# Chain: Two Paths > *The natural love path and the Divine Love path are distinct, and the Divine path is swifter and higher* **The argument it traces:** Every soul carries wounds requiring purification → two paths exist: natural love (long, by full conscious recompense) and Divine Love (swift, by God's transforming fire) → natural love is itself a gift from God and its road leads to real harmony and joy, so the roads differ in how far they reach, not in whether the love is good → Divine Love reaches the Celestial Heavens where natural love cannot → the choice is open to all **14** messages · **11** supporting · main statement not yet chosen --- ## Foundation ### 2015-03-27 - [[2015-03-27 Every Human Soul Is Damaged by the Earth Condition|Every Human Soul Is Damaged by the Earth Condition]] A teaching given in New York to a circle preparing to hold a gathering there. Andrew argues from a single starting point, that everyone is wounded, to the necessity of inner healing and the choice of road by which it happens. The starting point: "Every soul has deep and abiding pain and wounds within. Every soul we meet, every individual who walks this Earth is injured by the conditions created by mankind over millennia of error and abuse and suppression. Whether that soul be in poverty and deprivation or in great wealth, there is need for healing." Then the two roads, and the requirement both share: "every soul, whether they walk the natural path or the Divine are obligated to release conditions which are not in harmony with the higher spheres of life. This process must be completed, whether it is done through the long and tedious road of the natural path or the powerful and dynamic road of God's Love, the Divine Path." The choice belongs to the hearer, and he urges one of them: "What process you choose, or route you take will determine how quickly and effectively this healing is accomplished. And of course we urge you to take the Divine Path." ## Elaboration ### 2015-10-12 - [[2015-10-12 The Difference Between the Material Mind and the Soul Mind|The Difference Between the Material Mind and the Soul Mind]] Maps the fork onto the two minds: the natural path perfects the mind it already has, "they seek perfection of the material mind which, in essence, is the spiritual mind," while the Divine path grows the other one, "you, my beloveds, who choose the Divine Path will seek the expansion of your soul and that which is within your soul, the soul mind." Puts a ceiling on natural-love comprehension in the same terms [[2018-05-12 Law of Compensation - Natural Compared with the Divine Path|2018-05-12-af-luke]] gives in faculty terms: "those upon the Natural path do indeed get glimpses of these realities, but it is not a full and comprehensive understanding and never can be." Choice framed as perfecting the given versus receiving the new: "to carry on perfecting what God has given them or to seek beyond that, to what God can give." ### 2016-02-15 - [[2016-02-15 Forge That Path to Your Souls and Thereby to God|Forge That Path to Your Souls and Thereby to God]] Lays out the choice directly: the natural love path brings a real but lesser closeness to God, while the Divine Love path brings a fulfillment the natural love cannot equal. "I wish for you to know these distinctions." Pre-dates the Andrew capstone (2016-05-02); chronology and argument agree. ### 2016-04-02 - [[2016-04-02 Jesus' Ministry and the Teachings of Divine Love|Jesus' Ministry and the Teachings of Divine Love]] Where the natural path ends, stated sharply: natural-path souls "will perfect every aspect of their being, but they will not go beyond this attainment. Their road ends where your road begins. And your road goes on for all eternity, for God's Love is infinite." Adds the soul's unlimited capacity and the will as the only limit. Read with [[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|2016-05-02-af-andrew]], the Capstone. ### 2018-05-12 - [[2018-05-12 Law of Compensation - Natural Compared with the Divine Path|Law of Compensation: Natural Compared with the Divine Path]] A teaching given in response to discussion among the circle's friends about the Law of Compensation, and the machinery beneath the Andrew Capstone (2016-05-02), which states the contrast in summary. The accumulation premise: "Every intentional deed, thought, condition that you experience or bring into yourselves has an effect upon your countenance... the memories of these things reside within your soul. They accumulate day by day." Natural path, conscious and one by one: "Those who walk the path of the natural love must make great effort to come into awareness these memories and conditions within the soul and address each and every one of these things... So they must comb through all these experiences in life, often when they are in the world of spirit, and find some resolution, some way of transforming them from negative to positive." Divine path, reflexive and by forgetfulness: "Rather than a state of memory and reliving these conditions that