The Free Radical

Existence is made from love.

Or to put it differently, everything in existence is an expression of love. If not for love, nothing exists.

Love is the primary condition of existence. It has no opposite… except non-existence (whatever that is). So then, why doesn’t our experience always feel loving? Why the pain, the separation, the fear…?

Ah fear… now we have something which seems to stand in direct opposition to love. Fear is an alternate mode of perception. It is a filter for the senses which makes the world appear other than as it truly is. Fear separates; it creates duality.

Love recognizes all as self (even fear). Love’s expression is unity consciousness. Fear’s expression is separation anxiety. Fear polarizes: self and other, safe and dangerous, living and dead, etc. Fear creates separation, but it is illusory. Love loves the fearful just as much as the loving. Love does not discriminate; it is unconditional. Conditions define and demarcate perceptions based in fear.

The world we currently live in is conditional; it is based upon/within the conditioning of our perceptions based in fear. The world– as we know it– is ending. Or, put differently: our current mode of perception is ending. Duality is being resolved. That’s huge! All of our thinking is based in duality; all of our understanding relies on the dichotomy of opposites. We understand “one thing” insofar as it is “not another thing.” We utilize comparisons to determine similarities and differences among the objects of our perception. That is the basic nature of our thinking. It is the result of fear and the illusion of separation.

“We are all one.” Here is a platitude which is often circulated around the various social networking sites with little or no comprehension of its full meaning. I would not challenge the truth of the statement “we are all one,” but I would suggest that we are pathetically ill-equipped to understand its meaning at this time. For example, taking the truism “we are all one” as our starting point, let’s begin a discussion about god. As soon as we designate “god” as the topic of discussion we’re already in trouble because our minds are conditioned to think about “god” (or anything else) in opposition to “not god”. “What do you mean by god?” What are the conditions of godliness? And who’s asking the question in the first place… god… or not-god? Remember, we are all one.

Our current language, our type of thinking, our mode of perception is incapable of making sense of absolute unity. We have been conditioned otherwise. Our understanding of everything is based upon separation which comes from fear. We can and do talk about love endlessly, and virtually all of it is total nonsense. One of my favourite nonsensical statements is “I love my children unconditionally.” No you don’t; you “love” them on the condition that they are your children. Even the statement “I love you” approaches absurdity because the word “you” attaches love to a very specific condition, and implies that there are other “yous” to which this “love” does not apply. Remember: love does not discriminate; it is unconditional. As soon as conditions are imposed, it ceases to be love and becomes a fear-based illusion or distortion of love… something other than love.

We like to think that we have some measure of control over our love. We do not; for it is not “our” love. It does not “belong” to us; it is not some “thing” in our possession. Remember, it is the primary condition of all existence, or in other words, the true mode of all being. We are love… and so is everything else.

When we fall in love, this is a very real and very significant event. Our primary mode of being, our original condition, is activated and it impinges upon our consciousness, breaking through the fear-based paradigm we’ve been conditioned to accept. And for a moment, the universe changes. We perceive from a place of unity consciousness. This moment is often overwhelming and confusing, and as a consequence we fall into error. The nature of the error is always the same: we impose limitations; we attach conditions, altering our experience of love to conform to its fear-based illusory counterpart. Most often we assign and attach the feeling of love to a singular object, usually a person to whom we enjoy saying “I love you.”

We should simply stop at “I love,” or alternatively “I am love.” The person who is responsible for catalyzing the experience of love within our perception has no claim upon that love. They are merely and precisely the conduit who brought unity consciousness to displace momentarily the conditioned fear-based paradigm within us. We should be enormously grateful and boundlessly joyful that they have been able to show us experientially the beauty of unity consciousness, but when we mistakenly invest the whole of love’s presence in another– to the exclusion of all others– we err egregiously.

The journey which takes us outside of duality, transcending fear, is not obvious or easy. It is a complete overhaul of our cognition. Everything within and about our perceptions must change. The experiences which fuel such a radical shift are falling in love, having children, and true religious experience. Here I will define true religious experience as falling in love with all of existence or otherwise experiencing unity consciousness without attaching the experience to any one thing… not even Jesus. I think that quite a number of people genuinely experience religious ecstasy, but cannot sustain the unconditionality of that love because they immediately attach it to the object of their worship. True love will not submit to being thusly constrained.

For further insight into the nature of religious experience, please refer to a previous post:

A Religious Experience Courtesy of My Friend the Mushroom.

Okay, this is all important… why?

We are rapidly approaching a transition time… a transformative moment. How deeply rooted our perceptions are in unity consciousness, or conversely, how entrenched we are in fear, will determine how easily we will be able to move through the transition. Individually, it is how we relate to love which will matter most (as it always has).

How can we know individually where we are in the spectrum between fear and love? I would look to the concept of control as an accurate barometer. Someone who seeks control over external events has their perceptions rooted in fear. External events are seen as chaotic and threatening, and therefore they must be constrained and controlled in order to bring a modicum of safety to the situation. Love is free-flowing, unrestricted, boundless… unconditional. It cannot be controlled. The more deeply rooted one’s fear is, the more fearful one becomes of love itself. Love becomes the ultimate threat. Obviously, this is the root of insanity! “Stupid love! It’s going to ruin everything!” This is how it will appear to the fearful.

The universe (love) is intelligent, far more intelligent than you or me (as we still harbour fear). Love is trusting; specifically, it trusts its own intelligence. We need trust to lift ourselves out of fear. As we practice love we must remember its unconditionality. When we feel the sweet unmistakable inpouring of love in our lives it is imperative that we do not stopper the flow, attempting to assign love’s pervasiveness to a singular person, object or event. Indeed, we should honour and express gratitude to those who increase the torrent of love in our lives, but then we must seek to spread that divine experience to all those within our sphere of influence… and they must do the same. In so doing we will transform our consciousness– our very mode of perception– to a whole new way of being… together.

Personally, I have found this approach is able to simplify all of my interactions with others. I have a singular agenda in all of my dealings. It is to love everyone I meet the very best that I can. Does that mean that I’m extra sappy, calling everyone “sweetie” and “dear”? No, that would just creep them out. Instead, I make sure that I’m not trying to control others. Love allows others to learn from their own mistakes. Love may offer advice, but it is much more acceptable when it is offered in the form of a living example. Show, don’t tell. Does that mean that I allow others to bully me or otherwise take advantage of my kindness? To a certain point, yes, and then I draw the line. If my kindness isn’t doing any good in dispelling fear, then I will not hesitate to employ more hardball tactics… usually in the form of cutting people loose and allowing them to drop out of my life. Some will continue to choose and cultivate fear because love is just way too scary. I know, it’s a bit of a paradox, but true nonetheless.

I sincerely wish everyone many transformative moments of unity consciousness (love). Share them any way you can. If there is someone out there not feelin’ the love, contact me. I’ll give you the same promise I give everyone: I will love you the very best that I can.

Fear begets fear; love begets love… and you stand in the middle with the power to choose.

“Falling in love you remain a child; rising in love you mature. By and by love becomes not a relationship, it becomes a state of your being. Not that you are in love – now you are love.” (Osho)