Love Attachments

We all have felt love at one time or another, even if it was only briefly. That inner joy, belonging, contentment, and unity with all things is something we experience within, a profound sense of peace and acceptance, where we know all is as it should be. When we feel love, we tend to associate it, like all inner processes, to an outside object - creating that object as the source of love in our minds, irrevocably linked to it. When we take that love that is within, which is a result of our being, timeless, and indomitable, and attach it to something that is without, a person, a standard of behavior, then we take something immortal and make it mortal. We take the timeless and unchanging love and bring it into the realm of the temporary, physical reality. Love is so great and unwavering, constantly building as we learn how to welcome it into our lives in ever increasing degrees, but by taking this unlimited thing and bringing it out into the world of the limited we diminish its nature. We do this because we believe more in the world of the five senses than we believe in the knowledge of our own souls. The knowledge of ourselves is barely minimal, hardly existent, as most of us have not cultivated it once we learned how to distract ourselves with sensual, worldly pleasures. The information given us by the senses, on the other hand, can be overwhelming, and we use this quality to distract ourselves from our neglected spiritual selves. We apply this same concept to love, and happiness, believing it to be more a product of the world, than a deep inner realization. This belief leads us to the idea that love is something that is sought for outside of us, like happiness is sought outside of us, in the form of people, or things. By pursuing these incredible virtues in this fashion we find that they are not to be found in the world, and we are perpetually dissapointed, disillusioned, and we begin to despair. If they cannot be found in the world, then they must not exist - we tell ourselves. The desire for love is natural, and good! Seeking out love in all areas of our lives will only bring us the utmost satisfaction and contentment. The desire is not where we are mistaken, it is in the pursuit. We are looking for these things in places that they cannot be found. When we feel love, when we experience that profound and unifying acceptance, the feelings can only experienced within us if they reside in us. Sure a catalyst has helped us to achieve that feeling through the abundant definitions and judgements we have placed on it, but ultimately the feeling comes from within. When we learn to look within for these feelings, we begin to discover that we can generate them independently of an external catalyst. This ability is improved with practice and realization, but once begun, with every new understanding and proficiency we achieve, we expand the love and happiness in our lives until our lives literally overflow with abundance.
By learning how to find the joy of giving within the giving itself, and not looking for a justification for it, we can become beings of sharing. We often look for a justification for love, He loves me so much, She's so great, We have a unique connection. Why not just love? Our lives would be so full of love if we didn't believe that we had to limit it to these situations. By placing expectations on love, or our ability to love, we limit the unlimited, and take something so infinitely powerful as love, and turn it into a fleeting human fancy - here one moment, gone the next. Love is the greatest joy in our lives, so great that it could be said to be its equivalent. Yet we are afraid to love and try to categorize it and define it according to a predictable set of circumstances, trying to avoid all unknowns. By holding on to our expectations and beliefs, we may have the knowledge of certainty, but we will also be completely ignorant of the unknown joy of unrequieted love. These expectations will do nothing but limit us, but if we allow love to reign free in our hearts, and know it as a way of being, rather than a concept in our minds, then we can allow its glorious and unknown nature to flow through us - the very substance of life.