Richard Shiningthunder Francis
Falling in Love with Yourself: Love and the Inner Beloved is an easy-to-read introduction to the deepest mysteries of spirituality. Culled from the writings of the greatest philosophic thinkers, it explains core-truths of spirituality, which is not some exotic pursuit. Spirituality is Love.
It is not easy to live spirituality. So, this is also a practical guide. It shows how the use of spirituality can brighten, lighten, and enlighten our lives.
A new philosophy is described, ranging from the Mindworld to selfdefinition. Mysticism – highest spirituality, but not a religion – is simply explained. The roles of bliss, judgment, godimage, destiny, ego-Spirit conflicts, passion, compassion, femininity, and other relevant issues are discussed entertainingly but thoroughly.
Mystic Richard Shiningthunder Francis was consultant to Time, Newsweek, and Sixty Minutes. He is founder of the Institute of Agapology and Metaphysics, and of the Pneumarium.
The author of Jehovah Good-bye, Journey to the Center of the Soul, and Luminous Ecstasies and Passions, he has been the subject of three tv series, "Psychology of Spirituality," "Way of Universal Love," and "Spiritual Awakenings," Francis has spoken on European national radio, and many American stations. He hosts a radioprogram, "Heartmind."
Former editor of Lovespirit and Cosmic Visions, he was consultant for the Holistic Medical Center and the Center for New Age Studies. He lives in Liberty Township, Ohio, with his beloved wife of thirty-one years, Ada Maria.
In loving a man, the mystic loves the god in him. And in loving a woman, the mystic loves the goddess in her. Mystic Love is divine. It is magical, because it is the real thing. It is more rare than diamonds and rubies. There are, in fact, only a few specimens of this fine quality Love on our planet. It is heart-to-heart connection, Soul-to-Soul fusion, mind-to-mind Mindmeld. It is the interpenetration of two beings, and carries within it perfect loyalty and fidelity. It amplifies resonance and creates harmony and bliss. In it, each truly wants what the other wants, and there is no "gimme, gimme," or, for that matter, no "me, me." It is a warm fluidic flowing into the deeper Mind, into the Beloved.The Hindu greeting "namaste" embodies this exquisite loss of self in other, or in deeper Mind. This word means, roughly, "the divine in me honors the divine in you." This kind of "honor" is the basis for all true Love. What is "honor" in Love? It is commitment, loyalty, monogamy. It is support and understanding, and communication. It is treasuring and cherishing the loved one.
This Love does not just drop into your lap from the sky. It does not just, one day, poof! appear out of nowhere. It is the endresult of struggle, agony, pain, and loss, created in a matrix of education. Not that Love is all fire and blades. Love is also gentle joy, soaring and elevated happiness, refreshing tranquility, rushing ecstasy. But a durable and lasting, loyal, reliable, dependable Love is forged only in the superheated furnace of challenges. It is tempered by pain and loss.
From the overiding philosophy of Love, in which Love is the unequalled Center of all, the Source and Goal, this service of Love transforms even the pain and loss into "good." If they serve Love, then even pain and loss can be, must be, seen as positive. Because they are educational, they are healing.
Ordinary people often taste of the tormentside of Love. But the mystic's inner furnace is stoked to a thousand times the natural heat. Just as a fine elixir requires fine crystal vessels into which it can be poured, so we must work to prepare our bodyminds to become the crystalclear vessels of true Love. This is done by most careful attention to, and cultivation of, the Lovenature. It is fed by every act of Love-- for ourselves, family, neighborhood, community, and world.