remain active within the soul, they are neutralized and there is a condition of forgetfulness within the soul... There is no sense of pain, only healing and self compassion," done "not necessarily done in a conscious way but done as a reflexive response of the Touch of Divine Love within your souls." Two facets the Capstone does not carry. First, at-onement named as the gate: "at-onement cannot come without the healing of the soul. At-onement does not come without the infusion of Divine Love to such a degree that there is a resonance between the mortal soul that becomes a Divine Soul and God's Soul," where the Capstone's contrast ends at unlimited progression without naming what the natural path cannot reach. Second, the sixth sphere described from the inside rather than named as a ceiling (see the rehabilitation note below). ### 2019-01-21 - [[2019-01-21 Divine Love Path and Natural Love Path|Divine Love Path and Natural Love Path]] Free will governs the fork, God blesses both roads, and what the natural road forgoes is a faculty rather than a blessing: "not everyone will ascribe to this journey, for God gives everyone free will... they may choose another road, the road of the natural man. In this, God will indeed bless them and guide them but the depth and acuity of the knowings of the soul will not be part of this reality." New facet: the contrast set at the scale of humanity's need rather than the soul's destination, "This is the next step for humanity... In order to curtail all the disruptions and in-harmonies and pain that man has created." ## Objection-removed ### 2016-09-02 - [[2016-09-02 Natural Love and Divine Love|Natural Love and Divine Love]] Anchor; clears the misreading that the two-paths teaching makes natural love worthless. The loves of parents, mates and children are "beautiful attributes of the natural love not to be denied nor to be pushed aside as something inferior," and the reason is given, "the natural love is a beautiful manifestation which each soul in this world is capable of experiencing and expressing in a myriad of ways and it is a gift from God." So the two roads differ in how far they reach, not in whether the love is good. ### 2018-05-12 - [[2018-05-12 Law of Compensation - Natural Compared with the Divine Path|Law of Compensation: Natural Compared with the Divine Path]] The natural destination honoured from the inside, which supports the section's point from the far end of the natural road. Sixth-sphere souls are described at length, "Many souls are content to reside within this sphere, to continue their explorations of God's Creation, His Universe, to accumulate knowledge, to refine their gifts... Their interactions with one another are harmonious and joyful. They have a great deal of love within them for one another and for themselves," with the concession that from where the hearer stands the difference is hard to see, "At the present state of your progression it would be difficult to truly discern between the joy of the perfect heaven and the joy of the Celestial Heavens." The ceiling stays explicit, "There is a state of harmony but it can go no further than this," and so does the difference in kind, "you do however feel a difference in the quality of the Love of the angels and the quality of the love of those spirits who are advanced in natural love." A separate passage from the Elaboration line above. ## Testimony ### 1963-12-26 - [[1963-12-26 Jesus' Birth and Youth|Jesus' Birth and Youth]] Two lives showing the difference between the loves, and showing that one can become the other. Of her son: "Jeshu's love for his family was a natural love, purified. It later became Divine through prayer." Of herself: her love for him "deepened into the Divine Love" only after his death, giving her what her natural love could not give her at the cross. The thread's argument, lived rather than taught. ### 2016-05-29 - [[2016-05-29 Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace|Aman Speaks of the Original State of Humanity and the Fall from Grace]] One soul travelling both roads, told in sequence. Aman refuses the Divine Love, falls, lives a human life, dies, works his way up the natural path to "our previous exalted state within the sixth sphere or natural heavens," and then, once Jesus reopens the door, takes the other road: "we were able to choose, this time more wisely, the way of the Divine Love." The sixth sphere is named as the ceiling reached and then passed, which is the thread's own architecture demonstrated by a single soul across the whole span. ### 2018-11-22 - [[2018-11-22 Yogananda Describes His Journey Through the Spheres Towards the Celestial Heavens|Yogananda Describes His Journey Through the Spheres Towards the Celestial Heavens]] Lived witness that the natural love spheres are real but not the summit; only Divine Love crosses into the Celestial. ### 2019-02-12 - [[2019-02-12 God's Love Is the True Way to Liberation|God's Love Is the True Way to Liberation]] A second testimony to complement Yogananda's, from the