Contemplating Love

It seems that Love in its highest form is the overall unifying state of Oneness… Love and Life are one…

Acceptance of what is….

The rainbow ribbon that connects ALL…

Love is that which binds all things into one…

We ‘like’ things… and people… and situations based upon specific personality preferences, attachments, and attractions… We ‘dislike’ …also based upon certain preferences conditioned into our survival personality…

Love accepts what is… within and externally… realizing there is no real ‘in’ or ‘out’…

Acceptance is different than agreement… We can agree that some actions and identifications seem to separate and disrespect the nature of Oneness and Life… and we can accept that that is ‘what is’ in a specific situation…

Just as ‘Grace’ is more than a blue-eyed blonde. ‘Love’ is also more than the preferences of our ego or survival personality….

‘L-o-v-e’ will be described differently by different people… and like the word ‘G-o-d’ will be interpreted through the filters of one’s personal and tribal teachings and experience…

‘Love’ is almost always associated with the heart… and a positive feeling of warmth and connection…

I may say “I love these garlic mashed potatoes,” and that is more a form of preference and sensual pleasure than it is a spiritual ‘Love’… Potato love is based upon what ‘it’ does for the ‘personal me’… and it is also part of life and part of the Oneness of Life…

What does it mean to “Love our enemies?” …This surely goes beyond the preferences of the ‘personal me’…the egoic mind and wants and preferences… If someone is out to kill us, what does it mean to Love this person?...

Love and Oneness are one and the same… “Enemy” is a definition of social convention and ego survival… It defines the illusion of separateness brought on by egoic differences and relative unconsciousness… After all, everyone is unconscious to some extent… and subject to our individual survival conditioning, filters, preferences, beliefs, and ideational thought-forms.

Love for me implies a ‘respectful acceptance’ of where another is at any particular moment… There is the action and the actor …the human being and the human action… Often the human action is a reaction that emerges from states of identification and unconsciousness based on past trauma and tribal teachings…

There have been studies about the various forms of ‘love’ and how the word is used…

“Do you love me?” is most often a query about ‘like’ and personal attachments… As a conscious spiritual being, we may always answer truthfully that indeed we do love every person… and the ego is usually looking for more than a spiritual connection… and often just the opposite… the ego looks for reassurance out of its own insecurity and fear of loss…

The question is similar to, “Do you believe in God?” While this is sometimes posed as a question to categorize another, I would have to answer, “Define what you mean by “God” and then I can answer.” Of course I have a spiritual connection to Source as we all do… and would define that experience always through the stained glass filters of personal individualized thought-form and concepts…

When I worked in corporate settings, I did my best to translate “Love” into a respectful and caring attitude toward others and the earth… toward service and quality… toward fairness and equality… what we sometimes refer to as social and business ethics…

“Love” manifests itself in the moment… in each life situation…
“Love” comes through our attitude about Life and everything in Life….
“Love” expresses itself through genuine acceptance, forgiveness, and letting go of what was or what might be…

Conscious attention to the moment, respecting all of Life, allows us to respond with the awareness of Love… Accepting what is without judgment… and responding with clear intention… manifesting ‘Spiritual Love’

Opening to the unifying center of pure consciousness allows us to witness the Love and Life that always is present… This state of awareness is one of peaceful acceptance of ourselves and others … The attachment to being loved that is sought by the ego to make up for some fantasized lack of love from the past is dissolved into the ocean of Life’s Source Energy, which is always available… the search for the ‘missing piece’ ends in synthesis with our Highest Self… with the Great Mystery…

Love, Lust, and Like

‘Love’… ‘In Lust’…
‘In Love’… ‘Like’…
and ‘LOVE’

There are different kinds of ‘love’ and ‘liking’…

We can love our child… our sexual partner… our friend… our partner… our pet… our favorite desert… and others we have never met… These are most likely all different energies… some attached to wants or needs … and others more detached… some shallow… some as deep as Life itself…

A. ‘Familial love’

How easy is it to say to your child, “I love you”??

For most people, this is the easiest expression of ‘love’ since the connections and attachments are usually both obvious and genuine. There is a ‘belonging’ and sense of ‘blood’ or familial affection. There is a connection… a sense of responsibility and stewardship… This is the connection of the tribe and perhaps even of the larger community or culture and ethnic identity. It is the belongingness and protectiveness…

For those interested in energetic connections, this storge (‘store-gay’; Greek) form of ‘love’ is a connection through root, solar plexus, and heart chakras. The amount of trust and positive self-esteem a person develops in childhood is largely dependent upon the ability and level of care provided by parents, family, and early caregivers.

