The Love Bug's Guide to Embracing Universal Truths
We invite you to embark on a journey to discover and embrace the Love Bug within you — a force that connects you to the Higher Consciousness essence of your True Self. So, fasten your seatbelt and dive into the cosmic realm of self-discovery!
This is a bug you WANT to catch!
It seems all we hear about lately is focused on the negative "bugs" we can catch: colds, flu, Covid, RSV ...! Every broadcast seems to report more about this year’s health challenges, how serious they are, and why everyone needs to get the shots and take the precautions to avoid them.
Just for kicks, we did a Google search for “Flu Bug” — In .18 seconds, there were 1,430,000 hits! All kinds — even “Flu Bugs of the Zodiac” which provides information about how each of the zodiac signs handles the flu!
In this blog article, we want to focus on a great alternative to the Flu Bug -- and all the other "bugs" we are trying to avoid. Let’s focus on the Love Bug! And guess what? When we googled “Love Bug” we got 30,700,000 hits in .15 seconds! We got excited, thinking “Wow! The Love Bug is the obvious favorite between the two bugs!” Unfortunately, we realized quite quickly that nearly all of those hits had to do with the actual bugs, not the emotion!
But one thing we know for sure: we’ve all been bitten by the love bug. Some of those bites resulted in infatuation. Others were just appetizers. Some bites were rather feverish, causing us to fall head over heels in love.
Bil shares a personal note: When I met Cher, it was love at first sight. And fortunately she felt the same way. We were smitten with each other – and we still are! She still laughs at my dry humor and groaner puns. And she enjoys our Indiana Jones adventures, even though she sometimes breaks a nail. We’re together 24-7-365. I’m a lucky guy.
We first met when I worked for the U.S. Postal Service. I was on the management team that hired her. She was the Assistant Registrar at Hood College and I wanted to register my interest in her. About a month after she started to work as the new Personnel Manager at the Post Office, I parked my pickup, an old 1952 International three-speed, behind her car so she couldn’t back out of her parking spot.
When she asked whose truck it was, I pretended innocence – “Oh, am I blocking you in? The rest, as they say, is his-story – that would be my story -- and Cher's is her-story! We’re celebrating our 47th wedding anniversary as love bugs this year (2024).
Which brings us to the topic for this post: How to Catch the Love Bug of Truth -- that force within you that aligns you with your Sublime Self, and the Field of Infinite Potential!
So ... What Is Truth?
There are timeless truths. Relative truths. Ultimate Truth. Absolute Truth. The human instruments we use to search for truth in the material realm are ill equipped to measure spiritual truths.
Charles Fillmore, co-founder of Unity, defines truth as “that which is, has been, and ever will be. That which eternally is Absolute Divine Principle.”
Eric Butterworth, one of our favorite authors, said “Truth is much more than a mere gathering of ‘information.’ It is a process of ‘out formation.’” We believe he’s right. Truth is a sort of a Divine inhalation and an exhalation that produces all that is.
Paul Hasslebeck, Master Metaphysician, former Dean of Unity Institute and one of our good friends, says: “Truth is anything that acknowledges, verifies, supports, or expresses divine ideas. Error is anything that contradicts or attempts to negate divine ideas … Truth is absolute, unlimited, unchanging, complete, universal.”
A moment of fun with truth! These are truths we bet everyone can appreciate:
Here's Your Love Bug's Guide to Embracing Universal Truths
Below you will find 15 statements -- actually, they are 15 recommendations -- ways you can literally align your human self with your Sublime, Higher Self, and connect with that incredible Field of Infinite Potential -- and catch the Love Bug of Truth! After each statement is a Reflection Question (some have more than one), which you can use to put these recommendations into action in your life, so you can soar to new levels of understanding and experience! (Download your personal copy of our Love Bug Guide here.)
The Love Bug's Guide to Embracing Universal Truths
Remember your Sublime Divine Genealogy, recognizing the capital 'C' Consciousness within you during your sojourn in skin school. Your devotion, passion, and affection for Universal Truths create the Love Bug—the essence that unites us all.
Reflection Question: What Universal Truths do I believe in and practice?
