What is love?

In her journal for December 21, 1916, the Mother of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram wrote: “For such a long time I thought I knew what love was, and now that I no longer see anything that cannot be called love, I also no longer see anything that may specially be called love. And how can I be that which I can no longer define, that state which I can no longer distinguish?”

At one level this may sound strange, but at another level this awareness of hers reflects great spiritual maturity. We tend to use the word “love” frequently and widely. But as one grows in compassion for all living creatures and for all of creation, it becomes more difficult to define the word. It is something we are called to be which cannot be put into words. It makes little sense to say, this is someone I love, that person I do not love. Love is what we become as we grow spiritually. In the Christian tradition that love is the Holy Spirit. Love is not a feeling although at times it can be felt. Love is a conscious act of the will that eventually becomes God’s will and not my own. Love is surrender and then the Spirit flowing through me.

Moonlight Reflections from a Dominican Ashram « The Holy Spirit What is love? This entry was posted on Thursday, May 19th, 2005 at 7:21 am and is filed under Life, Spiritual Wisdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.