“Mary” recently received her Sixth Initiation. This level taught her much about love and grace.

They are a counterbalance. They counter negative habits like blaming others or ourselves for whatever gives us displeasure or inconvenience. We learn to deal with what the humorist Mark Twain observed about human nature: “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.”

Soon after Mary’s Sixth Initiation, the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, in a dream, let her see people through his eyes.

She was inside the form of the Master.

Mary was outdoors, a gathering of people around her looking and asking for God. But they don’t see her. The day is nearing an end, and she knows the crowd will soon feel hunger. A grill nearby offers a means of food preparation. However, she’ll need help.

A woman hails her. Great, thinks Mary, someone to help!

The woman, in her thirties, begins a routine of apology for acting so crazy in front of Mary. She lists all her faults, a litany in which she apologizes for every single one. It’s all about her.

However, she’s too busy talking to help prepare the food.

Mary, still inside the form of the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ, sighs. With compassion and a smile, she finds herself amazed at what Z has to deal with at times. Even if one person in a crowd recognizes him, they can barely function, even to help make the food.

She saw this dream as a gift. It was an opportunity to see herself and others from his perspective. The Master does not focus on people’s faults. He does need help preparing the food. Their willing hands would heal their faults.

Love and grace offered.

Years ago, “Jim” and his wife adopted a baby parrot. He used to love “Polly,” but he stopped loving her the day she bit him good, after his return from a long deployment at sea.

Understandably, Jim drew back. Bite him once, shame on Polly; bite him twice, shame on Jim.

Time passed. The couple noticed that Polly had lost the feathers on her chest. Apparently, she was plucking them. Stress, they decided. But from what? It didn’t occur to them that the cause might be Jim’s distancing himself from Polly. She was missing his love.

OK, so she’d felt hurt by his long absence. And it had been a bad idea to show her pique by biting him so soundly. But when’s enough, enough?

Impetuous youth does foolish things. She certainly had. But hadn’t she done her time?

As a last resort, Polly reenacted the biblical “sackcloth and ashes” routine. A sign of utter repentance.

Jim finally got the picture.

So he began to pay her more attention. He opened his heart to this Soul, talking to her in fun and loving ways. Polly began accepting snacks from his hand. Then feathers appeared on her chest. She no longer plucked them out.

Next, Jim started to make peace with people he’s had issues with in his life, those he’d made judgments on. Harmony resulted each time he tried it.

Love and grace.

“Emily” asked the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ to help her deal with “Ruth,” a loud, abrasive woman in her exercise class. Emily wanted to be less intimidated by her and be able to show her more love. Suddenly, Ruth began telling of a trip to Israel, and of a young man with penetrating blue eyes.

He’d come up to her and said, “You are a true Jew and a daughter of Zion.” He took her hand. A good vibration raced through her.

Emily hugged her and said, “You are very blessed.”

Ruth’s demeanor changed. Emily listened while she talked. Part of Ruth’s loudness and not listening to others was due to her two faulty hearing aids. And to her insecurity, which she covered with bravado.

Ruth has since softened a little. Emily has too, for which she thanks the Mᴀʜᴀɴᴛᴀ.

Love and grace in action once more.

—Sri Harold Klemp

Can you imagine yourself inside the form of the Master?

Try to picture this the next time you are challenged by someone’s behavior. It may just be your key to a higher level of love and grace in action. Everyone will benefit.

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