All You Need Is Love

Now that Valentine's Day is fast approaching, businesses and promotions all over are gearing up for the romantic theme. So let's get on the bandwagon ourselves and discuss a little bit about love.

From tales such as Romeo and Juliet to the Iliad (the Trojan War was essentially the result of a love triangle), the recurring theme of love has been a powerful concept that never fails to capture the fancy of people. It is perhaps one of the most overused concepts, yet probably one of the least understood. As amorphous as the touch of morning mist on a lake, yet impossible to grasp, love teases us with its presence, leading the unwary to madly pursue it only to find that in one's folly, one has been unwittingly led far from the shores of reason and dragged under to drown in the sudden depths of sundered expectations.

A kabbalistic tale goes as follows: A student approaches his teacher and asks him to teach all the secrets of the cosmos in the time that it takes to remain balanced on one leg. The sage considers the request carefully, then his eyes light up and he tells the student, “Love thy neighbor as thyself. All the rest is commentary. Now go and learn.”

What is it about love that makes it THE central teaching of esoteric spirituality? We've all heard that God is love. What does this mean?

As with most esoteric stories there is a deeper meaning hidden behind this kabbalistic tale although admittedly, the advice of the sage may sound so cliche. I suppose this is because there have been so many meanings attached to the concept of love that we instinctively treat it as a generic term for anything more serious than "I like."

We know about puppy love, platonic love, romantic love and all the different types of love. At the risk of sounding cliche myself, let me make a try at the esoteric meaning of love.

Before I begin, Master Choa Kok Sui always taught that there are always different levels of truth, and like a many faceted diamond, there are many faces of truth reflecting off a central defining concept, the ultimate truth if you will. But as Charles Haanel has said in the Master Key System, "Truth is absolute, but conception of truth varies with the individual consciousness. Therefore, no one can say when the ultimate truth has been reached because no one can say when the individual consciousness has been developed to the point where further development is impossible." (emphasis mine)

Even with the many definitions of love, one consistent theme is that of "joining" or "union." Intellectually, we know that we are all children of God. But let's go deeper. Esoteric spirituality teaches that each of us contains a spark of divinity within us, that we are literally a part of God, although we are often deluded into a sense of separation through the limits of our perception. Yet if it applies that we as individuals contain a spark of God, then this also applies to everyone around us, even the people we're pissed off with.

If you filled a bathtub with water and put several sponges in it, imagine that your body is one of the sponges and that the water is Spirit, or the presence of God. We are all connected and all is oneness. This is why the Lord Jesus said that whatever you do to the least of your brethren, you do unto Him. Jesus loves us all, meaning he does not see you as any different from him. Spiritually, we are all one. Love is oneness with God, oneness with all. This is why there is the injunction to love thy neighbor as thyself. Without love for oneself, one cannot see the divinity within, so how much more with others?

Perhaps our overemphasis on love is a reflection of our instinctive longing to return to our Source, although the expression of this love often leaves much to be desired. We tend to focus on the desires of the ego, what we would get out of a particular relationship, instead of seeing people in terms of their totality as one Spirit. The union of two people in a relationship is supposed to be a reflection of how we seek to unite with God. Recall that we are microcosms of the macrocosm, a fractal design if you will. This is why sex is sacred, since the physical union of two people through sex is a reflection of the bliss and ecstasy of union with one's Higher Soul, and ultimately one's union with God.

The Sanskrit term yoga roughly means "to join" or "union." As yoga is to one's Higher Soul, so love is in relation to other persons and beings. In his book Achieving Oneness with the Higher Soul, Master Choa says that when one achieves a certain degree of oneness with all beings, not just with oneself, the process of arhatship starts. Arhat roughly means "saint" or a highly evolved person. Within this context, the phrase "God is Love" takes on more meaning. I guess the best way to imagine this is to think that you wouldn't willingly cut off your own pinky finger no matter how small and seemingly insignificant it is. The repercussions would immediately be felt in terms of pain and reduced motor skills. Our connection with others may not be so easily perceived, but the connection is no less intimate.

Kabbalah teaches that there are 10 veils, represented by the 10 sefirah in the Tree of Life, that separate our 1% physical reality with the 99% ultimate reality. Call these veils by any term you wish. They are our mental constructs, social programming, prejudices, resentments and other thoughts and emotions that prevent us from seeing everyone else as they truly are.

The spiritual path involves slowly peeling away these veils so that one can see the divinity in everyone, not just as a mental concept, but as a practical experience that translates itself to one's way of life. As Charles Haanel also wrote, "Truth is not a matter of belief. It is a matter of demonstration. It is not a question of authority, but a question of perception." This is why the state of one's consciousness determines how much of the truth one can experience.

Regardless of our state of consciousness, may you be blessed with love. Based on how we have defined love, to truly love is indeed the work of a lifetime, even several lifetimes. But as the kabbalistic sage said in the story earlier, love is what gives meaning to all that we are doing.