Just like your love for freedom, we've all been bitten by the same love bug. Some bites resulted in infatuation, while others were mere appetizers. It's your higher vibrational self, underwritten by Truth principles, that defines your True Sublime Divine Identity.
Reflection Question: How would I define my Sublime Divine Identity?
Communing with your Sublime Nature creates a Castle of Comfort—a fortress that protects your lifelong Love Bug, your Higher Consciousness main squeeze.
Reflection Question: What is my favorite way to commune with my Sublime Nature – My Higher Self?
Your enlightened ego has a PhD in adopting transformational strategies reflecting your True Self. Remember, you may be in the world, but you're not of the world!
Reflection Question: What are some of my favorite “Go-To” strategies for my Spiritual enrichment and growth?
Realize the infinite incarnations that led to your unique existence. You're the author of your story, with each chapter Divinely Ordered by you.
Reflection Question: What am I “writing” that will become this incarnation’s chapter?
Your soul task is to meld your awakened Human Self with your eternal Sublime Divine Self. Achieve full Self-Realization, thriving in any dimension of beingness.
Reflection Question: What daily practice(s) are helping me achieve full Self-Realization?
Break free from the bondage of your materialistic ego. The Love Bug process isn't just about discovering who you are, but also realizing who you aren’t — and embracing who you can be!
Reflection Questions:
What parts of me am I releasing? What new things am I learning about myself? What intentions have I established related to who I want to be in the future?
Remember your spiritual essence is timeless and immortal. So, embrace the foreverness associated with your True Cosmic Nature—claim the Truth as your Love Bug!
Reflection Question: What does the phrase “my True Cosmic Nature” mean to me?
Love Bugging is the very foundation, existential beauty, and fulfillment of life in skin school. When you dive deeply enough into yourself, you’ll find the one thread of universal love ties all of us planetary beings together. As this awareness dawns within you, inner peace, transcendental love, and universal harmony will reign.
Reflection Question: How can I contribute to the enlightenment of the world as I understand the thread of universal love?
Celebrate the cosmic blending of your awakened human nature with your eternal Love Bugging and Sublime/Divine Nature. Embrace the Love Bug within, and let Universal Truths guide your journey throughout your skin school experiences!
Reflection Question: What does “celebrating the alignment of my human nature with my Higher Nature” look like for me?
Fill your heart with compassion, mercy, and universal love, which will radiate to all countries, nations, and peoples of the world. Let your over-all goal be oneness and spread the message of oneness. This is the way for peace on earth. Let this be your spiritual mission in life, and affirm that world peace and oneness will reign.
Reflection Question: How can I practice compassion, mercy, and universal love in a practical way, every day, in my life?
The Higher Essence of your True Divine Self is the state that mystics talk about. It’s the state of Pure Love for all sentient beings.
Reflection Question: In what ways do I express Pure Love for all sentient beings … especially those with whose energies I do not particularly resonate?
Recognize that your Soul Signature is the very Cosmic Essence of the Ultimate Reality downloaded vibrationally as you in human form. So, it’s up to you – to all of us – to keep that connection alive, and express as our highest and best at all times.
Reflection Question: How am I showing up as the expression of the Cosmic Essence of the Ultimate Reality? When I “miss the mark,” how am I realigning?
Realize that this Universal Love Bugging is psychologically, physically, and emotionally possible, in whatever dimension of beingness you, and we, find ourselves!
Reflection Question: How am I feeding my Universal Love Bug every day? What am I doing to feed my mind? My body? My Spirit?
There exists a universal order in which you play a distinct role as a light-bearer. Light always emerges, cutting through the darkness. Each of us is the bearer of our own lantern. So, we must let our love light shine. This is what keeps the Love Bug alive!
Reflection Question: How am I letting my light shine?
Love holds the cells of bodies as a unity.
~ Murshid Samuel Lewis, Horticulture Scientist and American Mystic, creator of the Dances of Universal Peace, an early interspiritual practice that has spread around the world in the 50+ years since his passing.
Here's a Spiritual Practice to help you recognize the "symptoms" of the Love Bug -- and help you catch it! There are 3 Symptoms -- and together they serve as an acronym: BUG!
