By Rev. LeRoy E. Zemke
Pastor, Temple of the Living God

“Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfi ll them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest within themselves.”
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Phenomenon of Man

“We have to note very carefully the word the Christian ethic uses for love. It is the word agape ...It means an undefeatable attitude of good will; it means that no matter what the other man does to us we will never under any circumstances seek anything but his good."
William Barclay, Ethics in a Permissive Society

“Do we not carry a rose to our beloved because in it is already embodied a message which unlike our language of words, cannot be analyzed”
Rabindranath Tagore, The Religion of Man

Out of the reaches of the vast swirling masses of cosmic energies, planets, asteroids, black holes and infinite space abound with the forces of life. Within this unlimited Source of Light and all that is, we as human beings claim our divine heritage, our connection to what we call God.

Ongoing research into the single most complex quality of life called love suggests that we are forever “caught” in an indescribable web, so beyond measurement as to defy the limits of language.

This multidimensional field of unknown origin flows through the entire human body much like an electrical current, and really appears to flow into all forms of creation, all life forms.

Esoteric and metaphysical writers have long believed this energy to be the force of attraction, the experience we have when we feel drawn to any form of life. If we feel repelled by a specific life form such as an insect, reptile, or animal it’s called negative attraction. It’s still part of this field.

As we take on the experience of an incarnation, we recognize in a more subtle way the specific reaction we have to all life forms, the earth, the minerals, the plants, birds, animals and, of course, humans.

Slowly as we come increasingly conscious we identify, label, categorize, group together as “good”, “not so good” and/or “bad” based on our often very limited life experience of how we individually interpret these experiences.

In a fashion, similar to the way we engage our interpretations of our direct daily contact with life, we interpret love’s interplay in our life. It’s perceived as good, great, excellent, fabulous or not good, bad, awful, terrible and sometimes even worse. It is always an interpretation filtered through our experience.

When we engage with a specific human being such as a parent, sibling, aunt, uncle, cousin or some other relative, friend or acquaintance, we split our experiences of the relationship into categories. Aunt Margaret is bossy, loud and critical. Uncle Walt is soft, teddy bear like, gentle. Mother is warm, approving, affectionate. Dad is reserved, quiet, strong, even mean at times! And so the labeling of qualities goes on. We add to or subtract from as we engage with these people and others in our life time. It is a profoundly complex, interwoven and subtle dynamic.

All of these people are connected to each other and to us; not physically, not by outer appearances of body type, sexual definitions, heritage, culture or ancestry necessarily, but rather by the same universal force that swirls in what we call cosmic space. At very deep (internal) levels we are, each one - immeasurably, interconnected to each other.

Where we find ourselves attracted to a human being (whether it’s a sexual attraction or offers a romantic resonance, friendship, or other) we are responding to the energies of this field that surrounds others and ourselves. The field (energy) that encapsulates us contains our complete history, our life story. At subtle levels of our nature it is revealed through the attraction we have to another. We slowly become known to another as any relationship unfolds. This is the activity of love; this is the crux or mystery of love’s expression.

While the ancient Greeks had very specific labels for love, such as Eros, Philos, familial, agape (divine) every creed and culture labels it according to custom, belief, sacred tradition and tribal agreements. As one can readily understand, love’s expression is, indeed a mystery; that’s why its so often confusing and so inexplicable. As we consider love’s expression on a human, personal level with family, spouse, partners, and all our friendships of whatever level or degree the character and expression of love’s intent is unique to each soul. Each of us understands love differently, in part based on our history, culture, religious belief, familial influence, the social milieu in which we grow up and the direct expression of our soul’s longing to express itself in a lifetime. When we “fall in love,” as an example, all of our personal history is involved in the experience. The stories of our parents, or other family members, neighbors, friends and a host of books, TV movies, cinematic interpretations of a specific nature, sacred literature such as the Bible, poetic writing, fictional persons and a host of other influences too numerous to even attempt to language. We claim our love as personal, yet it is an amalgam of both what we have seen, heard, read about, thought about plus the unconscious hopes, wishes, yearnings and desires that are flowing to the surface in the now present man/ woman of our heart’s desire.

Falling in love is an extra ordinary soul experience. Its complexity is revealed as we attempt to look into the web-like maze of emotional, psychological, let alone spiritual configurations that unfold from a single one on one human interaction with a man/woman we say we love.

Living into the mystery of love then is not a simple, one size fits all experience. It is a most unique experience of the soul seeking to know itself, to understand, at least in part, the how and why of love’s eternal call. We seek to love a human being and wrap our attention around a lover, a companion, a spouse, partner or whatever language best suits our nature. As that experience is fulfilled, we reach out to the community in which we live to become open and receptive to other people in a loving way. This is not a romantic reaching out to others, but rather an opening to others to help them, or to be in service to them, to deeply connect to them in way that allows us and others discover that we are not alone, that we are a part of the family of One God who is the Source of All that Is.

The great mystery of love is ultimately beyond human/ mortal comprehension. It is indeed the language of poets, artists and lovers; but it is equally the language of children and family members and friends who share a common bond, ancestry or goal together. It is the language of a nation, a culture, and in a larger sense, world community seeking to understand each other and to learn how to respect each other in the larger human family we each share together. As we come to learn about the nature of how we individually hold love’s expression in the heart and soul of our own life, we become better equipped to offer our soul’s gifts of whatever nature to the world in which we share the breath of life.

“The intellectual aspect is that love sees and understands. The emotional aspect is to feel as one with the other person. Love is unity. There is no ”me” in love, only “you.” The behavioral aspect is, that love inspires us to give. There is no expectation; we do not expect to receive. Such love is wisdom and liberation in itself.”
Swami Prajnanpad