Valentines' Day - or any Day?

 

How can the love portrayed by the popular culture compare to true love? How does it allow one to transcend self? Can it continue to inspire, no matter the time of one's life?

 

Could it be that all people, at some level, seek a love that demands nothing? That expects no demonstrations of love, whether on February 14 or any day? A love that encompasses simple expressions of self-love, as well as selfless love for others and transpersonal love for humankind and the planet?

 

How can romantic love encompass all this, if at all?

 

Some have described love as being the various expressions of the soul's passion for its own Divine Source. Others see it as the spiritual love that preserves the authenticity of self, of man, of woman, and of humankind. It's seen as the mystery behind the primal love of animus for anima. Saints, East and West, have alluded to the mysterious love union within.

 

Who or what is this formless "other", and why was this spiritual relationship once taught only as part of the ancient mysteries? How does it inform our lives, our relationships, our perception of the world?

 

Classical literature and the cultural media of today abound with allegory echoing precepts on divine love taught in the early mystery schools of Greece and other civilizations. The fascination for soulmate love is prevalent in today's romantic literature and film, portrayed with an almost ethereal idealization.

 

Many proponents of the soul-mate theory, pointing to basic concepts taught in philosophy*, feel that divinely inspired relationships fulfill an almost universal desire for being with one's divine complement. That there is an intrinsic longing to be with one's soul mate, or perhaps even many soulmates. There are even schools of thought teaching the importance of the preeminent soul mate relationship, that of twin soul mates or twinflames. 

 

Fascination with Tantric ritual suggests the soul's need to commemorate an original spiritual union is innate. Whether celebrating that union in traditional or non-traditional relationships, or as part of the Brahmacharia (celebate) path, tantra can be an act of worship as is any practice when the intent is centered on the divine.

 

Yet romantic love or any of its alternative forms of intimate relationship may not be everyone's choice or circumstance. Clearly, whatever the mystery of love means to you is personal. What is universal is that, unless you succeed in totally isolating yourself, you naturally live and work in some kind of relationship or other.

 

An enduring spiritual partnership with others, whether romantic, familial, or one based on friendship, social ideals, or career goals, can provide the penultimate testing and proving of love’s threshing floor.

 

That love, here in the flesh and bone of our present life, offers precisely the initiatory experience once sought only in solitude by those entering spiritual service in monasteries, temples, and ancient mystery schools.

 

While love in its many and varied forms presents more opportunities for enlightenment, no matter wherever you are, no matter who you are with, and no matter how committed, real love, the love you live in the eternal now, is the natural venue that life offers you for spiritual enlightment. 

 

Is love, then, the elusive 'pot of gold', offering promise to those willing to expend effort in 'getting and keeping love'? Or just another in a series of objects to be discarded on whim?

 

Perhaps. Perhaps neither. Perhaps it's true, the treasure is buried in your own backyard. How much easier it is, once we get it, to practice the Zen method of 'effortless effort':

 

"If it comes, we welcome it.

If it goes, we do not pursue."

 

 

 

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