I decided to share my angle of it too to give something back. As always, a bit wordy, sorry :-)
True love to me is unconditional. It is pure giving without even the tiniest unconscious yearning for any return. No conditions. Nothing is expected back. It can't be planned or done. It is always a spontaneous in-the-moment expression of something bigger than ourselves. This love comes from the Absolute and is manifested and expressed through us.
In a state of Ego consciousness - being identified as a person with a body/mind - the conditioned small self - pure unconditional love is not possible because the Ego's job is to protect the survival of the body/mind and this mentally constructed entity we call personality. By nature, the little self can't be self-less.
The moment it does, the self disappears and unconditional true love shines through.
The ego and true love can't be in the same room together.
The ego is the absence of true love. True love is the absence of ego.
True love is always there, penetrating everything. Ego veils it.
This unconditional true love, coming from or being the Absolute is One, undividable, it can't be split up into portions and allocated to an ego.
In true love, for that amazing blissful moment, we disappear as persons and egos.
We just never notice it and can never notice it. Noticing brings back the mind and with it the ego. The moment we "notice" true love we kill it. The moment we are in it, we are always un-self-conscious, the hallmark of the enlightened.
Whenever we describe such a wonderful moment of true love, like now, we flip between being it - in the pauses between thinking and writing about it - and not being it and reflecting on it (when we are writing). The bliss seems to have an afterglow that engulfes and softens and heals the ego if we let it.
And it brings compassionate wisdom to our hearts.
True love is independent of the object. We think it is the object that evokes it in us. It is not.
It is the infinite one love that penetrates every object that is recognized, not the object itself. That's why in a true love state, everything is lovable. It can get so intense that focus on objects gets so minimal and the focus on love gets so maximal that this truths is actually experiencend:
"All there is, is love. There is nothing else." I had that once, years ago, and it changed my whole life. While my consciouness returned to "normal" soon after, that afterglow was very intense and is still latantly present when I defocus from ego consciousness. It can't be unseen after it is seen once.
This pure infinite love transcends death. While flip-flopping between being it and reflecting on it with my mind the thought appeared: "If I could sacrify my life for attaing this permanantly I would without any hesitation because a life without it makes no sense at all. A life without it is pure misery and suffering and total meaningless."
Maybe that's why many sages consider that the moment of death, when it comes naturally and is experienced without fear in full awareness as a blissful "letting go" of everything, can be a door to immediate enlightenment.
But physical death isn't a necessary requirement. Ego death is sufficient.
So, fianally, when the object of true love happens to be another person we jump-start them with love energy that disolves ego.
But if a person is not quite ready for "the full monty" the ego will panic and gets scared.
To the ego, true love feels like death.
And the ego hides behind all the betrayel and hurt experienced through conditional love in the past, especially as a child. So it learns to be scared of love, not knowing if is true or abusive, and yells out: "Don't give in to this intense love sent to you - you will get hurt again." This is a strong ego state and therfore, true love can't be in the same room, even if it is radiated by a true lover.
In this case, the true lover giving and the defendeding scared ego can't meet, can't become one. The true ego is there in its fulll seperated suffering glory. This ego still meets the true lover, despite the absence, through projecting their own ego onto the other person. Ego's can only see other egos.
But when the other one is a true lover also, both ego's disappear.
Only ego's can meet. By definition, you have to be a seperate "somebody" to meet another sepearted "somebody".
But true lovers are not seperated somebodies in that moment. They are nobodies, disolved egos, and therfore can never meet.
They don't have to meet, because they are already One. Just one love.
A long-winded answer to what all of you sensened and expressed in your own way. :-)
This post and how people react makes me really happy. I didn't expect it. It also amazes me how many different layers and viewpoints it reveals that I never considered myself - all of them true. And while differently expressed all seem to point to one underlying truth. At the time when I did it a few weeks ago, it was very meaningful and blissful and therfore I "thought" I "solved" it. With all your beautiful sharings it sort of got three dimensional now and they act like new Sub-Koans I ponder over. So my this Koan journey continues for me. Thank you.
I decided to share my angle of it too to give something back. As always, a bit wordy, sorry :-)
True love to me is unconditional. It is pure giving without even the tiniest unconscious yearning for any return. No conditions. Nothing is expected back. It can't be planned or done. It is always a spontaneous in-the-moment expression of something bigger than ourselves. This love comes from the Absolute and is manifested and expressed through us.
