One of the characteristics of heaven is that all things have an affinity for one another. Divine Love has the property of causing affinities to lawfully arise. In the material world, we call this physics and chemistry; yet our understanding of them needs to be different, and much more than material.
The ability to perceive Love is an affinity; we perceive spiritually in so far as we perceive affinities. If one perceives with Love, one perceives with affinity. Dust on a counter top becomes a loving presence. The expression of a single color reflected from a single pebble becomes a loving presence. In this way, we see that every manifestation within the universe is a loving presence.
Because we tend to focus on the gross particulars of the objectively insane interactions between human beings — which are attached to the actions of the human consciousness involved, not to the affinities of the things or objects that humans are forever manipulating — we think that this or that is bad. But no results can ever be bad; results are simply results. It is
intentions that are bad, and when we find something to be horrible — murder or war, for example — it is the intentions that are at fault, not the explosions or the deaths and so on.
One could ponder this at great length, and I fully expect that some readers will not understand exactly what I am saying here. We prefer to see the results as bad, because we do not want to admit that the intentions are the problem — after all, we all share to one extent or another in these bad intentions. Even more confusing, we want to believe that all of our own personal intentions are good, for one rational reason or another, no matter how bad they may be. In this case,
bad is always determined by
selfish.
What is far more interesting to me than a detailed examination of our flawed understanding of morality is our ability to perceive affinity. This ability to perceive affinity is one of the structural foundations of Love, which is expressed on our level by the manifestation of aggregated affinities.
Aggregated affinities, which are all heavenly in nature, create increasing degrees of complexity, and each one expresses more and more beauty. This is why a crystal that precipitates from a superheated fluid is more beautiful than the fluid itself; it is why a series of molecules, married by the action of DNA and affinity, becomes a kitten, which we find adorable because — well, because kittens are adorable.
The point is that all of these affinities arise and provoke correspondences in us because they are heavenly. The material reductionists who try to explain this using "science" (i.e., the constrained belief set of atomistic materialism) will always and forever be unable to explain these principles, because they come from a higher level, a conscious (emergent) level.
In so far as the organism is prepared to receive the impression of affinities, so does it participate in heavenly action. Heavenly action is not restricted to some other sphere, but is ubiquitous and takes place everywhere, at all times. It takes place with or without the conscious participation of individuals. We are privileged enough to be capable of participating; yet we can't participate without some effort.
The study of affinities and the understanding of affinity relative to the meaning of one's individual life is well worth undertaking. With discrimination and attention, we begin to see that affinity affects everything. My taste buds have an affinity for the taste of bacon in the morning; the cells in my eyes have an affinity for the color of an iris, and on a larger scale, my emotions have an affinity for my wife, the dog and our cats, and so on. The study of meaning and the study of life itself ultimately ends up being a study of affinities. This is a study that needs to be taken up with great intimacy and great care. Very simple things are far more interesting if this is properly understood.
What I find equally interesting is that in the midst of this effort to perceive and participate in heavenly affinity, we form a great deal of rejection in us. Because we are too active in our personality, we reject a good deal of the affinity that is offered; if we become passive in personality, and active in essence (which is actually a certain and very specific kind of passivity) we are much better able to receive the affinities that come our way.
This can be a quite astonishing experience, if it takes place.
May your soul be filled with light.