the practical examples we will get to in the next post. As a warm-up, consider someone that you are close to and around often, enough so that you are familiar with their weaknesses and can get annoyed by them.

• What are the two biggest things they do that bother, hurt, or have hurt you the most?
• Which quadrant in the quadrant of sin, hatred, and selfishness do each of those actions fall?
• In what ways have you noticed they excuse these weaknesses or hurtful behaviors away? Or what are the stories they sell themselves to feel justified about their actions?

This is a warm-up because the harsh reality is that it is much easier for us to recognize sin or hateful behavior in others. However, after you’ve thought that through a little I believe you will find the most value in considering the following:

• What are two of your own current behaviors that you know that you are in the wrong for doing? (Ask someone close to you if you’re having a hard time, I’m sure they can come up with something quickly :).
• Which quadrants do each those actions fall in?  (i.e. Are you acting from a place of inferiority or superiority in each action?  And in relation to the outer world are the actions coming from a place that are walled-off or boundaryless?)
• What is the most common story for each action that you sell yourself to justify your behavior? 
• What might be the greater reality or the aspect of truth that your story doesn’t take into account? Or the part of the truth fractured off from the whole that you are intentionally or unintentionally obscuring that allows your justification to persist?

Next time we will see how all of this knowledge illuminates our everyday-world and can make all the difference. Until next time 🙂

In the last post, Part 1 of this series, we laid the foundation for recognizing true love in contrast to counterfeit love.  True love will manifest itself as love of self and love of others simultaneously due to the nature of the light being the same in both.  Counterfeit love is good at mimicking love of self or love of others, but typically finds it difficult to mimic both.  In this post we are going to explore why that is to really help us discern which actions are born of the pure love of Christ and which only pretend to be.

Since true love of self and others comes from light within the same individual, this can be framed as the proper growth and appropriate balance of the two major categorical aspects of our identity – the inner self and the outer self. 

Inner Self and Outer Self

The inner self is the part of our identity that exists independent of our outer relationships.  The outer self is the part of our identity that is defined by our relationships to the outer world around us and through which our inner selves can appropriately connect one to another. In other words there is a truth of the self that rests independent of others, and there is a truth of the self that is inextricably linked with the groups we belong to and our relationship to them (marriage – spouse; family – sibling, parent, child; community – local, national; other groups – religious faith, gender, race, sexuality, etc.). 

In recent years I have become a big fan of Carl Jung, brilliant psychological theorist and the father of modern analytical psychology. In Jungian psychology, our personality and brain can more accurately be viewed as a network of many different varieties of personalities that can act independent of one another, and in fact will act independent of one another unless and until we gradually grow through a maturation process and integrate these personalities with one another into the conscious whole.  This integration process is what our higher order thinking is capable of doing, and may even be viewed as the primary function of our consciousness.

But left disintegrated, when that portion of the brain is activated (like the alcoholic part of the brain in someone addicted to alcohol) that personality will come out regardless of whether it has been integrated with the whole or not, and not integrated will act as if it has its own will, agenda, and desires.  Or said another way, left disintegrated the personality will act out impulsively and only in consideration of itself.  This selfishness is synonymous with hatred or sin.

The Fracture of Truth is also a Fracture of Self – As We Are Truth 

Sin, hatred, or evil can be defined as that which in a limited perspective looks desirable, but from the perspective of the whole is in reality detrimental.  Most of the time it is even detrimental in the long run to the very aspect of the self that viewed it as desirable in the first place since the narrowed viewpoint often only considers the desirability in the short term. From a Jungian perspective, we can call this a failure of integrating the personalities.  This failure to integrate the various personalities of the self disallows the whole truth of the self to be seen in appropriate harmony and balance, and therefore does not act in concert with the totality of the self.

Another way to look at this is that sin is a lie calculated to indulge a particular fractured or disintegrated part of truth at the expense of the whole.  By fracturing a portion of the truth off and focusing in on it in a way that masks the remainder of reality, you can then live out the delusion that the indulgence is desirable and preferable and see it as “good” or even loving which delusion serves to justify and mask the actual hatred of the thing sought after.

A Musical Aside

You can get a sense of this when considering music.  Music arises primarily out of inspiration as we are typically unconscious of the mathematical truths being communicated, rather we simply feel the communication.

And this is true of all human behaviors, we always begin by acting out things we intuitively understand well before we start observing what we do, and sometimes at the highest level after observation we reach the point of finally consciously articulating why we are doing the behavior we are doing and only then really comprehending it.  It starts out because it just feels right, and it is the artists world to explore the behaviors and truths of this unarticulated world that we as yet do not fully comprehend. 

