The Space of Love

Love is nothing that can be defined beyond the quality of its eternal task to serve the good of the whole. As the finest intelligence in existence, love directs the lives of us all. It’s the power of attraction that determines the union between lovers – or, paradoxically, makes it impossible to go on and so they depart. Love is the sense of space within us, a place of supreme subtlety and beauty. For who but the most insensitive has not perceived the shimmering quality of space when in the throes of love?

What’s happened in these times is that love has been degraded in the space between forms and objects, and is now mostly imperceptible as the essence of the planetary psyche which once sustained the earth. With so much to occupy people’s time and energy, it’s becoming unfashionable and less of an imperative to make love for love. The distractions of the world, such as the media, sport and attachment to everything which is unimportant, undermine the fundamental purpose of love on earth.

The space of love can offer no resistance to the onslaught of outer forces. In this western culture where the lust and greed of sex without love is commonly practised, love struggles to penetrate the enormous resistance to the simplicity of love in the flesh. The flower which arises miraculously through a crack in the concrete is symbolic of love’s untiring endeavour to bring more love into the world. For the truth is that man and woman are born to love and be loved.

Love, when consciously made in gratitude to the source of love itself, is a greater contribution to the harmony of the whole of life than any act of service in the world, as virtuous as that may be. It’s the space between partners, or any relationship between people, that determines the quality or degree of love that is present. When two people truly love each other more than themselves, a space is made in which love can be realised as an ever finer octave of being. And then, as well as sustaining the love between them, there can be spiritual nourishment for others who come into their presence.

Space is created by the brain instantaneously with the idea of life anew every moment. Love, as an intrinsic state of being, does not enter existence in the same way. The divine nature of love is always implicit in the space between each frame of sensory perception. When someone connects with love, they unite with the source of this divine beauty in the purity of original space. In those wondrous moments when in union with the love within, the space around the body is infused with the essence of love. There is then the realisation that love is space and space is love; and that I the individual am contained within that space and united in love with all things in existence.