From the baby there should grow the child, secure in the environment which
its parents provide. And the baby should grow into the adolescent, who, through
maturation, develops into the self actualized adult, safe and secure in the
knowledge of his or her own being.

It would indeed be wonderful if we lived in a society in which childhood
and adolescence were accepted as the time in which the bud appears, and with the
tremendous strength with which youth should be endowed, begins to blossom into
the flower of self being.

What a great joy it would be, if in the process of maturation, we became
open to receive experience, just as the blossoming flower receives the summer
dew, and became free to accept ourselves for what we are, which is the
birthright of every being, just as the life giving warmth of the sun is the
right of everything that grows.

The society in which we live cannot allow us complete freeedom. Indeed,
the very nature of man prohibits such a society from ever existing. But this is
not to say that we cannot blossom as does the flower. To become fully alive, to
live our lives to the full, complete in our self being, we should accept as a
gift, every moment of life.

We should use life for the purpose for which it was intended, for living.
If we choose to use it for that purpose, the whole of life becomes a time of
blossoming.

One of the major inhibitors of human blossoming is probably life itself,
for in living our lives to the full, we are required to accept that much of what
we will experience cannot be described (in terms of our 'I'ness) as either
beautiful or enjoyable. Because of this, we might erect barriers to the
reception of experience.

One of the experiences which we sometimes deny ourselves is the experience
of love. This denial may easily result from our fear of failure because we may
fear that by becoming worthy of love, we might win love, and might then become
unworthy of it, and thus lose it.

Fear of losing love is caused by the fact that we live in a society which
values that which it terms 'success', and condemns that which it calls
'failure'. And yet, it can only breed success at the expense of those whom it
describes as failures. We must learn to live without this fear of failure, and
so allow ourselves to live within our human right .....to live.

If we erect barriers to the giving and receiving of love, we may, in our
folly, inhibit both ourselves and those who love us, from blossoming into true
being.

We must each look into ourselves, and so find the courage to break free
from those concepts of ourselves, which we have allowed to predetermine what we
are, what we should be, or what we should remain.

We should realise that there is no limit to human potential, other than
those limits which we ourselves set, or allow others to set in our name.

When we can accept that there are no limits to our potential, then we can
begin to find that energy which changes the whole of man; for just as the
parting of the petals which form the bud, allows that bud to blossom into the
flower, and thus change the face of the earth, so does the blossoming of one
indiviudal into a self actualized being, change the face of mankind.

The flowers and trees have sun and rain to aid their blossoming. As human
beings, we should have love to help us grow into self being.

When we live in true being, self being, we gain the ability to love, for
love has many forms. We may gain the ability to change the shape of things with
our hands, and thus change the function of those things. This may be an act of
love.

We may gain the ability, by the use of our hands and minds, to produce
things which have beauty, and whose beauty may be shared by those who are open
to accept it. The creation of such a thing as has beauty is an act of love.
The acceptance of the beauty in a thing which a fellow being has created is an
act of love.

When we have true being, self being, in which to dwell, then we may learn
to love our fellow beings. When we can see our own imperfections as readily as
we can see the imperfections of others, and when we can allow those others their
imperfections as readily as we ignore our own, then it may be said that we love
our fellow beings.

When we can accept others for what they are, rather than try to change them
to what we would have them be, or even wish that they are something other than

they are, then we perform an act of love.

When we have true being, self being, instead of 'I', then we have the
ability to become one with our fellow beings. This we may achieve only by
ceasing to consider ourselves as the primary subject, and our fellow beings
merely as objects which are there for us to manipulate. This act, the act of
treating others as we would ourselves wish to be treated, this act is an act of
love.

There is the love between brothers and sisters. This form of love may
develop and grow where wise parents do not use one of their offspring as a goad
or spur to the other. Treating our offspring as equals is an act of love.

As parents, if we can see that our offspring are not mere 'objects', and no
less 'subjects' than are we, then we can cease to manipulate them. Thus, we
allow the child to become the adolescent, and the adolescent to become the
adult, to the mutual benefit of all.

In parential love, we should place the development of our offspring before
our own wishes, and even before our own self delusion. When, as parents, we
give our offspring the same rights as we give ourselves, and thus prevent
ourselves from inhibiting their development, then our offspring may grow into
adults, secure in their own self being, as a result of our act of love.

Although all acts of love are transcendental in themselves, most are but
minor forms of the greatest act of love, which is therefore the greatest
transcendental act, the act of sharing love. Only when we have true being, self
being, and so no longer need the 'I', then we are ready to take part in this
greatest act of love, for, in sharing love with the one who is our counterpart,
and so helping them to become complete, we may ourselves become complete.

In the act of sharing love all other forms of love are manifest. We each
accept that the other has the same rights as we have ourselves.

In the act of sharing love we are not jealous of the achievements or
attainments of the other, but welcome and share them as our own, for they are
the fruits of our love.

In the act of sharing love we do not look for the imperfections of the
other, but accept each other for what we are, in our totality. We look for our
own imperfections, and we each ask the other to help us overcome those
imperfections; and thus we help each other to grow. Each of us ceases to
consider our own 'I'ness, and so banish our own needs in subordination to the
needs of the other.

In the great transcendental act of sharing love, all other transcendental
acts are also encompassed. In such an act as sharing love we may change our
function from that of satisfying our own needs to that of satisfying the needs
of our counterpart, this is a transcendental act.

In such an act as sharing love we may use our bodies to create a beauty
which both may share, and so become a part, this is a transcendental act.

In such an act as sharing love we cease to consider ourselves as the
primary subject, and thus may become one with the other with whom we share our
love, this is a transcendental act.

In the act of giving love there is no concept of who we are, of what we
should be, or of what we should remain, for only in the act of giving love may
we receive and so share love.

In the act of sharing love, there is no subject and no object, for both are
one. This union of the two is a transcendental act.