Speaking of Love is much like speaking of God. It is describing the largely indescribable. It is something immensely significant, if for no other reason than we have made it so. Has there been any subject more pervasive in our literature, our songs, our philosophy, our spirituality? Some of us, myself included, choose to believe that it is something more than a human infatuation (If for no other reason than it makes the world a more interesting place for us). God is Love, Love is God, Love is all there is, Love is the purpose for all of existence, Love heals, Love is.
I have come to understand love as an energy. At first I was reluctant to use the term energy. I’m an engineer and a scientist and energy has a very specific definition in my world. When I began to experience spiritual energy and love energy I felt it and knew it to be an energy. I felt the warmth of it. I felt the flow of it. As I have observed and studied this energy, I have seen change happen in the world around me as a result of its flow. Energy is defined as the ability to do work or that which is behind any work being done. Work is any amount of change in the world around us. Though we may not be able to measure it, empirical observation suggests to me that love adheres to the definition of energy.
Love must begin with respect. Here I define respect as giving space for those around us to be different than our expectation. Love is an exchange of energy between systems that have experienced different spiritual work functions. We each live in our own universe. Your entire universe is stored inside of you. Consider anything you know about anything. Where does this come from? It is the memory of images, sounds, your sensory input, combined with the stories and ideas you have created to go with them. This is not absolute reality that you are accessing, it is the map of your own universe that you have been creating since birth or before. As we interact with the universe in the moment, we are continually comparing our sensory input with the map stored within and looking for similarities, trying to categorize and anticipate outcomes. This is very useful for survival, and also very limiting in our ability to choose where we are going. This anticipation results in continuing to navigate to a place that looks very similar to places we have been before. According to quantum physics, everything that can happen does. Thus the universe is an infinite block of possibility. What determines where we are within this block? We are consciously navigating this sea of possibility. The more we can relax our gaze and drop expectation in the moment, the wider the range of possibilities that open up for us, the greater the opportunities for experience and learning and growth. When we encounter another being, we are approaching another stored universe that may be similar to our own, but has many differences as well. If we approach with expectation, we limit our view into this alternative universe. If we approach with respect, we open up to all of the new possibilities, experiences, perspectives that this alternate universe has to offer. Respect is the first door.
Vulnerability is the second door. It is the dropping of barriers that inhibit the flow of love. We are opening a gateway, a portal that allows observation and flow in all directions. Our explorations into the universe of another inherently opens us to the other seeing into us and seeing ourselves reflected in the other. This is where the idea that you must first love yourself in order to love another comes from. If we are afraid to look into ourselves with respect and appreciation, if we have things within us that we wish to hide, this limits our ability to open this door. Vulnerability is born of self respect, allowing yourself to be different than your limiting stories of you. To explore the universe within and appreciate the lessons it has to teach, brings light in and makes way for others to do the same.
Intimacy is the intentional act of sharing universes with another, coming into union with another and allowing your universes to flow together. Generally this connection is created by some form of sensual contact: eye gazing, singing or chanting, music, drumming, touch, dancing, sex, smell. Shared experience is often stated as a type of intimacy. I believe that shared experience may build respect and a sense of trust leading to vulnerability, but the shared experience itself, unless it involves some variety of sensual contact, is not inherently intimate. I do believe that remote intimate connections may be made through spirit. Prayer and loving thoughts may cross time and space and are sensory on a level of vibrational connection with the universe.
Intimacy is not sex. Sex is not inherently intimate. Sex is one of many ways to achieve union with others if the doors of respect and vulnerability have been openned. This confusion around sex and intimacy has resulted in a severe restriction to the flow of love in the world around us. This restriction gives the idea that love is a limited resource resulting in competition and distress which further diminish the flow of love.
Love is the energy that flows between alternate universes when the doorways of respect and vulnerability have been opened and the bridge of intimacy has been connected. This flow is the energy of reunion. We originate from oneness. We have separated by doing the work of creating and carrying our own universe. Love is the energy that flows as we all come back together again. It is the experiences shared, the different perspectives, the worlds of learning and growth and expansion of possibilities. This love energy is the power of creation and allows us to move around this infinite block of possibility to places of our choosing. Love can bring healing as we learn the lessons that sickness and disconnect have to teach. Love can transform darkness to light, evil to good, can allow us to cocreate a new universe of our mutual intention. Love is expansive as possibilities are expansive. Love shared creates more possibility for love, more to love. Remembering and returning to oneness does not diminish us. We gain all of the tools, all of the energy all of the experience that flows through each connection. This enhances our capabilities as newly empowered unique individuals to create and explore more of our own universe, which in turn creates more potential love energy to share. Each connection that we make reflects off of every other connection and love grows exponentially, increasing in magnitude and complexity, radiating outward in rainbow streams. Love is limited only in our ability to share it.
welcome haum 