As a species, as far as music goes we are mostly just in the behavior stage, it’s an art rather than a science at this point, but let me delve a little into observation and an attempted articulation. Although we mostly don’t consciously recognize it, formulated and encoded in the patterns of music are objective and specific real messages or truths being communicated. 

When you hear music that comes of darkness, or has some element of darkness in it, you can notice that it happens through fractionation if you compare it to similar but uplifting music.  The message communicated through melody, percussion, harmony, and rhythm matches the same “spirit” of the sin itself, that seeks to indulge one aspect of truth while intentionally masking the whole to create an enticing delusion where the indulgence and impulsive behavior feels justified.  Beware if you feel comfortable in the spirit that promotes these delusions, it tells you something about where you really are, and how blind or not you are to the deception, how desirous you are to entertain the false indulgences.  (And for that music that points to and acts in a harmonious whole of truth, that which opens and enlightens the mind by its communication, if your impulse is to resist or hate the feeling you likewise might want to consider what it is exposing that you so desperately want to keep hidden from yourself). 

The more hateful the sound being communicated, the more fractionated it becomes.  I’m speaking at the edges of my knowledge, but it is something I intuited 15 years ago and am only now beginning to articulate what I can feel and see.  Pay attention next time you listen to a variety of music, and I think you will see what I am getting at.

Modeling A Fracture Of Self

That was a long aside, let’s get back to behaviors and the fractionation of self.  In the broadest sense, and for the purpose of this series, all of these personalities could more simply be categorized into the two primary personalities of the self – the inner self and the outer self as displayed in the original zen image above.

Yet there is another way to diagram this inner and outer self that I think is more helpful in seeing the natural interaction between the two.  That is by diagraming a utopian neighborhood, each house with a yard and fence representing a single person. 

Now in a perfect utopian ideal where everyone is perfect matured, integrated, and therefore always acting in harmony of the whole, everything remains pristine.  Each home represents a harmonious integrated and perfectly loving individual.  As such the inner and outer selves are integrated into a single person. 

When they are in their home, they are acting on those truths of the inner self or personality.  Their yard can be considered the transition from the inner self to the outer self that of course would be incomplete without a utopian white picket fence that sets appropriate healthy boundaries between you and the outer world, letting people in when appropriate and keeping them out when appropriate, also allowing you to venture into the outer world.  And when outside of the fence the individual is acting on those truths of outer self or personality, connecting with others in all varieties of relationships and groups.

But the reality is we are not in a utopia, and we are not yet perfectly loving beings.  Instead we are not perfectly integrated and balanced and remain fractured to some degree.  So instead of the appropriate white picket fence in some places, in its place is a stone or brick wall fracturing the inner and outer self. So now at times instead of acting as one unified personality, we have a split, one person or part of our self sits inside the home while the other lives outside the wall as represented in the image below (photoshop is not my specialty).

The Results Of Fracture

Now fractured with two parts of yourself separated by a wall, what is the fundamental truth that each personality is barred from seeing correctly?  It is this – unable to see the whole, they cannot truly see the complete eternal and infinite value of self and others. 

The result of this inability to see true value, the result of being fractured, is that people’s value will only be seen in a limited sense and disproportionately so according to the particular blind spots of the fracture. This inevitably leads to seeing people in a hierarchy of value, and from there, as a consequence, placing yourself somewhere in that hierarchy.

And finally, due to this a person will be inclined to act from a place of inferiority or superiority on that principle. And due to the nature of the wall they will simultaneously be inclined to act from a place of unhealthy or dysfunctional boundaries being unable to naturally honor the full truth of the inner and outer selves simultaneously – in which they act either overly walled-off or boundary-less depending on which side of the wall they are acting from.

In Part 3, we will discuss the interplay of these two realities, and see how it can literally map and account for all sin that has and ever will exist. That truly this split, represented by the wall, is the root of all sin and hatred.  And when you can detect the root causes and motivations for all sin, true love or those actions which are motivated by the integrated balance of self, can also be seen for what it really is. And being able to see this reality is half the battle.

When we speak of love, we are usually referring to one of two things:
1) Charity, a thing which can be internally possessed
-or-
2) The utilization of that thing in action, or to love

The first I have spoken of – it is those strings of light that can be organized within us, also known as truth.  We have also touched on the second, for when we play those strings, or put that love into action, the melodies and harmonies of lived truth are the cause of true joy, happiness, and meaning.

