The wisdom of unconditional love

[trenton]

I have come to the realization that there is no reason for love other than for love's sake. If there is a reason for love, then it is conditional. For example, if you love to reduce suffering, then you may not love suffering, and you thus suffer more.

I have been trying some exercises in loving the unlovable. I felt intense feelings of distraught as well as intense feelings of hatred throughout the process. Hatred was physically painful and my heart beat started to scare me. It looks like love gives us life and hatred gives us death. Even in the face of pure brutality and the destruction of everything you hold dear, love gives us life force. It may not heal you completely if the brutality was that bad, but unconditional love seems to cut your losses. Still this is a pragmatic perspective on love to look at it in terms of what it does for you.

Perhaps the wisdom of love is that it makes us more open to reality as it is. If hatred is the refusal to accept a certain reality then love should align us with truth. I am skeptical of tying love to truth because of how often it is stated in the forum. I want to make sure that this is not some form of social conditioning. At the same time reality looks beautiful to me.

I noticed that my mind making explanations for things is not the work and is a form of distraction. I did this at school and work a lot to relieve boredom by making time tick by faster. It becomes maladaptive daydreaming. I have been noticing the beauty of the things around me more as my mind quiets down. I give credit to the anti depressants that treat OCD and as a side affect ruin my appetite. I feel happy and peaceful though.

What happens if I love unconditionally?

[Inliytened1]

2 hours ago, trenton said:

I have come to the realization that there is no reason for love other than for love's sake. If there is a reason for love, then it is conditional.

You got it.  Not even for love's sake.  Love is Being.

Edited May 28, 2023 by Inliytened1

[trenton]

6 hours ago, Inliytened1 said:

You got it.  Not even for love's sake.  Love is Being.

This is a good point. I felt that something still wasn't quite right. Love for love's sake is still a reason. If love just is then that makes it easier. I felt some resistance trying to love for love's sake. This is still relative love and it is easy to get lost in it. Thank you.

[Moksha]

In the spiritual journey, you realize that conditions are the building blocks of the dream. We go through life constructing this Jenga fortress around ourselves, each block a belief that is handed to us by society or self-contrived. Conditions define us and create an increasingly desperate sense of separation. Eventually, the walls of the fortress become so thick that they entirely block us from the light of our true nature. We isolate our awareness from its source, entrapped within a prison of our own making.

Awakening is the pausing of this process, where the absolute deeply realizes the reason for its suffering. It begins unbuilding its tower, plucking out conditions block by block. It is the inward journey of deconstruction, where beliefs are surrendered and the absolute begins to directly see itself. Chinks appear in the walls and pure light floods through, helping to dissolve remaining blocks. The prodigal son, which thought itself to be separate in its pursuit of phenomenal pleasure, is reunited with the father in the unconditional embrace of the absolute.