Abiding in Love
January 16th, 2008 by Pete
Recently, I was meditating on the words ascribed to St John who is believed by many to be a Jnani (a seer) as well as a Christian saint. You may remember he wrote: “God is love … ” and then added, “he that abides in love, abides in God and God in him.” (1 John 4:16)
To abide or dwell in love doesn’t mean for us, as a separate entity, to have constant love for some object or person, divine or otherwise. John wants us to see here that love — true love — is not something we have or do, but rather what we are in essence — already and always.
Consider what is the greatest ‘love’ of any sentient being. If he had the choice of possessing either all the wealth in the world or his ‘beingness’ or ‘consciousness’ (call it what you will), that which gives him the sense of being alive and present, and without which the body would be nothing but a cadaver, what would he choose? Obviously, without consciousness, all the wealth in the world would be of no use to him.
It is this conscious presence one loves more than anything else because without it, there is no universe, no anything! This therefore, is Presence-Love-God. And St John obviously had this in mind when he said, “God is love ….”
This conscious presence which makes us aware of this, here, now — the beingness of every sentient being on the earth — and indeed, the very soul of the entire universe, — this cannot be anything other than God.
It is clear that he meant that he (John) and He (God) were not different as pure subjectivity, but one in conscious awareness. And, therefore, he who is anchored in the conscious presence that is Love — that is God — abides in God and God in him.
The Love John speaks of here is love for the mere (or mysterious) fact of existence itself.
As Adyashanti says, It isn’t a love that is caused by anything. It isn’t based on whether one has a good day, or a good encounter, or a good feeling etc. In fact, it could be not such a good day, not such a good encounter, or not such a good feeling, and there will be still just as much love for it.
This is a love that loves to live this life because in life it is actually meeting itself moment to moment.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 16th, 2008 at 1:19 pm and is filed under Self-inquiry, Adyashanti, Practice, The Teaching. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.