title: Hatonn on Perceiving Love layout: post date: 2025-07-31 categories:

• Meta/Legacy—

Hatonn was fond of telling stories through Carla’s instrument, and this was one of the first. It seems like these stories were ways of illustrating the concepts Confederation entities wished to impart without overly abstracting things. One can see why that might be necessary given the message later in the channeling about the proper role of the intellect in these matters.

However, I find the message of this story to be utterly important to opening to love as it is. In my opinion, the use of sense perception to see through the illusion to the underlying love is one of the most important things to learn, and it’s something I still seek to attain. But its not an attainment of accruing skill and insight so much as releasing that which we’ve amalgamated unto ourselves. Love is simplicity, and it is upon that simple foundation that we build a life of service and harmony.

I would like to share with you now a little story. There was once a boy who had grown wise to the ways of the world about him, for he saw much in his daily life, and he understood much. He understood how to act, and he understood what people wished him to think. And he was a good boy.

And yet there were many things that puzzled him, as he grew, and perhaps the chief of these things was that which the grown-ups kept calling love. And he turned to his parents, and he said, “What is love?” And they said, “Love is honoring your father and your mother, and obeying them.”

And he accepted this and thought on it, and attempted to show love by honoring his father and his mother. And yet he was not satisfied.

And so he went to his teacher. And he said, “Teacher, what is love?” And the teacher said, “Love is doing what the teacher tells you to do, and learning what we ask you to learn here at school.”

And the boy realized that there must be some truth in this. But yet he was not satisfied.

And he went and asked his friend, “Tell me, do you know what love is?” And his friend said, “I am not sure, but I have noticed that when people want something, they say, ‘I love you.’”

And the boy thought on this, and thought, “Perhaps this is closer to what love is than anything I have heard.”

And he puzzled over these things a long time to himself. And one night when he went to sleep, he sailed away in a beautiful ship with wide, billowing sails. And he sailed over a rainbow bridge into the far waters, which he had seen before in his dreams, yet never so clearly as now. And his ship, seeming to know just where to go, harbored itself upon a white beach. And he went onto the glistening sand, and walked into a softly forested area. And there, he saw a beautiful entity in white robes, glistening golden, not with sunlight, but with light coming from the face of the entity itself.

And he asked the radiant being, “Sir, tell me, what is love?” And the radiant being said not a word, but he knelt down and looked into the little boy’s eyes. And the little boy looked back into those luminous eyes. And suddenly his own eyes were changed, and the world was transformed wherever he looked. And he looked around the beautiful forested area. And all seemed to be transformed. All seemed to be alive with joy and love, and he knew what love was because he was seeing it. It was visible to him. Every mote of sand danced with an energy so joyful that it was indescribable to him. And yet he knew that it was love.

The being said not a word, but led him back to his ship. The boy sailed over the rainbow bridge, and back to his bed. And when he woke up in the morning, he remembered. And he looked around his room, and his room was transformed. And his mother came into the room, and he ran to her and hugged her, and said, “I love you.” And he saw his mother transformed into a being that was love.

And he ran to his teacher, and said, “Teacher, I love you.” And the teacher became gentle, compassionate and human, in his eyes alone.

And each thing that he looked at with his eyes of love sent love back to him, for it was all made of love. And the little boy no longer needed to ask what love was.

Love is so simple, my friends, that it cannot be described. It can only be experienced. If you will be as a child, and when you open your eyes, if you will give to the world your love, the world will give you back love. It is a process of recognition of what really is—nothing more.

- Hatonn via Rueckert: June 27, 1976

Originally posted on r/lawofone_philosophy.