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By Katie Davis
All love is one Love and when we fall in love with one another, it is said that we are experiencing the Divine. Rumi, a 13th century Sufi poet, defines love as a mystical moment, when two spiritually connected individuals meet. We call it love at first sight. In this meeting of eyes, Rumi romantically writes, we not only experience the union of two loving souls, but also the Love that is the crux of the universe. Whether ethereal or everyday love, such as mother for child, when this cherished moment appears, we often have the misperception that someone or some other thing caused this rising in Love. In truth, we lose ourselves. This disappearance creates a crevice through which radiant love shines. There is only This Love and it is ever-present.
Love requires no other. Kirtana, a lovely songwriter and guitarist, sings, “Beloved, I have been waiting throughout time to welcome you into these arms of mine.” Free of any other, in an effortless, spontaneous instant, Kirtana dissolved, the present moment disappeared, and only Beloved remained. The Beloved is the sacred substratum of our existence, which is free of lovers altogether. It does not reside within the confines of time. It is discovered in the twinkling of an eye of no time. This Self-discovery allows unconditional love to emerge into our lives, our relationships and into the world.
As time travelers, we are identified as being a lover who loves someone else. As long as this subject-object relationship remains, true love cannot thrive. We expect and demand this or that to satisfy our self-created sense of lack. This lack is the ego’s belief in individuality as identity and its separation. It manifests in this world as the never-ending search for personal love, gratification and acceptance. The false sense of “me” hopelessly pretends to separate from Totality and then expects someone else to fill the resulting pain gap. It fears the loss of a lover; it feels jealous, competes and needs. It voices its love for the Divine and faithfully expresses deep longing. Yet, it stubbornly insists upon maintaining its sense of separation and of course, the result is suffering. Nonsensically, it then blames someone else for the pain. It is the divided one, who is longing and searching, that sustains our estrangement.
Love is not personal. It cannot be gained through any other. Love cannot be given to you, nor can it be threatened or taken away. It is essentially who you are. When you are seeking a lover, you are actually searching for love. You are overlooking that you are what you are seeking, which is why it cannot be found. Before you continue this search, my invitation is to discover that you are love’s fulfillment. In this discovery, you then have the opportunity to meet romantic love in wholeness. You are free of the pre-existing condition and pain gap. You no longer need to complete yourself. If you are already in a problemtaic realtionship, such as personal relationships can only be, as true lovers, you can disappear together. Free of “you” and “me,” we intimately rise above the push and pull of personal relationship and preciously fall into the Love that we are. In its purity and wholeness, Love is synonymous with Self-realization. It is the true wisdom and maturity of the human Being. Then, romantic love does not need to bloom. When the perfect lover appears, the Rose already is.
Unconditional love surrounds us and it originates from the Ocean within you. We do not need to seek love for living, in the same manner that the spinner dolphin does not cry for water while swimming. The mind has its idea of perfection and what it needs to be happy. All the while, we are the very joy that we are seeking. The separate self is the time-based mind’s attempt to divide and it will prove to be futile, since separation is unattainable. Its sense of lack is its own demise. Whereas Self-realization is an ease, since it is already complete. Fulfillment means completion, not a fractional part, and love’s completion is the discovery of who you really are. After all, a drop of water does not separate to be a part of the ocean, but rather dissolves its partiality.
Desire inherently contains its opposite, which is fear. So while we are creating our personal desires, we are also creating poverty, greed, sexual obsession, power over others in the herd, and every form of lack. In other words, when we desire, we are also saying that we lack.
Consequently, both seem to be created. If we are acquiring in order to be happier at a future time, ever-present joy will elude us, since it is not a future endeavor. It is here now, uncaused, and free of every-thing. The dual mind will prove to be ravenous for its desires, as it runs from its fears. Its bottom line will always be “more!” When it finally discovers that its treasures only provide a fleeting happiness, it discovers the root of its longing; the realization of the Heart.
The spaciousness within you is joy’s way. You are welcome to continue collecting things to try to fill that space, as some sort of future compensation, but things and circumstances within time is not where joy resides. In the meantime, you needlessly suffer, while hoping for personal empowerment that at best can only be partial. Sooner or later, it will be recognized that the space around all of your accumulations is the direction and that it originates from within. Essence is deeper than “you and your thoughts,” and more profound than “your attention.” It is the pure attention of the loving Heart; the only omnipotent power of the universe: Love.
Katie Davis is author of Awake Joy: The Essence of Enlightenment. www.awakebykatie.wordpress.com.