But how can we know this love in action and recognize it from the many ways humans are also capable of acting under the guise of love, when in actuality it is partially or sometimes entirely motivated by selfishness?  How can we detect it in our own actions so that we are not caught in pretend love or perpetual self-deception, robbing ourselves of true happiness and meaning?  Or in other words, how can we detect true love from counterfeit love? 

The Spirit of Discernment

As Joseph Smith pointed out, “nothing is a greater injury to the children of men than to be under the influence of a false spirit when they think they have the Spirit of God.”  We could likewise rephrase our question in more biblical language – how is it that we can try the spirits and know what is truly the Spirit of God, and what comes of darkness?  For we have been warned in the last days that deception will become so rampant and convincing, that even the very elect (or spiritually attuned) can be deceived.  It follows that this spirit of discernment will prove an important if not altogether necessary tool in this prophesied time.

At the close of General Conference this past week, I received a distinct impression that I immediately tried to ignore because it was uncomfortable,  but I have come to realize over time that this impulse to ignore means there is something difficult for my mind to handle and the truth is therefore something important for me to pay attention to.  As I paid attention my heart started to sink. 

I really dislike apocalyptic or doomsday-like claims, they usually just seem too short-sighted or overdramatic. Typically things work out and rarely is there a deep conspiracy beyond the obvious blundering naïveté and selfishness characteristic of mortal weakness.  But despite my desires and resistance, when I was and am honest with myself I see the groundwork paved for something that is troubling me on a deeper level.

Why Must We Learn to Detect Love?

The last few years have become increasingly divisive in the church and I’d say generally across the broader western culture, but the impression that came to me is that it is only the initial rumbling preceding an inevitable clash and seismic shift that is about to occur, and who knows how long the night of these clashes can last before sunrise of truth prevails?  My sense is that this is coming due to underlying ideologies being adopted at an increasing rate that on the surface appear totally adequate, but that are ultimately irreconcilable with the narrative of the Church.

Adding fuel to the fire, and giving the devil his due, there are real problems causing real suffering that currently have no theologically revealed solution, problems these ideologies are addressing where the church is not, and so in many ways filling the void in the midst of real suffering with ideologies that claim to provide answers is very compelling, and perhaps this was inevitable.  Holes in knowledge will eventually be exposed by truth or exploited by hatred given enough time.

But are the answers people are increasingly accepting, truth?  Are they born of love?  Or will they prove a dead end that will cause destruction and heartache for those who fall prey to the enticement of easy answers?  It’s complicated, and that’s the real issue, and why I think a battle for the heart preceded by increasing tension is coming, significant enough that I think it will try the faith of some of the best among us.

It is in that spirit that I have decided to create this series, I wish to share some insights that I have had on this topic of true love versus counterfeit love, to provide my family and friends with tools that I believe will help in navigating and discerning the spirit of truth and love in a time of confusion and division.

A Starting Key

I want to start this off at a high level, and share with you something that I learned in prayer, a principle and key that has been invaluable for me in detecting truth and love.  What I learned and subsequently observed over and over again since that time is that love is motivated by light cleaving to light, or truth to truth.  The light we are drawn to, the spark of the divine that others possess is the very same light we also possess at our deepest level, which as discussed last post is the inherent and unchangeable source of our infinite value. 

And because of this, here is the grand key – true love of self or true love of others will inherently and simultaneously manifest itself as love of both because the light in one cannot be loved without loving the light in the other. As it is the nature of light, which we are, it can be no other way. 

Counterfeit love on the other hand, as we will explore more in subsequent posts, is really good at mimicking one or the other, but will find a very difficult time acting as both.  If you can remember only one thing, I hope you will remember this key, because I think it can change your outlook and ability to discern truth in the midst of contention and the loud competing voices that threaten to drown out peace and hope. 

What I would like to do is build upon this principle to create more nuanced models of reality that I believe can hone in and magnify our ability to recognize true love from counterfeit love, and then explore some specific examples to make the principle more concrete. Stated another way this can arm us with the ability to detect whether the influences we feel are coming from the Spirit of God or of a devil masked as angel of light.  And I believe these principles can not only help us improve our discernment as we navigate our faith and religion, but can extend to our navigation in the world generally and to all our interpersonal relationships – for all good things are founded on truth. 

Some of the modeling may take some time to really absorb properly, but ultimately I think you will see a simplicity to it and find it worth the effort.  After building the foundations up, we will use what we have learned to illuminate and detect love in a couple common areas of life we are likely all familiar with – male and female pair-bonding relationships as well as conservative and liberal political beliefs, which pattern can then be used with religious principles and beliefs, or any other principle of truth.

In Part 2 we will begin developing and exploring some of these models.