Dear Melissa and Yuan Tze,
I’ve been reflecting on the last segment of the retreat on LOVE. It was inspirational and confirmed and cleared up some confusion, both at the same time.
Can you help me with clarification?
I think of unconditional love as the “Fullness of Fullness”. It has no subject and no object. It just is. It starts in the heart, but envelopes the whole body, and is the background of my experience in my day-to-day life. It really is quite lovely, and I am eternally grateful. It comes unbidden and resides unquestioned. When touched, it springs into deeper connection and can equally encompass the environment around me.
So, if this is, in fact, an example of unconditional love, I am wondering about a particular conditional love. I understand your definition of conditional love that you used on a retreat, as a mother’s love, relationship, family, etc. What I am wondering about is my love for God. Where does that fit in?
If it is devotional love for God in form, I would guess that it would be conditional…..but the God I speak of is, “All in All” so there is nothing outside of God. The God I speak of encompasses the Unconditional Love that buoys me through my day. So, is this both unconditional and conditional?
The God I know is inside and outside; everywhere and nowhere all at the same time. I know this as a direct experience.
But my devotion to God is the meeting place where Infinity becomes a point. It is the place where my humanism can touch God. This is where I lay myself in supplication to the Divinity within. I am humbled and in deep gratitude.
But, as I write this, I can see that during those times, I am “other than” rather than “as one with” God. Which would make it conditional. There is a subject (me) and object (God) and devotion is the linkage.
So, I am wondering if this is the one place where Unconditional Love and conditional love meet. It seems to be the knifes edge. On one side, the Absolute, on the other the relative.
As you can see, I am very unclear about this, and haven’t found my way yet to resolution…thus this letter.
Letters to the Universe 