While this form of ‘love’ is critical and real, it is perhaps the easiest to understand and to provide. As always, issues arise as the ego or pain-bodies of caregivers want or need the family member attachment to feed their own wants or personally perceived inadequacies.

B. Desire Nature ‘love’ – Attraction, Lust

The desire nature is a natural part of our existence as human beings. In its broadest sense it is the combination of the instinct for survival, self interest, and the energy to want or take things in. With a dense ‘pain-body,’ needs are exaggerated into greed, selfishness, and other more negative energies.

In the more specific area of relationships it is the sexual and sensual pleasures looking for fulfillment. The strong energies of the sexual hormones look for expression. For those interested in energy areas the ‘epithumia’ (Greek) form of attraction, passion, or lust is the sacral and creativity energy center in the reproductive area of the body. 

C. Romantic ‘love’ – Longing – Being ‘In Love’

Drawing out the best in another whether it is beautiful creativity or passionate sensuality is a characteristic of romantic Love. The personal ego falls “in love” as it connects with partners with complementary and common societal and personal energies, needs, and wants. Younger partners may take into consideration such things as physical attraction, common interests and ideals, projected parenting abilities, similar lifestyle goals, etc.

The energy of ‘eros’ or romance often provides for the meeting of complementary needs and wants, whether conscious or unconscious. This form of being ‘in love’ may include most of the first 5 chakras that include the all the tribal and familial connections (1, 2, 3) as well as heart (4), mind (6), expression, and mutual decision-making (5).

D. Cherishing ‘love’ – Friendship – ‘Like’

This energy type cares about one another as a best friend, team-mate, bunker-buddy, and while usually not at an erotic level, may flow into eros or other forms either intentionally, sporadically, or spontaneously.

As an example, ‘Philadelphia’ means the “City of Brotherly Love” (phile). In this form, there is heart and mind bonding and people are generally considered “attached at the hip” or in a “platonic relationship”… often in a group there is camaraderie and common goals and ideas. It can be a positive aspect if people who decide to live together also ‘like’ each other in this form of ego-attachment love.

We have used the terms: ego, egoic mind, survival personality, and pain-body to describe various aspects of personal attachments. These are natural and common to all human beings. This aspect of describing personal development is intended to help understand a more inclusive view of Life that shows the distinction between exclusive (ego) and inclusive (spiritual) approaches to awareness or consciousness.

E. Spiritual ‘LOVE’ as Being-State of Awareness

The Greek term ‘agape’ has often been used to express the spacious or spiritual quality of unconditional love. While it has also been used by many to describe more secular forms of openness, the term does imply a quality we wish to share. The sense of ‘Divine LOVE’ transcends the needs of ego and personal attachments. It can be misunderstood by the personality or pain-body of others as detached or cold since the personal ego has nothing to attach to … no ‘buttons’ to push.

There is an open and nature acceptance of others and Life since one needs to be present in the moment to be in a ‘state of LOVE.’ This form of LOVE is really beyond form and can be channeled as presence and acceptance. It can be said to be egoless since it does not need or want anything. This LOVE is Life itself… the eternal Source of the Present Moment. In this sense, it is timeless and selfless.

There must be an openness of heart (4), intuition (6), and crown (7) energy centers with a likelihood of all energy wheels being freely open… or “running on all cylinders.”

I have used some classical definitions from the Greek and do not pretend to be an expert, but share this as a way to stimulate some discussion and awareness of the differences in energies. It is also to help differentiate ego attachment ‘love energies’ from what I will call “Spiritual Love.” From a perspective of larger or expanded consciousness and awareness, we can always truly express our ‘LOVE” for anyone at anytime. There is also a caution that most of you may know already. The thought-form “love” will be interpreted by your personal egoic mind according to what it may want. This can often lead to a confusion of levels and a misunderstanding between people if not clarified.

It always a possible option to stand in a ‘state of LOVE’ and Presence, without saying anything. It is most likely my ego speaking if I need to announce ‘my’ “spiritual love” toward another person… If indeed we stand in LOVE, it will be felt without announcements.

After-thought
Life is a journey of lessons and self-discovery until we find our way home to the present moment again and again. Our intention, once awake is to stay awake. Most of us go back to sleep from time to time… but always with the memory of wakefulness, LOVE, Peace, and Joy in Present Moment awareness.

Let us do our best to stay alert in the moment, to learn where our pain-body gets activated, to continue to heal and clear our energy system, to forgive ourselves, others, the past, and to continually find the ‘Now-Gate’ back to being here!

LOVE and Blessings,
John