Nothing Outside of Me

"Look well then, upon your parents, your siblings, your mates and your friends.  Not one of them - not one of them - holds the power to bring love to you.  So what are you trying to get from them?  Why do you ever insist that another ought to be conformed to what you believe you need?  It is futile - one hundred percent, absolutely, positively futile - to seek love in relationship with anything or anyone."
- The Way of Mastery

​I read this passage this morning with fresh appreciation, and it's a teaching that I 

return to over and over again.  It reminds me that the Love of my Self, which is internal to me is the only Source I can receive Love from.  When I try to use my brothers to get my "needs met" I am heading for the experience of suffering.   Sometimes it can take the from of feeling abandoned, betrayed, unsupported.  When I return my focus to the Love in my mind I realize that these thoughts have no substance.