In a state of Ego consciousness - being identified as a person with a body/mind - the conditioned small self - pure unconditional love is not possible because the Ego's job is to protect the survival of the body/mind and this mentally constructed entity we call personality. By nature, the little self can't be self-less.
The moment it does, the self disappears and unconditional true love shines through.
The ego and true love can't be in the same room together.
The ego is the absence of true love. True love is the absence of ego.
True love is always there, penetrating everything. Ego veils it.
This unconditional true love, coming from or being the Absolute is One, undividable, it can't be split up into portions and allocated to an ego.
In true love, for that amazing blissful moment, we disappear as persons and egos.
We just never notice it and can never notice it. Noticing brings back the mind and with it the ego. The moment we "notice" true love we kill it. The moment we are in it, we are always un-self-conscious, the hallmark of the enlightened.
Whenever we describe such a wonderful moment of true love, like now, we flip between being it - in the pauses between thinking and writing about it - and not being it and reflecting on it (when we are writing). The bliss seems to have an afterglow that engulfes and softens and heals the ego if we let it.
And it brings compassionate wisdom to our hearts.
True love is independent of the object. We think it is the object that evokes it in us. It is not.
It is the infinite one love that penetrates every object that is recognized, not the object itself. That's why in a true love state, everything is lovable. It can get so intense that focus on objects gets so minimal and the focus on love gets so maximal that this truths is actually experiencend:
"All there is, is love. There is nothing else." I had that once, years ago, and it changed my whole life. While my consciouness returned to "normal" soon after, that afterglow was very intense and is still latantly present when I defocus from ego consciousness. It can't be unseen after it is seen once.
This pure infinite love transcends death. While flip-flopping between being it and reflecting on it with my mind the thought appeared: "If I could sacrify my life for attaing this permanantly I would without any hesitation because a life without it makes no sense at all. A life without it is pure misery and suffering and total meaningless."
Maybe that's why many sages consider that the moment of death, when it comes naturally and is experienced without fear in full awareness as a blissful "letting go" of everything, can be a door to immediate enlightenment.
But physical death isn't a necessary requirement. Ego death is sufficient.
So, fianally, when the object of true love happens to be another person we jump-start them with love energy that disolves ego.
But if a person is not quite ready for "the full monty" the ego will panic and gets scared.
To the ego, true love feels like death.
And the ego hides behind all the betrayel and hurt experienced through conditional love in the past, especially as a child. So it learns to be scared of love, not knowing if is true or abusive, and yells out: "Don't give in to this intense love sent to you - you will get hurt again." This is a strong ego state and therfore, true love can't be in the same room, even if it is radiated by a true lover.
In this case, the true lover giving and the defendeding scared ego can't meet, can't become one. The true ego is there in its fulll seperated suffering glory. This ego still meets the true lover, despite the absence, through projecting their own ego onto the other person. Ego's can only see other egos.
But when the other one is a true lover also, both ego's disappear.
Only ego's can meet. By definition, you have to be a seperate "somebody" to meet another sepearted "somebody".
But true lovers are not seperated somebodies in that moment. They are nobodies, disolved egos, and therfore can never meet.
They don't have to meet, because they are already One. Just one love.
A long-winded answer to what all of you sensened and expressed in your own way. :-)
This post and how people react makes me really happy. I didn't expect it. It also amazes me how many different layers and viewpoints it reveals that I never considered myself - all of them true. And while differently expressed all seem to point to one underlying truth. At the time when I did it a few weeks ago, it was very meaningful and blissful and therfore I "thought" I "solved" it. With all your beautiful sharings it sort of got three dimensional now and they act like new Sub-Koans I ponder over. So my this Koan journey continues for me. Thank you.
Lovely answers already.....I forgot to say that every answer is unique.....and it already shows......and there are layers......
Loving yourself. I was perplexed so I asked a child and they said it so matter of factly, like it was obvious. Beautiful.
Most excellent 😊
They never meet because they were never separated.
I loved this.
Love without attachment..
Umm… so where is the poem?
True lovers never meet
That's it. :-)
lol, I guess that went over my head!