“I really only love God as much as the person I love the least.”
-Dorothy Day
Your love for God, your understanding of the world, your connection to nature and the universe, your pursuit of Truth — however you view the metaphysical source and governing body of all things — exists in all, and in it are all contained. Every part is necessary for the functioning and flourishing of everything else in it, and therefore, your willful coherence with all else is necessary for your functioning and flourishing as well.
Of course, people can act in a way that you will perceive to be out of line, but that should be just fine as far as you are concerned. This raises the distinction between acceptance and tolerance, for an individual possesses the capacity — which each also has a duty toward themselves and others to cultivate — to accept everything and tolerate nothing. That is to intuit, without interference from emotion or sense, what is true and good for one and for all and not to tolerate, to the extent that one can be locally effective, anything that is not.
This process is not about you. You may need to focus on yourself for some time — to build a boundary between yourself and others for some time — to get to know certain aspects of yourself to the point where intuitive reflection is at all possible. But, that is not the goal. You are not the goal. Total coherence is the goal, and you have a vital duty to play your role. The separation you create between yourself and others is merely so that you may discover what that role is. However, others will play a role in determining how it is that you will provide value to all (of which they are a part), so your engagement with them is ultimately necessary. It may not be what you expect or desire, but that is why one must tame the ego fire.
To cohere with all does not mean you must work with just anyone, but rather that you must accept them for where they are and what role from which they are capable of serving, depending on where they are on their path of spiritual development, whether that be to feed the poor and heal the sick or to delve into self-destructive hedonism before hitting rock bottom to merely realize they exist. Regardless, they are in need of your love, from near or far, and that implies full acceptance. Without that, there is incoherence, and thus, incompleteness. Your love for God, nature, truth, others, and yourself is only as good as your love for the one who you love the least, for they too play a role that is necessary for you.
Though, again, that is not the goal…
Overthought Consulting 