What is Love?
Many students of A Course in Miracles, as well as other spiritual traditions, consider love to be a mystery that is beyond understanding. I will submit that it may be difficult to put the meaning of love into words, but that doesn’t mean it is beyond our understanding. After all, we are told that God created us as an extension of His love so understanding love would be a key ingredient to understanding ourselves,
“The step I take today, my Father, is my sure release from idle dreams of sin. Your altar stands serene and undefiled. It is the holy altar to my Self, and there I find my true Identity.” W-pII.309.2
And what is the key ingredient of your identity?
“I seek my own Identity, and find It in these words: Love, which created me, is what I am.” W-pII.229.1.
The Course makes it clear that finding our true identity is essential “to be restored to Heaven.”
“For we, Your loving Sons, have lost our way a while. But we have listened to Your Voice, and learned exactly what to do to be restored to Heaven and our true Identity.” W-pII.300.2.
To say then that love is beyond our understanding is to say that realizing our true identity is also impossible, and, if this is impossible, then we would be stuck in the illusion forever, for we must understand and realize our true identity to awaken from the dream.
Since love is what we are then it would seem wise to seek out what the Course actually tells us about love, for love is indeed something we are supposed to understand:
“He will shine through your idle thoughts today, and help you understand the truth of love. In loving gentleness He will abide with you, as you allow His Voice to teach love’s meaning to your clean and open mind.” W-pI.127.9
Before we can realize the true love which is from God we have to understand the false counterpart presented by the ego. Concerning this the Course says:
“The ego is certain that love is dangerous, and this is always its central teaching. It never puts it this way; on the contrary, everyone who believes that the ego is salvation seems to be intensely engaged in the search for love. Yet the ego, though encouraging the search for love very actively, makes one proviso; do not find it. Its dictates, then, can be summed up simply as: “Seek and do not find.” This is the one promise the ego holds out to you, and the one promise it will keep.” T-12.IV.1
It would indeed be helpful to examine the key ingredients of the true love of God in order to not be fooled by the false love of the ego.
It is helpful to understand that “To create is to love.” T-7.I.3 and as creation took place
“He (God) did not set His Kingdom up alone.” T-30.II.1
Then there is this:
“You dwell in the Mind of God with your brother, for God Himself did not will to be alone.” T-11.I.1 “God is incomplete without you.” T-9.VIII.9
It seems obvious that God is impelled to create to have someone to love for love cannot manifest when one is alone with nothing to share “It is not His Will to be alone. And neither is it yours.” T-25.II.9.
“Never forget that God did not will to be alone… You who share His life must share it to know it, for sharing is knowing.” T-11.I.11
In heaven we are told that all the Sons of God are united through partaking of the one Mind and Spirit from God. The question arises as to how love is manifest in heaven when there is a state of blissful union and oneness
The answer is very profound.
“For it is the function of love to unite all things unto itself, and to hold all things together by extending its wholeness.” T-12.VIII.7
The key phrase there is that it is the function of love “to hold all things together.”
We can only enjoy absolute oneness in heaven because of the love of God which draws all things toward its center and holds them there.
This agrees with reports from many who have had out of body experiences who tell us of experiencing a love from God that is far beyond anything experienced in the body. It is also notable that this love is without compulsion and eagerly accepted by those who experience it.
We may not fully understand love while seeing ourselves in a body, but the Course does give us some great food for thought on the subject.
Here are a few things the Course says about real love.
“To create is to love. Love extends outward simply because it cannot be contained. Being limitless it does not stop. It creates forever, but not in time.” T-7.I.3
Love is freedom. T-16.VI.1
“Happiness is an attribute of love. It cannot be apart from it. Nor can it be experienced where love is not.” W-pI.103.1 “Love is happiness, and nothing else brings joy.” W-pI.117.1
“Love is extension. To withhold the smallest gift is not to know love’s purpose.” T-24.I.1 without extension there can be no love.” T-7.VIII.1
“For if love is sharing, how can you find it except through itself? Offer it and it will come to you, because it is drawn to itself.” T-12.VIII.1
“Love is a law without an opposite. Its wholeness is the power holding everything as one,” W-pI.127.3
“All that (love) you would keep away holds all the meaning of the universe, and holds the universe together in its meaning.” T-15.XI.6
“Love is the same as union.” T-16.V.3
“Love is not special. If you single out part of the Sonship for your love, you are imposing guilt on all your relationships and making them unreal.” T-13.X.11
“Only love is strong because it is undivided.” T-12.V.
“Love, too, is recognized by its messengers. If you make love manifest, its messengers will come to you because you invited them.” T-12.VII.8
“Perfect love casts out fear. If fear exists, Then there is not perfect love.” T-1.VI.5 “For love is wholly without illusion, and therefore wholly without fear.” T-16.IV.11
“Heaven looks with love on what is joined in it, along with its Creator.” T-18.I.11
“Love would never look on guilt at all. It is the nature of love to look upon only the truth, for there it sees itself, with which it would unite in holy union and completion.” T-19.IV.A.10
“Love is not learned. Its meaning lies within itself. And learning ends when you have recognized all it is not.” T-18.IX.12
“Love is your power, which the ego must deny.” T-7.VI.4
“Father, Your Mind created all that is, Your Spirit entered into it, Your Love gave life to it.” W-pII.263.1
There is no better quote to end with than the promise that the love we experience here in this world will not be lost but taken with us.
“All your past except its beauty is gone, and nothing is left but a blessing. I have saved all your kindnesses and every loving thought you ever had. I have purified them of the errors that hid their light, and kept them for you in their own perfect radiance. They are beyond destruction.” T-5.IV.8
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