Excerpt from
A Guide To Awareness and Tranquillity
by William Samuel

CHAPTER XXVI

About Love

"Love is the key to the Mystery; Love is the astrolabe of life."

Love, as Love is, remains unperceived until one puts aside the personal sense of self, until he lays down the "life" of the pseudo-identity and lets go the actor who believes himself to be Great judge and opinion-holder.

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What joy is known when we awaken to perceive that Love is our Identity! This Self-I-am is Love itself. Love is being all there is to "me." Love is being this Consciousness here and now!

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WE ARE NEVER TO BE CONCERNED WITH THE "LOVING OR UNLOVING" ACTIONS OF OTHERS! Rather, we are to understand fully that Love itself is THIS Identity! Love is Identity being "I." Love is our continuous identification.

LOVE IS NOT A WAY TO ACT, BUT AN IDENTITY TO ACCEPT! I went about for such a long time thinking Love was a way I was supposed to perform, that I was to act "loving" and that others were to act loving toward me. But, once I accepted the Self to be Love, I found there is no way to act but as Love. We awaken to see there is no other love but this Love being "me."

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There are no objects of perception we must rush out and love. The "neighbors" we are to love as ourselves are within the Self, within Awareness, not separate nor apart from it. Awareness is forever, tenderly, gently beholding the Infinity being all Identity is.

Isness loves the infinity Isness is. This is the only love going on. God loves the Reality God is; there is no other reality. One-Only-Reality "loves" (knows and is aware of) Itself. That Love in action is this Awareness-we-are.

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Love is simple. Love is tender and effortless. Love is pure, motiveless Awareness that makes no judgments and clutches no opinions. Love is forgiveness. Love is humility. It wrestles with nothing because there is naught outside Identity to be contrary to its nature. It simply is. It is the Identity we are, not an act we must perform.

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Tenderness is the hallmark of love. It accomplishes more in an instant than force does in an aeon.

The lover touches the face of his love with an open hand and a tender touch. Love speaks with a soft voice. It has no need of pressure or coercion. The tender touch and the soft sound warm the coldest appearance.

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Why does mankind resort to ugliness when it surely compounds his problem? Why doesn't he try gentleness and tenderness when its effectiveness is so apparent? Here is why: he interprets something he must do or something someone should do for him. But Love is not a doing; it is a being. It is effortless, because it is the Identity we are.

With a fragile blossom, the flower tells of love; but it does not dictate the form and color of the bloom nor put a price on its fragrance. It does not judge; it simply blooms, without regard or regret. It blooms even if no one is there to praise it. It blooms with a tenderness void of pretension and selfishness. It gives itself without anger; without force. It gives with honesty and simplicity. The flower doesn't love by "doing," but by being the flower it is. THIS is the love to be: acknowledgment that God's Love is the love we are.

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The stars will fall before we can be given love! It is foolish to expect someone to give us affection, to show us gratitude or in some way be "loving" to us. Inasmuch as Love is what WE are, it is being all there is to every image within awareness. Furthermore, it is being the very action images appear to be engaged in, no matter what opinion personal judgment holds.

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Churchdom has the cart before the horse when it speaks of love as though it were a duty; as though one were to be punished if he acted otherwise; as if the crown had no jewels until we do such and so.

This is not to disparage kindly deeds, but there is only one way to act loving, and that is to see that the only Identity in all existence is Love itself. That Identity is this one-I-am (and you are, reader.) Identity is unceasing Love in action.

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Love is exactly where the consciousness is that reads these words—that feels the wind, rain and sunshine of a Summer day! Yea, this very awareness we call "me" is the presence of infinite affluence, health, holiness and love. This is how close we are to all we might have thought necessary for happiness! How close can we get? ALL is here, right now, closer than breathing. It is our Identity, awaiting Self-acknowledgment.

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Do you think Identity is one thing and worldly wealth another? Let me tell you right now: Identity is not a Spiritual Realm away out there somewhere, attainable only through strict intellectual practices or arduous in-breathing and outbreathing of metaphysical exercises. When one finds himself ready to let go the imposter, and does it, to rest in the warmth of the Already Only, that one finds whatever he appears to need, dumped right in his lap effortlessly, unavoidably. He finds love and companionship to be what he is—Identity.

Identity—which is the perception of Totality—cannot look upon itself as poor, needy and without love, can it? Love sees Love! What else? Love is what you're looking at, neighbor—and it is the looking!

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Dear Mr. Samuel,

My husband and I are not always together in our search for Truth. Very often, my interest in Truth appears to mean nothing to him and to cause antagonism. Will you comment on this?

Dear Mrs. Love,

The Truth-we-be appears continually as new ideas we are coming to comprehend. It is natural to share our delight and enthusiasm with someone else, but we let go the notion that we must see them indicate their understanding, acceptance and approval of these new ideas. We are in the beholding business, and not in the business of judging how certain images are supposed to act or respond. To free them of such obligations is to find ourselves free of any dependence upon them for our happiness. Why should we limit our pleasure to the actions of others? When we stop this, we see no more antagonism "out there." (See the selection The Basis for Action and the one following, page 102.)

It is frustration and folly to attempt to determine and arrange for the proper appearance of the images within our seeing. The Identity we are and have always been, is Perception itself. Awareness is perceiving, not dictating what is to be perceived nor how it should appear. The attempt to arrange the affairs of the objects within Awareness is the "effect" of desire, the "cause" of misery. This is unnecessary activity that we can stop immediately and effortlessly, because Perfection is the finished fact already.

If you would like further guidance in understanding any of William Samuel's work based on Self discover you are welcome to contact me, Sandy Jones - samuelandfriends@gmail.com - Ojai, California -