'...love is the essential dynamic of every relationship, the most intimate, the most antagonistic as well as the most casual.' Photo: Bert Heymans / flickr CC.
The simplicity of love
Bob Morley reflects on the meaning and purpose in life
Many people, especially the young, no longer find that religion gives them satisfactory answers to the question of the real meaning of their existence. In response to this, they are on the search for a different spiritual way, more meaningful and experiential. It is a spiritual restlessness, an instinctive search for meaning that motivates them. They want to learn who they really are and discover the meaning and purpose in life.
So, are you one of these people? Have you ever contemplated deeply, really deeply, the meaning and purpose of life? Often this may be prompted by difficult times, particularly in personal relationships.
It seems to me that the best way to deal with the complexity of human relations is the simplicity of love. In love we do not judge, we do not compete; we accept, we revere, and we learn compassion. In learning to love others we release the inner joy of being that radiates outwards through us, touching others through our relationships.
This is why communities, families and marriages do not exist solely for the perfection of the people in those relationships. They exist also to radiate love beyond themselves, radiating joy, that simplicity of love of the other person, to touch all those who come into contact with it.
In community, whether or not these are religious communities, there is this shared sense of ‘being at one with the other’. It works best in silent communion, for example in Quaker Meetings. Another example is daily meditation, whether alone or in a group. This is made possible by the commitment we each make in silence to the most profound relationship of our lives, which is our relationship with God.
This is why in learning to love others we come to a new insight into the unity of creation and into the basic simplicity of life. We see what it means to say that love covers a multitude of sins. Forgiveness is the most revolutionary and transforming power of which we are capable.
It teaches us that love is the essential dynamic of every relationship, the most intimate, the most antagonistic as well as the most casual. It is the very ordinariness of our regular communion that reveals to us how universal is the way of love.
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