opposite vantage. Where Yogananda testifies from the Celestial Kingdom looking back (2018-11-22), Osho testifies from inside the climb: a guru who taught the natural road - liberation of the passions, awakening of human potential - who has "not entered into the Celestial Spheres" but whose "soul yearns for the gift of Love that comes from the Creator." He names the natural path's real but partial reach ("liberation of these things is only one part of that journey"; "my mission, though partially successful, was never complete") and confirms the higher road from below: "I now recognize the power of love that is the true passion of the soul." Strengthens the thread by witnessing the natural-love path as genuinely traversed yet incomplete, in real time, rather than from the summit. Distinct value: shows a soul still on the natural road actively turning toward Divine Love. ### 2019-04-01 - [[2019-04-01 We Are Not So Different|We Are Not So Different]] A compressed sphere-progression witness: praying for God's Love "became my principal practice," and reunion with Sri Yukteswar "helped me progress quickly through the various spheres" toward at-onement. Lived testimony of the Divine Love path from a natural-love-sphere arrival. ## Capstone ### 2016-05-02 - [[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|Two Paths Towards Love and Purification]] Andrew picks up directly from Mary, who had just spoken in the same circle, and gives the thread its complete doctrinal statement. The premise: "when you pass over into spirit your soul has the memory of every minute and second of your life," and those memories flood into consciousness. The fork, stated as a choice: "there are two choices in dealing with these deep-seated injuries within the soul." Natural path, by full conscious recompense: "each and every aspect of these memories lodged within the soul must come up into your consciousness and depending upon the nature of it... one must atone for these words spoken, for injuries received and for injuries put upon another... All souls must recompense for these actions and in many respects, the journey through the spheres of spirit are determined by how one willingly takes on these great efforts to purify, to release and to make recompense." Divine path, by transformation: "to have these conditions within the soul healed, transformed and released through the power of God's Love. This can be a very quick and powerful journey... burning away all those conditions that are not in harmony with the Love." The choice named as such: "it is the choice to take this journey of recompense or to take the journey of faith and love." The Celestial-reach claim with its exponential mechanism: "as you release those conditions that are pushed out by this Love... you are then more free to receive greater inflowings of the Love and your progression becomes exponential and your journey swift to those spheres of the Celestial Heavens where each soul is redeemed." And the facet that makes this the Capstone rather than another Elaboration, the ceiling on the natural road: "that place within the sixth sphere of existence is the very limit and apex of these efforts to purify the natural being, that which you were born with, the potentials and gifts and possibilities of the natural soul," against which the Divine road is unbounded: "there are unlimited possibilities, for God's Love, this energy, this Gift is unlimited. The potential for your soul to receive this Gift is unlimited." Closes on the open invitation the registry spine ends with: "It is free to you for the asking. It merely requires that you choose, that you choose the gift of Love." Fourteen months after the Foundation ([[2015-03-27 Every Human Soul Is Damaged by the Earth Condition|2015-03-27-af-andrew]], same spirit), which lays the premise and the fork but carries neither the compensation machinery nor the sixth-sphere ceiling. --- ## Also touches on this *These messages restate or echo the idea rather than carry it forward, so they sit alongside the thread rather than in it.* - **2015-10-26** [[2015-10-26 The First Father Talks about Reincarnation and the Progression of Life|The First Father Talks about Reincarnation and the Progression of Life]] (witness) - Aman places himself on the Divine road and names what it opens, "for those who follow this path of Love, of which I am a part of as is my dear and beloved soul mate, there are even greater opportunities for enlightenment and growth and experience in coming ever closer to the Creator." - **2016-04-12** [[2016-04-12 Lesson on the Falsity of the Vicarious Atonement and the Unsure Nature of Written Truth|Lesson on the Falsity of the Vicarious Atonement and the Unsure Nature of Written Truth]] (witness) - Both loves count toward progression, "the love that shines through – whether it be the Natural Love or the Divine Love, all loves, which will have a bearing upon the path of that individual in their spiritual life." It supports the step that natural love is good in itself, though its