B = BELIEF:
When you are bitten by the Love Bug of Truth, you feel a strengthening of Belief. Belief is the difference between living life in HOPE of something, and KNOWING that you know that you know. Belief truly affects your sense of inner peace. When you know Truth, from the depths of your being, you can relax through any situation.
Example: In professional speaking, which we’ve done since 1984, we’ve learned something very interesting about the business. It is cyclical … it doesn’t really matter how fabulous you might be, the speaking business has definite ups and downs, and fairly predictable cycles. When you’re starting out and hit a down time, you panic, worry, and run around trying to make things happen. No matter what anyone tells you, you think the world is coming to an end, you’re finished, and you’ll have to actually go back and take on a “real job!” Once you’ve been around that block a few times, you recognize it, and you live from that knowing that you don’t need to panic. Instead, you use that down time to rest, take care of yourself, and work on new material or marketing tactics. Then, when the up cycle comes around again, you can enter it refreshed and ready to dazzle with your new stuff. Meanwhile, the newbie enters the up market exhausted from all the needless worry! Those who don’t learn and know, won’t make it in the business!
The same principle is true in our Spiritual life. When you hit a drought in your prosperity flow, or run into challenges with health, career, relationships, whatever … when BELIEF is your foundation, you don’t start doubting the Principles. That is when you get busy USING them!
When you feel yourself facing a challenge from that place of BELIEF, you can be sure you’ve been bitten by the Love Bug of Truth!U = UNDERSTANDING:
When you are bitten by the Love Bug of Truth, you feel an “inner click” of Understanding. Understanding is the difference between doing something because someone said you should be doing it, and doing it because you “get it!” It is that A-ha that hits you when you break through a Truth barrier.
Here’s a metaphor example to help explain what we mean. It hit us when we watched our grandson playing with one of his toys, back when he was just a young tyke. You’ve seen the toy we’re talking about, for sure. It is a big block that has shapes cut into it. then the child has a lot of plastic blocks cut into the same shapes, and he/she is supposed to figure out how to drop the right shape into the hole of the same shape. We watched our grandson play with it — and every now and then, hit-or-miss, by accident, he hit it right – and he got excited! But the really cool moment came when he made the connection … he realized what he was doing and could replicate it over and over! It’s that a-ha!
Think about the practices we have as we live our Truth principles. How often do we do stuff because someone said we should … maybe like affirmations? We worry about: “Am I saying it right? Did I use the right words? Is there enough energy behind it…” But when our affirmations are grounded in Truth, we understand that they always work!
We UNDERSTAND that things don’t become true because we affirm them … We affirm them because they are Truth!
G = GRATITUDE:
When you are bitten by the Love Bug of Truth, you live life from an attitude of Gratitude. Living in Gratitude is the difference between allowing outer circumstances to determine our emotional state and choosing to live from a place of gratitude regardless of what is going on. We wish we could say this is easy! Sometimes we do it really well – and then there are other times when we struggle with it … like when we went to the movies this past week and there was a hold up in letting people go in. We found ourselves getting frustrated, worries we’d miss the beginning of the show! Yikes! We needed to catch a big case of the Love Bug of Truth!
Here’s an example to help explain what we mean. How many people do you know who talk about how their vacations were ruined because of the weather? Personally, we have this one pretty well down! Long ago we started making a conscious decision to claim and set the intention that weather would never interfere with our vacations! Now this doesn’t mean we will never experience rain or ice or snow during a vacation. We aren’t setting out to change the weather patterns (although the jury is still out about the power of our consciousness to affect that). What it means is that we will not allow our emotional wellbeing to become dependent on weather. And we have enjoyed every single vacation we’ve ever had, in spite of the weather we’ve experienced! (And by the way, it is -- 90% of the time at least -- great weather!)
This week, when you open your eyes in the morning, just take a moment to say “I greet this day with gratitude and joy!” During the day, if you happen to find yourself dreading something you need to do, pause a moment and say, “I am God in action! I do what I need to do with gratitude and joy!” In all things, I give thanks!
Gratitude is an attitude, not an event! We develop it by choice.
When you feel yourself facing a challenge from a deep place of Belief, when you feel that inner click of Understanding, and when you realize you are living every moment of every day from an attitude of Gratitude, you are experiencing the BUG symptoms — and you can be sure you’ve been bitten by the Love Bug of Truth!
