This is a lesson I am having to learn!

This is a lesson I am having to learn! 

In answer to— 

How can I increase my love for my fellow man when the very sight of some of them gives me the creeps? Now, I do not mean the unfortunates. I do seem to love the outcast, the tramp, the generally unlovely! But people of refinement, even one member of my own family, I just dread to hear her footstep and dislike her personality so that I could almost scream when I hear her coming. Many a time I go out of the house and stay out as long as I can just to avoid looking at her. I feel condemned.

The Teacher replies— 

As to what you say about increasing your love for your fellow men, the best way is to forget all about those who upset you and think only of the Christ-love and draw near to that. Keep away from those who are absolutely repugnant to you, if possible, for there is always a good reason. If you think continually of those who only arouse the evil side of your nature, you retard your growth, and most likely increase their natural antagonism. If you cannot do this, determine that you will create a wall of force around yourself that nothing inharmonious or unlovely can pierce; that you will not speak an unkind word; that you are too well balanced and surrounded with immortal love to allow anything that is outside to affect you. Repeat the Healing Prayer and realise that you are filled with Life and Love and Purity, and that you will give out nothing but those forces to anyone with whom you come in contact.

If anything inharmonious arises, be sure that it is something outside yourself, then calmly ignore it. Generally, there is some condition brought over from a past life that must be worked out in your present environment. If you realise that you will have to endure until you learn the lesson of equanimity and grow above their power to disquiet, you will at once find an improvement. It has been said that people are neither our friends nor our enemies, only our teachers, and we may make things worse by trying to force conditions instead of learning the lesson they have to teach. Hold the attitude of always being ready to help whenever your help is needed.

The Healing Prayer—

O Thou loving and helpful Master Jesus! 

Thou who gavest to Thy disciples power to heal the sick!

We, recognising Thee, and realising Thy divine presence within us, 

ask Thee to lay Thy hands upon us in healing love.

Cleanse us from all our sins, 

and by the divine power of Omnipotent Life, 

drive out the atoms of inharmony and disease, 

and fill our bodies full to overflowing with Life, and Love, and Purity.

Letters from the Teacher, Teachings of the Order of the 15, transcribed by Harriette Augusta Curtiss and F. Homer Curtiss, Curtiss Book Company, Los Angeles, California, 1913