passage is about progression generally rather than the two roads as such. - **2016-05-02** [[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|Two Paths Towards Love and Purification]] (build) - Andrew opens by affirming Mary, who spoke immediately before in the same circle, "the dear and beloved soul Mary speaks the truth and it is true that the law of compensation is transformed in its effects upon the soul who is redeemed by the Father's Love." The companion message [[2016-05-02 How to Walk upon the Path Divine|2016-05-02-af-mary]] is already logged as a same-day [[Chains/Two Paths|Two Paths]] witness for this Capstone's section; the opening line makes the pairing explicit and the two should be read together at build, Mary stating the claim and Andrew supplying the machinery beneath it. - **2016-05-02** [[2016-05-02 How to Walk upon the Path Divine|How to Walk upon the Path Divine]] (witness) - The Love over-riding the Law of Compensation, delivered the same day as the thread's Capstone ([[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|2016-05-02-af-andrew]]), which already carries the compensation machinery; no new facet named, recorded as a same-day witness for the Capstone section at build. - **2016-08-25** [[2016-08-25 The Difference Between Mind and Soul|The Difference Between Mind and Soul]] (witness) - The innateness denial, stated twice and not developed: "No, it does not reside within you as a natural attribute of your being... this special blessing is given through prayer and longing and opening." Held at witness: no spheres, no recompense machinery, no destinations. Facet named for possible promotion at build: an Objection-removed candidate, clearing the belief that the Love is already within a person and need only be uncovered. - **2016-08-27** [[2016-08-27 A Description of the Soul and Its Enduring Nature|A Description of the Soul and Its Enduring Nature]] (witness) - The two loves named without ranking, "the energy of love is the only energy, whether it be the Natural Love or the Divine Love, that will disperse those clouds of the human condition." It states the step that natural love is good in itself without developing it. - **2016-09-08** [[2016-09-08 You Are My Disciple Here|You Are My Disciple Here]] (witness) - The choice put as a formal question with two named alternatives, "Every soul must face this choice: Shall I be with God and come to know His Will and act upon this knowledge or Shall I join the human condition and turn away?" That chain concerns natural love and Divine Love as paths of purification; this pair is God against the human condition, a different pair, so it is recorded as a witness to the structure of the choice rather than to the doctrine. - **2016-11-27** [[2016-11-27 The Value of Knowing Your Souls|The Value of Knowing Your Souls]] (build) - James Reid is a Divine Love seeker who says he dwells in the fifth sphere and is "not yet a Celestial Angel but are well on our way", and he invites the circle to join him there. The [[Chains/Two Paths|Two Paths]] chain and the "Soul Spheres & Progression" subject both describe the numbered spheres as the natural love path's progression. Not a contradiction on its face, since souls receiving Divine Love pass through the spheres, but it is a plain case of a Divine Love communicator placing himself by sphere number. - **2016-11-28** [[2016-11-28 For Change Must Come, Love Must Bring Harmony|For Change Must Come, Love Must Bring Harmony]] (witness) - Both roads named as roads to the light, with the choice left to each soul, "to bring the souls back to God in whatever way that they so choose. Be it upon the path of the Natural Love or the path of God's Divine Love, but choose they must a path to the light." Stated in passing, as at [[2016-08-27 A Description of the Soul and Its Enduring Nature|2016-08-27-af-brother-mandus]], which names the two loves without ranking them. - **2018-05-12** [[2018-05-12 Law of Compensation - Natural Compared with the Divine Path|Law of Compensation: Natural Compared with the Divine Path]] (build) - The thread's close is now split across two candidates. [[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|2016-05-02-af-andrew]] holds Capstone and states the fork as a choice, closing on the open invitation. This message states the at-onement gate, the facet that names what the natural path cannot reach, which is arguably the truer close of the argument. The working reading that keeps Andrew: Andrew addresses a hearer who has not yet chosen, Luke expounds for a circle that already has, so Andrew closes the argument and Luke completes the doctrine. Decide at build; both belong in the Capstone section either way. - **2019-03-08** [[2019-03-08 The Highest Gift of All Is the Blessing of God's Love|The Highest Gift of All Is the Blessing of God's Love]] (sighting) - God guiding every soul to light "in one way or another" set against the higher, irrevocable transformation of Divine Love, stated as the familiar choice rather than developed with a new facet.