I mentioned it a number of times that it is difficult for me to talk about love - first, because there is a great number of erroneous ideas concerning love in people's minds; second, because those people cherish such ideas, not willing to let them go even in the face of truth.

We may start with one of the greatest statements of the Bible: "God is love". This means that love - just like God - is universally present and available. It should not be "found". It cannot ever be "lost". It is impossible for love to die. Even more, it cannot be partial or possessive. Partiality and possessiveness spring forth from a sense of lack. But there is no lack of love in our world; there is only lack of awareness.

Speaking on love, most of people refer to romantic feelings and affection. I have no intention to put down such ideas, judging them as "unspiritual" or "imperfect". Love is the power of attraction, and it operates in all cases where different individuals are drawn together, including sexual attraction. Problems arise only when we begin to think that it is the only kind of love there is, not being able to see universal implications of its principle.

Since God is love and the world proceeds from God, our universe has to be a creation of love. Love is its supreme law. We cannot understand the world without taking love into the account. We cannot live successfully in the world without giving and receiving of love. Once we realize that love is the nature of all things, that its essence is the universal oneness, it won't be difficult for us to express love.

In the gospel of Thomas we see a beautiful description of this oneness:

"Jesus said to them, "When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male and the female be female... then you will enter the kingdom".

"To make the two into one" means to see the two as one. We don't make up this oneness, we realize it in the process of our spiritual unfoldnent. Then, we life from this oneness. In doing so, we become truly loving, since we display no partiality. As Kahlil Gibran wisely said,

"Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.
Love possesses not nor would it be possessed;
For love is sufficient unto love".

We cannot claim exclusive rights on our object of love. There is a spiritual paradox which most people don't recognize: whatever we want to control, flees from us. Whatever we want to possess, disappears; for freedom is the essential ingredient of love. Without mutual freedom, love turns into co-dependant relationships.

No person is comfortable being a slave. If someone says that he or she is happy to be dependant on another, these are not his or her deepest feelings, but superficial rationalizations.

Desire for bondage proceeds from insecurity. It is strange that so often we hope to find security in close relationships, which in fact make us even more insecure. Why? Because we didn't make sufficient efforts to know ourselves and to develop healthy self-trust. Self-trusting individuals are not compelled to "complete" themselves through others. They are whole and integrated personalities the way they are.

(to be continued)