Love Is...

"Whenever you feel attracted to something or someone, it is always the love in you that you feel, not something outside of you. It is not your love or their love. It is just love".

Love is probably the most misunderstood word in the world. The universal misconception is that we need love, and since love has always been portrayed as the coming together of two people who bring each other happiness we draw the natural conclusion that we need someone else to make us happy. We usually justify this with the common belief that we feel 'better' with somebody than without, and in so doing we empower even further our misunderstanding.

The theory holds water just so long as our relationships are working, but when they break down we are left confused because what we thought was love turned out to be something different .. probably just the heady lure of romance. Our belief is challenged, yet we don't want to give up on it because we are still desperate for love, so we tell ourselves that there was something wrong with him or her or us or me .. and then we start all over again, perhaps with a dash of cynicism thrown in for good measure this time.

Love is not what we are looking for, love is what we are! It is our natural state, always has been, always will be. What we are seeking is to express that love, because love is universal, it wants to reach out and embrace everyone, it is not selective, love wants to love - period. The mistake is in thinking that love can only do its thing when an intimate partner is present, but why would we need anyone or anything to be what we already are? Does a tree need anything to be a tree or a flower need anything to be a flower? Does the sun need anything to shine? Does love need anything to be love? 

The reason we cling on to the belief that we need someone to 'complete' us is because we still identify with the mind and body. We still believe that we and everyone else on the planet are separate beings, that we are all different because we think differently, act differently, do this and that differently. Certainly, on the surface, that would appear to be the case .. but lets scratch away the surface to reveal the truth.

When we first arrived here as little cuddly bundles of love, we had no sense of 'I'. We were just cutesy wootsy babykins and everyone looked at us and went ‘aaaah’. Then we were given a name, and this became our identity - 'I'. This identity saw everyone being called by different names so it learned separation - 'me' and 'you'. Things were given to this identity and so it learned possession - 'my'. And so a false sense of self defined as 'I', 'me' and 'mine' was born. Please welcome to the world the greatest illusionist we will ever meet - the ego!

‘I’. The smallest of words that has plagued humanity since the dawn of time. The 'I' word is the ultimate profanity. Its not even a word, its a letter, but my God what power we have given this single letter.. and we didn't even know we were doing it. 'I' am this you are that, 'I' am right you are wrong, 'I' am strong you are weak, 'I' am religious you are a heathen, 'I' am white you are black, ‘I’ am intelligent you are stupid, 'I' am better than you, more spiritual than you, richer than you, happier than you ...bla bla bla. Just think, an entire existence predicated on a single letter, on an identity that believes it is real, on an ego that fights daily to preserve itself, petrified that one day we might wake up and realize it only exists because we identify with it .. because we think we are this 'I'.  

Go back to that little cuddly baby when it was lying in the cot, before it was named, before it was given anything. Was it better than anyone, more intelligent than anyone, more religious than anyone, more right than anyone .. or was it just a baby? Pure consciousness manifested, pure life, pure love. A being in its natural state, untarnished by anything the yet-to-be developed mind was waiting to throw at it.

Did it need anything to be itself? Could anything anyone had done, said or thought have possibly stopped it from being itself? The answer, of course, is no, absolutely nothing.

We don’t need to become babies again, but just to remember our true natural state. We are not what we think we are - we are love, we are life! The ego has believed its own illusion, but now it is time to see through it so that we can uncover once again our true self.

Self awareness comes through consciousness .. through understanding. By becoming aware, we will see the illusion playing out in us every day and as we see it it will dissolve because we are no longer giving it power. Awareness grows and grows and as it does so ego melts and melts until we reach the point where we sense our true self, we become present, we lose that sense of 'I' and find it replaced with 'I AM'. Then, just like the new born baby, we simply ARE.

This is love revealed. This is the true meaning of love. This is a love that requires nothing to be itself, it simply IS and nothing can ever change that. It has always been us, we just got a bit muddled ... but now we can clear the clouds away and allow the sun that we are to shine in all its glory. This love wants to reach out to everyone ... and it will. It is free, independent, universal and undying - it is the very fabric of life, it is what we ALL are. In reality, there is no difference or separation between us, we are all the same, we are all love.

So, what becomes of the desire to share our life with somebody, to experience magic moments together, perhaps raise a family, grow old together? What becomes of the romantic dream? The answer is nothing becomes of it. We are still here, life is still living, the opportunity to meet wonderful people is still available and the choice to spend our life with one particular person is still open to us. The only difference is that now that choice can be made from a sense of inclusion rather than from a sense of need. We don't need anyone to be our true self, to be love ... but that certainly doesn't prevent us from radiating more towards one person who we want to share this journey with. 


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