Vulnerability according to Webster is :

Hmmmmm…..that doesn’t sound like a state we would like to be in- vulnerable- exposed- defenseless- helpless- open- having little resistance………We are usually busy protecting our soft underbelly, shielding ourselves from hurts perceived or actual, hiding behind a veneer of civility and social conventions.

Love and vulnerability

You’re most vulnerable when you’re experiencing love. Beyond love is unity, where vulnerability and invulnerability become one. Love is the first emanation, the first particularization of the supreme reality, which is unity. The first expression, the first breath of the unity is divine universal love, with its sweetness and delicacy. That is where you are the most vulnerable, before your vulnerability becomes invulnerability. When you’re loving, you still feel at the mercy of everything. The step beyond that is to become even more vulnerable, and then you’re completely invulnerable. So we’re seeing how love can lead always to complete vulnerability and thus to invulnerability. Love is the highest, the deepest, the most intense, the most expansive possibility of feeling. Love is the heart. Beyond love is the supreme reality, which is beyond feeling or no feeling. So vulnerability is vulnerability to love, and extremely deep vulnerability is love. If you really are vulnerable, you’re loving. You can’t help but be loving. And if you’re very loving, you can’t help but feel vulnerable. If you allow yourself to feel, your heart is completely open. (Diamond Heart Book 3, pg 206)

We are the only beings who are permeable to everything that exists, from the most painful to the most sublime. We’re sensitive not only to experiencing the pleasures and pains of our bodies, to feeling our emotions, the painful and pleasurable, and to sensing our thoughts, but our vulnerability also gives us the possibility of experiencing, and being aware of, being in contact with all levels of reality. We’re permeable to not only physical, emotional, and mental stimuli, but to essential and spiritual stimuli as well. So, not only are we vulnerable in the sense that our feelings, our preferences, even our identity can be influenced, but we are also vulnerable to being aware, conscious, and permeable to our true identity, and to the nature of all existence. So you see, our uniquely human quality of vulnerability is a disadvantage from one perspective and a great advantage from another. We’re wide open to all influences, all possibilities if we allow ourselves to be — if we don’t defend ourselves, if we don’t build a shell and hide behind it. Our human consciousness is so vulnerable that we can actually know who we are. We’re so conscious, so permeable, that we can experience the very nature of all of reality — the nature of a stone, a tree, the nature of ourselves. (Diamond Heart Book 3, pg 197)

http://www.amazon.com/Diamond-Heart-Book-Three-Meaning/dp/0936713054

We live in a world of mystery, wonder, and beauty. But most of us seldom participate in this real world, being focused rather on the part that is right before our eyes, automatic, easy to push away or partake. This situation is basically due to our not realizing and living our full human potential. This potential can be actualized by the realization and development of the human essence. The human essence is the part of us that is innate, genuine and in touch with the real world and all the intricacies of our relationships. Vulnerability is a virtue.

Virtue

The Chinese Taoist teacher, Lao Tsu, described the Four Virtues of what he called the virtuous life. If you live according to them you’ll be living the true human life, which will predispose you to the experience and realization of oneness. That means it is not just understanding of self not just having certain experiences; it means living, acting, interacting in a certain way. So what are these four virtues?

• The first has to do with love and respect for your Essence and Being: to live a life that implicitly loves and respects what is genuine in you and everyone…
• Another of the four virtues is sincerity: being sincere in your life, not lying to yourself. To be sincere is to be earnest about exposing your self-deceptions about who you really are, and what you want and do not want, what you feel and do not feel, what scares you and what doesn’t, about what is actually happening in you and in your situation…
• The third virtue or quality is what is called delicacy. It is the nature of the ego-self or personality that it is thick-skinned, thickheaded, hard, and tough. This hardness, toughness, thickness, and dullness is the circumference, or the boundary between you and everyone else and the rest of the universe. So that’s why you need to become more refined, more delicate. You need to have more gentleness, more vulnerability, more receptivity and permeability…
• The fourth quality or virtue is what is called helpfulness. Obviously, helpfulness is based on oneness itself. To be helpful means that you are aware that you do not work only for yourself; your work is for everyone. If you only work on yourself without helping other people, you are not doing the Work. It is as simple as that. (Diamond Heart Book 4, pg 106)

Don Miguel Ruiz offered The Four Agreements based on the Toltec men and women of wisdom from southern Mexico. I visited Teotihuacan the ancient city of pyramids ouside Mexicon City as a teenager. It was known as “the place where man becomes God” and has had a lasting effect. The Toltec knowledge is not a religion but honors all the spiritual masters throughout time. It embraces Spirit and is a way of life leading to happiness and love. 1. Be Impeccable with your word. 2. Don’t take anything personally 3.Don’t make assumptions 4. Always do your best.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Four-Agreements-Practical-Personal/dp/1878424319#_

Can you see the connection between vulnerability, love and living in truth and trust for a virtuous life? Its  being who you were meant to be, achieving your purpose in life, enjoying meaningfulness and connection with every experience and the height of “invulnerability”. What can make you feel like you are protected behind an invisible force field, like nothing that happens can change the way you feel, like you are “invincible” and will be fine- right where you are, doing exactly what you are doing, with them?