Unconditional Love

The Unity of Arlington mission statement begins, “We are a thriving spiritual community expressing love...” When we say that we “express love,” what do we mean?

 

Cindy Wigglesworth, founder of DeepChange, a leadership training and coaching company, and presenter of one of the Enlightened Leadership webinars provided by Unity Worldwide Ministries, has researched, written and presented extensively on the topic of Spiritual Intelligence (SQ).  Cindy believes that SQ is necessary for the conscious evolution of humanity.  And, she is of the opinion that SQ is all about unconditional love - love for yourself and others. However, she concluded through her work in corporate settings that the word "love" is not really workable in a formal definition, so she has adopted a definition of ‘love’ that she discovered from an Eastern tradition, "Love is a bird with two wings: one wing is Compassion, the other wing is Wisdom... if either wing is missing the bird cannot fly."

Cindy’s definition of spiritual intelligence is: "the ability to behave with Wisdom and Compassion (Unconditional Love) while maintaining inner and outer peace (equanimity) regardless of the circumstances." According to Cindy, people with spiritual intelligence express love – which she now defines as Wisdom and Compassion. She sees Wisdom as the most elevated stage of development of the intellect (IQ) and Compassion as the most elevated stage of Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

I believe the intent of our use of the word ‘love’ when we developed our mission statement was indeed to make it our mission to express “unconditional love” to the best of our ability and understanding. Using Cindy’s definition, we fulfill our mission when we act in ways that embody both wisdom and compassion. If we are to fulfill our mission, it is important for us to have a working understanding of both terms.

Intellect is considered to be the faculty by which one thinks and acquires knowledge. However, if we measure IQ solely on the basis of knowledge and reason, we risk missing the deeper understanding of what Cindy refers to as Spiritual Intelligence (SQ).  We often confuse knowledge for wisdom.  Knowledge is information that can be obtained from numerous sources. It is learned by the reasoning mind.  Wisdom, on the other hand, is an awareness of truth that must be realized and can be expanded through one’s intention and attention.  Wisdom includes insight and discernment.  It is imparted, not from the reasoning mind, but from a depth of Being beyond thought.  Wisdom requires a willingness to connect with and listen deeply to the I Am that is beyond our reasoning capacity and beyond the limits of our five senses. It is born of a conscious awareness of Oneness with the Source of all life.  It is the awareness of One Source as It expresses in the non-physical.  The wisdom that Cindy refers to is an acute knowing at depth that God is all.

Compassion, as Cindy has defined it, is the most elevated stage of Emotional Intelligence (EQ), thus it is associated with the feeling nature.  It is the capacity and willingness to join another in his or her pain with the intention of helping to relieve suffering, while not contributing to or joining in the suffering, thus maintaining inner and outer peace regardless of the circumstances.  Compassion is the ability to respond from a deep and conscious connection to the Christ within while maintaining a conscious connection with the Christ of another.  Compassion is free of evaluation or judgment, and simply embraces the other and the self with empathy, and gently holds the physical, mental or emotional experience occurring in the moment.  Compassion is the intentional opening of one’s heart and connecting with the heart of another.  Better stated, it is feeling another’s experience as one’s own experience.  Compassion is the acute awareness at depth that not only is there One Life in spirit; there is only One Life in expression as well.

Unconditional love in action combines the aspects of wisdom, which is the acute knowing that there is but One Life of all, with compassion, which is feeling the One Life of all as all.  Perhaps that is the kind of love Jesus was referring to when he said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul, and love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:30).  True wisdom allows us to know our neighbor as ourselves, and compassion allows us to experience our neighbor as ourselves.  We express Unconditional Love when we know ourselves as the embodiment of the living Christ, treat ourselves accordingly, and act from that same wisdom and compassion for our neighbors.

We are One in Spirit, One in Mind, One in Body.  We are One!