Twinn Swan

There is no higher law in this world than love. Love is the foundation of life, the foundation of happiness and above all, it is the foundation upon we have to erect our reality. How can we ever love another human being when we do not love God?

Amongst many of the religious folks I meet, their fear of God always seems to trump their love of God. It is their fear–their codes, their commandments and their rituals–that guide their actions. It is not their love.

The self-righteous, the moralistic and the puritanical are ever at the ready to condemn others. The moralist is every ready to suffer. He is not, however, ready to love. He is ever at the ready to undergo all kinds of austerities to enjoy the fleeting feeling of superiority that he has over others. Austerity, can, in certain circumstances, bring us closer to God. When taken to an extreme, the practise of austerity only serves to bring us further away from our fellow man. It isolates us. It creates insularity within us. It creates a wall around us.

What morality does is create a conditioned conscience in you. We need morality. But we cannot overdose on it. Society needs a moral compass to maintain order and discipline. But when this order and discipline grows so stringent that one feels that they are being stifled and suffocated, eventually, the man, woman or child will seek to break free from it.

The reason is simple. The fear has grown so strong that all the love within has been stifled. Instead of expressing the love that is in one’s heart, one becomes hardened, cold and devoid of emotion. It is not possible for love to grow or flourish under such conditions. That love is compromised. It becomes warped.

Instead, there is the fear of God, the fear of hell, the fear of karma. They begin to tremble for their fear has grown too strong. Theirs is not a God of love but a God of fear. Fear and love, however, cannot co-exist. One will always dominate. It seems, for the most part, that fear seems to win. That is, of course, until, the life force shatters the moral prison of the heart.

One ceases to be a sheep and becomes the lion that lays within.