Love is the feeling that naturally springs from a free and sensitive heart to the interconnection of all life forms. In its fullness is the active aspiration to the happiness of all beings, without expecting anything in return. True love is infinite, universal and unconditional. We all have this potential, which is achieved by extending to more and more beings the deep desire that we and our loved ones should be fully happy. The path to true love is that of expanding that desire for happiness, radiating in ever wider circles, to encompass the whole universe and all expressions of life, feeling them all as intimate and close.

Love is an empathy driven by wisdom and goodness. When awaken, there is no difficulty that is not overcome, no obstacle that does not become a step to a greater consciousness and fulfilment, no weakness that does not become strength. Love dissolves selfishness, possessiveness and attachment in an altruistic care for the good of the others, which leaves them free to be who they are, without using them as an object that satisfies our ideas, desires and expectations. He who loves fears nothing and has neither adversaries nor enemies, for he extends love even to those who attack himself or others. The one who loves does not aspire to any power other than to love more and more. And there is no other power.

It may be that “love” derives from the Indo-European “amma”, the sound of the child calling the mother, which shows love at the crossroads between the greedy thirst of the mother’s breast and the unconditional generosity with which it is offered. Moving from thirst to the fountain sums up the whole meaning of life, if we are to evolve from the greedy consumption of people, objects and experiences to the divine superabundance that lies in us and in the world and is the universal Life itself. The inexhaustible source of compassion.

Author: Paulo Borges. Copyrights iLIDH 2015-