Giving and Receiving

Old thinking:

Let's examine the old saying of what goes around comes around.  This is what it teaches us.  If I give person A something, person A should give me something back.  Naive thinking?  Definitely.  What if I give something to person A, then A give something to B, then B give something back to me?  Better, but still naive.  In fact, if I give something to A, then A to B, then B to C...all the way to Z, then Z give it back to me, it's still naive.  Why?  Because it creates expectations.  Failures to meet expectations create all sorts of heartaches and disappointments.  What's even worse is that expectations create the illusion of control.  If I give you money, you better do as I say, for example.  Or if I love you, you better love me back...or else I will feel hurt because you gave me less love and you took more of it.  The old way thinking would have us believe that Love is a commodity, quantifiable and negotiable.

New thinking:

What I give to others, I give to myself.  This is what it means.  I give person A something and I don't care if person A ever give me anything back.  The act of giving itself has allowed me to increase my giving power and allow me to give even more.  

Along the same idea we have this, I love someone and it doesn't matter if they never love me back.  By giving love to someone or to something I am able to access more Pure Love from the source...thereby giving myself more Love.  

This is the paradox.  You cannot have Love unless you give Love.  The soul's desire is not to receive but to give Love. 

Receiving Love from someone else is an illusion.  When the receiver says I feel his love for me, the receiver is actually feeling the loving feeling inside the giver (which in turn creates a giving response in the receiver making the receiver into another giver).  The giver did not hand over any amount of love to the receiver.  All the giver did was to tap into the source of Pure Love when he had chosen to give Love... and then the Love from the Source just poured out through him.  The giver is actually practicing Self-Love when he gives Love openly.